Happy halloween!

hi!

The most challenging thing about having my weekly article going at iFanboy is that it cuts into the amount of time I have to write my own stuff here. Apologies.

Anyway, I didn’t get anything back from my awesome-ass audition that I had a few weeks ago. I am okay with it, but I will admit to being a but more bummed that usual. No matter, there will be more, eventually. I actually auditioned for an independent film earlier this week and am supposed to hear back one way or the other by the end of the week. That audition was a lot of fun--the filmmakers are from Sweden, and since I have been to Sweden, we talked about...Sweden. I had a blast, it was fun, life is good.

I am in a good mood, though I have every right to be cranky. My day is opening and closing with meetings, and I just have been getting hit HARD from allergies this week. I am constantly yawning, constantly fighting off sleep. It’s just strange. I had a good acting class last night, my teacher gave me a nice comedic scene that I was able to bite into, which is is always nice. Comedy is my biggest strength, so most of the scenes I get tend to be more dramatic, just to let me stretch a bit. But last night was a nice return to form, holding for laughs, trying to time a line so it builds right on top of the laughter, making them laugh harder, etc. When you are doing comedy in front of a crowd, you are almost in two places at once; you are performing your character and doing the work, but you are also listening to the audience and adjusting your performance to fit within their reaction. It’s fun, but if you mess up, oh man, if you mess up, it just becomes a trainwreck. I actually had a nice roll of laughter going and I went just a half-second too early with the followup line and I knew, as I was saying the first syllable of the sentence, that I had mistimed it. You just feel the audience having to stutter down their laughter a bit to make sure they hear the next line.

No matter. It’s a gift to get a chance to tweak these things anyway.

I am having a good time configuring my iphone--I got the software update early and have been playing wtih applications; very cool so far. I will be writing a little review on the Norton forums later this week or early next.

The iFanboy articles have been really challenging as of late. I have been really trying to do something different with my pieces, and am getting some really good feedback. This week’s piece might have been a bit of an overall misfire, if one were to judge by the (lack of) comments, but it’s cool, I am still learning what works and what is too much (actually, I take that back--there are more comments today). But, as they say, too much is never enough, and if I can get people to have different kinds of discussions about comics, then all is good. It’s a great opportunity and a lot more work than I ever imagined (800-1400 words a week is a lot), but it is making me a better writer, I think..I hope.

All right--told you this would be short.

I am going to interrupt the vacation report for a second here and just provide a bit of an update on other things.

- I added a new page to the site called "web spots" that are, indeed, web spots. Work is getting me to do a lot more video and then they post them on a few Symantec sites as well as YouTube. I think they are pretty good and at least a few people have told me they are funny, so hey, why not post them here? Click on web spots on the tool bar above.

- I auditioned for a role in Cabaret--actually, I was called into read for a major role, the Emcee (MC)--and did not get it. It would be in poor taste to complain too much about not getting the role, but what was good was that I knew I had a really solid audition and assume that it was my complete lack of dancing skills and the fact that I hadn't auditioned for an actual musical in a very, very, very, very, very long time. Still, it was awesome and it was really nice to be back in a theater again. I realize now just how much I miss that stuff! So, I will just have to look for some other shows to audition for. On the flipside, it was really gratifying to get so much positive feedback and encouragement from the people I mentioned it to. It's not that I necessarily need that kind of validation and encouragement, but it's nice to know that people were excited about the chance to see me do a show again. So, good stuff all the way around.

- Things are quite good, I have to tell you. We're gonna see Iron Man tonight and I can't wait! And yes, we're staying until after the credits.

Okay, check out the videos, let me see what you think! (Update:I turned on the comments section.)

Have a good weekend...

I have been thinking a lo about TIME these days, which perhaps is no surprise. Time passes and that's that. It's just been going very, very quickly, as I am sure you are noticing. I remarked to Zak this morning that I feel like I overslept in 2008 and I am about 15-20 minutes late for everything.

As I was falling asleep I was kind of thinking about acting and well, you know, how I fit in with the rest of the community here in LA. There's this young actor on a show that Whit really likes that has a role that's a real career starter. He's pretty good, he's good looking, and he's intelligent (he used to be an accountant, quit to be a model and actor, and now he's got a great series regular role on a primetime show)--and he's 26. I'll be honest--I'm not 26. I don't even want to be 26, but you know, you hear about how LA is obsessed with youth, blah blah blah--and I guess that's true, the extremes are certainly out there with all the plastic surgery and that kind of thing. But it's also just a place where young people gravitate towards, not unlike San Francisco and New York. You just kind of notice it a bit sometimes. I auditioned for a role to be a co-host of a Tech show where I was supposed to be a tech expert who knows how to help businesses with their technical infrastructure, who reads Wired magazine, who knows tech culture and what's happening in the tech world. I was basically auditioning to be me, right? The audition, which was just an interview with legitimately technical questions (what kind of freeware security software is out there? what kind of backup infrastructure should small businesses think about? what kinds of machines would you recommend?) went great--this is my life--but I also knew that they were looking for someone in their late 20s. And I told them that I was not in my late 20s and also told them that they didn't want someone in their late 20s, that they wouldn't know as much as I do. And it's true! I defy the vast majority of actors in LA to setup an office in afternoon. But if I don't get the role, I bet I know why...!

