My interview with Ry Russo-Young is now online at The Film Panel Notetaker. Click on the picture of Ry below, and it will take you directly to the interview.
I plan on starting to lay out the zine soon, but I don't know if I'll have a chance to start before I leave for Austin. I have an incredibly busy week ahead of me as I also begin to coordinate to shoot the new interviews for Are You From Bingo? DVD.
They did show up today, and I was outmatched. They had legal counsel. All I had was a packet on how to represent myself. My main argument was that they gave me no written warning prior to my termination.
The Bad:
According to Wegmans' employment policy, if I don't deliver good customer service, they reserve the right to terminate my contract at any time. I don't recall reading anything of the sort. I imagine I did, but it was probably a long time ago when I read it.
The complaint the prompted my termination involved me throwing a package of cookies. Apparently, they had asked me to bag the cookies seperately, and I didn't want to, so I threw them.
BULLSHIT. The customers in question behaved in a very patronizing manner toward me, I'll admit I behaved inappropriately. I was hesitant about packaging the cookies in a seperate bag because I felt they did not need a seperate bag. But I threw it at them? Puh-leeze.
When counsel made their closing argument, they said that I represented myself poorly, and that if I was in a bad mood that day, I shouldn't have showed up. I was tired, but I didn't show up in a bad mood.
The Good:
The original reply by Wegmans stated that I had recieved three warnings dating back to July 7, 2007. In fact, two of the "warnings" stated on their claim were, in fact, "conversation notes". I mentioned that I had recieved a warning on November 10, 2006, and that I had recieved no other warnings in writing prior to my termination. The judge asked my ex-supervisor if "conversation notes" were the same as a warning. The supervisor said "no".
When I initially filed for unemployment, I put "discharged/let go" rather than "fired". Oops! At least I was allowed to admit to making a mistake, and I did.
The judge asked my former supervisor if the company had a department where I could file a grievance and an appeal. My ex-supervisor was reluctant to admit it, but he said "no".
I will not know for sure the verdict for at least a couple of weeks. As I mentioned, though, that they had legal counsel, and I felt that they were at an unfair advantage. I did my best to represent myself, but I was very nervous. With the money they spent on legal counsel, they might as well just given me unemployment.
Obviously, I'm hoping for the best, but if they rule against me, I'm not going to file for an appeal. All I know is that I made a point to be honest, and had a chance to tell the judge that I didn't lie (which was one of the accusations). If I don't win this, I can always be comforted with the old rule of karma: What goes around, comes around.
This weekend, I'm going to start preparing for an interview I'm conducting next week for The Film Panel Notetaker and my zine. Also, I have the Patti Smith documentary Dream of Life coming this weekend, so I'm looking forward to watching that as well. And of course, tomorrow night, the final show of Late Night With Conan O' Brien. I'll post more about that in the morning.
Mid-last week, I sent a letter to a married couple who played on the soundtrack to Are You From Bingo?, asking if they could take me in. I got an e-mail response this morning saying they could not. Oh well. My Craigslist endeavors haven't fared much better. Most of the responses I've gotten have pointed me toward certain resources, but no direct offers. And then there's this gem:
Hi Erin my name is _____, I mean you no disrespect by asking this but wondered if you might into fulfilling my fantasy. I own several nice rental properties around the college. I have always wanted to give a woman like you an apartment of her own for free. Meaning the only thing you would have to pay for is cable if you wanted it. In return she takes care of me physically and I am sure you know what I mean. It is my fantasy. I am mid forties ,single,clean,safe and discreet. If your interested send me an email or call me anytime at 315-XXX-XXXXTHANKS ____
Uh, no thank you.
Maybe I should look into other options. I'm not that comfortable staying with people I don't know, unless I come to them through someone else, like this person. I've had some luck looking for Carpools, but I'd have to get up an extra hour early. Still, better than nothing.
I'll doing some work this week. From the Shooting People I placement I made last week, I was able to snare one person who was looking for updates. I'll also be watching my 90 year old Grandmother while my father goes away.
Today I went to Ithaca again, because it was supposed to be a nice day, and we haven't had too many of those lately. After weeks of being cramped and landlocked by the weather, it was nice to get away, even if it was only for the day. Not only was it a nice day, the sun was out and there was no wind whatsoever.
While I was there, I took a lot of pictures that will eventually appear in my "Ithaca Travel Guide" that will appear in my zine.
This is the Fall Creek Gorge. I was hoping to get a beautiful picture with the water falling, but I forgot that it's February. Even though it's ice, I think it's beautiful anyway.
Fall Creek Pictures. When I lived here, I would go here to see movies. My viewing of Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes at this theater was a memorable one. More recently, I shot a YouTube video here:
This is Gimme! Coffee. The shutter on my camera is crappy (by design, not damage), so I wasn't able to get a good "action" picture of the barista. Anyway, if Gimme! Coffee doesn't wake you up, nothing will.
Later I came back to the Commons, and decided to go into Petrune to take some pictures. The owner came up and asked me why I was taking pictures. I told her for my blog. Meaning this blog. Which means she might be reading it now, since I gave her the URL. Actually, she was reading it on the way out. Here's one of the pictures I snapped here:
I snapped a few more pictures at other places, then I went off to the Ithaca Mall, then Wegmans.
As I was walking around downtown, I thought, "Gee, wouldn't it be nice for Ithaca to have its own film festival? Ithaca is a great location for one...actually, I've thought about it quite a bit. I daydreamed about how I would go about obtaining sponsorship. Get local people behind it, then look elsewhere.
I'm looking forward to this weekend, if mainly because it's supposed to be in the forties. I'll be thinking about SXSW, but also the potential documentary I thought about yesterday. Off to finish the Tom Petty documentary!
Ra Ra Riot were terrific. I took many pictures, but ¾ of them were blurry. I still might post a few of the pictures, though. Guitarist Milo Bonacci said, "It's weird being on stage here. I used to come here and watch movies," he said of performing at the Smith Opera House. It was weird to hear people discuss The Animal Collective in Geneva, of all places. Before the show, I stopped at Parker's and drank two Smirnoff Ices. Shut up. Shut. Up.
Today was really nice- 45 degrees outside -and I took two walks. One was my "normal" walking route, the other an extended, longer route. It's supposed to be cold and snowy again this week, but I hope there are more mild days like today, even if the temps are in the 30s. It would be nice to drive to be able to drive to Ithaca again.
Later in the afternoon, I got to work on my zine again. I began work on it back in October, following the unceremonious exit from my job. After I set up this blog and got hired at my temp job, it sort of fell by the wayside. Today I finished an essay about my trip to the Woodstock Film Festival that I started writing back in November. I also transcribed a text message conversation between me and my sister that relates to the essay that I will publish as a "sidebar".
Last weekend, I checked out the movie Frost/Nixon, which was AWESOME. Later on in the week, I watched one of Ron Howard's early directorial efforts, a TV Movie titled Cotton Candy:
Charles Martin Smith (who previously worked with Ron Howard on American Graffiti) plays a high school senior who decides to put together a band after he gets the brush-off from the lead singer of their eventual rival band, Rapid Fire. Like all good Ron Howard movies, it features his brother, Clint.
IMO, I found the Mean Girls-style rivalry between the two bands a little unrealistic. Any "Battle of the Bands" is competitive, but who really gets that vicious? Other than the pretty boy front man, I don't see how Rapid Fire would have a following, since they play the worst version of "I Shot the Sheriff" EVER. But overall, it's a sweet entertaining fluff of cotton candy.
