Post Holiday Fun

Ok, I'm not really doing anything fun and exciting over here, that just sounded like a good title. I did have fun on Christmas though. I went to two friends' houses. We ate, ate, ate, and talked and laughed and watched movies, etc., etc. Typical holiday stuff. I got some money among other things from my mom and other family members. Sadly though, this is the first Christmas where I really wasn't able to get the kinds of gifts for friends and family like I like to. That's part of the sacrifice I made in order to move out to L.A. though.......to be broke (temporarily). It's just that I'm so damn independent, too independent at times I think. I hate asking people for things, I hate asking for money, and I especially hatw receiving gifts when I am not able to give them. My family understands though. One day I'll be able to get them anything they want. The animation to the right is something that came up when I googled the word "fun". I had to put it on here because it exactly describes how I feel sometimes! LOL

Did everyone else have a good holiday?

So this is kind of funny. This is for my medical school colleagues at Ohio State. I am a subscriber to Men's Health magazine, and here is a quote from one of their articles:

"Ohio State University researchers recently found that rats given a synthetic form of marijuana were better able to withstand the effects of brain inflamation, a cause of Alzheimer's, than straight rodents were. Next, scientists are developing a compound with similar effects but without the high."

Well, until then, Grandma is gettin the green for her birthday!! Haha Wouldn't it be funny to see all of the old folks of America sitting on their porches smoking blunts so they wouldn't get Alzheimer's? I can just see my grandmother smoking a joint, cracking up! On a serious note, this obviously brings up the great debate of whether medical marijuana is ethical or not and whether it should be legalized. Many people, like Montel Williams who suffers from multiple sclerosis, have said that they have received great benefits from marijuana. I don't doubt them, but from a medical standpoint, one thing that medical professionals always have to take into consideration is whether the benefits outweigh the side effects. In case you didn't know, ALL drugs are poisons and ALL drugs have side effects. Even the medicine we deem harmless, like Tylenol, is a poison with side effects. That is why I encourage people to NOT take medicine unless they absolutely need it. In the case of the research mentioned above, obviously if the scientists could come up with a similar compound without the harmful effects of marijuana, that would be best. Marijuana may help some people, but in addition to the THC and other chemicals it contains, the fact that it is burnt and inhaled makes it that much worse. ANYTHING burnt (including food) produces cancer causing compunds called carcinogens, and that means lung cancer in this case. And so the debate continues..................

That's all I have for now. I need to figure out what I'm going to do for New Year's here in L.A. I've heard a few people say they don't waste their time going out on New Years because people act a fool. Doesn't surprise me. We'll see.

For The Criminal Minds Fans

UPDATES AT THE BOTTOM!

Hey guys, I have a new blog buddy who is the nicest person ever! Click here to see what she wrote about me on her blog.

As I was adding labels to all of my blogs last night, I realized that I had just barely mentioned that I was on Criminal Minds one day and I never even talked about filming that day. So, in honor of my new blog buddy, Jill, I'm going to talk about it now!

The date I was on this show was September 20th and the episode shouldn't have aired too long ago. There is usually about a 4-6 week time period between airing and filming. One of my friends actually called me and said they saw me on this episode. So, we shot on location at a local high school in Tarzana, CA which is in the valley. I played a football player. Let me start by saying that it takes 8 days to shoot one episode, and I was only there for one day for one scene, so I'm not sure what went on in the entire episode. Anyways, in the scene that I was in, we were having a huge pep rally because our football team was going to the championship. The last time our team had made it to the championship was back in 1984, so this was a huge deal! We, the football players, were on a podium with our coach and there was a huge bonfire behind us. For anyone who has this show recorded, if you're looking at the television screen, I'm on the left hand side, toward the back and I have me glasses on. It may be hard to spot me because, honestly, I was bored and it was FREEZING cold that night.

Earlier in the day, we actually had to put on some old raggedy football jersies and pose for a picture as the 1984 team that made it to the championship. Yep, that's right. I was part of a 1984 team and 2006 team in the same episode. That's Hollywood folks! I can't remember, but I think they were going to show this picture in the episode as part of a newspaper clipping from back in the day. So as we were waiting to film our scene, we were sitting in the football stands watching them film another scene. In between takes, Shemar Moore was throwing the football with us and just having a really good time. He is really cool. Unfortunately, he is the only part of the cast that I knew at the time, so I'm not sure what other cast members were there. Thanks to Jill, I know them all now!

That being said, I must confess that I have had many more opportunities to be on Criminal Minds but I have declined ONLY because they mostly shoot on location in a town that is like 40 miles north of L.A. and most of the time I don't feel like fighting the traffic to go there when I could just work on Warner Brother Studies 5 miles away. BUT, now that I have a reason to be on Criminal Minds I will most certainly see what I can do once we get back into the swing of things on January 3rd.

**UPDATE** I did some research and I believe this episode aired November 1st and it was titled "North Mammon". My scene would have been the opening scene!

***UPDATE#2*** Jill, my new blog buddy and genius found the screen caps for this episode I was in. http://www.iad-ordnonstop.net/index2x07.html. I am on page 1, row 2, pictures 2,3, and 4 and also row 3, pictures 1,2, and 3. I'm behind the coach, the guy with the glasses on. Jill is awesome!!!!!

My Day In Porn

Hey, I wasn't the one naked, so get your mind out of the gutter! My desperation here in Hollywood hasn't reached that level yet. But I might be close! haha Anyways, Wednesday I worked on a new show called Dirt. This is Courteney Cox's new show. It's a show about the paparazzi and their relentless pursuit of celebrities. I have to say, from the previews I saw on t.v., it actually looks rather interesting. I'm definitely going to check it out when it premieres on January 2nd on the FX channel. So, the scene I was working in, I played a crew member on this porn set. (I'm laughing right now by the way). It was obviously a fake porn set for the show, but they needed it to look real, so they hired people to be naked on the set. It was crazy. There were 2 girls and a guy that were naked there. And guess what??? They only got paid $300!! I'm sorry, I need a lot more than that to show off my goodies, lol. Anyhoo...these people did NOT look like real porn stars! I should know, I was in college for 4 years ya know?!?! Another lady who I was working with confirmed this by telling us she knows what real porn sets look like because her sister is an ex-porn star!!!! Geez, the info people share! For anyone who has read my blog for any length of time, you guys know my favorite thing to do is to talk about the crazy people I meet. I mean, this lady was talking so much about real porn sets, I actually think SHE was the real porn star. She can't fool me! Now, back to the scene. There was no sex at all. It was supposed to take place just after a sex scene, and the porn stars were walking off the set......naked. It was kind of cheesy. I guess real and fake porn is cheesy.

In real life news, there has been a lot of gang activity going in L.A. in the last few weeks. I keep hearing on the news how innocent children are getting caught in the crossfire and dying. It is the most depressing thing EVER!! One story almost had me in tears yesterday. A young Asian girl, 9, died from a stray bullet that came through the wall of her house and struck her in the head. Her mother, was on the news speaking through a translator. This woman was from Thailand, and she brought her daughter to America for a better life and education. She was crying so hard and saying that she now thinks it was a mistake to come here. It was so sad. I mean, can you even imagine??? Just today, a young black girl was shot dead because she stepped over an imaginary line into a Latino gang zone! This is one of the reason's I want to be a public figure. There is a lot I want to do to help clean up big cities and speak to the youth across America. I also want to do things for the environment, and create a foundation for children with learning disabilities. The violence has to stop though. I can't think of anything worse in this world than a parent losing a child, ESPECIALLY over something so stupid as gang violence!

So, You Like Ripsi?

Geez, you guys must've really liked the video with the drunken Ripsi. According to my hit counter, I had more hits in one day (yesterday) than I have ever had in one day since I created my blog. I even had way more hits yesterday than I did when I talked about racism and Michael Richards. You know, racism, the deep seated issue that America has been dealing with since its birth! Haha....I actually think it's pretty funny. I watched that Ripsi video at least 15 times by now. Seriously, if you only watched it once, watch it 1 or 2 more times. It gets funnier the more you watch it because you pick up little details you missed the first time. In any case, I'm glad the video was amusing to you no life losers, because I found another, much shorter, video of Ripsi drunk again.



