3.23.10. Inishmore, Ireland.
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all the shows we’ve seen since moving here
4.24.10. Gibson Amp: Conan O’Brien’s Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on TVTour.
5.7.10: House of Blues: Kevin Smith-Talkin’ Dirty
5.21.10. The Echo: Francis & the Lights, Teen INC.
6.12.10. Improv: Kevin Smith & Scott Mosier SModcast
6.23.10. Music Box: Josh Ritter & the Royal City Band
6.26.10. Wiltern: Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
7.18.10. Hollywood Bowl: The Swell Season, She & Him, The Bird & the Bee
7.21.10. Improv: SMod’em Steve Dave
7.22.10. Greek Theater: Barenaked Ladies
7.25.10. SMODCASTLE: Prima Nocta -SModcast 3D and Having Sex w/ Katie Morgan
7.27.10. Troubadour: Phosphorescent, J. Tillman
8.13.10. Spaceland: These United States
8.15.10. SMODCASTLE: (first ever) Blowhard w/ Kevin Smith and Malcolm Ingram
Upcoming:
9.8.10. Greek Theater: David Gray and Ray Lamontagne
9.27.10. Palladium: Black Keys
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[Flash 10 is required to watch video]
8.14.10. These United States. Spaceland.
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flower power
So last week I was hired to do some work as an assistant editor for this big company, which I will refer to as Flower Power. I didn’t really understand how big this company was until I entered the office last Wednesday. The office is located at LA Live, which is directly across from the Staples Center in Downtown LA. I had vaguely heard of Flower Power before, but their reception area was filled with celebrity photos and display cases full of all their products.
I had been hired by J., who was contracted to do work for Flower Power, so I met him at the offices and we waited to meet his contact at the company. We check in at the reception and a half hour later, no one had come to meet us. Finally J. me called his contact, M., who had apparently been upstairs the entire time and had never been contacted. We got upstairs and meet his contact and are taken back to the editing suites. So clue #1 that Flower Power has too much money is that they not only have four well-equiped editing suites, but also their own in-house studio. So after getting settled in and waiting 20-minutes for a firewire cable, J. was finally able to show me the footage.
I hadn’t known anything about this project before accepting the job, because let’s face it, after 2 months I’ll pretty much take any jobs that comes my way. J. had told me that he had shot the project in South America. Now J. tells me that they were documenting Flower Powers shake bars that they opened. Flower Power produces a “healthy” shake mix. So to help the people in South America, they provide these shake bars where people can come and have shakes, hang out, and be happy. So yeah, first thought is that it’s cool that they do this, but also that it’s kind of weird.
After J. left, I set to work on getting the footage compressed. My spanish comprehension is so poor that I couldn’t follow what anyone was saying in the videos, but a lot of it seemed really scripted and unnatural. As I sat there compressing footage, I really started to think about who I was working for and why they would do something like this in developing countries. My first instinct is that they are doing this to test their products on people. Further research that night led me to claims that Flower Power’s products led some people to liver failure. Now, I don’t know about this company either. Flower Power’s products don’t sell in stores, yet they obviously make a lot of money somewhere.
Day 1 of work seemed fine, I left feeling okay about the job. Day 2 I came in and my computer had crashed, so it lost all my files that I had left compressing overnight. So I set to work on setting that up again. M. didn’t show up for work, so I really didn’t know who I was supposed to report to in the office. But Day 2 I had the badge to get me around the office and in and out of my suite, so I felt important. It had a pully-string and the Flower Power symbol. Day 2 I also caught a glimpse of the pantry, which was stocked full of Flower Power products. Day 3 I walk into my suite only to discover that my firewire cable had been taken, which meant that once again I had lost all my files that were left compressing. I felt like this company did not want to get the work done. M. didn’t show up for work again. She did call in the afternoon to see how things were going. Day 4, my last day, was weird again. M. didn’t show up for work until 3 and she came in to see how things were going. I showed her some of the footage and she seemed happy enough. She told me that she thought she might not use J. as the editor for this job because she didn’t think he was right for it. She then said she’d like to use me for other jobs and I said that would be fine, just to let me know. After finishing up the project that day, I felt a sense of relief. When I said goodbye to M., she said she was just about to leave too. I left at 6, which means after 3 days of no work, she had finally put in 3 hours.
After I got home, I sent in my invoice and received a phone call today from M. saying that she had a question about my invoice. She informed me that she had told J. that they could only pay the assistant editor X-amount, not Y-amount per day, a difference of $100 over the four days of working there. And I told her that’s what he had told me. She said she’d take the additional money out of his paycheck to pay me. Okay, what? This huge corporation is going to take $100 out of someone’s check. My parking validations for the time I was working there cost more than that. After that call, I really started to wonder about this company. I can’t say that I really want to go back. Just send me my check Flower Power. After that, you suck.
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gourmet trucks
We haven’t tried any of this yet, but soon, yes soon! They look so delicious. I’m still going through the pages and pages of delicious trucks and will probably add to this list.
