The Big Event(s)

Three large, well-attended events occurred in L.A. this past weekend-- the Coachella Music Festival, the Los Angeles Book Festival, and the Israel Independence Day celebration. I, however, declined to attend any of them, as I am no longer a twentysomething (Coachella), not yet a fiftysomething (the book festival), and, well, not Jewish.

Sandal Season

I have a new, L.A. induced obsession-- the state of my feet. I have never in my life had a manicure or pedicure, a confession that elicits shocked disbelief from my acquaintances here.

Given that I swim, hike, run, kickbox, dance ballet, etc., I had pretty much accepted that my feet would always look battered. In L.A., however, a calloused bunyon is an object of such repulsion that I am forced to seek treatment. I am still holding out on a pedicure but have been lotioning away every night to little effect. I am also treating two recently blackened toenails in a vain race against the clock to sandal season. I really don't like the painted toenail look though; it reminds me of a poodle.

I am already starting to resent the maintenance requirements in L.A. and am beginning to dislike the artificially perfect eyebrow look so popular here. And I have still held out on the self-tanner! A few months ago a friend of mine held a dinner table in rapt attention as she described the process of laser hair removal of her private area.

After the cocktail party this afternoon I tooled around the Venice boardwalk and was happy to realize once again that there are hordes of non-perfect-looking people (well, in this case, freaks) in this city.

It's Confirmed

I had coffee this morning with an extremely nice guy who works for New Line Cinema. He moved here a dozen years ago, but even back then he and several of his friends had difficulties with the Entertainment Placement Agency that gave me the runaround about the CAA interview. He never got any work out of them, and he is the third person who has told me a tale of woe regarding that agency.

He highly recommended another agency in town, but I don't know if I have the stomach right now to resume the employment agency dance. I just had a very difficult week at my current job though and seriously considered telling them the job was not for me. I did, in fact, tell my boss that I was not in any rush to gain "permanent" status. Everyone treats me with kid gloves the minute I hint I'm about to walk! They know it's a bad job. I found out tonight that my coworker will be out sick tomorrow, so I am now looking at a hellish Monday on top of the grinding week I just wrapped up.

I don't want to quit until I have a plan of action in place though. I did apply to the library system a couple of weeks ago so am biding my time to see what happens with that situation.

Just like the guy who went to Largo with me on Wednesday, my coffee date encouraged me to stick it out here at least a year, saying that he went back and forth for the first four years he lived in L.A. about whether or not he wanted to stay. He agreed that the uncertain "contract" nature of a lot of work in the entertainment industry is not for most people and that L.A. is a difficult place to have your accomplishments recognized in order to land a job. He also said that it's challenging to meet people here and that he had tried meetup.com (scrabble, poker) with decidedly mixed results.

After my coffee date I drove to an afternoon cocktail party in Venice where I met a Los Angeles native who had lived all over the country before moving back to L.A. She told me a familiar story: that Los Angeles is the most difficult city she's ever lived in regarding socializing and has the fewest activities to facilitate meeting people of any city she's ever lived in. She, however, did have great success with meetup.com and had a new Latin American boyfriend on her arm that she met at a Spanish language meetup group!

My property manager in Austin has already placed my condo on the rental market, so pretty soon I will no longer have the option of turning tail and running back to Austin and will have to stick it out another year regardless.

Blog Wars

I came across another blog on blogspot today called "lost librarian" that has the same format and style as my blog. I am sure we are going to attract a lot of confused cross traffic.

I Luv Largo, Part II

I made it to Largo again tonight to catch a benefit reading by Glasgow Phillips, the author of "The Royal Nonesuch." His reading was funny, he seems like a genuinely nice guy, and I highly recommend the book to my fellow ageing Gen X friends.

The musical guest for the evening was Fiona Apple. She is very petite, very dramatic, and blessed with a very good voice. She has become something of a jazz chanteuse of late.

The opening comedian looked so familiar... I couldn't quite place him... and then I figured it out! He played the hippie high school guidance counselor on that beloved cancelled TV show, "Freaks and Geeks."

The Morning After

I drank a couple of glasses of wine last night and ended up with a raging headache that lasted all night. The good news is that it distracted me from my emerging anxiety disorder, and I was finally able to sleep.

I went out with a coworker and her husband; we had dinner first at their landmark apartment building in Hollywood, complete with old-timey elevator. My friend's husband is a former actor/ model. My roommate's boyfriend is a former model. One of the men I met on New Year's Eve was also a former model. I don't recall ever having known a "former model" before living here.

My friend used to work in the entertainment industry as a craft services provider. I've been a bit envious of the entertainment industry lifestyle because it allows for a lot of time off and because of the variety it provides in terms of working with new people and at new places all the time. But my coworker and her husband emphasized how stressful it all was, never knowing where your next paycheck is coming from.

