So here's a new one... On the History Channel they have a reality show called "Pawn Stars". The program somewhat resembles the "Antique Road Show" only it's about peculiar rarities that Pawn Brokers in Las Vegas take in. If you are not familiar you can go to the History Channel web page and click on the show where you can see episodes on line. In the show they will sometimes have local experts come in and appraise items or in some cases even restore them. It turns out it's the "restore" part that gets scary. A few days ago my wife got a call from a producer for the History Channel. The word was that they are looking for someone in the Las Vegas area that will restore a grand piano for the show. Sort of a before and after thing. I'm not entirely certain how they got my name. So they proceed to send an email telling me all about the "great exposure" I'll get and give me all the contact information. Well needless to say I'm a little curious, after all this might be fun! Well.... it was too good to be true. It turns out that you would be expected to do the restoration for "FREE". In exchange you get this fabulous moment of fame. I got a well prepared speech over the phone about how great this would be for my career. Mostly what they wanted was someone to do refinishing more then restoration work. Just to make it look pretty on TV I guess. I personally don't do refinishing but nevertheless I agreed to do a little research and see if I could come up a local name of someone who would. So I called someone that I know does piano refinishing and he said they had already called and pitch him for this a week before. Bit by bit the truth was coming out. You really are expected to do it totally free of charge. I returned a carefully and politely written email explaining that this kind of work is very labor intensive and the materials are also expensive. I mentioned that it was going to be difficult to find someone willing to properly and professionally refinish a grand piano without getting something out of it besides their face briefly on the History Channel and that they may need to adjust their expectations a little. I also provided two additional names that they could try and wished them well. Shortly afterward I received a nasty-gram. It wasn't supposed to go to me, the casting director hit "resend" instead of "forward" on the email address!! It was directed to someone else in the production company stating that we, (the technicians in Las Vegas), are all "connected and informing each other". In other words, it's a set-up to get money. The message went on about needing to resort to find someone outside of the Las Vegas area. A while later when their mistake was realized I got an apology message, "sorry the last email was sent to you by mistake". Gee ya think? So... If your trying to make a living and can't afford to work for free for a fabulous moment of "fame" apparently you are in on a conspiracy! I had know idea I was part of such a devilish insider group! Rob Goodale, RPT Las Vegas NV -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090904/ea140087/attachment-0001.htm>
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