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Journal NOTE   This is my old journal. I'll soon be working on a new blog/newsletter/something or other. It's amazing to go back and read this stuff I wrote when I first moved to NYC. Please forgive if some of the links are no longer working. This journal has been moved a bunch of times now. Enjoy! :) Messenger 7/5/2002 3:30:15 AM  While wandering about Union Square with my mandolin tonight I met these 2 girls (Lola and Wallace). One of them said, "Hey, when are you going to play, so we can sit next to you." I said that I was looking for someone to accompany... She then asked me, "Think we can see the fireworks from here?" I said, that there was mass exodus to the east side. She thanked me and chatted me a bit. I gave her some other info, then she said, "I knew you would have a message for us." Unity Square v1.5 7/5/2002 3:34:27 AM  Tonight I headed down to Union Square with my mandolin. I figured I would find someone playing something down there. I ended up seeing Chris, who is this guy from Chile. He plays doumbek. Killer player. I ended up spending about 2 hours playing mandolin, while he drummed, and "Sunshine" free-style rapped over us. It was pretty cool I must say. It's awesome when random people of random backgrounds can spontaneously make music without even speaking to each other... Shoreleave 7/16/2002 4:51:07 PM  Went to shoreleave this past weekend. It's this awesome sci-fi con that I look foward to every year. I get my Gelf gear on, and basically begin drinking on friday and finish on sunday :) This year I met lots of great storm troopers and klingons, as well as a host of other great people (lots of newbies). Spike from Buffy was there... his autograph line was insane. I don't go there to get autographs... I just go to be super-social and have a great time :) As usual.. the bar acted as an Elf-Magnet, and I spent most of my time there, playing mandolin and such... Oh, and check this out... The Rave was great on Saturday night... I danced from midnight till 4am... did the glowsticks thing and everything :) Catholic Girls In Trouble 7/16/2002 4:54:55 PM  Saw something pretty random after the central park drummer circle this weekend. There was a bunch of girls in catholic school girl outfits with swords (and YES, I was not dreaming) :) They were doing some random version of Romeo and Juliet. They were actually all quite cute... however I find theatre people wacky... And Yes I find them wacky, but MY running around the woods dressed like an elf with a sword is normal :) Anti-Pasta 7/17/2002 11:15:56 PM  I'm writing this in a state of buzzing :) weeeeee :) Went out to this Italian place on Mulberry St. tonight for a friend's birthday (pretty much smack in the middle of little italy) :) Anyhow.. the place doesn't ask you what you want, thy just put food in ya... gotta love stuff like that :) weeee eat drink and be merry! Cause Gelf The Elf says s0 When the lights... 7/20/2002 11:58:58 PM  So today, wacky... Something happend to some con-ed building. As I walked down brodway, toward washington square park. The west side of the street had no power, while the east side did! Restaurants were outside bar-b-que'ing or doing whatever they could... The Streets were kinda weird. Lights working/not working. When the city is in a weird state... you just know... There so many people giving off all sorts of energies... You can just feel something huge is amiss somewhere... That's a Rap 7/20/2002 11:59:32 PM  So tonight... Christian and I are jamming in union square... Doing the mandolin/dombek rythm thingy... and like... this guy walks by drunk with beer in a starbucks cup :) Started talking about how he's a "lyricist" and is gigging later on. I ask him if he can free-style rap over us. So he busts out the ryhmes. Totally impressive. Just went on and on (and on, on and on)... After a bit, this kid walks by with killer dreads. Hears the guy free-style rapping, then they bust out into a free-style-rap-battle. It was totally intense. I can't write lyrics when I sit down and focus... these guys we're "flowin with this". Wow! Card-On 7/27/2002 12:54:12 AM  So I got this groovy sound card. Lets me record up to 4 instruments simultaneously. I can playback as many tracks as my processor can handle. The signal is soooooo clear, no hummin/buzzin or anything... just pure clean sound... mmmmm so I recorded test2.mp3 and test3.mp3. Cheesy, but nifty :) I'm playing all the instruments (djembe, doumbek, mandolin, bass, shaker and guitar). Brennamead 8/2/2002 11:59:02 PM  Weeee! Went to mead party at my friend Brennagyn's place on Long Island. I think we made some peach batch. I brought my young (but almost ready) clove batch... mmmmm... Met some new random people who were cool. We all drank and hung out. I think I played some songs and people sang (very well i might add) in drunken stuperness. I woke up with the most insane headache ever... I think i sword fought a bit drunk also... hmm.. gotta stop doing that... Demons! 8/4/2002 7:22:19 PM  While walking around Union Square today... these 2 girls where on a bench with these demon puppet things. They were promoting their show "Persephone". It's part of the Fringe Festival. Somehow, I ended up jamming random show tunes on mandolin, while they sung in raspy voices. They split up after a bit, and I sat with one of them and sung about how they were doing a play, being silly etc. People seemed to dug it. We scared lots of little kids. It was fun :) Little shop of nonexistance 8/11/2002 7:30:07 PM  Went on a quest the other day to seek out "Little Shop of Hops". Supposed to be the last brew store in NYC. Guess what... I went to where it was supposed to be. Went inside... looked a mess, totally in disarray. Just random dusty shelves of random stuff. Walked on to the back where I saw 6 people sitting around. Went up to them... I was like, "Where is the brew store"... one of them laughed and said, "the brew store is across the street".. pointing to the deli. They noticed i had a mandolin. Asked me to play.. so i hit a couple chords... then the dude starting saying (in a semi-rapping manner): "Smack the bitch! Smack the bitch!" Needless to say, I left there somewhat quickly... Rockstar 8/18/2002 9:18:54 AM  Friday night, my band played BBKings. We were the first of 7 acts to be on stage. This company HearZMusic.com hooked it up. We had an awesome show. Everyone there was so nice to us. All the bands we're great. The HearZMusic people took care of us well. BBKings is an awesome room to play. Like, real groups play there. The bands shared a dressing room back stage that had a star on it :) I felt like for 30 minutes I was a rock star. Bring Da' Noize! 