One of my favorite movies ever is Almost Famous. I rented it the other day and have watched it 3 times since. The first time I ever watched it was when it premiered in San Diego, where the movie is based out of. I was given passes by one of the guys who worked for the KGB, which is the local classic rock station that the director of the movie, Cameron Crowe, interned for back in the day. I was currently interning for a sister station, Channel 933 and I had just turned 21.
That movie used to make me think of me and the chicks and dudes that I hung out with and worked with at the time, which wasn't too long ago...
Working for a radio station is shitty. All work and no pay when you're an intern. And some of the people that work for Clear Channel are complete assholes. Some of them are wonderful people. And a lot more of them are just kissing the asses of those assholes to get to a higher position. You know who you are. Some of those people deserve to be on air, some of them don't. It's cool to know that one of the people you work for is close friends with Lenny Kravitz but it's not cool when she asses you out for not "working the board" or when her butt-kisser likes talking down to you with a highly patronizing "honey,...". Don't call me honey if you don't mean it. And it's REALLY uncool when the "boy toys" are allowed to rip their 933 shirts into wife beaters and the moment I turn my baby doll shirt into a tube top, I'm a bitch for ruining a company product??? As all the other interns noted, the butt-kisser (who will remain nameless and is no longer at the radio station and had the worst radio voice, HORRIBLE at impromptu fast talk, just plain BAD) was a fatty and was just jealous that I could pull off the tube top thing without my arms jiggling from side to side and my hips popping out of my jeans as if my butt were ready to explode!
But! Besides doing all that grunt work and working for a bunch of people who are trying to be something and get somewhere by kissing someone's ass, it was fun to work with most of the interns. We all had aspirations to work in the industry. We were good at talking to people and good at being weird in front of people and not really caring because we were interns. We had nothing to lose! We got to hang out with celebrities behind the scenes and at the meet and greets (don't be jealous now, I hung out with Hanson!!!). We got free stuff, went to concerts, worked the shows. Saw that Enrique Iglesias is a complete prima donna and Pink is SUCH a sweetheart.
I got to work with MTV when it came to town for the summer. Sat and ate at the same table that Tara Reid ate at (the days when she was engaged to Carson Daly (who, by the way, wears the brownest-ass jeans I've ever seen. Literally, the ass part was brown, as if he had taken a dump in his Diesel jeans)), had conversations with Ananda Lewis and Mandy Moore and ended being on national television. And whatever happened to BBMAK? I loved them so much. We met them in San Diego and had them sign my shorts. Watched them at what used to be known as The Palace and knew all the lyrics to all their songs.
And at the height of O-Town's success (don't be jealous now), we hung out with them at the hotel, had VIP passes to watch them and hung out with them at a mansion in Brea, California, as we discussed whether or not to jump in the pool. We had girls coming up to us in the hotel, knowing that we were with them and giving us things (like shoes and letters) to give to Ashley Angel and Trevor and Erik (Estrada, can you believe that?) and Dan Miller and that guy with the dreads. His name escapes me.
And after that, I went on to do more within the entertainment industry, working for Virgin Records, which was another grunt work internship. It was bigger, yes, and the freebies were bigger, yes, but the drama was OH-SO-SWELL within the walls I interned at in Beverly Hills 90210. Publicists crying, Yes! Crying!!! A&R reps not knowing what the hell to wear to the Grammys. Invitations being sent out the day of an event to people like Pamela Anderson... FREE CD'S! Phonecalls with Nikka Costa!! Photoshoots with B.R.M.C.!! Sending out presskits to national publications. Dude! I sent out a lot of Gorillaz press kits, Placebo press kits, At the Drive In (love for them pre-The Mars Volta) press kits and headshots galore!! Everyone from the Spice Girls to the Rollingstones to Blur to Emiliana Torrini to Janet Jackson. Having A Perfect Circle tell me what name they'll be under at the hotel (like Russell from Almost Famous says, "I'm under the name Harry Houdini"). Having VIP tickets to watch Nikka Costa play at The Roxy on Sunset Blvd.
You guys, it was a lot of fun. It was a fun couple of years while I was in college. I wasn't even close to being almost famous, but I did have someone ask for my autograph, which was weird because I was only an intern, not a butt-kisser.
I guess a part of me still wants to have something to do with the entertainment industry. There's just something so much more satisfying with working within the healthcare industry.
If only we could manage concerts at hospitals for ill patients. That would SO rock. I'd apply in a snap!
Anyway. The boy in Almost Famous is cute. I want to go rent Saved. That movie is hilarious.
Recent Comments