Little first glances at Alice Pieszecki. Blonde, nice body and very sarcastic. Her favorite band is Queens of the Stone Age. She mostly made music videos, slept around with just about anyone who gave her time. Saw her around at a few of Cheri’s swinger parties but the name and face didn’t complete till we met. She didn’t seem to know me. Did she have vision for a film? Did she have talent to get the best out of all us? We won’t know till the movie drops. And so we are on needles and pins in waiting, and needles and pins was the original title of this movie…..fate?

 So we all nodded and agreed and we knew the script so there was not much to worry on that account. Alice just wanted our attention, she wanted to let us know she was the boss. Benny and me and the crew all dressed up in our matching black jeans and black leather jackets, we looked cool. The set design was nice. Warm velvet curtains and gold lacquered poles…smooth….polished surfaces for the extras…..glistening bottles of  booze behind the counter….Carmen in her bathrobe because she only had a thong underneath…..we where ready. I was ready. This was the most serious thing I was ever going to do. Carmen stood not three feet from me yet I maintained focus as did she. We knew what we had to do.

“Good…ok….places…cue the rain….on my mark…..action.” Alice directed.

The music hits first. The strippers in the scene swaying their hips moving to the music just as we open the door.  Its Magdalena from A Perfect Circle. We stand in the rain just to get our hair wet and we walk in. We sit at the bar we say our lines. We mess up and we do it again. And again till we get it right on the fifth go. My cue to get up and walk around. The music picks up and I am supposed to settle on Ramona. Its not hard. I walk from girl to girl looking for her….I play it for real because even though the women are beautiful and their bodies are to die for there are not Carmen and in turn they are not Ramona . I stop and light my cigarette, click, mark, light, everything seems to slow for me, I don’t feel like I am in a movie, I don’t feel like there are thousands of eyes on me, I don’t feel out of place but I feel out of time, like maybe I am standing in a world where clocks don’t matter…. and our eyes meet and its so natural that its scary. The music just plays on and I exhale and remember to wave my dollars like I am supposed to. Carmen she is just such a pro…she crawls over and she stops in front of me. My back facing the first camera I feel the other camera getting into position. I say my line as perfect as I can.