The ENG450 Studies in Genre: Poetry cohort is hosting a spoken word event on Wednesday, December 12, 2018. Students, faculty, staff, and community members are invited to attend a closed-mic poetry recitation that will take place in Eagle Hall from 10:30 a.m. to noon.
The event is sponsored by The Red River Innovation Lab for the Humanities and is organized by Dr. Jaime Cantrell, Assistant Professor of English at Texas A&M Texarkana.
Attendees can expect to hear passionate, inspiring, and thrilling renditions of poetry ranging from well-loved classics by Edgar Allan Poe and William Blake, as well as contemporary poets including Dudley Randall, Carol Ann Duffy, and Sharon Olds.
Dr. Jaime Cantrell
In addition to student performances, our Dean of the College Arts, Sciences, and Education, Dr. Del Doughty, has agreed to share a few of his favorite Shakespearean sonnets.
Ana Bourgeois, an undergraduate dual-majoring in English and History said, “Poetry has a long reach and this event is a unique showcase of that variety. My classmates and I have chosen surprising and powerful pieces that crack open the universality of sex, death, faith and in one case: a dang good book. Dr. Cantrell has used this class to explore the wide accessibility of meaning in poetry and I hope our performances reflect that.”
Click the Play button below to hear Dr. Cantrell’s message for Eagle Eye readers:
A&M Texarkana’s Multi-Media Specialist offers practical advice acquired from a lifetime of experience.
Casey Roberts’ sixth grade teacher wrote a note to his mother at the bottom of his final report card saying that he would have a career in TV or radio.
The teacher was correct. Inducted into the Nevada Broadcasters Hall Of Fame in 2002, Roberts’s experience in multi-media production spans over 45 years.
“I’ve been doing this my whole life,” Roberts said. He started off at the age of 17 as a disk jockey for a small south Texas radio station, where he soon became the program director. The company that owned the radio station also had several cable TV stations, one of which his father was the general manager of here in Texarkana.
Roberts began producing local public access programs as well as cable ads.
“I was responsible for getting commercials on the air,” Roberts said. He also pioneered a system, now the norm, called “local commercial insertion,” where local cable commercials are seamlessly integrated with national ones.
Roberts’ passion and diligence were noticed. He would spend the next 35 years honing his craft in the markets of Louisville, Kentucky, and Las Vegas, Nevada, holding a range of positions.
One of Roberts’ favorite moments was filming an interview with Muhammad Ali, after his defeat to Larry Holmes in Louisville, 1980.
“He came down to our little studio and spent an hour and a half with us, then invited us to a party that evening, where we got to hang out with him,” Roberts said.
“I like to tell people, I shot for Playboy and Disney channels in the same day,” Roberts reflected.
His journey came full circle, returning to Texarkana in 2005 to help out family. As fortune would have it A&M Texarkana, at the old location, had an open position to teach mass media production and a studio that needed to be rebuilt. Roberts has been employed with A&M Texarkana for the last 12 years.
“What I taught was the difference in being in a high-school TV class and real professional broadcast standards,” Roberts explained, “The rules of television are the same, and it’s about production values and technical standards.”
Lessons from the popular mass media class, 417 Advanced Television Production, focusing on making documentaries.
Casey at work. Photo by Stephen Parker
“Documentaries require a more polished production; Learning how to shoot, interviewing people, doing research, doing reenactments covers many important aspects,” Roberts assures.
His most practical advice for students is: preplanning, knowing what you want to do and maintaining high technical standards.
Suggesting that students often have really good ideas in their head, but loose the intended message because they have not tried to see how their message might appear to someone first viewing the idea.
“Always a good idea to bounce things off other people,” Roberts said.
There are no current video production classes offered at A&M Texarkana because the lack of a TV studio “made it difficult to keep classes going,” Roberts allowed.
“I have two jobs here now,” Roberts stated, “Production, which is near and dear to my heart, and facilitating event technology.”
Eagle Hall hosts several big events throughout the year. He makes sure that everything technical is working and familiarizes speakers with the equipment, assuring any hiccups will be dealt with promptly, putting speakers at ease.
Roberts shares his thoughts on the necessity for media production classes at A&M Texarkana.
“All the things that go into a real comprehensive university are important. I think news/journalism and the media-arts are essential for a liberal-arts education, hopefully we get to that point. With the introduction of athletics there is a need to cover athletes and broadcast games, giving students a hands on opportunity to work within professional standards and guidelines. I hope we get TV multi-media back in the curriculum. There are ways to do it, even in conjunction with the community college where the studio sits.” Roberts concluding with, “It would add a lot to the atmosphere to the campus with students more involved.
