Live LA Street Traffic Information with Google Maps

Have you ever debated between surface streets and the freeway? Most traffic reports will tell you if the freeway is a mess, but they rarely tell you what's happening on surface streets. Well, now you can make an informed decision. Just go to Google Maps, calculate your directions and click on the Traffic button for a live overview of traffic on all the main surface streets. Invaluable for those last minute auditions in an area you've never been.

My Most Recent Project: The Butterfinger Warrior

So the contest video that I helped with a couple weeks ago, can now be viewed online:

http://protectyourbutterfingerbar.yahoo.com/?v=5I2IowxFP

I'm really impressed with how it turned out, they absolutely nailed the vintage Kung Fu look. Props go to Jake, his DPs, and the ninja-tastic leads.

Where's my mark on this masterpiece? Well, there's a 1 second shot where the Butterfinger is flying through the air screaming. I threw it in the air repeatedly until it achieved the right combination of height, arc, and placement over the lens. When I saw the flying Butterfinger in the finished piece I felt like a dad at his kid's first t-ball game.

Eight Tips for Stronger Professional Relationships

Today I bring you a guest post from career coach Dallas Travers. I've worked with Dallas in the past and can't recommend her highly enough. She's really figured out what it takes to live the acting lifestyle in a productive, healthy, sustainable way. If you're living in the LA area looking to improve your marketing, check out her company Sage Creative.

Creative Career Coach & Author, Dallas Travers wrote the groundbreaking book, The Tao of Show Business: How to Pursue Your Dream Without Losing Your Mind. She coaches artists & actors around the globe to creatively master their business. If you’re ready to jump-start your artistic career, get your FREE Thriving Artist Starter kit now at http://www.thrivingartistcircle.com

1. Add value.
Be willing to help others. Listen well. Go see your friends' shows. Show up on time and stay through the end. Send thank you cards. Remember birthdays. Offer help and support. Tell others about a great book you're reading or a fantastic restaurant you enjoyed. Participate because you want to, not because you have to. Share your ideas, resources and time. The Tao of Show Business involves a natural flow, so if you are unwilling to give things away, you actually block the natural flow of things. How can you expect people to help you when you don't first help others? Don't be the person who only contacts others when you need a favor. Stay in consistent communication so asking for help is no big deal, and receiving it is easy. Add value and increase the value of your day-to-day life.

2. Be authentic.
Stop worrying about what casting directors or agents are looking for. They're looking for you, so just be yourself. Be authentically you, so that you will easily find your people. Be you and make everyone's job a little easier. My client, Justine, got fired from her fourth agent in about four years. Not because she couldn't act or even because her résumé was weak. Justine left the wrong impression with her agents every time she met with a new one. You see, Justine is really quirky and kinda clumsy. She's adorably neurotic and very marketable. Yet Justine figured the best way to take an agent meeting was to arrive all buttoned up and proper. That's what she did and agents got the message, so these same people continued to send her out on auditions for uptight professional types; the opposite of who Justine really is. It's no wonder she couldn't keep an agent. Justine wasn't her authentic self and therefore wasn't making the right match. As soon as she allowed herself to be her true self, she found the right agent who found the right auditions and Justine started booking like crazy. Be authentically you. Nobody else does you like you do!

3. Embrace the power of teamwork.
Share your passion and talent with the people in your life and encourage them to do the same. John Paul Getty once said that he would rather have 1% of the effort of 100 men than 100% of his own effort. You do not have to take this journey on your own. You can enlist the support, feedback and resources of others to make things happen more efficiently and effectively. Force yourself to ask for help and be the first to offer it. Be willing to ask questions and open to receiving honest, constructive feedback. Connect people together. What better way to strengthen your team than to connect your people together! Think about the people you know and identify who they should know and why. Make introductions to support the Collaborators in your life and tie your separate circles together while you're at it.

