GG-palooza and grad school interviews (strangest vacation combination ever!)
Okay. Let's attempt to do a recap of the past week and a half. I've got the afternoon, the forums are relatively slow, and hopefully I can finish this (as long as I go chronologically, so I don't forget anything!) by the time I leave work at 4:30. Let's see how it goes. Hee.
Saturday: It's warm here!
Saturday. I'd spent Friday night at Esther and Justin's place, because I had to get up way early to catch my flight--we left for the airport at around 4:30, and when I got there at 4:45, the lineups to check in were already long. As in, week-before-Christmas long. New-restrictions-in-place long. I guess people were just wanting to catch the earliest flight out on a Saturday morning. In any case, it took me about an hour and a half minutes to get through check-in, customs, and security, but my flight didn't leave until 7, so I still had time to grab a coffee before getting on the plane.
We sat on the runway for an hour while they de-iced the wings, but I couldn't really tell you anything about the flight, since I dozed for most of it, having only gotten about 2 1/2 hours of sleep the night before. It was uneventful, in any case. I got into LAX around 9:30, got my luggage, and found the rental company with virtually no problem, got my car (a 2007 white PT Cruiser), and found the hostel easily.
Saturday afternoon, I drove around looking for the Coast Anabelle, where everyone else was staying, took the long way to get there, and then hung out with fndchairman for a while, until I was just too tired, and I figured that going to bed relatively early would be the best way to get a good start on the week.
Sunday: Meeting the TWoPpers!
Sunday. Lazy morning around the hostel, lazy afternoon at Target and Starbucks, sitting outside on the Starbucks patio, doing some scriptwork and reading a book in the sunshine. That? Amazing. That's the kind of weather I can definitely handle in February. Heh.
Anyway, sometime in the mid-afternoon, I headed up to the hotel, where I met SPA and her niece, River Run, and aggieshan08, and we went to a Superbowl party at River's cousin's house. That was cool, because it was a good chance to talk a bit and get to know them. I don't follow the NFL at all, so the game was... eh, whatever, but the food was great, and I always like to go to someone's home when I'm on vacation. It makes it all seem less... sterile, I guess. I mean, hotels are great, but it's always nice to be in someone's house, even if it's just for a few hours.
After that, we went to the Santa Monica Pier, where Sarah (SPA's niece) and aggie won Curious Georges, and the rest of us (okay, SPA and I) frantically phoned people saying, "I'm in California! It's warm and not snowing right now!!" Hee.
Monday: GG-Palooza, day one
Monday. Again, it was a kind of relaxed morning. I had some work to do, so I took my script with me and got some of that done, and I did a little bit of shopping, too, although I tried really hard not to spend much money this trip (and did not too badly on that, either).
Monday afternoon, we all met up for the first tour, which included... oh, geez. I don't know if I'm going to get everyone! pink_hammer, jewelsverne, fndchairman, SPA, SassyPaws, lulu1960, Angel312, Vicious Vaness, Tilly and I (and one poor woman who wasn't a part of our group at all!) took the 2 1/2 hour tour, which was very cool, especially since it was the only one I had a chance to go on. We didn't do as much GG time as they got on the long tour on Tuesday, but we did see the Yale sets (which weren't set for any particular room at that time) and Logan's new apartment, and also Stars Hollow. I took pictures outside, although we weren't allowed in any of the buildings at that point, but I don't have any of them on this computer, so I'll post a separate picture entry later.
We didn't really see anyone famous on that tour, but it was still very cool to see the sets themselves, and also to see the museum. The GG section was kind of small (two outfits--one each for Rory and Lorelai), but there was some good VM stuff there, including the ashtray from season 1, one of the newspapers (with a byline for spectralbovine, although I don't remember which paper it was or which headline was on the front page), Wallace's letters from his father, Driver Ed's medallion, Baby Lilly's package of diapers, Meg's letter to her aunt, and some other props, as well as costumes for Lilly (the bloody pep squad uniform), Veronica (the green jacket and striped shirt), Logan, Duncan, Keith, and Aaron.
After that, we headed back to the hotel for aggieshan08's 21st birthday dinner, which was in the hotel restaurant, and ended up being at around 9:00 or so. It was fun, although it was very interesting (the whole trip, but I realized it at the dinner first) to be the only Rory-centric viewer of the show there. That's definitely not a popular stance these days, it seems, especially around TWoP, and I've known that for a long time, but it was a rather bizarre experience to be the only one of 15 or so people, all of whom were sitting around in the same room. It's different than on the forums--not bad, and I didn't feel like I was being belittled or anything like that (not at all!!), but it was just strange.
