Any Given Sunday

Good morning from the sunny...cold....warm...mild...I have no clue what to call this weather, Boston. Today is Sunday, March 13th and I currently sitting at my desk, having just returned from a lovely brunch with two of my friends Tia and Alexis. This past week has been quite eventful, I think.  For those of you who don't know I am a part of the student government here at the boco, and I recently found out that part of my job is to be sort of second in command for Prom. Yes, we have BoCo Prom every year, and this year our theme is "BoCo's Bourbon Street Ball" (it's like mardi gras). So, I am currently hard at work on posters and booking things for that whole magilla. On Tuesday, I had the chance to go over to the hotel to look at the space and begin discussing details. I am very excited to be a part of something like this, and follow in my mother's footsteps! I'll keep you updated on things with that as I find out more. Later in the week I had the chance to go see a production of Cabaret in our black box theatre, directed by one of the seniors here. The show was, to say the least, brilliant. I cried my eyes out, and it reminded how big of a privilege it is to be at this school with such talented people. Then came pretty much my favorite part of the week, Friday. Not only was I excited for the week to be over, but I had scheduled a meeting with a client for a poster she needed. This student is producing a musical version of the award winning novel, The Lovely Bones. This project should be really exciting and inspired me to start what I'm calling my design blog. You can check it out at: www.mattsbackupplan.blogspot.com. So, I titled it, Matt's Back-Up Plan because well, god forbid I'm not a broadway star, I have something to fall back on! So I've almost all of the work I've done, and I'll get to writing about all of them soon, but for now you can see some of the things I've been working on! This sort of leads in to what I will call me deeper portion this week.
Being at a conservatory, a lot of people think that you are really limited to what you can do, in terms of like personal preference or freedom or whatever. What's important to note is that, yes, we do have a very strict curriculum and our classes are sort of mapped out for us, which can either be seen as a positive or negative, but beyond that there's a lot of freedom in what you do with the rest of your time. Classes go from about 9 to 5 or 6 depending, and after that, unless you're in rehearsal, the time is yours. As soon as I arrived at school, I knew that I needed to get myself out there, if I wanted to have a "well-rounded" college experience where I was learning as much as I possibly could. So, I started by finding a job that I thought could teach me things I couldn't learn in a class at school. Now, I work about 5 hours a week as a techie for the mainstage theater, and as a result, by the end of this year, I'll be able to add two shows I programed lights for, and one I designed lights for to my resume. Beyond that, I became extremely interested in really putting my design skills to the test. I began designing things for the student government here, which led to getting a position on the executive board, and consequently, a student and faculty board. With that, I volunteered to start doing posters and advertisements for shows and clubs. Now, I am getting paid to design posters, which is something I love to do. The point of all this is, school and I guess life in general is what you make of it. You are the controller of your own destiny. Each and every person has something special about them, but if you just go about your daily life playing by the rules and going through the motions, you won't learn nearly as much as the people who are going above and beyond to make an impact. Life is too short to just take things as they come, if you want something, you have to go out and get it. Additionally, you have to work for it. There a catch though. You can't take all this and then step on everyone else to get what you want, and you can't make it obvious that you're working harder than everyone else. What's more admirable is to feed off the people around you. Live in the moment and take what you are getting from the things you see and hear and feel. This sort of ties in with going with the flow, something I work on every day. Naturally, I am control freak and a person who likes to know everything that's going on, I made it a goal for myself to just sit back and enjoy the ride, all the while working for the things that I want. I have goals and wants and needs like everybody else, but you have to be able to see the importance of each one and measure if it's worth going for or even fighting for. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's simply not. I realize, once again, I have ranted for a while, so I'm sorry for taking up your time, but thanks for reading nonetheless. 
7 days from now I'll be home with my family getting ready to start a week at home which will surely include Go Roma, sleepovers, Once Upon, the rink, TV, steak, McDonalds with Joey, and plenty of other things that I can't even begin to imagine. Which is sort of the beauty of it. Why worry about what's coming when today's not even over (I'll say it a million times if I have to.) For those of you who have been reading my blog since the beginning, I just want to say thank you for everything. It means more to mean than you could ever know. Stay cool peeps. Talk to you soon!


Much Love,
Matt


P.S. IT"S MY BIRTHDAY MONTH!

