sta reader is drunk at wrok
–Thanks to STA reader “S.L.” for spotting
Monthly Archive for April, 2008
Page 3 of 9
Fans of REM should be happy to hear that there’s a new band-related book coming out this summer. REM: Hello is a collection of candid photographs of the band rehearsing and hanging out. The pictures were taken by David Belisle, who spent seven years as the entire band’s PA. (It’s not weird for one person to assist a whole band– the Arcade Fire is one example.) Stipe provides handwritten photo captions and the book’s introduction.
Stipe is rumored to be appearing at Belisle’s book signings in LA and New York, so REM fans in those cities should take note.
Lilit appeared on NPR’s “The Bryant Park Project” this morning. To listen to the entire show, click here.
For just the STA segment, go here.
Yeah, I didn’t think there was a positive way to deal with anger either. But the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh (we love his desktop meditations, one of which you can find here) inspired one author’s interpretation of how to cope with anger.
1. STOP: Don’t react right away. Take some time to assess what is going on.
2. BREATHE: Deeply. Cooling down will make it easier to come up with a strategy that will succeed.
3. LOOK: At the matter from another point of view. What are all of the possible explanations for why this is happening?
4. ASK: “What response is most likely to be effective?” It probably won’t involve blowing your stack.
5. GET: Help if need be. The problem may be too big to handle alone. Help can even be in the form of some feedback from another person.
Try running through these steps the next time your boss says “I NEED IT NOW.” And let us know how it works for you.
Although the main cause of your depression at work is, well, work, not all offices are accommodating to the mental health needs of their employees. Reuters reports that male bosses are five times as likely as female bosses to discriminate against depressed workers. What they didn’t report is that bosses of either gender are five times as likely to ruin your day as your mom, your ex-boyfriend, and that jerk at the deli who messed up your breakfast order combined.
Read more here.
As an assistant, you probably can’t afford Christian Louboutin’s shoes, but you’ve definitely heard of them. The famously red-soled stilettos are permanent footwear for most of the biggest names in Hollywood. But here’s a story we bet you haven’t heard: the famous red soles came about because of an assistant. Louboutin was working on a pair of shoes but thought the black soles were too dark. He saw an assistant painting her nails red, nabbed the bottle of polish, and repainted the shoe’s soles. The color became his trademark, and now he has red soles on every pair of his impossibly high heels.
Thanks, anonymous assistant. Maybe someday we can afford a pair of the shoes that you helped inspire.
Tina Fey is an incredibly hot property right now. The 30 Rock scribe/star not only wrote the upcoming movie Baby Mama, which she stars in with fellow comedienne Amy Poehler, she has even taken time out of her busy “making women with glasses appreciate how totally sexy they are” schedule to portray…an assistant. Fey plays the assistant to British comic Ricky Gervais (best known for The Office) in the film This Side of Truth. The movie is about a world where no one has ever lied and is full of kick-ass peformers like Christopher Guest and Jason Bateman. Sign us up.
The Jewish holiday of Passover starts this weekend. There are two reasons I am mentioning this.
1. It means that all of next week I will not be eating anything leaven, which means bread, rice, pasta, beer (beer!), and the like. Because carbs make up an abnormally high percentage of my favorite foods, I am going to be a very grumpy Lilit. I can’t even have croutons in my salad. It’s killing me. Please excuse any posts that sound a little snippy. I really do love carbohydrates, y’all.
2. Passover is a holiday commemorating the Exodus–when the Jews, who were slaves, were freed from their bondage in Egypt. Maybe it’s a stretch, but the Exodus story is at the core of what Save the Assistants represents. There’s a line in the Passover prayers: “Because we were once slaves, and now we are free, may we help all who are slaves to become free.” I was once an office slave, and now I am free. My job is to run this site and help other office slaves who want to become free. That is the job of all of us who were in terrible situations and got out–we owe an obligation to help other assistants, to be nice to that new girl in the office even though she’s really annoying, to bail out the temp who can’t figure out how to use the copier, to help your brother write his first resume.
So happy Passover to all of you who are celebrating, and a great weekend to those of you who are not.
Meet Stuart Epps. He’s a Brit with his own recording studio. But he didn’t get his music career handed to him. He spent a stint as Elton John’s PA in the ’70s, which had to have been insane.
Stuart and ‘Reg’ became friends, with Stuart helping the performer recording his early demos. Stuart then started work as an assistant to producer Steve Brown, who formed the DJM label and helped put “Elton’s career into shape”.
Then, at aged 18, Stuart was asked to be Elton John’s personal assistant on his second American tour in 1970.
“I’d never even been to America before,” says Stuart. “I’d turned up at the airport with Elton, with the band, to now go on a three-month tour of America so it was pretty crazy stuff.”
Can you imagine being 18 and being Elton John’s PA at the height of his crazy-sunglasses drug-abuse fame? It’s no wonder he had such an easy time doing producing work for the always combative Gallagher brothers of Oasis.
You can read more about Stuart Epps’ wild ride here.