Tuesday: CalArts Interview, day one
Anyway, that was Monday, and on Tuesday, I finally went out to CalArts and started the interview portion of the trip. Tuesday morning, I got there around 10 and met up with Carol, the Producing head, and she took me around the school, showed me some of their spaces, and then we had the most formal "interview" that the whole thing entailed. Mostly, that conversation involved a bit more of an in-depth explanation of the school and program, although I'd spoken to her on the phone and we'd emailed quite a bit about it all, but was nice to put a face to the name and a location to the description of the school.
After a while, I sat in on part of a Transforming Text class, which isn't a specifically producing class, but... actually, there weren't any producing students in it this time. There were puppetry and directing students, but no producers. Anyway, it was an interesting half-class, and then after lunch, I went to a Production Management class, and tried to go to a dramaturgy class, but it must have been canceled or ended early or something, because the room was empty when I got there.
That gave me a little bit more time to talk to Dave and Ian, the other two students, though, and I asked them all kinds of questions, from the unbelievably inane to the somewhat deep, but for the most part, I was just trying to take everything in, and it was all kind of overwhelming. There were a lot of people to meet all in one shot, and a lot of information to be taking in, while still worrying about making a good impression.
The last thing I sat in on was a production meeting for one of the shows going on, which brought together the whole production team working on the show--mostly MFA students in all the different design disciplines, production management, producing, stage management, directing, etc, and the profs all sat around the edge of the room. There were about 6 of these meetings back-to-back, since there are at least that many shows in various stages of production at any given time, but I just hung around for the first one, and then I headed back to Burbank for the GG viewing of the night!
Tuesday: GG-Palooza, day two
When I got back to the hotel at around 7:30, the food had been ordered, flannel had been donned, and everyone was just hanging around SPA's hotel room, waiting for the show to start. Now, I think I enjoyed the episode more than most of the other viewers did. Again, see: Rory-centric viewer, and not as concerned with Chris' last gracing of the GG screen. Of course I wanted to see that, but the fact that he wasn't completely kicked off the show at that point wasn't such a big deal to me. I also like Logan a lot better than most of the rest seem to, so the fact that it was his first episode back after hiatus was great, too.
Anyway, it was fun. There was much singing along with the theme song, as well as way too much food, lots of discussion, and many, many pictures of Luke scattered around the room.
Wednesday: GG-palooza, day three
Wednesday, I spent the morning in a Starbucks, working on some scriptwork and other stuff that I needed to get done. And, actually, one of the nice things about the way the trip worked out was the fact that I could spend a fair bit of time on my own. I spent some of that just driving around L.A. and seeing the area (and driving wasn't nearly as scary as everyone said it would be), and I had some time to just hang out and enjoy the nice weather.
In the afternoon, I met up with fndchairman, pink_hammer, jewelsverne, lulu1960, Looney6, and Teekie, and we waited in line for the Ellen taping. We ended up sitting about two rows from the back, in the middle section, and there are about two points when the cameras panned the crowd where you can see us. There's one good shot of the seven of us sitting in a row, and then another really quick shot (why, yes, my dad spend a good hour and a half panning the crowd in slo-mo, trying to see us). And, of course, the highlight was that jewels12 got to dance with Ellen, and we were all cool by association. Although pink_hammer and I did spend most of the dance segments laughing at ourselves at how utterly bad dancers we are!
Wednesday: CalArts interview, day two
After Ellen, we went back to the hotel to hear SassyPaws regale us with stories of her lunch with Scott Patterson, but I had to leave before all the stories were finished, since I had to get back out to CalArts for a rehearsal. I sat in on their rehearsal of Silver Circus, one of the student shows that was in the later stages of rehearsal. Ian was producing that show, so I kind of tagged along with him for a while, and I watched the rehearsal itself for a while.
It looks like a really interesting show--it was written by by one of the MFA Playwriting students, and one of the most interesting things about it is that the entire theatre is basically the set, and the audience is seated throughout the set--either on 5-gallon pails on the stage area, in balconies on a second level of sets, or in three gutted cars on one end of the set. Very interesting--and, they tell me, in some ways quite indicitive of CalArts' philosophy of art. There are definitely the shows that are more traditional, but there are also shows that are very out-there and do strange things like seat the audience in a car with no engine.
