Curtains

And now it is time to say farewell to Ye Olde Blog, my most trusted and constant companion on this journey of hardship and adventure.

At the nine month mark, I see only a few possible outcomes of my year in Los Angeles. Either the city system will come through for me with a librarian job (full or part time) before the end of October, when my name drops off their list, or the system I'm currently temping with will offer me a permanent position, either in my neighborhood or on the coast. If I'm offered one of the librarian jobs in the Malibu region, I will move to the coast and enjoy breathing the cleaner air.

Barring those possibilities working out, I will return to Austin, an idea I'm increasingly warming to only because it will enable me to scale back on my expenses. Maybe not to the extent of that kooky, forest-dwelling failed actor in "Grizzly Man," but perhaps to a level where I can feasibly work part time, if I find a roommate and give up my car or share it with someone.

I saw the movie "11th Hour" last night and agreed with the central premise, which is that "you can never have enough of the things you don't really want." Or as the song "Express Yourself" so eloquently puts it, "Some people have everything/ and other people don't/ but everything don't mean a thing if it ain't the thing you want."

Along that vein, I think the central issue of our time is the corporate takeover of the planet and subsequent ownership of our lives. The economic game is rigged such that you have to work full time just to survive (and in a lot of cases a full-time job won't even cut it). In order to compensate for the loss of control over your life and time and a lack of community outside of work, you begin to desire "things," which in turn demand even more of your time and money. You also begin to require an unusually exciting life outside of work to make sitting in a cubicle for 40 plus hours a week worth it.

I think when you are young and have hope and the comfort of being surrounded by a peer group in the same boat, you can sustain the illusion that trading your waking hours for money is worth it and will pay off in the end. When you get older, and friends fall away, and you start to age, and romantic relationships don't live up to the hype, reality sets in, the rose petals fall from the eyes, and the idea of trading your life for empty promises begins to grate. I tried a new city to see if things might be different, but my time in Los Angeles has only reinforced those beliefs. The entertainment industry is, indeed, for the young. If I return to Austin, my focus will be on putting all the good free stuff that is under my control back in my life- sleeping in, reading, hanging out, and afternoon naps! Health insurance be damned.

On that note, I am now taking my bow, leaving my fate a mystery. Please leave comments if you have 'em.

The Real O.C., Part II

I start work tomorrow and spent a good four hours (and about $18) today printing, photocopying, filling out, and faxing paperwork into the agency that got me the job. At least I'll have a break from all that for a few months.

I also had to fill out a state tax form for California. Ouch again.

I read the Los Angeles Times over lunch and came across an interesting article about pension problems and benefit cutbacks in O.C. entitled "O.C. supervisors raise current retirees' healthcare costs" by Christian Berthelsen. Some highlights:

Retirees decried the move as unfair, saying they spent decades as county workers with the promise of affordable medical coverage in retirement. It was the second time this month that supervisors agreed to reduce benefits of retired employees; two weeks ago, they voted to move forward with plans to roll back pensions for retired sheriff's deputies.

Overall, costs for active employees -- who are generally in better health and therefore better risks -- are expected to dip 18%, but rates for retirees are expected to increase 34%. Their rates will increase much more if they are members of health maintenance organizations such as Kaiser and Cigna. Of the county's 6,000 former employees, about 2,000 enrolled in those plans will see rate increases of between 72% and 95%, according to a county staff report.

For some, that could mean additional costs of as much as $7,000 a year -- with most of the county's retirees living on annual pensions of less than $25,000. One retiree, Norma Roberts of Costa Mesa, said her monthly out-of-pocket expense would increase from $286 to $783 under the new rates.

A River in Egypt

I finally received my library copy of "Parts per Million: The Poisoning of Beverly Hills High School" by Joy Horowitz and am using my final days of freedom to plow through it. In addition to giving a colorful portrait of the neighborhood next door, it reveals that the cover-up of the carcinogenic effects of the oil wells and power plant in the Beverly Hills High/ Century City area continues to this day.

This is worrisome. I don't live far from that area of town, and according to the extremely vague map found in the book, it appears that there are many more wells located in my neighborhood. Hopefully I'm not paying this exorbitant rent just to give myself thyroid cancer. That would be a bummer, especially in light of my third-rate health insurance plan. Maybe it really is time to cut out for Malibu!

I was reminded of the Todd Haynes film "Safe," in which Julianne Moore plays an affluent San Fernando Valley housewife who develops a severe reaction to toxins in her environment, such as the smell from her child's markers. While at the dry cleaner's during a visit from pesticide control, she suffers a seizure, and she then moves to a New Age compound in the desert. You don't know if she is really being poisoned or has gone batty from boredom.

After seeing the film, my friend and I would always report to one another when we were having a "Safe" moment, such as when stuck behind a dirty tailpipe in traffic (nothing sends me into a violent rage more).

Moore Please

I got called by my current agency on Friday about temping as an assistant at a well-known Industry rag that is located very close to where I live, and the job actually paid a whole $15 an hour! But I had to say no because I'm supposed to go in on Monday to train the new hire at my current gig, and I have that job interview on Tuesday.

I walked over to the Grove last night to see Sicko. The ticket cost $12.50, so I had to sneak into a second film afterwards to maximize the expenditure (but I'm glad I applied my ticket to Sicko's box office). In any case, Sicko was very good, but, of course, depressing. I can certainly relate right now, as I'm paying a monthly bill for what amounts to catastrophic health insurance and have had to ignore two or three health issues that I would have seen a doctor for in the past. And I'm grinding my teeth like the 9/11 rescue worker in the film.

Moore is right that we are handcuffed to jobs by the need for health insurance. It's amazing that if I lived in Europe or Canada, I could just waltz into a doctor's office for free.

Obviously I should have moved to France, but they wouldn't have let me stay...

Smote In The Eye

I woke up this morning with a scratchy feeling in my left eye. I have very poor health insurance at the moment, so every minor injury looms large. I bit the bullet and (finally) found a good clinic on Sepulveda at Olympic that is open on Saturdays. The doctor theorized that I might have had microscopic particles of sand under my eyelid that were scratching the surface each time I blinked. A Laguna Beach souvenir, if you will.

The only other thing I did today was see Henry Jaglom's "Hollywood Dreams." I confess that I'm a Jaglom fan from way back. The lead character, an aspiring actress, was incredibly needy and neurotic. Oy vey! She made me feel like a stoic.

The movie had me reflecting on my love/ hate relationship with this city. I'll be feeling happy to be here when BAM! all of a sudden I will feel repelled by the place.

While at the movie I saw a preview for an intriguing movie called "Broken English" starring Parker Posey. Burnout, bad dates, sleeping pills! What's not to like:
http://www.cinematical.com/2007/01/22/sundance-review-broken-english/