The Unnecessarily Catalogued Fulltext Open Access Diary of an (Acting) Librarian Chapter 10

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We Fit? We Fit Not?

Day: Day of Thunders
Weather: All hail hail storm

For the past week dad and his team have been working hard on the groundbreaking report about the drama school. Succubus was particularly tense about the report, as she knows that it will either make or break her. She had been calling dad’s team again and again through her legal team, basically emphasizing if there is anything damaging to her or the drama school (in that order) she will sue the shit out of them (exact wording).

The thing she didn’t know was that the more she did that, the less dad will give her a favorable report because his work thrives on “debatable materials” (dad doesn’t like the word “controversial” thinking that it was taggy). According to dad, there were things that were originally taken out from the report now being put back in. And thanks to Succubus’ persistence, the report is now aired in two segments over half an hour instead of the originally schedule of a 15 minutes “light” report.

The day for the report to go on air finally arrived. Mum is a big fan of dad (otherwise she wouldn’t marry him anyway) and she makes sure that we record every single episode of the program (despite I told her a million times that the station will have copies). For first time in a while I sat down in front of the TV with mum to watch dad’s program. The same melodramatic introduction music played through the surround sound system as mum pressed the red “record” button on the remote control.

Dad was in his usual navy blue business attire with that warm gentle smile on his face. “Today we are going to let you into an inside view of the most prestigious drama school in the country” He said “The power house that produced generations of high profile actors and media personalities.” He continued. “But is the power running out?”

The scene then cut to dad’s voice over report and interview with Samantha Purr, the ex-archivist. During that part of the program basically dad was talking about the division of the school Board over the recent employment of Succubus and then the subsequent failed petition from high profile graduates to sway the decision. It looked at the glorious times of the drama school with a montage of its successful graduates. Then the tone and music suddenly changed. The scene changed from colour to black and white with the image of Succubus and the drama school on a title card “Succubus Vs Art: Is the succubus sucking out all the creative juice of our prestigious Drama School?” Then it cut to Dad’s interview with Samantha Purr. Basically it was about how there were persecutions of teaching staff and experienced staff at staff meetings when they voiced their opinions against anything that Succubus said, the continuous downgrading of library positions and library budget cuts, and shockingly how publicity replaced quality of teaching at the school. Samantha said, there was once Michelle, the voice teacher, was doing a warm up before a production opening with students, Succubus suddenly walked in with a bunch of school kids in their school uniform and asked Michelle and the students to vacate the premise so that the school kids can take picture on the set with her. As I watched the program, I was just shocked how low Succubus had gone to put her own name above the school.

In the second half, it was Succubus’ interview with dad. I’d seen most of the interview in the original tape that dad brought me. But to my surprise, there were a few additions to them. There were more precise numbers in between interviews that I haven’t seen before. Succubus was basically saying the same thing about she brining the school forward and dismissing the resistance of teaching staff as nostalgic. But after Succubus denied the fact that she increased administrative staff number and funding, suddenly on the screen there were numbers coming up showing that the spending ratio of school budget in the last two years had dramatically changed with administrative budget went from 40% to 45% while teaching budget went from 35% to 30%. Obviously the numbers were obtained after the interview, as I haven’t seen them before. But even more surprising was the detail of these numbers, such as the corporate program branch of the school had gone from black to red in two years and the only income increase was the increased rate of hiring out theatres and venues (which explained why Tim said they have less and less time for tech runs in productions).

At the end of the report, it was obvious that dad had upgraded Succubus from a mega bitch to a giga bitch. But one thing that left me wondering was where did dad get those numbers? That’s something I really need to find out.

The Unnecessarily Catalogued Fulltext Open Access Diary of an (Acting) Librarian Chapter 9

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There is nothing called Polite Politics

Day: Pre-judgment Day
Weather: Smoke? Haze? Or Fog?

