Back in the Big Bad Apple

So last week I went back to New York to visit and see some shows.  I chose that particular week because Becca, my friend who also took a gap year, would be in New York at the end of her program.

On Monday I flew in, and luckily enough for me a guy who works at my dad's company was on my flight and had a limo meeting him at the airport, so I got a free ride into the city.  

Tuesday I met Becca early in the morning at The Public, and we both ended up buying tickets to a show the next night.  The we had an epic day of subways and walking around.  We went to the zoo, Times Square, back to The Public (the box office wasn't open that morning -- and on our return trip to The Public we ran into Jess, a friend/coworker from my days of working there), back to Times Square, then Rock Center and up to the Apple Store.  We had intended to go to FAO Schwartz, which is right behind the Apple Store, but by the time we got there we were so tired and our feet hurt so badly that we just sat in front of the apple store and chilled for a few hours.  Which was actually really nice.  Oh, and at one point after the zoo we walked through Central Park and chilled in a gazebo for a bit.

Tuesday night I met up with my friend Deborah who was my fellow literary intern at The Public.  We saw "West Side Story," which was really great.  Then we walked all the way home (our NYC bases are literally right across the street from each other).  We were very proud of ourselves that we did that.

Wednesday I pretty much lazed around all day.  I felt exhausted from Tuesday, lethargic, and a little physically ill.  So I stayed in and had some Chinese delivery food for lunch.

That night I met up with Becca at The Public to see "Why Torture is Wrong and the People who Love Them" by Christopher Durang.  It was wonderful and hilarious, although near the very end of the second act a woman behind us said to her friend, "This is too terrible," then got up and left.

Thursday I went to Bloomingdales to spend the rest of the gift card I received as a Christmas gift.  Then I got a cab and went to the Natural History Museum.  It was a Prius cab, which was super exciting for me :).  I hung out in the museum for a while, and went to the Butterfly conservatory exhibit thing they have there.  When I left I think a butterfly hitched a ride on my leg and made a break for freedom!  But the fugitive butterfly was caught and returned to his home.

After the museum I thought about getting a cab, but ended up walking through the park.  I'm so happy I did that, since something upsetting had happened earlier and walking in the park was so calming and amazing.  I took a ton of photos, not all of which were good but they were fun to take, and I found the Shakespeare Garden for the first time, which was gorgeous.

When I finally go to the other side of the park I had enough time before I was supposed to meet my friend Zoe, so I took the subway to Times Square.  I met up with Zoe and, after not being able to get in to any nicer restaurants, we ended up at the Olive Garden for dinner, which was actually great.  Then we went to see "Rock of Ages," which was SO fun, especially since '80s rock is fully my guilty pleasure.

I flew home on Friday.  I left my apartment at 12:30-ish, thinking I was playing it safe for my 3:00 flight.  Well, I get to the airport and it turns out my flight is at TWO!  Once again, I stand by my theory that nothing good ever happens at JFK airport.  But I did make the flight, barely, so I guess it all worked out.

Big Ol' Update

So, I have quite a bit to update.  Starting with, Spring Break (woo!):

For the first week of Sally's spring break we took a family trip to Italy.  First, we went to Venice which is an absolutely beautiful city.  Then we went to Florence:

We spent one day climbing so many stairs -- first the campanile, then the duomo.  The duomo is amazing, although the climb was a little scary since it's all winding, narrow staircases.

This past weekend I went to the music festival Coachella with a bunch of my friends.  I only went to Friday, but most of it was really fun.  This is who I saw there:

Steve Aoki

The Black Keys (pictured above -- the singer/guitarist is my cousin's cousin and I've met him a few times, so I tried to say "hi" after the show but it turned out I was in the wrong place.  I did befriend some security guards, though.)

Conor Oberst

Leonard Cohen (only for about 2 minutes though)

Morrissey

Paul McCartney

McCartney was by far the best part -- his show (full concert length) was amazing!  My friend Brittany and I were there watching him 'til 1:00 AM (the rest of our friends lamely left early as they were "unimpressed" by Sir Paul.  Hey, if they'd really rather see Ghengis Tron they can suit themselves).  We entered hell upon trying to exit the parking lot, but two hours later finally made it back to our friend Adam's La Quinta house at which we were staying.