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Tonight, Tonight

Today was, for those of you who don't know, the opening and closing day of the show that I was a part of this semester. I've talked about it a few times here, but essentially it's a cabaret consisting of numbers that are miscast. So, songs were gender bended (is that a word?), rearranged, all sorts of fun and fierce stuff. We had two official shows this evening, in fact I just returned from one of them! The two shows went over really well and we raised over $500 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, which is really exciting. I was so honored to be a part of such an amazing group of people who are not only talented, but caring and loving people. It was a blast to put together, and even more fun to perform. I'm sure I'll be posting videos of the show on here soon! As of right this moment, I am writing this blog while getting dressed and taking a breath before our cast party, which should prove to be quite epic. Though, my voice is pretty much shot after belting everything this past week. Luckily, there's nothing big coming up and my voice is not shot for good so it should take a day to recover. Other than that, I just need to give a shout out to everyone in the cast and production team...so there it is.


As for the deeper part of this blog post, I had the opportunity last week to take a trip to the hospital with a friend who was having some issues. Luckily, everything is ok now, but this whole experience got me thinking. Beyond that, this week has been crazy stressful and there are things that I almost committed to doing that I shouldn't have even thought about. What I'm getting at is that sometimes as people we have to step back and admit that we, ourselves, are not the best choice or option to handle a situation. Human nature often overrules this common sense and makes our minds believe that we can be a hero in that moment. What truly is a hero? A hero is sometimes someone dressed in a silly costume flying around killing cartoon monsters, it's sometimes a person who wins against all odds and shows extreme amounts of courage and bravery, and sometimes its person who is able to "save the day" even if they're not the one to actually physically do it. The pat on the head is an amazing feeling no doubt, but it feels better inside to see someone happy, someone better, something solved and problems ceased, especially when you know that you enabled it to happen. Though, we can't confuse the word enable for something it's not. Enabling is sort of connected to this whole thing in that we often times feel the need to be the hero for someone else's problems. Thus, people begin to rely on others for almost everything, instead of being able to solve problems themselves. This act of enabling is something we often don't recognize until after the fact. And that's a great time to do it because then it's possible to learn from the things you've done. Keyword - YOU've done. You are in more control than you think you are, and you are the only person who can make decisions for you. There is only ONE constant in your life, and that is you. As hard of an idea is that is to grasp, it's important nonetheless. I talked about in the last post, but to expand, as people we can only rely on one person to be there the rest of our lives and that's ourselves. So, with that, don't rely on others to solve your problems. Take some initiative and try to do it yourself, but also, be able to realize when you need help from someone who knows what to do, not a friend who will do what you want. This sounds really hard, and somewhat complicated, and unfortunately it is, but it all happens in a matter of moments. It's a decision you make on the fly. So, keep it in the back of your mind. (Did that rhyme)


Sorry for digressing a bit, but now I'm off to party hardy with the cast and team of miscast. I am nervous, yet excited to see what the night holds.


All my love,

Matt

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Drink With Me

It's been almost a month since my last post, and I finally have the time to sit down and just write. Truthfully there's no way I could tell you everything that's been happening, so I'll pick out the good stuff and give you that. To start, when last I was in blog world I made two video-blogs (vlogs) which went over quite well. I thought about doing this one as a vlog, but decided there was too much ground to cover. Though, I have to give kudos to my brother Joey for helping me out. He had some great ideas which eventually formed into what the second video blog is. If I'm not mistaken, that took place during Tech weekend of Hansel & Gretel, the opera in which I was running the light board for. If you didn't know, I recently learned how to program the board and have since become a board operator here at school. In fact, something no one really knows yet, is that not only will I be programming the board for a lighting designer in our Tommy, one of our mainstage productions, I recently found out that I'm going to be doing a large portion of the actual lighting design for the freshman revue. I could not deliver this news with a more happy refrain. As soon as I arrived at school, it was a goal of mine to be able to design a show on the mainstage by the time I graduate, which was something that was very far out of reach because most of the time the school hires lighting designers from outside. Freshman revue, however hectic, will truly be a dream come true for me. I'll be performing and designing the show, so I can't wait to get started with all that. 

