Recap of the April 23 Owl Eyes Show

Ciao, Tutti!

Only good news today! Trees are green, flowers blooming, Owl Eyes selling out its second ever show so that some of the audience had to stand. Not only that, in the middle of "Everybody Has A Housepet," when Justina sang "Everybody has a housepet/Even if they do not realize it," someone in the crowd sang along! And did I mention that this was only our second show? I almost couldn't keep playing piano, I was so touched. Friends came, acquaintances who would soon become friends came, strangers who became fans came. I was so happy I couldn't sleep!

Photos are courtesy of Flaming Fire singer (and hottie) Amanda Sayle's phone:






In other good news, Justina's cast is now off! Just in time to go on tour, too (She's actually performing in Detroit right now)!

I think I've reached capacity for exclamation points.

-Sam goldsmith

New Owl Eyes Drummer!

Ciao, Tutti!

Great news on the eve of the Owl Eyes concert tomorrow night! Our trio has now become a quartet: at rehearsal tonight we proposed to drummer Rosie Glassman. We got on our knees (one at a time... coordination wasn't on our side for this venture) and gave her a necklace with an owl insignia, along with a card that read, "Owl always be there for you." Then we asked her to be a permanent member in the band. It was the happiest moment in our band's short history!

Cue the awful iPhone photographs:




We're headed into the April 23 show with joy and warm feelings!

-Sam goldsmith

New Owl Eyes Flier!

Ciao, Tutti!

Justina's friend Daniel Darwin just finished the new Owl Eyes flier for this Friday's show, and it turned out great! He's got some real talent. Eventually we'll have a whole book of these fliers, when we've "made it." Daniel's been enthusiastically volunteering all his time for these posters, so he's a real trooper if I've ever seen one.

Without further ado:



Hope to see you there!

-Sam goldsmith

Owl Eyes Update: (I Don't Know What Comes After) Dust

Ciao, Tutti!

Owl Eyes has just uploaded a new song to our MySpace, a piece Jordan wrote called "(I Don't Know What Comes After) Dust." As with most demos, don't expect the highest quality, but it's still a wonderful piece of music and you should take a listen if you have the chance.

We're also playing a free show this Friday at about 8:00 at the lower east side's Sidewalk Cafe, where we will play 3 new original compositions and a cover of a special tune for all the ladies out there. Here's a hint as to what it is.

Also, we now have an Owl Eyes Twitter page. Thank you so much, Jordan and Justina, for maintaining it, since everyone knows I wouldn't touch Twitter with a ten foot pole. That said, you should all join it. We've got some hot ideas brewing regarding impromptu acoustic concerts in public places, really laid back, really fun. And the best way to learn about them, regrettably, will be by following us on Twitter. Plus, you should follow us because we're simply that cool, and Jordan and Justina have the talent for writing deep, profound things in just 140 characters (unlike me with this lengthy blog posts).

While we're at it: Owl Eyes on Facebook, Owl Eyes on MySpace. There, we've covered all the bases. Hope to see more of you online!

-Sam goldsmith

HSLI Photos Are Online!

Ciao, Tutti!

All photos from the High School Law Institute graduation are now online! You can find them by clicking on this link. Don't forget, I took each and every picture (the other photographers didn't think they needed to bring cameras, for some reason I cannot even begin to fathom...). Enjoy!

-Sam goldsmith

Short Story - Responsibility

Ciao, Tutti!

I have a new sudden fiction story for you all - only 245 words, a short read! Also I've added a link at the top of the page labeled "Short Stories" (next to "Recordings) where you can easily find the links to the other stories on this blog. Enjoy!

"I love you," she said after I took the chair across from her desk. I had never met her before, and besides the regulation-sized photo on my résumé lying in a manila folder in front of her she had never once laid eyes on me. But I could hear the sincerity in the moan in her voice, in the reddened eyes watered by coffee after tossing and turning through the night, in the almost perfect mastery in hastily tying her hair. I could see in those eyes all the candidates before me, dressed as I was in polished shoes and a striped tie, a copy of today's Wall Street Journal tucked under the arm. I could imagine how each reacted, their eyes locking on their knees, their nervous laughter, their stammering as they thought of the proper response, their hands clasped together until their knuckles whitened. Some must have asked her to repeat herself, unsure of their ears. Some must have wondered what place a declaration of love had in the application process. Some must have thought they were in the wrong room. Some must have replied, unsure and untruthfully, that they loved her, too, hoping that was the correct answer. All were sent immediately from the room, left to wonder. And now I sat, staring into her lonely eyes, and responded with complete honesty, repeating her phrase with the final word missing. She nodded, understanding in her downcast eyes, and I was dismissed.

-Sam goldsmith

HSLI Graduation

Ciao, Tutti!

Today was the final day of the High School Law Institute, the day of a massive mock trial competition - NYU vs. Columbia - and the distribution of graduation diplomas. It was an action-packed celebratory day, and I caught most of it with my camera. Check it out!


The crowded scene at breakfast



A section teacher briefing his students for the trial



NYU section 1 with their diplomas (I don't have any pictures of section 3 because that was my section and I was on stage with them)



Megan Cunningham of the HSLI board, introducing our speaker



Craig Levine, our guest speaker (also featured on the photo at the top of the post)



The "know your rights" posters in the hallway

-Sam goldsmith

New Flaming Fire Photos!

Ciao, Tutti!

Remember my post from yesterday where I wrote that I didn't have the right to upload the new amazing Flaming Fire publicity photos? Well, as of a few minutes ago those photos miraculously showed up on facebook. Permission assumed, I'm going to go ahead and share my favorites with you. Click to enlarge, as well as see in better quality.

All the photos were taken by Adam Schneider, and he did a wonderful job ranging from image design to down-to-earth photography expertise.

The background is an Eternal Christmas mural designed by Camila Ha.


From left to right: Me, Trent, Stirling, Justina, Sarah, Patrick, Amanda, and Chris




I held a couple of rolls of colored cellophane to make this shot work. That's the bassist's job: holding the band together!


-Sam goldsmith

A Step Back

Ciao, Tutti!

Let's take a step back and look at all the exciting things that seem to be happening all around me, so fast and so wonderful!

1) West 10th Reading: Yesterday (April 3, 2010) I read an except of "A Fascinating Line" at the release for West 10th in front of a packed audience of about 50 (I'm sure it was a fire hazard...). Friends came, including friends I didn't expect. All in all it was a great success! I walked out with 10 copies for my family under my arm. Check out the front cover at the top of the post and the back cover below (with my name on it! One of only 6 fiction entries that were accepted!).


Click to enlarge

2) Flaming Fire at Glamdammit: Just after the reading I headed back to my crib (heh!), threw on an all-red outfit, my bass, and a cab to Don Hill's to play the first Flaming Fire gig since December at the happenin' all-night-long glam rock dance party Glamdammit. It was an emotional experience for me since I will probably have moved away from New York before the band plays another show, so I gave it my all. Drenched myself in sweat, tore up my fingers on the bass, jumped around the stage, rocked everyone's socks off. It was one of our best shows since I've joined. I'm glad I get to go out with a bang.

Our publicity photos from February are in, but since they haven't been released yet I can't post them. Instead, enjoy a picture of these variations on tea:



3) Onward to the future! My life was supposed to get easier after my recital. Less busy, more time for writing and submitting short stories, blah blah blah. Here's the exciting reality:

This Thursday, April 8, 2010, at 11:45 pm, Owl Eyes will play its first live show, a free concert at Goodbye Blue Monday in Brooklyn. We will add the lovely Rosie Glassman on the drum set. Let me tell you, she adds a whole new dimension to the music. I hope we can get her to sing a little, too, sometime in the future. If you can come you won't be disappointed! Cue the creepy and amazing flier drawn by Justina's roommate Daniel:



On April 9 at the Jazz School in Berkeley my old friend Peter Hargreaves is putting on a benefit concert for an educational organization in Guatemala (if that sounds vague it's because I'm not sure I understand it myself). He has written a bunch of music for the show, including a string quartet, but he also asked me and a few other friends - including the great Peter Apfelbaum - to write pieces. I'll be only 3,000 miles away, but the band will perform a jazz quartet piece of mine called "Insomnia." If you're in town you should check it out, and don't feel indulgent when you drop the $10: it's for a good cause.

Then, a week from this Wednesday (= on April 14, 2010), two great things happen. First, the Historian comes into existence, hot off the press. I hope I'll be able to attend the release event, but if not it's because I'll be playing at the Jazz Gallery with the NYU Ralph Alessi Ensemble at 8:00 pm. That's the second great thing. The Jazz Gallery is the best music venue in New York city, possibly the world, and they didn't pay me to say that. It's not free, but it's worth the 10 bucks.

In case you've forgotten about Owl Eyes in the course of the last paragraph, we have a second gig lined up for April 23 at the Sidewalk Cafe. I honestly don't know much about this venue - we're taking things one step at a time - but I do know it's free (once again), it's in Manhattan, and we'll be given enough time to play out our entire repertoire. Sweetness!

I will be playing a couple of recitals as well: Drummer Alex Kurland's on April 25 where I will do my best imitation of Gary Burton, and composer Leo Birenberg on April 28 where me and saxophonist Rob Jacoby will premier the second movement of a piece of Leo's I played at my recital entitled "Divertissement," assuming Leo ever gets me the music for it. If the second movement is as good as the first then that piece alone will be worth the price of admission. It's free, by the way.

I'm tired just thinking about all these things. What a life! And I still have a novel to edit, too. Man!

-Sam goldsmith

P.S. In case you didn't notice, I figured out how to use links in this post. I kinda went nuts doing it, too, so be a dear and click on one, okay?