Sham16’s Weblog

12th Sept – 18th Sept 2008

The much needed break away from NY really helped… When we got back to NY, we got our drive and motivation back. We spent our last couple of days in NY hectic-ly doing shopping for gifts for our family and friends. Shas and I had to postpone some of our music meetings for when we get back to NY ’cause we were running out of time. We finished up one of our tracks and spent as much time possible with Krystyna and the kids. They were like a second family to us and being away for the next couple of months was heartbreaking.

Sat night we went out to Max Brenner on 14th Street and the kids were soooo excited to see so much chocolate! It was a pretty late night so they crashed over at ours. We also spent a little bit more time with them on Monday. Elijah was just so upset we were leaving. He followed us to dinner – we took him to brazilian and then slept over at ours. He kept saying that his brother (shas) and cousins (mimi & I) were leaving him – made us feel so sad…. He had school the next morning as well… but he slept on our couch in his school uniform… he didn’t wanna leave. The next morning he went to school upset. He’s like our little brother and it was heartbreaking leaving him and his sisters behind. We’re gonna miss our second family in NY – can’t wait to see them soon again.

On da way to maxbrenner

Elijah & his funky hoodie

da whole gang @ maxbrenner

Chocolate Fondoo!

Asia, Jazea & kystyna enjoying their chocolate fondoo

We left NY on the 16th for a 2 night stop over in hawaii. Our baggage weighed a tonne – my shoulders are still hurting from it! Hawaii was beautiful – we went crazy buying souveniers there. On our last night we went for a sunset swim at the beach and had our last supper at ‘The Cheesecake Factory’ — SOUTHERN FRIED CHICKEN MINI BURGERS….YUm…

Then we were off home… Flight back was painfully long – my parents were waiting at the airport eagerly. It was good to see them again after so long. Its weird being back in Sydney and my old room. I’ve definately missed it and can’t wait to see all my friends again…

My NY experience has made me a stronger person… I’ve learnt that people in New York are not always upfront … when it comes to business they expect you to read between the lines… no one helps you out for free or out of good will – most people are in it for something, usually Money. So always ask upfront what the want in return even if it seems like they wanna be your best friend. There was this sign i saw at a shop ”Brooklyn… Only the strong survive” - which is so true… In saying this though, the city has so many opportunities especially in the entertainment industry. This experience has motivated me to go for my dream and never give up – even when it seems out of reach. When there’s a will, there’s always a way.

on da subway to manhattan

Elijah & Me on da subway

Mimi tryna close her suitcase..

2nd Sept – 8th Sept ‘08

We spent most of the day after the bbq lounging at home, anxiously waiting to go see the musical “The Lion King”. I’ve been eager to watch it for a couple of years now, but never got around to it…The famous broadway musical was playing at the Minskoff Theatre … a beautiful venue. I had never been to see a musical before - it was just amazing. The costumes, the music, the cast – it felt like you were part of the story. My favourite scene was when they did the symbol of the lion. We couldn’t take photos during the show – otherwise i would’ve posted a whole heap!

The Lion King

On the escalator to the theatre

On Wed, Shas and I spent the day at Tom’s (from the group Skyy) house, which was in Jamaica, Queens. Queens is very different to Brooklyn and the rest of NY – it was more suburban… they had cute little houses with massive backyards – i really liked it. There was a massive graffiti sign at Jamaica station that said “The Projects”… This is where hip hop first started… around the corner from Tom’s house lives LL Cool J! Tom’s mum made us a wonderful lunch and we spent the arvo listening to Tom’s life experiences and also discussed our vision for the track we were working on together.

On Friday we caught up with Ben at Havana briefly. Then the three of us went down to the NY Aquarium… there’s free entry between 3-5pm on Fridays… (we were getting good at keeping a log book of places with free entries lol ;0) ) The aquarium was smaller than i expected… the highlight for me was seeing the Walrus … This beast was massive but soooo cute.

New York Aquarium

Posing with a fake Walrus

And again...

Nemo!

Jelly Fishie

The Aquarium is near coney island so we went back there for our favourite treat – m&m vanilla fudge and reece peanut butter ice cream! Whilst we were at Coney Is, i got a casting call for a modelling job – so I had to split from Mimi and Shas and head into Manhatten. The other two went to the art museaum, Guggenheim (which also has free entry on the friday:) ) I couldn’t remember applying for this agenc, she didn’t give me much info over the phone, but i went anywayz to see what it was all about. After a couple of mins  with the agent i sensed it was a bit of a scam… as much as i love NY… it is a tough city and one thing you got to keep in mind is looking out for yourself – there are alot of people out there that try to make money out of you. After a complete waste of time, I caught up with Mimi at regal cinemas to finally watch the movie ‘Sex and the city’ – it was even more exciting watching it in NYC!

