Wanderlust

It sometimes takes me a while these days to unpack my experience of a trip, the impressions, the things that changed me, and articulate it into a story.  And this blog, while it's been a chronicle of my time in New York City, has also allowed me an outlet for these kinds of stories.  The kinds of stories I've discovered that I love telling.  And perhaps that's why I started to travel again.  I've always had a bit of wanderlust ever since my parents dragged me (I say that lovingly...I was not really dragged) on a trip around the country at the tender yet excitable age of 8.  I've thirsted since to see more of the world.  When asked what I wanted for a graduation present from high school, without hesitation, I said a trip to Paris.

Fast forward to this year.  The fact that there is a festival called Wanderlust seemed like a no brainer. Yet, it was a friend who suggested we go and, therefore, not my idea.  A few months ago in the course of a twenty minute phone conversation, the plan was hatched.  This July, Snowmass Village, Colorado was hosting the festival.  I hadn't been to Colorado since that fateful trip as a wide-eyed eight year old. We rode the Durango to Silverton railroad and I gazed at canyons and roaring rivers out the window of the train, noticing only at the end of the trip how much soot had accumulated on my face.  In Silverton, I gestured toward snowy mountains and begged my parents to hike up so we could see snow in June.  My siblings laughed at my inability to judge distance. Here's me with the brakeman's hat on:

When my friend told me that the Wanderlust festival was in Colorado, I bit almost immediately.  A yoga festival? In Colorado? Of course!

So we began planning, reserved a rental car, and agreed on an AirBnb in Basalt, a town about thirty minutes away, to save money.  And I began getting excited about things like Acro Yoga and Stand-up Paddleboard Yoga (the classes were all full by the time we had bought out tickets unfortunately so I didn't get to try it) and Slackline Yoga, farm to table dinners, hiking and meditation in nature, as well as the fact that there would be music every night.  Outdoor music.  And then they sent out an email after we bought our tickets saying that freakin' Moby was headlining the festival!

Here's an album of photos from the festival.  There's so much to say about the festival so I'll just talk highlights and forego the blow by blow.  Probably one of the most inspiring moments of the festival for me was the meditation hike with Häana, a violinist who came to the festival as one of the performers. Her music was really awesome. She actually almost carpooled with us from Denver International Airport but her flight kept getting delayed. I had researched her when she answered my post on the Wanderlust Facebook page offering rides from Denver to other festival goers.

On the second day of the festival I got a chance to hear her play a full electronic set at one of the indoor meditation classes. That alone was amazing and really freaking cool.  But on this hike, she brought an old vintage violin that had this amazingly beautiful resonance.  We hiked a little ways into the Aspen groves where she led a brief meditation and while we continued to sit in the tall grasses, she improvised for about twenty minutes in a Norwegian influenced style. As the music swelled, the breeze tickled us and a small thunderstorm rolled in.  Just being out there in the open air, feeling the breeze, and hearing the haunting sounds of that violin.  It was so beautiful.  There are a couple good pics from the hike in that album as well as a video I took after hanging back on the hike down (you can hear the thunder in the background!)

Another spectacular moment was trying out Acro yoga for the first time and getting up in a handstand while balancing on another person's knees while they laid on the ground.  All the pics in that album where you see the dome tents set up is where we had all of those classes.  There were some other types of specialized yoga that happened there, but that I didn't get to try, like AiREAL yoga which has you balancing in fabric hammocks, doing moves meant to decompress the spine and strengthen your core.  There was also Slackline yoga which is essentially doing yoga on a tight rope.  The guy who did carpool with us from the airport was huge into this and my friend who came with me tried a few classes (she was also into the Hula classes which were a big thing).  My only attempt at slack-lining was after having a few drinks when it was late at night and dark out.  It did not go well.

Other highlights were of course all of the concerts, including Moby and the Wanderlust Spectacular, a full show of acrobatics and dancing that had my jaw dropping the whole time.  Then there was hanging out in Aspen on my last night with a local I'd met on my first night there and then having her show us around her town of Carbondale on our final day after the festival had ended.  Our AirBnb host even joined us at a local distillery there called Marble Distillery and then we all had dinner at a place called Town.  I tried rabbit tacos and they were excellent!

I gotta tell you, on a side note, the elevation up there did not kill me but it was certainly a bit harder to walk uphill while simultaneously making conversation with the new friends I was making.  And it took far fewer flights of stairs than normal for me to be winded.  But that was all okay because I've heard what altitude sickness can be like and I would much prefer just having a little difficulty breathing to that any day.

Anyway, now that I'm back, and I've made friends out there, I plan on going back in September and hiking one of the 14ers.  Because lately, I've been obsessed with tall mountains and the like.  See my previous trip to Nicaragua in February.  And I'm not worried about the elevation gain because I know I'll probably acclimate in the first few days and the peak my friend has recommended only has like a 4,200 ft. elevation gain.  Concepción was 5,200 ft. tall and I hiked that one from the bottom in 4 1/2 hours.

And before any of this I was planning on going to Peru to hike Huayna Picchu, the peak next to the Machu Picchu ruins.  But that trip may have to wait because my girlfriend and I are talking fairly seriously about hitting up Dominica in the Caribbean, an island I zeroed in on and then was sold on the moment I realized that it boasts one of the tallest mountain peaks in the Caribbean Islands.  Morne Diablotins at 4,700 ft.  So, there will be more stories of surmounting formidable peaks.

And speaking of which, metaphoric peaks are still in the works as well.  But it's a bit slower going on those.  I'll just say for now that I'm still working at doing voice over for CNN whenever they'll throw it my way and I have plans to build up a reel with that material.  Occasionally, my voice coach will throw me an audition or two.  And as for my most recent music outlet, I'm jamming with two new friends now.  Collaborating for the first time in a very long time.

The only other bit of news I got as far as music goes is that I got a statement in the mail from Medianet, showing that The Life has been generating me royalties.  The number is so low, though, I'm not even gonna tell you how much so far.  But hey.  Gotta start somewhere.

Happenings...

January's been a good month so far.  Filled with things.  Happenings.  Memories made. Events attended. Adventures had.  Sure, I've worked my ass off in the interest of saving for this trip of mine next month but the social gatherings and shenanigans in between have made it all worthwhile. Impromptu concerts, bar nights, a date here and there and always yoga. I tried a new gluten free beer at a meetup, made new friends there and at the yoga studio, hitting up regular classes.  I seem to wind up at Rockwood or Barbes on the regular still.

At home, I got talked into taking in not one but two kittens, mischievous balls of fur which are vastly changing my routine around the apartment (always closing my bedroom door and making sure not to leave anything breakable on the table). There's of course been some excitement with the career(s), a new demo, the chance at getting in front of some agents and casting directors and with the screening for "The Life" looming, I get called to do a commercial for the same director.

In the midst of working on the music for this commercial, we get slammed by a blizzard and I have to spend a night in the city at a hotel so I can make it to work two hours earlier than normal this morning, forcing me to take a slight hiatus from working on it.  But tomorrow I dive back in, hopefully having caught up on my sleep tonight.

I got a look at the first cut just now which was shot and edited this weekend.  I composed the initial idea this past weekend (landed on it after just two takes) after having only read the treatment.  A fun way to work, no doubt.  I like doing it this way sometimes.  I get to come up with some idea based on the raw emotions instead of immediately being preoccupied with making it fit some time constraint.  But now, my work is to extend the musical idea and work on creating an arc that aligns with the images I'm seeing in the video.

Really looking forward to this process.  The deadline is approaching.  For now, though, I'm going to head home and get that much needed sleep, without which I cannot function.

Rainy day musings...

Nursing a hangover from last night's company holiday party while the rain pours down outside.  Getting going on days like this is hard enough.  But here I sit, at my kitchen table staring out the window at the cold rain and typing.  I even skipped my shift at the food co-op.  I'm off work and all that there is on the docket otherwise is a yoga class, picking up groceries maybe, cooking myself some dinner and hitting a friend's party in Bushwick later tonight.  I was thinking about writing a little music, or at least working with my setup or something musical.

