Shenandoah

I was just ending my college experience when I decided to write an arrangement of the classic american song Shenandoah. In the arrangement, I had a particular singer in mind: Alicia (Bousner) Hrubey. We met in our undergrad studies at the University of Mount Union and were fairly close due to the fact that we were in choir together.

I wanted to do something different with the arrangement, implementing more word painting into the sounds of the accompaniment and introducing a signature style of composition of mine using impressionistic undercurrents with the sensibility of a strong melody riding the waves of sound underneath. This style fit perfectly with the subject matter - a river.

As luck would have it, I played the arrangement for Alicia before we graduated. Two years later, she so graciously asked if she could sing the song as the closer for her Graduate Voice Recital. I was, of course, very flattered and here is the final result.

**Please note that this key is a half step up from the original and doesn't work as well in the hands for the accompanist.

Back!

Hey Everyone, I'm back on blogger and I'm turning this blog into a classical music haven. I'll soon be posting videos on my YouTube channel so take a look!

Final Thoughts on Los Angeles

So I've been back home for a couple of weeks and in that time I have come up with some final thoughts and personal opinions of Los Angeles. Note that these are personal opinions, not gross generalizations about said people in Los Angeles.

Though I enjoyed the beautiful weather in sunny LA, there were some essential elements missing from my experience and some things I found out about myself that made me realize that LA just wasn't a good fit for me.

First thing that was missing was my family. After a long 6 years of discord between my family and I, we are just now at a really good and healthy relationship. I respect them as parents and adults and they are accepting me as an adult as well. I missed them and I will say that one thing about myself that I learned was that I am still dependent on them. As much as I don't want that to be the case, it is the truth and I am working to get away from that (with another one of those secret interviews on Tuesday!)

Second thing that was missing was some genuine help. I had a wonderful support system while I was out there with Angie, Jon, and Justin and I am so very grateful for their willingness to let me crash at their apartment for two weeks. But aside from that, I didn't have much help otherwise. Yes it was my responsibility to get settled and situated but that fell through for a number of reason. I actually was only financially prepared for about half a month's worth of living costs in California (but I WAS very adamantly assured that I would have a job in two weeks, no problem...more on that in a sec).

The types of people in Los Angeles are people who tend to make sure they are secure professionally and personally before anything or anyone else. I TOTALLY understand this. It's expensive to live out there and you have to worry about your job and everything. However (and yes this makes me sound selfish) it does make making friends tough. And it does make it difficult to learn about the city you are in when everyone you depend on is only available after 8PM. Yeah I could have taken the initiative to drive around and get myself acquainted with the area but everyone who hasn't been in Los Angeles should understand that there is SOOOOO MUCH IN LOS ANGELES that it's difficult to decide whether to drive 20 minutes  to a less convenient Norms or 30 minutes to a mid-point Norms to spend a half an hour eating and then go your separate ways let alone figure out what to do in a city of millions with no money to do anything with.

To give you a great example of some of the empty promises I encountered with the people there I give you this story:

My dad was walking outside of the hotel we were staying in at the very beginning of this journey and a woman with a dog came up to him...well the dog came up to him and the woman followed. She was coming from the residential area of where we were staying, and seeing as how I was looking for somewhere to stay, my dad struck up a conversation with her about the safety of the area. As the conversation progressed, she mentioned that she was a producer for The Ellen Degeneres Show which prompted my dad to come get me and I got to meet her. I told her that I was looking for some potential jobs in composition and was looking for any type of job in the "industry" until I could go back to school. She said she had a friend who worked in music and that she would gladly give her my information. Looking back, this is generally always the answer anybody has and I experienced a lot of what happened next too. I heard nothing back from her. No response to my email to her about whether or not she even got my information, no call to reassure me that she spoke to her friend. And I get that people are busy in LA, but when I say I am going to help out someone, I usually follow up with some kind of answer or help.