Nick, Sarah and I left Saturday morning.  That was fine with me, since I couldn't have dealt with another whole day at the festival, and all the acts I really wanted to see were on Friday anyway.  On the way home we stopped at the Cabazon dinosaurs, which are these giant dinos just off the freeway.  It was kinda trippy.

I left on Saturday because I had to be home the night for the H-W Jazz Festival, a concert Leland co-produced benefitting the charity Inner City Arts.  It was a really great concerts -- students from a bunch of different high schools played together, then 7 famous professional jazz musicians who had never played in a combo together before performed the second half of the concert.  Like I said, it was a really great show.

The next morning, Sunday, Leland and I went out for brunch at Patrick's Road House in the Palisades.  While we were eating I noticed this woman walking in wearing big sunglasses.  She was a thin brunette and looked like a movie star, although she was not a familiar face.  She was followed by her daughter and husband, who was a very casually dressed chill-looking guy in a baseball cap.  Who just happened to be Marc Blucas from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, one of my favorite TV shows of all time.  As we were leaving, another couple was on their way in to join the Blucas party, and as I was standing up/heading out I blocked their way and said, "Sorry." 

"Sorry," replied Jonathan Rhys Meyers in that lovely British accent of his.

When I applied to Emerson, I wrote an essay entitled "Famous People I've Almost Met."  At the time, the list included Michael Cera and Steve Buscemi.  It grew to include Daniel Radcliffe, and now includes Jonathan Rhys Meyers.  Cool?

Other than that I've mostly been hanging out and looking for summer employment.

Update

Sorry, it's been a while.

In news unrelated to updating you on my life, this will be happening in the future:

This Saturday (April 18) at 8:00 PM will be the HW Jazz Festival 2009.  It will feature jazz students from 10 Los Angeles-area high schools and 6 world renowned jazz musicians.  These jazz greats will be playing together for one night only.  Marcus Miller (bass), Bob Sheppard (sax), Alan Pasqua (piano), Bernie Dresel (drums), Chris Tedesco (trumpet), and Bob McChesney (trombone).  Tickets at $15 and all proceeds will benefit the Inner City Arts foundation.  The festival is sponsored by West L.A. Music, Playboy Jazz Festival, and KJAZZ (88.1 FM).  As previously stated, it's on Saturday, April 18 at 8:00 PM in Rugby Auditorium at Harvard-Westlake School (3700 Coldwater Canyon    North Hollywood, CA 91604).  You can buy tickets online at www.hw.com/boxoffice

Please go it's for charity and it'll be a great concert.  Seriously, just buy a ticket even if you can't go because it's all for charity.  Seriously.  Do it.

As far as I'm concerned, I went to Italy with my family (Venice and Florence), and it was gorgeous.  I have a TON of pictures so I'll try to post them on picasa soon.  Other than that... not much is up.  I'm just working on finding a job or internship or volunteer position for the summer, so I'll keep you posted.

Last Day of New Job

Hey guys. Last week I stage managed the H-W Dance Concert, and this week I've been interning at NASH Entertainment. It's a production company that produces reality clip shows (mostly for Tru TV). My cousin used to work here and one of her friends is a pretty important honcho around here (y'know, I'm not entirely certain what he does, but he has a nice office and seems pretty important so... yeah) so he set me up with a weeklong internship/learning opportunity. Like my week at "The Suite Life," my first reaction was complete and utter culture shock, simply because every facet of the completely nutso entertainment industry is different. I'm looking into summer jobs and I'm thinking of applying either to work at the Getty (preferably in photography, of course) or volunteering 3-4 days a week at Cedars Sinai hospital. I think the hospital one would be a nice change of pace for me after spending this year exploring "the industry."

