East Coast Jet-Setter

Well... as anyone reading this (or anyone who expected to have read something in the last month) can see, life has had me busy lately! As my last post indicates, the premiere of "Krljavestica!" was a tremendous success. Karl and I sat down recently and under his skilled hand edited our three camera shoot together into quite a good looking DVD of the performance. Even my dad, a veteran award winning television producer, won't stop blabbering about how it "looks like a real TV show!" in a tone of voice which echos amateur excitement rather than professional approval.

Classes at CMU wrapped up around May 2 (whatever that Friday was...) and shortly thereafter I headed up to New York to hang with my parents and spent a weekend out on the Hamptons with my dear friends the Nobles. A fun time was had by all, a definite okay second to Nantucket, a destination that has eluded my grasp lately. From Wainscott I traveled back to New York and then up to Manchester, New Hampshire to finally visit with my sister and see her company in action. While taking a tour of her factory I came across the sample shirts pictured below, which we took with us, cleaned up and promptly wore out in Manhattan to the joint birthday party of Polly and Rachel. Our fashion statement was very well received and we each managed to convince a shocking majority of people that we were either sponsored (ala NASCAR) by such a diversity of prep-school field hockey teams and high school Lacrosse clubs or that we owned them all and weren't afraid to show it off.



Yes, we are awesome; obviously.

After the birthday party (another raging success) for which I extended my stay in New York another two weeks, I bummed around a bit more, went hiking with Karl up to Minnewaska where this picture was taken:



Of course, you are correct in supposing I plan to use this as my headshot for all forthcoming publicity.

After that, I went back up to New Hampshire after a pit stop in Boston where I saw my long lost friend Daniel, took him to dinner with the fantastic trio (Kate, Aaron and Justin) and my sister. Hung out in Manchester for a few more days and took the scenic route home along the 101 (all the way across New Hampshire) to Rte. 9 across Vermont and onto Rte. 7 near Troy, New York which intersects Rte. 22, the road that took me straight to my parents' front door. It was a stunning drive, just me with the windows down, driving casually through green meadows, in and out of ancient valleys, through sleepy old towns seemingly frozen in time at various stages (like sediment in rock, 1890s, 1920s, 1950s, 1980s) and out into the odorifery of New York dairy farmland. I am absolutely ready to move to Bennington, VT... beautiful town!

Let's see... in other news I have completed all of the music for the new video game "Nicktoons Knightro" being developed with Nickelodeon Studios by my friend Steve and his company, Raw Thrills in Chicago. It was a fun project and a lucrative step into the world of commercial composition. Heretofore a world I have had no interest in, but this experience showing how fun, easy and valuable it can be, an avenue I am looking forward to pursuing alongside my more abstract concert music route. Needless to say, having kept in touch with the friends I made in Hollywood was a good move, more on that later!

So now, I am back in New York, sitting at my parents' kitchen table which has been my makeshift office for the last month or so (I actually was able to compose two or three of the final cues for the Nicktoons game right here) and waiting for my oil change to be done so I can head back to Pittsburgh tomorrow or Sunday. Then it's off to Europe for my wild adventure in Orthodox Christian Liturgies!

Move over Indiana Jones (ps, saw Crystal Skull and don't care what you think because I loved every freakin' moment of it!).

CK