My Washington Sq. Performance

Write about a recurring public gathering you attended in a place you visited. It should be a very pleasant memory, and could be a baseball game or street fair, an outdoor concert or historical reenactment. Put yourself there by freewriting or clustering, allowing your mind to wander back. Write about the people you saw, the smells in the air. You’ll be amazed by how much you remember once you begin writing about it.

By the time my parents had left me on my own in New York City, I was already fiend. I quickly needed to figure out how I would manage funding my addiction to cigarettes in a city where cigarettes were 12-14$ a pack.

I lived right outside Washington Sq. Park and had the pleasure of being woken up every morning by the sound of a saxophonist playing in the park. Luckily, I was a fiend with a talent. I could play the violin.

People always asked me how I managed to work up the balls to just walk out into public, throw my case on the ground, and start playing music in front of hundreds of strangers. That was actually the easiest part. The hardest part was finding a place with good acoustics, where several people would pass by within the next hour, all while not infringing on the other ten performers in the park at the time.

Some days were great and some weren't. I figured out that the money I had made in one hour was directly related to the weather, time of day, and what day it was. On a sunny Saturday morning, I would make around 45-60 dollars in an hour. On a cold, windy Wednesday afternoon, I would make around 15-20$, not counting the bills that would fly away in the middle of a song.

Winter was about to roll around and I was about to find myself without a source of income. You can't bring your violin out when it's snowing outside because the cold will throw the strings out of tune and the moisture will ruin the wood on your instrument. I didn't really want to practice in my dorm because I felt it was both rude to the people of my dorm and also attracting to the people who wanted to come in and listen.

It was a Saturday, but it was a cold and windy Saturday. I also recall being incredibly hungover from the night before. I was out of cigarettes and I felt like my friends were getting tired of bumming them to me. So I did what any fiending, broke, hungover musician might do and took my violin out to the park. I also brought along some of my artwork to sell.

It was getting cold out, so the fountain had been drained and it became a great place to just sit and enjoy the view of the park. The arch had already been taken by a cellist, so I decided to walk out in the fountain and become the center of attention, literally. I set my case out and my artwork underneath it. I set up my sheet music as best I could on the floor and began playing.

Now there's something about playing the violin in freezing cold winds that makes your fingers go stale. Maybe it was the fact that I was nervous being the only thing those poor New Yorkers could look at. Maybe my violin was exact its revenge on me for taking it out in such cold weather. Or maybe it was the fact that I stopped practicing my hardest songs because of prior commitments. But I was starting to sound horrible. And a few people were leaving.

After ten minutes of stumbling through one of my toughest pieces, a man walked up, threw in a ten dollar bill and asked me to stop and give him my violin. A moment passed and I reluctantly handed it over, scared that he was about to show me up in front of these strangers. But he just sawed childishly at the strings and screamed at everyone, "It's not as easy as you think!" and then handed it back to me. I laughed as he took a bow, gave me back the violin, and left the fountain.

I don't know what it was, but my hands felt much warmer after that.

After I had finished, I went back to my dorm with 70$ that day and all of the paintings I had left with. It was more money than I had ever made paying in one hour that year.

Alice Smith

Take a look at the people on the screen (I will post several samples). Choose one and freewrite about that person. Give that person a name and describe what he/she looks like. Where did he/she come from, describe college, job, family, likes and dislikes. What are some of his/her goals and what problem are they facing right now?


This is Alice Smith. She is 5'9'', has brown hair, and three tattoos. She was born in New York City. She is 22 and attended FIT for fashion design. She has two younger brothers and a girlfriend named Mary. She enjoys puppies, carving furniture, and contracting. Right now she is on Project Runway trying to design a dress out of papyrus. At the moment she is having issues adjusting the size of the mannequin's left breast because it is bigger than her right breast. She hopes to one day work for Tommy Hilfiger. But right now, she has to overcome this mannequin's abnormal breast sizes before any of that comes true.

6 More People

Take the list of six people you created in the previous exercise and turn them into three fictional characters. Take two people and combine them into one and give that new character the personality you described previously. Give these new characters names and describe what they look like.

Bob: At one point in his life, his character seemed to make a complete 180. He used to rebel like no other, but never got caught. He is often the voice of misguided reason. He never really knows what he wants to do with his life. He just knows he's not happy with the decent job he has now.

