Where There's Smoke, There's Fire

I am sure all of you heard that there was a fire yesterday around Warner Brothers and Universal Studios. Well, the mountain range that was on fire is about 2 miles from where our apartment is located. Here is a video of a fellow Burbankian who was a little closer. Unfortunately, we were about 25 miles from home and, because it was near a heavily traveled highway (101) and the smoke was billowing over Hollywood, there was no easy way home. It took us about 1.5 hours to get home, which was fun. When we got home, I immediately grabbed the camera and took some photos from the balcany of our apartment complex. Rumor has it that the fire started because some kids where playing with firecrackers in the parking lot of their apartment complex. I love L.A.!!!!

Just for some perspective, this foothill is the same foothill the famous Hollywood Sign is on, just on the backside of it. The fire was put out by sundown and it didn't get any closer to the Hollywood Sign than 1/2 mile.

Lifetime TV Petition

I just received this email from my friend and wanted to share with all of you:

Mastectomy Hospital Bill in Congress
www.lifetimetv.com/breastcancer/petition/signpetition.php

If you know anyone who has had a mastectomy, you may know that there is a lot of discomfort and pain afterwards, not to mention an emotion scar. Insurance companies are trying to make mastectomies an outpatient procedure. Let's give women the chance to recover properly in the hospital for 2 days after surgery. It takes 2 seconds to do this and is very important...please take the time and do it really quick!

Please send this to everyone in your address book. If there was ever a time when our voices and choices should be heard, this is one of those times.

If you're receiving this, it's because I think you will take the 30 seconds to go to vote on this issue and send it on to others you know who will do the same.

There's a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which will require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about eliminating the "drive-through mastectomy" where women are forced to go home just a few hours after surgery, against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.

Lifetime Television has put this bill on their web page with a petition drive to show your support. Last year over half the House signed on. PLEASE!! Sign the petition by clicking on the web site below. You need not give more than your name and zip code number. This takes about 2 seconds.

PLEASE PASS THIS ON to your friends and family, and on behalf of all women.

MANY THANKS & MANY BLESSINGS!

www.lifetimetv.com/breastcancer/petition/signpetition.php

A Working Actor's Lament (Chapter 57)

"Life" Sentence I Can Deal With

Today is my thirty-ninth birthday. One more year until I am officially thirty-ten. And, although spending it with my wife would have been the best thing I could have done, I got to do the second best thing...shoot a film.

I am not sure if you remember from my past blogs, but I had an audition on January 14th for a short film called "Life Bingo". Well, I ended up getting the role I auditioned for and had to shoot it this morning. I was really stoked to finally be on a set where I was not producing or directing. However, once I got there the drama started. The film was being shot by Jackie Sollitto, who was super at the audition and great on the set. However, I could see the veins in her head as she approached me on the set. She informed me that the 16 year old actor who was one of the 5 leads in her film had not renewed his workers permit and, per SAG rules, needed this to work. To had fuel to the fire, he also needed a guardian on the set, who dropped him off and left. Since they had already shot the following Friday (his permit expired the next day), she was in a pickle. As she walked away, one of the AD's came up to me and Dale, another actress on the shoot, to see if we would be the guardian of this actor. We both said we would do it. Then the AD pulled out a 5 page contract stipulating what we were agreeing to:

You are responsible for any equipment falling on him
You are responsible for any wiring that might electrocute him
You are responsible for any injury resulting from the director body slamming his unprofessional body to the ground

And that was just page one!!!

Dale and I looked at each other and decided the stakes were too high to sign. The AD said "I wrote this up and if the kid wasn't mine, I wouldn't sign it." So, why did you ask us?

Well, the scene was an African American gang approaching me in a parking lot because I just cheated at the game of Life Bingo, so the director went up to one of the extras from the gang and asked them if they would like to take over the role. Talk about being at the right place at the right time. A great new-comer named Sebastian Velmont stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park. From the point he said he would do it, the shoot turned into one big party. I have to admit, it has been one of the more fun sets (if not the most funest) I have been in a while.

One thing that I would have complained about (if not for all the fun we were having) would have been the additional extras in the gang. There were three of us who had scripted lines, myself, Sebastian and Gang Member #1; other than that, there was supposed to be ad-libbing from the rest of the gang. Well, it turned into a 'free for all' as to who could get the most lines in. After a couple of takes with the extras stepping on the scripted lines, Gangster #01 went up to the director and asked if she had a "clean" take with the scripted dialogue. She said she did and that she should be able to edit the film without a problem. I have to admit, the extras were really good and made the scene that much more threatening and believable, but I also heard one of them (obviously another actor) tell another "You have to get yourself scene so you can get film on yourself, especially in these short films." I don't think it will affect anything and it was still a fun day.