So the month and a half passes by and I am in my car driving back across the country when I get an email from her. "Hey this is blah blah, I'm sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. Here are some craigslist ads for jobs in composition in the LA area." Okay so at least she emailed me back, but with a craigslist ad? Really? Don't you think that's something I could have done myself? When I ask for help, it's help for something I can't do ON MY OWN! I am clearly capable of looking for a job online!!!! Everyone has access to Craigslist. At least Jon got me directed to a website I didn't know about (and also Jon was the only person to really help me (depending on how well the interview goes on Tuesday!) out in finding a job, so Thanks Jon!)

Among other attempts on my own at employment there was the Temporary Agency that Angie directed me to. I go in there and am a great representative of the type of client they are looking for: hardworking, professional, willing to do almost any type of job and have an overall cheery disposition. And the agent said "Yeah I think we can find you some work pretty soon!" Three weeks go by and nothing...then I get a 4 hour 1 day job sitting at a desk LOOKING like I am working. Another promise that fell through. And all anybody can do is shrug their shoulders and say "welp, sorry but I tried." Unfortunately it wasn't a hard enough try in my book.

So yeah I was fairly unhappy with the overall results of that whole fiasco. It was an adventure moving to LA and I really don't regret it because I learned so much about myself in a short amount of time. But it was costly and now I am back home. I'm glad to be home but realistically I am 23 and still living at home.

Some positive info about the secret job though: After my last interview, I told them I was moving back home and they said they would contact the local Akron manager of the company and that they would contact me. Well they did! And as you read earlier, I have my first interview with the Akron location of (mystery company) on Tuesday of next week! Hopefully I can take the good positive parts of the SoCal personality and bring it to the job, something that job really is looking for! Also I think that at a job where 1 in 1000 applicants get hired and I was one of the lucky and competent few to make it to the last level of interviews in LA (the retail mecca for the company), I feel that I have a good chance at making it all the way with the company in Akron. Also I feel that I'm perfect for the job! I've been wanting to work there for such a long time and I know a lot about the company and what the company has to offer to the public. Let's just keep our fingers crossed on this one!

My last thoughts on LA: It was real, and I'd love to move back to California, but when it comes to living in Los Angeles, I will probably choose to live somewhere else and visit LA! See you next time, I will miss driving at night seeing all the buildings lit up but I won't miss your daytime traffic and constant fretting about parking and driving with stupid people on the road.

Big News

So I'm sure you are all guessing "What is going on?!?!" Well here it is. I'm coming home. Now I could go off on a really really long post about why or why not, but I'm just going to give you the basics:

• I like LA. I don't LOVE it, but I like it.
• I do not feel that I'm quite ready for this experience.
• I don't necessarily like the idea of me doing film music anymore (it works more like a business out here rather than an art).
• I want to go to Grad School and I want to go somewhere in Ohio.
• I miss friends and family...and puppies...

But mostly I need to be home for some personal family stuff, which I don't necessarily want to get into at the moment.

"So what about this mystery job you've been talking about Andy?" may be your second question. Well I am still going to keep the company a mystery but I will tell you that the company has a new location in Akron (Fairlawn actually) where they will be hopefully transferring my interview info and then I will be starting a whole new interview process there (which I don't mind actually). I just finished my third and final interview today and I feel that it went well and...I'll just put it this way: the interviewers made me feel comfortable about the "transferring process" so no worries! Except for those who are dying to know about where I'll be working and to you I will say that you will have to wait another painstakingly long month until you know! :P

And with that, I release the information to be spread around and I can't wait to hear how drastically people twist and stretch the truth about my move home!

On a serious note, I will miss LA a little bit. I have made some good friends and generally had a good time here. I have surprisingly learned a lot from this experience, even if it WAS only for a month, about myself and how I deal with good things and bad things. I have learned to chill out a little bit. But mostly I have learned to keep a positive attitude even if people around me are negative. So here's to you LA!

p.s. I am really pumped to be back in Ohio (how strange does that sound!) in about a week.


There's no place like home.

