Funny thing is, I went several years without even celebrating Halloween. And when I did, I would be one of those guys who would go somewhere w/o a costume, then wish I had worn one when I saw others having fun in theirs. Well, that’s changed over the past couple years. I have gotten into the spirit and even worn costumes! Hahaha..but this year it’s going down BIGGER than ever with a couple nice shows to help get mi inna mood to chase vampire! Here’s whatz up:

MONDAY- Oct.26th

RED & BLACK Pre-Halloween party @ JAM JAM w/DJ Marley, Element & DJ Collage pon di mic

Come JAM JAM  in your Red & Black to tha tune of original yardman musical vibrations from special guest  DJ Marley longside residents Element & Chatman pon di microphone stand! Pre-Halloween business going down @ Baltic Room 1207 Pine Street, Seattle. 9pm-2am $5cover/ladies free before 11pm. Check here for more info….Respects..

THURSDAY-Oct29th

Chop Suey presents SOULICO w/Axium, Mr CHATMAN aka DJ Collage

Live & Direct outta Tel- Aviv comes Soulico! This 4 man DJ Collective combines traditional jewish melodies with hip hop & ragga beats. And you should check out their current CD ”Exotic on the Speaker” which features MCs: Rye Rye, Ghostface Killah, Pigeon John, MC Zulu & more…I’m really looking forward to this show, Controlbass is gonna be my selector and I got some new riddims & lyrics to drop pon di Seakkle massive dem..$8cover Chop Suey doors 8pm

SATURDAY-Oct31st

TheDanger presents THE LAST MASQUERADE w/Subatomic Sound System feat Jahdan Blakkamoore & DJ Collage aka Mr Chatman

After rocking several shows with Subatomic Sound System founder- DJ Emch here on the west coast, it’s my turn to travel east and link with tha rest of tha crew. So this Halloween nite, I’ll be rokking  tha mic longside NYC raggamuffin fiyah spittas: Jahdan Blakkamoore & Treasure Don w/full Subatomic Sound System crew (Emch, Riddim Doktor, Rhiannon, Amon) live & direct at TheDanger Halloween party inna Bushwick, Brooklyn…9pm-4am RSVP at: www.SubatomicSound.com for full info…. BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID!! Muahhahahahahaha….

Artist: Axium
Album: The Story Thus Far
Release Date: July 1, 2004

Yes, I’m back, and today marks the day-late end to “Before They Were Famous” week here at Viva La Mainstream. Axium was the band led by American Idol winner David Cook. Axium was probably the most successful of the pre-AI bands, releasing four albums in the Kansas City area before Cook made his title run.

Last time I talked about David Cook on this site, I got ripped apart by Cook fans for suggesting that his solo debut was not of the same quality as the music he sang during the series. When I said that, I had both his Idol performances and this album in mind. The Story Thus Far is a rough, abrasive, unflinching rock record. The relatively minimal production value contributes to that fact, but in several respects Axium was much more of a rock album than anything David Cook has released as a solo artist. That’s to be expected; rock music is no longer scoring the crossover appeal that it was 15 years ago. In order for Cook (and the record label pulling the strings) to have a hit, he needed to inch over toward the middle of the road. That’s a shame, given what a terrific songwriter Cook is and what he could accomplish if he could get off his leash and go back to his roots. Seeing how Daughtry’s most recent album went, there’s hope that maybe Cook will get back into his groove, but I somehow doubt a sound similar to that of Axium’s will come back.

Axium – AC (YSI)

So that concludes Before They Were Famous week here. Look for a day late Moment of Zen coming soon, plus today’s Album A Day and a few other goodies in the next few hours.

==TJ==

So I caved.

I told myself I wasn’t going to.

I told myself……be strong for once. Make HIM come to YOU. Not the other way around.

Tomorrow is Friday, marking one week since the last completely pointless, but completely great text message conversation with TYT.