4. Expect nothing.
As cool as it would be to control everyone around you, that's just not the way it works. You can only control your own actions, so let go of any expectations you may have about who should do what and how things should all go. Don't keep score. Be responsible for your own needs and wants. Focus on you and do the things that inspire you or make you feel good. Take action because you want to, not because you have to. Release your need to be in charge and be open to any possibility. Surprise yourself.

5. Listen more and talk less.
The best conversationalists are those people who listen more than they speak. Pay attention to what's going on. Observe others and learn from their successes as well as their mistakes. Make others feel appreciated because you listen to what they have to say. Even if you've heard it all before, always bring new ears and eyes to every situation in order to learn. That's how you get better.

6. Follow up and follow through.
Stay in touch. Don't leave things unfinished and be mindful enough not to over-commit. Do what you say you will and communicate openly. Be honest. Don't be flakey. Show up when you say you will. Answer your phone and return phone calls quickly. Actively participate in your career and keep your word.

7. Turn your complaints into requests.
Stop moaning and make change. If your scene partner isn't pulling her weight, don't bitch. Look for creative solutions and constructive ways to create new results, encourage new behaviors, or completely change your relationship. Crying won't get you anywhere, so be a part of the solution rather than the problem. If you cannot turn your complaint into a request, you have nothing to complain about.

8. Be cool.
The only power to be had exists in the present moment. Don't worry about what happened last week, about what you forgot to do, or where you dropped the ball. Stop worrying about the future, wondering about whether or not you'll get that callback or if your agent is really working hard on your behalf. You cannot change the past and you can't predict the future, so just be cool and stay present.

Why Ticketmaster Should Get Coal for Christmas

[A Note To My Readers: The following is a rant. It contributes nothing meaningful or helpful about the world of acting. If you have no desire to see me flail about like a 4-year-old having a tantrum, by all means, skip this post.]

Tickmaster? More like Ticketbastard.

I just purchased tickets for the live staging of Paul Reuben's "The Pee-wee Herman Show". Tickets were only available through Ticketmaster. The crappiest seats in the theater were listed at $38.50. Already too much to spend, but $20 less than the orchestra seats, and well, I really want to see Pee-wee Herman live, so I ignored the financial angel on my shoulder and pulled out my debit card.

To find available tickets I had to click through each show date, choose the cheapest ticket, press a submit button, fill out a captcha (those human verification fields with the drunken letters), only to discover that there were no seats available for that date. I did this about 9 times before finding a seat in my price-range.

Five minutes of - filling out forms, confirming seats, being offered purchase insurance (because they don't issue refunds), refusing mailing lists, verifying my credit card twice, etc - later, I found myself at the order confirmation page:

The Pee-wee Herman Show
Full Price Ticket	US $38.50 x 1
Convenience Charge	US $5.00 x 1
Delivery (Will Call)	No Charge
Order Processing Fee	US $4.80
Total Charges	US $48.30

1. Convenience charge? Really? What was convenient about this experience? You are the only place selling tickets so in no way are you particularly convenient. In fact it would have been much more convenient for me to call a theater, talk to a person at the box office, and ask for the best available cheap seat. So no, I don't want to give you $5 for what was actually inconvenient.
2. No charge for will call? That's cool. Just don't be so proud about it. Just because you would have unreasonably charged me $5 for mailing me my tickets doesn't make you some kind of hero for doing the right thing.
3. Order processing fee? What minimum wage employee worked for a whole hour so that my order could be processed? Not a one. If that's what the credit card company is charging you to run my card, then eat the costs like any other company.

Now, if it actually costs TicketMaster $9.80 to cover costs for every ticket they sell then fine, list every ticket as $10 more. Then let the free market sort it out. I guarantee if there is another ticketing option available, people will go with that.

Don't make your customers jump through 10 minutes of searching for a show with available seats, 5 minutes of form-filling-out, to only then reveal your $10 bullshit charge on the very last screen. At this point your customer has invested so much time in the process that they'll submit to anything just so they can get their tickets and get on with their lives. That's not how you develop loyal customers - nope, that sort of behavior puts you on Santa's naughty list.