Digging Deep

I apologize for my lack-of-post last week. I’ve been dealing with a lot of emotional stuff lately. I won’t go into too much detail, but I will just say that I’m feeling very homesick. I really do wish I had the best of both worlds here. I love being in LA, the open-mindedness and general laid-back feel of all the people, the location/weather, the fact that there actually are things here to do. But I am missing friends and family. It is very possible to feel completely alone in the middle of millions of people. I’ve got friends here, but they generally are busy with their own lives, which is definitely something I’ve found to be true across the board out here. Almost everybody out here is very focused on furthering themselves and their own career (which is fine by me! I’m trying to do the same thing) but...the best way to put it is that I’ve been really having to get used to just existing here alone.

I had a severe breakdown moment like that earlier (two weeks ago) last week where all I wanted to do was come home (and who knows, I may be coming home within a year or two) because I missed, and still miss, my family and my puppies. But these things are what make me thick-skinned and stronger in the long run. Yes I am away from my family but that’s because there is nothing for me in New Phila. Yes I have very few friends, but that’s because I’m brand new out here. Yes I feel alone, but that’s because I am alone professionally and personally. I need to push myself out of my comfort zone in order to become a better, more well-rounded and experienced person!

But this past week has been full of positives! Starting with last Sunday morning, I was part of a group interview/recruiting seminar at an undisclosed company, of which I got a call back (on Tuesday) for a one-on-one interview! And also that day my mom called me and told me that my brother was named Co-Valedictorian of his graduating class! I’m so very proud of him for that accomplishment and can’t wait to see what he will do with his higher education! Maybe he will want to come out to California for his graduate studies...

And after a nice talk with Angela who gave me some tough, but needed, love about life on my own, I am feeling much better about my decision to move out here. I am feeling very optimistic about my life and future job. I am putting positive vibes out into the universe and am finding and believing in the inherent good in all people, but my personal philosophies are for another discussion. If you meditate or pray or whatever, I would appreciate any and all positive energies sent my way as well, especially tomorrow (4/19/11) at noon (3PM EST) as that is when I will be in my second interview at (insert company name here)!

Culture Shock

Okay so this isn’t so much a blatant shock of culture, but it is definitely a change. I’ve always been a fan of Disney anything. So I went to Disneyland yesterday. The nice and convenient part of being in LA is that going to Disneyland (something in the past reserved for long distance vacations) is very convenient at a half-hour drive away! So yesterday I purchased my first Disneyland Annual Passport! I can go to any park at any time I want!*

I can’t tell you how nice it is to be able to go to a phenomenal theme park like Disneyland and just take your time! It is so nice to experience the park at your own pace and not being forced to shove everything into a couple of days. Yesterday I rode four rides (California Adventure is still the best) and we spent most of our time just walking around and enjoying the park! Now, of course I can’t suggest that everyone move out here...there are enough drivers as it is. But if you ever do get a chance to live near one of the parks, get an annual pass. It pays for itself in the long run.

*Except for blackout dates which is most Saturdays excluding October


Musical Musings

The past two weeks has given me quite a bit of time to think. I’ve met people who work in the music industry and I’ve heard a lot of film music. The more I dig, the more I find that a career in film-music may not be the best fit for me. I am much more “classical” in my compositional style and I really do miss the world of classical music. A lot.

I could seriously see myself doing some composition, conducting, or even collaborative piano in grad school as opposed to film scoring. AND the beauty of that is that I can go anywhere in the country for that...which means that if I’m still not happy with LA, I can go to school somewhere else in the country. But I could also see myself doing something COMPLETELY different as well. I really do like the idea of working for myself and owning my own company, it’s just finding the right company idea to deal with (not piano lessons).

Well that about does it for this week’s update! I may be moving the weekly update to another day of the month because I’m finding that I get very busy socially on Sunday. Just keep checking back for more news and updates!

Thanks for reading!