Of course, of course, in many ways, age is an illusion. Charisma, energy and optimism can really shift people's perceptions. But every once in awhile, you think about it, at least in this profession. The flipside, of course, is that as you get older, you tend to reflect on your choices and your history and wonder, "was this right?" It's useless, of course--but those thoughts can sneak into your head as your brain settles into sleep. I thought about it last night, how I have definitely been at the party and showed up at the right time, but I feel sometimes like I was in one room having a great time talking to people, then hearing uproarious laughter in the room next door. Once I finally made it into that room, the joke was over and though the people were still there, things had moved on. But still, the party's great, right? Life is good.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the difference between "hope" and "expectation". I was actuall talking with my mom last night about this and we basically discussed how expectation, as a rule, is an illusion, a situation or reality that basically can never come true as one imagines. Take the typical New Year's Eve dilemma--oftentimes, people will have expectations of the crazy party they finally decided on, or whatever plan they made, and most of the time, it will go differently (better or worse) and the expectation will probably not be fulfilled. However, hope is far more general and a lot more open-ended. You can hope you have a good time, but you are not expecting a good time, and the stakes become lower, more manageable. My mom suggested that expectations, being so much more personally specific, are driven by the ego, which makes a lot of sense. We also discussed this in acting class, where Brian remarked how he thought it was crazy for actors to come into LA expecting to have a career just open up to them with in a year or two, that things would just work out and all would be great. You can hope things work out, but you certainly need to be patient, certainly need to relax with the expectations so your hope can be maintained. I also think that it's been really interesting how Obama has been using the concept of hope to rally his supporters--it's easier for groups of people to agree on hope than expectations.

Ah, Friday morning thinking.

I have some cool things happening this weekend, but I am going to keep it a secret. Believe me, if it all works out, it's gonna be very, very cool and actually a nice checkmark in my little "to do in my life" book. Should have something to tell you in a few weeks.


What else? Oh, I am reading Pictures at a Revolution by Mark Harris. It's awesome.

Oh, and my uncle Toby just came out with a new book. He's been getting a lot of press on this. Let's see...the book is called Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories. The press has been incredible. Check out this interview on KQED's Forum and this article from the LA Times Book Review. It's always amazing, really, to reflect on just how amazing a writer he is. It's really been amazing to watch his career and talent and legacy, really, grow as time has gone by. Very inspiring and proof, real proof, that if you just stick to it, you can do what you want.

Okay! two posts at once. I've got a lot of write today so I will end this here. Have a great weekend...

Tags: life, acting, people

Not a lot going on. Really. Usually I cannot seem to keep up with all the stuff that is swirling around me, but I gotta say, it's been pretty quiet. Which is ok, it's fine, but I am officially ready for things to start getting crazy again.

Whit's feeling better, slowly. She's probably going to fly to her mom's place in Ohio this weekend to get a break from the construction next door. They started sandblasting next door and it's jaw droppingly loud. So loud, in fact, that she's made a bed in the bathtub and has been napping there just to get some quiet. I really want to move but there's no way we can move right now...ugh, so frustrating. It really is intensely frustrating that there is so little I can do to make the situation better. Right now all we can do is wait for the gastridis to fade...away.

Work is okay. I am driving everyone nuts because I keep asking to get this updated posted because I have so many people asking me when the update will be posted. It's annoying to know your annoying people, but I don't really have any other recourse. I can't wait until this project is done.

Acting has been incredibly slow, slower than it has been in many, many months. No auditions in two weeks. (I think I had a callback last week.) It's fine, it's okay,but like I said...argh. The strike is now over, which is great news, so I am starting to get my stuff to all the people who told me to give them my stuff once the strike was done. We had a really good on camera class last night and I was relieved that the scene we worked on went well. (To be honest, everyone was awesome.)

---

it's a few days later and I can't believe I actually thought things were mellow. I'm at the tail end of a pretty slow going 3 day weekend and I am just gonna post this real quick. Really looking forward to next weekend, when I will be up in Wondercon in SF, I will take pictures and blather wildly.

Tags: general

I am waiting for Gary to arrive and having an SMS conversation with Aya about the upcoming election and it got me thinking and actually feeling so I figured I would hop onto/into the computer and get some thoughts out.

