It is a rainy day in Brooklyn, and I am sitting in my room wondering anxiously what I should be doing. I finished my program at Columbia on Friday. We had a final banquet and received one of these suckers:

Hooray-ya-yay
The last 48 hours have pretty difficult. I had to be out of the Columbia dorms by 10AM on Saturday, but I didn't end up packing until a few hours before that deadline. Foolish perhaps, but I cleaned up, sorted everything, and was out just in time. I shared a cab with a friend and headed to Brooklyn. I dropped off my things, took a shower, and began walking toward the mall in order to get an air mattress. The Atlantic Center mall is located five blocks from my house. I didn't realize this until yesterday, and I am so thankful for the convenience. Other residents of Brooklyn, however, are not so thankful. It is another recent development that people think are marring the city's character. In fact, I am living right next to one of Brooklyn's most ambitious building projects in history, the Brooklyn Arena and Gehry complex:
I live on Vanderbilt and Dean, directly on the lower right corner of the map. Most of Brooklyn's buildings are about 4 stories, with a few going up to no more than 10 stories. Imagine, then, this in the middle of the Brooklyn Brownstones:




We shall see how that works out.

Anyway, got my mattress, carried it home, and then took the subway back to Manhattan to see Rachael and Shannon:

I realize that these photos are sideways, but I'm not motivated enough to alter them in photoshop, so just tilt your head. We hung out in Union Square Park, walked through a farmers market, and ended up in Madison Square Park. After lying on the grass and talking, we took the subway to Brooklyn, visited my apartment, and ate a great meal at a local cafe.
After Shannon left, Rachael and I bought some ice cream and watched tv. We soon realized that my apartment is extremely hot. My roommate has a small cooler in her room to battle the heat. Smart, very smart.

I slept with a spray bottle and periodically sprayed myself while we listened to the Saturday night racket outside my windows. It was awful. The first thing Rachael and I did in the morning was walk to the mall and purchase an air conditioner:
You see it here nestled in my window hard at work. A very long ordeal, however, was involved to get it to this place. I didn't realize how hard it is to carry a full window-sized air conditioner. Very heavy to lug five blocks. Then it started to pour outside. This was a low moment. After several anxious moments of lugging an air conditioner along the street while cabs sped past, we finally hailed a cab and got home. Tough day.

Things are getting better, though. My room is wonderfully cool. Rachael and I had a nice meal before we parted. I bought groceries and talked to my parents and John David. I took a nice nap and a hot shower. Now I am thinking of tomorrow: a cool interview, fresh laundered clothes, and a clean room. I'm looking forward to it.

Hey Everyone,

This blog has been a void for quite awhile. I haven't had the time to fully process everything that has happened in the last few weeks. Perhaps after some time I will begin to formulate some anecdotes for y'all.

We have just finished the magazine portion of the course, which was a refreshing change from books but nonetheless stressful. I was the art director in the men's magazine group. We created JACK, a hip road trip magazine that melded the content of a travel magazine with the attitude of a men's magazine. I had to create a logo, two covers, a feature spread, and a table of contents. Click the links below to download my work.

http://philos.myweb.uga.edu/featurespread.pdf
http://philos.myweb.uga.edu/NEW%20COVER%20SAMPLE%20-%20DESERT.pdf
http://philos.myweb.uga.edu/NEW%20SAMPLE%20-%20CRUDE.pdf
http://philos.myweb.uga.edu/TABLE%20OF%20CONTENTS.pdf

On my computer, you can see the frame lines in the pdfs. Let's ignore those, shall we?

I found a sublet for August in Prospect Heights in Brooklyn. hooray.
I haven't found a job yet. sad.

I've been reading an oral history of New York covering the years between 1890 to WWII. The book is divided into chapters that each focus on a distinct neighborhood. I finished the Lower East Side the other day. Pretty intense place in its day. Gang wars. Murders. Rampant thieving. Egg creams. All very interesting except for the extended section on pickles, herring, and potatoes, which seems to have been the primary diet of most people. Right now I'm reading about the Upper East Side, which was, in contrast with the LES, one of the most wealthy areas. Carriages. Balls. Registries. Calling cards. All very surreal.

New York has this strange place in American culture. There is this pressure to not be a tourist, to be a New Yorker, and real New Yorkers are so proud of their connection to this city. And yet, most families who immigrated to the US up until WWII probably lived in New York. I just found out that my great great grandfather and his family owned a rare book store in Bryant Park. New York was the passage through which people entered a completely new world, and this has really made New York the cultural center it is. Everyone can point back to it somehow. I suppose this is fairly obvious, but I am just now understanding what that really means.

Well, I'm off now. More posts to come, I promise.

Busy and frustrating day. I did email back and forth with Kathy Griffin's agent, though, which is cool. Tired, tired, tired.

The past few days have been extremely busy. It is 2:30 AM, but this is the only time I have to myself.

The book workshop began on Friday. I am the CEO/Publisher for my mock publishing house, which means I have to oversea the development of six book titles and the creation of a nonfiction general trade imprint (somewhat like in Random House or HarperCollins) by Friday. Stressful. I just finished working an hour ago. There are about ten people in the house, and they are extremely talented and intelligent. I will post some of our ideas once they are approved and in production.

And a couple of announcements:

It is Miles birthday today! Yay!

I got pinkeye on Thursday! sad . . .

Alright, I must sleep. I love you all.

bye,
Miles

Interview

I'm feeling a lot stronger today. Though I still woke up way too early because of the morning sun, I slept much better last night. Hooray. I still need a blanket.


Earlier today we had a lecture about resume writing and interview techniques. The speaker made me quite nervous. She described horror stories and prepared us for the worst interview questions. Luckily my interview went very well. I met with two people and chatted loosely about the company and myself. They were comfortable and interesting. We shall see.

I got to ride the subway for the first time today, taking it from the Columbia stop all the way down to Wall St. It reminded me a little of Paris, and now I am more excited to move here.

I have dinner in a few moments and then a lecture by Bob Gottlieb. Fun stuff.

The haste of the last few days is finally catching up with me. I am tired and miss John David and my roommates. I remember being very sad leaving the dorms a few years ago and have often wanted those moments again. Moving suddenly back into the dorms, however, reminds me of how difficult those times were. A constant barrage of people every time I open my door. To escape I have close myself in my small room. It is Monday, and already I am overwhelmed and weary of constant introductions and publishing talk.

I have met some very cool people, and my excitement for the next few weeks is steadily increasing.

My interview is tomorrow, and I am extremely nervous. I just need t relax, compose, and enjoy my time here.

More later. Another lecture is about to begin.

Columbia!

Alright. I'm here. The plane flight was really chill and surprisingly short. Flying over New York was a wonderful feeling. As we were approaching our destination, I kept looking for a recognizable point. About fifteen minutes before we landed, I saw the Statue of Liberty. Awesome.

Quick taxi cab to Columbia. Quick check in. Quick move in (I labored over packing for so long last night, only to unpack in about five minutes). I took a quick walk around the perimeter of Columbia. They are shooting some sort of video on the main quad. All the actors look like regular white kids. All the production members are Indian. They are dancing now. Outside. Very strange.

Well, I'm very restless. The other CPC students and I give each other sidelong glances (or maybe I'm just glancing), but I haven't officially met anybody yet. Alright, time to go find something to do.