Friday

Today was a big day for me.  It was like prom... except it was the World Premier of Wizard of Gore at the LA Film Fest, and corresponding premiere party at The W Hotel.  Baby's first red carpet ceremony.  On top of that I have a big audition for some people that I really need to impress.  I decide to skip going into work Friday altogether and spend the time doing things that I had been putting off for far too long.  Like cleaning my place.  And dishes.  And laundry...   far too long.

Come morning, I tried to sleep in as much as possible (which ended up being 9:35am) and then got up, and lazily read Los Angeles magazine while I showered and cleaned up, and shaved in a way so that I still had a subtle stubble.  Earrings were still in.

I debated hitting the gym, but instead I took Cally to the car wash, while I planned out my day.  Then by 11:30am, I get a call from my agent telling me that I have an audition for a "confidential computer company"... in an hour.  Of course this frustrates me, because I was planning on going to H&M to go buy a suit for the audition, since I would be wearing my only one later that evening for the premiere.  Guess not.  So after a bit of debating, I decide to go for it.  I change back out of my "upscale 30 something year-old" outfit, and into my "young 20's alterna-hip" outfit.  Sometimes it's cool that I have a versatile look, but today it was just stressing me out.

Anyway, I hop on over, spend 35 minutes waiting around, and they take 3 snapshots of me, and that's it.  So I head back home to change, and I can already start to see Friday traffic starting to form.  I quickly shed my 20's look and once again don my suit, change up my hair, and hit the road for North Hollywood for my second audition.  Ugh.  405 and 101 Freeways.  Not fun.

It takes me about 45-50 minutes to get there, as I try not to stress out, A/C on full-blast. The audition was for a live hosting of a Mercedes Benz tour across 10 different cities throughout the US.  It pays $15,000 for 10 weekends and a $50 a day per diem, to be the guy that spouts the new features of the 2008 C-Class in front of real people.  Mentally, I think they wanted a Ryan Seacrest who was knowledgable, more about Benz's than celebs.  He also has to spout off a pre-written copy of facts without sounding like a robot or moron.  Anyway, I go in and there are a number of guys in various states of suits and various states of "clean-cut".  I think with any other casting director my earrings would've been a liability, but these casting directors happened to be friends of mine, whom I've worked for in the past, so it's all good.  I wait for half an hour or so, go in, and do my thing, and take-off. 

Amazingly, it takes me the same amount of time for me to get home, despite the fact that Friday traffic was really starting to show.  As soon as I get home, I change into a wife-beater and shorts, and get to cleaning.  Everyone is meeting at my place at 7pm to head over to the premier party, including my kind-of-sort-of date, Kelly.  This is Kelly:



Yeah.  I didn't want to make a bad impression on Kelly, and it took me the special bait of "Hey do you want to go with me to my movie premiere?" to finally get her to go out with me.  Unfortunately, my place was a huge mess.  Imagine if the dump of Sarath's room had sort of spread itself out to the rest of the apartment.  Except that it was mostly my mess, and not his. 

Thankfully, I'm able to clean, reorganize (and hide), vacuum, and freshen most of the kitchen, living room and bathroom before anyone arrives, with enough time to take a quick shower.  As Esther and Bridgette arrive, I change, once again, back into my good ol' suit.  Once Kelly shows up, we all pile up into Cally and take off.  Good thing she was clean and freshly waxed!  Er, Cally, I mean, not Kelly.  (Although...)

We arrive at The W and valet.  We show up and immediately there's problems with our RSVP.  Thankfully, Glen, the producer shows up right behind us and tells them "This guy is in the film.  Anyone he wants let in, gets in."  And we walk in.  (My first taste of being a star.)  The venue is actually "The Backyard" - the outdoor pool and cabana area with multiple bars and tables, in the heart of the high-rises of Westwood.  Quite the swank location.  Unfortunately, I don't recognize anyone.  So the four of us kinda chill out and drink our drinks.  Well, I drink my Red Bull.  I'm not drinking because I don't want my publicity photos taken while I'm chinky-eyed and red.


As the night goes on, the evening gets progressively weirder.  We meet some really strange folk, including  James, who was wearing a baseball cap, sunglass (at night), and shorts, who had no idea what the event was, and his "client" Jo-Jo (or was it Joe-Joe?), a supposed heavy hitter.  And so here I am, in this total Hollywood moment: We're standing next to a pool, trying to figure out who is who, right as this total stranger, James, is proclaiming to me that he knows everyone in Hollywood; all the while a mustachioed magician and a tiny man in a ratty old bunny suit are setting up their "stage".  James confides in me how he wants to call up Judd Apatow's wife, Leslie Mann, to try and seduce her into getting Judd (he's so hot right now) to put him in one of his upcoming movies, when Glen, the producer, walks by, they recognize each other, and they shout with jubilant reunion.  They go way back.  Like grade school back.




It's a crazy night, filled with a decent amount of random people, and even more random happenings.  After finding my sister and her friends at the hotel lobby bar, we finally taxi it over to the Westwood Majestic Crest Theater and I get to do my publicity photo walk.  Yay!  I'm exercising significant restraint as a cadre of photographers call my name and beckon me to look at their camera.  It's mildly exhilarating, except I have no idea what to say when they interview me. 


One thing is for sure, though:  people certainly gave me a generous amount of respect - which I'm pretty sure I owe to fact that I was in the company of three hot women.  After some abuse of power on my being a star, I get my sister's friend (who was not able to by a ticket) into the show, and we're all inside; me and 6 women.  By the time the movie actually starts, the alcohol has really kicked in, and the girls are either laughing quite freely, or passed out.