I have been having wonderful political conversations as of late. My friends (liberal hollywood lefty souls that everyone seems to love to stereotype) and I have these great debates on who would be better for the country/world and I just laugh and enjoy the fact that we are struggling to figure if we should vote for a woman or a black man. I feel like all got invited to this really great party, like we just ended up going to the wrong house and they let us in anyway, and the music is great, the food is awesome, there's great wine and it's an open bar, and we're just so HAPPY and COMFORTABLE and full of glee...but we keep checking in with each other to make sure, "is this okay? When will we get kicked out?"

I was just texting to Aya (and wow, do I hate that word, but is it not so right, in a way? i send her text, no pictures, no voice, just the ASCII, m'am) how we must accept the fact that it's okay to be kinda excited. Yes, there are problems with the Dems, sure there are, let's just assume that, but still--it's hard to even imagine, but I figured things have to change because balance must be attained. Bush and Corporation came mighty close (or already have, depending on how gloomy your day is) to bringing down this country (and I realize there is time), to truly destroying our standing on this planet, and things just have to change because, well, things cannot continue to suck for this long. Yes, I am an idealist/optimist, but that's my wiring.

I do feel that America, I really do feel this, can inspire the world again. And there's a reason why people are actually excited about this election, because we have a chance to rally around a FIRST, a NEW EVENT, to deliver a president that has never existed before...because no matter who they are now, Hillary or Obama will change, they will be better, I truly think, they will be BETTER at this job, even better than they think they will be, because they will be so conscious of the decisions they make and how they will fill out the history they are already making. And those of us who are so upset, we want this kind of transformation, because we believe that that kind transformation is inherently good, that good will prevail. Not only that, we will feel more ownership, we will hold them more accountable, we will feel this leadership more because we are all living the new era together.

So, I wrote that this weekend and now it's apparently super Tuesday and right now I am sitting in another hospital waiting room, this time waiting for Whit to get out of an endoscopy to check out what's going on with her digestive system. It's been actually kind of a rough couple of days, with Whit experiencing Emergency Room-worthy abdominal pain, but she got a CAT scan yesterday and now the endoscopy should help reveal whether this is an ulcer or something. Preliminary results seem to point to some kind of mild pancreatitis as a result of the internal trauma associated with the surgery, which is a real bummer...but I am confident things are going to be okay once we know exactly what is up and how to alleviate the pain.

It never seems to stop. But I'm still gonna vote today. My friend Christopher is threatening to make a sort of political roundtable podcast that he wants me to be a part of. The last presidential election we were meeting once a week to discuss all that was over drinks at The Shortstop, I guess he's ready to record our m/utterings.

Gotta post this now.

A pic of the whiteboard across the way from Whit's hospital bed. Notice how they remind you of your name.


So, it's been a week since Whit's surgery, and I must admit, it's been a crazy, crazy week. I am super happy January is almost over, because this has been a ridiculous month. CES, MacWorld, surgery, work...I mean, I guess that's how life goes, but jeez, 2008 needs to chill a bit.



Whit's doing great, walking around and gaining strength. It's truly awesome how fast her recovery has been. She actually ended up leaving one day sooner than we had originally thought! She's still in some pain in the mornings (nerves growing back), but even that is beginning to subside a bit. I am really proud of her--I know it's still going to be a while before she's at 100%, but this is a good start.

Unfortunately, the construction on the apartment across the way is still in full swing. It's really loud during the day, with all kinds of drills and hammers and jackhammers and yammer(ings). Whit's actually going to leave for a bit in February to hang out with her family, which is going to be good for her.



the view across the way. pardon the screendoor effect caused by an actual screendoor

I am working from home part of the time, but work is back in full effect, after a bit of a break during CES and MacWorld...MacWorld was surprisingly good this year. I am not sure why, but it just "felt" better than the MacWorlds of the past few years. Apple is obviously growing like crazy, and this is getting a lot of people to get more interested in developing for the platform (and making cases for the iDevices). I actually ended up get a nice backpack from STM...my last bag lasted me something like 7 years, so we'll see how this goes. It's a terrific bag, I gotta say.

What else? On the nerd side, I finally received my "do it yourself birthday present" -- Absolute Sandman Vol. 2 and the Ultimate Blade-Runner HD-DVD set. I know, why bother buying anything on HD-DVD when Warner announced for Blu-Ray? Well, I can always get the actual 5 disk movie on Blu-Ray at some future date, but for some reason, the collector nerd in me wanted the whole "super sized" set. And you know what? It's not really worth it, I gotta admit. The movie is worth getting--it's awesome--but the set is kind of "eh". I mean, it's cool and everything and I am glad I got it, but I wouldn't recommend it. The movie itself, the 5 disc version, is fantastic - I will talk about it once I watch more of the full movie package...but I popped it in two nights ago and watched it for awhile...it looked and sounded insane. So clear, so clean, so amazing---really, the whole idea of being able to watch an HD signal that is not compressed by the cable company, it's mind boggling; it totally makes a difference. I am sad that it looks like HD-DVD is on the outs, but it's still a great upconverting DVD player and I am not about to get a Blu-Ray player any time soon. So, I can rent stuff in HD-DVD until it all shakes out, but I must say, I have been very impressed with the format so far. True, it's not the insane leap of quality that we saw going from VHS to DVD, but it is still pretty intense. I got Zodiac as well, which is similarly amazing.


can I just say that the SF skyline seems to change every time I visit?