Anyway, NASH produces these clip shows. I'm working in the offices for the show "Most Daring," which is in its 4th season. The 4th season actually wraps this week (except for post-production), and they start on season 5 I think next week. It's a show compiled of clips of people doing ridiculous things (crashing ATVs, falling through trampolines, etc...) or in ridiculous situations (tornadoes, houses washed away by a river, etc...). They have another show in production called "Most Shocking," which is pretty much the same. They also both feature a lot of footage from the police about crazy crimes and chases.

Most of the employees in the office spend their time trolling the internet or hunting down tips to find new videos to feature on the show. Each episode is themed, for example right now they're working on "Senior Smackdown" (ridiculous old people). The researchers have to find the source of the clip, contact that person, arrange licensing fees (which is finalized by clearance), and set up interviews with the people involved in the incident (the show tells stories through a combination of voice over written by staff writers and interviews with the people involved).  I spent a lot of time with the production coordinator and the licensing departments, as well as observing two different editors at work.  I also got to use the avid (editing tool) just to transfer some segments from one sequence to another, which was nice of the guy to let me try.

I was there for a good week, since Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day, and one of the guys in post-production made corned beef for the whole office and we had a little pot luck buffet.  And then today was someone's birthday, so there was (delicious) ice cream cake, and one of the women in clearance is pregnant.  The office had a pool about whether the baby would be a boy or a girl, and it's gonna be a boy so everyone who guessed "girl" had to buy the others pizza.  So basically, I got a lot of free food!

Holdin' Out For a HERO

Right now I'm stage managing the Dance Concert at my high school, which is a little weird.  Especially considering that two members of the student crew happen to be two of my really close friends.  It makes me feel weird and kinda old but at the same time very deja vu-y.  There was even a moment before rehearsal earlier this week when I was hanging out with Leland and literally felt like I hadn't even graduated.  (The title of the post is a reference to the dance concert's theme, by the way). 

I got my Harvard-Westlake paycheck yesterday, which makes me a little upset that I didn't win "Most Likely to Come Back and Work at H-W" last year for superlatives.  Whatevs.

In other, celebrity-spotting news (OK, I used to always secretly be sad that I never "spotted" celebrities in L.A. all the time, and now I do and it's just funny) -- on Thursday I was sitting in the Coffee Bean near H-W and I'm pretty sure Lisa Rinna walked in (although in all honesty I don't really have the clearest picture of her in my head to compare to).  AND THEN, and this is the exciting part, MACKENZIE PHILLIPS walks in.  Mackenzie Phillips is a musician/singer and was arrested recently (within the past year I think) for cocaine possession and did rehab and stuff.  But MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY, she played the role of Molly Phillips on the Disney Channel show "SO WEIRD," which is the greatest Disney Channel show of all time (no offense to "The Suite Life"), and which I also just rewatched the entire series of while I was in NYC (which I'm sure I mentioned while I was there).  So that was a VERY random and exciting celebrity sighting for me.

AND my family went to see Pippin tonight, and guess who was there?  NPH!  I'd be lying if I didn't say I wasn't completely jealous.

Other than that, I'm working on the dance concert which has had two performances so far with one more to go tomorrow.  And then I think I have an internship lined up for tomorrow.

College? No, Thank You!

This week has been full of college.  Which is exactly what I don't want in my life.

Monday and Tuesday were spent at USC.  I finally visited their new film school building and it was absolutely awe-inspiring.  Just, wow.  I also visited my friends Natasha and Leon.  On my way out I heard someone call my name, and I turned around so see Simon, this guy who went to a summer program at the New York Film Academy with me in 2006.  It turns out that he goes to USC and is planning a road trip up the California coast for spring break.  I can't remember where he's from but I feel like it might be from somewhere in CA like Sacramento or something.  Anyway, it was super random to run into him but kinda cool and I think we're gonna have lunch at some point in the near future to catch up.

Then it was off to Chicago/really Evanston for a brief visit to Northwestern.  I met my friend Taylor for coffee and before she got there I ran into my friend Danny who just graduated from high school with me.  I'd kinda forgotten that he goes to NU, so that was another nice little surprise.  Later I had dinner with my friend Julian at this really cute Asian noodle place, which was great.  We hung out at his dorm for a little while, then I headed back to the hotel since I needed to wake up early today to fly home.

