Fresno State Focus Radio Edition: 4/20/24
CHISMOSO RADIO SHOW 2
WELCOME
RENE: Good morning. Thank you for tuning in to Fresno State Focus: Radio Edition. I am Rene Rodriguez.
JOSUE: And I’m Josue Miranda. Today on Fresno State Focus: Radio Edition, a story about Victor E. Bulldog IV and his handler, the Ghost Kitchen named MyGuyMarket, plus more insight into Central Valley College Corps.
RENE: But first, we’ll start off with the story about music expression.
STORY 1: MUSICAL EXPRESSION
JOSUE: Who doesn’t love music? It’s a universal language of sorts. It also acts as a multi-billion-dollar industry dedicated to raw happiness, sadness, surrealism, and heartbreak. Pretty much any emotion you can feel, but every human being feels something different about music in general. So many interpretations in so many minds and hearts around the world. Rene Rodriguez gives some insight into various interpretations of what music is based on the people who create it, listen to it, teach it, and dream about it.
Oh, this thing we call music. Music, in its traditional definition, according to Merriam-Webster, is the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition with unity and continuity. That’s too much of an educational explanation if you ask me. The truth is music is subject to interpretation. For example, I see music like a drug that I cannot recover from. I keep relapsing and relapsing, either of happiness or of heartbreak I cannot let go of. There are so many interpretations and definitions to music that it has almost become complicated to define. The answer really becomes more personal because it is based on the eye of the beholder. Or should I say the “ear” of the beholder? Music invokes so many emotions in so many various settings. It can be celebratory shouts that are accompanied by a sense of cultural pride and nationalism. It can bring feelings of happiness and joy when you are at a wedding dancing, and you don’t want the party to stop, or it can bring an adrenaline rush when you hear your favorite song being sung live at a concert.
The lyrics are the soul of music. Pretty much any noun or verb you can come up with in your mind right now, and music has found a way to use that collection of words to tell a story that touches a human being’s heart. That story can be a song that explains the break-up of a relationship, the moment you move away, leaving everything you’ve known behind, or the song you remember when you became a success. Music is a free therapy in a way. A therapy that nobody ever knows they need until the heart calls for it. Everyone’s interpretation, definition, and use of music is different based on the lives they have lived. John Karr is a music professor at Fresno State. He teaches the history of pop, rock, and jazz music in the United States, among many other music classes. I got a chance to speak to him about what, historically, music has meant to people as generations go by.
“In terms of meaning, the one thing that stays constant is that there is a level of meaning there someplace for somebody. Whether it’s to feel good, it makes you feel happy, it makes you feel more patriotic or whatever. I mean, you know, there are different levels of meaning, and I think there’s no one way except that there is meaning,” says Karr.
“But what it means is the dicey bit because it means so many different things to so many different people. I mean, play the same piece of music for two people and you’re likely to get two different answers on what it means. Lyrics help because they give us some clue about what the meaning is, but if it’s purely instrumental music, what does it mean? If I play a chord, what does this mean? And that’s where aestheticians and musicians get really all caught up in the weeds, so to speak, because they don’t know how to answer that question because there is no answer.”
Karr also explains how music can impact the human being’s decision-making and shape the world we live in today.
“There are many examples of this in the 20th century. For instance, Joseph Stalin had a central Soviet committee whose function was to make sure that music only supported the goals of the revolution and the goals of the central Communist state. And they would say ‘this has to go’, ‘this can stay’, ‘this is no good’, ‘this is all right’. There were composers sent to the gulags to compose music that was considered counter-revolutionary. That was mainly because he felt that music does have the ability to bind you to a certain ideal or a certain ideology if it’s the right kind of music,” Karr says.
“We did the same thing in World War 2. Look at Bugs Bunny cartoons from 1941 and its ultra, you know, Bugs Bunny is in a fighter plane bombing Japanese characters. I mean, of course, art can manipulate opinion, and that makes it positive and dangerous.”
Music has so much rich history behind it that has touched not only generations of the past but generations of today. With just about 70% of students with their earbuds on it, is safe to assume that all students have their own relationship with music. Sarah Hernandez is a Broadcast Journalism major. She shares what listening to her favorite music makes her feel.
