Hola amigos,
I moved to my new apt. in Stuy Town at the beginning of the month, and loooove it. (quick NYC lesson: Stuy Town is short for Stuyvesant Town, and the U is silent ["sty"]). And here's where I live on a map: http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2007/03/30/realestate/01livi.map.ready.html
There are going to be 5 of us girls living in a 2-bedroom apt...a little tight, but that's what happens if you want to stay in Manhattan. I completely lucked out, since the girls are friends of my friends, and will be seniors at NYU. As of now I've had the big room to myself, but 2 ladies will be joining me this week. The sweetest thing: we have a view of the East River (and Queens) from every window. Including the bathroom - seriously the coolest view seen from a shower, ever. For the month of August, we've had a subletter from Spain named Maria who is so awesome - she's here taking an English class for a month after graduating from college in Valencia, and also after having studied abroad in Brussels and Chile. I feel like I'm constantly surrounded by amazing people. :)
So while I have a lack of children in my life right now, things have significantly chilled out since camp ended August 1st. I've gotten to relax for the first time since June, just working on my internship part-time still, hanging out with friends, writing here and there...the usual. And 2 of my old Madison roommates, Nikki & Andrew, came to visit for a week, so it was a blast showing them the city, literally running around non-stop.
What else...OH I got to see RENT for one final time yesterday, since it's closing in a few weeks. After trying unsuccessfully to win lottery tickets two days in a row, I won a $20 front-row seat at the matinée yesterday :D :D :D ...for all you theater enthusiasts, JoAnn was played by the actress from the movie, Tracie Thoms, and Maureen was played by Eden Espinosa, otherwise known as the stand-in for Elpheba (Idina Menzel) in Wicked...the very same actress I saw in Wicked, which was my first Broadway show ever, my junior year of high school...okay I'll stop now. :P Can't you tell how much I love musicals???
Not to get too philosophical, but I'm really enjoying just taking life day by day and soaking up all the awesomeness that exists everywhere here. And I've been doing this by literally walking everywhere...both to save money by not taking the subway and to finally fit exercising into my life...and also because the best way to see NY is by foot. :) ...and I'm pretty sure I've racked up at least 30 miles in the past few days.
To close, here's the 56,873rd reason to love New York: packed streets full of people, bright lights, and restaurants and stores and bars open at 2 a.m. on a Sunday night. :)
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Life's pretty sweet
So here's a brief summary of the past 2 weeks:
I'm now in the 3rd week of the GO GREEN camp. The kids are adorable, and I love hanging out with them all day. I teach science-y stuff in the morning, play games, and draw, along with other various camp activities.. we also get to go on field trips to Central Park, the Museum of Natural History, the Seaport ...and today we built solar-powered cars at Solar One on the East River. It's a pretty awesome day job.
What else... I also am writing a lot of music reviews for my internship, and went to a concert last Friday to take pics & write a story... little by little I will become a music journalist! :)
I've been insanely busy - but good busy - so I'm trying to remember what I've actually been doing ... A LOT of concerts, a lot of walking all over the place, hanging out with friends, dancing in random bars in Williamsburg & downtown... catching random street performers, eating awesome food, happy hours.... the good life :)
but yeah onto serious business: I found an apt. with friends of friends-- 4 NYU girls, cramming 5 of us into a 2-bedroom place in Stuy Town (5 blocks east of where I am now, on 14th & Avenue C. It's a huge community, lots of trees, lots of families and young people -- almost like outside of NY, in its own bubble. And we have a view of WATER - the east river. :)
And I decided to sign up for the Peace Corps, to start a year from now. My lease goes for a year, so I'll be nannying all school year, hopefully getting paid by MusicDish, or I'll find another freelance journalism job, and I will be WRITING and enjoying NYC all year. But I really need to get out of the country and actually do something that will matter to people other than myself. I'm so excited to get out of my comfort zone, be in a completely foreign culture, and make a difference. And Peace Corps is an amazing opportunity. The app. process takes a year... so not too many details now.
I also randomly volunteered at a nursing home playing roulette with seniors the other day, and met 2 awesome ladies from England & Barbados.
Did I mention I love NY?
