90210

I don't care that Academy Award winner Diablo Cody is in love with 90210. I don't get it. I've never been fascinated by it the way she is. Sure, I watched plenty of episodes, but Melrose Place was just so much more interesting to me. Especially when MP turned into a bizarre freak-fest of crazed, murderous backstabbers with partially shaved heads. I guess it had something to do with working in the building where hot ad exec Heather Locklear was having sex in her office suite (of course all of this was shot in a lot somewhere, but the camera would always pan up to the top floor of the Wilshire building where I used to work).

I was a little bummed-out that the call I received was for Venice. Venice is pretty much straight west from DB and it's a long way. Thankfully, the call was pretty early, so I decided to leave early and forego all the usual rush-hour traffic. I got to the parking lot so early, I had time to nap.

90210 is an AFTRA show so I had to sign the usual AFTRA paperwork giving them permission to apply my wages toward the union fees. We then took a van to a location in Marina Del Rey outside an office building.

The scene takes place in a little made-up courtyard where people are having lunch. One of the leads' mother meets another character in the courtyard where they chat. It was warm and we had no shade and no chairs. I guess that's AFTRA. It wasn't too bad though because we broke after about six hours and we were out of there.

What made it move quickly was a cool cat a met who was from New Orleans. He was trying to make it in the business and had a surprisingly good attitude. He was telling me all his tales because he was shocked at how great California was compared to the South. Sometimes it takes reminders like this to help one realize we take so many things for granted.