Winds of change... question mark?

So about a week has passed, and once again it's been quite eventful (in a good way this time).

First of all, my car is finally in working order. Knock on wood, nothing will happen from here on out and I can have a reliable source of transportation. The only real thing wrong with the car I've noticed is that the radio is a bit messed up. When I try and scan the stations, it just keeps on scanning without recognizing any stations. Since it has a tape deck, I decided to buy one of those cassette adapters to plug into my Zune (microsoft's version of the Ipod) and listen to music that way.

Last Thursday night, I got off the phone with a friend and got a call from Universal Studios. My first thought was that they made a mistake and that they wanted me to be a tour guide. Unfortunately, so such luck. The woman had called to see if I was interested in any other positions with them. I was like... "maybe... what are they?". She goes on to tell me that they have openings for different positons: ride operator, park attendant, valet parking, ticket sales, etc." She then asks me if I want to apply for them and I say "I guess". So she proceeds to tell me to come in the next morning for an interview. I do, and after arriving there, I have a group interview with 2 other guys in front of a kind middle-aged Universal hiring guy. He starts asking us the obligatory interview questions and then tells us the positions that he has available: food vendor, park attendant, and patio host. At the end of the interview he asks us individually if the jobs appeal to us. Without hesitation I tell him that while I could see myself doing all of the jobs, that none of them really sparked my interest.

I proceed to tell him that I was told about an opening as a valet parker and he tells me that that could be a possibility. After realizing that I would have to drive rich bastard stick shift cars, risking the chance of recking them, and that I didn't have a California license yet, I decided it probably wasn't the best fit for me. The man then takes me aside for an indivual interview and I tell him that I'm interested in being a ticket seller. He agrees that it would be a good fit for me and tells me the perks of the job. Unfortunately it only pays $8 an hour (minimum wage in CA) but that's because Universal is a union job and that's how all the positions start out and you work your way up. He then tells me that it's only one of two jobs in all of Universal where you work in an air-conditioned building and you get to sit. Plus, for every upsell that you do for premium-type tickets you get an extra dollar and you can make an extra $100 a week, which sounds good to me. He then has me take a math test telling me that I have to place high to pass. Luckily, I get all of them right and he has me do another interview with someone from ticket sales. The guy interviewing me was probably mid-twenties, hispanic, and clearly gay. He was very cordial, friendly and asked the typical interview questions. In the end, he asks me to "sell" him something in the room to see how good of a salesperson I am. I choose to sell him my folder and it goes well. In the end, he offers me a job on the spot and I take it!

In the end, tomorrow, I have my new hire paperwork, then 5 days of orientation/training stuff and will start working shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, until Spring Break time, I'm not officially put on the schedule and have to call in any days that I want to work and hope that shifts become available from people calling in sick and other things. I'm really happy that something worked out though, and I can start getting closer to 40 hours between Universal Studios and Hollywood Video. I will be working at Universal during the weeknights and at Universal (when I can) during the mornings and weekends.

Next, after realizing that I needed to start getting my foot in the door with "the business" I decided to join a talent agency that my friend Maggie is in called Virgo Talent. They're a simple agency that does the middle ground work of getting you work as an extra for commercials and film. I drove to there office in downtown and after taking the wrong exit and an hour detour I reach their office right across the street from the LA Times. Seth and I walk in the building and we were greeted by a narrow art gallery. Above, a man is on the loft above us and comes down to greet me. Apparently they share the space with the gallery owners. After asking a few questions and taking my picture for there website and records I was on my way. How it works is that for every gig I book they take a flat fee of $10. The beauty is that every job pays at least $100 and they will never take more than $40 a month no matter how many gigs I get. Apparently about 80% of there extra work is for commercials and the average pay is $125, which still isn't that bad for a days work. I figure it's a good starting point for me and I can work myself up the system the old fashioned way. So long story short, I'll get a call each time I'm needed for extra work and I'll do the shoots that work for my schedule.

In other news, Seth looks like he will be working for a website called Mahalo.com He will be a freelance writer for articles there and get paid per article. He also had an interview to be a writer for police and other articles for a city news service, so hopefully everything will pan out for him soon and he can make decent money working two jobs.

Here's hoping that the next week will transition smoothly for me.

Movie Reviews of the Day:

The Insider - 4.5 stars

Platoon - 5 stars

Martian Child - 3.5 stars

Michael Clayton - 5 stars

In the Valley of Elah - 4.5 stars

Rendition - 4 stars

And so it goes...

