3-7 Monday

New song again. This time it's about every guy's first crush of a girl he's never personally known. He sees her all the time, has a crush on her, but doesn't have the guts to say anything to her. I messed around with some more effects. I like how I can now make my guitar "solos" sound like an electric guitar. I'm actually getting bored with writing love songs. Sure, they're the easiest, but I'm hoping I can move on to other topics. And I swear my microphone makes me sound 10 times worse than I really am. Maybe it's everyone's personal bias, thinking they sound better than they really are? Who knows? But the guitar recording came out very clean, which is cool. Probably the best thing out of the song! haha!

3-1 Tuesday

I got my new song up, "Glimpse into the future." I wanted to write a song that was like a very long ballad or something. So it's just verse after verse, as it's basically one long story. Now here's the thing. I wrote this, and I loved the tune, but wasn't a big fan of the words. I thought this one sounds good enough that it should rhyme. So I asked my music-genius buddy Benny to help me out, which he agreed to. But I had the day off, so I recorded the song to see what I could do to it. I added reverb on everything, and I like the outcome. It sounds like it's a live recording, cause the effect said 'Rich Hall'. But it also sounds moody and almost dream-like, so I like it. It also does a good job of masking my original voice!!!! Awesome! And the song isn't really about anything. It's about a guy seeing himself in the future and hearing advice from him. But I like writing songs that don't have a clear meaning, much like my dudes Jimmy Eat World. So, I recorded the song and liked what I had. And I mentioned earlier that I get really antsy when I finish a song, as I want to upload it asap. So I decided to NOT wait for Benny's helpful help, and just upload it as is. And I probably will be too lazy to redo it if Benny gives me new lyrics. This will be a big "oh well". 

2-27 Sunday

Whad up, y'alls? Well, we shot our short today. Argh with the first time directors. It was an okay shoot. The director was better than last time. We got to use fake blood, so that was cool. Getting better with the lighting, I am. Tomorrow I'm on a Cingular commercial, which pays a whopping 150$! Niiiice. I watched bits and pieces of the Oscars, and then called Steph. She always gives me crap about not having the Sprint-to-Sprint plan. But then I tell her to pay me the 5$ a month FOR me, and then I'll have the plan and can talk to her whenever. Then she doesn't like that idea and yells at me.  : )    Steph, am I not worth 5$?

Well, another month will soon be over. I have to count my checks and pray that I made enough to cover the bills for this month. But, I will jump with glee once I move into a cheaper place. Sheesh, if I find a place for 300$/month, I could work for just 2 weeks and I'd be set for the whole month! Not bad!

2-25 Friday

So I discovered that yesterday alone the movie "Thank you for smoking" used 22,000 feet of film in one day! That's plain ridiculous. Here's something embarrassing that happened to me...I was supposed to stand up on the stage for the scene. While I was waiting, I popped a pimple on my face. Everything was going fine. But then I discovered that it was bleeding. So I'd wipe it with my fingers, but there was more blood. Someone told me that I had blood around my nose. And my scene was coming up! So I went to the bathroom to wash it off, and it would NOT stop bleeding! This was horrible! I'd wash, it'd bleed, I'd wash, it'd bleed. So I was forced to use a tissue and dab it every 5 seconds. We'd roll, and as soon as we cut, I'd do the dabbing action. I looked so stupid with a piece of tissue covering my nose.

Coolest person in the world as of this moment: Mandy. I am always pleasantly surprised to see your comments in my guestbook. I just got a Xanga account, so I'll be able to write comments to you too.

You might have heard that LA has had horrible floods. Well, the rain is gone, thankfully.

Oh, and this is big news. I'm finally leaving my house in 30 days. The owner raised the price to now 625$/month, which is horrible. I am so excited to finally leave this place. No more weirdness after this, I hope. I pray for normal roommates!

2-24 Thursday

Not a whole lot has happened. I edited some stuff on Wednesday, and went location scouting for a movie we're shooting this weekend. But today, I worked on a movie called "Thank you for smoking." Odd title, I know. But, I saw a lot of famous people...First, I saw William Macy, the main character in the movie Fargo. Then I saw Cameron Bright, the scary kid from the movie Birth. I also saw Todd Louiso, the nerdy music guy from "High Fidelity." And, to top it all off, I saw the main lady from the Entertainment Tonight show. Four famous people in one night! Very cool! I was, as they say, "featured" today cause I'm visible in the scene. But whatever, I really don't think this movie is going to be that big.

My fellow grip brother, Marco, was on set as well as an extra, so we talked all day. I also saw this cute girl I know named Andrea, who has the hots for me. Maybe not, but we can dream, can't we?

Has anyone seen the stupidest cartoon in the universe called Aquateen?!?!?! I repeat, it is the stupidest thing in the entire world, and yes, even the universe. 

