Position Sought

Please do not call or fax, email us at the above address and tell us why we should hire you. 

This was the last sentence in a Craigslist ad for a position for a graphic artist not to far from here. So here is my cover letter to the marketing and advertising company on why they should hire me as a graphic artist.

1) I need the work. I have been unemployed since March '10. I have been surviving on a few temporary positions and luck. I will take any and all hours offered, overtime will be welcomed.

2) Experiance with print, web and signage graphics. I have been trained on Mac based Adobe programs Photoshop and Illustrator and Quark. I have worked with Indesign.  I am confidant that I can learn any needed skills in a short period of time.

3) Creativity is one of the few things I can boast about. Given an idea of what is needed and I will excel to give you a quality product .

4) I have worked in management, I consider myself to be a good employee. I do not waste time at the water cooler bitching about the boss or company that I work for. As long as my paycheck clears at the end of the week, I have no complaints.

5) Examples of my work can be found on this blog and my web site artbystyles.com.

RESUME

Objective

A graphics design position that allows me to utilize and improve my skills with challenging projects and is open to my creative solutions with minimal direction.

Qualifications

Cartoonist / writer – 2005 to Present
Creator of the comic "BiNGE", storyline and characters of the web based comic as well as all promotional and merchandise. Currently involved with the marketing of the comic as a television animation project.

Freelance Artist – painting / sculpture 2000 to Present
Artistic works previously displayed at: A Mano Gallery, New Hope, PA and Lambertville, NJ, Lavender Moon, Belmar, NJ, Divine Madness Gallery Asbury Park, NJ, 500 Main Street Gallery, Belmar NJ, Artistic works currently on display at:Greetingz from Asbury Park NJ.

Internet Graphics Artist
Designed and constructed artbystyles.com and Bedsoar.com. Logo design work completed for: Player-care.com, LearningChoices.com, WPDQ Radio; Howell, NJ, Automated Concepts Vending Services. Freelance graphic work for numerous internet web sites.

Newspaper Freelance
Weekly: The Reporter and The Observer 300+ works for Rockfleet Media

Employment

Background Actor New Orleans La
March 2010 to Present
Background extra work in numerous film and television productions

Street Performer New Orleans La
Juggler March 2010 to Present
Juggling and humor, French Quarter

Belmar Car Service Belmar NJ
Cab Driver August 2005 to 2010
Nightshift cab driver, twelve hour shifts, 5 to 6 nights a week.

Offshore International Point Pleasant NJ
Graphic Artist April 2005
Responsible for the design advertisements, and graphics for a sport fishing catalog.

Cat Fanciers Association Manasquan NJ
Graphic Artist August 2004 to February 2005
Responsible for the layout and design of over 300 advertisements and show cat yearbook pages. With creative license and minimal supervision completed assignment on time and on budget.

Garden State Sign Co. Howell, NJ
Sign Service Technician April 2001 to August 2004
Project managed the manufacture and installation of new signs. Factory trained for service of installed computer based signs such as time and temp and L.E.D. gas price signs. Assisted with the completion of computer designed corporate signs. Medium used: Neon, Vinyl lettering, gold leaf, router carved wood, and hand painted signs. Factory trained and certified technician for Milwaukee signs and Ever-Brite signs systems.

A&M Signs Farmingdale, NJ
Sign Service Technician October 2000 to March 2001
Assisted with the manufacture, installation, and service of signs.

TCT Transit Services Neptune NJ
Shift Supervisor June 1996 to October 2000
Started as shift bus driver, within eight months promoted to shift supervisor. Responsible for training, supplying, and scheduling 30 drivers.

The Leader Point Pleasant, NJ
Editorial Cartoonist 1990 to 1995
Weekly pen and ink editorial cartoon. Responsible for humorous word and picture interpretation of editor supplied topic. Also work done for The Observer, The Reporter, Toms River NJ

Education

DDP Training Center Freehold, NJ
Software Training
Macintosh OS 9.2, OS 10
Quark Xpress 5.1
Adobe Illustrator 10
Photoshop 7.0
Image Ready 7.0
Macromedia Fireworks 4
Dreamweaver 4
Microsoft PowerPoint


References are available upon request.

