Earthquake!

So, the earthquake that I didn't feel here in Brooklyn but was hearing about all day actually forced me to be productive. You know how I can't sit around idly when there's work to be done but you may not know about a fear I have (actually a pretty common one) of being buried alive. After hearing on NY1 that there had been an earthquake and knowing how aftershocks can happen, I opted not to go into the city for my regular volunteer session at Learning Ally, so as not to have to ride underground on a train for 30 minutes. Instead, I stayed home and redid my reads for the voice over demo I'm working on.

I'm actually quite pleased with it and if it all goes over well and I get good reviews from some of my peers I may put a shine on it and upload it in place of the old one. More on that later. In a second here, I'm gonna ride the bike up to the yoga studio in DUMBO. The weather here right now makes it impossible for me to refuse the temptation of getting out on the bike.

I may try to blog later in the week more about the recording session with Lacy and about my upcoming trip to NC...hoping to swim in my parents' new pool all weekend but there's a high probability that Hurricane Irene will make landfall Saturday. Nature is pissed off this week apparently. So long for now.

The concert...

Rhythmic Movement was a great success! Tania's concert received a pretty big turnout considering the size of the venue. We even spotted a few reviewers in the crowd! In addition, I had the premier of my work, "Moon, Tides, Cycles" and I couldn't have been more pleased with the outcome. Actually, that's not true. I could have been way more pleased but after a certain point you just have to accept outcomes and embrace them.

The performance itself went over really well and the piece was very well received. But the venue had limitations. Nevermind a few misunderstandings with the main sound guy (who wasn't even there that night), when we arrived for our sound check we met Ted who was much more accommodating. However, I was to find out that a crucial aspect of my piece was going to be impossible to achieve. The panning. Yes, even though I told the sound guys that I was giving them stereo outs from my laptop, I forgot to mention that I would need to be able to pan my mix left and right. There was nothing to be done in a pinch though. The house system was set up to sub both stereo channels to one output. The speakers were just a cluster over the stage pointed out in three directions at the seating area. So, no panning for me, and thus a crucial part of the piece was not heard. Well, no one knew the difference but me anyway. And when it comes down to it, it's not wholly essential for the piece to come across. And I still did the panning while on stage mixing because he told us that the recording could have two distinct channels of stereo. So, at least we'll be able to hear the whole piece at some point.

Leading up to the performance, I felt that familiar thrill of nerves (yes, I know I was just twiddling knobs up there but there's a performance element even in that!) and had to meditate to not let it overwhelm me. I then realized that it had to be compounded by the amount of caffeine I inadvertently ingested throughout the day (cup of green tea, two cups of mate and a ginseng black and green tea that had mate in it as well!). The nice part about performing though is that all this energy gets to be channeled into something you're creating. And the release of it all is the best part of the act. If you've ever performed you know what I'm talking about.

The most exciting part of the evening for me, aside from actually performing, was spotting the reviewers out in the crowd. I saw at least two gentleman sitting by themselves and writing on their programs in the dark and I figured them immediately for press.

The response afterward was nice, too. I met so many people who enjoyed my piece and heard some very nice compliments. One of my co workers, actually, the gentleman who introduced me to Tania and effectively made this collaboration possible, Asa was there with his wife as well (he showed me some photos he took of us today at work). And both of my parents came as well. They had been spending the weekend up in Athens, NY with my aunt and just took the train down Tuesday evening to Grand Central, where I met them. I spent some time up there as well over the weekend and I never got around to blogging about it!

After I met my parents at Grand Central, we took our time getting back to 25th Street in Brooklyn, stopping at my favorite GF pizza joint in the Flatiron district (an area I'd be spending a lot of time in over the next few days) and went and ate in Madison Square Park. Then we stopped by one of my favorite bars in Cobble Hill, Local 61. We tucked in relatively early because we had designs on getting up early and biking. I dragged my bike through the turnstiles and carted it all the way to Whitehall Street while Mom and dad rented bikes in Battery Park city at Bike and Roll. Mom wanted to get from Battery Park all the way to the George Washington Bridge and we just about did it. I think we turned around at 165th Street and rode back down to 44th Street near the USS Intrepid where we could drop their bikes off. From there I walked my bike back to 8th Avenue and 34th Street to get the A train back to Brooklyn.

All in all, it was a great experience and one I intend to repeat soon with a biking buddy. There are parts of the greenway on the west side that are absolutely gorgeous. There's a causeway at around the 70s and 80s that takes you out over the Hudson River a little ways. Beyond that there's a lane of cherry trees and a fairly wooded stretch. We reached a spot around the 150s where we had a clear view of the bridge (which is actually around 178th Street) and stopped for a series of pictures.

Instant Upload

Additionally, in this album is a shot of our reward which waited for us at 4th Avenue Pub, and me, all suited up back in the Flatiron District before the show last night. There are also a few pictures of the Irish Hunger Memorial that we stumbled on while trying to snake through all the downtown bike lane detours in place from all the construction. You'll even see a pic or two of the new world trade tower.