The past 10 days have been the most frustrating since I first got to LA. Things just haven't been going my way lately. And just when something seems to be going well... something bad happens again... (insert wavy-Wayne's World flashback effect)

After getting my car fixed, I was looking to the future and was happy knowing that I finally had a working car. The next day I took the car out to go run some errands, and after driving a couple of miles from my apartment towards Hollywood my car breaks down again. I instantly think to myself "here we go again, you have got to be kidding me". Especially since I just had the car fixed. To my luck, a kind hispanic man happened to be walking by and offered to help and try to get it started again. After try a few things, unfortunately it still wouldn't start up. I call my dad and he suggests putting gas in the car just in case the gas gauge is wrong and the tank is empty. So I walk down the street to the closes gas station and put an extra gallon of gas in the car. Unfortunately, the car still woudn't start so I called up my mechanic and he says he'll come get it in an hour and that I have to walk the keys to his shop. So, I ended up walking about 3 miles in the heat and it takes me about an hour just to reach his shop.

After looking at the car over the weekend, my mechanic Albert calls me and says that it's fixed. Apparently a wire had burnt out and it was caused by the relay switch being stuck on "on". At this point, I'm just thankful that it's fixed and he charges me another $130 for labor and parts. I pick up the car, take it work the next day and once I get there my co-workers look at me like I'm crazy and say "are you sure you work today?". I go to look at the schedule and to my dismay, my store manager had cut my hours from 30 hours to 18 including that day's shift, and to top it all of didn't tell me. I was happy that I was working 30 hours this week because I desperately need the money until I get a second job. But apparently my manager forgot to schedule this new girl she hired and had to take hours from me to give her hours. I take a deep breath, work a couple hours in place of one my workers who wanted to go to home early and returned home.

The next day, Tuesday, I get ready to take the car out once more to run a bunch of overdue errands. Seth came along and as we were entering the freeway, I joked to him that it was a fitting christening that I was taking my "now-working" car on the freeway. Unfortunately I spoke too soon. After only 15 seconds of driving my car on the freeway my car breaks down a third time. By this point, I couldn't believe my luck. Praying for an exit ramp to come soon, I cruised as far as I could until the car's momentum stopped. Luckily, a ramp came up and we barely made it to the light at the end of the ramp. Seth and I proceeded to push the dead car into a gas station and I call my dad... again. He can't believe it and says to call my mechanic again. So I call Albert....again. When I tell him what happened he simply couldn'y believe it. He tells me to put gas in the car just in case it's empty so I oblige and nothing changes. He tells me to stay put and that he would come and try to get it started. He comes, and of course he can't start it, so he tells me that he will have to come tow it later. He offers to drive us back to the apartment and I ask him if the car will be ok sitting there until the tow truck comes and he says it will be fine.

After reaching the apartment, Seth and I decided to run our errands with his car. After running to the bank, we head baack to Van Nuys, and I decide to stop by the car to get something from inside. I pull up to the car and I realize that the tow-guy is already there and I tell him I'm going to grab something from the car before he takes it to the shop. He then tells me that he's not taking it to the shop, he's impounding it. He goes on to say that he was called by the owner of the gas station to have it towed. Again, I couldn't believe my luck (or lack there of) and I plead to him to just help me out and keep driving. He turns out to be a huge prick about it and says that "someone has to pay him" and that either I get the owner to pay him or I have to pay him. I go to talk to the owner in hopes that he will understand my situation and he turns out to be just as much of an asshole as the tow-guy. He starts yelling at me and how everything is my fault. I explain my situation and how my mechanic said it would be fine to leave it until the tow-truck came. The owner then tells me that my mechanic is "stupid" and further insults me. The owner and I go to the tow-truck guy and I continue to plead to them to cut me a break and understand my situation. The tow-guy then insists that he has to get paid or he's taking the car and I ask him how much it would be. He then has the gall to ask me "how much do you have?". At this point I was completely disgusted with the both of them. What kind of person is so vindictive and selfish to ask someone that in that situation? I don't tell him and he says that he usually charges $125 but if I gave him $60 cash that he would leave the car. I accept my fate and give him the cash and he leaves the car on a side street. The most frustrating part of this whole ordeal was how rude the both of them were and how unhelping they wanted to be. I guess that's the one most infuriating thing about LA. People are only out to help themselves and it's super hard to find someone who wants to help you out. Anyway, I digress.