Heather: She's both caring and understanding. She looks past a lot of character flaws. She's republican for no reason other than pure ignorance. She's short, Vietnamese, brown eyed and black haired.

Jerry: He's an old dog that can't learn a new trick. Tricks like reasoning, logic, and trust. He as much of a hypocrite as he is big.

Ninny: For her age, she is coherent most of the time. However, her mind tends to go to a dark place sometimes. She barely speaks english, but at this point in her life, cannot survive anywhere else than the United States (where the majority of her family resides).

Jude: He and I have always seemed to be cut from a similar cloth somehow. Yet his was always the lighter colored "ying" cloth. We have a similar taste in humor, music, and movies. Except my tastes are only slightly more darker than his. He's got a girlfriend that goes to a different school than him. He met her in high school. I have a feeling they're going to get married someday. I just hope I'll be invited.

Dante: He and I learned violin from the same teacher growing up. We also got into a bunch of trouble together in high school, going to lot of music festivals that would last for hours. He's also got a girlfriend who will someday become his wife. I just hope the cigarettes don't kill them first.

6 People

List six people you know (first names only) who interest you enough to write about them. Write what you find interesting about them. List some characteristics of their personalities and describe what they look like.

Tom: He's an old dog that can't learn a new trick. Tricks like reasoning, logic, and trust. He as much of a hypocrite as he is big.

Hien: She's both caring and understanding. She looks past a lot of character flaws. She's republican for no reason other than pure ignorance. She's short, Vietnamese, brown eyed and black haired.

Jim: At one point in his life, his character seemed to make a complete 180. He used to rebel like no other, but never got caught. He is often the voice of misguided reason. He never really knows what he wants to do with his life. He just knows he's not happy with the decent job he has now.

Ngoai: For her age, she is coherent most of the time. However, her mind tends to go to a dark place sometimes. She barely speaks english, but at this point in her life, cannot survive anywhere else than the United States (where the majority of her family resides).

Jonah: He and I have always seemed to be cut from a similar cloth somehow. Yet his was always the lighter colored "ying" cloth. We have a similar taste in humor, music, and movies. Except my tastes are only slightly more darker than his. He's got a girlfriend that goes to a different school than him. He met her in high school. I have a feeling they're going to get married someday. I just hope I'll be invited.

Drake: He and I learned violin from the same teacher growing up. We also got into a bunch of trouble together in high school, going to lot of music festivals that would last for hours. He's also got a girlfriend who will someday become his wife. I just hope the cigarettes don't kill them first.

Wake Up

Write about a private moment you’ve experienced in a distant place. Perhaps a solitary walk along a beach or an elegant dinner at a restaurant far from home. Your goal, first, is to transport yourself back to this moment, then put the reader there. Tell us what you see, what you smell and hear, what you feel.

I will answer this post with a poem I wrote when I was in seventh grade. It narrates a dream I once had. Before Inception came out.

I wake up
I’m not in my bed
My room smells different
My hands look different
I’m a different person...

I wake up
My head hurts
My back aches
My clothes smell
The sidewalk is cold
A man gives me change...

I wake up
I walk outside
The air smells of fish
The sand cradles my bare feet
The sun is warm on my face
And the ocean purrs on the horizon...

I wake up again
The walls are white
There is a tube in my nose
A woman asks if I can hear her
One blink for yes
Two blinks for no
She says she's sorry...

I wake up
I cry
My bed rocks slowly
A strange woman comes and holds me
I cry louder...

I wake up
The air is cold
The walls are dirty
My cot smells of puke and sweat
The guard walks by my cell...

I wake up again
My head is on the woman next to me
I hear a man ask for more peanuts
I look out the window and see clouds
The pilot says we are almost home...

And then I wake up
I know this warmth
I know these hands
And I know this place
I feel familiar
I feel fine
I feel normal
And then I wake up…

Cell Phones

Write about your favorite invention. What has made your life easier since you’ve been using it? Who makes it and what does it do? What are the benefits of this invention? What are the negative results of using this invention? If you could improve it, what would you do?