I got a whopping 13 emails today! And we all know how much I love emails, so I was in heaven.  : )

2-21 Monday

So, let me tell you about my day. Because what a day it was. I got a few hours of sleep. Parking was downtown Hollywood, by a night club. A lot of times crew will end up parking in one place, and then get shuttled to the set at another location. So we park, and we wait 2 FREAKING hours for the DP to show up....in the rain, mind you. Yes, LA has been raining dogs and penguins for the past few days. It's especially fun when you have to load and upload the truck in the rain, especially in the beginning of the day. So the DP shows up, and they get in a limo and take off driving to get their shots. The rest of us were to take the truck to the actual location, which was fine. But, NO one had been to this location before! So we were told to sit tight, while production found out how to get there! Argh! This whole production was so disorganized. So we finally get to the location with the truck and everything. We unload most of it. I was key grip on this by the way, which gives me ultra coolness points. This was actually the first time I've ever had my own guys. I got to tell people what to do. But it wasn't as fun as it could be, because no one understood what I wanted. Again, the language barrier. So the DP asks for dolly track, and since no one else has done that, I have to do it myself in the dark. And then I have the camera department watching me work, cause they're waiting for me to finish. That was frustrating. And this all happened in a huge downpour. It was horrible. And this whole time, we were told we only had 10 minutes, so we were rushing big time. Then when we all finished, we discovered the whole crew was eating dinner without us! So we felt cheated since there was no rush after all. I was hoping for a cheeseburger for dinner, but it was this icky Japanese food I didn't like. And there were waaaaaaaaay too many people on set than there should've been. The room was small, and EVERYONE, including hair/makeup, their assistants, everyone was all in the way. And we were trying to work, but people kept stopping us from working because they'd be too loud or be in the way. Very, very frustrating. I got a zillion calls, all which I couldn't answer cause we were busy. But a zillion calls! Man that was frustrating. I ended up just turning off my cell. My friend Bill called me like 6 times. Anyways, so we wrap pretty early, at about midnight. We all start packing and loading up the truck. I told someone to turn on the truck, and they said sure. The reason you do that, is because the truck's lift takes up a lot of battery power. If you don't turn on the truck while you use the gate lift, you drain the battery quickly. So we finally get everything in the truck, minus the generator. Then, I realize that this whole time, we didn't have the truck running. Someone tried to turn it on, and of course, it was dead. That was so frustrating. And the problem was that a lot of the Japanese crew would shake their head "yes" at things we asked of them. But I'm thinking that's more out of politeness or something, but it sure doesn't mean "I'll go do that right away." So, that means we have to jump the truck. Then, to top off the entire evening, and this is the best part, I discover that my car had been towed. Keep in mind I had parked downtown in that parking lot. And apparently the nightclub that was around the parking lot reserved those spaces for later in the night. This, of course, was not told to the production. So 5 of us had our cars towed, and were told the producer was trying to solve things with the police. And it's still raining. So we wait for the producer to come and pick us up, and drive us to the pound. But the producer wasn't answering his cell phone. 20 minutes later, I discover that it was only MY car that had been towed, for some reason. The other 4 guys who THOUGHT their cars were towed, had no problems. So I'm waiting there with 10 people who don't know English. Everyone else has gone home, and this is now like 1:30am. Another 20 minutes later, someone comes to pick me up. Production had paid for the towing charge. This guy drives me way far away to the pound, and my car is sitting outside the pound. Man was I glad to see my vehicle! This production was so messed up. And the big key players like the producers, were doing all this for the first time. But oh, what a night. Well, it's almost 4am now. And I have to be to work at 10am on some movie for background. This has been a crazy week, and it's only Monday! 

2-20 Sunday

I just got back from this Japanese short film. What a weird time. I got there at 8pm...so most of the crew were Japanese, who all spoke very poor English. It was so hard to understand what they were trying to say. And some guys helped us out with grip and stuff, but they didn't know anything about gripping. So it's hard enough to tell someone to get something when they don't know what it is. When they don't really understand your language at the same time, it's a problem. But, today was my very first time as dolly grip. That's a person who pushes the dolly, which seats the camera and makes nice smooth tracking shots. I thought I'd suck at it, cause it was my first time. But apparently it was fine, cause no one complained. But oh, I can't describe how frustrating it was with the language barrier. I needed a can of Pledge. And they had nooooooooooooo clue what that was. Chun (my friend and gaffer) and I were the "key" positions, and unfortunately WE had to run to the truck instead of sending someone to do it. Not good. Also, I parked my car in a very shady parking garage. When I walked up the stairs to return to my car, I found HUMAN POOP in a corner!!!! I know it was human cause there was a long stain from one point on the wall all the way down. That was super mega ultra gross. This is twice now that I've been in the unfortunate presence of human feces in public. Ugh. We wrapped at 3 in the morning and here I am, writing in the ol' blog. It's crazy how uptight I used to be about my sleep. Now, I shrug at the idea of sleep. It's like, "Eh, if I have to, okay." Oh, this was dumb. Earlier today, I was watching "Tears of the Sun", which is an awesome flick. The owner john comes home, and starts BLABBING on and on. Bruce Willis is the star in the film, and in a very emotional scene, John asks me if he looks older or younger than Bruce. My eyes rolled so far back you could hear it. There was no place on my eyes that they did not roll to. Unbelievable. And I know he's sensitive about his age. So I told him he looked older. He was disappointed. Must...find....new....housing...

Oh, and also, I discovered that all my songs were missing on my website! I don't know how long that's been. But they're back up now.

Well, it's hitting 4am. Got to get up in 6 hours! Love the film life!

