greengrowsthegrass

This is a post from Todd for anyone who knows the purported etymology of the word Gringo.

The grass is always greener.

I just drank nearly half a liter of Raki on the rocks (look it up if you don't know).  It's 3:00am Sunday and Kristina is working on a diaper commercial. It is the same commercial for Iran that I worked on two days ago.  I played a shoe store owner in a dream sequence.  Tonight Kristina is playing a Farsi-speaking Iranian woman who's line is (in Farsi!) something like, "it feels like cloth".

Her call time was 8:30pm Saturday (tonight).  We barely made it to Taksim square for her call time after a seafood feast with Juliana, her husband Adjan and their baby Antonio.  There is no chance that Kristina will be home before dawn on Sunday.  I'm trying to stay awake.  We ambushed our agency (Respect!) today and confirmed that modeling in Istanbul is even more fucked up than anywhere else we've been...

The fact that it is impossible for models to get legal visas here makes it impossible to enforce any agreements, contracts or laws.  Even IF our agency signs a pre-booking contract with a client that defines a work day is 12 hours, there is no way that our agency can collect overtime even if we work 21 hours (as Kristina did for Anadolujet last week!).  The client can simply refuse to pay and the agency cannot do anything since WE, the performers are illegal.

Any discussion regarding the importance of negotiating BEFORE the booking or BEFORE the model release is signed is met with a series of "honey..." and "normally..." and "here in Turkey..." explanations that leave even the most clear-headed American's mind spinning.  A side note here is that females don't so much participate in conversations here in Istanbul as start them...If Kristina starts to make a point to a male about the number of hours she has worked, she is PROMPTLY interrupted with one of the above, "honey...", "normally...", or "here in Turkey..." 's mentioned above.

In the interest of chivalry (and ego preservation!) my reaction is to talk/yell over the over-talker.  Gender equity aside, it takes every bit of my command of the English language, volume and stubbornness to get a word in edgewise to explain that,working "an extra hour"  to contribute to a successful project is professional courtesy- friendly; however working nine hours overtime for free (as Kristina recently did) IS RAPE! 

  

I just rigged the hand-held shower at 1.90 meters at such an angle so as to trickle down upon me without my holding it up and had the best shower I've had in Istanbul since arriving nearly a month ago.  Barcelona just defeated Manchester United.  Mom and Dad are at the French Open without us because we have a booking in Antalya for a hotel job on 31 May and 1 June.  Major agency in Milano just expressed interest in representing us so we cancelled our work exchange (helpx.net)  in Perugia so we can spend June in Milano pursuing paid work.

With all this said- all I can think about is the fact that a few hours from now (because it is Sunday morning), Richard, Abe, Stephan, Trevor, Kristin, Shelly, Pete, Mark and Mark et. al. are gonna be arguing about whose serve it is at Waimea...

There is some GREEN grass in Hawaii!