Success...

Tangible success.  Finally, I can say it. I have a full time position at CNN now.

It's been six years since I first freelanced at CNN and at times it didn't look like it would turn into anything.  At other times, I seemed painfully close to getting the other foot in the door.  Through a turn of events some time last fall, I found myself in a position where I could really help out the department by just being available at a time of transition and it served to put me in the right place at the right time.  Not long after, a position opened up and I applied but there was another applicant who had the experience my new boss there was looking for.  The department had shrunk and we were being tasked with coming up with new procedures for media management and this new guy who got the position I had applied for had plenty of relevant post production experience.  My boss told me all this, saying it was a tough decision but he wanted me to stick around so he gave me a big fat raise and assured me that there'd be something else he'd need me for soon.  Sure enough, another person in that department got promoted a week later and her position opened up.  There was a month of waiting and hearing rumors that I was going to get the position until finally one day I received a call from my boss offering me the position.

Soon after, once we had solidified a start date, I put in my notice at NY1.  I gotta tell you, NY1 really knows how to give a send off.  There are a series of traditions whenever someone leaves NY1 on a good note.  First, a glowing email from your boss about your departure, detailing your accomplishments etc.  Then, your coworkers plan a going away party at a local bar and on your last day they get you cake in the conference room and you give a speech.  Somewhere along the line you send out your own goodbye email.  And by the end of it all, you're usually overcome with emotion.

They got me a nice gluten free cake from Tu Lu's bakery in the East Village:

My boss wrote a poem for me (which I still need him to send me) and I did a Letterman style Top 10 List in honor of David Letterman's last show the week before (Top 10 Things I Will Miss About NY1).  That Friday we all went to The Crooked Knife on 14th Street in Chelsea and toasted my time with the company.

So, it was a great send off and I left it all feeling supremely blessed to have worked with such a great group of people for so long.  And it was such a surreal feeling, too, the last time I swiped my ID badge through the card reader to punch my last out time.  I stopped after that swipe and said out loud to my friends that were standing there, "huh, I don't work here anymore," as I let that fact just wash over me. Walking toward the elevator, it really started to set in that I was leaving.  And the excitement of what lay ahead was immense.

Now, I'm a good two weeks into working at CNN full time and have gotten fully settled into the new routine, 9-5 hours, Monday through Friday, and with a view of Central Park out my window.  The guys I work with are hilarious and everyone has been super nice.  I've even run into a few old NY1 people who moved on to CNN years ago.

What's totally awesome though, is that in my first week, I had the good idea to get back in touch with the producer for one of the shows who had asked me to help him with voice overs a few months ago.  I told him about my recent move to full time status and that I'd be around the building every day now if he ever needed help.  Monday morning of the second week I worked there, he emailed me about reading a few scripts for Nancy Grace's show.  So I went into the audio tracking booth and banged it out really quickly and sent it down to him.  One revision, a little more intense and frenetic, and my segments were added to the show.  Two days later, a new script.  Not sure if this one made the show or not but he did cut a version of it so that I could have it for my reel.

So I'm just completely floored by that and then I get an email from one of Ann Wright's assistants, one of the agents that I've been chasing down and who sent me on an audition a few months back.  She wanted to have a meeting with me. That day. My voice coach told me these meetings are usually just about personality and them getting to know me and just to be myself and relax.  And it was.  It was a short meeting and I was thrown off slightly by her asking me for a hard copy of my demo (even though I had already emailed it to her) which I didn't have with me.  But all in all I felt good about it. So here's hoping I'll get sent on some more auditions soon.

That was one hell of a week last week.  And there's more to come.  I'm meeting all kinds of people at CNN that are connected in various ways to the things I want to do and I'm always meeting new musicians out and about.  It's still to early to be able to tell what kind of an effect these people will have on my career but I have never felt so on track.  It helps in that I feel at ease that I'm pointed in the right direction and now I can finally relax on the weekends for a change.   Relax on the weekends and do things like this.

Top 10 things I will miss about working at NY1:

10. Breaking News (Just kidding they have that at CNN, too...they even stay on it much longer).

9. Getting put up in the Dream hotel during storm coverage, even without electricity or hot water.

8. Holidays when they order food, especially if it's Dino BBQ.

7. The quality of sleep you get after an overnight shift.

6. Scaring tourists off the elevator.

5. Being called "The Voice." 

4. The assignment desk, producer's pod, politics and the control room all calling to ask, "are you rolling on the president?!" 

3. Mis amigos en NY1 Noticias que me ayudan a aprender español 

2. Breakdancing at the NY1 Christmas party (also, the NY1 Christmas party)

1. All of you crazy people.  

Climbs, volcanoes and other trials...

The sneakers I've barely worn since Nicaragua still have black sand in them from the volcano.  I'm wearing them again as the weather starts to warm up consistently. The other day, as I kicked them off, a pile of the stuff spilled out onto my bedroom floor.  Days later, though I pounded them together upside down, I still feel the grit under my toes, reminding me of this:

Yes, I climbed to the top of that thing.  That being the Concepcion volcano on the Isla de Ometepe, a central destination of my late February trip to Nicaragua.  The one I had heard was a 10 hour hike. Part of my initial aversion to hiking it in the first place and the reason I had chosen, months earlier, to hike Maderas instead. The smaller, extinct volcano on the island's south side, was advertised as an 8 hour hike, which I'd heard people testify to scaling in a mere 5 hours.  But whatever, when I arrived on Ometepe, I was almost content to nix the idea of any volcano hike and just sit and enjoy this:

...instead of trying to cram in more activities in the short amount of time I had there. Not so much that my three day romp around Granada and the surrounding environs had taken it out of me.  No, it was just that beautiful there at Finca San Juan de la Isla that I thought, after all the hard work I'd done to afford the trip, I ought to just take it easy and enjoy the rum and the fried plantains with cheese and the sound of the lake and the birds and the hammocks and all the beautiful people I met there, most of them Canadians, some of them local hotel staff who were immensely kind and very open to helping me with my Spanish.  Also, cost was a factor. I was either going to have to find people to go in on hiring the guide, pay him the full amount myself, or go through an unappealing ordeal of phone calls and emails and attempts at Spanish to set up a tour with one of the many other options open to me.  I opted to just wait it out and see.

I met a couple from Edmonton, Canada and another from Toronto, my first full day there.  The Edmonton couple were recounting the story of their attempt at Concepcion the previous day, a feat they told us took them only 7 hours. The Toronto couple listened intently as they were planning on doing it themselves the following day.  I asked if I could join, figuring this was the sign I needed to make my decision.  The path of least resistance. They had already booked the guide and they were happy to let me join them. And I'm so glad I did. 7 hours seemed much more reasonable.

Why did I wait all this time to recount my tale? I don't know, part of me wanted to wait to blog again until I had some good news to share on the music and voice over fronts and even about my various day jobs; all the things that have been brewing there. I do, as a matter of fact, finally.  But in the meantime, life just got away from me and I didn't want to just type up a blow by blow of the whole trip. I had journaled it elsewhere for my own purposes, after all.  But also, I had to think through what it all means to me in terms of what happened to me on that mountain.