We went to a birthday party for another coworker that was held in the penthouse suite of a hotel in Hollywood. The birthday boy was turning 27. As I wrote before, the bulk of my coworkers are in their twenties. His friends were all very sweet and polite, but I felt like I was watching an episode of the O.C.! Everyone looked so young.

My friends gave me a hard time upon leaving for not flirting more with some young guy who approached me at the party. He looked all of 24 years old. I asked my friend's husband if he knew any single men in their late thirties/ early forties, and he said all his friends were either married or in the closet or terrible people I wouldn't want to date. This does not bode well...

Culture Shock

Someone wrote into the "Dear Cary" column on salon.com today about the culture shock he was experiencing having moved to San Diego from New York.

Cary recommended returning to New York because "New York is your home. It's where you are known and understood. If you walk around strangers too long you get strange. You get estranged from yourself. They don't understand who you really are. They haven't seen what you have seen. It is a struggle to make them understand."

I am starting to agree with that sentiment, but most of the response letters to the column have encouraged the letter writer to stick it out for at least two years. They do agree that a lot of Southern Californians prefer to keep social interaction "light and happy" and can be passive aggressive. I've had that experience at work. Several coworkers have asked me how it's going on the new job, and I've replied tactfully but truthfully that it's been a steep learning curve, memorizing everyone's name and job description. Inevitably the questioner's face will fall at this reply, as if the only acceptable response would have been "I love it!" with a high-five to emphasize my enthusiasm.

I've realized that if I stay here, most of my friends will end up being people who are transplants like myself.

Night of the Rat

About 1:30 a.m. the little (or should I say big) bugger got stuck in the glue trap in the bathroom and went ballistic. After thrashing around it went quiet for five minutes. Then suddenly it propelled itself into the hallway before tumbling down the stairs. I was in bed having a heart attack during all of this.

This morning some men came by to retrieve it from under the sofa but it had escaped from the trap and was gone!

My roommate is out of town and has missed all the action.

No Joke

Last night I made it to Largo to see Patton Oswalt (celebrity sighting: Lisa Loeb). One of the comedians who opened for him was joking about all the rats in his New York apartment and how he would catch them running from the couch to underneath his refrigerator. I felt so relieved that at least I didn't have to deal with that problem in L.A.!

At about 1 a.m. I went down to my kitchen, flipped on the light, and a rat scurried under the refrigerator.

Another sleeping pill. I tried to calm down with the thought that at least the rat was downstairs. In the morning, though, I found two pellets in the upstairs bathroom.

I'm putting out glue traps tonight and barricading my bedroom.

I knocked on the door of my very cute neighbor and his girlfriend to tell them about the rat and ask if they could also call the landlord. I was still in my gym shorts, having gone to the gym and then driven to five different stores looking for glue traps. I was sweaty and stuttering and I dropped my mailbox key and then couldn't find it. If this was a movie, it would have been the moment my neighbor would have realized he was falling in love with me.

Alas, this is not a movie.

Foreign Language

The other day a woman in my office said something in Hebrew and I thought she was speaking Esperanto.

I laughed to myself about this later. When I lived in central Austin, I knew people who spoke Esperanto but didn't know anyone who spoke Hebrew.

Workin' Out in Hollywood

I went to a pilates class at my gym in Hollywood tonight. It was taught by a flamboyant Asian man who played lovely pieces of classical music and opera while leading us through the most difficult class I have ever attended in my life! And I used to think pilates was easy.

I Luv Largo

I'm very lucky to live within walking distance of Largo, my favorite club in Los Angeles. This month alone they are featuring the musician John Doe and the comedians Margaret Cho, Patton Oswalt, and Sarah Silverman. I feel more comfortable there than I do at, say, Spaceland, where I am perhaps a bit over-the-hill for the thrift store set.

I need to make a concerted effort to get to Largo more often, as I moved to L.A. for the number of creative people doing really sharp work here. Not the "People" people, but the actually interesting ones. I should put the job concerns on the back burner for a spell and try to get in touch with that part of L.A.

Cruisin' the Aisles

Several times at grocery stores around L.A., men have struck up conversations with me about the stock. I immediately go into "stranger danger" alert, so it's unlikely I will ever successfully find love at Whole Foods. I also honestly never know if the person is hitting on me or if he really wants to know if I've tried the soup.

Today at Trader Joe's this guy struck up a conversation with me about their frozen key lime pie. Even if I had wanted the conversation to lead to something, I would have had no idea how to make that happen. I wonder if there is some obvious come-on line I'm supposed to respond with, like, "I think the melons are also looking ripe." I have no idea, so I usually just answer their questions and take off!

My First Movie

"The TV Set" is the first movie I've seen in a theater since moving to L.A.
A little embarrassing to admit, considering I want to work in the entertainment industry. But then, there's never much worth seeing.

