Newcomer’s Orientation

This evening I shared a meal with a gentleman named Gabriel. We met in an on camera acting workshop taught by Bobby Weinapple, a man who exemplifies the best parts of bay area crunchy liberalism. In a hole-in-the-wall Thai noodle shack in San Francisco Gabe and I shared our visions of coming down to LA to live the dream. We kept in the lightest of touch through Facebook. As things would have it, I made my trek down to La La Land about 10 months before him. So it was me who got to play the role of wizened sage when we met up today at Thai Patio at the intersection of Thai Town and Little Armenia in Hollywood.

Our conversation wound through geography, up to work, finding comfort at craft, climbing to relationships, falling to raunch, and oscillating to a delightful hum in the realization that we shared similar ideas about how it was we wanted to find success in this town. We agreed that it was a bad idea to sell our souls, but that there might come a time when we would have to; just not yet. The key, we discovered, is that no matter what you do in this town or what this town does to you – you have to live your life. So it might as well be the life you want to live.

I will share with you, faithful reader, the one piece of advice from our dinner that I feel genuinely qualified to give. It will come to you by way of anecdote.

When I first moved to LA there were only two things that I truly could not stand about the town: traffic, and parking. Every night I'd drive home sighing my frustrations at the cars streaming before me in an endless parade of red brake lights. When I got to my apartment, my supposed sanctuary, I found no place where my Mitsubishi Galant could rest it's weary tires. I would circle, and circle, and circle in search of parking. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 23 minutes and not one fucking space in this block?! Eventually I reached a point of such extreme frustration that I would park five or six blocks away because, well, spaces were available. As this became routine, I stopped searching for parking near my home. What used to be a 20 minute quest became a ten minute walk home and a ten minute walk out to my car. A curious thing happened because of this new strategy, a certain buoyancy entered my step, the stresses of the day rolled off my shoulders and by the time I joined apartment key with apartment lock I was happy, renewed, and refreshed. What once felt like a punishment, exacted upon me by the forgotten Gods of Olympus, was now an expected pleasant part of my day. My time commitment hadn't changed, searching for parking and walking both ways averaged to the same 20 minutes. But I had shifted my mindset.

A Joke:
A man walks down the street and sees another man lying in the street. The standing man asks the supine man "What on earth are you doing lying in the street? You're going to get yourself killed!" The horizontal man replied "I'm saving this parking space! I was so excited to find it I sent my wife out to buy a car."

Don't be the man in the road. Leave early, park where there are spaces, and enjoy the walk to your destination.

Live Yo’ Life!

My girlfriend has an unofficial housemate named Daniel (don-yell). Almost every time I walk into her apartment, I find him and a few of the other housemates sitting in the living room shouting insults at gameshows or in a heated game of Mario Kart. If I was to attribute a catch-phrase to Daniel it would be "Live yo' life!" – he says it every time a contestant on Family Feud gives an incorrect response and starts beating themselves up. You know what? It's good advice.

To quote Quentin Tarrantino, I recently "had what alcoholics refer to as a moment of clarity." I haven't been living my life. At least not the past few weeks anyhow. Outside of classes I'm not leaving my apartment. Outside of classes I'm not working on my craft. Outside of all that I haven't done much of anything beyond surf the internet and watch tv & movies.

Film is a wonderful medium, and I could live enthralled by other's stories for the rest of my life. But to contribute anything myself, I've got to take Daniel's unintentionally profound arm-chair advice and live my life.

That said: I'm going internet sober for the next two weeks while I prepare for my agent interview and my upcoming film role in "Manual of a Weed Killer". No internet outside of email, work-related tasks, and the semi-productive blog post. Wish me luck!

Regrets about leaving the business.

Ok, don't let the title scare you. I'm not going anywhere, in fact I'm more passionate and optimistic about this whole operation than I've been in a long time. However I wanted to share the following thoughts with you about regret (most of them synthesized from comments of other's who've been at this longer than me):

If in ten years you leave acting to take up a "real" job and live out the rest of your life, will you regret leaving? Well, that really depends on how you are pursuing acting at the moment. If you are preparing 100% for every audition, and giving your auditors the best that you have to offer every step of the way, then no. No, you shouldn't have any regrets, you've given it an honest to goodness shot and maybe it's not the right path for you. However, if at every audition you only give 50% and prepare half as well as you could and then leave acting to take up a day job... well then you will have regrets. They'll gnaw at you: I'd have made it if I'd taken it more seriously, or nobody saw what I really had to offer.

