what do you do ...?

[Joao Encarnado]

Well, I tried to be a computer programmer but started as a painter but that didn't go well so I ended in a paint factory. Later I worked on an office were I kind of co-managed a small truck fleet.
After that I went to a printing factory for the pre-press area. At first I did the designs on the computer but the printing agency boom happened and ended getting their work, fix it and send it to the press.
Some problems with the boss made me leave and enter in another but much smaller printing factory were I do much more than I did before. In this one I print on a Xerox machine, fix other people work, make quality versions of other people ideas, copy other people work and do some finishing work like folding, glueing, wing wire...
I tried to go to another type of job but in Portugal that is near impossible in this days.

Now music... I tried to play guitar but my arm does not want to remember were to move so I went after music videogames. I can play "medium" with a plastic guitar (I hated drums and keyboard is not as easy as I thought since I can type pretty fast on a computer keyboard). I think I manage to be OK in Singstar but my voice is a no (maybe good for a black/death/etc metal were almost no one can understand what they sing). Last try with the real thing (guitar/bass) was also on a videogame with rocksmith. Some musics are easy, some aren't, but I don't train because it does not provide me food.

 

[ConsiderMeMilesDavis]

A little more about my night job here, if you are interested.

Alan, your images are absolutely STUNNING (and I use that word sparingly). I'm seriously eying prints of "Cheri's Sun" and "The Roots of Life." Just have to wait to A) Win the lottery, or B) Get my bonus.

Are you familiar with the flick "The Fountain?" If not check it out. It's one of my favorite flicks, and includes my all-time favorite soundtrack. But more importantly, several of your sun photos remind me of the organic visual effects they use.

http://nofilmschool.com/2013/05/microscopic-cosmic-organic-vfx-fountain-tree-life

 

[ConsiderMeMilesDavis]

Man, talk about diversity in occupations...

I don't know, stuntman and funerals do go hand-in-hand.

 

[g.durand]

I've been trying to get my head around what to write in this thread. I've done so many things to make a living. The question is "what do you do?", but I can't answer that without some context, meaning "what did I do?" So I'll try. These are the things I've done for money:

Musician, construction laborer, janitor, piano mover, food warehouse dock worker, pizza chef, carpenter, cabinetmaker, furniture maker, wood sculptor, house painter, logger, tree farmer, roofer, organic farmer, grocery stock clerk, actor, theatre director/stagehand/gaffer, delivery driver, painter (artist), general manager of a delivery company, building maintenance technician. I'm probably forgetting something.

I've also spent a good part of my adult life racing bicycles as an amateur, for which I've paid in broken bones and other pains.

Somehow all of those things have added up to my managing commercial building facilities for the last fifteen years, first at an art college, then at a public broadcasting company. I'm now overseeing facilities operations for a west coast banking institution, a benign place with minimal drama. This allows me to go home with a fairly clear mind so I can continue putting paint on canvas, which boils things down to the fact that I'm really just an artist.

 

[ConsiderMeMilesDavis]

I've also spent a good part of my adult life racing bicycles as an amateur, for which I've paid in broken bones and other pains.

Same here, g.durand. While performance bike helmets are cheaper than vintage lids, they're unfortunately nowhere near as stylish. Keep the rubber side down!

 

[g.durand]

Miles--good advice, which I've managed to heed about 99.8 % of the time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Zombie_61]

...actor...

Would working for two days as an extra on Oliver Stone's The Doors count? You can spot me if you know exactly which two seconds of footage to watch.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Would working for two days as an extra on Oliver Stone's The Doors count? You can spot me if you know exactly which two seconds of footage to watch.

I was an extra in Ang Lee's "Ride with the Devil".

 

[g.durand]

Would working for two days as an extra on Oliver Stone's The Doors count? You can spot me if you know exactly which two seconds of footage to watch.

Zombie, I would count it.

From the small world department: my brother-in-law was an extra in that movie, too.

 

[radsag]

Retired Health Physicist

 

[moontheloon]

I was an extra in Ang Lee's "Ride with the Devil".

