It's like that, and that's the way it is.

So I started a new job two weeks ago. I got straight dissed on the satellite up-link job...so much for meeting Miss Piggy and Hova. :( But I did get offered a job as a youth facilitator at an organization that does after-school and summer programs throughout the city. I'm currently working on a video/film project at a high school in far northeast Brooklyn. I was a little nervous about it at first, being this was the closest I've been to being a "teacher". But I'm actually really into it. The kids are great and have pretty awesome attitudes so far.

I hear if I stick around in the fall, shit is gonna get crazy once school starts. Apparently last school year there were mad fights with the weapon of choice being...wait for it...umbrellas wrapped in DUCT TAPE!!! WTF??? That's brutal. Apparently the fights tend to be between the Dominican and the African-American kids. We'll see what happens.

I'm gonna keep looking into production work. More paid work would be awesome but I might try some internship type things. I recently met up with this dude who was looking for some website and production help for some projects he was working on. He was heavily involved the early 80s hip-hop scene and at one time was in a band with Jean Michel Basquiat. He was the host of what was suppose to be the hip-hop Soul Train. It never really got picked up by any networks but ended up being a hip-hop classic anyway. If you ever listened to Beastie Boys' "Ill Communication" you might recognize this sample that starts at about 1:10:


Oh I got a new apartment with a pretty cool roommate and two awesome cats. We have cable TV too! Crazy! Also...I spotted David Cross at Prospect Park while we squatted outside of the $35 Jay Reatard show (he was opening for Spoon...bleh) and had a picnic!

Oh I got an eye infection too. Gross. I had to go to a walk-in clinic yesterday and get some antibiotic eyedrops. Fuck.

Also...this looks awesome.

Me at Showbiz Pizza, my birthday, 1986:

Job Search: Day #956409684064309454

After going on a slacker hiatus I am back to looking for a steady job. My plan is to kick ass as soon as I'm done typing this silly blog entry. Someone mentioned going to the beach today. That sounds awesome but I'm sticking to my guns and am going to sit here with my brand new fan blasting in my ridiculously hot room while wearing no shirt. Yeah that's right NO shirt! :O

I went on an island getaway this weekend: Governor's Island, Staten Island, and best of all, Coney Island!!!!

I rode the Polar Express at Coney Island which was totally awesome and was much like a ride I used to ride at Worlds of Fun in KC called the "Rockin' Reeler" except it blared only rap and r&b while a dude hyped up the crowd by screaming "BROOKLYN!!! IF YOU WANNA GO FASTER, LET ME HEAR YA SAY 'YEAH!!!'" It was actually a lot faster than I expected and the strobe light freaked me out a little!!

My Recent Thoughts on NYC:
1. I notice that at restaurants here people say "To stay or to go?" as oppose to "For here or to go."
2. I secretly get really excited about the idea of going to Rockaway Beach specifically due to the Ramones song of the same name. I can't wait to go. On a similar note, it's weird to see places that I've heard of all my life but that aren't really a big deal. Examples: Madison Square Garden, Wall Street, Grand Central Station, Penn Station, etc.
3. When Will was in town he said that I seemed to be a lot faster paced than I was when I lived in KC. Fair enough.
4. Yesterday I got a slice of pizza and garlic knots from the place down the way and decided to sit down because it was air conditioned and felt awesome. I love that place. It's half Jamaican food and half pizzeria. The Italian guy makes the pizza and the Jamaican guy makes the jerk chicken and stuff. They have three flags up behind the counter: Jamaican, Italian, and U.S. (UNITY!) I sat there as the Yankees vs. Royals (!!) game played on the T.V. in the background. This guy asked "Is that the Dodgers?" and the dude behind the corner was like "No, that's the Kansas City Royals!". I chuckled to myself.

The photo to the left was taken at a Foot Locker in Times Square! KC!!! WHAT!

Defaced anti-smoking poster in a Brooklyn train station

I kinda feel bad for giggling at this. The original followed by the modified version. :/

Theres numerous ways you can choose to earn funds

Went to a job interview today. It went really well and if all works out, I will have a part-time gig interviewing Spanish-speaking older adults about their health status at senior centers throughout NYC. Although it's not a production or post job, I think it will be good experience for any future interview-based documentary work I may do. Plus I love old people and their stories and I'll get to know new parts of the city (I'd eventually get to work in all 5 boroughs!). And on top of that, I'd get to practice my Spanish! Keep you're fingers crossed for me!

I need to keep looking for jobs nonetheless. For some reason the temp agencies won't call me back and I've definitely followed up with them. I have a few other places I should follow up on, particularly some of the jobs teaching video for summer/after-school programs I applied for while I was still in KC.

Tomorrow I'm working a post-fancy event breakdown for the fancy designer guy from 10pm to 3am in at what seems to be a super super fancy Italian restaurant in Manhattan, just east of Times Square. I guess that's a picture of what it looks like to you're right. Weird.

