"We don’t blow up our 50-year old architecture...

Magnet #1236 - Palm Springs

...To replace it with something new."

- Official Palm Springs Visitor Site

Love that quote!

Although, whew. When I looked at the fine print on the sign on this magnet my friends brought back for me, I was worried for a minute that I'd have to blog about yet another thing I hate that people love - spas. Yes. I know. I'm weird. (But you're reading a magnetblog, so there.)

Anyway, I had forgotten about Palm Springs, CA - apparently people have been going there since the 1880s to take in the waters of the hot springs. (So funny, it's like the Bath of California).

But, last century, it really became a playground for the Hollywood (and beyond) rich and famous - so much so that many celebs had their second homes, honeymoons and vacation getaways there. And I bet it must have been supercool with the likes of Cary Grant and Bob Hope and Elvis hanging out there.

Add to that the cool mid-century Modern architecture of the town (which apparently has the largest concentration in the US), and I definitely have to add it to the California must-dos list!

I'm still standing

Magnet #1116 - Mary Pickford quote

Love old-school Hollywood, especially silent film stars, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks - even if I can't name a movie I've ever seen with them. Seriously.

They were famous, the Brangelina of the 1920s - complete with a grand estate called Pickfair, where old-school Hollywood used to party like crazy.

They divorced in the end, but I refuse to accept it. Through a weird twist of fate, Pia Zadora demolished Pickfair after it fell into disrepair...which I also refuse to accept.

Failure's another word that I refuse to accept, which is why I love this quote from Mary. It's true. When you get knocked down, and you stay down, that's when you fail.

It's why when the company laid me off after more than a dozen years of service, I didn't let it get me down. I didn't cry or even talk it over with them, I just accepted the package and moved on happily. It was time.

And yet, oddly, eight months later, I find myself absolutely vindicated, freelancing for two of my former (and favorite) clients, both of whom squee'd happily when they welcomed me back on the team. Hearing their welcoming cheers was completely happy-making and gratifying, to say the least, and I thank them both for what's possibly the best work feeling I've had in a few years.

Mind you, though it has very little to do with me leaving, I find it even more vindicating that I'm actually working on exactly the same projects I was working on, after the work had been taken away from the former agency, and given to other agencies.

As my client put it when she introduced me to a new team member, "She was working with [company], but she's on her own now, and she came down to help us out this week." It wasn't until I heard her say the words out loud that I suddenly realized it was true.

I am on my own. I'd taken a fall, but here I am. Still standing. On my own two feet.

It's a weird feeling, but one that I don't mind.

Not. One. Bit.

It was the best of branding, it was the worst of branding

Magnet #976 - Concentric Circles

If you'll allow me a quick rant to explain my earlier Tweets today, and why I've picked this magnet, which looks a lot like this logo for today.

After a @TCM Tweet this afternoon about their traveling roadshow, I fairly quickly ran down to Grand Central Terminal to see it. (No. Seriously. The Tweet popped up on my TweetDeck at like 2:42 and I was there by 3:30.)

TCM partnered with Verizon with a really great exhibit supporting their Movies & Moguls 7-part original series about the history of Hollywood. Must watch, cannot wait!

Because it was TCM, of course their exhibit was well designed, and very much in keeping with their overall brand identity - I love seeing off-air marketing emulate the on-air marketing, it does a branding heart good.

These pictures don't really do it justice, I know. The exhibit itself was a little small for Vanderbilt Hall, it was slick and nicely produced, and the people manning the area were friendly and engaging.

They had a few costumes on display, but I particularly loved the interactive kiosks. They taught me how bad I am at old Hollywood trivia, and showed me Jack Warner's address book with Bette Davis, Walt Disney and other luminaries. I've seen it a dozen places in the books, but I got to spin the little nickelodeon thing with the horse - that was cool. And, they described the leading ladies and men of the time.

Loved it. And, by the looks of all the press visits (or they could have been fellow bloggers, who knows), they enjoyed it, too.

Most of all, it totally whetted my appetite for the series debut on November 1. That's called great audience outreach. Go. See it now. No, I mean it. Now. It's only there til tomorrow!!!!

