3:22 pm - 05.14.2008
Where's A Rich Dead Relative When I NEED Them?

I was struck just now by this exchange in an interview with Jerry Springer on The Onion website (This is from the "AV Club" section of the website):

AVC: In your speeches, you've criticized tax cuts for the rich, but you aren't exactly a poor man.

JS: No, and I don't know why they're giving me breaks. It's not as if when I get a tax break, I'm going to go out and spend more money. I can already buy what I want. If everything was going really well and everything were paid for, well, fine, that would be nice. But we're in trouble. The tax structure is just one visible symbol of it. I find it offensive.

When Jerry Springer is making more sense than the people running the country, it's clear the country is in serious trouble.

It seems, basically, like many other jobs - you fit the requirements, you apply, you get the necessary training, you start working - but there are a few things I don't know.

For example - It seemed, when we talked, like they basically have Weight Watchers "Job Fairs", and you can't just come on board whenever you want. So I need to know when the next ones are coming up.

And I need to know how close to my goal weight I have to be in order to sign up, and/or if I can start working there while I'm still in my six-week "maintenance period" prior to becoming a "Lifetime Member" (Cause, as you know if you've been reading along up till now, my situation at ArcLight has become...untenable, and I'd like to be out of there ASAP).

(Okay, just got an email back from Lynn, asking if she'd given me a flyer about "meeting with the boss". So I guess I'll pick up one of those flyers on Sunday and find out more.)

SAG's current contract with producers expires at the end of next month, but talks between SAG and the Producers were broken off/postponed while the Producers negotiate a new contract with AFTRA, the other actor's union.

What's going to happen? I don't know; I really and truly hope not a strike, but if a strike vote comes up, I honestly don't know how I'll vote (I don't want a strike, but I don't want to tie the union's hands either).

At this point, my lifestyle, modest as it is, is very dependent on my making at least some money as an actor (ArcLight, even if I were there 40 hours a week, wouldn't keep me in food and shelter, let alone pay for the amenities I've come to enjoy in the past year or so). And I don't want to see the possibility of making any money from acting stop cold for however many weeks/months.

But if I ever want to get past the point where I have to work another job to pay the bills, to where acting is the way I make my living, it's going to be from SAG working on my behalf for a good wage; if it were left up to the producers, we'd all have to have second jobs to make a living.

Anyway, speaking of jobs, it's time I start getting ready to go (Working Retail tonite, which I haven't done in quite awhile).

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