the gentle knock...

i'm in LA... i'm at the Chateau Marmont on the pool desk with my MacBook Air, laying in the sun, its 75' and barely a cloud in the sky...

really, i'm only here by the grace of God and my friend Matt.  he has a client out here that calls on him often, very often, so often that the client knows he's being difficult so he tells Matt to come out here and bring a friend and stay here.  so my broke unemployed actor self gets to come and stay in this the quintessential Hollywood residence a couple times a year.

and on this trip, things got interesting...

first, we got here and i went to the front desk to check in.  Matt had left his phone in the car so i was the only one standing there and i was handed a letter.  the letter was an apology because the hotel was going to be hosting a party for Paramount Pictures that would consume the bar and restaurant during our stay.  however, to make up for the inconvenience, Paramount was extending an invitation to all the hotel guests to join the party.... and, awesome.

then, before matt's client meeting the client called and hurl was in the shower.  i answered.  when matt got to the meeting the client commented on how good it was that he brings a friend to keep from getting bored - and then mentioned his upcoming trip to China, and said we should join him for that... oh, and Cannes he has to go there too and doesn't want to... he's just going to get bored at these things, having his business advisor there would help, and another dude to keep things lively would be all the better.

woah - in the span of 36hours i've been included in a premier studio party celebrating the Golden Globes, a trip to the China for their up & coming film festival, and a trip to France for the Cannes Film Festival.  you can't tell because of the way i have myself seated, but flaming kittens are about to fire out of my ass!

ironically, in my year to clean up and fly right, i can't find a date to save my life for this party.  i know three gorgeous actresses in town, all three have plans... the woman i'd ask back home has zero desire to be in LA (and much less an industry event), and the two women i know in town have barely even acknowledged my presence here via comments online much less contacted me to see what's going on.  i was however lucky enough to strike up a conversation at a local pizza place with a rather attractive law student who claimed she wanted to go... however she works two jobs, and wasn't sure if she could bail early... we will see.

i've been good this year, my year of growth.  i haven't acted the fool, havent had reason to vomit or be asked to put my clothes back on, been waking up alone, so on... i'm being a grown up.  however, while i feel better, it sometimes feels limiting and lonely.

oh well, in 5 hours is the party, in 3 months are the trips.  well, really life is the trip, isn't it?

Los Angeles January 2009

where do i start?

ok, so we got here, LAX was ass, shnidy’s room had been double booked, and after a few weeks of planning - almost everyone i was going to meet fell through. a good friend of mine basically boiled it down to this: she would do what she could for me, but life in LA between last year’s WGA strike and the looming SAG strike has slowed to a crawl, come out and enjoy it, but don’t move yet. brutal. the arrival was rapidly followed by a headcold, which i chased with some tequila, and by 8pm ended up in bed... um, only to be woken by Shnidy and Enzo to head out to Pasendena.

when the night came to its end, Chris and Enzo left me stumbling through the hotel guards, who eventually were sent by the front desk to watch over me as i slept in the hallway outside my room. eventually they woke Hurl, and i literally crawled past him and to my room and into bed. ‘the gentleman’ slept well, but aggravated his cold, which intensified the hangover.

the only guy to take my planned meeting was Mick at Creative Artists. we made the connection via family, and easily this man has equaled my friend with his words but kind efforts in one conversation. i have to say that while i knew going into the meeting we wouldn’t do any business, he was still a great guy to meet, and his offers to help in the ways he could were nothing short of awesome.

after that meeting, i get back to the hotel to find out that the hotel had given Chris the penthouse suite to make up for their double booking his room the night before. can all the babies say PHAT?

Shnidy (Chris) had come out with Hurl and I so that we could head out to Pasedena and meet some gamer friends we knew on Saturday night. awesome group of guys, and in some ways, not what we expected at all. the personalities in person were even more inviting that we had imagined, great people, and i hope to see them again on my next visit. that night got a touch out of hand, and resulted in my passing out in the car the instant after Chris got in the driver’s seat. luckily, chris used Neverlost and some of his old school instincts to get us back to the hotel. apparently at one point he got completely lost in Beverly Hills in a rented car that took him to the wrong location with me rumored to be dangling out the passenger window. he still got us home, i knew he still had it in him.

again making it past security, this time Chris left me leaning up against the elevators which are disabled after nightfall. ‘the gentleman’ was escorted by his assigned guardians again to his room, and security was kind enough to make sure i had a bottle of water and two glasses on the nightstand in case i woke up and needed refreshment.

seriously, the staff at Chateau Marmont is second to none, especially security.

for our last day we trekked to Malibu for brunch at Geoffry’s overlooking the beach. it was gorgeous... as Chicago and St. Louis froze through a national chill that had left them in the single digits and negative wind-chills, i was in cargo shorts and a loose linen shirt glowing in the mid-day sunny view of the Pacific. i had the seafood paella, which included a scallop the size of a hockey puck.

LAX was even more of a nightmare coming home - for one of the country’s busiest airports, they need to really do something about that single file line nonsense in the American Airlines terminal to get past the security screeners. c’mon people, if we are slowed down like this, the terrorists won.

overall the trip rocked... sure, i didn’t get to meet with most of the people i’d planned on meeting, and actually had to miss some of the people that tried to see me socially - but i’m scheduled to go back at the end of February, see more, do more, and have hopefully as great a time. now... let’s see if we can get that whole ‘entertainment industry slowdown’ issue resolved.

the chateau marmont

thank god for good friends...

Hurl had a business trip, and I’d been harassing him to exploit these many many work-related travels into something he will enjoy and forever remember. for this, he invited me to join him on his next, where he booked a 2 bedroom suite at the Chateau Marmont on Sunset in Los Angeles.

this place is an icon of pop culture in many ways, located right in the center of pop culture’s roots and famous for its past visitors and their murky doings. i’m really trying to take advantage of the trip to see what i can find and who i can talk to about getting more involved out here in LA... but really, things have fallen apart as far as doing that, so I’m enjoying this place as much as i can. and so far, it kinda rocks.