I then call my mechanic to explain the situation and he had to flag his tow-guy down and tell him to pick the car up from the new location. When this was all said and done I couldn't believe this was happening to me. To this point, I've already spent an extra $500 fixing this car up twice and both times it breaks down the next day. The only good news out of all of this is that when I talked to Albert about the situation and asked him to cut me a deal with looking at it for a third time and he tells me that he will fix it this time for no charge. So here I lie. My car is in the shop... again. I still need a second job. I can't really pursue acting stuff right now or a second job without a working car... so I wait. The worst part of all of this is that it comes down to money. I can overcome a lot, but money has always been the thorn in my side.

In the end, I still try to stay positive and think it has to get better eventually. I think everyone goes through a period like this in their life and you just have to get through it. And instead of whining too much about it, I just need to count my blessings and keep on keeping on. You're dealt the cards your dealt and you have to make a hand of it.

And so it goes...

Movie Reviews of the Day:
Marie Antoinette - 3.5 stars
Blade Runner - 4 stars
Juno - 4 stars

Manic Monday, Super Tuesday, Wacky Wednesday

I was really excited for Monday. it was time to pick up my new car and have my second audition for Universal Studios. I crossed my fingers and hoped that everything would go well without any problems when picking up my car. I arrived at the seller's home, and to my astonishment, everything went smoothly and I was on my way with my 1988 Crown Victoria LTD. It felt great finally having my own car and as I drove around, I couldn't help but thinking of many gangster movies where my car was used as a getaway car. It drove smoothly and was a relief to be driving my own car.

1 o'clock rolled around and I went to the Holiday Inn at North Hollywood for my audition. I follow the signs and I end up in a small theatre with a bunch of seats. I walk towards the front rows and sit in the third row. 15 minutes later, the main guy running the audition went in front of the group of 60 and explained how the audition was to work. The first hour and a half, he explained the background, pay, and benefits of working for Universal Studios. The more he talked, the more I realized I was a perfect for the job and was something I was really excited to be a part of. Half way through the audition, we were split into 6 groups of about 10 people and each group went in front of everyone and did 3 exercises. The first was a cold reading from the current Tour Guide script and it went very well for me. Cold readings are a strong suit of mine, and I was pleased to have it go well. Next, we did an improve exercise where one of the guys running the audition started out a story with a half sentence and then we would have to go down the line continuing the story. In the middle of someone talking, the guy would ring a bell and the next person would have to pick up where the previous person left off. Unfortunately our story was about Stephen Baldwin trying to convince Donald Trump not to fire him on Celebrity Apprentice... Yeah, could we have been given a more stupid story? I don't think so. When the story got to me, I came up with the idea of Stephen Baldwin calling his brother Alec Baldwin to save the day, but right before I mention Alec's name, the guy rang the bell and I wasn't able to say the punchline. Oh well. Finally, we went down the line and were asked individual random questions and were given a minute to answer them off the top of our heads. Questions had no relation and ranged from "what's the best advice you've been given?" to "what's the deal with Britney Spears?" to "who's your favorite actor and why?" to "what's the best entertainment news show and why?". When it got to me, I was asked "what's the most recent movie you've seen in theatres and what is your review?" I was happy in a sense that I got this question because I review movies as a hobby of mine, so I discussed my review of There Will Be Blood in about a minute.

After the 4 and a half hour audition, they called out the numbers of the people that they wanted to continue onto the third audition. Overall I was very pleased with how my audition went. I wasn't nervous, was myself, and did my best. My number was C-4 (a bomb, haha) and as they read out the C's they skipped right over my number. I'm not gonna lie, I was shocked that I wasn't at least called back. The more I thought about the job, the more I thought it was a perfect fit for me. I also was surprised at the people that were called back, but so is life. As I was driving home, I considered why I wasn't called back and I came to the conclusion that I probably wasn't happy-go-lucky enough for them. As a person, I am pretty calm, cool, collected, and have a professsional manner when speaking in front of people and I'm guessing they saw this and wanted someone with more "energy" and "pizzaz". Overall, I'm very dissapointed. I was really looking forward to, and in a way, counting on this job. As of now, I only work about 22 hours a week at Hollywood Video and that's not enough to survive out here. I tried to stay positive and thought to myself, if it's not in the cards for me, then so be it.

Tuesday I went to the DMV to register my car and get a California driver's license. After waiting in line for about an hour, I was told I couldn't get an driver's license without a birth certificate or passport, and since they were in Illinois I had to put it off until I could have it sent to me. Next, they said I couldn't register the car because the smog paper I had was just the receipt, and not the actual certificate, so I had to call the owner's gain in hopes they still had it. To top it all of, even if I was to bring in the certificate, it might not work because there it expires after only 90 days and it was smogged at the end of October. The only other exciting part of Tuesday was the Election Coverage. All I will say is that I completely support Barack Obama and I've never been so fascinated and compelled by U.S. politics until now.

