I’m going to be honest – I’m not in the mood to really write this, but I see that August 31st is coming upon my mandatory monthly deliverance schedule and I’ve got to give you PPGuru fans at least SOMETHING for your subscription woes! (that’s all 34 of you).
I could ruminate about the ridiculous lengths I go to every Saturday to watch and post on social media about all the 30 or so cartoons I watch on my reclining coach and the reasons why I found that there is such a proliferation of them this summer, but why bother? I’m still stuck busy watching them! Since I’ve been photographing a good many of the creators, writers and voice actors who come to my picket line, they would be better served if save them all for my Persona Non Grata picture show multi-part series I have planned when the Writer and Actor strike finally does come to a halt.
Things started innocently enough.
I’m so spent emotionally and mentally on seeing this through to the very end. I haven’t done the usual rigamore of posting about my PPGuru posts on social media fully knowing that I could strike a increase in stats goldmine just by letting people know in all the Yes Groups I’m involved with that I posted a new Yes Log entry on the newest album, Mirror To The Sky. I haven’t had the energy to contact all those willing to be involved in my long gestating PROJECT EARTHMARK, uhm project – that this vocation will be temporary shelved once again due to the duration of this strike. So if Larry David ever has a chance to develop a sitcom about my life entitled ‘LACK of ENTHUSIASM’, who am I to stop him from implementing or milking a 12 year season show on HBO?
I hear a deal is forthcoming between WGA, SAG and AMPTP. On whether that’s hammered out by the time Labor Day falls on what can only be declared with the gods of those reside in the MAJOR STUDIOPOLISES pantheons in the sky. Are Bob IGERZEUS, David ZASLAVARES, Ted SARAPOLLOS, or Jeffrey BEROS willing to look down upon us forever averting peon eyes and mayhap grant us mercy? Only what’s to be altered in the book and later passed on to the MBA will ever decide. (MBA, i.e, Miminum Basic Agreement).
The bridge of Picketing Sighs at Colfax Avenue in Studio City, California
Even though my hours of contribution have been largely reduced, I still find mental preperation in the early morning to be the most taxing for my daily routine. This is basically my morning set: get up at 6 AM every Monday – Friday. Jump in shower, shit and shave for the next fifty minutes. Walk two long blocks to my bus stop in 8 to 10 minutes to catch the FREE Dash Bus that takes me directly to the CBS Radford Studios studios to set up the tables and unload the teamster van full of strike signs (I usually get around 200 writers signs and a few bundles of actors – the reason why I get fewer actor signs is because CBS Radford Studios is NOT an OFFICIAL site for actors to strike at, even though they’re more than likely invited to because a few actors live with earshot of the studio, like Jerry O’Connell Rebecca Romijn and Ed Begley Jr.), upload the electronical check-in system, write on a whiteboard of which day’s events are going to be taking place, assorted the snacks and water, set up a recreational rest area, and place the cones that sets up the parameters of what length the strike line takes from one end of the other across the gate. AND then I’ve got to break it all down and collect the signs from people, load them back into the teamster’s van – in ALL IN THE TIME that it takes to watch Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer from beginning to end, and finally I slowly lollygag back my way home to work from home for another 3 and a half hours, but sometimes I’ll take an hour and half lunch hour from the moment I get home, either to put in swimming a few laps or take another hour of shuteye before logging back on.
The reduction to three hours a day is due to the crazy all summer long heat wave that’s been plummeting The San Fernando Valley since the early days of June (minus a day or two of hurricane winds and rain). Warner Bros, Disney, and Universal Studios fall in the same hot tarred bottom boat as I do. Over the Laurel Canyon hills and far away, where Netflix, Fox, Sony, Netflix and Amazon reside, striking hours are extended another two hours. Maybe the X-rated version of Caligula can fill in that 5 hour void. I dunno, I’m kind of reaching with that last one. but I do yearn for the early days of strike yesterday (back in May and June) when we would strike at least for seven hours (and my checks would enormously grow bigger) and things got accomplished, like going out and ratting on those you may see at any location shoot and getting those productions shut down out in the outskirts of Bel Air and Malibu.
