Sam Goldsmith's Index of Things That (Probably) Will and Will Not Happen

Ciao, Tutti!

For all those who are huddled in anticipation of the release of my post-graduation plans, I've compiled a list of probablies regarding ideas I'd been having and goals I've wished to pursue. Seriously, though, being asked what I plan to do after school is simultaneously the most stressful, exciting, and trite question in the entire world... it fills me with mixed feelings.

But what I want to do most of all is heroine... wait, did I spell it like a drug or a female hero?

That's a terrible pun, folks. Don't write like me.

Index of Probablies

WILL: Have my first East Coast Passover Seder with my cousin Alana and her friends and family.

WILL NOT: Tour Europe with Flaming Fire.

WILL NOT: Stay in New York for any part of the summer.

WILL: Begin classes for my TESOL certification in order to teach English abroad, starting May 10th.

WILL NOT: Attend NYU graduation ceremonies, which start May 11.

WILL: Walk the 13-mile-or-so length of Manhattan Island before I leave New York, even though my mother has an irrational fear that it is unsafe.

WILL NOT: Get mugged. Seriously.

WILL: Have my best semester academically ever, again.

WILL: Play pieces in at least two other people's recitals.

WILL NOT: Work at summer camp in El Cerrito as I have the past 3 summers, at least for the same amount of time as in the past. It's looking more and more like I don't have the 8 weeks I need to commit to be a full-time counselor.

WILL: Travel, within the states. I think my friend Courtney has gotten to me. I have events that would take me to Michigan, North Carolina, Yosemite, and even back to ugly old New York City.

WILL NOT: Ever warm up to New York City.

WILL: Continue to submit short stories, now to non-NYU affiliated journals. Opium and Bellevue Literary Reviews seem like good starting points, especially the BLR's contest.

WILL NOT: Know how I fared in the BLR's contest until December of this year.

WILL: Begin applying for English teaching jobs in Istanbul, Turkey, starting June.

WILL: Move to Turkey in mid-late August to stay for the year.

WILL: Apply for graduate school at some point once I'm done teaching in Turkey.

WILL NOT: Think farther ahead than that.

WILL NOT: Give Dr. Schroeder the benefit of the doubt anymore.

WILL NOT: Look back with regret.



-Sam goldsmith

Crap, I Need To Blog a Lot more Often, Guys!!! (C.A.N.T. B.L.O.G.)

Ciao, Tutti,

Wow, it has been so long since my last message! Well, be prepared to be disappointed once again. Until finals are completely over and my still unfinished Istanbul travel log reaches its triumphant conclusion, I am afraid I can't spend too much time on this site. As I speak I should be writing a fugue. Or something for my private composition teacher using the Fibonacci series.

However, I can give you a little preview of all the good stuff yet to come! Good stuff not including Detroit sports as of the moment, but good stuff as in my life. Sorry to disappoint.

1) Megan and Jordan and I have been recording music like maniacs, and we have a new song in the works, a piece Megan wrote called "Rose-Colored Spectacles." I have been listening to the rough mix on loop, and it sounds like awesome on a stick. As soon as we have it posted online I will provide the link for everyone. As soon as finals are over we will get to work on a piece I wrote called "Silent Stairs," a version of which already exists on my First Regrets myspace page. In other news about our band, we finally have agreed upon a name: Owl Eyes. We're going to be named after the minor character in the Great Gatsby. I'm so excited!

2) I performed a piece that one of my friends wrote, an extremely difficult modern classical piece for vibes and alto saxophone. I worked it up for a while and we performed it so well at his recital. I m still waiting for a copy of the recording, but when I get it you can be guaranteed that it will go up on my myspace page for everyone to hear. My friend, Leo, is an amazing composer, and this piece is something special, so I highly recommend you all listen when I finally post it.

3) I guess I still have to write to you about what happened in Istanbul to change my life so drastically. My original plan was to transcribe the non-personal parts of my travel log to the computer for you all, but as the log grows this task seems ever too daunting. Don't worry. I'll be sure to write something. But I don't quite know what it will be at this point. And pictures, too!

4) I will be playing the role of EXTRA in the music video for my roommate's band, The Middle Eight, for the song "Love Pass It On." Someday this video will be finished and up on this site. This is also the song that is featured in the forthcoming romantic comedy featuring Kathrine Zeta-Jones (I think I spelled that right...), "The Rebound," whose release has been stalled all year long. Anyway, in the music video I get to hand an apple to a girl who is passed out on the street. Don't know what that means? Neither do I!

5) Eventually I would like to get back to writing short stories again, but until then you have to hold your horses. I've got some ideas cooking in my brain, but they're currently taking a backseat to the music I'm writing. Oh, and finals.

6) For my difficult history class, Health Environments, I was invited to submit my final term paper to the national history society for publishing. I think I'm going to do it, even though I don't know if I use what they would call a "primary source," one of the requirements for submission. Either way, I'll let you know how it goes. I've been working all semester and even part of last semester on this paper, and I'm really proud of the end result. I hope for the best.

7) Hillary Clinton is speaking at graduation this year. Why couldn't she wait another year? That would make me want to go...

I should get back to work. Sorry for being so out of touch, everyone, but life comes first. Keep an eye out for more blogs. They will happen... they really will...

-Sam goldsmith

Winter Victory Dance - Sudden Fiction

Ciao, Tutti!

What? Sam goldsmith has time to write in the middle of his crazy finals schedule? Well, here's all I have to say about that:

Egyptian History: Check! Big fat check! And with 23 hours to spare, too. Now I don't have to spend all day reading hundreds of pages of boring excavation accounts and compiling them into a semi-coherent argument! I almost shudder to start reading for pleasure again, worrying that I might start instinctively skimming for the important stuff.

Well, now I get to relax a bit before hitting the airplane and heading home. And while I'm relaxing I figured I'd do my winter victory dance. Naked and outside.

Hold on a moment.

Wow. It's cold out there.

Anyway, I'll finally be able to write my novel again, record into garage band, write music, read for fun, and write short stories again! No more having to put off thinking about all the wonderful things I'd rather be doing than hi-lighting a photocopied piece on some papyrus that really doesn't amount to anything more than an icicle in hell.

So, since I'm so happy, I'd like to share some sudden fiction with you. These are all stories that are less than 250 words long, since that's about all I had time to write during my 5 minutes of study-breaking each day. That's an exaggeration. I usually got to take two study breaks per day.

I hope you enjoy!

Where to Find the Other Stories

The other stories are in the archives somewhere along the left-hand side of my blog, intermingled with the pictures I took in Europe and shameless self-promotion.

"Sam Fails to Finish a Love Story" is under the post entitled "Sam Fails to Finish a Love Story" (duh) in the month of November.

"The VideoMag Proposal" is under the post entitled "The Day Before November" in October. It's a long post and the story is near the bottom.

"Cliche Central" is under the post entitled "Art Sharing Day" in October.

My brother's sudden fiction, "On The Way To Work," is under the post entitled "On The Way To Work - My Brother, The Storyteller" in November.

Enjoy!

Step Down

A native Spanish speaking man makes me and hundreds of other students lunch every day in a glass building on Washington Square Park. He is not thrilled about this. He gets irritated if the people in the line don’t step down fast enough once a person receives his order. He let’s us know about his irritation. And it makes sense. He has a long day filled with long lines.

This doesn’t stop him from making a good stir-fry. That’s why I eat there every day. And I always order the same thing. So he knows me, and I wish I could make him less irritated somehow, other than stepping down fast enough.

“Chicken and broccoli, please,” I say firmly so he can hear me easily over the sizzling of the frying pans. He already knows what I want, the tongs already moving towards the chicken, but I like saying please. His expression tells me he doesn’t hear that word enough.

“Sauce?” he asks.

“Sweet and sour, please.”

“Rice? Noodles? Noodles, right?”

I nod and smile. “Yeah, noodles, please.” Sometimes I’ll joke around. “How did you know?”

He puts the food in a box and hands it to me. It smells sweet and sour and it warms my hand.

“Thank you,” I shout over the sounds of the kitchen.

“All right, man. Have a good one.” As I leave the line he turns to the people behind me. “Step down, folks, step down!” he shouts, irritated.

I make my way to the checkout line, regretting that I couldn’t be thankful enough.

The Little Things

I spent almost half a year studying in Italy. It was nice.

In the grocery stores there you have to weight your own fruit. There are machines for this. You place your fruit on the scale, push the according picture, and it prints a price tag for you to stick on the bag.

Everyone’s lives are easier now.

When I came back to the United States I went searching for the fruit scale in my local grocery store. I asked the cashier where I could find it.

She weighed the fruit for me. I felt dejected.

Live With It

They fell in love at first sight. Which sucked dearly.

The man was addicted to underage Asian virgins, and true love was not going to keep him away from the meat he could not resist.

The woman was an overemotional control freak who grew up being scolded by a catholic priest for impure thoughts she hadn’t realized she was thinking.

It didn’t mix. But, oh well. It was love at first sight. What can you do but live with it?

Haiku Man

A skinny black man handed me a slip of paper. I was wearing headphones. People usually don’t hand me fliers while I’m wearing headphones. I thanked him and put it in my pocket.

“No, it’s a haiku,” the man said. He had a bit of a beard. Maybe he could tell I was an artist, too. “I’m trying to make a couple bucks. Read it.”

I read it. It was about balloons or something and it didn’t follow the proper beat scheme. Even so, the imagery was vivid, and the poem was almost memorable. I handed him back the slip.

“I like it,” I said. “It’s very bucolic.”

He didn’t take it. “Hey, man, I’m trying to make a couple bucks here,” he repeated. I realized he wanted to make a couple of bucks from me. I had more than a couple of bucks. I only had a twenty-dollar bill.

“I’m sorry. I don’t have any cash,” I forced, a phrase I usually reserve for Greenpeace, not street artists. I felt bad. I would have liked to give him a couple bucks. I owed it. “But thanks for sharing it with me,” I said with a smile and all the sincerity I could muster.

The man reluctantly took back the card and strode off and I wondered if I had been grateful enough.

Fine

There's another, but I doubt it's appropriate to post online. You know me and my dirty mind...

I haven't had a chance to look at these again yet, but I will. Oh, I will. And then you know what will happen? Editing time!!!!! Woooo, hoooo!!!

Okay, finals season drove me insane. I'll be going now....

Home!!

-Sam goldsmith

3 Classes

Ciao, Tutti!

3. Count them. Won, too, three. 3. Threeeee. That's how many classes I finished up with today. Yeah. I know. I'm awesome.

1) Music History 3 final. Check. A ton of memorization of music I've never heard of before plus obscure facts about odd historical tidbits and German names couldn't deter me. I'd be shocked if I got worse than 97 on the 100-question test. Even if I got an 85 I'd still have a solid A in the class. And I didn't even know what Liszt's "Mazeppa" sounded like until this afternoon. Huh.

2) Power and Poverty. Check. My favorite class of the term, as well as the most demanding. I wrote five drafts of this essay, and I have to admit that I'm moderately proud of it. I'm taking a research-themed class with the same instructor next semester, and I'm looking forward to it. I need exactly 39/40 percent on this paper to get an A- in the class, so there's not much pressure or hope for the golden letter. Either way, I think I got a lot out of the class. That's what's important, no? A B+ isn't so bad... I'll be turning in the paper tomorrow morning.

3) Jazz Arranging. Check. One of the worst class experiences of my life. I can say that now that it's over, but Ralph Alessi, my instructor for the ensemble immediately following it, could probably tell from my frequent venting. One of the leading contributors for me to hate classic jazz. I didn't hate it before. Now it just pisses me off. Thanks, Dave Schroeder. So I dug in and finished this chart I never wanted to write in the first place, its form sadly dictated to me by the constrictive assignment. I tried my best to be original, but I don't know... At least it's finished. I'll see Dr. Dave tomorrow and finalize it, print it out, and turn it in so it can be recorded on the 20th.

So what's left? Just one course, but it's a monster. For my uninspiring Egypt course I have to write 2 5-page research papers. Problem is the sources have largely been missing. Long story short, I have both a lot of reading and a lot of writing to do in the next four days to get it in on Monday at 12:00. I've worked out a plan, but I'm really not looking forward to the work, especially because of how bored I am by the subject. We're done with the pyramids, and the professor is not very good at sparking interest. The readings are similarly bland. So I plan on being very bored for about too many hours each until Monday.

And then, I leave. Bye, New York. I'm going home!

I can't wait.

In the meantime, no time to write. I can blog because I'm excited about getting three classes done. But no short stories. I've got two 200-word stories , but I need to edit them. Not happening anytime soon. Maybe on the airplane ride back home, if I'm not too exhausted. Anyway, don't expect much from me until I get home. Tuesday, I'd guess.

And Sam goldsmith has to log off now so he can start his mountain of reading. Yay!

-Sam goldsmith

Happiness Comes in the Form Of Mix-Ups and Rants

Ciao, Tutti!

Yeah, there's a lot to talk about. It shouldn't be a problem for a talkative guy like me, so if you find one, let me know.

Bad joke. Heh! Please forgive me, I only slept for about four hours last night.

Those pictures I said I'd talk about but never did




I am a member of an themed residency floor called "starving artists," a group of people that like to see art together and not starve together. Those of you who know me know my anti-social tendencies. So when the floor announced a free lunch of dim sum and a trip to Governor's Island, I figured I would go have the dim sum because it's delicious and then I could say I've done something with the floor and not have to deal with any other obligations. I'm such a wonderful person, aren't I? Please, don't answer that. I even brought reading to do, expecting a crowd of people that I could disappear in.

So I was quite surprised and downcast when I was the only resident who showed up at the meeting point. It was me, the RA (Barrie), the faculty affiliate (Chris) who looks younger than me, his wife, and his mother. Crap. There was no escaping conversation this time. I told them all I brought my backpack for my water bottle to sit in. On top of it all, dim sum was so crowded that we couldn't get a table, so we had to go somewhere else. Curse this good weather that brings people out of their houses!

Chris's mother took us to a Japanese restaurant she knew of instead and taught us how to eat there. Yes, I had to be taught. Because this was different than anything I had ever done before, even Korean barbecue. We were served three bowls of broth set on hot electric burners built into the table. We were given small trays loaded with different raw vegetables, noodles, and uncooked meats. I watched Chris's mother to see what the cue was. The idea was to cook the vegetables and proteins in the soup, then remove them with strainers and put them, cooked and saturated with the flavor of the soup, into our bowls. Afterward, she explained, the soups would have absorbed the flavors of everything we cooked inside and we could drink them.

It was delicious.

And fun.

Actually, anything bad I have to say about the trip basically ends there. We would put little fish bits in our strainers to keep them from being lost in the broth, then eat them a minute later, already fully cooked. There was a ton of food and we barely finished, if you could call it that. There was still a lot of food left in the bowls in the end. I was glad I hadn't eaten breakfast that day, originally anticipating a long dim sum and instead being happy I didn't. And to top it all off, a nice, cool red bean milkshake.

After that we bade farewell to Chris's mother and took off for Governor's Island on the free ferry. Not sleeping had caught up to me and I took a power nap, but I did not miss the view of each of the four Manhattan Waterfalls on their last day in operation. I think I've got some pictures of those, too... Yeah, I do, but you have to look carefully. There are three in this picture. The fourth is at the top of this section.



Anyhoo, Barrie and I rented bikes and rode around the island and I forgot how to break by pedaling backwards. We didn't have very much time on the island because of our long lunch, but there were some pretty views. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of the Statue of Liberty because of where the sun was in the sky. We returned on Manhattan and went to the ice cream factory in Chinatown, so just when my stomach stopped feeling numb I was shoving more food down.

So it was worth it in the end. And beginning. I'm just a grumpy person, but if you push me the right way things work out in the end.

Last Friday I bumped into Barrie again just as she was about to take the floor out to a deli for dinner, so I decided to forgo dining hall food and follow. For some reason these excursions don't get much of a following. Could it be that everyone else on the floor is as anti-social as I am? Either way, I got to repeat the tradition of eating too much, this case being about a pound of meat shoved between two slivers of bread eaten under a sign pointing out where Harry met Sally. We talked about people getting arrested for graffiti as I watched my clock to make sure I wasn't late for my roommate's concert.

So, there you have it. That's what those pictures are about. Do I get to talk about what pisses me off yet?

Happiness Chronicles

This title should be taken sarcastically. I am really thinking of three things that are really pissing me off right now, and none of them are about the election! Wow, fancy that! Obama's lead must be getting to me.

1) Laundry at 2nd Street Residence. You all don't want to hear about this, but I have to say something about NYU nickle and diming us like they're an airline company or something. I am fine with paying $1.75 a load, 3.50 total, assuming you do colors and whites together. That is honest highway robbery (actually I've heard that price isn't so bad). But we also have to buy these strange cards in order to use the machines, and, guess what, the cards won't let you buy an amount divisible by 1.75. So no matter what we will be paying more than we will actually be using.

Why they can't just let us use quarters is beyond me. Actually, it's not. They make more money this way. And it pisses me off.

Let me tell you how much NYU needs the extra money. We received an email at the beginning of the year saying that NYU had the goal of raising a million dollars each day for the past seven years - and they surpassed it! We've got the highest tuition and are located in the highest cost of living in just about anywhere in the world. I don't have the numbers to prove it, but I don't really need them. Meanwhile Ivy League schools are giving full rides to students whose families make less than $100,000 in a year. NYU instead insists of raising tuition and cutting merit scholarships, a policy they announced last year while I was in Florence. No one else seems to get mad about this. They're all used to it.

Seriously, why does NYU need this money so much? For my $350 per night hotel room in New Orleans? For John Sexton's yacht? Obviously it's not going to a better jazz building with anything resembling soundproofing or enough practice rooms for all of us that are open 24 hours each day.

Anyway, the point is that if they want to take my money they shouldn't resort to dirty little tricks like stealing my laundry money.

2) University of California Press. I was reading Paul Farmer's book, "Pathologies of Power," for my class, only to discover that pages 155-202 had been left out and pages 203-250 had been printed twice. Unfortunately for me, this meant that the introduction to the analysis portion of the book was left out, and I was left to read the end without anything contextualizing to help me out. very frustrating.

After class the professor and another student with my issue went to the bookstore to replace the texts, which was surprisingly easily done, but I had to leave my copy of the book with all my notes so that the school could send it to the publisher and demand their money back. So now I am left fifty pages behind in the reading and without notes. Oh, and the first draft of the paper is due Tuesday.

Now, please, a moment of silence for my notes.

3) I still can't sleep very well. I won't complain too much because I feel fine and because if I complain too much people will start to worry, or, even worse, start to offer advice. It's just annoying how I could wake up at 5:45 every day last summer no sweat and now I have to drag myself out of bed at 9:00. Something's wrong with this picture.

General Housekeeping... Stuff

I figured you'd all appreciate a blog about something other than the election. Here are a few grab bag items I would like to mention:

1) In general music has slowed down for me, but I have started a band with my friends from Florence Megan and Jordan (I have mentioned this before) and it is really coming along. Megan and I are contributing a lot of music and we each play basically all the instruments we need as well as sing. That's right, folks, I can sing, and I can sing a lot better than I sang LCD Soundsystem's "New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down" at my show last month. And I even know how to write lyrics, too! Keep an eye out for us because I'm about to prove all this as soon as we get the chance.

2) Nanowrimo, short for National Novel Writing Month, is coming up this November. In short, it is like a game where people try to write 50,000 words of fiction during the space of one month. This boils down to about 1667 words per day, which is about 5 and a half pages double spaced. For me, this takes about an hour each day. I succeeded easily two years ago and failed last year when my computer crashed and I lost 30,000 words.

As you probably already know, last January I started writing a trilogy, the first book of which I just finished the first draft to (476 pages, 145,000 words). My plan is to continue this novelling spree come November, but until then I am left with nothing to do but edit and write short fiction.

What does this all mean? First of all, when we get to November I will probably not post many blogs. My writing mind will be elsewhere. If you see a blog it means I have either given up or, much more likely, am far ahead of the game. Secondly, I have started writing short fiction again in my excited anticipation of November. So you can expect a couple blogs in the near future to be stories I've written. Just to vary things up a little bit for you guys.

3) Vote. Please.

4) The High School Law Institute, the organization I teach Constitutional law in, has been going rather well. One of my team teachers is the head of the ConLaw curriculum, and between him and the other law student who went to Teach for America, we have a pretty formidable team. I am getting better on being able to tell where I fit in the discussions, especially when there is something historical to bring up.

I do have the one problem of the kid who is much better than me at this. I come into class last Saturday and he asks me what I thought of the ruling in Ohio over the weekend. I told him I hadn't seen it, what was it? It had something to do with voter fraud and ACORN (by the way, speaking of ACORN, my Power and Poverty professor just spent a great deal of time praising their research on poverty and race issues in America), and we launched into a discussion before class about why registering Mickey Mouse did not mean that Mickey Mouse was actually going to go to the polls and vote. Voter fraud from ACORN's shenanigans: 0. But this kid knew his stuff. He's probably more qualified to teach the class than I am.

Okay, time for a nap.

-Sam goldsmith

Release

Ciao, Tutti!

I write just before the debates begin. I figure you all deserve a happier me for the beginning of the blog at least. Needless to say, I am not anticipating a very... civil debate, and I expect to be doing more of my recently patented cursing out windows afterward.

But there is no need to be depressed, because there have been major releases in my life lately! Yipee! Here are some of them:

I am literally less than a chapter away from finishing book one in my trilogy of novels that I have been working on since January. I have written about 470 pages, so this is pretty exciting. Only two more books to go! Ah, well, now it's time to start editing, which usually takes me about an hour per page per draft, which there will probably be about five... sigh!

Crap, the dabate's starting.

The Debate



Wow. I mean, wow.

"Joe the plumber, Sen. Obama want to spread the wealth! He want to redistribute the wealth! He wants socialism! Oh, crap, did I really just say that out loud? Mrs. Palin told me to say that, I swear!"

So the gloves came off, just like I thought they finally would (even though George Stephanopolis says this was a civil debate, which it was). There is so much to talk about in this debate, namely the fact that I was actually laughing during it rather than scared out of my mind (let's see what happens when the analysts come on). Looking at McCain's expressions throughout, I could not help but think that Jon Stewart is going to have some fun with video editing tonight.

First, and unimportantly, I have never seen John McCain so flustered. He ended up settling down as the debate goes on, but in the beginning he almost seemed like Sarah Palin in his random regurgitation of key words and phrases. His face was rigid and unrelaxed. It was actually sort of funny to watch him, sort of like watching a basketball team fight to win the sixth game to send it to a do or die. However, as I watch the analysts right now, the popular view seems to be that McCain had his best performance yet. I would disagree.

The part of the debate that made the biggest impression on me was for the question about the ugliness of the campaigns, and this was why I felt Obama won, though I suppose some people I know could view it the other way. Obama wanted to talk about the issues, McCain wanted to go on the attack. Obama was much less interested in attacking McCain as a person, at least until the mention of ACORN and Ayers. There was a long back and forth on this question, and Barack Obama spent more time insisting on a discussion about the debates. This could be viewed as a weakness, an unwillingness to fight back, or trying to downplay his scandals, but I have been hoping for a campaign on the issues for SO LONG and it was refreshing to hear it. According to the New York Times, two thirds of Americans agree with me.

It actually seems to me that Obama has stuck to the issues more, though this is of course debatable. Let me explain. First of all, it is seriously easy to make fun of Sarah Palin, which I have talked about in previous blogs. The question was asked about the Vice Presidential candidates gave Obama a softball possibility to crush a Palin homerun, but Obama did the right thing and refused to question her qualifications. He doesn't need to, and his campaign has by and large laid off since the Couric interviews, though he has picked up criticism again since the terrifying comments made at some of Palin's rallies. The point is that Obama did not attack on personal issues, save for the siting of the NY Times fact I quoted earlier and the accusation that Ayers has become McCain's main campaign issue. Obama was trying to bring the debate back to the questions and the issues, as one analyst said, "rope a doping," taking the attacks and returning to the main subject of debate. So. Obama did a very good job of defending himself in the face of John McCain's consistent regurgitation of already disproved facts.

In an assessment of how amazing it was that Obama refrained from attacking McCain's misleading statements or contradictory policies, I was yelling at the television the most since the Pistons lost to the Celtics. Here's an example. McCain was talking about choosing a judge who was qualified. That was the most important characteristic of a judge, he repeated. I shouted out, "Yeah, picking qualified people is something you're really good at, John." My roommate knew I was talking about Sarah Palin. But Obama knew he had no need to bring the debate to such a low. I hope he has that attitude throughout the rest of the campaign.

I was also impressed with Obama when McCain had his apparently shining moment (according to the analysts), when he said, "I am not George Bush. If you wanted to run against George Bush, you should have run four years ago." Taken out of context, this seems like a strong statement, something McCain should have been saying all along from the beginning (yeah, he probably should). Then he proceeded not to explain how his economic policy differed from Bush's in the slightest, emphasizing difference in energy policy, education, health care, and other things. Obama had just compared McCain to Bush, but was clear to say so only in the context of economics, first taking the time to commend McCain for his odd-ball positions of the past. Obama then reasserted that McCain's economic policy was a continuation of the past four years. Obama did a very good job here. Too bad we're going to keep hearing that quote out of context for a few days, because otherwise I don't think there was anything in that debate for McCain to be proud of.

I take that back. I did like how McCain hammered Obama on the subject of public finance, something I'm pretty upset at Obama for. Obama didn't really have a response for that, dodging it like the other attacks, and I could see at that moment why Obama's defensive stance might not work so well on other voters, especially the undecideds. However, despite John McCain's assertiveness (I saw it more as nervous energy), I thought Obama simply answered the questions better. He stuck to the questions more than I've ever seen from him, in comparison to the last debate (people said afterward that he won, for some reason) where he was muddled, confusing, and uncoordinated. Here he was focused, clear, and succinct, and he answered the questions with facts (not all correct, like the 100% negative TV ads comment) and refuted McCain's strong statements with compelling facts. One example: McCain challenged Obama, asking him to name a time when he had stood up to party leadership. Obama retorted that the first bill he ever voted on the Senate floor was against the party leadership, and he named a few more after that. McCain came back at him, saying his argument was unconvincing, though not really saying why. Obama knew he didn't have to say anything else about it.

Some analysts were wondering why McCain did not attack Obama on the experience factor again, something that seems to poll well for McCain. It seemed pretty obvious to me. Obama has, throughout the debates, presented himself as more than capable of becoming the next president in terms of qualifications. McCain can attack his innexperience all he wants, but we have seen a calm and composed Obama so many times now that the undecideds are getting the image of a capable leader in Obama. This is not to say they are leaning in his direction per se, but McCain's attacks on Obama's experience would only have worked if he had maintained it up until this point, which he hasn't. Now when we see Obama the inexperience is not something we think about. McCain would much rather have us think about how he's raising taxes, talking without precondition to unfriendly foreign leaders (McCain brought this up in the debate in a totally off-topic way. Wasn't this settled in the first debate when Obama explained what a precondition was?), and friends with Ayers and ACORN. This is how McCain wants to portray Obama. The image of the inexperienced young senator is no longer important in this campaign.

The last thing to talk about is Joe the plumber, our favorite American who has everyone's misconception about Obama's health and tax plans. Obama has to explain again and again that his policy won't tax people like (sigh) Joe the plumber, but poor old Joe has been misled by the McCain advertisements and thinks his health insurance costs and taxes will go up under Obama. Honestly, the two candidates were fighting for his vote like guys fighting to carry a cheerleader's books. This time McCain took a new approach to the tax policy: why would you raise taxes on anyone at all? Immediately my mind went to the second debate when the question, "What sacrifices would you ask the American people to make?" was asked. Asking wealthy companies to help share the burden (rather than dumping $700 billion and then another $250 billion and more to come in their laps) seems more than logical to me. And this is when McCain started his jargon about "sharing the wealth, you damn commie, I mean, good friend." The message was clear. McCain wanted to portray Obama as taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor.

Sounds to me like Obama needs to make a Robin Hood campaign shirt.

Obama's equivalent to McCain's shining moment was when he told (sigh) Joe that he would be fined "zero" because small businesses are exempt from those fines in Obama's plan. That actually stopped McCain from reasserting what was false, just as Obama stopped associating McCain with Bush earlier in the debate. It was a powerful moment for Obama in the debate, sort of like saying, "How many times do I have to say this? How much more clearly can I say this?"

So, yeah, I thought Obama came out on top. By quite a lot. However, this is in the campaign style I wanted to see. People who are worried about Obama's credibility and his social connections (Wright, Ayers, ACORN) might see his defensive stance as a retreat. It all depends on whether people re voting on the issues or on perception. Obama won on the issues debate, I thought. I also thought he won on the appearance side, but this is so up to interpretation that I can't begin to think of how the effects of this debate will play out over the next three weeks.

Either way, it was the debate performance I had been hoping for from Obama since he announced his candidacy.

Back to Where I Was



So, um, where was I?

Oh, yes. Releases.

Mid term season just ended. I wanted to write a blog before then, but I had papers due and tests to study for, so I just didn't. I wanted to write one for Yom Kipur, but that never happened. Anyhoo, I am just glad not to have to think about any big tests or papers coming up for a while, which is actually more like a week. It takes a load off my chest.

I hope I did well.

I am also very interested in some movie releases. This, from the guy who doesn't even like movies!

1) 11/14/2008 Quantum of Solace (007) Yeah, it was about time another one of these came out. It should be super sweet! Anyone in Michigan want to see it with me when I'm out there for Thanksgiving? There's about no way I'm seeing it here in New York. I just don't see movies in New York. I don't even know if I could find a good theater.

2) 2009 - a live action Akira will come out from Warner Brothers. This was an animated classic about 20 years ago. I didn't really like it very much, but it's nice that it's being remade into live action.

3) 2009 - Speaking of anime being turned into live action (I think maybe one - maybe - will care about this), Steven Spielberg is directing a movie adaptation of the anime series Ghost in the Shell. Someone tell Joel about this for me, though I don't know how much he'll care. This is supposedly made to compete with Akira. If I would have to guess, I don't have high hopes for either, since Akira has a lousy plot and Ghost in the Shell has a director who'll probably ruin it.

4) Sometime - Watchmen. When is this going to come out already? I've been hearing about it forever! Please! Just come out already!

5) 7/2/2010 - Are you sick of hearing about this? The Last Airbender's first movie now has a release date. Now I can count the days down... such a dork! I suppose this means it's actually going to be made, then, so that's good, I hope... Keep the spirits up! It's going to be a great movie! Please!

Another release would be that of my high school and college friend Julian Pollack's new CD with singer Grace (some last name). Their CD release party will be on October 23rd, 2008. I don't have to wait two freaking years for this.

My roommate's band is featured prominently in a romantic comedy with Katherine Zeta Jones slated to come out in March, 2009. Keep your ears out for "Love Pass It On" when you're watching. He's seen the pre-release and he says it's pretty innovative for a romantic comedy, and also quite comedic. Anyway, I might need to see that.

Also, a move I think called "Rachel's Getting Married" is featuring Tunde Adebimpe, one of the lead singers from TV on the Radio, as the male lead. I have to see it for that purpose alone, even it that takes me to my romantic comedy limit. I don't quite know when that's coming out. I could just look it up while I'm here on the computer. I could do that. Heh!

Well, I need to sleep. Nightmares of McCain's angry expressions dancing through my head. Nevermind. No sleep tonight.

Yeah, my conclusions have been different from the mainstream media's every time, so I dread to see what's in the papers tomorrow.

Now, seriously, I'm done.

-Sam goldsmith

P.S. If you're scared as well, please feel free to write. I don't bite, but sometimes I respond. You have been forewarned!

What I Did Not See

Ciao, Tutti!

I should be doing homework right now instead of blogging, but some important political event just happened and I feel the urge to blog about it. I'll probably fall behind in school work and graduate into a lousy job in a failing economy and...

Well, let's just say I've been down on myself for not working hard enough lately. Life has been distracting me. Let me count the ways.

1) Me and a couple of friends from the Florence program got together this weekend to play music. We're going to be, I say hopefully, an indie band. We all play guitar and piano, and we all sing. No bass player or drummer, but there is a MicroKorg that can play bass for us. We don't need bass and drums anyway. We immediately connected at the jam session. We met at 8:00, none of us having eaten dinner yet, expecting a short, hour long rehearsal and catch-up after. Instead we found ourselves eating Italian food in a diner at 1:00 in the morning. We were starving and tired but couldn't stop playing. So, just a heads up, you may hear a lot more of my voice on CD in the coming however-long-it-takes-for-us-to-get-something-recorded.



2) I am still horribly unqualified to teach Constitutional law, but I have to anyway. Thanks to a scheduling confusion, team teaching the first day was done by seven people, four of whom were in the law school. Needless to say, I didn't have much of a role. However, I did notice a few things, like how smart the students were. I totally underestimated them, not just for their critical thinking capacities but also for their incredible retention of basic facts (dates, names, clauses, etc.). I also noticed a place for me in the class, a historical niche that the law students were conveniently overlooking. Historical context is something me and my other undergraduate team teacher can help out with while the law students unload their database of rote law information. Together we will be unstoppable! Anyway, I'll be reading the constitution a few times, if I can get away from obsessing about life, as well as some court cases and reviewing revolutionary history.



3) TV on the Radio plays in Brooklyn a week from today, but the only apparent way to buy tickets is through their site, and I don't want to become a member and receive a bunch of random emails about concerts in Oslo and the like. Well, I did anyway, only to find out that the pre-sale is sold out. I have to find some other way to get to the show. Does anyone have experience with this, by the way?

P.S. I will be seeing Of Montreal on Friday night, but it won't be the same...



4) I am still terrified of Sarah Palin. This may be a part of me not sleeping well, along with eating dinner at 1:00 after jamming for too long. Now, as you all remember, I'm scared of her incompetence (I've watched the Couric interviews now...) and I'm scared of how everyone perceives her performances. But now I have a new fear: how people in the jazz department at NYU make fun of her. It is gross. People use the acronym MILF to describe her, which I probably am not allowed to spell out, and they talk about performing acts which, well, I probably can't spell out either. Is it any wonder that I have trouble sleeping! Perhaps there was a good reason only old white men used to run for president. This whole thing reminds me of the good old days when making a sexual joke about Nanci Pelosi was an unforgivable act.

5) The second presidential debate was tonight, a town-hall style format that McCain is particularly comfortable in. I have to say, I didn't quite know what to expect. Luckily I had watched the first debate, and there wasn't all that much different tonight, even considering the new economic situation. This is what I did not see or hear: any mention of either Ayers or Rev. Wright; any personal attacks at all; any new policies, save for McCain's new housing approach to the dismal housing market; a constant linking between McCain and Bush; or a gaff of any kind. This being the case, I don't think there was a clear "winner" or "loser." This was not a debate that would earn anyone major points.

Of course that's what I'll say. You all know who my guy is. But, if the truth be told, I actually thought John McCain actually came out on top tonight (town-hall, not like we expected anything different, right?). There was one example when the clock-watching Tom Brokaw asked a question, I think about energy plans (this is why I'm a blogger, not a journalist), about mid-way through. Both of the candidates answered with the same substance. Something about decreasing US dependence on foreign oil. Obama went first, and he's answered this question plenty of times before and he had his script to go by. This being one of the sole issues the two candidates agree on, they answered fairly similarly, but McCain's answer made much more sense. He spoke more slowly and he used language that was far less technical, and he physically reached out to the audience. There was something in his speaking that I could identify with, even if I can't stand the guy. Obama, on the other hand, as one TV analyst from PBS said afterward, elicits no emotion from the audience during a debate, much different than watching the man orate. I hate to say it like this, but McCain was simply better at conveying his opinions to the world than Obama was. Problem is I don't agree with any of his opinions. Obama was obviously better when answering the questions after McCain rather than being the ice-breaker. He needed time to prepare. I could even see his speech relaxing in the middle of answering a question, like I could hear his mind working out an answer as he said catch phrases he had rehearsed beforehand. I know he's not a great debater like Denzel Washington, but I was a bit dissapointed in this.

The only time I thought Obama actually outperformed McCain, and this is a surprise, was in foreign policy, near the end (Obama did get better as the night went on. He needed to relax!). McCain made the assertion, as he had before, that Obama could not simply announce that he was going to invade Pakistan. He invoked Theodore Roosevelt's famous adage, "Speak softly and carry a big stick," asserting that Obama only spoke loudly. Obama returned with the reference, as usual, to McCain's support of the war in Iraq ("Bomb, bomb, bomb!") and his comment that the US could simply "muddle through" Afghanistan. Basically a summation of McCain's foreign policy gaffs. McCain should have been prepared for this sort of attack, but for some reason he wasn't. It was his vaguest point in the entire debate, the only one where his response had nothing specific or insightful in any way. He repeated Obama's gaff (that he had just cleared up) and tried to emphasize Obama's inexperience and naivete. He actually looked tense on stage and struggled finding words.

It's a good thing that point came near the end of the debate because otherwise I'm fairly certain McCain would have been considered the winner of the debate for sure, especially considering his fairly effective attacks on Obama's economic policy, making a dent in what has evolved into one of Obama's strongest positions.

Well, the red light is flashing. I suppose that means I'm out of time.

6) Midterm season approaches. And I have two essays due in the same class (!) a week from tomorrow. The day after the TV on the Radio concert where, I assume, I will not eat dinner until 1:00 in the morning again, thus not sleeping at night. Again. But hopefully the papers will be done by then. Regardless, being a double major in history is much harder than I ever thought it would be. It makes me glad I'm antisocial, I don't play an instrument that gets me many gigs, and I don't have a long-distance relationship anymore. I'll bet my parents are sad they don't get to hear me call every other day anymore.

7) Of course I have time to call my folks every day, but that time ends up being taken up by the difference in time zones as well as, shall we say, other obsessions. I suppose I will call this obsession, "plot." I just love stories that are about things (so therefore not "The Namesake," no matter how well it was written). Stories, novels, TV shows, movies, people's lives, cartoons, you name it. Plus I like to make things up that have plots, too, like short stories and novels. It happens every November too, and may even stop my blogging for quite a while. But, ooh, is it worth it! So, sorry, Mom and Dad!

Sigh! It's so hard when I've got so many exciting or terrifying things in my life distracting me from living! I mean, I do have to do schoolwork at some point, don't I? I suppose this is the price I pay for having so many interests I want to investigate. That's a nice way of saying I'm indecisive and like to dream up fantasies. Which is a mean way of saying I have a lot of interests I want to investigate.

Until next whenever-I-need-another-distraction-from-homework-or-there-is-another-debate,

-Sam goldsmith

The Barcelona Affair

Ciao, Tutti!

I have just returned from Barcelona and I want to spill my guts to you all while the stories are fresh. The problem with that is that there is simply too much to say, and, as you'll see, I'll be using both photos and a few movies to tell the stories for me.

I left for Barcelona on Friday morning. First I had to take a bus to Pisa, which takes about an hour and half, and then fly over to Barcelona, which takes another hour and a half. When I got there, I was to call my friend Kat to tell her I was there and was ready to meet her and her friends. The problem was that my phone told me I couldn't make calls in Spain, and suddenly I was in a Spanish country (Oh, and it's not really Spanish that they speak there. It's something else with a name I forget) without a map, a contact, or a clue. I found my way to the free shuttle downtown, picked up a free street map from the airport, and plotted my way to the hostel, hoping to meet the rest of the group, and this is the first thing I saw:



I found out later it was the national palace, and despite still needing lunch and another four hours of sleep, I was already enjoying myself. I certainly enjoyed the spontaneity of the trip without the phone, and I was tempted to just walk up there and check it out, but I needed to get to the hostel, so I left the palace behind. Next time, maybe. I walked along the main street away from it, hoping I would find a cell phone store along the way. I was sure it would happen, but one was closed for Siesta and the other didn't actually exist, there was just a strange sign there that said "Motorola". I made it to the hostel, but the land line there couldn't connect to mobile phones, so I lost 3 Euros to a public phone, then trekked back to the store that had been closed which was now open, but didn't sell sim cards. I somehow made it to the train station that sold me a card, and I completed the 3 hour, 28 Euro call to my worried friend. We met up, I met her friends, and we went out in search of the main street and of dinner.



On the left is Amanda, a girl I know from the NYU scholars program. Next to her is Sheila, a girl with a great sense of rapping about oranges. More about that later. On the second to right is Hilary, a possible music major when she declares who liked to practice British accents. Actually, we all liked that. On the far right is Kat, who I knew from the first year in NYU, my contact in Barcelona, and the main planner of the trip. All of them live in homestays in NYU in Madrid, and they were just as puzzled by the Barcelona combination of Spanish and French languages.

We all went to the old market and bought smoothies, which was my 8:00 lunch, then went to a restaurant and had the best seafood paella I ever had, at least until the next day, which is another story altogether. Now, let's see if these movies work at all...



That was just about the end of the night for us. The girls had been on an 8-hour bus ride since 1:00 am to get there, and they were just as exhausted as I was, and we started planning the next day. It turns out Kat had been there before, so it was pretty easy to follow her planning, especially since she's a great planner in general. All I wanted to make sure of is that we would stop by the beach so I could swim (By the way, it was 60 degrees and sunny the entire time we were there) and make some time to stop in the pasterias so I could taste as much of Barcelona as possible. We went to sleep in the hostel room and I clutched my important documents to my chest all night.

Now I would like to compare this trip with the trip I took to Venice earlier, not just for the sake of rating the two places, but for the sake of rating two different styles of vacationing. In Venice there was no plan. There were the obvious major sights and then a lot of walking around to minor sights, whatever I seemed to want at the time. Barcelona left nothing up to the last minute. The spontaneous feeling I had when my phone wasn't working never rematerialized. I am still trying to absorb everything I was seeing, feeling, and thinking, while I had enough time in Venice to really spend whatever time I wanted wherever I wanted to, which was part of the reason the Vivaldi museum was such a success. It would have been no good to have less than 45 minutes in that museum for me.

In order to have the same kind of experiences in Barcelona that I had in Venice, I told my friends not to tell me anything about the sights we were seeing so I could be surprised by everything. I did no prior research about the place, and even though I knew it was one of the most beautiful of Spain's cities, I had no idea why, except that it was close to the coast, which was important to me. Unlike in Venice, which I had researched the week before and seen some of the sights from the slides in class and postcards around Florence's touristy center.

We awoke at 9:00, cooked a breakfast of eggs and fruit, and off we went.

First stop: Parc Guell. This reminded me of some strange combination of Central Park, but 3-D, and the Boboli garden's. The park was on a high hill overlooking the smoggy city like the grand vistas from Boboli, but it was an entirely artificial park like Central Park. Except, as I soon learned, the park was a creation of the famous Spanish architect Gaudi, who, I must say, did a much better job at designing the park than the planners of either Central Park or the Boboli Gardens. There were handmade grottos, somewhat like the one in Boboli, but more modern and functional rather than artistic. The picture of me at the top of the page is taken inside one. The paths all lead to the famous bench, which I thought at first must be some strange term for a new kind of building but turned out to actually be a bench. A bench that took nearly two centuries to build with all the tiles that had to be individually placed.







I had already been struck by how modern Barcelona is, and Kat and the others said that Madrid is the same way. I don't know why, but I expected the city to be hundreds of years old at the youngest points like Florence. Gaudi was working at the end of the 1800's, way ahead of his time, but there wasn't anything like the leftovers from the Renaissance you find in every corner of Florence. However, the youth of the city also meant wider sidewalks! Score!

Guadi also had a couple of his famous houses in the park, which leads me to my next video:



Next was a subway ride to the Sagrada Familia. I did not know what that was. Something about the family. Anyway, we get off the subway, and I ask when we know if we're there, and Kat says that we'll know. And we certainly did. "Oh," I said.



The last 16 years of Gaudi's life was spent on this church, and it's still not finished. You can see when they started construction again after the civil war. This is Barcelona's answer to the Duomo here in Florence, not ancient but indeed magnificent, and definitely dominant in the city sky. If you look at the vista from the park you should be able to see it through the haze. Cameras and words cannot contain this building. Please go there. We had sandwiches on the park across from the church, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, though it started to gt chilly and we realized we had to put a move on if we were to make it to the beach in time for me to enjoy my Mediterranean Sea.



As if we hadn't had enough of Gaudi, which we hadn't, we went to see the three spaced-out but easily walkable houses in the city center. I don't even know what to say about them, exactly. The lines were too long to go in, and we didn't really want to anyway. They were more interestingly from the outside, as far as we knew, and Kat knew since she's been there before. Gaudi seems to be the Dali of architecture. I've never seen anything like it.



House 3



House 4



House 5

Next stop was the "cable cars" as dubbed by those who haven't been to San Francisco and seen a real cable car before. This is more like a ski lift without the skis or the snow. Amanda is afraid of heights, so she let me use her camera to take the pictures, since, same old story, mine was screaming about having low battery. I'll post those pictures as soon as she gets back to Madrid and makes them available to me, as well as putting our rap video on YouTube. I anticipate myself. The cable cars climbed up a hill to the oldest part of the city I got to see: the palace that looked over the sea. We could see the World Trade Center, the big trading port which was kind of like Oakland's, and the same panoramic view of the city we got from the other park, just from a different angle. Problem was that now the fog was starting to come in and it was very hard to see much of anything, and I decided to save my battery. Sad to say, but it paled in comparison to the mighty Fort Belvedere, but it was very nice to have a seat for a few minutes after a day on my feet. 4:30 we went to another route of cable cars that was to bring us to Port Olympiad, the main boardwalk, just in time for me to get my swim in.

That was the plan, at least. Problem was that with the coming of the fog came the closing of the cable cars to the beach due to safety reasons, so we were forced to walk down the hill and catch a subway. We learned that every map of the Barcelona subway system says something different when we got off and our transfer train actually doesn't stop there. As we recuperated and tried to think of what to do as we raced the sun to the horizon, I saw that we were very close to the train station and thus very close to that original palace, and as luck would have it that palace was close to a subway station that had a line we could use. After stopping in the corner pasteria, we made our break for it. By the way, those pastries inspired hope in me. I bought some that were like dough nut holes but a million times better, and some custard filled balls that exploded in my mouth and made me promise to exercise more so I could eat as many as I want. They were, as we say in our fake British accents, quite good.

We made it to the boardwalk, but the sun had already beat us, and I could see my breath and I knew that there was no point in my wearing my swimsuit under my pants all day. We still made it to the beach, and even though we were very hungry, it was only 7:00 or so, and in Spain they usually eat dinner at 10:00 or so, so we decided to wait until 8:00 at least, and besides, it was very relaxing to sit by the sea. This was the last image of Barcelona my camera saw before the battery died:



That's when that rap thing I was alluding to happened. Apparently while I was listening to music the night before Sheila and Amanda and possibly Hilary, but I don't know, I wasn't paying attention, were spending a fair amount of time rapping about oranges. I don't know why, and neither do they. They just kept saying, "Naranjas," in some rhythm, and suddenly we were all doing it, with me beat boxing in the background. This madness ceased when we saw that Amanda had taped the whole thing with her camera, and we watched it, causing us to laugh so hard that it made us start to cry. We had to do another about Se Bon, Vale, and Prego, the French, Spanish, and Italian words that seem to be multi-purpose and, "You're welcome." It was ridiculous. We were out of control, and suddenly it was worth it not to swim because if I had made it, I wouldn't have been a part of that obnoxiously typical American spectacle.

We ate next, which was an adventure in itself. There was a long boardwalk filled with expensive restaurants, which we were exploring until a too-nice native asked us if we were looking for something to eat, which is always a red flag for me. He promised that if we didn't like anything we could come talk to him and get out without paying, which is another red flag to me, but Kat was all for it, and Sheila and Amanda seemed to agree. Hilary and I were very suspicious that they were going to charge us extra or that it was going to be bad, and the awkward waiter seemed to confirm this in the beginning when we asked for the menu of the day which was only 17.50 compared to the 40.00 Euro dishes or the 135.00 Euro lobster, which Hilary and I were convinced they were going to try and convince us to get.

It turns out that Kat was right, as she tends to be. As soon as the waiter learned that we all spoke Spanish (except my speech was coming out as Italian way too often) it became much easier to communicate, and we certainly got our money's worth. There were three courses, wine, and dessert shots included in the price that seemed to shrink with every five-star dish that arrived at the table. Right on the ocean, the seafood was phenomenal. I don't think I've ever tried muscles before, but now I think they're the greatest thing ever. I ate the specialty tapa of bread coated thinly by tomato, and a large plate of seafood paella that is indescribable. As is my answer for a lot of things: go there. It was simply freaking good. The place is called La Fonda, and the man who made the hard sell said his name was Marco Antonio, though I don't know if that's the truth or not, but if he tries to sell you the place, you can tell him you've heard of him. Unlike the food in Venice which shut my mind off, this food put the five of us in a festive mood, and we were celebrating the day of Barcelona for three hours, able to watch some people come and go and have their tables replaced before we were finished. I was in such a good mood that I was able to try a half of a shot, which Kat says was the best liquor she's ever tasted (and she had quite a bit...), and I must say I actually enjoyed it but knew better than to try another. It went with the chocolate mousse well.

We took the subway back to the hotel to prepare for our early wake-up the next day for our respective trips back, and I prepared myself for catching my early flight without knowing how to get to the airport, then doing the rest of my laundry list of homework on the flight and bus ride back. Luckily for me, the story ends there. Of course I could talk about our sixth roommate, a Cal State Longbeach student, or the girl who would not stop ringing the doorbell in the middle of the night at the hostel, or the lizard sculpture I didn't even really get to see except through my camera and on postcards. But if I was to go into those stories, there would be too much to say.

The last thing I would like to say about Barcelona is simply a thought. In Venice I feel like I saw less than I saw in Barcelona but in more time, and, while I loved the city much more, I didn't have as great a time as I did in Barcelona with the two "old" friends and two new ones. Barcelona, in all it's modernity, seemed more like a get together in a beautiful city, where Venice was a beautiful city where I traveled with another person mainly for the sake of making it cost-efficient. In the end, though, I feel like I've experienced Venice, where I've only seen Barcelona. You know what I mean? I got a real feel for Venetian culture and custom, where I was just having fun in Barcelona in ways I probably didn't have to leave Florence to do (except to visit my friends in the Spain program). But I had such a wonderful time in Barcelona, and I have to wonder what is more important, to see the sight and to really absorb them as best you can as well as the culture, or go and have a blast and forget about tomorrow? It was surprisingly nice to relax and simply let myself be an American tourist.

Perhaps I should leave the immersion to Florence, and do what I can when I visit other places. We didn't even get to the Picasso museum in Barcelona, nor the close-by Dali museum, which I will see before I die, so I can't even claim to have seen the area's main sights in their entirety like I have for Venice. Plus, Barcelona's just a ton bigger of a city. Doing a city in basically a day and a half, trying to cram in all I can, was quite an experience, and I'll have to think a lot harder before going traveling again about how I want to visit.

No music announcements or CD review today, but do listen to Fionn O Lochlainn. He's an acoustic rock singer who writes amazing lyrics, has a great voice, and sounds like Dylan both in his style and what he sings about. As far as the music announcements go, I won't know anything new until I check my email, so there's nothing new to report.

For all of you upset at me for not putting any pictures in last week's post, I hope this makes up for it. I took almost 200 and three movies while I was there, almost all in that one day. Whew. I want to sleep now.

Ciao, Tutti!

I am soon to be on my way to an amazing weekend in Barcelona with my friend Kat from school who is currently studying in Madrid, so I figured I should write what I can now so I devote most of the next post to the trip. I am getting very excited and I will have another batch of great stories and colorful pictures when I return, and hopefully a tan, too, if the weather's nice enough to permit swimming.

I would like to say that this was a relaxing week for me, with the return of internet and not much activities outside of class, but it was actually a pretty rough week in terms of schoolwork and sleep. Monday is always a tough day for me, and it was even tougher this week because we had a double session of ensemble to make up for next Monday when we have to cancel. That meant I had class from 10:30 until 10:00 pm with a short break from 4:00-6:00, half of which is used to walk from class to ensemble, half of which is used to grab a quick dinner, and half is used to do whatever homework I may have.

The point is there's just not enough time, and Monday was therefore quite exhausting. But on the plus side, we met our new music theory teacher who seems to have an incredible reputation in his field, speaks fluent English, and has an unlimited grasp of the information, an unbelievable improvement on our previous professor who got fired. For once I can say, "Bravo, NYU." The other plus was that in jazz ensemble there was a guest who spoke up on behalf of playing the music more interestingly. As in, not just head, solos, head, out, and not playing all the solos the same for every tune. We finally started playing as a group and the pieces sounded more like pieces rather than a chance for each of the members to show off. It was a great improvement and the first time I really enjoyed myself in that band, even though we're playing Filling the Gap. The other members felt insulted by the way the guest was talking, which I could see maybe if I really concentrated, but I'm glad he said what was on my mind but couldn't quite phrase right, and we're starting to sound better. I hope things stay this way next time we meet. After the ensemble we exchanged contact information and he said he would send me an email if he wanted to have me play with him and his band up in Genoa sometime before I depart, which is very exciting because I'm quite interested in visiting Genoa, and playing there would be another amazing thing to do.

Monday is followed by Tuesday, during which I have class and a reserved practice time that keep me working from when I rise until 4:00 or so. Between Monday and Tuesday, I'm usually pretty exhausted, but there was no chance to break. I have a lot of work for composition lesson and I won't have any weekend to do it in. Plus I'm breaking through with Guest Artist and I don't want to loose too much momentum. Sigh... so much work!

Wednesday is a good day because I get to teach the kids English. I brought a small pot from home and had them all draw vegetables so we could all "make a soup" together. Afterward we took out everything they all drew and made the recipe so they could take it home and make it there if they wanted. I ended a little earlier than I had intended originally because they already seemed to know all the words I thought I was going to have to teach them. It turns out the teacher wanted me to do a food activity because that's what they were studying in their English class, not just regular class, so they already knew everything! Next week when we do sports and abilities, I'll be better prepared.

After teaching I only have one class, which makes it my shortest day. This gave me time to get some of the work done that I needed to get done, but I still have a lot to do after I'm done with the blog. But this Wednesday night I had a special ticket to see a concert in Teatro Verdi by the Toscana Orchestra, featuring violin soloist Uto Ughi. They played some works of Bach and of one of his son's, and the man's solo technique was simply incredible, possibly the best individual playing I have ever seen. I read the pamphlet about him (even though I was in Italian, I could understand most of it!) which said he was already performing when he was 7 years old and a full-fledged concert violinist when he was 12. The warm sound he got from the instrument was partly because the thing was a 1744 model that had been restored for him. Anyway, he conducted the orchestra as he played so clearly and sweetly and sometimes more impressively than I could imagine, and the Bach pieces fit his playing (and his ancient instrument) just about perfectly. He came out to play three encores, the crowd was so wowed by him, though the most impressive were his solo violin improvisations, one that was totally improvised, though you wouldn't know if he didn't say beforehand, and another that was another Bach piece. He could play things that were not only impossible to describe but impossible to play, and yet it was still musical and within the style, making up pieces with shape and form. I had to ask myself what do Jazz and other modern music have that set it apart from such virtuosity? What can we do that this violinist can't do?

If it wasn't so late, I was ready to go back to the apartment and practice for hours.

Today was fairly relaxed, which was nice. My Italian class met at a gelateria where we had a short scavenger hunt and then some NYU-funded gelato, which was actually quite good. Then a trip to L'Acedemia with my music history class to see the ancient musical instruments, then to campus to audition for the talent show fund raiser. All in all a pretty stress-free day, but it took up a lot of time and now I have no idea how I will have the energy or will-power to do all the work I have for music, let alone the usual heavy load of reading for my history class. Perhaps I will do most of the reading on the bus to the Pisa airport and the plane to Barcelona, and back, too, but I want to pack light. Oh, well, I'll figure it out later.

I apologize for the lack of pictures this week, but I'll be sure to make up for it with the Barcelona pictures. I've been giving my camera a break since it pulled a muscle with all the pictures I've been taking lately. It's almost fully recovered now, so no worries.

Music Announcements

Spread the word! Sam goldsmith and the Inspiration Sextet will present Guest Artist live at the Bowery Poetry Club-the sequel, on Thursday, September 25 from 6:00-7:30, in my best birthday concert ever. Make them have to sell standing room seats!

I am starting to procure gigs here in Italy. I will be playing with Il Trillo's Grupo Facile on April 8 in "una chiesa vecchia" (an old church). Il Trillo is the music school that lends NYU rooms for ensembles and practicing, and the owner invited me to play with one of their regular bands. They offer classes to all ages, so I bet this will be like me sitting in on a school band concert. It should be a lot of fun.

The NYU jazz ensemble I am in currently is scheduled to play at least twice in the week after spring break in March. I'm not sure of the dates because I don't think anyone is, but I think one day is at Pinocchio on March 21, though we're trying to change it to a week later, and the other is on March 26. Those are not exact dates! I don't want you to buy a ticket to come out and see me play in Florence just to find out I got the date wrong! I'll let you know when the dates are more accurate, and I'll include some cheap airfare quotes so you can make it out easily ;-)

Until next week,

-Sg

First Week Of Teaching

Ciao, Tutti!

I’m sorry I haven’t been able to write in a while. The internet situation here is out of control, and with everyone gone for the weekend, I have no one else to mooch it off. I could make the 45 minute trek to campus to do it… but even then I wouldn’t be able to put pictures on because I wouldn’t be able to use my computer. It should be fixed three days ago, so we’ll see. Anyway, it was just fixed this morning, so here I am, hastily trying to catch up when I should probably be in the Bargelo or the Uffizi or something.

The most important thing that happened so far this week was the start of me teaching English every Wednesday morning, something I have looked forward to since I heard about the option back in New York orientation. I had wanted to work with 5 and 6 year-olds like I had back home in summer camp, but apparently everyone else did, too, so I was forced to choose middle school or high school (scuola media o liceo). I chose middle school.

I was told to show up on Wednesday morning without any particular plan, to show up ten minutes early to meet the teacher, and she would tell me about the class, and then they’d question me for an hour to show off their English skills and get to know me. No such thing happened. The teacher told me they were first year middle schoolers, about 11 years old, and they didn’t know much English yet. Did I have a plan? she asked. Lucky for me, I had been thinking one up since I got the position, for the walk over, and for the 40 minutes early I somehow ended up arriving. I told you I was excited. She also told me to speak no Italian if I can help it. That part is pretty easy. Another lucky thing: the teacher said the students play music after school, so if I wanted to do something with music, they would like that very much. I told her the vibraphone would not be able to make it to class, but the melodica probably will.

It really was “Off you go!” I enter the classroom ahead of the teacher to a bustling class of preteens and immediately I have to know exactly what to do and what to say. Lucky me again, I’m quite over stage fright at this point in my life, and the kids were not only extremely well behaved but excited to meet me. Before I could say a word they greeted me with a big “Good Morning!” to which I answered the same, using my loud teaching voice I developed at summer camp. I asked them how they were, and they said they were good. I told them about myself, making sure to talk slowly and clearly without any contractions (No “I’m” or “Don’t” but “I am” and “Do not”). I tried to draw a map of the United States so I could show them where New York and San Francisco are, and they said it looked like a fish. The teacher brought me a global map, which worked better because I could show them how far Florence was from both New York and San Francisco.

I introduced myself to each of them so I could get them to speak. What is your name? Nice to meet you! How old are you? Do you like Florence? Me too! Do you play an instrument? What instrument do you play? Can you play us a short piece? Exuberance was key. If I didn’t do hand motions and acting, they would have had a much harder time understanding what I was saying. But they got it pretty quickly, and I met all of them and most got a chance to play a short children’s song. Everyone wanted to play, and I felt bad we couldn’t hear from all of them. After the performances, we had just enough time for everyone to stand up and for me to teach them the parts of the body, leading to “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” I gave a couple of the students a chance to lead the song and the game, which they liked a lot. Unfortunately, the bell rang before they had the chance to ask me many questions about myself at the end, so I’ll try to leave some time next Wednesday. The teacher and I talked about next week’s lesson plan as the kids ate, a little about New York, a little about each of our country’s elections. If you don’t already know, Italy’s government recently collapsed, which seems to happen a lot, and the teacher said that makes teaching hard because she always has to be researching the new laws.

Anyway, that was a very long way to say I had a lot of fun, and I bet next week will be great. At the end of class, one of the kids who was particularly good at understanding English gave me a little valentine’s day card with my name on the front and a heart with “Very Fantastic! Thanks!” written on the inside. I was floating on air for the rest of the day.

The other cool thing I did (and I have pictures for this one!) was to make paper at Il Papiro. That’s one of those crazy stores with all the hand-made paper that costs way more than you can afford but you want anyway because it’s so nice. NYU had a small event – only 7 people went – to witness and take part in the tradition of papermaking. First the man gave a demonstration and then we each took turns with the apron and strange tools to make our own, which we were to pick up the next day. This story I will tell through pictures:




There is a pool of strange purple glue that is the papermaking canvas. You choose a color and hit the paintbrush to make splatter paint on the “canvas”. Yes, like Jackson Pollack.




After that, there are a few tools you can use to make the paint do more than just make blobs. You can draw with the other end of a paintbrush, which is used to make the flowers and hearts, but I liked this rake the most. It makes streaks through the design, and that’s what I was feeling.




Then you carefully put the paper on the glue-paint-thing, then remove it by dragging it along a pole that wipes off the glue, leaving only the paint.




Then you smile for the camera with your paper!




I also decided that while I was there, I might as well get a really nice pen because I’ve always really wanted one. I’m not sure why. They’re really cool, but I need more of a reason than that to buy something so expensive. So I went even more expensive and bought a set with ink and a holder and everything. I have a blank notebook to record ideas I need to draw and can’t write, a souvenir from Venice, but the pencil is already smudging, so I figured it’s time to learn calligraphy. I actually have no desire to write in calligraphy, especially since I sort of have to teach myself, but it’s been working out fine for me so far.



If you don’t know what the drawing is, that’s fine. It probably won’t come into existence for another half-decade at the very least.

In other news, my terrible Music Theory II teacher has been replaced, and we get to meet the new guy on Monday. He was recommended by the Aural Comprehension teacher who has enjoyed universally great reviews from his students. Things are looking up in that respect. Not only that, the Music History II class is trying to arrange a trip to Prague to study, which would be quite amazing because I won’t be able to go to Prague otherwise. NYU has another campus there, so it shouldn’t be too hard if we can all come up with the money.

Music Announcements

The Bowery Poetry Club gig looks to be set for September 25, 2008, from 6:00-7:30, and will probably be the New York premier of Guest Artist and another piece I have been working on, Sense of Urgency. It’s almost time to start reserving tickets, but because internet has been down, I haven’t yet received the final confirmation. The same goes for the Jazz at Pearls gig, who may or may not have written me back yet.

The film I’m scoring in private composition class is a 1929 silent German film called “Panora’s Box.” I’ll probably perform it with my teacher’s other composition students on the NYU in Florence campus at the end of April.

Guest Artist is really starting to shape up in a full-fledged piece. At the pace I’m working, it should be finished shortly after Mom visits for spring break, so in a month or so.