Category Archives: Writing

Strange Day

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Today has been a tad strange. Surprisingly, I mean that as a good strange, an unexpected strange. After the night’s sleep I had, I think the level of productivity I actually achieved is what has thrown me off. For numerous reasons last night (noise, dogs barking, the heat, drunken singing from downstairs, etc.) I got very little sleep. However, the main culprit, who kept me up from 4 in the morning until roughly half 6, was a fly.

There comes a point, when you are after laying in bed for 4 hours, battling to sleep, and you hear something small and innocuous, that you can make one of two choices. Either ignore the buzzing noise that is slightly bothering you, wade through it, keep your eyes shut and doze off. Or, as I did, open them slightly, focus fully on that little buzzing sound, and ruin all your good work. For far too long last night/this morning, I chased a fly around my room. Up the walls, out one window and in the other, running around in circles like a mad man in my boxers, chasing a noise (I only saw the fly a few times). It was all quite… nay, extremely stupid. However, the previous disturbances had me at my wits end so I was determined not to be beaten by a fly.

In the end, all the chasing around tired me out and I dosed off, not sure what time, after 6.30, it was bright outside, and I could hear people pottering around. This was a sober night too, which made it all the worse! I had forgotten that I set my alarm for 10 the next day, so when it piped up, I oddly sprung out of bed at first go, as if my body clock thought I was late for an exam or something along those lines. Standing there, again, like a mad man in a crunched position, in just my boxers, wondering why I had just jumped out of bed at first go, and why was I not so tired after such little sleep, a little buzz in my ear reminded me of the disastrous sleep I had just experienced.

The fly was back in the morning and he was taunting me, darting around my head, buzzing in my ear, whispering insults and ridiculing me, I felt like I was being bullied. When it landed on my right shoulder, I swung blindly for it, missed it, obviously (the fly was far more clever than I could possibly be at that hour) and ended up hitting myself in the shoulder. Again, the fly taunts me by staying close, moving to my lower left back, where once again, like a dumb fool, I swing, miss, and wallop myself in the back, like a slap to the kidneys. At this stage, my lack of sleep is kicking in, I think I am close to losing my mind, let it go, it is a fly, and close my eyes, lifting my head towards the ceiling and taking deep breaths to calm down. Buzz, buzzzz and I feel it brush off my nose. I swing inwards with both hands, flailing wildly, thankfully missing my own face but ending up slumped back on my bed, beaten, distraught, and close to tears.

As I open my eyes and look up, I see the fly across the other side of the room, buzz buzzing at me from a distance, as if he was able to throw his voice, ventriloquist style, just to make me looker stupider. He wins, I leave the room, and let him celebrate, leaving me a broken man, and not yet even had breakfast. As you might tell, as I was eating my porridge, and staring down the barrel of a gun, I did really not expect today to go well, the start alone indicated it would be disastrous.

Strangely, by the time lunch swung around, I was after confirming a meeting this week with the head of the Irish Film Board here in L.A, applied for a website idea competition malarky thing, and managed to be given a successful template which I could use for my sitcom pitch, if and when the time comes around to do so. The template is brilliant, allows me to condense all I want to say, clearly and simply into a 60 second spiel, with the right buzz words, comparisons etc. all laid out. 

After lunch, a wave of stand-up material came to me, the material was flowing! I also realized that my opening line, which has actually worked twice, is not as good as it should be. Something in the context like “Oh, this is my first time doing stand-up and I think I might be crap because I’m not funny and no one laughs at my jokes” is not a great thing to tell the audience, at the start of a stand-up. I thought reverse psychology would be good, but thinking about it, those laughs were not as hearty as I would’ve liked them to be. It is kind of like telling a girl, just as ye are about to, ahem, that, oh, I should warn you, it’s my first time, I will not be that good, but look, we’ll give it a go, and who knows, we might at least get a laugh at how bad I actually am at doing it! Same for all walks of life, who wants a plumber who tells them it is her first time doing this job, or a mechanic who warns you that he is crap, but we’ll plough on! (I hope you appreciated my his and her equality statuses!).

