My unreadable ode to New York

    The Decemberists have a song called “I Was Meant for the Stage.”  It’s a sweeping ballad about a characters feeling that he has a God give right to perform.  Other than the obvious connections to my own life.  I think I’m drawn to the song because of sense of drama the song creates for me.  It’s not about wanting to do something or be somewhere, it’s about not having a choice because you are so compelled to do something you have no other choice.  Nor do you want any other choice.

    Yesterday I saw all the things I want to be in my life.  I explored neighborhoods I never knew existed, ate foods made fresh and authentically, wandered through The Villages of New York with one of my best friends.  We wondered what it’s like to live in that beautiful corner loft in alphabet city.  The one overlooking the park with grand windows overlooking their kingdom.  Or the apartment sitting above a coffee shop in Little Italy.  Millions of people have had these thoughts before me but it feels like a right of passage.
    After 3 hours or so of wondering we sat on a bench with coffee and chatted about college..then it dawned on me,
“If we had never moved here, today would have never happened.”  In writing it doesn’t look or feel quite as profound as it did when it came out of my mouth… I think it was brain’s way of thanking my body for getting me here.  I think it’s the amount of truth in the statement that makes me weary of it’s power.  Ofcourse if I wasn’t here that day would never have happened… That is true of any day and any place I happen to be.
    The first weekend when I moved to New York, I wandered aimlessly through my neighborhood, trying to take in everything around me… And trying not to forget how to get home.  The difference between that weekend and yesterday is I felt like a visitor when I first moved here but now, I am a resident.  I can walk around knowing that I am a part of what is around me… And I know how to get home.  
Later that evening, I was getting drinks at a bar, chatting about theater…because it’s impossible not to at some point when around other theater folks, and a man approached us at the bar,  ”Is this bar full of lighting designers?”
I can promise you this has never been asked in a bar where I came from.  I live in such a huge city yet find that I am apart of a few small communities that I never had before.  I know these letters of love to New York are pretty cliche, over thought, and probably borderline unreadable and I would have hated reading this before I moved here.  I just can’t explain enough how much this city has changed me.

“Ofcourse you don’t realize it, you’re surviving it.”

I feel like I am doing much more.

Show Review: BEATdown at UCB

The crowd was sparse at the Friday late night throwdown show at UCB New York.  I would say they’re were twenty to thirty in attendance total.  I had myself my pbr and I was ready for a show I had no idea about, apparently there was going to be some rapping.  Rap would certainly be a misrepresentation of what the 5 white improvisers provided during the hour long show.  The closest was a character who played himself to be a puberty driven pre teen with braces.  Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved the show.  There was only one character who just couldn’t even fake an ability to rap, which kind of screwed up his parts of the show.  The format was simple,  5 comedian mc’s and 1 chosen from a hat audience mc did 30 second back and forth rap battles and then a winner was chosen by applause.  The winner moved on and the loser…didn’t.

Highlights:

- The brace face MC stayed in character perfectly the entire show, doing tons of rhymes about learning how…his body works.  It was very clever and he adapted them nicely to his competition.

- Shockwave who used some light instruments and beat-boxing to compose all the beats was really good.  He kept it all very catchy and was really consistent throughout the show.

- The first competitor was a guy who went by The Intangible.  It was clear that he didn’t really know why he was doing the show but he had a great attitude about it (as did all of them).  At the top of the show, he looked towards me and asked me for a drink of my beer because he was apparently quite thirsty(Thirsty enough to drink beer on stage when apparently they aren’t really supposed to).  I didn’t have any of mine left but I went and bought him a beer, which he was periodically drinking throughout the show…also meaning that he kept winning his battles.   My friends and I were really getting into it and I think the main MC and all the competitors appreciated it considering it was a pretty light house.  The Intangible ended up winning the show and he grabbed me from the audience and proceeded to carry me around the stage in victory.  It was glorious.

Winner!

Overall the show was hilarious and only 5 dollars!  Beers as cheap as 2, you can’t go wrong.  UCB’s full schedule can be found here http://newyork.ucbtheatre.com/schedule/

SUPPORT LOCAL COMEDY!