What else? Acting is going well, a few auditions this week but not really that busy. We're all waiting for the strike to end.

Okay, I know I am forgetting a few things, but I will post now and try to update this weekend...

10:40AM...

I'm posting two entries this time around because I got wildly distracted from my last one--it was getting a little too unwieldy and then by the time I got back to it, life got a lot more interesting.

I am currently waiting in the waiting room while Whit recovers in the recovery room. She had her surgery this morning and it all went great, they removed the fibroid, which, for something that is entirely natural, looked really, really unnatural. We got a picture of it but I guess I won't be able to get it bronzed...

Anyway, so the hard part is basically over, now we just let her sleep. I guess she's going to be staying here for a day or two, which is kind of annoying, but it's for the best. I am pleased that the procedure went by so quickly--the surgery was over in basically 2 hours.

Briefly:

1 - MacWorld was actually kind of cool this year, there was a good amount of enthusiasm. the new products, while not groundbreaking, are solid iterations. It's interesting that apple is charging $20 for iPod touch users but giving the AppleTV update for free. both are significant improvements, not sure how they decided on the $20 fee. And I still hate the 24 hour rental window (you have the rented movie for 30 days, but only 24 hours from the moment you press "play"--it is cool that you can move it from device to device, but wow, itunes...it's becoming it's own operating system now)

2- had a terrific audition for a pilot which I guess is not going anywhere. they changed the character around, so when I went in, I was asked to do something completely different. It was a great experience, and I was happy to show the casting director that I could flip the script on the fly, but I am a bit sad that I couldn't go further with it. I really love the show and really loved the character (or, at least, the one I was working on)...who knows. But at least the casting director saw me in the first place. Just need to be brought back.

3 - This week's theme so far is "my friends are totally awesome". I had a great night in San Francisco with the boys and then even saw some of the girls later. It was a really fun night and while I am always sad to leave my SF crew behind, to come back to such a wonderfully supportive army of LA friends has been a very humbling experience. I have been sending out little email updates regarding Whit's morning and everyone has been really keen to help out, etc. And, of course, the NY crew has been more than into it as well (Ravi, you are more than keeping it real from the International angle). Again, my friends are totally awesome.

4 - Last year at time, I was in Japan. Now I'm in a waiting room in a hospital in Beverly Hills. As I live, the future becomes less and less of a mystery and more of a surprise.

more soon.

Tags: Health, general

lots of TVs, all of them with the same stuff on...

I just listened/watched to a few TED talk (I really dug the JJ Abrams one), which is a really nice thing to do while eating a turkey sandwich. It's interesting; I often scoff when I hear people talk about the Internet changing, forever, the whole television thing, but I do find myself using the web to find good stories once in awhile. However, I am at work in a cube, not in my living room and I am not, in anyway, in a relaxed state of mind. I needed to back up and re-watch the Abrams presentation quite a few times, especially when he was referencing something visual). Different screens for different times, I guess. (Related, check out David Lynch ranting on people watching movies on the iPhone.)

Watching the videos from TED made me remember the tech lunches we would have at Razorfish, where we would get so-called movers and shakers to come over and discuss their ideas on technology and the directions it was going. We do that here, but I really miss the broad range of people we would get. Sure, we would get some Linux zealot to tell us the wonders of open source, but I was far more interested in the classical pianist who found inspiration in Flash. Inspiration comes from all over, from all people, from all times of day, I suppose. I was thinking about the whole idea of a technically savvy person growing older: will I continue to care enough about all this or will I need some 12 year old around to help me program some household media device so I can watch the construction of the moonbase from a camera on some astronaut construction worker's visor? Who knows.

Things I am thinking about:

1 - figuring out a way to actively help kids in school; how can I do this?
2 - what am I "missing" in my thought processes that is frustrating my ability to figure out what's "next" for technology? entertainment?
3 - why am I not using my camera?


Actually, I think i am going to start keeping the video camera around, like, in my car, so I can use it on the fly.

Oh, here's what I was thinking about while I was driving:

It seems like everything that has been pretty stable for the past 30 years is facing a pretty dramatic shakeup. Let's see:

- You have the whole national car industry, which was pretty much the Big Deal for the past few decades, totally getting their asses handed to them by Toyota and other companies because of a stunning inability to innovate and make products that people actually want. So everyone's freaking out there.

