OK... where am I? Oh yes, Thursday and Spoon River class.
Well, I went out and emotionally prepared to be the 'object' of K's SR, that of her husband who blames himself entirely for his her suicide. This is not the case which is apparent once the verse is studied 'correctly'. K took her own life having had a hysterectomy knowing that she will never have children but also knowing that I, her husband, desperately wants them but is too loyal to her and loves so deeply that I would never leave her to start a new relationship. She knows this so makes the ultimate sacrifice for me leaving me with no choice but to move on. Her verse is an explanation to me of the reasons behind her actions. I cannot, of course, hear her because she is speaking from the grave (which all the SRs have in common). You can see that there is an incredible amount of conflict and pain contained in this particular verse (actually, each verse has its own reality and accompanying circumstances, emotions etc.) and K and I were totally immersed in it, me having lost the woman I love through what I believe is my fault and her trying to tell me that she did it of her own volition and not to blame myself. Powerful stuff.

No, don't worry... my blog is not about to become yet another extension of the all powerful YouTube monster. I do like some of the videos though! And, seeing as it's my blog, I shall post them from time to time. 'Nuff said.

TOP GEAR MINI SKI JUMP

Strap some rockets to a mini and launch it off a skijump - oh yeah!!

Top Gear GM Highwire

I want to test drive this puppy!!!

Links for today...
Become a Google search Ninja! Here's the cheatsheet
Tons of incredibly interesting stuff. One of my favourite sites
A recent blog find but will probably become another regular of mine... Geeks are Sexy!
You know that silly little Movie disc format that Sony invented for its PSP. Well, it's all over, bar the shouting. Blu-ray will no doubt follow...

Dropped off the nipper at school and headed over to a Spoon River rehearsal. The SR verses have a definite rehearsal technique (which I won't go into now as it will blow your mind if you are a non-thesp and definitely if you are a thesp but aren't training - are you serious about your career or not??) which requires you to go through a 'process' of a few different scenarios. Well, we went through them... for two hours!! Really heavily emotional (no, acting is not just about emotion but for most of these SRs, it makes up a pretty big part)interaction between us. One does, of course, ask the question 'why do we do this to ourselves' and the answer is, of course, 'because it's fun'! Yes, folks, it's fun. Gut wrenching emotion and complete (but controlled) meltdowns are the stuff of amusement to completely unhinged people like myself. How so? Well, I am now feeling that a lot of my building blocks are in place and, because I rehearse, they come a little more easily than before and I'm able to start adding on the next stages of my training... and it's starting to be fun! The ability to 'go' somewhere you need to, get there and then 'use' it while working off another actor is the stuff of enjoyment for me... finally! It's been a struggle and most days it still is but when it happens, it's great. Of course, training is important for many reasons but the one I feel is crucial is that it enables things to 'happen' on regular rather than rare occasions. Those days that you're not necessarily 'feeling it' or you've just got incredible news or terrible news and you have to 'step up', that's when the training (and your ability to utilise your 'tools' - which comes from rehearsing) steps in. Of course, that's just one way it empowers you as an actor but it's an important one. It all boils down to being able to do your job when you have to, every single time. That's what I train for. I'll never get to the end of the journey but I can use all my tools along the way while I travel along the road!
Wrote to MB of MBA and GK of AAA and also hit Sam Frenchs and bought the latest Agent and Manager directories. Need to do another mailing although with this one, I will probably only write to half a dozen agents and probably even fewer managers. I feel a very strong compulsion to be incredibly targeted with my mailings from now on.
By the way, if you're in LA and you don't have an agent or manager or you want to find a different agent or manager, you need to get these directories. No question. The information is gold and completely up-to-date. It even lists what each agency and manager is looking for at the moment... you can't target much more effectively than that, can you!
Little terror is having wonderful tantrums at the moment - I think he's possessed! No rhyme nor reason... just being 'that age' seems to explain it! Mummy cut his hair today and it's an...er...interesting style. Bless her!

