SO excited for this evening’s reading of the WHOLE SHOW. Songs ‘n script ‘n everything else. Due to rehearsal constraints, the ensemble numbers will be performed by the St. Mark’s Men’s Choir via satellite (aka audio recordings of me multi-tracking myself) (that sounds dirty) and some of Scott/Joe/Bridget’s parts will be performed by yours truly.

I’m really proud of some of the new music and I’m excited for you all to hear it eventually. In the meantime, here is a song I did not write. But I enjoy it. So I think you will too.

Robyn – Hang With Me official video from Robyn on Vimeo.

I’m so excited to be officially starting work on “The Great Unknown,” a new musical by Jim Wann that will be premiering at the 2010 New York Musical Theater Festival in the fall! I’ll be doing charts and who knows what else for the show. Sitting in on the AEA Principal Call next week will certainly be a new experience.

The next reading of “Tangled” is coming up on the 26th. It’s a closed reading, but if you were really looking forward to it, send me an email and $5000 and I’ll see what I can do. We’ve got a whole script this time and a full reading cast. The majority of the songs are done and will be performed by our cast, by me or by a super multitracked version of me. If you haven’t already, check out the link to the Facebook group below. It’s growing all the time! We’re also cutting some demos over the summer which I am STOKED to start. A little help from GrindStone Projects and Madam X is gonna make this one of the sexiest projects you’ll ever see.

Aside from the théatrè, the lovely and talented Alex Rubin set me up with a little office-style gig that I’m doing from home (for cash-monies) and the staff at Arts America is hard at work getting the website fully functional with Editor’s Comments for every venue. I’m doing a little crossover work in the Classical department, which gives me a change of pace from mucking through the truly awful web presence of most jazz venues. TAKE HEED, PEOPLE OF THE WORLD: Your Geocities-style webpage doesn’t impress anyone in 2010. IMHFO.

Very excited for the Phil in the Park tomorrow. I’ve got at least 3 different groups of people I’m supposed to be meeting up with. We’ll see how that turns out, given the sea of humanity on the Great Lawn.

Also, luftputefartøyet mitt er fullt av ål.

Just so you know.

We had a marvelous, sweaty day at Lincoln Center playing songs from “Tangled” for the huddled masses! The wonderful Renee heard us in the morning and invited us back for the final open air concert for the “Play Me, I’m Yours” exhibit. Check out the videos below, one is an overview of the whole day, the other is at the evening concert (via Tom Cathey)

TANGLED in the streets! from Alexandra H. Rubin on Vimeo.

Click riiiiiiiiiiiiiight HERE.

Not my brownstone... But close.

I’m sitting here in my Clinton Hill apartment, looking out the giant front window down Bedford Ave. We say it’s “Clinton Hill,” but by most accounts, it’s Bed-Stuy. A less than desirable zip code and perhaps an even less desirable one for someone of my background and… travel sizèd-ness.

The apartment is beautiful and I will be sad to leave it come September. Where I’ll be then, no one knows. But in the meantime, I want to become more comfortable with this area. It’s Bed-Stuy, Do or Die, as the t-shirts at the Colador Café next door proclaim, and I want to DO.

You can live in constant fear of your surroundings. You can keep your hand on your wallet and stash your iPod on the subway, but what does it get you? More fear. More harassment. I had my first experience of seeing a full-on, pants-down defecation on my own subway platform right across the street. I feel ever so New York now.

I want to embrace this city. I want to reap the rewards that are sitting out in front of me. That’s not to say I won’t be cautious. That I won’t be careful. But I don’t want to live in fear.

To that end, I want to dispel fear in every other part of my life as well. Especially my professional life. I think, up to this point, I’ve explored my abilities and my shortcomings in a safe, little corral, where I found I was proficient, well-liked, perhaps even talented. But fear has kept me from being something more. I can’t be afford to be afraid to fail. I’m “freelancing,” which is a euphemism for “mostly unemployed with a few paying gigs.” I will probably need to get a real people job soon. But fear cannot be the main motivator for that or for anything else. I need to work hard. I need to make new contacts. I need to develop my skills.

But I do not need to be afraid.