Finding the food trucks! A list of all the Twitter pages.
Nom Nom Truck <—YUM to the Monster Combo!
Fry Smith <—Vegan Chili Fries on sweet potato fries!!!
Buttermilk Truck <—-YUM BREAKFAST
Dogtown Dog <—-Veggie dogs and portobello cheese steak..mmmm
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bally bust
I’m not sure what I really expected when I made my way to the closest gym to my house with Matt’s sister, Elisha, last night. We had both just signed up for our 7-day passes to try out the gym and just wanted to go to the gym to use the equipment. We knew we’d have to take a tour, but we didn’t know that we would have to endure over 45-minutes of torture.
When we walked into Bally, we told the unfriendly workers at the front desk that we had the 7-day pass. We filled out the paperwork and waited for someone to give us the tour. We were met by Dexter, general manager and douchebag, who escorted us to a back cubicle that was oddly furnished with a broken computer from the 1990s and a dusty router. He didn’t start off by welcoming us to the gym, he didn’t ask us much of anything. In the room, he started telling us our goals for the gym. I should rephrase and say that he at first did ask why we need to go the gym, but when Elisha answered incorrectly (yes, there are right and wrong answers to this—i guess?), he just started telling us our needs and wants. Afterward, Dexter spent the next 10-minutes relating going to the gym from everything to drugs and addition to learning how to use your cell phone. His phone rings off the hook…apparently….
We were then taken to the scale, where HE weighed us—maybe there is a weight limit for the gym? And were then escorted upstairs to the personal training area where he talked about some lady and how she was getting tired. Basically, everyone in the small personal training area looked scared and helpless. He then lead us around the weight room and high-fived and waived to his various fans(?) that were working out. He lead us through the rest of the building and then escorted to a different cubicle with another broken computer and dusty router. He made us take our BMI and then continued on to tell us that we were at risk and obese, which made me want to go home and cry more than it motivated me to workout. He then took out his pamphlet on the pricing and kept lowering the price until I finally said that we just wanted to use our free pass and see if we liked the gym. He seemed shocked when I said we had the free-pass. Yes, dude, that’s why we are here. He didn’t want us to use our pass—we apparently we need California ID (which we knew, but were trying to get around), and that we shouldn’t need a 7-day pass because we were so at-risk that we shouldn’t hesitate for one more minute. He said the 7-day pass was just for personal training, which is BS. When we said we wouldn’t want the personal training, he didn’t really listen and went on to say that there would be no reason for us not to want him as our personal trainer. He kept smiling at us weirdly, while never actually meeting our eyes. Robot? We only got out of there with our lives by saying we couldn’t sign up today without our credit cards.
Elisha and I left feeling completely humiliated. We couldn’t believe what a terrible experience we had just gone through. My only conclusion is that he had overdosed on protein shakes that day because he had far too much energy. We still can’t believe he was the general manager. In any case, there is no way I’d ever step foot into that gym. It really made me miss the unlikely sanity of 24 Hour Fitness in Omaha. More gym shopping soon. Do I really live here now?
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visiting soon? here are some things we’ve done that you might like
ATTRACTIONS
the griffith observatory: beautiful view of the city and telescopes to view the stars.
the getty center: last time we were here, there were two people hardcore making out on the lawn.
FOOD
pink’s hotdogs: long lines and hotdogs. open until 3am on weekend. yum.
tito’s tacos: decent tacos and massively long lines, we just like waiting in the line. closes at 10pm. boo.
BARS
rush street: cheap, cheap, cheap happy hour and its only a 15-minute walk.
the backstage: karaoke and cheap drinks, in within walking distance to the apartment. woo! party party.
the smog cutter: enjoy dive bars, karaoke, drunk Thai women who not only make you drink, but make you tip constantly—then this is totally the place for you. non-drinkers have to wait outside (including me, the thai lady yelled at me to leave for not drinking, so I tried to hide in the back)
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karaoke ain’t no jokey!
i couldn’t believe my eyes and ears, i was witnessing the scene from American Psycho. The one where all of Patrick Bateman’s co-workers are huddled around the conference table and they are exchanging business cards. And they keep describing in great length about the texture of the cards and color and what kind of ink was used. Great scene.
I was sitting at a small table at a nice bar in Culver City having a drink, and for five minutes three people right in front of me went on and on about their business cards. I love these moments, because they are the moments that only we can truly appreciate and to call attention to it would negate its kitch.
Also, I forgot to mention that this bar does Karaoke Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. It had to be some of the most intense karaoke these eyes have borne witness too. First, the bar was packed, and when someone was done singing there was this screaming and applause that would make anyone feel like they were at a U2 concert, very bizarre. Also, there were LCD screens set up around the bar so you could see the lyrics to the song that was playing, and I would say half the crowd took it upon themselves to sing their hearts away, while their eyes moved left to right.
I walked home that evening with a smile on my face. We live here now.
be well.
