10:28 pm - Thurs 5/6/04
Another Feather In The Cap

In our top story...

I booked the Time Warner gig!!!

My callback was supposed to be at 4:30 yesterday, but when I found out I'd probably be in court till then, I called JS, and he called them, leaving a message on my voicemail; they'd said to just get there soon as I could.

"Soon as I could" ended up being 5:35 ("Murphy's Law" was very much in effect), and I was stressed-to-the-max; even though they seemed to be very interested in me, I was still panicked that if I took too long getting there, they'd say "Forget this guy! We're outta here!"

But they weren't "outta there", for which I was extravagantly grateful (Thanking them when I got there, and once again when I left).

There were a half dozen people there (I'm presuming casting people, ad agency people, and maybe the client), and nobody seemed particularly upset at having been kept waiting (Which made me think maybe they had a better understanding of how long it would take me to get there from downtown than I did!).

The director went over the spot with me--which hadn't changed since the initial audition on Monday--and had me do each "scene" in the spot a number of times, a number of different ways.

I began to get that exciting, "They're really giving me a workout" feeling (And I didn't feel like I was having any problem at all going wherever they wanted me to go).

And my excitement mounted when they started asking about my jury duty stint; you know things are getting serious when they want to discuss potential conflicts (Happily, the spot shoots on Saturday and Monday night, meaning there's no conflict with jury duty).

Things ended with them saying they'd be talking to JS tomorrow.

(Apparently, they took their sweet time about it; JS didn't call me till 8:30 this evening.)

Had a pretty big letdown when I talked to JS; the spot is a non-union cable spot, which doesn't even pay as well as the Hyundai spot did (How can these gazillion-dollar companies get away with this? It's infuriating. I want my f------ money!).

But money aside, it's a great spot--I'm the lead, it's funny, and maybe most importantly, I get to talk.

(And if I can't get a copy of this, someone is going to die!)

And it's more experience, another "notch on the belt", and yet more proof that I'm actually "making it happen" out here.

Woo-hoo!!!

Speaking of "getting a copy" of things, I got a very surprising call a couple days ago; Leor Baum, the director of the student film I did over a year ago ( Missing Breath) was calling to let me know the film was finally finished, and wanted to invite me to the "premiere" at Cal State Northridge (A "premiere" which happens to be on my birthday, a week from Saturday).

I passed on the "premiere"--I don't really want to spend my birthday with strangers, and don't really want to drive all the way to Northridge--but there may be other showings I can see at some later date. And most importantly, it means I am actually going to get a copy of this thing, which is the big reason to do student films in the first place.

In all the excitement and stress of yesterday--Did I mention I was horribly stressed by the time crunch?--Something that didn't come off the way I'd wanted was the Magic Castle outing with Cary and Kay.

I was supposed to meet them at the Metro in North Hollywood at 6:00, which was just about the time I was finished with the callback.

When the callback was over, I asked to use the phone at the casting agency, but when I tried Kay's cell, I got her voicemail, and when I tried Cary's cell, I got someone else entirely (Turns out Cary had gotten a new cell phone).

I didn't get back to my apartment until around quarter-to-seven. I tried Kay's cell again, left a message, called their home phone, left another message, then waited by the phone for them to call me (I was sort of surprised there wasn't a message from them when I got there).

A few minutes later, Cary did call, and while he seemed not very happy with me (I wouldn't have been too happy myself, in his position), he realized what had happened when I told him I'd called his cell and gotten a young girl on the line (He also said Kay had told him he should have called their house to see if I'd tried to connect with them).

Of course, I could have just met up with them there at the Magic Castle, but I was exhausted, emotionaly worn out, and a little hoarse from all the screaming I'd done (On the way from the courthouse downtown to the callback in Hollywood).

And of course, the "bane of my existence" here in L.A., the parking: When I got home from the callback, I ended up parking six blocks from the house--Uncomfortably close to someone's driveway (Paranoid, I had to go out and "re-park" a little later in the evening)--and so the idea of going out, only to end the evening once again driving around my neighborhood screaming "I hate this m------------ place!" (As I do whenever I have to deal with parking after 6:00 in my neighborhood), was tremendously unappealing.

So that was my day yesterday. If I'd been able to choose, I would have chosen that the day be a little less crazy/stressful, but I had to work with the materials at hand.

And with that, Juror #7 should be getting to bed...

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