Guys, this was the hardest hike I'd ever experienced but I felt so damned alive at the end of it, like I could physically do anything and perhaps mentally do anything as well. Anything at all. Volcan Concepcion is 5,280 feet tall and perfectly cone shaped, making the hike relentlessly steep.  Hiking to the rim of the open and active crater took us a solid four and a half hours and the descent took another 3 hours.

The terrain was ever changing and kept our interest, with stunning views and exotic plant life, but the climb was brutal and taking a toll on us after only an hour, my calves burning with the exertion of continuous ascent.

My new friends and I brought liters upon liters of water that we carried with us, along with lunch that the hotel had packed (unfortunately, the only gluten free foods they could give me were plantain chips, some of their homemade cheese and a few oranges, pre peeled, of course).  We took frequent breaks but always kept going, determined not to stop or slow down for too long.  Although at times, individually, I'm sure we all felt like turning around. Something in me, personally, said no every time the thought came up.  I felt as though climbing this mountain symbolized something for me.  I had to keep going.  Maybe just to prove something to myself.  Maybe because I had set out on some mission and wanted to see it through to the end. Being able to conquer something despite ridiculous odds, to keep going when others would have stopped (another group that was supposed to have set out with us, was delayed and, upon our descent we learned they had quit after just an hour...no one else was on that mountain except us).

We passed through fields of plantain trees and rock strewn pits, and as the mountain steepened, we entered a dry forest with a sandy path that our feet slid into, making each step that much harder.  Everywhere was a chance to turn your ankle or slip. Every other tree branch we tried to grab onto for support had thorns protruding. Rocks were always loose, so part of what set our pace was having to be so sure of our footing each time we took a step. At some point along the way, the danger of what we were doing slowly became clear to us.

We left all the stunning vistas behind as we entered a white cloud and the wind began to blow relentlessly.

We were now in a cloud forest of mostly low shrubs, plants with giant leaves and more and more rocks to slip on.

Coming up out of that we entered a new terrain, unlike anything we had seen before.  Plant life had all but disappeared and all of us, except our guide, had to crawl up on all fours.

This was where I fell behind a little and had to keep talking to myself, telling myself I had to keep going. After all, regardless of whether I made it to the top, I still had to go all the way back down.  This realization was the most harrowing thing after everything we had gone through, knowing that, even after we reached the summit there was still a long road before we could finally rest. In a way, though, it helped knowing that no matter what we decided, we still had a long way ahead of us.  It would have been barely any relief to stop and go down at that point because the ordeal of descending such a steep slope was just as difficult, and ascending the 500 odd feet that we had left to climb would not have added all that much to our troubles. Only actually reaching the top could have lifted our spirits enough to power us for the rest of the hike, though.  That and lunch.  But only after we had reached the top, we agreed.

It was during this last stretch that I felt that something come over me again.  Something that told me to just go despite how hard it was.  I could feel my companions' spirits breaking a little.  I felt like each step was harder than the one before. I would get in five or six and then have to pause.

At one point our guide shouted down to us to get out of the way because there were rocks tumbling down.  Adrenaline pumping, not knowing, at first, exactly why he had told us to get out of the way, we scrambled sideways along the rocks as quickly as we could.  Someone who had hiked up on their own before us, had loosed a few rocks and sent them down in our direction unintentionally.  Seeing this bloke from California walking upright down the mountain past us like it was nothing was the last straw (you can see him in the shadows just out of sight in the above pic of my two Toronto friends).  I could smell the sulfur gas from the crater by now.  Knowing we were so close to the top I powered through, one last burst of climbing, grabbing at rocks and propelling myself upward, quicker than my body could signal the pain in my muscles. Behind me, Kelsey was saying she was done and ready to go down.  The wind was blowing her around so that she couldn't straighten up for a second without getting knocked over.  Just then I looked up and saw our guide perched on the edge of the crater.  I lifted myself into place right next to him and peered into the crater.

"No, c'mon! We're here.  It's right here, you can make it!" I shouted down to my companions.  I practically begged Kelsey and Ryan to come peer in the crater with me.  300 meters deep and 3 acres around at the bottom, and all of it obscured by sulfuric gas and clouds. She took one look and declared, "Nope!"

We all collapsed for this photo and agreed after a few moments of basking in our victory, that we should climb down out of the wind and eat our lunch before heading back down.  Without any shred of visibility there wasn't much in the way of views to take in.  I watched some YouTube videos of other people's hikes when I returned home, though, and concluded that, had we hiked up on a clear day, it would have been absolutely terrifying but exalting and gorgeous nonetheless. Here's my panorama when we came out of the cloud.  Close enough:

But what did I learn about myself from this climb? For one thing, that I'm strong and I can show determination and accomplish something big if I have my mind set on it.  Something I'm doing on a daily basis here in NYC but that I tend to forget. The other thing it taught me is to just keep going.  The last few months have been harrowing in their own way.  No stunning vistas, no payoffs, just waiting and waiting for one or more things that are up in the air, to show me some kind of sign I'm on the right track.  It's hard, even though you know you've done things and set other things in motion, to just wait for them to give you some sort of feedback.  It's hard to not always feel like I could be doing more. But then, that one thing happens that may or may not be a true accomplishment but that tells you that, yes, you're doing fine, you're on the right track, keep going.

It happened a few weeks ago.  An agent with whom I had spoken over a year ago, who had told me that I sounded as though I had some regionalisms in my voice, called me to tell me she liked the new demo I sent her and wanted to send me out on an audition for a job she thought I'd be good for.  Yes, an agent liked my demo.  So I went out there feeling pretty damn good, knowing that, even if I didn't get the job, it was still quite an accomplishment and felt like a nice step up to a new plateau.  The next day, another agent that I'd met at my voice coach's salon emailed me to say she loved my demo (exclamation point) but that she couldn't accommodate me as they keep a very short list and there isn't currently a space for me. There are still more steps to take up onto even higher plateaus but just to know that I have things ahead of me is exciting.

"The Life" finally had its premier screening a few weeks ago too and everyone in the cast and crew showed. It was amazing to see how many people were involved in bringing that thing to fruition and how many cared enough to come out for the screening.  Some of them hadn't even seen the whole thing yet so we got to see some candid reactions to the finished product which made it all the more worthwhile. Great things are ahead for this project, almost none of which I can speak on definitively and it's likely to be like this for a while but suffice it to say that I'm happy with the progression.

And I even had an opportunity to help out with the music on a web series called Redheads Anonymous that is getting all kinds of attention lately.  I played some guitar and bass parts on a song for the second episode which you can watch here. Huffington Post did an article on it and episode 2 even won Indie Series Network's Web Series of the Week award.  It's going to be a great affiliation, and they may yet call me for more music.

At any rate, I'm still feeling pretty good about this year so far. And if any of you are interested in seeing the rest of the pics from the trip to Nicaragua, I've posted them here.

Thanksgiving aftermath...

...or, secondary title, I've never had so much food in my fridge from one meal and my kitchen has never smelled so good.  So, all in all, it was a success.  The turkey brine was a great idea.  It left my turkey insanely moist for a bird that just spend almost 3 hours in the oven and the process was pretty simple.  Now, I have a bucket leftover for such tasks should I want to do something like this again in the future.  I probably will.

