This is later.
Crisis past.
In fact, #s 414, 415, and 417 have passed also. #416 never arrived, for some inexplicable reason.
Most of these things come on because I'm just very, very, very, very tired of, month after month, having the checking account look like it won't be as big as the bills.
Without a reason beyond a potentially non-starting career to keep us installed in this obscenely expensive place (which I'm beginning to like), I have a tendency to try to find more lucrative avenues of employment that generate more reliable income, and to look for homey type places with lower rents.
Basically it's the trade-off between passion and predictability.
At the very least, a trip to church on Sunday night confirmed that there's a community of people we're here to get to know. That was a huge relief. Yes, it's expensive down here. No, I don't know if we'll have the cash to move into the new apartment. No, I don't know whether I can keep acting. But yes, there is a reason to stay in Southern California regardless of the vicissitudes of career.
I do have two auditions coming up. There's some other stuff coming up that could be good, too. I'm going back to Knott's Berry Farm tomorrow for a thing. I was there on Tuesday, and I have to say one thing: Riding the same roller coaster twelve times in six hours damages the shoulders.
I'm bringing shoulder pads tomorrow.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
I'm going to borrow from my latest Facebook status update to kick this off:
We're into the rabbit hole.
On Facebook, it was a reference to how I'm finding myself beginning to love Southern California. We'll see if the infatuation can survive location shoots in July.
In general, we're at a strange crossroads. We got the apartment that we applied for, and we don't have any obvious answers about where the moving money is coming from.
I signed up for a calling service (for the background work) which means I don't have to sit on the phone all afternoon dialing Central Casting anymore. The jury's still out on how much work I'll get with the service, but I've heard good things. I'm already booked on Entourage for next week.
It's not unusual stuff in terms of the little (and big) crises that we're generally surfing through in any given month...but the strangeness of now comes from an odd peace I have about everything. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. I'm clearly and obviously out of control of most of the variables in my life, I'm chasing my dreams and desires in spite of the massive unpredictability involved, nothing is guaranteed even through next week...and somehow, I'm not nursing an ulcer.
When did this happen? Will it last? I hope so. I've done years' worth of wear and tear on my body worrying lesser things than what faces us today.
Is this just what it feels like to be where one is supposed to be?
I can't quite believe it.
Not yet.
We're into the rabbit hole.
On Facebook, it was a reference to how I'm finding myself beginning to love Southern California. We'll see if the infatuation can survive location shoots in July.
In general, we're at a strange crossroads. We got the apartment that we applied for, and we don't have any obvious answers about where the moving money is coming from.
I signed up for a calling service (for the background work) which means I don't have to sit on the phone all afternoon dialing Central Casting anymore. The jury's still out on how much work I'll get with the service, but I've heard good things. I'm already booked on Entourage for next week.
It's not unusual stuff in terms of the little (and big) crises that we're generally surfing through in any given month...but the strangeness of now comes from an odd peace I have about everything. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. I'm clearly and obviously out of control of most of the variables in my life, I'm chasing my dreams and desires in spite of the massive unpredictability involved, nothing is guaranteed even through next week...and somehow, I'm not nursing an ulcer.
When did this happen? Will it last? I hope so. I've done years' worth of wear and tear on my body worrying lesser things than what faces us today.
Is this just what it feels like to be where one is supposed to be?
I can't quite believe it.
Not yet.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Gotta break the seal on April, right? Right??
One Verizon commercial turned into four.
The first one was a longish day down in Whittier on a golf course. We extras (that massive network you see roaming around behind the guy in the glasses) got stacked up on the green, giving the putter aiming advice. Then we ate lunch. Then we got stacked up on another green, waiting for just the right moment to leap in [almost] unison to bump the poor man's ball from the lip of the cup to the bottom of the cup. Pretty clever application of a classic golf joke, if you ask me.
Tuesday was a day off.
Wednesday I got on a pilot called The Eastmans which, apparently, Donald Sutherland is in. He was not on location. The location, as it turned out, was a massive cemetery in Pasadena. It was just a little strange to be dressed as earthmoving/greens crew for a fictitious funeral...standing around in the midst of real graves. It's not that I'm particularly creeped out by cemeteries, I think shooting in a cemetery is just one of those things that draws a specifically sharp distinction between the make-believe and the real.
The distinction was drawn even more crisply when, toward the end of the brief shoot, a real funeral procession came in for an interment on the other end of the grounds. It was all peppered in surreal.
While at the cemetery on Wednesday, I got a call about more Verizon. A lot more. Three days of shooting, Thursday, Friday, and Monday. Well how's your father? That was a nice way to seal up the week with work.