Finished the day off by going to the gym, strangely a couple (guy and girl, could be brother and sister too I suppose) randomly came up to me and asked me why I don’t DJ at night in there. I told them I wasn’t too sure, just had been asked to do days, I suppose evenings would be more fun, busier and all. They nodded and left. They then must’ve went to the manager and came back to tell me they got me Thursday and Friday evenings when it would be busier if I wanted to do them – DJ on Thursday and Friday evenings, not the couple, obviously – the manager had said it was cool. Ok… cheers, thanks for that? See, I found that strange, at the time at least, but maybe thats just me?

And, in case you are wondering, the fly was not hurt. We are now friends, and he is curled up next to me in bed. The strange part is, he is almost finished reading my book before me!!! Wahey boss! Oh Jesus, brutal, I should’ve finished up with the last paragraph.

Song of this strange day is this mighty mash-up… Shut Up And Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand – Ting Tings – DJ Y Alias JY

Don’t I Know You…?

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Sometimes, it is true, it can pay to be lazy. And here is why it paid for me today. Woke up this morning, washed my face, brushed my teeth, combed my hair and proceeded on with my morning rituals. However, this morning I was too lazy to stand for the final part of the ritual, and instead sat down. This was key! As I sat down, my mind was allowed to wander off, and I ended up coming up with 3 full outlines for 3 episodes of the sitcom I am planning on writing next week. Which is more than my brain has offered in about the last week or two alone, so it was big. Thankfully, I had my notepad and pen handy, so now “Who’s Your Paddy?”, “Seeing Stars” and “Forgive Me Father” have been outlined! A mighty day!!! (If you have been reading the blog, you might be able to piece them together. If not, tut tut, get reading).

In case I have not made it too clear, seeing as every man needs my plan, I have a new plan. That is, go to San Francisco next week, stay with my cousin, get productive, and write my sitcom pilot at least. Then, come back to L.A, pilot in hand, and get at least a scene made to have a visual to accompany the reading material. A mighty plan that only took me about a week or two to finally decide on. I would be moving out of my current abode, but not to worry, I found a place two streets over from here that is good to go, wuu. And, BAFTA have been contacted, my link in there told me I am pending at the moment in my application, they want to see progress on the sitcom first. Which is more mighty motivation to get it down and good to go. 

All of this was sorted before lunch. However, lunch itself took a bit of a dip. As I was making a sandwich, a friend (kind of, LA kind anyways) called over for a while with her dog, to talk about random stuff, as she likes to sporadically do now and again. Perfect timing “Oooo, that looks nice, could you make me one?” I’m on the bread line, but couldn’t really say no to a slice or two of bread and some turkey, sure, no problem, my last two slices, I can’t say no now, you see I have at least two left, balls. “Oooo, put some of that on it. Oooo put a tomato on it too. Oooo and some of that, make it up big just like yours.” Which was fine, my sandwich was appealing looking, I couldn’t blame her. Well, fine until I gave it to her, she took a bite of it, then started rambling on, about God only knows what, and feeding the majority of the sandwich to her dog! I zoned out fully, just watching the dog mock me as he ate my bread and food, licking parts of it and then not eating it, just so no one else could eat it. Her dog could sense I am on the bread line, the way he was toying with my bread to the fullest, then spitting it out to rub it in. They will not be let in from now on, I will tell you that much!

After lunch, I manage to resume back to slowly but surely sorting stuff out. A friend who DJ’s and promotes wants me to make a demo to give to a new club that is opening in Hollywood (although I have already been there?) It would be savage to get that gig. Especially seeing as I am DJ’ing all of 3 weeks. Better make a savage demo! I was also informed that my gig on Thursday would be paid, pending. Pending it goes well. Otherwise, I will just be playing music and given a bar tab of maybe $100 – $150, for food or drink on the night. So, the first DJ stint I got, pays me through free gym membership, and the second one pays me, basically, with free booze. At least that anyways. Balances out well really I suppose. Half thinking of going to the local Trader Joe’s offering to DJ in exchange for food. I will be fully equipped in my bartering ways then – food, drink and gym!