Spreading the good word down south at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con International. Funny story about this picture…
Other things I’m leaving off the table to talk about until the strike is over is my coverage of last month’s San Diego Comic-Con International which has a story related to the strike in all its’ own that shouldn’t be uttered for fear of repercussions from my peers. All my movie freebies at my employers’ theater has been suspended indefinitely until the strike is officially declared over, so I’ve been hitting the local Regal and AMC multiplexes for my DC and Marvel movie holidays and whatever else some big blockbuster warrants my attention (and no, Barbie isn’t one of them- waiting for that one to turn up on Max).
One drawback to all is I get to share what I’m doing socially on a WhatsApp with all my colleagues and in retaliation to all the junk photos they post 24/7 of their kitty cats, vodka martinis, and whatever crazy loud clothes SAG President Fran Drescher is wearing that day, I’ll pepper them back with whatever selfie I take of whatever selections of comic books I’ll be reading that day (which are even more annoying to your co-workers if they’re all shot displayed in the bask of all their prestigious glory near the Casa de La Coatney pool lounge area) and whatever Prog Rock album being aurally shared with whatever bottle of wine I’ll be devouring. Not many of my confreres are either comic book fans nor listen to any progressive rock music – and that’s the whole point of the exercise – BECAUSE I DON’T LIKE THEIR FUCKING KITTY CAT PHOTOS or give a flying shit on whatever Fran Drescher happens to wearing that day. Ugh, even weekends can become annoying when people love to gab constantly.
I’ve met many impressive people on the picket line thus far and I can’t share wait to share nearly thousands upon thousands of photos taken with my trusty hand dandy obsolete Apple 6 iphone that I’ll probably have to whittle down to around 200 or so of such strike line dignitaries such as Jerry O’Connell, Bill and Bob Odenkirk, Samwise Aaron, Captain Andra Whipple (not to mention other memorable captains such as Joelle, Camilia, Hazzard, Myles and Kelly and his little dog Paco too), trouble twins Dana Braziel-Solovy and Robin Fusco, musician and union member Tom Morello, actor Robert Amico, my teamster drivers Kym and Johnny and once upon a time Boonton, NJ actor Peter Onafri. But those will be stories for another time. A rather short time in coming, I may warn you.
This next epic will comprise a trilogy of sorts. In what frequency I decide in pelting them at you. The first part will consist of our early May – July doggy dates of summer hell on Colfax Ave, then I do a breakaway to the San Diego Comic Con International (where I almost got thrown in into the proverbial downtown pokey), and then the third and final part will be our sensational legal win to be allowed to picket on the opposite shady side of Radford Avenue and hopefully how we see it all end.
And speaking of avenues, I’m going to try to cram in some space for the next barrage of prog rock coming my way. I have a total of six weeks of new or remastered in 5.1 surround sound prog music materials ordered featuring the likes of Jethro Tull, King Crimson. The Flower Kings, DBA (a project featuring Geoff Downes) Tesseract, the third Bruce Soord solo album, the 7th solo album by Steven Wilson, the last solo album Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright recorded before he died remixed by Steven Wilson, Roger Waters’ remake of The Dark Side of The Moon, and the brand new rock solo album by former Yes guitarist Trevor Rabin. Where will the time ever go and how many bottles of wine will be consumed in the enjoyment of these new prog journeys?
As of this posting, it’s day 122 of the writers’ strike and day 49 of the actors’ strike and the stories contained within could encompass an entire quarter century series of Gunsmoke or Law & Order episodes and being site manager of the CBS Radford location, I only play a part in one of a series of successful spin-offs. Finally, here’s a preview shot of someone generous enough to wish everyone the best of luck on the picketlines- none other than Curb Your Enthusiam’s very own Jeff Garlin. This picture was taken on the strike’s first weekend, which incidentally also fell on the Free Comic Book Day celebration held at Earth 2 Comics.
So in the meantime, keep those cards and letters coming! I’m not really allowed to reply since I’m busy striking! PENCILS DOWN!
PPGuru 