While we (my mom and I) were in the Chicago area we went to check out this new musical called Million Dollar Quartet.  It's about this night when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis happened to all show up at the Sun Records recording studio and had a jam session that was later released as a record, with the group billed as the "million dollar quartet."  The show was good, with the guy playing Jerry Lee Lewis far and away the best cast member.  The music is, of course, really fun.  I think they're developing this show to take it to New York.

Tonight I'm seeing Watchmen, which is why I made sure I was home by this afternoon.  I'm pretty excited, but that excitement is waning as the reviews come in.  Especially reviews from people like Julian, who is a big fan of the comic book/"graphic novel," and still didn't like the movie.  We'll see.

Makin' the RENT

Sorry guys, this one's pretty long.  But it features a guest appearance by Neil Patrick Harris, so if that's enticing to you read on.

Fun fact: in this month, I've watched three shows featuring Jeff Perry --  "My So-Called Life"(Mr. Katimsky), "Grey's Anatomy" (Meredith Grey's dad), and now "American Gothic" (Artie Healy, the deputy's brother).  Just felt like sharing.  (by the way, "American Gothic" is pretty darn good... like "Twin Peaks" but southern... and not quite as good as "Twin Peaks")

Anyway, as you can (probably) tell from my completely lame post title, I went to see "Rent" last night. Allegra joined me (see Allegra, now you get a whole post about you) and before the show, which was at 8:00 at The Pantages theater, we decided to hang out in Hollywood and goof around for a little while. (oh, and the picture is of Anthony Rapp, "Rent" star extraordinaire).

I got to Allegra's house and she insisted on taking a long time to change into something nicer, even though I insisted "It's not like it's an opening night or anything."  Then we left.

We parked at the Hollywood & Highland mall, since it's pretty convenient and has tons of parking, then walked out to the street.  Step one: trying on silly sunglasses and laughing at all the crazy people who dress up like Superman, Chucky, Snoopy, etc... in order to make about a buck per picture scamming tourists.  We walked to the corner and decided to grab dinner at Mel's, but not before first checking out the lobby of the "Ripley's Believe It or Not Odditorium," featuring a robotic climbing monkey, a "prehistoric cave bear," and some silly fountains I had to explain to Allegra.  Then we had delicious dinner at Mel's.

Then we walked down the street some more, stopping in the lobby of the Guinness World Records museum.  It featured a statue of the World's Tallest Man, which was perfect for Allegra since she's always complaining about how she can't find guys tall enough for her.  They also had a silly little photo booth and, since Allegra shares my obsession, we decided to go in it.  Except it was already invaded and conquered by a gaggle of giggling Jonas Brothers fans fresh from seeing the 3-D concert movie at the El Capitan.  We decided to wait for them to finish, which didn't look like it would happen in the near future, but then the machine shut itself off!

We decided to come back after visiting our favorite, Fredrick's of Hollywood, and see if the machine had been turned back on.  Fredrick's wasn't the most exciting.  It's bigger than the one we usually go to (Century City) but yeah... there were a few funny items, though.  Down the street we stopped in the lobby of the Hollywood Wax Museum to take some pictures in front of their giant postcard photo spot.  That taken care of, we crossed the street again back to the Guinness museum.  The photo booth was on!  But we only had a $10 bill, and the machine took ones and fives.  We asked the guy at the museum admissions desk if he could break our bill, but he couldn't open the register without making a sale.  So we went next door to a sketchy little tourist shop and tried to buy 3 postcards for $1.00, but the guy there said he wouldn't have change for our $10 so we didn't buy anything.  And the guy at the pizza restaurant next to that also couldn't open the register without making a sale.  But we found another hokey Hollywood tourist shop next to that and bought a blue Lake Tahoe lighter for 99 cents, the cheapest thing in the store (a Hollywood lighter was over a dollar).  On our way back to the Guinness museum we passed this little room that had a stage at one end and folding chairs set up.  This band of teenage (or young college aged) guys was playing and we stopped to take a gander.  Allegra whipped out the lighter and everything.  Then we went back and took photo booth pictures because we're awesome like that!