We spent Sat at the Studio in Bed Stuy with Tom and Robbie working on a track. The majority of the session was fine, but lets just say we had learnt a couple of lessons about working with people in NY and the music industry.

Sunday we decided to finally check out South Street Seaport – we were gonna head here for the 4th of July celebrations but were too tired… This place is probably one of my favourite spots in manhatten – its buzzing with people, lots of shopping and the view is beautiful – on the edge of manhatten overlooking the water and brooklyn. The cool thing about the shopping mall at seaport is on the top level they have balcony with seats you can sit there eat your food and enjoy the view…

Sunset @ Seaport

On Monday, a lady came knocking on the door saying she was the new manager for the building and demanding rent. We had several arguments with her – she was not only rude, but was trying to scam us by increasing the rent amount without consulting with us first. She also tried to get us to sign a sheet of paper with the rent terms that did not add up to the right amount. She argued with me that the sheet was not a contract and that it was just for reference. I don’t know if this lady ( i won’t mention a name) is just plain dumb or she really thinks we are that stupid to sign a piece of paper that does not make sense. Again after arguing she goes upstairs to fix the ‘contract’ and comes back down with the amended version which was still wrong! By this time we were all pissed off to the max – again she argued with us… we told her not to get her ass back down till she gets it right (dumb ass). The third time finally she got it right … i was pissed off they were trying to scam us for more rent like that…

After a couple of not so nice NY experiences ~ we were not feeling NYC and needed to escape the hussle and bustle, so i found us some cheap fares and booked a ticket out for a couple of days to the Carribean, Puerto Rico!!

30th Aug – 1st Sept 2008

So our labour day shenenigans started off with a big jamaican style bbq/house/bloc party in the back yard. They had tons of food – chicken, chicken and more chicken and peach cobbler… it was very diff to an aussie bbq. There were about 12 lad-ies fighting for space in the kitchen to cook something or rather – even though we already had enough food to feed the whole neighbourhood. Phat loud pumping beats both inside and outside – neighbours complaining and people walking in and out all through the day and night till 3am. Most people didn’t really know each other but they were mingling … we met musicians, authors and people that just randomly lived around the bloc. Some gangster rappers (PYP – pretty young pimps) even offerred us a ride in their hummer… we were too tired, but we went outside to check out the hydrolics – mimi even took a video of it lol….

It was a good day and long night and by the end of it our house – well our kitchen and bathroom looked like a storm just passed through. We spent the rest of the night cleaning up. I got some help from the guys hanging outside.

Afta 2 much food

The next day we were exhausted – Mimi and Shas were too tired to go to the labor day Caribbean parade, but i went with Krystyna and her kids. It was absolutely crazy – it was packed with people, floats of people were dressed up in colorful costumes … reggae music and people dancing, stores selling food, jewelery, books and clothes and of course plenty of cops. I was told every year there’s some sort of shooting that takes place, so i wasn’t sure what to expect! At one stage when we were following the Jamaican Float it got crazy, a fight broke out and we were all pushed into the road and there were people falling over and running – Krystyna, Asia and Elijah hid in the store and i ran to the other side till it calmed down. It was a cultural experience – despite the craziness … i had a piece of my Jamaican flag to carry around and had fun.

Elijah, me, Krystyna & Asia @ Da Carribean labour Day Parade

Elijah & some random guy!

Da dancing, floats and costumes - the only shot i could take before my camera ran out of batt...

Last weekend we stumbled upon the J&R Music-Tech Festival @ City Hall Park. This was a free music concert with performances from artists such as Solange, Michelle Williams, Joe, Ashanti and Terrence Howard (yes he acts and sings!). One of the stand out performances was a group called Naturally 7. Every part of the song is created and performed by them vocally- the drums, the bass everything is vocally created- they call it ‘vocal play’ – i have never seen anything as amazing as this. You can check them out on youtube, but it doesn’t beat seeing them live. After the performances, we also got the chance to meet the artists and get their autograph over at J&R – pretty cool. Below are some of the shots we got…

Solange Knowles

Michelle Williams

Solange again

Cute Terrence

Naturally 7

Ashanti

Miss Ashanti

Between music and tourist-ing, we haven’t spent much time checking out the NY nightlife. One of my friends Ben was down from Sydney, so we decided to catch up with him in the city. Ben recommended a Rooftop Bar close to 28th St. It had free entry and lovely views of Manhattan. I don’t think we have anything like this back home – we spent a couple of hours enjoying the music, drinks and view before venturing off to an R&B club around the corner. It was good having company from back home as we were all starting to miss home a bit!

Shas, Mimi, Me & Ben

Da Bar

Mimi, Ben & me

with my lovely friend

afta a couple of drinks

Its been a while since i wrote on this blog. We’ve all actually been really sick the last couple of days. Shas came down with the bug first – one where you throw up contiuously … a day lata mimi got it, then i did. Its been an exhausting couple of days recovering from it and trying to eat properly again. We’re getting there – its good to be out of bed and doing normal things again.

