Networking and not working...

I went to that photo shoot in Greenpoint yesterday. Soon, I'll post some of the photos. They came out pretty well and I'm satisfied that I got a good deal...seeing as how I only had to pay the guy for the media (which was $10, so I'm sure I was paying for a little more than the media...the electric bill maybe, but whatever). He was a pretty nice fellow, an older immigrant from, I think Austria or Germany. Very much a people person. When I arrived at the building, on a back road in an industrial part of the neighborhood, Tony was already outside photographing two other people who had come for the test shoot. He greeted me warmly and immediately introduced me to Austin, another composer/musician who had come for the free photos, and said we should network. So we did.

I've noticed that it's getting loads easier to meet the people I want to meet, music and film types, but that not everyone is so keen on meeting yet another New York musician trying to "make it." Now, for my part, I'm not so much trying to make it in the sense that people most often think about. No, I've grown out of that and I think I'll be content if "making it" just means eating every day and having a comfortable apartment and a network of friends. When I mentioned that I was eventually going to start a band, his wry response was, "You and every other white kid in this town." Thanks, buddy.

I've decided a long time ago how I'm going to respond to this sentiment. After years of people telling me, "It ain't easy, kid," I've learned to respond, "I'm not doing it because it's easy." If I wanted something easy, I'd have stayed in Raleigh working in television.

Last night anyway, I went to Cobble Hill to hang out with an old high school friend, Mike E., for his birthday. One, I love that neighborhood and two, Mike has got some much nicer more humble friends. I met a guy who is a composer/jazz musician and we got talking about scoring because he's getting into that himself. I'd much rather associate with people like that who understand that it doesn't have to be so cut throat and you don't have to look at every new musician in town as someone infringing on your turf, like this is some kind of drug war.

Continuing on, I met a friend of Karishma's the other night at the Juilliard. This one works with a human rights media outlet that develops documentary content about human rights issues. Karishma and I were going there to meet her for an Indian art house movie but we both ended up being late and couldn't get in. So we romped around the Lincoln Center and surrounding areas just chatting about life until the movie was to get out. There we waited until her friend left the theater. Karishma and her friend talked for about ten minutes straight catching up on Mumbai connections and everything and then we started to head back to the train. On the platform I casually dropped that I was composer and we exchanged info. She said sometimes they need composers but it's all pro bono work. This is the kind of thing I would not mind having my name associated with at all so I told her I could totally work pro bono.

I'm going back to work after several days off of feeling useless and wishing I were making money with my time. I did do some job hunting while off and I have some good ideas about how to get in touch with this job as a Tape Operator at Deluxe Post Production. They are located literally right around the corner from Technicolor and it occurred to me they might either compete with or do business with Technicolor. Therefore, I might have a connection already. We'll see.