Fairly surreal times

Figure it is about time for an update. The last couple of weeks have been absolutely ridiculous. I’ve been working sort of temporarily at a medical journal doing layout type stuff, which is in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. They may or may not keep me on, now that their latest issue has been completely layed out. I have to sort of give them an outline of what I’d be doing there besides layout, so I might end up doing a lot of the IT/ Tech stuff, uploading videos, getting traffic to the website etc.. Have a couple interviews at places that I’m more interested in for the long term, but I have no idea how that’ll go.

All kinds of people have been in and out of here too. This included rainy trips to see Vampire Weekend in Central Park for free, eating free hot dogs in bars around here, rooftop parties next door, walking around and looking at local graffiti in the area, talking about gentrification with bartenders, drinking alcohol with Jordan Rothman and meeting his brother, and running into someone completely randomly and drinking bombs with ex- Iraqi war veterans. That was weird. They were friend’s of a friend, and it was this guy’s 50th birthday, and he requested to come on my roof for the view.

So yeah. Pretty good times. I also went home to MN for a grad party type thing and saw all my family pretty much. We had like 13 people staying in our house for a few days, and I got to take my cousin to White Castle, which he strongly craved.

The other great thing about this place is that there are like free giveaways/ events/ bars like everyday. There is no reason to get bored. Man, is it storming out right now.

Brushing up on my InDe$ign Skills

Alright. Some more good news. I got some responses back from my job applications, but none really amounted to anything. Then yesterday a guy got back to me and I had one of those easy phone interviews. Basically, I just went in today to the Upper East Side and did some layout for this medical journal, called onemedplace.com. I know absolutely nothing about medical/ tech/ health that they’re covering, but its pretty professional overall, and in some ways very similar to the way The Hoot was put together. I even offered some useful ideas regarding how to organize things. G’bless The Hoot. Was based in a studio/ office sort of near the Met I suppose.

They were paying my $17.50 an hour to boot, to do things I sort of toiled away with for free with The Hoot for hours and hours on end. It’s funny, my InDesign/ layout skills aren’t even that superb, I’m a bit rusty, but it really isn’t stuff that’s very complicated. So hooray. Easy money, and possibilities for working with these kinds of media groups in the future.

They’re also very New Media oriented, so I may / may not get involved in those aspects. It’s sort of a temp gig it seems, though they said they might keep me on for the long term. It is really just some money on the side, something to do while I apply for more long term stuff. But lord knows, I might be still working there in a few months and laugh at this post.

Today it was sweltering too, and every time they tried to turn on a fan the power would go out on the surrounding couple of computers… So that was kind of annoying, and I had to keep restarting my computer. There was this really indie chick who was rocking the typical Brooklyn hipster femme look, she had the black rimmed glasses, red lipstick, tattoo and all the right clothing. The main guy, the CEO kind of reminded me of Owen Wilson. He is apparently from Minnetonka, MN, or nearby. How very random.

So at least my job apps are sort of starting to pay off. Not sure what to expect for tomorrow, when I’ll be working for a longer period most likely.

Quick Update

The last few days have been fairly low key. I have been applying left and right to a zillion jobs all over the city, moving things in slowly but surely, and getting a better grip on the surrounding area. I also helped a Brandeis friend, Pep, decide on which apartment he would move into. He’s going to be near Times Square in Hell’s Kitchen, a nice area, but not really my thing. I think most NYers despise Times Square for its Disneyification of sorts, though it will be nice to be able to visit him and be around every once in a while. I also hung out with another friend, Limo, who is living for free in Queens for the summer, and today John Farr is coming to visit. We may finally make that trip to Katz’s Deli, though its like ridic overpriced. But I feel that it is fairly necessary to get to at least once since I’m so close.

Other than that, not a whole lot to say. It is crazy hot outside, I found a new way of watching the NBA Finals online without a tv (justin.tv), and I’ve been drinking a lot of this espresso coffee that I purchased to make at home from Little Italy.

This.. is… awesome….

I’m on the roof of my apartment! Using Wifi to make this post! I have a perfect view of midtown manhattan. I can see the MetLife Building, Chrysler Building, and Empire State Building among others. This is the life! This is a bad representation what I am seeing as its a crappy screenshot from my computer. Must get a decent camera for better pics soon!

Free things and not so free things I’d like to get to

Well, it is time to start planning a bit ahead in terms of hitting all of the free events this city has to offer. And also make sure I get to some kick ass concerts in the process. A partial lineup for the rest of this month:

Today or tomorrow: Big Apple BBQ Festival, at Madison Square Park- Lots of BBQ ribs galore, free stuff. Went last year with a few people randomly and it was awesome.

Sunday, June 8th: MySpace’s 150th Secret Show anniversary at Fillmore- Well, this one is doubtful, since it is completely free and could be crazy since the bands playing are Gnarls Barkley, and Battles. I think I’d rather see Battles, but maybe I’ll stop by. Pretty ridiculous, I guess if you have the right kind of phone, they will let you go to the front of the line. All I can think of is MySpace pedophiles with nice phones…

Saturday, June 14th: Vampire Weekend at Central Park’s Summerstage. These guys have been hyped left and right, but almost deservedly so. Great debut album, new innovative sound, and I’m excited to be able to see this one for free in the middle of Central Park. There’s going to be like a billion people there too. They’re kind of this year’s Arcade Fire, I suppose.

Sunday, June 15th: Rooney at Fillmore. I may or may not go to this one, they’re sort of a guilty pleasure band, having that Weezer type sound, but a bit more poppy. Still, I thought their last album was wicked catchy. They’ve been out of the spotlight significantly since their O.C. / Princess Diaries days, so it might be interesting to see them at this sort of random time for the band.

