News

Yesterday I returned home from the biggest trip I've ever undertaken by my lonesome: a half-week jaunt to DC and thereabouts to visit my buds Max and Keith. Max drove up to Ann Arbor last Friday to hang out with me and some Garg people, and because he had some extra tickets to see A Prairie Home Companion, which Zack and I quickly snatched up. The show was extremely entertaining (did you know about Faygo's antisemitic theme song?) and we had a good raucous time in Ann Arbor, drinking Brazilian Drink and trying to put Sam Shingledecker into the refrigerator. 

Man: But what is freedom? Just an illusion. The illusion that we could escape from this cage called the world. There is no freedom.

Woman: And what about love?

Man: Sometimes we meet someone who helps us, a stranger. But soon they are gone. We don't have time for love.

Woman: All is lost.

Man: I know.

Woman: Kiss me.

In short, it's French disillusionment and cynicism at its best. The problem with it, though, is that it doesn't allow for redemption, salvation, success, free will, or optimism. It's unrelentingly pessimistically pragmatic.

So my last Christmas Break is drawing to a close--it was really not nearly as frustratingly unproductive as some previous ones were, although I didn't do as much as I could have.

I'm not going to even bother apologizing for the big time lapse. In fact, I think you should blame yourself.

It's been a few weeks. I've moved into Garghouse, my new, lovely abode. I've got my own bathroom, my own door, a nice big kitchen, a creepy basement, a porch with a swing, and a designated party room with its own bar, so I'm about as satisfied as a very satisfied clam.

I'm living with fellow Garg staffers Petey, Billy, and Zack, and thus far we're getting on pretty well. Although I end up doing a lot of dishes out of disgust at the state of the sink.

I've been doing a lot of cooking recently, including making snickerdoodles, Swiss chard, the Ludachristmas drink, and most recently, potato salad. It's the first time I've attempted the famous Brown family secret recipe on my own, and I think it turned out pretty damn well.

The Gargoyle's still in a state of relative chaos right now as the new recruits continue to settle in. The first issue will certainly show up faster than I can imagine. Three more to go and I finally get to pass on that hot potato, however reluctantly.

Pretty excited about my Screenwriting for TV class. My project for the semester is to write an episode of 30 Rock, which is daunting but also potentially very fun. Hopefully it'll go well. I promise to keep you all posted regularly.

Really.

Well, I'm out of New York and have just about gotten used to nature, clean air, and silence again. My parents came to pick me up a couple weeks ago, treating me to a very nice meal at the famed Union Square Cafe as a late birthday present along the way. On our way back home, we swung by Ithaca to visit my sister, appreciate nature, and eat and drink a lot. I slept on the futon in Alison and her boyfriend's tiny attic hideaway (apartment) and generally made a nuisance of myself for two nights. In general, I had a good time. Not sure whether I'll be invited back.

Since I've gotten back home, there have been a couple major events. I spent a night making this fanciful Gargoyle-themed tin, for one thing. How cool is that! I think I'm going to use it for paperclip storage.

Oh, and I also got a car.

It's pretty good, I guess.

In other news, you know that great movie you saw in theaters recently? I still haven't seen it.

I'm slowly swimming through the finishing stretch of this internship and the stifling humidity and tropical storms that are accompanying it. This week has been particularly agonizing so far, maybe because I'm still missing that mad rush of Boosh-related excitement. Also, my birthday was kind of a let-down. I'm immensely grateful to the friends and family who sent me their fantastic, thoughtful gifts, cards, phone calls, and texts, and to April, who bought me a lovely dinner and kept me company. However, it's kind of disheartening how many of my friends only remembered my birthday in the past because of its former, more prominent position on Facebook's news feed page. This year I got a weird, abbreviated mix of well-wishes, about half of which are from people I almost never speak to. Frowns.

Anyway, I'm 21 now. Today I finished off the beer Leo bought for me, so I guess I'll have to start buying my own alcohol. What a bother. It's very hot and humid, and I'd have to walk all the way across Union Square and then some to get to Trader Joe's wine shop. I might not even bother until I get back to Ann Arbor, where I can buy lots of cheap Meijer booze.

So really just about one more week of this internship to go, and then I'll finally be able to leave New York, breathe clean air, and feast my ears on some good, wholesome silence. The entire experience has left me doubting whether or not I'm suited for city life. I'd probably have to give living here some more time to know for sure. As I've been forced to repeat over and over this summer, I'm not in any position to be choosy about where I end up after college. This economy is taking no prisoners. I will have a job. AS GOD IS MY WITNESS, I SHALL HAVE A JOB.

Once again forgive the ENORMOUS TIME LAPSE between the previous entry and this one. I haven't been enormously busy, but I just haven't gotten around to blogging. I'm going to attempt to atone for this by writing a detailed account of my adventure yesterday going to see British comedy duo/troupe The Mighty Boosh perform for the first time ever in the U.S.

Through the magic of Twitter, I found out (via Rainn Wilson) early last week that the Mighty Boosh had a Twitter account for their impending arrival in America for Comic-Con to promote the release of their show on DVD. Last Friday, the Boosh tweeted that they were going to have a free New York show on Tuesday, and I basically flipped out. I had recently watched Nathan Barley (which happens to feature both Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding) and been thinking about MB, so the timing seemed really spot-on. Over the weekend, I re-watched the entire series, as well as their live show and a variety of other related content. By the time Tuesday rolled around, I was bursting with excitement.