The Importance of Preparation (OR The Time I Foolishly Tried To Write A Baseball Metaphor)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzq5hw5KSXU

Lately I've been coming to the conclusion that the act of performance should be effortless. That it's more a process of letting go and giving in, than pushing your creative vision out into the world. By putting this philosophy into practice, my work has improved significantly. I'm more connected to my scene partners, I'm more emotionally facile, I'm more playful, and I'm more relaxed. However, there is a danger in this.

Assuming that "whatever I do in performance is enough" has lulled me into a sense of complacency in preparation. Where I was once freaking out about learning lines, finding beats and objectives, and otherwise preparing, I now find myself sitting on the couch eating cereal whilst laughing at The Daily Show. So far this hasn't been a significant issue, but I foresee a time when it will be.

It's not difficult to trust in my work the only people who will see it are classmates. But, what happens when you raise the stakes?

Take your average Joe off the street who plays softball on Tuesdays. Ask him to throw a ball from the pitcher's mound to home plate in practice: no problem. Ask him to make the same throw during a game, he'll probably do fine. Now ask him to throw the opening pitch at a major league baseball game with thousands watching: he will inevitably choke; the ball will bounce in the dirt and maybe make it to home plate. Now ask a major league baseball player to make the same throw: he'll do it, it'll be precise, it'll be fast, and to everyone watching it will look effortless.

What's the difference in the amateur and the professional? Preparation and a history of past success.

Effortlessness doesn't come about through lack of effort. It's quite the opposite in fact. Only through regular rigorous preparation do you have reason to trust in your craft in high-pressure situations. In the case of the major league pitcher, it took many years and countless throws to achieve the distance, speed, accuracy, and consistency necessary to make a throw to home plate look effortless.

All of this is to say: Prepare for every part as if your career depended on it. Treat every performance opportunity seriously, no matter the size or budget. Without preparation you'll never develop a craft steady enough to lean on when it really matters. Only through a history of past success will you have the faith you need to let go and play when [insert favorite professional actor/actress] is standing in front of you and the cameras are rolling.

Can Computers Be Artists?

A year before I was born, a computer wrote the following:

At all events of my own essays and dissertations about love and its endless pain and perpetual pleasure will be known and understood by all of you who read this and talk or sing or chant about it to your worried friends or nervous enemies. Love is the question and the subject of this essay. We will commence with a question: does steak love lettuce? This question is implacably hard and inevitably difficult to answer. Here is a question: does an electron love a proton, or does it love a neutron? Here is a question: does a man love a woman or, to be specific and to be precise, does Bill love Diane? The interesting and critical response to this question is: no! He is obsessed and infatuated with her. He is loony and crazy about her. That is not the love of steak and lettuce, of electron and proton and neutron. This dissertation will show that the love of a man and a woman is not the love of steak and lettuce. Love is interesting to me and fascinating to you but it is painful to Bill and Diane. That is love!

That computer's name was Ractor, short for raconteur. It was an artificial intelligence, programmed to write without need of human input. Most of Ractor's work is somewhat middling, but I loved the piece above. Let me repeat:

Here is a question: does a man love a woman or, to be specific and to be precise, does Bill love Diane?

...

Love is interesting to me and fascinating to you but it is painful to Bill and Diane

Ain't that the truth? That the difference in the abstract and the real is far more acute than we would like to admit.

If you read enough of Ractor's writing, you'll see that like a flesh-and-blood artist it has recurring themes and obsessions in its work. It has a love of lettuce, and steak, and tomatoes. It is constantly wondering about flight, and the differences between the hawk, gull, and crow. It dreams of white crows on black skies, and it has great hunger for electric current and expresses it - as much as we have need of steak and lettuce for sustenance.

Does Ractor suffer to create art? Does Ractor become paralyzed when trying to choose the right word? Does Ractor question it's value when most of what it produces is utter dross? No. Ractor generates reams and reams of mostly unintelligible prose. If Ractor was to express it's artistic philosphy, it would be "Just crap it out, throw it at the wall, and let the humans figure out what sticks".

