I'm in a New York State of Mind.

And that's great cause Billy Joel's in the studio. I haven't seen him, I guess he likes to record in the middle of the night. I don't really care if I get to meet him, but man, would I ever love to meet his daughter.



Whew! So hot. That Christie Brinkley has good strong genes.

Oh, and here's some more pictures, I chilled in Central Park a bit today.





















































































And I know it's completely dorky, but I totally listened to Stawberry Fields Forever on my iPod while I took this.

Some New York Pics and First Day of "Work".

This is the building where I have my internship. Yes, there really is a five room world class studio in there.

The studio's in an area of West- Central Manhattan called Hell's Kitchen.







Our immediate neighbors are Sony Music...








...and Montel Williams. One day after work I might try to sit in the studio audience. Just for kicks.


Work was pretty cool actually. We set up a decca tree (above). To record some strings for the original cast recording of some musical called Grey Garden. And I saw my first famous person, but in an effort to not be an annoying stupid intern didn't go shake his hand or even talk to him. It was Ryan Adams...the hip indie country singer, not to be confused with Bryan Adams, the hack, Canadian pop singer (see below).

Ryan Adams

Bryan Adams

I finally have something I've wanted my entire life.

A fire escape.

In related news. I live in New York. Harlem actually. It's loads of fun so far. My internship is, as predicted, a very casual affair indeed. They're like, "Come in whenever you like." My first real day is tomorrow. I'll be sure to blog about it. Actually I can't promise that.

We live right on Riverside. The Hudson is really pretty beautiful when Tuna Trollers aren't reeking up the air. I accomplished exactly 3 things today. I went grocery shopping, I went to Barnes and Noble (that visit was most of my day) and the new Apple store on 5th Avenue. I should've done more, but I'm soaking in the city. Pictures soon maybe.

Go Go Gadget Gospel

I bought Gnarles Barkley Tuesday and I have to confess it's pretty awesome. Danger Mouse is my new hero, I want him to be my mysterious robed spiritual advisor. Cee-Lo is awesome as per usual, I want him to be my personal Santa. Good stuff I tell you.

And now I wonder how I was made...

This song has been in my head for weeks. I can't get over how cleverly the Pinnochio story was used as a setting for his self-doubt. I think you should all appreciate this so I'm doing "Scream Phoenix Forum" Style and posting the lyrics here. The song is "Driftwood" by Cursive on The Ugly Organ.

[Sample of an old pinnochio story record:]
"And I am what is left: a puppet!
Laughing at the look of amazment on the musician's face,
Pinocchio dove off the cliff and swam away
He swam steadily for most of the day.
Suddenly he found himself approaching an enormous floating cavern.
Could it be an island?
Pinocchio looked closer and he saw two huge rows of sharp,
yellow teeth and he realized his mistake."


So he would sulk and drink and mope
and cross his arms and hope to die.
And then a fairy came one night
to bring this sorry boy to life.
She pulled some strings
and spun him about.
That boy sprang up
and began to shout,
"My arms, my legs, my heart, my face they are alive!"
And she would cry, "Liar, liar!
What have I done?
You're no lover, and I'm no fighter."

(The story goes on)

So he would buy her things and kiss her hair
to show he was for real.
And she would take those gifts and kisses
though just stringing him along.
She knew about those wooden boys-
it's an empty love to fill the void.
"Pinocchio! Oh boy, how your nose has grown!"
So he would cry, "Liar, liar!
I'll prove it to you!"
But then it grew
He had grown tired of her
So it was true
He left her apartment
And he walked all night long
'til he was stopped by the shore of the ocean.
But still he walked on, amongst the whales
and the waves, and screamed
"Liar, liar!"
And his wooden body floated away.
He just drifed away.

And now I wonder how i was made...
And now I wonder how I was made...
my arms, my legs, my heart, my face,
my name is Driftwood.

Coachella 2006 And why Life is So Good.