- You have the whole damn oil situation really freaking out big time because all of a sudden oil is so expensive that it's making everything expensive and really forcing people to think beyond oil, which is great, but it's probably going to be pretty painful because we are living right at the beginning of this massive-scale transition. Exciting times for people who see a future in change, scary times for people who have been through enough change, thank you very much and just want to retire and get some sleep

- There's the whole entertainment industry thing, which is having this wonderful midnight affair with the Writer's Guild Strike, which is really freaking out people in LA, because the already hemorrhaging TV market is bailing now that their Tivo boxes are empty. So, you see the networks makings shows that you just know no one is going to want to watch or they recycle previously made stuff....

Everything is changing, right now. And everyone who cares is trying to figure out how to adapt to these changes. What's crazy is that these are fundamental changes, both industry-wide and worldwide, in many respects. The trick is finding ways to help people manage and enjoy these changes and transitions.

ugh, I wrote this a week ago and totally lost my train of thought. I am going to start a new one now.

Tags: tech, general

Big ass TV! run for your lives!

(Deeeeeep breath.) I randomly went to CES on Tuesday, which was pretty cool, if only because I have always wanted to go to the show just to check it out. I have some pictures here, but they are not all that good, you can see lots of stuff if you dig around the web a bit. But it was cool, I mean, it's always fun to do something you have always wanted to do, right? But still--if you can afford a TV that is 7' tall, you are probably going to have a separate room with a projector, right? But I guess perhaps this could be used in public spaces...


It's gonna be a crazy month, more crazy than usual. I have an actual pilot audition for an actual series regular on Monday, which is notable because: a) I haven't had one in awhile and b) there are not all that many pilots getting shot because of the Writer's Strike. So, if your brain needs some thoughts at 2:40pm on Monday, just say to your brainverse, "Hey Mike, break a leg, that would be fun if you had a good audition because if you get it you can take me out to dinner and we can make jokes." I am really excited because I am actively leveraging some of the stuff I gleaned from a repeat viewing of Special Thanks to Roy London which lives on my ipod and offers some great items to think about before an audition. I really, really love the character and the script, so I need to just enjoy the process and be grateful to have a chance without projecting too much into the future.

(Very much enjoying the just-purchased Juno soundtrack, by the way.)

What I am trying to with the audition, by the way, is to use the moment of actually being in the office auditioning for the part as the emotional foundation/intent of the actual scene. Like, when I talk about loving my job, I am just going to be basically talking about how I love to audition, how I love the chance to act. It's the same intention, right, and I am not doing any substitution or anything like that. If I am nervous, I will just be nervous, and that's that. why fight it? Acting is reacting, sure, and acting is exposing, yes and above all, acting is about letting go and just living. I am fighting the normal impulse to imagine the moment and to provide an idea of how I want things to go--why add that kind of pressure? Why worry about it, really? The moment will come, it will happen, and then it will pass. That's all I want to have as far as expectations go...it's hard but I gotta try, otherwise, I'm just gonna fall into the same traps that I used to fall in. No more!

On a somewhat related note, Whit's surgery is a week from now, which is also quite a big deal and something that I am trying to prepare myself for without getting too crazy about it. She's probably going to be in the hospital for 2 nights and I assume it will all be quite intense. Rocco asked if I was ready and I was like, "I guess, I have no idea"--I really don't know what is going to happen, so it's actually irrelevant if I am ready or not--it's gonna happen and I will do everything I can to make it easy as possible for her. Doesn't matter, right? Accept the moment and deal.

But in-between those two events, I will be in San Francisco for MacWorld to check out the new announcements, see what my competitors are doing, say hey to friends, talk to a few press folks...should be a good time. It's being cut short due to Whit's surgery, but that's okay. I'm usually done with MacWorld after a day on the floor anyway.

Tech rants/hopes/predictions:

1 - Warner's Blu-Ray announcement sucks; I bought my HD-DVD player (it's a better system, IMHO for a variety of very consumer-friendly reasons) and now I'm stuck waiting for the Blu-Ray folks to come out with a reasonably priced, fully-functional player that's not the PS3 (I have a tendency to get burned by Sony products). None of this matters, of course, given the Internet distribution model that is rapidly becoming a fine alternative to buying discs...

2 - I have no idea what's happening at MacWorld, but I would guess that the an updated AppleTV will come out. If it can play Blu-Ray discs, that would be awesome, I admit. I bet they will introduce that sub-compact flash ram MacBookPro, and I can see them releasing the 16GB iPhone. I assume we'll have to sit through the Office 2008 stuff during the keynote, too.

Okay, let's post this thing.

a pic of a postcard that I made for one of our shows way back when in New York.
We actually did a whole photoshoot down in the in the subway, late at night.
I was on my hands and knees with a dog collar on...

Tags: CES, mac, macworld

gray, grey, san francisco day.

First off, Happy New Year. 2∞8. Hope you and yours had a good break, hope you had a fun new year's and I hope this year is packed with health, joy, growth, peace and all the stuff you need and want.

Ollie's boy Phineas encountering Tiberius, the greatest cat ever.

