Saturday, April 28th, 2007
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11:01 am
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holy crap! i haven't updated in so long that when i loaded lj it asked if i wanted to restore. what it brought up was a post about christmas i never finished. yikes. things are going well. i'm overbooked and overstressed as usual. i'm averaging about 4 shows a month right now apparently whether i want to...or not. mormon boy opens this weekend. it was fun seeing stephen and reminiscing about uconn. the show's pretty damn good too. i was only supposed to load the sound cues into the computer and go home. somehow i ended up pretty much redesigning it. yikes!
now i'm in my 3 weeks without tech. which of course means i'll be designing 6 shows simultaneously while working on my super duper secret amazing album. i'm 2 tracks away from a first draft. if anyone wants to critique it before i start shopping it around for labels and stuff let me know. i want all the help i can get. it's a wierd album for me. it's all acoustic but with very lush orchestration but punk sensibilities about it. it's new songs but old songs and new topics but old stories. it's sort of less "self-centered" than anything else i've ever done which is nice. maturity is ok. even if i'll never be a world famous emo star or something, writing music about grown up topics instead of screaming about how everyone else is out to get me feels much more real i guess.
things are going quite well. audrey and i are looking at apartments in the south end today!! which is totally amazing. i heart the south end. then i have an interview for the trinity consortium on monday. and i bought a new laptop! it came with vista which sucked a lot, so i succumbed to years of pressure from ari and bober and switched to linux. it is actually better. it just takes a little bit longer to understand it.
hopefully i'll get a chance to update at least one more time before the craziness of june hits...
current mood:  busy
current music: angry salad - the milkshake song
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Friday, December 15th, 2006
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4:01 am - insomnia means learning!
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so we have cable nominally. really though, we pay like $20 a month because the antanae on my tv suck. everything is showing an infomercial right now and i can't sleep. so i'm watching one of the 5 public access channels we get. (in addition to the 4 spanish channels, 3 christian channels, and 3 home shopping networks but no fucking comedy central!) the show is one of those videos you watch in 8th grade science class. it just spent 10 minutes outlining the difference between things that are alive and things that are not alive. this is amazing. i can't wait till it explains the golgi aparatus!
current mood:  sleepy
current music: cheesy late 80s educational video!
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Tuesday, November 28th, 2006
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12:47 am - emo and nostalgia
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so i totally haven't updated in months. things are good. very good. most of the time. i'd say i'm at 75% goodness and 25% absolute crap. but that 75% is really really awesome.
i just had this amazing show open in boston called "a very merry unauthorized children's scientology pageant" it's hilarious and selling out. it's a musical. i didn't write the music, but i arranged and orchestrated and recorded and produced it. and the composer (who won an obie award for the original new york production and is one of those up and coming composer types) liked my stuff so much that i'm now his arranger and collaborating with him on a new musical called "love kills." he wants it to be the first ever emo musical, which is (obviously) an idea i support fully. i'm music directing the first workshop which starts rehearsal tomorrow. i decided to make a mix for the cast of emo music, since during auditions they all said "what's emo? i think i've heard the word before."
so i'm sitting here listening to emo for the first time in two years. i even busted out the dashboard. i'm glad i moved on from that self-loathing self-pitying phase, but i'm feeling oddly nostalgic for those three years when i was completely miserable all the time. things were a lot simpler when the world was divided very simply between me and whatever girl i lusted after at the time. when i could blow off all my obligations with no negative repercussions because i was feeling mopey. plus, i miss silent orbit. i miss a thousand ships back when we used to gig out every weekend. the music may not have been terribly intellectually complex, or socially relevant, but i miss that life. i miss that simplicity. i'm happy now most of the time. but i guess i miss being miserable.
current mood:  nostalgic
current music: alkaline trio - stupid kid
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Tuesday, September 19th, 2006
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12:52 am - new car?
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so...someone should explain to me why a new mini van costs almost twice as much as a new cooper mini. it's making it very hard for me not to buy a cooper mini right now despite the fact that i desperately need the minivan's cargo space....
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Sunday, August 27th, 2006
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6:53 pm - top 10 wierd things i've found while cleaning
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i spent most of today packing and cleaning and throwing stuff out. while cleaning up the basement (which is still not even close to done), i came across some very bizarre things. please note that i have only lived in this apartment for one year.
