Internship number two is halfway over...

School has swallowed me whole this semester as I have been cranking through the requirements to graduate. My internship at a production music library company has been all in all successful and I have enjoyed both the people I am meeting and the work I am doing. I do lots and lots of paperwork each day and it is nice to look at a stack of paper and go "Yes, I accomplished something today." I guess that's why I want to go into administration. I can value my day's efficiency by how high the stack of paper is.

only 3.5 days left of this one

I only have 3 days (and 2 hours) left of my internship at my internship.

Any suggestions on internships for the fall?

Day...uh I lost count

Well life in the intern world is cranking on. It turns out that the exec. assistant is headed on vacation come the beginning of august so I will be the one doing all the phone answering and other business. It is kind of like my final exam.

Otherwise, my days are mostly pretty slow. A lot of sitting around and waiting for work to come my way. It's a delicate balance between looking busy and actually staying busy. But that's the life of an intern. Always available but never feeling bad because...well...I'm not paid at all. I've already begun the intern hunt for the fall. I've revised my resume and now all I have left to do is make those changes and print that baby out. Don't know when all that will be taken care of but slowly and surely I will get it done. Unfortunately, time is running out for me to secure a good internship so I should really hop to it.

Ah. Nothing really to say, just wanted to update.

Day 8: Whoops, I worked too fast.

It seems I have run out of work again. I managed to finally finish the sub-publishing song descriptions and now I am workless again. Yesterday I was able to sit and read Billboard which may be one my favorite hobbies. News from within the issue: Bonnaroo did ridiuculously well and the music biz is looking to go green one step at a time. New business idea perhaps? The greenest publishing company of them all?

Day Six: Empowerment, one excel spreadsheet at a time.

Yesterday I spent the majority of the afternoon helping the GM with a spreadsheet that did an analysis of all the writers' incomes. It was pretty cool just digging through the paperwork and getting to see all the different sources of income for a song (esp with public performance). I <3 paperwork. We managed to finish that bad boy by 4:45 and I was out the door by 5:30. This morning I cranked out another excel spreadsheet and will begin sub-pub part II. I also learned how to send items via certified mail yesterday and how to work the postage meter.

Slowly and surely I am learning all sorts of useful things. Though, I have not yet perfected the perfect cup of coffee. I've got a ways to go on that one.

I must get back to work. I have another 150 songs to describe. I'm kind of thinking this one won't get done until next week.

Day Four: Work!

Well days two and three were less than eventful. I got to split pennies yesterday and learn how to account for a demo session. That was pretty neat. But today, I finally got a really major project that has rocked my face off. We are prepping to send info off to the subpublishers so I get to listen to music all day long and write descriptions of each of the songs. Granted I feel like my eyes are about to pop out of my head from looking at a computer so long today, I love it. Country music is growing on me more and more. I think the staff writers here are absolutely amazing and are some of the best in this songwriting town. Seriously. It really does still all begin with a song in this town.

Yesterday I made my first pot of coffee as a music row intern. Damn, I know it won't be the last. I also emptied the dishwasher today. So just in case you were thinking I was rising above the intern thing...no...I haven't.

When I arrived at work yesterday morning, I had received an email from my boss asking me to address an email that he had received. When I read the forwarded email, I discovered it was from one of my classmates who I did a group project with during fall semester. She is doing well and interning at another publishing company. Man, this is a very small business. Very very small.

I sent a friend of mine an email yesterday with the subject line "more love from the intern world." After I titled it that, I thought about how the spam filters might pick it up due to...well..one person really...Monica Lewinsky. But apparently it got through and Juli had a nice laugh.

I've actually been mostly productive today. I've answered the phone, taken messages, emailed lyrics and just all and all started to get into the groove of being an intern. I wish that I would get more and more big projects that I can work on and then take care of the phone and other miscellaneous items as it comes up.

Apparently the Fan Fair fans have absolutely invaded. I can't complain though because without them, I wouldn't be doing this whole intern thang in the first place. I <3 country fans and I have to admit, I might be schmoozing the honky tonks and lower broadway before too long.

Shh! Don't tell my rock and roll friends.

Day One

Day one: Interning

It seems that my career in the recording industry has officially begun. Due to all sorts of privacy issues and otherwise, I cannot speak exactly of my work especially as I schlupp around as an intern for an independent publishing company. But, I can at least track my days as they go by.

I started off where every intern starts off: filing. This was the ultimate test of my alphabetizing skills as I questioned whether "I Ain't Goin' to Make It" comes before "I am Going to Get There" or after "I've Always Taken the Longest Road" and other assorted ballads. Apparently the last intern wasn't entirely on board with the filing system here and thus I spent the majority of my first day fixing what she had undone.

The record business is really like this crazy, mixed up, entirely dysfunctional at some parts and completely magical at other parts, family. Today, I ate lunch with my boss at a house where a couple of the writers were recording a demo. The track I heard was incredible and yet again the idea that demos are now full quality masters is all the more true and real. It's truly amazing to see what happens behind the closed doors of the entertainment industry.

I guess it's just very easy to forget that these icons and multimedia superstars that are everpresent these days are still people despite how ridiculous they may act. It's an elite crew and more and more I'm am seeing why this business is so elusive for so many.

Wow, already big relevations and I still have an hour to go of my first day. Whew. Who knew?