More Visitors!

We were welcomed with more friends from Nashville this past weekend! 2 lovely ladies stayed with us and experienced the city for the first time!

On Friday, I was invited to go to a CMJ networking event for a group called " Women In Music". It is a member-only society that puts together events for women ( and men) working in the Music Business industry. It was a great way to meet working women in the industry and is reasonably priced for a year's membership! Its website includes job postings and industry events that members can attend. I'm going to have to look into this group's Nashville branch and hopefully become more involved! Friday Night a few of us visited my friend Melissa (from Fayetteville) who goes to Columbia University. Man that University is pretty! They have a HUGE library, but their campus feels a lot like Belmont. It was so great seeing her and hanging out with her friends. I hope to see her a few more times before I go back to Nashville/Fayetteville. I can't explain how nice it is to see a familiar face!

Saturday, I attended a CMJ show for my supervisor since we was out of town. The band is called Everything Everything and they are from the U.K. They put on a good show! I met with band and their manager after the show and they were very friendly! Plus they had British accents...it doesn't get any better! After that all of us met up for dinner at the famous Katz's Deli. This deli is known for the famous orgasm scene in the movie " When Harry Met Sally". I ordered the famous Pastrami on rye with mustard and it was delicious! And huge! Afterwards, we saw that Andy Davis ( a Belmont Alum) was playing in NYC for free, so we decided to go show our support. It was nice hearing a little bit of Nashville that night!

So far this week is going by slow...however on Thursday I'm getting my haircut at Nick Arojo's Salon ( the hair stylist from " What Not To Wear on TLC). I volunteered to be a model for a creative hair cutting class. Normally to get your hair cut there is $500, but I'm getting a hair cut for $25! You can't beat that! I'll make sure to include pics!

Visitors

This weekend/ Monday and Tuesday we welcomed about 5 people from Belmont to NYC! I can't tell you how nice it was to see familiar faces! We were able to host almost everyone here, and show them around the city. On Friday night we went to a very awesome restaurant called ChipShop. It is a British restaurant that serves London's favorites: Fish and Chips and Shepard's Pie. They also have been on Food network's 's " Unwrapped" for their fried candy bars! Unfortunately, we didn't get one of those, but there Fish and Chips were amazing! I will definitely be going back there!

On Saturday most of our friends went shopping/site seeing around the city during the day, but at night we went to this bar called " Beauty Bar". It's a bar that is decorated just like an old hair salon. It has the chairs with the dryers on them, and very fun decor. During the day it is a nail salon with a deal of $10 for a manicure and martini. During the night, it becomes a dance club. They have this awesome dance floor and the DJ plays throw back music! It was so fun to dance to! They also have specialty drinks like, " Shampoo", " Platinum Blonde", and " The Redhead".

On Sunday, My friend Rachel and her boyfriend Gregory got engaged! He proposed to her at Central Park. It was very fun to celebrate this special occasion with them. We went out on Monday to dinner and Dessert at Serendipity's. It's a very famous place in NYC that serves " Frozen Hot Chocolate", and was in the movie " Serendipity'. We had such a great time being able to show our friends around NYC and to spend some much needed time with them.

This week is CMJ week. It is a week long music festival where shows are played all around NYC. I'm going to a couple of shows this weekend to check out some bands for work. Should be fun!

Fall Break!!

I'm officially on Fall break!!! This means that Monday and Tuesday I won't have class! WOO HOO! It also means that many Belmont students are here in NYC visiting. Some of my friends came up to visit, and it is so good to see them. They want to explore NYC, see the sites, and going to all the "cool" spots that we have found so far. Last night we went to a restaurant called " ChipShop" in Brooklyn. It is a English Restaurant that serves amazing fish and chips as well as Shepard's pie! They also are famous for frying up snickers, oreo's, and anything else you want to be fried! It has been on food channel's " unwrapped" and on the travel channel.

On Thursday night I participated in " Light the Night", a walk to support Leukemia and Lymphoma research. It was a very moving experience. There were thousands who showed up, despite the hard pouring rain, and walked. Each walker carried with them a different color balloon: red for supporter, white for survivor, and gold for in memory of. The walk took place across the Brooklyn Bridge...a beautiful structure. My team raised $910!! Thank you for all of you who have donated and supported me and helped me honor Kristen Graham.

Tonight we are going to go out to a bar called " Beauty Bar". It's in the lower east side and used to be an old hair salon. It still has the old styling chairs in it too! I've heard great things about, so it should be fun!

