Week 9.. the last week :(

Well. I won't lie. Week 9 was a boring one, which was unfortunate.

At +1 Jonny and Shelley weren't there because they had gone to Lallapalooza. Shelley usually gives me lots to do, so without her things were dull. The one thing I did do was send a bunch of CDs to Nusrat, a General Manager at MTV. And I burned some CDs for myself. I wish I had done more...I wanted to get a copy of like every CD they had, but I forget. Ah well. I asked Jonny for a recommendation and he told me to write a mock up for Lauren to edit. It was definitely awkward, writing my own recommendation.. but I think I did a pretty good job.

Sunday is a big pool party. Kenan Bell (above) is opening, and he was just signed to +1. I actually had just seen a dude on the subway wearing a Kenan Bell shirt so that was funny. But yea, I'll be at the pool party VIP to help out! Should be fun. I'm going to try to go to the rest. I KNOW I'm going to GIRL TALK!!!

Partisan was also a bit slow. I did do a few useful things, which is always good. We got to have a wine tasting on Thursday! That was fun, since I'd never done that before. And not the official wine guy, but the guy who was choosing the wine for the club went to Wine School so he knew what he was talking about, which was cool. My favorite was Boutari Moschofilero. Dionysus in Spring! Mmmmmm.

Oh yea, and I also created the graphic for FELA.NET!!! They changed it a little bit though.. took out the color. Ah well. Still looks cool!

Before I left Partisan / Knitting Factory Tim and Ian invited me out on the roof to have a glass of wine. We had a really nice conversation, shared some college stories, talked about what I thought about both internships. Ian said if I ever needed anything to let him know. I really believe he was sincere when he said that.

SO. Penguin Publishers called me on Thursday! I had applied for the summer and gotten a call, but told them I would reapply for Fall because I already had a summer internship. Well, I never reapplied...

So the conversation went like this:
Basically, I lied and said I was still interested for the fall, but was honest in saying I wasn't sure if I'd have the 14 hours to dedicate to it. She asked me what I was interested in doing, I said graphic design. Then she asked, children, or adults. !!! I said children! Because ya know what, I've always loved kids so I thought this would be a cool way to involve them in my career. She said they would call if there was further interest.

And guess who knows someone at Penguin in the children's department?
Ian.
YES! I'm going to write a new application and cover letter for the Spring...and at this point I'm thinking I'm going to try for that, try something new. I feel like after making all the contacts with Ian and Tim, and sticking with +1 for the Fall, that I could try Publishing, and if I didn't like it...come back to music. I'm not sure if the Publishing industry is any better to get into with everything going digital...but it's worth a shot to see if I like the people and the atmosphere. It'll definitely be a lot different. Plus they have a REALLY LEGIT PROGRAM. I get paid! $7.25. Balls!

HOT TIP:
Write thank you notes. Yup. I'm going to write actual thank you notes and send them by snaily mail to both offices. They should be impressed by that!

GOODBYE, SUMMER INTERNSHIPS! How I loved you so!

What I'll miss, and won't miss

During this last week I thought I'd make a couple of lists!

What I'll miss about my internships:

• being an intern
• going to cool events and concerts
  
• walking around and exploring williamsburg
• listening to business conversations
  
• $3 falafel
• cooking myself nice meals
  

What I won't miss about having internships:

• the 15 minute walk to the bethpage station from my house
• running to catch the train / subway
• making no money but still paying rent
• carry around my heavy backpack
  

Week 8 - Air Guitar!

WWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

8

Shit's crazy. And almost done. Sad.

This second to last week was pretty cool. At Knitting Factory, I finally finished the business card design, and edited the HTML for the Deer Tick tour site. I also came up with a new tour poster concept but I don't know if that's going to go anywhere... don't know if they really liked it. That's probably something I should have worked harder on, but I just didn't feel confident about it. I feel like Ian wold have said he liked it no matter what. MEH.

Monday at +1 I just did print tearsheets pretty much all day, and left early because my dad visited. We ate at a sweet little place. Scanner went crazy at one point though and spent about 30 minutes trouble-shooting. I didn't want to bother anyone asking for help and finally I figured it out! Cleaned up the shitting scanning computer in the process.

Wednesday was a full day. I went around and collected newspapers, did a crap-ton of both kinds of tearsheets, and got asked to work doors at THIS:
Even though I'd been sick the whole week, of COURSE I said yes!!! And it was a great decision. First, they had me drive the company car. Now, I haven't really driven very much since college, not having a car idea and all, and I vocalized that I wouldn't really be the comfortable. BUT, I did it anyway!

HOT TIP of Week 8:
Know the area you work in. I drove ALL around Williamsburg without a map or anything, AND figured out the one way road system and everything. And it's because I spent so much time exploring the area, getting lost, and staring at the map in my Not for Tourist guide book. I reccommend this book for anyone who goes into the city. It's small, so easy to use, and if you actually take time to read the descriptions and all, it's really witty too.
After I was through running errands before the show I started working the door to the club. It was pretty funny. It was a cool crowd and pretty easy. The only thing was one co-worker told me to do one thing, and I got contradicting instructions from another. That was a little awkward. I sort of tried to error on the side of the higher up up guy, but it really wasn't a big deal.

Everyone from the office was there at one point.
BEST PART OF THE NIGHT?

Jonny (the boss boss) introduced me to his friend,
"This is Emily, she's our best intern...BY FAR"
**ANGELS SING!!!!**

SO awesome!!! And added bonus, Nat PAID me for working! Double awesome. That was so nice of him. I mean, I worked those Stellastarr* shows and didn't get any money. I really needed it too, seeing as I've been doing the two unpaid internships and paying rent.

