Get your own
 diary at DiaryLand.com! contact me older entries newest entry

1:11 pm - Tuesday, Jul. 12, 2005
Kathy B., \"Batman\", And Life After Borders

Kathy B, "Batman", and Life After Borders (2nd attempt)
(The following is an email to Kathy B., sent earlier this morning)

Welcome to my "Friday"...

Not much news to report from here--A fairly slow day at Rancho Hoffmaster, so far--but I'll give you what I've got :)

Went to The Magic Castle with my friend Cary last night (Cary knows Jonathan Levitt, one of the members; I guess you have to know a member in order to get in).

To be honest, I wasn't all that excited about the idea of seeing magic--I was doing it more just to hang out with Cary and Jonathan (Jonathan's an actor, as well as a magician, so there's some common ground there)--but it was actually a lot of fun.

We had dinner with Jonathan beforehand, then saw four acts, including Jonathan, and three of the four were really fun, funny guys with good "patter" and entertaining tricks (There was only one--an African American guy who called himself "Ice" and did a bird act--who was kind of corny, in a Las Vegas-y, "Be-dazzled-by-my-amazing-magical-powers" way).

We saw Jonathan in the "Close Up Room", which seats about 20 people. He did some amazing card tricks, and was pretty hilarious as well (I'd met Jonathan before last night, but never seen his act). It was impressive to be as close as we were to him, but still have no idea how he was doing what he was doing (If I have a favorite "type" of magic, "Sleight-of-hand" is probably it; I'm more impressed by that sort of thing than big, David Copperfield-ish "illusions").

Afterwards, Cary dropped me off at the Metro station at Hollywood and Highland, a couple blocks away, and I took the subway home (I was a little nervous about taking the subway after that scary business in London, but since your average Los Angeleno probably doesn't know L.A. HAS a subway system, I'm hoping the same applies to your average Al Queda member).

I got off a couple blocks from my apartment, and took the opportunity to pop into a nearby Walgreens to buy a couple of cheap frames for my two "certificates" (A "certificate of completion" for attending the Signing Agent seminar, and another one for passing the certification test). As I've said before, it doesn't feel like any big acheivement, really, but the fact is, I was there, I did what I did, and I like that there's a little "record" of it :)

Speaking of the Signing Agent stuff, I've decided this week is the week I get the all-in-one, printer/copier/scanner/fax machine/waffle iron/etc, whether or not I've received the check from my last commercial gig. I don't know whether I'll go down to Staples, or else order something off the Dell website, but by the end of this week, it'll be a done deal

I'm still dragging my feet on this stuff, out of fear of failure, fear of change, etc (You name it, and I'm afraid of it). But it's way past time to leave Borders--The "Old Guard" is almost completely gone now (And one of the managers I like might be gone before the week is out), and it really feels like time to leave retail to the kiddies, and move on to what I'm actually out here to do, all my anxieties notwithstanding.

Not a lot of "acting stuff" to report on...had a commercial audition on Thursday that I thought was promising (For a "pay as you go" phone service), but nothing happened. So it goes...

I recently submitted myself for a couple of union extra jobs online, and unless I have an audition or something on Thursday, I plan on going to Central Casting, and signing up with them (I signed up with Cenex, their non-union arm, some years back, but eventually lost the will to do extra work, which is pretty boring, for minimum wage and no benefits). I don't know that there's enough union extra work to make a living--I'm guessing probably not, considering all the people out there who want to do it--but I'm hoping it could prove to be a nice "side income", along with Signing Agent stuff, commercial work, and eventual tv and movie gigs. Basically, I'm looking for anyway I can earn a buck without working in retail or food service :)

And I guess that's about all the quasi-"news" there IS at this point.

Regarding your coming out to Cali at some point in the hopefully not-too-distant future--When that becomes a firm date, I will make every effort to fit you into my jet-set, mile-a-minute schedule :)
Just let me know when you know.

Man, did I relate to your feelings about cleaning the house, only to see it all undone within a day or two (And I've only got ME making the mess!). I really have a problem with "entropy" in general--When I actually gear myself up to DO something,when I get past my fatigue and boredom and frustration at "not doing it right", I get bummed out at how it never stays "done" for very LONG (And of course, since we live in a world where "things fall apart, the center does not hold", etc, most things in life seem to involve some kind of maintainance or repair, a continual process of "shoring things up" when their natural tendency is to go to pieces. Meanwhile, all I want to do is take a NAP).

And on THAT cheery note...

I hope you're well. You probably get tired of my saying it, but I really enjoy getting your emails. They're always the bright point in any given day.

(The following was going to be a longer "review" of Batman Begins. But somehow it got "lost in the ether", and I'm too lazy to re-type the whole thing.) Basically, I liked it. A lot. I agree with you, Mark N. (Along with Roger Ebert and the comic book geeks at the bookstore)--They finally got it right.

Or at least pretty damned close.

Loved Christian Bale as "Batman".

Thought the cast was great (Especially Michael Caine, but even Katie Holmes).

They sold me on the new Batmobile (Which I thought was hideous when I first saw it).

It had just the right "tone" (Mostly serious, with relatively minimal, restrained humor. Contrary to what Joel Shumacher thinks, "Batman" is not supposed to be "funny").

What I didn't like as much seemed like holdovers from the previous movies that I wish they'd dropped (The rubber suit--Or "Kevlar" in this case--and the multiple villians).

But all-in-all, a big "thumbs up" from this Bat-fan. Unlike most sequels that come down the pike, I have high hopes that the next movie will be even better than this one.

But now this has taken much longer than I'd intended, and it's time for Jim to lay himself down to sleep, and dream of a life after Borders...

 

previous - next

2 comments so far
about me - read my profile! read other Diar
yLand diaries! recommend my diary to a friend! Get
 your own fun + free diary at DiaryLand.com!