Week 1 - Pt 2

Looking through my journal...I'm looking back after a few days and trying to decide if the thoughts still make sense. Both roomies are in the throws of sickness, and the place feels like a Deadwood small pox triage, so I've been eating a few cloves of garlic per day as that's supposed to keep the immune system at top form, and also, hopefully it'll keep the vampires in Brooklyn away. 

02.04.2011

Lucas Molandes

The city is very much like the inside of any ADD brain. It's easy to latch onto every nuance with great fervor one moment, and in the next moment the thought is whisked away because you just saw a Jamaican woman screaming into her phone in the middle of the street. Whatever lofty and flowery thoughts I just had can't compete with something like that happening every few moments ad infinitum. 

I'm not sure how much of this city is cliche, so I've had to fight the impulse to do material about the things that happen on the streets. Surely the one-legged man I saw doing the two-step could make for interesting stage fodder, but I'm sure it's been done to death here. 

Speaking of done to death. I've hit up a few open mics around the area. It's an interesting experience to go through this boot camp again. In all honesty, it feels as if I've transfered colleges and I'm waiting for my credits to arrive, but until they do, I'm having to take freshmen courses again. Not that I mind. In fact it's nice to have these baby steps off the radar while I get comfortable with the area.

Another thing I've been tossing around is the idea that when you're good at something, it's easy to take the more fundamental aspects for granted (if you're not mindful enough). Think of playing a videogame. When you first start playing, the first level is challenging, but after a week or so you can rock through to the harder levels because your skill level has increased. But if you try to go back to the early levels, you might take for granted certain aspects because you feel like you can rush through them. By rushing through, however, you might fall prey to something simple that you wouldn't have had you been paying attention. And if one doesn't appreciate something enough to pay attention at every level, then how good can we really hope to become?