On top of that, Thursday and Friday were both really short days. Like, 1330 call, 1830 done days. Monday promises to be similar.
I had a surprise audition waiting in my inbox on Thursday evening, which I was able to squeeze in before Friday's Verizon call. The writing was great, the premise is interesting, the writer/director was fun, and I got to go to USC for the first time. They have a ridiculous cinema arts building.
Saturday was a little more on the interesting side. We wound up applying for a new apartment at a different complex...a really nice 2 bedroom place. There's a slight hitch, though...it's a teensy bit out of our current price range. Like, we should probably be aiming for something about $200/month cheaper than this...but everything seemed to make sense. It had all the things we were looking for in a bigger place, it kept us in the city we want to stay in, there was a unit coming available in the middle of next month, etc., etc. All this on the day I happened to stop by. That has all the markings of the proverbial "God Thing". However, moving into a place that we can't guarantee the ability to pay for also has all the markings of the traditional "Brings Out all of the Latent Stress, Insecurity, and Doubt about the Career Thing" too. Oh the fun that that engenders. Made me feel like an idiot, anyway. It's a classic human story. It seems like the right thing to do, until you do it, realize you've done it, and begin to digest the practical implications of what you have to believe God will do for you.
Granted, the complex hasn't let us in yet. That's the final litmus. If they approve us, I'll take it as and indication that God intends to provide the necessary means to pay the rent. It's not impossible to expect, especially in the entertainment industry...it just can't be guaranteed...and if that's not a fight starter in this house (because of yours truly, of course) nothing is.
PS - Upon further reflection (read: proofing by the wife) it's not so much the higher rent that's the issue at the May rent here, 2/3 May rent there, and then June rent there...So, like triple rent in the space of a month. My bad.
One Verizon commercial turned into four.
The first one was a longish day down in Whittier on a golf course. We extras (that massive network you see roaming around behind the guy in the glasses) got stacked up on the green, giving the putter aiming advice. Then we ate lunch. Then we got stacked up on another green, waiting for just the right moment to leap in [almost] unison to bump the poor man's ball from the lip of the cup to the bottom of the cup. Pretty clever application of a classic golf joke, if you ask me.
Tuesday was a day off.
Wednesday I got on a pilot called The Eastmans which, apparently, Donald Sutherland is in. He was not on location. The location, as it turned out, was a massive cemetery in Pasadena. It was just a little strange to be dressed as earthmoving/greens crew for a fictitious funeral...standing around in the midst of real graves. It's not that I'm particularly creeped out by cemeteries, I think shooting in a cemetery is just one of those things that draws a specifically sharp distinction between the make-believe and the real.
The distinction was drawn even more crisply when, toward the end of the brief shoot, a real funeral procession came in for an interment on the other end of the grounds. It was all peppered in surreal.
While at the cemetery on Wednesday, I got a call about more Verizon. A lot more. Three days of shooting, Thursday, Friday, and Monday. Well how's your father? That was a nice way to seal up the week with work.
On top of that, Thursday and Friday were both really short days. Like, 1330 call, 1830 done days. Monday promises to be similar.
I had a surprise audition waiting in my inbox on Thursday evening, which I was able to squeeze in before Friday's Verizon call. The writing was great, the premise is interesting, the writer/director was fun, and I got to go to USC for the first time. They have a ridiculous cinema arts building.
Saturday was a little more on the interesting side. We wound up applying for a new apartment at a different complex...a really nice 2 bedroom place. There's a slight hitch, though...it's a teensy bit out of our current price range. Like, we should probably be aiming for something about $200/month cheaper than this...but everything seemed to make sense. It had all the things we were looking for in a bigger place, it kept us in the city we want to stay in, there was a unit coming available in the middle of next month, etc., etc. All this on the day I happened to stop by. That has all the markings of the proverbial "God Thing". However, moving into a place that we can't guarantee the ability to pay for also has all the markings of the traditional "Brings Out all of the Latent Stress, Insecurity, and Doubt about the Career Thing" too. Oh the fun that that engenders. Made me feel like an idiot, anyway. It's a classic human story. It seems like the right thing to do, until you do it, realize you've done it, and begin to digest the practical implications of what you have to believe God will do for you.
Granted, the complex hasn't let us in yet. That's the final litmus. If they approve us, I'll take it as and indication that God intends to provide the necessary means to pay the rent. It's not impossible to expect, especially in the entertainment industry...it just can't be guaranteed...and if that's not a fight starter in this house (because of yours truly, of course) nothing is.
PS - Upon further reflection (read: proofing by the wife) it's not so much the higher rent that's the issue at the May rent here, 2/3 May rent there, and then June rent there...So, like triple rent in the space of a month. My bad.
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