San Francisco was good, but oddly stressful at times for a variety of reasons. I was super happy to see everyone but the weather was such that I really just wanted to be home, in my apartment. It was weird, really; I loved being with my family and friends but I think stress of the last few months just made me want to hang out and be at home for a week and just stop. But the holidays are not designed to be relaxing, so I guess I'm just complaining. I had a lot fun, though, and I am looking forward to returning for MacWorld in a few weeks.

New Year's was really, really mellow, like, the most mellow a New Year I've had since I was a kid, really. Whit and I got dinner with the always fantabulous Jen Slimko and then hung out at home. It was really fun--we hadn't really hung out with each other the entire week, so it was nice, really nice. We missed hanging out with our friends in various places in LA, but it sounded like everyone had a pretty mellow time, I think, again, because of the weather.

The day before New Year's was crazy, though...I mean, I had to take my car to the shop for almost $300 worth of work (30k checkup time) and when we went to get a box spring, I went up a bit of a curb and popped Whit's car's tire! Like, the edge on the curb was just sharp, and the end dug right into the side of the tire somehow. I seriously have no idea what happened, but we went up the curb and the tire just started hissing...and was out in about 2 minutes. Then, much to my surprise, I found out (after unpacking the spare and all the tools from the fairly full trunk) that there were wheel locks on the wheels! I guess they put them on when we got the car--I actually had no idea what they were--they were originally in the glovebox--but I realized exactly what they were once I took a good look at the wheel. Basically, each wheel has an extra tricky bolt on it that you can only remove by adding a special adaptor onto the wrench. Of course, I had long since taken this out and left it at home...so we had to repack everything and walk home, look for the thing, then I went (I actually got into some workout clothes and ran) back and did the whole thing over again. Then I got home. Then I took the bus to Santa Monica to get my car. Then it was NYE.

So, yeah--2007 went out kicking and screaming. All is fine now, Whit's got a new tire (thanks to the tire store that was open on January 1) and the car is running fine. Still...a bit much.

Already things are starting to kick in; I've had a voiceover and a commercial audition and work work is making its way back into my head. It was good to get a break, if only for me to realize that yes, I do like my job a lot, and I am excited about what this year will bring. Of course, it's easy to say that when I am already in the office--I still just want to lie in bed and sleep...

okay, let's post this. more to come, more to come. I wish the iPhone would do video, I think I would post more vids up...

Tags: san francisco, christmas

my cousin Patrick playing jazz at Socha in San Francisco. He's the hep cat with the beard, playing sax.

Oh, man. Merry Christmas.. I am at Socha right now:

where I was last night to see my cousin Patrick Wolff play some jazz with a few folks. I forgot my jacket and scarf last night so I had to come back here and see if they still had them--they did, and I am very happy. Not sure how I forgot it, but I guess that's the way it goes. It was a really great night, Patrick and his friends were really good (I haven't seen Pat play in years, so it was a treat) and it was a nice blend of family and friends. Super fun--I just wish I wasn't so damn sick, I gotta tell you. I am usually good about powering on when feeling ill, but it's hard to heal when you are just basically cold and uncomfortable all the time! I know, I know, what does a guy who spends his days in LA know about cold, but really--I am wearing a jacket, a coat and a scarf! That's gotta mean something, right?

So, I am that guy in the cafe with a small cup of coffee typing away on the computer. Cafe scribbler. I am having a great holiday; Christmas went really well, we had our normal massive family gathering at Toby and Catherine's and it was great to see everyone. It's good to see that everyone's looking healthy and doing well. We used to have these kinds of things all the time when I was a kid, now I basically see my extended family only once or twice, which is kind of depressing. Such is life, I guess.

San Francisco is nice, clear blue skies (quickly growing dark, gonna rain tonight) and I am doing fairly well balancing my time between friends and family, which is the trick. I'm going to be up here for MacWorld in a few weeks anyway. Everyone seems to be doing well...surprised, definitely, that a year has passed. Damn this cafe is cold! What is up with the front door wide open? The cafe is obviously open..it's a funny sight; everyone's in full jackets and hunched over their coffees while some kid pounds away on the piano.

What else? I am supposed to meet up with Oliver for lunch, but I am not sure what the story is. I want to swing by Isotope to hang out with James, then I am going home to my parents' place and just going to read some books and heal up. I woke up with a wicked headache which is retreating, slowly.

I just wanna go to Golden Boy and be warm. I am blowing steam from my mouth.

What else? Not much, I am sort of drifting, here, it's like that when I come to SF, I don't really have a homebase in the city itself, so I tend to bounce from cafe to store to restaurant to store to cafe and to dinner to bar, that kind of thing. I wanted to take a bunch of yoga classes this week but I haven't had the time and I just feel like crap.

Anything else, Mike? You are rambling a bit. Any comments on how everyone seems so young here? No? The seeming resurgence of beards on guys? Rants on traffic and how it's just as bad here as it is in LA and how it's frustrating that the car has been thrust upon us in this here state? how you wanted to see There Will Be Blood but it's not actually playing in San Francisco yet?

maybe later. For now, I will upload this and figure out what the hell is up with Oliver.

