Tuesday, June 28, 2011: Pizza, Movies, and Music

            Sunday my family came to visit me (even Jimmy)! Though since I’m use to being at school and I talk to them a few times a week, it really hasn’t felt like I’ve been away from home for that long (in reality I haven’t, it’s only been 4 weeks). Regardless it was still nice to see them. We went to Lombardi’s Pizza in Little Italy and it was definitely the best pizza I’ve had in awhile (though Pepe’s Summer Pie is still my favorite). Afterwards, I exposed them to the NYC subway system and we went to the Central Park Zoo. It’s very small, but they had monkeys and penguins so I was happy. The polar bear that was there kept doing the same thing over and over, and it was entertaining to watch (at least for a little bit). And to backtrack a little, while we were waiting in line for tickets, Miranda Cosgrove (the girl from iCarly) was in line maybe 15 people behind us. I took a “creeper picture” just to prove that she was actually there (I didn’t want to go up and bother her).

            Yesterday, I decided to walk to work (I had my cool brace on my ankle so it didn’t hurt any more than it does to go up and down the stairs of the subway) and it is definitely something I’ll continue to do. It’s only about a 35-40min walk, it’s nicer than the subways, and I have the time to do it. At work I spent a lot of the day promoting the Summer Jazzfest and doing other promotional odds and ends. It was weird because it was the first day that I didn’t go out of the office to run errands (which I missed doing). As I was headed back to NYU, I finally checked my phone (I don’t check it when I’m at work, so your best bet if you need to reach me during the day on Mondays and Wednesdays is email) and Tyler had mentioned something about going to Bryant Park for the Summer Film Festival (they show a free movie every Monday at sunset), so I ended up walking there instead. It was fun, but I honestly have no idea what the movie was about because we couldn’t really hear it (Steven ending up looking it up on Wikipedia). 

            After we got back, I ended up watching The Human Experience, a documentary that I’ve been meaning to watch for a few months now. I absolutely loved it! Though I feel like I watched it at the perfect time because I feel like the experience when Jeffery and Cliff live homeless in NYC for a week, wouldn’t have had the same impact if I hadn’t ever lived in the City. I mean, yes everyone is more or less familiar with the issue of homelessness, but I’ve now lived in NYC for 4 weeks and every day it is something I come across (whereas in Worcester and Ansonia I would only see it every once in awhile (I know it’s there, it’s just not something I encounter daily)). While the other experiences were inspirational as well, it was definitely the first on the resonated most with me.

            Today, I did some work from home, looking into trackable QR Codes and information about creating an iPhone App for Sullivan Hall. It was slightly frustrating because a lot of the sites weren’t that helpful. After working for a few hours, I decided to go to Washington Square Park and read for a bit. It was very nice out and since it was late afternoon, it wasn’t extremely hot.

            Tonight we had a networking panel where alumni from the program came to talk to us about the importance of networking. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but it ended up being the best seminar yet. It was very different from having a speaker more or less lecture about things that you should be doing because while you know that speaker is giving you decent advice, it’s more personal being given advice from someone who has already experienced what we’re going through now. One of the panelists is in the music industry and even talked to him afterward. He gave me his business card, and I found what he had to say very helpful. Tomorrow night there’s another panel, but it’s specific to the music/entertainment industry, so I’m really looking forward to that.

Saturday, June 25, 2011: Comedy in the City

            So I got my ankle checked out Thursday morning, and basically paid for them to confirm what I already thought was wrong with it (a strained muscle and I just need to ice it and keep it wrapped). It’s been rainy/overcast the last few days, and the iffy weather messed up my plans on spending time outside reading, so I ended up just doing things around the room (reading, organizing, etc.). Last night I worked another show for work. It was busy, but I’m getting the hang of working the door.

            Today, everyone went on the Washington DC trip (we had the choice between going there and going to a Comedy Club). I stayed in NYC to go to the Comedy Club for three reasons: 1) because the trip to DC was going to be very rushed (they come back tomorrow around 8pm) 2) I’ve been to DC and got to spend more time at all the sites when I went in 2003 (and 2001) 3) I wanted to experience a NYC Comedy Club. We don’t leave for the show until 8:45 so I had to kill time before then. I decided to just wander around the city for a bit.