2-19 Saturday

Whoa. I'm in a weird zone tonight. I went to bed at 3 in the morning, and got up at 5am. I had to shoot my first soap opera. Weird, I know. So I get there, and it's like this abandoned meat freezer place. They now use that area for big LA parties, apparently. The director was a half hour late...not good. There was supposed to be a DP coming, and I was supplying the camera. Well, the DP didn't show, so I took over. There was no planning for this whatsoever. We then move to another location, which everyone gets lost. It was at a church, and we waited outside for 15 minutes cause the church was looked, until someone realized there was an open back door to the church. We filmed with extras again, my second time ever. It doesn't sound like much, but it puts pressure when instead of 2 actors, you've got 14. I started out not caring about the shots, and the camera work was pretty bad. The lighting was blah. But later on, I got some really nice lighting, which impressed myself! We found out that a few shots didn't have audio. That blew. That means they're going to have to re-record the voices, known as ADR, but that's such a bummer. I met the 1st A.D. of ER, cause he was strangely enough, one of our actors today. I didn't take any pictures cause I was still pretty ehhh about the project. The acting was pretty bad, as well as the story.

I'm dreading having to do my taxes...

That's about all I can think of now. I'm feeling so woozy with 2 hours of sleep. Oooooh. Well, I should probably go to bed. It's only 5:30 at night, but man I'm beat. Off to bed I go.

2-18 Friday

What a weird day! First of all, I must tell all of you this: I was on the set of Jack and Bobby today. There was a black girl (background extra) sitting in front of me. I overheard her introduce herself to the sound guy. Are you ready for this? Her name was "Six". A double-take is required, but yes, I'm not making that up. And it gets worse. She actually spells her name "Sisx!", with an extra "S" in there! What in the freaking world?!?!?!?!?! Who names their child a number, and then intentionally misspells it?!!??! I wanted to smack the girl upside the head, but I refrained. And then another guy had this real sad face today. We were standing in line to change, and some guys cut in front of us. The sad face boy half-steps out of the line. I ask him if he's still in line, and he says in the saddest voice, "Those guys cut in line in front of me. I'm...no, whatever, you go" and walked away insulted! Take a chill pill, my friend! The food was amazing. My stomach was sure feeling it. I had everything I was eating on one plate, and everything was just piled on. So I was taking a bite of watermelon with a bite of steak. I did this for 30 minutes, and my belly spoke to me and told me how bloated it was. But oh, it was delish. And we wrapped at 1:18am. Lovely.

Recently, I've gotten a real craving to play more guitar and to draw. I drew this really dumb pic of Keanu Reeves, from this Entertainment magazine I was reading. It was a cool picture from Constantine, and I was just drawing the outline, and people came over and complimented me on that! And it was crap. Maybe everyone's perception of art is way off.

So tomorrow I'm supposedly shooting this soap opera. I don't really know what's going on. And my actor friend who told me of the gig is doing lighting! And he's never done film lighting before. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to go really weird. But he's said that this soap opera could go national. And I'm thinking he's lying, but whatever. I'm free tomorrow, so what can it hurt?

Nikki, you have to tell me any happenings over this weekend, okay? Steph, welcome to the blog universe.  : )

Coolest person in the world as of right now: Lori! Dude, you are the most faithful im buddy ever. Get your laptop fixed pronto! We'll have to do another 8 hour chat soon, okay?

I still can't believe I'm going to be doing a soap opera tomorrow. It's a new one just starting out, so who knows how it'll go. And for some reason, I enjoy writing in this thing really early/late in the morning, as it's now 2:21am. And I have to be at the soap opera thing at 6:30am! Well, who needs sleep, right? Man, what a long blog entry!

2-17 Thursday

Well, kind of a gloomy day today. It's raining, and I didn't have work today. Oh well. I got a new song up. But, this is the first time I've experimented with effects in my songs. It's got a cool electronic sound to it, and I like it. And I decided for no rhyming again. I guess I decided that since my favorite bands don't rhyme all the time, it's not necessary. Plus, think of all the songs you like on the radio, most of which you don't know what the lyrics are. You just hum along. You don't know the words, but you think it's a great song. I think tune weighs more than the lyrics. So in that sense, I'm fine with breaking the rules. Again, I added a lot of music in there to try to mask my voice  : )  I hope you all like it. I wish I had Benny to do the harmony. I suck at it. I do what I can, but it's not going to win any awards, that's for sure.

In other news, I about killed myself when I found out a friend of mine is paying 300$ for rent, and he's in a house! He lives in downtown Hollywood, and has a small room. But still! He's paying half as much as I am! So he said he might have a roommate leave, and if so, I'm moving outta here right away! Screw paying 600$ per month!

Onto bigger matters...this production company that I'm with, the guy says there's an 80% chance that he'll get 30,000$ to make a movie. And if so, he said I'd be on board. So that's really cool. We'll see if it's all talk though.

Let's see... I was on 6 feet under on Tuesday. I had to be a waiter. Boo. I would hate to be one in real life. Even though I don't tip waiters, I admire their...their...dedication. Well, I must go save small children from a burning building. Either that or I'll see what's on tv.

