It’s been a while. I know, I know. A lot has happened though. I will try to keep it as concise as I can since I have a lot to fill you in on.
First off, I got a new job. I work on a show called Mobile Home Disaster. Basically it’s Extreme Home Makeover but we redo mobile homes. I get to spend every week in a trailer park. It’s pretty funny sometimes. I am the On-Site Associate Producer. Basically it’s my job to support all of the producers, be they Trade-Out, creative, or Executive, and make sure whatever they need to happen, happens. It’s a little vague, but it’s the simplest explanation.
The job is getting better. I spent the first three weeks of it in the office, where every producer kept handing me work off their plates because their APs are either lazy or just not that good. Plus they know I get it done, get it done fast, and do it well.
We just finished our 2nd week of filming. It went 100 times better than week number one. The first week was such a big build that we had to extend an extra day (which by the way, we began shooting on a Wednesday, so that meant I had to work on a Sunday. Fuck me.) Plus each one of those days was at least a sixteen-hour day. Saturday I began working at 3:45 AM. How ridiculous is that? Sunday night (or should I say Monday morning) I got home at 5 AM and I started the morning before at like seven. Twenty-two glorious hours. We were all destroyed physically and mentally by the end of it, but we all made it out the other side alive. I have a great team of PA’s (production assistants for you lay people) and we made the best of it.
This past week was a smaller build and we actually got out at decent times each night. Even last night we left set at 11:30 making it a fifteen-hour day. The rest of them were like twelve or thirteen. And I learned how to drive a forklift, so that was pretty badass. Very macho.
The worst part of the job is this fucking’ moron of a production manager we have. Her name is Beth, and she is nothing short of an idiot. She’s inconsiderate, she doesn’t listen, and it seems as if she has never stepped foot on a set in her life. She discovered she lives like 2 blocks from me, so she made me drive her to work two mornings; one of them, she walked out her front door twenty-five minutes after I said to meet me, and made me late, to which the Assistant Director, made me feel like a total ass. The other morning, she talked to me about inane bullshit the whole way to work and criticized the talk radio (Adam Corolla mornings) I was listening too. Just shut up and thank me for picking your sorry ass up. The woman refuses to drive herself (part of why she is inconsiderate) to work. The one morning I “forgot” to pick her up, she called up our make-up artist Deanne to drive her in, putting her out. There where two nights where she got to work and made her drive her home b/c she didn’t have a ride and I had to sit and wait for ninety minutes after I was done for her to finish her work before I could drive home. One night I told her I couldn’t take her and made her take a cab home. That woman will never step foot in any of my vehicles again.
Okay, I need to talk about something else b/c I am really starting to get angry, and it’s my day off.
A few weeks back I went to a show up at the Avalon in Hollywood. Pretty decent show. Silverstein was the headliner, and they put on an amazing post-hardcore show as always. Got myself involved in a few circle pits and sang along the whole time. Got rid of a little of the frustration I had. Silverstein is one of those acts that always seems to put on a solid show, so I try to see them each and every time they come to town.
Opening for the Canucks (oh yeh, SS is from Canada) was The Devil Wears Prada and A Day To Remember. TDWP is a Christian metalcore act, who had a pretty rockin’ set. I didn’t know much about them, and their albums are on my “To-Buy” list. ADTR at first sounded like every other post-hardcore/metalcore act out there. All I really knew about them was that Victory was pushing their debut album really hard b/c it was supposed to be out of this world. They weren’t bad, but I must say, the highlight of their set, for me, was when they covered Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You Been Gone.” They of course growled and screamed thru the whole thing, and honestly, it’s better than the original. All in all, it was a great concert and I had fun.
And speaking of awesome music. I was walking down the boardwalk Saturday afternoon on my way to The Whaler for a little lunch on another one of my random days off. All of a sudden, I look up and who do I see but Scotty, Corey, and Chris from Norma Jean hanging out on a deck in Venice. Of course, I saluted with the traditional devil horns and after a nice 10 minutes convo with Corey, I discovered the band is in town to record their new album and they recently began preproduction. I pointed them towards the local hot spots for boozin’ and offered to buy the first round if they could track me down. Norma Jean is an amazing southern metal band. Check them out:
http://www.myspace.com/normajean
If any of your haven’t seen the Mega Fairy website yet, please check it out here:
I’ve got a lot of positive responses. So I hope you found it as funny as the Hotel Staff did.
Sadly, I am going to take you out on a somber note. Our friend Keoni passed away last week. I only met him once or twice, but he worked with Johnny and Joe Child on their show in Hawaii. Joe actually worked with him a number of times, and basically took him under his wing and taught him everything he knew about cameras and made Joe the great Assistant Camera he is today. From the little time I spent with him, and from what everyone told me about him, he seemed like a really incredible person and I wish I got to know him a lot better.
Here’s to you Keoni. We’ll see you on the other side. Mahalow.