I’ll finish up with a story of why it is sometimes better not to recognize someone out loud. And how it can be strange seeing someone outside of where they work. Earlier on I was in a supermarket near my house, re-stocking up on bread if my memory serves me right. Anyways, there are two queues, side by side. I am in one, dawdling away, swinging around, bored. I notice a girl in the queue next to me, and I recognize her face from somewhere, I know her. However, I have no clue from where, but the feeling I saw her on some night out starts to become apparent in my head. Still no clue where though, so I squint a bit more to dig deep and find the memory.

We’re almost parallel in the queues, I am trying not to gawk at her to remember, when I see she notices me too, and the look of her recognizing me dawns across her face. She turns away slightly, as if embarrassed, I look even more as I feel the swell of drunken flashbacks coming from somewhere but which then die down. We catch each others looks again, so I just ask her, sorry, don’t I know you from somewhere? She tells me “I’m not sure, you do look familiar though, where am you from?” The minute I say Ireland, I can see a look of knowledge sweep across her face, then she pulls back. This triggers me off, I know now! The, eh, dancing club at the top of my street!

Cue a bit of embarrassment by her, maybe she doesn’t know me actually, she now claims, maybe not. You do, I tell her, I met you on Saturday, you work in the club, don’t you? Yes, she does, that was it, what’s your name again, oh yeah, thats it! (Lets call her Jane). At this point Jane introduces me to her friend John, also in the queue (it was a long queue by the way, ha). So, my memories are flooding in, she says she does remember me now, didn’t she serve me a drink, yeah, that was it. My memory is flying at this stage, oh no you didn’t, I gave you a dance, thats how I know you! Your friend, or work mate, was the other girl who tried to drag me away! You do look a bit different now, however I suppose we are in a different climate and surroundings, you’re not in your work clothes this time, true true, and also the fact that I’m not the only one wearing clothes this time around.

My final memory was that she had given me her number, to call her some time. Reasons I didn’t were two fold – forgot she had even given me her number, and it is pointless getting numbers off girls here, as my past experiences have highlighted. However, I feel I should make an excuse for not texting, so I say sorry about that, I was going to text, but eh, I had a busy few days sitting on my toilet writing my sitcom. She gives me an inquisitive look, I didn’t give you my number kind of look, shut up look. I, on the other hand, think she doesn’t remember, remind her that she did give me her digits, telling me to text or call her some time.

At this point she makes it quite clear that she definitely didn’t give me her number, this was her boyfriend John, I must have gotten her mixed up with another girl. I look to the ceiling and quickly re-jog my memories, then cop on what she was telling me. Oh right. Well, no it was definitely you, but, eh, anyways, I’ll be off, nice seeing you again, good meeting you John, ciao ciao.

At least, once again, it proves my point, the point which I have been making from day one, and which we all know rings true every day. And that is… ehh… when you’re on the bread line, don’t literally give away your last two slices of bread.

Song of this fine day is… Woman (MSTRKRFT Remix) by Wolfmother

A Toothbrush Away From A Great, Great Day!

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Finally, a day to write home about. Today has been a turn-up for the books – productive, full to the brim, and almost nothing weird or stupid happened. Almost. 

In L.A, it is all about the meetings. Meetings and projects. Everyone is having meetings, working on projects, or having meetings about projects. I too have meetings and projects everyday, but my projects seem to involve meetings that do not benefit me in the slightest. Not today though, the tables were turned.

I was up at the crack of dawn, about half 9, for a meeting I had this morning. Jumped out of bed, forgetting about my leg, and thought it was about to snap like a twig when I put weight on it. Down like a sack of potatoes I go, wasting valuable time. Not wanting to be late (again), I started to multi task to try and make up on lost time. This went well. While brushing my teeth, and listening to some spam voicemail on my phone, I decided to go to the bathroom at the same time, how hard could it be. Hard enough standing up with a brittle leg and dodgy knee. Phone on my shoulder and pressing my ear down on it to hold it safe, toothbrush in my mouth , and hips maneuvering around, things started off well.