On to other things.........I know I have talked about the smog here in L.A. a lot, but I have to again. But this time, I'm talking about the LACK of smog!! And I'm loving it. I heard the there is considerably less smog here during the winter months and it is true. I think this has to do with 2 things. 1). Winter is when L.A. gets all of its rain. Which reminds me, I had to use my windshield wipers for the FIRST time 2 weeks ago. I moved here July 1st! That's crazy. So, the rain helps clear the smog and dust out of thr air and it makes a HUGE difference. The land here is really, really beautiful when you can actually see it. 2). The Santa Ana winds. This is a weather system that passes through L.A. every fall. Whatever smog is left in the air is most likely blown away by these winds. I can't even think of the words to describe it. The Hollywood hills right now look like they do in post cards. They are so clearly visible now from a distance. The other example I noticed while I was driving the other day. I was going to an audition I think and I was getting on the 405 freeway (the bane of everyone's existance here) from the 10 freeway. In order to do that, you have to go over this highly elevated ramp that provides a great view of the city. So, I'm on the ramp, curving southward, and I look to my left (towards the east) and lo and behold. In the distance, I see a huge snowcapped mountain! It was gorgeous. And I never even knew the thing existed!!!! I've been over that ramp many times, but thanks to the smog I couldn't even see downtown L.A. let alone this mountain. I figured it had to be the San Bernadino mountain range because I had just heard in the news that these mountains just got a fresh coat of snow and skiers were loving it. Seriously, it looks like Mt. Kilimanjaro. Look for a post from me in the near future about how we are destroying our planet and things we can do to help. In the pic to the right, just pretend the giraffe's aren't there!

Well, I guess I'll go ahead and post ONE MORE video here. I worked on a semi-porn set today but I don't feel like talking about that right now. I'll write about that in a day or two. I know I know....the suspense!! Haha Back to Ripsi. This chick has problems and now she is getting kicked out of the house. Oh, and as for the show, it's called Bad Girls Club. It comes on Oxygen, but I still don't know anything about it. It's kind of like The Real World on MTV, except its all girls that live in the house.



Ahhh....where do they find these people??? Ok, I'm done with Ripsi now. I swear!!!

Time For a Break

Well, the television industry has officially gone on winter hiatus. I've heard that the hiatus lasts 2 weeks, and I also heard that it lasts 6 weeks. I'm praying it's only 2 weeks or else I really will have to get another job. I plan to try and stay busy over the holidays though one way or another. As for the end of last week, I went into a rage and I had to cuss someone out. Just my luck, I knew this would happen. Basically, I didn't get my 2nd SAG voucher. I'm not going to get into the whole story here, but to make a long story short, I had to call the casting company and cuss them out. So, they said they would get me my 2nd voucher after the winter break. Apparently the script on the show got changed and they didn't need me for that second day. I mean, it's the entertainment industry, it happens. But I was still mad.

Thursday I was on this new show called The Game. It premiered this fall on the CW and it stars Tia Mowry (or maybe its Tamara, I can never remember). You might remember them from the show Sister Sister a few years back. Tia (or Tamara) wasn't there the day I was. Also starring on this show is Wendy Raquel Robinson. She was the principal on The Steve Harvey Show. This show is about a professional football player and his girlfriend. We were shooting on location at a night club. Guest starring on this episode was Eva Marcelle. You would know her better as Eva Pigford becasue she won one of the seasons of America's Next Top Model. Eva is hella short and that surprised me. You always hear about models (especially runway models) having to be at least 5'9". Eva is 5'6" at the tallest. She's very cute, but I hope she is taking some acting classes. I'm not trying to be mean, but it's frustrating for any actor when they see someone get a role on a show or in a film when that person isn't even an actor. They only got cast because their face is recognizable. I especially hate it when singers get their own movie, simply because they are already famous. You can tell the acting is horrible in a lot of these movies as well. Anyways, I'm not saying Eva was terrible, but there were some scenes that had to be done in excess of 15 times because Eva wasn't doing it right. The director was basically coaching her on what to do in detail. Oh well, that's how Hollywood works. Once you make a name for yourself whether it be through acting, singing, modeling, or sports, and once you know people, it's not hard to get roles on various projects!

So that's it for the work week. Now, I want to just take the time to ask everyone to go this website: https://www.lighttounite.org/. Bristol-Meyers Squibb is donating $1 to AIDS research for every person that goes to this site and lites the candle. That's all you have to do! Light the candle. It's takes a few clicks of your mouse button and only a few seconds. More information is on the website about what they are funding, and also statistics about AIDS.

In other news, Afrah and I went out to a couple of clubs here on Saturday night. It was the first time we had went to club since she moved here in September, and it really is the first time I've gone to a club since I moved here too. I drank more than I needed too, but that's ok because I haven't had alcohol since July! Plus, between the clubs on Sunset Blvd and Santa Monica Blvd, everything is within walking distance to my place, so driving wasn't even an issue. Afrah really didn't want to go out at first, but after she got a few drinks in her, she was telling me that going out was the best idea ever and she was having so much fun! She is funny. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera, so no pics of that night!

Now, I came across another video that I HAVE to post here. It's a video clip for a new reality show on Oxygen. I don't even know the name of it. I was laughing so hard when I watched it though. The girl in the video is Ripsi (yeah, that's her name) and this night she drank a whole bottle of tequila and went on a rampage! She tries to beat one girl up, then she trahses the kitchen, THEN she goes upstairs and attacks an innocently sleeping girl. TOO FUNNY. Watch for yourself!




When is the last time you've seen someone THAT drunk. It's been a while for me.

What's With All The PDA?

So, this is the last full week of television production for the holiday season, which things are going to be very slow for the next few weeks. Hopefully there will be some feature films that come through so it won't be so bad. Over the past few days, I couldn't help but think to myself, "Today I was supposed to fly to Ohio". "Today I'm supposed to be hangin out with my med school buddies". "Today I'm supposed to be at my sister's graduation!". Yes folks, I skipped out on my sister's graduation for some SAG vouchers! I spoke with her and she was understanding about the whole situation. I did feel bad though. But what can I say? As I said before, getting SAG eligibility is the whole reason I made the big move west. Anyway, my sis graduated from OSU in 3 1/2 years with 2 majors. So, congrats to her.

This past Thursday I worked and got my first SAG voucher. I'll get the next one this coming Friday. I have to say, I worked just 4 hours and got paid $126. No bad, huh? I was hoping it was going to be one of those long 14 hour days, because with all the overtime pay, it would have been over $200 for a day's work. It's certainly not Hollywood bigshot pay, but it's a hell of a lot more than what I'm getting now.

I worked on the show Greek twice this week as a rich frat guy. It was funny since I wanted nothing to do with greek life in college. And I still don't. They annoyed the hell out of me. However, I did meet a guy on this set whose name is Branch. When he said his name, we all thought he was saying Brent, and he said, "No, it's Branch....like a tree!". I just thought that was funny for some reason. Yesterday I worked on a new pilot called Manchild. It's a new show that will air on Showtime. There was this couple there that could not be away from each other for more than a half a second. They always had their hands on each other, they huddled under a blanket together. They were almost as bad as my cousin and her boyfriend, but not quite. And that's sad! It was really annoying. Not only that, we were all playing club goers at a supposedly hot new L.A. nightclub. Well, they were playing hip hop music in there like 50 Cent, Kanye West, etc. and these two fools are over there slow dancing with her head all up on his shoulder. I wanted to go barf all over their shoes! I mean, what are these people trying to prove to everyone else?? WE DON'T CARE!!! And then, I'm driving down Sunset today and there are a group of students waiting for the bus, and two of them are in a full blown make-out session, leaning against the street light. Granted they are high school students, but still. I know I must sound bitter, but I'm not. There is a time and a place for everything. If you want to be like that in public, the porn industry is right over the hill in the valley!!

I know I say this in every other post, but I'm so sick of doing background. I'm hoping in the next few weeks I'll have some more interesting things to share, because I'm sick of talking about doing background too. I know it takes time, blah blah blah. Patience Kris! I'm trying!! That's basically the conversation I have with myself everyday, lol.

Ok, now I don't have anything else to say. I need to devise some more plans on how to get my 3rd voucher!!! muahahaha

Newsflash! I'm Not Coming Home Anymore

Due to recent events, I have had to cancel my trip to Columbus for this weekend. Go ahead, take a second to wipe that tear, lol. Basically, I got a call from a show and they offered me a job for this weekend. I'm not saying which show. It's not that I'm trying to be all secretive, I just don't want to jinx anything.

Basically, it's nothing big, no big speaking role or anything, but they offered me 2 union (SAG) vouchers, and I couldn't pass it up. Let me explain. The Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) is the union for actors that protects the actors rights. Mostly all shows on tv and mostly all feature films are franchised with SAG. SAG rules state that a production company that is franchised with the union can only hire union actors for roles. If they hire non-union actors (like myself) they are subject to paying a few thousand dollars in fines. So, every actor here is fighting their way into the union. How do you get into the union? There are 2 main ways. One is to miraculously get a speaking part on a project (I've seen it happen, sometimes the director likes someone so much, they will pay those fines). The other way is to obtain 3 union vouchers by doing background work. The vouchers DO NOT get handed out frivolously. They are very hard to get. People beg for them. There is even a black market for them here!! People actually will pay a few hundred dollars to buy a voucher off of someone. Well, this show offered me 2, count em, TWO vouchers. So you see, I couldn't pass this up. This is the whole reason I came to L.A.; to eventually join SAG. I doubt this opportunity would come very soon again. Now I only need one more voucher!