I keep telling myself, though, that I should just take this day to do nothing and be useless for a change instead of getting swept up in this frantic need to get something done while I have time to fill (notice I didn't say "time to kill").  A break is in order, yes.  But only because I'm working so much at my day jobs lately.  Not even as some kind of reward for having accomplished something meaningful with voice over or music.  Despite having just seen the screening of "True Love," basking in the attention that the film garnered me, despite feeling more confident in voice over than I have in a long time.

Only when I feel like I've done enough, do I get to days like this and decide to take it easy and not even go to yoga.  But that is rare.  Normally I don't feel like I've done enough.  No, it's hard to feel like I'm doing enough for my career, ever.  And I don't know when you get past that.  Maybe it's even a good thing, it's certainly a motivator.  But then again, maybe it's a form of self-flagellation.  I did all these things.  I moved to New York, got a job, got another few jobs, scored some films, met some incredible people, got a great apartment, started a voice over career, got recognized for all these things, hell, I even made a little money at it.  But I'm still working three jobs to get by and there are all these other things I haven't done, am not doing, that I go from disappointed to straight up mad at myself for not having done.  Live performance of my own music tops out the list.  I have done it but, okay, like once.  So it's a little slow getting going.  I used to call it "rock-out envy" when I'd go see a band play and think, "damn. I should be doing that."  And then every time I'd see some modern concert music, I'd think, "why did I stop writing chamber music?"

But then I remember that a few years ago I started to realize that I can't do every damn thing.  It's cliché but time actually is money these days.  I had to choose what was most worth my time.  It was  one part "is there a monetary return significant enough to justify the investment of time and energy," one part "do you enjoy doing this," and probably more than one part "is this genuine."

That one is most important and I was motivated to answer that when I realized the other two things.  It came down to, if I have a limited amount of time to work, I need to eat and pay rent, then I'd better make sure of the other two things: am I enjoying this and is it what I would be doing if all things were equal and I had all the time in the world.  I even quit doing a few things that I enjoyed because they were taking up more time than they were worth.  Those decisions were hard and I'm better for them.  There's no doubt that the strides I made in my career were a direct result of reallocating my time.

This all really boils down to, I took those jobs at CNN and truTV and now I don't have nearly as much time as I'd like for live performance.  I have an open offer to book a gig performing live guitar looping and electronic music at a yoga class in Tribeca but I am nowhere near ready.  I've written a few songs, I've got the set up going, it works, but there are too many parts for me to even imagine hauling it 11 stops on the R train to City Hall or even renting a vehicle for that amount of time for a gig that's going to be tips only.  There's no doubt I'm going to enjoy doing it and that the investment is going to be worth it on a personal enrichment level.  I have to try it and see how much fun I have but will something like that be sustainable for me in the long term?  I have musician friends who pick up and tour around the east side or even go to Europe for gigs and I wonder how they do it when I know these gigs don't pay well and they have to sell merch, stay with strangers, and hope people buy their CDs to stay out of the red.

You have to really love it.  That's the obvious answer.  And I love to quote Henry Winkler on this, "Do you need to do this thing that you've found, or does it just sound exciting."  It keeps coming back to that.  I'll be perfectly honest. I was not enjoying spending so much time and energy composing a piece of music for someone or some group to perform it, for it to be heard once (by fewer than 10 people) and there to be absolutely no monetary return on it.

But therein lies the problem.  You obviously have to do this stuff to meager audiences to get started.  And I did enjoy parts of it.  There was enjoyment happening somewhere in the process.  The nights Tania and I stayed up rehearsing, the moments when my electronic equipment worked perfectly, the few moments of applause, being on stage at Galapagos Art Space (a beautiful space if you haven't seen it); all of it moved me to remember why I did all of that.  And I had to not care if anyone enjoyed it, or noticed how groundbreaking or even just f*cking cool it was to mic a piano and sample it live.  And I had to not care that the video didn't come out all that well.  And I had to not care how heavy my equipment was.  And I had to shrug off the time in Harlem when the sound guy didn't even plug my laptop into the house system and I didn't notice until we were in the middle of the piece and nothing was happening.  And I had to forget all the other times that things didn't go as planned.  Because this is what I live for.  Making music and, yes, sometimes performing it or having it performed.  I'm most alive when I'm on stage or when I'm hearing my music being performed live.

And sure there are even other ways to make your money to offset the cost of doing these things.  And no, these things almost never make money.  But that absolutely cannot be the reason you are doing these things or you are seriously deluding yourself.   One thing I can say is that I've never had any delusions (at least not lately) that I could make a lot of money playing music.  I mean, my undergraduate piano professor hammered that point home pretty good (asshole).  All I've ever wanted to do was be able to keep doing it regardless.  Because I almost stopped once.  And I don't ever want to live like that again.

Steve Reich and Phillip Glass...

I got to see two legends in concert this week at BAM.  Steve Reich and Phillip Glass were playing together for the first time in 40 years so that was pretty big.  And the tickets fell into my lap.  Twice.  The first was a friend who reviews these concerts but it was on a night that I couldn't have attended because I got asked to come in on the night shift to cover the Democratic primary election. The next time, a day later, it was my dad's cousin who had an extra ticket.  This time I could make it but just barely.  So I made some shifts in my schedule to ensure I'd be able to both see the concert and have dinner with my cousin before the show.

We checked out this vegan restaurant on Atlantic Ave. called M.O.B. Please check it out even if you're not vegan.  It's spectacular and well worth it.  Two words: Vegan Cheesecake.  It's really good.

Afterward we headed over to BAM, grabbed a quick glass of wine and then took our awesome 8th row seats and waited for the show to start.  The first half was to be all Steve Reich and Musicians playing Steve Reich pieces (Four Organs and Drumming) and then Phillip Glass and his Ensemble took over for the last half, playing a slew of Glass tunes encompassing some of his film music and other pieces. I am admittedly not as familiar with Phillip Glass' music but I enjoyed it nonetheless.   This was apparently much anticipated as well.  The ensemble got a standing ovation both at the end and at the beginning when they first took the stage.

The first piece, Four Organs was fun to watch partially on account of Nico Muhly head banging and otherwise hamming up his performance, but also because you started to notice them all counting to themselves and really intensely focusing on the piece.  The piece starts with the percussionist in the center playing a steady pulse with the maracas for a few measure before all four keyboardists start hammering out chords on the organ.  Eventually though, as notes gets added here and there, and individual notes in the chords are held out longer by each different performer, the individual players start to deviate from each other and go out of sync with each other.  I'd seen it performed at least once before, once on that very same stage, but it was fun to see it from so close.  And it's just this wall of sound from the organs that blasts your face off.

On Drumming, something about listening to the overtones of the glockenspiels propagating in the space and the reflections of the bongos and marimbas off the back wall of the theater hitting your ear a half second late and messing with the perceived rhythm, was wholly mesmerizing.  The experience cannot be transmitted through a blog entry so I won't try.   Watching the musicians switch places and take over for each other really shows how grueling a piece it must be to play.  It's an hour long.  They cross the stage at one point, switching form pitched bongos to a row of marimbas, then eventually to the glockenspiels.  Near the end of the piece two female vocalists join the cacophony.

During the intermission, we snuck across the street to a bar called Berlyn, my cousin's little hack to avoid the line at the concession stand.  It worked out great because we had a drink in our hand within minutes and had plenty of time to get back to our seats before the lights went down.  Even had a sec to chat with the sound guy, whom my cousin knows before heading back in.

The last half of the show was all Phillip Glass whose ensemble consisted of percussion, saxophones, keyboards and a vocalist.  They played Music in Similar Motion to start, which I'd heard of, but never really heard.  It starts with just a ceaseless flowing line on organ which is joined by the saxophones part way through and builds to cacophonous splendor by the end.  Take a listen here.  The rest of the pieces were from his film scores and other works and were for the most part enjoyable though I was really starting to fade at this point...and I had to be up at 430am the next day for September 11th memorial coverage!

But it was well worth the fatigue to see these two greats on stage in such a historical concert.  I only wish I could have gone every night of the three they played.  I had to miss Music for 18 Musicians which is one of Steve Reich's seminal works.

I can't say I was all that tired though.  I got a good 4 1/2 hours of sleep and went straight through to my voice coaching session after work.  Which was fun as usual but I'm really starting to feel her challenging me...which means I'm definitely getting something out of it.  More on that in the next entry.  Gotta run for now!

