A Working Actor's Lament (Chapter 59)

"People"...People Who Need "People"

Robin and I have been taking actor head shots for about 3 years now and have been pretty lucky to have received positive feedback from those who have put themselves in front of our camera lens. Well, we can finally say that the work of Spence Photography has been published in an accredited magazine.

A close friend of ours, Cindy, had us take her photos a couple of years ago. Well, her boyfriend heard of this Dove Pro-Age promotion where they were looking for photos of the "Most Beautiful Over 50". He had to write a 50 word letter about Cindy and submitted a photo of her. To our pleasure, he decided to send one of the photos we took of her. To make a long story short, they published our photo in the May 7th "100 Most Beautiful" People Magazine that came out yesterday, April 27th. The ad is the center fold-out and our photo is the top photo to the furthest right. I do have to say that the photo turned out so great because our friend is, as Dove now knows, "simply stunning".

And I thought the first time I would be in People Magazine would have been as an actor. Baby steps, Sean...baby steps.

If you would like to check out what Cindy's boyfriend wrote, click here, go to page three, and click on Cindy's photo.

Coffee, Anyone?

I was sent this in an email and just wanted to share with all of my friends. Coffee, anyone?


When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the IMPORTANT things--- your family, your health, your friends and your favorite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car.

The sand is everything else---the small stuff. "If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you."

"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit withgrandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.

"One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffeerepresented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It justgoes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."

April's 12 of 12

Okay, so this is my first time doing the "12 of 12". If you want to know more about it, check out Chad Darnell's blog and rules for the experience.

OPENING TITLES

"The Three Pleasures"

EXT - BURBANK - 5:51 AM

The man stepped out into the morning air. He was on his way to his job, a job that was slowly sucking the life out of him, like a hover to shag carpet. He leashed up his dog, Max, and headed out into the sepia night. This would be the one of the three pleasures that would keep this man alive, if only for one more night.


INT - STARBUCKS - 6:14 AM

With his eyes still blurry from the eye sleep that rolled around the top of his pupil, he walked into the local coffee shop and ordered his regular, a Grande Coffee Frap No Whip. Sure, he thought, it was not a creative drink but it would do the trick. Along with his wife, he was now prepared to drive the 25 miles to his own personal hell.

INT - OFFICE - 6:51 AM

As the man turned into his cubicle, he noticed a friendly face. Sure, Jesus Lazarus had once again survived the hard, florescent lights that brought out his red fins and green rocks, but how many days were left until JL leaped from his 'cubicle' and ended it all? We would all have to wait till tomorrow. The man sat at his cubicle and started to work.



INT - OFFICE - 8:22 AM

After working over an hour on everything from Online Sudoku to Online Freecell, the man had forgotten the pain and torture he had to endure the following evening when he witnessed Haley Scarnato voted off of the highest rated karaoke show in the history of karaoke shows. Eight weeks...she lasted eight weeks. Sure, it was her time to go, but he could only imagine the joy he would feel when Sanjaya was finally out of his life. Time to get back to work and find that free Online Solitaire.



INT - OFFICE - 9:02 AM

The quiet of the office suddenly left and the hustle and bustle of work was finally coming in. As cubicle upon cubicle started to fill up, he realized that it was time to get down and start working. He began to finally get the hang of using the two monitors that were recently installed into his tower, and it sure made it look like he knew what he was doing. He thought to himself: "How much longer can I keep up this charade?" As it turned out, it would not be a charade today. He would have to work, and work hard.

INT - OFFICE - 11:21 AM

Taking questions from the Chief Marketing Executive to the Mailroom Clerk, the man realized that this day would be the day that his forehead had skipped right to a six-head. He figured it would be a good time to go to lunch, before the next employee walked up to him and had to experience his wrath. He called his wife and a co-worker to see if they would be able to join him. They were ready...they walked to the elevators and were out in the fresh air...

INT - RESTAURANT - 11:52 AM

As they exited the building, the strong, cold wind hit them like a steroid-filled Jose Canseco hitting a home run. The three fought the winds to get to Callender Grill where the man ordered a Lemon Chicken Piccata Florentine. This would be the second pleasure he would experience today, one to make him keep on keeping on. With a smile on his face, he weathered the wind back to work. Would the vacant feel come back once he walked off the elevator?


INT - OFFICE - 12:36 PM

Yes...yes it would.

The rest of the afternoon would be uneventful, just how he wanted it to be. Looking out the 7th story window at 3:00 PM, he noticed that the winds had not died down. It looked like his wife would be joining him on surface streets all the way home. He was not going to even try to fight the 405 traffic with autos being pushed around at the high speed of 15 mph. He just hoped that his dog was not freaked out from the high winds beating on his apartment walls.


EXT - BURBANK - 4:29 PM

The man and his wife pulled up to their apartment and notice all the foliage that used to be connected to the trunk of the trees now laying all over the street and sidewalk. He followed his wife up the stairs hoping that his dog was not cowering in the corner of their apartment.


INT - APARTMENT - 4:32 PM

There was Max, sitting there waiting for the two of them to come home to let him outside and finally relieve himself. If only they would hurry up and stop taking photos of him. The man took his dog's cue and out they went to see what other damage they could find.