2-14 Monday

Happy Valentine's day folks! Well, it was most unromantic for me. Which was preferable. I was a funeral-goer today for a Hallmark channel movie. But we got done at noon! Wicked! Now I'm still looking all sexy cause I had to dress up for it. I think v-day is overrated. It also makes a lot of girls feel bad for not having a relationship, which is ultra mega bogus. Like, girls might not come out and say that they're all sad. But if they don't get a card or flowers, it doesn't go over very well. You'd never see a guy sulking cause he didn't get a flower for v-day. Maybe another reason why guys aren't all excited about v-day cause it's really "give-girls-more-attention day". But whatever. Good thing it's only one day a year! : )   I've been talking to a lot of movie extras who recently worked in Spielberg's new movie "War of the Worlds." They said it was a crazy time, 3 days running around in a field of rain and mud. But they got paid really good. One guy I talked to today was 2 steps away from Tom Cruise in a scene. Apparently Mr. Cruise also started his career as a movie extra, or the more polite term, "Background Artist." Still finalizing plans for the summer. Glad to know we got guitars waiting for us when we get there, then we can begin the rocking revolution! Another cool thing, is when my buddy Dan (director) comes to live with me in May, we might have a writer on board. He's directing this short that we're shooting later this month, but he's a writer at heart. Which will be really good if he's good at what he does. Anyways, enough of that! Ciao, folks!

Funny thought of the day (good to laugh at guys about): Men are like fine wine . . . They start out as grapes, and it's up to the women to stomp the crap out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with.

2-12 Saturday

The weekend is here! Woohoo! Well, I think I'm getting over the horrible sleepiness. Yesterday I got a free stick of 512mb ram, from the head of the production company that I'm with. I told him I could edit our video, but my pc is too slow. So he offered to upgrade it, so that's awesome. So I've been editing today. I've posted a few screenshots (called 'grabs' from the video/web nerd universe) from our video. It's about heroine addiction. I didn't take any pics of the set, cause I really wasn't impressed with the production No planning whatsoever. So, this is what I'm going to be doing this weekend, is editing this beast.

Coolest person in the world as of right now: Mary. This summer is going to be grand! You're awesome, and your name is really fun to say. Good hearing from you.

 Well, I've got a lot more editing to do. Talk to y'all later.

2-10 Thursday

Oh maaaan. What a day. So I told you that I hadn't slept for 2 full days. I did get sleep last night, but I'm still missing out on a whole night's worth of sleep. So today was very...interesting. I was so tired. I was like in a foggy reality. I just kind of existed today, like I was there, but not there. I got up at freaking 5:45 this morning. No time to catch up on sleep. It was an interesting experience...well, it STILL is, cause I'm still in that state. This is how bad it was. I was listening to music on my discman, and I'd be surprised that the song was ending. Like, I'd play the song, and after what felt like 2 seconds, I'd be surprised that the song had ended. So the 3 minutes the song was playing, I was just gone. And unfortunately, I have to get up early tomorrow as well, so no catching up on the sleep again.

But, the weekend, oh, the blessed weekend, is almost here! Right now I'm jumping up and down with joy, so it's kind of hard to type at the moment, because I am literally jumping as I speak, er, write. In other news, Mary, it has been too long since I've heard from you. Lori, get your laptop fixed now! You know, I think I'm too tired to continue. I shall declare the next coolest person in the world next time.

2-9 Wednesday

Greetings. Again, this is one of those really late/early blogs. It's now 7:10am, and I haven't gone to bed yet. I just finished gripping for an AFI shoot. It was so dumb, because we had way too many people. A good number would be 3 or 4, but we had about 10 guys. So when a simple job needed to be done, 5 guys rushed at the same time. But whatever. And it was 100$ a day, so that was cool. I worked this Monday and Tuesday, and Monday was only 4 hours of work. For some reason, people don't say "100$ a day", they say "a buck a day". But I'm still confused. Because 100$ is not 1$. It's just weird. But yes, tonight went very long. And I have a movie extra job at 9:30am, so like 2 hours from now. Yes, I'm very tired. I have successfully avoided singing happy birthday to my owner for 2 days. And I haven't seen him in 2 days, which makes it easy. But now I won't feel obligated, because it's already days after.

Coolest person in the world as of right now: Benny. Dude, Benny, your emails are getting more and more hilarious. If you guys have missed out on his awesome original music, check it out. I've got a link to his homepage on my main page.

So let me tell you a bit about the grip gig I was on tonight. It was called "The Pros and Cons of Breathing." Don't know much about the story. The place we shot tonight was under a bridge downtown. If you don't know, downtown LA is scum. And someone told us that the place smells like poop. And we discovered that it was HUMAN poop, cause there's a lot of homeless people around that area. But ewwwwwwwwness! And some areas here and there smelt really, really bad. So there was human poo lying around, there were needles everywhere...It was a very charming place to be. And there were of course the idiots who would drive past and honk at us. Please, if you ever pass by a movie being filmed, DON'T HONK YOUR HORN! It's so stupid!

Man, life feels weird at 7:30am. It's actually really pretty outside. Right now I'm thinking that I wish I'd get up every morning at this time. That way I'd start the day off early, watch the sunrise, and wake up feeling fresh and alive. But, who am I kidding....If I don't have to be up, I won't be. Oh well. Man, what a random blog. I look up to the people that still read this, including Steph who never reads this but claims to. Well, I'm getting too tired to think. Today is going to suck. Have a good one, guys.

Update: Well let's see....what time is it? 6:30pm. That means that I've stayed up for the past 32.5 hours. I'm actually not doing too bad. I'm tired, but I don't feel like I'm in a zombie state. Well, that's all the updates I can think of. I'm not thinking straight anyways. Off to bed I go!