Musical Saturation...

My weekend was filled with incredible music as per usual.  Positively saturated, in fact.  And some of my favorites as well.  This is how I like things to be.  This is a blog in which I plug those amazing musicians, some of them good friends of mine.

Saturday afternoon began like any other Saturday.  I was leaving yoga when I noticed a text from Lacy, saying that her neighborhood bar in Ditmas Park was having a 1 year anniversary party with BBQ and music all afternoon long and that I should come.  I returned the text and, on a whim since the Q train was the first to arrive as I stepped onto the platform at Canal Street, I decided to just go straight there, yoga mat bag and all (Lacy didn't see my text and called me a ninja because I just appeared there in less than an hour since she had texted me).  The music was varied and of good quality, some Rockabilly, some Bluegrass-y stuff and it was good catching up with Lacy.  The BBQ was damned good, too and the ciders cheap.   So commenced the day drinking.  I even ran into a friend of mine whom I hadn't seen in ages.  Got to meet some new friends too.

But I was headed out around 6:30 or so because I needed to touch down at home before heading to The Way Station to catch Dahlia's band DecaDence.  These guys rock my face off, consistently.  I've come to see them about five times now and it just gets better.  Their songs are reggae influenced with some French lyrics and accordion and ukulele and lots of dancing.  All of them world class musicians and great guys.  Too bad, I was feeling a little bummed because I had no one to dance with, as I had arrived solo, and the place was full of couples (even a bride and groom that had just gotten hitched).  But seriously though, if you have a chance to check these guys out, take it.  They're currently playing every Monday night at District 12 up in Inwood plus a handful of other shows including The Way Station again on June 21st.

I ditched the scene a little early because I had to work at TruTV in the morning on Sunday and also had to meet up with that filmmaker whose film I'll be scoring.  After work Sunday afternoon, I met Ben at one of my favorite gluten free restaurants in the city, Hu Kitchen, and we spotted the whole film.  Talked about which cues should go where and how the music should be in general.  This is always a fun phase, pulling the film apart and discussing characters and their motives and how the scenes are edited, etc.  Next I sit down and watch the film a few times and then start riffing musical ideas.  The film, "True Love," is a 20 minute short about two brothers, the older of whom is trying to get a hooker for his brother so he can have his first time.  It's a quirky comedy disguised as a drama, so there'll be some tongue-in-cheek humor in the music.  Really excited to get working on this.

After our meeting I took the train back to the Slope, swung by and picked up a few things at the co-op and went home to cook dinner.  I had been texting with my friend Crystal, whose band is in town to play a few shows (that I'll unfortunately miss).  She needed a place for just her to stay so she's crashing here for a few days (currently passed out on the air mattress).  I was psyched because we actually got to hang out for a change.  Usually I just go see the show and then they have to head on to the next town.  She and I have been friends since undergraduate days and she's an incredible musician.   If you're not doing anything on Tuesday night I strongly suggest you go to Goodbye Blue Monday and check her and her band out.  Crystal Bright and The Silver Hands.   I'll give you one of my favorite descriptions of her music that I've heard elsewhere, probably in a review: "A Kaleidophrenic Cabaret." She plays, among other things, accordion, keys and musical saw.  Go see her dammit!  

I met her and the band at Superfine in Dumbo yesterday evening where they were watching a bluegrass band, (cannot remember the name of them now) and stole Crystal away to head into Manhattan because a mutual friend of ours from Greensboro named Caitlin Watkins was playing at Bowery Electric.  Caitlin is writing some amazing folk rock and just gets better every time I see her perform.  The last time was at a singer-songwriter round at Jalopy in Red Hook and I remember just being pulled inside the songs she was singing.  On the edge of my seat, feeling every emotion in the songs.  Last night was no different. Her voice does some incredible things and she reminds me a tiny bit of Ingrid Michaelson.   Last night she had a banjo player, Bennet Sullivan, with her who was pretty incredible and complimented her songs nicely.  Also a Greensboro native.  You should also see her and Bennet if you get the chance.

When the set was finished we hung out for a little longer (Bowery Electric has a card minimum of $10 and my wine was $9...I really hate drinking in Manhattan sometimes), and then went over to Barbes where the rest of Crystal's band was hanging out on my recommendation.  They also are interested in playing there so I'm going to try and help out with that as much as I can.

Who was playing at Barbes? Who else?  Stephane f*cking Wrembel.  As usual Stephane and has band tore it up.  They had a guest guitarist and violinist playing as well.  The violinist even did some vocal improvisation that just blew me away.  Great way to end the night.  Great way to end the weekend.

So, another weekend full of music under my belt and now I gotta get back to work...in more ways than one.  I have a film to score now.

33...

33.  And I almost forgot to put on Thirty-three by the Smashing Pumpkins.  Something I always said I would do when I turned 33.  So with a half hour left in my birthday, I thought I'd write a bit.  There's not a ton to report.  The weekend was fun and filled with friends and drinking.  My party Sunday ended up being small but still fun.  And today, I had a free yoga class at my old studio and got to catch up with a teacher I hadn't taken class from in a while. 

I also had a doctor's appointment with an Ear, Nose and Throat doc to see what was happening with my right ear.  What is happening with my right ear?  Okay, so a few weeks ago, I had a cold so bad I wound up with an ear infection in my right ear and, while the pain subsided the following day, sometime the next week when I was back in Brooklyn, I noticed something odd.  While playing my guitar, single notes were resonating as two notes out of tune with each other.  I thought something was wrong with my guitar and wrote it off, saying I'd check into it later.  The next day though, I heard the same phenomenon with music that was playing in my kitchen.  I was hearing an echo off one of the walls, reaching my ear a millisecond later and coming in out of tune with the left ear.  I was standing there plugging and un plugging my left ear and listening to the music jump up in pitch every time.  It was so weird. 

I researched it and found that it's an actual thing you can get if you either have damage to the sensory nerves or if you have fluid or ear wax buildup in the inner ear.  It's called, wait for it, "Diplacusis." The wiki article doesn't give you much but there's more info out there.  Anyway, I just assumed it would resolve itself, seeing as how it was probably related to the ear infection and not any damage, but it was taking a while, so I scheduled the doctor's appointment just to be safe.  I would have gotten there on Friday last week but I showed up without an insurance card on me and had to reschedule for today...by which point, it had fully cleared up.  I've been recommended to someone for a full hearing test though and I'm going to go because I need to be sure it's gone.  I have tested it tonight and it seems fine and at the doctor's office, she held a tuning fork up to both ears alternately and I heard the same pitch in both ears.  So, it seems it's cleared up.  I had to test it here as well because I was finding, when it was at its worst, that the softer the sound the more evident the difference in pitch was.  You should've seen me plugging one ear and listening to my guitar as I plucked the open strings first softer and then gradually louder and louder.  The pitch would resolve back to where it was supposed to be as it got louder.  It was the weirdest thing ever. 

And of course, only a musician would notice it.  Or anyone with any musical sensibility.  So, naturally, I was disturbed that part of my instrument (as a composer) was malfunctioning.  And in the most ridiculous possible way...like why a half step difference?  That's pretty dissonant. Another interval, like maybe a fourth or something would've been fun maybe but weird dissonance was not cool.  I admit I panicked for a hot second. 

But anyhow, that's all cleared up now and I'm feeling loads better minus the lingering dry cough that you can get with a head and chest cold.  And the weather here is ever improving so there's that. 

And I'm gearing up for a great summer, with loads of fun plans coming up including things like a trip to NC to see my nephew on his birthday in July, a trip upstate at some point, and a Tori Amos concert, one of my favorite artists of all time, whom I've never seen perform live.  I think I'm going to be working a lot during the summer months as well, covering someone's maternity leave at CNN.  So I'm hoping I won't go insane.  And things are happening with both voice over and music.  I'll be putting together that promo demo as soon as I get the audio from the last two jobs, and I'm still finishing the score for "The Life" which is getting ever closer to completion. I may even have another job soon but, as always, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. 

For now, I need to sleep off this weekend and get in the mindset for productivity again.  Good night!

Productive...