10. a train whistle
09. a bag containing three hersheys kisses
08. a picture of me with swedish fish in my ears
07. an install disc for gnn (a dialup internet company that was bought by aol in like 94)
06. the install disc for oregon trail
05. a BOX of silent orbit stickers
04. my tape of nin the downward spiral from 8th grade
03. the lyrics to songs i'm pretty sure i wrote in high school
02. 3 mismatched argyle socks
01. a tray from buckley dining hall
current mood:  confused
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Sunday, August 20th, 2006
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5:52 pm - snakes on a what?
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so i gave into the hype, and i can't believe i'm saying this, but snakes on a plane...is not a bad movie.
it's not good. it's not like brilliant or anything, i probably wont pay to see it in theatre's again, but if someone was like "hey, i'm going to snakes on a plane, and i have an extra ticket, wanna come" i'd probably go. hell, i might even rent it if enough people were over and wanted to watch it.
i only fear the inevitable sequel: snakes on a train.
current mood:  cheerful
current music: the good the bad and the ugly
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Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006
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6:23 pm - best day ever
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i feel that the fantastic day i'm having is solely the fault of my fantastic new pants.
i got hired to do a commercial, and asked to design by one of the top theatre companies in boston, and offered pretty much the whole season by one of my favorite companies ever. also, my pants are fantastic
current mood: pants!
current music: my pants
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Tuesday, July 25th, 2006
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11:43 pm - a thousand ships update
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a thousand ships will be playing our first show in almost two years on thursday august 3rd at copperfield's in boston. we'll be playing for about an hour, going on at 9:30 pm. the show costs $10, and is 21+ ...anyone who doesn't come is a jerk.
mark my words: this show will rock more than most things have ever rocked. we'll be playing a few "classics" and 6 brand new songs; each one of which is more awesomer than the last.
current mood:  excited
current music: a thousand ships - no way home
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Saturday, July 8th, 2006
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3:32 pm - urgent news bulletin!
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holy fucking shit. victor pachas is back!
does this mean the return of a thousand ships? or the start of something better.
more to follow.
current mood: bouncy
current music: victor pachas - tu fantasma
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Saturday, June 17th, 2006
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9:04 pm - a general statement of purpose
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a long time ago, i saw a glimpse of a life i thought utterly unatainable; the absolute gratitude of a director for working as hard as you can to make their vision come to life; that unexpressible feeling of complete satisfaction when i hear my music and my sound collide beautifully with the action onstage, and i thought 'i want that.' from the depths of my heart i wanted to experience that every day of my life.
in the past month, i've come to watch that happen, and so much more that i'm not even sure i could express in words, except to say that it is the absolute most purest form of joy i could imagine.
it's not enough to say the show is going well. it is. what really amazes me is the way that for the first time in my life all the little pieces are lining up. i'm not struggling. i'm not suffering. yeah there are things i would change. there are things i would love to be better. i'd love a house whose very essence didn't cause me stress. i'd love a car who could at least fulfill the bare minimum expectations one should have of their vehicle. i'd love to have some degree of certainty that i'll be employed and able to buy food once amadeus ends. but that's all material, and ultimately meaningless. those things will get better. it's just a matter of time.
what matters right now: my friends are wonderful. audrey is wonderful. my life is wonderful.
the past two years have been unbearably difficult. i've had more shit happen to me than most people do in their lifetimes, and i've felt beaten and defeated so many more times than i can count now. but if i had to go through all of that to get to where i am right now, i would do it all again in a heartbeat.
for the first time since i was seven and i saw that there was more to life than legos and stick forts, i am happy. right now, i am absolutely and completely happy.
current mood: jubilant
current music: pavement - elevate me later
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Tuesday, May 30th, 2006
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10:41 pm - the berkshires (part 2)
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returning to the berkshires is, in many ways, like returning to the scene of a particularly bad car accident and noticing several unmistakeable shards of glass by the side of road...maybe even a hubcab that neither time nor the elements has succeeded yet in washing away.
in other, and much more important, ways it is more like a family re-union at the house of an old, and estranged relative, where one spent many a family vaction as a child. perhaps there were family quarrells. perhaps even fights, but those memories have long been superceded by the happy ones.
i found myself on monday walking into a room filled with old friends i had not seen or spoken to in 2 years or more, but had found, to my surprise that our mutual affections had grown in the absense of direct communication. old acquaintances have become new friends, and old emneties forgotten entirely.
where i previously had dread the prospect of returning to the berkshires and living in complete isolation from the world at large in a sea of haunting memories, i am now thrilled about working on this production with so many friends and colleauges with all of whom i share a bond of enourmous mutual respect.