{And now I have way too many pictures, to the point that my computer is literally at max capacity. And I also have too little patience to wait 9 hours to upload them, so just take my word for it that everything here is absolutely gorgeous!)
I'm now in the 3rd week of the GO GREEN camp. The kids are adorable, and I love hanging out with them all day. I teach science-y stuff in the morning, play games, and draw, along with other various camp activities.. we also get to go on field trips to Central Park, the Museum of Natural History, the Seaport ...and today we built solar-powered cars at Solar One on the East River. It's a pretty awesome day job.
What else... I also am writing a lot of music reviews for my internship, and went to a concert last Friday to take pics & write a story... little by little I will become a music journalist! :)
I've been insanely busy - but good busy - so I'm trying to remember what I've actually been doing ... A LOT of concerts, a lot of walking all over the place, hanging out with friends, dancing in random bars in Williamsburg & downtown... catching random street performers, eating awesome food, happy hours.... the good life :)
but yeah onto serious business: I found an apt. with friends of friends-- 4 NYU girls, cramming 5 of us into a 2-bedroom place in Stuy Town (5 blocks east of where I am now, on 14th & Avenue C. It's a huge community, lots of trees, lots of families and young people -- almost like outside of NY, in its own bubble. And we have a view of WATER - the east river. :)
And I decided to sign up for the Peace Corps, to start a year from now. My lease goes for a year, so I'll be nannying all school year, hopefully getting paid by MusicDish, or I'll find another freelance journalism job, and I will be WRITING and enjoying NYC all year. But I really need to get out of the country and actually do something that will matter to people other than myself. I'm so excited to get out of my comfort zone, be in a completely foreign culture, and make a difference. And Peace Corps is an amazing opportunity. The app. process takes a year... so not too many details now.
I also randomly volunteered at a nursing home playing roulette with seniors the other day, and met 2 awesome ladies from England & Barbados.
Did I mention I love NY?
{And now I have way too many pictures, to the point that my computer is literally at max capacity. And I also have too little patience to wait 9 hours to upload them, so just take my word for it that everything here is absolutely gorgeous!)
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Summer is glorious
* happy hour - summer nights - Central Park - Madison Square Park - concerts - Williamsburg - P.S. 1 Museum in Queens - Morgan Library Museum - outside dining - (apartment) shopping - old friends - new friends - fireworks!
Life is good. :)
Empire State Bldg., pre-fourth-of-July lights, on the 4th:
P.S. 1 Museum in Long Island City, Queens (what used to be an old schoolhouse, and is now a sweet modern art museum).
Awesome architecture:
Some sugary patriotism:
The Empire State Building puts on his red, white, & blue:
Sitting on a towel, on the sidewalk, under a tree, in front of a park, in the rain, waiting for the fireworks, only to learn that we could not see anything from where we were, and then had to battle millions of people to walk 10 blocks south to catch a view of 1/5 of the sky for the finale, while being pushed by sweaty, cranky, loud people and even crankier, louder cops, herding people out of the streets as taxis strove to hit us all. Only in NY.
Life is good. :)
Empire State Bldg., pre-fourth-of-July lights, on the 4th:
P.S. 1 Museum in Long Island City, Queens (what used to be an old schoolhouse, and is now a sweet modern art museum).
Awesome architecture:
Some sugary patriotism:
The Empire State Building puts on his red, white, & blue:
Sitting on a towel, on the sidewalk, under a tree, in front of a park, in the rain, waiting for the fireworks, only to learn that we could not see anything from where we were, and then had to battle millions of people to walk 10 blocks south to catch a view of 1/5 of the sky for the finale, while being pushed by sweaty, cranky, loud people and even crankier, louder cops, herding people out of the streets as taxis strove to hit us all. Only in NY.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Let the randomness continue
So on Friday, Kristin, Carla, & I hopped onto a train and headed to Connecticut to visit the Troy family. I'll summarize the weekend: strawberry/raspberry/cherry-picking at 2 orchards, swimming in a SWEET LAKE, eating at the famous Harry's Place, watching the annual fireworks show in Hebron, a bonfire, complete with s'mores -- and then we hopped back on a train to go home to the city. The pictures will do a better job of explaining things:
strawberry-picking:
raspberry-picking:
cherry trees
Gardner Beach, where I WILL buy property one day:
fiiiiire:
strawberry-picking:
raspberry-picking:
cherry trees
Gardner Beach, where I WILL buy property one day:
fiiiiire:
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Fine dining, camping, and interviewing Musicians... all in a week
Due to the fact that I am online all day and night for my internship, I've been giving my fingers some rest, and subsequently haven't spent much time doing anything else besides work that requires typing. But it's time for a break.
