ive lived in hollywood for fifteen years and never been to paramount

IMG_0053

some of my favorite movies and tv shows were made here like

The Brady Bunch

M*A*S*H*

Taxi

Cheers

Forrest Gump

Family Ties

Happy Days

Mork & Mindy

Sunset Blvd

Psycho

Rear Window

Vertigo

Duck Soup

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Chinatown

The Godfather

Citizen Kane

Grease

Coming to America

Flashdance

IMG_0054The Bad News Bears

Airplane

Beverly Hills Cop

Iron Man

and endless others

and for some reason i’d never been there.

yesterday someone said that we really needed about 30 to 50 Baby Trombones

and someone else said he thought he saw some at Paramount

no one wanted to go because the place is huge, where would you find them,

and how weird would people think you are if you asked them?

so i volunteered as tribute and it was super hot.  and bigger than i thought it would be.

there were bikes and golf carts everywhere. but none said busblog on them. so i walked, and walked and walked.

did i mention how hot it was today?

while it was fascinating walking down the “New York Street”, because im a weirdo,

i liked seeing the empty stages better.

they were giant and they were totally barren inside.

my imagine ran wild.

outside each of the stages they had a little plaque listing all of the movies and tv shows that had been filmed in there.

every stage had an impressive plaque. IMG_0051

i walked past the bungalows with the execs,

i strolled past the writers rooms, editing, costumes, set design

and then i saw it

just sitting there on a loading dock

and just as many as what we were looking for

but i hadnt been there very long so i kept walking around

heres the funny thing

if you live in LA, especially hollywood or the west side, you’re gonna see a celebrity from time to time.

you might even find yourself interacting with them because, you know,

stars, theyre just like us.

i walked around freaking paramount

for maybe two hours

and i didnt see one star.

as far as i know

but heres the funny thing

i turned the corner and there was the kogi truck

and i nearly fainted out of true love.

then i heard gun shots

and i snapped right out of it

but then i saw a sign

simulated gunfire

so i sat down to chill

it was hot

 

 

Tribune changes its name to tronc

tronc

as you know i grew up reading the Chicago Tribune

it’s a major reason i wanted to be a writer and go into journalism.

never did i think that i would ever become either of those things, but it happened.

during my time at the Tribune-owned LA Times i had lots of ideas.

most of them were rejected either directly or indirectly by “Chicago” aka Tribune.

little did i know that all i had to say was

yo, you should change the name of the company to tronc.

so the lesson i learned yesterday was

keep being creative, keep pitching ideas, shake off the rejections

one day they’ll say yes

tronc yeah they will