in the past three days, i have heard people say some of the nicest things i think anyone has ever said about me, and i, in turn, have probably said, and absolutely meant, some of the nicest things i've ever said to or about another human being.
the play is unquestionably amazing. the cast alone is staggering. and eric, well, he's eric hill. in his emploi i have learned more about sound design than i ever could have from anyone else in the world. it will take a catastrophy of biblical proportions to make this play anything less than the absolute best piece of theatre i have ever had the opportunity to contribute to.
current mood: hopeful
current music: the raquonteurs - steady as she goes
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Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006
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11:24 am - GRAAAAAAA
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i've had the chorus to the real slim shady stuck in my head for two hours now.
my brain may explode soon.
current mood:  frustrated
current music: the real slim shady, obviously
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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Saturday, May 20th, 2006
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1:09 am - i officially resign as nathan leigh. someone else can do it now.
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sometimes you feel kinda shitty because maybe your belly button has been bleeding for a few months, and then your car window explodes for no reason while driving down the highway after having spent 4 hours in traffic cause a methane tank flipped over and you think that the whole world is out to get you, and then you get drunk dialed by an entire party, and everything's ok...
except for the fact that your still bleeding and your car still doesn't have a passenger window, but at least there's a whole bunch of drunk people at a party in springfield who love you.
current mood:  drained
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Tuesday, May 16th, 2006
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11:52 am - i am effective
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ok. i know this is vain and stupid, and the fact that i'm friends with all these artistic directors and producers should indicate that my work is not complete crap. but is it too much to ask for a fucking good review in this town? just one! my sound design has either been ignored or twice called "effective" by mister will stackman. and the noise review of a fne disaster stated "There is nothing memorable about anything on this CD. So why bother? Why put the effort into making something utterly forgettable? This collection of songs sounds more like a cry for help than anything you’d actually want to listen to."
i'm getting work. there's a (albeit fairly slim) possibility that i'll be designing on broadway soon. there are a bunch of people in the industry who respect me, and i should be ignoring what the idiots who couldn't write a note if they tried say, but it's a little frustrating nonetheless to read reviews that either ignore the fact that you had anything to do with a play, or completely trivialize your work.
effective? who the fuck calls anyone or anything effective other than maybe a seat belt.
fuck you will stackman! your slow and painful death will, at the least, be very effective.
current mood:  effective
current music: the birds chirping outside the window are effective
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Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006
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6:24 pm - the busier i am, the more time i have to do things that matter to no-one but me
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Wednesday, March 8th, 2006
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11:51 pm - i'm a reasonable man get off my case
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when i was 14 i wrote a song called "the abyss" and put it online. an online distributer heard it and promoted it in south america where it was apparently downloaded and distributed quite a bit. later that year i wrote a song called "technocentric" that i sold to an online corporation for use in a commercial for $100. i figured at that point that i was making something of myself and my music and that things would take flight really soon. within years maybe even months the record labels would be knocking down my door. that never happened.
i'm 22 now. i've played in far too many bands for my own good. i've written 1200 songs. i've recorded literally dozens of albums. i've toured. i've played hundreds of shows. maybe even a thousand. i lost count a long time ago.
silent orbit collapsed under the weight of our egos. a thousand ships broke up. the abatements never really took flight. now i have this solo project. i've spent the past year mailing demos and press kits to anyone with a mailing address. i very rarely heard back from anyone.
here's where things get wierd.
in the past two weeks, i've gotten more phone calls from managers, lawyers, producers, and labels than i ever have in my entire life combined. every day a producer, or a manager, or a lawyer calls me and tells me that i'm going somewhere. they want to help. all i need to do is sign a piece of paper in blood and give them free reign over my career. ok maybe i'm exaggerating a bit...but i watched "behind the music" every day one summer when i was 16. this shit freaks me out!
i'm really really really wierded out by this. to the point where i'm not trusting even the most benevolent seeming people. steve (roomate/drummer) says not to worry too much, and that there's no harm in talking to people. at the very least i'm making fans of people who know people who know the dog groomer of people's cousin.
i'm far too cynical for this.
current mood:  skeptical
current music: i'm watching bon jovi on leno. it's aweful.