I also found out that I am going to have the opportunity to perform in a benefit cabaret called "miscast". It's essentially a cast of 12 or so kids performing songs and numbers that they could never perform in shows. Opposite sex, gender, race, type, all that stuff. The rehearsals have been fun to say the least, and I'm looking forward to our performances this weekend. In the show, I'm in a number of trios and group songs like "She's In Love" from The Little Mermaid, as well as an acoustic disney princess medley with 4 other boys. I'm sure they'll be videos to see, so keep your eyes peeled. I was lucky enough to have my mom come out to boston to visit me and my uncle, who was in Rhode Island at the time, and have her watch some rehearsals. If you ask anyone who's a performer, rehearsals are of course fun, but they are work, it's like a job. To see my mom sit in a room and smile at just the thought of hearing us sing is something that I hold close to my heart. It makes me happy to see how happy she gets when she's sitting in a simple rehearsal that we sort of take for granted. She was really blown away by the talent, and we were marking! Truthfully, every time she comes she's blown away, but she told me it was like all the leads from Glenbrook Musicals had come together and formed these people that were "fierce" as she would say. We had an amazing time driving around, sitting around, walking around, and just hanging around boston for a few days. I even got to stay in the hotel with her! 

The highlight of the trip had to be BoCo's annual Drag Show which she insisted on seeing. I have to admit I was fairly hesitant because it's not every day that your date to the show where all the boys are dressing up as women, is your mom. Nevertheless, we went and had an amazing time. She also, while visiting, had the chance to see the apartment that I am hoping to live in next year. It's currently occupied by a BoCo senior, but I can't give away any details or pictures until the deal is done. As soon as it happens, I'll be sure to post pictures and all that! To be honest, I think that's the most exciting things that have happened in the past 3 weeks. I've been working hard on posters and logos, freelance and now that I am officially apart of the student government here at school, I've been doing their stuff too. 

With all this going on, I have had some time to reflect on things and look at the big picture. Coming back to school was in fact very difficult for me. The adjustment back in to college life was harder than expected. I am more than happy to be here, of course, but sometimes your mind has a chance to slip back in to home mode, and you realize how much you left behind coming here. But that was revelation I made, I hadn't truly left anything behind. Everything that has happened up till now, is a large part of who I am. I am 18 years old for gosh sakes! I don't need to be worrying about the rest of my life when today's not even over. I realize I've said that before, but it's so important to know. With every day comes new opportunities, and new challenges, and new likes and gripes, and it's all part of it. There's been this terrible flu like thing sweeping school and I was working so hard not to get it, but even with all my efforts, I did attain the virus, the plague some are calling it. I was lucky enough not to have an awful case of it, but I still had to miss about a day of school. As much it sucked sitting in bed all day looking outside at the 50 degree weather and wishing I was out there, I knew that tomorrow was a new day. In fact, that next day I ended up helping out the Musical Theatre auditions and meeting a ton of extremely cool people. As corny or cheesy as it sounds, I have to sit back and say that I had no clue Friday morning, that Saturday not only would I be meeting prospective students, I'd be seeing the Justin Bieber movie with two of my lovely friends.

(If you didn't know I'm a huge Bieber fan!) No one can predict what tomorrow, or even today will bring. Embrace it all. Let the people around you continue to inspire and challenge and fuel every emotion conjured up in that chamber that we call our hearts. We are stronger and in more control than we think. A good friend once told me that we can only feel comfortable with others, once we are comfortable with ourselves. That doesn't necessarily mean like your sexuality, or political opinions, it means being comfortable with hanging out with you. Yourself. He gave me the advice to take some time for me and do something I loved. So I whipped out my guitar, and it felt better than I could have ever imagined it. That's not to say that now I am all comfortable with me, and I can live happily ever after. We are all a work in progress, always. For every single action we take there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you give, you will get. And if not today, than maybe tomorrow, or maybe in while, but you will get. So I'm going to keep on giving and soak in every little thing I get. The people who give to me, mean more than they know and have a really special place in my heard. You know who you are, and if you don't than you'll know by the fact that when I say I love you, I truly mean it. 

I realize now how long this post is probably going to seem, and how I sort of just ranted for a while, but hey, it felt good. And, if you don't want to read it, you don't have to! Thus, you have reached the end, and have read the whole thing, or at least skimmed it. Whatever works. I appreciate you taking time out of your day to read about my life, which sounds sort of odd. Before I go, I will send my love to all my friends back at home and in colleges and cities around the country, because now more than ever, I realize how important each and every one of you is. Thanks for everything so far, and here's to many more (I raise my bottle of smart water to you). 

