Music: the new Neko Case album
I took my evaluation at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. I could go on and on drooling about how amazing the booth is and how good it felt to play a couple of trailers that I threaded on the projector and watch in the secret projectionist balcony at the Chinese!
Long story short: the head projectionist of the Chinese said that "I really know my film."
santo26 on 03.28.06 @ 06:58 PM PST [link] [No Comments]
One of my New Year's resolutions was to write for an hour a day. I know I haven't done it every day, but every day I remembered this promise I have done it. It took me a long time to realize that even if you didn't do it yesterday, you have a chance to do it today. I wrote a piece in the Athenaeum this morning about high school students in LA walking out protesting proposed immigration laws. There is a lot of content depth in the Athenaverse, maybe its time to lay the website synergy smackdown.
No but seriously, that those asshats that call themselves Minutemen really piss me off. So do people who want to get out of Iraq now with no thought to the big picture. I welcome constructive proposals, but people, this is the real world, and I refuse to leave all those millions of Iraqi men and women who voted in those elections to be oppressed once more by religious fundamentalists. Would you leave this country to the mercy of the Christian Coalition? Oops- it looks like we already have.
If we pull out of Iraq now, it will signal to not only the world and the so-called "Muslim World" that the US went into Iraq and blew it up once and then ran, leaving the job half-done, not once BUT TWICE! The real mistake was made 15 years ago, the first time we invaded. What would the world look like now if America had pulled out of post-WWII Germany and Japan? What would Iraq be like if it had democacy for 15 years already? Would the outcome of World War II, or the Civil War, or any war be different if say FOX News and al-Jazeera showed the Battle of Iwo Jima live around the world on TV? Would the modern American media say about 7000 men dying in a day? That is why we won't go after Bin Laden- we could get that rat, but a lot of soldiers would have to die to get him, and still there would be people who would say it "wasn't worth it."
Suggesting we pull out of Iraq sounds like isolationism to me. Isn't refusing to "share the wealth" what the world supposedly hates about America in the first place?
santo26 on 03.24.06 @ 03:39 PM PST [link] [6 Comments]
This afternoon, I set up my evaluation with the projectionist's union. I will be evaluated by the head projectionist at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. So basically what I'm trying to say here is that I will be projecting at the most famous movie theatre in the entire world! I plan on nailing the evaluation so I can get into the Union, but it is such an honor for me to even see the booth, let alone project there. I guess this is how baseball players feel when they are called up to the major leagues.
santo26 on 03.21.06 @ 08:50 PM PST [link] [No Comments]
The other day I was going to my storage locker when I drove by Aron's Records, an LA record store/institution that is unfortunately going out of business. They are currently having a 60-80% off sale, and after my karaoke experience the other night, I needed a new copy of Bobby Brown's landmark new jack swing album "Don't Be Cruel," so I decided to do some scavenging twixt the ruins of this once proud establishment.
I went in and immediately went to the used CD bin. There was a copy of an album he made in the late 90s, but no "Don't Be Cruel." I looked in the new CDs- not a chance in an indie record shop like this. Then, I saw it. Over in the furthest corner was the used tapes, regularly $3.00 or more .29-.99 cents! I dove in, as they were no longer in any sort of alphabetical or genre order. Scanning all these labels was such at trip down memory lane for me. When I was a young teen, flush with disposable income from my paper route, I would buy the latest music in tape format. Sure I had a record player, and I did not get a CD player until I was a sophomore in high school, so tapes were it. Besides, tapes were compatible with my various Walkmen. It was like having an iPod with a disc drive. You could buy your pre-recorded tapes or you could record a combination of your favorite songs culled from various LPs, tapes, or live recordings off the radio from WFNX, WZOU (back when it was "The Zoo") or KISS108 onto a blank cassette. It was a real sense of freedom to deliver the papers or go ride the T to school, listening to my favorite tunes, looking cool, and turning out the weirdos at the same time.
After much digging, I found a copy of "Don't Be Cruel." I was going to stop there, but I had also found copies of "God Fodder" by Ned's Atomic Dustbin, "Pocket Full of Kryptonite" by the Spin Doctors, and other tapes by Donna Summer, 2Pac, and Frank Zappa (what can I say, I'm eclectic). The cost of all these wonderful tapes? About 7 bucks. Now I have an assload of fun songs to sing along to when I am stuck in traffic!
Now while I am sure that I could have found all of these albums on CD somewhere or GASP! dowloaded them, it was money well spent to wallow in a bit of technological and sonical obsolescence from my adolescence. Sometimes it's all about the format baby!
santo26 on 03.14.06 @ 04:16 PM PST [link] [No Comments]
since I left the redwoods and got back to LA. I went for EJ on a walk around the neighborhood last night and like every other time I take a walk, I can't beleive how much I missed the place. It's gritty, it's funky, it's honest, it's home. Stopped into Mondo Video-A-Go-Go and said hello to the Colonel. A good time was had by all.
This morning, I went to a meeting of the IATSE Local 150, the LA projectionists union. I cold-emailed a projectionist last week to see if he would meet with me and talk shop. I saw him on Saturday night, and he was impressed enough by my credentials to send me over to the union meeting this morning. After a grilling by the business manager, it was agreed that I could have an evaluation. The business manager said there was a lot of work around, but they want to see what I got before they send me out. If they like my Tyler Durden-esque projectionist stylings, I could be sent to screen dailies in the movie studio backlots or project at some of the world's top movie theatres like the ArcLight or maybe even Mann's Chinese!!! I can't even begin to express what an honor it would be- it would be like a baseball player finally getting to the major leagues. After the interview, all these old-timer projectionists shook my hand and looked with great interest at my Massachusetts Projectionist License (I mean Liscense- haw haw!).
And the best part...if I did get in the Local, not only would I get all the benefits of being in a real union (health, dental, retirement), but I would make approximately 3.5X what I got paid as a union projectionist in Boston, and 5X what they paid in Humboldt County.
As the Reverend Josiah A. Perkins is wont to say, "Whoa punk."
The other best part is I have a bunch of other really keen meetings lined up for this week and next, with the very real possibility I might get "evaluated" this weekend. Went to karaoke last weekend, my rendition of "My Prerogative" brought down the house. "American Idol" here I come!
santo26 on 03.13.06 @ 07:55 PM PST [link] [1 Comment]
Mood: improving
It just occurred to me that I have been back in LA for just over three weeks now. This was such the right move. Sure I've been sleeping on an air mattress lately, but I got a good temp job this morning, a couple of solid leads for positions in the film distribution world, and my general outlook on life has improved tremendously. I got to go to Gallifrey One, my first Doctor Who convention, a Lebowski Fest, gone hiking in Griffith Park multiple times, and have for the most part been able to maintain my positive outlook on life.
Although it would be easy to say so, I don't regret the time I spent up in Humboldt at all. It got me to where I am now mentally, which is a vast improvement to the way things were going.
The athenaverse.com bills are coming due, and it made me realize several things: this site and its offshoots have been around for awhile, and it was money well spent. The Sawin's Pond page has been read by many folks and has broadened some minds. My mind is clear and I want to write again so I hope this site will be filled with more content in the days and weeks to come. Doctor Who is back on American TV, Nomar is playing for the Dodgers- things are looking up!
santo26 on 03.07.06 @ 03:54 PM PST [link] [No Comments]
Sawins Pond
The Athenaeum
BSA Troop 30
Audrey Jacks
nanosounds
awiggins: home
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