Hey everybody! It's that time of the week again. This week has been full of ups and downs for me. Unfortunately I still haven't heard anything from anyone about jobs (fingers crossed for next week though!) and the waiting game, as usual, is very annoying and stressful especially since I have a limited budget to survive on. However, I am keeping positive about things as you'll see when I speak about friday. But first, a little Culture Shock.

Culture Shock

So last Sunday, Ang and I went to this thing called "Opera On Tap." It originated in New York where these opera students would go to dive bars and sing opera solos as if they were singing a musical number (like what they do at Joe's Pub in NY). They would all drink and make sure everyone else was drinking as well and it's supposed to be a good time by all! The concept is great! I recorded a little bit:

So like I said, the concept is great...however the execution was less than what I was hoping for. It was hard for them to find a good location for the first LA performance and they ended up going to a high-end bar, not the best place to showcase the cool/creative mixture of classical "high-end" music with drunken bar members. It also didn't help them that the showcase started at 6 so people weren't really drinking a lot. Also the audience was soooo uptight that it ruined the fun atmosphere. I was eating (something you should be able to do in a bar atmosphere) and everyone was staring at me cause I was clinking my fork on the plate accidentally.

Anyway, the talent was fantastic, I just wish it was executed in a better, more relaxed/chill manner.



Musical Musings

You'll hear about the whole Silverstein mess in a moment...



Celebrity Sightings

None this week, I didn't get out much. But I do have friends that saw Jane Lynch at a coffee shop!

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Back to the blog.

So as I said before, this week was full of ups and downs. Friday was the worst. It has been two weeks and I've not heard anything from Anita, so especially Friday I was upset at my lack-of-employment. I also heard from the folks at the Shel Silverstein Estate. They told me that I did not have permission to use the poetry as lyrics for a set of art songs I had composed. I spoke with my mom on Skype and we were talking about people I'm meeting and I said to her "I'm really sick of meeting people just to further myself professionally. I'd like to, for once while I'm out here, meet some friends that I don't 'use'." And then I sort of broke down emotionally at the realization of the fact that this is a whole new world to me and I have myself to fall back on at the end of the day. My moving out here was either really brave or really stupid. Either way, I don't and won't end up a failure at this venture.

And then my day started to look up. Ang, Claire and I decided to watch The Truman Show. It was the first time I've seen it and I have to say it is definitely in the top favorites of mine now! It was fantastic and it was a nice reprieve from my too-much-reality-to-handle mindset. It put a couple of things into perspective. It gave me confidence knowing that I CAN do this. And I changed my outlook from one of negative to one of positive about the Silverstein poetry and am now re-orchestrating them for piano and cello!

This moving across the country is a very bold move and not easy, but as long as you have confidence and the will power to stick it out and work on the transition, you can make it :) I am so far! And hey, I finally have gotten used to the idea that I live here!

So here's to hope for next week and the positive things that will come from it!

Getting the Hang of It

After Dad left, I went back to where I'm currently staying: Angie's Townhouse. For now, until I find a place to live for the first couple months, I am crashing on her couch. She lives in a pleasant townhouse in the middle of Beverly Hills, in between two very important streets out here. But I won't be here for long since I'm pretty sure I have a place now. I went over on Friday to see a place that I will be subletting for a while with some UCLA students. I will fill a room while their dorm lease is finishing up! It's really ideal, actually. They are young, artistic and I feel like it is a great fit for what I'm looking for just temporary. It is in a great location in West LA (a more affordable area to live in) which is full of artsy-farts and college students who are either in or will be in the same situation I am currently in right now...looking for a foot in the door.