EXT - BURBANK - 4:55 PM

It was hard to find a sidewalk where there were not tree limbs that either had to be walked around or moved out of the way. In the back of his mind, he kept wondering if the wind that was still blowing would break another limb off the trees and send it hurdling down onto his head. He could feel a headache starting; thank God Max had just finished his business and it was time to get back into the safe confines of his four walls.

EXT - PARKING LOT - 5:25 PM

His joy was short lived as he had promised his wife that today would be the day they would step into the insane asylum called Costco. The two jumped into the car and quickly got to the store. The shopping list was short but the store was big...they gave themselves one hour to get in, shop, and get out...would they be successful? They would, and this would give the man his third and last reason until he closed his eyes tonight. And that smile would leave as he looked at the bill...


INT - GROCERCY STORE - 5:52 PM

"How could someone spend so much in such a short time?", the man thought. Well, there goes his Frap for the next couple of days. He thought about the Jello Pudding on the list and tried to figure out if he could make his own Frap using one of these, but, alas, he knew he couldn't. Since he had used up all three of his pleasures, he decided to put his camera down for the day...a day that would repeat itself all too soon in the near future.

END TITLES

CREDITS (BONUS PHOTO WORD "PUPIL)

Reading the above story, I don't want anyone to think that my life is miserable. I am married to a beautiful woman who makes me smile and laugh everyday. This photo is sort of a tribute to her since my "pupil" shot is from a Happy Meal toy that she got from McDonald's. All my toys are from her Happy Meals, and they make me "happy" every time I look at them because they remind me how lucky I am to have her in my life. I love you, Robin.

i Beg Your "Pod"en?

Sitting here at my computer watching Part One of "What Happened On The Moon" on Google video, I realize that I have not really looked at what was going on in the World. Hitting the pause button, I clicked over to Google news to see what the headlines were:

"It's Obama Time" - TMZ cameras caught Senator Barack Obama heading into the Ed Sullivan Theater in Manhattan to tape his appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman.

"The Myth of the Instant iPod Revolution" - Apple (AAPL) has sold its 100 millionth iPod, and from the press coverage you’d think that from the moment Steve Jobs unveiled it nearly six years ago, it was the planet’s must-have device.

"Who Fathered Smith's Baby? Answer May Come Today" - NASSAU, Bahamas (CNN) -- A Bahamian court may rule Tuesday on who is the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby daughter, Dannielynn; is it Howard K. Stern, Larry Birkhead, or someone else?

"California Scuttles BHP Plan" - Article from: AP. BHP Billiton's four-year campaign to build a $US800 million ($A971 million) liquefied natural gas terminal off southern California is in tatters.

I couldn't believe what I was reading...was it true? Seriously? Apple has sold over 100 million iPods???

This amazed me. I started to think about the US and the World population. That means that one out of every three Americans owns an iPod. And that is just iPods, not MP3 players. No, iPods. I mean, come on...every third baby coming into the world is getting an Apple MP3 player for a gift? That is marketing!!!

Not only that, one in every 67 citizens Worldwide has an iPod. That means that Abebe from the Ethiopian village better hide his player from AlemNesh, Lielit, Mebrete, Mulu Ken, Zema, Brihan, Gebra Hana, Samrawit, Zeberga, Guma, Debelo, Desta Maki Tirunih and his other 54 brothers and sisters, or at least have some bread as a peace offering.

Look, we are in the middle of a couple of wars right now, and this is considered news? What about North Korea's failure to agree to disarm all nuclear weapons? What about the mass Shiite march demanding the US leave Iraq? Why is it we care more about the fact that Halo 3 is being released on May 11th? Welcome to the news.

And I bet you thought I was going to talk about the father of Anna Nicole's baby. Shame on you.

Our First New Car...Ever!!!

How much it pains me to get rid of our 1987 Convertible VW Cabriolet, it was crying out for us to put it out of it's misery. Robin and I, although working at the same location, really needed a second working car so we could do our acting 'stuff' without stranding the other at home. So we bit the bullet and purchased a 2007 Toyota Yaris. I swore I would never buy a brand, new car but this one got such great ratings and was the right size, we just couldn't resist. I love what you do for me, Toyota.

Bob Clark Killed in Car Crash

You might not know the man from his name, but you sure know him from his movies. Bob Clark was the director of such '80 hits as "Porky's" and "A Christmas Story". He was struck by a drunk driver yesterday morning around the corner from Theatre Palisades. The story below from the LA Times is a great article about the man:


'A Christmas Story' director dies in crash
Bob Clark and a son are pronounced dead at the scene of an early morning crash on PCH.
By Valerie Reitman and Andrew Blankstein, Times Staff Writers April 5, 2007

Photo Gallery
The films of Bob Clark


Tuesday was usually family night for film director Bob Clark — best known for "A Christmas Story" and the "Porky's" movies — and his grown sons, Ariel and Michael.