I just need more days like this out here.

Rest In Peace, Larry

Yesterday, we lost Calvert DeForest, or as some of you know him Larry "Bud" Melman. Instead of doing a RIP, I thought I would share with you one of the funniest moments he had on "Late Night with David Letterman". Sit back and marvel at one very funny man.

A Working Actor's Lament (Chapter 56)

I Got Called For An Audition...Yahoo!!!!

I am sure all of you who are regulars to my blog site (sorry about the lack of blogs lately) understand my pain when I mention my agent...the same one who has not been sending me out unless you count the extra and hosting gigs. Well, you can imagine my surprise when I checked my cell phone and saw I had a message from them. The first thing I thought was "I think they have the wrong number", but after listening to the message, they didn't; they meant to call me...and it was for a SAG audition...a NATIONAL "Yahoo" SAG COMMERCIAL AUDITION!!!

I finally had an audition that, if I booked, I would be able to say I was a PAID working actor this year. I listened intently to what the character was:

"REAL TO SLIGHT CHARACTER LOOKING, INTERESTING FACE, GOOD FACIAL REACTIONS. REGULAR GUY. NOT OVERLY OUTDOOR-SY BUT NOT A COUCH POTATO EITHER. HAS AN INHERENT CURIOSITY ABOUT LIFE. **BALD, BALDING, PREMATURELY THINNING, MALE-PATTERN BALDNESS.** HE EATS AN EXOTIC PLANT AND GROWS HAIR."

Balding??? Really??? Me???

Was I so out of tune with what was going on with my hair that I didn't notice that my forehead had turned into a six-head? Or, worse yet; should I be shopping for Rogaine? I didn't think so, but who am I to turn down a paying gig, especially a "Yahoo" commercial. I have seen those in the past and thought they were hilarious.

Well, I went to the audition and realized once I walked into the lobby that I was not what they were looking for. Most of the men were extremely bald or at least didn't have any hair on the top of their heads. It was amazing how I felt good and bad at the same time; I had hair but I didn't think I was going to get the gig. None the less, I sucked it up and did the audition anyway. I would give myself an "A-" for the audition. I don't think I am going to get it, but at least I showed them that there are talented men out there with hair, and if they ever need one, I am there for them.

Nations of the World

Have you ever felt like you were just sitting there while your brain was slowly melting into ear wax, only to pick out memory by memory with a Q-Tip? No? Oh. Well, I have felt that way for a while now, I just didn't know how to get my brain back into learning meaningful information instead of why Sanjaya is still in the top 11 on American Idol.

I was (and still am) a huge Animaniacs fan, so I thought I would learn one of the most popular songs that came from that show. It took me 3 weeks (and Robin wondering when she should start calling for a psychiatrist), but I finally got it down. If you don't know the song, just click play and wonder if you would be able to do this. Trust me, it is a rewarding experience if you do.

"405" - A Short Film

I recently came across a short film that has got to be one of the most creative short films I have seen in a long time. I only wish that my shorts could be up to this caliber. It was made in 2000 and still holds up. Enjoy.

Short Film "405"

A Working Actor's Lament (Chapter 55)

Spreading Myself Too Thin...Like A Big Stick Of Butta

I have decided that my acting career has been put on the back burner. I have been focusing too much on other actor's trying to make it and not on my own. My days were being taken up with shooting headshots, photoshopping those headshots, editing actor's reels, trying to produce my own shorts that I have written and want to direct, etc...enough is enough. I realized that the last acting I did, outside of acting class, was the small part I did in "Lucidity"...11 MONTHS AGO!!!

The other day, Backstage (an actor's trade paper) contacted me about still blogging for them. After thinking about it long and hard, I decided to turn down their offer of blogging three times a week about being an actor in California. I mean, what acting have I done???? What would I blog about??? There was nothing, and now I had to write about nothing 3 times a week??? Tony, my contact at the paper, was really nice to me on the phone and said he really enjoyed my writing and I could send in anything that pertained to acting anytime I wanted, but it would be as a "Guest Blogger". I told him that would be great, knowing that the pay just went from $250 to $0.00, and I was happy about that.

Hanging up the phone, it hit me that this was the first thing I had done that made me happy in a long time. I was so busy trying to make others happy about their pursuits in this industry that I totally forgot about my own happiness. I think this was the first step on my (hopefully) short journey back into the Hollywood lights.