I have met with the nicest agent, Anita, from a headhunter agency, Eleventh Hour. They pride themselves in having connections and contacts with the best in the biz and they represent people like me and help them find temporary and permanent work within the entertainment industry! A lot of you might be asking yourself "Well, Andy, what are you doing out there?" My reply would have to be "I have no clue!" It's all pretty confusing right now, but from what I know, this is the best explanation I can give:

Colleges are expensive. I was fortunate enough to have some really great scholarships and not owe that much in student loans. But I don't want to pay for more than I have to when it comes to Grad school. If I am a California resident, I can get a large chunk of money taken off tuition, but I have to wait for a year in order to have that "In-State Discount" so I can claim independence and full residency in California. So while I wait, I want to get into the business and get some good experience. So right now, Anita and I are looking for some temporary/year long jobs within the film music industry. I will probably be temping for a couple months before I find a fulltime job somewhere, but that's how things work here. I may even be hired from one of my temp jobs if they like my work ethic and continually request me! Right now, I've got some prospective jobs at Universal Music Group and Anita said that the Disney Music Dept. might need someone soon for basic mailroom stuff! (and if I can get into Disney, I will be one happy camper!)

Eventually I would like to go back to Grad School for Film Composition, cause as of right now, all I know is that I want to do it. I don't know how to do any of the technical stuff...but that's what school is for!

I do miss some things from home. I'm really sick of hearing car horns honking constantly, but that's for another blog. Yes I will have one dedicated to the 'terrible' traffic of LA. I miss cheaper food prices, but again, that is a completely different blog post. But lastly, I miss my puppies. I don't miss my parents yet because I can easily communicate with them via Skype. (If you want to add me and video chat, my SN is a.potts but remember that I am three hours behind Ohio) I can't, however, talk to Teddy or Linkoln. So I'll be very happy to see them when I come home in May.


Okay, so here's the part that I will try to be very consistent with. I'd like to have a couple of permanent sections that I update every week. Here they are as follows:


Culture Shock

The transition from a small town to a large city can be a jarring one. Everything changes, even how people perceive work, life, and (thankfully in my case) entertainment. There are so many different cultures and walks of life that clash in the oddest, most interesting and oftentimes beautiful of ways (take for instance the Jewish/Iranian Retirement Center down the street). Sometimes this jolt of difference is referred to Culture Shock. In this section from now on, I'd like to expose you to some type of culture/difference that you would NEVER find in a small town in Ohio.

Drag Show: Last Tuesday, Angie texted me after work saying "Get Ready, we are going to a drag show tonight with two managers from CAA (The talent agency Ang works for. Also the best talent agency/experience you could ever put on a resumé). I've never been a huge fan of drag, BUT this was nothing like what I thought it would be.

The theme of the night was Movies and TV. I've had quite an underexposure to gay culture (never really being a fan of perpetuating stereotypes (i'm hipster like that)) so the theme was a welcome addition to what I thought would be a boring, not-my-scene night.

However, it was just my cup of tea! One of my favorite styles of comedy is Camp and this was CAAAAAMMMPYYY!

First of all, the show was in a bar called Rage so I immediately thought of Stefon describing the bar as having stun guns, jewpids, and human suitcases (if you don't get it, click here).

The show started with the song Dreamgirls, where the queens came out and lip synced and were fabulous. Then each one came out individually came out and did a little scene/song from a movie. There was one queen that came out and sang "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" and I swear to you, Madonna was standing in front of us.

The night was just hilarious. Obviously these "girls" know that the whole thing is not meant to be taken seriously, but they do. They entertained me for sure! I don't suggest you see a drag show if you are easily offended because the shows can get a little raunchy, but I love that kind of humor so it was great for me!

Musical Musings

This area is reserved for my music suggestions, news about my music professionally, and opinions on soundtracks and the like. Pretty much anything to do with my world and music will go in here.

I am currently waiting to hear back from the lawyers of the Shel Silverstein Estate about using four of Mr. Silverstein's poems in a set of art songs I've written. I really hope I can release them with the original text. Otherwise, I have to take the words out and leave them as lyric-less songs :(

Also I miss my piano. A lot.

Celebrity Sighting

I've never been one to obsessively fawn over celebrities. My view on 'Celebrity' is that they are people too...they poop and have feelings as much as non-celebrities do. They are us...we're all human. So I don't like to make a big deal about celebrities. However, it is really fun to see celebrities in person because you feel like you know them since you've seen them before (even though they have no clue who you are)! So with that, I will be posting some celebrity sightings on here. In the past two weeks, I've seen:

Adam Sessler. He was driving right beside me near the Farmer's Market in WeHo. Not a well known "celebrity" but you would know him if you've ever watched G4 (a tech/gamer tv station).