Nothing like a productive Monday to put me in the mood for a late night glass of wine.  This Rioja I picked up a few weeks ago...pretty damned good.  And why not?  I got so much done in a day.  Started off with a quick breakfast of fried over easy and toast and out the door early to drop some clothes off at Goodwill in Downtown Brooklyn, then off to the best yoga class I've had in a while with the inimitable Holly Ramey.  Something about deep twists and creative sequences and just the right amount of balance poses and add to that my frame of mind and a nice sit before class, I was on cloud nine.  Perfect way to start up the day.  Got to catch up with a yoga friend on my way out the door and then I was off.  Cooked lunch at home and then sat down and proceeded to write three more cues for "The Life" to add to the one I started yesterday.  Got to work on time, emailed the director and producer the spotting notes and the cues thus far and finished out my shift at NY1.

Now I'm back and still wide awake.  My co worker at NY1 says to me this evening, "I don't know how you find the time."  I don't either.  But the fact that I do find the time, gives me a great deal of faith that we'll be able to get some music put together before this thing gets screened in Boston in two weeks.  I'm going to have to clear my schedule just a little bit but we should be fine.  I think, since we're all in agreement that the edit still needs some work, that we're not even going to try to get this thing perfect before this first screening but they did ask me, since we have time, to put together at least a few music cues.  I went ahead and spotted the whole thing, like I said the other day, and now I wait to see what we'll focus on actually covering.  It's exciting.  The main title sequence is in the works now too, so I'm getting to see what that's going to look like with my music.  The director was nice enough to have my credit for "Original music by" come on screen right when the song goes into the guitar solo.  Epic.

So, fit to burst with excitement in just getting to work again but also not getting too far ahead of myself.  It is nice to envision the finish line every once in a while but you gotta keep running to get there.

On another note, had a great time this weekend and saw two great shows on top of going to a yoga workshop with two of my friends from the Nicaragua trip on Saturday (good to see them again but the workshop was crowded).  After the workshop though, I was off to Four Tet at Terminal 5 on Saturday night (epic set), at which I made a new friend, a musician from Cleveland who had won tickets and came to the city on a whim (with no second person to take his second ticket), and then Stephane Wrembel at Barbés on Sunday night (yet again, never gets old) for which I tried to get said new friend to join me but, being new to the city and not knowing the trains, he wound up in Queens by accident and resigned himself to heading back to the AirBnB where he was staying. But then I made more friends at Barbés just hanging out by myself, almost all of them musicians themselves.  One of whom plays in an awesome French fusion reggae band here in the city called DecaDence. They're pretty frickin' awesome. 

All around, times are good these days.  And I'm heading into the long week with a good feeling...which is a lot better than most Mondays.  So, onward and upward. 

Molecules...

Well, the rest of my day after that last blog in Philly was really fun.  So fun I forgot to blog about it.  I decided on the Eastern State Penitentiary for my afternoon activity.  I opted for an immensely informative guided tour and, after it was done, walked around a little on my own, saw Al Capone's cell, learned about the tunnel escape and took a ton of pictures.

Afterward Virginia and I met up and had a bite at, you guessed it, the only place I eat in West Philadelphia: OCF.  Luckily, she had to be somewhere relatively near where I had to go for Darcy's dance performance, so we opted to walk it, a good 4 1/2 miles, because that's what we do when we're together.  Funny, I avoided taking public transit for most of the weekend, except for one bus ride to Center City Friday night.  Cabs are really cheap there compared to NYC as well, so it was tempting, a lot of the time, to just take a cab.  The walk was much preferred though.  I got to see (and smell) a lot of the city I might not have seen had I taken the bus.  Seriously, South Street in Old City was buzzing with activity and smelled strongly of cheesesteaks. 

Anyway, Darcy's dance performance was at Christ Church Neighborhood House in Old City, right next to one of the oldest buildings in Philly, a church, that, when it was built was the highest structure in the 13 colonies for a number of years (I think I heard one of the guys there say 40 years, can't remember).  The dance actually started out in the courtyard of the church and featured video projections of footage shot in the Redwood Forest in California, as well as music composed by Andrea Clearfield, featuring field recordings from the Redwood Forest, violin and didgeridoo.  The music was emanating from a couple of boom boxes, some nestled in the bushes, others carried by the dancers.  One dancer recited poetry through a bullhorn by Quintan Ana Wikswo with themes of destruction of natural habitats and the ills of colonialism.  After the courtyard, the dancers led us up to a space on the third floor of the neighboring building, a dark theater space with no fourth wall (we were standing around the dancers as they performed) and sheets hung from the ceiling.  Overall, I thought it was a pretty compelling piece and really enjoyed the dancers' performances. 

Here are a few pics taken in Old City and around the Church.  That night we cabbed it back to Darcy's apartment where her new roommate had a house warming party of sorts in full swing, complete with wine and a spread of gluten free food (she's gluten intolerant, too).  Met some nice people, had some good food and conversation and then slept it all off.  After one more breakfast at OCF, I snagged a cab to the train station and headed back to NYC for my performance. 

It went really well, by the way.  Only, I forgot to hit record.  MC took video of most of it and I ended up with some extra time last night to re record it at home and edit it a little.  Just posted it to soundcloud too.



The audience enjoyed it and gave me some good pointers, all stuff that I was thinking was wrong with the piece, i.e. there wasn't enough of a build (I still don't think there is). I can't remember what else right now but I have since come up with a few more critiques like the fact that it's kind of long right now but as the song congeals a little more, I will be able to scale back the length of it and still effectively cover all the things I want cover.  There are essentially four different loop layers each with harmonies and syncopated counter melodies built into them, so the overall number of layers tops something like 10-16 depending on which harmonies I play.  The only real ramp up in the intensity of the piece comes with the introduction of a sixteenth note pulse drone on the lowest guitar string, which, when I recorded this version, I layered harmonies on top of.

I solo melodically over the cacophony of layers at least a couple of times throughout and only the first one on this version was pre composed.  The rest were improvised.  The distortion effect on the backwards loop is something I'm still toying with a little.  It's still kind of unpredictable because I've been recording it silently and not fading it up until it's been effected with the reverse function and the distortion patch that I'm using from Native Instruments.  I'm using my controller to change one of the parameters which, as far as I can tell is a sub audio control wave (for those of you who know anything about sound synthesis).  Anyway, once it's up in the mix, I am getting some wicked awesome sounds.  Later in the piece I even slow it and another one of the actual loop tracks down by half to get some even cooler contrast to the rhythmic drive of the piece.

In later versions of the piece, I'm going to focus on ways to ramp up the intensity even more, possibly exploring drones with syncopation in them.  Syncopation is lovely.  Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the piece.

The rest of MC's salon was great.  She danced, Morgana Rose danced, Gilbert-Michel Rolle, the tenor, a Swiss man actually from MC's hometown, sang a few French Renaissance pieces a capella, Lacy and I did three songs scattered throughout the performance and lastly a man whose name I can't recall now came and gave us an impromptu poetry reading.  Lost of wine and good conversation followed and then I went home ate dinner and watched Breaking Bad's finale.  Great ending!

I'll keep updating as I record new versions of the song, Molecules, and I will even be writing some more and trying them out on you guys and also performing again at the next Marie-Christine Giordano artists salon.  By the way, I still don't know exactly why the piece is called Molecules. 

Also, as the week goes on I've been working a lot more on the recording of Amanda Brecker's song, "Another Day in the Life."  It's going well and tomorrow we'll finish up recording backing vocals and vocal effects and hopefully, I'll manage to record the two guitar interludes.  Updates on that as well once it's finished and mastered. For now, it's back to work!

Chilling in Philly before a show...

Hanging out at OCF in Fairmount right now.  Just spent the better part of the afternoon so far editing the song for the end credits and the full length trailer of "The Life." Amanda and I worked part of the afternoon yesterday at my place recording the guitar and vocals on isolated tracks so I could mix this weekend.  All that remains is to redo some of the backing vocals and vocal effects, and for me to record a few more guitar parts for the ending guitar solo.  I feel good for having made some strides with it this weekend.  Especially since I've been able to effectively utilize several chunks of time during which I might not have gotten much done.  Yesterday night I had the vocal tracks edited before the bus to Philly had even left New York City.  Today, I'm killing time while Darcy has her tech rehearsals for the dance tonight.  I'm going to the 8pm performance at New Spaces, New Formats tonight.  Sort of my whole reason for being in Philly right now.  One of Darcy's companies is dancing this, which looks way cool...so meanwhile, I sit in a cafe contemplating my next move.  Yoga might be involved, also the Eastern State Penitentiary looms across the street.  And so do some weird temporary gargoyles.

