Bright lights, big city

This is a document of my rise to mega-stardom.

This is a picture of obscene amounts of drugs, women and money, in a single image montage.

From mega-stardom, you crash hard.

And for a long time.

But, eventually, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

When I emerged on the other side, with slightly messier hair, although I was no longer a mega-star, I was also no longer a garbage man.

A little dated

Due to recent events, I have been slacking. Please bear with me as I try and remember, though more likely, I will just make up whatever these pictures are
This appears to be a deli counter or possibly someplace that deals in the making and/or selling of baked goods. I did have a cupcake around this time but, I'm pretty sure I didn't get at this place.

Me either looking handsome or sleepy, you can be the judge.

I vote "sleepy" on this one.

I vote "sleepy and large nosed" for this one. I guess that wasn't actually one of the choices, but, it's my blog so, I get to make the rules.

Oh, now I remember, this is the day I moved onto Stefan's couch. This is Sergi, Stefan's brother, he was also couch-surfing at the time, I think I may have already mentioned all this, as I feel a sudden deja vu.

This is some fancy booze.

I think this may be a laser tag battle I was involved in.

I may have mentioned that while I was a garbage man, I picked up garbage at some "rock concerts" (the quotation marks have been added, because, as I am old and do not understand the crazy music that's coming out these days, I must question the validity of current rock music), this is one of said rock concerts. The job would have been great if I had cared about these crazy new-fangled bands with there costumes and stupid names.

At the alleged concert, when the main band finished (at 9:30) instead of holding up lighters or glow sticks or whatever the generations I am familiar with held up, the audience held up cell phones. I should really stop talking-shit, I mean, I was a garbage man.

This was a ghost I saw at the Manhattan Center.

And like that, he disappeared.

This is me rocking out on stage with the before mentioned band.

I honestly can't remember what this series of photos were attempting to document, I'm sure it was exciting though.

At some point I was sent off alone to vacuum some room, I did a pretty mediocre job.

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.

Long time no see

Anyway, I've been kind of lagging on the blogity blog blog or blogesphere or whatever the kids are saying these days. I will try and get things back up to speed with/without pictures.

So, I got a temp job. Basically the job consists of moving chairs and tables around and picking up trash. Sometimes I try and think of lofty titles I could give the job maybe, custodial artisan, or chair master, or my personal favorite trash picker. My boss at the job confronted me, asking, "why are you here?" all I could come up with was that work is work. One day I hope to have a job wher less of my co-workers are ex-cons. There is this guy Boris that I work with, he goes on-and-on about how he doesn't want to work very hard but then seems to find the one way to accomplish the task that some how triples the amount of work need to accomplish said task.
That was Monday.

Alison came back. I had packed all of the things that I had planned to take, though, judging by Alison's reaction I think she had envisioned me taking more stuff.
We went down to Kate and Elwyns. Kate shook my hand and Elwyn was visibly shocked to see me. Alison, Kate and Elwyn talked about airplane food, the Batman theemed Halloween part that they had planned, and how much whiskey they would all drink this winter. I felt somewhat disconected from it all.
I spent the night on the couch as I had to go to Baltimore the next morning. The whole evening was all rather upsetting so, I wont dwell.
That was Tuesday.

I went down to Baltimore for my interview at B'more Green, but I already said all that in a previous post.
That was Wednesday.

I had an interview at Pace Wildenstein gallery for a gallery assistant/art handler position. The interview went really well...I thought. At least the woman interviewing me liked me, maybe I should have asked her on a date.
I moved to Stefans couch, his brother Sergei was also staying on a couch there, luckily there are three.
That was Thursday.

I applied for more jobs and then went to work as a garbage man. The trash picking ours are 4:30 to Midnight at the Manhattan center on 34th street. There was an event that involved various percussionists who were all quite impressive. One of them did throat singing, though I don't think this guy was actually from Tuva.
I was disallowed from attending the Batman Halloween party.
That was Friday.

I went to an orientation to be a temporary Fed Ex driver. We watched a safety video and filled out various forms. I had to fill out a form for each job I've had since 1996, I devised different methods for abbreviating, they were still impressed with the extent of my paperwork. From there I went to work.
I got lunch at a pizza place that seemed to be hosting a magicians conference or something. I watched the magicians hoping they would do some tricks. They didn't.
At trashland there was a concert of various rock bands I'm too old to know anything about. Boris, the before mentioned nemesis, kept telling me how if Metalica was performing he wouldn't do any work.
Stefan was making a tree costume and Haley was dressed as either JT LeRoy or Maryanne Amacher. We watched some of Rosemarys Baby. Note* that movies really scary.
That was Saturday.

I don't remember what I did during the day. Those same bands from yesterday were performing today. I actually recognized one of the songs and proceeded to hum the song for the rest of the evening. Me and Boris got plates of food from the caterers. Boris kept giving me instructions about how to keep this activity low-profile and then proceeded to tell anyone who would listen (and some who wouldn't) about how he had procured this bounty of free food. There was also a Christian youth Halloween party going on with considerably less hoopla then the before mentioned concert downstairs.
That was Sunday.

I went to Alison's to help work on the report, close bank accounts etc. or maybe we did those things last week. I did work, making some exciting charts examining the consumer electronics needs of 18-24 year olds, I briefly thought I might throw some shocking statistics in here, you know for kicks, but I decided against it at the last minute.
That was Monday.

In the morning I went back to Fed Ex to fill out more forms and to get my physical and drug test. I got there at 8 am, I waited a long time a then was set up in front of a computer to fill out yet another application. When I finished the coordinator or whatever his title is, was out for coffee, I waited for a while, but eventually I had to leave to do more report stuff. It was 11:30. I got a call later asking where I had gone.
I was offered the job in Baltimore.
Alison gave me a more-appropriate/job-getting haircut
I left work early so I could do Halloween stuff. Stefan had to get up for work very early so, we just tried to find candycorn...to no avail.
That was Tuesday.

I went to work for Alison earlyish. There is finally a coffee shop in walking distance from the place in Bed Stuy, the coffee and baked goods are kind of mediocre, but, much better than any of the other nearby options, so I'm more than willing to patronize the business in hopes of better coffee and muffins someday.
During a break, me and Alison walked to the supermarket for soup. During our walk, certain facts came to light regarding her romantic interactions since my removal from the household. I left.
I turned down the job in Baltimore, baseing the decision only partly on being a little scared of Baltimore and mostly on socioeconomic factors.
I had a good interview with The National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture or NAMAC for short.
I had a burrito for dinner.
This is Wednesday