Wednesday rolled around and I called the old owner about the smog certificate and she said that she didn't have it and suggested to call the smog place that did it and see if I could get another one. So, I did and they told me to stop on by and pick up another one. With things looking up, I took off and after driving a block from my apartment, my car randomly stalls out and I have to pull over to the curb. All I was thinking was, "you've got to be kidding me". I try starting it over and over again and it won't start. I call my brother and he takes off his day from work to come give me a jump in case that is the problem. That doesn't do anything, so my brother and I go to a gas station, get a gallon of gas and put it in my car just in case the gas gauge was broken and it was out of gas. After trying everything, I sit there in complete awe. I payed $1000 for a car on Monday and two days later it breaks down on me. I decide to call the owner and ask her if she can help me out with at least a tow or having it looked at by a mechanic for me. She has me call 3 seperate people and each of them tell me the same thing, "it's your car now, we're not liable for anything". I couldn't believe that they couldn't at least show the kindness to help me out and puth themselves in my shoes. My brother and I went down the block to try and find a mechanic and find one close by. Luckily, he comes to the car to take a look at it to see what's wrong and he tells us that the gas pump went out. To top it off, it's an electric gas pump (which are more expensive than regular ones) and he tells me he can fix it for $300. At this point, I didn't know what else to do. I wasn't getting help from anyone and I have to have a car, so I agreed.

Long story short, the past few days have not been kind to me. I've been desperately looking for a second job, and no one is hiring. Universal Studios doesn't call me back. My car breaks down and I have to pay an extra $300. And finally it doesn't look like I'm gonna get that call from Kerrie and get signed from her so I'm back to square one. It's been very tough lately, but I'm trying to stay positive and think "no one said it's going to be easy right?". At least this way, if I do become successful, it will mean that much more when I look back on very hard times such as these.

Movie Reviews of the Day:

Benny and Joon - 4 stars

The Rainmaker - 4.5 stars

Elizabeth: The Golden Age - 3.5 stars

One Week Later...

Well, I was right. A lot did happen this week.

First and foremost, It no longer takes me 30 minutes or more to fall asleep. :)

My brother Seth started working at a newspaper in West Covina, about 45 minutes East of Van Nuys. After his first day, he realizes that he doesn't want to make it long term because of the little responsibility he has at the paper and he's used to being more busy with his work (even if it does pay $15 hour). It's not a big deal considering he was just filling in for a sick employee for a few weeks.

Over the first few days of the week I drove around Van Nuys in search of a cheap car but didn't find much of anything. I then turned to craigslist in hopes of finding a good deal. Luckily I found a decent enough car for sale and set up a time to look at it on Wednesday. Wednesday rolled around and I had to do the most driving and shuffling around since I've been here. I drove Seth down to Santa Monica for an interview. I then drove 45 minutes to Burbank to check out the car for sale. All in all, I ended up going through 3 seperate people to look at the car. The first guy I talked to on the phone was helping a woman sell it. I then met that woman at the car and find out that she is a estate agent helping the real owner sell it. I find out that the car is being sold because this woman's husband had passed away and she had no use for it. I finally reach the car and it is just as described: a 1988 Crown Victoria LTD. It's in pristine condition and runs perfectly with electic everything and working stereo, A/C, and heat. The front right tail light is broken, but that's the only thing wrong with the car. I soon realize that the car is a steal and decide to purchase... but there was a small hitch in the plan. The woman selling it finds out that there is a state law saying a car can't be sold until 40 days after someone dies, so I can't get it until Monday. It stinks, but I say OK and tell them I'll come get it on Monday.

Next, I drive 45 minutes back to Santa Monica to pick Seth up from his interview, and drive back to Van Nuys. We get our stuff for the rest of the day, and I drive another 45 minutes to West Covina for Seth's last day at the newspaper job. I then drive 45 minutes over to Woodland Hills for my interview with the agent... I arrive about 30 minutes early, say a little prayer and head to the office. Luckily, the agent, Kerrie Levy wasn't there yet and I was able to talk to my friend Kelly for a bit. She handed me a commercial side to prepare for the audition. I go into another room to practice the Selsun Shampoo commercial. I return to the office and wait for Kerrie to arrive. She soon does and I first notice 2 things about her that I didn't expect: she was very young and dressed very casually. What stood before me was a blonde, plasticky, young woman with her boobs falling out of her shirt. She storms into the office talking about dinner plans with her friend on her cell phone with not so much as a quick, puzzled look in my direction. She walks into her adjoining office and talks with Kelly in a whisper before calling me in. She shakes my hand asks me to sit and first asks me how old I was and I told her 23. She then says, "wow, you're young!" in a condescending sort of way and I see the tone that would set the rest of the audition. The crazy thing is that I find out later from Kelly that her herself is 23 as well but she doesn't like people to know her age. go figure... Next she asks me, "Who are you currently represented by?". I instantly realize that I found myself examing and observing her every word and move just as she is doing to me. I think to myself, she didn't ask me if I was currently, but who I'm currently represented by. I tell her "no one" and then she takes my headshots and asks me to perform the commercial sides. I peform them to the best of my ability and then she asks me to perform my monologue. I ask her if I could stand instead of sitting and she paused and replied awkwardly, "yeah, stand". I stand and realize that I immediately regret my decision because the room is so small and I couldn't really back up so I ended up standing in the corner in front of the door.