2-6 Sunday

Yoooooooooooooo! Grand news! I have booked my tickets for GR. It's official, baby! I'm arriving July 26, and leaving August 27th. Oh man alive, was buying these tickets a hassle. I was trying to find one of the dates on a weekend. There are probably a lot of people that could pick me up in GR, but not so much in LA. So I finally got the arrival back to LA on a Saturday. The total price for the roundtrip: 10 bucks! I thank my folks for all the trips we took to accumulate all my free miles. But, hear my bogus story! I have 2 airlines with free miles, United and Northwest. I had 39,000 miles with United. And I called them today. And they all expired! And guess when they all expired! Two freaking days ago! Nooooooooooooooooooooooo! The guy on the phone said he was sorry, and I told him he's going to regret this. Just kidding. But that was so bogus! Two days! The guy wouldn't take bribes either  : )

But yes, it's cool to finally have tickets. Benny, you better get your tickets now. My friends, prepare for "The Revolution 2005". And tomorrow is my owner's birthday. We were watching tv, and he randomly said that his birthday was in a few days, and wanted us to sing him happy birthday. Ohhhhhh man. So luckily, I will be gripping that night, so I can avoid it. I feel sorry for my other roomie, cause he'll still be here. So he's got to sing happy birthday to our owner by himself! Haha! In other news, the summer is not arriving soon enough. 

2-5 Saturday

My friends! The weekend is here! I got a new local phone number! If I didn't send you the email about it, just ask for it. It was the last thing to seal the deal about living in LA. Unfortunately, Sprint had to restart my 2 year contract. But that's ok, I dig them. Watched parts of Tears of the Sun today. Awesome movie. Currently listening to the soundtrack. Had a good chat with Steph and Nikki today. I'm getting more and more excited about visiting everyone this summer. It will be craziness! I would come sooner, but my buddy Benny isn't coming till the end of freaking July. If I had it my way, I'd visit in May. Random thought of the day: Wouldn't it be weird to be the girl model on the Yahoo mail front page? Or to know her? Like, thousands of people see her picture everyday! Wouldn't it be weird to bump into her, and go, "Hey, you're the Yahoo mail girl!" So I knew that I had a slow leak on one of my tires. I guess I knew it, but I never wanted to officially check to see how bad it was. I knew I'd have to get new tires eventually, so I figured ignorance was bliss. Which it was. But holy moly was the tire low! It was supposed to be 30psi, and it was down to 10! 10, I say! And I went to my friendly Discount Tire store, but they didn't have the tires I needed. So I have to come back Monday. You know what sucks? Car maintenance. Cars should maintain themselves. Not only is the car itself expensive. Not only is the insurance for the car expensive. But the repairs, oh, the repairs! Woe the repairs! I say the price of "independence" is way too high. I'd give anything to strip my independence and get my money back. But then I couldn't drive to work, thus get no money. Ahh, the cycles! But it's all cool. I should be on im tomorrow, if any of you feel like shooting the breeze. Later.

2-3 Thursday

What is up, my friends? Dude, I have been getting tons of emails from everyone! It's been awesome. Keep it up. I had hopes to see the famously hot Mel Gibson today, but I did not. I worked on "Complete Savages", and worked in the....gay pride parade. Yes, that is correct. Interesting, to say the least. I saw at least 20 drag queens. And there were some BIG guys as drags, and very very unattractive ones at that! But we were let out early, so very cool. Then a friend of mine and myself tried to see if we could go on any of the rides, since we were already inside Universal. But again, no. Bummer. I'm thinking of ways for a little comment box at the end of each blog, or for all the songs. Similar to Xanga, if any of you are familiar to that. I'll see what I can do. And most recent on my list, is to save up money to buy a new Panasonic AG-DVX100a camera. This is the bomb, many of you have heard me talk about it. Anyways, Dan my director buddy and I want this camera. So the save-money-for-our-camera fund has begun. If any of you would like to contribute, you can pay me through paypal. Here's a random thought. You know girl magazines? How do they keep coming up with new articles? I was in line at the store, and the headlines or whatever for this girl magazine said, "15 new ways to do your hair" or something. But haven't they written that stuff in the past 100 issues? Are there new and exciting breakthroughs in hair treatment? Since the last issue??? Or, the famous "What to/not to wear for the summer". Or the famous "New Diets!" We all know about diets! How can there be a better and newer diet each month!? Man alive! I would think girls could buy one issue, and they'd be set for life. So the magazines get new models, put the same information on there, and sell new copies. Brilliant. That was your random thought of the day. You're welcome  : )

2-2 Wednesday  (comments on "First Time Love" song)

Ahh! The owner of the house is making me want to strangle myself and throw my body in a lake. The plan is to move in May, and it won't come soon enough. So, the news of the day...I got a new song on the site. Both original AND the live version! What a treat! Not only do I like the song personally, but I love the live version. Yep, I'm touring the LA music stages. This time people didn't really like me, but whatever. You can't please everyone, right? Ok, in case you didn't realize it by now, yes, it's a fake. No, I'm not really playing in front of people, but I'd probably tell you for real if I did anyways. And if you listen carefully, you hear me talk to my other bandmate "Frankie", but then call him "Freddy" at the end. I accidentally called him "Freddy" cause I forgot what I called him earlier. And then I was trying to re-record my line about us leaving, but it never came out as good. It always seemed fake, so I just kept it in for giggles. I just love the name "Frankie", cause it sounds like one of the most non-masculine names out there. I'm thinking of using this "Frankie" character in my later songs. I'm actually digging the "live" recording stuff. It's really fun to play around with it and be goofy. I'll probably keep putting up the original and the "live version", so people can choose if they want to listen to me be stupid or not. And who doesn't want that?