The past week or so has been c-raaazy. Carla's dad was in town from Oregon, so I had the luxury of going out to eat all weekend and getting to see Fuerzabruta ("brute force" in Spanish), this WILD Broadway show that is by far like nothing I've ever seen or even heard of. I really can't explain it well, but I'll try: no plot, no dialogue, no seats, fog, water showers, large plastic sheets above the audience (who stands in a circle) on which semi- to fully-naked girls slide across like slip-and-slides, all the the while contorting their bodies into beautiful shapes... there was also some intense treadmill-running that included harnesses, and other acrobats that clearly defied gravity. Oh, and the occassional screaming and kicking and shredding of boxes, along with running through styrofoam walls. SO COOL.
Umm what else... so then I had to get on a school bus at 7 am on Monday to be taken to an undicsclosed location in upstate New York for some type of vague training for my summer camp job. Good thing Kristin was there, or I would've been mildly concerned. All in all, I had a great time and met so many amazing people who are working at all the YMCA summer camps in the city. But for reference purposes, I'm just going to explain, factually, the mishaps we encountered: a broken bus, with an incompetent driver - not once, but twice. On the way there, the bus was smoking, and it took us three and a half hours to complete a route that should have taken under 2. On the way back, the driver had a bus with a broken door, so he thought it would be smart to use a clothes hanger to keep the door from whipping open on the freeway as people flew out of the door. Fortunately, we all survived. He also drove across Manhattan in the opposite direction before taking us home. And no one told us to bring sheets, so we practically froze to death when it got down to the 50s overnight, as a few of us girls slept on pillows of our pants and used beach towels as blankets. It was definitely a bonding experience, that's for sure. I love the city, but it was nice to see a little green and hear silence for a couple days.
Since I got back, I've been working non-stop for my internship, but it is totally paying off already. My bio & pic are now posted on the staff page, and I got to interview an R&B artist via e-mail, and did a Skype interview last night with an indie singer-songwriter from L.A. I just keep realizing more and more that I love journalism because behind the facts, it's really about telling stories. And thanks to all my creative writing experience, I LOVE stories, so I just get to carry over what I've learned. Who knew college would actually prepare me for the work world?
So yeah. I'm working on a couple articles and I've also been writing press releases and album reviews.
...And the best news of the day (and possibly the entire summer): I am officially employed from September to June. I lucked out the max max max ---- I posted a listing on a babysitting website a while ago, and sort of gave up on looking for a job through there. Then I got an e-mail a week or so ago from a woman who saw my profile and wanted to meet. The interview was last week, which went surprisingly well for someone like myself who typically talks a million miles an hour and practically gets hives at interviews. Then this morning I went to their apartment to meet the kids -- ON CENTRAL PARK WEST, ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE RESERVOIR. This might not mean much if you're not familiar with NYC, but this area is known as the upper west side, the ritziest area of Manhattan. And the ritziest of the rizty area overlooks Central Park. And the reservoir is a body of water in the park that is overwhelmingly gorgeous. And the mansion of an apt. inside the building that looked like a hotel is WHERE I WILL BE WORKING. I.am.so.lucky. I apologize for all the yelling. But what this really means is that I am now able to afford living in Manhattan, and no longer have to submit myself to living an hour out into Queens or Brooklyn, perhaps risking my life every time I step out my door. Ok so I'm being overly dramatic...but I can now afford to live somewhere safe and close. YAY.
To top off my sleep deprivation, I went to a free creative writing workshop by Gotham Writers Workshop tonight. The moral of that story is... I need to get back into creative writing. Like, immediately. Except not tonight.... if procrastinating were an art, I would undeniably be a phenomenal artist.
