SOMEWHERE IN UTAH
On the ride down here, I had about a dozen or so things that I wanted to blog about. These were either things that I saw or just things that came to mind at some point during the thirty hour drive. But as I sit here now, more than four days after being released from my Acura shaped prison, there's only two things that come to mind.
First of all, and I don't know if this comes as a surprise to anyone, but there's a section in Utah that doesn't have any services for nearly two and a half hours. No gas stations, no rest areas, nowhere to eat, nowhere to make a telephone call. Nothing. Thankfully there's a sign before you hit this section of highway that says "next services 150 miles", but when you read it (or at least when I read it), 150 miles doesn't sound like a whole lot. It's only after you've been driving along and haven't seen any exits in over an hour, when you start to think "shit, I could die out here and it's not a guarantee anyone would ever find out."
And at three in the morning that's not the most pleasant of thoughts. Although I suppose any thought that's troublesome enough to keep you awake is good enough.
The second thing that I remember I wanted to mention, and this is only going to matter to, at most, three of you, is that somewhere in the middle of the mindnumblingly boring drive through Kansas, my father and I passed an exit for Hoisington. If you understand what this means...great. If not, don't lose any sleep over it. I just thought it was cool, as I didn't think the town actually existed.
MY FIRST DAY
Yesterday was my first day at Lions Gate, and although I can assure you it was an incredibly exciting day for me, the retelling of it would undoubtedly lose some of its luster.
So I'll just hit the highlights.
First and foremost, my boss is pretty cool. She's all of twenty-three, about six inches shorter than I am, and she kinda looks like a less-hot version of greasy Reasey Witherspoon, but she seems like a lot of fun. She's the assistant of a guy named Peter Block who, apart from being the head of the acquisitions department, also works closely with production and is in charge of television. Needless to say he's kind of an important guy.
As expected, the office walls are covered with movie posters, and much to my satisfaction there's a Secratary poster right near my desk. Which means to get to my desk I go to Maggie Gyllenhaal's ass and take a left. I get up and walk around a lot.
Getting back to my point though, I have my own desk. Sure I have to share it with the other two interns, but they don't get here for another three weeks so for right now it's my desk.
The best part of my job, at least as far as any future career possibilities, is that my desk is just a stone's throw and a couple of skips away from the office of the Lions Gate CEO. I have to say his office pretty nice. It's spacious and has a great big window and he has his own conference room. But it occurred to me sometime yesterday that unless the CEO has his own bathroom, he and I are using the same urinal.
I used to share a bathroom with close to thirty college kids. Now I share one with the most powerful man at Lions Gate. Think about that.
Anyway, I'm pretty pumped about this job. Mostly I'll be reading scripts. Now, I've read scripts before, but they've all been ones that had already been made into movies or that had been written by some of my, let's say, less than talented classmates. The scripts that I'm reading here are all solicited and represented. This is where the big boys play.
So far I've read three scripts. None of which I couldn't have written myself, which is encouraging.
I don't know if I'll have many exciting California stories. I plan on spending most of my time working and writing, which doesn't leave me with much time to go out and have adventures. But I promise to try.
ALL THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT ANYWHERE ELSE
You know what the strangest part of being in southern California is? It's the little differences. I mean they got the same shit here as they do back in Missouri, but everything's just a little bit different.
For example. All of the cities out here, apart from having the population listed on their "welcome" sign, also have the elevation from sea level listed. Now this is something that starts in the Rocky Mountains, which makes sense there, as the elevations are pretty impressive (i.e. Denver which is in fact a mile high). But Santa Monica is only a whopping thirty-seven feet above sea level. You can actually see the sea from Santa Monica. Why the fuck do you need to put it on the sign?
Another thing that amazes me are the gas prices out here. I didn't think they'd be as low as they were in Missouri, but I didn't expect them to be this high. The average out here is about $2.31 per gallon, and I saw one that was $2.49. But the record holder belongs to a gas station only four blocks from where I'm sitting, where the gas is a whopping $2.75 per gallon. That gas station is right across from another one that had it for thirty cents cheaper, and believe it not the $2.75 place actually had more cars. Absolutely amazing.
I was watching the news today, and weather segment came up. The weatherman was standing in front of this map, as weathermen are known to do, and over Texas it said "Extreme Heat" or something, and over Florida it said "Rain", but then over Southern California it just said "Nice."
Finally, I was at work today, and I sit right near the development/distribution people. Two of them were talking, and one actually said to the other "well, we're looking for horror/thriller not thriller/horror." Part of me is like "okay...I see what he's saying," but the other part of me can't believe that's an actual sentence that somebody said.
AND FINALLY
Steven Bochco has a new series coming out this fall called "Rolling Shield". It's a drama about a paraplegic detective who spends his days solving crimes and his nights lobbying in favor of stem cell research. Look for it this fall on your local ABC channel.
Anyway, I've gotta go make more shit up.