Cheers mate.

Matt

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Matt's Video Blog #2

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Matt's Video Blog #1

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Easy as Life

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted this week was unexpectedly busy. Saturday was a fun-filled day starting with a 3 hour brunch lunch with some old camp friends. I don't think any of us planned on sitting in Cosi for 3 hours and telling camp stories, but that's what happens sometimes...I guess. It's always nice to be able to talk to people who you don't see very often and maybe even don't talk to much. Camp, as some of you know, is like my home away from home (it's my 10th time going back in fact!) and the people there have become almost family for me. Some of them know me better than I know myself and I know that I can always call or text or whatever someone from camp if I need help with anything. They're always there, and there's a lot of them too! So, shout out to Jake, Colby, and Aaron for making my Saturday afternoon a blast. What a cheesy word. "Blast!" Who thought it would be a good idea to substitute "Blast" for "fun" or something. Who knows. And if you thought my Saturday couldn't get better, it did, in a BIG way. 

I had a once in a lifetime (or once every time I'm home) opportunity to join my Mom and making some Jewish parent's dream come true. Their son's Bar-Mitzvah party. "Ben's Field of Dreams" was a hit and much in part to the hard work of my mother and her crew (aka me and JB). The party, of course, has some bumps, but not enough to keep my mom from dancing a little bit (she could have been a Solid Gold dancer...for those of you who have any idea what that is). But seriously, my mom is amazing at what she does. It's astounding to me that she has only been doing this for a few years and now she is a big kahuna in the Bar-Mitzvah world. Much love Momma, you rock. 

Sunday was a little slower but that night was my cousin's birthday party. When I say birthday party I do not mean pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, dance around in circles, eat ice cream cake and watch home videos 10 years later and laugh birthday party. I mean the type where both sides of her family are there and we sit, watch football, and tell stories...not to mention the 5 children running around entertaining us. Needless to say, it was a fun night and it was the last chance to see my cousin Jordan before we both headed back to school. Miss you already Jord! Monday was uneventful and Tuesday I flew out to Arizona to visit some family. I spent just about 48 hours there, and I have to say that it was an amazing trip that I wish had been longer. This is partially do to the fact that the weather there was much better than at home or at school, but it more because I had the chance to really get to spend some one on one time with my amazing uncle Jon, wife Kate, daughter Maddy, and doggie Josie. 

Arizona

Chicago

We didn't do anything extremely exciting per-say, but that was not the point of me going. I was happy to sit at a table in the house with any of them for 2 hours and just talk. I figured out that you can learn a lot over just one cup of coffee, or one car ride. It meant a lot to me that they sort of let me sit in on their life for two days, and I cannot say how proud I am of my family. Now that I'm a mature adult (some may argue otherwise) I can really appreciate my family members for who they are and talk to them like I'm not a kid. The flights were quite easy and once I returned home I immediately had to start getting ready to head back to school. I spent my last days at home visiting with more friends and hanging out with family. Sunday, my flight back, was eventful to say the least. First off, my first flight was cancelled which resulted in me having to sit and watch the Bears game with my mother. Loud doesn't describe it. In case you didn't know, the players can hear her through the TV so it makes perfect sense that she yells at them like they are her players. After that, I headed back to the airport to give it a second go. This time I was successful in getting on to the plane, though I had no idea what I was in store for. First, the family sitting across from me thought it would be a good idea to bring their dog on the plane. I am semi-allergic and I'm sure the man sitting next to me got quite annoyed with my sneezing. Not to mention the crying child behind me who screamed almost the entire flight. Other than that, it was lovely. Once I landed in Boston I learned that people have an extreme craze about their baggage. I had no idea that the closer you stand to the luggage carousel, the faster YOUR luggage comes. After pushing my way through the hoards of people I got both my bags and hopped a cab back to the BoCo. Sometimes I forget that we live in old brownstones and that there are no elevators. Two bags, a guitar, and carry-on later, I was on my bed almost asleep when I was alerted that my friends were heading to the cafeteria for their evening meal. I decided to join them and enjoy my first meal back at school. It was, as always, lovely. I was exhausted by the end of the night and decided it would be a bad idea for me to go and party before I unpacked. So, I unpacked, and by the time that was done, I was just ready for bed. I hit the hay early but it was much needed. Today was wonderful in that I received a new iPhone and spent 2 hours at the apple store. I could have spent all day, but I had to resist. Now I'm back in the dorm relaxing, reading, web surfing, and figuring things out for later tonight. As more and more kids filter into school, I slowly am remembering why I loved this place so much. For this semester I plan on really appreciating every person and every moment because it's all quite precious. The things we learn now are the things that we'll use for the rest of our lives, but we don't have to worry about that today, because today's not even over. One at a time, it's important to keep everything in perspective. Break was four weeks over mental cleansing and detoxing, it's time to get back to doing what I love; learning about what I love. But with all that, we have to take it one day at a time. I hope that everyone had an amazing break from whatever you were doing, and if you didn't have one, take some time and watch a movie or eat ice cream or something. Rest your mind, everyone needs to sometimes, and don't plan on having a break tomorrow, today's not even over yet!

