My First Subcommittee Chair Event & A Fun Way to Get Dates for the Dateless

So after some wrangling, I've gotten my first event as Subcommittee Chair on the calendar at NYCLA. It's going to be on March 4th at 7 p.m. & if you register, you too can attend. However, I should warn you that we currently have over 100 people registered for it. Thank the awesome draw of Jagger Kaye, Monroe Mann & my awesome team of speakers.

Jagger is a guy who is the antithesis of the average speaker at any bar association so when he ran with this idea & offered to get me speakers + moderate, I had to take him up on it. My goal in having a leadership role in a bar association is to do something different & make the place accessible along with relevant to our population. Since my realm is creatives & this is something that has actually happened in the course of my work (people have asked me to be their managers even though I own a film company & feel me doing that would lead to inevitable conflict of interest issues in duties to client vs. duties to my company), I felt it was time we had a forum on this issue.

Maybe I would have been more tepid in my quest to do something different but since Jagger put it out there, I thought "Not only can I start my tenure in style & build a name, I can open the doors to getting more fresh and different events in there." I demanded my participants to be themselves. I'm always myself when I go to any of the bar associations so I feel like it's more of "Accept me, accept my peers/friends/contacts."

Plus, I have some very well respected people for this that my legal colleagues wouldn't necessarily have been able to get. If anyone knows what an agent or a manager does, it's an actual working agent & an actual working manager. I've seen too many events with lawyers where no one went to the source & that's always bothered me. Who's going to be better at talking about the actor client than Jagger, who is also a working actor? I also ended up getting a great resource to talk about the producer client who is an actual working producer (along with a well respected casting director).

I'm also starting with my friends/allies & picked them specifically since they deserve to have this audience. Lawyers tend to be a hot commodity in the entertainment field & the lawyers trying to work in this industry often have a hard time finding the creatives. I also think lawyers aren't the only people who can teach a lawyer something. I've learned plenty, especially about the entertainment industry, from people who weren't lawyers but actually are producers, actors, agents, etc.

For me, it's important to go right to the source if you want to know something. Sadly, that's not how I've seen many parts of the legal community working. If I have anything to say about it, that is going to change.

For instance, I don't recommend resources for entertainment law when the people involved care more about the lawyers' law school GPA & whether they were on law review than if they have any real experience in the field and can talk to the creatives in a way they respect. I like my creative contacts way too much to do that to them.

Hopefully, I'll bring in the lawyers who hate bar associations & wouldn't bother with them but see my events and like them. My speakers certainly won't be boring & I know they care about this. That's another gripe I've had with events: you can tell the difference between someone who really cares about being there & someone who's just phoning it in. If you're passionate about something & great at expressing it, you'll make people care even if they don't know what you're talking about or could care less about your subject.

I saw this happen once in a college class when an economics professor was speaking on an economic concept. I didn't know anything about it & economics is definitely not a topic most people consider interesting (I definitely don't though I understand it in general terms). However, this guy was very passionate about it. The way he spoke made me care about what he was saying. He was also a very well regarded & liked professor.

So we'll see how this goes. I think it will truly be epic & if I get my way, it will be a game changer for everyone. Also, hope people will listen to me when I do more events & trust my choices for speakers. I actually created the event title since I'm trying to show the informality of this business, my speakers & me as an event planner. Professional doesn't have to = stuffy or boring. We can have fun as well. I'm not sure there's anyone who embodies that more than Jagger in terms of a moderator.

On another note, I saw this outside the subway station when I was going to a karaoke place in Brooklyn last month:

A few comments to be noted:

1. My husband says "The library is not for dating!" Nope, it isn't. Don't you dare try that nasty mating stuff in there! He's busted people for that & apparently told the mostly teenagers who do this that if he can't do it there, then they can't either.

So our note writer might want to pick another place for dating instead of the library. Many of those people are perpetually on the layoff list, have no social skills or aspirations to move onward & really hate their lives since they work for tyrannical assholes who make proclamations on high about when to close in the event of bad weather but keep their butts inside their warm mansions while demanding the "peasants" to risk their lives to get home in blizzard conditions.

Don't make things worse for your library staff. You try "dating" there at your own risk; don't say I didn't warn you if you get beaned with a heavy book, splashed with a hose, smacked upside the head, have your ear ripped off or live some other painful consequence.

2. Obviously a man wrote this. Or a lesbian who's got no game at all. I'd think a lesbian would be more clever in date spots, prose & so forth. I'd also think a lesbian would include a picture of herself or a link to her website so the potential date could see her picture first. Plus, I don't think a lesbian would say "one nite stands only" on her flyer.