Negative Vibes

I don't know if it's just my corner of the world or if everyone is experiencing a real negative atmosphere lately. I am memorized by the constant feed of news that seems to out do it's self in a 24 hour cycle. Gruesome and cruel murders making the national news, a police state of molestation at the airport, rogue nations bitch slapping neighbors, national credit ratings far worse than my own and our President getting an elbow to the mouth while he's playing B-ball. 

 

I never gave much credence to the whole 2012 end of the world theory, at my age I have lived through a half a dozen end of the worlds. After a while you realize it's just writers selling books to gullible drama queens who want to build shelters in their backyards. I am beginning to wonder now a days. I half expect to wake up some morning to find huge space crafts hovering over every major city and announcing that the experiment is over. They must purge humanity from the petre dish we call Earth before it spreads and infects the rest of the universe like a oozing STD. 

I am almost looking forward to the end of the world, perhaps then those damn phone calls from the collection agencies will end. 

LSU Medical Center

About five or six weeks ago a medical condition made itself known to me. Over the course of one week, I grew a third butt cheek. I'll spare you the vile details, but I had a boil on my ass the size of a golf ball. Like all medical problems I chose to ignore it and deal with the excruciating pain. I haven't been to a doctor since '04 and I wasn't going to break that streak. The sitting sideways on one cheek for the month of August threw out my back, leaving me shaped like a question mark.

My roommates noticed my irritability and sleeping about 16 hours a day. Fearing blood poisoning and the red tape of a death in the house, I was dragged from bed yesterday. Out numbered, my infected and putrid ass was forced to go to the hospital for antibiotics. I applied for and received a Louisiana Medical Assistance card two months ago. At my age, internal organs can start to go like a squeaky water pump on an old car. It's best to ready if it does.  I despise medical treatment. Survival of the fittest I say.  The flu, infections, injuries, if you can't heal it yourself than perhaps you should just croak and leave resources for the healthy.

Bum rushed out of the door to the Emergency Room of LSU Medical center I had little time to compose. Being told I should expect to be there a while, I underestimated the warning. I rolled enough cigarettes for 5 or 6 hours, swigged enough coffee for two. My landlady kept trying to give me a bag with sodas and candy bars. No, I can handle a few hours without a Snickers. It can't be that bad, it's not like we have socialized medicine. Long, inhumane waits and suffering indignities of a third world medical system as found in Great Britain and Canada. I've gone through the old New Jersey DMV, Inspection stations and municipal courts, I know how to wait.

I entered the Emergency room about 10:00 am, I did not leave until 10:00 pm. Twelve hours in a waiting room. I thought 3 maybe 4, 5 hours tops. By 3 pm, I was out of nicotine and my caffeine level was dangerously low.  Prisoners from various correctional facilities were ushered in ahead of everyone else. Most everyone in the waiting room took the hours in stride. I guess for people used to waiting on rooftops for rescue helicopters, twelve hours is nothing. I vowed to myself that I would choose death over this experience ever again.

I finally got in to see a doctor about 7:30 pm. Terrific lady who had the misfortune of having to look at my ass. Luckily for her the cyst had broken almost a week ago, sparing her the gruesome task of draining it.  I started to believe it might have been my mutant twin brother who had been stuck in my ass from the moment of conception. After nearly 50 years he decided to make himself known. I mean this thing was big and ugly.

The staff was great, professional and pleasant. I was returned to the waiting room by 8 pm where I sat watching a Saint's game until my prescription came out at 10 pm. The only way I will ever return to the hospital is unconscious and unable to resist.

The TOP TEN REASONS why I prefer living in New Orleans instead of New Jersey

10 Free highways - You can travel from one end of the state to the other without having to throw a handful of change out the window every 20 miles.