Not giving it your all is a cunning cop-out. I've seen my students (and myself) use it all the time. If you don't study for the test and you fail, it's no big deal. "I could have aced it if I tried, y'know If I'd wanted to." But imagine how heartbreaking it would be if you study your hardest for your test and you still fail, or you only get a B. Getting an honest assessment of ones abilities and limits is scary, a lot of people never dare to do much of anything for this reason.



That said, I will dare to be brave. I will do my damnedest, and if I come up short, then I'll have to accept it. But at least I'll know I did my best, and that is something I won't be able to regret.

I’m working for Thai royalty!

I've got a new boss and he's a Prince among men, mostly because his name is Prince. I've also got a new employee, and his name is Mr. Gomolvilas… Mr. Prince Gomolvilas that is. I'm sure that those of you that care enough to do so are currently scratching your heads about this. Well, dear reader, it's really quite simple: the internet is a time sucking devil and the only way to vanquish it is to team up with another webophile and keep each other on task.

As I've previously discussed, the internet is the [insert name of natural phenomenon that involves lots of suction] of productivity sucks. What starts as a seemingly innocent click on an email link can turn into 11 hours of missing time, not unlike a W.C. Fields style gin-induced blackout. Prince and I have decided to put a stop to all that silliness – we check in with each other at set times throughout the day to discuss our work tasks and our progress towards completing them.

While it's still early days yet, the increase in my productivity level is astounding. In the past three workdays, I've accomplished more than I have in the past two weeks. But perhaps more importantly, I'm awake, showered, and dressed by 10 am and I'm done with work and free to see friends by 6:30pm. For those of you that work at home, definitely consider the buddy system (perhaps even three people – a tripod is the first self-standing base).

Neil Patrick Harris is my Competition Now

Yesterday was my 22nd birthday. I spent it up North with family, friends, and my amazing girlfriend in Davis, CA. It was really wonderful to get to spend the day with so many people that I cared about. I was reminded that I do have a complete life; it’s just that different parts of it may be located farther away than I would like.

21 was a really great age for me. I had my first successful year as a teacher (I taught for 2 years previous to that, but didn’t feel wonderfully about the experience). I was in a successful production of “Take Me Out” that played to sold-out audiences and great reviews in the main stage at The New Conservatory Theater. I matured a lot in my dealings with other people and I finally “sacked up” and moved down to Los Angeles to pursue my acting career.

I am optimistic about how this coming year will pass, but not without some trepidation. I can no longer be considered a whiz kid, boy wonder, Doogie Howser, or prodigy – all terms that were bandied about in my previous careers. I am at last going to be judged as an adult.

Just like Neil Patrick Harris who is now forced to prove his mettle beyond his child stardom, I will be evaluated against the same, more universal, yardstick. Here’s hoping I measure up.

Super Productive Day

For almost the first time since moving down here, I feel like I've had a truly productive day.

• I awoke to a clean apartment, because I'd stayed up until 2 organizing and cleaning the night before (sorry to disappoint, but this is not evidence of a budding coke habit).
• I attended a voice workshop from 10:00-4:45.
• Drove to an audition - realized I was there on the wrong day (D'oh!) - and got a text about another audition in just enough time to drive from Hollywood to the location in Santa Monica.
• Kicked butt on the audition in Santa Monica.
• On my way out, I saw sides for another project and crashed the audition. I met the producers and read for two parts.
• Got home and essentially finished my first project for Maxon since moving down here.
  

Not too impressive by everyone's standards - but it's something I needed to celebrate.
Oh yeah, I teach people how to make pictures like what you see above for a living.

I'm Funky But Not Like James Brown

James Brown is the Godfather of Funk. I'm just in a funk - there's a big difference. A mild depression is starting to set in and I'm hoping I can beat it with sleep and exercise.

Mostly I'm upset by the amount of time I spend in my apartment - which is unfortunate because I work from home and theoretically that's a good thing. The problem is, I'm wildly unproductive in this space. In this past week I've put in 10hrs of 3D work at best.

My social calendar is decently full - but because I don't work around other people I can get pretty lonely. I still feel like I'm making good headway with the acting which is reassuring. I'm keeping my priorities in some semblance of order.

Goals for tomorrow:
Buy enough groceries for 1.5 days before I fly to SF.
Finish the first LA-based 3D project for Maxon.
Go to the gym.