By an incredible and garish contrast, Thomson Reuters installed a giant display on the other side of the hall. Where TCM's installation was dwarfed by the giant Vanderbilt Hall at GCT, Thomson Reuters was a massive behemoth, with dual-LED displays lighting up the whole hall and beyond. It was a huge white hole, plushly carpeted, with computers and displays set up inside, from what I could tell. Nicely branded (as one would expect for TR to be, of course) and even if it was bright as hell, the display show graphics with the messaging and images were great.

When I first walked into the hall, after my eyes had been visually assaulted by the giant LED displays, I noticed they had at least 3 or 4 people manning the outside of the monstrosity, all in business outfits, shifting from one foot to the other. Not talking to anyone, watching traffic walk by.

I felt bad for them, because the TCM space was moderately trafficked, while no one was at the TR end. It really did seem rude to look at what TCM had to offer, and not wander over to the snazzy TR display, too.

But, any goodwill I'd built up walking across the way was dashed by the woman (who had earlier been chatting up a TCM rep in his space) manning the TR entrance. In fact, I went specifically to her, because I had seen her with the TCM dude.

Mind you, I was hardly the height of fashion in jeans and tennies, and an old Izod golf shirt, with my fleece tied around my waist and hair in a ponytail. Clearly, I wasn't a financial person. Or even a business person. Or even the demographic for whatever TR was hawking.

But here's how the conversation went:

Me, smiling broadly: "I feel like I should visit you guys because you built this giant display!"
Her, smiling: "I know, it's really big! Though, really, it's for a financial product."
Me, peering into the room, and then checking my watch that said 3:45: "Hmmm, really? Which means you have to wait for all the financial guys [commuter traffic] to get here at 5, huh?"
Her, hesitating: "Well, you could go in, if you wanted to, there's people inside. But, it's really more of a financial thing."
Me, smiling broadly, unable to believe she would try to not actively drive traffic into their space, given that there was one or two people inside the cavernous display: "No, thanks."

I was completely floored. I get that the ROI on that giant box that Thomson Reuters built is pretty high. Meaning - sell even one of their fancy-schmancy Eikon product and make back the money on spent to build the box. They can certainly afford to be discerning about who they let into the room. But, traffic is traffic. And moreover? Traffic begets traffic - particularly when you're at Grand Central Station.

Don't get me wrong here, folks. Fair play to Thomson Reuters - I love the branding machine behind their identity - the logo design, the huge launch campaign, the messaging, and almost everything from a graphic standpoint. Dudes, I smile when I see the TR logo on the building along I-95 in Stamford! I have a lot of heart for that brand.

But, honestly, for me, this is one of those times when brand management should extend down to the masses of employees, even the chick manning the door.

eta:
On a side note. Thomson Reuters chick could take a page from the superdupernice Teavana salesgirl at Paramus Park Mall. My 14-year-old hipster cousin just wanted to try a sample, and even though the two of us didn't look like we were on the market for the $40 1/2-pound tea? The sales girl was doing her damndest to educate us on the product, and was blind to the audience she was selling to.

The big dance

Magnet #919 - Norman Rockwell's Woman at Vanity

Though I'm sure I'll make it down for the latest Norman Rockwell: Telling Stories exhibit in DC, my sister picked up a couple of magnets for me, just in case.

This piece appeared on the October 31, 1933, issue of The Saturday Evening Post, and is of a woman sitting at her vanity, wearing the latest in fashion - a copy of a dress that Joan Crawford wore in the movie Letty Lynton.

I love this, because you wonder, where's she headed? What's the occasion? Is it somewhere glamorous? Dinner? Or, is she just dressing for dinner? And don't you just love the little girl in braids and her little puppy watching her mom primp. So cute!

I picked this magnet for today in honor of tonight's Primetime Emmys. There's something really cool knowing that all of Hollywood has been in a flurry for weeks, leading up to this day and night - all to put on a big show...

...so I'm gonna stop typing up this magnetblogpost to watch that big show. Though, I'm not gonna lie, there's a really big part of me that's waiting for a shot of (OMG, what's he doing, OMG, what's he doing here) David Tennant, plus George Clooney and maybe Jon Hamm and good gravy. It's a room full of my cuteboys!

*dies*

Sweetening the pot

Magnet #902 - Not so sweet

Another one of my Bored Inc. magnets I picked up from Comic-Con. It's kinda funny - I was gonna use this magnet for my first day back into work from Comic-Con, but since it turned out to be my last day at work, I decided I didn't want such a sourpuss magnet for that day.