"The TV Set," however, was very funny, although excruciatingly so, as I related to the David Duchovny character a little too much, and Sigourney Weaver was channeling people from my past.

At one point in the film, the main character jokes that if he sells out, they can send the kids to Crossroads. Those following my temping adventures might be able to piece together the resonance of that joke for me.

At another point, a British character tells her husband that she is taking the kid and going back to England, saying something to the effect of, "We don't belong here, Richard. This is a terrible, terrible place." That got a big laugh from the audience!

And my Pointe is...

I'm planning on seeing Jake Kasdan's film "The TV Set" today. Kasdan was a collaborator on the supurb television series "Freaks and Geeks," and the film is a fictionalized version of the struggle to get a quality series on the air. I read in an interview with Kasdan that he would have no idea how to get a TV show on the air today, which is remarkable, when you think about it.

A friend of mine in Austin, who used to depend on my reader advisory skills, asked me to put more book recommendations on here. L.A. is poked fun of as a non-reading city, but supposedly people do indeed read books here, albeit in search of material for entertainment product. I have yet to see proof of this, but it makes sense. Here are some recs that are at least dimly related to my blog:

"But Enough About Me" by Jancee Dunn: Funny, insider look into celebrity culture and entertainment reporting.

"Sweet: An Eight-Ball Odyssey" by Heather Byer: I don't know yet if I will stick with this one, but I did enjoy the opening scene in which a film executive colleague of the author's throws a tantrum in an oft-visited New York restaurant because he is asked to wait five minutes for a table. The executive's quivering minion later defends the guy's behavior to the author, saying, "These things are important to Larry. Commitment is important to Larry. Loyalty."

"The Cigarette Girl" by Carol Wolper: It's been several years since I read it, but I remember enjoying this cynical novel about a single woman living in L.A. and working in the film industry.

As far as movies, I naturally recommend the L.A.-set "The Big Lebowski," although all my friends have surely seen it and probably more than once. Lately I have been recalling the scene in which Lebowski, played by that great, unsung actor Jeff Bridges, is shown a portrait on a wall of this wealthy man posing with Nancy Reagan. His reserved reaction in that scene is akin to my generally skeptical response to the job market here. Like, hmmmm, uh huh, I see.

I also have been thinking about "Sue," directed by Amos Kollek. I don't think it has ever been released on video or DVD, but I caught a showing of it in Paris around 1998, when I was travelling there. The movie follows a middle-aged single woman in New York City as she loses her job, runs out of money, becomes homeless, goes a little batty, and then keels over dead on a park bench in Central Park. I rather enjoyed the film, but I hope I don't end up keeled over on a park bench in Santa Monica.

Speaking of tragic women, a big glossy book and CD about Edie Sedgwick was just released called "Edie: Girl on Fire." I loved the Jean Stein "Edie" book when I was in college. I have recently tried to recall my mindset back then, when I was young and could afford to become obsessed with impractical things. Edie, of course, met her demise in Southern California.

I'll end this with a mention of "Grosse Pointe Blank," which I caught for the first time on DVD about eight months ago and was very affected by. In some indirect way the ennui and world-weariness it portrayed motivated me to make changes in my life and move out here.

On a related note, when I told acquaintances I was moving to Los Angeles, at least five people responded with "So who's the guy?" A friend told me I should have answered, "John Cusack."

Cue crazy music.

A Plague of Locusts

There was an article on the front page of the L.A. Times yesterday about global warming that explained how the Southwest might become another dust bowl due to climate change. While I was living in Austin, debating whether I should move to Los Angeles and pondering my life on a micro level, I was also coping with the concern that global warming is going to annihilate the human race! It's difficult to take your personal aspirations seriously when that concern is running in the background.

Work was better yesterday, and I think I can hold on. I should be able to make a decision on that by the end of the month. Although, given the number of golfer types in the office, I do still think I would be better suited to working with entertainment industry misfits.

Pop. Explosion

From "Dewey and the Pelican," by Seven McDonald, in last week's LA Weekly:

“I think we’ve reached the tipping point,” he says, in the driver’s seat of his Ford Taurus. “It seems like there is an impenetrable wall of cars.”

Weber, who’s working on a book called Surf Porn, which he describes as “Pat Hobby meets Ken Kesey,” says he noticed a marked increase in congestion after the epoch of the new millennium, or rather post-9/11, after which, he heard, millions of people flooded the city.

“You used to be able to access many different parts of the city in a day,” he says. “You can’t do that anymore. To get across town and back, it can take you four hours.”

Another Week, Another Roller Coaster

I found out yesterday that the current tenants in my condo in Austin will be moving out in May. I'd be lying if I said I'm not sorely tempted by the prospect of throwing in the towel on L.A. and moving back. But, despite what appear to be my dismal prospects here, it does seem too soon to make that decision. There's some hidden parties up in those hills, and I'd like to attend a couple before splitting town!