(Which, incidentally, Ian was telling me was one of the most interesting parts of producing that show--there were all kinds of things to deal with in terms of fire code, with the audience seated that way, as well as the actual logistics of ticketing and seating people in that format.)
Thursday: CalArts interview, day three
Thursday, I was back at the school again (the Gilmore Girls portion of the trip ended with the Ellen taping and Sassy's stories, sadly). This time, I sat in on a Film Production and Management class and a Producing Seminar with the MFA2s. In between, though, I got to meet several of the MFA1 students, and whoever else happened to be hanging out in the Management office (SMs, PMs, and TDs, mostly).
I had another short conversation with Carol, just wrapping up the week, but really, the whole thing was fairly un-interview-like. There was the initial hour and a bit that we talked, but most of it was just looking around, and I interacted more with Ian and Dave than I did with her--and I'd assume that their assessment of me would be taken into consideration on some level. I don't know how much, but since they did spend a lot of time with me, I'd guess that it would be part of the whole package--including my transcripts, application package, writing samples, etc.
I think that the fact that it wasn't just an interview helped in my mindset, too. Yes, I was well aware that I was on the spot, but I was also relaxed, having come off of some vacation time and having been down there for a few days before that, just hanging out and being with friends. That absolutely made a difference in my stress level, so hopefully that impacted things positively.
Thursday: Going home
And that was that. I left the school earlier than I'd anticipated, so I missed the heaviest of the rush-hour traffic heading to the airport, which meant that I got there insanely early. There were no lineups, either (of course--when I've got tons of time, I just sail through check-in and security), so I spent a couple of hours sitting in the Burger King in the terminal (which was one of the smaller terminals, so there wasn't a lot there, in terms of places to eat), watching Joan of Arcadia on my laptop.
The flight back was uneventful, and it was quite empty, so I had an entire row to spread my script out over (and I was inspired for some set ideas on the way back), and... that was that. I came back to 8 inches of snow piled on my car, a moving day that was less than 36 hours from when my plane landed, another few days hanging out with pink_hammer (and a day with Murphy987!), and a week of -20 degree weather before the cold snap broke.
And pictures are forthcoming. They're still on my camera, and since my computer is dead, I'll upload them when I get a chance.
Saturday: It's warm here!
Saturday. I'd spent Friday night at Esther and Justin's place, because I had to get up way early to catch my flight--we left for the airport at around 4:30, and when I got there at 4:45, the lineups to check in were already long. As in, week-before-Christmas long. New-restrictions-in-place long. I guess people were just wanting to catch the earliest flight out on a Saturday morning. In any case, it took me about an hour and a half minutes to get through check-in, customs, and security, but my flight didn't leave until 7, so I still had time to grab a coffee before getting on the plane.
We sat on the runway for an hour while they de-iced the wings, but I couldn't really tell you anything about the flight, since I dozed for most of it, having only gotten about 2 1/2 hours of sleep the night before. It was uneventful, in any case. I got into LAX around 9:30, got my luggage, and found the rental company with virtually no problem, got my car (a 2007 white PT Cruiser), and found the hostel easily.
Saturday afternoon, I drove around looking for the Coast Anabelle, where everyone else was staying, took the long way to get there, and then hung out with fndchairman for a while, until I was just too tired, and I figured that going to bed relatively early would be the best way to get a good start on the week.
Sunday: Meeting the TWoPpers!
Sunday. Lazy morning around the hostel, lazy afternoon at Target and Starbucks, sitting outside on the Starbucks patio, doing some scriptwork and reading a book in the sunshine. That? Amazing. That's the kind of weather I can definitely handle in February. Heh.
Anyway, sometime in the mid-afternoon, I headed up to the hotel, where I met SPA and her niece, River Run, and aggieshan08, and we went to a Superbowl party at River's cousin's house. That was cool, because it was a good chance to talk a bit and get to know them. I don't follow the NFL at all, so the game was... eh, whatever, but the food was great, and I always like to go to someone's home when I'm on vacation. It makes it all seem less... sterile, I guess. I mean, hotels are great, but it's always nice to be in someone's house, even if it's just for a few hours.
After that, we went to the Santa Monica Pier, where Sarah (SPA's niece) and aggie won Curious Georges, and the rest of us (okay, SPA and I) frantically phoned people saying, "I'm in California! It's warm and not snowing right now!!" Hee.