After that we headed back over to the Chinese theater to partake in some tourist activity.  We took some Walk of Fame pictures and in our William Shatner picture this guy handing out flyers for a "Haunted Hollywood" tour jumped into the picture.  Then he started talking about how he's an actor and he was in this movie like "American Pie" and gave us a flyer with his headshot on one side and the movie ad on the other.  Oh, and an autograph.  Then he asked me if I was an actress, and for some reason I said "Yes," since that seemed easiest.  So he whipped out a copy of his reel and signed that and handed it over, telling me to watch it and get in touch with him since he was an acting coach or something.  I looked him up on IMDb and in the message boards about him there's a post from someone with a very similar story, so clearly I was not the first.  After that little encounter we took the obligatory handprint photo and started walking back to Hollywood Boulevard to get to the car.

On the way we were accosted by a pair of Heath Ledger-style Jokers and they coerced us into taking some pictures with them, then (of course) demanding a tip.  After that we realized that we should have been on our way already (the theater was only a few blocks away, but there was the possibility of traffic and a bad parking situation), so we scrambled down into the parking structure.  We stopped by a snack cart, hoping they'd believe our story that we'd had dinner at the mall and give us a parking validation, but the lady said we had to buy something there for her to validate our ticket.  So we bought a little piece of chocolate, the smallest thing there.

On our way to the theater my mom called to tell us that she'd seen Neil Patrick Harris in the lobby.  We were both extremely excited by this news!  And it turns out that it was opening night, so Allegra was very glad that she'd insisted on changing.  We were practically sprinting from the parking lot now that NPH was a possibility!

In the lobby we didn't see him, so we headed into the theater and found my family.  And then Neil Patrick Harris walks in and sits across the aisle and two rows down from us.  We immediately start freaking out and planning an approach involving saying "hi" from our friend Stacy who played one of the fangirls in "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog."  But I was too freaked out to do it before the show so we decided to do it during intermission.  When intermission finally came we ran out of the theater in the dark to get to the bathroom before a line formed.  So did NPH and his boyfriend, although they were headed to the drink stand.  In the dark I was looking for Allegra and as I turned my fist bumped NPH's shoulder, so basically I've punched NPH.  Which is kinda tight and kinda SO embarrassing, although he definitely didn't see me in the dark and possibly didn't even notice the punch/fist bump.

After our bathroom break we returned to the theater and waited for NPH to come back.  Eventually he did, pretty shortly before Act II was about to start.  It was now or never.  Calming my RAPIDLY beating heart, I approached.  He was wearing a nice white button-down shirt, a skinny black tie and a black leather jacket.  He looked amazing.  I managed to get out, "Hi, I went to high school with Stacy Shirk from Dr. Horrible, and she wanted me to say 'hi' to you from her."  He responded "Oh yeah, Stacy, how is Stacy?" 

"She's good."

"Yeah, she was hilarious.  She had a great part."

(blushing) "I actually haven't watched the commentary yet, she's mad at me" (not true but if she knew I'm sure she'd be disappointed since her big solo/duet with Neil is in the commentary... which I really need to watch)

"She should be!  You need to buy it and watch that!"

And then someone he actually seemed to know walked up and they hugged and Allegra and I retreated back to our seats.

Oh, and the show.  I've seen it a few times on Broadway, including with Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal (the original stars), but this was definitely the best performance of Rent I've ever seen.  The performances are really well done and the staging is super tight now that the show's existed for over 10 years.  So if you're in L.A. while it's playing and that kind of thing rings your bell you should go check it out.