Joining SAG will make it A LITTLE easier to get an agent and to get auditions for the good paying commercials, tv shows, and films. Ya dig?? I knew everyone would understand. I have to say, I was REALLY excited to come home and see everyone though. I had me weekend all planned out. And go figure, I've been trying to get vouchers for 4 months, and not until my vacation do they get offered to me!! Oh well....I guess that's fate/life.

I'm not sure now when is the next time I will be able to make it to Ohio, but I'll be sure to keep everyone updated.

P.S. -- Did I mention the SAG rate for doing background is more than double the non-union rate?!?!?!

Well, The Weather is Great

Not much has happened this week. I had a few auditions for some student films, so we'll see if I hear back from them. I worked on Sunday, super early at 5 am on location at UCLA. It was for a new pilot called Greek. It's about a dorky kid's first year in college. He's new, he's nerdy and he wants to join a frat. And let me tell you, they sure did find the dorkiest lookin kid in L.A.! Skinny, hair all messed up. He must be a pretty experienced actor though to get a lead role on a pilot. I know one thing, in between takes, he was lighting up his cancer sticks and puffing away. I bet you he's like 30 and playing an 18 year old. When I first saw him bust out his cigarette, I was shocked, because he looks like he could be 16. Like teenagers don't smoke anyway. I knew that. I just played a college student walking across the courtyard as they filmed. BORING!! However, of course it never fails for me to meet some weird person. This day it was a girl who had to be about 21 years old I would say. We were on a lunch break and she was sitting right across from me at the table. She had eaten her food and I guess she was bored. Most people will get out a book to read, crossword puzzles, gameboys, etc. etc. You know what she broke out?? A MY LITTLE PONY COLORING BOOK! WTF?!? I'm not kidding folks. She broke it out, flipped through some pages that were elaborately colored to perfection until she got to a blank page. She then got out her multitude of colored pencils and went to town! Is that weird/funny to anyone else? It sure was to me.




Monday I was back on the show Shark. Long day which means a lot of money, but it was hella boring. The crazy person I met that day was this old lady. Remember Joey from Friends? Remember his agent, Estelle? That is who this lady reminded me of. Ok, the picutre on the left is a wee bit extreme, but you get my drift. We were sitting there on the set, and someone asked her to borrow a pen, and this lady went off!! She got so mad. She was going on about how it is ridiculous to not have a pen with you, blah blah blah. She said she has been doing background for 5 years and never forgotten her pen. She then said, "It's not like it's brain surgery!". Sheesh. She must have some deep down issues. I guess I don't blame her. If I had been doing background for 5 years, I'd probably be a little on edge too! This incident must have stressed her out, because she then got out a cigarette and lighter and went go pump a few more ounces of tar into her lungs. Oh well.





I took yesterday and today off for auditions. Yesterday I hung out with Afrah at her place. We watched Oprah since that was the only option because they only get 2 channels over there, and we sat on two hard wood chairs since their place isn't furnished yet. Lovely. haha Later that night, we decided to go to the movies in Century City. We ended up not seeing a movie because this stupid theater like to show movies every 3 hours. But, as we were going up an escalator, there was a couple in front of us. The guy turned his head to talk to the girl, and we realized it was Ludacris! Just him and his girl. No paparazzi, no body guards, none of that stuff. They didn't want to wait around for a movie either, so they left as well. He is shorter than I thought (as most celebs are) at about 5'7" I'd say. There was hardly anyone at the mall/theater, so he didn't have to deal with any crowds. I didn't say anything to him, cause I'm just not that person.

That's it, I have a headache. I'm going to watch some t.v.

I Got Caught In A Paparazzi Storm!

I'll get to the paparazzi in a sec, first I'm going to talk about my week. Wednesday, 11/29, I was back on CSI: Miami and this time we shot on location in Long Beach. I have to say, I thought Long Beach was slummy, but it wasn't. We were shooting downtown, right on the harbor, and that area is actually really nice. There are shops, stores, restaurants, palm trees, huge hotel buildings. It was pretty cool. I could see the huge smoke stacks of the Queen Mary sitting in the harbor. It looked a lot like the Titanic if you ask me. On the flip side, it was really cold this day. It only got up to 61 degrees, and after the sun went down, it was just down right freezing. (I have to interject here that today, 12/2, it was back up to 80 degrees at midday. December and its 80 degrees!!!!!! I've never experienced this in my life! I love it!). Anyways, there was this guy there who was a chain smoker. He had to be my age, and I swear he had the beginnings of meth mouth! At least I hope it was meth mouth, because if his teeth looked like that simply from NOT brushing, that is pretty sad. Everytime this guy laughed or smiled I wanted to barf. I know that as he puffed away on all those cigarettes he was thinking how he couldn't wait to get home to his crystal meth. YUCK!

Thursday I was on the set of Adam Sandler's new movie. It's called I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and it's about two straight firefighters that pretend to be gay and get married to get tax breaks and insurance benefits and all that stuff. The scene that I was in was where they get caught lying and are thrown in jail. Outside the jail cell a bunch of gay rights activists are gathering around and protesting and chanting for Chuck and Larry to be let out. So, I was one of the gay rights supporters out side the jail. They shot the scene with the camera looking out of the jail cell, so Adam Sandler wasn't there at all that day.

Friday I was back on Grey's Anatomy and it was pretty boring. I was in a scene with Izzie, George and Miranda. I have to say, the actress that plays Miranda is SO cool. I don't know her real name and I don't feel like looking it up. She was so funny though. She was just acting like a goof ball, laughing and joking around with us. She had everyone laughing. George and Izzie didn't talk to us at all. They both just stood there either talking to each other or messing around with their phones. Whatever. I like Miranda, and she's actually really pretty in person. So is Izzie. On my way home from the set this day is when I encountered the paparazzi frenzy.......

So, I was in my car, almost home. I was on Sunset Blvd, on the strip. I'm driving, minding my own business when an SUV speeds by me, weaving around cars and screeches their tires as they stop at the red light just ahead. I thought to myself, "These stupid L.A. drivers! There is no reason to drive like that!". Then a second SUV goes left of center from behind me, to get around me and screeches to a halt at the red light. Then, both cars just go straight through the red light. I'm thinking, "They did not just do that!" with my jaw dropped. So then 3 more cars speed by me and run through the red light that I'm stopped at. At this point, I'm like, "What is going on? Am I missing something here? Is the light not working?". Two more cars speed by me and through the light. My next thought is, "Holy shit! Two gangs are beefin and chasing each other and there is going to be some kind of drive-by shooting or something". Then I remembered that I was on the Sunset Strip and gang activity usually doesn't happen anywhere near there. A few more cars with dark tinted windows speed by me, one going left of center and almost crashing head on with a car in on-coming traffic. Then it hit me. The paparazzi are chasing a celebrity. I don't know who it was. I've seen this stuff on tv, like on those Vh1 shows and stuff, but I hadn't seen this in real life since I've been in Los Angeles. It was crazy, and everything that I've just said happened within a matter of seconds. It made me realize that it must really suck to have people chasing you like that all the time. but I guess that is the price you pay for fame! All I know is that, so help them God, if one of them would have crashed into my car, I was going to join in the chase and someone was going to get their ass beat!! haha

Now I have to get to bed because I have to be on the set at 5 am tomorrow. Yes, 5 am on a Sunday. You know what this means?? It means that when I'm driving to the set (which will be UCLA's campus) at 4:30 am, there will be people driving home from the club!!! I've even come home after 5 am before. That's crazy!

Here I Come Columbus!

First, I just want to say that I really appreciate everyone who left a comment on my last post. Any of my friends will tell you that every now and then my head fills up with many thoughts and ideas on various issues, and eventually it has to come out somewhere. I certainly love having face to face discussions on issues such as race, but I kind of like the way it went here on blogger. Face to face, people tend not to say everything on their mind for fear of looking or sounding stupid, myself included. But as you can see, people left some very loooooong comments, which I loved. Just the fact that they took time to really dig down deep and say what they felt. I think some of those comments were even longer than my post!! Also, no one posted as anonymous, which I thought was cool too. By the way, I googled the word "thanks", and that pic is what popped up.

