I have been friends with Rolo for about 12 years now. We used to be neighbours. Rolo is a teamster in the film industry. Teamsters are the first to arrive on set and the last to leave. Other set workers usually have call times that are divisible by 12-- 5:42, 6:12, etc. Teamsters usually have to arrive on the hour. They get there on the hour and use the twelve minute increments before the other crew arrives to prep the trailers. Or they need to be in the shuttle by 6 AM to pick up all the people from wherever parking is and get the crew to their stations by 6:12, etc.
A friend of mine who works at the studios in accounting tells me that he loves Teamsters because their paperwork is almost always meticulous. That is because, once they have arrived on set and gotten everything moved, set up, etc, they have a lot of downtime during filming, and they can fill out their paperwork.
Being on set is funny in that there are always at least two groups of people: those that are working and those that are prepping or waiting. While hair, makeup, grip & electric, etc, are working, the camera loader, actors, boom operator, etc, are not working- or they are prepping. Every film set is a small community and has a life of it's own. They are all the same, but they are all unique, depending on the cast and crew, what type of film, the budget, etc.
Rolo and I have developed a ritual over the years of meeting once or twice a month for "bitch & gripe & piss & moan" sessions. B&G&P&M is really two separate monologues. I usually go first (natch) and then Rolo. We go to Starbucks and drink chai tea lattes, often going to different and new locations. Since being home for a year and drinking "real" coffee, I have lost my taste for Starbucks. But it is such a tradition for us that we decide to go the Starbucks that started it all, in our old neighbourhood of the North Hollywood (NoHo) Arts district.
Like everyone in the film industry, Rolo is concerned about the possibility of an actor's strike. The issue is on-line sales and use of film and television productions on the internet. This is the same reason the writer's went on strike a few months ago. Right now the greedy studios and producers get all the royalties.
Rolo feels like there is so much money in the film industry that there is no reason for unfair or unequal treatment. Because the writer's strike pushed production back, he is still working on his television sitcom, but the season's wrap party is that night. The wrap party was booked in advance, before the writer's strike.
Rolo is also telling me about a new product that he encountered recently. The Real Doll.
This is the ultimate in blow-up sex dolls. Rolo reports that the doll has all three orifices and the skin and weight of the doll is life like. The tongue does have motion.
I ask if there is a male doll and he says yes. It costs more, but it has all the parts as well, including the movable tongue and three different cocks: one flaccid, one partially hard, and one completely hard, and it does have the ability to "spurt." I think I've found the answer to my self-imposed celibacy and inability to successfully manoeuvre relationship issues.
I ask Rolo if it was the doll used in the movie Lars and the Real Girl? Rolo doesn't know. Neither of us have seen the movie. He says that the dolls are mostly popular among men that work alone in extremely isolated places. And that usually the dolls substitute for a significant other back home. I say "yeah, sure, significant other is right." We laugh.
The NoHo Arts District has a lot of theatres and acting workshops. In the past we have encountered Howard Stern, Juliette Lewis, Hal Linden from Barney Miller, and a slew of lesser known character actors. We are near some big porn studios and strip clubs, and a dance studio that is popular with exotic dancers that actually dance.
On this day we see a recognisable Lane Bryant plus size model, two girls that we determine must be either strippers or porn actors, and the actor that played the Mayor during Season Three of Buffy (he became a giant snake with three heads while giving a speech to the graduating class). Like most actors, in person he looks too thin and has a lollipop head. When people ask me what makes stars different from other people I tell them it is how big (physically) their heads are. And because the women especially are so thin, we call them lollipops.
While the strippers are waiting in line we watch them--Rolo more closely than I-- and we make plans to visit Jumbo's Clown Room. Jumbo's is a sleazy strip club in Hollywood on Hollywood boulevard east of Western. The girl's often dress up in costumes. I have never been there--although we did try to go one night when we were out partying but they had just closed the doors.
Eventually our monologues wane and we sit in silence, just people watching. I realise that I have missed the uneventful rituals of afternoons like this more than I have missed the consistent sunshine or the easy wealth of the city and its' celebrity industry.
As we leave Rolo comments on the heat and the humidity. I have the same reaction to Angelenos comments about weather as I do about mid-westerners complaints about traffic: I laugh. The thermostat had reached 100 degrees that afternoon, but after the soggy mid-west-where there are days you feel like you are breathing hot water- I haven't even noticed.
I inhale the smoggy, wildfire smoky, hot desert air and smile. It's good to be back.
TOODLE ON!!!
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