Saturday, October 25, 2008

Recovery and Upcoming Meeting


I took Thursday off from gradwork to go out for a much needed lunchdate. Lunch was very good, but it decimated my wallet because of Westwood prices and the amount of drinks. I no longer have access to the system of supplemental gambling income I enjoyed in Eugene, nor do I have any time to spare on my degenerate addiction to games of chance. After a wonderful afternoon Thursday, I attended a dinner party in Malibu at my adviser's house. Many good bottles of wine were had by all as I heard many stories about the politics of academic job placement. There is apparently no logic behind any of it and it is definitely a game of academic politics, social networks, and hierarchical protocol where placements are often determined due to a variety of factors well outside any semblance of rationality. It was a good evening with excellent wine, no 2 buck chuck there. In a strange coincidence, an anecdote regarding Trader Joe's came up because the actual Joe from Trader Joe's used to attend many of these dinner parties back in the day.
On another strange note, I have my first powerlunch Wed at noon in Beverly Hills with a studio exec and some writers exploring the development of a cable series set within my field of expertise (The barely visible photo above to the right is of me giving my gladiator lecture to students in an ancient Roman arena). I may serve as historical consultant for the project if I like what I hear, but I will remain cautious to not attach my name to anything that is likely to be crap. We'll see how it goes and how much time they need invested by me. If nothing else I'll get a great lunch paid for by the studio. Be well!

3 comments:

Cabiria said...

That's cool! Dude. You should totally sell your soul to Hollywood. It's the American dream. Academic integrity's a bit of a sham anyway.

Dolce Vita said...

How crazy and so cool! Just use a screen name (good for writers too). Then you can take your consulting fee without fear that this work will somehow factor into the academic crap-shoot. It's funny that you enjoy gambling since that seems to me to be at the heart of securing t-t jobs.

Trust in Steel said...

I agree that academic integrity is pretty much a myth anyway. Maybe I will sell my soul. Unfortunately, my damaged soul is probably not worth much these days. Maybe I can go to some cool parties up the hill with the studio execs. That would actually be interesting.