Tags: general, cold, sick

a really stunning piece of graffitti art on LaBrea. I took this while at a stoplight.
What really pisses me off is someone actually tagged it! Weak.


here's the other part of it

well.. I have started this entry about 10 times, and I might as well give it another go.

The real crazy thing about the past two weeks is that I have literally gone nonstop during the weekday. I get in, there's a tornado, and then I leave. I mean, sure, that's I guess how some people work, but one would think that the end of the year would be a bit more of a slower time, when you can chill a bit, but it certainly has not been the case this year. And when I get home, the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer, which means I slack on all the personal stuff I want to do, including Christmas shopping, writing in this journal, and editing Whit's band's videos. I am adding a page to the site today with four of the videos from Whit's work party, where their band, The RTG's performed nine songs. Whit did an amazing job, I gotta say. You can find the videos in the RTG's page, above.

Just when I was feeling a bit down, things start turning up. Last week I was invited to read two scripts, which was totally cool. I did two table reads for two very different scripts (one was a kind of family comedy, the other an action comedy), both very good; really fun characters, great pacing...both would make really entertaining movies. I was invited to read a lead character both times and I am pleased to report that the feedback was really good, which was tremendously encouraging. Hmm, perhaps that's not the right word, "encouraging"...gratifying, perhaps? That's better, honestly, because the goal is to really fill out the reading as best as you can emotionally so the writer can get some glimpses of how it might sound during filming, how some of the characters might look during certain moments how the flow would actually...flow. I really tried to read as best as I could, which was made difficult for the first script since I did not have enough time to read through it first and mark it up.

What's good about this is that you are being given the opportunity to add to the initial definition of the story, of the character. The writers can now go back to the script and use what we did as a baseline, which will help them make the appropriate changes. It's kind of a cool responsibility, because up until the readings, the writers have heard the characters in their heads, or just read a few scenes with the other writers to get the kinks out. Both writers brought in some really great actors, really driven actors who all were taking it very seriously and obviously trying to bring as much to the reading as possible. It was very cool and it was quite a cool way to close out the year, to be part of this collaboration. Reminded me of some very good times in New York, and I am stoked I have some folks around who want me to participate in this kind of thing.

Work has been crazy, as usual. We released a product and I have been getting really great responses from people who have actually used the software, but for every one positive piece of feedback, I get 5 intensely negative, fanatically nasty rants about why the software sucks...from people who have never actually even seen the software. I try not to take it personally, but I honestly wish some of the more passionate users out there would give the stuff a chance so they can see that I'm not some dumbass who is making lame crap, but someone who actually cares very deeply about this stuff and whose crew has made something very good, relevant, and effective. Whatever. I deal with this stuff enough in my "other" life, so I will just drop it, but I am looking forward to seeing how the reviews go. It's weird; for better or for worse, this new product is pretty much my fault. I was the one who pushed for a total redesign and for the addition of a completely new additional feature. We could have easily just updated it to work with the new operating system but I felt it was really important to make a full on change, to really draw a line and say "the old stuff is the old stuff, this is the future". We'll see, we'll see. I never expected the work to be so personal but I guess that's good.

On the acting front, all of a sudden, I am busy as ever. Two auditions yesterday; 1 callback (from yesterday), 2 auditions and a voiceover audition today, one audition tomorrow. Uh, what? I haven't gone out more than once a week in 2 weeks! It's great, but really unexpected and kind of crazy making with the week I am having. But we were able to schedule everything all out, so it's fine. My agents are really amazing, it's just crazy how hard they work for me.

I have more entries but I really have to sleep. I just apologize for being so late on this. I wish I just had more time. Perhaps I can write a bit more during the holidays. I have been taking notes on my phone when journal entries come to mind--I've got some good ones--so hopefully the week off will encourage me to invest a bit more time into this. I have been really bad about using the camera (except for the videos I took of the RTG's) but maybe I will bring it up to the city. I dunno. We'll see.

Regardless, hope all is well.

Hollywoodland in the early 1920s

Tags: general, tech, acting, auditions

Here's a shot from Whit's performance at work--she was awesome fronting for The RTG's--the work band.

Well, we keep
on trudging. My product went out last week and I gotta admit, it's been kind of crazy watching how people react to it. Some folks are going to hate it no matter what, so I do my best not to take it personally. This time around, I tried really hard to make a product that was low impact and really, really easy to use--we'll see how regular folks react to it. The interviews I have been having with the Mac press and other security publications have been really engaging; it's nice to have thoughtful conversations about security issues on the Mac. (I know, I rarely talk about my work life on this site, but I figure my name is getting out there a bit with the reviews and such and figure I might as well address it a bit.) All I know is that we've made a really solid product and I am pretty proud of it.