9 Food - You can dine on food that doesn't contain tomatoes, garlic or pasta. Some of the best fried chicken I've eaten has come from a local gas station chain.

8 People - You can go up to a total stranger and say hello with out them responding "Wadda fuck do you want?"

7 Music - Every type of music you could want, played well. Not just Springsteen wannabes playing his covers.

6 Weather - Yea the summers are very hot, but they last 8 months instead of 3.

5 Cost of Living. - When I left Jersey I was paying $175 a week to share a house with 2 other guys. My rent down here is $75 a week. Can't pay it this week? Just mow the lawn and take out the trash and we'll call it even.

4 Public Drinking - You can walk anyplace in the city with an open container. If you step out of  bar to make a phone call, bring your drink with you. When I left Belmar NJ, summons were being issued for drinking a beer on your front porch in public view. Did I mention the bars down here are open 24 / 7?

3 Lenient Marijuana Laws - During a parade you could walk up with a joint in hand and ask a cop for a light.

2  Parades - Any excuse to celebrate life, to have a party and be with fun people. It's not done for corporate sponsors, it's tradition.

And the number one reason I prefer to live in New Orleans instead of New Jersey...

1 NO GUIDOES!

Dress Code Blue

I'm starting to dress like these people. I have one room mate who has adopted the NOLA dress code of pajamas and funky tees to work. He literally jumps out of bed and sprints to a curbside bus. He's the one who got me this "Jersey Shore Fist Pump Champ" shirt.  Others have introduced us to this garb.

One of my friends has a job at a CBD office building. He's a visual special effects artist on a ghost film. Some of his lawyer neighbors in the building have been pissy about some long haired guy wearing pajamas in the smoking area. While they stand outside in a suite and tie.

I bet at night they were asking themselves "Where can I get a job that allows me to go to work in pajamas?"

Don't always fear losing a job you don't like anyhow

 At this time last year, I was driving a cab at night on the Jersey Shore. Yea, like the TV show. I even have had those guys in my taxi. I drove three or four of the gombas from D-Jaise on Ocean Ave in Belmar NJ to the Headliner in Neptune. The one with the hair and ink gets in the front seat and the first words out of his mouth "J'ever ear uv a shoe culled da jerzey shor?"  I reply "Nope. I hope I never do."
Lousy tippers. 

Dealing with that crowd in mass, being beat out of fares. At two am having to clean puke up off of the backseat before I can use the car again to make money. Every silhouette that sat behind me could be holding a razor knife to my throat at any minute. Cops with hard-ons for cabbies because his ex banged one once.

NJ is the forth most expensive state to live in. Mostly due to corruption between the politicians, unions and the mob. Bureaucrats and contractors sucking the Jersey Girl's tits dry. The economy got so bad, people just weren't blowing money at the bars as much. The money dried up for us in the winter and every week I fell further behind. F Jersey, I'm moving to New Orleans, if I got to be poor, let it be someplace cheaper.

My complaint this morning at work was that the stunt people get bacon with breakfast and we don't.  Walking by all sorts of cool gizmos and craters. It's like getting caught in the middle of MYTHBUSTERS. F*ckin cool. Cars are rigged to blow up, much like Taxi cabs that do when in need maintenance.

The only thing I miss about New Jersey is my kid. I can't wait to bring her down here for a visit, let her know that life is better outside of the Garden State.

La Vie Boheme

By extension, Bohemia meant any place where one could live and work cheaply, and behave unconventionally; a community of free souls beyond the pale of respectable society.

Wikipedia

The tag line for my comic strip BiNGE is "An artist in search of a 21st century Bohemia" It never really dawned on me, but I guess that was what I was searching for. I tried the Ned Flanders life of Sunday school and white picket fences. It wasn't me. Not that there is anything wrong with that life style, I just can't live it. Suburban keeping up with the Jones. Spending money I don't have to buy things I don't need to impress people I don't like.