I started off at FAO Schwartz, where if you just happened to have $25,000 lying around you could purchase a Barbie Foosball Table (yes you read both the price and what was for sale correctly); I proceeded to check out the Apple store (which was right next door), and then wandered toward Rockefeller Center with the intention of either doing the NBC Studio Tour or Top of the Rock. On my way there I stopped at the Cathedral of Saint Patrick, which was beautiful. I found it amusing how there are TV screens (they’re literally everywhere) and a camera setup so that people can see the Mass no matter where they sit. I ended up doing the Top of the Rock, and the view was phenomenal. I’ve grown so accustomed to looking up at the buildings, and it was very different to see everything from so high up (67-69 stories). After spending a decent amount of time there, I wandered to Time Square and went to M&M World and the Hershey Store. The Hershey Store wasn’t that impressive, but I enjoyed the dynamic of M&M World. They had a huge wall off M&Ms in basically any color you could imagine. I remember the time when the only colors they had were Red, Yellow, Orange, Green, & Brown (not even Blue was around), and now you can get M&Ms in colors such as Cream, Electrifying Green, or Aqua (crazy!). 

(time lapse as Kristen goes to the Comedy Club)

Overall the Comedy Club was good. It was very weird not having our normal staff running the trip (all of the Union Square staff are on the DC trip, so the Gramercy Park staff ran the Comedy Club event). The 2 women who performed were ok; some of their stuff was funny, but it wasn’t anything memorable. The main act, Jim David, was by far the best (the other opening guy was decent). It was definitely worth the experience, but there wasn’t anything that stood out about actually going to the comedy club as opposed to watching the comics on TV.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011: Smart Move of the Week

            Yesterday was another non-eventful day. When I got up, I for some reason had the motivation to go swimming, so I ended up going to the pool and swimming for about an hour. I knew I was out of swimming-shape, but I felt it more so when I tried to do sprints. The first one, well actually the first 5 weren’t that bad, but I definitely struggled the last 5 (I did 10 on a minute).

            After I swam I ended up walking around the city for about 3 hours. I had to mail in a waiver for my South Dakota trip (I can’t believe it’s only a month away), then get my dad’s birthday present (which I’m aware was a month and a half ago, but I specified in the card that he had to wait because I wanted to get it from a place in NYC that he had seen on Food Network), and then hunt down Kristin Ann’s birthday present (again I’m aware our birthday was a few weeks ago, but I know exactly what I’m doing, I just haven’t been able to locate part of it yet).
            We tried out Kimmel’s for dinner last night (a place that we can use our meals at that just opened up), and we had our first random celebrity sighting (well Nick did since he was the one who recognized him, the rest of us saw the guy but didn’t know who he was until after Nick told us): the mayhem guy from the Allstate commercials was riding his bike near Washington Square Park.

            Work today was pretty standard. I am learning different approaches to marketing shows and it’s a lot of fun. We have the 2^nd Annual NolaFunk Summer Jazzfest coming up in July, and my boss wanted me to promote not only the show, but the ambiance of the venue. I spent some time looking up and rewording the original press release we had to include the different things the venue has to offer (it’s a pretty cool place, one site described it as an adult sandbox). I did the usual route to hang up posters later on in the day, and the second I got off the subway I thought the skies were going to open up any minute. Thankfully I made it through the route without it raining at all.

            Every Wednesday there is a running group that meets at 7 and since my ankle had been feeling better I wanted to go; however, about 15ish minutes in my ankle started acting up again (even though I was wearing my brace). I had to end the run early and walk back, which kind of sucked seeing as I was looking forward to running (and it was fun running in the rain). I probably shouldn't have attempted running, but live and learn. I am currently icing my ankle and plan to get it checked out tomorrow.

           

Monday, June 20, 2011: 3 weeks in!

            Ok so I realize I’m a little behind, but Saturday ended up being a lot of fun. Central Park Zoo fell through, but my roommates and I ended up just going to the park and hanging out there for a bit anyways. We were going to go to Shake Shack for dinner but the line was longer than we liked so we ended up going to Pop Burger instead (which was decent).

