August 31, 2004
saddening
Do not. I repeat do not dress your children this way for Halloween!
ah act
Many of the auditions I go to are taped. This way the agent just tapes a horde of actors at his leisure then sends the tape to the casting director to choose from.
It usually starts with a call or email. Then a word doc with lines of stilted dialog that we are meant to memorize and make sound natural yet professional. I can do the natural and professional. Paraphrasing can be a sensitive issue in HR videos.
"Ok. So I understand the procedure but what if Mr. Cohn isn't awake, alert or conscious when we need his consent for surgery?" I made that sound more natural there than in my audition on tape.
So I get "the call." "The director wants to use you as the resident." Sounds naughty, huh. That's what I told my date last night. Just kidding. It isn't that kind of video.
"But...he has a limited budget and wants you to rehearse the day before the shoot for an hour without pay...what do you think..."
At first I'm really excited. Sweet acting work. Someone likes me or needed a token excited in their training video. Whatev. It's work!
But then I look at my calendar with meetings and lists of things to do and say...
"I can't do it this day or that day I could only do it for a while on this day..." here's the deal killer. Now I know I'm dead in the water.
Truth is I could tell by the script it was going to run over a day shoot on a limited budget and all memorization. Plus, I'd have to remember how to pronounce "protaxais" or something like that.
Nu nu
So many good stories. No time to blog. But here's a fast one.
Scene: On the coast of Boston we were welcomed into the home of a family reunited. A man got his college girlfriend pregnant. She gave their son up for adoption. Nearly 40 years later the son finds the father. They connect and start a new relationship as father and son.
After a day of wind surfing on the Cape we huddle inside the beach house, tuna and swordfish steaks are grilled, glasses of champagne are poured.
The toasts start:
"To our families being together..."
"It's like we've known each other for 30 years..."
This is the gift of warmth we were enveloped in. Families that have been together since the beginning of time don't often have the soulful warmth and joy of being together this family shared.
There were 3 children present. 16, 7, and 3. All boys. Beautiful, full of character, individual boys. The 16-year-old managed to pick up any abandoned glass of champagne, beer or wine. Grinning a red wine mustache he walked around the house cellphone to ear wearing shoes with "fuck the man" written on the sides in black marker.
We swung the 7-year-old in his sleeping bag like a furious human hammock. I wished I were him surrounded by the blue cloud print on quilted cotton, flushed cheeks and giddy with laughter.
The youngest and most articulate 3-year-old you-have-ever-seen had a fit at bed time as young ones are known to do. He wanted to have nu nu down stairs. Earlier in the day he was looking at Vanity Fair with me then at bedtime he was getting nursed to sleep. Once we understood he was getting nursed, he became the envy of all the men.
boots
I love throwing things away. Taking out the trash. Emptying the lint catcher. Recycling glass.
Now a days the dumpster is like a dresser filled with garbage that strangers rifle through. It's insane thinking about who will see my broken egg shells next to the extra savings coupons, but the mad do wonder - wait what's that noise...
Today's journey to the trash is where I found boots. I like trash picking but prefer to call it recycling but these boots were a mess. Engineer boots caked with i-don't-know-what connected to vomit stained jeans, blue t-shirt and black-eyed mexican. His face was swollen, red and shiny. Vomit and booze radiated from him. His eyes were nearly puffed shut and bruised purple, blue and black.
"I have something I need to tell you, you won't want to hear."
"What."
"There's a man passed out by the dumpster."
When I first saw the boots I thought the worse. Dead man by the dumpster. The noise from the rock I dropped in the dumpster echoed and caused him to flutter kick his legs. Good. He isn't dead but he stinks and I hope he doesn't crap back here.
We were staring at the hole in the brick before we went around to the dumpster to rouse the boots. One carrying a shovel in the right hand its broken handle in the left hand and me with a mag light. Mod squad.
"Hey there." who are you and why are you here?
"Hey man... I'm cool." The shit has been kicked out of me but I'm too wasted to be dead.
"Move it along." we can't have you crapping and vomiting back here.
"This is a public alley man..." too late.
"Do you want to do this the hard way or the easy way?" you have 5 minutes to leave before I call the cops.
Boots eventually staggered towards the park. Each step labored.
August 27, 2004
August 26, 2004
What I learned at a baby shower
Sex camel - one who can go with out sex for years
Triathlete - one who gains the strength to leave their mentally ill husband
Happily married - a couple that has sex twice a day
Successful shoe shopper - one who models their new shoes to their partner wearing nothing but the shoes
August 25, 2004
August 23, 2004
August 22, 2004
August 21, 2004
August 19, 2004
August 17, 2004
August 16, 2004
August 15, 2004
dearborn
The home of Ford's headquarter's where there are no sidewalks. Pedestrians are forced to dodge cars in the streets.
In the Ford Musuem I endulged in a chocolate river and it was good.
A top the Rotunda I sang 'I will survive' in front a room full of strangers it was bad but in a good way.
August 14, 2004
August 13, 2004
August 07, 2004
August 06, 2004
tag your it
Our attempt to go to the gym before breakfast ended in a foot pursuit and a call to 911 after two teenaged taggers.
It wasn't just the tagging and the running but that one kid had the nerve to hide behind a tree and chuck a rock at Dave. It was just tagging. Now it's assault.
The cops showed up in ten minutes. Charges are being pressed.
After running into his grandmother's house down the street the kid realized the cops would be looking for him so he split. He's on probation for tagging and stealing a car. The cop thought he would be sent to Lookout Mountain. After they find him and serve him that is. BTW this is the same kid who threatened our neighbor.
At least if he's sent to Lookout Mountain he may get some form of education or learn a skill. He needs to work on his drawing. His tags are pathetic.
August 05, 2004
lost in time
Can you spare a moment
Maybe just an hour or two
Just some time to think
To Remember what is really important
Know what is real, again
Put aside the lists
All the Things to do
Places to be
How to be
Why to be
When or why weren't we theres
All the coulds, shoulds and thens
It would be bitter sweet
I could listen to you breathing
Smell the ocean from the heart of the jungle
Feel the mist of clouds
Walk shoeless carving shapes in the sand
To sleep in a hammock
on the pacific
like a pile of kittens
August 04, 2004
you can't
trust a man without any male friends
or a woman without any beautiful women friends.
August 03, 2004
August 02, 2004
that's my grrl
See Mark Cori did take the floaty smiley face ring to Fiji to use on her honeymoon!
Christopher Anderson
today is christopher anderson's birthday. he would have been 34 today. blackchick thx for the reminder. it was a blessing to know him.