Lasted about half a minute. My bathroom window is located across and a bit below somebody’s sitting room in the building next door. When I looked out the window casually, I saw a girl on the phone looking out her window. Our eyes met, I got a bit of a shock, the sudden movement sent a shudder through my knee, which caused me to buckle a bit, phone falls off my shoulder, I reach out to grab it, at the same time the toothbrush drops out of my mouth, I forget to reach for this, catch the phone, my toilet catches my toothbrush. The girl can see all this, I have no curtain in my bathroom, good work out of me. Flush the toilet, fish the toothbrush out, will I rinse it, ha, no, better dump it. Actually, on my budget a toothbrush is a luxury item, will I rinse it… no, I think she’s still looking, better dump it to keep up with the Joneses and all!

No time to waste mourning the loss of a dear friend, I scuttle off to my meeting. The meeting is with a writer/mentor guy I have met before who gave me great advice. Which I did not heed as much as I should have. I am given one last chance, make the meeting on the button for 11, good sign. I have my assignments ready, some are okay, I get grilled on other sections, it is brilliant though, exactly what I need to hear. I am then given an outline and map of what I need to do. I now have a list of 19 bullet points of things I need to do to get where I want to be. Some are big, others are small, but if I cover all bases, do what is required and what I know now is exactly needed to do, I think I can get to where I want to be. Which is a savage thing to have laid out in front of you. These bullets points range from stop being a procrastinating ape, to neutralizing my accent at times to make sure my point is not lost in translation. Every aspect was covered in the two hours. It was savage to hear it all. After the meeting I was funking pumped.

When I get back to my house, things got even better. I am offered a job from Thursday until Sunday. This day is going superbly well and its not even 2 o’clock. The job actually pays money too, depending on how many items I sell. And what is it that I shall be selling…? Shamwows! For anyone who doesn’t know what they are, enjoy this video.

Should be funny enough, I must study the guy’s facial expression and enthusiasm to make sure I sell enough of them to make some bobs. Shamwow on!!!

I was on a roll, surely I should just cut my losses and go to bed at 4 in the afternoon to make sure I didn’t ruin the day. However, about an hour later I find out that one of the acting classes I went to audit before I was in Mexico, are offering me to audit a few more classes if I like. Once again, for free, so I surely will (the classes cost almost $100 per class if you break it down so getting them for free is highly recommended). It is in the Lee Strasberg acting school, the scene of all the crying and nutters that actually turned out to be good in the end (if you don’t remember, read the madness here).

The class I am auditing is for TV and Film Acting. Sounds perfect. Except for the fact that, once again, the acting studio has no air conditioning, it is like a sauna. However, besides that, it is far and away the best class I have been to, it is brilliant! The teacher is young compared to all the other teachers so far (late 20’s), and he is definitely the best. No crap or bulls**t like all the others, his advice is spot on, and the direction he gives after seeing a scene once is savage, improves all the actors who are involved. Plus he gave interesting side stories, not boasting like some of others (for example, Heath Ledger used Clockwork Orange as his inspiration for the Joker, used to be playing all the time in his trailer during filming).

A downside was sitting next to a gimp, who kept eating popcorn and slurping a drink, claiming to not understand me when I asked him to stop, I am still working on the neutralizing part of my accent. And he kept, kept, kept panting and saying “Hmmmm” for no apparent reason, to himself. He was the spitting image of this dude from the Big Lebowski.

A German guy livened things up a good bit too. He had a scene prepared, which he actually did well, bar the fact he couldn’t make himself cry for the big finale. After the final effort he had at doing it – Cuuuut, next week maybe Jurgen – he freaked at himself that he couldn’t cry, and ended up freaking so much that his eyes watered up and he left the room whimpering, two minutes too late though. It was nuts but a good laugh to watch. Especially when he got some criticism and advice mixed up, lost in translation. The teacher told him… “You should treat your acting like the act of foreplay, don’t rush the key part and get it over with too quickly, build up to the crying part”. To which he got very offended by, and shouted out that he loves to eat the…, just ask his wife. Ha. The awkward silence that followed was worth going to the class alone, although myself and Jesus next to me couldn’t stop laughing. I have a bucket load of savage notes as well from the rest of the class, 4 hours long and only the last guy wasn’t the May West and a bit boring.

