One of the new network shows I’ve been watching – it’s hard for me to really like something on network TV, since they usually try not to be too risky and cripple their programs’ dialogue in order to please wide audiences. This show (The Good Wife) I’ve found to be very peculiar, on track with sharp dialogues and also well acted, since everyone on it is a vet what else is to expect.
So of course today when I leaned that Juliana Margulies will be speaking at an Apple Store event, I rushed to the store to check it out. The Apple Store in SoHo apparently does host a lot of events with filmmakers, which I didn’t know about, but apparently you can get them on iTunes. Unfortunately, they did not allow photos or any of that so I couldn’t snap a pic of her. Anyway, she looked lovely and was absolutely adorable and presented herself in a great way. It was unexpected for me because I thought she would get turned off by the low turnout. There were still many people, but you’d imagine the space a bit more crowded. Still she was really great, answered questions in great detail and brought a lot to the ace. Most of the women were 35+ and that didn’t bother me. I can’t compare in my fanship with tween girls but I can definitely share the appreciation of a more mature crowd. Some things I didn’t know were quite of interest to me, like her method acting and that she attended classes, also that her ER character was supposed to die in the pilot. In general she came out as an excellent performer and speaker, thoroughly impressed with how serious she is about this job and the whole show. I also didn’t know Ridley Scott is a producer on the show and he might direct an episode soon, that would definitely be really exciting. Most of all I was impressed with her being a New Yorker and talking about what it’s like to shoot close to home – I could never tell in her performances that she is from a certain area, so I’d judge them to be quite crafty. Good job, hope to catch Meryl Streep in the Apple store next week!
Archive for the 'Journal' Category
The Good Wife
So totes felt like blogging today. Don’t feel like proofreading though and don’t expect everything to be correct. Work today was kind of really slow so managed to immerse into online adventures including surfing IMDB and the surrounding gossip-y sites to get the latest hot link-age.
Then I happened to find this kid Jamie Bower and hey he’s seriously some serious hot British-ness and he plays big badass vamp in Twilight and Grindewald in Harry Potter so he double scores riiiiight there. Of course according to his IMDB page he’s trying to star in other stuff (blah blah blah) and take pics sans vamp make up and there are also rumors he’s dating Ginny Weasley (ah! no her actress? who is that?). But neverminds – the kid is to watch out for defso.
Interestingly enough, last night I went to a presentation on the Murderers, Gangsters and Weirdos On the Lower East Side book – very good topic and highly recommend learning more, maybe even getting the book on Amazon or library if they even have it (have not checked! but it’s new so most likely not). The history of gangs in that particular area is absolutely fascinating and the author Eric Ferrara made an impressive presentation. He seems to be an amazing speaker and barely took breaks, I was impressed haven’t had fun at a book presentation since Nick Hornby, but that one was so crowded I could barely breathe fresh air, so this one definitely tops it. Check out the book description here – also a pretty reasonable price. Bluestockings bookstore was hosting – and how else could it be – they are the resident independent bookstore on the Lower East Side. Usually don’t like it when they attack you with activist pamphlets and events of the sort but they really have great picks in independent books which you’d have to unravel in a mainstream bookstore, aka Barnes and Noble. Highly recommend for everyone to also visit Eric’s project – the LES History Center (former East Village Visitor’s Center) – they know the most particular info and have fantabulous EV tours.
Post hearing this amazing presentation I browsed though the Women Studies Section in Bluestockings and I was amazed on how many books women can produce on feminism. Usually think most feminist readings are distasteful and I get truly bored and annoyed with them, but some of this stuff sounded intriguing. I guess Bluestockings’ fabled activism is for reals – check out their selection and the funny shirts they have for sale. It will definitely make a great holiday gift unmatchable to any mainstream gifts your friends are able to get their hands on.
Week 15
Last week =(
bye bye intern office
This last week that I had to work I finally got to work with someone from the corporate team – Samantha is the Account Director for the Verizon account. She wanted to have a campaign recap clip books be bound in a cooler binding that the one that Kinko’s does. I can completely understand because this is an important corporate client and it would be really cool if we can get custom binding. No place was doing custom binding though so it turned out to be a problem. She sent me to look for a good looking binder but that search failed, too.
Then I helped her look for corporations giving away money for charities in terms of giving away a small part of the price of a product that people purchase, to a certain cause (aka RED, etc).
On Wednesday was my last day. After going crazy trying to help everyone since there were no other interns left but Kevin and he was sitting in at the front desk) I was helping Samantha again with picking up and ordering te clips in the Verizon clipbook.
Week 14
Last to last week!
Tuesday was a great day. I actually had to tape a show that had a lot of meaningful content – Barbara Walters’ Special with Brack Obama. Barbara Walters is one of our clients, Cindi the CEO represents her. It was very interesting and he was very open during the interview but he was also very confidential about things that he couldn’t talk about.