I do think my decision to leave Austin and try something new was a sound one, but I'm just not sure I can build a life here, for reasons out of my control.

In terms of my workplace, I've taken a look up the ladder, and my desire to move upward has been, uh, greatly tempered (oh, how interesting this blog could be if I didn't feel I had to edit myself). Not to mention that almost everyone over the age of thirty appears hitched. Right now I'm just trying to cope with my current position, hoping it will at least cover the bills and that I can stick with it long enough to give L.A. a real chance. I love the short commute and the hours (I work a later shift) and have been pretty successful at walking into the job in the mornings with a good attitude. But then I encounter the chaos and find myself in yet another impossible, no-win situation, and I want to run screaming from the building! I'm still in the temp period and so could decide it just isn't working out, but I'd like it to work, for a while anyway. At least now I'm starting to have conversations with coworkers.

A different temp agency called me this week, dangling an interview for another temp-to-perm job. It was at a higher level, but the compensation, although slightly better, wasn't enough for me to take the risk. In truth, none of these jobs pay livable wages for a city this expensive. I've learned the hard way not to think of the people who work for employment agencies as job counselors. They are more like used car salesman, and if you're lucky, you'll end up with something you like reasonably well that has a minimum of problems. I've also seen some friendly personalities turn on a dime when I didn't behave a certain way. Enough said.

I went to the dentist this week and, big surprise, he told me I've been grinding my teeth at night.

I'm nearly finished with "The Royal Nonesuch" and recommend it highly. The author started a "naming" company while in Los Angeles, and I appreciated his insight on that type of business, as I temped for a "branding" company a few months ago. I definitely don't have the personality to work in marketing, although my skills would lead me there.

I know that if I go back to Austin I'll just be facing another long hard job search. I've started running the numbers and wondering whether if I moved back, found a roommate, and sold my car, I could survive on a part-time job at the Starbucks at 45th and Lamar (for the health insurance). Sadly, I think there's no way to get off the treadmill, if you want to eat.

I'm becoming happier and happier that I don't have kids!

Happy Anniversary to Me

Today marks my three-month anniversary in Los Angeles.

Last week, during my adjustment to the new job, I pondered whether I would choose, if I were able to do so, to snap my fingers and be back in my hobbit hole in Austin, at the old job, with this move to California having been nothing but a dream. I would say it was a toss-up. It's definitely been an exhilirating change, but I'm already worried about having lost the nice benefits I had at my old job. I'm also down about 10k, which in the large scheme of things is not that bad, but, considering my current salary and cost of living, I will have lost a lot more money than that by the end of the year.

Since I held onto my condo in Austin, I feel like I have one foot still there, and I'm not sure if having that "escape hatch" is such a good thing. From a practical stanpoint, yes, but maybe not from a psychological standpoint.

I have a date today and some flirtation possibilities at work, but out of the eight dates I've been on since moving here, I suspect that three of them were gay. Almost 50%! Not so encouraging.

I've also been overcome with anxiety and insomnia. For the most part, it's not conscious anxiety; I'll be happily watching Entourage, not a conscious concern in my head, only to turn off the TV and then lie in bed, completely unable to fall asleep. I just think it's unnerving to any human being to move to a new city without family or tight connections there. And I have a bunch of problems to solve that, when taken together, have led to an "overload on the system."

I've been exercising like a fiend as a way to cope. One of my yoga teachers, who looks like Frank Black (if you can imagine), said yesterday that L.A. is the "yoga capital of the world," with more yoga instruction than any other city. Or something like that.

As a positive effect of all this stress, I've lost about ten pounds.

I talked to a couple of Austin friends this week, and they mentioned the same old events that were attended by the usual suspects, and it didn't make me want to return. So I guess I just need to have faith that my new life here will fall into place somehow.

Readings in the Film Capital

In an effort to attend at least one interesting L.A. happening this week, I went to Book Soup on
Sunset tonight for a presentation by the author/ photographer of the book "Punk Love." Henry Rollins assisted the author in presenting the book and photos from the early days of the punk rock movement in Washington, D.C. As in Austin, readings don't seem to be well-attended here; maybe twenty people showed up. The author did mention that she attended SXSW this year.

I took very similar black and white photos of a band and their audience in Fort Worth back in 1994, but since none of those people became famous, I will not be coming out with a book.

While at Book Soup, I bought a copy of "The Royal Nonesuch," a memoir by Glasgow Phillips detailing his misadventures in the entertainment industry in L.A. The book begins with him living in Austin, circa 1997, before deciding to make the move west. I wanted to go to his reading earlier this week, but alas, the j-o-b got in the way.