<< More recent news  |   Archive

12:13 A.M., Wednesday, August 29th, 2001
Eric Rosenfield Mailing List 2.0: The Return of the Great Jew Hope

******************************************************************

This email was sent out to the EricRosenfield Mailing List. To sign up for the EricRosenfield Mailing List, type your email address into the field in the lower left hand corner.

******************************************************************

Eric's next gig:

Wednesday, September 5th, 9pm
Mickey's Blue Room
Avenue C, btw. 10th and 11th st.
East Village, New York City

So, after my last gig, in May, I phoned up the booking agent at my favorite club to schedual another gig. But I didn't get one; the booking agent told me that I didn't have enough "draw" and that I had to play some gigs in other places, raise my draw and then I could come back.

Obviously, I was doing something wrong.

Were their problems with my ability as a songwriter? At the risk of sounding like I'm sparing my own ego, I don't think that was it. Were their problems with my ability as a PERFORMER, however? Yes. Were their problems with my ability as a self-promoter? Definately.

But the promotion aspect was obvious; I wasn't promoting myself at all. Well, hardly at all.

You see, I had started performing on a lark. I had given up on being successful when I dropped out of music school, and I just wanted to perform around New York because I'm an incurable stage junkie. The issue was that I didn't want to do anything that struck of TRYING to SUCCEED, because then I was open to failure. As long as I didn't try to succeed then I couldn't be held responsible when I didn't.

It was an attitude that also effected my performance, because I didn't work on improving my voice control (my biggest problem - not tone, but control), or my guitar playing (or even, you know, changing my strings). And while their may be a certain heroic je ne se qua(sp?) in being the guy who breaks a string on the first song of every gig and screams at the top of his lungs through his songs while his voice wavers up and down quarter tones only a sitar can hit, well, it's just not very professional.

Anyway long story short, that's over now. Which isn't to say that I'm going to be able to dedicate myself entirely to music; I'm going to a full time student in a week. But that wasn't ever the point, the mission, my great holy mission, is to succeed on all fronts simulataniously.

This will be covered in more depth when I finally release the Personality Cult Manifesto. For now, you'll have to satisfy yourself with this:

I'm coming at this show from a different angle, and promoting it and preparing for it with a renewed intensity. And I have a ton of new songs.

Wednesday, Sept. 5th, 9pm
Mickey's Blue Room
Ave. C btw 10th and 11th
East Village, New York City

Eric | link

5:02 P.M., Wednesday, August 22nd, 2001
About Columbia:

It's a long story.

You see, a little over a week ago, I went down to Columbia to sign up for classes. I had been told by the department of Continuing Education that because I had taken writing courses there before that there wouldn't be any problem with me taking courses toward my degree there in September.

Now I was told that they thought I was talking about just Writing classes, and that it was very unlikely I would be able to take degree classes because they don't do that.

You see, I had already been rejected from the School of General Studies, because they told me they wanted to see 12 more credits of "A" and "B" work before they'd let me in. They suggested that since I'd already taken classes at the School of Continuing Education, that I should take my 12 credits there.

Anyway, the School of Continuing Education told me that I had been mislead by the School of General Studies and that they only admit undergraduate students (if not for the writing program) on a very infrequent basis. In order for me to get in I'd have to make a very good case for myself, in writing.

So I spent the next three days putting together an 11 page packet including an essay about my scholastic history that is one of the finest things I've ever written (in my opinion). I may publish it on this site at some point.

And I handed it in.

Now, in retrospect, I probably should have written about all this on this site as it was going on, because it might have made for mildly interesting suspese - "will he get in? Won't he get in?" and as the application deadline had already passed for every other college, if I didn't get into this program I wouldn't be going to school in September like I planned.

Anyway, I got the letter today.

I'm in.

I'm a happy camper.

Eric | link

7:19 P.M., Tuesday, August 21st, 2001
I've added a "link" feature to each of the news postings on the site, so you can book mark and link back to specific items, and an archive to make it easier to access old posts.

Eventually my software will catch up to that OTHER blogging software.

Eric | link

6:25 P.M., Saturday, August 18th, 2001
Oh, yeah, History House kicks ass.

Eric | link

6:20 P.M., Saturday, August 18th, 2001
I took one look at the apartment and knew I wanted it.

It's like a fucking palace. It's right near the good part of Williamsburg.

Eric | link

Archive  |  More archived news >>