Yeah, I figured out what I could delete to get a little more storage space on my SD card for my phone so I was actually taking pictures yesterday!

There'll be more on the aftermath of the concert pretty soon as I hear about it. Meanwhile, I have a deadline now with the film score and next Wednesday is mine and Lacy's show at Bar 82.

Blurb #25

Lacy should be here any minute. We're rehearsing all afternoon and will be playing an open mic at Bar 82 in the East Village tonight somewhere between 7 and 9. Come out if you can. Meanwhile, it's pretty hot out isn't it? Well, comparatively speaking. One of my yoga instructors joked that we went straight into summer. It still feels like we had something of a spring though. I guess those mild 70 degree temperatures never last more than a few weeks either way. Anyhow, it sucks a bit because I've just gotten to where I can find time to ride the bike. Took it to yoga class the other day and, while it was fun, I found myself pretty uncomfortable by the time I got there. Good thing I was going somewhere where I expected to sweat anyway. Another thing, I thought for certain that one of those effing livery cab drivers was going to kill me. Who cuts across a bike lane and slams on the brakes to pick up a fare? I nearly had to jump off my bike and this guy thought a honk in my general direction a mere second before he pulled the maneuver was going to be enough to alert me to his presence. What can I say? It's hard being a biker in the city, even with all the bike lanes and bike paths at our disposal. I've got more news on the score but this is supposed to be a blurb. More on that later.

Biking and Sailing....

Got into a cleaning frenzy today and all that could stop me was the prospect of finally having some time ride my bike. So, I just got back from a round trip to the library in Grand Army Plaza, up Prospect Park West and back through the park. It feels so free to ride your bike in the park, even with the idiot pedestrians (sorry, if you're a pedestrian) wandering diagonally across the path. I still don't understand this behavior. And it was starting to rain as I was heading back, though not pouring. It was just right.

Anyway, I took today off work so I could make it to see a concert, part of the First Acoustics series at the First UU Brooklyn. The Bob Cunningham Trio will be playing and I'll be taking a friend from work. The same trio is actually performing with the choir tomorrow morning as well for our annual jazz service. Should be fun.

I'm culminating this week with one part disappointment and two parts accomplishment. The disappointment was that I was so close to buying a Middle Eastern Oud off a guy on craigslist out of the budget from the film but the guy backed out last minute. His wife wouldn't let him sell it. But we (both Mohammad and I) are on the hunt for something else. It's looking more and more like I'll be the one to play the part on the recording. Which is totally fine with me. I'm, in fact, excited to do so.

I've gotten most of the work writing the rest of the music all but done. And that's one of the accomplishments from this week. I just edited together the beat I was working on with the subway sounds sample and the Muslim call to prayer sample mixed together and (I think) it sounds awesome! I just laid down a loop of some Darbuka playing to lead into that part as filler until I can actually lay down the tracks for the Oud part. It's all coming together!

The other accomplishment is that I sat with my VO mentor (I'm officially calling her that now) and asked some questions and got a clearer picture in my head of what my next steps should be. I've decided I'm going to keep up applying to jobs on voice123.com (even though I've had no luck) because I'm getting incredible practice out of it. Another thing she brought up is that the order of the cuts on my demo is not the best it could be, i.e. my best read is not up front. It is now. I just edited it together and cut out a glaring mispronunciation that was in one line of a museum audio guide script I read (I should be ashamed of myself). Miraculously the edit that cut out that mispronunciation somehow worked with the background music so that it doesn't sound disjointed at all.

Anyhow, I could stand to take a nap or clean more or eat dinner and I have no idea what I'll do. The sun is back out again and I have half a mind to go back out and soak it up. If only it had come out while I was still at the park. I don't get up there very often, in fact, I went the entire winter without wandering further west than 7th Avenue in Brooklyn. Sad. It's also a bit sad that I let the first three weeks of May pass without taking much advantage of the opportunities I had to get out and do things in the city. (!) I was planning on the Statue of Liberty (booked until September), the Guggenheim (missed my chance to with a friend because I was too busy that week), a boat ride of sorts (didn't have the money at the time for a Circle Line Tour at $36 for the 3-hour cruise around Manhattan) and countless other things. The boat ride keeps coming back to my mind, though, as the next fun thing. Mainly this time around because I just heard about my dad's little sailing adventure out on the Outer Banks of NC where he went to help a friend pick up a boat he had just purchased and sail it to where they were getting the bottom of the boat painted. I got a little jealous but mostly just enthused. I don't know where this desire came from. I think I've wanted to learn how to sail for a long time now, probably ever since the first time I looked on New York Harbor and saw all the sailboats out there in the summer time the first year I was here. I was talking to one of my yoga teachers about it before class the other day because there are always boats going past in the East River while I'm in class and I just struck up a conversation about it. He mentioned to me that there's a volunteer program where you can learn how to sail at the Seaport Museum by South Street Seaport, where two schooners are docked, the Pioneer and the Lettie G. Howard.

