Ahoy, Mates!

Today was quite exciting! First, the bad news: one of Katie's future suite mates, Tracy, had her car broken in to overnight. Suave criminals, too. They messed up two door frames trying to finesse their way in, and finally resorted to smashing a window. They left the TV, they left the radio, and they left the big book of CDs that was laying on the floor. They did, however, make off with a bag of clothes, pictures, and yearbooks. Apparently pawn shops in LA pay based on sentimental value. The nice people who own the hotel informed us of this unfortunate event, and Katie and I spent the morning watching her car, because we worried that the lure of a TV-laden car with a pre-smashed window might be tempting to thieves adept at hot wiring.

But now on to the exciting news! Katie and I, along with the other students, go to tour the Disney Studios back lot this morning. Getting there involved spending a brief time on the 101 Freeway, where anything goes. Turn signals are a sign of weakness, speed limits were meant to be broken, and if you yield to another driver, he will find you and take your ears as a trophy. But we got to the studio unscathed, and got to see a very small part of the set of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. We really only got to see the backs of the set, and no actually pirates, but since no one could tell us that Johnny Depp wasn't on the set, I see no reason not to claim I was in his presence. This will qualify as my first brush with stardom. The rest of the tour was fairly uneventful, except that I recognized a lot of the architecture of the buildings from a book I got for Christmas, so that was pretty interesting.

Later on, I went with Katie to Paramount Studios so she could meet the people she will be interning with. That was a little bit less exciting, but I did get to see small bits of the Mission: Impossible III set, also from the back. No Tom Cruise, and, far more disappointing, no Katie Holmes. But Katie will be interning with Paramount's casting office, which is currently working on a new TV series, that I honestly forget the name of, and am too lazy to look up. But I promise that if I recall it at a later date, I will certainly post it. I was interested to learn that Paramount has its own wood shop, although that makes a lot more sense that outsourcing all the labor. I am sort of looking for a job while I'm out here, and if at all possible, I would like for it to be something involved with the movie business. I would be terribly disappointed with myself if I traveled 3,000 miles out here just to work in another grocery store. The problem with working for a movie studio, even as behind-the-scenes labor, is that they are all union, and you can't work a union job unless you belong to the union, and you can't belong to the union unless you have a union job. Very weird, I know. We'll see how that pans out. My other option will be to see how much Katie gets for her loans, and live off that while I driver her around, and spend my remaining at the Park La Brea gym getting buff. For the more geographically inclined, I will point out that Park La Brea does get its name from its close proximity to the tar pits that share its name. Not really relevant to anything, but I thought I should mention it.

Katie and I decided to cap off this wonderful Friday by taking in a film at The Grove. We saw Four Brothers which, despite what Nicole thinks, was an excellent movie, and I highly recommend it to anyone not so narrow sighted as to judge a film even before its out. I do not recommend, however, going to see said film, or any other, at The Grove. Each ticket will cost you $12.50, and they have apparently been collaborating with the cell phone industry for their pricing structure, because Friday and Saturday nights after 6 are "peak viewing." I don't understand paying such a high price in the town where the movie was made. That's like paying more for oranges in Florida than any other city in the country. Colombians would be un in arms if they had to pay a premium for their cocaine! But they validate parking, no questions asked. Before we went to the movie, we wandered around the stores in The Grove for a few hours, and I got a better sense of how fashion works out here. There are a few rules I have gathered. First, I am not cool, and never will be. No matter how the other rules play out, this first rule will always hold true. Second, you have to not care about your appearance. Ripped and faded clothing is in, and the more ripped and faded it is even before you buy it, the better. A&F wanted to sell me a new pair of sandals that are more broken in and discolored than the ones I already own. Third, you have to pay a LOT of money to look like you don't care about your appearance. I don't know if it is cool to wear vintage T-shirts that are actually vintage, but PacSun will be delighted to sell you some brand new vintage T-shirts for $30 a pop. Chances are that the actual T-shirts, when brand new didn't even cost that much. Finally, the correct hair style for boys is a combination of sticking your finger in an electric socket and hanging your head out the window of a jet. We all know how bad I fail at looking like that. And coloring is a plus. Not the frosting of the tips or anything so uniform as that. Rather, having a random patch of blonde hair is the way to go, the more it looks like a horrible dye accident on the part of the hair stylist, the better. I fear I am doomed to never fit in here. Good thing I don't care about my appearance!