DEVON

I've been living in new york for about 6 years.
In light of the past months of financial chaos, i've been thinking a lot about living in the city, and can i live here for much longer?
I have been able to live in this expensive city because my family received a financial settlement from my mom's death from a diet drug.
This settlement took away our house and credit card debts. and it gave me enough money to not have to worry about rent or bills while i was in grad school.
And the financial boom or bubble (whatever it is) of the mid-decade kept my financial security steady, even though I regularly took from it.
Then fast-forward to late september this year, and the financial chaos happens in full-force, and one weekend in october, i check my accounts and find that about 50 percent of my funds are gone.
I knew something like this was on the horizon, but i didn't know it was happening so soon. i thought i had one more year of working on the novel, and figuring out the right and perect job for me.
But now the situation is more urgent, so a job is needed. and perhaps i need to move out of my apartment and move in with others.
Other artist friends of mine have been also affected in similar ways.
We're still very early in this situation, but there's definitely many months and years to go.
I'm thinking this might be a time where people get together and consolidate their resources, where bartering is going to become a way more helpful way of distributing value.
--
So that's a bit of my financial background. i haven't had to worry about rent and pursuing my art, but now i'm starting to.
I think NY might be a shitty place to stay in, economy wise. the rents might still be going up even though more and more people will be jobless.
However, after a couple of years, property rates might go down, gentrification might halt, and folks might be squatting in the places downtown that just haven't sold.
A few years of financial hardship may bring new waves of young artist looking for cheap housing. but that's a few years away.

Over this economics thinking (that are absolutely relevant) what an you tell me about people near you,
you know somwone that have interesting plans???
seems that you know where are you and making happen what you want.
So I’m interested knowing more.


Right now, people I know are just looking for work, and fearful of losing the jobs that have been a stable source of income for the past couple years.
My friend Howard works as an assistant for an entertainment lawyer. His boss today is in the hospital, and we're not sure how serious this most recent hospital stay is. Currently, Howard is worried that his job there will be ending soon, once his boss retires.

There's my friend Stuart, currently lives with me. I've been happy to house him while he finds a place to live. What turned into a few week stay has become a few months. But it's been nice having a fellow artist around. His presence keeps me from wasting too much time doing nothing.

Stuart is a photographer, he keeps himself busy with photo projects, editing reappropriated media into an original creative work, and wishes to collaborate with me on a couple of short film projects. For money, he tries to find odd jobs, and awaits payment for a few projects he worked on, but the magazines have been feeling the economic crunch, so the money is less than expected. He's been visiting galleries and contacting magazines in the hopes of opportunities.
My friend Carlo is sewing clothes for a theater production in the Bronx. Looking for other jobs. Pondering leaving the city.
A DJ friend of mine and his girlfriend are moving to Argentina for a year, which means their money will last longer.
An Irish friend, Andy, recently moved back to Ireland, but managed to get a good job at a cafe while in NYC. It paid good tips.
I also know some artist folk who are pondering the sex industry to help with the bills.
It's a tough time right now for jobs.
Many people are looking to do anything to pay expenses.
As for me, I had a promising development. A tiny marketing company called the Ministry of Culture hired me to help out with the creation of a short film made for a PR firm researching people's opinions about tequila.
It wasn't much, but it was an interesting experience.

This month, I received three responses to my jobhunt,
I'm gonna write to a friend about a screenplay he wants me to do.
Then I'm probably gonna drink beer.

Devon

…..
With the novel I'm working on--a young man entering a city and learning the sexual landscapes of it--most of my influences are authors who have written similar novels. John Rechy's City of Night, Edmund Whites semi-autobiographical trilogy, Samuel Delaney's The Mad Man, etc. In addition to authors, the internet itself has influenced me greatly. I have an intense desire to capture one guy's use of the internet in a book. It's something that has only been around for a couple decades in the eyes of the general populous. It hasn't even been done justice on TV and movies. So I'm trying to capture the different ways that a person uses is in their lifetime-so-far. I also have a background in evangelical Christianity, so I find myself wanting to translate the values of Christianity into a world that is more sex-positive so that young boys in the Midwest can read a book that loves both God and cock without feeling conflicted about it.
With your artistic choice do you want to show different points of view?
Yes, there is a moment that happens when two people IM each other. Person A types a heartfelt sentence to Person B. And minutes pass. Person A doesn't know what's going on at the other end of the modem line. Is Person B ignoring him? Is Person B on the phone? Does Person B care? Person A gets worried, then angry, then furious that Person B isn't responding. Person A is about to yell IN ALL CAPS HIS ANGER! When suddenly, Person B types, "sorry bathroom". And all the anger dies down, and the love and caring resume. To use the internet--and also to interact in the three-dimensional world--one has to imagine the right versions of their friends and co-workers. One has to see the points of view of other peoplle in order to live harmoniously in this world. My novel's audience are those boys who read the silent moments of an IM as a rejection, as someone not wanting to talk to them. My novel wants to reassure them that there are hundreds of reasons why the hot boy can't talk right now.
I'm still on my jobhunt, looking for entry level positions in the media industry. After nine years of practicing my writing in a bubble, no strong desire to send it out to publications, I find myself wanting to use what I've learned for more mercenary purposes. I recently helped out a friend ghost-writing a young adult's fantasy novel that wants to eventually be made into a movie. It was interesting to be Step 47 in the 670 steps it takes to make something into a film. I was writing chase scenes and fight scenes involving large serpents, which was totally different from the novel I had been working on for a couple years. It felt like a vacation from writing. My long term goal is to be a part of a few television shows, and work with a team of writers to create a story that unfolds over the course of a few years. I think exciting things are happening with TV, and that TV might becoming a little more experimental with their narrative formats in the future.?
My art doesn't involve galleries and installations at the moment, so I haven't thought about museums. I guess I have been thinking of museums as places where old stuff is preserved--which is indeed important, I just saw Greek and Roman art at the Met a few days ago, and started appreciating it for the first time as it towers over your head. I rarely go to museums, so when I do, it's pretty special. I don't have a language currently for what happens when I see an artwork face-to-face. But the notion of museums as historical containers doesn't really make me concerned or fearful. I figure art pops up everywhere, and should.