Fantastic seafood platter @ a steak restaurant in Midtown with Papa Benton & friends:
Carla's & my dessert: a chocolate basket.
Summer camp counselors: the Brit and the...sleeping Marley.
What we drove by:
Nature...what is that, again?
GO GREEN counselors :)
Pretty pretty.
Notice the fine linens on my bed:
So excited to be sleeping on a dirty tarp with a towel and no sweatshirt, in the proximity of spiders.
All of us in the room were sheetless. We should have formed a club.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD WHERE I'LL BE BABYSITTING!!!!!!!!
The Central Park Reservoir and all of its splendor:
The past week or so has been c-raaazy. Carla's dad was in town from Oregon, so I had the luxury of going out to eat all weekend and getting to see Fuerzabruta ("brute force" in Spanish), this WILD Broadway show that is by far like nothing I've ever seen or even heard of. I really can't explain it well, but I'll try: no plot, no dialogue, no seats, fog, water showers, large plastic sheets above the audience (who stands in a circle) on which semi- to fully-naked girls slide across like slip-and-slides, all the the while contorting their bodies into beautiful shapes... there was also some intense treadmill-running that included harnesses, and other acrobats that clearly defied gravity. Oh, and the occassional screaming and kicking and shredding of boxes, along with running through styrofoam walls. SO COOL.
Umm what else... so then I had to get on a school bus at 7 am on Monday to be taken to an undicsclosed location in upstate New York for some type of vague training for my summer camp job. Good thing Kristin was there, or I would've been mildly concerned. All in all, I had a great time and met so many amazing people who are working at all the YMCA summer camps in the city. But for reference purposes, I'm just going to explain, factually, the mishaps we encountered: a broken bus, with an incompetent driver - not once, but twice. On the way there, the bus was smoking, and it took us three and a half hours to complete a route that should have taken under 2. On the way back, the driver had a bus with a broken door, so he thought it would be smart to use a clothes hanger to keep the door from whipping open on the freeway as people flew out of the door. Fortunately, we all survived. He also drove across Manhattan in the opposite direction before taking us home. And no one told us to bring sheets, so we practically froze to death when it got down to the 50s overnight, as a few of us girls slept on pillows of our pants and used beach towels as blankets. It was definitely a bonding experience, that's for sure. I love the city, but it was nice to see a little green and hear silence for a couple days.
Since I got back, I've been working non-stop for my internship, but it is totally paying off already. My bio & pic are now posted on the staff page, and I got to interview an R&B artist via e-mail, and did a Skype interview last night with an indie singer-songwriter from L.A. I just keep realizing more and more that I love journalism because behind the facts, it's really about telling stories. And thanks to all my creative writing experience, I LOVE stories, so I just get to carry over what I've learned. Who knew college would actually prepare me for the work world?
So yeah. I'm working on a couple articles and I've also been writing press releases and album reviews.
...And the best news of the day (and possibly the entire summer): I am officially employed from September to June. I lucked out the max max max ---- I posted a listing on a babysitting website a while ago, and sort of gave up on looking for a job through there. Then I got an e-mail a week or so ago from a woman who saw my profile and wanted to meet. The interview was last week, which went surprisingly well for someone like myself who typically talks a million miles an hour and practically gets hives at interviews. Then this morning I went to their apartment to meet the kids -- ON CENTRAL PARK WEST, ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE RESERVOIR. This might not mean much if you're not familiar with NYC, but this area is known as the upper west side, the ritziest area of Manhattan. And the ritziest of the rizty area overlooks Central Park. And the reservoir is a body of water in the park that is overwhelmingly gorgeous. And the mansion of an apt. inside the building that looked like a hotel is WHERE I WILL BE WORKING. I.am.so.lucky. I apologize for all the yelling. But what this really means is that I am now able to afford living in Manhattan, and no longer have to submit myself to living an hour out into Queens or Brooklyn, perhaps risking my life every time I step out my door. Ok so I'm being overly dramatic...but I can now afford to live somewhere safe and close. YAY.
To top off my sleep deprivation, I went to a free creative writing workshop by Gotham Writers Workshop tonight. The moral of that story is... I need to get back into creative writing. Like, immediately. Except not tonight.... if procrastinating were an art, I would undeniably be a phenomenal artist.
