The Price Is Right

My interview today was in the TV Guide Building at Hollywood and Orange, next door to the Roosevelt Hotel and across the street from Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Walk of Fame. Anyone familiar with L.A. knows that block is crazy touristland!

It appears I may get the job and, if so, I will be working for a company that is developing that stretch of Hollywood Boulevard as well as building lofts downtown and participating in several other urban renewal projects. In what may have been a case of foreshadowing, my former co-workers in Austin photoshopped an image of my face on the Grauman's marquee for my goodbye party invitation. Also, a couple of years ago I was engrossed in a Style Network TV show about the remodelling of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

There's a little sunray of hope peeking through the dark clouds that had been hanging over my head (figuratively and literally) earlier this week.

While walking around Hollywood Boulevard I was handed a free ticket to a practice taping at CBS Studios of Bill Maher's HBO TV show. I hadn't been to a studio taping yet, so I decided to head over there after my interview. I had to wait in a long line with, shall we say, an "assortment of characters." Picture your typical afternoon crowd at a downtown public library. Once seated we watched a crew dismantle the "Price Is Right" soundstage in preparation for Maher's show to begin. I didn't know what to expect, but the head writer came out and explained that this was a practice show and the jokes that got laughs from the audience would make the cut for the live taping on Friday night. The writer and several other staff from the show pretended to be the Friday guest stars, and they ran through the entire show from opening monologue through closing segment. It was hilarious. I think it was even better than the real thing, as it was "no holds barred."

Afterwards, I walked over to the Grove for a snack. The weather was beautiful and the place was packed with people dining out on patios as a band was setting up for an outdoor concert. Spring has begun...

Interviews, Celebrity Sightings, Parking Mishaps...or TGIF, Part IV

Had a good job interview this morning at the cruiseline. I liked the employees and the environment, and the job itself is intriguing. The office didn't seem like the type of place where the roof caves in if someone misses a call, or where you should feel extremely grateful to work extremely long hours for extremely low pay for an extremely difficult person. Not to criticize the entertainment industry, ahem.

The interview was held in Century City, so there were a lot of Industry types buzzing around the food court where I ate lunch (another B-list celebrity sighting: Harry Hamlin!) I sat next to (and too close to) three men who work in entertainment and who ogled all the women who walked by, noting that they were seated in a good pickup location. One of them talked to his friends about working on The Girls Next Door and shooting an upcoming scene with Bridget. Through TGND he met a former Playboy centerfold who showed up at his house one night "looking hot" in a cowboy hat and wife-beater. He leaned into his friends and said intensely, "What do you think about this idea for a reality show? HOT MODELS on a RANCH."

Readers, look for it in your TV guide next season.

After lunch I could not figure out how to get back into the most mammoth, convoluted parking garage known to man. I ended up just walking down into it through the car ramp and then the security guard had to call me a golf cart escort to drive me back to my car.

While I was waiting for my escort, Bridget, from the above mentioned The Girls Next Door, drove through in her red sports car with the Playboy license plate.

Back to Business

So now I have to get back to business because I have two job interviews this week and need to do my homework on the companies. I had to cancel the trip to Santa Barbara in order to do so. I hope I can sleep tonight. Both positions barely pay enough to scrape by on, but perhaps I need to swallow my pride (and financial concerns) and accept that as part of the transitioning process. The employment agencies who arranged the interviews are, I'm sure, taking a nice cut. Neither of the jobs are in entertainment, although one job is not completely out of that realm.

In regards to the entertainment industry, maybe I'm a victim of ageism, as I'm no longer in the desired 18-34 age demographic, so I'm not as easy to exploit salarywise and perhaps am seen as not having "my finger on the pulse."

Thank God the word-processing temp job is over. I went to yoga after work on Friday and my toes spasmed into a misshapen pretzel. That's how messed up my body was after sitting in a hard plastic chair for three days.

During my lunch break on my last day, I walked around the Yahoo! campus, which was down the street, caddy corner to Universal Music Group. That's definitely where all the young people are. Google, a logical place of employment for a former librarian, also has a campus in Santa Monica. Maybe I should have located myself there due to the increase in new media companies in the area (and thus the increase in traffic heading that direction). But I really can't drive there and back every day. It took half an hour just to get from Santa Monica to the 405, which is about a third of the way home for me.