I've met a lot of people who claim to be non materialistic, claim to be simple spiritual beings. The same people are quick to boast about their new car, which when it's paid off won't be new any more and they will have to take out a loan for a newer car. New agey neo hippies who want the illusion of Bohemia in a chic four bedroom house in an expensive town with perfect landscaping. They'll talk about positive energy and karma, then talk about their best friend behind her back.

New Orleans is a city where it's people have learned from experience that all material things will end up in a landfill someday. Why run down to Home Depot for a new ceiling fan, here's one on Craigslist for $10. It's not new? That's ok, by the end of the summer we may not have a ceiling to hang it on anyway. Are you driving an 15 year old car? Let's paint it to look like Zebra.

Down here when you fill out a form that asks for occupation, you can fill in artist, actor, writer, musician or juggler and know one questions it. Back in Jersey, you would get a snide comment "What's your real job?" Well, at least it's not processing pointless paperwork.

Why did I leave NJ?

EXHIBIT A:
One of the reasons I left NJ was because I could not make ends meet. Do to a sluggish economy finding other work was not possible. I was driving taxi for BELMAR CAR SERVICE. After child support payments were taken out, I averaged $80 to $90 a week in take home pay. Tips might have been $75 a week when I left. Our regular alcoholics who used our service several times a week started to get tighter with the buck. Sure, no problem dropping $40 at the bar. When they were paying the fair I'd get a sob story about how tight money is. If anyone in NJ can explain to me how I could survive on less than $175 a week for 60 hours work, I'll come back. The latest word I have heard through the grapevine is that business is even slower. This summer probably won't be anything to boast of on the shore.

EXHIBIT B: The cost of living in New Jersey. I had left a one bedroom garden apartment in Neptune City NJ. that I was paying $1,100 a month for. $1,100 a month to listen to neighbors play loud music and deal crack. I moved to the cheapest I could find. When I left the Garden State, I was trying to pay $700 a month to share a house with two others. That's a total of $2,100 a month for a three bedroom house. Winter rental, meaning when the summer came, the landlord intended to boot us out so he could try to rent it for about $10,000 a month in the summer. To top it off, the landlord would daily let himself in unannounced to use the bathroom and turn the thermostat down to his preference. Last fall he told one of us that a drinking buddy of the his would be in from out of town for a few days and would be crashing on our couch.

I mentioned the above to my current landlord and he was appalled and dumbfounded that anyone would pay that kind of money to rent a house, let alone put up with boorish landlord. I didn't even tell how the one roomate would come home at closing time and try to cook. A few nights I was woken up at 3 AM by smoke alarms. One morning when I came home the house was filled with gas from him not turning off the stove properly. A tiny spark would've launched the dwelling into the stratosphere. Here in New Orleans I am paying $75 a week for a room in a decent area without the bullshit.

An open letter to The New Jersey Unemployment Insurance Bureaucrats

You had denied my initial claim for unemployment. Your agency took the stand of my quitting of employment for personal reasons. My counter claim was based on the fact of economic realities, I could no longer afford to live in your over priced, over taxed and over rated state of New Jersey. The cost of living is less in New Orleans, La. If I have to be poor, let it be some place cheaper to live.

I was given a time and a date for a "hearing call" from your people. Renowned for being chop busting bureaucrats who make tax payers jump through hoops to get what they are owed. I was unable to take your call. Why? My telephone service has been disconnected. Why? Because you stingy pencil pushers refuse to give me some of what I have been paying into for the past 26 years of my life. Do you see the catch 22 here? I couldn't accept your call for an unemployment hearing because my phone was shut off. It was shut off because you refuse to give me money.



I'm not asking for a loan here, I am demanding back what I had entrusted in you (The State of New Jersey) to give back to me in case of unemployment. I am now unemployed, may I have back some of the money you took out of my paycheck each and every week? Now you expect me to grovel when my phone rings at your convenience? No. I have been unemployed now for over two months, been hungry and had to live in a Ford Escort on occasion because YOU DECIDE on whether or not I should get back my own money?