Fantastic seafood platter @ a steak restaurant in Midtown with Papa Benton & friends:
Carla's & my dessert: a chocolate basket.
Summer camp counselors: the Brit and the...sleeping Marley.
What we drove by:
Nature...what is that, again?
GO GREEN counselors :)
Pretty pretty.
Notice the fine linens on my bed:
So excited to be sleeping on a dirty tarp with a towel and no sweatshirt, in the proximity of spiders.
All of us in the room were sheetless. We should have formed a club.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD WHERE I'LL BE BABYSITTING!!!!!!!!
The Central Park Reservoir and all of its splendor:
Saturday, June 21, 2008
I...can do anything...
...remember the Reading Rainbow theme song? hah. But really... I keep lucking out to the max. My internship has been going really well; it's a lot of work, but I do all of it from home online. So far I've been managing facebook groups and other online networking sites for the artists that MusicDish represents, and I've also been doing a lot of marketing research to promote the bands and the company. It's kind of crazy working on the, like, 15 different websites and trying to multi-task nonstop, but it's really cool getting to see what goes on behind the scenes in the industry. By far my favorite aspect of the job is writing press releases and music reviews -- and I got my first music review published on MusicDish's online mag! --> http://www.musicdish.com/mag/?id=12296
I can't even explain how ecstatic I am to have ended up in music journalism, after trading in my journalism major for English, and assuming that I would never have a chance to get back into journalistic writing. I also never thought I would be able to write music reviews, even though it's been a huge dream of mine. So YAY! I'm hoping I can continue to learn about music journalism and get to keep moving on up in the field! :)
I also just got hired as a counselor for the GO GREEN summer camp, which is a partnership between NYU and the YMCA. I'll just be working the month of July in the afternoons, pretty much just entertaining kids ages 6-11 and playing with them in the pool. Pretty sweet.
Other than interviewing, I got to see a band I was sort of street teaming for called the Black and White Years, who were AWESOME. OH and I went to the Alicia Keys concert on Wednesday and also got to see Jordin Sparks, Ne-yo, and *surprise guest* Rihanna, which was fantastic. Ms. Keys played for a solid 2 hours & even got the entire packed Madison Square Garden to sing (on-key) "No One." Definitely the highlight of the night. God, I love live music.
I can't even explain how ecstatic I am to have ended up in music journalism, after trading in my journalism major for English, and assuming that I would never have a chance to get back into journalistic writing. I also never thought I would be able to write music reviews, even though it's been a huge dream of mine. So YAY! I'm hoping I can continue to learn about music journalism and get to keep moving on up in the field! :)
I also just got hired as a counselor for the GO GREEN summer camp, which is a partnership between NYU and the YMCA. I'll just be working the month of July in the afternoons, pretty much just entertaining kids ages 6-11 and playing with them in the pool. Pretty sweet.
Other than interviewing, I got to see a band I was sort of street teaming for called the Black and White Years, who were AWESOME. OH and I went to the Alicia Keys concert on Wednesday and also got to see Jordin Sparks, Ne-yo, and *surprise guest* Rihanna, which was fantastic. Ms. Keys played for a solid 2 hours & even got the entire packed Madison Square Garden to sing (on-key) "No One." Definitely the highlight of the night. God, I love live music.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
So lucky
When you really sit back and look at everything around you, it's amazing how wonderful life is. You know? Not to get into a Thanksgiving speech or anything, but just think for a second about how fortunate it is to have a place to live, people who love you, a place to work (hopefully), time to relax, time to do what makes you happy. Life's too short to think about what we don't have, or what we want versus what we need. I'm not trying to preach, I've just been realizing more than ever how great every day can be if you look on the bright side - because there always is a bright side to every situation.
And as if my life isn't already completely made of fortunate circumstances, I lucked out more than ever in the past couple days. After my mini-life crisis about wanting to work in music journalism, but not able to secure any real jobs because of my lack of experience, I only had to wait a couple hours for things to fall into place.