            That night I went to see Nathan’s band, Bearstronaut, play at Lit Lounge, which is only a few blocks away. They were really good, and I’m not just saying that because I’m slightly biased in the situation. I’m glad I no longer have to worry about the whole “21+” thing with shows, seeing as that was a major problem several other times I wanted to go see Nate’s shows. It was also nice to catch up with Pat and Dave, since I haven’t seen them since Christmas (I filled them in on my life in NY and other things as well).

            Yesterday we walked the Brooklyn Bridge and the only thing I didn’t like was how crowded it was (even though it was to be expected). When we were walking across it, it didn’t feel as long as it actually is, probably because we were stopping to take pictures and look at the view. Once we got to Brooklyn, we got pizza from Grimaldi’s. While it was good (it was obvious they use fresh mozzarella), it wasn’t as great as I was expecting. I think part of that though was because we had ordered ahead and the pizza wasn’t fresh out of the oven. Anyways, after we ate we just hung around for a bit and then a few of us took a taxi back. Let’s just say I experienced the stereotypical, deathly terrifying NYC taxi ride (ok well the whole ride wasn’t exactly deathly terrifying, but I still feared for my life for a good portion of it).

            Today was a pretty typical day in the office. Did a lot of social media/show promoting stuff for upcoming shows, successfully picked a YMLP winner and went through all the steps to update it on our site, ran a few errands. Tonight we had another seminar speaker, who was pretty good. His main point was to make yourself stand out in your internship and to do more than one internship. So far the speakers have been pretty good (though I missed one). I’ve come out of all of them learning something and wasn’t sitting through the seminar feeling like I was being tortured. Oh before the speaker started there was a raffle drawing and I won a ticket to the Harry Potter Exhibit! Yes, I saw it when it was in Boston, but I have been dying to go again (and it’s an added bonus that I don’t have to pay for it).

            After the seminar, we kind of just hung out for a little bit, not really doing much. I don’t know why, but I’m not physically exhausted, but just extremely mentally worn out. I don’t have any work to do from home tomorrow so I’ll probably ended up working out in the morning then either wander around a bit or just go somewhere and read.

(I apologize for this post being kind of jumpy, like I just said I’m mentally exhausted)

Saturday, June 18, 2011: All You Need to Know

            Thursday wasn’t too eventful. My ankle started bothering me on Wednesday while running errands for work, and it was still sore so I went out to get an Ace bandage for it (it’s still bugging me 3 days later). I ended up going to Barnes & Noble to buy a book that the panelists recommended, All You Need to Know About the Music Business. The Barnes & Noble was 4 floors! Granted these floors weren’t the same size as a huge one floor store, but it was still a decent size (and slightly overwhelming). I’ve only read a few chapters of the book and so far it’s pretty good; I feel like I’ll learn a lot from it.

            That night I worked a show for my internship, Big Sam’s Funky Nation and Zigaboo Modeliste. I checked people in at the door who were there for Will Call or on the Guest List. It only got a little confusing when there was a huge rush of people or when people thought they were on the guest list and they weren’t (or they were supposed to be and their name got lost in the mix). Overall it was a good night. I’d been helping to promote this show so it was nice to hear the bands play (well I’d listen to it on YouTube, but Live music is always so much better). I’m sure this is just the first of many shows that I’ll be helping out with this summer (so it’s a good thing I enjoyed it).

            Steph had off from work yesterday, so we attempted to go to Central Park to just hang out and read. However the weather had a different plan for us. We had grabbed a bit to eat and by the time we hit the park, it started to drizzle. Thankfully we made the decision to head back to NYU because literally the second we got back to our room it was a torrential sideways downpour. Needless to say instead of reading outside, we ended up just staying in the rest of the day.

 Last night I finally got to see/hang out with everyone for pretty much the first time all week. We ended up going to Webster Hall which is a nightclub not too far away from NYU. While it was fun, it’s probably not a place I’ll want to go to again; it was expensive.

            Today is going to probably be fairly laid back. I think the plan is to go to the Central Park Zoo later this afternoon, which should be fun. Tonight Nate’s band has a show in NYC (so I’m obviously going). I finally don’t have to worry about whether or not I’m old enough to get in (seeing as the past few years, every show I tried to go to was always 21+ (with the exception of 1)).