Now, on to better things. Well, I guess I'll talk about Thanksgiving here because it's been an entire week since I've worked. NOT FUN!!! I'm not going to rant about my boredom this time....just know that it is mind numbing!! Last Tuesday, the 21st, was the last time I worked and it was on the show Close to Home. It was a really long day, but I'm not going to complain about those anymore. With things slowing down because of the holidays, I will gladly work long days. Starting in December, the television industry goes on its winter hiatus, and that lasts for about 6 weeks. So, one of 2 things can happen. The scenario is that I won't be working at all. That means I can either get another job or apply for unemployment (which everyone here does) just to have some money coming in. I kind of like aspects of both, so I can't decide. Getting another job means looking, applying, interviewing, and probably end up doing something I'll hate anyways. Ahhh...decisions. The second scenario is that there could be a possibility that a few feature films will be shooting in town throughout December that need to use background, and so the television hiatus won't affect me at all. Obviously the second scenario is the one I'd prefer. But in actuality, I would REALLY just like to book a few commercials or get some roles in some movies so that I can be done with background altogether! I really am getting sick of it. Thank God that tv shows and movies need extras, because it's provided an easy income for me, but it's not what I came to California for, and I am so completely ready to move on it's not even funny! Sigh.........the life of an actor. I'm positive I'm not the only one feeling this way, I'm just whining right now. I've met people who have been doing this for 3 years!!! I don't want to even think about it!

So, Thanksgiving was really fun. A lady that I met on one of the sets invited me to her place for dinner. We met because I overheard her talking to someone one day, and she had an accent. I asked where she was from and she said, "Jamaica!". I'm a full 50% Jamaican in case anyone didn't know. My dad is from Kingston. We won't talk about the other half of me right now. It would be too confusing thanks to my beautiful mother. Remember a long time ago when I said the lady at the casting agceny looked at me, and then marked me down as "mixed" on the paper? Yeah, I'll just leave it at that! Anyways, after finding out I was Jamaican too, me and Ms. Jennifer talked about Jamaica all day long, and our families and the food, etc. I saw her 2 more times on some different sets, and then she invited me over to her place. She had some other people over as well, there was tons of food and dessert. So, we ate and watched movies. It was nice. Afrah had to work on Thanksgiving, poor thing. I guess that's part of being young. You work hard now so that later on you don't have to. That's what my dad always said. Afrah said her job catered in food and it was actually really good though, so that was good.

That's all I pretty much have to say since the rest of the last week just consisted of me watching A LOT of tv in my room.

OHHHHHH......duh. How could I forget to tie in the title of this post! I'm coming home for a visit yall. I'll be flying in on Thursday 12/7, hanging out with everyone hopefully, and then coming back to L.A. on Tuesday 12/12. I'm excited to see everyone and I hope to be partying on the weekend if I can get some friends to drive me around since I won't have a car.

See everyone then!

Once Again, I Have To Do This!!

PLEEEAAASSEEEE read this entire thing! I know it's long!

I promise I'm not going to turn my blog into a political tirade of subjects, but another issue that I feel extremely strong about has come up. So, I figured I might as well get it out of the way now since I just talked about how unbelievably pointless smoking is. Most of this post is going to be a cut and pasted article that I received, so I will use a different color font when I'm talking.

Most of you know by now that Michael Richards aka KKKramer from Seinfeld went on a lil racial rant the other night at a comedy club called The Laugh Factory, which just so happens to be within walking distance of where I live right on Sunset Blvd. In case you're living under a rock, here is a quick summary of what happened.

The 57-year-old comedian was caught off guard when two African American men in the audience shouted at him that he wasn't funny.

According to the video posted on TMZ.com, Richards snapped back:"Shut up! Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f***in' forkup your a**!"

He then yelled: "You can talk! You can talk! You brave now motherf**er! Throw his a** out! He's a ni**er! He's a ni**er! He's ani**er!...Look, there's a ni**er!"

First, I just want to say that of course Michael Richards had the right to get mad. But there was absolutely no reason for the racial remarks. The guys in the audience weren't yelling racial slurs. Not only that, Michael is a COMEDIAN. They get booed all the time. It comes with the territory. You need to be able to handle that mess if you're going to be a comedian. Ok, now this next portion of the post is from an article that I get e-mailed to me from EURweb.com, an online entertainment magazine type thing. Darryl James wrote an article that brings up some very important issues. The article is loooong, but I urge you to read it all or at least skim the majority of it, because of course I want comments at the end. I'll add some of my thought within the article.

THE BRIDGE: I’m Sick, Niggers!
Michael Richards finally let it off of his chest.
By Darryl James

One of America’s favorite funnymen let the world know how he feels about Black people and some naive people are acting surprised.

Michael Richards, who played Cosmo Kramer on the popular television show, “Seinfeld,” lost his cool when a patron at the Laugh Factory, a comedy club in Los Angeles began heckling him.

Instead of making jokes about the heckler, Richards unleashed a discharge of anger and ignorance that was tainted with the stink of racism in the form of the word “Nigger.”

Surprised?

It’s America, people.

And, no matter how cool or how innocuous we imagine some people to be, racism is alive and well.

No matter how many Stupid Ass Negroes think that they are changing the meaning of the word “Nigger,” it is still vital and ugly, lurking in the hearts of racists all across the nation. (For any non-black person reading this that can't figure it out, he's talking about black people calling each other "Nigga". I believe this to be a major factor in confusing non-black people about what this word really means. I do not advocate the use of this word!)

No matter how many of those morons think that times have changed and accordingly, the attitudes of racists, racism is still pervasive in every portion of life in this nation.

Even as some people claim that the N word is just a word, it is still tossed as a harmful verbal bomb across the racial divide.

Some Blacks are up in arms, but I’m wondering why anyone is surprised.

After all, it’s just a word, right?

Of course it’s not just a word.

It’s a powerful slogan. It carries centuries of ignorance and evil, stained with the memories of strange fruit hanging from bloody trees.

The word carries the message of hatred and violence, of intolerance and injustice.

Even when it is unspoken, many of us who are aware realize that it is on the tips of tongues of many white Americans who pretend that they want us all to get along while they attack Affirmative Action, and while an entire entertainment industry thrives on deliberately and singularly targeted, acquired, contracted, promoted and purchased music denigrating our image—made by us, but not for us. (He's not saying that all white people are racist, but the truth is, many of them do use this word. I've heard people admit to it. It never went away folks!)

They realize that if you want to keep us down, it’s important that we are treated like Niggers and that our most negative behavior is encouraged and marketed while we are duped into thinking that we are so free in the world that the verbal symbol of racism no longer carries meaning.

Even when it is unspoken, many of us who are aware realize that the word is still held near and dear to the same white Americans who sit next to and work with us. (This is SO true! Please believe me when I say that racism is still alive and well in America. As a minority, I know! It's just that it's not out in the open anymore. It's under the radar. As many of my classmates know, an incident happened last year dealing with this same issue. Someone in my class who laughed with me and was so "cool" around me, just so happened to keep a blog FULL of racist and sexist ideas and comments. And this person wasn't even white, which probably makes it worse. Point is, the very people who you work closely with may not view you in the same light. Now, I know some people are thinking, "let it go Kris, that happened last year". Well, to those people, let me remind you that I was the only African American male in my class. I was called a nigger for the first time when I was in 3rd grade......by a second grade white girl!! I've gone into stores and been ignored. When I was in college, one of the black professors at my school woke up to a cross BURNING in her front yard!! Get it?? Just because I don't go running to my white friends telling them every single racist encounter that I have doesn't mean that they aren't happening!!! You can't let stuff go so easily when you deal with a lifetime of it!).

The word has not been put to death, nor has its negative emotional impact, even as other groups protect themselves against similar verbal assaults.

And, what say you, Jerry Seinfeld, when learning of your treasured friend’s verbal faux pas? “I’m sick,” say you?

Yeah, I’m sick, too.

But I wonder how sick you would be if a good old white comedian had uttered the “H” word? If a Jewish man had been heckling him and the white comedian unleashed his racism in a torrent of Hymies, and ranted about how decades ago, you would have been in an oven with a fork up your ass, how sick would you be?

And, really if you’ve been walking through this nation with your eyes open, how could you really be surprised? (I think most black people aren't surprised, but it's the non-racist white people that are. Since racism is so under the radar now, a white person who is not racist may think that it is vitually non-existent. I, however, deal with it to this day. I know it is very real).

Ask yourself: “Is there still racism in this nation?”

And ask yourself: “Don’t white people hear Stupid Ass Negroes calling each other “Nigger?”

Here’s the fifty thousand dollar question to be asked: “Were the two Black men in the club referring to each other as ‘Nigger’?” Or did racist old Kramer hear Black comedians sprinkling the word around liberally on the same stage he graced?

My goal is not to defend Michael Richards and his racist outburst. My point is that before we can continue to be up in arms about white racists hurling the N word at us in anger, we must first be angry at those of us who think that the word is no longer ugly and hurtful. We must first be angry with those of us who think that using it in front of other races and/or allowing other races to use it around us and/or with us is okay. (I totally agree here! Black people are not without fault! We need to stop calling each other "Nigga!" It serves no purpose whatsoever!)

My overarching message is that before we demand that anyone else respect us as a race, we must first respect ourselves.

Sure, some people got up and left after Michael Richards let the N word fly, but take a look at the tape and you’ll hear some people laughing and you’ll see some people remaining in their seats.

