Monday 29th 2004f March 2004
Alcohol and Meetings
Zaini arrived more or less exactly when he said he would, and I was right – it did turn out to be a pretty insane week. He left a few hours ago – on to Boulder, Colorado – so I can take a few moments to calmly recollect the events of the past seven days. I’ll try and do a roughly chronological outline, although I’ll probably forget some stuff – I suspect I’ve lost a relatively scary percentage of my brain. I’m trying to prevail on Zaini to do a guest entry, which might fill in some of the gaps. Although he knows perfectly well that if he fills in too many of the gaps I’ll just edit it. Right, Zaini?
Monday evening was going to be quiet. Zaini was fresh from travelling and quite tired, and I had to be in work the next morning – finally, finally mixing A Reasonable Hypothesis. So we were just going to go have a slice of pizza, maybe a swift pint. Well, you know how that goes. I took him to Greenpoint, and we had a slice of the finest pizza available right beside the Bedford Avenue stop, and then we went to that newly opened Irish-ish bar across the street, which serves Smithwick’s. Friendly barmaid recognised me, had a few pints. Then we went to the Burlesque show in Galapagos, and had a few more drinks. Then we went home.
So it wasn’t too bad. I was tired, but not hungover, when I showed up at Magno the next day. The mix went well – there were a truly horrifying number of tracks for a twenty minute short, but the mixer Paul Michael took it in his stride with enthusiasm and good humour. This was a relief – it could easily have gone the other way. It was a nice room, and they plied us with sweets and coffee. But even better, the quality of my work caught the eye of some of the staff, and they asked for my contact details so they could put me on their roster of freelancers. It hadn’t even occurred to me that this could be a job hunting opportunity – I’d completely stopped thinking that way. And I’d also forgotten that I was actually capable of being a half decent sound editor – it’s been a while. We finished off the day about 6:30, and I went for a drink with Jack, the director. Zaini met up with us and we had a couple. Jack left and myself and Zaini went to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which was really great and which I will review at some point.
On Wednesday we slept in a little, before meeting up with Julian and Veronika for a lunch picnic in Union Square (the weather has improved greatly recently). We took a trip on the Staten Island Ferry, and from that point on the day was pretty much dominated by my agenda. Utilising the phrase “showing you my New York” I dragged Zaini with me as I met with the director of the feature film and went to view my new apartment. I’ve had a number of emails expressing curiousity about these two things. All will now be revealed.
First, the poll results.
I asked: Should I stick to my decision to quit sound for writing, or should I do this low budget movie?
You answered:
- 57.1%: Do the movie.
- 21.4%: Wow, Dude – I don’t know, but I wish I had your problems.
- 14.2%: Stick with the writing – there’ll be other movies.
- 7.1%: Wow, Dude – I don’t know, but I’m glad I don’t have your problems.
14 votes.
But I pretty much ignored that. I went along to the meeting not knowing what I was going to say, which is the way I always handle these kind of situations. We met in The Scratcher, and I left Zaini chatting to Anita at the bar while I had a chat.
And what did I say? Well, I went in to sales mode. So I guess I will do the movie, if I can convince the producers and hammer out some kind of deal. The director was open to me not necessarily working full time – I could take a break if something else came along which paid (within reason). I told him I’d need a room to work in which wasn’t my bedroom, and he seemed to think that could be managed. I’ll know in about a month what the story is, so that gives me time to write. It’s all good.
After that, I dragged Zaini out to Queens to look at the new place – I will be moving. And it looks like JV has even found somebody to move in here, so that’s all good too. Now I just actually have to move – I’m going to try and arrange this better than last time. I only have a few days! Gaaah!
We then went to Greenpoint – I wanted to take Zaini to see my old apartment, and meet Liza and Marilyn. We hung out there for a while, and then we went with Liza to have dinner in Sea Thai, which is my favourite restaurant. OK, I haven’t been to many, but this is the best one. More beer. We then went to another bar around the corner, which apparently allows smoking. There was even a guy outside watching for cops! It seems you can get away with this a little bit outside Manhattan. It was a forceful reminder of how nice it is when people can’t smoke in bars – even a few cigarettes dotted around the room can really stink up your clothes. I think Zaini was surprised how quickly he’d got used to the no smoking thing as well. How’s it going over there?
Thursday was a little stressful starting out, as I was reminded forcefully of Zaini’s propensity for not leaving until after the time he was supposed to arrive at the place he was leaving for. “Lateness” for Zaini is something fairly inconsequential – unfortunately, I needed to be at the bank at a certain time to deposit a check. Anyway, we made it, and then hooked up with Ruairi, in town for the weekend on a job. I showed them the library where I’ve been writing, and then myself and Zaini headbanged with the Chrysler Building in the background for a music video Ruairi is gathering material for as he travels around the world. We’d better make the final cut, O’Brien – my neck was sore for days. We went to Times Square to see Starsky and Hutch, which was mildly amusing and fairly enjoyable, and which I will probably also review at some point.
Friday saw me back at Magno to complete the mix. All went well. Met up with Zaini for a quick bite to eat and a bit of stroll around Midtown. And this is where it started to get a bit out of control. I actually won’t go into much detail here, but on a whim I took Zaini to Molly’s, where I suspected Conor and a few of his friends might show up.
Indeed they did. It was one of those nights you don’t really plan, but end up in weird places – in this instance a karaoke bar in Koreatown. The thing about Korean karaoke bars, apparently, is that you rent a private room where your party can sing for as long as you want in relative privacy for as long as you want while they bring you beer. I’ll draw a veil over what went on, but I haven’t been able to get I’ve Never Been To Me out of my head since. I’m not even sure how long we were there, but I’ve never had squid for breakfast before. Or Sojo.
And so on to Saturday with not much sleep. We did manage to go out again that evening to the Ear Inn, which is pretty amazing since we had had about eight hours sleep between us out of the previous thirty six. I faded about 2am, but Zaini found hidden reserves and was still bouncing around at 5:30am (I’d passed out on the bar by then). Gratifyingly, he fell asleep on the train, so he can testify as to how easy that is. Luckily I was there to wake him up.
Yesterday, Sunday, was quiet, as you might expect. We took a low key trip out to Ground Zero, and then came home to watch the Sopranos. Zaini was up at 6am this morning to catch his plane. He had planned to aout the door by 7:00, but being Zaini I didn’t say goodbye to him until 7:30. Some things never change.
Anybody else want to come for a visit? I enjoyed it immensely. Go Zaini!
