After working at the Creative Arts Emmys, the company I was working for gave me the opportunity to work as a seatfiller coordinator for the American Music Awards. Kate and her friend Caroline came up from Arizona to be my guests for it.
They came up Thursday night, and on Friday I sent them to the Getty Museum. Unfortunately, Caroline got sick from something (not my cooking because they hadn’t eaten any yet!), so they had to come back. She felt better like 6 hours later, oddly enough, so they were able to meet me at my work to take a tour of CBS TVC, which I think they thought was really cool. They got to see some of the sets and learn a little more about behind-the-scenes TV production. The next day, we had planned to maybe do a little sight seeing for Caroline, but the main goal was to get Kate a pair of shoes for her dress and a haircut. We went into Burbank Town Center to the student beauty school. The prices were really good, and it seemed like a place where the students probably wouldn’t completely ruin your hair. Kate got a haircut, eyebrows done, and a pedicure, and Caroline got a haircut and a pedicure. The haircuts themselves took literally 3 hours to do! I was sitting in the front waiting area for soooo long, and the woman at the desk was really rude. She got very mad at me when I said that I wanted to wait to do a pedicure with my friends. I never ended up getting one because it turns out the students avoid doing them like the plague. Anyway, they finally got done with all their procedures, and we were all starving, so we went to the mall for lunch. After that, we spent a few hours looking at the various shoe places in the mall and picking out shoes for Kate. It was a rather long day of not doing much.
Sunday was the AMAs, and we had to get up really early to get ready and be there on time. We ate breakfast immediately so that we could try to cram in two meals before
going to the show. Kate was nice enough to help both of us get ready, and then we went outside to cook “lunch” of burgers, potatoes, and zucchini. The last thing we all did was get dressed; Caroline wore a really beautiful long dark purple gown with straps that crossed in the back, Kate wore a gorgeous ruffled teal-green dress, and I was plain in my all suit for working the event (It’s called “dress black”). Of course, the weather did not cooperate with us, and it was freezing and raining buckets, which rarely happens in LA. We got there right on time, and I began handing out the free shirts for the
seatfillers while Kate and Caroline waited in line. They were part of the early group of seatfillers that got to attend the pre-show event on the red carpet. Unfortunately, that meant that they were out in the rain for longer than necessary, and Kate’s feet got drenched. They said the pre-show wasn’t really that good anyway. They got fed a boxed sandwich lunch, so at least they had something. I got a really nice crew meal, and the selection of food was incredible. I was freezing waiting outside to escort the seatfillers to the holding area and inside, but it was even worse for them because they had on less clothes than me. Also, it didn’t really matter what I looked like because I’m off camera, but they are going to be on camera potentially and needed to keep looking good. Once we all got inside, it was much better. We were all able to thaw out and dry off. Thankfully, they let us into the venue early because of the weather. Usually, they only let people in after rehearsals, so we got to see a few of the performances they were doing sound checks for. I actually thought a few were better in rehearsal than they were later 
live because there were less technically difficulties that happened during the rehearsal. Will.I.Am had a really great performance that involved an iPad with his face on it doing the song, suspended dancers, and Mick Jagger on a TV screen. During the real thing, the iPad face didn’t work and the Mick Jagger appearance came in at the wrong times. During the rehearsal, that bit was only off-sync with the words. Also, Maroon 5 performed “Moves like Jagger” with Christina Aguilera, and I felt like it sounded really good live, but there was less of the bass kicks they had practices during the rehearsal. 
When we got home, we caught a part of the show on TV, and we found out that the performances were MUCH better live than on TV. So next time you’re watching one of those shows, don’t judge them based on your TV’s sound quality. It was a really long day, so we all just crashed in order to get up in the morning to do some sight seeing before leaving to go back to Arizona.
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