back to new york? back to madrid? back to changes.

(oh, ps, spain totally won the world cup. called it from the beginning. just sayin'.)

serious chat time, guys!

so as many of you know, i was laid off just before memorial day. this also happened about a month into my new lease in an apartment where nothing, and i mean nothing, had gone right since we moved in. (my roommate continues to be awesome. she's pretty much the only good thing about this place.) the long and short of it is this: for the first time since moving back to boston in june of '08, i'm ready to get going again.

i'm applying for jobs in boston like crazy still and i'm absolutely loving where i'm at on the music/lifestyle writing front here in town, so staying put isn't entirely out of the question. i would be lying, however, if i said that i wasn't seriously considering the following plans of action:

1) Move to Madrid, try to score an internship at El País and teach English on the side to pay rent (or try to). i'm one of those weirdos who actually prefers madrid to barcelona - everyone goes gaga for parc guell and las ramblas and the ocean and all that, and don't get me wrong, it's a fucking spectacular city (which i absolutely plan on visiting once my brother moves there in january for his semester abroad), but madrid and i just click. we get along famously and i could see myself living there in 2.5 seconds. with that said, the unemployment rate in spain is something absurd like 21% right now, it's the most expensive spot in the country to live in and i wouldn't necessarily be able to make rent just teaching english. as far as the internship/international journalism thing goes, it's always, always something i've wanted to do and i always said that if i were to get my masters in journalism i'd want to get it in london or madrid and i want to see if i can hack it on the bilingual front as a writer. huge leap of faith (and a costly one), but the payoffs? yeah, the payoffs could be pretty epic.

2) Head back to Granada and open up my restaurant with Andy. andy was one of my first friends in spain, and he's been dating one of my dearest friends for nearly four years now. i worked at andy's tapas bar in granada while i was studying there, and i had a pretty decent idea to open a particular kind of spot in the university town. andy's all about it, too, and can feasibly go in on a restaurant with me. we've only begun talks about it, but this is one of those "this would be a scary, terrifying, expensive and potentially life-changing experience in all the good kind of ways" kind of deals. i could run a restaurant in spain and live there for a year to get it off the ground. could i sink thousands of dollars into it and lose it all? sure. but yeah, currently i'm weighing the pros and cons of doing just that. i figure if there's any point in my life to gamble like this, it should be now. (oh, something to consider: this move would absolutely unequivocally piss off my family more than you could possibly imagine. i don't know if they'd calm down from it. they'd view this as pretty irresponsible, so that's weighing in pretty heavily here.)

3) Return to New York. i'm going to be 25 in january and i've always said that i want to be out of boston and either back in new york, madrid or buenos aires by 26. why not get a head start on it, if i feel like i'm hitting a rut in boston now? oh, the whole "hey let me move to a city full of people who work just as hard if not harder than i do who are smarter than i am and better at what i do than i am" thing? yeeeeah. starting over is tricky no matter how you slice it, but it would prove for a good challenge and i think i'd be able to run with the big dogs eventually. i hope, anyway. [gulp]. also - huge pro - I ALREADY HAVE A LIFE IN NEW YORK. i basically just picked up and left when i graduated, and all of my favorite people, places and things in the city are still very much so there. it's alarming to think how easily i could just fall back into old habits, but there's also comfort in that. moving there seems like the least traumatic/least costly of the options yet.

4) Look for gigs/apartments in Chicago when I'm there this week. i love chi-town, man. i'm going out there for a week to hang out with amy, help her pack up her gold coast apartment, and check out some shows while i'm in town. i get to meet nico's beautiful girlfriend (!) and frequent favorite haunts, and i get to go running along the coast of lake michigan every morning. that's swell. hopefully this trip will offer some perspective, and if anything it gives me a chance to head out of the city for a second and recharge my batteries.

phew. anyways. i feel better. thanks for listening. (or reading.) if you've got insight, dispense it, please.

