This one is probably going to be my last post from Syracuse ever! And it won't be what Barney likes to label as legendary. Nope. No calm or stoic reflections from the year gone by one more time ...nope. I am about to simply indulge what my brain likes to do once in a while when I blog. Write about the most recent and yet impulsive train of thoughts I've had running through my head or well just write about what I've been running through, if that makes any sense. Rather, 'where' I've been running through.
New York. I've been in and out of the city this last week, hopping in and out of Jerry's car, as he and Lee made multiple trips to the city to find themselves a place. My ears are still ringing from the drive. What an awesome drive! We've been spending so much time together lately, that I almost wish (HOW I wish) that I could have moved in with them. Jerry was even suggesting we start writing about us living in the city. A white guy from South Carolina, a black guy from Mississippi and an Indian girl who's just finishing her first year in the US, all starting out in NYC in the entertainment industry. I bet there would be takers for that !
I got to hang out with the 'artsy' crowd for once! Jg's friend was invited by an artist to visit the studios of over 30 artists all working in a loft in Bushwick, so off we went. I had my LBD and Jg his tweed cap on and theer we were, rubbing shoulders with the 'alternative artists collective' in this little surreal part of Brooklyn that looks like a post WW II housing area. Artists here on every nook and corner, all working and living in lofts that were once industrial buildings. It was the opposite to your 'sipping champagne in an art gallery while figuring out what you were supposed to make of the art' scenario. Everyone was walking around with a couple of beer cans, sharing drinks with young artists, discussing their work and even being allowed to touch it ( jello lungs in plastic ice can be very therapeutic to play with).
At about 12:30 we had spent over an hour looking at all of Evan's works in his studio so we headed out to his flat which turned out to be one of those places you see in an exclusive home decor magazine. I saw Edison bulbs over his living space for the first time in my life and I don't think the energy saving ones I use now are going to enthrall me anymore. The kitchen counter was designed by the three people living in that flat themselves!!! Then there were all these funky sapling in glass pots that definitely betrayed the look of regular homegrown veggies ;) and a metronome ticking away with a frame that resembled a human face. An overall slick studio feel to a space that was not meant to be habitable at all in the first place. I would have killed to have that space in NYC.
This trip was as I would like to call it "meet the girlfriends" trip. First, there was Jg's present and then Jerry's ex. I am giving myself 5 on 5 for dealing well with both :) These scenarios could have played out in interesting permutations and combinations, but for the most part , those scenarios are in my head and will be used as fodder when I write my sketches so I'm not giving them away here.
Also I finally got to meet MN! So yippeee! It was so very overwhelming to be sitting in the presence of a director whose work I've been so inspired with for years now. I'm not going to yak about that on this space but all I can say is thank you TG for setting this up. I am so hoping that I get my act right sooner than later and get to work for her if not with her in the near future. That one hour spent went by faster than I thought but it was an hour that I probably will never ever forget.
This trip was also very significant in one way which seems to me more crucial than a lot of what I've experienced before walking through New York's streets. And it came to me in the most mundane way walking in the heat through Manhattan on my way to Jg's house. I could almost see myself walking through Mumbai's roads sooner or later, yet again and for the first time in a long time, I didn't feel anxious about the idea that I might have to return to India soon. Walking through swirls of humanity, walking through streets and more streets of faces, all out there to make a living and beating the odds of surviving a city that drains so much from you emotionally and financially. Mumbai ...New York....not much difference, is there now, come to think of it?
The next 3 months will be interesting and unpredictable probably also very very unnerving. For one I'm still not sure whether it's going to be LA or NYC and I have time till November only to find myself a job or else I have to pack up and go back to Mumbai. I think this is undoubtedly the biggest challenge I've faced in my life so far.
LA here I come.