“Honestly, listening to my favorite music makes me feel. In other words, it kind of makes me feel happy, and I get this sense that I can feel relaxed and feel like I can bump into it in the car. Usually, that’s when most of the time I am listening to my music is in the car,” Hernandez says.
“And when I am at home, whenever I am feeling like in a really like, kind of, not in the most chipper mood in the world, I kind of just plug in my AirPods and I just listen to my favorite music that makes me feel like I am happy.”
Hernandez also talks about how music has been there for some of the most critical moments of her life.
“There has been a couple of times where I was going through this bad, like, situationship that I was in and this guy really like broke my heart completely because I wanted a relationship and he didn’t. So, the music I would play then would be more of like monotone, kind of very saddish music,” says Hernandez. “But it helped bring out an emotional side of me that I haven’t felt and it made cry for the first time in like years because I was able to feel something and feel and let that channel out that pain that I felt through that music and just through the lyrics that made me connect to it on like a deeper level. So, I feel like, yea, you know, you feel a connection, right, emotionally. Most of the time, that’s when you can feel music is just through your emotions and everything. So, yea definitely.”
Katerina Aleksenko is a local musician that happens to also study Broadcast Journalism here at Fresno State. She goes by the stage name Kat Aleci. When she is not busy producing good quality news stories, you can catch her at local bars and small venues performing original songs as well as covers for her loyal fans. I sat down with her and asked her what she is trying to accomplish with her audience as they listen to her words and her music.
“Music gives me a way to communicate with them on a level that maybe we really don’t understand how to express in any other way because music is really a universal language,” says Aleci. “And no matter if you understand the words you are saying or understand what the chords I’m playing are, you still understand the feeling and the meaning behind the song or the story. So, when I play, it’s a way for me to give that experience or that story to the audience listening.”
Aleci also shares what emotions and feelings playing live music have brought to her when she is up on stage performing.
“When I’m sharing an original piece that I write, it’s always freeing and it’s kind of like an outlet. So, it feels like I’m telling the audience my story and what I’ve been through, and it feels kind of like therapy,” Aleci says. “So, I get to experience nervousness and sadness and fear, anger, happiness, joy, freedom, peace and if I can relay that in my music and in my voice, you know, playing the guitar a certain way, I can give those feelings as a gift to the people listening.”
Inspiration for songwriting, Aleci says, comes from her own personal experiences.
“When I first started writing music, when I first started playing guitar, I was actually going through my parent’s divorce. So, that made me kind of depressed. I was 12-13 years old, and I didn’t really know how to express what I was going through. I mean I didn’t even know what I was going through. So, somebody gifted me a guitar and I was able to just start kind of looking up chords by myself and I had a friend teach me the first song which was Bob Marley’s Redemption song and I started using those chords to write my own music. On the guitar,” Aleci shares. “And my inspiration comes from, you know, just things I go through in life like whether I’m depressed or whether I am sad. One of the things I wrote about was like my dad leaving and moving across the country to the other side of the world, actually, to Russia. And losing my brother as he was getting very experimental with drugs and that, you know, because of our closeness, to my dad and to my brother, that really tore my heart out. And I didn’t know who else to talk to about that besides my guitar and my music, my notebook. So, that really led me into expressing myself through music and kind of sharing my story with others and how I got through it.”
Music is key. It’s the way we’re set free from everything this world is throwing at you. Every problem, every challenge, and every head-scratching stress. Music is always there for you to give you one big hug and let you know that things are going to be alright and you’re not alone.
Reporting for Fresno State Focus: Radio Edition, this is Rene Rodriguez.
STORY 2 – VICTOR E. BULLDOG HANDLER
RENE: The Live Mascot program has brought a smile to many faces around the Central Valley. Many people don’t know that our very own Victor E. Bulldog has a student coordinator to take him to all his events and appearances. Reporter Bianca Gonzalez got the chance to speak with Alexis Camarillo to see what it means to be by his side during the semester.
Alexis Camarillo is a Fresno State alumni who graduated in 2021 with a degree in Communications and a minor in Media, Communications, and Journalism. After she graduated from Fresno State, she launched her own business doing nails where she quickly fell in love with marketing and branding. In another previous job, she gained more experience with social media and community outreach and had a lot of fun doing it. Her love of dogs and previous experiences is what made her want the job as the live mascot coordinator the most.
