Follow Through?

I have published many personal and career goals on this blog. After the initial declaration there isn't a lot of follow up, mostly because I haven't fully executed those goals. So in this entry I'm going to review some of my larger proclamations and give you a status update, perhaps to shame myself towards further progress.

• Internet Sobriety: So far I'm two days into my fortnight of internet abstinence and I've already cheated. I managed to stay off the internet during my work hours, but I caved this evening and spent close to an hour looking at garment steamers online. Why? I have a stack of clean but wrinkled shirts and instead of ironing them I searched for an easier simpler, more elegant solution. I'm hopping back on the wagon as of now. The weekend will be a trying time, but I really do need to establish this is something I can do. (FWIW The Jiffy Steamer 2000 sold at Costco is your best bet.)
  
• Prepare Monologues for Agent Interview: I've committed to performing my monologues in next Wednesday's acting class. I'm still trying to pick them, but I have been doing research.
  
• I Will Dare To Be Brave: I'm still in LA after 7.5 months, that's got to count for something. But in all honesty I'm giving it "the good ol' junior college try," as my friend Loren likes to put it. At this point I'm committing to investing progressively more energy each month.
  
• My Ass Will Look Great In My Pants: 5-weeks in and I'm still running 2+ times a week with my in-building running buddy. This despite trips and vacations on both our parts. Let's see how I weather the next two weeks sans buddy.
  
• Slacker's Anonymous – A Short Film: Perhaps I set myself up for failure with a title like "Slacker's Anonymous", I never finished a first draft of the script. This has morphed into the goal of shooting 1 reel-quality scene or monologue and completing the film when I have a solid story.
  
• Stop Dipping Into Savings: I've been largely successful in this aim. Although I did use a little grandma money that earmarked for education to pay for: my classes. Also, it looks like I'll be getting a decent tax return which should allow me to beef up my savings a bit.
  
• Do Repetition Exercises on a Tropical Island: I'm working my way through an 8hour DVD of a Sanford Meisner master class instead of studying at The Meisner Center. In essence I got scared of the time and financial commitment and thus 86ed myself out of a fairly plum opportunity.
  
• Transform My Career in 8-Weeks: I'm in week six of the Creative Career Co-op and while I haven't completely changed my world I have gotten a couple projects off the ground (get in shape, and shoot some film). It's a really great program and if I wasn't approaching it with a mildly resistant attitude I could be making some serious progress.

Save Time, Gas, & Money Looking for Monologues

Samuel French theatrical bookstore is usually the first stop for actors looking for new monologues. The procedure goes something like this:

1. Drive 40 minutes to Samuel French (Everything in LA is 40 minutes away, unless you have to take the 405, then it's 4hrs away).
   
2. Buy 2-3 monologue books and drive home.
   
3. Read through the books and find a monologue that you like, note the play or screenplay it is from.
   
4. Drive back to Samuel French and purchase a copy of the play/screenplay.
   
5. Read the play and try to find another usable monologue within the play, so as to avoid doing a monologue that casting directors have seen a thousand times before.
   

Note that steps 1-4 can be compressed into one trip to Samuel French, but your back will be wicked sore.

However if you've got a little more time at your disposal the following procedure works gangbusters:

1. Go to the LA Public library website and search for "monologue"
   
2. Place a hold on any and all monologue books, have the books delivered to your local branch.
   
3. When you get an email saying they've arrived, walk 10 minutes to your local branch and read through the monologues at the library.
   
4. Place holds on any plays you want to pull monologues from.
   
5. Return to the library in a couple days to pick up your plays.
   

Ta Da! You've just saved about 2.5 hrs of driving, and $80 in books. Plus, you're not increasing your carbon footprint because shuttles run books between all the libraries anyway.

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!

Now You See It, Now You Don’t.

"There's no such thing as a sure thing in Hollywood" sounds like a phrase that's been uttered a thousand times before. In fact it probably has. In my previous post I celebrated that I was going to sign with BMG models, it was in my mind a sure thing. I received a call on Monday evening explaining that there had been a miscommunication and that they didn't want me to sign with them for print modeling (curious, "come in on Tuesday to sign your contract" doesn't leave much room for miscommunication). When I heard this, I was visibly disappointed and crestfallen.

The flip side is that the rest of the conversation went something like this "However, our sister agency Avalon Artists is interested in meeting with you about commercial acting representation. You should expect a call from them within the next two weeks." Afraid to dream again I figured this to be a gentle let down.

Lucky for me and what's left of my optimistic heart, I received a call the following day from Avalon Artists. I'm scheduled to go in and meet with one of their agents on April 1. I just hope they aren't fans of April Fool's Day. In essence I traded a so-so sure thing (commercial print agent) for a fantastic not-so-sure thing (potential commercial agent). I'm now pulling together and preparing monologues for this meeting so when I am asked "do you happen to have a monologue prepared" I can actually pull something out of my back pocket and show 'em what I've got.