City Lights

I wrote this about two weeks ago; I started it to describe the changes I went through since I moved to Los Angeles. It will make one year on July 6th; it has been a time of distinct change (physical, mental, spiritual, social, etc). Maybe it will better help my readership understand who I am; this is what makes me. The good and bad things that have occurred in the 12 month calendar has shaped me. You see...most people move to Los Angeles and change for the worst; I have changed for the better...

As far as I can remember, becoming an A&R executive in the music industry had always been a dream of mine. I remember watching Sean “Puffy” Combs in music videos in the late-nineties, and saying to myself, “Damn...one day that will be me.” I began in the music industry as an intern for the underground hip-hop group, Zion I three years ago. I began to freelance write for a few publications, then eventually branched into public relations with my first client, TiRon. From gaining TiRon some exposure through small mediums of press, I gained another client, Dom Kennedy that I would be able to push to new heights. In my first eighteen months of working as a publicist, I have done more professionally in my first year and a half than most publicists do in their first five years.

I moved to Los Angeles from a small town in the San Francisco Bay Area in July ’09 full of hope and wonder to what was next. I promised myself that I would not be running back home broke or better yet, heartbroken. I would not let the city bubbled by smog and laden with plastic handshakes break me down. I have now been in Los Angeles, California eleven months today and I can say that I have gone through a tremendous amount of changes in my life. There are things physically that have changed about me, as well as things mentally that have changed about me.

When I moved to Los Angeles on July 6th, 2009, I had slightly high blood pressure and was carrying around two years worth of poor diet and alcohol-binged body weight. I began working out again (like I once had in college) and began to drop some weight. But, it wasn’t until February ’10, when I really started to take my fitness and diet more seriously. I began to run two and a half miles with superset weights in my training 4-5 times a week as well as a diet that consisted of 4-5 meals a day of eating nothing grilled chicken and fish with a lot of veggies and fruits. Now, I look at pictures of me from July 2009, and it startles me to see I let myself get so out of shape. I am still not where I want to be physically, but I definitely have lost a lot of weight. Especially in the last four months, the weight and body fat has dropped tremendously. Now, its definitely time to tone up. On June 1st, 2010, I started a new journey; I decided to stop drinking alcohol for thirty days. Most of my weight gain was from alcohol binge, so I decided to completely drop that part of my life out of existence. I know that for certain if I go thirty days without alcohol, then I probably will choose to go another thirty.

When I left the Bay Area, I was a bit close-minded on many things. I have learned to accept people for their differences a bit more than I was able to do before. Living in Los Angeles, you see a lot of shit that you definitely would not see in any other part of the world. The hardest transition for me in the first few months of living here was noticing how very little culture there was in this city. It seemed in the first few months of living here and experiencing LA for what it was that most of the people here were not anything like I was used to at all; they were not hard-working blue collar people. My work ethic is exactly like where I am from; I am a small-town boy with the work ethic to make a way out of damn near no way. But, then again, this is the land of the lost. This is the one city where most people from all over the world move to live their hopes and dreams. But, the sad thing about Los Angeles is how delusional most people in Hollywood really are. For once, I would like to meet a Tom that works as an accountant, or a Leslie that works downtown at the courthouse. It becomes tiresome when everyone you seem to meet in Hollywood is in the “industry.” I have grown to realize that most of the people I encounter at my client’s shows/concerts are really not in the industry at all; they are mostly groupies (both male and female) looking to be noticed for very little accomplishment they really don’t have. The internet has made it so easy for anyone to become a “professional writer” or “a model.” No, you are not a professional writer, you have a blog. No, you are not a model, you are just some chick that takes pictures in your bathroom mirror. Like I said before, Hollywood is a place of image, better yet, it is a place of smoke and mirrors. Mentally, a year ago, I thought it would be a great idea to mix business with friendships. Now, I have realized that befriending someone that you work with is not the greatest idea at all.

If I had to give anyone advice when moving to Los Angeles in the next coming hours, days, weeks, or months, please do make sure that you are ready to experience something that you have never experienced in your life. If you are from a small-town, get ready for experiencing a multitude of people that have been raised with Hollywood lights not far from where they grew up. Get ready to meet some people that believe breathing smog-laced air is normal. LA is a bubble; most people here treat it like it is the new Rome (the center of the world). When you move here, please do keep an open mind because this place has a way of skewing your thoughts. Stay a leader. Do not come here following the American Apparel-clothed sheep. Keep your small-town charm. But, above all this, come here with a plan written down. Do not come here floating around hoping to make something happen. Be ready for one hell of a ride. The people you do meet that look out for your best interest, keep them close. Do not get caught up in all this Hollywood bullshit. Do not let this city change you. Keep your humility.