Women Who Behave

So, yesterday we had Jeff Rosen come to speak in our Music Marketing class. He's Bob Dylan's manager. That was really awesome. The conversation was mostly my teacher asking him questions and them kinda talking, but at the end a couple of the students got to ask questions too. I'm not actually allowed to talk about WHAT was said, but overall it was kinda negative. Errol (teacher) pointed out later that he's still thinking within the current system of the music industry which is clearly dying, but not thinking beyond, which is what Errol (our whole department really) is encouraging us to do.

But yeah, that was exciting and I wasn't allowed to say anything about it beforehand, so I was bursting a bit.

In other news, my GPA is not good enough to warrant NYU letting me study abroad in London next semester. I get that it's a - if not the most - popular site, but really? No, "we'll see how you're doing around midterms"? I'm gonna e-mail my advisor and see if there's anything I can do to try to appeal. Next semester is the only one I have to go abroad, and I've kinda been planning on doing so since...elementary school? Something like that. If worse comes to worse, I guess I can just move to London for six months or so after graduation.

So anyway, that was my mini-update that served as a procrastination tool. I'm really starting to loathe my Writing about Popular Music class. The teacher isn't clear in his prompts and then grades us horribly, and it's about the 5th required writing class we've had. We're all a bit sick of it, and most of us know we don't want to go into journalism. So, back to reading about how to write about music. And wondering if I'll be able to make it through the quizzes without "The Elements of Style". It didn't get cracked Freshman year so I threw it away. I would really rather not have to buy it again. I don't have any space for it anyway.

I've been craving swimming laps lately. I'm not sure what exactly brought this on, but I just really miss swim team. It was actually nice in a way getting up every morning and swimming laps for just under an hour. It was a good way to wake up. Not so much the Inglemoor 4am practices, but for the summer swim league, being up at the Aqua Club by 7:15am wasn't too bad. There's just something calming and wonderful about that repetitive exercise. Also it's hard to feel anything but graceful while moving around in water.

There are some really fun memories from the various swim teams. I was in a really odd position skill-wise at the Aqua Club. In the exhibition races, I would always win the breast stroke (okay there were exceptions, but I don't think I ever got lower than 3rd), but whenever they moved me up to the race that counted for points towards the meet results I'd come in squarely fifth or sixth. Usually sixth. I also was always put on the third relay team, but we never did all that wonderfully. Also in practices I always felt most comfortable in the slowest lanes (5 and 6), but could keep up in lanes 1 and 2 if I tried. It was always just weird and unfamiliar whenever I did try to move up though, I was used to the familiarity of the other end of the pool. Another fun thing about Aqua Club was that the water in our pool was so ridiculously thick that you felt so much faster swimming in any other pool. I never actually checked to see if my times were faster at other pools compared to AC, but it sure felt like it.

Then there was the high school swim team. I was only really on it as a Freshman, and was out for half the season because I broke my arm skateboarding a couple weeks before school started. It was still really fun. This is where I first met Jennie, and got to know Laura again a bit (although she'd just been in a bad car accident and kept cramping because of her back so eventually dropped off the team that year). Once my arm healed, I was out of practice and pretty slow, but in the meantime Jo (the diving coach) had taught me how to judge diving, so that was one of my duties throughout the season. It was actually really fun and got me interested in diving. The only time I ever got to practice with Jo instead of doing the laps workout was the day I got my period. That was interesting for sure, having my period come for the first time just before swim practice. I tried a few laps, but my body was just felt too weird because this was something brand new. So I was excused from practice for the day, encouraged to call my mother and share the wonderful news, and went to help Jo with the divers. She knew that I was interested in diving, having watched and helped with it all season, so she sent me up onto the board to do a basic exercise. Unfortunately, someone from the district was there observing so I only got to dive once or twice before Monica came over to ask that only the divers dive that day.

So, my goal is now to get a new swimsuit (the old Inglemoor swim team one is getting faded and almost see-through in places) and start swimming laps now and then. But for now, I will go back to multitasking by writing about MSI for a class tomorrow, and paying attention to the lecture I'm sitting in for Intro to Ancient Egyptian Religion. Today we're learning some of the more important gods and how they're represented and what they're for and a bit of the myths behind them.

Also, I ran across an interesting rant by Amanda Palmer last night. It's about someone accusing her of making light of abortion and rape in her song "Oasis," and is here on her blog. At the end she links to another interesting post by Katrina Galore.

This is the video for "Oasis":

So, I just had my last (and second...for the same class) midterm. It went a lot better than I thought it was going to, but it still wasn't great. Hopefully I get another high B or low A or something. I'd like to not get lower than my last test, but we'll see. I didn't study ALL that much harder, and started skipping lecture. We'll see on Wednesday.