I'm going to have to look into this further. Sounds like good times. Anyway, I gotta get some dinner ready here and get ready for the concert tonight. Happy Weekend!

Red Hook swimming pool, the Park Slope Food Co-Op; Hilarious bureaucracies...

Tuesday afternoon, I spent the most amount of time on my bike since I had it brought up here. I biked all the way down (or rather, all the way up and down) to Red Hook from South Park Slope to meet a friend at the Red Hook swimming pool. The route was a little circuitous, taking me all the way north along 5th Avenue to 3rd Street (one of four streets that crosses the Gowanus Canal, not counting the expressway) before cutting west and then down again on Court Street to Bay Street. I saw very little of the Red Hook neighborhood while down that way but I did get a nice little breezy tour through Carroll Gardens' main section along the way on Court Street. Breezy because it was downhill the whole way.

The pool in Red Hook was great fun, but we probably spent barely twice the amount of time in the pool that it took us to get into the place. First, there are rules and very strict rules. Rules that need four to five people in blue New York City parks shirts to enforce. One needs a bathing suit first off. I'm assuming people have gone in in their clothes before or, I dunno, maybe naked, which might necessitate such a rule. Second, one needs a lock to lock your things up in one of their lockers. Okay, possibility of theft, I get it. But it can't be just any lock, for it must past muster with the aforementioned blue shirted gauntlet. My friend's Swiss Gear lock was deemed inadequate to the task of protecting our valuables...or as one of them put it our "values." I didn't know we had to lock up intangibles as well.

Anyway, this was the bulk of the reason for our delayed entry. There was much protest on our part that this lock was surely adequate enough: "No, they'll cut that right off", "Yeah, it's lock cutting season" (This was seriously uttered by one of them, as though it were a fact that none of them could change by perhaps exchanging their positions guarding the front door and parroting rules for actually policing the locker rooms!) One rather kind German lady in front of us offered to let us share a locker with her and her son but apparently there were rules against this as well. There wouldn't be enough room. They were intent on sending us around the corner to buy new locks. One of them though, offered to show the lock to her manager (these people were being managed?) to see if she would approve. Same response.

But we were in. We had penetrated the first layer. But rule three came upon us: No shoes allowed in the pool area (Funny. I thought this one seemed anti safety...probably, again, trying to protect us from the supposed inevitability of theft). So, feeling a mix of confusion and dismay coupled with the hesitance to make my poor friend carry every bit of my personal effects, except my towel, with her into the women's locker room (I had not brought a lock) and my own lack of desire to walk barefoot in the locker rooms, we stood sorting out details of our escape out into the pool area for some minutes before I reluctantly removed my shoes and told my friend I'd meet her "on the other side."

Before finally getting through the maze of the men's locker room I noticed a sign with, yes, even more rules. The only one I seemed to breaking was one about clothing. I'm assuming it meant clothing as in a change of clothes, but I didn't want to take my chances so, after rinsing off, I rolled my t-shirt in my towel, the one possession that I had been allowed to enter the pool with. My friend had been stopped with her tiny wallet bag ("Does she got a bag?", "Wait, stop her.","You can't go in there with that," was somewhat how the conversation went down from what I'm told).

Finally gazing upon the pool, I was quite pleased with the vast separation between the screaming splashing children and the serious lap swimmers. But we had to ask about the section in the middle some 50 meters wide and completely devoid of swimmers. Sure enough: closed. With no apparent reason, probably so the lifeguards would have fewer people to watch, for all I could guess.

Either way, it was really really nice to dip in the pool, which was a comfortable 15 or 20 degrees cooler than air temperature from my estimate. We swam a few leisuerly laps and then rode our bikes over to the Park Slope Food Co-Op on Union Street to pick up some groceries. My friend is a member and I'm thinking of becoming one soon-ish. I just have to sort out when I could work the required 2 3/4 hour monthly shift...that and sit through their orientation. I'm really psyched about it actually. Cheaper local organic groceries to boot but it's also a really great concept. The Co-op has been around for about 27 years and has always been member owned. All the food comes from within 500 miles, they recycle everything (including most of the plastics that NYC will not recycle) and there's even cooking classes available. It's real hippie stuff but if you're into it, it's great.

Anyway, the two times I've been in with my friend I liked what I saw. Despite the myriad rules they have in place to keep people from taking advantage of their system, it was far easier to get into than the Red Hook public pool. My friend showed her ID and signed a sheet on a clipboard, I showed ID and was handed a visitor's pass that was promptly ripped in half and discarded upon my entry (probably recycled actually). Much more streamlined. And that is all for now. As usual, I should be in bed. I only seem to write these entries late at night.