Gotta get back, back, back to school again

Well I did it.  It looks like I will be going back to school.  Well sort of.   Last week I registered for a 4 week workshop with DCTV.  They are a production house that has been around for over 30 years.  After some research of other facilities, and attending and open house DCTV had last week, I decided to go with them.  They provide a lot of different workshop/seminars for a variety of groups.  But they are also a production house that focuses mainly on documentaries. 

The workshop that I am taking is for editing, and I have to say I’m pretty excited about it.  It is the only thing that I can honestly say I have loved doing, outside of performing.  My goal is to take the 3 levels for Final Cut Pro and go from there.  Where it will lead me I don’t know, but I do have a pretty good feeling about it and for the first time feel like I might be on the correct path. 

If interested take a look at their website:

http://www.dctvny.org/index.html

Broadway Flea Market

A beautiful fall day spent at the broadway flea market.  Pictures taken, donations made and tons of Playbills searched through.   Jim still can’t find a Playbill of the production of Wildcat starring the one and only Lucy.  Until then he will just have to settle for the picture he got with Lucy Arnaz today instead.

One bill I don’t hate.

Every day I come home open the mailbox and hope it is a day without any bills.  Adulthood has some priviliges, like eating ice cream for breakfeast, but bills are not one of them.  Today on the other hand there is one bill I can’t help but think about, my brother.  26 years ago today I became an older brother.   If I remember correctly, i believe my mom asked me what I thought we should name the baby.   I said Cindy if it is a girl, because Shirley played by Cindy Williams on Laverne & Shirley was my favorite,  and Bill if it is a boy, because that was the name of my imaginary friend.  Who would have thought she would take my advice.  None the less on this date 26 years ago we welcomed William Nicholas Kaminski.  Which is probably also when I first realized that sometimes peoples full name is different then what you can call them. 

Autumn Breeze

There is something comforting when waking up on a  Sunday morning and realizing you are comfy cozy under the blanket with no fan or air conditioning on.  Nothing but a  cool taste of autumn right around the corner.  As much as I hate the bitter cold, welcoming that first brisk day with a sigh of relief makes me wonder if I could ever live in an enviornment with no season change.  

Little Fred

Growing up, and even now, my friends use to call my brothers “Little Fred’s”.  I’m sure it wasn’t the greatest for them, but none the less I didn’t really have any control over it.  Now this “Little Fred”, whose real name and identity is Matt is not feeling to well.  So I thought I would send out some well wishes to him.  Last night at 3:00 am I get a call from my Mom saying that she just left Matt in the hospital, where he had emergency surgery.   Apparantly his appendix decided it wasn’t happy with it’s housing anymore, and wanted to leave.  So the doctors removed it.  All if fine and he is resting up.  But just know that his older brother is thinking of him, and will talk to him soon.   

Chi-town

ChicagoHere you go, the long awaited video of our trip to Chicago. Enjoy!

Schadenfreude, makin me feel glad that I’m not you.

Schadenfreude

 Those of you who do not know the Tony winning musical Avenue Q, there is a song from the show called Schadenfreude.  And since I studied German for seven years I can tell you it is a combination of schaden, which means harm or damage, and freude which means joy.  Thus taking pleasure in someone elses pain.  Not serious pain like illness, or something devestating in their life.  But when you see a total stranger trip or miss the subway, things like this.   So I thought I would share this video which I thought was well done, and totally funny.  And share the schadenfreude I experienced last night. 

