Week 1

As the bells chime out my window from the boys conservatory school across the cheek I warm my hands before practicing. This past week has been more than eventful. Starting with Sunday let's back track over the week. Sunday morning Steven (our Coe advisor for NY Term) took us out to brunch. Our waiter was lots of fun. I asked for coffee and he made a 'special' coffee for me...which was basically a latte. He said only the best service for 'royalty' and he brought out Britt's food with only 1 bite on it. A spoonful of yogurt, one strawberry, and a few sprinkles of granola. We got a good laugh out of it then he brought out her full dish. We then went to the subway station to buy our subway MetroCards. It would've been super easy had I not had issues with my credit card. Word to any travelers out there.....TELL YOU'RE CREDIT CARD COMPANY THAT YOU'RE LEAVING THE STATE!!!!!! ...I forgot that small, very necessary detail. So my card was declined 3x. I used a back-up card, got my MetroCard and then called my company to get them to unblock my card. I asked them, "So this $104 charge will not be credited to my account, correct?" "Correct." "PERFECT!" I thought I was golden, but once again...I was wrong. I tried to buy some supplies for the room later that afternoon and once again my card was declined. At this point I'm slightly frustrated. I called the credit card and they told me I had an available balance of $2.00. TWO DOLLARS?!?! They had charged me TWICE out of the three times I had tried to use my card for the MetroCard. Long story short, 8 days later I got it all figured out and those charges were removed. PHEW! Sunday night we went to Kathy's studio for a fun evening with the whole group (there's 7 of us students here) and the entire faculty as well as some Coe grads who are living in the city. During that time we mingled with the faculty and they got to know us as individuals a little better. Although, they got confused and mixed us up and called us by different names. Kathy started talking to me about photography. She sat me down and talked about famous photographers...but she thought I was Britt. Once she found out that I was Amanda-the music kid she hollered for Britt to come over and I politely excused myself from the conversation. :) Kathy is the art professor and she put me in charge of the music for the night. At one point in time Kathy yelled across the studio once again and said "Amanda! Aaaaamaaanda!!! You need to fix this music!" Haha, she's a little intimidating but such a sweet lady. (She may or may not have pink hair...which is awesome. lol) Her studio is around Times Square. There's a door man and we went up to the third floor and her artwork was everywhere. There were only small spaces to walk around with about 20 people in a very very small space. But that's how it is in NY! Small spaces with lots of people. We were there for a few hours then decided to call it a night.

Monday: I started my day with a lesson with Philip Wharton at 11am. It went well...we're working on a lot of technique things with my hands. Then I had to meet up with the rest of the group. As a group we started our term by going to the Museum of Modern Art. I walked into the building and the first thing I noticed was piano music. Live piano music. I was mildly confused. An art museum...Live music...hmmmm. So we all walked around through one of the exhibits (a 'line' exhibit) then I went to investigate where this music was coming from. I looked over the edge...about 50-60 feet above a drop to the 2nd floor only to see a person standing in the middle of the piano. Literally. In the middle of it. They had cut out a circle from the middle of the piano (Prepared Piano) and the pianist was playing Beethoven's 9th Symphony Movement 4 "Ode to Joy"....backwards. As in...the pianists left hand was playing the upper octave and the right hand was playing the lower octaves. The palm of her hand was by the black keys...and the tips of her fingers were by the white keys...Does that give you a visual? I'll try to post a picture. I also saw Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night". How cool. (Satchel just farted...big uproar in the other room+febreze = situation resolved.)

Tuesday was spent...looking for internships.

I decided I was going to be more proactive in the search for meeting people.

I opened the yellow pages.

Went to Nightclubs

and started callin....and callin...and callin

and callin...

Everyplace I called I asked "do you have live music?" and most said "no." and I said "thank you for your time." and moved onto the next number.

Finally I got in contact with Bowery Presents. They are a company that manages 6 different music venues all over the city. I got in contact with a woman by the name of Lizzy and she had me send in my resume/cover letter to her direct email. Nothing has come of that yet...but we shall see.

That night we went to a play...pretty cool. Not much to write about it though...if you want to know more about it let me know.

Wednesday:

I decided to hop on the subway with Ellen and go down to Brooklyn. We took the 1 train to the L train and found our stop. She went to her internship and I walked around one street in Brooklyn. I drank some coffee, went into some boutiques, bought a book for $1 (Viva), a scarf for $5, a cool flannel shirt for $7, and a fantastic bottle of wine for $8. I love Brooklyn...everything is cheap! (which is good when working on a small budget of dinero.) Ellen and I met up around 5pm and planned on getting back to the hotel by 6pm...needless to say...we got lost. Waaaay lost. 30 min late lost. But we made it. Thats the point. So we had a meeting with Murray that night...ate some pizza, got off topic, and had a grand ol' time.