Other things? So busy. As you can see above, Whit rocked out at her holiday party. I will have some videos up later this week (I literally have the clips open behind this window)--they are pretty good. We had a great party at Noah's, then a birthday party for Abby (3 years old!)--I guess we're knee deep in "holiday cheer" right now. It's going by so fast!

Actingwise, it's been slow, but, at the same time, things are opening up, too. It's kind of odd. I made enough money acting this year to qualify for SAG health insurance, which is actually kind of cool. I don't need it right now, but it just shows that things have been moving along pretty well. I am doing some table reads of people's scripts this weekend, and I actually even got a nice email reply from a director I really admire. The small things count a lot.

Let's see. I have a magazine interview followed by a full on Internet Radio show right after....should be fun.

Hope all is well.

It's Monday and I just want to get something in before this week goes into overdrive. One would think that work would be a bit more mellow now that we have shipped the products we have been working on for the past year, but nope...for me it's just starting up. I have a few press interviews this week (including one with an public radio show called Future Tense which I hear occasionally), which is fun, but I must admit, I want a few days off. Problem is, the construction across the way is moving into the "saw everything you see" phase, so there's no "just take a day of and relax" option at home at all. Whatever.

Good weekend, if all too short. Saw American Gangster and was a bit disappointed, to be honest. The film is almost 3 hours long and at no point was there some kind of reversal or surprise. Totally by the numbers. Oddly, the movie's pacing was great and the story was pretty engaging, it just wasn't super awesome, which is what I wanted from Señor Scott. The theatre we saw it in was freezing cold, which might have effected the "experience" I guess.

Tags: general

San Francisco from Sophia's living room

Wow, what a week. Had a fantastic time in San Francisco during the Thanksgiving, and got back just in time to see Starting Out in the Evening, our friend Andrew's latest film. It's getting incredibly good reviews, and I was stoked to be able to see it on the always-important opening weekend...here's to hoping it gets some legs and opens in other cities. There has been a lot of attention given to Frank Langhella's performance, and I have to say, it really is a fantastically great performance--one of those kinds of roles that can only be fully expressed in film, really. He's so subtle and so...quiet (but focused, and alive in a way I think only those in their twilight (as the character feels himself to be) can be)...you need to see that kind of role done in a dark room, in a movie theater--it's just such a delicate thing. It wouldn't work onstage--you can never be that close--and on TV, well, you would have to see it in a dark room and not be distracted. No matter--it was a triumph, and the calls for an Oscar nomination are not unwarranted. I am so proud of Andrew, I can't tell you. He has been working toward this kind of success for a very long time and, honestly, it inspires me to continue to find ways to enjoy this often (I admit) frustrating pursuit. If you get a chance, check it out.

(click on the poster to see the trailer)

So, I was paging through a magazine today and, as is often the case this time of year, this magazine was telling us who the best entertainers of the year are, who the break out stars are, which of the big names are still relevant, that kind of thing. And, like, okay--look, this is not an ego thing--but really, this profession...it's just so damn random, and articles like this just make it look so easy. I mean, sure, the odds get better the longer you stay focused (for most of us, we hope) but, let's see, I went to class last night, and throughout the night, I saw some very, very good actors do some very, very good work. It's like this in every class. I would say that there are several--more than several--people in my class right now who are just as "entertaining" as any of the people in these magazines, and the other students? They are well on their way. Not to take away anything from the success of my fellow actors, it's just the pedestal that they get put on, well, it must be intimidating for them a bit but it just seems so...I dunno. I mean, next year it will be the same thing, right?

I had written a bunch of stuff but I just deleted it because it was just ridiculous. I was basically just frustrated, which tends to happen this time of year. Forgive how this might sound, but when I look at this stuff, I get frustrated because I know I can do it. I know others who can do it. It's not a competition, I know this...it's not even anything, but I mean, if I were an accountant (nothing wrong with accountants), it's not like I would be surrounded by magazines and shows and "news" telling me how there are so many other accountants that are doing so well, that are pushing accounting to the next level, that are living the accountant life that can see so tantalizing, with all the many exciting accounting gigs they are able to part in. I guess with acting it's just a lot more obvious when you find you are not where you want to be professionally.

No matter. It is working itself out. Every time I watch Chuck I send a message to my manager telling him that I am feeling a tad depressed and he always tells me to not think about it and to enjoy my day and everything that I am doing. Which is good advice, but when I see a show that I just want to be on and contribute to, it's nervewracking.

(I am very much enjoying the iTunes release of Daft Punk's Alive 2007, by the way. While it's not totally surprising since I have the recording of the Coachella set and I was at the actual show, it's still superbly dope.)

On the work side, we shipped three products this week, which is very cool. Most of my team is taking a bit of time off, I am just catching up on some loose ends and looking forward to solid yoga class tonight, then dinner with Allison, who is in town for a conference, and then the weekend.

Tags: travel, general, acting, starting out in the evening, daft punk