Today I had to package Jen’s office. Jen is one of the publicist that has been working there for 10 years. I have no idea why she has left or whether or not she has moved somewhere else. I have noticed others moving away, too, I guess it is normal to change jobs. It’s still kind of sad because she was one of the nice ones and also very experienced. Lindsey who is her assistant will now be the assistant to Allan, who is one of the top executives. He is also really really mean and picky. Once you get to know him it gets kind of funny but he also does not tolerate a mistake. He is so sarcastic! I guess that’s how you get through and move up in this industry? He does have some really respectable clients (Robert Redford, Kevin Bacon) so I guess he is one of the more respected publicists over here in New York City. Our people get to travel to LA sometimes and some LA people have come, esp if they have to travel with a client that we do not cover over here. It must be exciting.
Today I had to go to Columbus Circle to pick up some dresses. I like this space but it’s a little bit confusing. Through having to run errands like this I had to go to a lot of different hotels and apartment buildings and got to know many areas. It is pretty exciting, so to some singer’s apartment. You actually do give and take stuff from the doorman but still I feel that I am doing something important. I was doing it for Anthi and she did not give me a MetroCard. She knows she is supposed to give me one if I’m traveling to do her errands! If a publicist or an account director does this mistake it is okay, they do not have to necessarily know this or care if interns get the subway taken care of or the cab fare, so you kindly remind them. But she is an assistant so she should know, since she is closer to us and knows how errands are usually run.
On Tuesday I got a call for another internship! I am glad because I really want to work. I got used to working two days a week and I am going to feel like the week is empty if I don’t have another placement. The commute is very tiring but it’s ok now.
On Wednesday was Luci’s last day =( she is a very cool intern from FIT. She brought cupcakes for everyone and left them on the kitchen table. That was so nice of her! I’m not sure I will be bringing in anything when I leave next week but I will surely be sad.
Week 13
This week is Thanksgiving! I was unsure of whether or not I want to stay for Wednesday because all my friends were getting off for the holidays so I didn’t want to be the only one that has to work on that Wednesday before Thanksgiving. When I went to the office on Tuesday the Thanksgiving mode was all over the place. From the interns, Brian was out. A lot of the assistants were also not there and some publicists. In the beginning of the day I was just throwing out the old newspapers. We collect all the issues from each they and they get clipped. In a couple of weeks they pile up and then we take the older issues to recycling. It’s important that not everything gets thrown out because there might be an article that has been wrongly skipped during scanning.
Anthi was really desperate to find somebody to sit in for her on the next day, but I had already decided to take the day off, because Starr told me that the office will close @ 1pm on Wednesday and there is really no point in me doing all the commute for only a couple of hours at the office. Kevin asked me on her behalf and I said no and then she asked me and I said I’m most probably not coming since the early closing. She kept asking though and what pissed me of is that Kevin was totally on her side, too. If everyone else is getting off, including assistants and publicists then why should I come all the way from Jersey for just like two hours of work? Later Janet, on of the coordiantors, told me that I don’t have to come since it’s only a half day. I knew it! Janet is also always so nice so of course she wouldn’t have us work when almost everyone will not be at work.
Week 12
One of the intern duties that I don’t love so much is sitting in at the front desk and I got to do it a lot this week. Our receptionist, Starr (is the name she likes to use and it is even on her business card!) was out sick for some reason. One of the interns, Kristina was to fill in for her and we were to switch with her. I just don’t see the point of us sitting at the front desk, it’s just sitting unless you have some sort of desk job that you can do there, like creating a list or such. You have to pick up the phone, which would be out main line and then redirect the caller to the person who they are looking for. Sometimes this gets annoying because you know that they can totally look up what their direct line is but they are using the general number because they’re lazy. People could also call and be like: “do you represent that and that person?” and you can’t tell them this information. But if they call and ask “who is the person to contact for this person?” , then you can tell them who it is and transfer them. People pay hundreds and thousands to have access to databases with everyone’s phone, so if you’re calling you should pretty much know who you’re looking for.
Mail delivery is another annoying aspect.
Sometimes, when I have those moments of being annoyed in the office, I take my full lunch break and just go shopping in the stores in our area. I don’t want to come in with shopping bags though so I put them away in my bag (because I usually carry a bigger bag.
Week 11
Tuesdays are very different from Wednesdays. Since I work on both days I get to be in the office with different interns, some of which I probably have already mentioned I don’t like. What surprised me in those relationships is that guys are way pushier than girls and they are also more resilient to criticism and all that stuff. the two guys at work, do more assignments than the girls, they also seem to be sucking up more to the publicists and assistants. For example Brian, the “super intern” has this notepad that he keeps running around with and he notes down all the tasks we get on it, even if they are not personally addressed to him, as if he was some sort of intern coordinator. The past two weeks, as soon as he comes, he goes straight to Mandi to do tasks for her. Mandi is one of the publicists ( I think she has recently become a publicists and she used to be an assistant like a year or two ago) and she is around 30, but she is very confident and she is also the office manager. Brian is basically sucking up to the right people. He does a lot of stuff that we don’t get entrusted with, and I can understand, he is after all the more experienced one, but still he tends to annoy me.