So, I'll use it today, because there was a part of me that thought that La-la-land was all cupcakes, sunshine and puppies. But lists like this TV Guide list of actor per-episode salaries lead me to believe that life mightn't be so sweet for all of them.

(I should note here that if there was ever anything I learned from one particular ex-boyfriend, it was do not discuss salary. Ever. Not with friends. Not with family. Just don't do it. It just makes you unhappy in the end. So, it's something I never discuss to this day.)

But, since the information's now public (not that I know where it came from) and even though I find it a little uncouth to discuss such matters, and ridic that we're given all this information on anyone's salaries, and it's absolutely none of our business, I do find this entertainment business quite intriguing.

Like Mark Harmon (325k) making double Michael Weatherley (125k) - that difference kinda makes sense, because of seniority, and probably producer credits, etc. But how crazy is it that iCarly's Miranda Cosgrove (180k) is making so much more on a Nick show than Wizards' Selena Gomez (30k) on a Disney show? And how is Ian Somerhalder is at 40k on the CW's Vampire Diaries, the same as Shailene Woodley on that ABCFamily Brendavision show? And Chuck's Zachary Levi is at 60k at NBC, while old Chuck buddy Matt Bomer's at $100k on USA's White Collar, and both NBC/USA are in the same NBC Uni family.

See? While it's none of our business, it's still utterly fascinating.

It's weird, because they didn't release all cast information - so while Lauren Graham's at 150k, it'd be interesting to see Krause's or Coach's. Angie Harmon's at 75k as Rizzoli, but what's Gretchen Sasha Alexander making as Isles, I wonder.

I know, I apologize, it's totally none of my business. Still, I'm not really judgey about how much they make - per episode - they're actors, they work hard, they live a career based on their skills and their looks. I've never thought it an easy occupation. It can't be. Plus, it's not just the shows, it's the PAs, the marketing/PR they have to do, etc.

Oh, I could go on and on, comparing networks to networks, hour-longs to sitcoms, gender, seniority, BBC actors being employees of the state vs. Hollywood, etc. But, it's just a cupcake magnet.

My guess is that this list must cause a ton of people in the entertainment world some severe agita. I can't even imagine the myriad calls that will be made in the coming weeks over salary disparities. Crazy.

But, I can tell you, if this were Corporate America, and each company published this kind of list, with such readily apparent disparities? Man, there'd be total anarchy!

Where the Turf Meets the Surf!

Magnet #888 - The Magnet

I bought this magnet from the superawesome Morgan Library & Museum, because it seriously just cracked me up.

It took me a good 15 years before I finally made it to that library - even if I worked literally across the street from it. We went for the Jane Austen personal notes and letters exhibit, which was amazing, even if you aren't her biggest fan. But I loved the new addition by Renzo Piano - pretty snazzy.

Anyway, like any good magnate/robber baron, J.P. Morgan was quite the art collector. This is The Magnet, a cartoon drawn by Joseph Keppler, Jr. for Puck magazine. That's J.P. Morgan on the top left, using his dollar sign magnet (totally looks like something out of Richie Rich, by the way) to attract all of Europe's great art treasures to America.

I feel like I keep going to museums built by families who made their money the old-fashioned way - starting from poor families and managing to build up successful businesses from the ground up, and managing to collect art along the way, in the end, giving it back to the peoples. The Morgan Library & Museum, the Frick Collection, the Timken Museum here in Balboa Park in San Diego. Small collections worth millions, and worth hours of my time.

Thank you, wealthy families of America. If you've managed to reach one person here in America, it's me. Yay, for you guys.

I'm using this for today, because we went to the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club race track today. So fun. I loved that we were toting around 4-year-old and an almost 2-year-old rambunctious set of boys. And who knew the track was so popular among pretty much every demographic you can think of - the cuteboys with the cuteboys, the old, the young, the rich, the skeevy, the desperate.

Bing Crosby and two buddies built the track way back in 1937, and he became a fixture at the track until his death in 1977. I love how the Del Mar race track became one of the old-school Hollywood places to be, given it's proximity to well, Hollywood. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Betty Grable, and countless others. Plus, Seabiscuit raced here, so says the pictures on the walls of fame around Del Mar track, and the historic Stratford Inn.

And to think, the only thing I knew of the Del Mar track is this grand front area in front of the paddocks, where I could have sworn one of our Loveswept authors had us use as the backdrop of Anticipation.