Prospect Park Ride: 3/6/10

Beautiful 50 degree day in Brooklyn.   I’m on a bench in Prospect Park taking it all on.  It’s the first of these days that has hit Brooklyn since winter started so so long ago.  Bikers of all levels are out in full force, runners as well.  These are the days that slap me in the face and remind me I don’t have to be locked up in my room anymore! The slush and drear is behind us!  As the days lengthen so will the rides.  I’m hoping to get my road bike down in a week just in time for Spring to get full force and training for my first ever century in September can really be kicked up.  I hope it’s beautiful where you are,

Bikes and Finland sucks

Lets have a conversational journal hive mind time warp eco friendly talky talk.  Those were all words that may or may not make any sense together.

Side note: I’m apparently in the young couples car on my train..

I went to a beer garden or biergarten this past weekend while the bronze metal hockey competition was commencing.  I only wish this could be the case with every bar I went to.  At least a dozen slovaks were yelling out cheers and being drunk and awesome.  Everyone was glued to the 32″ top hung  lcd televisions mounted on either side of the germanic feeling spacious bar.  Jerseys with names I couldn’t pronounce and logos that at some point in history were most certainly mounted on the shields of vikings were scattered through the boustrious crowd.  (little known fact:  All professional sports logos are borrowed from Nordic tribes. Just ask Tom Hanks in The DaVinchi Code II:  Who The Fuck Are The San Antonio Spurs.)  The game is tight.   Finland is up by a singular goal with under two minutes of euroskateshootscore action remaining.  With every slovakian missed shot, the crowd goes into another frenzy.  The game ends and there is a brief silence.  Then rising up like jean gray as phoenix…or spiderman in that part of the fight where it looks like he might lose, a voice begins to speak.

FINLAND SUCKS! FINLAND SUCKS!

They have taken to the Boston style of sports saddness.  I look to might right and there stands a singular Finland jersey, smirk on his face as he walks away to the pisser for his celebritory pee.  He probably won’t use his hands because he’s on top of the world…. And drunk.

In other news:

One of my hobbies living in new york city is to track the number of bike gears as it persists to neighborhoods in the city.  First, some ground rules.

1) Delivery bikers don’t count, they are everywhere and all ride the same shitty mountain bikes covered in tube protectors and plastic bag seat covers.

2) Going along with that; bike messengers don’t count either.. But people who think they’re bike messengers do.  (its pretty easy to tell the difference if you look at style of bag and frame type etc.  I could probably start a completely separate blog called “Bike Messenger or Bike Hipster”…not going to lie, I really love that idea.

Anyway, i’ll lay out some basic observations about gear tendencies in the past months since moving here:
A) highest fixed gear concentration?  From West 4th to 14th st and then over to the East Village.  A lot of this can be attributed to the prevalence of NYU students in the area who are a largely unnoticed demo of the nyc fixed gear community.   Everyone always say brooklyn and Williamsburg more specifically, while these are heavily fixed gear populated areas, I see them locked up more in the villages.
The Park Slope area, where I reside has a pretty strong fixed gear community but unlike the villages, I almost always see them being ridden.  5th avenue which is dotted with wine bars, coffee shops, and boutique vintage clothing stores could be considered a hotbed of the Park Slope fixed gear community.
B)  I will give Brooklyn the fact that they have a higher quality of bikes than I generally see in Lower Manhattan.  A lot more newer made whips like Moth’s, Bareknuckles (which are fucking amazing), and Affinity Lo Pros (my fav nyc based brand not names Continuum).  NYU has a lot more motobecane’s and old schwinns.
C)  This may go without saying but you’ll see a lot more fixies if your in the vicinity of a predominately fixed gear bike shop.  Hang out in the neighborhoods of Chari and Co or Continuum and you’ll see a higher volume in both quality and quantity.

D) The highest i’ve ever seen a fixie was in Central Park on a bike lane.  It was a track bike with an aerospoke.  He was clearly not fucking around as he was keeping up with the high society Cervelo 3T riders.

This is just the beginning of an ongoing series.  Please feel free to add your own rules and guidelines into the comments page.