I was an extra and recorded some music for the horrible 1999 movie Detroit Rock City .... which is about some kids trying to get to a KISS concert

my good friend Tim Sullivan worked for New Line at the time and was one of the films producers ... cool experience ... got to become friendly with the guys in KISS ... who were all pretty much assholes ... all but Ace

 

[mayserwegener]

awesome ... i have a friend who is a fencing champion ... he is in record books and has awards named after him and whatnot

Tony Kestler... I believe his weapon was foil

Sorry I missed this. He is a bit before my time. Looks like he was a top US foil fencer back in the late 60s.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

I was an extra and recorded some music for the horrible 1999 movie Detroit Rock City .... which is about some kids trying to get to a KISS concert

my good friend Tim Sullivan worked for New Line at the time and was one of the films producers ... cool experience ... got to become friendly with the guys in KISS ... who were all pretty much assholes ... all but Ace

Moon, recording music for the movie has to be a plus on your CV.

The screenplay for "Ride with the Devil" was based on a historical novel (Woe to Live On, by Daniel Woodrell) so not all the characters as portrayed represented real people but the characters were all based on real people, if that makes sense.

I had previously researched & published an article about one of the rebels depicted in the movie but Ang Lee wanted the actor to portray the character differently than he was in real life. A few yrs before when the mullet hairstyle went out I had let mine grow out into rebel locks so I had the look. In addition they did some things with hair, beards & makeup to make us look like we had been living in the bush for some time. It was a surreal experience for me. I felt like I was channeling some of my ancestors.

Because of the subject matter & plot of the film it was a great experience for me that I'll never forget. I could talk about it for hrs. In my view Jonathan Rhys Meyers & Jeffrey Wright really carried the film with their characters.

 

[moontheloon]

Moon, recording music for the movie has to be a plus on your CV.

The screenplay for "Ride with the Devil" was based on a historical novel (Woe to Live On, by Daniel Woodrell) so not all the characters as portrayed represented real people but the characters were all based on real people, if that makes sense.

I had previously researched & published an article about one of the rebels depicted in the movie but Ang Lee wanted the actor to portray the character differently than he was in real life. A few yrs before when the mullet hairstyle went out I had let mine grow out into rebel locks so I had the look. In addition they did some things with hair, beards & makeup to make us look like we had been living in the bush for some time. It was a surreal experience for me. I felt like I was channeling some of my ancestors.

Because of the subject matter & plot of the film it was a great experience for me that I'll never forget. I could talk about it for hrs. In my view Jonathan Rhys Meyers & Jeffrey Wright really carried the film with their characters.

sounds like an awesome experience !!

as for recording music for the movie ... it wasn't really what it sounds like

in the beginning of the movie ... the teenage actors are in the basement hacking away at a KISS song ... that is where we are playing... we are the music they are miming to.

we basically had to go in and record a KISS song playing as poorly as we possibly could ... it was not easy to be honest

what made it more difficult was Gene Simmons was producing it ... and after every take he would say ... "no worse! worse! you sound like you know what you are doing ... these are kids hacking away!!!"

not as easy as you would think for professional musicians who work their entire life to not sound that way to automatically turn on what we worked so hard to lose ....

it was a great experience though ... and we got to hang out in the studio while KISS recorded all their tracks for the movie that would go into the concert sequences

I actually got to correct Paul Stanley as he was recording ... the songs they were recording were supposed to be them playing live ... and being a huge KISS fan from when I was a child I knew their live stuff inside and out ... there were certain little things that he didn't start to say within the songs until probably 1979 and this movie took place in 1976 ...
I knew the director Adam Rifkin wanted it as authentic as possible ... I heard Paul shouting something in the song that he hadn't started doing live until probably the Dynasty tour of '79 ... and no one noticed ... so after the take I mentioned it to the engineer ... and he was like ... oh yeah !!!
he told Paul through the talk back and Paul was like ... really???!!!

was pretty funny ... nevertheless they changed it

sorry for the long and extremely uninteresting story

what's funny is if you watch the KISS concert DVD from Dodger Stadium on Halloween of '98 you see me in the front row like 10 times in that DVD ... wearing a fedora of course.
this was during the filming of the movie

 

[Bob Roberts]

sounds like an awesome experience !!