Some people thought Richards was still funny at that moment.

At the end of his tirade, Richards uttered more words that perhaps summed up the entire debacle. He said: “You see, there’s still those words, those words, those words.”

Yes, Michael Richards, I hear you.

At the end of every encounter with a Black person, there are still “those” words--words to hurl, which let them know how white racists view them. There are still those words, which even as some of us foolishly aim to de-fang, still carry a powerful sting.

Michael Richards understands what all too many Stupid Ass Negroes in America fail to.

No matter how much Affirmative Action gets you on their jobs, and no matter how much integration has placed you in their neighborhoods, and no matter how many young whites buy rap music and sing the words with their Black homies, many whites still want you at the back of the bus, or as Richards wistfully mused “hanging upside down with a fork up your ass.”

And, even if they can’t take action, “there’s still those words.”

Now, how do you feel about that word?

Personally, I’m sick.

I can't help it. Racism is something that I feel so very strongly about, and I hope at least a few people out there can try to understand why. A white person living in America can never fully understand, because they don't live it like a minority does. But, every white person knows the history that blacks and whites have in this country. WHY does racism still exist today??? That answer is easy!!! To this day, NOBODY wants to talk about it. NOBODY wants to sit down and deal with America's dark history. Yes, this does go back to slavery! I don't want anyone to pity Black people. But America needs to recognize its past, so that it can finally let it go!!

Now, on this one, I REALLY want people's comments and opinions. I've shared mine. Please. Leave your comment as anonymous if you must, I don't care! Just leave one. However, if you make a profound statement, or just leave a simple sentence with your name attached to it, because you know what you stand for and aren't ashamed, then that really says something about you!

Trying to Be Patient

I didn't realize it had been a week since my last post. I didn't do much this week at all. So, all I have to talk about is a crazy, I need to vent on one thing, and then the movie I did this week.

First off, the work week. Last Tuesday I was on ER again, but that of course was boring. Thursday and Friday, however, I was on the new Die Hard 4: Live Free or Die Hard movie with Bruce Willis. We shot on location downtown, and it was pretty fun except for the fact that we had to be on the set at 4 am!!! Bruce is actually really cool, and he just got his star on the Walk of Fame here in Hollywood a few weeks ago. He talked to us and joked with us. It was a fun 2 days. The scene we were shooting took place in Washington, D.C. and there wass an anthrax scare. So, all the FBI, SWAT and army people were called in of course. I played a National Guard as you can see from the two pictures. A lady that I met a few weeks ago told me I shoukd take pictures when I'm on a set in costume. I don't know why I never thought about that before. Well, I thought I had more to say about these 2 days, but I guess I don't.

Now, the crazy. I was in the grocery store last week, minding my own business, looking at some cheese or something, when this person comes around the corner. Actually, I heard them before I saw them. They were singing.......loudly. This person comes around the corner, and it is a flamboyantly gay, fat black guy. He has headphones on, is carrying a walkman in one hand and pushing his cart with his other hand. He is singing at the top of his lungs AND dancing as he is grocery shopping. I was clearly agitated, but I was laughing at the same time (is that even possible?) No one else in the store so much as batted an eyelash. I guess that means I'm still pretty new here. Anyways, this guy is singing and carrying on, hitting high notes and everything, doing dance moves as he drops stuff into his cart. I go on about my business as he skips off down an isle. So I'm in the checkout line and here he comes. And when I say he is singing loud, I'm talking about the way someone would sing at a concert. Gosh, I was so annoyed, because it's not like he sounded good or anything. I actually thought my right eardrum was malfunctioning, because nobody could sound this bad. In any case, he did not care what people thought. Then it made start thinking. As annoying as this guy was, maybe more of us should actually start being ourselves more and not care so much what other people think. I mean, I do the whole singing and dancing thing in front of the mirror in my room, just like we ALL do. But then, most of us put on a mask as we step outside of our homes and enter society. I'm not saying we should all go out acting like this guy, because after so long I'd probably end up punching someone, but we should not layer on the mask so thick.

Now, a brief venting process. I hope this doesn't make Andy G. mad because I swore I wouldn't really do this on my blog, but I just need to say this. I HATE SMOKERS! I was so glad to hear that Ohio went Smoke Free after the elections. Can anyone tell me one, just one benefit of smoking?? Can anyone tell me how smokers benefit society?? Let me explain why I brought this up. I was on the set the other day, and it seemed like every smoker in L.A. was there that day. I was highly agitated by them. Here's why I hate them (yes, I'm using the word hate, get over it!). 1). They are rude. It just baffles me that there is a group of us standing there talking, NOT smoking, and one of THEM decides to light up right next to us, filling the surrounding area with that toxic smoke. Did they ever even think that just because they want to smoke, not everyone else does? I was ready to cuss this one guy out for doing it, but someone beat me to it. Someone needs to make the law more specific, and make it so that there is a designated area for smokers on every street block. It should be something like a 12' by 12' box in a back alley somewhere. 2). They stink, simple as that. 3). All they are going to do with the butt when they are done is throw it on the ground, step on it, and leave it there. Is that much of a freaking hassle to just walk over to an ash tray or garbage can? 4). They are STUPID! There are so many people in this world who try to be healthy and take care of themselves, and unfortunately fall ill to some kind of cancer, whether it be a brain tumor, pancreatic cancer, etc. The smokers, however, are deliberately doing this to themselves. I wish every type of cancer could just somehow be transferred to the smokers of the world, because they're literally asking for it anyway. Lung cancer is the #1 most preventable type of cancer, period! Meaning, if you don't smoke, you probably won't get it, but if you do, you most likely will. Not only that, lung cancer is a slow and painful death! Why on God's green Earth would anyone do that to themselves?!!? I want to ask the smokers, would you purposely have unprotected sex with a person infected with HIV? I'm sure most people would say "No". So, why smoke??? Sorry to be so blunt, but everyone knows that's how I am, especially when I feel strongly about something.

I think that the fact that a few states are smoke free now, more people are getting the picture. I'd appreciate comments on this topic from anyone who reads this. I want to know other people's opinions.

Stupid Blogger!!

I just had a whole blog written with some good stuff in it, and I LOST IT ALL when I was trying to add pictures. I've been in a bad mood all day and I'm in no way typing this thing all over again, so here are highlights.

• I got another parking ticket. Afrah was with me when I parked my car. Coincidence? I think not!
• Thursday and Friday I was on The Nine and CSI: Miami
• Scott Wolfe is on The Nine; he is short. The Nine shot on location near USC.
• USC looks a lot like OSU
• CSI: Miami had great food as always. The casting director for this show told us to look as hot and as sexy as possible (clearly, this isn't a problem for me.......................................haha, JOKING people!!!!!)
• Grey's Anatomy is the number 1 watched show in the U.S., but CSI: Miami is the most popular tv show in the world. I've been on both. Pretty cool huh?
• I've met with some industry people, but that's all I'm going to say until I know for sure if something is going to go through
• Keep your fingers crossed for me if you're reading this

That's the jist of it. Now I'm going to bed mad as hell!

I'm in Pain!!!

I'm going to do a quick post right now so I won't have so much to write this weekend. Basically, right now I'm sitting here in pain because I did a Tae-Bo workout with Billy Blanks yesterday. I got paid $100 to work out; I wasn't going to pass that up. Unfortunately, since I haven't been working out as often as I should, I pay the price by being sore for the next few days. The workout was intense, but good. His new routine is called Tae-Bo: Amped. I've never done Tae-Bo before, but it obviously is really good seeing how much pain I'm in, so I may actually get the video when it comes out. Yes, there were some people there who had no business being there. This includes a lady who looked just like Whitney Houston. Unfortunately, she looked like the drugged up Whitney at her darkest hour. Really, it was bad. I bet she was like 35, yet she looked over 50. She had on a poop brown wig, she was missing a few teeth in the back and she was doing Tae-Bo in boots....with heels!! Visualize with me here people...I'm NOT exaggerating. She looked almost identical to the picture to the left, and everyone yesterday was joking that Whitney Houston was doing Tae-Bo with us. I felt kind of bad for her because she looked so bad! Of course I forgot my camera....just when I needed it most!
There was also a man there who I think may have been a little slow mentally. I say that only because of the way he interacted with people and the way he communicated. In any case, during the Tae-Bo taping, he was just there flailing his arms around, not doing ANYTHING that looked like what the rest of us were doing. Guess where he stood?? Yep, right next to me. It was messing me up because I was laughing so damn hard! And that reminds me of one more thing, Tae-Bo is done in counts of 8, just like dancing........meaning.......rhythm is involved. I can't describe the number of people there who can not hold a beat. You know what I mean. You've seen these people in clubs "dancing like nobody's watching". I guess that's how you gotta do it. The whole day was just a big laugh fest for me. Extra ab workout for me!!!!

