brief interjection

it's 2:08 on a sunday morning but i finally need to share this

right so i'm probably like kelly clarkson's #8 or #9 Fan, so unlike all the haters in the media, i'm only saying this because i want to see her be successful in a way she used to be, that she is not now.

she is overweight.

i think it's one thing for somebody to be overweight for their age and height, but the issue with kelly clarkson is that her occupation is "being a popstar." the simple truth is that part of being a popstar heavily involves maintaining your image. and if not that, at bare minimum making yourself healthy.

after she won american idol, she lost some weight and made an image for herself...that combined with her incredible voice and the perfect songs made her the #1 artist of 2005:

HOT.

i'm not at all saying that everybody needs to go diet and be super skinny...but when you're trying to sell the music she sells, in her genre, with her fans, it's kind of part of the job.

this would be her now:

POPSTAR WITH 5 #1 HITS?

why does this bother me? because beyonce & lady gaga & pink & all the rest of them will continue to steal her old spot in the industry as long as she continues to ignore her appearance.

she is still my 2nd favorite artist...i love her music and i revere her talent. and i will keep going to her shows. i simply wish she would realize that being in shape is an OK thing to put effort into...especially in the pop music industry.

is this valid, or am i so vain like david geffen?

i can't believe i actually miss the screaming 13 year old girls who all wanted to be her.

what you don't have, you don't need it now

crumbs bakery

hi errrybody

i'm having time issues! everytime i sit down to post something, it seems like hardly a week has gone by. yet, in other aspects (such as my work week) it seems like 7 days are an eternity.

we had another boring week/exciting weekend.

my long-time neighbor and close friend, jenna, came up to visit us this weekend. it gave us yet another excuse to go out and have fun. in fact, we realized on sunday that we have not yet had a weekend alone in nyc. i think i like it that way!

we set friday night aside to relax...we went back to the diner we visited 9,743 times last weekend (Midnight Express), for my favorite $5.15 cheeseburger. we also continued with the 80's theme we started last weekend (watched The Breakfast Club) by watching St. Elmo's Fire.

we went to luigi's pizza on 1st ave & 88th for lunch on saturday.

after saturday lunch, we went to east midtown to explore. we checked out Central Park & stopped in to a few places we hadn't seen before. we also stopped by sony, thinking that we would just show jenna the building...i had seen signs for the Sony Wonder Technology Lab before, but never really had a clue what it was. it turns out that it's a very fun, exciting & interactive museum. using a personalized key card, each person spends 1 - 2 hours going through the museum and messing with the different "tech" applications...the museum is actually listed as one of the top FREE attractions in NYC. i wonder who exactly pays for it...it didn't look like a cheap place!

my picture is the bottom right

just playing some drums at sony

after sony, we went to CRUMBS, my favorite cupcake place of alllll time. i previously had red velvet, grasshopper, half-baked & peanut butter cupcakes.

saturday night, jenna & i made some noodles with parmesan breaded chicken & summer red crushed tomato sauce. it was easy. (Actually jenna made the chicken so it just appeared to be easy)

I had never seen any of the 80's "brat pack" movies before this year...on saturday night we watched "Pretty in Pink," bringing my total to 3. so culturally aware.

on sunday, i saw my 4th broadway show this semester, in the brand new musical Memphis.

it was a great show, with some definitely talented people, but it didn't really do much for me personally. there wasn't anything that i hadn't seen before. (unlike each of the last three shows i've seen). nonetheless...it will at least be nominated for the Tony for Best Musical.

44th st & broadway

a family portrait of the candles we have acquired so far...i know...it's a problem:

island guava, gingerbread, lakeside birch, birthday cake, peppermint, homemade cake, tangerine, sun & sand, homemade cookies, vanilla creme, birthday surprise, christmas cookie, cookie crunch, apple turnover, lavender, spice pumpkin, vanilla lime, mango blossom, vanilla buttercream (not pictured but very large)

i'm going home to see my mom, dad, brother, sister, sister-in-law, two nieces, two puppies & high school best friend this weekend! i am in desperate need of a good puppy snuggle

ordinary people

museum of modern art

helloo

well, it's been a real eventful week again. but i guess we're becoming like the rest of the world...relatively boring workweeks and exciting weekends.

work has been getting both a little more boring & a little more frustrating...i've developed my first "sour relationship" with a girl in her late 20s who believes is ALSO my supervisor. although i always do the work she demands that i do, she is very rude about it & doesn't seem to understand that i have to complete the tasks my supervisor gives me. last monday, she gave me an all-day assignment, and got visibly angry when i didn't finish it by 6:30...i had to stay until 8:00, and she has since been nothing short of nasty towards me. the thing about this is, i am working 34 UNPAID hours for Sony every week...it wouldn't be ok for her to treat me the way she does even if i were her intern. which i'm not.

anyway, i'm getting through it & by continuing to do the work she asks me to do (although i'm definitely not making an effort to be nice to her), i hope there won't be any harm done. as for the boring part, sometimes i don't have any work to do, & at times i feel a bit worthless just sitting at my desk, trying to get excited by small things (like lunch or a coffee break). we'll have to see how it develops, but one of my lessons from this experience might be that a desk job isn't where i should be heading...

this weekend our friends from Northeastern University came down to spend some time with us. NU & NY friends combined, there were 11 of us in the apartment at different times. we did a lot of stuff and ate out for every meal (which my roommate & i avoid at all costs when we don't have guests).

