The Contender

I guess maybe ‘reality TV’ is an acquired taste, but I think this show is almost empirically good. I suppose there are those who ‘don’t like boxing’, and I can accept that but, for the rest of us, this is a super show. I think it’s because boxing is such an ego-centric sport. More so than basketball, football, baseball, hockey, soccer, and on and on and on. Also, the thrill of rooting against a boxer or for a boxer is much greater than rooting for or against a team. It’s just fun to watch such a battle of huge egos. These guys all think they’re the best thing ever… and only one of them will finish on top.

Anyway, my grammar is horrible and I’m not making much sense. Note to self: don’t drink Sleepy Time tea before posting.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Vegas: A couple days later

Ok, so I mostly covered the gambling part of my trip in my daily posts and I feel I should also cover the other things I did. First off, I stayed in a room on the 21st floor of the Bellagio. It was really nice, but the nicest part was the bathroom. Not only was their a shower stall, but there was also a big ol’ bathtub. I didn’t use the tub, but it was nice to know it was there. Everything was made of top-quality materials and there was an abundance of marble.

There was a wired internet connection for $11 a day per computer. My buddy and I both had our wireless laptops, so I brought along a wireless router. It worked really well and we only got charged for one computer (because the router looks like a computer to the internet connection and it masks all the computers that use it).

I ate at a few very nice restaurants. First was Sensi, an international restaurant with all kinds of different food. We had a raw seafood platter for an appetizer (I tried a raw clam) and I had grilled chicken for dinner. Of course, I also had a glass of white wine and it was super.

Next night, we ate at Olives. It was another restaurant with a lot of variety, but it hand a bias to Italian food. Again, I had a glass of white wine and some very tasty salmon for dinner.

After dinner at Olives, we went to a show at the Improv over at Harrah’s. It was pretty funny, but not the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. The emcee was actually funnier than the two headliners. It was a really good time and we all had a bunch of laughs… most of which were at material that I probably shouldn’t repeat here.

One morning, we went to the Buffet at Bellagio. It was incredible. So much food and so little time to eat it all. It took a few minutes just to walk around and look at everything, let alone eat it. I had french toast, sausage, eggs, a muffin and some fruit. I also played Keno for the first time, but none of us made any money (surprise!).

The last morning, we went to the Cafe at Bellagio and played some more Keno. I won five bucks and my buddy’s mom won 20 bucks. She was on fire all week and probably ended up leaving about $1000 up. In fact, my friend’s entire family cleaned up at Bellagio and I was the only one in our group to leave with a net loss.

…BUT, that net loss has been erased as I’ve made back all I lost and then some playing poker online. I was down $214,but between yesterday and today, I made about $230. So, the money I lost in Vegas will be in my bank account in 72 hours or less. I made that money in about 5 hours playing online. Outrageous.

That’s about it. I had an awesome time both gambling and hanging out with my friend’s family. They are really awesome people and I enjoyed getting to know them all better. I got to experience some things I’d never experienced before (like the meals at Sensi and Olives and the show at the Improv). And I stayed in one of the nicest hotels in the world. I learned how to play blackjack and played my first poker in a casino. Man, what a great experience. Hopefully that won’t be my last trip to Vegas.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Million Dollar Baby

Heartbreaking.

I don’t throw sappy words like that around lightly. The thing that struck me most was how quietly everyone left the theatre. The theatre wasn’t packed, but it only takes one person to make a sound and no one did. We were all thinking Would I have done that? I don’t think so. But I might have. I don’t know.

I really don’t even know what to say. I’m almost afraid anything I’d write would just be superficial and hokey. I’ll say this: Movies like this are the reason I first considered acting and screenwriting. Movies like these are the ones that count, they’re the ones that affect people. What I just saw wasn’t entertainment, it was something else. Something more.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Buddies’ Band ’bout to Blow Up

Ok, I generally don’t refer directly to other people on my blog, but this is a special occasion. My friends Chris and Casey have started a band called northsouth and it’s ramping up to speed pretty quickly. They just finished recording their first EP and it should be for sale starting in January. You can hear the EP and see where their upcoming shows are at their website. I’ve got a link over on the sidebar.

Maybe one day I’ll be able to sit in for a show with them or something. I guess I’d have to do that before they’re too famous to remember who the heck I am.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Reading Sanford Meisner On Acting

Another student in my Meisner class told me he’s been reading this book and it’s helped him out a lot. I started reading it yesterday and it’s already been very helpful. The first thing I’ve noticed is that our class went much faster than Meisner did with his classes. After two weeks, we were where he was in over a month.

Moreover, it seems he was a little less strict with his repetition exercise than our instructor has been. This is true for a few aspects of the exercise. First, our instructor seems to want us to keep repeating each line for quite a while. I know there’s a fine line between flowing in repetition and doing a scene, but I always felt like we were closer to repetition than doing a scene while our instructor seemed to feel the opposite. I’m not saying I think she was wrong, just that we were more right than we thought. Also, one thing Meisner seems to emphasize is that we not say anything until we feel we need to say it, until our partner does something that makes us want to speak. This has been something I’ve felt is necessary and yet I’ve felt our instructor pushing us to answer quickly and passionately… problem is I often don’t feel like answering right away and the passion isn’t there.

Overall, I think the book is giving me more of a perspective on what Meisner intended with his technique. I have been gleaning little bits from my class, but I’ve also felt sort of helpless and lost for a good portion of it. This book is filling in the gaps and answering lots of questions. Before our final session, I intend to read and re-read the first few chapters of the book since they cover what we’ve done in class. Hopefully, I’ll understand it better and perform better for our last session.