And tonight, I caved. I texted him just because I could. Because I’ve missed his vaguely witty banter and our ability to connect after all this time. So I asked him how his week was going. How much more lame can I be? REALLY? But you know what? He answered. He told me what’s been going on his life. And I told him what’s been going on with mine. We sent a few messages back and forth a bit and that was that. He was a bit charming, as usual. I tried to be sly about my slight sadness about not talking to him for so long… I sent something along the lines of “I haven’t talked to you in a while so I thought I’d say hey…”

Casual right? I’m not accusing him of being a horrible person or anything. And it’s not like I have the right to be all needy and shit because he and I are just becoming friends kinda again. He apologized and said he’s been busy. Understandable. So have I. It’s bad though, right? It’s bad that I keep thinking about him so much. It’s a tad bit ridiculous. But I feel like there could maybe be something there between us. Maybe. If given the right circumstances, the right shot, the right timing…. for whatever we’ve got going on right now to eventually, possibly turn into something good. Real. Substantial.

But here I am, wanting to fly past the friendship and head right into a relationship. I haven’t even seen the guy in person since his sister’s funeral. I do this a lot with guys. The instant they begin to pay the slightest attention to me I almost immediately start thinking those thoughts. The ones that have the words, “boyfriend”, “future”, and “happiness” in them. I really don’t want to do that though. Not yet. Not now. I need to slow my own mind down and not have expectations of this. Because for all I know, I’ll go home this summer. He and I will meet up and hang out…and he’ll turn out to be a total jerk or something. And sometimes I tend to forget that the word “FRIEND” is in the word boyfriend for a reason. Hmm…

I’m listening to a band called Mae right now and I’ve missed them. Their album “The Everglow” was on repeat in my CD player all through my junior year of high school. Them and Straylight Run. Wow. I bought Mae’s relatively newer CD… I can’t remeber the name of it now. All I do remember is that I was kinda dissappointed by it. “Everglow” was fantastic because it told a story. Like…. I can’t even explain how much I was able to connect with every single song on that album. And their latest album just didn’t do it for me. At all. Now I’m listening to Oasis. A song called “Don’t Look Back in Anger.” FANTASTIC song. While I’m here, jamming out to music… I think I’ll share my current Myspace playlist. Because oh yes, I do have a Myspace. It’s not enough to have a Facebook. A blog. A Twitter. I’m just getting sucked into the social networking craze.

1) Existentialism on Prom Night– Straylight Run

2) Hands Down– Dashboard Confessional

3) Truth is a Gun– Axium

4) Suspension– Mae

5) Heart on my Sleeve- Michael Johns

6) Don’t Look Back in Anger– Oasis

7) Twenty Years– Augustana

Sometime Around Midnight– The Airborne Toxic Event

9) Okay, I Believe You But My Tommy Gun Don’t– Brand New

10) Creep (Cover)– David Cook

Aren’t you glad you know that now? I thought so.

My cousin Chelsey had her baby today!!!!! She wasn’t due for another month. Imagine my shock when I get a call from my mom this morning after my dreadful geology exam, telling me that Chelsey went into labor around 2 in the morning. She had the baby around 10:45 AM or so. They had a boy and his name is Mason Richard. I’m a fan of the name, quite a bit more than I anticipated. They were debating between naming him Braden or Mason and said they would know what to name him when they saw him. I like that sentiment. Knowing who someone is just by seeing them for the first time…a matter of seconds that causes you to pick something about them- a name perhaps- that is going to be with them for the rest of their life. So Happy Birthday Mason Richard! I can’t wait to get home in 2 weeks or so and meet you <3.

No marketing class tomorrow so that means I get to sleep in. That was fantastic news. Dancer wants me to go out to the bars tomorrow night in downtown BG. I’m not so sure I’m going to go though. I came down with a fever last night. It broke through the night as I slept but I still don’t feel so great. I’m getting way rundown and I don’t want to push my luck. Finals are looming ahead and the last thing I need is to be sick for those. It’s been bad enough this week trying to get everything done while feeling like death. We’ll see what I decide tomorrow night. Going out to a bar legally is going to be an interesting experience if I do go. I’ve gone to bars illegally…quite a few times. All thanks to Y-Town. She always knows the best places around Boardman that let in underagers. I’m excited to hang out with her this summer. I haven’t seen her in forever.

For some reason, I still don’t like the layout of this blog. At all. It’s too muddled. Or something. There is something off with it but I can’t figure out what just yet. I’d like it to be a little cleaner, a little easier to read. I’ve been glancing over some of the Word Press layouts and I like the style they offer….but do I really want to switch yet again to a different blog hosting site just because of aesthetic issues? I don’t really know. I’ve already made leaps from Xanga, to Livejournal, to here…. Hmmm…..

And in closing, some lyrics that have been on my mind….