So the other day, actually about a week ago, I got locked out of my apartment again. It wasn't my fault this time. There is a deadbolt lock on our front door that we don't use. I've never even touched it. Well, this one time it decided to lock when I left. I came back, and Afrah was with me, and I couldn't get in. Not to worry, I thought. It's the middle of the day this time (as opposed to the middle if the night like last time), so I can go to the apartment manager and see if they have a spare key. We don't even have a key for the deadbolt!! Do you think he had the key? Not with my luck. I told him we don't use the deadbolt and this had never happened before, yet he kept asking me over and over if me and my roommate were having problems. I laughed because we get along great and my roommate was out of town anyway. Yet John (manager), kept inquiring whether my roommate was a "cool guy" or not. To make a long story short, I had to climb through my window again, with John giving me a boost this time. I should make a note here that this has only happened to me twice in my 4 months in L.A. so far, and BOTH times Afrah was with me! Do you see the connection??

I think that's all I wanted to say now, other than that it got to 94 degrees in Los Angeles yesterday, which broke the record of 92 degrees set 108 years ago. I am loving the heat. It's rainy and in the 50's in Ohio. I don't miss that crap at all!!!!

That's More Like It!

Back to a busy work week, and I love it. I love being busy. Makes me feel like I'm actually doing something with my life. It's been a week since I've posted because I've been so busy and I have a lot to share here. I'll try to keep it short.

Starting with last Friday, I worked on the show Las Vegas, and I was recalled to work on it this past Tuesday and Wednesday. This show has long days, so in those 3 days alone, I worked a total of 45 hours! It was grueling, but the money will be nice indeed. As for who is on the show...........Josh Duhamel is of course, and remember I worked with him on the set of Transformers. He actually remembered me too. Josh is by far the coolest person I've met so far. He talks to everyone, laughs and jokes with people. He is an all around cool guy. Nikki Cox is also on the show. You may remember her from Unhappily Ever After. I just need to say that Nikki is TINY! She is so small I couldn't believe it. I could actually see her ribs through her chest. She is just so skinny. She is on a billboard here in Hollywood and they totally photoshopped some curves on her, because she doesn't have any in person. However, her face is very pretty. She's beautiful in the face. In my opinion, she is prettier than Molly Sims, who is also on the show. Again, Molly is so petite it's scary. Nikki and Molly don't look anorexic, but if either of them lost just 5 more ounces, they would. I guess that really is Hollywood though.

I felt comforted by the fact that I met some crazies on this set. I thought I had lost them all. First, were two girls that I was talking to. I can't get into details here though. Let's just say that after finding out that I was a med student, they started asking me questions. You know, those "questions", lol. And they conversation turned extremely explicit! haha The other girl I met was named Stephanie. I called her "spunky" because she is 5'1", 28 years old but looks 15, and full of energy. She was constantly bouncing off the walls. She's really nice, but I was caught off guard when I asked her how her weekend was, and she informed me that she had great sex with her husband. Now, that doesn't seem odd right? I mean she is married. The "crazy" part is that she and her husband live in separate apartments. I've never heard of this before. They aren't separated. He isn't in the service. He lives right here in L.A. She talked about how much she loved him, but when I asked why they lived apart, she told me it's because "he gets on her nerves". WTF?? They came to some agreement to live apart?? He's a chef, she has 5 degrees because she "loves school", yet she is acting. Does this seem odd to anyone else? Please let me know if I'm the crazy one!

Today I was on the new show How I Met Your Mother. This show stars Neil Patrick Harris aka Doogie Hauser and Alyson Hannigan from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the American Pie movies. I don't have much to say about Neil except that he is cool. Alyson is SMALL. Geez, do you see a trend here?? She is so skinny, yet her face is pretty. She is prettier in person I think. Guest starring on the show today was Wayne Brady from Who's Line is it Anyway. Cool guy and really funny. He had us cracking up in between takes.

That pretty much sums things up. I guess it was shorter than I thought. I'm taking some pics that I will post on my next one for my old time friend Katie W. Oh yeah, Halloween night was a DISASTER, but I'm not getting into that right now. It will just make me angry again if I talk about it. I'm probably forgetting some stuff, but hopefully I'll remember by the weekend.

Another Week of Torture!!

Gosh, it's been slow this week. I'm only working 2 days. When I'm not working, I don't know what to do with myself. All the people I know here have jobs, so when I'm off during the week, I'm bored out of my mind. The one day that I worked this week was pretty nice though.

Tuesday I worked on the show Shark. It's a new show this season and once again I've never seen it. So what made this day so great? Well, most of the day we shot on location at the beach. Right on the water, and it was sunny and 80 degrees! Perfect day. The first scene we shot was actually at a small store in Venice, then they shuttled us to the beach. As we were leaving the store, I got into one of the vans to go to the beach when all of a sudden Ray J jumps in the van. You know Ray J, the singer Brandy's brother. He must have been guest starring on the show. I wasn't in the first scene and he wasn't in the beach scene, so I don't know. Let me tell you, dude is SHORT. He's like 5'2". Ok, not that short, but I give him 5'6" at the tallest!

For the beach scene I played a cop, and this was the first time I had to actually wear a bullet proof vest! Man, I'm thinking about getting one of those. It made me look so buff, haha. When I was changing into my uniform, I paused in the mirror after I put the vest on because I really looked like I had some serious muscle. I think it gave me some inspiration to really work out, because I looked HOTT with the extra buffness, lol. I was sad when I had to take it off. On the other hand, the vest was tight as hell. If you are trying to lose weight, I suggest getting a bullet proof vest because I could hardly eat anything at lunch time with that thing on. How on earth do cops get fat if they wear those things?!?!? I don't get it. In the meantime, the uniform looked so real, that before we started shooting, I kept getting stopped by people on the beach (pic at left is old, but it's the same beach). Picture it: You have a large number of people standing in a group (the film crew) and a guy in a sheriff's uniform standing there. People kept coming up to me and asking me if it was ok for them to sit here on the beach etc., etc. So, I played along and told them "No", and that they had to move on down the beach! haha....the film's security was going to make them do it anyway. At one point, a real police office even pulled up next to me in one of the lifeguard trucks and asked me if an incident had occurred here. I laughed and told him I was an actor and that we were shooting a television show. He laughed and got all red, and his partner in the passenger seat was cracking up. It was pretty funny!

I thought of something random the other day. Everytime we have an outside shoot, I always notice that there are more than a few white people who are all burnt up and red at the end of the day, even if they put on suntan lotion. It just made me think that I'm lucky to have brown skin, and that I can be outside, or at the beach all day and not get burnt. I've never been sun burnt and it looks like it hurts like hell. But my question is....does anyone know how suntan lotion really works?? It doesn't make sense how something transparent can protect your skin from the sun. Dark skinned people have more melanin in their skin. It's a brown colored molecule that actually shields your cells' DNA from the UV sun light. That makes sense to me. How does suntan lotion do it? I bet you my friend and fellow med student Justin M. knows. He seems to know a lot about a lot of things. He even had a thorough answer to my question about why gas costs more in California than in Ohio!

Last thing is a story I forgot to mention in my previous post. When I was on the set of Boston Legal last week, I met this girl whose arm was in a sling. Naturally, people asked what happened, and this is what she said. She was at a party at a house in the hollywood hills and this really drunk guy kept hitting on her, repeatedly. She kept shutting him down, politely of course. He wouldn't let up, and she told him to just leave her alone. Well, he got pissed, grabbed her and threw her into a wall, and said to her, "I have more women than hair follicles!" Now, a few things ran through my mind as she said this. 1). WTF? Who says that? 2). this guy needs his ASS beat, seriously. and 3). that comment he made sounded JUST LIKE a comment that a certain blonde haired fellow classmate of mine would say. I bet you every one of my med school classmates that reads this know EXACTLY who I'm talking about. First of all, if you have to say things like that, you probably have NO girls at all. Secondly, he must be an outcast.

As for the girl, she hit the wall with such force that her arm completely popped out of her shoulder socket. The doctors of course had to pop it back into place and she said it was the most excruciating pain she has ever felt in life! I can imagine. She said she may end of suing the owner of the house because, surprisingly, "no one knew who this guy was". Isn't that sad? No one wants to help this girl out because they are cowards! I just couldn't believe what she was telling us, so I had to share this story.

And finally, I realize that Grey's Anatomy was a re-run this week. Just my luck!!!! How many times has that happened now?? Isaiah Washington must be causing such a ruckus on the set it interrupted production. He's another one who needs his ass beat. He was really cocky when I saw him on set and what he did to his co-star(s) was not cool at all.

Until next time.........

Where Did All My Crazies Go?

I was banking on meeting some off the wall crazy person this week so that I'd have a great story to write, but unfortunately, they didn't come out this week. I worked every day too. Oh well, I ended meeting a lot of recognizable faces this week, more than ususal. I'll sum it up and keep it short and sweet so I can eat my Coldstone!

