Icky Job

This isn't what I had in mind


I know, I know... I have been very lackadaisical about staying up to date on this. I've been so overextended in the past few weeks that I simply don't have the energy to write. I usually drop into bed at the end of the day and barely have the gumption to brush my teeth.

I finally got a job as Production Manager of five new HDTV shows that will be on satellite TV (not mainstream networks). We are producing all five at once, and to tell the truth, it's a nightmare. I am responsible for HD camera rentals, shipping the cameras all over the world, hiring camera crews all over the world, managing the purchase orders and budgets (including rentals, shipping costs and crew labor), maintaining the call sheets and schedules.... there is no Production Coordinator, nor a Production Accountant. And the pay is crap. But it beats fighting the unemployment people and it will help me stay solvent until I can find something permanent with benefits. Which will be soon, I hope. I really hope.

I went to a memorial for Francis (see August 11 entry). Most of his friends were musicians. In fact, his father was a trumpet player and his mom was a singer and they met while playing together in a big band. So we had a proper party with a bandstand and we all took turns going up and saying a few words and jamming our hearts out. If there is a heaven, Fran probably heard us up there. Godspeed, my friend.

Back to the job... I was hired on August 18, and by the fourth day I was already having to find a camera operator in Wales, plus ship a camera there at the very last possible moment so he could go shoot the event. It's been six weeks of nothing but panic-at-the-last-minute stuff. So far we've shot 15 different events in fifteen different places. In addition to Wales, we have shot in Bangkok, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hawaii, France, Ohio, Washington State, Alaska and Canada. They told me the job was until September 29th, but the Executive Producer has changed his story several times. He's also a screamer, and has a very limited memory to boot, so he's always yelling at someone. I have agreed to stay on until October 3rd, but I don't think I can take any more after that. If the shows get picked up, it will be for 53 episodes, and they just don't pay enough for me to stay. Working over 80 hours a week for $750? Sometimes I'm there until 2 or 3 am trying to get the cameras ready for shipping, and I am getting too old for that.

Can't I just get a normal studio job with benefits and a nice commissary for lunch?

I guess I should be grateful I'm working, but I have never worked this hard and gotten paid so poorly for my efforts.

Farewell to a Friend

Francis McDonald ~ Gone but never forgotten


Yesterday I got some terrible news. My husband and I were in Las Vegas for a flag football tournament that he was playing in. We had just gotten back to the hotel after dealing with the theft of his fanny pack from his gym bag. Apparently, someone made off with it while my husband's team was playing and I was taking team photos. They got his checkbook and his cell phone, not to mention his wallet, driver's license and several credit cards.

But that wasn't the terrible news. We got back to the hotel room, and I checked my email. I got a note saying that a very dear friend had passed away sometime Friday or Saturday. His neighbor had gone to check on him as he had been ill for several months, and found that he had died in his apartment alone.

Of all of the things that have been happening over the past few months, this is the most difficult to face. I knew he had been ill, but I really wasn't prepared for his death. He was a very gentle and wise soul, as well as one of the most gifted musicians I have ever had the honor of knowing. I had the wonderful experience of not only working with him in the recording studio, but also performing with him onstage. I can only thank God that I was able to share a few moments of my life with such a man, and I am a better person for having known him.

Godspeed, my friend. You will be missed and always remembered.

There is no Justice

It's always darkest just before it goes pitch black


The worst has happened.

They have destroyed me. The studio reps walked into the Unemployment Hearing on Tuesday morning and lied. Instead of bringing my former supervisor, they brought in that fat f*** IT manager, who sat under oath and lied to the judge about my computer habits. I was so stunned at the fact that he perjured himself so blatantly, that I was hardly able to respond to any of the judge's questions. He told the judge that I re-installed my Windows 2000 operating system in order to change the administrator password on the desktop and lock them out of their computer. I pointed out in the cross-examination that it would have been impossible unless I had the original administrator password, which I did not. I did not change the administrator password on the desktop. But they were counting on the chance that the judge would be just as computer-illiterate as most of the studio management personnel. They were right.

Besides, if I had the original administrator password so I could re-install Windows 2000 on their company PC, then why would I have had to go through all of that anyway? I could have just changed it without reinstalling anything. They LIED. THEY LIED.

Then they said the reason they had been going through the computer in the first place was to look for a letter that had been faxed to the corporate office. It was an anonymous letter from a client -- he had been concerned about the general attitude of the warehouse personnel (see link at the bottom of this page if you want to read the letter). He called me to see if I would be willing to pass it along to the appropriate management personnel, and when I said sure, I had him email it to my Yahoo email address. He wanted to remain anonymous, so I said not to send it to my work email address. I didn't ask why he wanted be remain anonymous -- I assumed he had his reasons and it wasn't any of my business.

I read the letter, considered his request and decided that he had a very valid concern that the upper management needed to hear, and faxed it to the corporate office without saving the document. His email stayed in a folder in my Yahoo account.

Well, they walked into the unemployment hearing and told the judge that I wrote the letter. They admitted that they couldn't find the document on my hard drive, but in the process of looking, they had found my "unauthorized" Zip drive (another lie -- they SUGGESTED that I get that. In fact, the last time my office was moved, they RE-HOOKED IT UP for me when they moved the computer to the new office) and all of the alleged "changes" I had made to the administrative permissions on the machine. They brought a copy of the letter as evidence.

I didn't write the letter. I think they were surprised when I admitted that I had faxed the letter to the corporate fax number, but I did NOT write it. But I think it was the thing that finally allowed that fat f*** to find a way to get rid of me. But I still cannot believe that he sat there and lied under oath. It was the final nail in my professional coffin.

The end result of all of this came on Thursday in the mail. I was notified that my Unemployment benefits have been revoked. The judge said I was "evasive" and he obviously believed their side of the story, probably because to do any investigating of the facts would have been too time consuming. Besides, he was quite obviously well-acquainted with the attorney rep they brought with them -- she stayed behind after our hearing because she was representing the next hearing with the same judge. Their dog & pony show, complete with a "timeline" document listing all of my alleged transgressions (written just for the occasion, I am sure) confused the judge enough about the computer issues that he bought their story and revoked the lousy $370 a week that was keeping me barely afloat. Now I have no income at all, and no replies to the hundreds of letters and resumes I send every week.

I don't know what I'm going to do.