orientation round 2

Last Friday was orientation day for the School of Cinematic Arts.  This was great because I finally got to meet all my classmates in person, along with a bunch of the second-year writers and various Important People to Know in the SCA administration.  Jack Epps, the chair of the writing division, is a talkative guy but seems to really care about his students and their artistic and professional development.  John Furia, the former chair (of whom I admit I was a bit dismissive at first since he looks like a crusty old man) offered some surprisingly prescient words of wisdom about writing that made me think, Wow, he totally gets it.

I was really curious about the people in my class, since I'd only met most of them online and some of them not at all.  Also, since I'd recently started paying attention to diversity (or lack thereof) in the industry, I was eager to see how the class broke down.  My first impressions:

Geographic diversity: excellent.  People are really from all over the place, including 3 or 4 international students.

Age diversity: excellent.  There are people who have just graduated undergrad and people who are married and have children in high school.

Gender diversity: better than expected.  Somewhere between 1/3-to-2/3rds and 40/60 female/male, in my estimation.  Not exactly in line with the US population, but still better than the industry as a whole.

Racial diversity: room for improvement.  The class is certainly not all white, but it is pretty damn white.  Although I think we're still doing better than production, if my small, non-scientific study of the four white dudes I met is any indication.

During introductions, we were asked to say our favorite movies and TV shows.  Buffy scored high (woohoo!) with at least three nods, and my pick of The Battle of Algiers as favorite movie was apparently worth some cool points.  People's tastes seemed really diverse, which should bode well for writing classes. 

After that there was a little game of around-the-world-style movie trivia, at which I'm proud to say we all failed pretty hard.  (In case anyone is wondering, the 1976 Best Picture was Rocky--although I thought Network was a pretty respectable guess.)

After a lunch break in which there was some amusing leaderless-pack-wandering around campus in search of food, most of us headed back for the two-hour safety seminar.  I would like to say that I now know a whole lot about using children, animals, weapons, and fire on set, but I mostly just know that there is a lot I need to know.  I did learn the following: (1) never leave your props for your terrorist-themed student film lying around where the LAPD can find them, and (2) never try to bring a pig into a Chamber of Commerce conference room.

The day wrapped up with another BBQ (they seem to like those at USC) which thankfully had better food than Monday's, and then we were all supposed to go meet some of the second year students at a bar in Silver Lake.  Unfortunately I had been lax about consuming my daily intake of 3 liters of water that day, which is apparent what I need to avoid developing a raging migraine by sunset.  By the time we made it to the party I was feeling a bit vomitous, so I didn't stay very long.  I did learn, however, that a cab from Silver Lake to my house costs about $25, and that LA cab drivers are just as insane as New York ones--possibly more so, since they get to drive faster.

bus route victory!

In an earlier post, I wrote about my love for the 550 bus, which goes right from the south side of campus to within three blocks of my house.

No more, bus 550. It's over between us.

After waiting no less that 45 minutes for you on Thursday, I decided that, to say the least, I needed to explore other options.

Since I had watched about ten DASH route F buses pass me by in my epic wait for the 550, I decided to try to find a route that put me on that line, since the DASH only costs a quarter and apparently runs much more frequently.

My house is northwest of campus. I had been planning my bus route based on going south along Western first, then east along Exposition. I decided to try the other way: east along Adams using the number 37 bus, then south along Figueroa, which is a major bus route with about five different lines on it.

Score! Bus number 37, you kick 550's ass! You stop one block from my house instead of three! During rush hour, you arrive every seven minutes! You can't get better service than that from LA public transit. Even during non-rush hour, you supposedly come every 12 minutes, as you're listed on LA Metro's "12 Minute Map." (I know your schedule says you sometimes come every 20 minutes. We'll see which is true.)

The best part is that the 37 stop at Adams & Figueroa is less than half a mile from campus--and the stretch of Figueroa north of campus is way less sketchy than the stretch of Exposition west of campus, which is grody, deserted and highwaylike. Which means that although I can pick up the DASH or any one of three or four other bus lines on that corner, I will probably end up walking to campus from there, at least during the day.

All in all, this new route cuts my door-to-door commute time to campus from up to an hour (no joke!) to around 20 minutes--about the same as walking. And I end up on the north side of campus, which is closer to my classes anyway. And my walk into campus takes me past Trojan Grounds, perfect for my morning coffee. Having a bike would probably still be faster, but since I don't currently know how to ride a bike, I'm pretty excited about this discovery.

As an added bonus, the corner of Adams & Figueroa sports this beautiful church (seen here with requisite strip mall sign in foreground.)

