ever yak while on the job?

i have.

last week. on a shoot. here's the story:

last monday thru thursday, i had the good fortune of being on a shoot in sandusky, ohio. monday was our final walk-through and pre-pro meeting so a pretty light day. that night was the 24 finale and the client invited the folks from the agency (about 6 people) and the director and AD over to her house to watch the 2 hour shitstorm.

i hate that show, so i elected to sit outside with the creative director and talk shop, life, cigars, sex and all other things. NOTE - for those outside the biz, its kind of rare to see an account guy like me hanging solo with the chief creative officer of an agency. for some reason, its like oil and water or something.

anyway, the clients husband is a wine fanatic and had the whole evening planned out. i can't for the life of me remember a goddam single one, because as a group, we put away 7 or 8 bottles. 2 of which were split by the creative director and me. which was already on top of the 2 bottles of wine we split over dinner. so i was super fucked up.

while driving back, i decided we needed a nightcap so a few of us went to a local dive called the thirsty pony. i sure as fuck didn't need the two beers i had there.

so the night ends. i get back to the room (which i had to share to save costs by the way), drank some water and passed out. woke up a bit hungover, but after a shower i was ready to start.

tuesday, we were shooting for the new ride this season, Skyhawk. good ride. not a coaster, but the biggest and fastest swing ride in the world. surprisingly good. anyway, i had a good greasy mcmuffin and like i said was feeling pretty good. dog tired, but no headache or anything.

so the director asks for a couple fill-in riders to get a shot. which, fortunately with this client, is one of the jobs of the account guy. i get on. ride 7 times in a row and get off like a champ. still dog tired but feeling okay. so i sit down on a bench right by the ride.

i think that was my mistake. i sat there and watched the ride go back and forth. 60 miles and hour, high as shit...120 feet at the apex. back and forth.

fuck me. here comes the mouth waters. swallow. swallow. swallow. mother fucker. get up and go to the bathroom which was near by, thankfully. start to blow right inside the door and manage to get it into a trashcan.

i don't think i've ever puked on wine, but its just as purple the next day. unless you're downing white wine, i guess. blew a couple more times in a toilet and luckily managed to avoid soiling any of my clothes.

so i'm good, right? not so quick. now having an empty stomach and assumably yak breath, i decide to eat some fruit and drink some water. i figured the worst has past and i wanted something lite.

for some goddamn reason, that came up about an hour later. again, i was able to distance myself from the others on the shoot by "going to my car to grab something" and avoided embarrasment. and again, three separate heaves and again, nothing on my clothes.

how the fuck i managed this and still functioned, i don't know. and what the fuck was up with my yakking anyway? i don't think i've gotten sick from too much liquor since i almost lost my fiance to a belligerent asshole from my past.

i'm offended

why doesn't anyone else put a picture of themselves with their id's? like on my friend's site, i know the bulk of the people that correspond, but i'd love a pic to make sure i know which poster is j and which is leland and so forth. i hate reading and figuring things out in context. pix make it so much easier. why do you think i like comics? who needs a full paragraph explaining how someone feels when their superhero girlfriend gets stabbed through the chest with a sai, when all you gotta do is look at a nice drawing?

going once...going twice...SOLD!

this might be better than calvin pissing on things.

i was looking on ebay for a royals fan who seemingly sold his loyalty. it went for $200+ or so. the wife called yesterday morning after hearing this on the radio. why the hell didn't i think of that? i can't find the listing since the auction is over, but apparently, the winning bidder got help the seller choose his new team. what a great idea. hell...i have a kevin seitzer rookie card i could have thrown in to sweeten the deal!

total exhaution

i don't think i could honestly say i've felt mentally exhausted before. but i'm totally wiped. i've been on the go for 2-3 months now while we've been creating ads for Cedar Point and Worlds of Fun. I've been to LA once, KC 4 times, Sandusky, OH 4 times since mid-Feb. And more trips already planned in the near future.

in this span, we created 9 tv commercials and 4 radio spots for CP, 3 tv and 3 radio spots for WOF - and that doesn't even mention the third park in the group, Geauga Lake, whose 2 TV and 2 radio spots i barely touched. that's a ton of work. add a lot of print work for CP and a little bit for WOF, and i'm kaput. in fact, i'd say that's more broadcast advertising i've managed in 3 months than i had worked on in the past 5 years. it's amazing that we pulled it off.

unfortunately, the client did not choose to pay talent fees to use the spots online, so you can only view 2 of them....one at cedarpoint.com and the other at worldsoffun.com.

although it was a lot of work and i'm tired as shit right now, i'm happy to be working on amusement parks. its not the most creative work...we'll probably win a couple of "brass rings" instead of pencils (amusement park awards vs. ad industry awards), but it is rewarding work. i don't feel like an agency dirtbag trying to sell the public things they don't want. who doesn't like roller coasters? its not a hard sell at all.