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11:27 am - Fri 10/12/07 It�s been a pretty good week. The callback for Taco Bell was on Monday. It went well�quite well, I thought-- but at this writing, I don�t really know how well; JS emailed me the next day, to tell me the casting director had called to say there might be a second round of callbacks. (�A second callback�, I thought to myself, �for one line?�) Anyway, if there was a second callback, I wasn�t invited. But if there wasn�t, I may still be �on avail�, since at the initial callback, there was a sign that said, �If you�re here, you�re on avail for the spot� (Which I think shoots next Wednesday). I had an audition today for an �online-only� spot for Jennie-O turkey. �Online-only� means the pay is comparatively negligible, but at least it would be a day off work. And it�s a cute spot�I�d be the downstairs neighbor who has a turkey drop in his lap when it falls through the ceiling�so I wouldn�t mind getting it (Though I left today feeling like I didn�t really �get� what they were asking for). Today�s audition was in Venice, so I took the opportunity, audition over, to walk down to the beach, a block or two away; I walked along the boardwalk, bought a hat I probably paid too much for, then got a diet Coke and some Doritos as I slowly wandered back to my car. (I barely looked at the ocean, focusing instead on the boardwalk and its interesting denizens; walking along the beach, looking at the ocean...well, that seems like something you do with someone.) Yesterday I had lunch with Lamont, a friend from ArcLight (Lamont was my partner at Guest Services on �Alarm Night�). We ate at the Sizzler near Hollywood and Western, only the second time I�ve eaten at a Sizzler (The first time was on my birthday, back in May; there�s one just a couple blocks from my house). And I realized something�I love steak. We talked mostly about acting stuff; Lamont�s an actor, but much like my own first years here, he�s struggling to make anything happen, having spent the past four years in LA simply trying to survive (For the first two years, he lived in his car). Beyond some extra work, his �career� is pretty much nowhere at this point. So he wanted to pick my brain for info. Which felt weird�I hardly feel like an expert on how to have an acting career here in LA�but it was also flattering (Whatever my day-to-day frustrations are, in Lamont�s eyes, I�m making it here in LA. And it makes me see that I have come quite a ways from those early, dark days in Tinseltown). While we were at the restaurant, Lamont said something that crystalized my own feelings about ArcLight (Or, for that matter, about any non-acting job I could get at this point)�He said he was �tired of making other people�s dreams come true�, working for peanuts so someone else could be rich and successful. Lamont, I could not agree more.. But speaking of �rich and successful��When JS called to tell me about the Jennie-O audition, he also told me he�d sent out another check. That�s always good news, of course, but since I haven�t seen any of my work on TV in quite some time, I wasn�t expecting it to be a very big check (I assumed it might be a �holding fee�, or something like that). But happily, I was mistaken; apparently the Propel spot is still running somewhere, cause the residual check in Wednesday�s mail was actually bigger�substantially bigger�than the last one. So, adding that to my recent Monk check, and the foreign market residual check for Gilmore Girls and Nip/Tuck (another small residual check for Gilmore Girls is also on the way), and I�ve officially gotten a reprieve from worrying about more money going out than coming in. And the timing is very good; I�m off to Irvine tomorrow for �Jam Camp�, and it�ll be nice to be able to have my fun without having to worry too much about the money I�m spending, or the three lost work days. This weekend should be fun. I�m still a little nervous, of course�a mix of shyness, performance anxiety, and a general resistance to new experiences-but it�ll be cool to get actual harmonica instruction, and I imagine�since it is �Jam Camp�, after all�that there�ll be lots of jamming in the evenings, which I haven�t done in, like, forever. And people tend to like me�at least till they get to know me-- so I imagine the social stuff will be fun too (Though, if the pictures on the website are any indication, there aren�t likely to be any sexy ladies there; from what I�ve seen, it�s mostly young geeks and middle-aged guys like Yours Truly. But that�s okay�I imagine, as I get better and better on the instrument, the �harmonica groupies� will come). And on that fanciful note... 0 comments so far 
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