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12:54 am - Monday, Sept. 10, 2001 Well, I'm no longer an "earthquake virgin"... Just before 5 pm this evening, an earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale hit West Hollywood ( The epicenter was somewhere in the Beverly Hills/Hollywood area ). I was working when it happened. I'd just come from the second floor, where I'd gotten a book for a customer, and was in front of the main info counter when there was this big JOLT ( The sensation was as if some huge THING had run into the building ). I heard some screams, some children started crying, and I saw a couple people run out of the building. By the time it really hit me what was happening, it was over ( CNN online said the earthquake lasted 20 seconds, but I really didn't perceive it that way. It seemed much quicker, more abrupt than that. They also said there was an 2.8 aftershock about a minute later, but I didn't notice that at all ). Afterwards, there was a lot of laughter and relief, and cameraderie amongst those of us, customer and employee alike, who had just experienced our first earthquake. I was trying to get a sense afterwards of just how MUCH earthquake I'd experienced, but opinions varied. It didn't seem MAJOR--No structural damage to the building, no broken windows, no one hurt--but I wondered if it rose to the level of "moderate" or not ( I guess I wanted to know how impressed I should be ). I had a response to the earthquake very similar to my response to other situations since being here in LA; While realizing what I'd experienced was "no big deal", it did make me think "What if?". What if, instead of 4.2, the earthquake had been a 7 or 8? ( Matt S. and I were in the parking lot after work, joking about how depressed we'd have been if it had been a serious quake that brought the building down on us--Lying in the rubble, thinking, "Oh man, I'm going to die at BORDERS...!" ) ( Just heard on the local news that the quake lasted about 4 seconds. And while there didn't seem to be much in the way of serious damage, there WERE some broken windows and minor structural damage to some buildings in the area. As I left work at 6, I wondered what MY apartment might look like, but there wasn't a thing out of place...at least not any more so than normal. ) And in OTHER news... I did my "Channel Zero" thing on Friday night. I 'd been told that we were going to meet at Jennifer's Coffee Connection at 6:30 pm ( The show was set for 7:30 ). I left my apartment around 5, figuring that would give me plenty of time to deal with traffic and parking and whatnot, and ended up at the coffehouse about quarter after 6. No one was there. No one was there at 6:30. No one was there at quarter to 7. At around ten to 7, Monique came in ( Monique had been the contact person who called me, to see if I was going to attend and what story I was going to tell ). Then around 7, other people started drifting in. Toni, the "director", came in about twenty after 7, with no explanation or excuse ( To be honest, I didn't have a good feeling about her at the intial audition, and nothing happened Friday night to improve my opinion of her ). The "show" actually got under way about quarter to 8, after Toni quickly put a "show order" together ( She asked me if my story was "happy" or "sad". When I said, "I don't know. It's kind of weird and funny. It's the one I did at auditions", she responded by saying, "That's fine. I don't remember what you did anyway". That was the extent of her "direction". I was nonplussed ). My story went fine. There really wasn't much of an "audience" there--mostly just the other "Channel Zero" people, and some people I think were part of the "acoustic showcase" set to happen at 9--but it was fun to get on a stage and do SOMETHING. The whole thing felt VERY "amateur hour"--Toni couldn't even seem to remember the premise of the show, and had to keep being reminded to poll the audience as to whether the story was "true" or "false". After me, more people got up. Some did stories--my favorite was a bizarre story of a date that somehow led to the guy being naked in his office the next day ( Sounded like something that might have happened to "George" on "Seinfeld", but the guy insisted it was a true story )--and some did faux-commercials, and in between Toni told a couple stories of her own, which she told in an ostensibly funny way, but neither had any "build"to them, or any "capper" ( If you're sensing I'd like to be more impressed with Ms. Attell than I am, you're right ). So there it was. It was exactly what I'd thought it was going to be. It's impossible to imagine "Channel Zero" being worth anything to anybody, but it was good to get out and up on a stage, I enjoyed my little "moment in the spotlight", and if I don't have something BETTER going on--which I'm going to try and arrange--there's no reason for me not to do the next one ( The next one won't be till next month. The venue is booked on the 21st ). ( I find myself wanting to think of something better to do for the next one. Maybe a serious story. Or better yet, a serious story that's completely FAKE. I'll have to give it some thought. ) On Saturday, I spent the biggest part of the day at the movies. On Beverly and Fairfax, there's a second run theater, and they were showing "AI" and "Moulin Rouge", two movies I'd never gotten around to seeing this summer. But I'm pulling a major fade here, so we'll have to continue this epic tomorrow.
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