9:45 PM - 06.10.17
Shit/Life Happens

So Shameless happened yesterday.

(And happily, Shameless will happen again before the month's out - I'm "availed" for the second episode, which means I'll work sometime between the 20th and the 28th.)

Got the script Wednesday afternoon, or maybe late morning - reading snatches of it at work on my phone - and when it got to the scenes I was in, it was fun to see they were, with a couple really nice "tweaks", essentially the same scenes as last year (That were cut).

So the scenes being cut last year was indeed just an "artistic choice" to make the season finale "all about the Gallaghers" (And not about how the scenes sucked, or I sucked, or they wanted to "re-think that plot-line").

My call was 9:30 am, and I wrapped at 5:30 (We had an hour for lunch). Which, for someone holding a regular job, is a regular day (And which, for a Series Regular, would often be a pretty short day), but which, for me, was a pretty long day.

(I never work eight hours at Weight Watchers, and my role is so small it's pretty rare that I do on Shameless.)

How did it go?

It was kind of what I described in my last entry - Both very familiar (Working with two of the series regulars and my buddy Mike, with a Director we've worked with before, on the same sound-stage we worked on last year), and kind of...not (The first person I ran into on the set was new, and thought I might be one of the background people. And while there were familiar faces among the crew, It felt like there were more new faces than not).

But the most familiar feeling was the "mixed bag-ness" of it all (Moments of fun, moments of boredom, appreciating exactly where I was, feeling kind of lonely, etc), and being reminded "Oh yeah Jim - This thing you theoretically like to do is actually pretty boring a good chunk of the time" (When a day runs longer than usual, it's not typically because I have way more to do. I'm just doing the same thing and for whatever reason - they're running late on the schedule, the scene is more "involved" than normal, etc - it's just taking longer to get done. Which is why one of the reasons I'd like more to do as an actor is to feed my massive need for attention and acclaim...but also simply so I'd be too busy to be bored, or to notice how tired I am).

But all-in-all, I was happy to be back - For the chance to do a little acting, for the money, and for the cachet of officially being "a working actor" again.

In other big acting news, I've gotten my first audition through my new theatrical agent!

It's for a show called Swedish Dicks, but it's not the kind of show you think - It's a comedy about two Swedish detectives in LA.

It's a fun Guest Star bit - two scenes- and I'm looking forward to going in for it on Monday.

And in still more acting news, I got someone to fill for me at Weight Watchers on Thursday night, so I could go to the premiere of Great Again, the short film I did earlier this year.

I really convinced myself I should go in here, when I wrote about how I should "have the experience", regardless of whether it's "awkward & uncomfortable" or not.

To be blunt, I just can't see any way it's a good movie, so I expect I'm gonna be uncomfortable on that front (Though I guess it's possible some of the other shorts will be so bad that ours looks good in comparison - An actor can hope, right?).

But what it comes down to is this - If I go, something interesting might happen, while if I don't go, I'll get what I typically get on Thursday nights (A vaguely pleasant but generally unmemorable night at Weight watchers).

The other project I was (minimally) involved in, the web-series Patti & Marina, was supposed to premiere this past week.

But in the days leading up to the event, my friend Michelle (one of the creators of the series) sent a mysterious message that they'd pulled it from the premiere, but couldn't say why, and a new premiere date was TBA.

As I write this, I'm thinking how I wish things were the-other-way-round, and the web-series premiere was happening while the film I'm ostensibly the star of was sitting on the shelf - I would feel less pressure (I do a weird bit in one episode of P&M, rather than being in the entire thing, like the movie), and since I've seen nothing of the series, there's a chance I'll be surprised and entertained over how good it is, rather than sad and embarrassed over how much it sucks.

But again, it's about "having the experience"...some time back, I remember being saddened by the fact that I don't have any "good stories" anymore, I'm not amassing any new anecdotes, and that's when it hit me, "Jim, You can't have good stories if you never do anything".

So, if nothing else, maybe Thursday night will give me a good anecdote or two.

In somewhat less happy news than I've shared so far, my car is currently in the shop - the transmission that was something of a question from the get-go has given up the ghost.

Clearly I wasn't completely blind-sided by events (I wince now when I think how the mechanic I hired to check the car out noticed a little "hitch" in the car's response that "could be something, could be nothing...". I should have walked away right then). But still, I was hoping a new transmission was a year or two (or three) away.

And I know I'm experiencing "selective memory" here, but I am a little bummed, because it seems like anytime I get an injection of cash (ex. a check for Shameless) an expense emerges to swallow it (In this case, the new transmission "swallows" my take-home for the episode I just shot and the next one).

But as a friend said when I recounted my sad tale, while it might be nice to "get ahead", it's a good thing I have the Shameless money at a time like this, so at least I'm "staying afloat" instead of "going under" (And while I'm happier when I don't have any credit card debt, this is pretty much exactly what credit cards are for).

In addition to the transmission, the cat needs to go to the vet (He's had diarrhea for awhile now), and another unexpected, almost $500 expense has come up (That could completely go away if I ignore it...or end up costing me even more, so I'm a little stressed on what to do there).

So hopefully, I shoot enough on Shameless this year, and book enough other things, to "stay afloat", or maybe even - dare I say it? - "get ahead".

Relating to this, a Weight Watchers member was recently sharing some things that were going on with her, some expenses that had cropped up unexpectedly.

I mentioned my stuff, and we had an interesting conversation about "life" - Basically, how we tend to think of things like this as an aberration, something that has dropped in to "mess up our life", when the reality is that this stuff is life.

It's not all life is, clearly, but it's part of it. Things going your way is life...and so is things not going your way.

I don't know if thinking that is gonna make me feel any better when I get a bill I wasn't planning on, or something doesn't go the way I want...but at least it gives me a decent/better perspective on the issue.

And on that note, I must depart...

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