My name is Joseph Shaker, I am the son of two Egyptian immigrants and I grew up on Long Island. I plan on majoring in Electrical Engineering. I went to Egypt last winter and it was awesome to see my family and the ancient temples, but it was also interesting to compare how the media portrayed it to how it actually is.
I will enjoy this class and for the art and performances but I am a bit intimidated about the deep analysis required. With the exception of music, I haven’t learned to sit down and analyze art; I just enjoy it.
I have played guitar since middle school. I began playing blues and rock but as my tastes evolved I embarked on a deep journey into jazz and all the bizarre yet interesting theory and chords involved. I started running live sound systems since 9th grade. Last summer, I was offered an opportunity to intern at a recording studio in Lynbrook. There I learned the fundamentals of microphone placement, basic recording techniques, and a variety of software that allow people to correct rhythmic or melodic mistakes from the performance. I especially enjoyed that through our work, we took ideas and thoughts and materialized them into something physical, a CD. I worked on bits and pieces of 3 different albums and would like to show you when they are done. I still work part time on the software side.
I my free time listening to and writing music, playing chess, exploring the city, walking over bridges (GWB, Triboro, 59th St, they all have stunning views), or looking up fun yet useless facts.
One difficulty I have is that my 3 interests, music, physics, and math are divergent from one another. There aren’t many jobs where I can use my apptitude for math and science (which I thoroughly enjoy) with or for music (my passion). I have considered trying to get a job designing microphones but I am not sure. The other plan would be doing active research and development, working on radical new ideas such as the “Hyperloop”