My gluten free rolls were better the first time around but they still were pretty good today.  Nice and soft, and not too gummy or brittle.  Unlike the stuffing.  I used a loaf of Udi's Gluten Free bread which is my go to for sandwiches but somehow it didn't stand up to being turned into stuffing.  It's crumbly still, though less than other brands, and when the moisture in the chicken broth hit it, it started to disintegrate into a grainy mush.  Not Good Eats, as Alton would say.  It did the job just fine though and was certainly tasty, just not quite the right texture.  I added a red delicious apple for more flavor and used shallots instead of onions.

The gravy also did not thicken as much as I wanted, probably owing to the simple fact that I didn't use enough corn starch to thicken it.  It did gelatinize in the fridge though so that's good.  Maybe it'll be better tomorrow.  Lastly, the sweet potato and turnip mash was amazing and I have so much of it I ended up freezing a huge portion of it, along with a large portion of turkey soup I made after dinner.  The turkey soup, even though I didn't boil the carcass for all that long (maybe an hour and a half), came out excellent and it left my kitchen smelling amazing. That'll be great for the colder weeks to come.

After dinner, we ate a pie that Alexa's mom made.  Pumpkin with a crushed pecan and date crust.  It was so good I'm having to stop myself from eating another slice just because they left me a couple.  It'll be amazing tomorrow.  She had also brought a gluten free quiche that we devoured for brunch when they first arrived.  Crust made out of shredded potato hash. 

I guess all this just goes to show you how a gluten free Thanksgiving is totally possible and not all that hard.  In fact, the harder aspects of today were the typical things that anyone would find difficult doing this for the first time or the thousandth time.  And a lot of that falls under the timing category.

And though it was a challenge, timing everything to be ready at the same time, I managed and it reminds me how much I love planning and executing.  Also how much I love cooking.  I have forgotten that in recent days when I'm confined to cooking quick cooking meals that can reheat well (i.e. one pot dishes and simple chicken dishes, never fish because it never reheats well) and that I can bring to work in separate portions so I only have to cook once or twice a week.  This presents its own challenges and can be fun if I have the enthusiasm and creativity to change it up every once in a while, but some weeks when I'm trying to cram so much into a day between full time work, yoga, and freelancing in voice over and music, it gets tempting to just fall into a pattern and stick with what works.  So I'm almost never trying new things like, say, brining a turkey or baking gluten free rolls.  So, this was great fun.  And I'm thankful that I had the opportunity and the means to pull it off and that I have friends and family to share it with.  That's what it's all about after all. 

And for the record, I'm also thankful that I'm living in this city, still surviving after almost four years, doing what I love and accomplishing, albeit slowly, what I set out to do.  Signing off after a long full day of food and friends.  Early day tomorrow.  Good night. 

Thanksgiving 2012 Best Shots

Aftermath 6, The Kindness of Strangers...

Sunday, I took off from work. The head cold won for a day...or at least I let it think it won for a day.  I slept in until about 8:00.  Yes, I set my clock back before I went to bed.  Every fall, I much prefer this to doing so after I sleep.  It somehow makes the night and that extra hour seem longer.  I can change the time when I'm in a quasi-somnambulistical state, forget I did, and then wake up at a regular time but feel like I've had more sleep.  Anyway, that amount of sleep, almost 9 full hours, seemed to get rid of the aches, most of the snot and a even a tad bit of the coughing.  I'd say by tomorrow morning I'll be closer to 100%.

I wanted to do something, and have wanted to do something all week, with my good fortune following this storm.  Knowing it'd be Wednesday before I could go anywhere that needed help, I opted to donate clothing Sunday because I heard my church was picking things up and taking them to communities in our area, Red Hook and other places on the waterfront.  I also wanted to go to church, even though I told my choir director I wouldn't be there for rehearsal.  Just felt like I needed to be there.  After the harrowing images and stories from this week, and knowing that some of my fellow congregants were affected, I needed to sort of touch base and hear everyone's stories.  Some of the members got up and spoke about their respective adventures throughout the storm.  One woman had a tree on her house and just happened to have taken her family out for dinner that night while the storm was just starting to get bad, so no one was in the house when it happened.  Another, our junior minister, was in the E. Village when the substation exploded on 14th Street. Sounded like it was pretty exciting and scary.  He was outside and, like many others, saw the sky light up blue before all the power went out. 

 I wanted to write a blog at some point sort of encompassing my entire experience with the storm and its aftermath and some reflections.  But it's hard to really know where to start and stop.  For example, the news coverage angle never really stops.  We went straight into election coverage and now there's a Nor'easter slamming the city as if Sandy wasn't enough...it's actually snowing outside right now.  WTF?

Two realizations have come from this experience.  One has to do with the over-arching dilemma of how inefficient and sometimes one-sided news coverage can be and even if it is thorough on some news outlets, how easy it is to assume the one bit of coverage you happen to watch is the entire picture.  For example, I've heard so many sound bites from angry Rockaway Beach residents (whom we've given a chance to shout at the camera and make their voice heard regarding the inefficiency or non-existence of the clean up effort) and, forgetting for a moment that they probably don't have electricity to watch TV coverage of the storm cleanup, it makes you think that, wow, the government is really dropping the ball here, or why hasn't their been any relief out there?  But, stay on the channel for a while, and you'll hear all sorts of reports about how quick and efficient the government response has been to the worst hit areas or how ordinary people are helping out in so many ways.  I saw a story that moved me quite a bit, the local Sikh community in Staten Island were some of the first people (in fact, maybe the first), to go out and serve food to people who were without power and whose homes were destroyed.  The Southern Baptists even came up to serve food to displaced residents in Staten Island.  So, there are amazing things happening and those sensationalized sound bites are merely one side of a story.

I also heard that the gas lines were crazy.  One man was arrested for brandishing a gun at a man who complained when he jumped the line.  But every interview our reporters have fielded from the lines, people seem to understand why the lines are there, why this is happening and they are not angry.  One man said, "so many others have it so bad, so what is it to me to have to wait in line for a few hours?"

It's interesting how people can take one bit of information and run with it without consideration as to whether that bit of information is truth, only a tiny piece of the reality, or a complete falsehood. This is a can of worms indeed so I won't go so far into it.  Suffice it to say that there are far more than even two sides to every story.  While some things as far as cleanup and relief have been inefficient and some bad things have happened post Sandy, I personally choose not to firestorm the government agencies and whomever else because I have had a chance to see several interviews with the local officials over the past few days and I see how big and multifaceted this clean up effort is.  Getting the subways back online in a timely manner itself is a massive feat of engineering and quite frankly, I think the MTA officials are genius for having the presence of mind to shut down the subway to safeguard the equipment.  We are up and running at almost full status as of just about a week later and I'm probably never going to be so quick to complain about a late train for at least a couple of months now that I've been listening to what goes in to keeping the system running 24/7 like it does...the inconvenience of being without it for a few days notwithstanding.  
 
