A few blocks south of where I live stands the "Flynt Publications" building on Wilshire Boulevard. I can't help but be curious about what goes on in there every time I drive past the building.
Well now I can wonder no more, thanks to a book called "Money Changes Everything," edited by Jenny Offill and Elissa Schappell. Yesterday I came upon the essay "Dirty Work" by Lydia Millet in which she describes taking a copy editing position there in 1991 after enduring a couple of bad, low-paying jobs in L.A. Interesting stuff for the curious, but it certainly lifts the veil and gives a portrait of a truly weird yet ultimately mundane and soul-crushing workplace.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Saturday, April 7, 2007
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 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.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Recommended Reading, Part II
I'm in the midst of reading a book called "New York & Los Angeles," edited by David Halle. As the title suggests, the book compares and contrasts the two cities, with the idea that "New York and Los Angeles are the two American cities with the strongest claims to global city status" (Gladstone and Fainstein, p. 79).
As a sidenote, I once read that Houston might become the most important city in America, due to the rising importance of oil. But now that Halliburton is relocating to the Middle East...
Anyway, this section from the book was enlightening to me:
Unlike the economies of paradigmatic American industrial metropolises such as Chicago, Detroit, and Pittsburgh, which were based on "Fordist," mass production industries churning out automobilies, steel, machinery, and domestic appliances, the economy of Los Angeles is composed of "enormously diverse, flexible production sectors, including financial and business services, high-technology industries, and various craft, fashion and cultural product industries ranging from clothing and jewelry to motion pictures and music recording" (Halle, p. 14).
"Flexible" is the key word here, the one connected to my job search difficulties. A lot of work here is contract and thus based on connections. As a newcomer, that's a problem. For a former city employee, it's confusing.
Another interesting bit:
New York and Los Angeles are the premier cities/ metropolitan areas for immigration in America, in a close race with each other to rank first in terms of their numbers of immigrants (Sabagh and Bozorgmehr, p. 99).
Someone wrote into my blog that I was writing only about "white" Los Angeles, but I explained that I must have been giving a "vanilla" impression because I was trying not to divulge too many details about the people I was meeting here. In actuality, I have been hanging out with several East Asians, Asians, and Latinos (both foreign and American born) as well as African Americans. I have also been steeped in Jewish culture here. My acquaintances may tend to be professionals (regardless of ethnic background), but just going to the grocery store or the gym here is a true experience in "cultural diversity."
As a sidenote, I once read that Houston might become the most important city in America, due to the rising importance of oil. But now that Halliburton is relocating to the Middle East...
Anyway, this section from the book was enlightening to me:
Unlike the economies of paradigmatic American industrial metropolises such as Chicago, Detroit, and Pittsburgh, which were based on "Fordist," mass production industries churning out automobilies, steel, machinery, and domestic appliances, the economy of Los Angeles is composed of "enormously diverse, flexible production sectors, including financial and business services, high-technology industries, and various craft, fashion and cultural product industries ranging from clothing and jewelry to motion pictures and music recording" (Halle, p. 14).
"Flexible" is the key word here, the one connected to my job search difficulties. A lot of work here is contract and thus based on connections. As a newcomer, that's a problem. For a former city employee, it's confusing.
Another interesting bit:
New York and Los Angeles are the premier cities/ metropolitan areas for immigration in America, in a close race with each other to rank first in terms of their numbers of immigrants (Sabagh and Bozorgmehr, p. 99).
Someone wrote into my blog that I was writing only about "white" Los Angeles, but I explained that I must have been giving a "vanilla" impression because I was trying not to divulge too many details about the people I was meeting here. In actuality, I have been hanging out with several East Asians, Asians, and Latinos (both foreign and American born) as well as African Americans. I have also been steeped in Jewish culture here. My acquaintances may tend to be professionals (regardless of ethnic background), but just going to the grocery store or the gym here is a true experience in "cultural diversity."
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