Update: The day after I wrote this, I waited 25 minutes for that mofo.  Now you're just fucking with me, LA Metro.

orientation round 1

On Monday I attended the USC university-wide graduate orientation.  The day started off with check-in, a pretty unappetizing lunch of shriveled hot dogs and fries, and a couple speeches about joining the Trojan Family, a phrase that made me laugh a little each time.  ("How do you get a Trojan family?"  "Buy an expired Trojan!" woh-woh)

Then it was off to a number of information sessions of varying usefulness.  I started out with "Exploring LA," which proved not to contain a lot of new information, other than the location of several malls, but was presented by an adorable gay guy who is the director of the campus LGBT center.  The complimentary Skittles (rainbow, get it?) were a cute touch.

The financial aid session was actually pretty useful, but the real fun was the campus tour.  Here are some things you may or may not know about USC:

- People at USC are kind of into football.  Just a little.

- According to some independent study or other, USC has the strongest alumni network in the world

- The USC marching band is the only college marching band to be featured on a platinum album

- There is a weird concrete statue on the main walkway through campus that looks like a hand giving the finger to Westwood, where a certain school with which USC has a teensy rivalry is located

- In front of the humanities building there is a stone column from the actual city of Troy, which was donated to USC by the Turkish government in the '50s.  I took a picture of it, but my camera cable is AWOL at the moment.

- Somewhere on campus there is a statue of a Bruin (the mascot of a certain school with which USC has a teensy rivalry) holding a football.  It was supposedly placed there by a vindictive architect.

- In an earlier post I mentioned how everything at USC is named after someone.  Well, apparently every building facing Queens' Courtyard is named after a woman, giving said courtyard its name

- While at first I thought having a pharmacy on campus was a random amenity, I swear to God, there is not another pharmacy in a one-mile radius of campus.

- Waving the victory sign and yelling "Fight on!" to fellow tour guides passing in a golf cart is not considered dorky in the least

- The following story may or may not be true.  In addition to several Lucas buildings in the film school, there is a Spielberg sound stage.  Steven Spielberg did not go to USC (supposedly he was rejected three times.)  Spielberg and Lucas were working on a movie together, which apparently Steve-O thought was going to bomb.  Lucas bet Spielberg that if the movie succeeded, Spielberg would donate a building to USC.  The movie, of course, was Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the rest is glorious sound stage.

Who knows what I'll learn at the Cinematic Arts orientation on Friday!

it's official!

I am in LA!

my new house!

Here is a picture of my new house!  It is great.  Here are the reasons it is awesome.

1. It is a house.  As in, two floors, three bedrooms, living room, dining room, den AND kitchen, bathroom approximately the size of my bedroom in NYC, front porch and yard.

2. It has a washer and dryer.  Oh, how long has this been my dream.  You know when I can do laundry now?  Whenever I want!  No more dragging my dirty clothes down three flights of stairs, up to the corner, down the block and across the street.  Sweet!

3. My roommates are awesome.  Andy is a third-year film production student at USC, and Yvette is a production designer and LA native who has lived in the neighborhood for 12 years.  They are both super laid back and awesome.  Did I say awesome enough times?  Yvette even drove me to the airport the day I met her!  How nice is that?

4. There are two cats.  An added bonus cause I will miss my bebes Leo and Miles, who are staying in New York.

5. It's close to campus.  Not exactly walking distance, but a short bus ride away, or an even shorter bike ride if I decide to get a bike and learn how to ride it.

6. My room is sweet.  Big, beautiful dark hardwood floors, little nook/walk-in closet, and mostly furnished courtesy of my awesome roommates.

7. Good writer karma.  Apparently the last like 5 people who lived in that room have been writers, so that seemed like a good sign.

I found this place after a day and a half of mostly fruitless hunting, so I was really excited.  Man, are there a lot of crappy places for rent around USC.  There was the place with the paintings of naked ladies in the living room, the place with no living room, no A/C, and a mattress that I didn't dare touch, and the place with the loud woman who was quite clearly a drug addict wandering up and down the street.  Needless to say, I am psyched to move in on the 17th!

LA and USC: first impressions

I visited LA in early July--not only my first trip to the city I'm going to call home for the next two years, but my first trip to my new state and time zone ever. Here are some of the things I learned in my whirlwind 36-hour tour.

1. LA is really big. Perhaps this fact should have been made obvious to me through my aforementioned NFT LA, but I really just didn't get it until I was on the ground there. Flying into LAX, the city seemed to stretch forever. It's also incredibly flat, and other than downtown, the buildings are pretty low, making it's landscape the opposite of New York in pretty much every way. "It's like someone took New York and spread it out with a butter knife," one of my friends said.  Maps are cruelly deceptive. A room for rent that's only five blocks from campus didn't seem very far away to me. Little did I know that every block is the length of a New York avenue block, so five blocks from campus can easily be a fifteen-minute walk. I had brought what I considered to be adequate walking shoes, but I still hobbled off the plane like an octegenarian at the end of the trip. This leads me to point #2.