The week started off on Scrubs. Loooooong day, but it wasn't very exciting. Neither Zach Braff nor Donald Faizon was working that day. Whoever was working, I didn't know them, because I've never watched this show. Anyways, there was someone there hanging around the set that is not normally a part of the show. It was Michael McDonald, and I'm not talking about the singer. Don't recognize the name? You might know him better as Stewart from Mad TV. He was there hanging out with some of the crew, but I don't think he taped any scenes. So, he must've just known someone and wanted to hang out. I didn't talk to him, but I saw him talking to and joking around with some of the other background people, so you know he's cool in my book.

The next day I was on the new show What About Brian. I'v seen previews for it, but I haven't watched. Gosh, I don't watch anything because I'm always working! Anyway, the oldest son from 7th Heaven is on this show (I don't know his name), but he wasn't working that day. We shot on location at the Santa Monica Pier and the real Muscle Beach, as opposed to the muscle beach at Olentangy Commons where I lived last year! It was actually a clear day that day, so you could see the mountains in the distance, and the water looked blue. Other than that, boring day.

Next day was a new show called Raines. It just started filming and we were taping the second episode. It's going to air in January '07. It starts Jeff Goldblum and Nicole Sullivan, another Mad TV ex-cast member. Let me just say that Jeff Goldblum is funny!! First of all, if it wasn't for Jurassic Park (one of my favorite movies), I wouldn't know who the heck he was. We would be taping a scene, and when the director yelled "Cut!", he would start acting really weird, singing and stuff. It was really funny and I couldn't tell if he was just being funny or if that was really how he was. I thought he was weird at first, but then I realized he was just being funny. I talked to him for a few seconds and I had to tell him that Jurassic Park was my favorite movie.

And finally, yesterday I was on Boston Legal. Once again, never seen it. But I was in a bar scene with William Shatner and Delta Burke! Did anyone see "The Roast of William Shatner" on the Comedy Channel? It was funny as hell. He seemed cool, and he looks just the same in person as he does on tv. Delta Burke was a different story! First of all, when she walked in, I didn't know it was her right away. She is tiny, like 5'3" and skinnier now. Her hair was flipped out at the bottom like a 50's style kind of, and she had more make-up on than I have ever seen in my life! I mean, they proably used 5 compacts of foundation on her. I don't why. She looked pretty, and really nice. She smiled at me and just looked really homely, but she looked animated, like a cartoon character because of all the make-up. Also, her cheek bones were really high and her eyes were slanted a little bit like a cat, which makes me think she's had more than her share of plastic surgery. I'm not trying to be mean for once, just truthful. I liked her though, she was nice.

Other than that, the episode of Grey's Anatomy that I was on SHOULD air this coming Thursday, emphasis on "should". Contact me for the scene description because you WILL miss me if you're not paying attention. Actually, if you have Tivo, that would be best. If not, you just have to be really attentive.

The First Rain

I have been in L.A. for about 3 and a half months now and it rained for the first time yesterday, since I've been here. It wasn't very much and it lasted for only 30 minutes or so. It's just amazing to me: 3 months with no rain. It rains every other day in Ohio. I'm surprised it wasn't acid rain that melted everyone's skin away considering all the smog here in L.A., hence the picture on the left. Plus, it's October, and the average daily temperature here is 75 degrees, whereas in Ohio it's in the 50's right now. I've never lived anywhere but Ohio before and I'm not used to such a steady climate. I love it.

I only worked two days this week which sucked because I was bored out of my mind. There is so much to do in L.A., but it's not really fun when your other friends are working and you don't have anyone to do them with. Wednesday I worked a show called All of Us which is a show on the CW network starring Duane Martin and Lisa Raye. Tisha Campbell (Gina from Martin and My Wife and Kids) was guest starring that day. In real life she is married to Duane Martin. It was cool. I was in a restaurant scene and everyone on the set was really laid back. Nothing special happened that day. Oh, but guess who was directing this particular episode? It was Alfonso Ribeiro aka Carlton. Makes sense. Will Smith created the show. Alfonso was cool but he's gained A LOT of weight!

Friday, I was back on Vanished. I played a hotel staffer. Once again, they gave me some good camera time. There was a small fight scene, scuffle rather, in the hotel lobby, and they needed another person to step in and help. So, naturally they approach me to do it among the other 20 extras, haha. BUT, still no speaking lines. I should've just asked them for a line. That's how one of my friends got a line in a show. Oh well. This time I will watch the previews on Monday nights so I can be 100% positive when this episode is going to air, then I'll let everyone know. By the time this episode airs, hopefully I'll be doing something bigger and better anyway. Who knows. Hollywood is brutal.

The only interesting thing that happened to me this week was someone that I ran into, and actually talked to in the grocery store earlier this week. This person can be considered a legend. At her peak, she was a huge music star. I think she had hits starting in the 60's and going on into the 80's. So, I'm walking around in the grocery store and coming around the corner I see a head full of some big, wild hair. This woman is wearing a purple, suede sweatsuit and pushing her grocery cart. She turns her head toward me, and I'm looking right at Diana Ross!! THE Diana Ross from the Supremes. I kind of froze for a minute because I'm standing right in front of someone who is really famous, and then I just said, "Hi, Ms. Ross". She said, "Hi, how are you?" I said, "I'm fine", then we went on our merry ways. She was nice, and she's the most famous person I've met since I've been here.

Well, remember the Japanese video from my last post? My mom and sister thought it was stupid. They didn't even laugh. I don't know why I think it is so funny, but I do. I said I'd post part two, so I still will. If you think it's dumb, then don't watch it, but I think it's hilarious. They tried to get creative and add in some scenes with actors. My random observation for this video is that the camera guy keeps zooming in on the girls' shoulders, of all areas. Just something I noticed.




Ok, that's it for Japanese videos. I'm over it now, lol

I Post A Lot When I Don't Work

I havent't worked in the last 2 days and I've been bored out of my mind. I was going to wait until tomorrow to post, but I couldn't because I have two funny things to share.

First, God must be testing my personal discipline or something. That's the only reason I can come up with for why this next thing happened to me. So, everyone knows by now about my reflex laughter. My severe inability to control my laughter when I hear or see something funny. Well, you can imagine what I was going through when this happened.

I started an acting class yesterday, a cold reading class. A cold reading is when you go on an audition and the casting director gives you a scene to do, by yourself or with someone else, with little or no time to prepare. This class is supposed to sharpen those skills. I audited the class yesterday, which means I went to observe to see if I would like it. There was a girl there who was auditing as well. She was kinda cute I must say. Anyway, the instructor asks us to do a scene together, so he gives us a scene and says, "Go". This girl has done theatre for 10 years, so she was saying her lines with feeling, whereas, I was more or less just reading them off the page because I was a little nervous. So the instructor stops us, and he tells me to do some things that will help me be more aware of my scene partner so that I will actually be responding to her, and her words, rather than just read the lines. He tells us to look into each other's eyes, and not to break until he says so. As we're doing this, he tells me to describe what I see, in detail. So, I look at this girl, and to my surprise, she has a single booger in each on of her nostrils! (I'm laughing so hard as I type this right now I don't know what to do). Can you imagine the thoughts that went through my head? What was I supposed to do? I couldn't open my mouth to talk or else just laughter would come out! I definitely started to get hot and sweaty.

I was doing good; I wasn't laughing. But in order to accomplish this, I was literally squeezing my balls as hard as I could. I was just sitting there, paused, and by this point, the instructor is saying, "Go on, describe what you see", as the other people in the class watched. I uttered a quick, "I see a girl", then I shut my mouth. And of course he told me that wasn't detailed enough. So, I had to take a deep breath, say a little prayer, then just make up some stuff. Whew!! Passed that test!

The second thing I want to share is another video. I kind of like how the video added a new flavor to my blog. Makes it more interactive. No, this one is not another one of New York, but it's just as funny. This video is a Japanese video that was put together to teach Japanese people how to speak English. It's kind of long, it's almost 4 minutes. But please, watch the whole thing. I'm not going to tell you how many times I've watched it, cuz that's embarrassing. But here are a few observations I made that made me wonder:

• why the people in the street are totally off beat
• who came up with that background music
• the second "lesson" is called You drive me crazy. I can totally see myself saying this to some of the people I meet on set, hand motions and all
• How can someone make this video and then request, "Don't make fun of me"?
• the 5th lesson or so is called Leave me Alone. Once again, I'll be using this one on set, complete with hand motions
• And lastly, lesson 6, I can't stand the sight of you! Who on earth picked some of these phrases to teach Japanese people to say in English?!?!?!

Watch the vid, and you'll see what I'm talking about. This will be a great study break for any of my classmates studying cardio!

