Pardon My French

I went from being without a job on Monday to having two jobs on Friday.

Last week was definitely a weird one.

I was perusing Craigslist last Friday, as usual, and sending off emails with my credentials to every writing/editing job and “gig” that I qualified for. (I’ve been hitting the pavement pretty hard since I’ve moved to California but haven’t been having much luck.) Occasionally I get an interview, but rarely do I ever about these job opportunities, again.

That’s why I was surprised when I almost immediately received an email back from a Science Fiction website I had contacted. The Craigslist ad hadn’t listed much information about the job, only that this was a new site who needed news writers. In the signature of the email, one of the website’s founders listed the URL of the site–MyOuterSpace.com.

A social networking site for creative people in the science fiction genre. MOS is a network that targets science fiction, horror and fantasy fans seeking a career in the science fiction industry. Divided into 12 network categories called “Planets”, each Planet represents a different entertainment art. For example: Orpheus is a place for musicians, bands, singers and songwriters while Creatia is an area designated for writers and directors.

MuOuterspace also has “Starships” which are like virtual production companies, each working on a project that’s being made into a film, stage or animated production. If higher ups on the site like the work being done by a particular member of the website, these people may be presented with an opportunity to work on one of these various projects.

I had heard of these guys.

Phil had mentioned that he registered on the site after he saw a tweet about MyOuterSpace from William Shatner’s Twitter account. (According to various news sources, the site had 20,000 hits within the first hour of this tweet. The site crashed several times during the first week of it’s launch because of the high traffic on MOS.)

After some back and forth, one of the site’s founders requested that I come sit in on a writers meeting. I was expecting some sort of in depth interview process, but at some point during this meeting I realized that I was already considered to be a writer for the website.

So, through this somewhat bizarre twist in events, I became a staff writer for William Shatner’s social networking website. I’ve written a few minor stories so far, not a whole lot, yet, but it sounds like I’ll primarily be working on Sci-Fi news, site news, features with The SyFy channel as my beat. I’m hoping for the opportunity to produce lots and lots of content.

I also grabbed up a job working at a local frozen yogurt place that’s opening up the street from us. It sounds like I’ll be working the cash register and doing general dealing with customers. The store’s owner asked me if I was sure that I wanted to work there “Because I’m way overqualified,” he said. But, work is still thin for me. As long as I’m writing, I’m actually quite pleased with this job. I’d like to be able to get out of the house (I’ll be doing my MOS work from home) to go do some work, whether it’s mundane or not. I’m also hoping it will bring me into contact with some interesting people for the Perfect Stranger Project. The store is scheduled to open next Monday.

Neither of these jobs offer a benefits package so I’m still on the look out for more opportunities. I like to think that this just falls in line with what I’ve always been told– to never, ever stop looking for a job and to never settle.

I recently started experimenting with conducting Perfect Stranger interviews at local events (Capcom’s Fight Club, a promo event for the release of the new “Street Fighter IV” video game, and a local zombie walk) and the results have been good.

The day that I posted my story from the Zombie walk, I received a record number of hits to the website. The Facebook Fan Page is growing every week and more people are becoming loyal readers.

Check out http://PerfectStrangerLA.com if you haven’t lately. I’m actually quite pleased with my work as of late.

I’ve always been a people watcher. But, since I’ve started Perfect Stranger, I’ve transitioned to always being consciously on the look out for interesting looking strangers.

Friends who wander around with me during my more active scouting sessions have been asking questions like “Why not that lady?” Or “why won’t you talk to anyone inside that coffee shop?”

The explanations that accompany these questions have already been considered and molded into a set of “rules” based on the initial Beautiful Stranger encounters and what I’ve learned through studying and practicing journalism over the last 5 years.

Because the project is still very young, there are likely more of these rules to be made based on experiences as they happen, but I’ve otherwise laid out some pretty specific stylistic, ethical and overall general rules for the project.

Here’s what I have at this point:

Perfect Stranger: Style, Ethics and General Rules of Thumb:

-I never interview anyone inside the doors of a place of business. I’ve made an exception for open outdoor facilities when a (really interesting looking) potential source looks like they are not busy, but because I don’t know the management rules for every coffee shop in L.A., I’m being careful. I don’t want to make any trouble for myself. I also don’t want to risk being labeled a solicitor.

-A huge part of the purpose of this project is to capture the diversity of Los Angeles. I never interview someone in the same neighborhood two days in a row. I try to keep in mind a source’s occupation, place of origin, age, race, creed, whether or not a source is male or female and do my best to keep these varied in posted sequence.

-I can and do interview people who live in my neighborhood, Los Feliz, but I will not interview anyone who lives in my building or approach anyone on my street.

-I don’t necessarily need a source to give their birth name, full name or age. I work with what people give me and understand that’s part of what makes people feel comfortable enough to talk to me.

-I try to keep all interviews during the day. I won’t conduct an interview at night unless I am accompanied by someone I trust or I happen to be at a crowded event.

-Perfect Stranger is not intended to work as a mouthpiece for putting down other people, or to be used as a means to exclusively promote oneself or business.

