Nicole DiGiose

The Nico Blues Heat Up The Vibe Lounge

Posted on by Nicole DiGiose

An article I wrote for SpotonLI.com.

The Nico Blues, an alternative rock band from New Jersey, heated up The Vibe Lounge in Rockville Centre Friday night. They pulled in a crowd of a variety of ages.

The band is made up of Eric Goldberg and Evan Campbell, both vocalists, guitarists, and bassists, Reed Adler, guitarist and bassist, Skylar Adler, drummer and recording engineer, and Dan Goldberg, guitarist. The guys rotate instruments depending on which song they play. The band was founded in 2009, but they have been sharing and writing music with each other for years. Growing up in the same neighborhood, the five of them were friends by the time they were six and seven years old.

The Nico Blues played six of their songs Friday night, opening with “Mugshot In Princeton,” which is on their upcoming EP, followed by “Living Proof,” which the band considers to be their most successful song. The video for “Living Proof” was picked up by MTVU. The audience rocked their bodies and tossed their heads to the intense harmony, wearing stickers on their clothing the band handed out before the show. Read More

Break of Dawn

Posted on by Nicole DiGiose

Dawn slipped her fingers between Carlo’s. They squinted their eyes from the sunlight as they walked out of the dorm building.

“I’m just gonna head to class from here,” Carlo said, taking his hand from Dawn’s.

Dawn grabbed her cellphone out of her back pocket and slid her thumb across the screen. “You have 15 minutes. Come to The Cup with me.” She crossed her arms and frowned.

“I want to read over my notes.”

“You can come to The Cup with me. I’ll test you.”

“Nah, just go.” Carlo pointed his hand with the notebook to The Cup, the coffee shop across the field.

“Hug me first.” Dawn closed her eyes and held her arms open.

Carlo wrapped his arms around Dawn’s shoulders and kissed her blonde head. “Bye Dawn,” he said before letting her go.

“Text me when you’re out,” Dawn said as Carlo walked away.

*

The bell on the door jingled as Dawn entered The Cup. She stopped as soon as she stepped in. The counter’s line ended near the entrance. She scanned the couches and tables in the dining area for someone she knew.

“Looks like everybody had the same idea.”

Dawn smiled and turned around when she heard his voice.

“Andriel!” She hugged him. “You’re out of class early. Usually I don’t see you here for another 20 minutes.”

“Yeah. Professor showed up late, turned on some movie made in the ’80s about the culture of Guatemala and was on his iPad. He obviously didn’t want to be there today so why should I?”

Dawn shrugged. “Nobody cares about anything anymore.”

“Nope.”

The line moved up and Andriel puffed his chest out and purposefully walked into Dawn. “Excuse me, miss,” he said in a deep voice.

She grinned and pushed him away. “You’re such a creep.”

Andriel rubbed one of his big hands through Dawn’s hair, pulling it in front of her face.

“Cut it out!” She laughed and parted her hair. Read More

My Life: Things Done and Things to Be Done

Posted on by Nicole DiGiose

Last updated on 9/12/2015.

Skydiving

Parasailing

Bungee jumping

Dog sledding

White water rafting

Go for a ride in a hot air balloon

Kayaking

Camping

Hiking

Race in a 5k

Travel to Europe

Travel to Australia

Go on an African safari

Go on an Alaskan cruise

Visit California

Raise an animal from its first few weeks of life and form a lifelong bond with him/her

Train a dog and love him because he’s a part of my family

Ride a horse

Meet a wolf

Grow my own plants

Make honor roll

Graduate college

Keep a diary and commit to it for years

Have my work published

Read my work in front of an audience Read More

Little Women Blackout poem

Posted on by Nicole DiGiose

A blackout poem I created from a few pages of Louisa May Alcott’s novel, Little Women.

*

People, you know, envy girls fond of luxury

Man of the Sea learned to carry her without complaining

So light

Good spirits

Blue neck-ribbon, dressing her hair

looking nice, pretty or not

Bits of fun now and then Read More

Sweetie, Purchase My Valentine

Posted on by Nicole DiGiose

A short article I wrote in my journalism class at SUNY Purchase on Valentine’s Day 2011.

The total spending for Valentine’s Day is expected to hit $15.7 billion this year, according to the National Retail Federation. On average, a person will spend over $116.21 on the holiday.

For SUNY Purchase students, there is quite a range on what they’ll do, and the amount of money they’ll spend on their sweetie, for Valentine’s Day.

“Tonight, my girlfriend and I are making pizza,” said Nick Sciretta, junior drama studies major. “It’s a cheap and fun dinner. We don’t need to go overboard. Spending time together is special enough.”

Phil Gallo, SUNY Purchase alum said, “I’ll probably spend about $75 on gifts for my girlfriend. Maybe a little more.”

Read More

I Learned to Let Go of What I was Used to

Posted on by Nicole DiGiose

Below is my essay that was published on This I Believe.

Besides for my stuffed purple chick with one foot and a crooked beak, my brother Eric was my first best friend. My crib became his eleven months later, and eventually we shared a small room together. Our beds were so close, we’d jump from one to the other in our footed pajamas until my mom’s exhausted voice shouted up the stairs to lie in the beds and not jump on them.

Everyone outside of our family assumed that we were twins.  I’d always point out that I was taller. Aside from my longer hair, that was the only difference. We had the same chocolate eyes and the same shade of brown for hair; we’d make the same facial expressions—usually silly ones.

I would moan and complain and curl up on the couch when I had what my parents called “growing pains” in my legs. When it came to Eric, he would giggle, run to the refrigerator, and try to figure out how big the gap was between his head and the freezer door. There was never a reason for it, besides the fact that it excited us, but my father would take out his measuring tape and tell us how many more inches we had to grow until our heads reached the freezer door. I’d chase after my brother just to make sure I still had height on him. Read More

Raising Cane

Posted on by Nicole DiGiose

A feature interview I covered for SUNY Purchase’s literary and arts magazine, The Submission Magazine, in April 2011.

A row of eye-catching canes hanging across the open closet are revealed as the brown apartment door opens. They’re vibrant oranges, blues, purples, and greens, each in different patterns and sizes. From behind the door peeks senior graphic design major, Nicole Wynn, with her hair pulled back and glasses half way down her nose. After shutting the door, she walks by the collection of canes and heads for the living room.

She jokes that she took over the “messy” room as she looks around at the patterned canes and walkers up against the walls. A wheelchair is between the two couches. It was once black, but is now covered in an abstract design of the sun, its rays bursting. In total, there are 40 fashionable medical aids, most of them being canes that Wynn has designed for her senior project, along with a self-published book about her collection titled, Raising Cane.

Raising_Cane

Since birth, Wynn has been living with Multiple Hereditary Exostoses (MHE), a rare genetic condition causing multiple bony lumps and tumors to grow on all of the long bones of her body, most of the bones being irregularly shaped. According to Wynn, one in 100,000 people suffer from the condition, which comes with lots of pain and fatigue.

“The main reason I walk with a cane is because I have no hip sockets,” Wynn says. Instead, she has tumors growing in there. Read More