This has been a nice welcome break from the pace of the city even though, last night we had a bit of a wild night.  We went to an apartment party in Center City, someone's 30th, and then went to the Trestle Inn to dance.  We didn't get in until around 3am.  Now, I bounce back with caffeine and sunlight and figure I'd better enjoy my day while I can.  I don't need to head over to the area until around 7pm.  At some point, I will try to meet up with Virginia for sure.

Meanwhile, I'm also trying not to think too hard about my premiere tomorrow.  Most of the stress involved is going to be in getting there from here.  My bus leaves at 930am and arrives in NYC, in theory, at 1130am.  The salon is not until 3pm so that, in theory, gives me a few hours to run it again if I should so choose.  The Lacy is driving me because we intend to perform a few of her songs as well.

The piece has come together quite nicely and the few people I've shown it to over the past week have responded by either spacing out or being wildly impressed that I can coordinate all the pedal tapping with my feet and knob twiddling, etc.  Luckily, when I performed it for Amanda, I found that her energy and interest in the piece kept me focused for the most part.  So I can reasonably presume that a similar energy from the salon's attendees will keep me focused on performing the piece and hitting all the right buttons at the right time.  That's really going to be the hardest part.  Focusing.  Because I've found myself wanting to get lost in the piece like I do when I play and am really enjoying the act of creating the music as well as hearing it come together.  But if I do that I miss tapping a pedal to loop or switch tracks and I get flustered and the piece could fall apart.  

Once the piece gets going though it becomes easier to do what I need to do.  I will say that a lot of it is going to be improvised.  The structure will not be but what I do during each section will be largely improvisatory.  I'm really really excited to be doing this finally.  And really really hope that a lot of people will come out for this.  The other artists should be fun as well.  There's Lacy and I, a dancer and a tenor who will sing French Renaissance music.

Here's a link to the event on Facebook.

My head's going to explode...

...okay, maybe not.  I think I'm all right.  I just started to look at the next few weeks and my time frame for some of the current projects I have going on.  For a second it looked like I wasn't going to have nearly enough time to work on them in between day jobs and other things I want to do.  I'm getting to that point where I'm so busy that I'm having to put off things like doing voice over auditions, chasing down VO agents and practicing VO.  Unfortunate, because I've been thinking a lot about that fact lately.  And not just VO.  Everything else I'm missing out on doing because I've taken on so much.

One of my good friends, who is also a musician, a creator and a fantastic singer-songwriter, just posted a status update on Facebook that said "I should be making something right now..."  Exactly.  I feel like that on a regular basis these days.  Granted I'm only partially sure she's talking about making music or art or anything creative.  She could be talking about baking.  But either way, it does echo my sentiments.

I got in a panic yesterday when I started to type this blog because I've been invited to play some of my original guitar looping music at a Salon in a few weeks.  I initially thought I wouldn't be able to do it but I managed to get the day off and agreed to come play.  I have not finished writing the piece of music I'm going to perform.  I've been dabbling with it for months though and I could finish it in no time if I apply myself.  

But therein lies the rub.  I guess I shouldn't have used the phrase "in no time" in that last sentence.  It would take a not insignificant chunk of time to finish writing the song, decide the logistics of performing and decide things like what FX I'm going to use in Guitar Rig (my software for amp modeling).  Therefore, time is of the essence. And I don't have a whole lot of it between now and then. So I have to start prioritizing.   And I have already been back burner-ing one of my projects far too long while the other is starting to ramp up.  Tomorrow night, with any luck, I'll get a window into what my timeline is for the one that's ramping up, that being Amanda Brecker song.

Amanda and I met and recorded some scratch tracks on Friday, which went quite well.  Now, I'm listening back to them and trying to figure out what other layers we're going to add.  It's such a fun process.  On top of that, the piano piece for Ben is finished but I need to find time to practice it and sit down and record it.  It's so simple and short that I keep putting it off.  And I'm worried that this could be a trend.  I should go back and read my own blog about procrastination from the other day.  Maybe that'll help.

Back on the guitar looping song, what's exciting about this opportunity is that it'll be the first time I've performed my music (meaning my own) solo (meaning just myself) in front of an audience, I think, ever.  I know you're thinking, "But Tim, you've played in bands before, right?" Yes, and some of that music that I played, I wrote.  But I always had other people performing with me.  I've even had my own music performed where I did a solo or two, whether it be a guitar solo in a rock tune or that time that I sampled Tania Stavreva playing my piano sketch and played with the samples during an interlude in the piece.  But never before have I, myself, gotten up, unaccompanied and performed a piece of my own creation.

And this is a new medium for me to compose in as of a few years ago.  I started this looping project years ago when I started to amass the equipment to execute it.  And over the course of the past few years in learning to use it all, I have written a few song ideas but nothing has gotten as fleshed out as the current piece.  Current unnamed piece that I must now think of a name for.  I'll probably come up with something lame like Song 1 or something.

I'm immensely excited about the opportunity as it's a big step for me into finally doing this thing.  It'll be a good testing ground too.  Small audience (hopefully not too small, you're all invited after all!), intimate space and just me and my guitar...and an amp, a laptop and interface and a MIDI pedal.  But you get the idea.

The salon is Sunday September 29th and starts at 3pm at Marie Christine Giordano's dance rehearsal space on 25th street in Brooklyn between 4th and 5th Avenues.   Here's a link to the Facebook event in case you're on Facebook and would like to come.  

Lots of Live music...

Another weekend chock full of live music.  I ask myself, did I ever once think I wouldn't deliver on my promise of going to see more shows this year?  Seriously, I could probably have done it by accident with the amount of music to be seen in this city.  Add to that that I've found a new favorite music venue on the LES.  Rockwood Music Hall.  I guess I shouldn't say I've found it or it's new, because I've known about it for some time and it's been around itself for quite some time.

Rockwood is on Allen St. just below Houston and consists of two stages, the number 2 being the bigger and the one I've yet to check out.  Stage 1 is truly intimate, usually packed and I've now been on two separate nights.  First to see a band called The Get It a few weeks ago, a night on which I was exposed to yet more amazing music on top of what I came to see.  This past Friday night, I was just looking for something free for me and a friend of mine to do and it turned out that Lacy had also planned to come that night to check out Niall Connolly, an Irish rocker with a six piece band including two lead guitars and a trumpet player.  Niall was high energy, a fantastic performer and his songs were great.  Before going I checked out the other performers and became highly enamored of the singer who played after Niall, Mieka Pauley, a soulful bluesy rocker with quite a bit of acclaim so far.  Her songs are gripping and her voice show-stealing.  Check out a track called "You Never F*** a Woman That You Don't Love," and "Marked Man" which she sung a capella at Friday's show.

As if that wasn't enough, I finally got to see Lorraine Leckie and her Demons at Zirzamin, the club Lacy and I are playing on Sunday, the 14th.  Lorraine has been an open mic regular and we'd seen her perform solo tons of times at the mics we would do, but last night, I went to Zirzamin to hear her with the full band, The Demons.  It was everything I could have hoped for...minus the heat in the backroom where the A/C was not working.  Lorraine's songs are bluesy and sometimes comically macabre.  Hearing them realized with a full band was quite satisfying.  The band itself was tight and Lorraine had her backup singer crooning along with her.  I chatted with their phenomenal lead guitarist afterward about his '98 Gibson SG, too.

After the show wrapped up we headed over to Otto's Shrunken Head because one of Lacy's new friends wanted us to see his friend's band Danny's Devil's Blues.  Never have I seen a more raucous rockabilly blues get up that was this tight.  And thank god the A/C was on at Otto's.  These guys are definitely worth checking out.  Unfortunately, I could not stay for the whole show but will definitely have to check these guys out again another time.