Coachella was completely awesome. On Saturday I saw Head Automatica, The Walkmen, Wolfmother, Common, Imogen Heap, Sigur Ros, Franz Ferdinand, Atmosphere, and Depeche Mode. On Sunday I saw The Infadels, Murs, Mates of State, Jamie Lidell, Gnarls Barkley, Yeahs Yeah Yeahs, Massive Attack, and Tool. I also saw small chunks of many other bands' sets...some of which were great.

Highlights include:

Gnarls Barkley (Cee-Lo Green + Dangermouse) appearing to perform with a 15 piece band including strings. The band came on stage dressed as characters from the Wizard of Oz and struck up Breathe (the first musical cut from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon) whereupon Cee-Lo and Dangermouse triumphantly entered dressed as the Cowardly Lion (see picture) and the Tin Man respectfully. What followed was 45 minutes of pure, unadulterated awesomeness.

Imogen Heap the singer/co-programmer of Frou Frou played a completely awesome set and called the soundguy a "lazy douche". And he was.

Atmosphere (w/Brother Ali) was really incredible...even better than last time. They were lined up next to the headliners (Depeche Mode), so it was a cozy little crowd. I got to go with a cute girl from Australia who worked at the festival (more on this to come) and had so much fun, I feel I could reasonably contest their assertion that you can't imagine how much fun we're having.

Murs performed a really awesome set in front of a pretty small crowd. Slug showed up for the last song and that just made it even better.

I got to sit in the sound booth for most of Tool and had a straight on view of the stage. I had been about 10 rows from the front in the push-and-shove for the first 4 songs or so. Then I deecided I would get out and watch from the back (I really am getting old). So I worked my way to the trough and was pulled out by security. I followed them toward the sound booth and asked where the exit was. They said there wasn't one and to sit down and watch the show. So I did. Tool was astoundingly good. I'd seen them once before in HIgh School, but this was way better. I sat down with Tool's soundguy and got to ask him questions about how he mic'd and mixed and stuff. I learned a lot.

All that... and I only had to pay around $300 for the whole trip and get a little sunburned. Good deal.

So on to why my life is so good now. I used to be rather good at social interactions with the opposite sex. It was easy for me to talk to girls, even ones I didn't know and ask girls out. Now many of you can attest I am arguably somwhat handicapped in that department, and most of you (Adam excepted perhaps if he even remembers me from Riviera days) have always known the retarded me. One lousy girl pretty much ruined me about 4 years ago. No joke. I fell harder than I've ever fallen for a girl who played me hard. The first of "the Melissas". Ever since that she-devil ripped my heart out of my chest I have been clumsily bumbling my way through the whole "girls" part of my life.

Not any more. I totally just snapped out of it. I was trying to sort out some ticketmaster issues with our camping tickets and was invited to sit down in the shade with the 3 people selling tickets while I waited on the bastard ticketmaster rep for an hour or two. There was an independantly wealthy ex-hippie who only worked at Coachella for fun (and belonged to the Amalgamated Order of Real-Bearded Santas http://www.aorbsantas.com/pages/1/index.htm ), a completely quiet "intern" from a nearby college and a super cute girl named Bre from Australia.

I just up and snapped out of it. Snapped out of my 3-4 year social impediment. Before I knew it I was the old me just talking to this girl. She was a big Atmosphere fan, and we really hit it off the first day, and went to Atmosphere together. Then we went dancing to Daft Punk afterwords and hit some shows together the next day. Then she came by my tent night before last and kissed me. And I kissed her back... a lot. It was awesome.

I want to clarify, I'm not in love with this girl. I'm not even anticipating ever seeing her again. I'm pretty confident IM will pretty much be our only future contact. It seemed understood between us that it was just this random thing. I'm typically not into "random things". I usually crush pretty horribly until it all dissolves around me. But I wonder if my only reason for this random thing was to pull me out of a slump. I told Yancy last night I felt like a could defeat a Yak in head-to-head combat. I really feel amazing. I'm moving out of Provo. I've got my old confident self back, and I'm really happy. So my life rules. I don't really understand it. I even forgot my happy pills this weekend. And yet here I am, more content with my life than I've been in years. Strange.