Yes, I currently work on a show you’ve probably heard about.
Yes, I know lots of “famous people”.
No, I won’t give you their home phone number and no, I won’t get you their autograph.
Sure, I’ll read your screenplay draft when I have time, but don’t expect me to mail you flowers over it, k? If it’s shit, it’s shit.
I know, you really wanted to have this job when you grew up. But honest, it’s not all fun and games, and no, not “eeeeeveryboooody” can do it. It’s not as easy as it looks.
… and no. The strike isn’t over yet.
As a non-artist, it’s annoying to like art and have the desire to draw/paint/whatever, but just not be capable of drawing anything that looks halfway decent. The mind is willing, the hand is unskilled. Or there’s some sort of disconnect in between.
This tickles me, because I used to say that. Then I did pick up a flute again, and have practiced and improved dramatically since. I think it says something that I’ve been playing again for 2.5 years now, and I’m still excited by my progress.
Ugh, I get variants on this when people find out I started playing violin very young. “Oh, you must be really good at it!” I’m really not, because A) I was into it, but as a side hobby, not ‘this is what I do’, and B) I haven’t practiced more than once a week or played in a group since I was sixteen or so.
When people find out I’m a martial artist and a black belt, they almost without fail immediately make some sort of stupid joke or ask a ridiculous question. Usually it takes the form of some relatively-snide comment on my size and/or gender. “But you’re so small!” “But you’re a girl!” No, really? I hadn’t noticed!
Hah, I wish they’d be that direct about their instrument-specific gender stereotypes! The closest I got was after doing a demonstration & talk about the violin to a class, recruting for new pupils the next term, having one eleven-year-old boy ask me “Isn’t the violin a bit girly?” Errr, you didn’t think that question all the way through before asking me, did you?
When I tell people I manage a contract manufacturing company (injection molded plastics and custom machined parts), they ask me what products I make. I don’t make products, I make parts that go into products. It’s not really that annoying, I kind of enjoy explaining these things to people.
When I was an engineer at an automotive company, people usually assumed I did engine/transmission stuff. Nope. It was the far more interesting field of weatherstrips and sealants/adhesives. When I explained that, people usually didn’t want to talk to me anymore.
When I tell people I take a figure drawing art class with burlesque dancers as the models, they assume I’m there for a cheap thrill, and not to improve my skills at drawing the human form…Ok it’s a little bit of a cheap thrill.
My older brother did a flute solo at our school when I was in 4th grade. After the performance, my teacher came up to me and said, “I always thought the flute was a wussy girls’ instrument until I saw your brother play tonight.” I wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that.
I used to be a cytologist, but since it is an uncommon profession, most people thought I was saying “psychologist” or even worse “scientologist.” It would take me forever to explain to them that I was neither of those two things, but the resulting confused dialogue was often very entertaining. In the case of confusion over my being a psychologist, I’d wager that about 1/3 of the people asked me if I could get them any Effexor, Valium, etc…
The thing I found most confusing was the number of people who viewed my job as “gross.” I always thought people would respect trying to fight cancer, but I guess not.
That’s apparently a common problem in Northern California. Most of the archaeologists I know working in CRM firms are constantly being asked to do either geology work or biology work by their bosses, and some of them have worked at these firms for years.
LOL Well I didn’t want to bring down the wrath upon me by mentioning Bill, and I figured how many people know he’s not the CSA anymore anyway :). Then again I guess most people didn’t know his actual role was CSA.