Just before we got sick, we had a pretty busy week and a half since the last time I wrote on here. Shas & I spent a couple of days working on one of our original tracks “Desire” in the studio downstairs with a talented producer, Nut. We’ve also been getting session singing work – we started getting jobs singing hooks for a hip hop artist and after that gig we’ve been getting call backs to work on various projects together and as individual artists… so thats been exciting. Some of the work involves pay, for a couple of them its been an exchange of some sort – for example instead of money they may offer us studio time to record one of our own tracks in return for us singing on their material. Thats the great thing about NY – opportunities are endless.

Besides doing the music, we’ve tried fitting in touristy things. One of the places we visited was the bronx zoo. It has free entry on Wednesdays (its recommended you give them a small donation) … so we decided to check it out. We took the two girls with us – Asia and Jazea (Xrystyna’s kids)… they were excited… Elijah couldn’t make it as he had some other commitments. You can really tell the change between Manhatten to the bronx. The bronx has a totally diff feel, you can experience this by just sitting on the subway train and looking out the window. The zoo was more than i expected – it was huge… you need a whole day there. There were animals there that looked like they were straight out of the movie, Madagascar. Def recommend checkin’ it out!

On da way to the bronx

Da monkeys... i luv monkeys

so cute

i tink this is a type of monkey

We also visited the famous coney island. Right next to coney is there’s a beach. We didn’t get the chance to go on any of the rides but we had a famous nathan hot dog and ice cream right by the beach.

Nathan's @ Coney Is

Da beach next to coney is

Shas posing @ Coney Is

On the same day after Coney Is, we decided to experience sunset at the Rockefeller Centre. Its about a $18 entry fee to go up to the Top Of The Rock, but its def worth it. The view is amazing. I can’t describe in words how beautiful sunset is up there – its just an experience you won’t forget.

Mimi & I @ da Top of the Rock

Da View

Me @ da Top of the Rock

Da View again

Fri & Sat, 8th & 9th August

MOMA, Museum of Modern Art has free entry on Fridays between 4-8pm. We decided to take advantage of this and check it out. The building was massive – 6 levels worth of all forms of modern art. I’m not fully into art, but Mimi and Shas are – they were fully getting excited and taking photos of everything, but i must say some of the pieces were amazing and it was interesting to see works that were hundreds of years old. Below are a couple pics of the artwork I liked the most…

On da Escalator to the first level of MoMa

Picasso's sculpture_Da Baboon

Claes Oldenburg's Floor Cake

Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans

August Rodin's St John the baptist Preaching

Henri Rosseau's The Sleeping Gypsy

Me posing on the special exhibition level

After MoMa, we made our way towards Sugar Bar. Tonight at Sugar Bar was Harry Thompson’s show. He had an array of amazing singers lined up and sang some of his originals. He even made a new original song on the spot during his show. His music was very gospel and the night was enjoyable. We also met Ankrah at Harry’s show. Ankrah is the vocal coach on P Diddy’s show ‘The making of the band’. He was excited to meet us, he had heard alot about us from Jackie and Harry “The Aussie Duo”… My camera ran out of batt so i didn’t get the chance to take photos.

On Sat, we had a pretty relaxing day. Mimi and I joined “Crunch” (da local gym in Brooklyn) a few weeks back so we decided to go work out. In the evening we went to the famous “Magnolia Bakery” (the one from Sex and the City). We got there at 11:30 pm and the line to get into the bakery was massive. The line wasn’t the issue though, deciding what to get was the problem! Everything looked so gooood! We ended up getting 3 boxes full of cakes/cupcakes and a banana pudding!

Da Line to get into da bakery!

Posing with the Bakery Man

YUmmm!

Thursday, 7th August 2008

Unfortunately, the gig we had on tuesday night took a toll on my throat – my glands were swollen, so Shas had to represent tonight at the Sugar Bar! If you’ve been following my blog, I’ve mentioned Sugar Bar previously … This infamous bar is run by Ashford and Simpson (Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson). They are best known for their songs “Ain’t no mountain high enough”, “You’re all I need to get by”, “Reach out and touch sombody’s hand”, “Remember me”.. along with a collection of R&B classics, people are doing covers off till this day. Artists have been signed by singing at Sugar bar – so this opportunity is a memorable one.

We went as a group of us, Krystyna, Kike, Jackie and the guys from the Sounds of Philly… Shas did a cover of “Incomplete” by Sisqo. He did an amazing job of it and the crowd was impressed by his talent – we had people asking us if they could have a cd they could listen to, including a rep from an artist management company! It was a tough night for shas though … he had to firstly pull a song together quickly, cause I couldn’t sing for the night, secondly when he went up on stage the band didn’t know how to play the song… so they spent a couple of minutes figuring out the chords. The band was amazing they caught on pretty quick and it all worked out well in the end.