It’s been a while poster…

Hey gang,

I apologize for the absence the past couple days.  I’ve been experimenting with this weird concept called “working.”  I haven’t fully grasped it yet but it has something to do with the exchange of trade skills for currency or… Getting your name onto a couple more magical “lists.”
Fear not singular reader (myself), I should be back into more consistent action this week.  I need to take a moment to harp about something:

Never turn down work because you can’t get paid.  The people you meet and the respect you can gain by treating every job the same (respectfully and professionally) is worth more than waiting around for a single day pay out.  I’ve gotten more work from people I’ve worked with than any resume i’ve sent… Hopefully that’s not a reflection on my resume… Anyway, that’s today “life tip that only really applies to freelance theater professionals.”
Let’s have some fun:  There is a hasidic fellow sitting on the train across from me who may be reading from the largest old testament I have ever seen.. (i always forget if they read old or new).  It literally looks like it’s hundreds of pages of legal sized bound parchment.  I think if I showed him a paperback book, his mind would be blown (don’t even bring up the kindle)  he probably is wondering how I got my typewriter so small…  God, I want a Palm Typewriter…  Full sized type writer with a flexible lcd screen that actually moves up as you finish rows and types in e-ink.  3G or wifi standard and comes preloaded with capabilities to send to any host or blog type.  Also… You can’t delete anything but that goes without saying because it’s a typewriter. Duh.  It would also still have the sweet typewriter hammer-action so it actually looked like it was acting as a real typewriter.

My Morning Joe III

    Sleek metal body, highly insulated, and a mouth to drink out of.  No not a sex doll; a travel mug.  No one will argue the travel mug’s importance.  It was intregal to two world wars, and all major military conflicts in the past 8 centuries.  
    When war caused food and supply shortages, the travel mug held steadfast to it’s belief that all of man kind deserves to have their hot beverages kept hot. They also deserve slight discounts at coffee shops and chains. 
    Much like the moleskin notebook, abacus, and Ford branded trucks,  many famous artists from Picasso to Ross have relied on travel mugs as their preferred form of liquid transportation.   When asked about travel mugs, here’s what some famous people said;

“As a bearded man, I know the value of a good containers.. Four score and travel mugs rock!”
-Abraham Lincoln from his memorial in Washington

“I drank from a travel mug when I signed the Magna Carta!  No spills here!” -Guy who signed the Magna Carta

“I never go to a set without my travel mug.  Mine says World’s Best Dad.” – Ted Grump lead gaff for Surf Ninjas.

“You know what’s better than sex with me? Nothing! But travel mugs are great too.” – Ron Jeremy and woman.

Comments on Art

I have found that I have a lot more time to reflect on the quality of work being done around me than when I first began freelancing.  Today was a big day, I worked with my most extensive rig of moving lights since moving to the city.  Play time was had.  I was almost immdiately overwhelmed when I sat down at the console, which costs morw than my annual income (before tax times 2).
   I have used the console before but never with a full rig to really try it out.  It was kind of like giving a basketball to a soccer player, it’s still a ball and could be used for soccer but that’s not really it’s purpose.  When I first put fingers to keys, I found myself tending to create static looks as opposed to dramatic rock and roll looks with movement and multiple parts.  Part of it was inexperience, not only with the console but also the art.  The other part may have been hesistation on my part to let loose.  Static lighting is what I learned.  Sure, I can cue but that’s with 125 conventionals not 36 movers.  It’s very intimidating.  I sat there wishing I had just four electrics of downlight white pars.  
Regardless of what I wanted, it was great to try out a powerful rig and then see a professional busk away for an hour.  Tomorrow I get to watch for 10.  I’m a lucky motherfucker and I’ll never let myself forget that fact.  I don’t quite know how I feel about replacing a convention rig with movers, but if I was doing a multi perfornwe dance piece (dream!) than I would spec 10, and the producers would laugh.  I am becoming more and more torn between designer and technician.  I’ve been lucky enough to do both but I can only make a true living being one.  If only all of lifes problems were so beautiful.  Choose between two things you love to do for the rest of my life? Sounds good.
We’re going to be short on posts for the next two days.  Heavy work schedule beckons me to dark cavernous theaters.

I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Gross mushy post done.