“Victor E. Bulldog is such like an icon for Fresno State and all of his social media is run as if he has a human voice so I felt like that was so cute and so unique and so special because when you are managing a lot of brand identities they don’t really have that like if its an organization you are talking to that organization and it doesn’t have the fun and playfulness of a dog, so I thought that I was going to be a really cool challenge for me. And in addition, I would get to come back to Fresno State, which I was super excited about because since I graduated in 2021, two of my years were cut short by COVID, so I was really excited about, like, the prospect of coming back. So that’s ultimately what pushed me to apply for this position.” Camarillo said.
In the month of April, Victor E. Bulldog has his own annual crowdfunding campaign called Mascot Mania to keep the program going.
“It’s unique for a few different reasons, one of which being, it is fully funded by friends and fans. So, we get a small portion from the university of course, but everything else we do have to fundraise, so with Mascot Mania, we dedicate a full month where we set a goal and we try to achieve that goal through different campaigns, interacting through the community and just really reaching out to the people who love Victor E. the most. I don’t know if many people know, but he is the only live mascot in all 23 of the CSU’s and 10 of the UC’s, so it’s just really unique and we’re trying to push that out there more because a lot of people like to see him in the community and see him at events and he’s just such a fun figure to see around campus, and the reason why we’re able to do that from the funding that comes from our friends and fans.” Camarillo said.
Being the live mascot coordinator means spending a large amount of time with Victor E. Bulldog. The relationship between the two is something that’s very important to Camarillo.
“When I came in my first day, we actually were doing an overnight trip to Sacramento, so I was spending a full 48 hours with him. Four of those hours were just him and I in the back seat of a car together, so he’s a friendly dog. He doesn’t necessarily dislike anyone I would say. So, that was a really big plus for me, but since we had that time together and like they allowed me to be in a space with him like so closely, I think that that kind of started the trust initially, and then we got back to the office it was a little less jarring to have like another person in his space. So now I do like to say that we’re besties I think that we’re besties I always say that he’s my work dog and I’m his work mom you know because he’s with me Monday through Friday eight to five and then some, so I think as of right now we’re in a pretty good place. We’ve been doing our one-on-one trainings our group trainings together, so that’s given us an opportunity to build a lot of trust, so I think we’re on a good track.” Camarillo said.
Other than taking Victor E. Bulldog to events, there are many things Camarillo does behind the scenes for her job.
“You have to strike a balance between not wanting to overwork him but also wanting him to be as present and in the community as possible so that’s one of the big chunks of time that I have to do throughout the day, but of course I’m also managing his social media. We’re brainstorming content. The rest of the alumni association are great partners for me, so we’re brainstorming all this fun content for engaging in his audience and we’re also looking at fun branding opportunities.” Camarillo said.
With everything she does, Camarillo says the best part of her job is getting to put a smile on people’s face.
“Being able to facilitate these memories for them, you know, it’s so great I think in any aspect when you’re with any dog to like see someone enjoy your dog, but it’s just I know that it’s adding an enriching to their student experience and that’s ultimately what you know he was created for, so to just go out and to see that and to see them love him and want to take pictures with him and want to just represent him, you know, that’s such like it’s probably one of my favorite parts of the job.” Camarillo said.
Like every job there is always something new to learn and adapt to every day.
It comes with its challenges mostly just trying to kind of adapt to the needs of the day because every day is so different. I just have to be able to balance all of my tasks and all my responsibilities, but ultimately I think with this position I am hoping to grow the Victor E. Bulldog program. I want to create new long-standing traditions for the students that involve Victor E. Bulldog because I don’t think we have a lot of those yet. I think that everyone knows him. He’s a known name. A known face on campus, but there isn’t really any traditions that are like tying the students to him so that’s one of the things that I really want to grow in this position.” Camarillo said.
With this job and experience, Camarillo has one goal on her mind.
I just want to look back at all of the work that I’ve done, and I want the one thing that stands out is just like how much love I put into it. I think that this job in particular like it is a labor of love and I think that that is what really pushes Victor and like makes him so appealing to the students at Fresno State and the Central Valley as a whole. So, that’s why this is such a great starting point for me, but throughout everything that I do in my career I think I just want to have an impact in one way or another and I just want it to be loving.” Camarillo said.
Camarillo is enjoying her time that she has in making every day count.