So that was that, another weekend of live music in the city.  And next weekend, I may try to go see something at the Prospect Park Bandshell (the lineup this summer is pretty awesome) on top of performing myself with Lacy at Zirzamin.  All you New Yorkers who aren't afraid to stay out on a school night should come out and support us.  It's Lacy's birthday after all!

Work-a-holic...

I never thought I'd let almost a month go by without blogging but I'm starting to realize this week that it's not simply because I'm busy.  This was a blog I started about being a composer in the city and lately it's just been about being in the city.  I've had a lot of opportunities and a lot of interesting things happening lately but at the moment almost none of those things have anything to do with composing.

Don't get me wrong.  This stint at CNN and the subsequent one at TruTV and even my ongoing voice over career which finally seems to be ramping up a bit, are a huge boon to me.  But it brings to the forefront that ever present struggle to balance time and money.  I need money to survive here but I lose time to create when I work 64 hours a week.

I've been fascinated by and immensely appreciative of this turn of events since April, the serendipity of it all.  And I have been loving having the cash buffer and the peace of mind that I'm paying things off left and right.  But I certainly have missed working on music and creating.  The last time I had a creative project of my own, it wasn't even technically my own. I was remixing someone else's work for a contest...one in which I was up against some seasoned professionals and had no real chance of winning.  And before that I was remixing my old stuff.  Hence not really writing anything new.  Heck, I don't even have time these days to sit down with my guitar software and tweak my sound for Lacy's shows.  I will say that over the last few months I have randomly come up with guitar looping ideas but none of those has crystallized past the precursory jam sessions I have with myself.  In other words, I haven't recorded any of them.

But, there is a change coming.  The work at CNN will dry up in a few weeks, at which point I will be able to pick up almost immediately working at TruTV.  They have an ongoing project that they've trained me for that I'll be coming in to push forward on.  I've decided that when I do start scheduling my hours with them, I won't fill my schedule to the brim like I did with CNN.  This way, I can allot more time to creative endeavors and things like laundry and cooking.  I also just renewed my subscription to Voice123.com and will be needing time to audition.  Maybe I'll start dating again.

On top of all of this, though I complain I haven't had any musical projects to excite and inspire me lately, I do have at least one project on the horizon.  "The Life."  They're done shooting and about to start editing the pilot any day now. I'll being seeing one of the producers in about a half hour here at NY1 when he gets in and we'll have a half hour or so to chat.  Things are looking good there.

And I know I said "at least one" but, I'm not going to say much more about any other ones right now.  Too soon.  Too soon.  With that, I think I'm going to end this brief entry.   And I'll keep updating as I transition here in a few weeks and as I start to have more time for music.

Onward and Upward...

I'm trying to find a non-cliché way of saying "when it rains, it pours," or "it's either feast or famine."  But to be honest, the schedule's been so jam packed lately that I have barely had time to grocery shop and do laundry, let alone come up with clever ways of saying that I'm effing killing it right now apparently, in terms of booking work.  I meant to blog about this the other day but after yesterday, it was more important for me to write about Penny when I had the chance to sit down.

So, anyway, Edge Studio called me again last Thursday with a quick VO gig for the next afternoon.  Another $200 job that took under a half hour and I was able to squeeze it, miraculously in between NY1 and a scheduled rehearsal with Lacy that morning.

I've been lucky that it worked with my schedule both times but to be honest, as long as they're calling me with work, I will most certainly take great pains to clear my schedule because I want to be seen as available.  I also want more experience and more stuff for my reel.  So this makes VO gig #12 and with it I even passed another milestone/yearly goal of mine: get two VO gigs within the space of a month.  Hell, I just got two in as many weeks!  Not bad I'd say. Not bad.  It may sound funny but I have a Google Doc with all of my goals in each arena (music, voice over and film scoring), plainly listed and have been checking them off quicker in some cases than I'd imagined I would.  It's a good feeling.

This second voice gig from this past Friday, I felt particularly good about especially since it took me just under 15 minutes to wrap it up.  I was hitting the mark the whole time and only had to do a few pickups before the director, who had phoned in for the session, was satisfied.  In fact, if I hadn't suggested two different pitch levels with my voice to the director, we might have finished sooner.  He liked that idea and had me do a take each with the two separate voices.  This was a 90 second corporate promo for a telecommunications company that will be working closely with the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia.  Can't wait to hear the final result.

On top of everything, as usual, Lacy and I are still kicking it with almost a show a weekend these days and certainly for the next three weeks (this past included).  We played a small show at Alphabet Lounge the other day and, despite technical difficulties got to try out a few new things with me looping and even iron them out a little.  On Old Languages I figured out a way to capture the essence of the song with just a few layers of looping and it totally went over.  Lacy herself enjoys performing like this as well so we're really looking forward to playing on a Cable TV show in White Plains, NY called Alive with Clive this coming Friday, the 7th of June where we will be looping that song and Dancing out of the Dark as well as playing two others from the new album.  On Saturday the 15th we will be performing at Marie Christine Giordano's open dance rehearsal as well.  Some of the same stuff and we'll be drinking wine and hanging out watching the rehearsal afterwards too so that should be good fun!  More to come on upcoming shows.

Meanwhile, I'm mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted but have determined, throughout these past few months that I can totally pull this off.  In fact, there are a couple of things I have learned from this experience.  First, I like the feeling of getting up in the morning and getting straight to work.  There's something invigorating about the morning air...however, I can't imagine getting up much earlier than 7am and liking it as much.  Second, no matter how early I got up and no matter how little sleep I'm running on, there is no guarantee that I will fall right asleep when I get home at midnight.  Working hours like these on a sleep schedule like this is still nothing compared to the fatigue I felt after an overnight shift when I had been up for 24 hours straight.  Thankfully, I still have the weekends to recharge though.  Third, there is no underestimating the value of a few minutes of sunning in the park between jobs for my psyche.  Fourth, (and this is more a thing remembered and/or actually applied from my basic intellectual knowledge of a yoga), I don't have to be in yoga class to be practicing yoga.  Simply stopping and breathing when dealing with tough or stressful situations is, in effect, practicing yoga.  It's a mindset and it's a good thing I have it because I haven't been able to take class nearly as much these days.  Three days a week and one of my classes isn't technically a yoga class but some weird cardio-fitness hybrid coined "Sculptworks" by the YogaWorks brand.  It's fun but almost too "boot camp-y" for my taste.  And it hurts my abs.

Anyway, there's talk of more work coming from TruTV after my CNN hours are slated to dry up and CNN may still call me for weekend work after July.  And I have some film scoring stuff potentially on the horizon that it's still too early to talk about.  But for now, I'm tired and am going to stop writing and start trying not to fall asleep at work.  Daoust: Out.

Impromptu Voice Over gig...

I just booked another voice over gig last week, this time through Edge Studio, the place where I did my training.  The beauty of it is that it came out of nowhere and I was able to make it happen, despite the general insanity of my weeks these days.  They called me sometime in the early evening when I had just arrived at NY1 and, since they're number is saved in my phone, I had one of those, "I need to take this" moments, where I knew what the call had to be about.  They haven't called me for a very long time since the time when they're phone calls were about trying to sell me more training.  This had to be a gig.

I excitedly slipped out and down the back hall a little ways where I could talk in privacy and sure enough it was a gig.  It turned out, luckily for me, that 2pm the following day was one of the times they had available, close enough to the end of my shift at CNN that I could just give them a heads up I was leaving early and early enough that it didn't overlap with  NY1 at all.  So, I gave CNN a heads up, waited for the confirmation and called back and left a message with Edge as they had asked me to do, since the contact person was leaving the office for the day.

The next morning, they called me back, literally right when I had the phone in my hand trying to call them to touch base, and said they'd email me the rate and all the details.  It was a corporate video for internal non-broadcast usage, and the rate was $200.  The email said to expect a script later in the morning.  It never came.  So I found myself sitting in the office at Edge Studio, frantically scanning the script on an iPad and realizing it was a lot more copy than anyone could feasibly deliver in a half hour, accounting for second, third, and however many takes.