Monday, June 16th or June 17th: Sigur Ros at Grand Ballroom or Museum of Modern Art. Man, these guys are awesome. I feel like seeing them live would be a very psychadelic experience. This may or may not happen.

Monday, June 16th: Free showing of Dr. No at Bryant Park. This would be a cool alternative to Sigur Ros. Great movie, and great atmosphere, since you’re in the middle of NYC with a giant screen.

Tuesday, June 18th: Ting TIngs at Bowery Ballroom. Bowery Ballroom is amazing venue from what I hear and this is a huge up and coming band worth seeing. Probably a good combo, eh?

Thursday, June 19th: R.E.M. concert with Modest Mouse and The National, at Madison Square Garden– Particularly excited about this one. Going with Dustin as a b-day present for him. I’ve never been to the Garden, love R.E.M.’s most recent album and the band in general. Plus, these other two bands are huge, and great in their own right. It’s really a three for one, I think. Should be amazing….

I’ll be in MN for the 21st-24thish for my grad party…

Thursday, June 26th: Thievery Corporation, Seu Jorge at Central Park for free. Thievery Corp. are at the head of one of my favorite genres and again its Central Park.

Friday, June 27th: A Place to Bury Strangers, King Khan and the Shrines, Black Acid at South Street Seaport for free. The Seaport is a heck of a place to see a free show. Not really too familiar with these bands.

Sunday, June 29th: The Hold Steady, The Loved Ones, free at McCarren Park Pool. The Hold Steady are a Minnesota band now based in Brooklyn I believe, and have been very well received, and certainly put on a fan friendly show. They’ve done a number of free shows, and I have missed them all, so I really hope to get to this one out in Williamsbur.

Lots of cool stuff to see, and certainly keep me busy for the rest of this month.

Moving to New York

So here I am, after all of these months of searching, in my apartment at 4th Street and Avenue A, in New York.. I cannot tell you how big of a relief it is to finally be here, not to mention the fact that this is a great place for the right price in an amazing area. The last month or so has been completely RIDICULOUS. I’ve studied for finals, been to NYC and back twice in less than a month to look at apartments, celebrated during senior week, graduated from college like everyone else, visited London with my family, stayed in a hostel for several days with my sister, and now FINALLY moved in.

There’s really a lot to cover here, though I’m just going to talk about the basics and eventually the details will come out in future posts. Whoever says you can’t live comfortably in Manhattan for less than 2k is completely wrong. This apartment has a huge bedroom with a nice bed, a common space with a big couch, all your kitchen supplies, and 2 bathrooms, one with a toilet, the other with a shower. I’m next to a 24 hour grocery store, which is a pretty awesome store in itself, and even sells a wonderful array of foods, beers, and such. Then there’s a discount liquor store, and one of those awesome magazine/ newspaper shops with like everything right across the street from that! Ha…

And the East Village, let me tell you, is amazing. This area along with Alphabet City, which I’m also sort of in, were really sketchy maybe 15 years ago, but not so bad these days. There are dozens of beautiful public gardens where you can just kind of walk in and chill lining these streets. This isn’t exactly the skyscrapered New York most people think of when they picture the city. It’s also almost all local businesses in the immediate vicinity. And I’m like literally 4 blocks from St. Mark’s Place, one of the coolest streets in the city. It’s lined with crazy t-shirts, hookah sets, record stores, and sushi bars. Then if I walk in any particular direction for 10-15 minutes, I can be in Union Square (just a great place to sit and hangout), Greenwich Village (aaamazing night life, stores, food, etc), Lower East Side (Katz’s Deli is so close I can smell the Corned Beef), SoHo (trendy clothes and what not), and a train to Brooklyn’s coolest area, Williamsburg. Also pretty awesome to have casual 15 minute walking access to Chinatown and Little Italy. There are too many food options to choose from. I can’t tell you how awesome this is after having literally ONE option (Cappy’s, god bless your mediocre food) all the time at Brandeis.

I don’t have to have a car either, which I think makes things a lot cheaper and easier for me overall.
I’m also still kind of in the process of moving in, and will be spending the summer splitting the rent with my resident partner in crime, Dusty Bear. After having to try and advocate for him as well as myself for housing arrangements with random people I contacted thru Craigslist, I’m really glad that things will work out for the both of us. Come September though, I’ll probably have to fill his spot in order to save some money.

Jobwise, I have a part- time gig with an online music video startup, but they are a few months away from letting me work full – time, so I’ve just started to search a bit more for more substantial jobs. Got a reply back from a couple people, and it looks like this company Momentum Worldwide was interested in interviewing. They’re like this ridiculous online marketing/ promotions company who do a lot of promotion of music events, and other companies. It is by no means my ideal job but it could definitely work.

Of course, it is a bit different being here all on my own, after not having a moment to myself for the past several weeks. I’m kind of enjoying the pure freedom right now, though of course it is sad not to be in closer contact with Deis people. But it looks like a lot of Grads will be in the area overall, and I’m sure I’ll be able to keep myself fairly busy. I actually ran into a Brandeis ’08er who I didn’t really know at a coffee shop in SoHo, and we talked for a bit. She actually had her computer up, and was watching a video on The Hoot’s website, which I thought was hilarious. What are the odds?

Well, there are certainly a lot of gaps to fill, much to say about London, my sister’s visit, and graduation, etc, but not now. I gotta get out on this beautiful day and move some more stuff and take it all in.