Are you a fan of traditional first-person shooter video games, zombie puzzle games, or battle royale style matches? If so, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 delivers on all fronts.
Developed by Activision and released on October 12, 2018, COD: Black Ops 4 is shattering sales records across download platforms and viewership numbers on streaming services.
World-wide sales topped $500 million according to GFK Chart Track data. Following its October 12th launch, Black Ops 4 established a new one-day record for PlayStation digital game sales, and became the best-selling Activision Xbox One digital game in a 24-hour period.
“Black Ops 4 is an incredible game, and the community’s response to it has been amazing. We have shattered multiple digital day one sales records, and the number of people who connected online on day one to play has grown year on year,” said Rob Kostich, EVP and GM of COD in a press release. “But probably the most important thing is that the community is having so much fun across Multiplayer, Zombies and Blackout. We are so incredibly thankful for the community’s trust and support. This is just the beginning, it’s going to be an incredible journey with Black Ops 4.”
COD: Black Ops 4 has garnered extraordinary viewership on the video game streaming site Twitch. According to analytics provided by the Esports Observer, one of the world’s top sources for Esports business news and insights, Black Ops 4 has taken over viewership on Twitch since its release. From October 11 to 17, the game has amassed a total of 29.66 million hours watched on Twitch, the highest level of viewership through a launch weekend in Twitch’s franchise history.
Courtesy of Desert.com
So, what exactly is special about COD: Black Ops 4? A brief step back in gaming history will shed some light.
The battle royale style game mode has gained in popularity over the last couple of years with games like Player Unknown’s Battleground and Fortnite. In a nutshell, 100 players are dropped from the sky with no weapons or gear. They must scrounge around in search of “loot,” items like guns, ammo, body armor, helmets, scopes, and grenades. The playing field or “map” is large, taking up the virtual equivalent of two square miles.
After a short time, a random circular section of the map is revealed, then an all-encompassing larger sphere of electric death closes in around. This squeezing of space continues until one player remains.
By incorporating well known COD fixtures from the past, Black Ops 4 has innovated the battle royale style game. Player enhancements or “peaks” can be found randomly around the map that can have one of several effects such as improved hearing, complete silence while moving, enemy awareness, or longer held breath while sniping. Several gadgets unique to COD can be found as well such as trip mines, portable sonic walls, sensor darts, grenade deactivators, grappling pistols, and an assortment of grenades.
Will Black Ops have the longevity of its predecessors? Can it maintain Twitch viewership with the onslaught of holiday game releases? Has the battle royale genre reached its zenith of popularity? These questions can only be answered in time, but for now COD has set new watershed marks for the next iteration of battle royale to strive for.
Students interested in film might want to take a look at a classic that focuses on one of the more overlooked aspects of movie making.
The 1981 motion picture Blow Out is a deep dive into the world of sound. It is the story of a B-movie sound technician and his relationships with audio: analyzing, acquiring, following, and implementing.
The viewer is purposely made overtly aware of the process of hearing in the first scene. A masked slasher stalks around a girl’s dorm. He is breathing, stepping into, and sampling the vignettes of sorority life window by window.
As a first time viewer, one is ready to turn this trite trash off, but soon discovers the goings on are being observed by two sound men working on a film: Co-ed Frenzy. Elements of sound engineering are seen in the opening credits as analog level indicators are used as a wipe between names of folks in the film.
Our protagonist, Jack, played by John Travolta, needs to find the perfect scream to complete a project. Now starts the most interesting part of the movie for this viewer: seeing all the tape, the reel-to-reels spinning, cutting/splicing, and just remembering how the world of sound manipulation used to look before the most disappointing offering of sound throughout this film: the dialogue.
This is a good example of a movie resonating with one of its elements of production. The telephone scenes are filmed with care and make use of several Hollywood conventions: A to B cuts with the conversation, dialogue overlaps in a shot/reverse style, and picture by picture sharing both parties’ conversation. One scene uses what is now called autonomous sensory meridian response or ASMR. While Jack is trying to compile evidence he peruses the pages of a magazine. While doing so his hands are touching and turning the pages, making one cringingly aware of the texture. Then in a classic ASMR move, he cuts the pages with scissors slowly and loudly, creating tension through sound.
Another fun point is that Jack’s antagonist is also a sound man of sorts. Burke, played by John Lithgow, can be observed wearing a telephone service man’s uniform. He also uses sound against Jack by erasing all of his tapes and manipulating the sound of phone conversations.