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Friday, March 3rd, 2006
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10:20 am - nervous energy
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in 27 hours this will all be out of my hands. until then i just keep going over in my head everything that can possibly go wrong until then. it's just an audition for a stupid tv series that i didn't even really like. but the fact that some lawyers liked me enough to get me a private auditions puts my hopes of something finally happening for me at slightly higher than my usual apocolyptic levels.
everyone else is so excited about the possibilities this opens for me. i'm just excited that i got a meeting with some lawyers. i guess my new genre choice is for the best.
new songs up
purevolume
www.purevolume.com/nathanleigh
current mood: anxious
current music: shudder to think - rain covered cat
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Tuesday, February 7th, 2006
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1:02 am - the further adventures of...
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i'm in new york right now. i'm not entirely sure why...everyone keeps thanking me for coming out here to work on their show. that's pretty exciting. i'm sleeping on the director's couch. my intern is a high school girl klepto. as a klepto with the mentality of a 15 year old girl, i think we'll get along fine.
did i mention that i'm teching two shows this week? one in new york and one in boston. and i have two strikes this weekend. also teaching thursday.
oh also i decided this morning that it would be a good idea to write my first symphony this week.
oh and a new album tentatively called 'the self help tapes vol. 1'
i'm starting to think maybe i should've put off not being depressed anymore until next week when i have time to deal with all the shit i want to do right now. tant pis.
current mood: chipper
current music: Chris Burke & Singer With the Band - Eating Is Fun...
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Saturday, February 4th, 2006
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12:49 pm - it's all just a little bit of history repeating
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well, at least the universe is consistant:
back in october, i went to the bank and realized there was a chance that i might make it afterall. that i could repay all my debts, and save a little cash.
then my car broke down on route to connecticut. my basement flooded. i lost a gig that i thought i had and was counting on. i was robbed; laptop stolen along with $400 of misc audio crap. the $1000 that i had managed to put away working 20 hour days and driving myself to the brink of exhaustion was gone in a second.
i lay prostrate on the ground screaming 'my god my god why have you forsaken me.'
and i thought, at least i've got my health. then i started getting sick. chronic ear problems and a cold that seemed likeit wasn't ever going away.
then things levelled out for a month. i was getting back on my feet. worked on some great shows. all my friends and family got together to help me out. it was wonderful.
two weeks ago, it started again.
a guy hit me and ran. my basement flooded again. i got sick again. i lost another gig i had been counting on. my car broke down on route to connecticut. oh and a bird crapped on my head.
i'm literally at the point where i don't tell people what's going on in my life because i'm afraid they'll think i'm the boy who cried wolf. except for the fact that i'm actually literally being mauled by wolves over and over and over again.
the ironic happiness of 'a fine disaster' seems so ingenuine. i think i'm going back to introspective orchestrated acoustic rock operas. karma is broken beyond repair. lord knows i've done some horrible things in my life to some very good people, but can i really spend the rest of my life paying for 4 years of selfishness?
current mood: depressed
current music: breaking pangaea - and still they hated it
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Monday, January 30th, 2006
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8:41 am - siu and the flood
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saturday the basement started to flood again. i called siu. "it's chinese new year," she says. "i so worried. i no sleep." i tell her she has to take care of it or she has to pay for us to be put up in a hotel. she says "no no, that's not true." i tell her it's the law. so maybe i don't tell her that she has 5 days to deal with it first. but it's pretty much the law. she calls a guy. he doesn't show. i call her. she tells me to call someone else. i call them. they call her. she tells them that i'm exaggerating, and if they show up, she wont pay. she calls me, and says that they're too expensive and unfair. they call me back and tell me the truth.
so i go and stay with my parents for the night. i'd been cleaning up after the spill, so my mom makes me take a shower and put bags on my feet before i can walk around freely in the house. it's year number three of my parents not knowing about the tattoo...needless to say i'm hesitant to undress in front of them. now's just not the best time to deal with it.
i come back last night. i call roxanne. siu's there. i can't deal with her after talking to her on the phone 7 times the night before, so audrey and i go out to eat. we get back. still no solution. a guy's coming in the morning. siu will be here in the morning. i hate siu.
we wake up. the guy shows up. nice guy. seems to know what he's talking about. explains that the house is 100+ years old, and the plumbing could just be plain old fucked and needs to be dug up and replaced. it could be a lot more simple but it will cost multiple hundreds of dollars to figure out. siu shows up. she yells at him. says he's trying to cheat her and is not being fair. she says that i'm exaggerating. it's not as bad as i say.
there's this fascinating thing when you catch someone at a lie. when you hear someone say something and you know for an absolute fact that it's not true. and you know that you're going to get screwed by it.
i hate siu.
current mood: distressed
current music: matisyahu - king without a crown
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florentinoariza's journal
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