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.

auditions, unions, and making the best of it

today i had my first audition for a paying job in almost 2 months... this town is killing me. i love Saint Louis, but its terribly limited for an actor i’ve learned. there’s no Goodman Theater here, there’s no established production economy here, and as technology developed over the last 20 years, it became completely possible for local companies to produce ads in other cities and have them back here within days.

and for this, the community has suffered. people who want to act and be professional can’t make it here - the effort required doesn’t have the possible local reward. and with this leaves an opening for anyone willing to show up and get the job and take less pay.

and i’m SAG; and i completely support performance unions. but in this case, the unions are wrong. and why? the unions allow producers to hire whoever they want for principal roles, bring them in from wherever, and then (except for cities like NY or LA) they can hire whoever they want for background, stand-in, extra, and cameo roles. the reason being that there isn’t the pool of talent to choose from in the union because the general pool of actors is so small.

however, the rules that the union places on me are GLOBAL. i’m not allowed to take any of these jobs if they are non-union, even if they pay better than union wages. now really, how much sense does that make?

i went SAG because i plan to leave STL to chase bigger and better productions and getting my SAG card in other cities will prove to be a challenge. but in reality, if you’re an actor in St. Louis - who’s planning on staying here, get the card, pay your dues - and go Fi-Core. Until the unions want to put the time and effort into the whole country, its really the only option.

after the audition i went on with my plan to do things that i don’t normally do. and for today, i went to Ted Drewes for some tasty Frozen Custard... mmm... I got myself a mocha something and my dad a small vanilla, it rocked. every town has its unique places to eat that everyone needs to try, and this is on the tops for the STL.

speaking visually, tied rhetorically

this afternoon my coach, the lovely and talented Carrie Houk, sent me an IM asking how i had been lately and encouraging me to go up to Washington University for a showing of the 1993 film “King of the Hill”. and, i must say i enjoyed it a great deal.

it was showing as part of the St. Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF), and included a panel discussion after which i enjoyed a great deal as well.

the film was good, great in fact, and included a lot of fairly well known names of great talent who (at the time) were not known at all. most importantly, it was shot in st. louis and a handful of bit parts were cast to local actors. of course, as most productions go, they cast the key roles out of los angeles without giving anyone in st. louis a chance.

i am DYING for someone to blow some life into recognition of st. louis actors. here i am, planning my escape to LA while spending all my professional time in chicago, without any hope of seeing real work here.

and my lovely union, SAG, is zero help. they’re rules state that i cannot act in any format for a non-union production, but they allow producers to roll into st. louis and produce great films like “King of the Hill” without much restriction on any roles that aren’t lead. my union restricts me, but puts little restriction on producers if the production isn’t in LA or NYC...



sad