I performed my monologue from the play Floating Rhoda and the Glue Man and throughout, I made a concious effort to keep eye contact with Kerrie and use her as my reference point for the monologue. The problem was every time I looked at her, she had this spacey, zoned-out look on her face as if she wasn't really paying attention. The funnier thing was that I would find her looking at the areas that I would motion to in the monologue as if I was a teacher of a little girl in a classroon. It was difficult performing in the environment and it made things worse when her cell phone started ringing in her purse directly behind me throughout the last 20 seconds of the monologue. Overall, I felt very concious of the fact that my every word and motion was being critiqued (or at least I thought) and I would say I only gave a B- performance. It wasn't my best, but at least I wasn't nervous and tried my best under the circumstances. After the monologue, Kerrie asked me if I had any other headshots and I told her "not printed, but I have the proofsheets if you want to look at those". She quickly said, "no, that's fine". And just like that she said "thanks for coming in" and I shook her hand and was on my way. The entire audition only lasted maybe 7 minutes and I walked out with the vibe that she just wasn't feeling me or that she thought I wasn an amateur. But, I told myself to walk out of the audition with my head held high no matter what happened and I did just that. Later on in the week, I called Kelly to tell her my view on the audition and she said that if I was to be signed, Kerrie would call me next week and let me know. Overall, my instinct tells me that I won't get that call because she wasn't really feeling me, and quite honestly, I wasn't really feeling her either. It's a little dissapointing if I don't get signed, because I would love to get the ball rolling, but no one said it was going to be easy. At least I can take what I've learned and apply it to future auditions/agents.



Soon after, my brother was also fortunate enough to get an interview and a job offer from a non-profit company called Environment California. They deal in being environmental activists raising awareness and money specifically for the ocean related issues (they're the people that ask you "do you have a quick minute for the environment?"). I drove him to his first day at work in downtown LA before heading to my audition to be a tour guide at Universal Studio. I arrive to the audition about 10 minutes early hoping that will increase my chances of getting out of there on time to make it to work at 5. It was interesting going to Universal Studios for my audition but also for the first ever to a Universal Studios. I felt like a little kid with the excitement surrounding me. This soon wore off as I saw the line in front of me for the auditions. There in front of me was an assortment of people auditioning as well ranging from all ages and races. The most interesting was to see the way people dressed for the audition. Many were dressed nice, but some were wearing flashy clothes, jeans and a t-shirt, and even full blown suits. Kelly told me that I should expect to be in line for about 2 hours. Unfortunately, this was not the case. I got there at 1:50 pm and got to the front of the line for my interview at 5:00 pm. To top it off, it was extremely cold outside (where most of the line was). I find out the reason it took so long was that more people came for the audition than expected and there were only 2 people interviewing this year instead of 3 people. I met a couple cool people in line and finally got to the front, greeted by Kelly and seated in front of the man who was to interview me. The kicker of the experience was that Kelly told the guy interviewing me that we went to school together and were friends and he told us that I could have skipped to the front of the line instead of waiting like everyone else... go figure. The interview went great and he told me that I would get a call the next day for a second interview/audition.

Sure enough, I got a call on Saturday saying my next interview/audition is on Monday and will last 4 hours including a formal interview, Q &A, and an audition. So Monday will be a big day for me, I get my car (barring nothing goes wrong) and I have my second audition with Universal. And later in the week there is a slight (very slight) chance that I will get a call from Kerrie telling me she wants to sign me. So who knows. At least it's nice to know that things are slowly piecing together more for Seth and I here in LA.

Time to get ready for the Super Bowl.

Movie Reviews of the Day:
Benny and Joon - 4 stars
The Rainmaker - 4.5 stars