Ariel, 22, who had been studying music composition at Santa Monica College and was a part-time card dealer at a casino, would typically join his father and brother at the condo they rented in Pacific Palisades. They were night owls, said Lyne Leavy, who headed Clark's production company, Film Classic Productions.

In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, Bob, 67, and Ariel headed out; it's unclear whether they were going to get something to eat or driving to Ariel's Santa Monica apartment.They had just driven a few blocks and were heading south on Pacific Coast Highway near the Bel-Air Bay Club at about 2:20 a.m. when a GMC Yukon swerved across the lane, striking their Infiniti Q-30 sedan head-on. Father and son were pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the sport utility vehicle, Hector Valazquez-Nava, 24, of Los Angeles and passenger Lydia Mora, 29, of Azusa were taken to UCLA Medical Center and treated for minor injuries. Valazquez-Nava was booked on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, operating a motor vehicle without a driver's license and gross vehicular manslaughter.

About 8 a.m., a coroner showed up at Edgewater Towers to inform Michael, the older of the two sons by a few years, of the deaths of his father and brother.

Michael was asleep at the apartment, said Leo Dodier, the complex's manager, but left a short time later with the coroner.

Dodier had been up since 5:30 a.m. — awakened, he says, by the strange quiet created by the closure of PCH. The thoroughfare would remain blocked for eight hours.

"He was a nice guy, good to everybody, a quiet guy," Dodier said of Bob Clark. The producer-director had lived at the Edgewater complex since he relocated to Pacific Palisades from New England after his divorce. Starting out in a one-bedroom unit, he moved into a two-bedroom, second-floor condominium a few years later to make room for his sons, Dodier said. He had rented the larger unit for more than a decade.

"He was a gentleman, one of the nicest people I knew," said his New York business manager, Stuart Ditsky. "He always kept his word. He would never hurt anybody or put in anything in his movies to embarrass anyone."

Clark produced, directed and co-wrote "A Christmas Story," which was released in 1983; more than two decades later, it remains a holiday favorite, shown on television and racking up big DVD sales.

Set in the 1940s and adapted from humorist Jean Shepherd's novel "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash," the film starred Peter Billingsley as Ralphie, a young boy determined to get a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas despite everyone's fears that he'd put his eye out.

In 1997, TNT showed the film for 24 hours straight — a first for the cable channel. On the film's 20th anniversary in 2003, a two-disc commemorative DVD was issued.In a 1997 interview with The Times, Clark said the movie struck a chord with audiences because it deals with a "special time and special feeling. Shepherd's material had the truth and heart in it."

Clark's prolific movie and TV directing career spanned four decades. In addition to producing and directing the cult classic "Porky's" and its first sequel, he also directed "Turk 182" with Timothy Hutton, Robert Urich and Robert Culp; "Rhinestone" with Dolly Parton and Sylvester Stallone; "Loose Cannons," a Gene Hackman-Dan Aykroyd cop comedy; "From the Hip" and "Baby Geniuses."

The "Porky's" franchise earned an estimated $150 million domestically after taking years to get off the ground. The films were based on Clark's experiences during the '50s with five high school buddies in Florida. In a 1985 interview with The Times, co-writer Roger Swaybill talked about how Clark dictated the outline for the movie into a cassette recorder while sick."

I was weeping with laughter," Swaybill said. "I became convinced that I was sharing in the birth of a major moment in movie history. It was the funniest film story I had ever heard."

Clark also made darker, more brooding pictures. His seminal horror film, "Black Christmas," was recently reissued on DVD. Though hardly the first slasher film, some fans credit it with influencing other horror films.

"Whether you are a fan of the genre or not, we never would have had films like 'Friday the 13th' without 'Black Christmas,' " said Paula Haifley, who in December saw Clark introduce a screening at the New Beverly. "He was funny and friendly, had true respect for the horror genre and its fans, and seeing him was an experience I will never forget. He will be sorely missed by his fans."

Clark was scheduled to sign a letter of intent tonight to begin production of "There Goes the Neighborhood," one of three movie projects he was ready to begin, Leavy said.

Ariel Clark, who also went by Ariel Hanrath-Clark, was an avid musician, juggler, gymnast and card dealer, Dodier said. While studying music at Santa Monica College, he came to classes for weeks with his leg in a cast after breaking it while turning cartwheels on the Santa Monica Pier, music professor David Goodman said.

After finishing the college's applied music program last year, Ariel was assembling a portfolio to continue his studies elsewhere and was intent on composing scores for films and video games, Goodman said. A few of his compositions had been performed by the college's jazz ensemble.

Ariel was blessed with creativity, and he was upbeat and open to criticism, Goodman said, adding that he had no doubt Ariel would have succeeded. "He was an incredible kid — with incredible raw talent."

A Working Actor's Lament (Chapter 58)

Photos of "Baltimore"

It was that time again...time to stay up until 12:30 AM on a work day so I could take photos for Theatre Palisades newest production, "The Hot L Baltimore". Three Acts and 286 photos later, I sit here at work with caffeine surging through my veins with no affect what-so-ever. I knew I should have brought a Rockstar, too. Here are some photos that I took of the show. If you are within LA County, you should stop on by. The run is from April 6th thru May 13th.