8/18/2002 9:29:09 AM  Holy Cow! As part of the indie sessions. They had a bunch of bands play Saturday night (as well as friday). I saw this group Powder. Which, well, you just have to see them live to understand. Ridiculous stage show. The last group to play was Public Enemy. Yes. Public Enemy. Their show was fuckin killer. They had a drummer, bassist, guitarist, 2 dj's. ChuckD and Flava. The show was killer, each song just went one right into each other. Every song was loud and amazing. I jumped around, had a great time. I actually ended up making my way over to this one dj. He would mix/scratch albumns so ridiculously fast! Like... really fast. Afterwards, I went up to him and told him how I saw the turntables we're really his instrument. The dude was totally friendly. Talked to me for a bit. Then I nagged him to give me his copy of the setlist :) McHeroin 8/19/2002 10:09:57 PM  Had a f'd up moment tonight. I got out of the subway on 28th and park ave, and decided to go to McDonalds (haven't had McD's for a long time). All of a sudden, a fire truck pulls up. Bunch of FDNY guys come into the place. The manager says, "there is some guy in the bathroom... been there for a while." The open the door. This guy is in there. Heroin needle still in his arm. At first they were all rushing around. Then they stopped... Karma 8/28/2002 11:36:30 AM  I felt as though my Karma was kinda off the other day... In an attempt to fix it, I seeked out water. I figured.. Manhattan is an island, i should be able to get to water :) I walked down 23rd to the East. Found some bike/walk trail that goes all down the east side of manhattan. I walked from 23rd st, all the way to Brookly Bridge. Took me about 1.5 hours. I stopped at any places where I could hear the water ebbing the shore... Vittorio! 9/2/2002 12:24:00 PM  I am going to be doing the mixing/mastering of this new age pianist "Vittorio". He writes that like relaxing stuff, that you hear with rain/thunder in the background. I tossed up a rough studio sample of his piano playing. Sit back, and light up a candle to this one... Unity Square v2.0 9/12/2002 6:14:56 PM  Last night, I went down to Union Square to run an Open Jam. I picked up 2 Tamborines, Claves, 2 small egg shakers, 1 metal shaker, and a bell thing. I also brought with me my big dJembe and my smaller drum.... and my mandolin. I found a bunch of people playing some music.. and I asked if I could join. I layed out all my percussion on the ground and told everyone they could pick up and play whatever they wanted. Me (on mandolin) and this guy "Steve" (on guitar) jammed out all the cover songs we knew (mostly Beatles tunes) and some others like Lean On Me and Amazing grace. After a while of playing, I looked up, and noticed that 75 to 100 people where around me. All singing, smiling... rows and rows of people... Afterwards people thanked me for lifting their spririts, and donating my good energy... Waaahh? 10/5/2002 4:03:44 PM  Last night, I finally got my friend Christian to come by to record music. He's this random dude from Chile that I jam with in Union Square. Anyhoo... we recorded this thing last night. I'm playing Mandolin, Bass and Acoustic Guitar. Christian is playing Doumbek, Claves, and 2 kinds of Shakers. It's some pretty interesting stuff. Not exactly sure what genre it is... Morning 10/20/2002 10:28:10 PM  I just recorded this just now. I figured maybe I'd record myself playing some guitar stuff. I called this Morning. I'm not exactly sure why, considering I made it at night. Maybe it reminded me of a particular morning or something... Patient 10/20/2002 11:10:15 PM  Another random recording... Sometimes someone takes a chance and is patient with you. I don't know if I've ever returned that favor to someone... But if I did, this is how it would sound. She Said 10/22/2002 9:46:11 PM  I'm not sure what made me record this one...maybe it was something she said? I Will Try 10/23/2002 8:18:22 PM  I think I'm going to keep recording until I have an albumn's worth of stuff :) Maybe people will like listening to my random kinda chillin guitar music with drop D in everything.. anyhow... I don't know what makes this different...but this time.. I Will Try... The Past 10/23/2002 9:44:16 PM  Sometimes it's difficult...you're afraid...you're safe in knowing what you have right now...but most of the time, you are better off...saying goodbye to The Past. Dreams 10/28/2002 7:50:20 PM  This is what happens when I learn about tuning DADGAD... Every once in a while... I have like super weird Dreams. Not Alone 10/28/2002 7:59:42 PM  It is hard to get over it. You want to do something entirely yourself. Maybe it is just so that you can say you did. However... I have found that great things have to be done Not Alone. Rose 10/30/2002 11:03:28 PM  Tuning this time: EADGAE <-- B is A :) .... I want to get close to you... but holding you is like holding a Rose. Clarity 11/3/2002 5:30:24 PM  The other day, I was laying on my futon trying to take a nap. In my grogyness I had a Taoist epiphany. I don't really remember it much, except for something like, the way to become part of the universe is to not try too hard at it. Something like that. Also, we're already part of the universe anyhow, so you don't really need to worry about it. Anyhow... every once in a while, I have a moment of Clarity. Fighting Crime 11/3/2002 5:38:12 PM  This happened a bunch of weeks ago, and I just forgot to journal it... I was having dinner one night with this friend of mine, on the corner of 7th and A I think. When we