After paying into your system for 26 years, I make my first claim and you deny me? Don't think I can't make a stink for you from down here in New Orleans. I am unemployed, I have plenty of time to write to every known outlet to vent my frustrations. I will make my former state look like the bureaucratic mismanaged and corrupt system that it is.

If nothing else, use MY unemployment money toward my child support obligations.

Moon over Bourbon Street

The other day my landlord asked, "I know you have been looking for work, but have you applied anywhere besides strip clubs?" Well, yea, a few. My only call back so far has been from one of Larry Flynt's places on Bourbon Street. When I did show up to the interview appointment ten minutes early, the manager came out and asked for this other guy who was there. I explained that the other manager had set me up with an interview at that time, she said she would call me back again. A chubby sweaty guy with a stupid grin got the interview.I have networked on Bourbon Street with a couple of barkers who have given me some pointers. Barkers stand in front of the clubs yelling to pedestrians about what a great time they'll miss if they don't come in. Clint, who barks during the day told me don't give up. Be so constant in asking for work that they give me a job to shut me up. Another dude I met while juggling on Royal street where he sells Ice Cream during the day and barks at a sex club at night. Barking at the moon over Bourbon Street, ain't New Orleans a cool town?Why do I feel the need to work at one? It's not as superficial as it seems. I have driven cab at night on the Jersey shore for the past five years. Most jobs seem boring and tame in comparison. I have been dealing with every kind of hard core alcoholic, crack head, meth head, juice head and Guido at night that you could imagine. I listened on the dispatch radio as a fellow driver and buddy screamed he had been cut during a robbery. I have watch cops beat up drunks on the hood of my cab. I've seen naked women make out in the back seat. Am I suppose to work at Walmart now? I will take a job anywhere at this point. Nothing would please the ex wife more than to hear about me working in a 120 degree kitchen washing dishes for minimum wage. However, if she she found out I was working a strip club on Bourbon it would most likely ruin her day. Ruin the day of a born again Christian, I think Larry himself would smile at that.

NOTE: My landlord read this blog and said "Oh, you're trying to find work at a titty bar to piss off your ex wife? Best of luck, I support your career efforts 100% then."

It ain't dead

You may remember me writing about my Ford Escort's transmission crapping out while driving it during a Killing Karma shoot. The transmission shop gave me an estimate of $1,200 to $1,800 to repair it. The blue book on my 1995 Escort is $900. It's been a great car and only has about 96,000 miles.
I was listing it on line for a parts car, it broke my heart. My housemate suggested that I place an ad on Craigslist for barter. I wasn't enthusiastic about it, I haven't heard too many success stories with CL. What the hell, every idea is a lottery ticket. Two hours later I got a call from some one looking for a web site for their start up business. He seems to be very competent mechanically and honest. I can't give you many details on his project yet. I will debut the finished project when it is time.

It involves bikers and Bourbon Street, sounds like a winner to me.

Combing Karma

Despite a little bit of a rough start of the day concerning my report time at the set, I had a great day working as a background extra on "Killing Karma." It was my first time having to go through make up. The artist earned her pay. When I left Jersey two months ago I was due for a hair cut. My solution has been glopping a handful of gel in it and slicking it back like Johny Bagodoughnuts. Yesterday I was to play a clean cut government office worker. The make up artist started by trimming my graying goatee.


Once she got the scissors out and started to trim my hair here and there, I suddenly felt like a million dollars. Free hair cut and lunch? Damn, this is better than the homeless shelter. I enthusiastically told her "Knock yourself out, cut as much as you want." She replied, "Not too much, tomorrow they may want you to play someone ratty and dirty, like a cab driver." I looked into the mirror with a smirk thinking "Yea, I could play a cab driver." The make up artist dragged a comb through the knotted gelled blanket covering my bald spot.

Extra work is not for the claustrophobic.

Most of the background extras look forward to "camera time." I'm here for the $80 and the free food. Being on screen is cool, I can't wait for my daughter Laura to see the film. Yesterday, I believe I was lined up for a shot so she can point and yell "THERE'S DAD!" I was pushing a mail cart through an office tossing envelopes onto desks. A steady-cam was following me then it roamed to the other office workers. The assistant director setting up the scene wanted energy and kept telling everyone to go faster. On the third take my mail cart clipped the corner of a cubicle causing laughter and a restart.