as for recording music for the movie ... it wasn't really what it sounds like

in the beginning of the movie ... the teenage actors are in the basement hacking away at a KISS song ... that is where we are playing... we are the music they are miming to.

we basically had to go in and record a KISS song playing as poorly as we possibly could ... it was not easy to be honest

what made it more difficult was Gene Simmons was producing it ... and after every take he would say ... "no worse! worse! you sound like you know what you are doing ... these are kids hacking away!!!"

not as easy as you would think for professional musicians who work their entire life to not sound that way to automatically turn on what we worked so hard to lose ....

it was a great experience though ... and we got to hang out in the studio while KISS recorded all their tracks for the movie that would go into the concert sequences

I actually got to correct Paul Stanley as he was recording ... the songs they were recording were supposed to be them playing live ... and being a huge KISS fan from when I was a child I knew their live stuff inside and out ... there were certain little things that he didn't start to say within the songs like until the late probably 1979 and this movie took place in 1976 ...
I knew the director Adam Rifkin wanted it as authentic as possible ... I heard Paul shouting something in the song that he hadn't started doing live until probably the Dynasty tour of '79 ... and no one noticed ... so after the take I mentioned it to the engineer ... and he was like ... oh yeah !!!
he told Paul through the talk back and Paul was like ... really???!!!

was pretty funny ... nevertheless they changed it

sorry for the long and extremely uninteresting story

what's funny is if you watch the KISS concert DVD from Dodger Stadium on Halloween of '98 you see me in the front row like 10 times in that DVD ... wearing a fedora of course.
this was during the filming of the movie

Great story.

 

[Zombie_61]

...I had previously researched & published an article about one of the rebels depicted in the movie but Ang Lee wanted the actor to portray the character differently than he was in real life. A few yrs before when the mullet hairstyle went out I had let mine grow out into rebel locks so I had the look. In addition they did some things with hair, beards & makeup to make us look like we had been living in the bush for some time...

My friends and I had answered an open casting call for The Doors, at which time I had a mustache and beard. By the time they finally contacted me several months later to say they wanted me, I had shaved the beard (I don't recall why now). But, being mindful of the possibility that they still might call, when I shaved it I left my sideburns somewhat exaggerated in a late-60s style. When I was walking to my car after having been dismissed from the second day of filming, one of the makeup artists called me over to his tent because he thought my sideburns were fake and wanted to remove them. Apparently, they'd had to make a lot of the extras look more period-correct by adding wigs and facial hair to them. Anyway, the guy told me he was impressed by my "dedication" of growing out my sideburns just to be an extra.

...We basically had to go in and record a KISS song playing as poorly as we possibly could ... it was not easy to be honest

what made it more difficult was Gene Simmons was producing it ... and after every take he would say ... "no worse! worse! you sound like you know what you are doing ... these are kids hacking away!!!"

not as easy as you would think for professional musicians who work their entire life to not sound that way to automatically turn on what we worked so hard to lose ....

This is actually a double compliment. First, Gene Simmons told you that you sounded like you knew what you were doing, so you obviously did know what you were doing and he recognized that. Second, you do have to know what you're doing before you can believably make it sound like you don't (unless you really don't know what you're doing), so, again, it was a compliment. Win win!

 

[Chamuco]

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

I have been very close to ask about the background of your pics !!

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

 

[Bob Roberts]

I have been very close to ask about the background of your pics !!

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

Lol. You can always ask...

 

[Chamuco]

Well I am a corporate lawyer who works as an engineer, I have a company that sells and services printing equipment.

No I don't need to wear a hat for my job, but I love hats, why? I don't really know, all that is clear is that I love hats.

There is very few people who wear hats in Mexico and it is almost impossible to get any vintage ones.

Nice to get to know you better folks !!

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

 

[Bob Roberts]

Well I am a corporate lawyer who works as an engineer, I have a company that sells and services printing equipment.

No I don't need to wear a hat for my job, but I love hats, why? I don't really know, all that is clear is that I love hats.

There is very few people who wear hats in Mexico and it is almost impossible to get any vintage ones.

Nice to get to know you better folks !!

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

...and you enjoy Tequila.