I usually pride myself on being un-struck by celebrity#–I’ve worked with celebrities on projects, met them at functions and occassions, and I’ve never had a freak-out moment when I’ve met one. You know, the slack-jawed jabbering crazy-man with a too-tight handshake persona that most people take on when faced with a human being normally encountered only through the television or on the movie screen.

Well, today I was that guy.

The movie that really got me turned on to indy filmmaking is the movie Swingers, and once I learned about what it took to get the movie made, how it was made, and the lengths that the director went to get everything just right, I loved it even more. That movie’s director went on to create some of my favorite projects (Go, The Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith) as a helmer, and additional amazing works as a producer. His name is Doug Liman, and today I ran into him on the Upper East Side.

After dealing with the relative horrors of Hotmail for far, far too long, I’ve gone and changed my personal email address to a Gmail account (from the wonderkids at Google). So far, it’s the best email I’ve used#–with a bit of a learning curve (and no spam). The only way to get an account is to be invited by someone else (thank you Dan at the Moxie) or by using your cell phone to sign up.

I’ve actually had my account for some time now (thanks to Dan), but only signed up out of curiosity. I didn’t expect to turn it into my main email account for personal mail. But then the other day I signed into my Hotmail account (after a two day email hiatus) and had to wade through several hundred emails just to find things my friends sent me. Not my idea of a good time. So I started reviewing that Gmail thing that Dan sent me months ago and low and behold it’s the answer to all my email dreams#–a web-based email system that I can: access anywhere, download messages from into my computer (and Outlook), and use to store archived messages online as a backup (with the bonus that emails stored on the system are easy to search through with Google’s interface).

If you are in New York (or visiting in the next two months) and looking for a class to improve your skills in musical theatre auditioning, this is one you shouldn’t miss. Hollie is a friend of mine#–a gifted performer with a lot of knowledge on what it takes to work in musical theater.

Audition Intensive

Free Introductory Class!!

With Broadway Performers:

Shayna Steele (Rent, Jesus Christ Superstar, Hairspray) and

Hollie Howard (Annie Get Your Gun, Mamma Mia!, Hairspray)

Focusing on:

• Song Interpretation
• What casting directors are looking for in an audition
• How to communicate with the accompanist
• How to get an agent
• Open calls/EPAs
• The survival job: What to do to make money while waiting for your big break

And that’s just the introductory class!  This is the start of a new 4-week course starting in January 2006 focusing also on cold reads, headshots/resumes, putting a successful songbook together, and Q/A sessions with today’s Broadway Stars and Casting Directors!

Anyone in New York at the beginning of December, tickets are on sale for The Long Christmas Dinner and A Christmas Carol.

It’s amazing what the body can put up with, given an appropriate amount of time to acclimate. To whit: I’m now fairly comfortable going on 5 hours of sleep a night. I’m not saying I want to make it a habit, but since this crazy schedule is going to persist for the next two or three weeks, I’m at least pleasantly surprised that I’m not considering suicide right about now. In fact, I even feel a bit energized.

After some soul searching, I decided to try some targeted ads on my blog#–I mean, why not? Revenue from blogging? Sounds good to me!

But tonight I checked out my blog and found something dispicable: a targeted ad sending people to a website promising to find acting work for a "small fee". And that is just awful. The website in question is preying on the dreams of artists, and it can not be, in any way, legitimate.

So I took off all the ads. No. More. Ads. If I can’t control it, it’s not going on my site.

So blogging will continue to be something that I pay to do, and my site will not compromise on my integrity… at least not without my doing it inadvertently through my own content. :p

Just when I thought I wouldn’t have anything to blog about, I discovered Miss Castaway: the movie that will single-handedly re-invigorate Michael Jackson’s acting career.

Really.

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On Wednesday, I met Frank, the Producer at One Life, and read again for Julie Madison (head casting director). Everything went well, and I’m hoping this means they will be calling me in the future. My consultant at TVI said that getting called in to read for a Producer’s session is a really good thing, so I’m just thankful I seem to be heading in the right direction.

I’m sending out a mailing tonight about the auditions I’ve been on recently and the plays in which I’ve been cast: I haven’t had the time to send anything in recent weeks, and I feel as though I’ve fallen a bit behind. Between now and Christmas my schedule is packed, so I’m finding it hard to do anything at all… much less sit down and type up postcards.

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