The Industry
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
I find it bizarre that I live in a town where people can say "Do you work in The Industry?" and everyone knows what it means. THE Industry. THE Business. As if it's the only one.
But out here, it sort of is. In NYC there are jacks of all trade. When you go to a party and someone asks what you do, the answers are plentiful. And while there are definitely other industries in Los Angeles, the entertainment industry is the biggest by far. Most everyone is somehow linked in...you have your obvious writers, actors, directors, agents, and managers. You have your network and studio execs - be it in development or marketing, PR or production. You have your crew - from prop master to set designer to location scout to best boy to key grip. And even if you're not in the business, you're generally tied into the business - whether it's a charity that depends on celebrities to tout it's cause or web designers that create rock stars websites. Everyone here is looped into the industry. LA is a one trick pony.
I often find it exhausting. There's no escaping talk of what's going on in this town - who's doing what (or who's doing who for that matter.) I know that there are plenty of people who love Los Angeles because of this - it doesn't bother them, it invigorates them. But sometimes, for me, it's just too much. Sometimes I don't want to hear about what's next for this one or who was at that one's dinner party. And I know I'm not alone when I say that I often feel like I'm constantly fighting to be seen and heard on my way up this ladder that at times I question whether I want to climb. I miss being able to walk out of my office into a sea of people that came from Smith Barney and The New York Times and Loreal and Conde Naste. I miss variety. And I don't mean the daily kind that winds up in my inbox every morning.
I live in a town where people create entertainment for others to escape from their normal, everyday lives. But when this is my normal, every day life, where does solace lie for me?
Posted byMeesh-elle my Belle at 2:21 PM
Labels: musings on life, the industry
It's amazing how similar that feeling is wherever you go. I am in Nashville and either you work for one of the trillion colleges or you work in country music. Anything else and everyone kind of thinks to themselves, " What exactly does she do here?"
Love your blog! Thanks for plugging ours (edubTV). It's nice to have friends in the blogosphere.
Later Gator,
EC
aw but how easily one can escape to the desert or mountains on four wheels and a tank of gas. this is the solice i seek on this coast that NYC never could easily afford me. I found myself drifting further and further away from Manhattan on weekends and then one weekend, I didn't go back.
word.
look-- even though i also can drive away, got to the beach, or just NOT attend "those" parties, etc-- if i want to-- it's still hard to always remember to do that, and then do it, because sometimes you're just tired.
and the funny thing is, you keep this hope alive that maybe this party won't be like that, and you go, and it's just LIKE THAT, and you shake your head like... why did i think this one would be different?
and then those times you go somewhere with no expectations, and you brace yourself with the typical that's just the way it is mentality and let's just roll with it and leave when it gets to be too much-- those times when it's not LIKE THAT-- you leave going-- WOW!?!? THAT WAS SO NICE!?!? how unexpected! and it makes you laugh in the saddest way, because it's such a lovely surprise, when you have a great night and conversation during a night out in LA.
and the flipside can be, that it happens even with your friends. whom you love and support, OF COURSE, but when you call them and ask how are you? they tell you how they are doing in terms of their projects. GREAT! because i had a meeting at this place, and they seem to like this thing-- and you can't help but notice it, just a little bit, but you don't judge your friend, because you know we all live here to do this biz, and that is the business of the bizness.
and blah blah.... i find listening to NPR on my way to work in the morning has been very helpful. just a heads-up. food for thought and seeds of conversation get planted in my brain before i start my day and are ripe for the picking should i need a source of inspiration in a very INDUSTRY type atmosphere.
love you spanole.