I had to laugh today, though, because while this magnet has to do with earned money, today on the way into the track, I heard a guard yell out to one of the oldies, Hey! I hope you get a 1099 today!

Hollywood and Joy

Magnet #826 - Hollywood Joy

Dudes. I have a whole half of a board devoted to these silly personalized magnets. I mean, discounting the fact that I love magnets with my name on them, I just want to keep collecting these for the cheesiness of it all. I never pass up a chance to pick one up.

So, yeah. A whole half of a board. And I'm thinking shoot, by now, I must have magnetblogged all of them before. Nu-uh. Dudes! I have like a dozen I haven't used! Whoa.

Also? Yay!

Anyway, I wanted to use this for today because tonight, I'm hoping to see Top Gun. I know! I love it, too! But more awesome than just rewatching the movie for the zillionth time?

Watching it on board the Flight Deck of the Intrepid! The Flight Deck! Of the Intrepid! I mean, I shoved off a whole road trip to NC to early morning Saturday, so that I could see Maverick and Goose take to the skies with "Danger Zone" underscoring the ride.

Top Gun was part of my group project for the lone film class I took at Carolina. Basically, we took pivotal scenes from various movies and re-scored them with different tracks. For Top Gun, we took out "Take my Breath Away," and inserted Jimmy Buffett's "Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw." So funny how the scene takes on a whole different tone based on the score.

Hello. A+!

eta:
Mind you, when the (PG) movie first came out? I was just into my teens, and my parents refused to let me go see it in the theatres. They heard about the French kissing scene.

Uh. Yeah. I was like French what? Heh.

eta2:
Sigh. Looks like work just doesn't seem to want to agree with anyone. Guess I'll be packing (which I need to do anyway) with Maverick and Goose at my place, rather than the Intrepid. And, that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Hooray for...yeah, you get it

Magnet #661 - Hollywood

Guess where I bought this one. Heh.

It's the iconic Hollywood shot - the one that every tourist has to try and take pictures of, craning their necks out of every angle of their rental cars to take the best picture ever. And yet, none ever match up to this magnet.

But Hollywoodland is a sign that I've always had a hard time believing existed - despite every book I've ever read about it, every movie I've ever seen about it and honestly, dudes? Even every picture I've ever seen about it.

Everyone knows this story, right? That the Hollywood sign used to read HOLLYWOODLAND, and all it was, was this real estate gimmick to sell property out in the canyon-y hinterlands? So while rationally I know it totally existed, it's just so funny to think about - a whole mountainside decorated with 13 giiiiiiant letters.

But, it's true - back in 1924, they made the (supposedly only to last for 18 months) sign for like $21,000 - the giant letters hitting 50 feet, with like 4,000 20-watt lightbulbs. Come on, how awesome must that have been back in the 20s - you'd be tooling around the hills in your Model A (or your horse and cart, I suppose), and you look up and see all those lights flashing (ok, I dunno about the flashing) Holly! Wood! Land! (or the exclamation marks, really).

By 1949, the City wanted to tear down the decrepit and almost bulb-less sign, but it was too late - after 25 years, it had become part of their identity and was much-beloved, so everyone rallyed around it, and refused to let the sign die. So the City dropped off the LAND and refurbished the sign - an icon born.

Every so often now, you hear all these kooky stories about how folks want to get rid of the sign, how they want to paint the sign, or how they want to sell it out to corporate sponsors.

They better manage to preserve it the way it deserves - I would cry if they ended up outlining the white letters in Staples red!


eta:
Ok. Here's cool. Apparently, Frank Lloyd Wright opened up a western office, having built a few key houses out there to give folks views of the Hollywoodland sign. Awesome. Site's pretty neat itself - a little hard to nav, but fab architectural details of each house. Sigh. Nothing sadder than an abandoned FLW house.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled program

Magnet #503 - Hollywood

Have ya'll ever seen the movie Mannequin?

That supercheesy but loveable 80s movie with superadorable Andrew McCarthy who plays a window dresser who falls in love with one of his mannequins, played by the young, bubbly Kim Cattrall, who comes alive due to a magical mystical Egyptian spell?

This is not that magnet.

It's just, every time I see it on my magnet board, all I hear in my head is Meshach Taylor falsetto sing-songing to Andrew, Hooollyywoood!! Oh, Hooollyywoood!! Here, it's at the :45-second mark. Watch...but then go run out and Netflix it. Seriously.