After the show we decided to wait outside the stage door for the cast to come out.  It was way more organized than any stage door I've ever been to in New York.  Some guys (security or something) had us all line up along a metal fence and down the outside wall of the theater.  The cast came out pretty much one by one and went down the line signing autographs.  First came the woman who played Maureen, then Mimi, and then Anthony Rapp (Mark).  He seemed pretty subdued.  We congratulated him on the great performance, then, since he was still signing our playbills and I wanted to say something else, I said "You know Deborah B[.], right?" and he said, "Yeah," and I said, "Yeah, I worked with her in New York," and he was like "Oh, cool," to which I responded "uh, yeah... she says 'hi'" (clearly I had a lot of fake "saying hi" going on that night), and he was like "oh yeah, uh, I guess I say 'hi' too." (or something like that...)

After that we waited for a while and then word came down the line that the rest of the cast was gone.  Apparently Adam Pascal really hates doing the stage door thing.  So yeah, then we headed home for the night.

THE END.

Mendel's Experiment

Julia (the friend who convinced me to be an extra in "Dispatch" with her) has struck again.  This time we went out to dinner to Mizu 212, this really cute (and delicious) Shabu Shabu restaurant on Sawtelle (the address is 2000 Sawtelle, if anyone's interested in going there).  Shabu Shabu is a Japanese style of dining in which you get a plate of vegetables, spices and raw meat, and then you boil it all together in a pot of water in front of you.  We were feeling adventurous (and uncharacteristically open with our wallets), so we ordered a side portion of Wagyu Kobe beef.  You can tell just by looking at it how much better marbled it is than the regular beef (which we also had, and Julia ordered a half-side of crab legs in addition).  But it really is better.  I mean, honestly, it's probably not enough better to merit the extremely high price, but you could taste the difference and it was just much easier to eat/chew, since it was that much more tender.  If you're getting a steak (which I had once for my birthday and was the most expensive steak I've ever had) I can understand why you'd be willing to pay more for a much better steak, but Shabu Shabu is extremely thinly sliced meat so having a piece of beef that's more or less tender just isn't a noticeable or important.

Then we shot a short film for an assignment from Julia's Visual Storytelling class at Chapman.  I starred in it and Julia directed it.  The assignment was to show a character making a decision.  Julia decided to tell the story of a girl choosing between going out partying or re-writing a Biology report.  See, in the short film my character epicly fails at Biology, which is ironic since I'm getting ready to go out and tutor some ninth grade girls in Biology right now.  Anyway, we spent a long time getting this room ready for the shoot.  We printed out/found in magazines lots of "hot" guy photos (Hugh Jackman, Clive Owen, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Princes William and Harry, etc...) and putting them on the walls, then found any pictures of me on my facebook that could look like I was at a party and made a little photo collage around my Jude Law calendar from tenth grade.  Throw some high heels on the floor, movie star magazines on the bed, instant teen girl bedroom.  We shot the short in like half an hour, but when we went to upload it to Final Cut Pro we discovered that we didn't have a firewire cable, which is necessary for that task.

We drove to Westwood, which had the nearest Best Buy, only to find it CLOSED!  It was about 10:30 when we got there.  Our next stop was Rite Aid, but we parked at the old location and were told that it had moved.  We drove to the new location, parked, and found out that they also did not have a firewire.  We walked to CVS (leaving the car in the lot near Rite Aid so we wouldn't have to pay for parking upwards of twice), but it was also closed.  And now it was around 11:00.  So we walked to the UCLA campus student store, figuring that they would probably be open and have it.  It was by no means a short walk.  But they were CLOSED and we were very sad.

We ended up back at my house, and I remembered that I'd found my firewire cable this summer and used it to upload videos in the family room.  So we looked in the basket where all the random wires deserted in the family room end up, and sure enough there it was.

We edited it all together and you can watch it here.

In other news, this is my new diet plan: ONLY PIE.

Seriously, you can get a whole balanced diet from only pie.

Protein - mince pie, pot pie, steak and kidney pie, etc...

carbs - crust

fruits/veggies - fruit or veggie pie (i.e. apple)

dairy - cream pies (i.e. banana)

So now, like I said, I'm prepping for study sessions with two ninth grade girls I'm tutoring in biology.  They have a test tomorrow!

