Some pictures of the new apartment and an update or two...

It's a little hard to keep up-to-date when your computer goes on the fritz. But here I sit making an effort, late at night on a Thursday, just having finished editing the most recent pics. Yes, Josee, finally, I have some pictures for you. I'm sorry it took so long but here's the new place:

New Apartment March 2010

I apologize that most of the pics show how much of a shambles the place was in, but hey, we're honest here at City Composer. You'll notice I even threw in some of the pics of the water damage during the Nor'Easter. God only knows why I went walking around Manhattan during that crazy storm, but that is a story for another blog entry. Since I snapped those photos, I have cleaned the place up a good deal but my bedroom is still a bit of a wreck, though more comfortable and spacious without the desk. I am closer to some kind of plan, however, to make things even more comfortable...in other words, to take care of the situation where my dresser is operating simultaneously as a desk...a rather ergonomically incorrect one, I might add (man, my arms hurt from typing like this).

On the good news front, you saw the piano there, right? Well, in addition to my sense of triumph at managing to get it moved up here and have it only cost me about $200, I discovered that a friend from the Unitarian Church Choir is a piano tuner. So next week, for another $150, I will finally have a tuned piano. Which brings the total amount of money I have spent in moving this piano to and fro to somewhere around $400. In other words, it's still a pretty cheap piano, as pianos go.

For your viewing pleasure, and as another way of showing that a full year has passed since my arrival in New York, I present to you now the Saint Patrick's Day Parade (along with a few shots of the UN where I was meeting my new French friend, Claire).

Saint Patty's Day 2010 and UN

That was fun. I went solo again this year, just as I did last year but after a while, I was tired of the crowds and tired of the photos, though I did get a few unique shots this year, mostly of the crowd and not of the parade.

More random news, I spoke with George about the sequel to Peeper this evening. Got some idea of the plot and what type of film and what type of score we're looking at. Kind of exciting and I should be getting the script soon. I love working on films when I get to see the script before shooting, not just for the obvious reason of having loads more time to work on the thematic material and other planning aspects of the score. It's also fun to be part of the creative process from very early on, especially since it usually means that the director is interested in the score and not going to look on it as a last minute decision. I like directors who are already thinking of the music in the pre-production phase. They are usually a lot more fun to work with because the score isn't as rushed and because they know what they want, which means: more direction.

Granted, I've also worked with directors that give too much direction or who change their minds constantly, when given extra time to think about the score. But, I would take more direction over less any day. I got "less direction" from a director once and, a year and a half later, I found the film posted on his website with all of my music stripped from the film and replaced. I don't know if he didn't know how to tell me what he wanted then or what but ultimately it looked like he was unsatisfied with my music and never told me.

So more is better in most cases.

Beyond that brief bit of scoring news, I still haven't heard anything from the dancer who wanted to work with me. May give her another try soon because it'll be a while before I start working with George on the sequel to Peeper.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking that it's ironic that I was going on about needing "tools" as a musician/composer in the form of computer software and expensive equipment I don't have the money for, and now, my computer, after having contracted a virus, is only good for internet access (I can't seem to get the drivers for the audio card working) and next week I may finally have a piano that is in tune that I will want to play. Might alter my composing habits at least in the short term.

What it's actually going to do is propel me into the universe of portable computing when I finally get rid of the shackles of my desktop computer and utilize my fancy discounts from work to procure either a Dell, a Lenovo, or yes, even maybe a Mac Book Pro. Believe it or not, despite the hype and the incredibly pervasive marketing campaign of Apple computers, I'm probably going to stay PC for now. I know I know I know what half of you are going to say and to you all I say. Read this. That and I think it's quite safe to say that my main issue is with my current operating system. 64 bit Windows XP has so little support and so many compatibility issues. It'll also be nice to have something assembled at the factory and not to have to install everything myself and have to deal with all the hassle of figuring out which video codecs and which drivers I need for this and that.

Blah, but enough of the computing stuff. I'm psyched to have the piano tuned. And I'd better get some sleep. Work at noon tomorrow!