My life has become so integrated into technology that i actually care more when my cell phone gets lost than when my wallet with my license, school ID, debit card, library card, personal items, two free movie passes and twenty bucks gets lost. btw twenty dollar reward to anyone who finds my wallet :P

on a similar note, ive realized how much my life revolves around technology to the point where i actually depend on it. it has become a necessity. an addiction. it wakes me up in the morning. it entertains me. it cleans me. it allows me to see around my house. it even tells me what to do sometimes. i found that i actually listen to what my mother says more when she says it via text message than when she says it to my face. I even remember it better. for some reason "go to bed. NOW!" is more intimidating to me when she is texting it from her bed at 12am.

Dear cell phone innovators,
We have enough cell phones to make us all unique individuals who all conform under your tyranny. Our need to be constantly be connected to our friends and family has awarded you the opportunity to rape our wallets and social life. And by installing cameras that send pictures...what the hell were you thinking? there are kids as young as 12 years old who are now locking themselves in their bathrooms to take naked pictures of themselves to send to guys who honestly only just want to send it to every other guy they know. You have cleverly managed to build your own underground child pornography service that has at the same time passed conveniently under your own noses as well as the law enforcement's watchful eyes.

just stop making us smaller, cooler, more colorful cell phones. we dont need fun little one dollar applications to occupy our attention when we have five minutes of down time on the bus or in the subway. people need to pull their souls out of their cell phones in those five minutes and observe the world. observe people. or just observe the depths of their own minds.

We have enough cell phones. You have made such an abundance of new cell phones that it seems like you are coming out with one every week. cell phones should not be like a new style of clothing that defines us as an individual. they are machines. they are gadgets that run on batteries. batteries that often pile up in landfills destroying our eco systems. stop making us new cell phones and start making us things we actually need. like jetpacks or more efficient eco friendly engines. or jetpacks :)

Love Speech on Asians

Write a defense to the bigoted diatribe that you wrote previously. Defend your heritage and talk about some of the more interesting and special cultural activities or physical differences.

Hey maybe someday when all asians have taken over the world and they elect me to be the ambassador to the Engrish, I'll reconsider putting your balls on a platter. Next time we have a math test, I'll write down all the wrong answers so you can fail. Oh and stop asking about my dick so much. If you ask about it that much, it makes everyone around you think you're scared the half asian kid's dick is gona be bigger than yours. And if I could fix your calculator, I'd take it from you and then smash it on the fuckin ground. You're not gona fight me, because you're too scared that I know kung-fu. Right?

Hate Speech on Asians

Pretend you are part of a hate group and write a bigoted diatribe against your ethnic heritage. Use all the common myths and stereotypes. Be as offensive as you can be. Think about where you’ve heard similar statements and how you felt at the time you first heard them.

You chinky eyed bitch. Why don't you go fix my calculator. You can use your tiny ass dick as a sauntering iron. Ching Chong Ching Ching Chong. Hey I how do you name an asian baby? By throwing a spoon in the sink. Fuckin Chink. I got some math homework if you wanna do that for me. Fuckin asian. Hey why are you so good at sports? No I'm pretty sure it's cuz you're asian. Hey, Chris, do all black people look the same to you? Hey, Chris, how do you see the road when your eyes are closed all the time? Wait, your eyes are open right now right? Hey, Chris, even though you're half white and there's a purebred chinese kid sitting right next to us, we're just gona call you Asian. That's just gona be your new nickname. K ASIAN?

Why do you think I wrote "I touch myself" in whiteout on Pat Cassidy's binder in 7th grade? Actually, it was because he ripped one of my playing cards. Because I was asian. And really good at magic tricks.

One Sentence, One Paragraph

In a single sentence, declare who you are – your ethnic and regional background, your social class, your religion, or whatever is appropriate to you. For example, “I am a third-generation American of Irish-German heritage, raised Catholic in the middle-class suburbs of the Midwest.” Follow this sentence with an autobiographical paragraph or two, perhaps shifting back to the time you were born, or perhaps showing how your background influences your beliefs and actions today.

I'm an Irish-Vietnamese guy born in Anchorage, Alaska; raised in the middle class of Williamsport, PA.

I was raised under the guidance of my older brother. He was always a lot cooler to me than I think he really was. Nevertheless, he was the one who taught me how to act around people, how to dress, and how to get through to the 'unreasonables'. We moved from Alaska, to Virginia, and then to PA because of my father's job. I doubt they'll be moving again soon. I'll be honest, though, I'm a little scared of that transition between kid and adult. I guess I need a job first...