I acknowledge however that I have a pretty comfortable spot to survey this all from and perhaps I would feel differently if my home had been swept away and I was dealing with a range of emotions over the loss and needed somewhere to direct that.  I get it.  But that's just my perspective and I'm aware that it can't be easy to lose so much.  At least three of my co workers had their homes flooded and are dealing with cleaning that up and salvaging what they can.   It's heart wrenching. 

The other realization ties pretty closely in and it has to do with my own reaction to the storm's effects on this community I live in.  I'll preface this by saying that I've seen this in rooms full of people watching news coverage of past storm cleanup efforts a dozen times before over the years.  Every time this argument comes up and I have to pause when I hear it.  Those people in the evacuation zones who are stranded without power, with destroyed homes, what are they even doing there?  They should have evacuated, it's their own fault, how can they expect government help, yadda yadda blah blah blah.   It's almost cliche at this point.   But, my response to that after being this close to a situation like this is this, and it comes straight from Buddhism: we should be compassionate toward people without judgement.  Especially since some of those people either couldn't evacuate because they are elderly, or maybe they weren't even in an evacuation zone but just happened to be affected or couldn't get out once the storm got bad and they closed the bridges so they hunkered down.  The point is, you don't know someone's situation and you can't presume to condemn them and say they are undeserving or they just want a handout.  If someone's drowning, you don't ask what they're doing in the water.  You jump in and try to save them as best as you can.  Ask questions later.  This is what I've seen so many in this city doing over the course of the last week and it's amazingly uplifting.  We as a society should be more like this all the time.  That's a slice of Ana's sermon on Sunday at the UU church.  Kind of this call to not stop at donating clothes and canned goods.  And I agree and I also think it should extend to more than just storm relief.  I'll leave it at that for now though.  I don't much care for proselytizing or grand-standing.  I just feel like we as humans are at our best when we are compassionate toward each other rather than when we are being isolationist or selfish. 

With that, I'm going to photograph this insanity outside my window and get back to troubleshooting my audio/MIDI equipment problems.  And also share with you a wonderful piece of news that I got last night as I was starting my shift at work:  I just booked another voice over gig!  My 9th paid gig in almost as many months and the first one I'll be going into Manhattan to record at a studio.  It's an internet ad for a young adult novel.  I'll let you know how that goes.  The session is Monday at noon.  Talk soon!

Halloween...

Today, I biked to work.  It was a choice I made last night when I decided I didn't want to take another cab and wait to be reimbursed nor did I want to brave the limited bus service.  It took Katrina 4 hours to get in to work using the bus system.  No, I'd rather snake my way in between the cars on my bike than sit through that kind of ordeal.

Unfortunately, my bike was really in no condition to take such a commute.  But I was determined and, anticipating possibly having to use the bike a few more times before the subway comes back up, I decided to splurge and get a few things I knew I'd need: a bell, a light and, after the ride to yoga made my hands feel like ice cubes: gloves.  Yes, I worked yoga into the mix.  Because yoga was exactly what this stressful ordeal was missing.  A teacher that I most often take classes with posted to my Facebook page that she was definitely teaching in Brooklyn Heights this morning.  So, since I haven't been to class since last Friday, I knew I had to make that part of my day.  And it was the best class ever!  It felt like it anyway.   Just to have a moment of calm in the midst of all of this.

After yoga, I got some advice from my yoga teacher about where to go for a bike tune up and all those accessories I needed.  She's an avid cyclist and bikes everywhere so I knew she'd have the scoop on where to go.  First I hit a shop on Smith and Bergen for the light, bell and gloves and then, since she'd told me I could probably still get a free tune up here, I went to Bicycle Habitat on Lafayette St. in Soho.  The tune ups were not still free but the shop was at least open and, though there was a crowd, I got in pretty quick.  They had no lights but they had a lot of people on staff and bike stands set up, outside the shop even, giving people tune ups.  They were, of course, only taking cash and walking about the darkened store with flashlights to fetch things.  The guy who tuned up my bike, greased my chain and adjusted it for me, had a thick New York lifer accent and sported 3 foot long dreadlocks.  He was animated and seemed like he was having a ton of fun just helping people out who had no other way of getting around but their bikes.  He fixed me up, rather enthusiastically, in just minutes while we chatted about my bike.  Apparently, one of the first kinds of bikes he ever worked on.  $10 and I was out of there on the smoothest ride I'd had on that bike in, well, ever.

I skirted from there over to the West Side with little difficulty.   Only trick was there were no traffic lights so you had to be on alert and wait to cross avenues.  Most cars would stop, especially if they saw a crowd trying to push across.  Then, since I've never taken the Manhattan Bridge to work (beautiful ride, by the way), I sort of had to figure out as I went what the best route was going to be.  The trick?  Follow other bikers.  There were, after all, a ton of them out. Almost as many as the cars.  In fact, Mayor Bloomberg issued a carpool rule for all the bridges into the city to cut down on traffic in the city, especially since there are still no traffic lights below 39th Street.

Work was okay.   The most excitement happened when the news came in that they were evacuating Bellevue Hospital after losing generator power.  The newsroom was all a buzz with everyone running around trying to make sure we could get one of our reporters there ASAP. 

Biking home was probably the coolest thing today.  I stopped and took a ton of pictures along the route, to the extent that it took me an hour and 15 minutes to get home (30 extra minutes than it normally would have on my bike).  As soon as I stepped out into the night, I realized how spooky it was going to be.  Fitting that it's Halloween.  I had my light, which, as the guy who sold it to me said, would not illuminate my path but it would let people know I was coming.  As such, I could barely see the bumps in the road coming and cursed myself once for turning down a cobblestone road in pursuit of some other bikers who I thought might know the way to the Manhattan Bridge.  My bum really hurts right now.

When I crossed back over the West Side Highway after zipping down the Greenway to Tribeca, it became suddenly dark in between the narrow cross streets of that area.  I had the glow of a near full moon and the occasional passing taxi or other cyclist but beyond that I was straining my eyes to see a lot of the time.  Pedestrians would come up out of nowhere, often in Halloween costumes.  Bleeker Street was the darkest but the spookiest was turning onto the bike path on the Manhattan Bridge right where the mouth of the subway tunnel is for the N and Q trains.  I could feel an eerie warmth coming up from the tunnel, and tried to keep from looking down it as I climbed past it on my bike.  In the middle of the bridge, I had to stop and snap a wide photo encompassing both the darkened Manhattan side and the fully lit Brooklyn side, along with the almost full moon and Jupiter floating nearby.

Scary Commute, Halloween Best Shots

I reached a point on the bridge later on where the street lights suddenly came on and looked back a few times to see the sharp contrast, the line between electrified and powerless.  I had to refrain from taking another picture.  I had already wasted so much time and was fatigued.  The rest of the commute home was a breeze compared to all the turns I had to take in Manhattan and the busy streets I had to cross (Houston, Delancy, Bowery, all the avenues, Chrystie St.) and the cobblestones and the darkness and the distractions.  There was one funny moment on 5th Avenue in Park Slope when a woman dressed as a nurse/zombie was lurking in the street near a cab that had pulled over in the bike lane.  She turned to look at me and began to come towards me, fully in character, hungry for brains.  I shrieked and swerved.  Laughter erupted from the sidewalk from the rest of her friends.

