Pitiful. More reason not to bother watching TV. On Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 5:26 PM, Rob Goodale <rrg at unlv.nevada.edu> wrote: > 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/e22c67e7/attachment.htm>
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