Gone to America

I’m twenty nine today, and I just want to say, in no uncertain terms, that it stops here. I refuse, I absolutely refuse, to hit thirty until I’m good and ready. I don’t know when that will be, and I don’t much care. Not soon.

I didn’t really plan anything, so I was delighted when Julian and Lisa showed up last night at 11:30pm with a cake and a bottle of Jameson and a cake. I really was surprised – I had to get out of bed! I think Julian had tried to plan something bigger, but I was very grateful for the gesture. I’ll be going out and getting drunk on Saturday to celebrate properly, in the Ear Inn. I seem to be going there pretty much every Saturday, so nothing new there, but this time I’m inviting all the people I’ve met along the way. Should be good.

I promised a general snapshot of where I’m at, so here it is. There will inevitably be some repetition of material from earlier posts. Live with it.

I’m working on a short at the moment. This is my third one, and the pay is gradually increasing. If it keeps up, I could probably even subsist just on shorts for a while. I’ve stopped pursuing the NYFA. They might give me a ring at some point, but they pay so little that it’s not worth pursuing while I’m working on other stuff.
There are a couple of other shorts in the offing, and a whiff of a low budget feature or two for me to either supervise, or hack some backgrounds onto. Same thing, I hear you say. Oh yes, very witty. There was a whisper of a few days on another feature, and even the vague possibility of some foreign travel for work purposes, but they both melted away. I’m definitely feeling a lot more optimistic than I was six weeks ago.

I’m still living in East Williamsburg, in a predominantly Purto Rican neighbourhood. I’ve figured out where most of the shops and so forth are, so it’s all good. My room is a mess. My ProTools system is set up just by my bed. My bed is a mattress on the floor. I don’t have much storage, so pretty much everything else I own is strewn about the place. Next purchase – bookcase.

My roommates are Andras – a friend of Julian’s – and JV, who has lived here for a while. Andras was born in Hungary, but grew up in Germany. He lived in the same town as Julian (Munster) but they didn’t meet until they came to New York. He’s also married to an American, but she’s studying in England. Andras is completing his PhD in Economics at Columbia University. JV (Javier) I see less of, as he works nights. He’s been very friendly and welcoming. He’s delighted to have somebody else to split the rent with!

I don’t really have much of a routine. I’ve been going out less and less because of the biting cold. Julian comes here every so often and teaches me to cook, occasionally we go for a drink with Andras. On Saturdays I tend to go out drinking with Conor Brennan and his crew in the Ear Inn. I was told to contact Conor by Alan Gilsenan, and I’m glad I did. He’s introduced me to a lot of people, and bought me a lot of Guinness.

Myself and Julian occasionally go out to interview people for a book project. Julian asks the questions and I bring along the expensive recording gear. It’s another good way of meeting interesting people, and a good way of staying in touch with people you encounter briefly – “Hey, can we interview you?”

I drop in to C5 occasionally – all the shorts I’ve worked on have come from there, one way or another. I feel if it keeps up this way I’ll be employed by osmosis. The poker games have ceased due to changing circumstances, perhaps temporarily, perhaps not. Time will tell.
Occasionally I get a name or a phone number of an editor or a sound guy, and I go and meet them, and we swap cards. It’s all a question of throwing rocks up a hill. Some of them will roll back down, most won’t. But you never know which are which, so you just have to keep throwing rocks up the hill.

This website has really become my hobby. I don’t know if that’s a good thing – I probably should be going to the gym – but hey. It’s educational. I’ve even started my own webcomic, which I call After the Party. I was inspired by Dead Funny, which made me realise exactly how little artwork you really need, although that looks a lot better. I’m using ATP Autosite 7.2, which is great and free. That’s where the name comes from – After The Party. I couldn’t be bothered trying to change the name of the default installation directory. The first one is here and I plan to update daily until I either get bored or succumb to increasing international pressure to stop sullying the web.

It is entirely without merit. Enjoy.

Oh, and I watched the Superbowl in a bar with Conor and some Broadway actors, which was fun. I completely missed the whole Janet Jackson thing, which was a bit of a shame. And I have a new phone number. If you need to know it, email me. I’ve gone for a Cingular contract. That T-Mobile pre pay was bleeding me dry, Catherine Zeta Jones notwithstanding.