Sunday, December 20, 2009

long week

This has been the BUSIEST week of my life! Last Saturday I drove up North to be with Bradley because he finished his semester and we haven't had a lot of time this last month because of his finals and my crazy work schedule. It worked out well that he and I take a long weekend with each other because I needed to be in NorCal for some business on Tuesday.

I am kind of known for my "action sports" (I fucking hate that label!) productions. I have a very strong idea of how I want things to be perceived when I am shooting and editing a project and I won't stop until I get EXACTLY what I want. I am known for my unique style and I guess it's pretty easy to spot me in anything I have done because, if you know what you are looking for, I leave myself all over everything I do and I guess people like that. What can I say? In those early developmental years I was seriously affected by Jason Lee's (Side note: Jason Lee used to be the most awesome guy EVER in my eyes! Both as a skater and a person I thought this dude was AWESOME! Then he had to go and ruin it with this fucking Chipmunks SQUEAKQUEL BULLSHIT! FUCK YOU JASON LEE! YOU CAN HAVE YOUR AIRWALKS BACK CUS I DON'T WANT THEM ANYMORE!) skate videos in the early 90's, and shit like that has stayed with me the rest of my life!

ANYWAY, this company up north asked me to meet with them because they wanted me to work with them on this MASSIVE project for this new series of related videos. They had a super impressive sales pitch and I got WAY excited listening to what was actually being offered to me. I have never been offered so much creative control with a company this large and at some point I am pretty sure I squealed out loud thinking about it! The issue is that I just don't have the time to dedicate myself to something like this. I am working 60 hour weeks and I am going to be tied down to this job until at least April. Yeah this new opportunity is crazy amazing, but I made a commitment and that's a lot more important to me than some bullshit job. Granted if I hadn't made the commitment to Mr. Tyler, I probably would have quit, but I did so now I am going to see it through to the end no matter what gets thrown in my face along the way.

After the sales pitch was done and I had regretfully turned them down (seriously I think I had to fight back tears at one point), I hopped on a plane and flew down to LA where Brad was waiting for me at the airport. From there we had 2 1/2 hours to get to my house, pack, and then get to the airport. Which basically meant I had 20 minutes to pack my shit into a suitcase or I would miss my flight to NYC, and seeing as it was the last flight to NYC for the day, it would screw up the rest of my week if I did! Somehow we managed to get home, pack, and then drive back to the airport in the time alloted.

We were flying to NYC because I recently sold a few painting at this gallery my friend works for, and the guy who bought them wanted to meet me. When it comes to being an "artist" I am torn on my feelings about it. On one hand I sometimes enjoy being artistic, but on the other I FUCKING HATE THE ART SCENE A LOT! It's full of overly pretentious fakes that all just need to get a swift punch in the face to knock their smug self satisfied snarls into next Tuesday. This kind of attitude makes it difficult to be a successful artist because 9/10 of being successful is networking in these circles and honestly I'd rather make a living giving hand jobs in an alleyway.

My whole NYC trip lasted a day and a half. It was short, unsatisfying and kind of sucked in every way it could. After we checked in, I decided to take a walk to my old apartment building. It made me a little sad walking passed the building and not really being able to go up to my old place, but it was also kind of important visually confirming that this was no longer mine. Next I met with my friend who sold the paintings and she briefed me on the guy who bought them and what he's like. She told me all about the questions he had as a buyer and what he was expecting from this encounter with me. I felt like a cheap whore. Afterward, I met the guy. I could tell I wasn't what he expected, I seldom am. Toward the end of our meeting he asked if I would be open to working on something personal for him. I told him I was booked solid until September, and politely declined his offer.

The next morning Brad and I woke up around 8 and had to get to the airport for our noon flight back to LA. By the time we got back to my house in LA it was dark and I was exhausted! I had work the next day and was completely dreading it because all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep until Monday! It felt like I had just closed my eyes when my alarm went off at 8am the next morning. Bradley was already awake and had made breakfast and a large pot of coffee. The lucky bastard was going to lounge around the house all day and then meet me at my office around 4pm for my office Christmas party. I was in a pretty bad mood when I got into the office, and it was only further exacerbated turning on the lights and walking into my office (this is going to get it's own post once I have had time to process what's going on in there, but for now let's just say its a shock to the system).

Though technically I only was in the office for 5 hours, it was a long day! Brad arrived at my office on time and upon seeing the newly redecorated space, began to laugh hysterically. I kissed him to shut him up and then I realized that I hadn't told anybody in the office I am gay so this was probably not only inappropriate, but a huge shock to anybody looking. Lucky for me I was so far passed caring that I just enjoyed the moment and filed it away to stress out about at a later time. We had a few hours to kill before the party so we went to a local skatepark and shred the gnar for awhile until we were nice and sweaty. That was definitely what I had needed all week long, because after we were done I was in a much better mood and actually feeling like smiling for the first time since the week started. We showered and went to the work Christmas party, had a decent time, then went home and had an even better time ;).

The office is closed until January and I am so elated that I keep on spontaneously screaming out in excitement whenever I think about it. I have no idea what I am doing this week, but I hope it involves long naps, lots of alcohol, and plenty of marijuana.

2 comments:

Jason said...

Wait a minute... Jason Lee used to be a professional skateboarder with his own shoe!? How did I not know this!? I call shenanigans. I don't believe this!

Trevor said...

You're so moody lately! Lay off the estrogen pills and man up Nancy. Get ready for X-mas, cuz it's going to be crazy!