Thursday:

Tsalika was in town!!! (Cant really remember what I did with Thursday day) But that night I went out for some sort of Asian food with Tsali and Isa. Yum yum. :)

Friday:

Kind of like Thursday...not sure what I did with the day.

But! FRIDAY NIGHT!!!! HEELLLO NEW YORK CITY!

I went to the Ha! Comedy Club with Anna (who's a best friend of my best friend but we've never met) So we went to the Comedy Club where they had dueling pianos. Live music...free drinks...no cover charge. Anna and I were dancin up a storm. One of the piano players motioned for me to come on stage. Maybe I should explain the setting of this venue a bit more....We walk down two flights of stairs....chairs and small tables fill the main area of the room with a small bar and an itty bitty stage where people walk on, hand the piano players $5-$20 for a request and they play it. Everything is painted black...and the main focus of the room is the 'itty bitty stage.' So being beckoned to come on stage wasn't a huge deal. So I sat down with the piano player...he asked my name, what I did. I told him "My name is Amanda and I play violin...electric violin too actually" "woooow, very cool!" I got down off stage after that little exchange only to find my friend Tsali and other friend Lara (who had just arrived in town) there by my table! That was exciting! Then I proceeded to dance with the owner of the bar. AKA a 65-70 yr old New Yorker (insert accent) and he did the Lindy with me. Haha, too cute. I said "you need a violinist!" and somehow that translated to "do you know how to Lindy?" And so we danced. After the show was over (2am) the piano player came to talk to me. He said that he was in the original cast of Jersey Boys and the owner said that this guys godmother was Liza Minnelli. WHHHAAAAT?!?! This man's name is Donnie Kehr. http://donniekehr.com/home.html He then asked me to come tomorrow (sat) and bring your violin and we'll get you up on a few songs. And if you ever need a job...just let me know. Talk about trying to hold it all together, not freaking out, and being professional was SO DIFFICULT!

So to recap the night: Danced with the owner-met Donnie-playing LIVE IN TIMES SQUARE!

WHAT?! THIS IS REAL LIFE?! hahaha

Saturday rolls around....

I met up with Isa, Tsali, and Lara....

We went to a play thingy...also super...interesting. (we've been told not to use that word to describe these things....but thats really all that fits it) Maybe strange...is a better word? lol.

I came back to the hotel-showered-and got ready to go back down to Ha! Comedy Club.

I got there at midnight.
Lara, Isa and Tsali showed up

so did Satchel, Britt and Ellen.

I played...and played and played.

and they kept asking for DEVIL WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA!!!! PEOPLE I DO NOT KNOW DEVIL WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA! hahaha...guess I'll have to learn it. :)

Afterwards Donnie told me that there's someone he wants me to meet...one of the top violinists in NYC and I said...."ummm OK!!!!" He then told me that attitude is 1/2 the battle in the music world. If people like you, they'll hire you...if you're a diva, no one will want to work with you. Stay humble, and work hard. And I said. "Ok."

I kept having to tell myself that this was real life...that this guy is seriously, seriously helping me out. We (Tsali, myself, Lara, Isa, and Donnie) all went down about 3 blocks to a bar called the Hourglass...quaint little hideaway bar where Broadway people meet after bars close at 2am. This bar didn't close till 4am. We were there till about 4:30am. I got to bed about 5am. HA!

Sunday: I slept till about 2-3pm the following day...got up...practiced a bit. Laid back down...went out for coffee with a friend...watched "The Other Boleyn Girl" and fell asleep around 3am again this morning. Not such a productive day.

Monday: Got up, went and worked on homework, talked to my momma, missed a call from Donnie...called him back. He called his friends (2 violinists) as well as David Chase the music conductor of Billy Elliot: The Musical. http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=12645

and said something about getting me into the pit of Billy Elliot! We'll see what happens with that but the fact that my name is starting to be spoken of...that I'm meeting people. Thats all I care about. This is why I'm here. I can't believe that this weekend happened. Week 1. Week. One. Wow.

All I can say is...

Thank you to everyone who pushed me and supported me to be here...

Because the ball is rollin...and it's only just begun.

here are some photos

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2078595&id=1182540102&l=f11ec5e90