And I’m still standing
Waiting for you
And I’ll keep on demanding
That these feelings subdue
And I’ll keep on living
With my heart on my sleeve
‘Cause I’ve seen love
And I still believe
- Axium

ETA: I just realized what I like so much about Word Press…….they use Palatino Linotype font for the entries. Plus the general layout of the page just looks so much better. There’s some room to breathe on the page. And that folks, is the nerdy graphic design side of me coming out. Right now. Ha.

Ah, post grunge 90s music. There’s really nothing like it. I find myself listening to a bunch of throwback bands from the 90s rock scene that I really wish I had been smart enough to listen to back when I was living in the 90s instead of the new millennium. It’s recently occurred to me that I was into the wrong music when I was in middle school.

I was just basing my opinions about music from what I heard on the radio– which was usually pretty bland, cookie-cutter pop. I’m glad that my tastes have matured enough that I can appreciate good, older music now. There’s a fantastic radio station that comes in very limited around BG called 89 the X. I wish it wasn’t so staticy in certain places around town, but they are honestly one of the best stations I’ve heard. They play old stuff from Our Lady Peace and The Verve, as well as introducing me to some fantastic new bands—one of such is The Airborne Toxic Event. The opening sweep of violins for their song “Sometime Around Midnight” snapped my attention immediately and the rest of the song just plods along, wonderful in itself.

I’ve been listening to alot more music from a band called Axium. It’s interesting hearing the way they’ve developed as a band over the years. From their first CD to their last, the lead singer’s voice got way stronger (yes, it’s David Cook as lead…this was way back before Idol. Before Analog Heart. Before MWK. Before everything)…the writing got stronger… and they never lose the edgy, grunge rock feel. I never would’ve anticipated myself to be into this type of music but for some reason I’ve been really drawn to it lately.

Switching gears. I got a co-op FINALLY. And this is only the first one. I still have two more to attain but I’m not going to start worrying about that yet. I found a job for this summer in Pittsburgh, which is great because that means I’ll get to stay home. I’m running out of summers to be around my old high school friends so this is going to probably be the last time I’ll see people on a semi-regular basis for a long time. I have been newly appointed as the new Web/Graphic Design intern at the Pittsburgh CLO. I suppose I should thank Amanda for even bringing up this opportunity to me in the first place. I wouldn’t have ever thought to apply at the CLO on my own. They’re a theater company in Pittsburgh and are responsible for pretty much all the arts/musicals/theater type things that go on in the city.

I had an interview over Spring Break with them. I wasn’t really sure how it had gone. They’d seen my portfolio beforehand and I was interviewed by two people at the same time, which was intimidating a little. They told me they’d let me know about the job by the end of the month. Barely a week later, I got a call from Adam- who will be my supervisor- offering me the job. To say that I’m excited about this is a drastic understatement.

This is going to be a fantastic learning experience for me and I’m really gonna be able to get my feet wet in two of my own areas of specialty that I want to focus on– print and web design. I can’t wait to get the projects going. It’s exciting and I’m already feeling a little bit anxious and nervous about it all. I’m going to have a lot of responsibility on me, but I’m ready for the challenge. I’m confident in my abilities and obviously, they see something in me that made them think that I’d be a good addition to the company.

I’ll be getting paid weekly and I get to chill in Pittsburgh for the work day, full time. The city is gorgeous when it’s nice out and I’m gonna be smack dab in the theater district. I’m really happy about this and it’s definitely lifted a lot of weight off my shoulders. The pressure to find a job has been intense all year, from my parents, teachers, advisor…I’m just so glad that things have somehow fallen into place for me. I just hope I don’t let the CLO people down. I want to do well and excell during my internship, and prove to them that I do have what it takes to succeed in the industry.

March seems like it’s been flying by. I was able to write last night, which was great. I’ve been recently dabbling in writing again and have about 72 pages of a quasi-novel in the works right now… I’m keeping this one under lock and key again. No one has really seen it yet and maybe this time I’ll let others read it without qualms. We’ll see once I finish it.

I’m having trouble figuring out where I want it to go and how to harness my own writing style. I’ve been experimenting with flashbacks in this novel. I feel like I’ve gotten it to a point where it isn’t confusing for the reader. I just like shedding light on certain pieces of history in my own characters lives at my own pace. I don’t want to reveal too much, but I need to reveal enough so that the present tense actions make sense. I like what I have so far. I spent last night completely re-reading it before beginning my next chapter. I’ll keep plunking away at my keyboard for as long as I need to until I have a finished product. Publication of last year’s novel is starting to seem like a better and better idea…. so I might try that this summer. Just throw caution to the wind and see if any agent would be willing to take a chance on me and my writing.