finished dinner, we walked to the corner and tried to figure out where we were going to go next. We both happened to notice this man sitting against the wall... he leaned as far over as he could and stretched his arm out to grab this girls purse (she was sitting and eating and didn't notice). I had to do something, so I asked the man really loud, "Hey! Is that your purse?". He said, "yeah why? are you a cop?" Then he started to walk away. I went up to the girl and told her, "hey that guy just stole your purse." And she got up and ran after him. He was already across the block. It seemed he wouldn't give it to her at first, but she eventually got it. Happy 11/3/2002 7:59:08 PM  I wrote this song in literally a bunch of minutes or so. I think it took me longer to record and upload it then actually write it :) It features lots of cheasy chords. But these cheasy chords make me Happy :) Halloween Randomness 11/10/2002 10:29:10 AM  I should have written this a week or so ago :) But anyhow... On Halloween, I put on my elf gear and walked around the city. As I walked down 6th, I heard someone say "Carmine?"... It ended up being this girl Carrie-Anne, who was my 3rd girlfriend ever. From like 9th grade. She's pretty cool. She's married, and living way up town. I asked how she recognized me, she was like, "I knew you did this kinda stuff"... After a while, I decided to head down to Union Square. I heard someone else say "Carmine?", it ended up being my cousin Joe, who I have not seen for 7 to 8 years! He's like 24 now. So last time I saw him, he was a teenager. Freaky... Oh, and finally, I had my mandolin on me. I jammed with some folks who were living out of their van. They ended up being SCA people. Knew all about the elfness. Oh and actually finally... there were these 2 guys who kept sitting on a chair with wheels, and people would like push them for a long time, then let go, and the chair would roll across the square jump a set of steps, go some more, jump another set of steps... Take 7 11/10/2002 3:25:47 PM  I wrote this riff a while ago, when I was 17 or so. It's quite changed to fit the style i'm doing now-ish. Any how most of the song is in 7 (nifty eh). I named it Take 7. Kinda a reference to one of my fav jazz tunes Take 5 (which is in 5) :). Monsters 11/10/2002 3:55:17 PM  If I had these little mischevious yet cute Monsters running around my apartment, this is the song they would write. You got to imagine during the repeating part, that they are saying, "we're the monsters deh dehhh, we're the monsters deh dehhh..." The fun part is, I uploaded the Take 7 song, then sat down with the guitar again, came up with this one in like 10 minutes, recorded it/mp3 and uploaded :) Fun... Home 11/15/2002 3:06:31 AM  I really did not want to go to sleep tonight until I wrote something. The chorus chords here just kinda came to me ish. I had it in my head and just kept trying different chords till it sounded as I heard... hmm sleep time for me.....Sometimes, you keep trying different things. No matter what you do, none of them is what makes you happy, and in reality.. you are just trying to go Home. Tonight's song brought to you by the letters DADGBD :) Eternity 11/15/2002 8:48:30 PM  This one took me a while to write.. well kinda. It's a bunch of different ideas i've had over the past week that I just kinda tossed together ish... I think it works. The name Eternity refers more to being in the place eternity (not taking an eternity). If that makes sense. The End 11/26/2002 11:31:06 PM  I decided to take all these songs, re-record them all nice, and make an albumn of them. Even though this is The End... The bridge has a hope to it... Breakfast Brew 11/29/2002 5:29:12 PM  Tuning a piano takes like almost 3 hours... So while the guy was doing it, I decided to make some Mead! The breakfast brew was so popular, I decided to make more. I used 15 lbs of honey, 2 vanilla beans, and a bunch of cinnemon sticks. Mmm... Give me a call in 3 months... it's gonna be yummy! :) Distant Land 11/29/2002 11:19:17 PM  This is kinda neato. I think I ended up playing some scale from some Distant Land... More tuning of DADGAD. I, You 12/5/2002 9:20:11 PM  This one is kinda repetitive-ish. But like, I really wanted to do something with this nifty DADF#AD tuning i've been playing with. This has a, I love you and I have no idea what to do kinda sound to it... well to me at least... I called it I,You because I think the title, I love you woulda been too cheasy... The Taylor 12/9/2002 2:30:49 PM  So I went to the store the other day to pick up a case for my acoustic... and well I came home with a new acoustic (and a case).. so I guess it wasn't a total failed trip :) Anyhow. I got this Taylor. Not one of those super expensive ones. This really inexpensive Big Baby model. Which is smaller than your average size guitar. It'll be great for gigging in the subway, or taking to a friend's for a party. I guess this is the first song she wanted to play. Chance 12/12/2002 12:41:48 AM  Sometimes you have to take a chance. This does not mean, leaving things to chance... but taking a chance.. or.. something like that. Maybe I should stop recording/uploading after midnight. Oh, and don't get me wet or something like that too. What ever happened to Gizmo? Sign 12/14/2002 1:28:27 PM  I saw a Sign today. It was in the 28th street (6 train) subway station. But still... it was a sign... Piano Test 12/14/2002 8:07:23 PM  So like... I decided to record some piano. It's still a new instrument to me, and i'm mostly just playing around and improvising and stuff. Anyhoo... here is me playing some piano. Don't Know 12/16/2002 9:43:21 PM  You ever get like... so hurt/angry/mad/frustrated/etc. you don't know what to do? Although I did know I wanted to use drop D tuning and my Taylor... weeee In Love 12/17/2002 7:15:28 PM  You ever like... one day just realize.. Wow.. I love so-and-so. It just kinda hits you all of a sudden. It's like.. starting today I am in love. The last time this happened to me.. I think this is what it sounded like... Oh.. I am also in love with drop D tuning capo 2. :) (behold my dorkness) Courage 12/19/2002 9:20:33 AM  So after work yesterday... I came home.. practiced 3 of my songs so I could go to this open mic. I felt good, and headed down. When I got there, the place was empty. Turns out some of the tennants complained about the noise (a real shame, because the place is wonderful). I started to head home, but then I turned around. "I'm going to play my 3 damn songs!" I thought. So I headed into the 14th st subway. I found a hallway where the ceiling was low. I took out my guitar, left the case open in front of me. I played my 3 songs. Lots of people walked by... this one kid went past me, then turned around about 20 feet away, then came back, and tossed some change. I made a wopping 36 cents. Lord of the Dance? 