STORY 3 – GHOST KITCHEN
RENE: Fresno’s most underrated restaurant has over 19,000 followers on Instagram and a 4.7 star rating on Google. How exactly did they get here? Our reporter Josue Miranda spoke to young Fresno entrepreneur and co-owner of MyGuyMarket to uncover his recipe of growth and success.
New York has become a staple of American culture, ranging from the entertainment, fashion and even food. It’s been the birthplace for iconic dishes like the chopped cheese, a dish unknown to many on the west coast. MyGuyMarket brings a tiny piece of New York to our Fresno community.
“My name is Eduardo Sixay and I am 29 years old. I am part owner of a virtual restaurant called MyGuyMarket. We’ve been in business for two years now thankfully blessed for that and now we’re in our third year and every year has just been a learning experience and everything has been elevating we’ve been growing.”
my guy market offers some of New York food staples without having to travel thousands of miles east.
“We sell New York style sandwiches: the New York classic chopped cheese, the bacon egg and cheese. We pretty much brought in a little bit of a New York culture towards the Central Valley, just wanted to put in something different, something fresh and something fun.”
Eddie’s restaurant gives take out a run for its money. His ghost kitchen is food only available for pickup or delivery. No dine in.
“A virtual restaurant is pretty much a ghost kitchen concept where we don’t have a storefront, but you can actually order through you know like DoorDash, UberEats, Grubhub, but in our lane we actually developed our own app, our own food app, where you can actually just download our app, the MyGuyMarket app and whatever food that you want to purchase from us or whatever you see on our app is accessible, you can go ahead and purchase whatever you like to see on our app and it gets you either could pick it up or you can get delivered.”
“The MyGuyMarket app not only offers some of New York style sandwich classics, but it also offers imported snacks like chips and drinks.
“We wanted to be something different something fun, so when you go in our app, you’re going to see sandwiches that you guys never had before because we do have imported drinks from Japan or Thailand. We have Japan-esque Fantas, fruity creamy drinks, anime sodas that just all come from countries. In Asia, I mean something with our chips. “
When browsing the MyGuyMarket app, you may notice it may offer more than just food and snacks.
“We have like a convenience section because we’re pretty much a virtual bodega, so we’re pretty much on one stop shop, like we just don’t sell sandwiches, but we sell exotic drinks, exotic snacks. We sell do-rags, lighters, toilet paper. Just your everyday necessities.”
MyGuyMarket was voted as 2023’s Most Underrated Restaurant after receiving 65% of the polls votes.
“Yeah, people ran up those votes. They held it down for MyGuyMarket and I’m highly grateful. I’m highly blessed for everyone who took the time out of their day to vote for me either once or twice or even like 3 times a day. The support is insane. I will always appreciate all the support that I get from my business. We were the most underrated, now we’re overrated, but in a good way though.”
Just four years ago before, Eddie was making chopped cheeses and voted as one of the most underrated spots to eat in Fresno. He was still trying to find his path.
“Before doing MyGuyMarket, I was trying to find my place. I’ve been cooking for about 5 plus years, but I kind of stepped away from that for a little bit. Just wanted to try something different, try to do something fresh. I was just bouncing from job to job. I moved out of Fresno. At one point, I was in Oklahoma for six months, just trying to find my way. Everything that I was doing wasn’t really connecting with me, so I just went back to what I knew best, and I was cooking, but what I did was I found my niche. I found what I wanted to do, and I just stuck with it, and I just want 100%.”
Eddie attributes MyGuyMarket’s success to the community that it has created.
“Community is the main core to really building a city. Community is what you make of it. I didn’t build MyGuyMarket just to build a community for me and my friends. I build MyGuyMarket just a community as a whole. I appreciate every single walk of life that gets an opportunity to try out MyGuyMarket.”
Eddie believes everyone should have the chance to chase dreams especially the ones that you kept on the back burner.
“Whoever wants to get into their own business, whether it’s food or just whatever lane you’re trying to tap into, just just go for it, you know, a lot of people say they’re afraid but I don’t think it’s people being afraid. Like I said earlier, it’s all about finding that confidence within yourself and whatever your definition of confidence is to you and when you feel it, just believe in it go with your gut. Trust your instincts and just go for it. Don’t be afraid, but once you find that confidence just stand on business.”