Thankful for that final hill, up my street, being short but annoyed at the obstacle of trash cans blocking the gate to the back yard where I lock my bike, I was finally home.  Now, I'm exhausted and have to sleep then literally turn right back around and go into work again tomorrow.  This time, I'm carpooling with a co worker who lives nearby though I have get up much earlier than I normally would need to and will be waiting around for my shift when I get there.  Should be a much easier day, though, as I'll probably take a cab home on the company's dime.  With that, who knows what tomorrow will hold. See ya soon!

Aftermath 1...

I woke up to gurgling noise from the bathroom.  We still have no water at the Dream Hotel and I just couldn't sleep anymore, my head buzzing with what I need to do.  I knew I was going to come here at some point and get some news (yes, without power, I still have the option of walking into the TV news station even if I can't turn on the TV).  And also food.  But I also had this to think about: without power, the situation at the hotel could only deteriorate.  Maybe they'd offer free food to the guests at the hotel as it all might spoil anyway, or maybe they wouldn't and I'd be forced to come in to work and hang around waiting for food to miraculously arrive.  Also, I need to assess what I'm going to do the next few days, get clothes, shower, and quite frankly, I don't want to have to continue to manually flush the toilet here at the station, nor do I want to keep climbing stairs as I go back and forth from the Dream to the Chelsea Market.  8 flights on one side, 6 on the other. 

I left my room after packing everything up and took only my camera.  Peering out the peep hole I realized that the lights were on.  Apparently, they do have emergency lighting in the hallway working...odd that they have it on now in the daylight and didn't last night. Whoever's managing this hotel should be smacked.  Even the stairwell was lit and I passed a few guests on the way down.  Some seemed to be checking out. 

When I got to the lobby there were tons of people sitting around digging on the continental breakfast piled on the bar...I thought about checking to see if it was being given away or if it was the same deal, $22, but I thought better of it.  Emergency lights were flashing on the alarms and a buzzer was going off.  It seems moronic that they wouldn't try to shut that off for the sake of the people holed up in the lobby.  I walked out on the street to the sound of sirens and some lingering heavy drizzle that came in waves.  Seeing people with shopping bags from the nearby Western Beef, I assumed it was probably open so I made my way there, not knowing what the situation at NY1 would be.  I wandered in not even having any idea what I would buy, more just curious what I would see...and smell.  There was distinct spoiled food tang in the air around the deli and produce sections.  They did have some refrigeration running but not much.  It seemed warm.  I left. 

Having left everything in my room this time except for the camera, I walked down to the river to shoot some photos where I was yesterday morning.  Luckily, the flood waters are receding.  Unfortunately, the debris they kicked up did not.  Judging by what I saw, the water almost certainly came up over the West Side Highway.

Aftermath

I wandered back to the station, called my dad on the way, snapped a few more photos (which I'll be posting as soon as I can get them off my camera) and now I'm at NY1.   There was a hell of a spread of food in the conference room, thank God.  Mostly snacks from the grocery store but also some McDonald's, Dunkin Donuts coffee, and, of course, pizza.  The four food groups of breaking news. 

I'm debating cabbing it or hiking (if I have to) back to Brooklyn after I charge my phone and call a few of you.  I'm probably going to give my room to someone else here who might need it, grab my bags and try to get back to BK sometime today. I've been offered an overtime shift tomorrow and I probably will take it because, let's face it, I need the money and they need the bodies here.  But it wouldn't be until tomorrow evening.  So there's a slight pull to keep the room and stay here but I'm not sure how much longer I can manually flush toilets without the water pumps running in these buildings and go without a hot shower or clean clothes, which I'm running out of.  I still have enough socks and underwear where I could manage but it's pretty compelling to try and get home and resync.  I can bike back here for sure but then I don't want to bike back late at night.  There's murmors about us getting reimbursed for all cab fare.  I'm thinking what an expense this must be for the company, putting us all up and feeding us and getting us transportation in to work. 

I'll update again when I decide what I'm doing and if I manage to get home somehow today.  Wish me luck.

Storm 7, Power Outage...

I was lying on my bed watching an episode of The Universe on my laptop, considering one last attempt at a nap when the power went out. This was around a quarter to nine. I noticed my phone showed a message from my sister asking if I was okay because they had turned off the power in Lower Manhattan. At that point, I almost got up to turn the TV back on to see what I could see. I heard a noise of wind outside that banged something over again and then, almost as if in response to the noise, the lights went off. "Oh shit. Now it's getting serious" is what immediately ran through my mind. I started frantically grabbing things (not sure why I was so frantic) and throwing them in my bag, mostly valuables, leaving only my clothes there. On some level I must've realized that the locks on the door might not work without the power and if I was going to be here at the station all night, I had better not leave anything that might get stolen. I'm not even sure this thought had time to run through my mind. All I was thinking was I'd better just get to the station where there's bound to be power.

A voice came on the intercom and just kept repeating, "may I have your attention please?" Out in the hallway it was dark except for the exit signs, the emergency lights the hotel promised never having come on. I breezed past the elevator bank to the stairwell, using the flashlight app on my phone to see in the pitch dark stairwell. A few floors down I was passed by hotel workers with flashlights who directed me to go down to the lobby. At the bottom, eight flights later, was another hotel employee directing me out of the stairwell into the lobby. It was quite busy with activity. Diners at the restaurant had their flashlights and phones out and people were milling about. I saw some of the employees checking out the electrical panels. I assume they were trying to get generators up or something. I thought about waiting in the lobby but decided against it.
Upon leaving the hotel, I could see there was no power in many of the buildings except for emergency lighting in stairwells and things like that. The wind howled and rain fell sideways though not as hard as it had done earlier. I jogged across the street, picking up the pace when I heard something rather large sliding down the street behind me, unsure what the wind had picked up and not wanting to find out. I slid into the entrance of the building where the security guard asked me where I was headed and directed me to a stairwell I've never had to use. On the way up I ran into two of the news assistants I work with carrying camera equipment up the six flights of stairs, having just come from shooting footage outside the market. They looked exhausted. The air was quite tense in the newsroom. At that point, I don't think we were on the air, but we were on backup generators for the essentials. Unfortunately, the essentials did not seem to include refrigerators holding all the leftover food they fed us today. The rumor is there will be no food delivery tomorrow. What we have is what we have. Hopefully, things won't be nearly as crazy and we'll be able to get some food here.

My boss told me not to clock in yet and conserve my energy for the long overnight shift ahead. But I couldn't relax. There's too much excitement. I took some pics out the window of the blackout and sat for a while watching all the activity outside, listening to the wind howling and to things shifting on rooftops and down side streets.

Power Outage Best Shots

Police cars were riding down 9th Avenue with their lights on and there were people walking around with flashlights. I heard someone say there was a group of people stealing sand bags from the front of the Chelsea Market and loading them into a minivan. I sat in the breakroom looking out that window for a while with the security guard who has been here all day. There was so much happening out there and we were straining to hear what the wind was doing and to see where the lights we were seeing were coming from. I've had goose bumps all night long from all the excitement. I tried to take something of a nap in the dark of the break room but did not succeed. When I finally did clock in, it was about 10:15. One of the first things I wanted to do was see a lot of the video that's been coming in all day. It's all pretty harrowing. As my coworkers read me in, I sifted through them all and found one that just blew my mind. This explosion happened at a Con Ed power substation on 14th street near the FDR. For context, we are on 15th street on the West side of Manhattan. The FDR snakes up along the east side. Check it out.