X H

TeaParty Boston at Newport Folk Festival 50, Lake George and more! EEEEEEP!!!!

image via cute overload.

i am happier than this happy bunny becaaaaause

a) on a whim, i took the last two days of this week off, and i'm going to be driving up to lake george tomorrow afternoon for two days of bliss in the wilderness of upstate new york with my absolute favorite new yorkers who have not seen in FOR EV ER. lake? beerz? best friends? SIGN ME UP.

b) on friday night, jessie and i are hopping in the car and leaving cambridge for newport, rhode island because TEAPARTY BOSTON IS COVERING THE NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL. it's the festival's 50th anniversary and anyone who follows american folk/rock/indie music knows that THIS IS A BIG DEAL. our press credentials were approved yesterday so we're going to be seeing some of our ABSOLUTE FAVORITE BANDS [the avett brothers! the low anthem! the decemberists! iron & wine! elvis perkins in dearland! deer tick! ben kweller! EEEEE!!!!!!] and writing about it so that you guys can live vicariously through us for a bit. we'll be live blogging/tweeting the shows, too, so keep a look out.

in other news: works good, apartment's good, and boston fiiiinally decided it was summertime. i have never been so happy to sweat profusely in my LIFE.

tim burton career retrospective at the MoMA: so far awaaay!

from The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories, Tim Burton, 2009. Found at the MoMA's exhibition page.

the lovely miss jules brought this my attention via fbook this morning and I CAN'T WAIT FOR NOVEMBER. i love tim burton so much it hurts sometimes and the moma is probably one of my favorite museums in the world [second only to reina sofia in madrid and la MALBA in buenos aires.] i really can't wait to see this. the MoMA's exhibit on tim burton's work will run from November 22, 2009 through August of 2010: for those of you who plan on visiting the MoMA before this trip or feel like checking out the museum anyways (which i strongly encourage you to do should you be in new york anytime soon), keep in mind that the museum is closed each tuesday and that it's free to get in each and every friday night between the hours of 4 and 8pm.

(and in all seriousness, this "i haven't been to new york in aaaages i should come for a visit!" thing really needs to stop and i just need to suck it up, buy a bus ticket and head down to my home away from home for a little bit. my weeks have been filling up SO FAST these days, what with TPB events and concerts and photo shoots and interviews and, uh, work... yeah. i'm not sleeping very much. i'm okay with that in the best of ways.)

where hil can be found this week: coolidge corner tonight, my bed tomorrow, passion pit/harlem shakes thursday at the 'dise, hopefully going to see "the hangover" friday and then up to the homestead for my stepsister's graduation party saturday, all before making it back to the 'ville for mcalister drive's jailhouse residency at precinct on saturday night, and then sunday it's the antlers at the middle east upstairs and then the sea monsters, as usual, on sunday night. WHEW. busy girl she is, this hil.

and ps, new england: quit it with this rain. seriously. i'm wearing a sweater, scarf and beanie to work today. it's halfway through june. knock it off.

wintry mix? wintry HELL.

like everyone else in this slushy mushy gross city, los and i are sick. to. death. of. this. snowy slushy nasty substance we fondly refer to as a "wintry mix".

anyways, we're here learning the choreography to michael jackson's "thriller" because los has to teach her hip hop club class at the winter hill school this afternoon and needs something for the kiddos to do.  i am her guinea pig.  i am not the most mj-inclined dancer, we've discovered.

in other news: the cold war kids' hospital beds is song of the moment for me.  they're coming to town on april 2nd; seriously considering getting tickets because i'm obsessed with them, but alas it's los' birthday!  they're playing terminal 5 in new york the following night, so maybe i'll just suck it up and head down to my former stompin' ground to see the show and hang out with some favorites.  here's an acoustic version of hospital beds for your listening pleasure.  so hauntingly gorgeous.  so perfect on a day like today.

so did anyone wake up with a splitting gin and dance party induced headache this morning? because i know that jessie and i did.  to quote jessietron, blergh.

also, i give you baby on a roomba.

love, hil.