12/20/2002 3:55:30 AM  So like.. right now i'm so wste err wasted.. fucik damnnit.. went to www.zenwarp.com party.. LOTR 2 weo er towers party.. lots of scantily clad goth chicks with elf ears... like orc dudes dancing with swords.. umm.. fairys.. cute as fuck ones.. umm.. dammit.. oh.. met a bunch of great petridish.net people. and like lots of great sca people. i drank my god damn elf ass off and dance my god damn ass off... err fuck elf i'm an elf.. weeeee fuck UPDATE: This girl I know took lots of Pictures!!!! Wind 12/28/2002 10:14:32 PM  got Bored... looked at some of my friend's live journals.. saw one of these things.. blah blah blah.. You're wind! You are a very kind and sympathetic person. Whoever DOESN'T like you has a mental disorder, because you are a loving and caring gentle soul. What element are you? Unnecessary 12/30/2002 12:38:21 PM  The other night I went out with a bunch of petridish.net people for kareoke at Tracy J's (by union square). I had 3 kamakasis.. the drinks were great.. food was good. I sung guns n roses Patience... wee. Met lots of people... had a super good time :) Afterwards though.. woo 3am.. I still felt like doing something... I went with Rigel to Coyote Ugly... Never been there before... but he's the guy to go with... He's the Norm of Coyote Ugly... anyhoo.. I had some jagermeister (I think).. one of the bartender women got on the bar.. got some guys girlfriend up there.. with much reluctance convinved the guys girlfriend to take her top off... weeee Started walking home.. realized that i was going in the wrong direction.. got a cab.. didn't have enough money for the cab.. but the cab driver was ok with it! The next day, my head felt like it was in a vice... The night was awesome, but the trip to Coyote Ugly... totally unnecessary :) Legend of Gelf 1/3/2003 9:36:56 AM  Got REALLY bored last night... Made this :) My couple of second tribute to the Legend of Zelda. Which is really more about the little elf dude than Zelda if you think about it :) Happy Thing 1/3/2003 5:02:18 PM  My friend Christian stopped by late last night, and we recorded this happy thing. He's playing 2 doumbek's, claves, egg shakers, metal shakers. I'm playing 2 guitars, 2 mandolins and bass. This is a mesh of random parts from some of my other tunes. Weeeee! 1/5/2003 10:52:02 PM  Had a Mead party on saturday night. It was truly successful. Had lots of petridish people come, as well as long island friends, as well as city friends, as well as random people from other countries :) 24 people total in my apartment. A new record. We made the "Golden Mead".. Mangos.. this time.. in Orange Blossom honey.. mmmmmmmm gonna be some good stuff :) Oooo.. for a good time... soak mango in peach snapps... each :) Also.. letting mangos sit in orange blossom honey... mmm.. I'm all abou the sweet stuff :) Phat Beatz 1/12/2003 1:29:32 AM  So tonight I went into the 14th street subway with Christian. We both played drums. We laid down the ill beats y0... wee.. Played in the subway station from 11:30pm till 1am. Like tons of people who walked by stopped to dance for a while. Lots of people passing us smiling and stuff... It was a good time... Oh.. we made about $6... I let Chris have it. I'm not sure what exactly that guy does to have money for food and stuff... Gettin' Middle Eastern on Y0 Ass! 1/12/2003 11:13:23 PM  So I signed up for a middle eastern drum class. It's every Sunday afternoon. Took the first class today. My teacher is an amazing doumbek player. She's like.. ridiculously good... I went to see her perform tonight at this cafe. There were bellydancers, an oud player, bass player, it was incredible. This one bellydancer danced with a plate load of candles on her head! So I talked to my buddy christian about my lessons and stuff. Turns out when he first came to NYC from chile, he learned from the same person! Knew exactly who my teacher was. Seems she's famous around here... Random eh. Oh.. I also had crazy deja' vu' like ALL day today... Interview with a Moron 1/14/2003 11:05:16 PM  So I'm interviewing people today for a programmer position at my company. This kid comes in. He had down on his resume that he worked for this one website. When he listed the stuff he did, I knew he was lying... why... because I wrote that website years ago. I'm like, "hey, says here on your resume, you re-did the entire site... funny... i looked at the site and all of my old code is still there.." The best part was when we mentioned we had company X as a client (I'm hoping he thought we JUST got them as a client). His response was, "Really, well you have your work cut out for you, their website sucks." Moron didn't realize they've been a client of ours for over 2 years. Even if this kid actually had the skills, I could never hire someone soooooooo stupid. This is what happens when you swim on the shallow end of the gene pool. Subway Series 1/19/2003 2:22:11 AM  So tonight I took my little djembe, my bag of percussion tricks and my mandolin, and went to NYC Drum and Dance drum circle... Played for a bunch of hours. Afterwards, a bunch of us hit Republic for some food. Afterwards, when we got into the subway, I figured... we're here, we got drums... lets jam. I jammed with this woman Kim. Her and I were actually pretty rockin together. We followed each other very well considering we had just met. After an hour or so, I ran into some people from Petridish.net. We managed to convince them to play some claves and tambourine for a bit. Very proud of them... My hands are killin' me. 3 to 4 hours of drumming, followed by 2 to 3 hours of drumming :) I'm pretty hard core :) Update: Pics on petridish.net. Can't Live Without My Radio 1/21/2003 8:59:49 AM  This Sunday (01/26/03) at 9pm, my band Paige 23, will get our song "Love You Anway" played on Q104.3 Radio!!!! Weee!!! So like, everyone tune their radio in on Sunday night at 9pm :) You can listen to the station online here. Total Chaos!!! 