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Ok
So, I have been in LA about three weeks.
1st week I sorted myself out with a car and job , insurance, phone etc blah blah, the past two weeks I have been working for Joe Sutton of Club Vodka as his personal assistant. www.myspace.com/clubvodka . Joe is a Hollywood promoter of rock music. What we do is we hold a show once a month at a venue called the Knitting Factory where we put on 24 bands a night (three stages , three rooms) with headliners as big as LA Guns, or All Star bands with members from bands such as Guns and Roses etc.
The next show we have been working for is on Saturday the 26th so I'm interested to see how it goes. Having been ina band for bearly 5 years, I am interested to see a real promoter at work. Most promoters I have worked with could hardly handle 5 bands in one night , never mind 24 and its ben going on for many years so we will see how it turns out.
The Knitting Factory is walking distance from where I am living.I guess if I find a comparison, Hollywood Blv (where the venue is, plus all those famous stars on the floor) is like Oxford Street or Leicester Square in London and I live just one street behind it in a nice quiet area.
The past two weeks I have been super busy trying to learn the ropes and understand the layout of the business.I have been adding bands to the myspace, sifting through the bands who want to play to get a decent selection of potential bands to present to Joe and replying to them etc. Since I know html coding I have also been trying to revamp the myspace with Gif. Interchangeable files and images with every gig that we put on. I update the mysapce and also venture into looking at advertsing streams for the shows.
As well as our main monthly gig we also help promote other gigs in the area that need some extra drawing power, and since Joe has been in the business for many many years he knows a lot of people and we hold private VIP parties downstairs at the Key Club (on Sunset Blv) where we have live gogo dancers and its all rather rock and roll.
On these nights I have been doing the guest list and standing on the door. I have to say I am meeting quite a selection of weirdos but I guess its all good learning, you quickly learn how to toughen up.
So the job is great, I do however need a waitressing job to co-inside with this and I am finding it super hard. I have handed my cv/resume out to over 50 restaurants and not one is hiring.Of course, I have heard that line before, 'we are not hiring'it doesn't actually mean anything, except I havent' caught them at the right time and who ever is dealing with me can't be arsed to talk to me.
So I will battle on, I need to as I will run out of money at this rate. Humm.
Alongside that I have signed up to a few talent agency companys. They are not agents but they pass along auditions to you they think you would suit.They have put me forward for things likemodelling, music videos, voice overs , commercialsand acting.ACTING???Yeah, you got the wrong girl mate the only acting I can do is to recite the script from the Little Mermaid (accents and songs included of course!) but to act? I have no training. Plus the competition is beyond silly, everyone out here is either a musician or actor or gay so how I have a chance in hell I simply do not know but if they wanna try then fine I guess its worth a try. I asked what I needed to take along to an auditon and he said a practiced script, something funny. I suggested Blackadder, and he replied with 'who?'oh dear.
So I had a meeting with my 'mentor' I guess is the name, he liked the photos I had done before I came out and said there was potential.Goody.check out my website if ya wanna see... www.myspace.com/laurasaggers
I signed up to a few others and the other day I got my first commercial offered to me!
They wanted me nude.
Uh, Yeah, No thank you.
Lord. I graciously declined.
Ok, so no luck there but we keep on trying.
On the whole the work I am doing for Joe, I absolutely love, I am learning so much and he is so business savy I hope it is a job that I continue to grow with.
That said, job aside, I have never been this lonely is my entire life.
I knew and anticipated that LA would be full of cold hearted, selfish, out to benefit themselves and themselves only type people. And I was right to think this. Excluding the people I knew before coming out (which is not many, infact is probably no more then two) and my boss and our room mate, I have to admit I am having a real hard time meeting ANYONE decent.
'Caring' just doesn't seem to be something people do out here UNLESS you benefit them someway. I have met hundreds of people that talk AT me about THEMSELVES.They will literally go 'how are you' and then before I even get a chance to answer they are off on their spiel about who they are, what they are doing, what they have done recently, who they know, what a big shot they are and I just look straight at them and this glaze forms over my eyes and I shut off.At first I was shocked, how could you actually have the confidence to talk about yourself so openly and tell a perfect stranger how wonderful and great you are without knowing who they are. Surely if you are so wonderful and great, you wouldn't need to say it to prove it, it would be apparent.The line 'I'm pretty big round here' has cropped up a few times and granted its from some guy hoping to impress me and take me to bed of which I have to stifle the urge to giggle AT them and make up some excuse to get away.
AND THEN!! Once they give you this run down presentation of how wonderful they are, they very quickly realise I can benefit them not at all and they are off, all promises of helping me out, and meeting up(of which I didn't get a chance to consent to ) are extinguished.Their back is turned and I feel like a leper or something.
I guess that is one reason why I don't want to go out at night to any clubs or bars, not that I really enjoy going to those types of places anyway but just the thought of all the BS is enough to make me tired so I havent actually been out except to see the band Steel Panther. AMAZING 80's cover band, inceridble and so funny.
It is very very odd and I certainly don't fit in here but I knew I wasn't coming out here to make any long term friends, I came out here to try the industry to see what it could to for me, how it all works and if I can learn anything at all from it and that is what I am doing.Its just a very very lonely process. Luckily most of my friends back home are on Skype and so I have been lucky enough to speak to at least one English buddy or one previously known American friend, outside LA every two days or so so my sanity is still intact. If anyone else wants to add me please do search for princess.saggers
I have probably set a really miserable scene, I don't mean to, I just didn't want to lie and say it's the best thing that has ever happened to me and LA is just simply AMAZING! That I have tons of friends and having a whale of a time. Cus that would be a blatent lie.However, I do recon it will get better. I am sure after a few months I will finally meet some genuine people and I wont have to go to restaurants on my own anymore and sit and put my earphones in and listen to Harry Potter Audio Book on my Ipod like I am at the moment to pass the time while I eat, and I am sure there will come a day where I wont say 'ticket for one please' when ordering admission to see Toy Story 1 and 2 at the Disney Theatre on Hollywood, like I did yesterday. Haha.
Other then the lack of decent humanity, I do actually like it here. I am living in the heart of Hollywood, very cool and am learning so much of the industry.I am definitely going to stick it out. Plus! I get to wear whatever I want and no one stares at me and thinks I look like a freak.So I went ahead and bought three wigs from a very cool professional wig shop the other day.I'm not sure why but I figured if everyone out here is fake, then I don't want them to know the real me either.That probably sounds weird but the other reason is I love dressing up and so I bought two long brown wigs, one with highlights and I love them, I finally have the long hair I have always wanted, and then I bought a short blond wig, like the one in pretty woman, when the guy first meets her.
Of course, my clothes are nothing compared to what most people wear out here, in fact I am seen to be pretty mundane but at least I can hide behind the hair and I guess it adds confidence cus whenever I get treated the same way as before when people just start talking and then blank me, I don't take it personally haha.It's a weird mentality.
The other day I was driving down Hollywood Blv and heard a female voice blaring out live across the air and realised it was coming from the open shopping mall and so parked up and walked over.Thinking it was Paramore (as they are due to start their new tour for their third album …CANT WAIT!)I found a whole bunch of people crowd round on all three floors staring at the centre of the shopping mall and who was there?Kelly Clarkson. Yep.Doing a free show.Big huge tv camera were zooming in and out from the crowd and it was being shot for a tv show here in LA on ABC tv.
Since I was on my own, these guys who were on the set saw me and pulled me over to get a better view.They started chatting to me and said to come see them the next day as they were doing a Shakiera show and if I asked for their names I would get in.
TBC….
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