Secret Video

 This is the view from backstage of the game show I was on as an actor (playing a contestant).  The creators did a mock-up of the game for investors to try and sell it to networks.  I had been in two previous run-throughs as the main contestant, but suddenly when the money comes in, they wanted me as an alternate.  I got so mad I filmed this video just to break my non-disclosure agreement.  Then, of course, a guy didn't show up (classic LA flakiness) and I went on after all.  It's all in the past, but for those in the know, this was what it was like from the wings.  You may not be able to tell, but that figure at the bottom of the screen is eighty-thousand dollars.  The jackpot was 3.2 million.

Atmosphere

Here are some photos of the neighborhood and environs that I have just been able to put up.

Paco Taco

David and I went to this little treasure downtown last week. Mexicali Taco Co. It's some of the best mexican food I've had since I've been here.

This is the cachetada, which I had with chicken (their specialty), and I also had the famous vampiro which is like a garlic cheese quesadilla.  Both were superlative, although I thought the cachetada was better and I had two.  I can't believe I never had one of these before!


These guys are the best, highly honorable and great energy.  Very friendly and charismatic.

Discipline

I am finding it very hard to stay disciplined out here.  For the moment, no car and no job, so everything is a little easy-breezy and then you look at the clock and the whole day is gone.  It's difficult to believe it's not perpetual summer break.  I have to make lists every morning of what I need to do, and somehow those lists stay long no matter how many items I knock out.

Here's some big items I did knock out:

1.* Go to the Actor's Work Program and get help finding a job.  This is one of the best resources I have found and I wish I had known about it sooner.  The Actor's Fund (amazing in itself) has an offshoot that specializes in career development.  The operation in NYC is absolutely top notch, I can't say enough things about how professional and smart everyone was when I went a few months ago during the run of Agent G.  In LA, the rigor of the program remains to be seen, but I went to orientation and my first workshop, and I am underway.  In NYC, the AWP felt like a sanctuary in Times Square where you could go and it was open and friendly, people are buzzing around and there's a computer lab.  In LA, the offices are in the SAG building and the layout makes you feel really uncomfortable.  You have to wait in an anteroom and then you get shuttled into a conference room where you can't see anything but a secret, anonymous hallway.  Everything seems to be behind a closed door.  As if you don't spend enough time alone out here, brawp.

2.  Get Health Insurance.  There is a great blog I mentioned a while ago (that has been priceless) called New Yorker in LA which directed me to the ehealthinsurance.com website.  After a week of back and forth and researching, I am now on a Kaiser Permanente HMO plan that should work.  Big ups to Mom and Dad for helping with that.

3.  Get a Library Card.  This one I've wanted to do but was intimidated by the application requirements I saw online, when in fact they're super chill about giving you one.   I should have known.  There's two really nice library branches within walking distance, Cahuenga and Los Feliz.  Very excited to try them out.  Kate and I got our cards together and took out materials the same day.  She said, "I think I found my new favorite plaaaaaace," because there are so many crazy characters walking the stacks.  Absolutely fascinating, unusual people.  One was a guy who seemed to be talking to himself about the "order you had to go in", which was apparently Dog, Rabbit, Snake, Bear.  You could not go Snake, Bear, Rabbit, Dog.  Hmm.

*So get a job and get a car where the actual numbers one and two, but those are going to take a touch longer than I thought.  I remain optimistic.  I have a number of great people who came out here before I did who are in my corner and it's making a big difference.

There's a great line in Malick's The Thin Red Line (one of my all time favorite movies) where Nick Nolte says to John Cusack, "From now on you don't have to tell me that you agree with me or that you think I'm right.  Ever.  We'll just accept it as given."  Find acting work is kind of an uber-number one, or super-objective, so we'll take that goal as given.  It's running underneath everything else I do.

Back in the Saddle

Okay, everyone.  I am back in LA after appearing in one of the most successful shows of my theatrical career: The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G.  Time now to concentrate on camera work.  But before I move on, let me say a quick thank you.  Now that I am over the jetlag and the madness of the graduation ceremonies and screenings at CalArts, I can give a proper shout out to the people who materially supported my stay in NYC.

First and foremost, my parents and sister.

Next, the brave souls who let me stay with them at their apartments:
Adam Mazer, Dan Rogers, Natalie Eilbert and Matt
Brian Morvant and Samantha Mason
Aaron Weiner and Jamie Klassel
Alison and Bill Washabaugh
Temar Underwood and Andrea Smith
Amy Waschke

Next, those who took me under their wing:
Jon Hoche and Erica Swindell
Angel Desai

And those who got me side gigs to keep the cash flow flowing:
Julie Leedes and Chris Ceraso with MTC
Billie Levinson from The Actor's Work Program
(Jon Hoche, Brian Morvant, Kris Ayers: thanks for the leads!)

You guys all made it possible. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

ES&L II

Another punctuation and acting intersection from Lynne Truss:

But, as many classical actors will tell you, it can be just as effective to lower your voice for emphasis as to raise it.  Poets and writers know this too, which is where dashes and brackets come in.  Both of these marks ostensibly muffle your volume and flatten your tone; but, used carefully, they can do more to make a point than any page and a half of italics. 

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

I started Lynne Truss's book "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" last night on loan from Aaron, and in the first twenty pages came across this absolute gem:

The reason it's worth standing up for punctuation is not that it's an arbitrary system of notation known only to an over-sensitive elite who have attacks of the vapours when they see it misapplied.  The reason to stand up for punctuation is that without it there is no reliable way of communicating meaning.  Punctuation herds words together, keeps others apart.  Punctuation directs you how to read, in the way musical notation directs a musician how to play.  As we shall see in the chapter on commas, it was first used by Greek dramatists two thousand years ago to guide actors between breathing points...