1/23/2003 11:12:00 AM  So yesterday... I get in to work.. and shortly after, our main file server's hard drive took a crap... A bunch of clients called, and my workload got huge... then at 4:45 or so.. my 80s casio calculator wrist-watch crashed. Yes... crashed! I noticed an hour later that it was still 4:45... Days like this... I wish I stayed in bed... Neutral Good Elf Bard Ranger 1/25/2003 4:05:42 PM  I Started a live journal for Gelf The Elf.. "Neutral Good Elf Bard Ranger"... so basically i'm a Taosist Musician.. (duh!)... Find out What D&D Character Are You? Mead and Swords 1/27/2003 3:49:38 PM  So on Sunday, I had Regyt, Andrew of Penguin and Nate over. We made the tribute batch of mead. Weee to clove... Andrew and I got happily drunk, and then I showed people how to sword fight in my living room :) Pictures are here. Today is Good 1/29/2003 12:26:44 AM  2 good things today... It seems as though my CD is ready on mp3.com. I ordered a copy of it, so I can double-check it's ok before I tell the world :) I went to this show tonight of my drum teacher and students. There were AMAZING bellydancers... great drumming... I think I saw this dude do that double-voice singing thing... not sure exactly :) At the end, I jammed with some of her other students... It was awesome... I learned some new tricks... :) Gelfling! 1/29/2003 8:12:41 PM  Well... duh! You are a Gelfling! You are extremely loyal, honorable, and caring; you do not stand for injustice. You are extremely brave when you have to be, and will sometimes fight if provoked. What Race are You from The Dark Crystal? YES!!!!!!!!! 1/30/2003 3:51:58 PM  My CD is now available! I got my first copy in the mail today :) You can pickup a copy here. This album is a personal victory for me. I've been a musician for over 10 years, and this is my first time writing my own stuff. I always felt that everyone around me was so good at writing songs... and that mine were not good enough... I also can not write lyrics... but one day.. I decided... f'it. I'm going to write instrumental guitar stuff that makes me happy... Each song is a little theme or anthem, born from emotions, brought on by someone else... Goddess 2/3/2003 9:28:35 AM  Went to a show last night... saw amazing musicians.. This one girl was soo super-jazzy... Played guitar and sung.. and scatted... killer voice! Whenever I see a show... i'm like.. damn... I need to go home and practice like RIGHT NOW... What made my day though, was when I got home, I had a message on my answering machine from my friend Dave "The Rave" regarding my CD... "Dude! Track 4!" Was the entire content of the message... but got the point across :) Thanks Dave! :) Grilled Cheese 2/4/2003 12:39:29 AM  I'm working on making one of my journals into a book. Grilled Cheese is a collection of cute random thoughts I had. Written mostly while riding the subway. Each little thingy is just a quick page long. Made to be read while riding a subway or while on the crapper or something :) PDF Sample of the first 10 pages. Soft Rock Star 2/5/2003 3:22:42 PM  My song "She Said" is #53 in Soft Rock on mp3.com! Highest i've been so far. If I can get a bunch of more plays within the same day... maybe i'll be a soft rock star (not a soft porn star). You can stream the song FREE (even works on slow connections) from mp3.com Neutral 2/6/2003 2:04:25 PM  Damn my balaced Libraness... How evil are you? Angels 2/12/2003 9:23:24 PM  Today when I was getting on my subway, I saw this man laying flat on his back on the ground in the subway station. Two women were checking his pulse and tending to him... He looked out cold. Do not even know if he was alive... But those random women tending to this complete stranger... Angels... Holy Crap! 2/18/2003 11:34:17 PM  So I am in the super market getting some orange juice... I look on my shoulder, and notice some bird crapped on me. Which is weird.. cause there are no birds out... Today just did not work out as planned. Rank 2/19/2003 4:40:11 PM  Nice! So I look at my mp3.com stats today. I have the #22 and #26 through #33 spots in Soft Rock! That's like... ridiculous :) I guess no one listened to anything else but me during the blizzard :) This kicks ass :) Go there now! Hook me up. Raqin' 2/24/2003 8:10:20 PM  So this weekend, I went on a Doumbek retreat with my teacher Raquy and The Messengers (about 20 of the other doumbek students). It was upstate at this biiiiiig huge house in the woods. I basically got there and drummed and played mandolin for hours and hours and hours... If I could sum up the weekend in one word, it would be: doumbek, riq, drumming, jamming, napping, dancing, "special-tea", four, five, six, seven, nine, ten, fourteen, syncopation and cookies. UPDATE: Pictures are here. Recital 2/26/2003 8:22:02 PM  So last night was my Doumbek recital. When I got to the place, I helped some of the beginners practice. Then my teacher came up to me and asked me if I wanted to do a solo for a bellydancer. I was nervous about playing by myself, so I got this guy Rami to play who is pretty damn good. I was pretty happy and stuff. My solo was pretty cool at first.. the end of it was kinda sloppy :) But that's ok :) I played the intermediate piece too. That went really well. We were all very tight. All the people in the classes, and all the musicians I've met recently have been such great people. Everyone is so nice and helpful. I also learned like a belly dance move or two :) Me and Elana practicing (thanks Amit!) movie. Da' Plane! Da' Plane! 