Finally, I have work for tomorrow on a sitcom. This week has been such a bore. So yeah, nothing exciting on the blog today. I have 5 minutes left on my cellphone. I'm getting better and getting it down to the wire. Thankfully tomorrow begins the new month for my phone, so I can be at ease once again. Later.

1-31 Monday

Not a whole lot happened today. Finished a song that hopefully will be on the site tomorrow. But, I want to write down something which I found hilarious. I was reading this forum on how people bought their digital cameras. The guy that started the forum said his gf would help pay for it, but he didn't want to go that route. One guy replied, "LOL - get the gf to do it. Love is fleeting - film is forever".

I had a good laugh at that. Ahh, so much truth in forums, eh? I'm sure that quote won't have as much of an impact on the non-film people out there.

1-30 Sunday

So I shot this short film on heroine-addiction. It went so-so. Definitely wasn't of the caliber I was hoping for. There was very little planning, no storyboards, so it was sort of messily done. But whatever. Hopefully it'll turn out decent. This was the first film I've ever had extras in, because we got a few friends to be an audience. It was pretty bad, because at one point, one of our actors got up and left, and we didn't know why. I'm wanting desperately to buy a new digital camera, the DVX100a. It looks so much like film. It's the camera we used in my last grip job. There's a picture of it in my last set. Unfortunately, it costs way too much. But some day I'd like to own it.

I'm really wanting to move out of my house. The rent is getting way too expensive, and the owner is driving me crazy. I just want my own place that I can do whatever, and I'm not afraid to go to the living room, in the chance of having to sit through a 20 minute conversation about nothing with the owner. I'm looking somewhere in the realms of a 800$ apartment, to split it between two roomies. I should be on im tomorrow if anyone's free. Lori, I know you'll probably be on. And I'll see if I can record a song or two tomorrow, cause I don't have work. But I've exceeded the amount I need to make per month, so it's all good. And I had a good long chat with my buddy Jess, who thinks that an hour on the phone is talking for way too long. We'll have to do the e-napkins sometime soon. Also, does no one know what Nutella is? The chocolately goodness?? How do people not know of this? That's it. I'm out. Stay tuned next time for some more exciting blogs.  

Also, if you've never signed my guestbook, why, there's never been a better time! Yes, you know who I'm talking about! There are several of you who have been to my site and haven't signed! The nerve!

1-27 Thursday

Ahh, 4:30 in the morning. What a great time for some blog writes, eh? I just had the best movie set experience since I got here. It was so low key, fun, and the shots looked really good too. So I got there at 10am. We didn't get our first shot off until around 1 or 2pm. The first shot always takes the longest. I was on this set cause my friend Chun was DPing the short, and asked me if I could help him. It was a freebie, but we wanted to help these people out, cause they had no budget. We all took turns saying, "I'm the director for Bad Habits", which was the title for the short. It was fun times. There was this smoking girl named Angie who did the hair and makeup for the shoot. Of course, she had a boyfriend, like every other girl in LA. She was really fun though. I was really impressed with the DP's lighting. We only had about 4 lights that we used, but he knew how to use them. He also interns at Mole and Richardson, one of the biggest lighting companies in Hollywood, so he picks up a lot there. Unfortunately, the actress had broken up with her boyfriend 2 days ago, so she wasn't "all there" in her acting. That set us back at least an hour, because the director was trying to get her to clear her head. We got pizza for second meal. And just like that, 16 hours of work was done. We wrapped at 2 in the morning. Yeah, you people that complain about working 8 hours, you're a bunch of wusses. We had a hilarious wrap party, one that I'll never forget. And what was really cool, was that the director slipped us some money at the end of the night. That was totally cool, because Chun and I were there ready and willing to work for free. It was actually sad to say goodbye, cause there was this weird bond between all of us.  That's what happens when you spend 16 hours with several people in one room. But it was definitely the best grip job I've ever had.

Also on the horizon...I'm shooting a short this weekend. I'm not sure how it's gonna go, cause nothing has been practiced. But we'll see. But I'll let you know how that goes. Also, I'm very sexy. Just thought I'd add that. Well, it's about 5am. Must...stop....writing. Till next time.

1-25 Tuesday

Wassup homies? Another week, and it's almost February. Crazy! Well, I had the day off again, so I decided to put more songs up. There's 3 new songs today. The "Tearful Stolen Moments" one is about someone who commits suicide. Don't worry, it wasn't written for anyone in particular. I was trying to write a sad song, so that's what I came up with. I really like how the bass and guitar solos work in the song. I wrote that song awhile ago, maybe 2 years ago. Then there's "My Runaway." I wrote that my senior year in college. It's my first Spanish-sounding song. I'm not a big fan of the seconding voicing I put in the song. I sound stoned, and another problem was that I couldn't find a harmony for most of the chorus. Haha! Oh well. Then comes "Dedicated to our Past". Ahh, this is the very first song I've ever written. I wrote this I think my senior year in high school. There was this girl that I unofficially dated. And in the beginning, there was some heartbreak. So I wrote this song, hoping that one day I'd sing it to her and she'd know how I felt. Like, the last night we were together, we were in a mall, and I wanted to take her to this guitar store so I could play the song. But the moment was never right. So she's never heard the song. It's supposed to sound like a nice love song, and at the end, it flips around. It's kind of like a "take that!" song. Also, the last part, it's supposed to say "You said to me, Can we just be friends?" But for some reason, I wrote "she" instead of "you". Not sure why. But again, this was years ago. I could have put harmony and bass in the song, but I wanted this to be exactly like how I wrote it in high school. And the line that goes "I bled a lot" refers to the heart being broken, so I'm metaphorically bleeding. Don't want any assumptions! Tomorrow I'm helping a friend of mine on a gig that he's DPing for. He asked me to be the Key Grip, and what are friends for, right? So I'm excited for that. I'll put pictures up tomorrow when I get home. I'm off to dinner. Peace.

