My New Venture

Check it...my cousin Effie Mae had quite the ordeal trying to fly home for the holidays...



:) Merry Christmas!

My Type

Last night in the fabulously fantastic class that I'm in, we tackled Type, the big elephantine monster that I've been afraid to ask anyone about but unsure of how to figure out for sure on my own. It was awesome.

Everyone walked around and handed each other index cards, then you stood and looked at each other, writing down 5 things that came to mind immediately. It was difficult with the people I already know, because you want to try not to factor in personality or personal history. I highly highly recommend doing this...if you randomly find yourself in the company of a small group of kind and well-meaning strangers. Or in class.

Here is what I got. Any emphasis or parentheticals are what was written down. Numbers in parentheses are when I got repeats of the exact same phrase.

20-26
athletic (x2)
best friend (x3)
best girlfriend
bitchy
bookstore clerk
chipper
classy
closeted sex kitten (by "closeted" I mean "non-slutty")
clothing store owner
college type
comedic cop
confidant
cute (x3)
cute
cute caring girlfriend
cute friend
daredevil
dry humored friend
early 20s (x3)
excited for the future
faithful
free spirited
friendly
fun
funny (x3)
geeky
girl next door (x4)
girlfriend
good ol' girl
goofball
grad student
grounded (x2)
happy
hipster
honest
intelligent
Jennifer Aniston
Laura Linney in her 20s
loving
loyal (this was underlined but blogger won't let me do that)
mid 20s (x2)
middle class (x2)
midwestern (x2)
neighbor
nerd
nurse
outgoing
playful
post graduate student
pretty
quiet
quirky (x2)
sarcastic
scholar
sexy
shy
silly
slightly unsure of herself
smart
smarter than she lets on
smiley
sports player
spunky
spunky (like Punky)
suck up
sweet
sweet girl next door mom
thoughtful
tomboy (x2)
tough
warm
wide-eyed
works in a German bar
young assistant to shit boss
young mom (x2)

These are a little all over the place, but I can certainly see all of them in myself. If you plotted them all on a Venn diagram of some sort, I'm pretty sure the majority would fall in the same circle. Now I know: I'm perfect for the cute girl next door funny best friend in her mid 20s. Bring it.

Funnily enough, there were two breakdowns today that were pretty spot-on for me. I submitted to both, and already got called in for one. Yay! Hopefully they'll be able to see me when I get back.

Also: if you care about acting, incarceration, Shakespeare, theatre, or any combination of those, watch Shakespeare Behind Bars. They have it on Netflix. It is wonderful and inspiring and heartbreaking and reminded me of why I fell in love with acting in the first place and how I can actually make a difference pursuing what I love.

I get on a plane tonight to go home for the first time in a year and I am absolutely ecstatic. Happy happy holidays to you all, and may 2009 bring us all wonderful things!

People Make Me Happy

I started the day on a jam-packed bus with four strangers spending twenty minutes very much inside of my personal space, and, oddly enough, it made me pensive rather than annoyed. (Which is certainly a healthier emotion, but I don't always adhere to those sorts of logic.) Consequently, I seem to be very reflective today. I stumbled upon this video called "Where the Hell is Matt?," and I absolutely love it.



I had an idiot grin on my face the whole time I was watching it, and then alternated between chills and the desire to cry. It's possible that I'm PMSing and it's making me over-sappy, because sometimes that happens, but I just love the idea of this man walking up to total strangers all over the world with whom he does not even share a language and getting them to dance with him. The children are my favorite. And I've always been a sucker for large orchestration and scope.

So anyway. I hope you enjoy that.

On the bus this morning, a girl wrestled her way the the front, seemingly randomly, and then sort of petulantly said to the bus driver "Robertson" as we were passing the street. He explained that we were on an express bus that did not stop there. She apparently was not aware of this, and asked him to pull over a few blocks away and let her out, not at a stop. I was sort of shocked when he obliged, and then I realized that people showing kindness to those who don't necessarily deserve it might be one of the things that makes the world go around. You know, besides gravity and stuff.

What did you do this week?

Last night I attended the first class of a sort of marketing/acting industry info/actors support network thingy. It's facilitated by Bonnie Gillespie, so I already knew that the time would be well spent, but I wasn't sure what it would be like. Now I know - it was fantastic.

I was excited by the other attendees, many of whom I previously knew and really liked. The other folks there also seem like really smart, on the ball actors - exactly the people I want to surround myself with.

We went around introducing ourselves and sharing a fun facts (which, after two showcases, I am quickly running out of) and then moved on to my favorite part of the night. Bonnie had us all go around and say something positive that had happened in our careers this week.

At first, I panicked. Things have been really slow and I haven't been doing much. But when it was my turn, I said that I had gotten called in for two auditions, the first in a couple of months, so that was good. And that I am in my first commercial, even though it's unpaid because I appeared on the show and signed away the rights. And I started this class this week. So, all in all, not too bad.

Other folks had booked their first nationals, seen the final product of their pilots, shot co-star roles on network tv, seen their episode of The Shield (to find that their storyline had been cut, but still), and met with agents and managers.
I think all of us realized that if you really stop and take stock of all the things you're doing, you'll be surprised that the list is not as short as you may have thought.

A friend of mine in the group mentioned that she moved to Los Angeles a year ago this week. She's done a fair amount of stuff and is commercially repped and has a manager, etc, which is great in the amount of time she's been here. I realized that I have only been really pursuing acting here since last January, when I got my headshots taken and stopped using my old black and white shots from long ago and far away, and that what I've accomplished in that time doesn't feel like a whole lot, but it's also nothing to sneeze at. And then a very wise member of our group pointed out that anything you accomplish before you've been in Los Angeles for five years is pretty dang good.

I'm so happy to have a positive and supportive group of people to help me keep things in perspective and share tools and successes. Starting this class was the best thing I've done for my career this week.

Sort of negative side note, but I have to get it out: I'm still a little frustrated when I hear about other folks who got called in from the last showcase, when I got nary a peep. But trying to put that out of my mind and not worry about it. There! It's gone! And I'm happy to say that whenever I feel that way, the overwhelming feeling is happy for them for getting called in. I've finally gotten it through my head that another person's success does not eliminate or negate my own. It's a good feeling. I feel like I've shed a layer of petty and insecure and replaced it with a little more maturity.

Time to get ready for January's push. Cause 2009 is going to be a great year.