2. No one walks in LA. Again, I had been told this before, but I really just didn't get it until I was there. When I told one landlord I had walked the mile from where I was staying (in campus housing--a great find with affordable nightly rates in the summer) he genuinely looked at me like I had two heads. In another incident, a broker drove me around to a bunch of (unfortunately crappy) places to rent near campus, then offered to drop me off back at the dorm. We were stopped at a red light literally across the street from my building; he would have had to make a left turn to get to the place so I offered to get out there. He apparently found this very odd. I was like, Dude, I'm just crossing the street. Weird.

3. Public transportation, not so great akshully... but not as terrible as I had imagined. I was prepared for this one, and I must say the situation was not nearly as dire as some people described to me. There are plenty of bus routes; the buses are generally clean and have functional A/C, the fare is reasonable and deeply discounted for students, the stops are clearly marked and the riders are not scary. Once you are on the bus, they're pretty fast. Carefully note the beginning of that sentence, however. Once you are on the bus.

I must say I have developed no love for the 38 line, which runs along the north side of campus, closer to where my classes will be. I waited for that shit forever--twice. Once I gave up and got back on a different bus to go a few blocks further south. The other time my feet were about to fall off, so I just sucked it up and waited 30 minutes for that sucker. This would not fly in New York.

The 550 is my new BFF, as it goes right from the edge of campus to within a couple short blocks of my house. But, it only runs once an hour after 8pm. I've become acquainted with the 204 and 757 as well. I'll probably end up taking a bus to the south end of campus, because the east-west routes seem more plentiful and frequent there, and I also have the option of the DASH--which, completely illogically, is a whole separate system which requires a separate fare.

4. USC: also really big. The campus is HUGE. It's got to be a mile across. I walked around for several hours one day, and the next day I was still like, "Holy shit, what part of campus is this??"

5. Everything at USC is named after someone. Not just every building--that's only the beginning. The walkways are named after someone. This bench is named after someone. Even the bookstore (which looks like the Ministry of Truth from 1984) is named after someone. The brick path leading up to the baseball stadium is Mark McGwire way. I'm surprised they haven't started naming the trees.

At the film school, there's Speilberg and Zemeckis buildings. George Lucas is financing a huge new pale yellow monstrosity that will probably be completed around the time I graduate. In the shadow of this new Death Star sits the current film school main building...also named after George Lucas.

I guess the upshot of this is that USC has tons of rich alumni, which I guess can only be good for me. But apparently it also has tons of alumni who want us all to know just exactly how rich they are, which is a bit like walking through a giant pissing contest every day. Which leads me to...

6. Tommy Trojan. Reeeeaaallly? Hi, I go to a school whose mascot is a contraceptive! Insert any number of a practically endless array of jokes here.

Not helping things at all is the giant statue of Tommy Trojan in the center of campus, holding an unsheathed sword at what I can only assume is an intentional height.

7. Luckily, Angelenos are really nice. Or, they are at least less aggressive than New Yorkers. This was probably the pleasantest thing I learned. Overall, I found people to be incredibly friendly. On all the buses I traveled on, not one homeless/crazy/obnoxious person harrassed me. The work-study student who checked me into my room was super nice and helpful, and let me keep my stuff there all day on Friday even though I had only paid for Thursday night.

I must share a little anecdote. On Friday morning, I waited half an hour for a landlord who didn't show up at a place near campus. One of the people who lived there let me in to see the room for rent. It was pretty skeezy and overpriced; I was sure I didn't want to rent it. I was only waiting for this dude out of pure courtesy because he had arranged to drive over to meet me. He must not be that good with appointments in general, because there was also a painter waiting with me who was supposed to meet this guy to give him an estimate. It's really hot out, I can feel myself getting sunburnt, and this guy is not showing up. I start making small talk with the painter about what I'm doing here, where I'm from, etc.  How the conversation got around to Jesus, I'm not quite sure, but he was like "You believe in Jesus?"  Oh, crap, I thought.  Here we go.  Pause.  "No, I don't," I said, bracing for the inevitable Jesus spiel.

"That's cool.  Everyone should believe what they want."

Wait, someone's talking to me and they don't have an agenda?  I don't think my little East Coast brain can handle it!

laura on the left coast irl!

Greetings dear readers!

I know I have not posted anything in quite some time, but that's because I have been quite busy with my non-virtual existence.  June and July brought my girlfriend's birthday, a pagan lesbian wedding, Pride, a trip to the Jersey shore, and my sister to stay with us for six weeks (thankfully along with her awesome cleaning and organizing skillz.)

I was also finally on the left coast!  In July I completed not one but two transcontinental trips: a whirlwind two-day tour of LA and a lovely weeklong vacay in San Francisco (where you can see me, above, standing in the Pacific Ocean--woohoo!)

So much has happened in the past six weeks: I finally visited USC, found a place to live (more on that later), am registering for classes, and have only one more week of work left!  Several of these events deserve their own blog post, so expect more soon!