When I entered the booth, the engineer told me that the clients would be phoning in for the session and they joined us shortly after I got settled.  So that was kind of interesting, just hearing the clients and not seeing them.  Add to that they wanted a commercial sounding voice for a narration type read, emulating a Verizon ad they let me hear before we started.  It was a video describing technology that was going to use wireless data from people's cars to track safety and emissions data.  Pretty cool, but because of the safety angle there was something of a dramatic tilt to a lot of the lines.  They had me pitch my voice pretty low and I went with one of my low commercial voices like the Ketel One Vodka ads or the AMC promo voice that I have fun mimicking when I'm watching TV and they come on, but they wanted me to go even lower so I joked, "Do you want like, Christian Bale Batman?"  Thankfully, they laughed...well at least the engineer did.

The client booked me for a half hour and the other two talents, with one line a piece, for half hour as well.  Unfortunately, though, because I had far more copy to read them, my time was dwindling down fast.  After using the first two paragraphs to zero in on the tone and mark up the script, twenty minutes had passed and the office lady came in to tell us to wrap it up because the other talents would be there soon.  The clients immediately responded that it was more important that we finish my lines and that they didn't mind going over by a little.  Still though, I was a little nervous and found myself hoping that it wouldn't come across in my reads too much.   I ran out of air at the end of a few lines, stumbled on a few things when I got to the part of the script I hadn't spent as much time on before, and a couple of times caught myself changing the pitch of my read inadvertently from the tone I had been working with and having to reread those lines.  

Overall, though, it was a relatively painless process and the clients were satisfied with my reads.  I was out of there by 2:45 and on my way to NY1.  The whole thing was great for a couple of reasons.  First, it shows that I can still get gigs even when I'm not actively auditioning.  Second, it shows that I can pull those gigs off and squeeze them in, even though I'm doing ten other things now.  Third, it showed, somewhat to my surprise, that I can certainly go in and read something almost completely cold and still interpret it in a reasonable amount of time.  

Onward and upward.  Finding an agent is the next thing.

Tonight, on another note, I'm playing a gig with Lacy at Zirzamin in the Village after I get done with this overtime shift at NY1.  Come out and join us!  It'll be a free show with no drink minimum and there's a pretty good chance I'm going to play the piano and maybe do some looping.  Rock!

64 hours...

...a week. How in the world am I going to pull it off?  The good news is I had a trial run and working three days out of my week, pulling double shifts between CNN and NY1, did not kill me.  I am still alive as I sit typing this.  Evidently.  Having the actual weekend off is going to make all the difference in this little endeavor.  Having that time to recharge.  The actual work I'm doing, if I approach it right, is not all that hard and doesn't stress me out all that much.  It's a matter of planning for being away from the apartment for extended periods of time. That means taking extra care to make sure the cat has enough food and that I have enough food that I don't have to eat out every day. The other trick is going to be getting enough sleep so that I don't end up so tired by the end of the night. That means not trying to go straight to sleep but giving myself time to unwind.  The other night I dropped straight into bed and ended up tossing and turning until 2am and had to be up at 7.  Ugh.  Next week I do four days of doubles (basically 9am until 1130pm) and then I work noon-8pm Friday.   I know I can survive it.   And I'm going to make so much extra money!  


Today, Lacy and I played National Underground.  Which was great fun.  And it just goes to show you that even despite the massive amount of hours I'm working between my three jobs (yes, three...I started training at TruTV last week after my vacation), I am still able to do what I love.  

And tonight what did I do?  I had a burger with my cousin at Korzo, down the street, while simultaneously doing a load of laundry at the laundromat across the street.  Seriously, people, learn how to multi task effectively.  It'll change your life.

A few weeks ago I was fretting about how the schedule change to having weekends off was going to affect my routine, and now I'm absolutely killin' it.  The only thing I've left to figure out is when I'm going to cook my meals so I don't have to eat out all the time.  But even that is not that big of a deal.  I may try that cooking for the entire month thing someday.  That would require some serious strategy though.

But for now, I just need to sleep.  I realized that since I plan on doing yoga in the afternoon tomorrow I can do something amazing tomorrow.  Sleep in.  Just sleep in.  I'm talking about not setting an alarm, ignoring the cat, rolling over several times, putting the pillow over my head to block out the sunlight, stretching out, considering getting up, not getting up, grabbing my phone and reading my Facebook feed.  Then maybe, just  maybe, getting up to go the bathroom and then getting back in bed.  You can see I've given this some thought.  It's going to be pretty awesome, barring any unforeseen shenanigans from the outside world.  Wish me luck!

Back in Action...

Back in action now that I'm back in the Apple.  Over the course of a very relaxing few days off, filled with many visits, a few bike rides, some much needed floating in the pool, wine, food, more wine and pollen (unfortunately), I was able to polish off the three voice over demos.  Now I have them and my film scoring reel locked and loaded and ready to go.  For the next few months, though, I'm going to be working nonstop at two, perhaps three jobs, to make a mound of money before diving back into projects. 

As I put it to a certain close friend and musical partner, this is a rare opportunity to get a leg up.  I have two freelance jobs in addition to NY1 now: CNN and TruTv.  Both of them came out of the blue but were much needed and welcomed.  TruTV hired me back in February but, with the bizarre lag in HR operations, it took them until now to pull me in for training and, in that interim period, I got a call back from the very manager at CNN who had passed my resume to TruTV, asking if I could help out in the media department at CNN while one of their staff goes on maternity leave.  I started back at CNN at the beginning of this month and now that I'm done training, will be working doubles, mornings at CNN and nights at NY1 three, maybe four nights a week. Luckily, I still will have the weekends off.  TruTV promises occasional work on top of all that when any of their staff goes on vacation. 

So, my plate is full, and though I probably won't get much done in the way of music and voice over work, I do have my arsenal of demos fully polished and up to date so, what's to say, I can't push forward on finding a voice over agent and scoring that next scoring gig? 

Before I dive into all of the above, I do have my birthday celebration tomorrow night to kick it all off.  The last weekend of my vacation before diving head first into what could be the busiest two to three months I've experienced in New York City yet.  But I'm open to what's ahead. In fact, I'm quite excited about it.  Anything could happen.  My feet are in the doors.  I'll just leave it at that.     

Birthday celebration should be a fun time.  I have a night in the East Village planned tomorrow and am really looking forward to seeing people and eating some good gluten free food and drinking in one of my favorite bars. 

I think it's a really good thing that I took this vacation at this particular point.  It wasn't really timed on purpose or anything but I really needed a few days to wrap my brain around the next few weeks and how I'm going to manage it all.  My schedule changed a NY1 a few weeks ago and I had just gotten the hang of it.  But with all the extra work and everything, prioritizing became really hard all of a sudden and I even almost melted down and freaked out a few days ago when I first landed back in NYC.  I knew that it was important for me to take this opportunity for more work and more money but I was worried about not having time for music and voice over.  But I think what helped was realizing that the voice over and music careers are both at a point where I can put them on hold for a bit, or at least feel okay devoting a little less time to them.  I've hit several milestones in the last few months and am poised for some big moves in the next few months but I don't necessarily need to act on them right now.  Plus, Lacy and I should have no problem finding time for shows and rehearsals as I'm still off on weekends (without that I don't know what I'd do). 

The only thing I'm slightly bummed about is having less time for yoga.  But I think I can manage to do some breathing exercises at work and still pull off yoga classes on Saturday and Sunday.  And if it gets a little crazy, without the yoga and the sleep, I can always forfeit a few of the shifts I've signed on for at CNN as long as I give them advance notice.  So the next few weeks begins my run of double shifts and then I'll reevaluate.  For now, it's good night and tomorrow = fun. 

Here are some pics from my vacation in Raleigh.

Shows...

It's the weekend and I'm off work.  Yes, I know.  I've mentioned that.  But leaving work last night knowing that I was off for the whole weekend, I breathed this huge sigh of relief.  And knowing that I was headed out to see a show, I was able to shrug off what felt like a cold coming on and power through, running on pure adrenaline and excitement.

The show was a band called Minor Arcana, two of the members being guys that played with us in Philly.  The venue, The Acheron, was in deepest darkest East Williamsburg at a little hole called The Acheron.  The front of it was a bar and the venue was separated so Lacy and I, not knowing that the venue had a bar too, got two drinks and stood there, realizing that we couldn't bring the glasses in the venue.  While standing there finishing our drinks, I took in the scene, assuming that the loud hardcore punk rock was being pumped in from the opening band playing next door inside the venue.  So, I was expecting the same style from this band and overall the venue was seeming far more punk rock that it actually is. When we finally went in there though, I realized there wasn't even anyone playing yet and Minor Arcana was setting up.  I went and said hi to the guys (Ross, I had seen outside already) and ordered another drink. 

