Transitioning

Wow, just realized that headline could totally be taken in the wrong way. Anyway, since I'm no longer living in Leeds, I'm getting back to my old blog, Thrice Told Tales. Check it out.

Who Knew?

Nico Muhly, one of my favorite modern composers has just turned me on to Benjamin Britten. Seriously, check out "Now the Hungry Lion Roars" near the bottom of his post. It's an incredible piece of music and Muhly shows how a conductor can greatly affect the way a piece sounds. (I also greatly enjoy the post in its entirety)

http://nicomuhly.com/news/2009/my-local/

Check out Muhly's work here: http://www.myspace.com/muhly

Also of side note: if you've never listened to it, just listen to Saint-Saen's Carnival of the Animals, especially Aquarium. You'll probably recognize some of the pieces the next time you go to a movie.

Moving On

Friday, I finally bought a ticket to the states. I'm not necessarily going to call it my ticket back to the states, though more or less, it is. I leave from Leeds-Bradford on October 6, due to arrive in Kansas City on the same day...after 16 hours of traveling through Amsterdam and Minneapolis-St. Paul. Ugh.

It's a roundtrip ticket though--my open door back to the UK--though I'm sure I won't need it. I wanted to have something waiting, just in case, the day before I left, my dream job offer came through. Money, unsurprisingly, loomed large in the decision. Entry-level jobs don't pay as well here, and with student loans, visas, and other expenses, it would have made for a difficult year.

But, there are always ways around a money issue. Part of the challenge was that I felt like if I left the UK, somehow I would be leaving it forever. Only recently have I come to the realization that just because you leave some place doesn't mean your connections to it die as well. Through a couple of new opportunities, I can retain my business and personal connections to this island, possibly even strengthening them.

Although it's trite, I think I simply had to shift my perspective to understand that instead of leaving England, a bit of England was coming along with me. I'm not sure how I changed, but I feel like I grew up a bit whilst over here. If nothing else, I gained more confidence in my own abilities.

After Kansas City for a week or two, I'll most likely move to New York. I feel pretty confident in this decision; whenever I think about it I smile. But my head is so full of ideas and things to do that it's a bit hard to concentrate. I'm excited for the change, but ready to get settled down again. For the next few weeks, I'll be jumping from place to place, city to city, trying to tie up loose ends, start some new projects, and (hopefully) having a bit of fun.

Either way, come Oct 6, I'll be headed back home, ready to dig into some good food, relax, and start over in a new place.

Something to tide you over...

...until I can blog again. It's been busy the past few weeks. Some decisions have been made, some new projects begun. I'll send up a post when things are a bit clearer, though. Until then...

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.

Incredible.

If you want to see how the internet can engage and emote, I highly suggest you check out the new interactive video from The Arcade Fire. Just make sure you are using Firefox or Safari or Chrome. You'll thank me.

http://thewildernessdowntown.com/

And So, The Chapter Ends.

As of Thursday, August 19th, I officially handed in my dissertation. A little before noon, I picked up the two copies as specified by the university: forest green tape for binding, a washed out shade of emerald for the cover, and hastily impressed gold lettering spelling out my name, the year, and my degree. Handing in these 72 pages--almost five months of work when you factor in the planning--felt at once unceremonious and joyful. Meeting coursemates at a local pub for lunch, we joked that they should have given us a ribbon or sash when we delivered it to the grad office. Somehow signing your name in ballpoint pen doesn't quite have the pomp and circumstance one would hope for in such an event.

The days preceding the event were largely drowned in a river of Pepsi Max, pre-packaged sandwich meal deals, and a veritable cornucopia of sweets. I fear a the next time I go to the dentist, he'll examine my mouth only to find myriad greyish-brown caverns in what was once a healthy mouth. I have started flossing to compensate. Long days in the computer lab turned to long nights in front of my MacBook, fruitlessly searching for the perfect word or turn of phrase.

In the end? I'm not thrilled with it. But I suppose that's the nature of the beast. Once it's all over, all you can do is see the flaws, the areas to be improved, the times you should have stayed in to work. Yet, it's done. There's no more work I can put into it. No more graphs or charts. Not one more reference. And it feels good. It may not be my best piece of work, but its the culmination of a year of change.

I finished reading Pillars of the Earth the day after I handed in my dissertation. I'd been reading the book all summer, using it as a form of escape after long nights of work. What I realized was, as they were building their cathedral in the story, I was building mine. I faced setbacks, design errors, and flaws in construction. But I also had (short-lived) flashes of brilliance and delight in the knowledge that my project, bound as it was in its cloak of green, will stand as a testament to the things I've learned over the past year.

Now, it's time to move on to a new chapter in my life: a new job. I'll spend the next month largely looking in the UK. But once my lease is up, if I don't have any leads, I'm going to move back to the U.S., probably to settle in New York. Then again, it may all change tomorrow. Who knows...


*If you have some strange desire to actually read my dissertation, it can be found on my website: http://www.stephenanemeth.com under the "Portfolio" tab.

Inception

Just saw Inception. Really incredible movie. I especially appreciated the many nods to famous architects and designers, especially Frank Lloyd Wright, M.C. Escher, Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbiseur. The architecture nerd in me got excited several times over.