3/2/2003 7:05:40 PM  So.. this weekend.. I went up to visit Willow and Elam. I drank mead, ate food, played doumbek and got a Tattoo on my left arm. (picture below). What a great weekend :) Homeless 3/6/2003 1:06:37 AM  I was just in the Lyric diner (good french onion soup). It is pretty late. This homeless person came in. The owner was really nice to the person. But after a while, had to make the person leave. As I was leaving, I saw an ambulance from Beth Israel hospital pull up... I walked up 3rd ave, and I saw a homeless person sleeping in one of those 24 atm thingies. The ones you need your card to get into... As I walked up the street, I saw a cop car, and I thought to tell the cop about how there was a homeless guy sleeping in the atm thingy. But then I thought..."why... I should just let the homeless guy get his sleep." Then I thought to myself... (not sure who pointed this out). But there is a great way to get food and a room...be a criminal... You are actually better off being a criminal than being an honest homeless person... Then that got me thinking... Is there a way to help homeless people. Do they want to be helped? Can we get a bunch of smart people in a room... give them some starbucks, and can they solve the problems of the world... fa'shizzle dizzle 3/15/2003 12:00:06 AM  I don't know why... but I get such a kick out of Snoop Dogg. Check out this website: urbandictionary.com An exerpt from the site: fo' shizzle my nizzle "'fo shizz-ul my nizz-ul'" slang for "why certainly my good man" often associtaed with famous rapper "Snoop Dogg." Can be combined with many other words to form a quite entertaining sentance/conversation. See example! What's the dizzle? I got's no clizzle! You heard the new Snoop D O double gizzle? Fo Shizzle, my mizzle if you know what mizzle ya hizzle? Fo shizzle! Peace baby bizzle! Really Random 3/19/2003 9:48:12 PM  So like... the other week I went to see this girl I know play at Mickey's Blue Bar on Ave C. While she's playing I talk to the girl who booked all the acts that night. When I mention my name, she asks what band I'm in. Then she says, "you know my mom!"... I'm like.. "really? how?" She said, "You met my mom on a bus, she's in a wheelchair"... Turns out, the one time I took a bus home from work ever, I helped this woman who was in a wheelchair. I talked to her the entire ride, then made sure when she got to her stop that she got off the bus, and across the street safe and sound. Who knew a bunch of months later at 11pm on a thursday i'd meet her daughter in some bar i'd never been to... I don't understand how there are 8 million people in new york city, and this stuff happens to me all the time... More than meets the eye 3/21/2003 7:47:14 PM  Umm.. this just rocks... Optimus Prime is heading out to the Middle East with his guard unit on Wednesday to provide fire protection for airfields under combat... read. Practice 3/21/2003 8:21:48 PM  Tonight, I got together with a bellydancer (ironically named Paige)... to work on what we are going to do at this thingy on the 25th. Here is the mp3 of what we're doing basically. It's repetitive and stuff for dancing... Got some flubs in it :) But you'll get the idea... Airspace 3/28/2003 9:26:55 AM  The other day, when I was walking to work, I looked up and I saw 3 helicopters. They were in a semi-circle formation over what seemed to be time-square. I looked to the south, and I saw a 4th helicopter on the way. I don't know about you, but I still get freaked out when there are things in Mahattan's airspace. Virginity 3/29/2003 12:40:58 AM  So tonight I lost my open-mic virginity... well, the first time playing myself.. My own stuff... my carmine acoustic stuff. It went really really well. I played at PostScript. This coffee house in the basement of a chapel at Columbia University. It's such a great room. Entirely made of stone. Like a small dungeon or something. Also.. no microphone... but no need. The room acoustics are great. People seem to dig my stuff too... made me happy... I feel great right now... Bored 3/30/2003 6:57:41 PM  This is what happens, when I have nothing to do, and all my recording stuff hooked up :) Yes... I am really bored. Mangia 4/18/2003 7:08:35 PM  We got lunch catered at work today. We had some food left over, so I got it all together in a box, and went to Union Square. I was specifically looking for those homeless kids near union square that always have a dog. I did not find any, so I gave the box to a homeless couple in the Park. They said, "God Bless you, whatever we do not eat we will give away to someone else..." I thought after this that if there was a way to give away the food we did not eat, we could probably feed all the homeless people on left over pizza crusts alone... Sunny Day 5/7/2003 7:58:11 PM  I figured out what is fundamentally wrong with the universe.... we have snow days instead of sunny days. Why when it's nasty as hell out, should we stay in and home from work. We should stay home when it's too sunny out (not too nasty out). Imagine if you got a call in the morning, "please do not come into work today, it is too damn nice out" Central Park West 5/11/2003 2:42:29 AM  So tonight... this is random. Last minute I end up playing bass doumbek with my teacher at a party on the upper west side. Central park west. The apartment was #3. Yes not 3A or something 3 because the apartment was the ENTIRE floor. There was even a guy there with a shaved head wearing all black serving drinks and stuff. Everyone was pretty nice. Our job was to play along to regular kinda trance music. There was goooooood wine! And great birthday cake. The apartment had a HUUUUGE living room, and a couple bedrooms, and a gorgeous bathroom, and a huge dining room, and huge kitchen, and another room that was all wood, and another... I got an inside view into how the beautiful people party... Irony is.. they still need us lowly people for fun :) Infamous Carmine 5/16/2003 9:36:25 AM  I worked late the other night... I got on the 6 train at the City Hall/BrooklynBridge stop. There was no one on the train pretty much, except for me and this one guy. The guy comes up to me and says, "Is your name Carmine?"