...and kid

Anyone still reading this?  If you are, and you'd like to know the link to our new blog where we post pictures of the new kid, let me know!

Beating the heat!

So being 8 months pregnant in NYC heat and humidity is certainly trying my physical sense of being comfortable! Between the bottles of water, cold compresses, fans, A/C, drawn blinds, popsicles and frozen fruit I'm doing my darndest. It's only mid June and already the temperature has hit the mid 90's more than once. Seriously?! I'm so grateful that I am able to work out of the house at the moment doing some freelance private client stuff but basically just taking it easy, so it's all good! I've been faithfully keeping up my daily pre-natal toning regimen-squats and the like-in any effort to assist delivery. Also, I feel much better when I am able to take long walks but it's just too hot even when it's dark out so I had an awesome brainstorm the other day which was to take walks at Lowe's. It's right by our house, so I walk over there, maybe 3 blocks and then walk up and down the aisles. Stacey went with me the other day and it took us 30 minutes to walk every single aisle, so that's a nice little preggo walk. Thank you Lowe's! I'll just keep strolling til baby C arrives!

Why Worry?

My daughter still has 8 weeks before she's going to show her pretty little head and I'm already a worried father. Here are a list of things that shouldn't, but do, worry me:

-Will we help pay for college?

-Will we pay for her wedding?

-How do you teach someone to drive in NYC?

-Since NYC is so transient, will our continued loss of friends mean constant losses of friends to her too? (Sure, if you move we are still friends, but...)

-How do I allow her to be herself, while at the same time instilling her with good work ethics?

-How do I let her find her own spirituality?

I don't want your answers... I look forward to figuring it out. Raising our kid will be an adventure I look forward to. There's always therapy if we screw it up!

Must...not..let...blog...die...

Updates in the last year.

-got knocked up. baby girl due August 6th-can't wait to expand our family!
-did first feature film coaching job. on set. making good connects. this is the next step for my career.
-did second feature film coaching job. not on set. see above.
-still working on album with Stacey & Frank Wopez. got pregnancy stuffy nose had to stop recording vocals.
-watched as the pbf changed his life by shedding much needed life changing amount of weight. went from size 42" pants to size 34" and XXL shirts to L. enough said. ok, and he's even more sexy now, didn't think it was possible.
-bascially this was a very big year for me, us and I can't wait as things progess!

I will be back blog friend!

Clawhammer!

I'm learning the Clawhammer strumming technique! This is my 3rd pass at it having not really been ready a few times before, but this time it seems to be sticking. This is also sometimes called, "frailing" and it was originally came out of banjo playing in Appalachia. Now it can be used on just about any strummed instruments but I'm focusing on using it with my uke and my soon to arrive Bean Sprout Banjo Ukulele--an unbelievably generous gift from my aunt! Thanks so much Nanita! A banjo ukulele has only 4 strings, where a banjo has 5, and the banjo uke is of course, higher in in pitch. It has the body of a banjo and the shorter neck of a ukulele. It came about in the 1920's and was used in vaudeville a lot so it is one hilariously loud instrument. I'm wanting to learn some more folk type stuff, especially Appalachian music-I blame the pbf. I'm having a great time and not really looking forward to getting back to work as I will lose all my music time-erg! I'll find a way to fit it in. Woot!

...it's such a nice day

Today there were rainbow flags in our flower pots around the front of the house, no doubt put there by our gay neighbor Tom who plants the flowers. It is gay pride weekend after all.

So this morning, on my way out to get groceries, our 70-something year old Puerto Rican neighbor Pedro (a.k.a Sheriff because he knows everyones' business) asked me what kind of flags they are. I wasn't in a mood to explain so I said "I don't know. I think Tom put them there, you should ask him."

To which he kind of replied but also kind of said more to himself as he rubbed one flag between his fingers, "These aren't United Sates flags...? Why aren't these United States flags...? ...it's such a nice day... these should be united states flags."

Home is...

It's hard for me to tell sometimes if where I am shapes who I am. I grew up in rural Tennessee, and I can't deny that it affected who I was to some degree. Though on the other hand it wasn't uncommon to be told that I lacked a southern accent, and even as a teenager I cared for people and issues in a way that would lean me to the political left (not the common leaning of those around me). And yet as a teenager in rural TN, I wouldn't say I had too much of a political view, at least not in the way I imagine a teenager growing up in a larger city is more likely to have. So moving to New York City when I was 18, and living here for ten years has surely shaped me in some ways. But I have to wonder if it's led me to have certain opinions, or if I was that person already and just allowed to understand myself better thanks to the people and situations around me.

I do know now that I can hide parts of who I am depending on the people I'm around. I know that's not healthy, but sometimes it feels like a matter of survival. If I expect to fit in or move ahead in an environment of people that show signs of not being open to who I am, I feel I have to avoid letting on that I would fall into the category of people they have a prejudice against.

But there's also a more banal, or just realistic, reason to consider how much I am shaped by where I call home. Now that I have finished my masters, people ask me what's next. Well, I don't know. I like what I do and where I am just fine. I suppose I could consider furthering my education more, or spending more time on my artwork, but it's also natural to consider looking for different employment. Looking at new jobs can also mean looking at a new living situation. Do I bother looking at jobs in other parts of the country, or is my current home too important to consider leaving? Would I even feel comfortable in other places? I know rural, and I know urban, but all I know about suburbia is what I've learned when visiting the in-laws. Previously I've always thought, "It's a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there."

Of course there are some things about suburbia that lends to "the grass is always greener" thoughts... like the fact that they have grass. But I can think of many things that make my current grass more than green... What's better? A green backyard or a technicolor dreamcoat?

I'm not going to use this as a way to write a love letter to NY, though I could probably do that. I'm just pondering if I could ever make a move outside of NYC... and if so, what kind of place could I ever feel as home in as I do in Brooklyn?