Author: FRANCISCO ZENTENO

 

HOST INTRO: I arrived at the Fight Factory, A multipurpose gym that recently reopened in June of this year after being shut down and relocated after covid. I talked to Jesus Rodriguez, a former amateur boxer about his experience getting in the ring and why he has transitioned to coaching. I also spoke to Cristian Lopez who has recently taken up boxing.

AMBI: Bell ring

TRACK: Jesus explains how he got into boxing.

ACT: JESUS: Fui a encontrar a un gimnasio y mi mando a este gimnasio. Me empezo a entrenar un Panamenio. Pense que sabia boxear y no, no sabia nada. Todo el mundo mi madreva y ya despues cuando el me encenio pelear mas, me dijo si queria Pelear, y le dije que si.

TRANSLATION: I went to look for a gym and found this one. A Panamanian guy started to coach me. I thought I knew how to box but no, I didn’t know anything. Everybody at the gym would beat the shit out of me and later on after my coach taught me more, he asked if I wanted to have an actual boxing match and I said yes.

TRACK: Jesus goes through the feeling he had during his first amateur bout and how it felt winning it.

ACT: JESUS: Empeza llegar la hora del la peleas y iba ser mi primera pelea af rente te un publico, que estaba esperando que me noquean o que los nosquearon yo ves. Estaban esperando a un spectaculo. Y ya despues que vie que llego mi familia, y estaba bien nervioso, bien nervioso. Fui al bano como treinta veses en una hora. Y yo cada rato al bano, al bano, al bano. Te tantos nervioso que tenia yo. Fue algo chido por que gane por knockout, por que detuvieron la pelea. El otro compa ya no podia pelear, fue algo emoocionante.

TRANSLATION: The beginning of my very first fight in front of other people was getting near. They were waiting for me to either get knocked out or for me to knockout the other guy. They were waiting for a spectacle After I saw my family arrive, I got nervous. I want to the bathroom like thirty times in an hour. Every other moment was just me going into the bathroom, again and again and again. It was because of all the nerves I had. It was something cool especially because I won by knockout. They stopped the fight cause the other guy just couldn’t fight anymore, it was very emotional.

TRACK: Jesus discussed why he started and enjoys coaching.

ACT: JESUS: El que me entrenaba estaba un poco mal del ojo. los entrenaba bien pero algunas veces como se iban sus cabras. Y luego mi decia “Ayuda me a entenar a esta perona.” Me veo, como yo mi gusta el boxeo, yo mi gustar ver, tanto como peleadar, como entrenador. Entrenar gente te das cuenta de sus errores mismos, por que tu los entrenas como tu sabes pelear. Los encinas y vas corrigiendonte a ti mismo.

TRANSLATION: The guy who trained me before his eyes were a little off. He trained people well but sometimes his eyes wouldn’t work so he would tell me “Help me train this guy.”  liked boxing, I liked to see not just as a boxer but as a coach, when you train someone, you can see your own errors. Because you’ll teach them how you fight and while doing so you correct them, and you correct yourself

TRACK: We then talked to Cristian, who gave us his reasonings for taking up boxing.

ACT: CRISTIAN: First I wanted to lose weight, but it got fun. It’s a cool sport, watching people fight. I was like I want to try it too; I would be killing two birds with one stone.

TRACK: Cristian talked about the most difficult aspects of boxing that he’s had to learn in his first few weeks of training.

TRACK: Cristian: Learning how to keep my hands up and then pivoting, I always forget to pivot sometimes, so my punches come out weaker than they should.

HOST OUTRO: Jesus will continue to train his fighters and hopes to one day open his own gym. So that he can coach full time and work on making fighters like Cristian into solid amateur boxers and potentially world champions on the professional stage. For Baruch College, I’m Francisco Zenteno.

AMBI: Bell ring

 

Host Intro: Current Baruch student Maya Alexander discusses with us about her collection of music records and gives us some background on this hobby that has had a resurgence.

Track: Maya begins telling us what records she most enjoys in her collection.

Act: Maya: Well, some of my favorite records are defiantly some of the classic rock records that I have. I’m a huge Beatles fan, so all my Beatle records are my favorites. My most favorite record that I own is a Prince album, it’s his debut album, his self-titled album. It sounds great on the turn table really loud, just the bass, the percussion and the guitars, everything is just really great on that album.

Track: Maya discussed the biggest factor in determining what records she chooses to buy.

Act: Maya: The main factor is how much it cost, honestly. I get a lot of my records from a site called Discogs, it’s like this big record wholesaler where a lot of live records stores come online and sell their stuff and that’s where I’ve got most of my really good deals. The record industry and vinyl records have had a resurgence in the last couple of years. When people are wanting to get back into that retro 70s, 80s and 90s sort of vibe. And so, records are something like visually representative of an era that’s no longer.

Track: Maya than discussed the differences between listening to music played on our everyday phones and listening to a physical record.

Act: Maya: There’s sometimes not a difference. It’s almost sometimes that the audio quality on a record would be worse than the audio quality just, say listening on your iPhone. I think the main difference is just the vibe, just the aesthetic. Like even on records that are usually used records they’ll have things like crackling noises and sometimes their warped in different places. I think that adds to the overall aesthetic. The audio quality itself is usually is not as good as digital. Sometimes it is, sometimes on digital, its way more compressed and the bass is terrible.

Host Outro: Maya’s enjoyment of music will constantly grow with her every record she adds to her collection. From Baruch College, I’m Francisco Zenteno.

Host Intro: Current Baruch student Maya Alexander spoke about her interest in music and how not only does she collect records, but how she also plays the guitar.

Track: I asked Maya about her favorite record that she has.

Act: Maya: Some of my favorite records are defiantly some of the classic rock records that I have. I’m a huge Beatles fan, so all my Beatle records are my favorites. My most favorite record that I own is a Prince’s self-titled album which sounds great on my turntables.

Track: Maya was asked about the biggest factor when it came to picking out and buying records for herself.

Act: Maya: The main factor is how much it cost, honestly. I get my records from a wholesale record website. The record and Vinyl industry has had a resurgence, so the prices for records have gone up so looking for records from small stores are cheaper and it feels better supporting a small business rather than big companies.

Track: Maya was also asked about the differences between listening to music played on your phone through streaming and listening to a physical record.

Act: Maya: Honestly, there’s sometimes not a difference. Sometimes the audio quality on a record is worse than the music you listen to on your phone. The main difference is the vibe and the aesthetic. Records have crackling noises and sometimes are warped; it adds to the aesthetic.

Track: Maya was then asked about her experience with playing instruments and her overall enjoyment of music.

Act: Maya: I enjoy listening to music and playing music. I’ve been playing guitar for 3 years but started out playing the bass when I was younger. I love music a lot.

Track: Music is very important to Maya; she loves and enjoys playing and listening to her music. In doing so she is also helping small businesses and she and other record collectors are keeping a retro industry going. For  Baruch College, I’m Francisco Zenteno.

https://medium.com/@francisco.zenteno/carts-around-manhattan-ae2f6065e660