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.........

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!!!!!

Crazy Week So Far

I didn't realize how easy it was to post pictures on here. I thought it would have been a hassle. So, now I can start putting some pics on here to liven up my blog I guess. I'll post some right after I speak about some of the crazy stuff that happened this week.

For the last 2 days I have been on a movie set and it has been BORING!!! The scene was shot in a theatre and we were watching John Malkovich do magic tricks all day. Fourteen hours of sitting in a chair clapping all day is freakin torture. I wanted to drink acid by the days end! However, it never fails that I meet some weirdos!

First was this man sitting at the same table as me at lunch. Luckily, this time he wasn't talking to me, because he was one of those people that are uncomfotable with silence, so they start volunteering information that nobody wants to hear about. Example: He says out loud, "I didn't work yesterday". Somebody else asked "Why?", to which he replied, "I was at a nudist camp!" Ahhhh.....WHYYYYYY??? This man was like 50 years old, scraggly, and his skin looked like genuine rawhide leather. Why would anyone want to picture that? So, no one says anything, and he decides he's going to tell some jokes. I can't remember the first one, but his second joke was (and I'm NOT kidding), "Why did the monkey fall out of the tree?" Somebody says they don't know. His answer is, "Because he was dead". WTF!!! Nobody even smiled at that dumb ass joke. And the the guy goes, "I'm thinking my jokes aren't funny!" YA THINK!!! Then he starts making comments about how he needs a massage and he's gonna take off his pants and get up on the table. I wasn't lying when I said ANYONE off the streets can sign up to do background work!!

Then there was this lovely old lady who sat next to me in the theatre who grossed me the hell out. AFTER lunch when we were back on the set, in the theatre, is when she decides to break out her floss!! She flosses a few teeth, then lays the floss down on her lap, on her dress. Then she flosses some more, and lays it back down, then flosses some more. I'm already kind of grossed out, but next thing I know, she's picking up a tissue to blow her nose, and the now multi-colored piece of floss is hanging from her tissue! YUCK!!! Then she did something that cracked me up. We're in a theatre, but it's a restaurant setting, so we're sitting at tables, maybe 6 to a table. We all have drinks to make the scene look real. Some people have wine glasses filled with sparkling grape juice, some people have other kinds of drinks. They are props for us, and we're not supposed to drink out of the (probably dirty) cups. But she's been drinking hers all morning. So, she decides she wants to pour her water into her cup. While the man on the other side of her wasn't looking, she poured her half drunk grape juice into his cup! I swear I could not make up these stories! This is L.A.

Two other crazy things happened on set. This morning a lady collapsed and the ambulance had to be called. It was scary, but she was ok. Then later in the afternoon, an over head light exploded and the glass came crashing down to the ground. Luckily no one was hurt. but the reminds about something about these lights. Have you ever heard of actors complaining of working under hot light all day? I used to think they were being dramatic, but it's true. Those suckers get HOT. That's why they keep the air on in the studios right around 55 degrees. I mean, one day on set, I walked in front of one of the big lights on set. You know how you watch tv and the scene may be in someone's living room and you see the skyline of a city through a window in the house? Well, of course its not real. It's a huge backdrop in the studio lit up by huge lights on the ground. The lighta are maybe 5 feet in diameter. Well, when I walked in front of one, I thought the side of my face was going to melt off! Seriously, I at least thought my shirt was going to catch on fire. It was that hot.

Last crazy thing of the week. Monday I was on CSI: New York and we were shooting on location in an apartment building in downtown L.A. I read an article today that said a real mummified body was found in the building yesterday (Tuesday) one floor below where they were still shooting. Someone went to check on the tenant who hadn't paid rent in a while. Isn't that kinda freaky?

Ok, a few pics because I'm tired of typing!














St. Louis Arch on my way to L.A.

This is the tram that takes you up to the Getty

Center, a huge museum that contains authentic

paintings, artwork, and artifacts dating back to

the Middle Ages. The Getty Center is in the

background .

View from the Getty Center looking

southeast. That little city is either

Brentwood or Westwood, I'm not

sure. Can you see the band of

smog?

**Once again my pictures and captions are distorted. I'll figure this out one day!**

Still Bored

I am terribly bored here and I don't know what to do with myself. It should be coming to an end soon though. I finally picked the picture I'm using as my main headshot, and I just turned in the order today to get duplications made. In the link to my photo album 2 blogs ago, it's the very last picture in the album, number 111. I hope it catches people's attention. I should have the copies Tuesday afternoon. It just sucks that you really can't do anything in this business without your pictures. Pictures to someone in entertainment are like scalpels to a sugeon. You can't do ANYTHING without them. So, what will I do when I get my picures? A few things.

First, about 25 of them will get mailed to various agents across town. Hopefully at least one, or a few, will be interested and contact me. I'll meet with them, decide which one I want to sign with, and then things start happening. The agent tries to get me work, thus ending my boredom. I also can send some pics directly to casting directors (the people who actually choose the actors to be in movies or television shows). I'm trying not be impatient, but I really want this stuff to happen fast. Not because I think I'm so great that I deserve it, but because I'm really ancy and about to go crazy. My work ethic is stellar. It's one of my personal strengths that I'm proud of. I've been either working, or in school since I was 15. During summers, I would work 2 jobs, just to be able to have more money to buy the things that I wanted. I never asked my parents for money. I've always been busy doing something. So you can imagine how having absolutely nothing to do is KILLING me right now. And it doesn't help that the only person I know here has a fulltime job.

I guess I'll tell you what I've done in the past week to kill time. I've gotten everything I need for my apartment, so I can't really go to Target, or the grocery store every day anymore. I don't need anything from those places. Last Friday my friend and I hung out on the Sunset Strip. But, of course the one time I check out the Strip (the first time since I moved here), it's dead. We even asked someone on the street what was going on, and they said the Strip was just dead that night and that it wass unusual.

Sunday, I decided to drive down Sunset Blvd all the way to the Pacific Ocean. It was neat. It takes you though Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, Brentwood, and Pacific Palisades. I saw the house O.J. Simpson used to live in, and the condo where Nicole Brown Simpson lived. Nothing big, but what else was I going to do? The biggest thing I did notice, however, was the 15 degree temperature drop from West Hollywood to Pacific Palisades on the beach. That's nothing new though. Later that day I went with my friend, Keisha (who I know from college) to one of her roommate's friends house for a pool party. It was fun. It was in Pasadena and I got to meet some people.

Wednesday, I went over to Keisha's place to watch America's Got Talent with them because Keisha and her roommate sang back up for one of the acts on the show. It was pretty cool. They were right there on stage. The show is taped at Paramount Studios, and it was taped on Saturday. I thought the show was live, but it's not.

That's pretty much it for my week. I'm trying to think of things to do, that are cheap, or free because I'm doing everything in my power to not have to get a regular job. Any ideas?? Still no other celeb sightings (like I really care; just saying for those of you that do, lol), although Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie were partying somewhere here in West Hollywood the other night. And Christina Aguilera was eating at The Ivy 2 days ago, which is right around the corner from me.

That's all I have folks. Make sure you congratulate RB on the birth of his second son, Noah Stewart. Hope everyone is ready for classes to begin. Sucks to be you!!!! LOL, I'm gonna shut up now because if this boredom doesn't end soon, it's gonna drive my ass right back to med school too!

Later