I'll try not to spoil the movie.  I'll say this: the film is intense and tough to watch at times, and occasionally, challenging to follow, even for someone like me who knew the script.  There are some very crazy moments, some absolutely brilliant camera work, and quite a few splatters of blood and guts, and a healthy handful of exposed breasts.  (no pun intended)  With the name being what it is, you're either seeing the movie for those reasons, or you're fooling yourself.

All in all, by the end of the night, we were all quite exhausted.  It was a long film, and it was a particularly long day for me.  Glen was kind enough to fit the four of us into the back seat of his brand new 7 series, while Glen's driver and Cinematographer took the front, to take us back to our car.  It's 2:30am and time to head home, because yet again...  I had another long day ahead of me.

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Saturday

So Neil and Dave J. Lee decide to enter this contest called the 72 Hour Shootout.  It's a film contest, where teams of contestants are given a theme on Friday, and then charged with writing the script, shooting the project, and editing it to a final project, all within 72 hours.  I was tapped to be one of Neil and Dave's primary corp of actors.

Throughout the madness of Friday night's premiere, Neil and I stay in contact as he keeps me up to date on the theme, our progress, and I offer any suggestions I might have.  This, as well as my anticipation for the days shooting, also added to my preoccupation and stress for the day before.  Dave goes hardcore and cranks out an amazing script that's finished at 5am.

Here is the theme: "Elizabeth Ong is missing."  The rules are: Elizabeth Ong does not appear in the film.  The fact that Elizabeth Ong is missing should be central to the story.  All the characters in the film have a connection with Elizabeth Ong.

I won't say what we did just yet, but I will say that I ended up being the main character, and I got to stick my tired-ass face into the camera quite a bit.  To top it off, my character wore a suit.  Which means that I had to wear my suit for three days in a row.   Awesome.  However, earrings finally came out.

It was hot, and I ended up sweating a lot.  By this point, I could see the bags building up in my eyes, and every now and then I would zone out.  Our concept was somewhat physical as well, so I was moving around a lot.  Nevertheless, the day actually went really well, and despite some delays with lighting issues, we were able to get all of our shots and finish early.  And as tired and sweaty as I may have been, shooting these quick and dirty videos with your good friends is just great fun.  We all had a good time, and we were glad that we were able to rise up to the task and put out a good product.  In fact, even though the project was part of a contest, we were doing it more to challenge ourselves, rather than concerning ourselves with the win.  For us, creativity was its own reward.  I mean, what else can you expect from a team that goes by the name of "Team HeadOn: Apply Directly to the Forehead."*


We wrap our 11 hour day by grabbing some celebratory burritos and cervesas at Poquito Mas.  With my part done, (I leave the most difficult parts, aka the writing and editing, to Dave and Neil) I head home.  Finally, a chance to sleep early.

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Sunday

I really tried to sleep in this day, but even still, that came out to be around 10am.  At least I woke up feeling a lot more rested than I had been every day previously.  I was looking forward to staying in and takin' it easy.  Maybe even doing lotsa office stuff, going over some bills, etc.  But I realized that I really should go into work at A&F to make-up the hours that I would be missing this upcoming week.  And I will be missing a whole lot of them.  So into work I went.

Thankfully for me, and I guess, unfortunately for them, there wasn't a whole lot of work for me to do.  The Central HR server was running extreeeeeemely slow, and processing HR stuff was taking forever.  So really all I was doing was sitting around and waiting.  I could've made some calls, but I really try to avoid making business calls on a Sunday.  So I went into to work and got paid to sit around.  Damn, if I had a real job, I suppose I could've xanga'd like some of you other folks.  I have enough time to grab lunch at Souplantation on the clock (oops!)  And yet somehow, I only end up clocking in 5.75 hours for the day.  Not a significant dent in my hours deficit.



I head home to change, and Hannah Montana meets me there.  Tonight, baby, is the wrap party for Crossing Over.  I get to hang out with good folk, chow down on some hors d'ouvers, and best of all, open bar.  Time to get crunk.  It was great to see everyone again.  I had such a great time with the cast and crew, that hanging out with them was like a total reunion.  Of course, I still had to do a bit of schmoozing and networking.  After all, Gotta keep hustling.  But overall, it was good times...  good times.  I'll leave you with some pics.

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Tuesday

After a half day at work and a trip to the dentist office on Monday, I'm back in business with a shoot.  Turns out, I booked that gig for the "confidential computer company".  Hmm... you'll probably only need one guess as to which computer company it is, and yet ironically, you wouldn't even be able to tell from the shoot, because there were no products on site.


It was probably the easiest day of work ever.  Chillin' in a backyard BBQ with a diverse group of people.  Seriously they just shot us having fun and hanging out!  I got to hang out in the pool all day with cute girls, and cool guys.  Even the older folks were totally cool, and the young kids were a blast.  Actually, some of the older "moms" were pretty hot.  One looked like Ashley Judd, and the other looked like 'Penelope Cruz's sister'.  I only wish I got to eat the food they grilled. 


All in all, a relaxing day of work, which was a welcome change of pace.  I didn't get paid much, and I probably won't appear in the final campaign or any of the commercials, but it's all good.  I have other things going on and other things coming up ahead. 

So for now, I'm gonna kick back, enjoy the rest of my evening and go to bed early, and regain my strength for the end of the week.