Monday: GG-Palooza, day one
Monday. Again, it was a kind of relaxed morning. I had some work to do, so I took my script with me and got some of that done, and I did a little bit of shopping, too, although I tried really hard not to spend much money this trip (and did not too badly on that, either).
Monday afternoon, we all met up for the first tour, which included... oh, geez. I don't know if I'm going to get everyone! pink_hammer, jewelsverne, fndchairman, SPA, SassyPaws, lulu1960, Angel312, Vicious Vaness, Tilly and I (and one poor woman who wasn't a part of our group at all!) took the 2 1/2 hour tour, which was very cool, especially since it was the only one I had a chance to go on. We didn't do as much GG time as they got on the long tour on Tuesday, but we did see the Yale sets (which weren't set for any particular room at that time) and Logan's new apartment, and also Stars Hollow. I took pictures outside, although we weren't allowed in any of the buildings at that point, but I don't have any of them on this computer, so I'll post a separate picture entry later.
We didn't really see anyone famous on that tour, but it was still very cool to see the sets themselves, and also to see the museum. The GG section was kind of small (two outfits--one each for Rory and Lorelai), but there was some good VM stuff there, including the ashtray from season 1, one of the newspapers (with a byline for spectralbovine, although I don't remember which paper it was or which headline was on the front page), Wallace's letters from his father, Driver Ed's medallion, Baby Lilly's package of diapers, Meg's letter to her aunt, and some other props, as well as costumes for Lilly (the bloody pep squad uniform), Veronica (the green jacket and striped shirt), Logan, Duncan, Keith, and Aaron.
After that, we headed back to the hotel for aggieshan08's 21st birthday dinner, which was in the hotel restaurant, and ended up being at around 9:00 or so. It was fun, although it was very interesting (the whole trip, but I realized it at the dinner first) to be the only Rory-centric viewer of the show there. That's definitely not a popular stance these days, it seems, especially around TWoP, and I've known that for a long time, but it was a rather bizarre experience to be the only one of 15 or so people, all of whom were sitting around in the same room. It's different than on the forums--not bad, and I didn't feel like I was being belittled or anything like that (not at all!!), but it was just strange.
Tuesday: CalArts Interview, day one
Anyway, that was Monday, and on Tuesday, I finally went out to CalArts and started the interview portion of the trip. Tuesday morning, I got there around 10 and met up with Carol, the Producing head, and she took me around the school, showed me some of their spaces, and then we had the most formal "interview" that the whole thing entailed. Mostly, that conversation involved a bit more of an in-depth explanation of the school and program, although I'd spoken to her on the phone and we'd emailed quite a bit about it all, but was nice to put a face to the name and a location to the description of the school.
After a while, I sat in on part of a Transforming Text class, which isn't a specifically producing class, but... actually, there weren't any producing students in it this time. There were puppetry and directing students, but no producers. Anyway, it was an interesting half-class, and then after lunch, I went to a Production Management class, and tried to go to a dramaturgy class, but it must have been canceled or ended early or something, because the room was empty when I got there.
That gave me a little bit more time to talk to Dave and Ian, the other two students, though, and I asked them all kinds of questions, from the unbelievably inane to the somewhat deep, but for the most part, I was just trying to take everything in, and it was all kind of overwhelming. There were a lot of people to meet all in one shot, and a lot of information to be taking in, while still worrying about making a good impression.
The last thing I sat in on was a production meeting for one of the shows going on, which brought together the whole production team working on the show--mostly MFA students in all the different design disciplines, production management, producing, stage management, directing, etc, and the profs all sat around the edge of the room. There were about 6 of these meetings back-to-back, since there are at least that many shows in various stages of production at any given time, but I just hung around for the first one, and then I headed back to Burbank for the GG viewing of the night!
Tuesday: GG-Palooza, day two
When I got back to the hotel at around 7:30, the food had been ordered, flannel had been donned, and everyone was just hanging around SPA's hotel room, waiting for the show to start. Now, I think I enjoyed the episode more than most of the other viewers did. Again, see: Rory-centric viewer, and not as concerned with Chris' last gracing of the GG screen. Of course I wanted to see that, but the fact that he wasn't completely kicked off the show at that point wasn't such a big deal to me. I also like Logan a lot better than most of the rest seem to, so the fact that it was his first episode back after hiatus was great, too.
