The Decemberists: Los Angeles, I'm Yours
"Josh, come on! Hurry up!", I was sat in a car waiting for my partner.
"I have to find my last bottle of good wine!", Josh said and I could honestly imagine him sifting through his cupboards, knocking over empty bottles in the process.
"I mean, there's wine in Cali. For God's sake, part of it's called wine country, Josh!", the driver laughed at my remark and Josh hung up, probably realizing that I was, as usual, right. We drove through morning rush hour and basically marathoned our way through check-in and security.
"Do you think I can get away with drinking wine on the flight?", Josh asked me, quite seriously, while I tried to locate our seats on the packed airplane.
"It's not first class you idiot. Besides, a Bernie rep is gonna be waiting for us, do you really want to show up drunk?", he just nodded and sat next to me, like a kid being yanked from a candy store. I'd never been to California before, and I wondered if it was truly like in the movies – palm trees and endless sunshine.
'THEA AND JOSH', a shot bald man stood by the fenced off area, and we rolled our suitcases in his direction.
"Hi! I'm Alex, part of Bernie's management team. Thank you so much for coming and making this easier for us.", he led us to a black SUV and on the way into the city we chatted about his team's vision for the rally and some of our ideas. It felt really good bouncing ideas off of each other and opening the creative space even more. Working in teams can sometimes be infuriating, but it's so rewarding in the end.
The first two days went by in the blink of an eye – a mix of shuffling in and out of SUVs, meeting over twenty people whose names I'll surely forget and jotting down ideas in my notebook. Josh and I learned that the rally would take place on a large crossroads that would be closed off for the event, and that Bernie would be on a stage, but not so far from the crowd.
"Hey Alex. I have an idea for the rally. I know Bernie is big on not leaving anyone out, always giving a fair shot to all people, so along the lines of that I've been toying with the idea to bring the rally all over town.", I was so excited to finally share my notes and thoughts with the head of Bernie's team. He looked at me puzzled.
"I seriously hope you're not suggesting Bernie driving around in the back of a truck, his voice blaring through a loudspeaker.", Alex joked, but you could sense a bit of worry in his voice.
"No, not at all! My idea was a bit more unconventional. Picture this: The Grove, that white building by the Courthouse, the side of City Hall, and many more, all having Bernie's rally projected onto them. He's closer to Calabasas than he is to City Hall, but his voice and face is all over L.A. What do you think?", Alex's eyes lit up as I shared my plan with him, and I'd never felt prouder of myself and my work.
"Do you think you can pull it off?", he asked me with a very stern face, as if he was thinking about the possibility of it turning out as a complete disaster.
"Josh is very good at his job; we've got a truckload of assistants that will handle everything at the venue. We'll have to move the rally to maybe an hour later than planned, because of the sun and to improve the visibility of the projected images, but I'm positive this will work out great." – I told him and started typing away on my phone, getting in touch with a visual arts company that we outsource our tech and visuals to, getting half a dozen projectors and mentally planning which of the assistants I could trust to monitor each of the buildings.
We got back to the venue and Alex disappeared somewhere, probably sharing the new plan with the rest of his team and hopefully Bernie. We still haven't met him, and I was dying to tell him how inspiring I found him over the years.
"Okay, Anna, Louise, George, Ben and Jessica you will be on my team for this event. We've got a bit of a change in plans, but it's gonna be incredible! The rest of you stay here and help Josh pull this off.", I led the small group of people, the ones I trusted most amongst the hundreds of assistants I'd worked with, to the far end of the hall.
"Here's how this is gonna go. Ben you will get everything ready for social media. I'm talking Instagram, Twitter, you name it – I want it. You'll be waiting for my final sign, but throughout the day you'll be posting teasers. The rest of you will be stationed at each of the locations, across the road from the building we'll be projecting Bernie's rally onto, closely monitoring the tech guys and making sure nothing goes wrong, got it?", they all hurriedly nodded and typed away on their laptops, tablets, phones and whichever electronical device they could get their hands on.
By the end of the day everyone was exhausted, and I could tell their spirits were low, but there was so much more to do.
"Hey, folks! Gather around, please!", they started coming closer to the mockup of the stage where I stood at.
"I know you're all tired, trust me. It's late and we want to go to bed. But, imagine this, all of the concerts you wanted to attend as kids but never had the means. The live performances that were free would get packed with people in a matter of minutes and you couldn't even get near the entrance, let alone the stage. I'm sure there's thousands of people that would love to come tomorrow but are maybe working or just can't get away and travel to the other side of town. Well, we're about to give them the opportunity to participate too. Doesn't matter if they clean our streets or sell us our milk, if they work at the 24 hour ATM or the laundromat. This way we give those people the chance to feel the magic and get inspired by Bernie. We also get the attention of those that didn't plan on giving their attention to us, because we'll feed them the content right where they are. Obviously we could do it all by streaming the rally, I know you're all thinking it. But, where's the fun in that? If you want the world to talk about you, then you have to do something worth talking about. So, get yourselves a cup of coffee and a snack because we've got more work to do. It will be worth it in November!", I finish my little pep talk as a loud applaud roars through the hall and I see people smiling and talking amongst each other, nodding their heads, rallying up to get work done.
"Hey, Thea? Come over here a second", Alex's head peaked out of a side room which they used as the campaign central. I walked over to the door and almost peed my pants when I saw who was inside.
"I've wanted to meet you since this morning, as soon as Alex told me your brilliant idea I said 'get me this girl, get her to work on the campaign because we could really use a brain like that', but he convinced me you wouldn't give up your job. Thank you for the time and effort, I'm Bernie.", the man whose books I spent hours reading and whose speeches I knew by heart because we analyzed them in class all the time extended his hand for me to shake.
"Thank you. It means so much to me that you like the idea, even though the people are gonna pass out if we don't finish this soon.", he laughed at my remark and continued.
"That speech you gave out there was one for the books, the pure essence of what I preach and what I'll fight for once we get to the White House. You nailed it!", we chatted about the event for a little while longer, until an assistant came to say she needed my opinion on something. The day seemed never-ending, and as the night dragged on I started sending the most exhausted crew members home, despite their protesting.
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Author's note:
Hopefully you've been enjoying this little tale so far :)
Vote, comment, do what makes you happy!
TPWK, always.
T