This coming week is the CMJ fest in NYC. Its basically a music festival that happens in venues around the city. It is mostly unknown artists or artists who are signed to indie labels. Most of the music business company's are scouting out which shows to go to in order to get new talent. I'm going to a show on Tuesday and Wednesday night! I'll make sure to update after them!

Columbus Day

So today the office was closed because of Columbus Day!! Which means I have had a great day sleeping in, watching Dexter ( my new favorite show), and enjoying some quiet time. Unfortunately, we still have class tonight though...

 On Saturday, I was so excited to go to lunch with Courtney and Kelsi Farmer! They went to high school and college with me at Belmont, and were just visiting NYC for a couple of days. We dined at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill for lunch. I love Bobby Flay's show and was very exciting to finally go to one of his restaurants. It was pretty good. I ordered a Cuban pork sandwich with southwestern fries. The fries sure had Bobby's kick to them! I would like to try this place out for dinner sometime and see what is on their dinner menu. Regardless, it was so nice to see the girls! Sometimes you just need to see familiar faces in a big city like this! After lunch, I took a stroll in Union Square and somehow wound up in Fieline's Basement. Fielines is a WONDERFUL discount clothing and shoe department store. It is almost like T.J. Maxx. I purchased a pair of wonderful black boots for the winter and then made my way back home.

This coming Friday-Tues my friend and roommate for 2 years Rachel McAlister is coming up to visit! I'm so excited to see her and experience some NYC treats with her! I'm not sure what we have planned on the list, but I know that Serendipity is defiantly on there. Also, this Thursday is the " Light for the Night" walk on the Brooklyn Bridge for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I'm so blessed to be honoring my friend Kristen who passed away about a month ago from Leukemia. I'll be posting some pics from the event!

Interesting Class Speakers

Today has been a great week of class! On Monday night I have a class called, " Music Business Strategies". Our class was invited to Island Def Jam Records building to hear the VP of Promotions speak. Island Def Jam is a BIG record label, so it was exciting just to be able to go into that building! The VP basically talked about how his position works and kind of gave us an inside scoop on what kind of research needs to be done in order to get more radio play for the label's artists. It's funny to think about ALL the research that people do and ALL the effort put into just getting a song HEARD on the radio. It was also great because he spoke to us like we were his co-workers. I think every student will listen to a speaker if they treat in turn treat the students with respect. He also provided us with FREE pizza and cokes. An extra bonus :-)

On Tuesday night, we had another guest speaker. He also did some promotions work in the late 70's and told us about his experience with Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, and other legendary acts. I think I kind of was in awe when he talked about " The Boss" as " Bruce". He also received a Christmas present from Pink Floyd one year...he was invited to fly to England and play on stage with them at a concert! How cool is that?! It was also to hear those stories about the music business back then and his experience. I also found it personally exciting because I am a huge classic rock fan. It turns out he is actually moving out from his office into a new space and he needed to get rid of 3 HUGE bins of Cd's...we hit the jackpot last night! I think I came home with about 10 new Cd's!

I also discovered where Felines Basement Bargains has been hiding in NYC....I will be visiting this weekend :)

The Weekend

I was so happy when Friday rolled around...I needed a relaxing weekend away from Manhattan. It's funny, because when you live and work in NYC, by the weekend everyone of the locals is ready to get as far away as possible from the fast paced city. Friday night was very relaxing. Everyone in the group was pretty tired, so we just stayed in our neighborhood and got Chinese food and Carvel ice cream. Carvel is like a really popular ice cream chain in the north apparently. They have really great low fat soft serve!

Saturday was the most beautiful day in Brooklyn. It was a perfect low 70's, sunny, with a slight chill in the air. Fall has arrived in NYC! I really wish I had some grilled cheese, tomato soup, a pumpkin spice latte, a pumpkin spice latte, and a over sized sweatshirt! I went to Prospect Park to enjoy this beautiful day. It is a huge park about 2 subway stops up. It was filled with kids, dogs, and just people enjoying the day. It felt really good to see trees and I really enjoyed just getting some fresh air. Later on Saturday, we invited a few of my friend Amanda's friends over to our place. Amanda is interning at The Letterman Show, and there are a big group of fellow interns she has made friends with. We enjoyed meeting them and just hanging out! We somehow found ourselves at a Karaoke Bar later that night....it was interesting to say the least. There were many bad singers, but it was fun regardless! A couple of us were brave enough to sing. A couple of the artists/songs included: Backstreet Boys, Johnny Cash, Journey, " Total Eclipse of The Heart", " Lady Marmalade", and Spice Girls. I feel like we will be going back to this place in the near future to get our " performance fix" in.

A few of my friends singing. It's dark lighting, but at least it gives you a glimpse.