One thing I’m seeing more and more is that I have to get out of my head with this exercise. It’s frustrating because we moved so quickly into adding levels of complexity to the exercise that I almost have to stay in my head in order to just keep afloat. What I mean is that we have several levels to each exercise: my activity, my expectation of who’s coming to the door, my interpretation of the knock at the door and finally the need of the person on the other side of the door. We take all this into account and then do the repetition exercise. Problem is I never became totally comfortable with the raw exercise itself: two people repeating a line.

Anyway, I think I’m learning a lot, especially now that I’m supplementing the class with the book. Hopefully I’ll be better prepared by the time we meet again and I’ll do better work.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Back from L.A.

I’ve been back for a few days, but I’ve been too lazy to post. Go figure.

Anyway, my time in L.A. was great. I went to the Santa Monica Pier, hung out with a good friend, met a VP at Sony Pictures and got a free lunch, got a free tour of Sony Picture Studios, got hooked up with a free copy of Angels & Demons (I hear it’s good), got my headshots done, and saw Garden State.

Now, let’s get right to Garden State, shall we? I remember a teaser a long time ago where the announcer guy said, “Rolling Stone calls it the seminal movie of this generation” Obviously, I was interested because I wouldn’t want to miss something so important to my generation. I knew Zach Braff (“Scrubs guy”) was in it and I heard Natalie Portman co-starred, but that’s about all I knew. Turns out it’s a fantastic movie. I’ve been seeing a lot of those lately, but this one took the cake.

The plot is solid and poignant, the soundtrack is awesome, the acting is perfect and the movie comes together nicely to tell a great story that I can largely sympathize with (I chose “with” as the preposition to end that sentence with). I don’t want to spoil anything, but the movie just hits so many things right on the head; relationships first among those things. The movie explores many different types of relationships and seems to understand each type completely.

I need to stop rambling because I’m not even beginning to do this film justice. I’ll be buying it when it comes out on DVD in December.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Wow.

Yeah, that gets its own sentence, its own paragraph. What a fantastic film. Charlie Kaufman simply has a knack for writing unusual but wonderful screenplays and in Eternal Sunshine, just as in Adaptation, his writing is complimented with fantastic acting.

This film defies those who would insist on pigeon-holing it into either a plot-driven or a character-driven piece. It’s both and it’s neither; it’s really about something that is written so well between the lines that it is the lines. I sound like I’m trying to be profound, but I’m not. It is profound and I’m simply having trouble processing everything.

Kaufman floats the idea of a true love, but he contradicts that idea with a persistent lust of a kind that manifests itself almost identically. Even as I’m writing, other contrasts and comparisons are coming to mind. The entire movie is about points of view, perspectives and human nature.

Gaudry does a fantastic job of capturing things so etherreal as the mind and memory, and does an even better job of showing us what it might look like to have one’s memories erased. I was also impressed with the overlapping sets that are frequently utilized and the use of light as a sort of character in itself.

I expect Oscar nods for Kaufman, Carey, Winslet and possibly Michel Gondry and I look forward to Kaufman’s next screenplay.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Florida: Days 6 through 8

Well, power was restored here a couple days ago and we finally got cable/internet back up today. This trip has been a lot different than my last trip because it’s basically been about seeing people and spending time with them. Usually, I spend time with people by getting a meal with them. My routine has been to wake up around 10:30, go to lunch with someone around noon, then come home and nap or whatever, then go to dinner with someone else (usually a group) around 6:00 or so, then hang out and play cards or something till around 2 AM.

Last time I was here, I spent more time playing frisbee golf and basketball and stuff like that. Ironically, though the two trips are a lot different, they’re very similar in that my goal is to spend as much time with my friends as possible. Last time, it worked out so I was playing sports with them; this time, I have spent my time just sitting around and eating with them. Both experiences have been equally fulfilling.

Last night, I went to a Crusade meeting and I was really impressed with how well it went. The emcees were great and the meeting flowed smoothly and was effective. I enjoyed it and I had a great time seeing everyone while I was there.

Tonight, I’m getting the crew together to head out to Newberry for Newberry Backyard BBQ–the best babyback ribs I’ve ever had. Then, we’re going to come back here and watch the FSU vs. Miami game. Hopefully, FSU will lose by a field goal. I guess the only thing better than that would be if they lost by a field goal that was allowed by some ridiculous oversight by the ref’s.

Only a few more days and I’m headed back to Texas. Looks like I’ll be traveling a lot over the next few months: First week in October, I’m going to be in LA; Third week in October, I’ll be in LA; Thanksgiving, I’ll be in Florida; Christmas, I’ll be in Florida and Atlanta. All this traveling is already putting a huge damper on my workout schedule. It’s a hard-knock life.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Florida: Days 1 and 2 Well, my plane ride in was uneventful and quick. My only beef was that the A/C on the plane was weak and it was freakin’ hot the whole way to Florida. The hurricane has been a non-factor so far in my trip. Some friends picked me up at the airport and we immediately headed for Outback for some Cheesefries and a Special. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing and talking. Friday, I spent the day with my family (as is my tradition when I come back this way). I had some great conversations and spent quality time with my parents and the rest of my family. At night, a couple of my buddies drove up from Gainesville and picked me up. We headed back to G-ville and played some poker till about 5 AM. That’s about it so far. We’re headed out to lunch pretty soon.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Inside the Actor’s Studio: Harrison Ford

I’ve seen many episodes of this show, but Harrison Ford’s interview is up at the top of the list as far as content and honesty. I have learned little things from others’ interviews, but it seemed like almost everything he had to say was something I could use as I pursue acting as a career. Ultimately, I think the thing that floored me most was his humility, a characteristic not often demonstrated by actors and others in ‘the business’.

This one’s under ‘Keep until I delete’ on my TiVo.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites