Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Funny Crux Never Goes Away

If this city didn't have 8 million people, I would've run into you by now and articulated with laconic speech and genuine charm how you caught me during a funny crux in my life; explained away that angry tirade I made on your bed about hipsters being dead (http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/features/4840/why-the-hipster-must-die).  While I've kept busy and upbeat, the thought of you still tugs at me here and there some months later. 
In my last email it was hard not to sound petulant.  And curses to John Cusack in "Say Anything" for holding a radio above his head outside Ione Sky's window and teaching kids like me that persistence was a good thing.
That about sums up my thoughts on this damp Thursday morning.

***

"Dude, you romanticize the old days too much!  There were always games... It's just that women had less choice about who to pick."

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Improv & Premiere Party Crashing: Late July, 2010

Another day of improv intensive at The Magnet Theater.  The class and Armando affectionately (or so I hope) refer to me as sugar tits since I wore a tight polo revealing my larger than average mammories.  It's not that I'm particularly huge, it's just that everyone in the improv community is particularly puny.
I'm coming along nicely in my improv development, though I still feel awkward and tend to play it safe in my scenes.  I signed up for this three week class to get more comfortable on stage and ignite the creative juices within.  I needed to get unstuck, and I also needed the structure during a stint of unemployment.  It's been nothing but watch and perform improv, day in and day out.  I have an inordinate amount of respect for the theater's regular improvisers.  They're mini-celebrities to me these days, and it seems they all live in Clinton Hill.  It feels rather fateful running into them on the train rides back to Brooklyn, especially when I'm drunk.
Tonight was another episode of awkward film mixers.  I used it as an opportunity to catch up with pals Matt and Aaron from GreeneStreet.  We chatted with a girl named Courtney.  The four of us together crashed the premiere party for The Disappearance of Alice Creed at the posh Crosby Hotel in SoHo.  We passed Gemma Arterton on the way in.  She inquired if I was single.  I politely declined to comment being that her husband was present.
GreeneStreet's President came over and hugged me in his political way.  He asked me about the beard fuzz on my face.  I told him it was laziness. Then he shifted his interest to our friend Courtney before returning to the crowd.  I talked with the COO and his wife for a good while about the same topics he and I used to discuss: books, higher education; life paths.  I wrote him not long ago asking for a letter of rec for grad programs in the humanities/creative writing.  He wrote back expressing doubt about such programs.  I told him doubt was my best friend.
I swore I wasn't going to drink tonight since I had McDonalds on Monday and Tuesday and haven't exercised in over a week.  That plan went out the window as the clock ticked past 11 and there was fancy free wine to be had.  Servers paraded around with gourmet appetizers: fancy sliders, bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with blue cheese, mushroom pastries, and other delectable goodies.
I felt like a somebody again, for a moment.

Favorite Discussion Topics

Jared's favorite discussion topics (according to Leah):

- everyone having derivative opinions; reading the same media and regurgitating it for show, rather than inventing original thoughts
- the ethical perils of NYC's social anonymity
- "that kind of girl" who every guy wants because he thinks she's really nice and JUST shy of cover-model-hot to be gettable; but therefore she gets lots of male attention
- rampant infidelity
- girls like bigger guys... growing up skinny... hipster look vs. muscles...
- dilettantism - jack of all trades, master of none
- feeling compelled to say something - anything - to beautiful women
- mean girls and how you love them
- the allure of a status job


Other thoughts:

1.  I'm not sure why it took me so long to realize how tasty and easy broccoli is to cook with a little salt.

2.  Cereal gets soggy way too quickly in milk.

3.  If we know how to compress files into a .ZIP, why can't we teleport people?

4.  Seems inefficient that humans are biped.  Evidence: nobody knows what to do with their arms while standing waiting for the train.