Jen Aniston. As I was driving on Santa Monica Blvd, she was turning left and waiting for traffic to pass. She does drive herself.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Dad, Ang, and I were walking from the Santa Monica Pier to the Promenade and we passed her walking. I passed her thinking "is that JLD? no...OH CRAP IT IS!" I love her on New Adventures of Old Christine.

Getting Here

Los Angeles. A large city made up of five counties (Greater Los Angeles Area) with an estimated population of over 17 million. Clearly this is extremely intimidating and something I didn't really think about when I decided to move, BUT I'm so glad I did.

(aside from the gloomy weekend we had this past weekend, this is exactly what LA looks like every day)

Hey everyone (especially those of you in Ohio) and welcome to my blog!

I wanted to make this blog cause I want to let everyone know how things are going in my life on the other side of the country because, frankly, everything here is completely different!

In this blog I will try to post a weekly summary every Sunday evening. I want everyone at home to get a taste for what it's like outside the bubble of Ohio. I was fortunate enough to travel a lot in high school and college and I got to see that there is life outside of New Philadelphia, OH. Now that I'm living in it, I want to share my experiences with others!

So my journey started two weeks ago. Dad and I drove from New Phila to Los Angeles in three days! It actually was surprisingly easy with the two of us. We would go about 775 miles every day while switching off every 150 miles. We stopped in Joplin, Missouri and Albuquerque, New Mexico and eventually made it to LA by 7pm on Wednesday.

My first visit here in January was with my friend, Angela, who showed me all the greatness of LA. But driving into the city was a wake up call. See, the nice, the more expensive part of LA is on the west side of the city but in order to get there, you have to drive through the gangy, run-down, cheaper east side of LA. I was absolutely terrified to see that the Paramount Pictures studio was in the heart of a latin ghetto. Once we got to our hotel, I was also put off by the fact that it was right on a busy street across from the CBS studios where they tape American Idol (I know, AI is Fox, but Fox rents out the studio space from CBS) and the room was really small. Overall, it was just a bad experience the first night. Dad said that I wasn't allowed to leave him there alone! Haha!

Anyway, so after a couple of days, we got used to the area. Right behind us was a beautiful residential area and about a block away was The Grove/Farmer's Market which is a really trendy outdoor shopping center and food court. I got the hang of the AREA but driving was a completely different story. The first night I was driving, I was in an intersection that had a Red Light Camera and it definitely took some pictures. I don't know if they were of my car or another one in the intersection, but I'm waiting to hear from Mom if she received a reportedly high (about $500) ticket in the mail with my face in my car on it! Talk about a "Welcome to LA from the LA Traffic Dept." Needless to say, Dad drove the rest of the time he was here.

So while Dad was here, we met up with Wes Hagan. The Hagan's are family friends. My dad rented from Mr. Hagan for the archery shop and Mrs. Hagan was in my Handbell Choir at First UMC. Both of them are so sweet and their son is no different. We had lunch with Wes and we got to talking about my move out here. Among various advice to "not get discouraged," he graciously offered us a tour of the Sunset & Gower Studios where he is currently the Locations Manager of the TV show The Event. We went the following day and got to see the recreated White House set that was originally used on The West Wing! It was really neat and of course, I loved it since I love all backstage stuff! It is also really comforting to know someone out here who is from NP and has been out here for 15 years, knows the area really well, and is willing to help me out if I ever get in a jam.

After a couple days of resting since it was raining, it was time for Dad to go home. I took him to the airport and off he went! I was feeling a mixture of happiness and sadness. On one hand, I was sad because that safety net that was my Dad was gone but on the other hand, I felt true independence; something I haven't felt in a long time!

Now its just a matter of getting adjusted, aquainted, and settled in this big city!