Today was a beautiful day, better than I expected it to be. Karle organized a picnic. I was hesitant about the whole idea at first because I assumed it’d be freezing but today was a great day for it. We went out to this huge park in BG that I never knew existed. The place is so nice. There’s a pool, basketball courts, a hockey rink, tennis courts, a big playground, pavillions, grills, and a ton of open space. Karle had asked everyone to bring food and blankets and stuff.

Our total count of people was me, Karle, Leah, Meredith, and Karle’s friends Molly, Lauren, and Kaitlyn. We made sandwiches and played Apples to Apples and Tabboo. It was really sunny out for most of the time so that was a nice change. I felt really relaxed today, a feeling I’ve been missing. We played on the playground equipment and Leah and I took a walk around the entire park. I’ve missed her so it was nice getting to catch up. I’ll definitely visit this park again, for sure.

Now I’m sitting on my bed, writing this entry. I don’t have much else planned for the next few hours. I’m crossing my fingers that Tony remembers that we were gonna hang out after he works tonight. This will be the first time that we see each other in almost 4 months. I’ve missed him being around, I really have. I’ve missed our friendship… quite a bit. I’m hoping tonight goes well. No pressure. Just a chance to start over. A blank slate, if you will.

No kidding. Magic 89.9, a hugely popular radio station in Metro Manila, has a show called The Strike Zone on Mon-Thurs nights at 10pm-2am. It is hosted by DJ Josh Strike. “On the Download” is a new segment on the show. Josh plays music which he either discovers on youtube, or that are recommended to him by listeners.

Last Monday, Axium’s Callout was played. Josh had announced the previous week that he would be playing a live version of Avalanche (upon our recommendation, off of a Biloxi concert video), but that didn’t happen because the audio quality wasn’t as good as he needed it to be to play onair. We were surprised early Monday when riverhorse discovered Callout in this week’s playlist at Josh’s multiply site. Below is a recording. Josh had very good things to say about the song, noting a liking for the more hardcore leanings that characterized Axium music. Perhaps then he will also like Bar Ba Sol, Kiss on the Neck, and Breathe Tonight? The “Suzy” he mentions at the end is also a DJ at Magic 89.9.

You can listen to the show online, and also request for Callout, along with a David Cook double header: Come Back to Me and Avalanche back to back. Check out the Magic 89.9 website for details.

So I have been meaning to get this started the last couple days, but just haven’t sat down to get it rolling – part of the reason is there is a FLOOOOOD of stuff I want to discuss in this, but I know I can’t put it all in one blog.  Actually I am even thinking about this being a “spin-off” secondary blog – but we shall see.  So please bear with me as I attempt to get my thoughts all out.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about WHAT IF – now typically that mantra brings to mind the idea of a “hypothetical” situation ie: “what if the brakes go out when you are driving – what do you do”  ”what if the storm wipes out the gulf-coast”  ”what if I mess up at this particular thing or that”   “what if…..”   you fill in the blank.  If you know me then you might know that many times I think that for the most part “what if’s ” are stupid – no one will know exactly what they will do in any given circumstance (probably talking more the major “what if’s” of our life – like “what if I was faced with dying for my love relationship with Jesus or dying for my family – or what if I had the chance to step in and be the hero in a situation but it would risk my life” – those are the things that I think can derail you because you can’t know for sure and it usually turns into unproductive time spent thinking about it.

This doesn’t mean that I don’t believe you should plan and prepare for situations you might face in the real world – but I still think there can be a danger of worry and not trusting in a Faithful Father that I have.  I try to live my life by a mantra (or an ‘axium’ as Bill Hybels puts it)  ”Expect the Best, Prepare for the Worst” – my idea here is that I need to plan for something unusual or maybe even bad to happen and how would I prepare – but instead of letting that dominate my thinking and thus leading to WORRY – I will actually EXPECT the BEST to happen.  I think there is a hint of a skeptical realist in me that battles with an extreme optimist.

