KDVS Volunteer Orientations
Jan. 15 and 16
6 to 7 p.m.
Wellman 106

It’s no secret that KDVS volunteers work with music a lot. However, they also make buttons, watch people crowd surf in living rooms and send out Christmas cards.

“There are humans at KDVS 24/7,” said Christine Hong, a fourth-year psychology major who serves as the station’s programming director. “There are 100 DJs playing music on the station at all hours.”

Mary Champeny, a fourth-year clinical nutrition major and the station’s news director, estimates that in addition to the DJs, there are around 60 new volunteers who do not host a radio show.

In order to host a show on KDVS, volunteers need to work at the station for 50 hours. In addition, prospective DJs need to attend training seminars as well as “mentoring” sessions in which they sit in on a show with a DJ.

“50 hours seems hefty at first but considering that you get a certain amount of hours for completing tasks, it is actually less than 50 hours,” Hong said.

Nicole Lesnett, a fourth-year international relations major, serves as the office coordinator for KDVS, which means that she often works with volunteers.

“I try to coordinate the tasks so that our volunteers get together and form a community,” Lesnett said.

One task Lesnett set up last quarter involved signing Christmas cards.

“We sent out thank you cards to people who had donated in a recent pledge drive,” Lesnett said. “A bunch of people came in and signed personal messages on the cards while we listened to Christmas music and ate cookies.”

KDVS has an extensive amount of tasks that volunteers can do. According to Champeny, volunteers can organize and add to the extensive music library, work at live events or tidy up the office.

“I assumed that volunteering would be mostly censoring music but there were a lot of other tasks to do,” said Eric Frankenstein, a second-year anthropology major. “I made buttons for the station, and I cut up some magazines to help put together a visual schedule in the lobby.”

Lesnett added that volunteers can contribute to KDVS’ quarterly magazine KDViationS, write for the website’s blog, assist with DJing for the farmer’s market and censor curse words from new music.

Volunteering exposed many members of KDVS to new experiences that they otherwise would not have encountered.

“The very first thing I did for KDVS was to work the door at a noisecore show we held at The Hub in Sacramento,” Lesnett said. “I had never seen noisecore before and it just blew my mind. KDVS puts on a lot of live shows that range from folk to performance art to noisecore, so volunteering at those exposes you to interesting music.”

Anthony Beck, a third-year biological systems engineering major, joined KDVS in the fall because he had a few friends who also worked there.

“This place vibed me out so hard that I decided to stay,” Beck said.

While volunteering last quarter, Beck worked at a house show put on by the station.
“I saw someone crowd surf in a living room for the first time in my life at that show,” he said.

Beck is DJing for the first time this quarter. His show goes from 4:30 to 6 a.m. Friday mornings, which he doesn’t seem to mind.

“I’m excited to see the sun rise once a week,” Beck said.

Frankenstein is also DJing for the first time, with a show that goes from 4:30 to 6 a.m. Wednesday mornings.

“I’m pretty nervous about the show, but it’s cool to influence people’s music choices,” Frankenstein said.

While 50 hours of volunteering seems like hard work, volunteers like Maxwell Sowell, a third-year linguistics and philosophy double major, take it in stride.

“Even though we can all put KDVS on our resume, that’s not the reason why we’re doing this,” Sowell said.

Anyone interested in volunteering should attend a volunteer orientation, which will be held from 6 to 7 p.m. in Wellman 106 on next Tuesday or next Wednesday.

JOHN KESLER can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

What concerts or musical events did you go to over winter break?

“I went to this cabaret in Oakland for an ’80s punk drag group called Mangos With Chili. It was so great, at one point there was even like, a Chinese Dragon standing there, and you didn’t realize there were people in it until it started moving into the crowd.”
— Miguel Espinosa, fourth-year women’s studies major

“I saw Ezra Furman in Evanston, Illinois; they’re an indie band. I got to talk to the lead singer, which wasn’t that great, he was kind of awkward. But I stole three pieces of artichoke pizza from the bassist. He’s the hottest one.”
— Rachel Gescheidle, second-year biochemistry and molecular cell biology and brewing major

“I saw this indie-rock band called Finish Ticket at San Francisco’s Bottom of the Hill venue. I’m actually doing a music video for them, kind of like a short film of three of their songs that they can use for publicity and exposure. I found them online and just offered to make the film for them; they’re on tour right now.”
— Kathryn Vo, second-year environmental policy major

“I went to The Weeknd concert in LA — it was so awesome. Everyone was throwing their bras and boxers on stage and everything. Some girl fainted, like in a total Michael Jackson in-love-with-the-singer moment, and then all of a sudden there were tons of security guards dragging her out to the ambulances.”
— Alex Zendejas, first-year applied mathematics major

