Entry #74
 
1:54 PM, Thursday, September 14th, 2000:
 
When columbusmusic.com asked me to do their "Making it in LA" feature, my first thought was...well shit. It' would've been great if they started following me on entry #1....that at least would've been exciting. As we enter the fall of 2000, and the entries are now into the 70's, the "journey" is nothing more than a weekly newspaper column of my opinions on life. How the hell can this be beneficial to others? Well, the first thing I'll say to those who are just tuning in to this...read the beginning. I would've given anything to have had something like that a year ago when I had no idea what to expect. If you have read the other 73 entries...well guess what: I actually have something worthwhile to write about! An entry with a lot of developments, and a pretty invaluable lesson on "Making it in LA."
 
Where do I start...uhm. First of all let me bring you up to speed on Hollywood Screentest. I haven't done any video work for them in months. As I've said before I did everything already. I finished all the pilots for all the shows and until something sells, there is nothing more I can do. Well, something did sell - "Showbizz Buzz"...unfortunately that's just written text for web sites, nothing with video. But it is a start. As well, the people at Hollywood Screentest are killing themselves getting the big promotion together. Damnit, I still can't tell you who it's with, but it's really incredibly huge. They are redesigning the site for it (thank GOD), and THAT is where I'm finally gonna be able to make some money again. I'll be working with their site programmer and designing the site. The work was supposed to start 2 weeks ago, but still nothing. It's a bit of a letdown to tell you the truth. The false sense of security they gave me, even mentioning that they were gonna bring me on full-time, led me to update my computer, get an apartment that was a little steeper than I could've gotten, and then POW a grand total of $900 in about 9 weeks. As I've said before $2000 a month only covers my car and rent. Goddamn LA. And as far as the X-Men Movie Minded, I will be finishing that up soon, but as you can tell there's no hurry. I get no money first of all, and we can't use it until something sells anyway. But I assume by the end of the month I'll have it done.
 
The rest of this entry will hopefully provide some of you with an idea of how to pull off your goals.
 
So since Jess and I have been back from Columbus, our lives have consisted of Roseanne at 11 AM, a movie at 11:30, Cosby at 1 and 1:30, Roseanne again at 2, Kids in the hall at 2:30, and Roseanne again at 3 and 3:30...etc. Why? Well Jess is completely off work now because of her tendonitus. She has physical therapy 3 times a week, and workman's Comp only pays 60% of her normal 40 hour paycheck and they will not let her go back to work until she's better. GREAT. So she works about 3 hours a week and her paycheck is roughly $200 a week. Yeah, that gets us really far. So she's here. I'm here. We're both here. We've been married a month, and I've seen more of her in 4 weeks than I have the entire time we've been out here. Oddly enough, we don't want to kill each other. The good news is, she is about to get an offer for a management position at a ritzy Hollywood restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard. We are waiting for the phone call as I write. The point of all this, is there's a lot of time on our hands.
 
Cut to 2 weeks ago when our apartment flooded. There was a "manager on duty" and he was who was dealing with everything. When he came into the apartment he got all giddy about all the "toys" we have. The DVDs, the videogames, the pac-man machine, the computer. It got us to talking about computers and such. The rest of the day I sat in the office talking to him. Lots in common. He used to be in radio in Oklahoma and gave it all up to come out to LA a few years back. He's a director with quite a few contacts. Get this...we were talking about residuals for commercials and stuff and he mentions his old girlfriend got one for .15 cents from SNL. He dated Nora Dunn for 2 years. Can you believe it? I'm shitting at this point. He's about 10 years older than me, and Nora Dunn was part of the cast that I watched religiously when I was 15. Jon Lovitz, Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, Dennis Miller, Kevin Nealon, Jan Hooks...I loved that cast. Well we get to talking and he's directing a one woman show his girlfriend is in now and he was telling me how he's trying to figure out how to do a slide show on his computer. Well, since I'm not doing a DAMN thing, and he likes my pac-man table, I offered to do the whole slide show on my computer for him. I explained my situation, and said I'd be happy to help. I said as well, if he can ever find a damn thing for me to do - even manual labor, I'd do it...because I'm hard-up at this point. Giddy-up. It was probably 4-5 hours of computer work for free, but could be something.
 
The next part of the conversation, I can't really talk about for another month or so. We realized that we both had the same idea for a cable network. I had actullay made a project in college about it. The more we talked, the more we freaked out. He has contacts with some huge companies and places to pitch the idea to. As well I have the equipment to make video presentations, and on top of that I was able to nail down a domain name and it's up and running. In the coming months we will be putting in action a series of events that could very well lead to this idea becoming a reality. I will give you guys an announcement of the site and be able to tell you more about it soon.
 
The next day he was working as well and we talked some more. He asked if I could do the lighting and sound for the show he's directing. Not a lot of money, but it would be something. I of course said yes. I also helped mix the sound cue CD and made the slide video for him over the next several days. Last night the show opened and everything went smoothly. The show is called "Southern-Fried Chickie" - It's a one woman show written and performed by Christie McBrayer. A Stand-up/actress out here who is doing this one woman show of her life in Mississippi. It's a great show where she goes through all the characters in her life. What first comes to mind is of course how much I'd love to do an autobiographical show about my radio adventures...but that's another day.
 
Anyway, here's a short clip of her performance last night. And you can watch me turn the lights off!! LOL. It's actually a bit more complicated than that, but after the way I was goin' crazy doing my talk show at WTVN, this was nothing. At WTVN getting carts set up for that show was insane. My entire 6 hour show was one bit after another...so last night was nothing.
YouTube link added 02.13.09
 
And as I write, I just got the go ahead to start the web design!!!! SO NOW I'M MAKING MONEY AGAIN! Let's see how long that lasts......
 
....but the moral of the story is that I'm not waiting. This is the lesson you can take if you're sitting in Columbus wondering how to follow your dream. Put your hand into every possible cookie jar you can find. Give everything away. Worry only about money to live, not money to party. I'm now a video editor, a web designer, a sound tech, a light tech...and I came out here to sing with 4tvs. Oh and by the way I'm still doing that. Booked 3 more gigs at lulu's. But as I was saying, put your hand in everything. Keep yourself open to everything. The key is - STAY HERE. By simply being in the element, you allow yourself the opportunity to reach your original goals. By offering to make the slide video...I created another crossroad that just might lead to the original goal. Which if I think hard enough, I may remember what that was. :-)
 
Well, now I have work to do! Thank GOD. And hopefully we'll have an all-jessica entry next time. She'll have a new job (and a new website!!!) and we'll have some finanical stability. Although as I said...I ain't holding my breath. That would involve being stagnant. Stagnant is bad mmmmk?
 
Jess and Adam
 
master video file never saved :-(
 
SEPTEMBER 2000