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

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

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

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

We were hanging out with Hans and Isadora this weekend and we passed this gym. You gotta love the name; I guess the woman who owns this is a rather brusque Austrian, so we were basically barking "Do it NOW!" to each other all night. I mean, I get it, if one is going to "Just Do It" I guess "Now" would be the time. I wonder if they have yoga classes there that reflect that same intensity?

Still, it's effective to think about doing something in the present moment..perhaps the removal of the "!" would help, and I don't think you need to underline all the words. I can imagine driving by this place every day constantly going, "oh, man I forgot to do [that thing]! dammit!"
This is Whit hanging out while we were waiting at the Honda dealership. We went in to test drive the 2007 Civic Hybrid (Whit's got a 2003 model) and we ended up buying it! Madness. Still, it all worked out really nicely, and I am very happy she's driving a car that's heavier, has more horsepower, and much better handling. Good mileage is not worth having some underpowered tin can that can get out of the way of a hairy situation on the freeway. I'll put a picture or two up when I get a chance, but so far, Whit's really happy.

I am heading up to Santa Clara University on Friday to talk to the theatre majors regarding the "Business of the Bidness," as I have mentioned before. It's been pretty fun, I must say, prepping for it. I have about 6 pages of notes/talking points, and I honestly feel they are pretty valuable. I remember when I was a senior in college, though. Man, I could no wrong. I was getting cast in everything, I was painting sets every day, it was great. The last thing I wanted was to be told how difficult everything was going to be. No matter, I have been positioning everything in positive terms, more like "here's the real deal and how to deal with said deal".

The past couple of weeks have been heating up in both of my jobs, which is good, but it adds a layer of complexity that I am not really into. Usually I would complain about the scheduling, but that's not the problem, it's just both the acting and the regular job are just getting more involved, in all ways. I just need to think more and plan more and commit more of myself into everything, which, again, is good, but just tiring, I guess. The auditions are getting more frequent, but they are also getting better, in a way. Like, the roles are really good fits, which makes it all the more frustrating when I don't book them. I went out yesterday for this thing that if I got it, I would be filming a new spot each week until the middle of January or so. Yikes! So, waiting on that. Waiting.

Much to do, much to do. Ravi is Bali and the site's loading slowly for him, thanks to all the widgets on the side. Weak. I will figure out which ones to take off. You can always check out the RSS feed, but I agree, slow loading is irritating. I like the widgets, though, especially the map one, which surprised me with how many people are reading this from far off lands. The more dots, the more updates, I guess. I wanna film something this weekend and post it, so I guess I will DO IT NOW! Or then. But I will do it...

Tags: iphone, general