            I can’t believe that tomorrow marks 3 weeks since I’ve been in the city! While it isn’t a lifestyle I would want to permanently adapt to, I definitely love it for the short term (something I never thought I would admit to). I love the fact I don’t have to drive places and that public transportation is so easy to use (once you get use to it). Who knows, maybe after graduation I may find myself in NYC for a few years (though the main goal is still to end up in Nashville).

Tuesday, June 14 2011/ Wednesday June 15, 2011: 2 in 1

6/14- Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

           Yesterday was a fairly typical day in the office. I researched various things regarding upcoming shows, ran a few errands, and got to come up with contest ideas for this Thursday’s show (which was pretty cool). The weather was beautiful and I greatly enjoyed getting to go out and deliver packages etc.

            Last night was another sponsored event through the program: the Yankee game. The last professional baseball game I went to was when I was about 9 or so at the old Yankee Stadium, and even then I wasn’t a Yankee fan. The stadium is beautiful though. Overall the game wasn’t that eventful. We left after the 7^th inning with the score being 1-0 Cleveland (and that ended up being the final score).

            Today was pretty laid back. I ended up working a little bit from home again, coming up with ideas for contests for other shows this summer and implementing the one for Thursday. Not too much else happened, but I was able to watch Step Up 3 and it was very weird watching a movie that was not only based in NYC but talked about NYU a lot since that’s exactly where I am. Overall I enjoyed the movie though (I’ve been dying to see it since it came out last year).

(since that was not enough to blog yesterday I’m just adding today’s post in on the same thread)

6/15- Love for Live Music

            So I thought today was going to be a little awkward at my internship because my boss is away; however it went extremely smoothly. When I got in, one of the other girls in the office emailed me a list of things that needed to get done (something my boss always does) which overwhelmed me a bit at first because I had a set idea of things that I needed to complete in regards to contest ideas and finding various things for the office (new dry erase calendars and rubber stamps), but I figured it out and got everything done (in addition to running multiple errands). Oh and I also ran my first contest and picked a winner!

            Right after work (well I had to leave work a little early), I went to a Music Industry Secrets Panel at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. It was a little different than I expected but still a lot of fun. I thought I was going to be learning more of the business end of the industry (from a non-artist perspective), but it ended up being more about guiding artists in how to handle the business end of their careers (I still was able to learn great deal from it. Plus now I have a little bit of a better understanding of the artists’ side of things). I met a few really nice people too (all aspiring musicians), and was surprised to learn that after the panel there was a showcase. All of the artists were extremely talented (Alyson Greenfield, Kristin Errett, and Melodime), but my favorite was by far Melodime!

            Tonight reminded me of why I want to get into the music industry. I not only love hearing live music, but I want to help artists get discovered and spread their music to the largest fan base possible. Not entirely sure how I’m going to do that yet, but it’s at least an idea in the general direction of what I want to do. Tomorrow should be a lot of fun too. I’m working a show for work and it’s supposed to be really good (well everything I’ve read about these guys and the little bit I’ve heard has been positive so I have high hopes).

Sunday, June 12, 2011: Lazy Sunday

            So first off, I can’t believe that we’ve been here for only two weeks (and that just one week ago I was celebrating my 21^st birthday)! I know I’ve said this before but it seriously feels like I’ve known everyone for much longer than that.

            Anyways, today we went to the Big Apple BBQ in Madison Square Park (we were all about the Southern food this weekend). It was a lot bigger than I expected it to be (they had some streets closed off and multiple vendors). I ended up getting turkey, and it was the first time I’ve ever had BBQ without BBQ sauce. Though it was strange at first, I actually enjoyed it better than if there was sauce. We ended up just spending sometime in the park and then walked back to NYU. In Union Square they were having a festival type thing and we started line dancing to the band that was performing, other people even started joining in. after we got back we kind of just hung out for a bit, finished the journal entries for our “internship class”, went grocery shopping, etc. It was a very informal night and we wound up just watching the Tony’s in Steven’s room (seeing as he’s the only one of us who has a TV).

            Though today was kind of a slow day, it was much needed after the busy week we had. There are a bunch of things going on this week, so I’ll hopefully have a lot more interesting things to write about.