One week later, how times have changed

Anyway, I've been having some computer issues with the Awesome Camera, but, I don't see how that would be of any interest to anyone (including myself). I'll just say that if anyone out in the world-of-blog has an old PC laptop, that work marginally well, I'd be more than happy to take it off your hands.

I do have some pictures, that I keep meaning to write about...soon, maybe Sunday.

So, I moved out of Stefan, Haley, Sasha & Maggie's on Monday or maybe Tuesday with little fanfare. I moved up to the boogie-down-Bronx, onto the couch at Laura's place. Her trucker roommates are out of town (yes, trucking), her other roommate is a very young, ex-FIT student named Anthony, he seems nice.

I guess it was Tuesday, because, I started working that day at ABC carpet and home as a "Visual Freelancer". That day I painted some pinecones. I really like the job, the people are all pretty nice and it's pretty fun and I get a whole hour for lunch and it pays better than my job as a garbage man. I think I've realized something, that is, I never want to work retail selling shit, ever again but, I am more than willing to work at a retail operation doing other stuff e.g. painting pinecones.

So, I'll give you two scenarios and ask for your opinions;

1. Work in a rural area, for an arts organization that's mission is to train artists/artisans on how to promote and sustain themselves through their art. The job would offer plenty of grant writing , promotion, etc. experience. In your off time you would have one year to really focus on your own work, peruse various hobbies, build a very strong body of work and self-promotion strategy. You would probably have less contact with the veins of contemporary art that you are familiar with *read: probably no sound-art. The closest major-ish city would be about 100 miles away, though, you would have a car, so, on occasion you could venture to that city for an outing or whatever. You would be in an extremely beautiful foresty area, so, if the urge struck, you could hike, camp maybe fish?! You wouldn't really know anyone there. The weather would be mild, but, dark and rainy part of the year.

or,

2. Work in a metropolitan area for a media arts organization, that although not directly funding media arts, is the home to many national media arts organizations. The work would be web design work for the most part. The organization is closer to your discipline but, you probably wouldn't get as much of the "running a non-for-profit" kind of practical knowledge that the other job would give you, there would still be a lot though, I think. You would probably have slightly less time to focus on your own work and pursue hobbies, but, you would have access to the before mentioned contemporary art veins. There would probably be no fishing. You would know a few people. The weather wouldn't be freezing, but it would be cold all year long.

The money would work out the same for either job, you would be poor and have several roommates. Both would be life altering experiences. Both are one year and start at the same time (January). The weather issues don't actually bother me, I just threw them in as a hint or something. I guess I actually know which one I'm leaning toward, but I kind of wanted some other view points, in case there was a point I was forgetting or overlooking. If someone actually responds, I will say where these jobs are, assuming I haven't already mentioned it in a previous post, which is also quite probable.

Scenario number one has actually come forward and offered me the job, I told them I was waiting to hear back from the other position. Seeing that in writing makes it seem like a much more jerky thing to say, it kind of reads like "yeah, your job's ok, but I'm waiting on this cooler job". That really wasn't my intent, I think they both would be pretty great.

Anyway, in case you were wondering, I'm fine, it's been a good week. I started a job I like, other employers want me, I talked to Alison and we worked some stuff out. I think I can probably save up enough money to buy a slightly better running car than I had previously planned on *another note: if you or anyone you know in the New York metro area is selling a station wagon for anywhere from free to slightly lower than reasonable let me know, I really don't care what make of station wagon it is, I don't care about it's cosmetic status (preferably not rusted out, but dented, faded and ugly are all fine), it doesn't need any bells or whistles (I don't care if the stereo is missing or the AC doesn't work, though I kind of need the heat to work) it just needs to run well enough to make it across the country. I don't plan on getting insurance for it though, my reasoning being, that one I'm a very good driver, and two health insurance is more important than car insurance, and I don't have health insurance, so there. I just realized that in this post alone, I have asked for both a car and a laptop, I feel like some one on craigslist (which I have grown very mixed feelings for in the past few weeks), I'll just say that I really didn't expect anyone to give me either of these things, really I was just making conversation.

I missed Jessica & Kabier's show at the Stone the other night, not because I didn't want to go but, because I thought the show was on Friday. I did make it to the Stone the night before though, I went to see what I had thought would be a very strange collaboration between David Behrman & Michael Schumacher. In actuality I ended up seeing Michael Schumacher on guitar and laptop (mostly laptop) with John King also on guitar and laptop and Kato Hideki on bass. The performance aspect left something to be desired, I had a few other issues but, that's neither here nor there. At a certain point I closed my eyes and imagined it was a CD. I fell asleep. I went outside with Stefan during the intermission, I went back inside to use the bathroom and the guy working the door gives me this look like "what the fuck are you doing here" and I looked at him and said "What? I already paid" and so he tells me (in a smug and unfriendly manner) that, no I hadn't paid because it was actually two shows and he would need another $10 and that I would still have to leave the place until 10:30 (it was like 9:15 or maybe 9) after they had sufficiently cleared the house, I said "I guess I'll need my umbrella then". There are things about the Stone that I think are really great but, I don't have $20 for an hour and a half of music spread out over 4 hours.