Sunday, October 21, 2007

Bon Jovi and other Celebrities

Well, it took me three months, but I have finally had my first real celebrity sighting! (Apart from a couple of minor celebrities from Top Chef and Andrew Shue from Melrose Place). "Who was the celebrity I sighted?", you ask. Well, it was none other than Bon Jovi! On my wait out last night as I crossed 5th and Broadway in front of the Flatiron building, I noticed some lights and then some cameras and then Bon Jovi. I was late to meet my friends uptown so I didn't really stop to figure out what was going on. But as I returned after my night out in a cab, My cab was blocked from going past the Flatiron building as Bon Jovi was sitting on a bed with a girl right in the middle of the street! So I got out of the cab at that point and decided to complete my journey home on foot(1 block away). There was a moment there as I headed to get out of the shot, that Bon Jovi looked my way - I think we had eye contact! I asked a cop what was happening & he told me that Bon Jovi was filming a new music video. So the next time you see a Bon Jovi video where he is on a bed in the middle of a New York street - just know that I was there!

On Thursday night this week I caught up with a girl named Sybil. A few weeks ago I ran into her as she accompanied an acquaintance we had in common to a gathering of Australians. I was shocked to see her as it had literally been more than 15 years since we had seen each other last. Sybil and I went to school together until the beginning of Grade 6 when she moved to LA. It seems she has been living in NY for a few years now and is a director of Documentaries. So it was very nice to catch up. I was also impressed to find out that her boyfriend is the manager of one of my favourite bands, the Black Eyed Peas, among others! So I expect to be going to a few good music events in the future! Funnily enough, one of the guys I was working for on my first contract happens to be a friend of Fergie, the lead singer of the Black Eyed Peas.

You may have noticed that I said "my first contract". Well about a month ago, my project finished up, at least the first phase of it, and despite the fact that my boss was keen for me to finish on the project so she could get me working on some other projects of theirs, apparently, there were some hold ups with those other projects. So I wasn't working a whole lot. Luckily something else came along. I am now doing Business Process Re-engineering for the Health & Pension body linked to the Union for Television and Radio Artists. So, once again, I am surrounded my celebrities, actually more like their records. Obviously, I can't divulge names, but typically, if you know of them from TV, film or if you have purchased their Album, then I have access to their records. It's surreal.

I expect to start back working again with the other guys from my first contact, but in the meantime I'm working at the health & pension fund. I may end up working for both of them concurrently which would probably work out well for me and give me some diversity in my work.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie....

Last week I had a bit of an "Australian" week. As you can probably tell from my picture, I went to the baseball. It was my first baseball game and I had a lot of fun. I went with another expat Aussie and two of his friends visiting from Australia. If you've watched any baseball movies, you'll know what a big deal it is to catch a foul ball that ends up in the stadium.
The boys I was there with got very excited every time a ball headed our way. Of course, it's something that happens once in a lifetime so the chances of either of them catching one of them is pretty rare. But guess what - the guy that was visiting from Australia actually caught one! It was pretty impressive.
And of course, as you all know, it was the AFL grand final last weekend. The Aussie contigent in NY doesn't miss a chance to gather for an Australian event and there were a number of venues around the city televising the game live, which started around 12:45am our time. I went to an Australian bar called the Sunburnt Cow down in Alphabet City which was far too small for the crowd that turned up and it's not the greatest setup to watch a football game. But I wasn't that really interested in the game anyway, so it didn't matter too much to me.
On the Saturday night I went to yet another Australian get together for an Aussie guy that had decided to move back to Australia. I took an American friend of mine, Dana, who had never been exposed to so many Australians in one go - I think she had a lot of fun and appreciated the sense of fun that Aussies have. I think I've had my fill of Australian events for a while. But I must admit, it is very nice to hang out with people that know how to relax and joke around, and don't take themselves too seriously!