... I say, "umm.. yeah..." He says, "I'm a Carmine too! I've been to Carmine.com. You work down here right? And you play in a band. I recognized you with the long hair. You also know my friend David that is a drummer..." So I dedicate this post to Carmine. :) Sightings 5/21/2003 8:43:53 AM  Ok... so I got this email from someone the other day: "I was in NYC visiting a friend today. We were on a bus going to a play and I looked over and saw a guy from the back who looked like you. He was wearing jeans and had long hair. So I take another look and see that he has a mandolin and a drum with him. As the bus is driving by, I look at his face...looks like you! So, were you around 24th and 2nd avenue around 3ish today? What are the chances that in a huge city like NY, that I'd see you?" Well, it was me... so as far as I can tell... If you see someone you know in New York City, it is most likely me. :) Sunday Morning 5/26/2003 4:09:34 PM  So... I haven't recorded an acoustic guitar thing for a while. Been busy learning other instruments and stuff... Anyhoo... Had a friend coming over the other day. Was going to record her and stuff. Before she got there, I setup the microphones and decided to test them out. I played acoustic guitar and recorded it. This is entirely made up on the spot stuff I did one Sunday Morning. 420 6/7/2003 4:29:24 PM  My first time :) Newsworthy 6/23/2003 4:24:43 PM  So I was about to play Cafe Figaro the other night. One of the other musicians noticed channel 9 news was outside interviewing people. They suggested I go out to the news people and try to get them to film the belly dance show. So I went up to them, told them about the show, and they were like, "hey can we talk to you about the weather?" And I said "Sure.." As you may know.. it has rainined for days now... They asked me random questions such as, "So what does the sun look like?" and I responded, "You can't look at the sun! That's bad for your eyes." Then they were like, "So what's it like when the sun is out." And the news guy was wearing the news guy coat so I said, "well people wear less clothes.. not like you." He laughed and said, "this is the newsman uniform." And I said, "Yeah... do they give you a paycheck and that coat?" He laughed and said, "OK Thanks Wise-Ass" Update 9/25/2003 5:55:42 PM  So... I haven't posted to my journal for a long time. I guess I've been busy and stuff. A lot is going on. I now play every sunday at Cafe Figaro. I'm playing the big bass doumbek. I also started doing my own show-ish with Cristian (the guy from my Unity Square project). I've played lots of little shows here and there. I played this St. Marks street faire, as well as the Cloisters Ren Faire. My band Paige 23 is recording a new album. It sounds awesome... Secret sneak peak here shhh :) My life is good... I am working a lot and playing a lot. Oh.. I started to learn some Italian, and I think I am going to go to Italy before the years end. Sometimes I feel like I need to get off this island... and I mean.. gooooo and not go to another island, like long island or staten island... Birthday! 10/12/2003 8:32:39 PM  I'm 28 now... I've done a lot... I still have so much to do... Damn! 10/13/2003 8:04:37 PM  Ok, so this is me playing hip-hop beats on the turkish doumbek, and my buddy Jie-Song playing violin. This sounds like some wicked gangster/mob background music or something... Have a listen. This is just like... hook up 2 microphones, hit record... and see what happens... Breathing 1/23/2004 11:53:36 PM  Ya know that Van Halen song.. that's like.. "How do I know when it's love"... TRUE love is like breathing... Turquoise 1/23/2004 11:54:18 PM  I had this really neat kinda sci-fi dream last night. I dreamt I was in some type of institution or something... like we all took classes together and ate together... everyone was pretty normal... except for these 3 kids. They would NEVER speak. And we were not allowed to speak to them. One day, this girl with blue/green eyes... appropriately named "Turquoise" spoke to me. She never spoke to anyone. But for some reason picked me. After she did, I was yelled at and "the damage I did would take weeks to undo." Then later in the dream, she spoke to me again. This time her and the other 2 kids who did not speak ever were seperated from us and locked in some room. I went up to the wall and kinda leaned on it and put my hand on it. Turquoise sent me images telepathically of outdoors stuff... trees/sky/grass, etc. I knew she wanted me to help her "escape"... I left the place momentarily... but when I got back, I noticed there were firetrucks and police cars in front of the institution... she had created a diversion somehow... I found her later walking down the sidewalk with her head covered I recognized her by her eyes... She was happy to be free... then I woke up... Southpark 1/25/2004 4:37:47 PM  I've always wondered what I would look like as a character from a cartoon. Make one yourself here. Six 2/16/2004 4:11:51 PM  So the other weekend, I went on another doumbek retreat. There were about 15 of us this time. Mostly intermediate to advanced students... It was cold upstate :) But tons of fun... Everyone's skill level has increased greatly from last year... It was nice to breath some clean air and eat good home cooked vegan food :) I had this serene 5 minute moment... My friend Amal was playing a rhythm in 6 (a Morrocan rhythm)... I just sat there and soloed.. but I was VERY relaxed... I just kinda let my hands do whatever they wanted and I didn't get in there way... It was amazing... my best soloing ever, and very non intentional... just sitting there doing my thing... 5 2/18/2004 7:02:30 PM  Today is Team5's fifth birthday/anniversary. Five years ago, I quit the place I was working for. I was unhappy with how my bosses ran things, how they lied to clients, etc. I wanted to do it the right way. I started the company in my bedroom on Long Island... 5 years later.. I'm on Wall St. in Manhattan. I have great partners, hard-working employees, and I love the clients I work with, they have all been so good to us over the years. Life is good. Bass...Dumbek 3/7/2004 5:38:07 PM  I was testing a new microphone setup for recording my bass dumbek... I recorded this. It's pretty bassy... I've been inspired lately by this Morrocan 6/8... Leavin' on a Jet Plane.. 