I have another test, only a quiz, in my Industry class in a couple hours here, but it's over stuff we've covered pretty well in class and a chapter I actually went out and read on my own before I knew it was assigned. So I'm not too worried about this.

I'm super excited recently because my bike came and I've actually been riding it and it's wonderful. I DID almost get hit once already but it didn't happen so we can forget about that, right? I had to go get a backpack for that though because I only had messenger bags, and those are a bit unbalanced when biking. So I went to the bookstore after class this morning and got the backpack, a hole punch that I need for Studio, and then saw a really good deal on a combo Benny & Joon/The Man in the Moon DVD set and a Forgotten English desk calendar for next year. I'm excited about this, especially because I was able to put it on my Dad's card since it was a mostly academic purchase.

I feel kinda bad, because I've skipped out on two concerts in the past two weeks with Alan, but I've just been getting a bit of overload with that kid. I know we're supposed to be good friends, but sometimes you just need a break from someone, ya know? Anyway, I was supposed to go to a Halloween concert and to his favorite band's CD release on the past two Fridays. The first one I really just wasn't feeling up to going out, so I used that as an excuse. Then, I DID have a lot of work over this weekend so I begged out again. I feel bad because he's been coming to TMBG and I told him like two months ago I'd go, but I just haven't been excited about going out for the past couple of weeks. I partially blame Paco. Who, by the way, hasn't come to any further conclusions that he's told me about even though we've been talking a bit. Frustrating.

Also, I seem to be immune to the cold again. Well, not that it's been very cold...It dipped into the 40s for a few days before Halloween, but it's been staying in the 50s and 60s lately. But people are starting to get all bundled up in their winter coats and scarves, and I'm still traipsing around in a relatively thin sweatshirt. *shrug* I only find it odd because I wore jeans pretty much all summer, even though it was in the 70s and 80s. Also, they've started blasting the heat in the buildings so it's just fucking hot inside. Especially my dorm.

I just acquired the rest of Sarah Vowell's books, as well as John Hodgman's new one. I'm excited to get started on those. I just have to find time. I also found this torrent of like 1000 popular sci-fi books, (something like 6 gB worth of pdfs) so if anyone wants to read one that they aren't excited enough about to buy, hit me up and I can send you that particular pdf. I'm excited for Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, the rest of Neil Gaiman's works (which I'll probably end up buying anyway, I like him lots), and Terry Pratchett's works (also a possible future purchase). So far the N-R torrent has finished downloading (alphabetical by author's first name), so I have tons of that.

Aaaaand, I should get some lunch and head over to 194.

Ack, this project is killing me. I'm loaded with stuff to do: homework for classes I'm only taking because they're required and not because I actually want to be a Recording Engineer, stuff I've volunteered to do for our department's record-label-type organization, being my hall's Hall Rep for Hall Council...

And on top of all this, I have my first Studio 2 project due relatively soon. Basically the assignment is: produce a song. So, my partner and I are recording her friend. He's got this musical theater-type song he wrote a couple of years ago, and we're having friends in our program play drums, bass, and guitar on it to back up his basic piano and vocals. Thing is, apparently the guitar sucked a few weekends ago (I thought the acoustic sounded fine, though we didn't get a chance to play electric because the program's guitars will not tune) so Cecile is booking/walking in for last minute sessions last night and tonight to fix that. I understand, but I'm her partner and the guitar player seems to know before I do about these. Last night I couldn't even go because of a Hall Council meeting. Tonight I have a shitton of homework to do. I'm going to have to either skip my lecture in the morning or not go to the session. Since I missed the session last night I feel really bad skipping the one tonight, but I just. do. not. have the time. I get about 10 minutes in my dorm after my flute lesson that starts about now before I have to come back up to campus for a record label meeting. Then I don't have time to go home before the session starts at 9:30 to midnight. When am I doing my homework? No clue.

I sound whiny, and I feel bad, it's just...I'm kinda upset that Cecile isn't telling me anything until the last minute. I didn't even get to hear the demo of the song until we started recording the drums and bass in our first session.

Okay, the stars are just aligned perfectly right now or something. Maybe it's the luck of the slightly Irish, or the Welsh or something. :P

So, this weekend is just kinda fucking amazing. I'd planned with Alan lat week to go to the Whitney and the Met yesterday, Friday 4/11, in order to be able to write our Writing the Essay pages on the exhibits we were supposed to go see. There was some really cool stuff at the Whitney Biennial. Here's the background: for our last Writing the Essay paper we're supposed to pick an artist in any medium, and write an 8-10 page paper about them in cultural context. Due to obvious current obsessions, I picked TMBG. We're also supposed to try and get an interview with our artist, because it would be helpful to whatever our argument may happen to be. Earlier in the week, I had received my final "I don't think I can help you. Good luck with your paper." e-mail from TMBG's publicist.

