LA Day 1
So today was my first day in the lovely city of Los Angeles. We flew in last night but really didn't get the chance to experience much since my father and I were extremely tired from the time change and just from flying in general. Today I had a meeting at 8am for all volunteers so we got our assignments for the convention. I ended up being one of the lucky 2 out of the 30 of us that is a panel assistant. That means I get to work with all of the important people and even get my own walkie-talkie to wear as we move these important people. I'm not gonna lie, I felt like I was in the TV show "the Hills". It's absolutely gorgeous here (granted we are one mile from Beverly Hills and on the VERY rich side of town). I don't want to go back to Chicago, I'd be happy just living here for the rest of my life. The hills/mountains outline the city and the Pacific Ocean is right near by. Not to mention the mid-west is in the middle of a frozen snowstorm and I got to walk around in a tank-top today enjoying the 75 degree weather.
I had time to kill after my meeting so I wondered around this block of LA by myself (well sorta, I was talking to S.Leavell on the phone the whole time) trying to find some place to get some damn breakfast. Once I succeeded in finding a small breakfast I wondered back to the hotel to try and find something interesting to do. I first sat outside and enjoyed the sun while I looked over the whole convention and who will be appearing. I guess the CEO's/starters of AEG, JAM, and Live Nation are all in the building, not to mention people from Myspace, Lollapolooza, Boonaroo, and Cochilla festivals just to mention a few. Big name people in the music business. I got up to walk away when this guy stopped me to talk. He ended up being an agent from NYC who has guided the likes of Beyonce, Usher and many other famous hip-hop groups. He said he liked how passionate I was at such a young age and gave me his business card so I could shoot him an e-mail when this is over. Good networking from the start!
After enjoying the weather I decided to head downstairs and see if any other important people were in the building yet. I saw this sign that said "Ozzfest Press Conference straight ahead" so of course I wondered straight ahead. I watched some people check in and went up to just talk to the girls outside to see what was going on. They told me since I was with the conference I could go in and check it out since Ozzy and Sharon were coming out in a few minutes to annouce the tour. So that's how I got to see Ozzy the man in person. He and Sharon came out for the small press conference (which I have pictures of I'll post when I get back to Chicago). The big annoucement for the tour this summer is the fact that every show is free. They got major sponsership so every show for Ozzfest this year will be free (that's 500,000 tickets). Let's see how that really turns out.
The day went on and I worked my panels and nothing exciting really happened. We headed out to dinner to some small Italien restaurant about 10 minutes away from our hotel. My father and some other guy that went with us kept talking about old business times and all this shit I didn't really care about. Right when we were about to leave something caught my eye over my shoulder. There was a man sitting about one table away that looked super familar, but being used to living in smaller cities, or just cities nobody cares to go to, I didn't think much of it and just kept staring at him trying to figure out who the hell he looked like. Well, turns out it was Jimmy Fallon formerly of SNL. I knew he looked familar, and I asked the waiter after I mentioned it to my dad. It was kind of cool to be so close and normal to celebrities like that and not even notice. Oh well, no autographs or pictures, he was with his wife and family and we didn't want to be rude. Oh what an exciting first day in LA.
My goal tomorrow is to attack the summer festival guys and try to get some more business cards. Wish me luck! I also wouldn't mind seeing the pacific ocean too.
- Ashley
I had time to kill after my meeting so I wondered around this block of LA by myself (well sorta, I was talking to S.Leavell on the phone the whole time) trying to find some place to get some damn breakfast. Once I succeeded in finding a small breakfast I wondered back to the hotel to try and find something interesting to do. I first sat outside and enjoyed the sun while I looked over the whole convention and who will be appearing. I guess the CEO's/starters of AEG, JAM, and Live Nation are all in the building, not to mention people from Myspace, Lollapolooza, Boonaroo, and Cochilla festivals just to mention a few. Big name people in the music business. I got up to walk away when this guy stopped me to talk. He ended up being an agent from NYC who has guided the likes of Beyonce, Usher and many other famous hip-hop groups. He said he liked how passionate I was at such a young age and gave me his business card so I could shoot him an e-mail when this is over. Good networking from the start!
After enjoying the weather I decided to head downstairs and see if any other important people were in the building yet. I saw this sign that said "Ozzfest Press Conference straight ahead" so of course I wondered straight ahead. I watched some people check in and went up to just talk to the girls outside to see what was going on. They told me since I was with the conference I could go in and check it out since Ozzy and Sharon were coming out in a few minutes to annouce the tour. So that's how I got to see Ozzy the man in person. He and Sharon came out for the small press conference (which I have pictures of I'll post when I get back to Chicago). The big annoucement for the tour this summer is the fact that every show is free. They got major sponsership so every show for Ozzfest this year will be free (that's 500,000 tickets). Let's see how that really turns out.
The day went on and I worked my panels and nothing exciting really happened. We headed out to dinner to some small Italien restaurant about 10 minutes away from our hotel. My father and some other guy that went with us kept talking about old business times and all this shit I didn't really care about. Right when we were about to leave something caught my eye over my shoulder. There was a man sitting about one table away that looked super familar, but being used to living in smaller cities, or just cities nobody cares to go to, I didn't think much of it and just kept staring at him trying to figure out who the hell he looked like. Well, turns out it was Jimmy Fallon formerly of SNL. I knew he looked familar, and I asked the waiter after I mentioned it to my dad. It was kind of cool to be so close and normal to celebrities like that and not even notice. Oh well, no autographs or pictures, he was with his wife and family and we didn't want to be rude. Oh what an exciting first day in LA.
My goal tomorrow is to attack the summer festival guys and try to get some more business cards. Wish me luck! I also wouldn't mind seeing the pacific ocean too.
- Ashley