Gadget Trish is moving

When I started my youTube channel in 2007, I had no idea on what direction the channel would take. On August 30, 2009 Gadget Trish was born, but the PASymphony name did not reflect the person in the post. I would appreciate you taking the time out to check out my new channel to get a better idea of who I am: http://www.youtube.com/user/GadgetTrish

Gadget Trish 2010 Wishlist (Jackson and Chris Brown Fans I need your help!)

My wish for 2010 and beyond…

My love for the Jackson family started when my mother would play the Jackson 5 Christmas album.  I couldn’t tell you why I was mesmerized with their voices, but Christmas was miraculous as I danced with my brother and sister as we performed for our family to what is still my favorite holiday body of work of all time.   My mother would play this song from Jermaine Jackson on steroids call “Found that Girl,” my mother is a huge Jermaine Jackson fan, and with his smile and voice I can truly understand.  With the exception of the Christmas album, I don’t have strong memories of too many Jackson 5 songs except for “ABC,” “Daddy’s Home,” “Never Can Say Goodbye,” and “I Want You Back.”  My mother was a serious Motown lover and I call her a “Motown Mommy”, so I had a huge range of Motown sounds that played in the house, but I have to admit, I really didn’t like very many at the time, but I loved hearing the Jackson 5. 

I was still a little girl when “Thriller” came out and it was the hit of the year.  I attended a Christian private school, and my mother would not allow to many new artist in the house.  One day I was at my Aunt’s place and she was babysitting us and was dancing to “Baby Be Mine” from Michael Jackson for hours.  When I got home I beg my mother for the record, I wanted to know who was the person that made her dance for hours with awestruck beats, lyrics, voice, and hooks. To my surprise my mother let me have my first secular record.   I had the limited edition pictured disc that I played until I memorized every lyric and adlib.  Within that same era, Jermaine Jackson did a song with Michael called “Tell Me I’m Not Dreamin” and a solo called “Do What You Do” which is still a favorite of mine, and when little sister Janet hit the scene with “Control”, that solidified that the Jackson family was here to stay.

As years went by, the focus from Michael Jackson would shift to Janet Jackson, and 3T. For example in the mid-nineties I loved “Dangerous” as Michael sang my favorite MJ song and video of all time, “Remember The Time”, but I had this thing with “Girl Power” and Hip-Hop, and would focused on artist up like TLC, SWV, and of course Janet Jackson.  I recall having my hair like JJ from the movie “Poetic Justice,” with the cool thick braids.  Around this time 3T came out swinging with their first hit CD with “Memories,” “Why”, and my favorite song “Tease Me”. Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige, and TLC became my favorite R&B/Pop artist in the nineties. I wouldn’t feel right not talking about top Hip Hop artist like Nas, Mobb Deep, and who can forget Bad Boy artist like Biggie, Lil’ Kim, Total, and of course P. Diddy himself (you couldn’t go to a party without playing something from Bad Boy.) The Jackson family had some stiff competition with Hip Hop, but was holding it down for sure. 

In 2001, Michael Jackson returns with a reunion TV special with various artist and his brothers.  The magic has returned, but then the most unthinkable event in the countries history happen, “911”, the attack on the towers of the world trade center. From a native New Yorker, it was the most hectic time living in the city.  I wouldn’t leave my home unless I had to and when MJ came to MTV to promote “Invincible”, I could kill myself for not having more courage to see him.  Little did I know that this would be the only opportunity to have seen him in person.  I did buy the CD of course and it became my 3^rd favorite MJ CD while he was alive.  My favorite songs were “Butterflies,” “Heaven Can Wait,” “Break of Dawn,” and “Whatever Happens.”  At the time I wasn’t aware of Michael Jackson’s problem with Sony promoting of his latest creation, and as a result  there really wasn’t as strong of a presence on the radio or TV.  The CD slowly faded, and only his hardcore fans would know how good of a CD that was. 

Little sister Janet Jackson was keeping the family musical legend alive with her releases of “All for You,” “Damita Jo,” and “Discipline.”   Anything her or Michael released I brought it.  Around 2007-2008, I remember I purchase old CD’s from the Jacksons.  I really love the late 70’s stuff and decided to add that to my iPod.   In  2009 Michael Jackson announced that he was doing a final tour.  It broke my heart when the tickets sold out so fast.  There is nothing I wouldn’t have done to see him, but that fate wasn’t in my cards.  On June 25, 2009 while watching BET’s ….. they announced the death of Michael Jackson.  I really was hoping that the Media had got their information mixed up, but I remember feeling numb.  My BFF called me to see how I was doing, and I informed her not well.  I remember a tear falling down my face and playing his songs throughout the night.  I recall praying that when I woke up that this would a huge misunderstanding and that he was alive. Unfortunately, he was gone, and that is when my quest for learning about Michael Jackson in greater depth began.