[SPOILER AHEAD] Music is used efficiently to move the action along during car scenes and to transition between scenes. In the final act our hero attaches a “wire” to Sally, only to discover that unbeknownst to her the killer is there. Jack uses the transmitted audio to determine her whereabouts: hearing the turnstile, train whistle, and fireworks. Ultimately Jack does not save the girl. He does, however, save the audio created from her fatal encounter with Burke. He languishes over this sound-bite in a snow-covered cemetery, internalizing every plea for help and each frantic attempt to appeal to her killer. The last scene of the film echos the start: with two sound-guys engineering audio for a movie.
This time Jack got his great scream and is tortured by it, and rightfully so. One can only assume that the ending has something to do with how the film making process requires a creator to use sometimes painful personal elements of their real life to complete a project.
How many times have you been cramming for a test or not feeling your best, and wished groceries, medicine, or any everyday essential could be at your front door? Thanks to Instacart, this luxury is now a reality for the citizens of Texarkana and residents of TAMUT by the start of October.
In less than an hour, your items will be handpicked and delivered from reputable local stores like Albertson’s, Super 1 Foods, and CVS. To open an account, go to or use the Instacart app, select your city, store, and items then choose a delivery window within one hour up to five days. An Instacart shopper receives your information via the app, shops, and delivers the items at your convenience.
There is a delivery fee of $5.99 for orders of $35 or more, but if one signs up for the Instacart Express membership one can get unlimited, free, same-day deliveries for the monthly membership charge of $14.99 a month or $149 annually. Enter the code: HITEXAKANA (01/31/19 expiration) at checkout and get $20 off an order of $35 or more and the first delivery is on Instacart.
In addition to the convenience of store to door deliveries, Instacart plans to employ more than 100 local shoppers. Instacart General Manager David Holyoak says, the Austin-based firm’s website, “we can offer fun flexible income earning opportunities for our shoppers, who ultimately deliver this amazing service to the community.”
To set up an account, search for Instacart on your Google or Apple Play store or check out the Instacart FAQ page.
Have you noticed all the smiling faces around campus? Students and faculty shared what they think are the most attractive qualities about our university.
Professor of History, Dr. Tom Wagy with fifty years of teaching experience, thirty-four of which have been in the Texarkana area, imparts that he likes the freedom to teach how he chooses and appreciated his obligation to serve students in the hopes that they positively can change their lives. Dr. Wagy believes students with a frontier spirit will find a home at TAMUT, and those who want to complain about the lack of some resources should rejoice in the fact that the universities long-term success rests in all of our hands, “TAMUT is being built before their eyes, and students have a chance to make a real difference.” Dr. Wagy admits that he is not an expert on the current pricing of universities, but believes that TAMUT is a great value for the local community compared to the price of “going off” to seek a higher education.
Eighteen-year-old freshmen Jordann Schuler considered other colleges, but after considering the cost decided to attend TAMUT and is happy with her choice. “I like the friendly environment. It’s like a big family.” Jordann would recommend TAMUT to anyone graduating high school.
Forty-two-year-old graduate student of history Melinda Zwirn appreciates “small classes in which passionate teachers teach.” She would recommend TAMUT to younger students, as there is not an abundance of online or night courses that older students need to help juggle a forty-hour work week. Melinda would like to see more attention paid to the various scholastic competitions that TAMUT students take part in.
Associate Professor of Mass Communication Dr. Drew Morton compares his teaching experience at UCLA and Cal State to TAMUT. He likes the small class sizes, diversity of content he is allowed to teach, and says that he has the opportunity to have relationships and discussions with students as well as Intimacy of classrooms.
“I think Texarkana-A&M is a great value because students are able to have accesses to PhDs as professors whereas at most major universities you would have teaching assistant in a certain area and you might have a PhD for an upper division class that you would actually get contact hours with. Career teachers are here and they are expected to teach well first and foremost.”
Twenty-year-old sophomore Sage Altenbaumer appreciates TMAUT’s quality professors and likes the small class sizes. He would recommend TAMUT to anyone looking to further their education. Sage would like to hear more success stories about recent graduates.
Students and professors agree TAMUT is a great place to learn due to the small classes, the availability of passionate professors that are well-qualified, and the reasonable tuition. How will TAMUT continue grow and gain the prominence that other larger universities have attained? Our university’s long term success lies in the hands of every student that graduates and goes forth into the world to reveal the inner light that was kindled within these halls.
The ENG450 Studies in Genre: Poetry cohort is hosting a spoken word event on Wednesday, December 12, 2018. Students, faculty, staff, and community members are invited to attend a closed-mic poetry recitation that will take place in Eagle Hall from 10:30 a.m. to noon.
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