Kevin on the other side is Anthi’s favorite – of course – because he is the only one that will out up with her craziness and frantic self. This week, same thing happened to him, like to me a while ago. She had him package things to be picked up by a messenger (that’s a service only for New York City packages to be delivered to the critic/ journalist immediately) and after he already packaged and called for them to be picked up, she wanted him to add something to them. He had to completely re-package everything. And with so much effort, I don’t think he gets much freebies (like albums and such) from her. I think you have to work a lot there to be noticed, but you also have to work smart – make a lot of effort to impress an account exec or a publicist and not so much the assistants, who might become publicists, but still they might also change jobs. A lot of people tend to switch their job in PR in the course of a couple of years.
Week 10
Yay, it’s week 10! Can’t believe I’ve already been working here for a while. I am starting to really get used to it. I like a lot of the people that work here. I could absolutely see myself working in an office.
Anthi had me mail a ridiculous amount of stuff today. It was not just this, but she had me find out the addresses for those people and then fedex stuff to those addresses.She was so confusing about everything she requested! Turns out she wanted to see those addresses before I fedexed them, while in the beginning she just said “Fedex those asap”. The thing is that she is probably the only assistant that is so frantic and confusing in her requests. I think she has a little too much to do because she has 3 publicists to work for and it truly is a lot of work, but I also think she is a person prone to stress. She does seem stressed all the time. Maybe she does have more work than others but honestly I think pretty much everyone has a lot of work, and a lot of the assistant publicists are pretty calm about it. Or maybe they are just internally calm, and super stressed on the inside? What I’m thinking is that a lot of people plan ahead on their work and get things that need to be done on time, on time, as opposed to putting them off, and then they have time to handle the new work that comes up. Still, some of them are often freaking out and having us mail like 30 copies of the thing in order to be on time. Fedexing 8 packages is a lot of work! They need to have their labels filled out online and printed and then packaged. The most ridiculous part was when she didn’t tell me that a couple of those need still the CDs inside so I had to unseal them and use other envelopes! Like how literal is ” fedex those now” or “find out the addresses and fedex those now”. There was initially no mention whatsoever that the CDs need to be with the press kit or that her boss needs to check the addresses. So clearly there was a mess up with her instructions, but I tried not to tell her that I’ve fedexed the unchecked addresses already, because she would just get angry and her boss, too.
Week 6 – Tuesday
Woohoo, it’s October! While being here, I am trying to organize the Model UN dinner this month, doing all the catering arrangements and so. This year, both of the dinner chairs decided to drop out of the club and not tell me (?!) so it was quite frustrating that I have to do all the work and I am not even at school 2 days of the week. I cannot load the new kids with so much logistical work yet, as they just started with the club. But that includes me having to do personal phone calls while on the job. Today I missed two phone calls from the restaurant while on the job. I’m also getting stressed over not being able to do a couple of other arrangements because I’m here, so I can’t go to offices at school. Today was a truly busy day in the office and it also became clear that I’m not hitting it off with the other interns. The thing is that sometimes I think I have trouble relating to other people because I’m foreign, so it is kind of scary because it does lay out the prospect of never being able to fit in this society. On the other side, I just think they are being either idiots or really bitchy people. One of the girls actually won an internship with the company and moved to NYC for it from Pennsylvania. That sounds pretty unbelievable that you would move all the way here to work for free and then have an apartment and be jobless, probably hoping that this internship would get her a job? Even if her parents were paying for it, it sounds risky. Sometimes I think she’s kind of slow, or she just doesn’t understand what I’m saying when I’m asking for it. I’m not very explanatory but at this point I think people should have mastered their tasks and know what I’m talking about.
We were so busy today having to finish packing this press kit it was insane. I could barely go out to eat but I did. I like to take my break, it’s a tip I got from Cara, one of the assistants here. She said “make sure you take your break, they’re not paying you so don’t go the extra mile if you don’t think it’s helping you in any way”. She also used to intern here, so I believe her. Maybe the person not to take their breaks and eat in the office would be Brian (Brian is a second semester intern from NYU). Whatever, it was stressful.. I think we did fine.
Week 3 – Tuesday
Pretty sweet we are in a new office on Third ave and it is right next to Grand Central. The good part about Midtown is the myriad of places of eat. SoHo was absolutely awful with this, the upscale restaurants were all over the freaking place. I arrived early and explored the new intern office, as now we have our own place to hangout. Trying not to appear like I am wanting to work but wouldn’t be able to get away with it once the others get here. There is this guy Kevin that jumps on every job possible and they love him. Sucking up gets you stuff around here.
First, I was doing mailings etc. and I taped a show for somebody. Taking things of the TiVo is my favorite thing here. I get to learn a lot about the clients while I’m listening to their interviews. I also like working with DVDs like copying and making a nice recording for somebody. They usually send them out to talent casting at one of the talk shows so it has to look quite good and not be a nasty recording with low sound etc.They had me call messenger today to pick up a package for the Dave Letterman show but after that I was pretty much trying to appear like I am doing something, while indeed I was only doing minor errands and hanging out in the new intern office. Bad bad bad.