1-21 Friday

(new song explanation)

I finished this song called "Waiting for Sleep". I actually wrote most of it my freshman year, but never got around to finishing it. And these last couple of days, I've been looking up my old songs. So I added bits to here and there. I like the concept of love and dreams together. I'm also trying to do more with my songs. So this time I threw away the rules. I already don't like to rhyme in my songs. But I threw away all rhythm and timing. I think it works okay. Also, excuse the singing in it. You can tell where I tried to cover it up by adding more bass or solos! I hate my recorded voice, like a lot of people. I like to blame my recorded voice on the lie that I just "record badly". The way I write songs is really weird too, because I'll get the chords I like first. Then to find a tune, I start singing whatever comes to my head. But then anything that sounds remotely lyrical, I keep it. So the lyrics are more isolated thoughts rather than flowing verses. I think some of the guitar solos are cheesy and don't fit very nicely. But the other thing is that usually when I finish a song, I just want it out there. So I record it as quick as I can, and upload it. I really should spend hours getting the singing and everything just right, but I don't. I also wanted to do harmony on the last part, but I never got around to it. Oh well.

I have my first grip job tomorrow, in about 7 hours. Finally! It's 50$ cash, nothing to stop traffic about, but nothing to gloat about either. This whole week has been bogus. I've only worked once the whole week, which was this lousy reality show. I've been grateful for my IM buddies to break up the monotony of the day. Also, we just got the Starz superpak, so great movies all the time, with no commercials! That's pretty spanking. I've also been slightly working out. Embarrassingly, I have no weights, so I improvise. Currently I'm using these 5 gallon jugs that we use for drinking. We'll probably have to use that jug cause we're outta water, so there goes my exercise! What else. Oh, I found out the Ralph's grocery store near me sells Mac and Cheese for a whopping 14 cents! You can imagine how excited this made me. I'm also trying to gain some weight. I think my head (and rest of my body) is so tiny! From ear to ear, I've got maybe 5 inches. I guess I'm tired of being lanky. So the solution is to eat more. But eating more costs more money. Ahh, the dilemma. We'll see where I go with this one. Also, for the people that know me, I used to need 9 hours of sleep or more every night. Otherwise, I'd be a zombie. But after working many late nights on movies here, I'm surprisingly used to the lack of sleep now! It's incredible! Even now, it's almost midnight, and I have to get up at 5:45, and I'm not worried. I'll wake up, it'll be a new day, hey, it's cool. No worries! If I have any grammar errors in this one (more than usual! haha!), it's because it's been a very long week just sitting around. Thank goodness for work! Have a great weekend everyone!

1-18 Tuesday

What a boring day. I worked on this reality show, so that's a first. It's called, I kid you not, "Snaffu". Among other things, they had a spelling bee and trivia of science and geography. There was a lineup of hot girls as the contestants. One girl had to list 3 states with the word "New" in them. She guessed "New Mexico", and then "Deleware". You could almost hear the eyes rolling. Anyways, we sat around for about 6 of the 8 hours we were there. Super boring. But we got paid in cash. Hooray for cash. Besides that...hmm......I wish I had more money, but that's nothing new. I wish I had more pictures, movies, and anything else to put on this site. All I have are songs and this good 'ol blog. I'll try to think of something soon, okay? ciao.

1-17 Monday

Argh, no work today. I've only been getting 4 days of work a week for the past two weeks, which I'm pretty bummed about. Because of that, I ended up being on im waaaaaaaaaaaaay longer than intended. A new world record. 8 1/2 hours!!!!! I went to bed at 4:30 in the morning! Crazy. Let's see...oh, I put a new song up again. My songs just get shorter and shorter, and this one kinda leaves it hanging. Like there's supposed to be more, but then I cut it. Unfortunately, I've got no new pictures for awhile. That's cause you can't take pictures on big sets. And I haven't gripped in awhile, actually all this month. Bummer dude. I'm also making more plans for visiting GR. We're trying to sort out details with my buddy Dan who's coming out here in the summer. But I have big hopes and big dreams for this visit. Hopefully it'll be a rocking good time. Things are going well with my new production company. It's kinda an unusual twist, cause it's lead by actors. So the boss and I are trying to find an even ground. Cause he's doing what's best for his actors, and I'm trying to do what's best for the production company in general. But it's his call cause it's his company. Also, they got 250 free business cards from Vistaprint.com. Check them out, cause that's a pretty cool deal. Oh, and just for all my freezing homies in GR, winter has ended here in LA. My friends and I had beads of sweat yesterday out in the hot and beautiful sun. I try not to gloat, but it's hard  : )   Have a great week people!