Tuesday...
Wife
Kid
Beach
Sand
Sea
Sun block
Sun
Buckets
Wet toes
Tuna Sarnies
Tab soda
San Pelligrino water
Home
Happy
Smile
Sleep
Good night
zzzzzzz

Monday and another week kicks off in merry old L.A.
Class turned out to be a discsussion about the FF and what we all got out of it. For me, the Q&As with all of the filmmakers along with the Jeff Goldblum session made it a superb day. Incredible insights on technique and establishing an effective work ethic as well as advice on filmmaking and marketing. One interesting fact... did you know that Metro (the L.A. bu and train people) have a movie department? That same department will hire you a real Metro bus (whiite and orange) and a driver for just over $600 for eight hours. I've always wondered where films got their buses from. Now I know.
Had another audition with my new agent (that's three in three weeks plus a callback) for Fed Ex. Quite a funny skit where a shipping department clerk, obviously smarting from an incredibly busy list of old duties suddenyl has nothing to do when the firm switched their business to FX. Two colleague comment on the fact that this guy can't seem to accept that it's OK for him not to be busy... it loses a lot in translation... you had to be there I suppose.
Missus and monkey were on top form when I got home, littl'un having kicked up a fuss earlier and 'asking' to take a nap. Great, isn't it. Last year we fought him to have an afternoon nap, now he want to take them! Nap over and reated, he behaved himself for, oh, all of ten minutes before having a melt down about something else...

Oh.. news flash... MY WIFE HAS NOW DISCOVERED MY BLOG SO I WILL NOW HAVE TO SAY NICE THINGS ABOUT HER... actually, except for a few rants (as one would have been married for a number of years), I think I write nice things about her. Hello darling. Welcome to my blog! I hereby promise not to write about anything which may upset you... girlfriends, dates, romantic liasions, that kind of thing =) Today's piccy is just for you, my sweet.

Sunday. Went shopping to get some thing in Burbank... in the searing heat. Seriously, I think the heat is RIDICULOUS!! My fault as I moved here, I suppose. Went to Olive Garden for dinner and ran into a PHW chum, DB. He was chatty and we had a laugh about various things. Met his mate, J, who' just moved up from San Diego, another actor!
Watched some Miss Marple - excellent stuff.
Yol hit me with the first couple of pages of her script and it looks great. I'm happy for her to write it completely as my hands are full with G's project.
Wading through a ton of plays for scenework in class although I may end up working on some movie stuff with KC who's just been cast in a project.

Saturday and up early to get on the Bus(!) to go and help out at the PWFF in North Hollywood. Got there at 9.10am and they were already screening the 2nd film of the day. The first one must have been short! I ended up working the snack bar so I got to meet pretty much everyone in the place. Took breaks to go and watch some of the films although everything was piped out to the foyer onto a large plasma TV. Pretty good house which was a relief based on the pre-event ticket sales which were not good! The highlight of the whole day was a Q&A with Jeff Goldblum who has a lot of ties with PHW. He was candid, funny, genuine, insightful and incredible knowledgeable about the business of acting and what we all should be doing on a daily basis to give ourselves the best chance of succeeding. Met him briefly in the foyer - really nice guy.
There were some very interesting films throughout the day and one extremely funny one with the teachers doing a rip off of QEFTSG making over RC. Very funny. Saw a screening of Good Time Max (which probably won't be the final release - lots to clear up and change) and Elle Parker which was pretty Weird with a capital W. Naomi Watts was pretty fine in it as was MP who also shone in the QE skit. He was there too. Damn fine fellah.
Had some very interesting chats with some of the filmmakers and I think Yol and I are going to kick off our own project which I can't wait for.
I have some filming to do on G's project over this week and we've talked about condensing some of the stuff which I think will make it fly.
Back to the Film Fest if only to finish off and say it was a very long day and having stood at the snack bar for the best part of 10 hours straight, to see the contents of the tips jar go straight in to TS's pocket with no mention of any split, I was, to say the least, a little bummed. Yes, very bummed, folks.
And to then have to get on a bus at 10pm in NoHo, wait 20 minutes and then WALK HOME from La Cienega and Sunset (which took 45 minutes) for absolutely NO PAY and no share of the tips jar (did I mention that already?)... well, how do you think I feel.