A friend said this to me over noodles just off St. Marks Place. It was just after bellydance class. Were discussing a behemoth monstrosity of a badly run Hollywood studio.  A studio that fancies its employees to be family and yet is out-of-touch with their needs.  It is a studio swimming in money, talent and ego yet it is clueless as to how to manage it.  Ultimately, they can do as they please. The entire entertainment industry is hopelessly dependent on them.  We step out of the warm noodle place and into a full force blizzard.

Friend went back into noodle place to retrieve forgotten hat. Man wearing a white apron salted the sidewalk around my feet. The patter of tiny clusters of salt crystals being sprinkled on freshly shoveled sidewalk. Wind gust. Umbrella that shields me from it turns inside out.

I haven’t laughed this hard at a Saturday Night Live sketch since Tina Fey played Sarah Palin.  It aired November 2008, during Obama’s visit to China, obviously…

Friend’s hat has now been retrieved. In the interest of full disclosure, I should probably mention that the Hollywood Studio being discussed –the one that resembles the Chinese government– has a name.

I’ve worked in and for several Hollywood Studios.  Have, at some point or another, been inside all the major ones.  What this means is that it’s not your studio my friend and I were comparing with the Chinese government — its the other one.

Mad Men Politiku is now up on Huffpo

Took the column in a slightly new direction this time round.  Please, click in and and share your thoughts.  When I say “share your thoughts,” here’s what I mean:

The Huffington Post on Bloglove

Arianna, supportively, urges us to shamelessly solicit blog love in all its manifestations.  Manifestations can include anything from diggs, tweets, wall posts, buzz-ups, and de.li.cious,’ to links and Huffpo commentary — which she places particular importance on, for obvious reasons:-)

She encourages us to tap our colleagues, competitors, clients, prospective clients, friends, friends of friends, frenenemies, umfriends (well, she doesn’t actually go that far, actually) and so here is what I’m getting at:

Part of me will always be squeamish and somewhat apprehensive about asking readers, who are being so generous with their time and attention already to go to the added trouble of posting responses.  Blogging however necessitates that I be continually proactive in my efforts to reach wider audiences.

Thanks to everyone for the commentary you’ve been posting on this blog as well as on my Huffington column this entire time and thanks in advance for whatever commentary you might post in the future — your blog love rocks my world!