The benefits of raising a child

It's really mostly logic when I think about it. My son is just 2 months shy of turning 3 and just hates when something goes wrong with his body. Especially his nose. Why should it run at certain times? Well, low and behold he got himself a cold and his nose started running. While I was putting him to sleep last night, laying beside him because bedtime was earlier than normal, he all of a sudden sat up saying that something had crawled into his nose. And the freak out started. Having him put his head back, I turned on the flashlight of my phone and took a look. No boogies, I told him. Just a pea. From dinner. Shoved up there.
Now, after I got this out, I thought to myself, what a logical idea. Something is running, take whatever you can to stop it. Makes sense to me.

Why J.K. Simmons in Whiplash is on my mind

I remember singing in a competitive vocal jazz group in high-school. I considered myself to be one of the best singers in the group and I had the lead in an Al Jarreau song "Not Like This." We were singing for members of Berkley Music institute down in Boston MA. After we finished, we all felt we had done well. At least that was what our parents were telling us. When the instructor asked me to come on stage and began to tell me that I wasn't breathing right, that my support was coming from my chest instead of my diaphragm. As a matter of fact she said that I wasn't very good at all. Being crushed, I was at least able to feel some sort of comfort from one of the other students parents who told me that the instructor didn't know what she was talking about.
Now even though I was embarrassed, you know what? When it mattered, I never took an improper musical breath again. This past weekend I was able to experience the message from J.K. Simmons in whiplash. Thinking of having a teacher like that terrified me. "I wouldn't respond well to that type of teacher." But then again, he wasn't teaching everyday joe's who wanted to maybe get better. He was trying to find the greats. And in order to be Great, you cannot settle. Ever. Period.

merica

Sometimes it's better to just watch other people drive

... then to stay in your own head.

Last week sucked.

In my head.

A lot of "it's never gonna, " "you might want to just," and "Seriously??"

So driving home from an opportunity, stuck in the lovely LA traffic, I had the opportunity to watch the other people drive by, stop, get stuck, cut off, and wait patiently.

And I observed.

Some people were pissed. Some were happy. Most were in their own heads.

No one saw me, but I got the opportunity to think about them all as they drove by.  To imagine what their circumstances were. How did they feel about the situation they were in at the moment. Imagining what the consequences were for their day. What would it be like to experience that?

So I thought about that.

Until the consequences of my not paying attention came to the front, to which I received an angry honk to move my car.

Sometimes it's better to just watch other people drive.

-merica

Sometimes you just have to play

It's true.
And that is a hard thing for an actor to do sometimes.
We can play the waiting game, the selling game, the it doesn't matter game.
But at the end of the day, sometimes you just have to play.

This past weekend I got the opportunity to play with an old high-school friend of mine. He had an idea to shoot, as he is shooting once a month something, and he asked me to do it. And it couldn't have come at a better time. I appreciated the idea, was excited, and put some work into it. Then had the opportunity to play on set. And it was just what the doctor order.

here is a picture simple and fun

click for the pix

merica

Been working out to 90's grunge mix

... I made, and while I will say that some songs are really good songs to work out to I would like to say that some are just... well.... downers.

I put organic grass fed butter in my coffee now

I don't drink

I am married

I don't have a side job

Four fun facts that would have made me go "whaaaaaa" if you were to ask me about my life just four years ago. Party on


-merica

What happens in a week

Mind work has become my thing as of late, being a person who works sporadically, and not booking the last couple of jobs I felt I would, led me to doing some mind work.  Now when I say that, what I really mean is taking the time to work on keeping your mind in the right frame.  The more that can happen, the less down you might fall when the reality of the bizz doesn't work out.  But naturally, you have to keep at it even when times are good.  Luckily for myself, not getting work helps remind me that I need to keep my mind in the right spot.  Fear plays a lot in my head.  Fear of not working.  Financial Fear.  Fear of not living up to expectations.  And giving it up works but sometimes that feels like a cop-out.  In my profession, control over how often you work is out of your hands.  But control over working is not.  How nice is that really?  I have been around enough to know that it isn't a waste of time, it is what I do.  And even though I'm not getting paid to punch in at this specific moment, it is and always will be training for when the opportunities come up.  There will be more.
Specifically, what I find the most challenging in this industry isn't when you don't do your best.  That's an easy fix.  Need more time.  More focus.  Let the job become more important that what I was trying to get in story. Instead the challenge lies when you do your job, everyone is rooting for you, you have all the people behind you (you think), and still no go.  That's challenging.  Because at that point, you look back on your work and question if what you thought was right or "good" maybe wasn't.  Then maybe your don't really have a clue as to what is good or bad, and down the downward spiral we go.  But truth be told, that isn't the case.  And I have hard statistics to show that.  That is why we go back to the work.

A strong B+

... is something I would be happy with in Grade School.  But it leads me to believe that there is more work to be done in the career that I've chosen.  Today had an opportunity to play out there in my chosen field, and spent a lot of time working on the material.  And my opportunity went well.  But Well doesn't  help me acquire work, and well is not what I expect out of myself.  That is what sucks about doing A+ work.  You expect to do that every time.  Kind of like golf.  Once you hit a shot well once, you should be able to do the same thing the next time and expect the same result, except you chunk it or slice it or realize that you are trying to hit the ball into waaaaaay to small a hole.
Luckily for me, and I say thing right now without really feeling it in my body, but I am happy to know that more work can be done.  "They ain't seen nothing yet." My competitive sports natured, "win and you did it right," attitude doesn't really apply to my career, so I have to adjust and learn new tactics.  And that can be hard to do at age ____.   Desire to do it though is strong. And each day it gets better.  And each day I learn a little something new.  That is what I am talking about.
On a side note when I went home for the holidays, which is in Maine where at one point the high temp was 6, my family's shower wasn't working properly.  It only allowed you to have a  hot shower for like 3 mins then would become very luke warm, not cold, just luke warm.  My father had no problem with this because he takes 3 min showers, something I have yet to learn how to do.  But 2.5 weeks of lukewarm showers helped me come to the realization that lukewarm is worse than cold.  Lukewarm keeps you in the shower hoping that it might get hotter.  Cold makes you just get out. Lessons to live by.