While reading over the notes I had taken on the hobble home, I missed a dip in the path, put all my weight on the bad knee, and faltered like James Brown. It was at this time, while kind of holding my knee and trying to recuperate, on the side of the street in the gay neighborhood that I live in, that two gay dudes in an Escalade pull up next to me, surely to see if I was alright. Window rolls down, a fat gay dude pops his fat gay head out “Hey baby, are you working?” Huh, yeah, how did you know? I got a job selling Shamwows toda… hang on a minute, what the funk do you mean?!!! “Oh my God, I’m so sorry, we thought you were, drive…” and the two apes drive off in a hurry. It’s only when they have taken off in a hurry that it dawns on me what had happened, the dopes. Although, although, it was haunted that I got the good news of the Shamwows job earlier that day, things were looking bleak! Ha. Hang on buddy, I never gave you the price list!!!

All in all, a productive day I must say, I need my sleep after it. Must just brush my teeth first. As I said, I am not yet living the lap of luxury to afford such things as new toothbrushes, so looks like it will have to be the toothpaste on the finger trick for a while. Song of the day… The Plot by White Rabbits

Poker With Slash? Jazz With Prince? I’ll Pass

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My first few days back in L.A have been rocky to say the least. I was getting body blows from all angles. Firstly, I had to pay rent, blow to the stomach. Secondly, I now had to pay for the gym, that bastard, blow to the kidneys. All of this and still no job on the horizon. I was then told by someone in the know to check out if I could even act or audition here while not having a long term visa, cheap blow to the mid-section.

Finally, I was hit with some really hard news to take. While I was gone, I missed out on a big game of poker in Robbie Williams’ house, which was fine, until I was told Slash was playing! Slash, how many times would I get a chance to play poker with a Guns & Roses dude?! Upper cut to the chin, I was reeling and only back a day or two!!! I’ll ignore the fact that they were probably not all playing for the usual $10 a man pot I play, so not sure if my budget would’ve allowed me to take up the offer anyways. I’ll ignore that though.

I decided I would sleep the body blows off, it’ll all be rosy in the morning. However, it was then that I realized I need new sheets and pillows, the ones I had been using were no longer there. Using my great improvisation skills, I used a slightly wet hand towel as my pillow the first night, and my very damp bath towel as my sheet, almost covering me down to my waist, I was sorted! Although sheets and pillows were luxury items on my new budget, after that great sleep, I felt they would be a good investment. It was only when I got to the shop, saw the prices, and checked my budget, that the FEAR showed up and started to win the fight. I could afford one pillow, and a sheet. Maybe I’ll try to rob a homeless guy’s blanket on the way home.

Second night back in L.A, depleted of money (I bought food as well – a loaf of bread, 2 eggs, 1 can of tuna, a banana, handful of nuts, and a yoghurt, hopefully all of that will last me a week or two) and fighting the FEAR, I decided I would start being smarter with my money, start to economize, focus on what I could afford and needed. So, when my roommates asked me to join them in going to a jazz night at a club, I played my smart card, and declined. I was looking forward to trying out my new sheet and pillow anyways.

Woke up the next day, and I am informed I missed a great night, jazz was really good, place was cool, do I know Prince? Not personally, but yes, why so? Oh, he was there as well, jazzing it up. I prefer Michael Jackson anyways. For some reason, it was at this point when I decided to give up worrying. Funk the FEAR, I will beat you off (not in the West Hollywood way, but you know what I mean). I had missed out on poker with Slash, and now a night of jazz with Prince. I was resisting L.A, trying to be smart, use my head, think things through, economize, plan ahead. Thats not what L.A was about for me, I had to get back to basics, back to being dumb and going with the flow, stick to what you know!!!

Rent was paid for the month, I had bought time at least. I was in hobo heaven, a poor man’s paradise! So what if E.T was calling me to go home, I must plough on! Acting might not be the immediate route, but writing is free to do wherever. Looks like its back to getting free acting classes too, I could still do it! Who cares if the sheets I bought are actually meant for a single bed and my bed is a king size, so what if they don’t fit, it all be alright! The minute I stopped worrying about the funds, if I was goosed, how could I afford the acting classes, should I buy new sheets, etc., bits and pieces started to fall my way. Kind of.

