Random Thoughts
Day 358 (8) - X Marks the Mas
Christmas - what a day. I remember the excitement that used to fill the air, the anticipation of presents in the morning, the mandatory trip to the relative’s house that only interrupted your time with your new toys, the complete disregard for what the holiday was initially intended. Tis the season.
Now that I’ve grown older, some aspects of the Christmas season are still appealing - getting together with family being the biggest. It’s nice to have a reason to “force” everyone to get together to celebrate. Other aspects of Christmas are now just annoying - crowds at stores, places having limited hours, people wavering between wishing others “Happy Holidays” and “Merry Christmas.”
But given the spirit of the season, why focus on the negatives? Merry Christmas, Chappy Chanukah, Fabulous Festivus, Joyous Kwanzaa, Awesome Omisoka, or any other Happy Holiday you might choose to celebrate.
(No Ratings Yet)Day 354 (12) - PersonA or PersonB
I saw a great show at Go Bananas Comedy Club tonight, and I’m talking fantastic. The MC did a solid job getting the show rolling, and then the Funny Indian (Rajiv Satyal, who I’ve mentioned before, recently did a show with, and was part of the inspiration for this blog) came and tore the place up. And you may think that I’m biased, but many of my friends thought he did well as well and that he was good enough to have been the headliner - but tonight he wasn’t. Instead it was a man named Isaac Witty.
If you’re like me, then you probably haven’t even heard of Isaac, but after tonight I won’t forget the name. I think there were two or three separate occasions that I had tears coming from my eyes from laughing so hard - his delivery and content were just so well put together. I will say, however, that not everyone may laugh as hard as I did. He’s got that quirky + awkward persona that I think can be hysterical, but other people might not enjoy. But to me, it was a great night of comedy.
And given that Isaac’s character is so well defined, it makes me wonder what my own on-stage persona is and should be (and no I haven’t figured it out yet). When people ask what type of comedy I do, I generally say it’s a combination of two things:
- Observational Storytelling - I take random observations I make and turn them into stories. Rather than just say “Did you ever notice that…”, I generally put the observation in the context of something happening to me.
- Being cleverly dumb - If you think of some of my more popular jokes (like the Alphabet, Dog House, or even some of the puns), a lot of times you’ll think “That’s just silly.” But if you think about it further, you realize there’s thought behind it. The actual context of the joke might be dumb, but the execution is more clever.
The problem is that that’s my perception of my persona, but perhaps my peers perceive me differently. And peers here really means my audience, and everyone else that’s not me (I just said peers because I was purposely using p-words). But I’m hoping that you all can help me in my previously alluded to survey I’ll be setting up. So be ready in the next couple of days to help me figure out my persona, so that I too can be funny like Isaac Witty (who, if you were wondering, does happen to be witty).
(No Ratings Yet)Day 352 (14) - NY Amps
In another installment of “Only in NY”, a buddy of mine bought a rap CD from a random person while using the restroom in a McDonald’s in NYC. Somehow, in the short amount of time it takes to go to the bathroom, rapper “ManChild” was able to convince my friend to pay $3 for his CD - now that’s a salesman.
So today, during our 12 hour journey back to Cincinnati, we listened just to see how “crappy” the CD was and, much to our surprise, it was actually pretty good. (And did you see what I did there with “crappy”? It’s a double pun - crappy because it’s not good, and was sold in a bathroom, and was rap.) While it was no Jay Z, it was pretty solid.
Of course “ManChild” was only one of the many “talents” that we ran into while in the city. Limiting ourselves to only entertainment found in the subway, we witnessed:
- A full drumline.
- A single drummer.
- A flutist.
- A rapper.
- An accapella group.
- A karaoke singer.
- An accordion player.
- A guitar player/singer.
- A mariachi band.
- An opera singer.
- A group of “subway gymnasts.”
Add that to the list of people I saw on my list trip, and you cover just about every facet of the arts just by riding the subway.
(No Ratings Yet)Day 351 (15) - NY Umps
A few people have asked me what I’m doing with my car when I move in January, and my trip this weekend just reaffirms that I need to do whatever it takes to get rid of it. Traffic is so bad that even when there’s no “big event” going on, many of the major streets have traffic cops helping direct traffic between the hours of what seem to be 8am-8pm.
In Ohio, you would think that all of these traffic umps tooting their whistles would suggest a concert or sporting event is happening. In NYC, it just means that people are trying to go to work. Luckily they have a great public transportation system that can get you anywhere in Manhattan (and the surrounding burroughs) - it just takes a matter of time.
The weird thing has been that 30 minutes on the subway seems like nothing, but driving 30 minutes in Cincinnati feels so far. I guess the aspect of being able to read, or text, or sleep is better when you’re not annoyed with having to pay attention to driving too.
(No Ratings Yet)Day 350 (16) - NY Upps
It’s now Round 3, and I think I’ve come up with a decision. After looking at a handful of places today, revisiting some from the previous days, and spending some thinking and talking with people, I’ve decided to move to Normandie Court, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
The apartment search process has been long, and a little stressful, but my realtor (agent? broker?) that I’ve been working with has really made it a lot easier and manageable. The Upper East Side seems to be a good option as it is a popular spot for Young Professionals, is one of the cheaper areas in Manhattan, and has a lot of residential services.
Normandie Court was chosen because of its long list of amenities, proximity to the subway, and size-to-cost ratio for it’s type of building. Though there are some disadvantages to the NC (such as distance from UCB, poor reviews on management, and longer elevator wait times), the positives make it a solid choice. Of course, knowing me, I would likely end up being happy about any place that I chose.
With the hard part out of the way, I’ll have tomorrow to do the whole application process and start to get a sense of when I’ll be moving in … to my apartment. Weekend Task: Done Completed. (Happy Dave?)
(No Ratings Yet)
