6:57 am - Tuesday, Apr. 29, 2003
Rugrats, Borders, and \"A Howard Hughes-like desire for privacy\"

Well, the call came yesterday afternoon--I got the Rugrats callback!

Please think a good thought for me. I want this one very much.

The callback is today at 3:00. Then I have another audition just after 4:00, for Sony Videogames (These break the nice string I had of castings that weren't conflicting with work. But at least I didn't get any static about getting the time; I called, ended up talking to Kyle on the phone, and we pushed back my start time to 6:00, with no fuss or bother).

There were two auditions yesterday as well, one for Ruby Tuesdays, and one for Coke.

The Ruby Tuesdays one played up how confusing things can be sometimes, and how you can not know what's going to happen even after you've gone into a casting agency and seen the copy.

After the last audition for a Ruby Tuesdays spot, where I thought I was going to read for the spokesperson and didn't, I went into this one assuming I wasn't going to be reading for the spokesperson...and did.

There's probably a word for it--"post-modern", perhaps?--but I don't really like this sort of ad campaign; Like the other spot I went out for, these were more commentary on how "It's not the commercials that sell Ruby Tuesdays--cause our commercials suck, to be honest--but the food" (I read for two; In the first one, I was a guy in the back office thrown in front of a camera to read some commercial copy. In the second, the same guy, a little more confident, some time later).

So, it's a commercial that says "Commercials don't work. It's all about how good the product is", when in fact, if it really were "all about the product", you wouldn't need a commercial saying commercials don't work. Kind of stupid, if you ask me.

But that said, the actual part would be cute, and fun to do. And of course, I'd enjoy the novelty of making actual "folding money" for doing a job (These are regional commercials. Not the "holy grail" of a national spot, but still, more money than Jim typically sees at one time).

The Coke thing was a "spec", which I'm a little unclear on, but I guess it means the commercial company is making a spot which they will then try to sell to Coke.

The money aspect of all this is very confusing to me. "Nationals", "Regionals", "Residuals", "Buy-outs", "Union/Non-Union spots"...I don't know how any of it translates into $$$. About all I know is what you want the most is a long-running national spot. I'm just trusting that John will get me the best deal possible when the time comes--and I really feel like it is coming-- since it's in his interest to do so, and I'm not going to worry my tiny little mind about it.

For the Rugrats callback, all I have to do is wear the same thing, do what got me called back in the first place, and hope for the best. It was fun the first time, and I think it's going to be even more fun this time.

Wish me luck. I really, really, really WANT this one!

Well, I'm heading back to bed. I don't really have anything I have to do before heading out to these things, so I want to make sure I give myself every opportunity to "hit the ground running" here.

I'll close with an edited transcript of some stuff I said to Kevin in a chat earlier today (I edited out the "Kevin stuff", in deference to his Howard Hughes-like desire for privacy).

That was something else I was happily imagining yesterday; Not really being "rich", whatever that would mean to me, but having "enough".

That would be nice.

I would like to be "rich", I think, but it would just be "icing on the cake". What I really want is to be in a position to spend as much time as possible doing what I want to do. I can think of things I might like to have, that I might enjoy, but truth to tell, there's nothing I "need" that I don't already have. Essentially, I just want to be having more fun with my life, which for me, would translate ,in large part, into "not working at Borders" (Or anywhere else). Even though, most times, Borders is not bad, and I think the environment is about as good as I could hope for in the "straight world".

Over the past few days, I've been wrestling with making my peace with Borders. I seem to have made the decision that I like the environment--I like my coworkers, I like books and music and such, and I even like some of the customers--so I have to just deal with the fact that the pay is for shit. I'm trying to shake loose of the stress of thinking "I can't stay here, but I don't want to leave", and instead just admit that "I like it enough here that I don't want to leave until I can leave the world of straight jobs, period."

Wish me luck today. I'm hoping to have very exciting news to share with you soon...

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