 I was leaving work at 9:30 on a Friday night, (which is late for me) after dealing with a not so pleasant client, needless to say I was not in the best of moods.  While I was walking down the street I noticed this couple walking towards me.  It was your typical 20 something guy girl couple.  All New York cool, dressed for a night of club hopping in the ubercentric meatpacking district.  They were walking arms linked, her with her Diane Von Furstenberg wrap dress on, and him with is newly discounted iPhone in his hand showing her something on it.  When all of the sudden her Jimmy Choo heel got stuck, she triped, raised her other arm to balance herself, and knocked the iPhone out of his hand, forcing it to the ground and shattering it into about 3 different pieces.  He suddenly let out a blood curddling, “My Phone!!!!”  Immediatley let go of the girl and fell to the sidewalk to pick up the pieces.  By the tone of his devestated yell, you would of thought he had just lost his first born child.  Maybe he was one of the first buyers and was already annoyed by the recent price cut.  None the less he experienced some damage, and I some joy, and that schadenfreude quickly made me forget unpleasant evening.

S-C-H-A-D-E-N-F-R-E-U-D-E  Making the world a better place to be.

One Heart

An older video I did. Honestly I’m just trying out posting directly from youtube, to my blog.

The Family Business

Well as I stated earlier, Jim and I spent the entire Labor Day weekend reorganizing our apartment.  The project was a success.  We spent all three days going through closets, shoeboxes, files, etc.  But more on that later. 

 What I did want to share was this photo that I had completlely forgotten about and unearthed in the decluttering process.  Since it brings back such a wonderful memory, and let’s face it, is pretty funny,  I thought I would post it.  It was taken when my grandmother and I took a trip down to Tennessee in the summer of 1992.  Now those of you who don’t know, my grandfather  on my mother’s side (whose last name is Hamby) was born and raised in Tennessee so I have a lot of distant relatives from there .  But this paticular trip she and I went down and visited with my grandfathers cousins, Herbert and Gertrude.  We had a fine time, visiting local sites, and parks, etc. but as we were leaving we came accross Hamby’s Radio & TV Electronic Hospital.  As you can see it’s quite the store.  We went in and introduced ourselves to the one person working there, and explained our connection.  As I recall he really had no idea why it was named Hamby, didn’t know who Hamby was, and was a little stand offish.  He could have been taken back a little though.  I say that, because if you notice in the reflection of the window you can see what was at the time, my grandmothers brand new Mercedes-Benz.  So you have to picture the look on this guys face when we pulled up in that car and then started asking all these questions.  Maybe he got nervous and thought we are the board of directors and wanted to see the stock portfolio.  But none the less, he provided no connection with the family name.   So we had a few laughs, took this photo and was on our way.  I guess no matter what I do, I can always go back and work at the family business, that is if it’s still there.

Labor Day Weekend

Happy Labor Day kids.  Jim and I were thinking of going to Virginia this weekend to visit his cousins.  But after budget balancing on wednesday, it didn’t look like it was going to happen.  So a shout out will have to do to the Richmond crew.  Wow, that rhymes. 

Instead of going away, we have decided to do a thorough organization of the apartment.  Basically clean up.  I’m going to call it spring cleaning at the end of summer.  So much for a catchy name.  About two weeks ago though, I finally stained a butcher block kitchen table that we have in our kitchen.  Now granted we bought this table about 4 years ago with the intent to stain it right away, but none the less it is finally done.  Upon completion I deceided that it came out so nice, and looked so good that it doesn’t need to be in the kitchen so I moved it to our dinning room area.  Unfortunately a NYC apartment dinning room doesn’t have room for two tables.  So I moved our kitchen table into the living room.  You can see where this is going.  Thus began a snowballing effect of rearranging the entire apartment.  In the process Jim and I began to realize, how did we get so much stuff.  Not furniture but stuff.  You know things you have but never use.  Like the series of Disney Classic VHS tapes that I haven’t watched in about 10 years.  We don’t even have the VCR hooked up to a television right now.  So that is how we are going to spend our Labor day weekend, laboring on what to keep, and what to get rid of.  I’m even toying with the idea of having an apartment sale.  Since we have no garages, or yards, in NYC we have apartment sales.  Some people have stoop sales, but we don’t even have that.  Anyone for a VHS copy of Glenn Close in 101 Dalmatians?