Anyway...so my friend and I are talking about the ridiculous busy-ness that is taking place next weekend what with needing to finish a MIDI song, probably going to Comic Con on Friday, the concert I've been helping to plan for Earth Week on Saturday, Cinderella either Friday night or Saturday night, and the two TMBG shows on Sunday. So, we arrive at the Whitney. As we walk in, I do a double take and attempt to contain my amazement by merely clapping a hand over my mouth. Alan turns to me and goes, "Uh, what the hell?" I go, "Oh, that's only John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants standing right next to the entrance of the Whitney, looking like he's waiting for someone."

"You just got denied your interview by the publicist, right?"

"Yeah..."

"This is a better way to make connections. Go get your interview." Alan physically pushed me back towards the entrance. I looked back at him, expecting him to be following me to lend a bit of support, but he'd veered towards the tickets line. Good thing Fridays are fee at the Whitney, I'd feel bad if he'd had to actually buy me a ticket.

So, I walked up to Mr. Flansburgh, and proceeded to make an awkward fool of myself. Especially for someone trying to be a professional in the same industry as him. Oh well, I'll do better next time.

"Um, excuse me." Flans turned to look at me. "Hi, I, um, I'm a fan." He obviously wasn't expecting this, and took a moment to realize what I meant. "Oh, Hi. I'm John." He extended his hand and I say "Michelle." as I shake it. I had a moment of Well, um, of course I know your name is John! Why are you introducing yourself?

"It's nice to meet you." He says, probably ready for me to leave now and continue waiting for whoever.

"Actually, I'm writing a paper about you guys right now."

Flans looks intrigued. "Really? Why?"

"Well, my professor said to pick an artist and write about them, so..." I shrug.

"Huh, well okay."

"Yeah, we're supposed to take an artist and basically put them in cultural context while forming some argument about them."

"Oh, that's kinda cool. What class is this for?" Flans still seemed to think it was odd that anyone would be writing about They Might Be Giants.

"Writing the Essay, but since I'm in Tisch at NYU it's a bit more arts geared overall. Also," I put on a hopeful look, "I was wondering if I could maybe get an interview to supplement the paper."

"Oh, yeah sure, that'd be cool."

"Awesome!"

"Were you thinking over e-mail? Or...?"

"Oh, uh, e-mail, in-person, phone...anything really."

"Well, let me give you my e-mail address and go ahead and contact me."

I dug around in my giant purse that doesn't look like it should be so large, pulled out my notebook and found a pen. I handed it over after opening it to the last page, and he wrote down his name and two e-mail addresses, explaining that he checks different ones in different places, so to go ahead and e-mail him at both. He also spelled out the beginning of the address aloud, in case I couldn't read it. This may actually have been a problem, so I'm glad he did. I'm also highly amused by what he uses as his e-mail address, but I'll be a good professional and keep it a secret. As I take my notebook back once he finishes, I say "Thank you SOO much."

"No problem."

"Well, I guess I'll be seeing you in a couple of weeks."

"What? Where?" He seemed confused. I had a moment where I thought he'd forgotten about his own shows the next week, but realized it must be because I didn't have a kid with me, nor do I look like I'd be likely to have a kid at my age.

"Oh, at the Town Hall shows."

He kinda laughed at me. "But those are little kids shows!"

I just grinned at him. "So?"

Flans shrugged, "I guess it's just not my cup of tea. Nice to meet you. Just remind me that you're Michelle from the Whitney when you e-mail and I'll know who you are."

"Alright thanks."

I walked back to the ticket line where Alan met me with a ticket, and we headed up to look at the Biennial exhibit. Later, I spotted Flans walking around with a woman I assume was Robin Goldwasser, his wife. I also spent the rest of the time we were at either the Whitney or the Met randomly grinning and dancing or skipping or, just oozing joy. I believe I kept Alan quite amused. Had I had Jon's phone number before this morning, I would have texted or called him right away. But I couldn't, so I had to wait until I got back to my dorm around 9:30 (It happened around 6:15) to tell Elyssa the good news. We had earlier been talking about how I'd jinxed getting the interview through Chris from Girlie Action by telling too many people about the possibility, so I knew she'd be excited at my luck as well.

Now, I just have to think up a good amount of questions for them. If you think of one that might be good, go ahead and let me know, because I'm having a bit of trouble and I should probably send the e-mail ASAP. In other news, the rest of this weekend is awesome because I'm visiting Jon at Stony Brook for the night, and tomorrow night I'll be helping Erik in my program shoot a music video. Then this Thursday I might get to dance onstage with my friend's band in order to get into the 21+ show. I'm not sure, I need to talk to Richard about that.