3. This seems like an awesome thing to do to someone you know who refuses to put in any effort to get a date but bitches about how (s)he doesn't have a significant other or even a friend with benefits. If that fake online dating profile or Craig's List personal ad doesn't work, I'm sure this could do the trick. You just want to watch out for those random homeless people & crazy folks that live in your neighborhood. They're a dime a dozen in NYC.

4. This is not someone with an education. I'm not trying to be elitist here, just honest. Do any of you educated women read this & think "Gee, this guy sounds awesome! Let me drop my drawers for him right now."? I could see some high school guy with this, maybe even a guy in college but if it's a 40 year old? You'd conclude he failed at life. Even a 30 year old doing this has probably failed at life in some way. Educated women I know of would want to go to an art museum, at least eat at Chili's or some nice sit down restaurant where you'd tip the wait staff, maybe even a bar for karaoke or cocktails. You certainly won't get the vegetarian and vegan crowd by going to the fast food places.

When I saw this, I not only laughed but suggested my husband do this for those socially awkward misfits he knows who complain about not having a woman but refuse to go anyplace where I or other women will be present. I may be attractive but I pointed out that they shouldn't be fearing me since I'm married & my husband's their friend. Plus, my husband has threatened bodily harm against guys he knows for even thinking about having an impure thought about me.

If any of you choose to contact this guy & go out with him, tell me how it goes. You have to wonder about someone who creates such a flyer. I mean, did the person do it himself or did someone else do it b/c they were sick & tired of some socially awkward or undesirable friend complaining or being a third wheel in their lives? Do it safely, though. Bring your friend who works as a bar bouncer (assuming you've got one).

Another thought: if this guy is a sexual predator, he's the most inept one I've ever seen. A really effective sexual predator would tell you about his villa in some warm, island location, how much money he's got & how he's going to shower you in diamonds and furs. He'd also have to mention his occupation & basically make sure to read some issues of Cosmopolitan to figure out just how to attract the maximum number of attractive women. I'm sure he'd also be making sure to be wonderful in bed so he could create some powerful cult where he controlled everyone with sex.

Say, wouldn't that be an interesting way to run a cult? You'd better be like that mega-perv I went to school with & have a ton of Viagra if you're getting on in years but I'm sure eventually we'll hear about some cult run by a guy who controlled people with sex. A tactic like this would also be a novel way to pick up recruits, don't you think?

Now, I'm going to sit in my apartment, watch the snow fall, stay warm & amuse myself in varied attempts to avoid the onset of cabin fever.

6 Days After the Hurricane - Cabin Fever & Leadership

As we all know, Hurricane (or Big Ass Storm, if you prefer) Sandy came through here last Sunday night/Monday morning. Tons of people lost power, Internet access, TV signals, homes, etc.

The Angry Redheaded Lawyer was not one of them. Nor was anyone living on her block. Despite living surrounded by trees partially threaded with power lines, we didn't lose a single thing. We didn't even lose our TV signal & that's often the first thing to go. Last year, when Irene happened (a huge much ado over nothing) we lost our signal briefly but got it back. The real problem was the Internet & phone line. That started the ordeal that led me to the community board meeting & to call my local representatives; it probably also contributed to the presence of FiOS this year. We got it recently & have been fine.

We also engaged in prep beforehand so we've been fine with food & all that stuff. The big things affecting us are cabin fever & lack of meaningful public transit to Manhattan. I don't consider a 1+ hour bus ride to a subway station that's running to get into Manhattan to be viable public transit. I want my local subway back up, damn it!

There are also the gas lines. My neighborhood is not exactly close to the highway or way out in the suburbs but there are lines at our gas stations, at least 2 that I know of in the area. I passed by one of them on my way home after some neighborhood reconnaissance. If you have to wait in those lines for gas, you've got my sympathies. This is definitely a time I'm glad I don't live in the suburbs & have to drive to work.

I'm hoping the gas situation will be taken care of before 2 weeks from now since we are planning to go out of town & driving for that purpose. Due to the mandatory TSA groping of all people who dare to book an airline ticket combined with not getting to sit next to my spouse, paying to check luggage, ungodly flight delays and the increasing chance of lost luggage, you couldn't pay me to fly on an airplane. I refuse to get on one unless it's a private jet & I vowed years ago never to fly coach again after my luggage was in the wrong place 3 different times. Since holiday travel is a choice, I'll choose driving; we just have to make sure the weather holds for us.

