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February 26, 2005
tacoma, washington - another try apprentice audition
Posted by ananth at 04:21 PM | Comments (0)
February 19, 2005
boise, idaho - the apprentice reality show audition
flying in from portland, oregon; i land at 10:30am in boise for the apprentice 4 audition..the horizon air flight being one hour late. grab a cab and head to plaza 7 building (a local tv station)..yes i see the line snaking around from the front to the back of the building. i wait for about ten minutes before a badged guy walks by handing out application forms and marks off whether i am interested for martha stewart or donald trump. the audition for both versions of the show being same as he informs me. he says that they get a group of 10 or so people around the table and get them to discuss on some random topics and with some arbid criteria to pick out people they deem interesting.
a bit later; another guy walks up handing out wristbands and my number on it shows to be 277.
as the line inches forward; i see evidence of discarded cups, chairs, blankets and mattress; left overs of some crazy folks that spent all night. being blustery and cold; some of us huddle around heat lamps placed along the human line.
a local radio station provides music and live entertainment in the form of funny interviews of folks in line as well as the proverbial martha stewart jokes flavored now with her new crook status. ron; a five time veteran of auditions around the country just stands a couple of people behind me and starts his strategy talks. says he has been to vegas and other cities and has made the shortlist once. he lectures and gets everyone in the near vicinity to introduce themselves. its important to be a team; he says and its vital for us to all know each other, names and background. hmmmmmm..i wonder about this character, his intentions while i scout the other people. school teachers, ecology scientists, college students, financial and marketing directors, fertilizer salesmen they are here in all sizes and shapes, most of them dressed in their formal best save for the odd one here and there.
we finally enter inside the building escaping the cold wintery boise day and crowd in a center hall filled to the brim with more of the suit types, some of them who have formed groups and busy discusing various possibilites, periodically interrupted by groups finished with their auditions. shaking their head; some of them walk out laughing, some of them dazed and some of them shouting what the topics were..womens rights, women in business, politics, elections, etc.
walking away from my group; i grab a corner and immerse myself in a rich jeeves p.g wodehouse novel. 'jeeves in the morning' is a delight with traditional bertie woosters trials and tribulations..and a far far cry from my present environs. after a couple of hours and a snack bar; i decide that i want to be a bit more social and engage in some banter with peoples around me.
mrs X (she can be googled..so i better keep her secret:), a 37 yr old and i get into a very engaging discussion..with some interesting and crazy twists..all provided by this character. an eastern washington dairy farmers' wife but with a stalker boyfriend in florida and another potential in a russian worker in boise; she divulges that she has also dated brett boone ( a seattle mariners baseball player),and claims to be an ex-baseball player herself from canada. don't recall exactly how/where we got started but it appears that she knows a family back in eastern washington where she is lives in adjacent town and i happen to be really great friends with a part of this wonderful family as well. two degrees of separation..what a small world. mrs X has also won some awards for her business ventures, been profiled a magazine and met hilary clinton though she is in a boat of problems at the present and extremely insecure as she admits to me...why i wonder...how can you be this successful professionally and so messed up personally.....lot of shades of 'desperate housewives' ( a current sitcom satire hit in ABC TV on sunday nights about american white picket fence suburbia) with plenty of dark sides and what not...and she agrees.
its 4:30 pm. and our turn comes. they call out for numbers 277 to 286 and i am with a group that includes about four women. we march into a room and sit around a table; our moderater being this young good looking casting gal. she asks us to introduce ourselves, a funny fact and then onto a discussion about street smarts vs book smarts (the theme from the current version of apprentice). a hot ten minute discussion later; she gets us to hire/fire someone from the table with whatever criteria. apparantly she is impressed with this single guy who is an athlete and a ball room dancer...oh well i sigh...i gave my best and everyone else said i did well..as well as the guy who she choose for the next round...he said he will put in a word for me..(as if that works :)..as far ron; the seasoned veteran of auditions..he tries to bribe the casting gall with a box of chocolates much to no avail. next audition stop i guess and revisions to his current version of strategy.
4:50pm..i call my hungarian cab driver who got me here in the morning for my ride back to the airport. the plane that i almost missed is delayed..so i make it; after the now often 'random' detailed security check that i always qualify for.
bellevue, washington to beaverton, oregon to boise, idaho and back in 24 hours; what a eventful fun experience...so many searching for something other than their routine, people with dark sides, rich personalities..a perspective glimpse into the pulse of contemporary american society.
Posted by ananth at 12:37 AM | Comments (0)
February 18, 2005
beaverton, oregon - eating bibimbap
deliverying a ugly seventh month old shih tzu pup that shon paid $450 for his mom; we were treated to some really good home cooked vegetarian bibimbap~ with a swanky gochujang (red pepper paste mellowed with lime juice and vinegar). bibimbap is one of the few korean hot vegetarian dishes. most of the cuisine seems to be cold with lot of pickled stuff...kimchi especially.
Posted by ananth at 12:21 AM | Comments (0)
February 06, 2005
whistler, canada - drinking kokanee beer
exactly 4 hours to the minute from seattle; whistler lies in a valley of snow capped peaks; the crown jewels for ski runs being the mountains of whistler and blackcomb. the green runs that i ski are long and there are plenty of them. taking the red gondola up blackcomb, skiing down ponytrail, papoose and bear cub runs; it was awesome... bummer though~ couldnt graduate to the blue runs yet :(
drinking kokanee beer while hottubbing; long "hard" days of skiing and relaxing by the fire; losing money in poker~ (when you have 12 people..patience runs low and the temptation to go all in is too much...:)
the de marco brothers cooked awesome food; lesters, mahlums and hanni man cleaned up in poker that chris, i and ben funded. as with the tradition; one of the nights was at sushi village where we feasted..(tofu here..)..and downed sake bombs (cider instead of beer) and legendary sake margaritas (delicious...)
the sea-to-sky is being widened in lieu of the winter olympics in 2010;...talking to a local volunteer at the info center in the village; she said some people complained about the olympics..that their five year old daughters birthday falls the same weekend..how will the extended family come up because of the highway restrictions? or there was another who was worried about his kitchen painting that he was planning to do (in 2010..ahem)? wow..i cant believe that people would pass a once in a lifetime global event like this for these reasons... NIMBY's thats what they are called said ben..interesting!!! gimme some valid pains dammit..like waste of money, too many facilities etc etc.....
Posted by ananth at 06:16 PM | Comments (0)