But, Andrew McCarthy worked with Teri Polo in the silly yet lovable Straight from the Heart tv movie. And Teri Polo gets you to Sports Night and The West Wing, where she worked with Joshua Malina.

And, Joshua Malina's one of the Twitterfeeds I follow. No, I don't have like a huge crush on him, but by far, he's one of the funniest Tweeters I've ever followed - not that I really follow all that many.

I've been following him for a month or two now - I've RT'd him and I've told others to follow him. And, he just sort of shows up in my Google Reader or TweetDeck - with his Tweets about his professional life, but also personal stuff, along with funny musings, jokes, or whatever. So, understandably, there's a sense of connection there - he's randomly become part of my everyday life, this guy who is supposed to stay in my little black box.

Here's what scares me. Actually seeing him in the little black box. The other night, I caught him on Valentine, and my first thought was, hey! It's Josh! I wonder what he's up to!

WHOA. Stop. The. Presses.

I don't know Joshua Malina from the Vin Diesel lookalike doorman around the corner! I shouldn't care what he's up to. He's the guy in the box!

Dudes, I can't really explain it, but it was certainly the single most uncomfortable feeling that night - it was creepy. And I realized that what I talked about a few months ago - about the fact that down the line, celebretweets will have some sort of backlash, I'm sure of it.

I shouldn't be able to interact with him or any other celebrity outside my tv. Dammit, get back in that little black TV box!

So, yeah, it's just scary. Not scary enough for me to stop following Mr. Malina (on Twitter), but enough for me to make sure I'm double-vigilant to maintain that fourth wall.

Mind you, I had a whole different magnetpost if I could have just gotten from Andrew to Alyssa Milano, whose Twitterfeed I also follow. But that was just way too hard. And I know my way there must be through Solarbabies and Jamie Gertz, but I just couldn't get there.

Now. Points if you ever saw Solarbabies.

SAG Is as SAG Does, or, Really? A strike? You stupid idiots

Magnet #274 - Stupid Is as Stupid Does, Forrest Gump

Bought this magnet at a Bubba Gump. Shut it. The food wasn't bad, and yes, I had something involving shrimp.

I don't have a Kennedy magnet, otherwise, we would have talked about the 45th anniversary. But then I saw this Yahoo article about SAG (Screen Actors Guild) poised to call for a strike.

Really? Actors? Really?

Did you not know that the WGA strike cost YOUR industry $2.5 billion? Have you not seen the stories about how we're still feeling the effects of that strike - with a shit TV season forcing idiotic programming decisions, and a movie season with tentpole movies being switched, so that all the shit movies we're left with won't cluster up too much? Did you not see the ramifications of lost jobs and productions within YOUR industry?

Ok, never mind YOUR industry.

Let's talk about how overall the American economy's gone to hell. Have you not heard that America has lost A MILLION JOBS in 2008? Did you not see the financial and auto industries practically collapse? Have you not seen the billions and billions and billions of dollars that have been doled out to SAVE actual industries that keep our economy running?

Or maybe you're just not worried, because Obama's here to save the day. YOUR industry came out en masse making tons of videos and commercials and donations to call for change. Maybe you think that in exchange for all that work, that Obama and the new administration is gonna bail out the entertainment industry when you fly your private planes to Washington with your hats in hand.

Whatever it is, America's already in trouble. I fail to understand how a strike of 120,000 people in a multibillion-dollar industry will HELP America.

Apparently, SAG is going to "launch a 'full-scale education campaign in support of a strike authorization.'" I can't even wait to see what gets leaked to the public. You know, the public that's already suffering...for real.

eta:
This magnetpost really became more of a rant than I intended. But I really, really, really would like someone within the industry to make me understand why this strike is necessary.

Oh, and I would like to see whether or not the American public will give one ounce of crap about Hollywood actors whining about Internet and DVD rights.

eta2:
By the way, anyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows how deeply my love runs for all of the entertainment industry, and exactly how many movies and tv shows I watch. That's no secret. Hell, you can scroll down to the bottom of this magnetblog to see how much TV I watch.

But you know what? My TV and my movie habits are entertainment.

You don't keep me breathing.

You don't pay my rent.

My job notwithstanding, you don't actually make me money.

So, I gotta say, GO AHEAD. STRIKE.

I will be one of the American public who will not give a shit if YOU torpedo YOUR industry.