Productivity, productivity, productivity!

    Somehow, it sounds like I do a lot when I explain how I have spent my day to others. And yet, I feel like the laziest person on Earth. Why is it so hard to completely fill my days when I don't have school?

    In musical news, I am in the process of booking shows for April and May. Ideally, we will have at least 5 shows in those two months; but alas, the people who handle booking tend to be slow to respond. So, for right now, we have no new shows lined up, which saddens me greatly. On the other end of the spectrum, I have been writing bits and pieces of new songs practically every day for the last week. I've had some great inspiration: seeing a few concerts, listening to some new music, playing a lot with a new friend, being happy partly as a result of that friend and also because of the incredible weather these last few days. New York City has been beautiful. I spent most of the day walking around the Upper West Side.

    A lot of the stress in my life seems to have dissipated thanks to all of the positivity flooding into my life. The Baker St show in Brooklyn was amazing, and really a turning point for the band. We had incredible response including teary-eyed professions of the beauty of my music, a request to be on a radio show, a glowing concert review, and a piece of paper full of new fans. A girl even used my lyrics as her myspace status! None of these people were required to like the band. They actually really liked my music. I am still flabbergasted.

    Here's to hoping that things stay this way or even progress!

Baker St: The Spring of Collaborations

    Baker St, my band, is having a show today, March 5th at Vox Pop Cafe in Brooklyn. We are playing with Tony Gong, a folk musician. It should be fun. I rearranged some songs to be appropriate for a cafe and am even doing a short acoustic set by myself. It's been a while since I've done that, so I'm looking forward to it.

    I am also in the process of putting together a show with two other Columbia bands at Fat Baby on the Lower East Side. We're going to rehearse together so that we can incorporate other bands' members into some songs in each set, and at the end we'll do one giant song with everybody. It should be pretty sweet. I'm stoked. At first I tried to get five bands together, but that epically failed. No one responded to my emails, and then the guy who deals with booking was frustrated. Then we played Columbia's Battle of the Bands, where we met many other Columbia bands. We really liked two of them (The Tendencies and Flink) and asked them to play this show with us.

    So it seems like the spring of collaborations. With collaboration come cross-promotion, and any promotion is good, so this seems to be an excellent plan. We've also found a few potential people to add to the band...guitarists/singers/pianists. I don't like the world of super professional musicians, but I do love this world that I am in. People without record deals, without big followings. Just people who love to produce something outside of themselves as a means of expression. They do it for fun as they struggle to meet minimum requirements at bar gigs, and scrape by with their meager, minimum wage jobs. This is the time to try to be musicians, artists, playwrights, and actors! There's always time to go become a doctor/lawyer/banker/professor. But you cannot always do what we are doing now. That's the beauty of being young and having this time of freedom after college.

    In the world of my actual jobs, I have to figure out how to make a version of Hamlet for 2nd graders. I asked my class what plays they wanted to work on this year, and it ended with twenty 8 year-olds chanting "HAM-LET, HAM-LET!" So, this is going to be interesting. If anyone reads this* and has any suggestions, please comment below!

    So things are getting pretty exciting. I need to get going on some things for the band like getting our CDs printed, booking more shows for April and May, etc. I also really need to start studying for the LSAT. I need to take it so I can apply and potentially be back in school in the fall of 2011. This is necessary as preparation for my future, which I've never been good at. I'm good at getting things done that need to be done for the next day, but not the next year, two years, or decade. I get overwhelmed too easily. But this is not a big deal. It's just a test. I'll take it, and decide what to do when the time comes for applications. I want to have to option of applying this fall. I have so much I could be doing, but I'm still a lazy slob. I need to get out of that mode.

    In any case, the show tomorrow should be fun, with a whole new audience (provided BY the venue, as in, we didn't have to promote ourselves!). Yay for a step up in the world!

*I do understand that no one reads this. I am not that much of a delusional egomaniac.

Year 1, Day 1

      Life. It's never as simple as it seems, and at the same time, it's just as simple as it seems. You work hard in school so you can go to a good college. Once you are there, you find a major that you intend follow through to graduation. Then you are supposed to get a job based on that major, or you may continue with you eduction by going to graduate school. But what happens when you jump off the train tracks? What happens when that Ivy League education may have been a waste? By the end, your majors seemed unappealing; you have no desire to work in those fields. So, rather than continue on in something that will make you at the worst, miserable, and at the best, bored, you decide to jump off the tracks.

      Diving into life post-college is traumatic enough having a life plan in place. The idea of leaving college without any direction causes pangs of nausea induced by fear every time it enters your mind. Now, you live at home and begin to meander into the real world, with trepidation, trying your hand at as many things as you can with the desperate hope that you will find that thing that will drive and inspire you.

      It's funny that I'm choosing to write a blog. I hate blogs. I am no part of the blogging community. And yet, something about the process seems very appealing to me at this stage of my life. I feel the need to chronicle my ludicrous, failed, boring, and incredible attempts to find that thing that I want to do with my life. I titled this blog "Guitars and Flips: Life, Year 1" because this really feels like the first year of my real life as an...oh God, I don't want to say it...adult. I am currently a musician and an actor, but I try my hand at anything that comes my way. I work two days a week as a gymnastics coach in New Jersey, near my parents' house. I also teach theater to public school children in an afterschool program in Manhattan, right near my parents' brand new apartment. I also intern at Serious Business Records in SoHo. I recently worked in various capacities on an Off-Broadway play, which is why Ethan Hawke recognizes my face (he directed the show in the theater above mine). My band, Baker St, has a few shows every month around New York City. Clearly, my life is as piecemeal and varied as a Kandinsky painting. This is why I need to write down all the things that happen in this time. This is potentially the prime of my life. I am twenty-two, single, have minimal expenses, and live in Manhattan! The world is my oyster!

      Which is exactly the problem. I went to an incredible college, have supportive parents and lots of talents. What do I pick and how long will it take me to regret what I've picked? I have always thought too much and now I have the time to really let my brain spin out of control. There are too many potential paths! Too many options I may pass up that would be better! I like too many things to settle down into one career. How can I possibly find my way with all of this clutter in my brain?

      To end on a lighter note, this year, while stressful and depressing at times, has actually been incredible thus far; and I am sure I will miss all this free time when it is gone. I get to focus my life on music, acting, singing, athletics, dance, LSAT books, and most importantly, my friends and family. I see friends, go out, meet new people, and just have an awesome time. All I can do is try many things and see what sticks. With any luck, I will find something that eventually sticks. So here's to my life, year 1; and here's to you, the imaginary people who are not reading these words!