Insane Week Recap Part 1

[zrath]

Soooooo...

I had an exciting and crazy-making week! How about a nice little recap?
Please to fasten seatbelts and return to full upright position!

Monday: Went to Vivendi Games for job interview test. Aced it and got "you're hired" phone call!
Happily posted about it here! Got many congratulatory messages! Yeaaaaa!!
Sent e-mail to Genex, the company I applied with 2 weeks ago, to get status update. Didn't get answer.
(It pays more than Vivendi and it's closer. All eggs = not in one basket.)

Tuesday: Went to Vivendi Games to fill out paperwork and get orientatetatetated.
2 hours after coming home, got phone call that project was on hold and I was on hold too.
Was supposed to start Wednesday. Well, not anymore! Ha ha ha, sucker!
Was told I wouldn't be on hold more than a week or two. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!
Kept looking for work.

Wednesday: Furiously e-mailed with recruiter about testing job in Century City.
Did some other stuff that I can't remember but was probably exciting at the time.
Kept looking for work.



Thursday: Went to help Jean-Louis with private party DJ gig. Went to his place to get sound
system, load it in the truck, and take it to the party. This was the first time I had ever been to
Jean-Louis' place. He lives off Laurel Canyon Blvd., in the Santa Monica Mountains, and his house is
at the top of a goat path. I swear, it's a 45 degree grade! And the weather was flippin' hot too!
As if that wasn't fun enough, the Fnord Stranger overheated on the way over.
I popped the hood and noticed a crack in one of the smaller hoses at the top of the engine block.
I let the Stranger cool down and concentrated on surviving bringing the gig gear down from the mountain.
Afterwards, I refilled the radiator with water and applied some gaffer tape to the hose. The tape
didn't hold. I didn't have any duct tape available, so I wedged a handful of Chipotle napkins
between the hose and something else to limit the flow of water coming from the crack.
Then Jean-Louis hopped into his DJ-Mobile (taurus silverus anonymous) and I followed him to the party.
J-L needed me was because he had his weekly DJ gig to hit right after the private party, so he needed
someone to grab the gear and take it back to his place. After seeing where he lived, I was starting
to have doubts about the mission. I mean, bad enough that it's steep and the gear weighs a tonne,
but I would be bringing the gear back at midnight and I didn't see any lighting while I was there.
o/~ And I don't even want to die just yet. o/~ (The Police - "Invisible Sun")
Definitely needed to come up with an alternate plan re: post-party gear evac.

So I followed Jean-Louis to the site of the private party, which turned out to be the house of one
Christian Audigier. If the name "Ed Hardy" rings a bell, then you know what Mr. Audigier does.
He owns the whole Ed Hardy clothing empire. Here's the website, it's kinda MySpace-y.
Judging from the gear being set up, this was going to be some kind of party. There was a small
generator, several lighting rigs, two deluxe portapotties (oddly similar to airplane bathrooms),
a large movie screen, a huge table with something like 40 chairs, caterers, waitrons, etc...
Befitting a man of his station in life, Mr. Audigier has some nice cars.
The garage contains an Aston Martin DB9, a Bentley of '90s vintage, one of those four-seat high-tech
supersized dune buggies, and a Boyd Coddington hot rod (one of those topless models with rumble seat).
Out in the open, there was the usual giant-sized Cadillac Escalade (Mr. Audigier has kids) and a
stylish Maybach 62S. I did get pictures of the Maybach.

The Maybachs are super luxurious Mercedes-Benzes, basically. The original Maybach company was started
in 1909 and made engines for Zeppelins. They made their first car in 1919. The subsequent vehicles
were expensive luxury coupes. During WWII, the Panther and Tiger tanks were all equipped with
Maybach engines. Post-War, the company was merged into Daimler and the name was discarded.
Mercedes-Benz decided to revive the name and tack it onto a new generation of super-luxury cars
designed to compete with Rolls-Royce.
They also created the rather "Bruce Wayne's new car" Maybach Exelero.
The Maybach 62S is the "sporty" version of the 62, equipped with a beefier engine.



THE FACE OF BOE MAY!



LONG CAR IS LOOOOOOOOONG!



DO THESE CURTAINS MAKE MY BUTT LOOK BIG?

All kidding aside, it's a faboo car. And at $450,000.00 plus, it better be.
It's got reclining rear seats and a bazillion luxury features and gizmos and gadgets.
If you're gonna be chauffeured around, this is pretty much the ultimate bourgemobile. :)

Anyway, I helped J-L set up the gear next to the (large) pool, then discussed what to do post-gig.
He agreed to let me take his gear home with me since taking it to his home would kill me.
I left him there and went home. I returned at 10:30pm and started packing the gear.
J-L left to attend to his weekly Hollywood club gig. While shuttling the gear to my truck, I noticed
a gaggle of Frenchies with pro video cameras and boom mics. Oh boy, film crew! I overheard them
talking about Johnny Hallyday being a no-show. Mister Hallyday is an old French rocker, unknown here.
Here's one of his recent music videos, with some information about him in the notes.
He's wearing a Van Dutch t-shirt in the video, and Christian Audigier also launched Van Dutch.
So yeah, they must be buddies or something.

I finished packing all the gear then drove straight home, unloaded the gear (yay stairs!), then tried
finding a parking space. At 2am. On a Thursday Night. When everyone is parking on the side that says
"No Parking - Street Cleaning - 8am-10am - Thursdays". Which mean there's plenty of parking on the
side that says "No Parking - Street Cleaning - 8am-10am - Fridays". I hate street cleaning.
I couldn't find anything, so I parked in a Friday street cleaning space.
And yes, I didn't wake up in time to move my truck and got a ticket. Blargh...



This got pretty long, so I'm going to end it here and pick up with Friday on the next post.