Eddie’s business model is not much different than what he uses for his personal life, and he believes you should do it too.
“Stop putting yourself in the box, you know, take that first step, and go outside your horizons a little bit. Don’t be afraid to try new things. You never know if like going outside your comfort zone could actually be something new and refreshing and feeling that you probably won’t feel before because you actually made that step. For everyone that’s listening, pull up to MyGuyMarket, if you know you know, download our app, check us out. We’re for the people. We’re for the community. All in all, just be nice to everybody.”
Reporting for Fresno State Focus: Radio Edition, this is Josue Miranda
STORY 4 – CENTRAL VALLEY COLLEGE CORPS
College is a struggle to pay for anyone going into higher education. Reporter Ricardo Lozada shares how some students are getting through this financial struggle through a new program at Fresno State and Fresno City.
Many college students face various challenges when having to pay for college. They face questions like “will I have to go into debt”? Will my financial aid cover my studies”? However, thanks to a new statewide program being tried out at various higher education institutes like Fresno State and Fresno City, this could be a problem. In the past, this new program is called College Corps and has been around for two years at Fresno State. I caught up with Eulysis Lopez, one of the graduate assistants of the program, to get more information on this great opportunity for students and some of the requirements the program has in place for next year.
“All right so some of the requirements for CVVC is that we require students to provide 450 hours of community service throughout the entire academic year, and we require students to have at least a 2.0 GPA, and we also, you know, want them to be an undergraduate student as well. Most importantly, we want students who have a passion to serve their community and create positive change.”
I also asked Eulysis what are some of the benefits that one can get out of college courses.
“There are a lot of benefits for College Corps. So I think the biggest one definitely is the money of course. Students can earn up to $10,000 in money that they can use for college. Is basically how it works is that uh the first seven like 7000 of it is distributed on to you on a monthly basis monthly basis, it’s called a living allowance. So, you would get around 700 eight $100 per month distributed through financial aid to you know whatever type of refund you have. And then you will receive the other 3000 when you complete your 450 hours at the end of the academic year. And then you also would earn course credit as well since we do teach a service-learning course here on campus Friday afternoons. You also get to develop your skills and grow professionally and personally.”
Students can do their 450 hours of community service through one of the three focus areas: climate action, K through 12 education, or food insecurity. One person who has been in the program for the first two years is Juan Reyes. He has done his community service in K through 12 education. Every neighborhood partnership and after school reading intervention program for low income areas in Fresno Unified.
“I chose E.N.P. because it best align with my career goals. I didn’t have much experience working with students and I want in my future career I want to be a school psychologist, so this was helpful for me to become a School Psychologist.”
Juan Reyes thanks CVC for helping him become more professional and wouldn’t be the person he is today if it weren’t for this amazing program on campus.
“CVCC has taught me a lot. It’s taught me how to network. How to be more professional because when I first came to college, that was one of my biggest struggles: learning to be professional on the job.”
The College Corps application is now live and open on the Fresno State College Corps website. Students have until June 1st for the priority deadline and are encouraged to apply if they are passionate about serving their community and helping under-served communities through positive change.
Reporting for Fresno State Focus: Radio Edition, I am Ricardo Lozada.
UPCOMING EVENTS
JOSUE: These are some of the upcoming events happening at Fresno State the spring percussion studio recital will be happening April 22nd at 7:30 PM and will have talented percussion students who will perform a mix of music spanning various styles and traditions.
RENE: the graphic design exhibition is open today the 26th from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. The exhibition features a diverse range of work that reflects cutting edge trends and techniques in graphic design.
JOSUE: The Arts and Humanities Showcase started this week. It started April 19th and runs through April 27th. The MCJ screening will be on April 24th and will showcase MCJ students’ top work.
CLOSE
JOSUE: And that wraps our show for the day. Next week, we will have more insight on Fresno State Focus. Plus, we will have a survival guide on how to pass finals.
RENE: Today’s episode of Fresno State focused radio edition was produced by Professor Hanayo Oya for the Department of Media, Communications, and Journalism. Our stories and interviews were produced and edited by Marisol Rubio.
JOSUE: This program is produced in collaboration with 90.7 KFSR. For Fresno State Focus: Radio edition, I’m Josue Miranda.RENE: And I’m Rene Rodriguez. See you next week