Sugar Bar has its share of celebrities. The funny thing about NY there’s celebrities everywhere and they mingle like any other normal person. A week back we were in Harlem watching the movie “The great Debators” (Directed by Denzel Washington) and tonight at Sugar Bar we met the main talented actress of the movie, Jurnee Smollett (Samantha Brooke in the movie). She was even more beautiful in person and very down to earth. She complemented Shas on his performance and we took some photos with her. Towards the end of the night, we also got the chance to meet and speak with Valerie and Nic. Valerie complemented Shas on his performance. He did a great job – proud of him!

Below is a video i took of his performance – I apologise for the shaking in some parts of the video ~ that was us getting excited.

Kike & Krystyna

With our beautiful friend "Mimi'... wat would do without her...

Krystyna, Shas & I with Valerie Simpson

Us with Nic Ashford

Shas with actress Jurnee

me with the beautiful Jurnee

Jackie, Krystyna, Shas & I

Hanging out with the Sugar Bar Regulars Harry Thompson & Wallace

Tuesday, 5th August 2008

We spent the last two days busy practising for a performance tonight, as Shas and I, along with another talented singer, Kike were going to be singing backing vocals for an important showcase for Krystyna. Kystyna is an R&B/Soul/Hip Hop singer from brooklyn – she has three beautiful kids… one of her kids I mentioned earlier in my blog, Elijah is the one co-starring in the upcoming 50 cent movie. Krystyna’s singing style and music reminds me of a cross between Mary J Blige and Alicia Keys. She’s worked and performed with artists such as DMX, Smoothe the hustler to name a few… Her music is about Love and Pain.

We had three new songs to learn in two days and Krystyna was stressed out. The showcase was at a bar called ‘Revival’ in Harlem. As you can imagine, what the crowd in Harlem would be like… the majority of the acts and the audience were hip hop lovers to the max! The showcase tonight was sponsored by Source magazine and had A&R’s from Def Jam, along with other major labels, so it was an extremely exciting night for Krystyna and for us to be part of this!

The night started off with two stand up comedians. They were both hilarious, but the second one said toooooo many sick jokes. Lol… It was a good start to the show though, laughing takes your mind off the nerves. We were the 6th act and we went on stage, for our ten min showcase. They only had two mics so Kike and shas shared the mic as they were both doing the same lower harmonies. We started out the performance with an upbeat number called “It takes 2 much”, then slowed it down with ‘Weeping Willow’ and ended it with a hip hop no. called ‘Crown. 

Kike got drunk, but she still managed to remember the lyrics…Krystyna killed her performance and the crowd was very supportive and receptive to her music - she’s an awesome songwriter and performer, so i’m not surprised! Alot of people were impressed, incl one def jam rep ~ fingers crossed for her! It was an interesting night… most of the performers that got up were rappers and a couple of them were soo talented. It was a great experience for us.

Make sure you check out Krystyna’s music on her myspace link below!

http://www.myspace.com/krystynasings

Here are some little snippets of our performance….

On da way to harlem

Kike & Shas

Krystyna

me & Jackie

Da awesome three!

Krystyna, me, mimi & Shas

Show kicks off with a stand up comedian

Da Crowd

This female rapper was awesome

Kike, Krystyna, Me & Shas

Krystyna & Jackie on da train back home

Monday, 28th July 2008

Jeremy called us the day before to invite us to his performance at the ImageNation festival in Harlem. ImageNation is a Harlem-based organization, established in 1997 to counteract negative images and stereotypes that are propagated about people of color, through mass media. They’ve established a chain of independent art-house cinemas dedicated to cinema of the African Diaspora. You can read more about ImageNation on ths link below – if you get the chance you should def go check out one of their events.

http://www.imagenationfilmfestival.org/pages/main.htm

This year it was held at St Nicholas Park in Harlem and is basically a free film & music festival. Jeremy’s performance was lovely – he sang and played the guitar – he also had a cello player… it was beautiful music. The DJ was pumping a great mix all night… just made you wanna get up and dance… The park was filled with families, couples and friends enjoying the summer night. There were a few people selling newspapers about creating a revolution and they loved spending time sharing their views with you, which was inspiring. There were also alot of cops around.

When it finally got dark, the movie started. The movie for tonight was “The Great Debaters”, directed by Denzel Washington. It was great experience and the crowd was getting involved. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, I recommend you get a copy of it. Its a true story and was very inspirational.

Early in da evening as people start to gather @ St Nicholas Park

We had a little picnic goin' on with junk food!

Da DJ doin' his thang...

Jeremy performing with his guitar & cello player

Can u spot da cops?

Finally da movie starts....