So this is where I think the “What If?” comes into play for me.  I think a lot about “What If?” something great happened through something I have done, or those around me have done, or due to a team I am on or the church family in which I am involved.  ”What If?” I stopped relying so much on myself and allowed more of God to permeate my life – what sort of things would take place – WHAT might happen IF I simply was humble, loving, and obedient to God’s way – that is when I think the “What If?” becomes exhilarating and legitimate to think about.

At this point I have only touched the tip of the iceberg of the specific “What if?’s – so I think I shall continue this in a place all it’s own.  A place where you can share your own hopes/dreams and “WHAT IF”s – a place where I will be more free to share some of my own – as well as also delve into some of the challenging biblical examples of “What If”s – so if you want to keep in touch – if you want to be involved – if you want to share your journey PLEASE FEEL FREE!

Check out the WHAT IF’s Page!  I am gonna try it on a page on this blog instead of starting a whole new blog – but I would love to see some traffic & responses – also keep check as I will post/reply some of my own thoughts there as well.

Is it just me or is it super hot when David Cook curses? I know it sounds extremely weird and strange that I would even say something like that, but it just underlines his hidden bad-boy mentality that I know he has secretly hidden from the American Idol viewers. There are numerous pre-Idol articles that hint this bad-boyish charm coming from Cook, but it seems to be extremely drowned ever since he’s been in the public eye. I seriously doubt he’s as innocent as everyone thinks. Of course, he seems to be very sincere and nice, but you can still have a totally “F — Off” attitude, right? Okay, maybe I have no idea what I’m talking about, but I do know that I am not the only one who finds David Cook cursing as a nice addition to his personality.

I mean, Idol is so clean-cut and they almost perceive their contestants as “angels” which most of them are not. It’s almost like the actors on the Disney Channel. If they say one curse word, all hell breaks loose. Same for these contestants. If one unusual thing comes out of their mouths, everyone turns their cheek to sternly look at them. I almost love David Cook more because he curses and he’s “real” – whatever that means. He’s a human and humans curse, damnit! We need more “real” Idol winners out there. Am I wrong?

Listen to David Cook curse and you’ll understand. Listen to Cookie perform a cover of Radiohead’s Creep which contains a few more F-words then one can stand.

Alright, enough of this. By the end of this post, people are going to start thinking I’m the “weirdo.”

More articles about Axium and associated tomfoolery:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-axium27feb27,1,3609000.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Enjoy!

The upside of my bank account being at crisis level is that it’s officially not worth suing me. For anything. This morning, the lady who picks through my recycling bin every week (technically, this is illegal but since the city of LA is broke I don’t see them doing anything about it, and really I don’t mind. If folks want to get up at the crack of dawn and dig through other people’s garbage to make a buck or two, they deserve that money and probably need it more than the city of … wait. LA’s broke. Nevermind.) threatened to sue me.

She’d cut herself on a bottle that had broken when I threw it in the bin, and I happened to be rolling my bike out the front door right as it happened. “Look what happened to me!” she yelled as she held up her bloody hand, “I’ll sue you!”.

I shrugged, said something about not being able to get blood from a turnip and rode off into the foggy morning which then turned to rain so of course I got soaked.

This holiday weekend was especially good to me since the antibiotics finally got the better of the upper respiratory infection and I managed to walk three steps without breaking into the horrible rasping cough (although I have to admit it was fun watching people scatter like cockroaches the second I started. One guy even got up and moved to a different seat in the movie theater despite my assuring him in between wheezes that it wasn’t contagious) I’ve had for what feels like forever.

Thankfully, it’s mostly gone now. I even managed to go for a bike ride Sunday and only had one coughing fit right after I accidentally inhaled a stray bug (that’ll teach it to mind it’s own business).

Good thing I got the ride in, too.  It’s supposed to rain for the rest of the week, which of course means the entire city has descended into a panic about wet Ugg boots and the local news is doing a feature about the horsemen spotted running across the sky somewhere in the San Fernando Valley. Or something.

In other happy news, I finally got my Axium tax paperwork – it was sent out by Avalon in an envelope from PAV (both Axium subsidiaries – guess they’re using up the office supplies that weren’t looted).

Which brings me to this years “How many W2 forms do you have?” contest:

The person with the most forms wins the can of champagne I managed to weasel out of drinking!

I have 17 this year, but I don’t count, of course.

I’m fairly new to the American Idol fad, so forgive me if I get a few things wrong. I thought the purpose of American Idol was to find untapped talent. But looking at the line up of the Top 12 men I’m not seeing a lot of freshness.

