A New York State of Mind

There are 728 songs on my iPod. 169 of these are under the Classical genre. 213 are Soundtracks, most are musicals. 49 are The Beatles and 27 are Neil Diamond and Barry Manilow. I haven't listened to a current radio since I was in college. I probably couldn't name 10 currents artists, and the ones that I could are mostly from what the kids at school talk about. I love to sing in the car. I love to sing in the car loud and proud. Someday I would like to do a recital. A vocal recital. Of showtunes, of course. I would either do really well, or get booed off the stage like a first round American Idol contestant. All proceeds would go to charity and I would do do duets with some of my friends. I haven't thought this through at all.

I moved to New York two weeks before September 11, 2001. I stayed there for two years. Was it the best two years of my life? No. However, they were life-changing, as stereotypical as that sounds. The 9/11 experience was surreal and something I can't even explain, but my time in NY was so much more than that. I was a music major, but didn't have a lot of education classes left, so really I played clarinet all day. I played music that was so contemporary, the composer was in the audience. That's an experience that can't be duplicated. I met amazing people. Most of my friends were Asian, from Taiwan and Korea. They introduced me to sushi, sashimi, those coffee drinks with the gel balls in the bottom, and the contemporary concept of arranged marriage. I went to Broadway shows for $25 on my student discount. I met Neil Patrick Harris 3 times by standing outside the stage door after shows. I almost saw Adrien Brody (my second favorite to NPH) in Saturday Night Live, but we missed the cut. I love going back to NYC now, but I could never live there forever. Just like there are people from NY would could never live in Connecticut forever. Its just not me.