It was fun.

Hello, Mr. Styles?

At 7:00 this morning a credit card company called me to see if I found work yet. While trying to tell the cubical bound harpie to try back later so I could return to sleep she suddenly turned nasty. "Well, you did sign a contract, you do know what a contract is don't you?" Ok, bitch. "The contract that I SIGNED seven years ago was for 4.9% interest, NOT 32.9% interest." That little comment you just made moved your company down to the very bottom of my 'People to pay' list.

I love how they try to threaten me with a poor credit score. It's like the assistant principle back in High School threatening me with "This will go on your permanent record." In the past thirty years since High School not once has that record ever come back to haunt me. In fact, looking back I wish I had raised more hell in school. Don't give me any more credit, keep it. I've had to sleep in my car and have gone days without coffee, smokes or food. Do you think I really give a rat's ass about little things like credit ratings?

I've never seen a credit score on a tombstone.

Really cool people

I'm humbled when I meet a Katrina survivor. Every one is worthy of a TV series. One room mate tells upon returning he and a friend went to Home Depot and bought the last two chainsaws and managed to turn it into a business. The roomy said he had never even used a chainsaw before. In a short time he and his partner had turned it into a successful landscaping enterprise. Never had worked with sod before, they undertook repairing storm damaged lawns back to pre-Katrina conditions.

Seeing a shortage of places to eat, he and his partner then started up a sandwich shop catering to the returning workers into the city. One person I met spoke of eating M.R.E.'s (Meals ready to eat)for weeks. Waffle told of Red Cross wagons and Taco vendors being the only source of food in this city known for fine dining. The ones I have met have a great attitude seldom heard back in Jersey. "It's just stuff, it don't mean a thing." A live for today, don't waste your energy on collecting expensive stuff that can be gone tomorrow attitude.

Conversely Nola still has a very high suicide rate.

CARma problems

I got called in again tonight to work background on 'Killing Karma' again. They wanted my Ford Escort, don't ask why, I guess they dig it. Tripple H plays 'AJ' in the film. He drives around in this funky old blue Ford station wagon with fake wood on the side. A guy his size can get away with it.



At the end of the night I had to run a couple of times down the road after a cop car takes off. During the second take my tranny started slipping. After the final take, all I had to push the car off of the road and onto the shoulder. I'm hoping it's just a fluid line that I can repair with my limited mechanical skills.

Crude Realities

Last night I stepped out for a smoke at about two AM. I could smell the odor of crude oil in the air wafting in from the Gulf. To make things worse, the past few days have been above average tides and rough surf. Oil booms have been useless due to the 3 to 4 foot swells. People down here are angry. Angry at BP Oil for being careless and downplaying the initial scale of the crude oil leak. Residents are pissed at the Government for not watching over the oil companies like was promised when off shore drilling was passed through. Rage over the lack of plan B.


Louisiana WAS one of the strongest economies in the U.S. a few days ago. Now not only are they looking at an ecological crisis, but an economic disaster. Seafood and tourism are the staple crops of this state, now both are in certain jeopardy. Many believe this will be the worst ecological catastrophe in world history. Unlike the Exxon Valdez which had only a limited amount of crude oil on board the ship, this will be non stop for possibly months to come. Meantime there are pods of whales caught in this mess. Ironically the state bird of the pelican was just taken off of the endangered species list. Next month it may be back on it.

Give me your money...

If there is one thing I learned from watching Haliburton is: Where there is tragedy and hardships, there is money to be made. Looking for employment, tonight I'm Emailing out my resume to every environmental clean up agency in the state. The oil is moving in tonight. Like an oily storm hours from landfall. I need a job, and right now I have all of the ethics of Dick Cheney. Give me a Tyvek suite and some paper towels to wipe your ducks off. At least I'm honest about my intentions. I could be like the "green People" who raise a self righteous hell to receive millions from the Feds, only to line their own pockets. At least I'm promising to do real work for the money. Environmentalists only pollute with more hot air when they get money.

