The Thing That

And this might be the creepiest way to get to my blog.

As some of you may remember, during the dot com heyday I was living the life (sort of) -- residing in San Francisco, working for a movie Web site that started out small and funky then got bought by a big corporation. It was relatively fun while it lasted, what with the promise of getting rich, being paid money to write about movies, and getting sent to Sundance to hang out with Emilio Estevez and Tori Spelling. Then it all ended in June 2000, 200 people canned and a skeleton crew of 7 editorial staff left to keep things going. I had the option of staying on or accepting a fairly generous severance package and collecting unemployment for 6 months. Of course I chose the latter -- in fact, I was so sick of my job by the last months I was praying for the end to come so I could go on the dole. Surprisingly, the scaled down site kept on going longer than anyone probably thought. A couple of weeks ago we went to see Far From Heaven and there was a trailer before for some weepy-looking indie film, Love Liza, starring everyone's favorite doughboy, Philip Seymour Hoffman. One of the pull quotes said something like, "Hoffman gives a fearless performance -- Pam Grady, Reel.com." My cubicle used to be right next to hers. When the shit went down in 2000, my boss asked if I wanted to stay and basically said it was me or Pam and that I was his first choice. I said no and Pam got to keep her job, which made me feel pretty good coz I always liked her even though she was seethingly bitter and lived with numerous cats. Anyway, watching her name on the trailer I thought, wow, those guys really kept the old dog going, way to go! Two days later I got the mass email from another ex-colleage, T, with whom I'd gone to Sundance to practice "gonzo film reviewing." He wrote:

Guess who just got canned along with everybody else in his so-called web company? Looks like I'm spending the next four months snowboarding! After that, I don't know what's up, but obviously don't use my reel.com e-mail account anymore.

I dropped him a quick note asking for the story and he responded with his customary venom:

HLYW corporate tampon-sucking cuntbags elimated rod and pam's job and decided they want to move all the positions to Wilsonville [Oregon - the home of the corporate parent]. I'd rather go back to Milwaukee and pick peanuts out of dogshit with my teeth than go to Oregon. Fucknuts.

Well, they had a good run.

T also sent me this link, a holdover from some holiday bullshit back in the day. I guess I had some good times working there but in truth I'm so much happier now. In six months I'll be 35 and, according to that whippersnapper Painkillah, that's when middle age starts. Well, if so, bring it on - my afro days are behind me now.