Anyway, it was fun. There was much singing along with the theme song, as well as way too much food, lots of discussion, and many, many pictures of Luke scattered around the room.
Wednesday: GG-palooza, day three
Wednesday, I spent the morning in a Starbucks, working on some scriptwork and other stuff that I needed to get done. And, actually, one of the nice things about the way the trip worked out was the fact that I could spend a fair bit of time on my own. I spent some of that just driving around L.A. and seeing the area (and driving wasn't nearly as scary as everyone said it would be), and I had some time to just hang out and enjoy the nice weather.
In the afternoon, I met up with fndchairman, pink_hammer, jewelsverne, lulu1960, Looney6, and Teekie, and we waited in line for the Ellen taping. We ended up sitting about two rows from the back, in the middle section, and there are about two points when the cameras panned the crowd where you can see us. There's one good shot of the seven of us sitting in a row, and then another really quick shot (why, yes, my dad spend a good hour and a half panning the crowd in slo-mo, trying to see us). And, of course, the highlight was that jewels12 got to dance with Ellen, and we were all cool by association. Although pink_hammer and I did spend most of the dance segments laughing at ourselves at how utterly bad dancers we are!
Wednesday: CalArts interview, day two
After Ellen, we went back to the hotel to hear SassyPaws regale us with stories of her lunch with Scott Patterson, but I had to leave before all the stories were finished, since I had to get back out to CalArts for a rehearsal. I sat in on their rehearsal of Silver Circus, one of the student shows that was in the later stages of rehearsal. Ian was producing that show, so I kind of tagged along with him for a while, and I watched the rehearsal itself for a while.
It looks like a really interesting show--it was written by by one of the MFA Playwriting students, and one of the most interesting things about it is that the entire theatre is basically the set, and the audience is seated throughout the set--either on 5-gallon pails on the stage area, in balconies on a second level of sets, or in three gutted cars on one end of the set. Very interesting--and, they tell me, in some ways quite indicitive of CalArts' philosophy of art. There are definitely the shows that are more traditional, but there are also shows that are very out-there and do strange things like seat the audience in a car with no engine.
(Which, incidentally, Ian was telling me was one of the most interesting parts of producing that show--there were all kinds of things to deal with in terms of fire code, with the audience seated that way, as well as the actual logistics of ticketing and seating people in that format.)
Thursday: CalArts interview, day three
Thursday, I was back at the school again (the Gilmore Girls portion of the trip ended with the Ellen taping and Sassy's stories, sadly). This time, I sat in on a Film Production and Management class and a Producing Seminar with the MFA2s. In between, though, I got to meet several of the MFA1 students, and whoever else happened to be hanging out in the Management office (SMs, PMs, and TDs, mostly).
I had another short conversation with Carol, just wrapping up the week, but really, the whole thing was fairly un-interview-like. There was the initial hour and a bit that we talked, but most of it was just looking around, and I interacted more with Ian and Dave than I did with her--and I'd assume that their assessment of me would be taken into consideration on some level. I don't know how much, but since they did spend a lot of time with me, I'd guess that it would be part of the whole package--including my transcripts, application package, writing samples, etc.
I think that the fact that it wasn't just an interview helped in my mindset, too. Yes, I was well aware that I was on the spot, but I was also relaxed, having come off of some vacation time and having been down there for a few days before that, just hanging out and being with friends. That absolutely made a difference in my stress level, so hopefully that impacted things positively.
Thursday: Going home
And that was that. I left the school earlier than I'd anticipated, so I missed the heaviest of the rush-hour traffic heading to the airport, which meant that I got there insanely early. There were no lineups, either (of course--when I've got tons of time, I just sail through check-in and security), so I spent a couple of hours sitting in the Burger King in the terminal (which was one of the smaller terminals, so there wasn't a lot there, in terms of places to eat), watching Joan of Arcadia on my laptop.
The flight back was uneventful, and it was quite empty, so I had an entire row to spread my script out over (and I was inspired for some set ideas on the way back), and... that was that. I came back to 8 inches of snow piled on my car, a moving day that was less than 36 hours from when my plane landed, another few days hanging out with pink_hammer (and a day with Murphy987!), and a week of -20 degree weather before the cold snap broke.
And pictures are forthcoming. They're still on my camera, and since my computer is dead, I'll upload them when I get a chance.