While in the gym, after talking about music to the gay dude and how crap it is in the gym at times, there is now a chance I could get a job there as D.J during the day, ha, funking hilarious. I have to drop a demo in tomorrow. I also have a meeting with a guy about potentially running a night or DJ’ing in his bar/restaurant. I need to brush up on my mixing skills fairly lively. There is also now another possibility of selling Shamwows on the weekends, my career options are on the up!

More good news today. My roommate told me, if it ever came to it, I could act away as well without a visa, start off in non-union stuff, I should put up a resume on L.A Casting to get the ball rolling. Wuu huu, my acting career was rising up from the flames, Phoenix style! Seems I just have to remember to try not to be too smart and over-think things. I should have no problem with that so. L.A seems to have made me dumber anyways, or else I just get into more dumb scenarios when I go with the flow, or it could be a combination of all three. Wahey!

Song of this glorious, sunny day is I Feel It All by Feist, pump it up!!!

Procrasta Nation

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This morning I was woken up thinking the earthquake had come back for seconds. However, only one wall was shaking this time, and it didn’t last quite as long. It must have only been just a tremor, ha, go on the rabbits in the apartment below! Anyways, today was a big, big, big day. After my brief, yet exhilarating, fling with the earthquake yesterday, I was nay so productive. How could I concentrate or focus after the earthquake swept me off my feet like that, it was like something out of a movie! I had planned that today would be my mighty day of work. Included in my plan was to first watch the Ireland – Italy soccer match. This was before I was reminded today that the match was, in fact, on tomorrow, and not today.

After finding out I now had a two hour gap in my meticulously planned out day, I was left with a conundrum – finish (ahem, start) the writing assignments off two hours earlier than planned, or, get a few small things on my to-do list out of the way. To-do on!!!

While having breakfast, I couldn’t find the remote, so sat through an episode of General Hospital. It was pretty horrendous, who was I to judge though, it was only my first episode. So, I watched another 2 episodes to make sure. Still pretty horrendous but at least Chad got out of the coma in the end, wuu huu! After that, I moved on to my laundry. I washed dirty clothes, clean clothes, other peoples clothes, everything and anything. I ironed clothes, folded the washed clothes, refolded t-shirts that were already folded, got some stubborn stains out, I was highly productive! This was going swimmingly well so far.

Next, I decided to head down to the Polish shop and check out the sale they were having on fish today. I bought myself a nice bit of swordfish, first time really trying it I think, thought it was odd that it tasted a bit like licorice and mustard but maybe thats what all swordfish taste like? It was after lunch when I remembered I had forgot to clean my runners, I had better wash the laces by hand, to-do on!!! 

Obviously I then moved on to doing some good writing research online, on Spacebook, checking Craigslist for any spoof jobs or new Buckets, downloading music, doing jigs to a few songs, all that productive stuff. I exhausted every possible avenue that I could to avoid doing my homework. For some reason, I felt like I was being punished. For God’s sake, do I have to do the writing? What will happen if I don’t? I’ll be grounded? Fine, ground me. I killed off some more time by thinking of an episode for the Office, and an episode for my new sitcom. I have the outline of them good to go, wuu huu, so at least that was semi-productive. Plus I half thought of a name for my sitcom. If you have any suggestions feel free to horse them on!! All I need to do now for them is type them out, along with the easy task of doing the witty and funny dialogue, era shur isn’t that the easy part! Ha.

Eventually, after kicking my bedroom door a few times and stomping up the stairs, I sat down and started the writing assignments (spoof). Once I started (spoof), obviously, they were grand. I got them done fairly quickly (spoof), covered all I needed to as well, happy enough with them. All of that avoidance for that? I am an ape. At least I got to see Chad wake up. 

My next post will be when I am back in L to the Heeeeeeeey. I just got off the phone with her actually. She told me how the Bucket had called around a few times, drunk, with her new man, made a big scene, thank God I wasn’t there for that. It was very emotional. Here’s a song I played to cheer her up… Dance Tonight by Paul McCartney

Did I Do You Yet?