 I saw another video later of a substation four blocks from my apartment in South Slope doing the same thing. I texted Katrina to make sure she was okay. We still have power but I think she heard the emergency vehicles. So this is getting a little crazy now and I'm hearing that power might not be restored for a week. What does that mean for public transit? I don't know. The subway tunnels are flooded, the outer boroughs and beaches are flooded. I don't have any idea when things will be back to normal. I'm going to try and sleep the day away in the hotel tomorrow and maybe try to make my way home somehow. I need reliable access to food and can't count on that here. I was lucky today that I was able to get food. I'll try to keep the updates coming. Good night for now. Four more hours and I can leave. 

Storm 5, The Flooding Begins...

Just got back from a jaunt along the Hudson River with my camera.  It's crazy out there.  The water level is higher than I've ever seen it...which isn't saying much because I've only ever seen it at normal levels before.  It's basically up to the bottom of the piers and spilling over onto the sidewalk.  It's eerie how slowly it rises as the waves come in.  Of course, I wasn't the only one with the idea to go down to the river to see the flooding.  Lots of people who I assume live in the W. Village were out there.  Kids were jumping in the water as it slid across the pavement, carrying with it years and years of debris and detritus.  I've posted the pics on Picasa here:

Hurricane Sandy, First Flooding Pics

Additionally, here are some pre storm photos from yesterday in Greenwich Village

Hurricane Sandy Pre Storm 2

and pics of my room last night!

Dream Hotel, Best shots

I remembered that the Media Ingest department here has USB adapters for compact flash cards so I was able to transfer the pics onto my laptop and upload.  I even sent a few to the assignment desk to see if they'd put them on the air.  More updates to come.  It's raining sideways now.  Glad I'm back inside!

Calm before the storm...

The weather was gorgeous today.  Warm but mostly overcast.  There's something about the light on a day like today that makes the yellowing leaves on some of the trees seem to radiate their own light.  It was a peaceful walk to Prospect Park as such, and hard to believe as early as tomorrow we'll be in the thick of it.  Apparently this crazy hybrid storm is heading right for us and the city is expected to have to shut down mass transit.  So NY1 is preparing by putting us all up in a hotel across the street (either the Maritime or the Dream, don't know which yet) so we can make it to work the next day.  I have to work an overnight shift that night (just my luck that the first one in months lands on the night of the biggest storm we've seen all summer) so my worry is in getting back home after my shift is over at 7am.

It'll be nice to not have to worry about that.  NY1 really does take care of us sometimes.  They also throw one hell of a party.  The station is turning 20 this year and there have been all manner of commemorative activities taking place.  They lit the Empire State Building one night a few weeks back in our colors and had a ceremony in the lobby of the building.   They also got that Cake Boss guy to make us a huge cake for a party at work and the mayor even declared the day of our anniversary, the 11th of October, NY1 Day.

But last night was the huge blowout gala at Gotham Hall that is kind of replacing our Christmas Party.  It was such a blast and everyone turned out dressed to the nines.  I totally rocked the tuxedo even.

I brought Alexa as my date and we arrived right at 7pm as it was starting.  Funny enough, the one other person whom I knew in advance would be wearing a tuxedo (the husband of one our reporters) was walking in right behind us.  Upon entering the hall we were greeted with trays of cocktails and fancy hors d'oeuvres.  The hors d'oeuvres looked amazing but I unfortunately couldn't eat any of them because almost all of them had something bread-like or otherwise wheat containing.  I did get safe food though for the main meal and also drank a lot.  Someone in front of me at the bar ordered a martini and I though, "that actually might be nice," so I fell into a pattern of ordering them all night to the point where people were calling me James Bond.  I don't think James Bond ever break danced though.

After they abruptly cut the music off, I walked Alexa to the train and headed over to the after party at a nearby pub.  Ultimately, I stayed out until 2am and took a cab home, waking up this morning at 9am with a splitting headache and some nice, yet vague memories.  Half the reason I took that walk to Prospect Park is because I wanted to do something physical since I skipped yoga.  But I realized I was moving about 9 times slower than I usually do, probably due to general exhaustion.

Anyway, in preparation for the storm that's coming I actually did buy jugs of water and whatever else we didn't have enough of.  I was pulling a shift at the co-op on Friday afternoon and there seemed to be a general sense of urgency amongst the shoppers crowding the floor and at one point the line wrapped all the way around the store back to the produce section where I was stocking potatoes and listening to the conversations.  Most people were talking about the storm and citing it for the reason for being there.  The co-op is probably more likely to shut down than a regular grocery store because most of the workers are members who would be unable to get to the store in the case of a big storm like this.

So, it's getting a bit exciting.  I just got confirmation that I'll probably have a hotel room for both nights (Sunday and Monday, technically Tuesday morning).  I may have to basically relocate to Manhattan for the next few days so that'll be interesting.  They'll probably feed us dinner too.

On the music and VO front, the news this week is that I've met with lawyers at VLA and decided to sign this contract with the licensing agency after all.  It's all pretty solid when it comes down to it and just for good measure I spoke with them on the phone to clarify a few things.  They explained it all enough to satisfy me so I said I would sign.  At the moment, I don't have any offerings ready for them so it'll be a few weeks to a month before I actually submit the music.

VO is nothing new.  Still trying to get in touch with that agent and looking for others to solicit.  I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to do all that with this storm coming and putting a damper on things for a few days.

For now, I'm at work and watching weather coverage and waiting.  It's funny how I always start to think back on the last 10 years of working in news and dealing with weather coverage from the back end.  All the hurricanes and snowstorms I've been in the studio for start to come back to me and I have to laugh at the way nothing has changed.  The "tap dancing" on air when there's nothing happening or nothing yet to talk about, the egg on their faces when nothing ends up happening, the dire warnings, the obvious suggestions for how to prepare (I just heard some guys say to get batteries because when the power goes out you'll need those flashlights in the dark), and the hilarious you tube gems of reporters getting too close to the storm and getting knocked over by the winds.  It's all entertaining and especially so since I've been behind the scenes all this time and know what goes down.   The next few day should be interesting to say the least.  I'll update more as the storm gets closer.

Birthday...

Third birthday in New York. By now I've built up enough friends here from various different circles that I managed a gathering of 13 friends Friday night at Heathers bar in the East Village (well 14 if you count one friend's guest).  It was a fun time.  Really.  I only paid for one drink because there was no shortage of people willing to buy them for me (heck, even the bartender bought me a beer!), the bar never got too crowded and a close friend from out of town who stayed with me paid for the cab ride home.  This is the kind of birthday celebration I was after, lots of friends, free drinks and free cab fare home.  I find myself less and less wanting gifts and often would rather have experiences for my birthday.  Stories to tell, friends to laugh with and drinks being drunk. 