-There’s not a magic number of words per article and all will vary in length. Interviews are never very long, usually lasting between 10 and 15 minutes–the fruit of these interviews is dependent upon a number of factors including: the type of questions I ask, how open and articulate a source happens to be and the overall nature of the subject of the interview.

-Interviews can be presented on the site either in the form of raw transcriptions or as feature articles.

-When I speak to a person who either make their living or lives on the street, I pay for these person’s time, whether that be through giving he/she a few dollars or by buying this individual something to eat.

-People can and are encouraged to contact me to give me more information (that they didn’t think about until later), to give me feedback on the end results of their article, or to notify me about local cultural and entertainment related events. No source or person whom I have handed my card is ever a burden.

First impressions count.

It’s a 101 level fact of life that showing up to the job in professional dress is very important. But, I’ve learned that the time put into appearance prior to leaving the house can potentially make the difference in whether or not sources will trust you– It increases your credibility by reassuring these people that you are a professional who cares about her work.

That’s why, since the dawn of my career, I’ve always gone with the more conservative get ups when I head out to hit the pavement.

That is, until recently.

I’m continually finding, through the Perfect Stranger project, that I have needed to make some exceptions to the normal, everyday rules in order to earn the trust of the people of Los Angeles.

While there is something very legitimate about a suit, the all business look tends to turn some people off. There are out there who have slipped through cracks in the system, whether that be failures through social work, welfare, education or economy (employment). Others have resisted it entirely. When I’m all dressed up, these people seem to think I’m mocking their differences, misfortune or life choices or they assume I’m some sort of drone of the establishment.

That’s why I’ve decided to back it down a bit. When I go out (and, mind you, I never really know when I’m going to find someone interesting), I try to dress somewhere in the middle. These clothes aren’t the ratty T-shirts and dilapidated Chuck Taylors I wore in my younger adolescence, but they’re not made of pin striped patterns or satin, either.

I’ve already noticed a difference in how I’m received.

People are fascinating, no matter where you live.

The way they dress, talk, laugh–and how we’re all different yet, all the same. But, people seem especially interesting in Los Angeles. The sidewalks are filled with people, each brimming with provocative stories.

My curiosity about who these people are recently inspired me to begin Perfect Stranger, an independent journalism venture that zeros in on one in the 4 million who call LA their home.

The blog will be mostly made up of feature stories, but it will also include raw interviews and people watching observations from high traffic areas in the city.

While the website isn’t completely up and running just yet, I’m excited about what’s been accomplished so far.

-I’ve conducted two interviews so far and have been able to create some pieces of writing.
-I’ve opened a new gmail account: www.PerfectStrangerLA@gmail.com, a photobucket account and a Twitter account (follow me!) http://twitter.com/perstrangerLA
-I found a website that prints free business cards (you just pay shipping) and ordered myself 250 to start. (These should be arriving tomorrow.)
-Late last week the domain space, www.PerfectStrangerLA.com was approved and since, Wordpress and a template have been put on the site.

Web site building isn’t my forte and I’ve been asking for a lot of help (but, still learning a lot.) While Perfect Stranger technically is up and running, I’m not completely happy with it just yet. We’re (Phil) still trying to figure some things out.

For starters, we want to change header font to be something a little more exciting than a standard font. I found one I really liked for the site banner (Juice ITC), but because it’s not universal, the text is defaulting to something less attractive.

And secondly– We can’t seem to change the size of body text. I’ve changed the font size number in the body text tag, but it just changes the line height and not the size of the actual type.

My friend Erol is also helping out so hopefully these details will be ironed out by the end of the week.

I can feel it rattling around inside my ribcage.
I can taste it in my mouth and it aches when I breathe.

I’m overcome with the desire to do what I love– to meet a stranger, learn the story of his or her life, and to write that story for the rest of the world. To practice journalism.

Like an itch that I can’t scratch, this longing has been lingering since September, the last time I wrote an article for print.

The job search in Los Angeles has been one of ups and downs. I’m keeping my eyes open and my ear to the ground, responding to every job posting I come upon and inquiring when there are none. I’m keeping at it and just crossing my fingers that something soon comes my way.

While I can’t seem to get paid doing what I love, I still want to practice journalism simply because I know it’s why I’m alive.

I’ve seen interesting people wandering the sidewalks of this city everyday: The girl who wears sparkly green high heels with her business suit, the kid who smokes two cigarettes at once, the homeless man who carefully arranges all of his belongings in shopping carts before he abandons all of it.

I’m dying to know why.

And that’s why I’ve decided to begin a new project.

While it remains untitled at this time, the focus of this new endeavor would be to find each day someone interesting out there, interview this individual, photograph him or her and tell this person’s story on a blog. I would start with an open ended concept of “Where are you going?” and “Where have you been”–since everyone in LA is constantly moving.

I want to find a stranger, zoom in on one of the 4,045,873 people who call Los Angeles home, and learn as much as I can about this life.

I’ll hit different neighborhoods and diverse locations all throughout the city– one day I’ll go to a Farmers Market, the next day I’ll hang out outside of a tattoo parlor.

I plan to start interviews Monday and update the blog after I have collected a few stories. Being realistic, it’s probably not something that I can work on daily, but I will still conduct interviews and post stories 3-4 days per week.

Here’s to doing what I love.