Minor problems, don't you think? Now you see why I didn't do a post about it immediately. I know people who only today got their power back. I know people who know people who lost everything. Some of the folks I know who did fine even went to go volunteer to help those less fortunate.

As I'm not a brawn person & have no way to meaningfully get anywhere, I've opted to stay home & out of the way. I've also thought about the people worse off than me the second I think I've got it rough. I told friends if they were in my area, they could come here for a shower & some cookies (I made a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies with oatmeal on Sunday; I'm told they came out good & I was trying to use up eggs in case our power went out).

After it passed through, I was like "That's it?" We'd done all this prep, had some non-perishable goods & I was ready for the worst. I figured our area got off lucky & asked others how they were holding up. Facebook was a good guide to see where people lost power, pictures of the damage, get updates on friends & loved ones, etc.

In the meantime, I didn't leave my house until today to assess how our area did. Yep, I was in my house for exactly 1 week. My husband was forced to go back to work on Thursday after buses in our area were running but he considered it a relief since he could get to his branch by taking 1 bus and it would get him out of the house. Eventually, cabin fever gets to you. I've promised myself when the transit system returns that I'm living it up in Manhattan. I did consider exploring more of our neighborhood in light of this situation to do something constructive if I got bored but my husband had taken out season 3 of Nurse Jackie on DVD before the storm.

Guess what I ended up doing when there was nothing on TV? Watching Nurse Jackie. If you haven't seen it, you should. Accuracy issues aside, it's a well written and well acted show. It's on Showtime, so what else do you expect? I've not seen many crappy shows on the pay channels. The style reminds me a lot of The Sopranos so if you like that show, you'll probably like Nurse Jackie. It does star Edie Falco, after all & you see Jackie do things you wish people would do in real life.

For instance, in one episode she's in a restaurant having lunch with one of the other characters. You overhear the waitress at another table being berated by this jerky business guy. Jackie, instead of leaving it alone as her doctor companion asks, strolls over, says she's the manager & makes this guy look like shit in front of the client he's trying to impress. The waitress is so grateful to Jackie that she comps their meal.

My husband sees this scene & says "You'd totally do something like that." Probably, considering I have & still do know people working in the service industry.

I also watched other DVDs of mine like the movie Casual Sex? (a film I learned about when living with my law school roommate who'd bought it for herself on DVD). Saw The Nightmare Before Christmas yesterday. My husband & I have a literally crazy amount of DVDs; my sister once said we were Blockbuster b/c we have so many. Except we have a lot of stuff you'd never see in the typical video store aside from any of my company's films. There's a decent amount of obscure titles in there & films from earlier decades. Most films we've seen today or in the past decade are "one & done"; you see them once & there's just no re-watchability to them.

I learned other people I know are in the same boat but it still makes you feel like a member of the 1% to have all that while other people have real problems. Unlike some of these 1% motherfuckers like that Mary Wittenburg, the president of NY Road Runners who apparently went on TV and bitched and moaned about how cancelling the NYC Marathon meant all this lost revenue to the city and how all the runners traveling from out of town lost money or Bloomberg (who we already knew was a scumbag), I have a conscience & enough class not to kick people while they are down by closing off roads, diverting resources, setting up generators for the media, etc.

I do agree that it sucks those people flew in from out of the country & all to run in it. I agree they should have been told sooner so they could change their plans. But I don't think they get to displace homeless storm victims for their little marathon or use up resources that could go to the recovery effort or divert police, sanitation workers, and others trying to help victims for a (as I read it in a few places) "frivolous event." The storm was announced everywhere & surely they could have read about the damage it caused. Would these people have gone to New Orleans a week after Katrina to participate in some event that would close off the few open streets, provide comped water bottles, generators, etc. right in the faces of people who don't have power, clean water, etc.?

I will say this: at least there is more leadership around here than New Orleans had after Katrina. Governor Cuomo also wrote a letter to the utility companies saying that they'd better be getting power returned ASAP, they knew about issues and had better fix them or he'd be revoking their licenses to work in this state. That should make you feel a little better about our leadership. I wish more politicians in all areas of office did that & followed through; I'd be a hard core supporter of someone like that. There's too much pussy footing around in government & really in all parts of life. More people need to grow some balls, say "Don't fuck with me or else!" & then follow through.

At this point, I'm just seeing what happens in the next few weeks. Oh, and there IS looting going on in parts of the city that were affected per someone I know who's out there volunteering. Social media updates from people who are present (especially those you know) are more accurate than the media or what some politician says. Don't ever forget that.