Waiting Games

The entertainment placement agency didn't call with any temp jobs this week, and just as I was about to contact a prior agency for some generic office work, I received an e-mail from yet another entertainment agency (which also places personal assistants) about scheduling an interview. I had contacted them upon first arriving in L.A. and never heard back and then sent them another resume at the end of May.

So now I have an interview with that place next Wednesday and my second interview with the library system the following week. In the meantime I have decided to forego the generic temp work I have been doing and put my faith in either an entertainment job (temporary or permanent) or a library job working out.

I recently saw an ad on one of the entertainment sites for a job that listed the hours as 8-6. I know most of those positions require overtime, but it's ballsy that they would list the official hours as forty-five per week.

My roommate is also out of work at the moment and so we are both doing the "ladies of leisure" routine around the apartment.

During this downtime I caught another L.A.-themed movie on HBO called "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" with that little scamp Robert Downey, Jr. It wasn't great, but it was entertaining, which is more than I can say for "Ocean's Thirteen."

I did also make it to the beach at Point Dume for some sun and surf; of course, there was a film crew set up on the beach.

Last night I went to see the Upright Citizens Brigade, a comedy/improv troupe, on a block of Franklin Street in Hollywood that I hadn't visited before. In addition to the UCB Theatre, there's a used bookstore and a couple of cool restaurants along there, and across the street, oddly, is the Scientology Celebrity Center. The show was only $5, with no valet parking or required meals tacked on, but then, you get what you pay for. It was amusing enough, but the performers (and crowd) were very young and obviously using UCB as a training ground.

Deja Vu

Went to a party in the Hollywood Hills on Saturday with my friend A. It was a "Burning Man" crowd-- hula hoops, tarot cards, dreads. I felt like I was back in Austin.

I enjoyed having the last two weeks off but am now back in limbo, with that Sopranos finale intensifying my sense of drift. My interview with the library won't be scheduled until after the 25th, and I haven't heard anything back from the new entertainment temp agency yet.

I did drive up to Burbank yesterday to check out a digital media company where one of the men I've been on some dates with works. There are only three such companies in the U.S., and this one is the largest. I don't have a grasp on everything they do, but in a nutshell, well, they digitize media. One aspect of that is the restoration of film; I saw someone working on a film in which a young Scott Baio played a Little Leaguer. All that time, effort, and equipment, so a preteen Scott Baio can be restored for our viewing pleasure. Yet it was an impressive place.

The drive up there took me around 35-45 minutes, but then I wasn't driving during rush hour. Burbank isn't on the same walkable, human scale as where I live; it's the land of office parks.

I'm driving out to Point Dume today in Malibu to go swimming. I believe that's Planet of the Apes territory.