Gone to America

So, I’ve decided to chuck in the sound thing for a while and try my hand at writing stuff. Once my car sells (buyitbuyitbuyitbuyit) I’ll have enough money to live here for about two months without any other income. Instead of spending those two months frantically looking for work as a sound editor, I shall repair every day to a quiet place of my choosing (probably here) with my laptop, and try to write stuff. I shall for these two months turn down any sound editing work anybody offers me (in fact, I just refused another short). I will consider teaching work, if it comes along.

Well, I suppose if somebody were to offer me loads of money, I’d… No!

So, who knows what’ll happen. Forcing this kind of change will certainly clear up a few things. I may realise I really love sound editing, and suck at writing. I may realise that I love New York so much I’d take some kind of bar job to stay here. I may realise that I need to be in Dublin if I ever want to get anywhere. The important thing is that I realise something, and don’t just keep on following the path of least resistance, as I’ve been doing for the past few years.

So today I spent the morning writing in the reading room of the Center for Jewish History because the library on 42nd Street I intended to use is closed on Mondays. It’s important for me to go somewhere specifically to write, because one of the most unpleasant parts of my situtation has been having my workstation in my bedroom. If I wake up in the middle of the night I find myself in my office, which is very unpleasant. I can bring a laptop pretty much anywhere (well, anywhere with a power point) so I’m going to take advantage of that. I’ll probably work my way around these places if I don’t like the library.

Working in the CJH wasn’t ideal, because I basically had to lie to get in there, which was kind of stressful. I pretended I was interested in researching the early lives of the original Jewish movie entrepreneurs, like Samuel Goldwyn, which was perhaps a little unnecessarily elaborate – I probably could have just said “history and stuff”. I was told about their reading room by Veronika, a German friend of Andras’ who is staying in his room while he’s away in the UK. She’s over here doing some research for her PhD in there, so she knew the score. It was nice, and if I ever need to research some aspect of Jewish history I know where to go, but I was a little too paranoid that I’d be found out (“Hey, you’re not researching Jewish history, you’re writing an article about the problems of Irish filmmaking!”) to really do much.

But it was a start. I had lunch (sushi – that’s a very blog-like thing to be noting) with Julian, and went over some chapters of a book he’s been working on with an eye to trimming some of those long German sentences down to size. I was returning the favour he and Lisa had done me by reading and extensively commenting on my screenplay (aha! You didn’t know I’d been writing a screenplay, did you! I no longer feel the need to keep it a secret!). After that, I took a ride on the Staten Island Ferry for the first time (I met Julian in Battery Park – he was on his way to the Museum of Jewish Heritage). The Staten Island Ferry is free, and you get a great view of the Statue of Liberty.
After that, I had to come home, because I got a phone call from Jack, the director of A Reasonable Hypothesis. I had completely wigged out on the fact that I was supposed to meet him today, to add the music and do a few final notes before the mix. With all these new beginnings buzzing around in my head, I had completely blanked that I still had a film to finish. I’m actually waiting for him as I type – I’m glad he’s so easygoing. And there’s not much left to do.

In other news, episode 2 of “The Sopranos” was on last night (I’ve decided that the way to solve the “it-them” dilemma is to use inverted commas) and was really excellent. Much to my surprise, it was surpassed by the programme that followed it – the season finale of “Curb Your Enthsusiasm”, which was about as perfect as any hour of TV I’ve ever seen. HBO is a great channel.
I had the usual weekend round of drinking. I don’t know what I’ll be doing on St. Patrick’s Day yet – any suggestions? I’m looking forward to Zaini’s visit next week. Hmm, I need to find him a bed.

I’m feeling pretty positive about completely abandoning my career at this point, but I expect panic will set in soon. Should make for interesting reading!