I have a deep spiritual connection to Michael for so many reasons, but I just want to just focus on the music for this blog.  Since I had the Jackson 5 greatest hits, the first thing I did was attempt to complete the Jackson 5 collection, but as luck would have it, those CD’s were hard to find because all the CD sold outs and the people that were selling them where charging as much as $150.00 a CD!  I ended up downloading the rest of the Jackson 5 collection on iTunes, and my curiosity got the best of me.   Slowly, but surely I started making discoveries like MJ’s first four solo albums from Motown, and eventually the rest of this siblings outside of Janet and Jermaine.  That’s when my love for the Jackson’s went from a fan to a super fan.  I started seeing the family in a whole new light.  I just couldn’t stop playing Jackie, Randy, and La Toya.  They all have such a great amount of talent and I started recognizing how the Media tries to create friction by downplaying them. I will go in depth of what my favorite CD or albums are from each Jackson member in a future post, but the bottom line is that I truly admire them and really would like to meet them.  If you haven’t watch my video attached with this post above, please do.  If anyone can get me some talk time with the Jackson and Chris Brown or “Cousin Chris” (the honorary Jackson family member), please make it happen. The youTube post is my thoughts about Chris Brown, so please watch this as well.

Music featured is this post is: Rebbie Jackie’s “Yours Faithfully” Jackie Jackson’s self-title LP, The Jacksons self-title, Jermaine Jackson’s self-title aka “Dynamite”, La Toya Jackson’s self-title, Marlon Jackson’s self-title, Randy Jackson’s “Randy and The Gypsys”, Janet Jackson’s “Number One” and  “Together Again” single, 3T “Sex Appeal”, and Chris Brown’s “Graffiti” deluxe version.

Gadget Trish New Years Greetings, Thanks, and Direction for 2010

I could never thank my viewers enough for all the support I received in 2009. I was inspired to create Gadget Trish post after the death of Michael Jackson to provide a voice for his fans and other pop culture events through the use of gadgets. Somehow I focused mainly on the Jackson family, and not enough on gadgets and other artis., With that being said, please check out my post on 2010 new direction on my channel.

Items that were used for this post was the Thriller Jacket and glove from Ricky’s New York or www.rickyshalloween.com, Bow Ties, Hat, Michael Jackson Ultimate Collection 32 DVD + 1 CD Boxset. and Spike Lee movies were purchased from www.amazon.com , Jackson 5 Greatest Hit Purse from www.covertocoverpurses.com, Red G-Shock Glide Watch, Steve Madden Oxford and Black Bostonian Penny Loafers are from Macy’s or www.Macys.com, Michael Jackson Billie Jean doll, necklace, and ring from www.ebay.com , the Apollo Christmas Ornament is from the Apollo theater in Harlem or www.apollotheater.org and “Believe” iQuote Poster and Plush Mickey Mouse Doll were gifts.

Gadget Guideline:
Canon HV30, Final Cut Pro, BeachTek DXA-2Sm, Rode NTG-2 Condenser Shotgun Microphone Kit, Irv manual focus ring, Pearstone DVP wide angle lens, Canon extended battery, standard cold shoe video bracket, One Smith Victor light with Orange and Blue Gels, Titles were created with Adobe Photoshop CS4.

Gadget Trish Does A Review On Michael Jackson's "This Is It" using her Canon HV30

A little rain was not going to keep me from seeing "This Is It' on October 28, 2009, I am truly one of Michael Jackson's biggest fans. Check out my review on the movie, and please feel free to rate and comment.

How I Pimped My Canon HV30 (Part 1) By Gadget Trish

I wanted to share with you the Rig that I designed for my Canon HV30 (This could be used for the HV20 and HV40 model as well.) Before making this purchase I went to a few forums and youtube reviews and found a great deal of wonderful feedback. On a side note, when making a gadget purchase, do as much research as possible. Ideally I wanted the Canon XH-A1, but due to financial limitation, I thought this camera be the way to go.

The rig consist of a BeachTek DXA-2S for XLR microphone inputs, a Rode NTG-2 Condenser Shotgun Microphone Kit, a Sennheiser EW100 wireless mic, the Irv manual focus ring, a Pearstone DVP wide angle lens, Canon extended battery, standard cold shoe video bracket to mount the microphone and lights, and a cam caddie. Out the box the Canon HV30 produces fair sound and picture, but the additions provides better focus control, cleaner sound, extended power, and stability while shooting.

If you are on a lower budget and cannot afford every item, I would suggest a wide-angle lens, an extended battery, and the Irv ring. The ring gives you the ability to manual focus quickly. Another must have item is a wide-angle lens. There are different lens for other companies in all sorts of price ranges. I encourage researching and checking out youTube videos.

With the exception of the Irv manual ring, all items can be purchased at the B&H store or website. If you only need to use one microphone at a time and don’t care to use XLR microphones, then the purchase of a BeachTek will not be necessary. When it comes to microphones, they drive up the price quite a bit, from my own personal experience, start with an on camera, or shotgun microphone kit. There are better microphones available then the two I purchased, but based on my budget, I went for these models because of feedback from other friends. Another advantage of the microphones that I purchased is that they could be used for future cameras both with XLR and line-in inputs.


This is my rig for shooting a moving subject for generally documentaries, but I have another rig for interviews and studio projects. I will have that on a future episode of G.T. media, but until then, I’m out.

Gadget Trish attends to get into the 2009 VMA without a ticket

If you dont know it by now, I love Michael Jackson and the Jackson Family. I knew MTV was doing a tribute to MJ, but when I found out Janet may be there; I went on a wild goose chase to get in. Look at this video to see the outcome.

Gadget Guideline:
Canon HV30 (Interior shots), Boom Rhode Microphone, One Smith Victor light with Orange and Frost Gels, Casio EX-Z9 (Exterior Shots), Software to edit with Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro. Titles were created with Adobe Photoshop CS4.