Prioritizing the mayhem...

I've been a bit frantic to get work and errands done on my two days off (I would have had three days off but I got called in to do some overtime tomorrow because a coworker is having family problems and you can bet I took those hours lickety split). I'm usually like this, not because I've become quite the work-a-holic these days (although that is a factor), but because I have so many things I'd like to do, on top of the myriad of things that I already have to do. Laundry, cleaning the apartment and groceries being the main three that come to mind immediately. As for things that I want to do, man, sometimes I just wish I could get 6 extra hours in my day...or at least be able to stay awake 6 extra hours without feeling tired. But don't we all.

Current projects and/or intrigues:

I'm working on the score for that NYU student's film. This is challenging for a few reasons. First, because I offered right off the bat to help him, not only with underscoring, but also with source music and end credits as well, two places where he would have used establish pop, hip hop or rock songs and then consequently not been able to show it anywhere outside of NYU. So, it's been neat for me getting the experience of writing three different styles of music for one piece that is only about 8 minutes long in its entirety. Second reason it's been challenging is that the producer of this film, a friend I've known for about 6 years now (mostly long distance), knows what he wants. I always respond to that by getting them in the same room with me and picking their brain apart about the film, once I've had a chance to dissect it and come up with my own questions about it. How prominent do you want the music to be? Any ideas about instrumentation? How does this sound here, does it come in too early, is it too intrusive, what if I put a piano chord here? Those kinds of things. It's almost like when they know what they want, you have to ask permission to put something in, because if it doesn't mesh with their expectations of the film, then they'll notice it and say, "what is that?!" Or something milder perhaps.

Beyond the film score, I've also been writing other music as well, slowly revamping the website, keeping up with the myspace profile by posting bits of my endeavors into writing for myself (and trying to get around to building a facebook fan page, and trying to figure out this site called guru.com where you can submit to freelance jobs), while simultaneously working on chamber music and amassing a list of festivals and competitions to submit to, (finished a piano piece the other day and I'm going to have my friend Brad look at it as soon as we get time)and, finally, keeping this blog.

The past few days, though, I spent a good bit of my time working on finishing up two out of the three cues I'm doing for Brian's film. I didn't quite get to the third cue. I had to sacrifice it to devote some attention to my other endeavors, the more recreational ones, because that's important to.

I've been reading a lot on the train, mostly books related to Zen and alternative ideas with regards to organized religions. (At night, I unwind with C.S. Lewis Narnia Chronicles, something distinctly Christian in its slant...funny.) Anyway, I made it up to the Brooklyn Public Library today to renew one book (The religious case against belief) and grab two others (Zen wrapped in Karma dipped in Chocolate and Nothing to do Nowhere to go) and then walk through Prospect Park to find a bench to sit on and skim the chapters of the above mentioned.

Around Town GAP and Prospect Park best

Trying to fit in a little more photography by remembering to take my camera with me on my daily romps has been hugely satisfying.

And I'm trying on top of all of this to work as full time as I can and socialize with the growing group of people that I've been hanging out with. Then there's people visiting over the next few weeks and then I leave town for the reunion. Add to that, the Time Out New York this week has a long list of all the free movie series and free concert series going on in the city this summer, my calendar is filling up.

This is probably the fullest my life has been in a long time but I must say, my head's about to explode. So, I've been thinking about how I can really fit all this stuff in. And I realized I can't. Every day, there's something that goes unfinished and I spend the last thirty minutes of the day thinking about what to prioritize for the next day. Or I spend it writing about how busy I am. But I'm cool with that. I think this is good practice. For one things, it forces me to be a lot more realistic about what I can and can't fit into a day. Instead of saying, I'm going to finish the film score in three days (I actually did say that at first), I decided I would get as much as I could do done but stop at a point so that I could get my other work taken care of. There was of course another shift towards doing less of it when I found out I had to work tomorrow. I usually devote a good amount of time on the "weekend" to cooking so that I can take meals with me to work, so having a shift tomorrow changed my priorities there.

Beyond actually trying to fit all of this stuff in, I'm realizing, still, that I can't always work non stop through a day without really stressing myself out. Sitting in front of this computer for long stretches can drive me mad sometimes...okay, often. So, if I need a break, I welcome one. The trip to the library and subsequent walk in Prospect Park was my release today.

And on top of all of this, I still try to remember to throw down my yoga mat every night.

Hope that you enjoy the photos. I should probably go for now.