Fellow intern Stephanie and I had bonded over "Old Gregg" quotes earlier in the summer, so I invited her to come to the show with me and she enthusiastically agreed. We skipped lunch on Tuesday and left work early, taking the B train down to the Bowery Ballroom. Doors weren't until 9:00, but there was already a fair-sized line when we got there at 5. Oh, did I mention it had been raining all day? It had been. And it continued to, on and off, while we waited. We entertained ourselves playing 20 Questions and at around 8, they handed out wristbands and let us down into the Ballroom's basement bar/corral, where we sat around for another hour. At 9 we were let upstairs into the auditorium. It was a fairly small venue, not a whole lot bigger than the Blind Pig, and we ended up near the middle of the audience, naturally behind a group of taller-than-average men.

After another hour or so of standing around, the boys finally appeared, to the ecstatic, semi-hysterical cheers of the audience (including me). They were for sure a little bit taken aback by our fervor and enthusiasm, and several times jokes were interrupted when they got distracted by crazy fan behavior. For example, Noel had to stop in the middle of his explanation of "Pelt the Rabbit in His Big White Face" to comment on the girls in the front row who were caressing his feet.

Once the audience calmed down a tiny bit, though, they got going. The gig was a combination of some of the stuff from their live show with a few songs from the TV show, including "Pies," "Eels," "Isolation," "Jean-Claude Jacquettie," "Naboolio," "Married on the Morrow," "Nanageddon," some dance instruction from Bob Fossil (followed by why he doesn't like cricket), and probably some other stuff that I've forgotten, interspersed with some special messages from The Moon.

The second half of the night consisted of the DJ-ing/dancing time that this entire event was actually advertised as. Michael Fielding and Dave Brown spun some tunes and danced around a little, but it took awhile to get the audience into it, seeing as we had waited in line for hours to see the Boosh, not to dance to Pop-Rock. The crowd thinned out a little. Noel Fielding came out a little near the end to dance and some people (mostly girls) near the front rushed the stage. He encouraged it and helped some more up to dance/take pictures with/kiss/be kissed by him, thus making a lot of nerdy hipster girls' fantasies come true. I wasn't near enough to the front/rabid enough to get in on that action (though if Julian Barratt had been up there too, I might have been).

Eventually the bouncers got kind of upset and made everyone clear out. I headed home, ate something, and essentially collapsed. Pretty awesome altogether. I hope they come back around America way again soon and do a proper show. Like, with seats and everything.

I've been kind of a loser by not writing anything in here for the past two weeks. Yes, I've been in NYC for TWO WHOLE WEEKS. I already feel like an old hand in some senses, still like a baffled tourist in many others.

 The first week I had my room all to myself, but last Sunday my roommate, Courtney, moved in. We're on pretty good terms, although we don't talk much. I don't know that we have much in common, but I'm sure we'll develop some kind of relationship as the summer progresses. The only social interactions I've been having are with April and her boyfriend, Leo, and my fellow CN Digital intern, Stephanie. I haven't really done much outside of work, though. Supposedly April and I (and probably Leo) are going to go to the Museum of Natural History tomorrow. I might also go to see Moon with Stephanie and her friend who's interning at MTV. WE SHALL SEE.

The conspicuous thing about the past two weeks has really been how terrible the weather is. It's been rainy more often than not and I can't really say that, other than on the weekend I got here, we've had any plain ol' sunny days at all. Somewhat frustrating.

As for the internship itself, it's pretty cool. I won't go into details because I am afraid of evil gossip websites finding this and getting me fired (j/k Gawker, I love you), but I'll say that the whole going to work, having a desk, taking lunch breaks, not having to deal with sullen customers thing is refreshing and nice compared to previous jobs. I feel very corporate, and maybe slightly more adult than before, but still not nearly adult enough. It still kind of seems like I shouldn't be allowed to work in this office because everyone else is old and responsible and who am I kidding? I'm still not much more than an awkward adolescent. It seems almost preposterous to me that next year at this time I'll be out there in the real world, looking for real employment.

Anyways, New York is not as scary/fantastic/intimidating/amazing as it's always played up to be. It's really just another place, populated by people going about their daily lives, filled mostly with drug stores and restaurants and a lot of Starbucks. The segment of it that I frequent on a daily basis is really pretty small (if you can call Times Square small, I guess). In some ways, it's a let-down, in other ways it's comforting. At the end of the day, I'm still sitting at a dorm desk in front of the same computer.

In my spare time, I've been thinking about the Gargoyle and how it needs to change (Hint: In many ways). But more on that when it develops a little.

My body has always liked to interpret anxiety and excitement as "WE NEED TO WAKE UP AT AN OBSCENELY EARLY HOUR," so that's why I'm killing some time writing this entry this morning, after my abrupt, sleepy-but-unable-to-go-back-to-sleep awakening at 6:30. To complete my anxiety ritual, all I need now are dreams about being late for high school and not being able to find my classes or open my locker!

Just two days to go before I leave for New York, and I'm handling nerves like I normally do--through denial. Although increasingly, when DO I think about my impending internship (i.e. "Wow, at this time next week I'll have been working for three days."), a little frisson runs through me. I'm nearly ready to start packing, once I do ALL THE LAUNDRY IN THE WORLD. But today I'm taking April and Xu to Ann Arbor for lunch and a visit to Sam's.

In other news, did anyone else watch the Man vs. Wild with Will Ferrell? It was pretty lame and commercial-y, although there were a few okay moments. In all, I would much rather see Bear Grylls do crazy shit by himself rather than have him spend the entire time worrying about Will Ferrell's safety.