a few of us at a new find...a diner on 2nd avenue...one block north of our apartment

One of the highlights was visiting the Museum of Modern Art in Midtown...here are some pictures of what we saw.

holographic lightbulb

starry night by vincent van gogh

the small one is not art.

we also saw In the Heights on Friday evening...we got standing room in the back for $21.50 a ticket...it wasn't a bad deal at all, although me & my IT Band Syndrome didn't appreciate the standing part too much. i enjoyed the show, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2008. however, i didn't like it as much as liked the other two i've seen in nyc so far (hair, jersey boys).

on sunday, we went down to the village for the first time...it's an interesting place, & the atmosphere is distinctly different from the upper east side (where we live). my friend bryan attends grad school at nyu, so he was able to show all of us around. check another area off my list...

washington square park

while millersville & severna park, maryland accumulated almost 4 feet of snow over the past couple weeks, the big apple got a measly 10 inches last wednesday (enought to get me out of work at 12:30). i was shocked to find that most of the snow had somehow or another disappeared by the next morning...and the temperatures had not yet climbed above freezing. oh well...it's not like there's any grass for it to rest on anyway.

on another note, i'm starting to really into touch with the nostalgia i've been feeling since september...it's not something i would usually think to write about, but i thought it might help to understand & process by writing it out. over the fall i was really missing my siblings, specifically when i was much younger and was truly playing the role of "little brother." there is something very secure in not knowing too much about the world...not having real responsibility (and being treated like it). it goes with the territory, but i feel like i'm moving into it slower than you'd expect. i also miss the friendships i had in high school...even middle school. it's funny to me, because i have become a better person with every year that i have grown. i was unhappy much more often, and didn't have a whole lot show for myself, but there are some things that i miss...i don't like the thought that certain periods of my life are over, and won't ever come back. my latest hypothesis is that i don't spend enough time relishing the fact that i'm in college and still don't really have the responsibilities and pressure i like to put on myself.

that's all for now...maybe i will continue to share my thoughts on that

send me on my way

jarrod spector as frankie valli in jersey boys

hi friends

it's been a pretty eventful few days since i last posted!
on thursday, i went to my second broadway audition...no luck here either :) the audition was for south pacific, and although i got into the building about an hour and a half before the audition was set to begin, the woman in charge of casting let everybody in the room know that they would not be seeing non-equity performers for the audition. there were about 80 non-equity performers in the room...they were there because sometimes the producers will see both equity and non-equity. but, it was nice to at least be in the environment and see how it works.

THE GREAT PART about this situation however, was that I got out of the audition at around 9:00a, and was able to get to the Jersey Boys box office at 10:00 to get Student Rush tickets. I still don't understand how, but I got two front row center tickets to the show for $27 each...their regularly priced value is $127. I went with my friend Bryan & it was an absolutely amazing show...so very cool to be right up there inches away from them!

our feet were touching the front of the stage, which was about 4 feet high

my friend & i with sebastien arcelus (played bob gaudio)

i noted how incredibly specific the part of Frankie is...not only does the performer have to look Italian, speak Italian, be short, have a legit tenor to soprano range, but he also has to be able to healthily produce that duck-like vocal quality that Frankie had. How do they find guys who can do this so effortlessly??

friday evening, one of my closest friends, gretchen, came to spend the night with my roommate & i. she is currently attending the US Merchant Marines Academy, and so far has only been allowed off campus a handful of times. it was nice for both of us to see each other! gretchen is the USMMA's top runner, and i will hopefully get to watch her run this semester since she is so close to the city.

gretchen & i have been friends since 2004

right so also i hit my head up on the edge of our bathroom cabinet mirror yesterday morning...and got to experience blood dripping from my hair and down my face for the first time...a little scary and somewhat disgusting, but for some reason i didn't get a headache the whole day.

today, we had our first "house party" to watch the superbowl. it was, you know...good.

have you seen the well-to-do, up and down park avenue?

yesterday is a kid in the corner

i have no idea what this building is but i walk by it every day and it looks really important

what's up yall

finished my first three weeks here in NY - everything is still going great. i'm working about 34 hours every week and developing relationships with my co-workers/supervisors. i'm doing good work, but i need to focus on going to help other departments when i have down time (instead of doing things like updating this blog).

i went to NJ this weekend to my roommate's house. it was very relaxing and nice to be in a home, but i got a total of 8 hours of sleep...they dropped me off in front of the sony building yesterday at 9:45 a.m. - unshaven, unshowered, and completely exhausted in my dirty jeans.

but it was a great weekend!

auditions this thursday for south pacific on broadway. if i gained anything from standing in a line to nowhere for the HAIR open call, it was a friend...the guy that we were standing with for 4 hours is going to audition with me for south pacific.

speaking of the hair open call, my hat made an appearance on www.broadwayworld.com - third picture down - hat is to the left of the kid with the bleached hair (the friend)

I AM BECOMING A COOK. i made a kicked-up version of a lemon pasta recipe from "down home with the neelys" on the food network. sorry mom, i know they're annoying.

a little less olive oil & lemon and it would have been perfect

this is the sony ground lobby...there is nothing but the TVs on the wall and a structure in the center...you have to take an elevator to the sky lobby to actually enter the building. it reminds me of MIB Headquarters from Men in Black

some of the cd's i've collected at Jive so far.

went to New Jersey and somehow these were the only two photos i took.

very large eggs.

a few other inconsequential photos:

sony subway stop

new york & company in new york, thought that was special

just annoyin the drivers on park avenue