Since the end of the auditions Ryan has touted this season’s crop as “the best it’s ever been.” With the amount of experience among this dozen men alone, it’s no wonder.

Of the Top 12, at least four of them have already made an album and another four have logged serious time performing on a stage. And one contender has done both.

Only three hopefuls appear to truly be untouched gems – Danny Noriega, Garrett Haley and Chikezie Eze. And with the competitive edge their opponents have I don’t see these three lasting long.

Here’s a little closer look at the experience of the Top 12.

David Archuleta

Before this 17-year-old auditioned in San Diego, he made his Idol debut singing for Season 1 hopefuls. Then in 2003 at the age of 12, this Utah native won the Star Search Junior Singer competition. You can check out his performance in this video.

Colton Berry

Although we’ve seen very little of this Virginian in the first two phases of Idol, Colton is no stranger to performing.  Not only has this 18-year-old been active in local theater, he’s performed in France four years ago at the French-American Gospel Music Workshop Exchange. In 2005, Colton competed, but did not win, on Showtime at the Apollo when the tour visited Charlottesville.

Robbie Carrico

Before auditioning in Miami, Robbie used to open for Britney Spears as a member of Boyz-N-Girlz, a pop band that got its break singing in a House of Blues in Orlando and went onto record two albums.  The 26-year-old went on to record three more albums with the alternative band Missing Picket.  Robbie must inherit his musical talents from his cousin, the legendary Patsy Cline.

Jason Castro

While Jason Catro might not have produced an album, the 20-year-old Texas is no stranger to singing in front of a crowd. You can catch a video of him performing live at The Prophet Bar.  As a drummer for the rock band Keeping Lions, Jason has opened for Cheyenne Kimball and starred in her self-titled MTV reality series.  Although I couldn’t find any albums by the band, its My Space page lists Secret Weapon Management as its record label.

David Cook

This Oklahoma-native had two albums with the rock band Axium under his belt before he headed to Omaha to audition for Idol. Here’s a video of the band’s performance.  Last year, David released his first solo album, ”Analog Heart.”

Chikezie Eze

As far as I can tell, this Californian’s biggest claim to fame is that he tried out for Idol last year and didn’t make it. It’ll be interesting to see how far the 22-year-old makes it this year.

Garrett Haley

This 17-year-old Ohioan remains a mystery. We know very little about him outside his San Diego audition and his Hollywood time.

David Hernadez

Although David might not have an album of his own, he’s been hanging out with Latin singer Jacob Madrid in New York. Here’s a video of the pair singing at rehearsal in New York. I’m not sure what they are rehearsing, maybe songs for Madrid’s debut album in which case David might be singing backup on this album.

Michael Johns

Before his San Diego audition, this Aussie performed with two bands – The Rising and Film – under the name Michael Lee.  While I couldn’t find an album produced by either band, Michel lists Dingo Lane as his record label on his MySpace page.

Luke Menard

Although we didn’t get to see much of this Crawfordsville, Indiana native (my hometown by the way) during the first two phases of Idol, he’s been getting plenty of stage time as a member of the a cappella group Chapter 6.  Not only has Luke toured nationally with the group, but together they have release four albums – two in college and two professionally – and have a handful of awards.

Danny Noriega

I can’t find much else in singing experience for this 18-year-old. In addition to his try out in San Diego, Danny also auditioned, but didn’t make it, last year.

Jason Yeager

Although he auditioned in Dallas, Jason has been spending his time in Branson, Missouri where he logged in some time at Country Tonite and as a back up singer for Shoji Tabuchi.

Now take a look at the Top 12 Women and their experience.

Right in the middle of this week full of highly amusing election snark (bye bye, Rudy! Bye bye, Romney! Also, sadly – bye, bye Edwards – the only really pro-labor candidate) , there are rumblings that the WGA might have reached a deal.

Admittedly, this would be totally sweet, but do remember that most of your friendly crew people will continue to be unemployed for about a month after the official end of the strike – it takes time to get a production of any size moving, so although it’ll be over for the WGA, it’ll still be rough for me for a while longer.

Especially since unemployment seem to be stalling me – guess it’s their way of dealing with California’s budget shortfall.

Also, there are now multiple offers on my building (all from developers, of course), so tomorrow’s project is to find a lawyer. I have a feeling I’m going to need one if I don’t want to get screwed.

