Pardon My French

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.