When I arrived home, though, there was a bag of gluten free cookies and a Lindt dark chocolate bar with chilies sitting on the kitchen table from my cousin.  So, I did get something tangible for my birthday...tangible and edible.  And I also got something intangible but rather unforgettable...a hangover.  But mostly stories, too.  Today was a whirlwind day, sort of, but was also relaxing and fun.  And there are a few anecdotes to tell...and even pictures!

The friend who stayed over was none other than Karishma, who was visiting from LA where she now lives with her husband.  This morning we went to brunch (which, as per my earlier FB status consisted of bacon and mimosas, among other things...we joked at one point that I should have asked them to bring my side of bacon out with a birthday candle in it).   My cousin came along and we met two friends of Karishma's there at Korzo just down the block from me.  The brunch there is always good.  Hell, everything there is good.  Even the things I can't eat, so I hear.

After brunch, Karishma and I, went off on our own to Staten Island to visit Snug Harbor, a really beautiful and secluded botanical garden that is relatively unfrequented and therefore a nice spot to laze away an afternoon and feel far removed from city life.  I had been once before two years ago but didn't really explore the garden all that much.  We kind of just stayed in one area of it, and while we saw some beautiful parts of it, we didn't get the full scope of the place.  And I'm not saying I did this time either but I did wander down a little and stumble on a castle-like structure that was connected to a fenced in hedge maze leading to a secret garden.   At this point, our time to get back to the city was dwindling because I had tickets to see Mike Doughty at City Winery at 8pm (doors were at 6:30pm) and needed to touch base back at home and grab my phone charger...checking Facebook to see who's posted birthday wishes on my timeline sure runs your battery down.

Mike Doughty is one of my favorite artists these days and, though, I recently saw him at Brooklyn Bowl with some friends who also know all the words and had a great time at the show, I caught wind of the City Winery residency and had to snag up tickets.  It's an intimate venue and how cool is it that it's a winery in the city and they make their own wine and serve it on tap?! I picked table seats right next to the stage and must have bought them four months ago.  At the time I didn't have any clear idea who I'd go with.  My brother had been planning on coming to the city this weekend but that plan fell through before I could even buy the tickets but I figured, it's my birthday, I wanna do something fun for me.  So I bought two and figured I would sort out my date for the night later.  So, I ultimately invited a friend I just met a month ago the weekend that I ran into all those old Greensboro folks.  It was a good night all around, the food and wine there is amazing (I had the 10oz Ribeye because again, it's my birthday and I can) and the music was great.  Even Doughty's opener was a crowd pleaser and sort of stole the show a little.  Bobby Bare Jr. is a Nashville, TN musician with a sinister and comical edge that lit up the room and cracked us all up, singing songs about killing your loved one like "One of us has got to go." Hilarious!  Apparently, he's worked with Shel Silverstein and written songs with him, one of which he performed early on in his set.  Brilliant.

Doughty came on strong and was funny the whole night as usual.  Played just about everything I wanted to hear and heckled and poked fun at the crowd when they'd start shouting out requests.  "No, I'm not gonna play that one tonight," "Yeah, maybe later," or "I'll play this one now 'cause someone called out in the back of the room," were common retorts.  He even stopped and explained the whole Soul Coughing back story when he got tired of saying no to requests for Soul Coughing songs.   I was happy to hear "Thank you Lord for sending me the F train," among others.

I was not, however, happy to hear the douchie bridge and tunnel f@#$bags at the table behind me who were celebrating their friends' anniversary and wouldn't stop chattering through the set.  Doughty stopped before the second song and said "I'd just like reiterate my talking policy..." saying essentially that if the people around you want you out he'd have no problem bouncing you.  I wished he'd have made good on that one.  After the second time he commented on the chatter, jockie douche bag behind me was muttering something about breaking Mike Doughty's glasses, like he knows he's the one being called out.  I mean, I get it, no one likes being called out but Ooooo, it boils my blood when some ass bag starts disrespecting musicians, especially musicians I'm trying to appreciate on stage.  A guy two seats over from me with a bad Kenny G haircut even asked him to be quiet and got a nice healthy "go f@#$ yourself" out of this clown...at which point, I craned my neck around to get a good look at him.  As I suspected premium Grade A bridge and tunnel trash, only there to drink and eat expensively while being an asshole to everyone in the room.  I tried oh so hard to enjoy the rest of the show and shut out the images of the entire bar ganging up on him in the alley.

I'm sure if he'd have gotten much more belligerent, he would have gotten booted for sure.  But thankfully, he calmed down...I think he probably had a pretty disappointed or embarrassed significant other tethered to him that put a lid on the worst of it.

Anyhow, the rest of the set was gold and I really enjoyed it.  Doughty did his little routine where he says "this is the fake last song!" and then stands on stage with his back to the audience after he plays it pretending like he's not going to play another three songs...but of course, he does. 

After it was over for real, we left the bar and my date had to go to Williamsburg.  She was meeting a friend who was staying with her and didn't know his way around the city on his own.  So we parted ways and I opted to walk through Soho to Prince St.  I got maybe a block away from 6th Avenue before the rain started to pour down out of nowhere.  Rain which thankfully held off through the better part of my day outside but which soaked me to the bone at the very end of my night.  All I could do was laugh and try in vain to hail a cab but ultimately, I wound up with a soggy ride on the N train home to Park Slope where I now sit typing this.  Not too shabby a birthday all around, even with the drenching.  I'm content. 

Tomorrow I meet another set of friends for lunch and then, Tania and I are playing a concert in Times Square area to raise money for her album release at 4pm.  Wish me luck with that.  And let's hope I don't get rained on again.  Here are pics from the day today:

2012 Birthday best shots

Transit Museum….

I've wanted to go see the Transit Museum for a long time now.  Sunday, I finally found the time to go with a friend.  Man, is it cool!  The museum is housed in a decommissioned subway station in downtown Brooklyn and contains several exhibits, some of them interactive, as well as a slew of vintage subway cars that you can board, plastered with all the ads from the era when the cars were in service.

The first thing we saw was an exhibit about the process of building the subway tunnels, focusing on the people involved in the various tasks that went into engineering the massive public works project that is the New York City subway.  The history is fascinating, replete with stories of workers working on the underground tunnels getting sucked out of compressed air tunnels and shot out like a geyser into the East River, or getting buried by boulders dislodged by explosions.  More interesting even were the different methods for building the tunnels depending on the very wide range of geological situations across the city.  I was fascinated by how they actually excavated under the rivers.  Here's a link to a chapter from a book on the subway construction that specifically deals with construction methods.

After that exhibit, there were a few interactive bits that we checked out, mostly on the subject of electrical power in the subway.  Unable to contain myself, I suggested we go downstairs at this point and look at the old train cars, one of the main attractions as far as I'm concerned.  Other than there being a mass of screaming kids on a tour that we kept trying to avoid, it was really cool.  There are some twenty cars down there on the platform level from as far back as the early 1900s.  Some of the oldest ones had wicker seats and ceiling fans.  All of the old cars had ads on them from the period the car was in service.  Here are two that I snapped with my phone:

Going to the museum was a last minute snap decision, so I didn't have my good camera, or I would have taken more pics.  My friend took some that I will post as soon as she emails them to me.  I was really fascinated by the ads and informational posters.