On Monday I woke up, threw on my swimsuit with the intention of swimming laps at the pool, and just before heading out, sat down to check my e-mail. Then I proceeded to putz around on Craigslist, hoping that something music & writing related would be listed. I immediately found a listing for a full-time summer internship in the music industry, applied right away, and then played around online for a while. Less than 2 hours later, I got a call from the director of the company I had applied to, MusicDish Network, which totally caught me off guard because A) I had just applied and B) no one ever calls anymore. So within a few minutes I realized I was in the middle of a phone interview. After developing my typical nervous reaction to interviews, I stuttered for a few minutes about how "I just love love love music and it's my favorite passion in the whole entire world." Yeah it was pretty bad. But then I also rambled about how I want to learn everything about the music industry because I'm so interested in everything related to music. To this, the guy responded, "Interesting," and I had no idea what that meant. But it couldn't have been bad, because I had an interview set up that night.
A couple hours later I set out for Astoria, Queens, to the borough I've heard so much about in terms of affordable, safe housing and young, vibrant neighborhoods, but one that, sadly, I've never explored. Getting off the subway 45 minutes later, I fell in love with the neighborhood. At dinnertime there were just as many people in a hurry as in Manhattan, just as much culture, and even more ethnic restaurants and cute shops. The only difference was the lack of skyscrapers, but that view was overly compensated for by the view of the bridges leading back to Manhattan. I just loved everything about the vibe I got being there: people seemed genuine, interesting, and very much reminiscent of the kind of people I want to be neighbors with. Not that Manhattanites aren't any of these things; I'm just so appreciative of places where I know I'm not surrounded by millionaires-- where I feel like I belong. Sometimes when I walk around Manhattan I feel like I'm playing a game of pretend; like it's just an illusion that I'm walking among people who spend more money on a shopping spree than I've ever seen in my entire life. I love the city to death, but I can't live solely in this world forever. Of course there's tremendous diversity here, but I want to see what life is like on the other side of the bridge, where walking down the street isn't always a fashion show. I love the world I'm in right now, but I want to try on another one for size. I want to live in a community where I can make friends with people and families that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet anywhere else in the world. This may be coming off as incredibly sappy, but sorry, that's the way I get about life sometimes. :P
I love writing because I love what's behind it all-- stories. I'm getting sick of my own voice, so I'm turning to music journalism to get the facts out and cover topics I'm really interested in. But I still love stories, which is why I want to hear what other people have to say. I want to get to know the guy who owns the pizza shop down the street, or the woman working at the laundromat who barely speaks any English. When I get back into creative writing, I want to tell stories that matter-- not just the recreation of my childhood in paperback fiction. There will be a time for all stories to be told, but right now, it's time to turn the focus on the stories I have yet to be told.
And wow I just derailed off topic so bad... anyways, so my interview was in Astoria at a coffee/wine bar. The guy who interviewed me was super laid back, genuine, and pretty much talked the whole time about the music industry and what my position would entail. When he mentioned "you *will* be doing..." I got the hint that I had already gotten the job.
I GOT A FULL-TIME INTERNSHIP IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY!! And practically immediately after I realized that I want to be a music journalist and have my life completely revolve around music. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. I'm supposed to log about 40 hours of work a week, mostly from home, and occasionally coming into the Queens office. What I'll be doing: writing music reviews, managing the million (okay, maybe like 7) sites that the company has, organizing online marketing strategies to target audiences about bands, targeting bands about the PR services offered, calling radio stations to promote bands, editing web site content, eventually working on the music magazine, and getting VIP access to shows when the artists play in the area. And my boss has already talked about me sticking around in the fall to potentially be an editor for the music magazine, and dive head-first into the journalism aspect of the company.
Riding the train home last night, as I watched the glittery lights of Manhattan in the distance, it finally hit me that I've made it. I said I'd get back here, I did, and I'm not just visiting my friends at NYU, feeling like I want to be here but don't deserve to stay. Not only am I staying, I'm making a life here - the life I always dreamed of but couldn't start yet. And it's already started. I don't know where NYC will take me, either. All I know is I'm going to keep going along for the ride.
And as if my life isn't already completely made of fortunate circumstances, I lucked out more than ever in the past couple days. After my mini-life crisis about wanting to work in music journalism, but not able to secure any real jobs because of my lack of experience, I only had to wait a couple hours for things to fall into place.