Oh yeah. I swear I saw Kanye West a few weeks ago on West 34th st in Manhattan. But there's a bazillion motherfuckers that look like that now. So who knows. Also you can get studded belts on like every corner in NYC. WTF?

I tried a "white slice" of pizza today. Ugh. Fuck that. I should just stick to what I know.

Speaking of pizza. Word on the street is that Mr. Christoperobin is coming to town tomorrow. Now THAT'S good fucking news.

P.S. I found a dubbed copy of Mobb Deep's The Infamous in the tape box in the punk house's kitchen. I find that it's really good music for cooking meals to while living in NYC. Recent meals I have made while listening to the this tape include: kasha and broccoli as well as a peanut/tofu/broccoli stir fry.

TOP 5 NYC CHEAP NOT-SO-GOOD-FOR-ME FOODS

5. Italian Ice - $1 from any lady on the corner of Utica Ave and Eastern Parkway
4. Egg on a Roll - from pretty much any deli with a cup of shitty coffee for $2.50
3. Pizza (aka "a slice") - New Yorkers like to argue about the best slice but all NYC pizza is way better than most midwest pizza. I'm just sayin. Although the slice I had over by Penn Station was the worst piece of shit pizza I've had in this city.
2. Bagel - Although...I usually get a whole wheat everything bagel w/ tofu cream cheese...so it could be worse, no? But man...I love bagels.
1. Mr. Softee Chocolate Dip Cone!!! - We don't have these back home. Everyone here hates the little tune the truck plays but...I kinda like it? This thing has the after taste of donuts for some reason and the cherry dip one tastes like donuts + maraschino cherries! Where has this bullshit been all my life??

Other things I should mention:
-Dunkin Donuts - I was hyped about these at first because we don't have them in KC. But seriously...not that good. :/
-I still want to try the following: the fried pizza dough that are kind of like donuts (forget what thats called), mango slices from the lady on eastern parkway, the roasted corn from the dude on the same corner (okay neither of those are bad for me...but still), and various foods from the Mexican food vendors at the Red Hook ball parks!

Hi folks.

Well...I think I'm gonna try something new. Updates on my move to NYC aka "The Big Apple" (as my former boss insisted on calling it) aka "NEW YORK FUCKIN CITY" (as the t-shirt I keep seeing in random street vendor booths tends to put it.)

So far I've worked one freelance job for a Spanish-language digital public television channel based in Manhattan and another more weirder job that I got via a friend of mine. The former I found via mandy.com and ended up being pretty cool. Everyone was bilingual and spoke Spanish the majority of the time. I worked with people from Venezuela, Columbia, Chile, and Mexico among others. The specific project was related to a public promotional presentation at the Time Warner Center and required me to author a ton of DVD and blu-ray discs, do some really simple editing, and work for 16.5 hours straight on the final night. I was fucking exhausted. They paid for my cab ride home, which was nice.

Unfortunately, when I got home to the punk house I was staying at about 4am, the punx were playing baseball with beer cans in the room I would be sleeping in that night. And while this actually looked like a really fun time, I couldn't seem to wrap my brain around anything at that point. Luckily, my awesome friend let me crash in her room that night while she stayed up and partied. :)

The second job was with this guy who does fancy event production whom a friend called me about the other day and told me they needed some extra help for an install and breakdown for an event at the Javits Center in Manhattan.

Things we made included:

• A giant tornado made of brand-new Nike shoes
• A giant bar graph made of books
• Houses with walls made of folded towels, blankets, and shirts.
• A city skyline made of cans of corn (which was dubbed "Cornhattan" or "Corney Island" by our work crew)

All of the stuff we used went to charitable organizations that were funded by this organization for which this event was a gala for. Shakira performed and apparently Conan O'Brien, Jay-Z, David Byrne, and Tom Brokaw were all in attendance as well. I wasn't there for the event but made it there just minutes after for the breakdown so I could help tear down the make-believe city we had built over the past few days. I made friends with a hilarious gay Brazilian dude, a nice dude from Miami via Argentina, a dude from Iowa, a lady from outside of San Diego, and a lady from Virginia. Is anybody here from NYC? Probably not. Except for the NYC Teamsters who were working alongside us the whole time. Those guys were hilarious but also kind of dicks. Best quote from a Teamster was to a fellow member of our crew while he was creating the City of Cornhattan: "I bet ya makin' ya parents real proud. They send ya off ta' college and now ya stackin' cans of corn!" Haha.

The union guys were pissed that they had to share their food with us. They would say things like "YO DO THESE GUYS HAVE MEAL TICKETS??? I DON'T KNOW...WE'RE RUNNIN' OUTTA FOOD REAL FAST..." We avoided this situation by going to sit outside on the dock for lunch with a beautiful view of the Hudson River...like so: