Tick Tock Tick Tock

The wait has begun. I'm biding my time, taking it easy and chillin' out. In the next two weeks I expect to receive two offers of employment from two different agencies here in New York. One of them is a for-profit advertising shop and the other is a not-for-profit HIV prevention organization. For me, it will be the beginning of a new era in my life. I'll be moving into Manhattan to be closer to work, taking night classes to prepare for grad school, finishing up paperwork for my first small business and leaving a fairly comfortable life and career here in Brooklyn.

I'm ready!

Its All Fun and Games

So, I've gotten back into gaming a little. I have a nintendo ds, a playstation, some online mmorpg's and I've even been downloading games on my cell phone. I have to say, that I really enjoy the diversions. Things have been more stressful than usual at work, and the games really help bring some fun, color, interest and perspective into my days.

Helio, my new cell provider is doing a great job I think. i can spend hours just playing with the phones features, watching clips, taking pictures, posting them to the internet, listening to music, sending messages etc. Its hard to remember a time when people shared one phone in a household of 4 or more and took turns talking on it. Now when someone calls me, I can have the phone play a song that reminds me of them and
see a picture of them that I took as well.

What really amazes me now a days is how life is imitating art. I remember being blown away by the visuals in Minority report and wishing that I had a computer screen that I could just touch to input data. Now, with the new Microsoft Surface and other multi-touch interface units, I could do it! (If I could afford it)

Even with this blog and my myspace page (which are linked, i think). I can add stuff like this helio banner to get other people interested in helio and hopefully make some friends that would want to use the Buddy Beacon application with me here in NYC.

End of a Journey

Hey, I'm going to be heading back up to Ellenville, New York today for work. It will be the end of a month long tour that included Essex Massachusetts, New Orleans Lusianna and Washington D.C. I am truly exhausted and I'm glad to be at the end of what has been a very taxing journey.

I recently bought the Helio Drift phone and service and I'm really pleased with it. However, due to the increasing amount of texting that my friends and myself are engaging in, I think it may already be time to upgrade my capabilities with a Sidekick ID. What do you think? Is it really all that necessary, or should I do what my gut is telling me and shun the increasingly tight tether of daily digital discussions?

As I move into new areas of my career and my personal life, I'm finding that my needs are changing all around. I'm currently searching for a smaller apt. in Harlem of all places, to reduce living expenses and also because I just don't need all this space anymore. My food intake and sleep needs have decreased dramatically due to scheduling issues and also my body's own "evolution" into a more compact and efficient piece of meat machinery.

Interesting

Time for an Update

Today was really busy and I noticed that when things start getting hectic, I start getting frustrated and "complainy" I didn't like how that felt and I'm certainly going to work on it immediately. Seeing as how I have at least 4 business trips coming up, I'm going to have to!

I've resumed my pet research today, and I'm pretty sure that I'm going to have to buy the cat that I want. I want a pet that has a history and a future. Adopting strays is wonderful, but I want to have the option of breeding my cat and showing it competitively. Right now, I'm looking at Skookums, Siamese, and British short hairs.

Google Earth is Amazing! They have this online community thing where you can register and post points of interest to the globe. Since I plan on leaving Bay Ridge in the next few months, and really need to stay on top of my blogging and other digital interests, I'm going to attempt to do a little multimedia review of my stay here. Hopefully, if I do it right, it will be complete with pictures of place of interest, restaurant and shop reviews, mini-films recorded by cell phone etc. This project will not only increase my proficiency with the internet and all of the newfangled blogging programs, but it will allow me to pay homage to the little neighborhood that has so quietly and effectively nurtured me for the past two years.

Bunnies Beware!

Yesterday, I began round 2 of my spring cleaning regimen. I found some orange oil stuff for wood under the kitchen sink, so I thought to myself, why not use this on the hardwood floors all over the apartment since I'm going to be mopping anyways. The floors are certainly shining and look like a V05 commercial for wood, but they are also slicker than a used car salesman covered in sun tan oil. I'll just be walking around the apartment and all of a sudden, I'll lose my footing. The first couple of times it was funny and novel, now its just hazardous. I wonder how long all of this beauty and a buffoonery will last?

The kitchen is another story altogether. I've mopped the floor in there twice, but it just won't stay clean. Shoes are taken off as soon as I get into the house and I don't have any pets, but it just won't stay clean. It's white linoleum, so maybe there's a trick to keeping it clean that I haven't learned yet.

One thing that did go well was the bunny hunt. Those dust bunnies learned the meaning of fear yesterday. I was merciless!

And Another Thing!

Is it just me, or do the women and men who are really making strides with their artwork in the music scene getting overlooked!

Tweet, Brandy, Yummy Bingham, Junior Boys etc.

Yesterday in the youth group that I co-facilitate, the group members were watching Beyonce's new video thing and I couldn't even stop myself. I went up to the tv, paused the DVD and gave a little lecture on media images, target audiences, and what it means to be gullable. Don't get me wrong, her work certainly warrants our accolades and merit; but ALL of it? No!

I know that I can't expect everyone to spend as much time and energy searching for artists and artwork that bring more to the table than your standard studio sirens, or label lobotomized lyricists. However, there has to be a better way to engage an audience than singing in the same old key of sex and excess!

Weather you Like it or Not

Why is the weather giving me all of this. Just when I begin to think that we're making some progress, and the seasons are actually changing, I find that I'm engulfed in winter again. Why? Its time to check out that Al Gore film, "An Inconvenient Truth" and finally get to the bottom of this ridiculousness.

Well, I'm finally working on putting together a small company. YAY! Some friends and I have begun a young artists consortium that will soon be incorporated as a talent agency. It's good to finally have a primary project to focus on.

You are not Alone

This weekend I've been fortunate enough to spend time with nine friends over the course of two days.

As long as I've lived in this city, I don't think I've ever, "done" it the way I did it this weekend (which isn't even over yet). Having the right people to go to places with and enjoy all that the city has to offer with makes being here all the more enjoyable.

I really feel as though I've received the most bang for my buck this weekend, and I have my friends to thank for that.

I've always been a firm believer that people make an experience and not places or things. This weekend has been further proof of that. In response to this new appreciation I have for bringing as many of my friends and associates together as possible for events, I plan to be much more aware of who is around me and the reasons why I chose to spend time with certain people.

Recuperation

So winter is slowly easing its icy grip on the city. My respiratory system and sinus cavities rejoice!

I had planned on making a short visit to DC for a birthday party and to see friends, but lack of funds at the moment has forced me to postpone it until next week. I don't mind not being extraordinarily rich, but it would be nice to have enough money to do things the way I wanted to do them and when I wanted to do them. Whatever

Does anyone else come home from the club or a night out on the town and find a scratch or a bruise on themselves? It is such a mystery to me. I came home the other night from going out with friends, and there was a thin scratch on my face that has healed but has left me with the deeper scar of having experienced this numerous times without any clue to how or why it has happened? I couldn't be getting that drunk? Right?

Whatever

So, I have this unsettling habit that I'm trying to break. I've tried to replace it with another activity and that worked for a while, but now I've gone back to the original behavior. Even though this behavior may sometimes keep me from doing something much worse, I still want to have better control over myself and know that I'm not compulsively acting out... its interesting and scary and annoying all at once.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

Will this winter never end? I can't believe how cold its getting here in NY. I thought we had gone through the worst of it in February. I feel trapped in my apartment. I can't go to the gym or visit with my friends uptown because in a few moments out in the elements makes me feel like I'm putting my health at risk. Even when bundled up, my fingers freeze up and tingle, my nose hardens, my breathing slows, my ears all but fall off, its not cute.

DC better be at least ten degrees warmer when I attempt a visit in a week or so.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Today, one of my friends called me and told me that he was in the hospital. I hate when people do that. They wait until there is nothing that you can do, and then spring something on you that may call for you to help out in some way. It's very passive aggressive. But, I wish him well and will be checking up on him later on in the week.

I forgot to call another one of my friends on his birthday and now its too early in the morning to do it today, so he and I will have to wait a bit longer to exchange pleasantries over the phone.

Pictures, I need go get a camera and take more pictures of myself and my surroundings. I've been going places and doing things, and I have no evidence of it all besides my own faltering memories. Sad

So, the summer diet has started today and my body is beginning to forgive me for the evils I've inflicted upon it during the frosty months of winter. No more blubber luvin', it's all about skin, muscle and bone now.

OK Things to do SOON!

TAXES!
Cat
Spring cleaning!

The House that ---------- Built!

So... I think i'm joining a house. Since I have moved to New York and been working as a service provider in the HIV prevention field, I've come in contact with a lot of different populations, subcultures, scenes etc. One of these groups of people has come to inhabit quite a bit of my heart. The House Ball community is exploding with talent, energy, creativity, fun and excitement. Who wouldn't want to be a part of it all?

While working with members of the House Ball community at my agency and providing services for the community through the agency's programming, I have met some wonderful people who see the same potential for growth, experimentation and development that I do. It doesn't surprise me at all though. One of the first things that a good friend of mine said to me before I started working more heavily within the House Ball community was, "... Don't get caught up in their world...". But even then, we both knew it was too late and that my personality wouldn't allow me to see such wonders and walk away uninterested.

It all fits together in many ways; how I've been working on my music and meeting artists that have asked me to represent them and guide them, my own personal dilly-dallying in entertainment at college and here in NY. Now, with the contacts and structure that being in on the ground floor of a groundbreaking new house will bring, all of those experiences and projects can learn from each other and enhance my total body of work.

Cool

More Sinus trouble

I think going to Jersey the other day and being out in the cold for too long gave me some sinus trouble. Just like when I went to Boston. When will I ever learn.

So...I finally started cleaning up the apt. today. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be! I just have to get into a schedule.

The Grammy's were very interesting. I didn't see it from the beginning, but from what I did see, they seem to have taken all of the fun and excitement out of the actual presentation of the award. Way too often, the viewer finds them selves enjoying a fairly solid performance from an artist or band, and directly afterwards, witness the same act receiving an award. Now I know it's customary to have the most favored artists of the moment perform their most recent hit at events, but come on.

I want to be surprised. I would rather have the Grammy's be more adventurous and enlightening by taking the viewer on a tour of less popular but just as valuable recording endeavors National Geographic style, than feel like I'm watching a souped-up TRL!

But thats just me. However and Yet!, I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of homage and recognition that was paid to groundbreaking artists who are no longer with us and legendary performers who still are. That was well done and well deserved.

Practicing with a Cold

I plan to start getting my poems, songs, random musings, etc together to record a very short demo in the near future. In preparation for this, I've been working out the chops lately just to let them know what is to be expected of them later on.

Its messy. I have a cold right now that's really been reeking havoc on my singing voice and my speaking voice as well. Post a comment and let me know what you think...

Gab Boy

Gabcast! Snizatch Blog #3

New Pic, Old Tric

So, here's another sepia toned pic of me. Trust me, i look a lot better in sepia.
I met with an old friend today at starbucks and caught up. Although he's not really an old friend, I call him that cause I can see our relationship very quickly becoming that of two people of have known each other for some time. We speak very frankly and directly to each other and there are few people in my life who I can really do that with. As time marches on, I find myself speaking to these few people more than any of the other people I come in contact with.

Get this though, I actually chose to stay at home and catch up on some personal work rather than go out with two buddies tonight. Drinking and acting like I've been "let out of a cage" (as my grandmother so vividly describes it) were once a source of pride for me. Now, my actions, whether wild or respectful, are all performed with a sense of sincerety and purpose that befuddles even me. Who knew that letting loose could be done with as much purpose as holding back!?

Touring

Just got back from Boston, and so glad of it. I had a good time and all, but who wants to be on the road more than one week at a time? Not I, said the little black boy. It's good to be back in New York, and to celebrate, I've already schelduled some crazy time with the usual suspects.

Inspirational?

Well yesterday I wrote a brilliant song in the tub and then totally forgot it.
So me. I was about to go and do some work in the office and wanted to relax before I got there so I took a bath instead of a shower. Relaxing is not even the word, it was more like I trancended to another plane. I haven't had a bath like that in a while and I really let myself go, I felt the water and existed in my body and forced my mind's business into submission. I was singing stuff like wade in the water etc. Then, I started making up this song as i went called Bathe with me. I tried to write it down while I was on the way to work, but it just didn't go as well as in the tub. Well, what are you going to do?

I didn't go to church today, although I was genuine when I posted earlier about wanting to continue to go to the Horizon church, my reservations of late have been getting the best of me. Hopefully, I will soon overcome them and make time to either go to Horizon or find another church to attend.

More Cover Letters!

I really hate coverletters. I see the need for them, but writing them is so time consuming and nerve wrecking. I'm much more comfortable with face to face interviews and phone interviews. My writing style is very staccato and can seem kind of schitzo at times.

I finally went back to the gym for the fist time since the Christmas holiday season and coming back from NC. I'm sore, but its good to know that I can get back into the habit of going with little resistance from my body or even the rapidly shrinking mercury readings.

Back in the Habit!

I'm back from NC! It was such a blessing to be able to go back and visit with my family once again during the holiday season. Christmas is one of my favorite holidays, and it never fails to bring new understanding and love between me and my kinfolk.

In fact, I was so inspired by conversations that I had with my middle brother while at home, I researched, discovered and attended a branch of the church he attends in Raleigh NC. The similarities between it and another non-denominational church my family attended when I was a little boy were striking. The music, the greetings, the set up of the sanctuary and their communion were almost identical. How comforting and remarkable!! I certainly plan to continue to worship, and study with with them.

Thank you Jesus Christ!