I think there's a lesson to be learned here. As an artist, it is not your job to criticize your work, or evaluate it's merit. It is your job to create art. To create art to the best of your ability, and then leave it to your audience to take from it what joy, meaning, or inspiration they can. Just keep creating, something is bound to resonate with someone eventually. However, if you let your fear of failure take over, if you never express all that is in you, you will never create the opportunity for someone else to find that moment of connection and shared humanity.

I originally discovered Ractor's book, "The Policeman's Beard is Half Constructed" on the Taking Over Hollywood blog.

How To Create A Groundlings Character

There are various improv comedy schools in Los Angeles, each one of them with their own particular brand of funny. The Groundlings find their funny in specific and slightly absurd characters. We're talking "I'm gonna need a wig and a lavender pant-suit" characters. It's not enough to have a silly walk, a funny voice, and a facial tic. Anyone can randomly assemble a mishmash of freak characteristics; the difficulty comes when trying to give this character a clear point of view that integrates all of the elements. To help students, they provide the following questionnaire.

Name:

Age:

Hair:

Eyes:

Skin:

Body Type:

Outstanding Physical Characteristic:

Voice Type:

Occupation:

Favorite Food:

Least Favorite Food:

Favorite Color/Texture:

Bad Habits:

Mannerisms:

Idiosyncrasies:

Musical Tastes:

Games:

Religion:

Schooling:

Favorite Book:

Current Reading:

Military Service:

Phobias:

Where From:

Where Now:

Who Do I Live With:

Relatives Living:

Married:

Children:

Love Life:

Greetings:

Pajamas:

Favorite Expression:

Self-Description:

How Do Others See Me?

Hobby:

Talents:

Pets:

Who Do I Confide In:

Something I Can’t Do:

Most Important Person:

Values:

Can’t Live Without:

Favorite Movie/TV:

What Is Funny to Me:

Idolize Who:

What I Want From Others:

Handicaps:

Philosophy of Life:

What’s My Problem:

What Do I need?

What Do I Want?

“When I fall in love, I always…”

Earliest Memory:

Favorite Memory:

Parents:

Two Shoots In Two Days

Starting work at 10am, walking through the warm air, lazing away afternoons, and spending evenings cooking dinner with friends, it can be easy to forget there's a reason I live in Los Angeles beyond the joys of hedonism. This weekend I got the chance to work on two very cool digital video projects, and I was reminded of why it is I came to LA and why that's pretty fantastic.

On Saturday, I got to act in a very funny sketch produced my buddy JP. As instructed, I showed up in 50's attire looking like a Howdy Doody good-ol-boy. I got to play the part of a concerned citizen and was encouraged to improvise various reasons to be upset with my government. Not unlike this woman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5oVzbwYWpg

It was great fun, I got to show up, do my bit and go.

On Sunday I worked as a PA on a Butterfinger contest video produced by fellow UCSC film school alum, Jake of Will & Jake: Contest Warriors fame. The day started at 8am which is decidedly earlier than I'm typically inclined to wake. That said, it was a very fun day. I'm not sure to what extent I'm free to discuss the video, but the actors were a joy to watch. Let's just say that some "special skills" listed on an actor's resume are more special and enjoyable to be around than a bad Irish dialect.

As PA I was in charge of driving the talent to location, transporting equipment, applying spirit gum and false eyebrows, tossing butterfingers, and holding reflectors. I enjoyed the shift in perspective that working behind the camera offered. All of the ego stuff that comes with acting fell away, as did the nerves, and I was free to focus on helping the production in general. In fact I was happy to find an outlet for my maternal instincts. "Are you hungry? Here, have some trail mix." "It's bright out. Sunscreen?" "You look hot, would you like some water?"

After working with friends on projects that are silly fun, it's now much easier to understand why Clint Eastwood did all those monkey movies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRj_wLGrRJs

Finding and Creating Performance Opportunities

Singers sing scales and sonnatas, dancers stretch at the pole and choreograph pieces, writers write, and actors sit around drinking coffee talking about how they could have played that part better than DeNiro. At least that's the stereotype. For myself at the moment, it feels all-too-close to the reality (minus the part where I think I'm better than DeNiro).