Also, the bar tenders and my boss were buying me drinks, so that was super cool. Mikey, the other intern was there too for awhile. I talked to him for a bit, he seems pretty cool. He's an RA too out somewhere in the middle of nowhere but lived in NY. I just hope they didn't call him the best intern too :-P But he just came to hang out and didn't help like I did! Either way. I felt really appreciated.

AND. It was SO MUCH FUN. My first Air Guitar contest, oh and it was at a gay bar. hehe. I met Hot Lixx Hulahan (reigning champ) and his fiancee and friend, hung out with them for a good chunk of the night. They were really fun and cool. We danced on stage at the end to Free Bird, which I guess they play at the end of every competition. So goofy. Ended up seeing my OTHER boss there too! haha.

Walked to the subway super fast to catch the 1:37am home. Forgot MY BACKPACK and had to run back, and STILL made it.

All in all, good week. Events make the week so much more fun. This week I move in for RA training on Sunday, and I'm still gonna try to make the Pool Party because there's supposed to be an after party with some really cool musicians. Hopefully, RA training the next day isn't too early. But either way, I'll just have to hope to make the 1:37 :)

I don't want it to be over!!!!

Illinois Concert

So it all started with:
and wanting to work there. Through them I found these guys:

This awesome band, Illinois.

Who inspired me to make this for them:
Which I subsequently sent to the singer, Chris Archibald, letting him know I wanted to intern for his label, Acefu. He responded and let me know that Ace Fu went under, and their new label was these guys:

http://www.plusonemusic.net/

I researched the place and fell in love with it and planned on applying since December.

Then around April, Ian Wheeler, founder of Partisan Records, came and spoke to my New Media class:
(hehe. I made this above image).

SO. I decided to email him BEFORE he came and spoke, asking him about interning at a record label. He wrote back and asked me what places I was looking at, so of course I mentioned +1.

"My good friend Jonny owns +1, so that one would be easy. I don't know too many folks at those other companies. We'd also love to have you at our office this summer... Maybe we can work out something where you can do both? Both offices are in Williamsburg. Anyway, look forward to meeting you and discussing this tomorrow."

And that's how I landed my internships, in a nutshell.

You can see what a critical role Illinois played in this chain of events. I'd been trying to see them live for months, and I finally got the chance last week. It was super shitty weather out and I couldn't find anyone to go with me, so I was starting to feel like I didn't wanna put the effort into going and chit chat with people, be all awkward by myself, etc.

BUT. I went.

BEST DECISION EVER.

I meant to get there only in time for Illinois, but caught a good chunk of the band before that, called "Drink up Buttercup." Click the link for a free mp3 download. They had this very unique sound. The vocals were grungy and raspy yet when 3 of the members sang together in harmony I would say it was almost angelic! They also had intense percussion stuff happening all over the place, including the drummer putting a tamborine around his neck and hitting himself and the piano player using two old school tin trashcans to bang about. And they were just so INTO it! I love seeing performers like them. Check out a video I found from that night.


AND THEN.
ILLINOIS.

The set was PERFECT. They had just come out with a new CD, and I was afraid it would be all those songs, but it was a perfect mix of old and new. They rocked out so hard, I loved the music even more live. I stood in the front and just danced, man. They crowd was older and not too many people were moving around, but I didn't care.

THIS is why I want to work in the music industry.
THIS is what I'm inspired by.
I don't know if I've ever had a better feeling than knowing I work for the people who've helped this amazing band play awesome music. Definitely got that, coming full circle feeling.

AND Jonny (my +1 boss) gave me a hug, and I chatted with Ashley for awhile.
Then I introduced myself to Chris as the girl who sent him artwork who's now interning for +1.

And he said, oh yea! awesome! welcome to the family!

and that's why I don't want to stop working at +1. Or in the music industry in general.

Week 7.. only 2 more left!!

So here's where I start to get really anxious about what to do next semester, internship wise.
But Let's focus on this week.

Oh, well first of all, here's me at +1 Music! Took this on the way to the Jelly Pool Party a couple of weeks ago :)

Partisan / Knitting Factory was sort of stressful this week. Morgan, the CEO finally sent me all the new logos. They are Ok but I had to pretty much re-do the business card layout. I also thought I'd be editing Partisan's HTML but I never got the code. I was sort of dreading / looking forward to giving that a shot. Ah well. Maybe it'll get done in the next two weeks.

I was also asked to do a new tour poster. It was a tad frustrating because I wasn't told exactly what copy to put on the poster... just to come up with a really rad design first. But the thing is, if there is or isn't copy has a huge effect on the design. I mean, I could make it type based or not...etc. I guess I should have explained that, but I didn't have the balls. Regret #1.


Regret #2: my bosses invited me to have a glass of wine with them at the end of Thursday. At first when I saw them get out the wine I thought, man I wished they asked me to have a glass! But then I was packing up, and I was going to see RX Bandits that night, so I was all ready to go. When I went to tell them goodbye, they said, "free free to grab a glass of wine and sit with us if you want, if not see you next week." And I was so anxious to leave I'm pretty sure I said "sweet, see you guys later!"

HOW LAME OF ME!!!

HOT TIP FROM WEEK 7
Never miss an opportunity to sit down and talk with bosses, co-workers, higher-ups, what have you. Every time that I HAVE been with co-workers outside of the normal work environment, the talks we've had were beneficial. Topics included how I've been doing, other interns and their work ethic (or lack thereof), what brought them to the company, etc. Plus it's just fun!