Feist-y

There's so much going on this week that I've managed to somehow neglect my weekly blog entry. I've been dying to get on here and "free my mind" of the crap that has managed to clout my normalcy. Work is starting to really feel like work and I've managed to be consistently busy these last few days with a ton of my clients. The days go by faster and my stress level seems to get the best of me, but I've never really been one to succumb to that kind of pressure. I always somehow manage to power through it. Not today--- today has been an experience all on its own. To put it in perspective, it's sort of like when you're feeling great and having a great day and someone says something so minute and miniscule that borders offensive-- but packs so much punch and hits you right below the belt-- that it literally cripples you by eating away at your thoughts. It's amazing how you can't manage to take the compliments you receive for what their worth, but really place a lot of emphasis on the insults (or critiques).

Arriving to work I knew that I'd have to submit a press release for a client. It has been in the works for about 2 weeks now and it was a particularly sensitive subject for the company. Due to my confidentiality clause I can't specify more on it, but after going through the routine of getting it ready for dissemmination-- a particular foreign exchange releases the release an hour before the client wanted to announce it. Keep in mind-- the announcement had a lot riding on it. Well, this does not play well with the client who upon seeing stories appear in the news, immediately phones my boss, who in turns questions my actions and the entire mess pushes me inches from an anxiety attack-- no kidding. More than anyone else I am hard on myself when I make a mistake, especially when my job could potentially be on the line or I could cost a corporation millions of dollars, or have my employer lose a client because of my stupidity. Granted the fact that this guy at the foreign stock exchange was the one to leak the announcement before he had authority too--- the client doesn't know that. I was merely following procedure that's endured longer than anyone can remember, but of course I look like th asshole who f-ed it up for the company. It's strike two for me with this particular client because I'd previously released a press release with the tracked changes from Word still on it to the distribution list and upper management. DUH! I don't know what's wrong with me-- I'm usually more meticulous than that and I pride myself on my ability to pay attention to detail. I'm easily overwhelmed by the work though and obviously something has to improve or I'm packin' up and shippin' out. Let's just hope I'm jumping to conclusions and being completely irrational.... at least for my sanity.

In other news: I attended the Feist concert last night with DB and DP at the McCarren Pool in Brooklyn. Let me just start off by saying that thanks to my unwillingness to carry a camera around with me to capture my adventures and thanks to my willingness to maintain a blog-- I've learned to absorb more of the things I experience, so as to accurately recap them in this "electronic diary."

A woman who can rock out on an as-yet-un-named guitar in front of a sea of people standing in what use to be a massive (and I mean massive) pool that is now drained and turned into a pseudo-concert hall for the world of hipsters to enjoy------ is awesome. Standing on the 7 ft. tall (my best estimate) stage with a mic stand and underneath the string of red, green and blue lights, her voice sounds better than any recorded material. Almost instantly-- you become enveloped in her sultry-folk voice as the rythmic beating on the guitar leaves you no choice but to move in unison. Your mesmerized, completely infatuated and have fallen under the spell that is Feist-- as you stare up in complete awe of a human being capable of sounding so serene and evoking so much of herself in her songs. For a second you almost wonder if her CD could sound better-- but you quickly realize that you're in the presence of a real performer capable of doing what only distinguished performs of the past were capable of doing before electronic synthesizing and massive paychecks forever changed the face of concerts because greedy artists preferred the spectacle of a concert over a gritty, unplugged performance. So many have fallen victim to the comfort of a back-track that'll loop the chorus or worse keep them from ever stressing their vocal chords. The only looping you'll find from Feist comes from the looping machine she uses while her bandmates sit out a song or two. The only thing that could have made her performance more raw was if we were sitting in an intimate recording studio, packed on top of pillows and her simply interjecting spurts of songs, while engaged in friendly conversation--- naked.

During her one song appropriately entitled "The Park"-- I became aware of where I was, who I was with and what I was doing. It sounds peculiar, yes, but how many times have you ever felt aware of where you are? I mean really aware of your surroundings. There's no doubt that we often walk like mummies through experiences without fully grasping onto what we've just witnessed or been through. In my experience, those lost moments are the ones that for obvious reasons become mere blurs and even when a friend says to you "remember that one time..." you can't for the life of you remember what they're talking about. Frustrating.

If it weren't evident as it stands...I had the most incredible of times at the concert. Certainly ranks on my top 10 experiences in New York thus far-- where among this list I just made up when writing that sentence it stands....I don't know. I have to see what else I can list on my top 10 best experiences in New York.