Another cool thing that I wish I had photographed was plopped down in the center of the platform: the truck assembly from an older subway car.  It was really neat to see it all up close and cut away like that so you could see the different components.

Back upstairs, the last thing few things we perused were the array of vintage maps, the cutaways of old city buses and trolleys and a row of old turnstiles with descriptions of the history of why they switched form mechanical to electrical ones and how the current ones work (transactions take less than a tenth of a second with magnetic swipe cards!).

I was like a kid in a candy store the whole time.   More pictures are here:

NYC Transit Museum

Schedule full...

When it rains it pours doesn't even begin to describe it.  Well, it guess it does begin to describe it but it doesn't finish describing it.   I'm speaking about jobs.  Work.  Lots of it.  And most of it I'm excited about.

First, I'm working overnights and overtime and my full time job, and I'm getting more calls from Technicolor.  Second, I've been helping shoot a film with my friend George.  He's shooting a few scenes from his pilot to drum up interest in making the series and he's asked me to help with audio.  So for two nights out of my weekend I was operating boom mic on a sidewalk in Hell's Kitchen for a scene between two pimps and a prostitute.  Edgy subject matter.  But more on that later.  I'm also going to be writing some music, a theme, for this particular piece.  And on top of that, Mohammad has me working on a tune for his production reel, utilizing the accordion.  Bringing in my friend Crystal on this one potentially.

So, on top of writing the piano piece Tania and I will be performing together in Feburary, I'm suddenly writing two other pieces and working like a mad man.  I LOVE IT!

I'm crazy, I know.

Anyway, on the VO front, I just caught wind of an event in midtown in a few weeks that I desperately want to be at and for which I would hope to have at least one of my new demos done.  The 2011 New York Voiceover Mixer.  I've been waiting for something like this for a long time.  And now it comes at a time when it's going to push me to finally get my new demos done.  But I'm not sure it's going to be enough time.  So, a little nervous about that.  I guess I could go with my old demo but I would much prefer to get the new ones done.

Guess there's no rest for the weary!

On another note altogether, I still love my apartment and the new neighborhood…in fact, more and more everyday.  Under the blanket of my apartment is included my landlord, whom I also love.  Leaky radiator?  Fixed in a day.  Breaker blown?  Fixed in minutes.   The other day, I took a bike ride and was at Prospect Park in minutes, where I took these pics:

Fall Colors Prospect Park 2011

Breaking in the new apartment...

I finally posted a clip from the finished DVD of Sides of the Track on the new website.  Had a little time this afternoon around the apartment since I was preparing to host my friend Lauren for dinner.  The first guest we've had in the apartment since moving in.   Also, put some more touches on the piano and electronics piece that I've been working on.  I've got a neat workflow going on with the laptop and the piano.  With the piano being in my room I can put the laptop behind me on the bed with my notation software open and all I have to do is just swing around on the bench and enter notes in Sibelius as I riff on the piano.   It's great.

While I was at it, I couldn't resist, since the apartment was looking so nice after I tidied up for my guest, taking a few pictures of what the place looks like, specifically my den/lair/studio/bedroom.  Here they are:

New Apartment all set up best

Some of those were taken on another night when we were bored playing with the cat.

I can't describe how amazing it is to have a space that I enjoy working in…and cooking in.  I made a nice roasted root vegetable soup for my friend to break in the kitchen…unfortunately though, I had to come in to work tonight, for my fifth overnight in a row.  Tomorrow's technically a day off but I'll be working until 7am Friday so it won't really feel like one.  I go back in to work at 10am Saturday and straight afterwards, I go to the location for the film shoot.  Another shoot, same time on Sunday and then I come back in for another overnight at NY1.  Five more in a row and then I'm back on my regular schedule.  If I survive this, I can do anything.

Swarthmore and Philly...

Just back from Philly today, having ridden on a Bolt Bus for the first time since the accident.  That was fun.  But so was Philadelphia and the concert last night at Swarthmore College.  Every spring and fall they do an alumni and student composers' concert at Swarthmore and Lacy, being an alumnus, was invited back to perform again.  We did her song Moon of Fire which we've been practicing and have performed a handful of times at various open mics lately.  I think she's going to post a youtube video of our performance, too.

The other performances at the concert were all great and there was such a diversity of styles and genres represented, from folk songs, to pop songs, to contemporary concert music to vocal music to duets to small ensemble pieces with percussion, even some electronic music.  I even got to meet some of the alumni composers, one of whom is a professor at NYU, another of whom organized the event and was a phenomenal pianist.  Some of the composers were not present at the concert, the more well-known of them, like James Matheson, a pretty big orchestral composer who has had works performed by the NY Philharmonic, and Peter Shickele better known as the fictional composer, P.D.Q. Bach.  Yes, I had no idea that the P.D.Q. Bach attended Swarthmore College until Lacy clued me in.  And I had forgotten that until Saturday night at the concert when they introduced some of his more serious work that he composed under his real name, Peter Shickele.

So, overall I had a good time.  Murat, my friend the oud player, who helped out on the score to Mohammad's film, showed up with his girlfriend, too.  They live in Philly and drove out for the event, despite the snow (I mean, I guess the snow wasn't all that bad…it only provided me with a slushy, hurried walk to the subway after work and wet socks on the way into the concert hall and was not enough to deter me…although it cause some cancellations on Amtrak).  Anyway, we all went out after the concert, deciding to meet in Center City.  Turns out they both live down there as does Lacy so it was convenient.  After we each found parking, we met back up in the lobby of Lacy's building and began wandering in the cold to find a watering hole and, after trying a few places, wound up at Fergie's Pub.  Chatting about everything from music to dance to Occupy Philly, we stayed out until almost 2am.

Hence my tiredness right now.  Sunday morning I got up around 930 and Lacy and I took off eventually for a walk around Center City checking out the architecture and a few random fun things, like the Sound of Philadelphia Souvenir Shop at the Gamble and Huff Studios on the Avenue of the Arts and the Magic Gardens on South Street.

Philly

The Magic Gardens were pretty damn cool, I thought.  Mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar created these mosaics covering every outer wall of this and other buildings in the South Street area.  Composed of his own tiles, mirrors, glass bottles, bike wheels, tiny statuettes and I even saw an old toilet bowl, the work was part of his and his wife's attempts to revitalize the area.

We didn't tour the inside due to time constraints since I had to catch the bus at 3pm and we still wanted to catch brunch.  We might have gone down to the City Hall area to check out the Occupy Philly demonstrations but only really had time to do a drive by on the way to the train station.

The Bolt Bus came pretty quickly and, though it was rickety and devoid of wifi, it got me to my destination just fine, with just one weird moment when the A/C started whining pretty loudly just outside of the Lincoln Tunnel.  Freaked us all out but thankfully nothing more eventful than that happened and I caught the first C train at 34th and 8th and was home in no time.

Went straight through to the overnight shift without a nap because I'm crazy like that and tomorrow I hope to start working on the piano and electronics piece again.  An update on my progress there soon and hopefully I'll even get some VO work done tomorrow afternoon!