The audience with Angela, Tim and Michelle continued to bug me for the rest of the week. I know I need to do something but with Eva Cologne breathing down your neck like an Alien Queen, it is difficult to think of a strategy. In fact she has been really testing Claire and my patience lately with all her ridiculous behaviours to teach us about her importance. At first we tried to be polite but then she didn’t seem to appreciate it so we started putting our annoyance more and more on our face. There were several times when I was leaving work, she came around and tried to get me to do last minutes stuff for her. If she was Claire, that would not be an issue, but Eva had never earned any friendship credit from me, so every time I just turned her down point blank. Today sick of being “disrespected”, she scoffed and said. “What kind of work attitude is that? Aaaaaiii never refuse work from maaaaaaaiii boss”. I shot a stare of death to her and replied, “Firstly you are not my boss, and secondly maybe that’s why you never finished any, cos you piled up too much overestimating your ability.” Claire by now is used to my honest attitude towards Eva, but still she couldn’t stop laughing when she heard that. Eva frowned and walked out, “Your generation is hopeless. What did Aaaaii do to deserve working with people like you two?” I looked over to Claire and said. “Probably because she did nothing, that’s why we are here”. Claire laughed so hard that tears were squirting out of her eyes. I felt good and left.

On my way home a thought struck me. If you want bring issues into the open, who do you call? Renaldo Bolingra!

My dad, Renaldo Bolingra is a renowned current affairs anchorman in Australia. He’s been around the block and around the clock. Any issues involving national politics, social politics, media politics, office politics, family politics and relationship politics, you can give his team a call and sure he will be there. His no bullshit and sometimes lack of neutrality attitude in his reporting is loved by the audience and had earned him a few accolades throughout his career. So I decided to enlist my dad’s help.

Turn out my dad was more excited than I am. He said the media has been hearing things about the school for a while but it seems that there was a united front blocking their way. It will be good to have someone from inside to break the defense and of course he will be delighted to be the person to bring justice and peace back to the school again (yeah right).

I sort of drop that hint to Angela during my next visit to the school and the timing couldn’t be better. Lillian Succubus had just sacked the school archivist claiming there was no funding for the position but then the next day advertised the same position on the same pay scale. The archivist was furious and vowed to sue the school (specifically Lillian) and let the whole world know what’s been happening. I gave dad a casual call and the next thing I knew was an interview was arranged with the archivist Samantha Purr.

However, as soon as someone leaked to Lillian that a potentially damaging interview was conducted with Samantha, she called the station trying to kill the story and said that she reserves the right to litigation against the program. But of course as experienced as dad and his team are, they already got clearance from the channel’s legal team and basically told her to piss off. Knowing that she couldn’t kill the story she then insisted to be interviewed too to provide “a balanced view” to the whole situation.

When dad told me that he accepted the offer to interview her, I was furious. However, as professional as dad is, my anger is nothing compared to potential ratings that the coverage could rake in. I knew that it couldn’t be stopped. I started it and it had gone out of my hands.

Dad showed me Succubus’ part of the interview tonight. It will still be another few days before it goes on air so it was an unedited clip. Succubus was in her usual “Shiny Hazel Collapsed Mushroom Look” completed with a “Bride of Chucky” smile. Basically she was saying that she was employed to bring the school into the future and by doing so of course some older staff who are resistant to change are not happy, but this is just a phase. When being asked about all the things I told dad and all the things Samantha said, she just brushed it off as someone tried to taint the name of the school and all she tried to do was to save cost while providing a better environment. Dad asked her if the school was trying to save cost why was a) the archivist position was re-advertised on the same pay scale, b) the school is giving a new opera teaching position at a much higher pay scale than all current teaching staff while the school doesn’t even have an opera singing program, c) there is an explosion in the number of administrative staff directly under her. Succubus didn’t really answered those questions but just kept on saying she is moving the school forward and that’s what she was employed for blah blah and a bad bra.

My anger was at boiling point. I said, “She’s a liar! She’s a bitch! Don’t believe her!” Dad gently puts his hands on my shoulders and said, “I know. I can tell from the interview already. Don’t worry son. I’ll make sure she looks like a mega bitch when it goes on air”.