So, what'd you think of the video? The last lesson was best of all! Would you believe me if I said there was a part 2? Well, there is and I'll put it up on my next post. I can't get enough of this stuff. I LOVE to laugh!!!!!

This Is What I Have To Deal With!

This past Friday was the first night shift I've ever done doing background. My call time was 9 pm at 20th Century Fox Studios for a show called Standoff. It's a new show, I've never heard of it, I know nothing about it. In any case, we started at 10 pm and wrapped at 4:30 am!!!!! Do you think my night was boring?? Of course not, because once again, I met a crazy person. I've often wondered if there is something about me that draws weird people to me because I attract them like magnets. Even after my mom read about the crazy lady on the Transformers set, she called me to say she thought I was making it all up. I told her no, and she asked me how on earth I attract these people. Afrah has pondered the same thing. I have no clue, because honestly, I sit there and mind my own business if I don't feel like talking, but they somehow migrate over to me and start chatting away.

Anyway, I meet this guy who I'll call Gadston, and he is about 57 years old. He has a southern accent and talks like a wise old, grandparent that loves to tell stories. I'm sitting across from him, and there is a guy sitting next to him. He is talking this guy's ear off and I'm just glad it isn't me for once. But then the guy gets up and Gadston turns his attention to me. Here is a transcript of our conversation at 2 in the morning (notice how one sided it is):

Gadston: Ya know, I do this background work a few times a week to get away from my wife.

Me: Oh really

Gadston: Oh yeah, that woman annoys me sometimes. I gotta get away from her! Actually,
she saw me on t.v. the other day on Without A Trace.

Me: For real

Gadston: Yeah, I played a night clubber at a strip club and I had to put money in the thongs of
all these pretty ladies.

Me: Wow, that's interesting.

Gadston: Oh yeah, them ladies were fine. And when my wife saw me on that episode, it got her
horny as hell.

Me: Really?

Gadston: Oh yeah, seein me with all those pretty ladies, my wife got sexy as hell after that!

Me: Musta been nice.

Gadston: Yeah, and on the set that day there was this really F-I-N-E woman. She was so sexy
and she caught me staring at her snatch!!

Me: ooohhhh

Gadston: All I could do was look at her and say, "I'm sorry". She looked at me and
said, "That's all right!"

At this point, all I could do was laugh, because he was being so serious. It was funny, but then one of the assistant directors rescued me and called us all into the set. This guy just kept talking and talking and talking. Who will I meet next? I can only imagine.


I don't have anything else to say right now, but I just want to leave you with a short video clip. If you've ever watched Flavor of Love, then you know who New York is. She cracks me up!! I can sit and laugh at her all day. I found this video clip that someone put together on Youtube and it's hilarious. At least I think so. Oh and a little DISCLAIMER here: All black people DO NOT act like this, obviously. These people are picked specifically for television and ratings and all that stuff. I know most of you know this, but with what I've experienced in the last year, you'd be surprised at the ignorance of some people!

Busy Week, Of Course

First off, I know that episode of Help Me Help You didn't air on Tuesday. So, I give up. I'm not wasting my time, or anybody else's by telling people to watch shows, then they not air. I know that they shoot the content of a single episode out of order, but they must be shooting episodes out of order too. So, I won't be listing any shows that I'll be on unless I happen to catch a preview for the next week and know that I'm in that episode. Besides, I know it's annoying to look for someone in the background. Trust me, I'm trying to move on.

My week started off on Monday on CSI: NY again. We were shooting on location dowtown at an abandoned warehouse. It was kind of freaky. As you know, something interesting seems to happen at least once a day to me, and this day was no different. The clue is in the picture on the right. Basically, we were on a lunch break, and I was on the phone talking to Afrah. I went outside of our holding trailer so I wouldn't annoy people with my conversation. So I'm standing there talking, in the hot sun next to a fence. Lucky for me, I was wearing a white shirt and so I didn't lean on the fence. The fence is a long fence, and as I turn toward the fence, right where I would put my hand if I were to lean on the fence is a black widow spider!! Yes folks, a real black widow, and it had the characteristic red, hour glass on its belly. It was no bigger than my pinkie finger nail, and it scared the hell out of me! I thought these things were only in Arizona or something. I mean, what if that thing would have bitten me?? It would've been curtains for Kris! Now, I shake out all my clothes and shoes before I put them on. I'm too young to die.

The last two days I've been on the set of Ben Stiller's new movie. It's still untitled, but I played a wedding guest, which means it was the most boring 2 days of my life. Movie sets move along slower than television sets. We do take after take after take and on and on and on. So, I basically sat at a table for 2 days straight, both days being 15 hours long. This movie seems like it's just a classic, funny Ben Stiller movie. It's directed by the same guys who did There's Something About Mary. We were shooting in some vacant building where I guess a lot of mafia activity occurred in the 30's and 40's, and there were many murders in this building. So of course there were people talking about ghost stories and stuff. A lot of movies were actually shot at this building including Cocoon, and one of my favorites, Hocus Pocus.

Ben Stiller is one of the "cool" celebrities. Down to earth, humble. He talked to us, answered questions would people would stop him. This is something I keep a look out for in case you haven't noticed. I just can't believe certain "stars" who refuse to talk to background people, as if we're the sum of the earth. I can't ever see myself being like that. That reminds me, there was a lady from Police Academy in this movie as well. I'm not really familiar with those movies anymore because its been so long, but apparently her signature phrase was "Talk is cheap", or something like that, and she was doing it for people on the set. See, that's what I'm talking about. Cool people!

Last thing I have to say is that I had my first indulgence since I've been in L.A. I tried so hard to resist, but I finally caved and got a Sidekick 3. I think I did pretty good holding off for 3 months, but I had been looking at them in E-Bay and Craigslist. When I saw this girl selling one for $240, I jumped on it, since it would be $350 otherwise. I'm selling my Sidekick 2 to a friend here for $125, so it's really like I got the Sidekick 3 for $115. Not bad, huh? It's nice. It has better graphics, bluetooth, an MP3 player, a better camera, and a sleaker look. I'm satisfied now (for the time being!).

Drama on the Set

This week has been an interesting week. It ended just now with me locking myself out of my apartment, and of course my roommate is out of town. Afrah was here visiting, and we were leaving to go walk down Santa Monica Blvd. I locked the door from the inside, and as soon as I shut the door, I instantly realized I left my keys on my desk. I said a bunch of four letter words, and then remembered that my roommate had hid a spare key somewhere in the lobby. I found it, and of course the damn key didn't work. So, what do I have to do? I have to go around the back and take the screen off of my window and climb through the window. The only thing is, my window is about 10 feet off of the ground, since I live on a hill. Luckily, there is a staircase next to my window. I got the screen off, then kind of had to jump from the staircase to the window and crawl through, all while Afrah is snickering in the background. But, I did it. Then I quickly came to the realization that if I can take my screen off and climb through my window, then anyone can! It's a good thing I don't live in South Central!!

As for my work week, it started off with me working on The O.C. All I can say is that I think that show is going down the tubes? Does anyone even watch it anymore? I never have. The show struggled last season in ratings and whatnot. We were shooting on location at a high school. They have these 15 year old girls on the show now with dialogue that sounds like it comes straight from Laguna Beach. It just seems bad, and it wasn't really an exciting day at all. At the end of the day we shot a scene with Adam Brody and he seemed like he didn't even want to be there. He was acting like a diva and I was really unimpressed. Oh well.

Yesterday I worked on a new show called Brothers and Sisters with Sally Field, Colista Flockhart, and some other people that are well known, from what I've heard, but I didn't recognize them. The only one I knew working yesterday was Sally Field. The whole day was TERRIBLE!! First of all, this show is taped at Disney Studios in Burbank. I thought Disney was all about family, happiness, etc. YEAH RIGHT. First off, were kept in the basement of one of the studios. No windows. No cell phone reception. No any anything. Then, the wardrobe lady went on a rampage yelling at everyone. She was mean as hell, psychotic actually. They didn't have a lot of food for us. The whole day was messed up. When we started shooting, I noticed there was some tension on the set. Sally Field came in and she was nice looking and tiny. She looked really motherly, and I heard from someone that she was really nice. But man, she was in a bad mood that day.

Sally was being real snippy with the director, and it was more her body language than anything. She wasn't being outright mean. Someone I met that day, who had worked on the show, mentioned that some of the cast members didn't get along, then everything made sense. I'm sure Sally isn't that stand-offish normally, but it was the first time I have been on a set where the cast members didn't get along. By the end of the day the tension was really thick. Some of the other cast members were yelling and the director looked relly stressed out. All we could do was laugh since the day had been so miserable. It was a 13 hour day too. I never want to go to Disney again. They suck over there.

Maybe next week will be more interesting, especially since I'll be on four tv shows. I wish I had Showtime so I could watch Dexter. I'll definitely be on Vanished on Monday and hopefully Help Me Help You on Tuesday.