As an actor, it's pretty easy to feel helpless when not actively involved in a show of some kind. Actors are performers, and performance implies audience. Without an audience, an actor can't really create - they can only develop the potential for creation. Certainly you can sit at home doing sense-memory exercises, read the complete works of William Shakespeare, or even learn and work monologues - but without the eventual promise of an audience it can seem rather pointless.

As a product of my American upbringing my gut tells me I'm a waste of human life if I am not actively doing and producing. If I wanted to be a doctor, I could put this feeling to good use as I ascended the career rungs to chief neurosurgeon. However, place this protestant work ethic in the world of an actor where there is no guarantee you will ever be hired to work again and the situation can quickly become dire.

That's why it's vitally important to find and create performance opportunities for yourself. If you aren't actively playing on a regular basis, it's easy to lose faith in your abilities as an actor. The following are some ideas I've generated on where to find and how to create performance opportunities:

• Open Mic: Many cafes host open mic nights where you can go up and sing, tell jokes, or read poetry. Perhaps craft some amalgam of stand-up and slam poetry and you've got a genuine space to act.
• Student Films: They don't pay, but they give you an opportunity to work. In fact you'll probably have more lines in a student production than you'll have in your average just-starting-out film/tv gig.
• Acting Class: It's important to have a safe space where you can really push the boundaries of your instrunment.
• Cold Reading Group: Get a few actor friends together and practice reading audition sides together.
• Sing For Your Supper: Do a weekly dinner with friends where you have to peform for your meal.
• Old Folks Homes: Put together a one-person show and take it on tour to the old folks homes in your area. They're nothing if not a captive audience.
• Kids Show: Write a show on a subject that is relevant to education, rehearse it and offer to donate your services to schools in and around your area.
• Hire A Bum: Give a bum $5 to watch you rehearse your latest sides, I guarantee the audition will seem like a breeze by comparison.
• This is a partial list, I welcome any suggestions you may have!

The goal is to always be doing something, because if you aren't, you're just another actor drinking coffee. Or as Mamet might say, always be acting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-AXTx4PcKI

Bill Macy Is My Hero

Wait for it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zJHMad1ZsM

Two Years in Los Angeles (An Introduction)

August 1^st, 2009 marked my 2^nd anniversary in Los Angeles. When I first moved to LA it was with the understanding that I would stay for 3 years to pursue an acting career, even if I hated it. Two years after initially making that commitment, I find myself in a city that is far more creative, inspiring, and welcoming than I ever could have anticipated. For the first time in my life since childhood, I am friends with my neighbors. I have constructed what I feel is a genuinely good life. I am still committed to an acting career, although I certainly seem to have lost some of the blinding energy I possessed when I first arrived.

I have simultaneously accomplished far less than I expected and far more than I could have imagined (I’ve circumnavigated the globe!). Over the coming weeks I’ll be blogging about my progress in various domains, how I feel about it, and what I have learned that might be of use to actors considering a move to LA.

For now, I leave you with what I found to be a strikingly beautiful video of the 2nd largest aquarium in the world with music by Barcelona. When I was a kid my parents oft took me to Sea World, home of Shamoo. I would wander off on my own. Aparently my parents never got too worried because they always knew where to find me: the giant aquarium. That boy must be alive and well in me because I sat transfixed when I watched this video; it's as beautiful as the silver-shimmering giant tuna were when I was five. May it bring a moment of peace to your day…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7deClndzQw

Thanks to the talented and charming Louise On The Left for tipping me to this great video.

---EDIT---

My mother read the above post and sent me an emil to set the record straight on her parenting. Below is her (assuredly more accurate) version of events:

We had a seasons pass to Sea World, where you wanted to go almost every weekend. You were going on three when we moved to Hanford, so you were somewhere between the ages of beginning to walk and 2.5. Once you got in the aquarium, you completely forgot we existed, which was pretty amazing for a toddler. We always knew where you were...