-Matt

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When You're Home

It has officially been 5 days since I've arrived back in the 847 and it's been a good time so far. Getting back home was no easy "thang" though. On Sunday, I posted about how we were boarding the plane and I was going home and how nice and blah, blah, blah. We boarded the plane on time and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the Frontier Airline Jet was. There were 2 seats on each side, so my brother and I got to sit together, which could have been a formula for disaster but that ended up being the least of our worries. After boarding we were informed there was a slight issue in the cockpit and that we'd be in the air as soon as it was fixed. Pretty normal, a slight delay never caused anyone much harm. Now, 45 minutes later, people were growing restless, not me of course (that's because I was sleeping.) I was then rudely awakened to find that everyone was getting off the plane. Apparently they could not fix the issue and proceeded to tell us, essentially, we were "s**t out of luck." My father went into Bruce mode and called American and booked us a flight for the next morning since everything on Sunday was booked solid. Frontier told us to go and retrieve our luggage and then head over to the (ONE) desk, where we'd be given further information. My Dad, always the thinker, decided to split up! I went down to luggage with my Mom and Brother, and he went to the desk. 10 minutes later we received a call from upstairs, my Dad, telling us to meet him back at security because we were getting back on the plane. As thrilled as we were by the news, it was quite tedious to go through security again and have to board again and have to just get settled again. As soon as everyone had boarded it was about 3 hours past the time we were planning on taking off, but we ended up making it home just fine and ordering my favorite Northbrook pizza. Keep in mind that earlier that day we had gotten off the boat and when we arrived we had to take a car back to Northbrook from Milwaukee. That's what I call a day of traveling. 

The week began and my first day officially home included a work out and Netflix. Relaxing right? The next two days I had the opportunity and the privilege to visit my old high school and sit in on some theater classes and answer some question about school...a lot of questions about school. It was nice to just be back in familiar territory, the place where I really learned everything I know about performing and all that. What's more, I was lucky enough to sit in on a dress rehearsal, and then a performance of "Spelling Bee" at my school, which many of my close friends were in. To see them on stage and to just sit in the audience and watch was easier than I thought it would be. I couldn't help but sit back and be so proud of the program that I came from. The talent was extraordinary and the students involved had some star performances. Not to mention, the directing and music in the was phenomenal. I truly believe that it was comparable to the tour of the show I saw some years ago. So that's my shout out to the cast, amazing job you guys! 

Today I decided to help my Mom out at her office, I had no idea what I was getting into. I will say, as boring and hard as it was, I had a pretty good time. I got the chance to watch my mom do what she does best! And boy is she good at it. Meanwhile, I was sorting, labeling, alphabetizing, and then rolling and packing giveaways for a party this weekend. Luckily, my cousin joined me a little later and we were able to get it all done. 

Other than that, there hasn't been much going on. I have been watching a lots of "Weeds" if that's exciting to you. Like I said, I am extremely happy to be home and spending time with friends and family but I am more than excited to get back to Boston and back to work. I am even more excited for what happens after this semester. When I return home I am going to be hard at work with an old friend of mine on a secret project that I'll inform you about later on in the spring, and then, for the 10th time, I'll be heading up to Woodruff, Wisconsin to hang out and spend the summer with some amazing friends of mine who range in age from 9 to...older. I sent my contract in yesterday and I have a feeling this could be one of the best summers ever. 

For now, I'm off to dinner with a friend and then who knows what the next few hold in store. Being at home is like a giant improv game, I'm totally making it up as I go along. 

-Matt

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