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3:26 pm - FRI 10.27.2012
I didn't really complete my last entry, because it was "going someplace I wasn't comfortable with" (Which is exactly why I should have completed it. But anyway...). Wednesday night, after my failed attempt to bring "Bella" the cat home with me - After she'd ran off, and I was standing there feeling alternately really stupid and deeply depressed - a middle-aged Japanese man and his son approached. The father didn't speak English, but talking to the son, it quickly became clear they were there to visit the cat as well. I explained, simply as I could, that I'd tried to take the cat home with me, but had scared it off, and it probably wasn't coming back for awhile. There I was - in a leather jacket, with black gloves (to protect myself from scratches), box next to me on the sidewalk - looking about as "sketchy" as it gets - and I'm guessing they thought I sold cats to research labs or restaurants or something, and the cat was lucky to get away. (When I got home, I found out that, in the melee, I'd dropped my cell phone, so I actually had to go back to "The Scene Of The (Attempted) Crime". I brought a can of cat-food with me as penance, leaving it by the hedge before I left.) Well, I actually stopped by last night on the way home from WW, and a few moments after I'd gotten there - Kitty was having nothing to do with me, understandably - who should approach again but the Japanese man and his son (This time accompanied by the mother as well). I talked to the son a bit (Who actually spoke better English than I'd realized when we'd met the day before), who admonished me for what I'd tried to do, suggesting that someone might have called the police on me. That certainly would have been possible - like I said, I definitely looked "sketchy" - but seemed unlikely (In LA, when you call 911, you get put on hold more often than not. "An ugly guy in a leather jacket's trying to grab a stray cat off the street...!" would probably not be a big 911 priority). But between the doubts I already had going in, that conversation, and watching the Japanese family feed and pet the cat (Clearly a nice family routine), it struck me that "I thought this was some magical thing that was 'supposed to happen'..." - me taking the cat home with me - "...but it probably wasn't". The cat's getting fed - probably more than it needs, really - it's getting human attention/affection, and honestly, I think it's in an overall healthier environment than what I'd have to offer, with my sunless, airless, third-story studio apartment. So, long story short, I may continue to "visit" her from time-to-time, but I'm not going to try and take her home. My short-lived career as a "cat-napper" is over. If I really have to get a cat at some point, probably better to rescue one from some "Kitty Death Row" of a shelter than try and grab one from the "wild". In perhaps a bit of bad-timing, on Wednesday night, I spoke to Bobby R., an actor I've known for a number of years now - from the ACG workshops I used to do - about doing something with the scenes I've acquired since I made my reel. Bobby is "Super-Marketer" (Seriously - he teaches classes in "Marketing for Actors", and advertises himself that way). The "bad timing" I spoke of is that I've been feeling very low lately, and in addition, was kind of "stirred-up" about the business with the cat that had happened. And Bobby is very direct, in a way I've never dealt with very well, even in the best of times - He iterated (and reiterated...and reiterated, and reiterated) how lousy/nonexistent my marketing is, how I don't look like a "professional", etc and so forth, which as I told someone afterward, made me feel going to a trainer to get in shape, and spending a half-hour being told how lazy and fat and sloppy-looking and out-of-shape I am. But we did get past the "dressing-down" eventually, and I sent him a list of what I've got on dvds (Which no one uses anymore, he told me - You're supposed to just have people send you computer files), telling him what I thought of the various scenes, and how I thought some things might best be used, etc. And now I'm stuck. To have him do the extra work of getting the scenes off the dvds and converting them to computer files would cost way more than I have to spend right now, and I don't have the equipment/skills to do it myself. I just now called my friend Cary, to see what he might have to say on the matter, and I'm also going to put it out on Facebook, to see if I have any local friends who have the necessary equipment/skills to do it "on the cheap". (And just called Brett to see if he can find someone else I can work with on this - As I told him just now, I know I have to "step up my game" in terms of putting myself out there, but I feel like I should be able to get this kind of thing done without taking a lot of shit about it, or spending a fortune.) ...and while I was writing, just got a call from Sharon - my theatrical agent - that I have an audition for American Horror Story on Monday. They want the character to have a "slight" Boston accent, which I do not currently have "in my pocket", but after some soul-searching, I told her I would "do what I could" over the weekend. And that seems like as good a note as any to end on...
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