1-13 Thursday

Man what a day. The other day I was on Boston Legal until midnight! We did this karoke scene at a bar. And the beer looked real, but when you looked closely, it was actually fake. The beer that looked like Bud Light actually said Bod Liqbt. But at a distance, you couldn't tell the difference. Interesting. So I got home at midnight. And then this morning, I knew I'd have to get up at 5am. I knew if I only slept like 4 hours, I'd be even more tired. So I decided to stay up for the 4 hours. I ended up chatting with Benny for awhile....but come 3am, I couldn't stay awake anymore. So I slept 2 hours, and got up at 5am. Today was super long. From 6am to 9pm. But that's a lot of money. And I got to dress up like army personnel. That was cool, and I've never worn camos before. All the girls wanted me. I took mini naps all day....I'm really looking forward to the weekend, just so I don't have to work! Also, our house is now infested with ants. The nice thing about Michigan winters is that it's so cold that there's no insects around. Dumb nice California winters! So there were hundreds of ants in our cupboard. They got into my peanut butter and syrup, and were literally everywhere. So I had to throw that out and kill a billion ants. Oh, and I'm also thinking about visiting GR a little longer. I was thinking of flying out there for 2 weeks, but if I'm not paying rent, that's 600$ that I'm saving. And that way, I wouldn't have to rush to see everyone. I could take road trips and stuff, and it'd probably be the last time I'd see my homies for awhile. I'm trying to time it so I get to GR when Benny does, cause what is GR without the Benster? One of the highlights of the summer in GR will definitely be to watch the new movie Elizabeth Town and see if I'm in the movie as an extra. Well, off to bed.

1-10 Monday

Currently listening to Ben Folds Five, one of the greatest bands on Earth. Today was pretty blah. I worked on "Blind Justice", which is a pretty silly tv show. But the call time was 4pm, so I got to sleep in. But I was hoping for maybe 2 hours of work, and then we'd get to go home. But no, we stayed till 9. And I had to use my car again (you get paid extra if you drive your car for the show/movie), and I was just feeling so blah about doing movie extra work. It's so tedious, and you leave feeling your day was so useless. Well, tomorrow I don't have work. And I rented "The Pianist" awhile ago, and never had time to watch it. And it's due tomorrow at noon. And sadly the owner goes to sleep at 9:30, so I can't watch tv in the living room. So I'll have to wake up at like 9am, watch it, and quickly return it. Oh, I also had my first production meeting with my new company "The New Group" last night. It went really well. It's awesome to have so many actors so readily available to work in movies. And it was really weird to see that the director was an extra that I met on the set of Herbie a month ago! But the goal is to make a short film every month. And the guys seem really cool. Another big thing is that I'm really getting tired of my living situation. The owner goes to bed early so we have to be quiet starting from 9:30pm. He talks to us constantly if we have our doors open, so I'm forced to close my door all night. I don't feel like inviting anyone over because of that as well. The rent is pretty expensive (600$). So I'm looking for alternatives. Hmmm....I've also come to the conclusion that most actors, especially extras, are just weird. This one lady kept saying "Do you think they'll mind if I leave to get some carrots?" What in the world? And here's another side thought. The owner was talking about dancers, cause he knows one personally. And he was saying that it's hard to get work. But here's the problem: There's no future in dancing! Of course it's gonna be hard to find work, cause how often do you need dancers? You need them for concerts, opera, and music videos. I think it's a fantasy job. It'd be like saying "I want to make a career out of making model airplanes and get paid for doing it." It's the same with dancing. People like to dance, but to dance "professionally"???? I really dunno. Anyways, that's my random thought for the day. Dancers, get a real job.

1-8 Saturday

Sup. Well, I just finished a weekend shooting of an AFI film. It rained both days, and it was horrible. On Friday, we shot downtown (very ghetto) under this really cool looking bridge. And I looked, and there were homeless bums EVERYWHERE! I didn't feel safe at all parking my car anywhere, cause I knew I had some snicker bars in there, and the bums might break in or whatever. But it went alright. Student films are something else alright. No organization, everything extremely low key. I wasn't paid, but some of the guys were. At one point one of the bums starting singing loudly, and people went over and shut him up. It was a really cold and rainy night, and lasted from 6 at night to 4am. Hours and sleep mean nothing to true filmmakers. The film was called "The Pros and Cons of Breathing." Then today, we filmed at an abandoned hospital. And I later learned that this hospital was used in a Wes Craven film, a Rob Zombie music video, and tons of other stuff. Some of the guys had shot there a few times before, which I thought was pretty cool. It rained even harder tonight, and this time, we didn't have no bridge over our heads. Rain has a habit of sucking if you're in it. Tonight only lasted until about 10pm. I wanted to take more pictures (cause I only have 3 total) tonight, but the weather sucked so bad I really couldn't...We also found out like 2 hours into it that food (craft service) was inside the whole time. It's coming down to the last shot. It's a squib shot, which are always cool. Squibs are little explosives that you put on an actor to make it look like you've been shot. Usually they also put condoms filled with a red syrup that also explodes to make it look like an entry wound. But the problem was that it was raining too hard, and this particular shot had to be done without rain. So we wait and wait for it to clear up. It comes down to the last 15 minutes, and it's still raining, but they go for it anyways. The guy gets shot, and we wrap. Wrapping 30 pounds of cable in the rain is miserable. Tomorrow I got a date with my new production company and we're gonna start a new movie, so I'm pretty psyched.