The band started not long after and I was blown away by their sound.  They have two guitars, a bassist, drummer, singing keyboardist and another backup vocalist who played chimes, percussion and keys.  The stage was not all that big either.  They were very prog rock with multiple time signature and tempo changes during the songs, the first one of which was an instrumental.  Or at least had a very long instrumental intro.  Ross and Tony who played with us in Philly (Tony also in NYC), are very talented musicians but the rest of the band blew me away and they were all pretty tight as well. 

Though, I was increasingly tired and didn't even think I should be out, I was eating it up listening to the sound waves pounding around in there and it baffles me to think sometimes how incredible it is, not only that beings like us evolved out of the soup over millions of years to become the kind of creatures that can make sense of the way the air moves around a room influenced by the striking and plucking of things called instruments, but that we can manipulate that plucking and striking into something so amazingly beautiful that you just stop and forget everything for a minute but what you're hearing, what you're brain is interpreting into something that to someone without the benefit of working ear drums is basically just air molecules bouncing off each other in patterns that he or she may or may not feel.   Pretty incredible. 

And I don't recall if I mentioned this or not but one of my New Year's Resolutions this year, one that I'm absolutely killing, is to go to more shows.  If I include dance, open mics and shows I've played in in that, the number is up to something like 20.  Told ya.  Killin' it.  Some of those were our own open mics where I saw some amazing musicians, some were shows I caught part of at Barbes.  I included the four shows Lacy and I have played (including today's show at National Underground and last week's showcase) and a dance festival I went to as well as a few friends' bands and last nights show in Williamsburg.  Oh and I just upped the number to 20 before I finish this blog because I forgot about a random show I happened upon at Spike Hill one night a few weeks ago.    

As for today's show at National Underground, it went fairly well and we had an okay turnout considering the snow and how short notice it was that we found out we were playing.  We will have another one at this showcase on the 27th of April as well.  I will be reminding you. :)

For now, I am at home finally just taking it easy.  Because my body is telling me that I haven't been doing enough of that lately.  And it feels good to just slow down too.  I have spent the last few months (probably more than that), thinking I'm not doing enough when in actual fact I've been doing far too much.  Haha!  I mean, I got 10 voice over gigs in as many months, two film scores back to back last year, and scored a licensing contract with a company that licenses music for film and TV.  And on top of that, I just landed not one but two freelance TV gigs on top of NY1.  I'm going to be glad I took it easy this weekend in a few weeks when I start I'm sure.  Thankfully, I have a vacation coming up in April around my birthday. 

Anyway, I should rest up some more.  More excitement ahead!

Weekends...

Not much to report tonight.  Just feel like typing.  I'm in that phase now where I'm trying to figure out how to adjust to my new work schedule.  In some regards, it's a bit like two parts "it's about time" and one part "be careful what you wish for."  Like I was mentioning, not having the quiet weekend nights at work to catch up on important stuff and still having to spend at least some of my mornings cooking meals and running errands, is making it so that I have to improvise when it comes to finding time for the freelance stuff.  Add on top of that that Lacy and I are having to find new times and places to rehearse.  So, this is going to be a bit of a challenge.  I think I've set aside at least one day of the week when I can get auditions done.  But sitting down and recording for film scoring jobs and my own music may be a little trickier.

I'm going to love having weekends off though.  I gotta say.  Already, next weekend is shaping up to be a ton of fun.  Karishma'll be in town, there's a chance I'll be at least one show, we'll be playing an open mic on Sunday night for sure, and I don't have to work through a single second of it.

And the more I think about it, while it may be that the times I have off of work are not as ideal for doing freelance work (I'll rarely be home alone when I'm off work, except on weekday mornings), I do still have the same amount of time off from work, if you do the mathematics.  24 X 7 - 40 = 128.  Yep.  

Drom...

Just posted the last in a series of blogs on my main web page about my set up with my laptop.  Been reviewing all the research I initially did and realizing the whole time that there is still more to know about the equipment and software that I use.  I've been bending it to suit my needs but that only covers what I have imagined I can do with the software and hardware I own.  The wealth of ideas out there about what can be done is astounding.  I guess now that there's a lull after the album release parties I can start to delve into them.

Oh, the show the other night at Drom.  Incredibly fun.  We made it into town with plenty of time to make those three stops I mentioned and get to Drom minutes after 4:30pm.  Jeff, our bassist and the producer of the album, was already standing outside waiting for us.   Alec and Tony, were not far off.

When I walked in, I was blown away but what a nice venue it was.  Down a flight of stairs from street level and under a sushi bar, through the door and behind a curtain, there was the dimly lit lobby area filled with leather couches and chairs.  Beyond this seating area, the high ceilinged restaurant and bar area and the stage, raised up and in the far corner with a full lighting rig, projection screen, PA system with on stage monitors.   The sound guy was real nice and helpful and we had everything set up and miked in a matter of minutes.  We tested out the video projector as well for the video premiere and at one point he flipped a switch and a beautiful projection filled one of the brick walls beside the stage.

Afterward, we were shown the green room, accessed through the kitchen to the left of the stage, and up a flight of stairs.   The band then split up to grab dinner.  Alec, the drummer, and I hit a ramen place around the corner on 4th Street and we made it back in time to shoot the breeze at the venue.  Lacy was holed up in the green room until the show started so we were up there discussing logistics of the set and  the like and getting our drink tickets.  At some point, when discussing how to open, the idea came up to start the show with her song Dancing out of the Dark, but have the band start first and have her walk out to the song.  After that we didn't deviate from the set list too much and everything went fairly well, despite a hiccup with the video projector when we took a break to premiere the video.

It was so good to get up and play again with a full band, both in Philly and in NYC, but this night was particularly fun because it was the biggest venue I've played since playing at Pianos with Teletextile back in November of 2010.  The big turnout we had helped.  Also, having had the chance to become so familiar with the music and iron out all the instrument changes and technical aspects of playing with such a diverse array of equipment, made it all go smoothly enough that I was easier to enjoy the experience of being on stage and not be so stressed that everything is going to work.  I can only imagine it's going to get better the more we perform.

Now we are turning our thoughts toward forming a New York band and finding time and a space to rehearse regularly.  Should be fun.  And hopefully now, that I've bridged the gap between having all this equipment and software and barely knowing how to make it all function, and actually being able to play a show using it all successfully with almost no hiccups, I can start working on writing and eventually performing my own music.

Anyway, we had the whole show filmed and there should be pictures as well from it.  A few have surfaced on the web. I'll try and find them and link to them at some point.  For now.  It's back to the grind.

Show tonight!

Killing my last hour in Philly before I head back to NYC, finding myself in the same coffee shop as last time, the one with the gluten free bread option.  Lacy's at her friend's place doing makeup and we hope to be leaving before 11:30am.  We have to load in at Drom at 4:30pm but before that we're dropping by our respective apartments and then by a friend of mine's place in Crown Heights to pick up a keyboard stand because yours truly does not actually own one.

I was thinking about just going to Guitar Center on the way in to town because I need one anyway but it occurred to me that I do have a ton of keyboard playing friends in the city.  Luckily, the first one I tried was willing to offer his keyboard stand.  Hopefully, that won't take us too far out of our way.  

Meanwhile, I've been adding blog to the main web page at www.timdaoust.com, describing my process with my current guitar set up.  There's one more to write and I'm working on that one currently.  It's kind of exciting that I'm finally at a point with getting it all working where I can sit down and explain how I did it.  I had moments of stress with the FCB1010 MIDI footswitch where I asked myself why in the world I bought the damned thing because it seemed like so much work to figure out how to get it working and then tame it to do what I wanted it to do.  But now I can switch between different setups, turn effects in Guitar Rig on and off and most importantly, record, loop and overdub using a free software called Mobius.

The last blog entry will hopefully be up this weekend and if you're interested you can check it out.

And if you're in NYC tonight, please come out to the show and support us.  We'll rock your faces off.  We promise.