“I went to see Zion I, my favorite band, at Porter’s Pub in San Diego. I liked the show a lot, especially when they played ‘Coastin’ and then ‘Don’t Lose Your Head.’ With the second one, they were all sharing their experiences with drugs and telling the crowd to make sure they don’t lose their heads during their own drug adventures.”
— Katie Granger, second-year psychology and political science major

“I saw Above & Beyond at the Oakland Coliseum as part of Pop New Year’s Eve. It was trance, kind of like a rave, which is definitely my thing. The best part was hearing the music live and loud. But not too loud — I was smart, I wore earplugs.”
— Chuck Gunn, third-year film studies major

“I saw Zeds Dead at The Warfield in San Francisco; it was the most packed I’ve ever seen that place. I was in line for 45 minutes just to get inside, and there were a lot of people. I was kind of underwhelmed by the light show, which could have been better, but the music was great. And that’s really all you can ask for.”
— Nate Leber, second-year psychology major

“At my house on New Year’s we had my boyfriend’s band, Tha Dirt Feelin, come over and play. It was the best New Year’s I’ve ever had — we cleared out the living room and people packed themselves all the way to the back wall. They played until 1 in the morning, and we got to do the countdown with all of our friends and their friends there together.”
— Ashley Miller, third-year anthropology major

“I went to Pop New Year’s Eve at the Oracle Arena; the whole thing was crammed, it was great. The best part was the countdown — Dash Berlin was playing and they had fog machines and confetti cannons going off everywhere. Dash Berlin and Above & Beyond were by far my favorite acts there.”
— Sam Kim, third-year managerial economics major

“Oh god, I went to a lot of shows over the break; a KDVS show, a punk show in Sacramento, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club … They were all great, especially the KDVS show, but my band Magic Bullets played, so I’m a little biased towards that. But I love the Sacramento punk scene, it’s just so big and awesome. I woke up from the Sac show almost unable to move. From all the moshing.”
— Matt Stalcup, second-year technoculture studies and English major

“I saw the Trans Siberian Orchestra at the Sleep Train Pavillion, which was pretty awesome. The lights were coordinated very well; there was lasers and fire and everything. It was before Christmas, so they played ‘Carol of the Bells,’ which was my favorite, followed by ‘Wizards of Winter.’”
— Raymond Hoang, first-year graduate master civil and environmental engineering major

The Bieber fans have done it again. Yes, he’s still apparently relevant. Yes, his fanbase is ever strong. This group of crazy young girls took and still takes the blame for harassing young pop stars, friends and family members who surround Justin Bieber through social media and verbal attacks in person.

Selena Gomez, the now-ex-girlfriend (allegedly), struggled to brace herself from the storm of pre-teens and teenage girls who overreacted to their favorite pop star taking himself off of the market. She had her whole sob story, and sadly became the face of bullying survival. Whatever, you put yourself in this industry, you should be ready for the attention, negative or positive, you’re bound to receive.

But this time, the fans have drawn attention to themselves by pulling some of the most ridiculous crap Twitter has ever seen. Even though it turned out to be a hoax, it’s still completely unacceptable and unbelievable that internet trolls would dare to even want to negatively influence young fans in a morbid way.

A picture of the young star surfaced recently, revealing to the world that The Biebs smokes pot. Yes, we can discuss his stupidity in dismissing the fact that he’s an “idol” to millions of teenagers around the world. But in this particular case, it’s not like he’s letting us down in any way. We all know he’s a little douche.

What happened is completely ridiculous and jaw dropping. Trending on Twitter was “Cut4Bieber,” a campaign to get young girls to cut themselves in response to their favorite pop star essentially making public his decision to smoke marijuana.

Speaking of Cyrus, lately she’s been posting her opinions on recent events surrounding Bieber. Bieber speeds around on freeways in his probably-douchey sports car, claiming that he’s constantly having to escape the paparazzi.

Recently, a paparazzo was killed in a car accident, linked to the driving of Bieber’s car. Sure, that brings up an issue that first appeared when Princess Diana was killed due to paparazzi. Cyrus commented that paparazzi laws needed to be implemented, as celebrities have such a struggle getting around without being attacked by flashing lights and crowds of people.

While it is important that the roads remain calm and relatively safe, it’s more important to address the ridiculous influence that celebrities and internet trolls have on today’s youth. Good for Cyrus for voicing her opinion, but wouldn’t it be somewhat awesome if she did something with her influence, rather than constantly posting pictures of her dogs and her unflattering haircut?

Is it so much to ask for something to #Believe in these days? Why is everything going to shit? Why does Hollywood suck? Why am I still commenting on these unimportant pop stars?

Give ELIZABETH ORPINA more important topics to discuss at arts@theaggie.org.