On the ride down here, I had about a dozen or so things that I wanted to blog about. These were either things that I saw or just things that came to mind at some point during the thirty hour drive. But as I sit here now, more than four days after being released from my Acura shaped prison, there's only two things that come to mind.
First of all, and I don't know if this comes as a surprise to anyone, but there's a section in Utah that doesn't have any services for nearly two and a half hours. No gas stations, no rest areas, nowhere to eat, nowhere to make a telephone call. Nothing. Thankfully there's a sign before you hit this section of highway that says "next services 150 miles", but when you read it (or at least when I read it), 150 miles doesn't sound like a whole lot. It's only after you've been driving along and haven't seen any exits in over an hour, when you start to think "shit, I could die out here and it's not a guarantee anyone would ever find out."
And at three in the morning that's not the most pleasant of thoughts. Although I suppose any thought that's troublesome enough to keep you awake is good enough.
The second thing that I remember I wanted to mention, and this is only going to matter to, at most, three of you, is that somewhere in the middle of the mindnumblingly boring drive through Kansas, my father and I passed an exit for Hoisington. If you understand what this means...great. If not, don't lose any sleep over it. I just thought it was cool, as I didn't think the town actually existed.
MY FIRST DAY
Yesterday was my first day at Lions Gate, and although I can assure you it was an incredibly exciting day for me, the retelling of it would undoubtedly lose some of its luster.
So I'll just hit the highlights.
First and foremost, my boss is pretty cool. She's all of twenty-three, about six inches shorter than I am, and she kinda looks like a less-hot version of greasy Reasey Witherspoon, but she seems like a lot of fun. She's the assistant of a guy named Peter Block who, apart from being the head of the acquisitions department, also works closely with production and is in charge of television. Needless to say he's kind of an important guy.
As expected, the office walls are covered with movie posters, and much to my satisfaction there's a Secratary poster right near my desk. Which means to get to my desk I go to Maggie Gyllenhaal's ass and take a left. I get up and walk around a lot.
Getting back to my point though, I have my own desk. Sure I have to share it with the other two interns, but they don't get here for another three weeks so for right now it's my desk.
The best part of my job, at least as far as any future career possibilities, is that my desk is just a stone's throw and a couple of skips away from the office of the Lions Gate CEO. I have to say his office pretty nice. It's spacious and has a great big window and he has his own conference room. But it occurred to me sometime yesterday that unless the CEO has his own bathroom, he and I are using the same urinal.
I used to share a bathroom with close to thirty college kids. Now I share one with the most powerful man at Lions Gate. Think about that.
Anyway, I'm pretty pumped about this job. Mostly I'll be reading scripts. Now, I've read scripts before, but they've all been ones that had already been made into movies or that had been written by some of my, let's say, less than talented classmates. The scripts that I'm reading here are all solicited and represented. This is where the big boys play.
So far I've read three scripts. None of which I couldn't have written myself, which is encouraging.
I don't know if I'll have many exciting California stories. I plan on spending most of my time working and writing, which doesn't leave me with much time to go out and have adventures. But I promise to try.
ALL THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT ANYWHERE ELSE
You know what the strangest part of being in southern California is? It's the little differences. I mean they got the same shit here as they do back in Missouri, but everything's just a little bit different.
For example. All of the cities out here, apart from having the population listed on their "welcome" sign, also have the elevation from sea level listed. Now this is something that starts in the Rocky Mountains, which makes sense there, as the elevations are pretty impressive (i.e. Denver which is in fact a mile high). But Santa Monica is only a whopping thirty-seven feet above sea level. You can actually see the sea from Santa Monica. Why the fuck do you need to put it on the sign?
Another thing that amazes me are the gas prices out here. I didn't think they'd be as low as they were in Missouri, but I didn't expect them to be this high. The average out here is about $2.31 per gallon, and I saw one that was $2.49. But the record holder belongs to a gas station only four blocks from where I'm sitting, where the gas is a whopping $2.75 per gallon. That gas station is right across from another one that had it for thirty cents cheaper, and believe it not the $2.75 place actually had more cars. Absolutely amazing.
I was watching the news today, and weather segment came up. The weatherman was standing in front of this map, as weathermen are known to do, and over Texas it said "Extreme Heat" or something, and over Florida it said "Rain", but then over Southern California it just said "Nice."
Finally, I was at work today, and I sit right near the development/distribution people. Two of them were talking, and one actually said to the other "well, we're looking for horror/thriller not thriller/horror." Part of me is like "okay...I see what he's saying," but the other part of me can't believe that's an actual sentence that somebody said.
AND FINALLY
Steven Bochco has a new series coming out this fall called "Rolling Shield". It's a drama about a paraplegic detective who spends his days solving crimes and his nights lobbying in favor of stem cell research. Look for it this fall on your local ABC channel.
Anyway, I've gotta go make more shit up.