On Monday I woke up, threw on my swimsuit with the intention of swimming laps at the pool, and just before heading out, sat down to check my e-mail. Then I proceeded to putz around on Craigslist, hoping that something music & writing related would be listed. I immediately found a listing for a full-time summer internship in the music industry, applied right away, and then played around online for a while. Less than 2 hours later, I got a call from the director of the company I had applied to, MusicDish Network, which totally caught me off guard because A) I had just applied and B) no one ever calls anymore. So within a few minutes I realized I was in the middle of a phone interview. After developing my typical nervous reaction to interviews, I stuttered for a few minutes about how "I just love love love music and it's my favorite passion in the whole entire world." Yeah it was pretty bad. But then I also rambled about how I want to learn everything about the music industry because I'm so interested in everything related to music. To this, the guy responded, "Interesting," and I had no idea what that meant. But it couldn't have been bad, because I had an interview set up that night.
A couple hours later I set out for Astoria, Queens, to the borough I've heard so much about in terms of affordable, safe housing and young, vibrant neighborhoods, but one that, sadly, I've never explored. Getting off the subway 45 minutes later, I fell in love with the neighborhood. At dinnertime there were just as many people in a hurry as in Manhattan, just as much culture, and even more ethnic restaurants and cute shops. The only difference was the lack of skyscrapers, but that view was overly compensated for by the view of the bridges leading back to Manhattan. I just loved everything about the vibe I got being there: people seemed genuine, interesting, and very much reminiscent of the kind of people I want to be neighbors with. Not that Manhattanites aren't any of these things; I'm just so appreciative of places where I know I'm not surrounded by millionaires-- where I feel like I belong. Sometimes when I walk around Manhattan I feel like I'm playing a game of pretend; like it's just an illusion that I'm walking among people who spend more money on a shopping spree than I've ever seen in my entire life. I love the city to death, but I can't live solely in this world forever. Of course there's tremendous diversity here, but I want to see what life is like on the other side of the bridge, where walking down the street isn't always a fashion show. I love the world I'm in right now, but I want to try on another one for size. I want to live in a community where I can make friends with people and families that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet anywhere else in the world. This may be coming off as incredibly sappy, but sorry, that's the way I get about life sometimes. :P
I love writing because I love what's behind it all-- stories. I'm getting sick of my own voice, so I'm turning to music journalism to get the facts out and cover topics I'm really interested in. But I still love stories, which is why I want to hear what other people have to say. I want to get to know the guy who owns the pizza shop down the street, or the woman working at the laundromat who barely speaks any English. When I get back into creative writing, I want to tell stories that matter-- not just the recreation of my childhood in paperback fiction. There will be a time for all stories to be told, but right now, it's time to turn the focus on the stories I have yet to be told.
And wow I just derailed off topic so bad... anyways, so my interview was in Astoria at a coffee/wine bar. The guy who interviewed me was super laid back, genuine, and pretty much talked the whole time about the music industry and what my position would entail. When he mentioned "you *will* be doing..." I got the hint that I had already gotten the job.
I GOT A FULL-TIME INTERNSHIP IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY!! And practically immediately after I realized that I want to be a music journalist and have my life completely revolve around music. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. I'm supposed to log about 40 hours of work a week, mostly from home, and occasionally coming into the Queens office. What I'll be doing: writing music reviews, managing the million (okay, maybe like 7) sites that the company has, organizing online marketing strategies to target audiences about bands, targeting bands about the PR services offered, calling radio stations to promote bands, editing web site content, eventually working on the music magazine, and getting VIP access to shows when the artists play in the area. And my boss has already talked about me sticking around in the fall to potentially be an editor for the music magazine, and dive head-first into the journalism aspect of the company.
Riding the train home last night, as I watched the glittery lights of Manhattan in the distance, it finally hit me that I've made it. I said I'd get back here, I did, and I'm not just visiting my friends at NYU, feeling like I want to be here but don't deserve to stay. Not only am I staying, I'm making a life here - the life I always dreamed of but couldn't start yet. And it's already started. I don't know where NYC will take me, either. All I know is I'm going to keep going along for the ride.
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