Also, I still have not gotten tax paperwork from Axium, which doesn’t really surprise me.

The anklebiter (the small dog I found) was kept by her ‘foster’ home – so I still have visitation rights and I don’t have to pick up poo! Best of both worlds!

The toilet is fixed.

I’m appealing my unemployment denial, and when I got the statement from unemployment about contributions, I saw that Axium reported none of my earnings to them at any time last year. Fuckers. Interestingly, a subsidiary company of Axium called Pax did report earnings.

All of us are really hoping the writers take the DGA deal – pilot season is when I make a significant chunk of my year’s income, so losing it would suck even worse now that I know over half what I made last year wasn’t reported to unemployment.

Over the weekend, I decided to go out for a long bike ride (I know I sometimes make it seem like I use martinis to cope with my problems, but I really use my bicycle to cope with problems), and when I was about 15 miles away from the house, I managed to get two flat tires. Basically, what happened was this: the city of Los Angeles will sometimes try to put stop signs right in the middle of the road (in the lane dividers), so motorists can see them better – of course, it takes about a nanosecond for the sign to get run over, so then the city comes along and cuts off the signpost about an inch above the pavement – also of course, they don’t bother to mark it so anyone can see it, so it just sits there until either the road gets repaved or someone important shreds a tire.

After I ran over the thing, I went back and looked for it and I could barely even see it when I was looking for it. Awesome.

The good news is that it just tore up my tubes, so I won’t have to replace the fairly expensive road slicks I’ve got on the bike.

Also, I only had to walk about a mile to reach a bus line that went to my neighborhood. Normally, whenever I put my bike on one of the bus racks, I’m completely freaked out that someone’s going to grab my bike at a crowded stop – this time, I figured if they did try to steal it and ride away, they wouldn’t have gotten very far so I was able to sit back, relax and listen to the guy next to me talk to himself all the way home.

Today I got a very important piece of mail – the statement from the pension and health plan which tallies my qualifying hours for the previous semester.

As previously mentioned, we have to work at least 300 hours every semester in order to keep our health insurance – we can ‘bank’ hours in excess of 300 (up to 450), so we have an emergency pad just for times like this (although just about everyone I know desperately wants to avoid having to pull hours out of the bank).

Last semester, I worked 760 hours, so even if half of them are retroactively disqualified due to our good friends at Axium, I’m still okay, and since my bank’s full I’ll at least have insurance for the next year, even if the unthinkable happens and I don’t work until June or July (remember SAG? They have contract negotiations coming up in a few months and they’re also tired of getting screwed by The Man).

Thank heavens. Of course, possibly losing 400 pension hours is going to matter a great deal to me when I’m 105 and running out the clock while trying to avoid the jobs which will require me to pull cable 14 hours a day*, but for now it prevents the total meltdown that I was working myself into.

On a happier (if unrelated) note, last night I went to a free screening of the movie Once (which I really liked), and then on the way out of the theater, stopped by the Virgin Megastore which is closing (word on the street is that the landlord jacked up the rent – there seems to be a rash of that happening all over Los Angeles these days), and took advantage of the half-off sale to pick up the new Radiohead CD. I don’t normally buy CDs because of that thing that they do where there are only two good songs and the rest are crap, but Radiohead (if they’re your thing) seem to be consistently good.

I figured I could spare the 8 bucks because I haven’t driven the car in almost a week, which means that I’ve not spent 50 bucks on a tank of gas.

*Actually, since I didn’t get into the union until I was almost 30, the chances that I’ll be able to work enough to qualify for full retirement are slim to none.

Today’s LA Times hit me like a hammer*, and it wasn’t so much of a surprise as it was a confirmation in my not having much faith in humanity these days:

Go Here and Here

Of course the suits looted the company. Of course.

You know, if I lose my health insurance** and pension qualifying hours and have to double pay taxes because one of these motherfuckers wanted a tacky $100,000 car and a mostly plastic bimbo, I’m going to scour the earth to find the guy.

When I do find him, I’m going to do things to him that will violate every single clause of the Geneva convention.

That’s all I have.

I’m just too angry right now to be clever. Maybe later.

*I stood in the coffee shop (I’ve cancelled my newspaper subscription to save money) shaking my scavenged paper and screaming “You motherfucker!” at the top of my lungs. I think I was asked not to return. Ever.

