Apple Juice Living

Prepare your mind to be blown - Vintage 1940’s Photos of NYC & LES

The old Fulton Market, Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Saturday afternoon (1941)

Residents of lower Clinton St near East river Saturday afternoon

A view (facing north) of Norfolk Street between Broome and Delancey Streets

After some internet research, someone else had found these photos and did some then and now comparison shots…..

For additional vintage photos and face melting…GO HERE

My Indonesia trip

As part of my new job, I was sent to Indonesia for two weeks to basically be a voice for music education (and a new program I manage), and participate in teaching Indonesian students the importance of music education in their lives. It still kind of bugs me out that this is what I do for work (since new job is still kind of new to me) because it is a dream come true job for me since it is everything I’ve studied and worked towards for years.

The areas I visited were Jakarta (primarily Muslim) and Bali (primarily Hindu), as well as a day trip to Cianjur (a town in the hills three hours outside of Jakarta). I came away from this trip with a few global and personal discoveries:

- Living in America, we live among excess. We fill our homes with ‘things’ to fill our emotional voids rather than family and friends. We do not appreciate the conveniences that we live with in America (clean water, working plumbing systems, malaria-free mosquitoes, dentists, money & jobs), when we should be grateful.

- I love toilet paper, and never fully appreciated its purpose until this trip. I will also never leave home without a pack of tissues (just in case).

- Muslim culture gets a bad rap here in America, and is not being explained in its fullest by the media and journalists. Fortunately, I met friends in Indonesia that were wonderful in explaining to me how they lives their lives in accordance to Islam (and also so I wouldn’t commit a cultural faux-pas when meeting new peopl.e like exposing the soles of my feet to people when sitting down. That is a big no-no).

- I question the authenticity of American politicians, and realized how out-of-touch most politicians and their ideas are with today’s happenings. As an ex-boyfriend described to me once, Washington D.C. is Hollywood for ugly people. That statement has never been so true to me until now.

- American students are spoiled brats. Harsh, I know, but yes, I said it. Why? I met MANY Indonesian students who displayed so much musical talent. When I asked them ‘Wow..where did you learn to play like that?” they always replied ‘I taught myself.’ These students weren’t being forced to learn how to play music, they weren’t being schlepped to private lessons by their parents, they sought out knowledge ON THEIR OWN because they want to better THEIR OWN LIVES. (Direct quote from many students). No whining, no talking back, no lame excuses, no chip on their shoulders. Completely self-motivated. And all these students were still participating in today’s social media innovations (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), yet they were able to stay focused on making themselves better. It really made me think a lot about the direction of today’s younger generation (including my own).

- Bali is a magical and mystical place. Everything that has been described in literature about Bali is true. Everyone should try to visit their at least once in their lives.

I snapped over 800 photos because it was such a once in a lifetime experience. However, most of the pictures will be used for my job. You can find my full photography set HERE at my Flickr, but you can grab a sneak peek below:

Cianjur, Indonesia

Rush hour traffic in Jakarta

Uluwatu Temple in Bali

Knock knock??? Anybody out there??

I’ve been blogging on average about every two days with simple content…LAME. But I do have a good reason…I’ve been busy with my life!!! Here are a couple of highlights:

THE BIG NEWS!!!!

I got a new job!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s true! I still work in music at a company that is world-renown, I wear corporate clothes everyday (some might see that as a negative, but I was able to wear practically pajamas at my last job), I work with a great group of people, received a significant promotion with new job, and am actually contributing to help music and people come together. I’ ve only been at new job for a month, but it is amazing. New jobs rock!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been a) concentrating on getting the new job (rounds and rounds of interviews) and had many farewell celebrations for old job, c) kept busy with CMJ 2010 and d) have seen lots and lots and lots of music. Here’s the evidence: (oh…and have become a budding live music photographer)

MANIC BLOOM

YOUNG THE GIANT (my favorite CMJ find)

DINOWALRUS

BRAHMS

BLACK TAXI

THE PASS

MARTINA TOPLEY BIRD

COSMOLINGO

FRANCIS AND THE LIGHTS (my personal favorite)