Friday, July 27, 2007

Brief Life Update No. 18: Fall Internship Search Results So Far/Movie Still of the Day No. 2: Playtime

EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. - As my internship soon comes to a close, I'm trying to find another internship to possibly make up the last six credits of my journalism major in the fall. My efforts bore some fruit yesterday morning with a trip to the Time and Life Building in New York to visit someone in Human Resources at Time Inc.

Remember: during this past spring semester, I applied and was also accepted into Time Inc.'s summer internship program---I was all set to be an editorial intern at People magazine. But, of course, I had to reject the offer because I had already committed to the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund internship program. But I held onto the contact just in case, and hopefully that decision will pay off.

At the very least, I think my interview with the woman at Human Resources yesterday went quite well, and she sounded fairly enthusiastic about looking out for some kind of internship opening in the fall. We talked for about an hour, discussing things about the Wall Street Journal, my duties at the Targum and my other work experiences. Heck, we even talked briefly about the difficulty of parking in New York, and also briefly about Queens---my birthplace and apparently her current residence. I know, it's not necessarily the quantity of an interview that's important, but the quality. Well, all I know is that I left the Time and Life Building feeling pretty good about things. My instincts aren't always trustworthy, but hey, at least I didn't leave the interview feeling like I said something stupid or anything (nothing like the gaffe---although maybe a fortunate one, in hindsight---about not being committed to working for a whole summer that got me fired from that NJPIRG canvassing job a couple years ago).

I might be going to the city again next week---another interview, this time with a smaller magazine I had heard about through the Rutgers journalism department. It's supposed to be some kind of leisure magazine for physicians. Right now, I'm not being too picky, or else I may not get anywhere. I hope that's the right approach, anyway. (I made it a point during the interview yesterday to emphasize that I'd be willing to work at any magazine, as long as I was getting the experience. Obviously, considering my obvious predilections, there are magazines I suppose I'd prefer working over others, but I'd rather expand my options rather than limit them at this stage.)

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I always find it fun to go to New York, and, despite the mugginess---which certainly didn't help me keep the sweat from breaking out all over me as I was walking around with my long-sleeve shirt, tie and, yes, suit jacket, in addition to my long black pants---yesterday was no exception. Or maybe it was partly because of the mugginess---as Robin Williams quipped in his Live on Broadway special, "the women take the twins out for a walk."

Sorry, had to get that in there. I can be immature like that.

On a more mature note, how about a movie still to evoke the experience of looking up and seeing all the tall buildings pointing skyward, Babel-like? Thank you, Jacques Tati, for making Playtime, which may be the ultimate movie about life in a big, modernized city. (And of course, thank you, Criterion, for putting out this extraordinarily rich film in its usual immaculate manner on DVD.)


That pretty much sums up the way I felt looking at the buildings from my worm's-eye-view---awesome in a perhaps clinical way, but it made my head swim. Either that, or maybe the sight just reminded me of Playtime.

I wonder if it's good or bad that I seem to be associating a lot of things with movies these days...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's good that you associate things with movies because that has always been your concentration and focal point. "Looking up" is a symbol of things to come, hopefully. Working with any publication associated with Time,Inc., surely would be a good thing for your future.