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you're young and ambitious and stupid--all at
the same time--you're willing to do it.
I just wanted to learn. I wanted to be exposed
to it. I'm joking about being stupid, by
the way. All that experience sort of piled up
after a time, and it's made me incredibly
well-versed in a lot of different music." After
over a decade at the Kansas City week-
lies, Blazer was ready for new challenges and
decided to look for them in Los Angeles.
"I moved out here [Los Angeles] with no job. I
thought I could get a job with my
experience. I was a waitress for nine
months--it wasn't pretty. I'd always wanted to
work and live in Los Angeles, but had I known
how scary it was, I would never have
done it. Sometimes you just have to close your
eyes and just go." With no family or
friends to help, Blazer turned to the publicity
contacts she'd made while working in
Kansas City, and eventually landed freelance
work. "I did research on a Priscilla
Presley biography and I worked with an author
and television producer for awhile. I
worked at
Inside Edition in the editing bay. I tried to
pick up writing gigs, but I was
working four jobs at once just to pay the rent.
I eventually landed an editorial job at
the
Album Network, which is one of the radio
trades." After a couple of years at
Album Network, Blazer made the move to NARAS in
the fall of 1999. "It is a fairly
small editorial staff. There is an editor above
me and there are other editorial staff--
I am just one of the many cogs."
www.grammy.com
THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT THE
JOB:
"The politics! Also, when you're on the inside
of the entertainment busi-
ness, you understand how it works, and it's
hard not to let that spoil
things. Sometimes I have a hard time enjoying a
movie because I'm into
the sound track and I know who did it, or there
wasn't something in the
credits that I think should have come
out."
THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS JOB:
"I'm good at what I do and I'm comfortable
doing it. I think very few
people find the one thing in life they're
really good at, but I found that
thing. I like going to work every day. Even if
I didn't do all the reading and
research for my job, I would do it
anyway."
VOICES
OF
EXPERIENCE
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