** Crew people’s health insurance is dependent upon our working a certain number of hours (currently 300 per semester). If we don’t work enough, and don’t have enough extra hours saved in our ‘bank’ to cover the shortfall, we lose our insurance. If Axium didn’t pay into the proper fund, some of use could lose our insurance.

One of the wonderful commenters left this link:

http://axiumclosed.blogspot.com/

Sweeeeet. I’ll continue posting what I know here, but since I’m just a toolbelty schmuck, the above link might be a better source of information.

Oh, and my unemployment claim has been delayed for six weeks – about a year ago, I made an accounting error that resulted in a $200 overpayment, so today I got the “fuck you, buddy” letter in the mail.

I’m going to appeal it – although there’s the argument that stupidity should hurt (as the only way to alter behavior), I think a six week ‘time penalty’ and a 30% monetary penalty is a bit harsh for an honest mistake. Of course, the appeals process takes about six weeks.

Dear gods… I think I’m going to have to get a job.

You realize, of course, that the whole reason I work in the film industry is because in the ‘real world’ I’m completely unemployable. You know, like a monkey that you can’t get to stop flinging poo no matter how hard you try.

At least this should be interesting.

Over the weekend, the recent crash and burn of the Axium payroll company has been the subject of many panic-stricken phone calls and late nights spent rocking back and forth talking to oneself while clutching a bottle of cheap whiskey.

For tax and unemployment insurance purposes, when we work, we are technically employees of the payroll company instead of the production company. This is not a bad thing – it cuts down on the tax-season paperwork (16 W 2 forms instead of 138) and reduces instances of in-house rubber checkitis (back in the bad old days of tiny shows run by fly-by-night production companies, one would pick up one’s check at the office and then drive like a bat out of hell to the production company’s bank to cash it while there were hopefully still funds in the account. When everyone started using payroll companies, the checks, when they eventually arrived, were usually good).

Although I read the LA Times articles about Axium folding, I didn’t think much about it until this weekend, when we found out that they haven’t been paying the tax contributions on paychecks for “months and months”. Needless to say, these contributions were withheld from checks, but the money somehow just…disappeared.

As of right now, there’s some debate about if they’ve paid into the pension and health fund.

Did I mention that over half my work (and thus, over half my pay) last year was with companies that used Axium? Including the movie that I was on for months?

Which means, that although the taxes were deducted from my checks, as of right now there’s no way to know if I fall into the happy group who had the deducted monies actually paid to the gub’mint. Since I doubt the IRS cares that I had the money deducted, they’ll probably make me pay twice.

‘Cause that’s how the IRS rolls.

No one has exact numbers yet, so I’m desperately hoping to just get a little bit fucked instead of utterly and completely screwed sideways with sand in the Vaseline.

Great. Just my luck I’ll have to write the IRS a check right when I haven’t been working in months.

Since Popsquire last wrote about the Axium Entertainment shut down, two important pieces of information have surfaced.  According to the LA Times, Axium filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy due to a “liquidity crisis,” and a company representative stated that there would be a “seamless” transition of payroll services to competitor payroll companies. 

Popsquire’s perspective…

If the shut down was due to an unforeseeable liquidity crisis, it’s possible that Axium may not be required to comply with the advance notice requirements that Popsquire discussed in this previous post.  Of course, it depends on the particular facts of any alleged unforeseeable event that may have led to the shut down. 

If the transition is seamless and if people are paid, Popsquire will be happy to report good news.  If people are not paid, however, Popsquire predicts a legal predicament.  It may be the studios that take a hit because, if they are the employers, then they likely are ultimately responsible for making sure people get paid, regardless of Axium’s shut down.   

If you have any knowledge of the reality of this transition, talk to Popsquire. 

According to Defamer, Axium Entertainment – a widely used entertainment industry payroll agency — has shut down.  Popsquire wonders if, like the non-Golden Globes, this is a casualty of the strike. 

When a company closes, there are numerous legal issues, but today’s post will focus on employee issues, which Popsquire finds to be extremely important. 

Depending on the number of employees, a company that shuts down without warning its employees in advance may be liable to each affected employee for back pay and benefits pursuant to the Federal WARN Act.

In California and other states, employees may be entitled to payment for accrued/unpaid wages as well as vacation pay.

Popsquire will continue to follow this story.  Stay tuned!