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Out of all the gyms, in all of gay San Francisco, I pick a gym owned by a straight guy, so I now have to pay, like a chump, it’s awful carry on. This gym, however, posed a very important question for me to mull over today – What is gayer: the couple (guy and girl) who both times I have been there have worn identical matching outfits (different matching outfits too, first day mostly made up of blue, I thought it was a strange coincidence, today mostly black and white, confirmed my ape suspicions), who wont stop walking around the gym with their arms around each other’s lower back so they’re waddling in sync, OR; the gay couples in the gym in West Hollywood. Both are pretty, pretty gay. OR, me, seeing as I probably trump them both for noticing and taking the time to write about it. Plus the fact I’ve used OR twice so far and keep saying it out loud as I do. I win.

Moving on, while I am on my week or so away from L.A, I have been given writing assignments to do, to assess and reflect on the time I have been there so far. Different writing and organisation exercises to see if I am serious about writing, can I work in a time frame, how has the acting side of things gone for me, or I am just in L.A to party. I have worked hard all day, procrastinating, thinking about which one I should do first. As of yet, I am still undecided, so I’ll hold off until tomorrow to start. I think I will plough ahead with the one I must write about what I have done so far while in L.A to achieve my goals, and what then is it that I need to do when I go back.

First thing I did to perfection in L.A, was to finely hone the art of procrastination whilst on Craigslist, thinking I was being productive. Craigslist is one of the most helpful, frustrating, useful, annoying, time saving and time consuming websites there is out there. It is a complete paradox. I have had many hits, and double the misses from the website. The good: I found a place to live with cool roommates; the website indirectly got me playing soccer in Robbie Williams’ house. The bad: got me excited about a job that never seemed to really exist (hired at about 3 in the afternoon, company disappeared off the radar about 11 that night); had me walk around the city of L.A to open interview jobs where hundreds of others would also show up before me (might have been handy if I brought a C.V along with me to those interviews, although making out a C.V for myself might be a good starting point too); the whole Bucket fiasco (go read the plentiful posts on that if you need a reminder, I miss her still). I’m sure there have been many more misses, they are just the main ones off the top of my head. I won’t even mention what happens if you try to get free Sigur Ros tickets from someone off the website, lets just say nothing is free in this day and age!

Anyways, for the first few weeks in L.A, I was convincing myself that looking for a job and car on Craigslist, or posting ads offering soccer coaching, website design, accent coaching, translation, pornogr…photography lessons etc, was a way of me being productive. Nay, nay, nay. Complete waste of time, although at least it got me out of the house!

On the acting side, I have probably not done enough, but I have made some sort of progress. I am still agent-less, and my phone has yet to start hopping with calls about auditions. No SAG card or head shots either come to think of it. However, at least now, when an acting teacher asks me “Have you studied Method, or Meisner, or theatre, or E-Business, or whatever before?”, I no longer reply sheepishly “Eh, yeah?”, but instead confidently reply, with a wink, “All of the above really”. Progress has been made! 

My ramblings are being put on paper, so to speak, so at least the writing is flowing. I have Craigslist to thank for a good bit of that, so that is another hit really. And now that I have been given assignments, and even asked to do an article, big time Charlie, hopefully more structure will come to it. Sitcom on!!!

All my galavanting on nights out has led me to make a few contacts, which is a plus. They might not remember me too well, or my many names, but I’m sure they will be delighted to learn that I have put them on my speed dial. Lucky them. Plus I now know who to call if ever I want to get scammed into buying a broken down truck, always handy. It’s all about who you know really, ha.

So, from the gibberish above, I see that I have done a few things ok, to an extent, and the rest, eh…yeah. I haven’t even made out this list or post well, the random ramblings are kicking in. Ok, focus, what’s the first thing on my to do list when I get back to L.A… what to do… to do… to duu… I thought of something! Here’s hoping my hot neighbour wants to do it too!

Here’s a great song to pound the streets of L.A to while on the job hunt, although it has yet to bring me luck in finding a job…Punkrocker by the Teddybears ft Iggy Pop.