4/2/2004 12:37:46 PM  Well.. I'm off to Italy! I have no real plans... i'm made no reservations... I'm basically packed with clothes and my doumbek and i'm heading off... I'll update this from time to time as I find internet cafe's and stuff... Ciao! Rome if you want to... 4/3/2004 12:28:09 PM  I am in Rome! It's amazing! There is lots of old stuff here :) I spent the past bunch of hours just walking and walking... I just happen to pick a hotel that is 8 blocks from the collaseum... Everything here is beautiful... I saw a homeless guy.. he had on a suit jacket... Rome is kinda like NYC.. as if the village was the entire city... except like.. instead of Union Square.. Rome has a Collaseum.... and instead of Central Park.. Rome has the ancient city. Oh.. also.. across the street from my hotel is a series of musical instrument stores... I want to live here... Florence 4/4/2004 12:42:52 PM  I ended up going to Florence today... I was going to go to Naples... but from what I hear... Naples is a tough town... I wanted to get more used to Italy first... I went to the train station and hopped on the next train to Florence. I basically.. arrived... got a hotel room. Took out my drum and played in park. Then walked... and walked.. and walked. I didn't get a tourist map or anything.. I just walked in a direction. I'd see a tall building and go to check it out. Everything in Florence is beautiful. It looks like those pictures.... with the red roof tops and churches talled than the homes... oh... Not many people know this but Firenze (Florence) is the Italian word for "We don't F'around when it comes to churches" seriously.. There are tons of them here... You think your church is cool... I know a church in Florence that will kick your church's ass! Oh.. if you're lost... and you're a statue of an uncercumcized naked man... you're in Florence. Pisa! Pisa! 4/5/2004 7:23:40 AM  I am Pisa... It's a pretty small city. The train ride from Florence to Pisa was $5 (Nice!) only 1 hour. I got off the train and headed in the general direction of the tower. There are a couple of museums here and some churches... I got to the tower eventually... oh.. if you think you're the first person to take a picture of your friend with them as if they are holding up (or pushing down) the tower.. you're not... It seems people do this all day here... I actually took pictures of the people taking pictures of their friends... I got lost walking back to the train station... I didn't realize my map wasn't oriented north-south, but rather.. with the train station at the bottom and the tower on top... And today.. following the crowd of people didn't work. People are on there way to work and going to school... I found a high school here... Also.. everyone bikes around these cities.. and mopeds... everywhere... The weird thing about the bikes are.. they aren't like our bikes.. everyone has some oooold bike that's all old metal with the metal fenders that would scratch the wheel sometime.. and the seats with the to big ass springs... I'm tired today... My sleep schedule is all wack... Oh last night I watched the end of "Contact" on RAI channel 4... They were having a movie marathon... All american movies... but in Italian... I am heading back to florence to nap.. I was thinking of going to sienca today as well.. but the train ride is almost 2 hours and I need some sleep... Venice is for Carmines 4/6/2004 2:17:50 PM  Ok.. now this is a good story... This morning I was going to go to Perugia and Assisi... But, when I got to the train station, I thought... Is there anywhere else in the North I want to go before I start heading south. I looked at my Italy map.. and thought.. I HAVE to go to Venice. I went to a ticket machine, the next train was in 30 minutes. I got my ticket and that was it. I sat next to this very nice couple from Canada and chatted with them most of the way. When I got to Venice... I got a hotel room $50.. not bad... They have cheaper rooms... but I am sans-plans guy.... So.. I decided to walk around.. Not many know this, but Venizia (Venice) Is Italian for "This place is an f'in Labyrinth." Seriously... the place is almost an imposibility.. a maze of rivers/canals with small bridges and little groupings of shops. I like it here. You MUST speak/understand Italian here. The further you go from the train station.. The less and less Italian people speak. If I was a highlander immortal guy. I'd have my final sword fight here. Ok... so I am walking randomly... But heading to San Marco (HUGE SQUARE) I am just heading in that direction... I turn down a street... and I pass someone who looks familiar... I turn back and ask the guy, "What's your Name?"... He says "Carmine"... I was like "You're Carmine Appice... I am Carmine... I have Carmine.com." Carmine Appice is like... famous drummer guy... has played on tons of albums... We chatted for a bit... He was hanging out with The Radio Chick and a bunch of other people. Ok... so while turning down a random street, in a city I didn't even plan on going to, in a country I have never been.. I run into another Carmine... I am not sure at this point if my life is totally random or totally predictable... I almost expect stuff like this nowadays... Clarity/Cheap Wine/Ghetto 4/7/2004 4:17:07 PM  I am still in Venice. It rained last night, and I really wanted to take photos. I walked all over today, trying to find this spot I had found yesterday. I couldn't find it. I also looked around for this wine place and couldn't find it either. As I was walking randomly today... I passed an Egyptian place called Sahara. It didn't open until 7pm... and.. guess what... I couldn't find it... Venice has taught me something... Something I have always kind of known... but it smacked me in the head with it. If you want to find something... don't look for it. And if you try to hard to find something... you'll definately not find it. Wine is cheap here... $1 per glass... I stopped at this place today where this wom