What are my qualifications to clean up crude oil on the beach? Do I have a HAZMAT certification? No, but I drove taxi at night and had to clean puke out of my cab on more than one occasion. Crude oil will be a walk on the beach.

I mentioned my idea to my landlord, he laughed. "You forget, this is Louisiana." They got hung out during a natural disaster, do you thing a Yankee is going to give a rat's ass about a man made ecological disaster? He pointed out that the marshes are New Orlean's BEST natural barrier to the Gulf during storms. Severe pollution from crude oil will destroy the vegetation, then the little bit of land that protects will erode.



My idea was brilliant if this had been NJ. Enough money controls politician from wealthy beach home owners, billions would've been thrown at NJ. Trillions in bail out went to Wall St, let's see how much is spent to bail out Bourbon St.

Rollin on the river

Left a good job in the city,
Workin' for The Man every night and day,
And I never lost one minute of sleepin',
Worryin' 'bout the way things might have been.

I got a few hours work tonight. Good money. Roadie / stage breakdown for a corporate seminar at the Zsa Zsa Room in the Marriot. Projection screen and sound system. Wore black. Found it on Craigslist, one night gig. I called Lance and Jody on the commute home. They were stoned and busted my balls. Yet, they were a proud mom and dad.


Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis,
Pumped a lot of 'tane down in New Orleans,
But I never saw the good side of the city,
'Til I hitched a ride on a river boat queen.


I am re-tooling my resume. (hu-hu-hu, he said tool) I'm gearing a different one to different job markets. The person who hired me tonight didn't care if I cartooned, they wanted to know if I could roadie. So, I came up with a 'theatrical' resume.


If you come down to the river,
Bet you gonna find some people who live.
You don't have to worry though you have no money,
People on the river are happy to give.


I again raved about how cool it is taking the ferry to work. Today on my commute I passed a paddle wheeler. You guys up north can keep the Jersey Turnpike.

NEW RESUME

How'd the interview go?

Well I was there 15 minutes early, waited for the manager I was to interview with came out. When she did she asked "Are you so-&-so?" "Uh, no. I'm Eric." "oh. I have an interview with so-&-so" A chubby guy with a stupid grin walked forward. I explained that one of her fellow managers had set up this time with me to meet with her. "I'll have to call you back in another time...."
I'll keep trying to get a job at Larry Flynt's Barely Legal Hustler Club. It wouldn't be the first time I thought I had an appointment with a dancer and another guy was already there.

Exploding Karma

Today I worked as an extra on the film "KILLING KARMA." Literally being shot down the road from me in Algiers Point. It stars some guy who wrestles, Tripple H. I was thrilled to see on the set Bruce Dern. How cool is that, he worked with John Wayne. Very gray, somewhat frail looking, but he still has that unnerving smile.

Best day of work I've had in years. When I drove off of the set I felt like I was leaving an amusement park and wanted to stay. I had several background scenes, walking past a police car with the actors talking in it, sitting at a cafe when they drove by. BUT, the best was when I got to be one of three extras sitting at tables outside of a bar. The bar across the street explodes and we got to re-act and run. There wasn't any fire ball, that will get added later with CGI. The explosion was caused by compressed air cannons shooting pressurized debris out sugar glass windows.


Balsa wood, cork and fake glass EXPLODED about 50-60 feet in all directions as a pick up truck skidded to a stop in front. It wasn't hard to react to hundreds of pounds of compressed air spraying harmless chunks of matter at you. Afterwards one of my fellow extras, very cool guy named John said that I was lucky to have gotten picked for that scene. It'll probably be in the trailers. I replied in a giddy manner that I felt a little like Bruce Willis as I picked bits of set out of my thinning hair.

All day long all I thought about was someday watching the DVD with my daughter Laura. Yea, maybe she'll think it's cool.