Cops and Survivalists

Because I am from Florida, I like to watch Police Women of Broward County. However, I despise the blonde cop with the pulled back hair. Every time she busts some "big" time dealer for a tiny bag of weed or a handful of pills, she acts like she put Al Capone away, or Jack the Ripper. I literally roll my eyes when she blathers on about "putting away another bad guy". I realize drug dealers are detrimental to society, but she acts like going undercover and baiting these poor fools into selling an itty bitty amount of narcotics or microscopic amount of marijuana makes her cop of the year. She may not look like your average cop on a power trip, but that's what she is.

South Florida has terrible violent crime, people shooting and killing each other constantly, major cocaine kingpins moving kilos of coke in through mules carrying up their butts, in exchange for getting to come to the U.S to avoid desperate poverty in third world central America, and she acts like she's doing something major to help put "bad guys" away.
Looks like this guy agrees:

http://whenfallsthecoliseum.com/2011/05/10/sister-wives-vs-police-women-of-broward-county/

Here is a promo, where she tells us there's always a good time to use a taser:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2RBT6m0LHRM

I know some very upstanding, hardworking law enforcement officers, but I don't think any of them would be on a reality show, which tells you something right there.

Now, onto a much better show - Dual Survival! I absolutely love Cody and Dave:


http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/dual-survival-2-penis-for-breakfast.html



Being a bit of a neurotic, I began initially to be interested in survival shows, just to be prepared in case either myself, or any of my friends were to unexpectedly find ourselves dropped in the jungles of Peru. Or, say if our helicopter crashes somewhere in the Andes. OR,  if I happen to be in the middle of the Pacific ocean and have to abandon ship and need to know how to survive in a lifeboat with no supplies for a month. You know, things that happen to me all the never.

So, now I've seen pretty much every episode of I Shouldn't Be Alive, I'm Alive, Dual Survival and Man Vs. Wild. If you need to know how to make a fire w/nothing but some sticks and elephant poop, ask me. If you need to know how to desalinate water with a tin can and some copper piping, ask me. If you want to know how to keep your head cool in the salt flats of Mexico, ask me, (hint: wear a bandanna, you may or may not have to pee on it, and then wear it on your head afterwards).

Too bad I am a huge germphobe. If I'm stranded on the side of a mountain during an avalanche, it will be difficult to hold onto my giant size package of Wet Wipes....

T.V and movies in the ATL

I finally caught an episode of Single Ladies, on Vh1. Ok, so the acting is terrible, the writing is cheesy as hell, but it's nice to finally see a show about Atlanta where you actually see people doing things IN the city of Atlanta, even if it's all fictional. As opposed to the "Real" Housewives of Atlanta, where they spend 80% of the filming their homes way out in the burbs, (or restaurants/bars that most citizens who live inside the perimeter don't even recognize).

I've noticed in recent years, the number of movies and tv shows that use Atlanta for filming has picked up. No doubt due to cheaper location shoots. Drop Dead Diva shoots here five months a year, and I read that the main cast member stays in Peachtree City the entire time, (the area south of the city where they shoot). Margaret Cho and the other recurring stars come back and forth from L.A., as needed.

As a result, many of these shows need extras. Having done it once for a different show that filmed here in Atlanta, it's not something I can see doing again.

You have to commit to a 12 hour day, and they pay is usually $7.50 per hour. We had to be there by 7:30am, to check in. They told use there would be breakfast, but what they really meant was that there might be leftovers on the catering table, *after* the cast and crew of the show ate first. Same for lunch. So you spend most of the day sitting around, starving, thirsty or both.

I did find the shooting process itself pretty amusing. We were to be used on a bus scene, (supposedly this was a bus driving people around downtown L.A). When I got on the bus with everyone one, the director said I looked too nice to be a real bus rider in L.A., and that I looked like I was taking a bus to Beverly  Hills.

I got off the bus, then another director told me to get back on. The same director was inside the bus, (we rode around a real bus, this wasn't a prop), and the same director was there. He sees me and goes, "Oh great, Beverly Hills is back!". WTF? I guess they just needed bodies in there to fill up the scene, whether I looked too clean to be an L.A bus rider or not.

We eventually finished up the day, (after randomly being driven around midtown in a bus for a few hours, with a police escort, while everyone on the streets stared at us), and we got to go home. A couple of months later, I got a check for the day, which I think came to like, $60.00 or so. 

It was an interesting experience, and something to do for a little extra money since I wasn't working at the time, but I don't know if I would do it again. There are more profitable ways to "temp", and I think some of the people working as extras truly think it will be their break into show business. The directors are incredibly bossy and don't care that you're there all day making minimum wage.

I don't know how people pursue careers in acting for years and years, trying to get a break. It clearly requires a very thick skin, and an ability to not get frustrated with being treated like a commodity, both of which I do not have in ample supply.