Kristin Chenoweth and Other Stuff

So, I saw Kristin Chenoweth in concert tonight at UCLA and she's such a great performer it was so much fun.  Also, she was (sad face at that WAS) on "Pushing Daisies," which, as I'm sure you can tell from how much I wrote about it when I was in NYC and had nothing to do but watch TV all day (haha) it's one of my favorite shows.  Pretty much of ever.  I mean, PIE!

Anyway, she's a great singer so that was obviously an asset in the concert, and she's also just very bubbly and funny in a surprisingly non-annoying way.  She made Christian Bale jokes!  I mean, who hasn't lately?, but I wouldn't have expected it from her.  (I really hate writing questions as the first part of a two-clause sentence with a statement as the second half, since they're such a bitch to punctuate.  so there, you get that awkie question mark since I feel it should be there.)  The short story -- the concert was good.  And it just reminded me of how sad I am that "Pushing Daisies" is cancelled :(!  Maybe they'll end up making a movie, like they did for "Dead Like Me."  Which reminds me that I need to watch that!

This Friday I went to H-W to take part in the group presentation of a laptop as a birthday gift to my friend Brittany.  Our friend Emily organized all of Brittany's friends and we each contributed around $20 to buy Brittany a MacBook for her birthday.  And, of course, her parents chipped in as well.  Her birthday may have been over a month ago, but I'm pretty sure she was pretty happy.  I mean, she cried and everything.

Then a bunch of friends and I hung out at Adam's house and went to see The International.  Shall we just say it was not exactly a great cinematic experience.  Clive Owen could do (and has done) much, much, MUCH better.  (And he so should have been the new James Bond!)

And Sunday night was the Academy Awards, which I actually didn't watch.  Instead I went to dinner with my friend Allegra (see Allegra, you get a shout out!) at Swingers, this coffee shop we have been known to frequent.  I'm a little disappointed with the whole Slumdog Millionaire sweep, since I didn't exactly love that movie (I just didn't find it emotionally affecting!  There weren't really any character arcs except the main character's older brother).  But yeah, like I said, I didn't actually watch.  Also, Leland's family friend was nominated for an Art Direction Oscar for Revolutionary Road.  Sadly she lost to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but it was still exciting in Leland's house that morning (she's based in NYC so she was staying in the guest room of la casa de Leland).  

Right now I'm prepping to tutor a 9th grader in biology tomorrow (a friend of my sister, so I know her already).  And I'm also trying to plan two trips: one to ride the transsiberian railroad (hopefully with Leland!) from Moscow to Beijing, and one to drive to New Mexico (via Phoenix, since you can't drive the whole way in a day) to visit the Carlsbad Caverns and then check out the crazy people in Roswell (I know, possibly one of the weirdest road trips ever).

In other news... it's bed time.

In Which I Appear in a Feature Film

Here's a fun little story to start this off:

I was driving my friend, who's prone to car sickness, on the freeway in heavy traffic.  She was feeling nauseous, and rolled the window down to get some fresh air.  I wasn't a fan of this, since I get cold super easily, but since she was feeling sick I didn't make a fuss.  Suddenly she started breathing really heavily, then, gulping, said, "Oh my god."  Knowing what was coming next, I frantically reached behind me into the back seat, where I knew I had a tote bag full of binders.  I grabbed the fabric of the bag and jerked it upside down, dumping the contents onto the floor of the backseat.  I handed her the bag just in time, as she proceeded to noisily puke in it multiple times.  She had to hold the bag out the window for the rest of the car ride.  It was gross, but thank GOD she didn't puke in my car!!!  It actually brought to mind playing Family Feud online with other P.A.s during down time at work on "The Suite Life."  One of the categories was "Things You Don't Want Your Friend to Do In Your Car" and one of the answers we didn't think of was "Vomit."  We laughed when that answer was revealed, thinking it would be horrible but could never happen.  Well, apparently it can.

Anyway, on to the part where I'm in a movie.  I had dinner with my friend Julia on Tuesday night.  She's an actress and she told me about a job she had the next day as an extra in a movie.  She convinced me to go with her and participate in the shoot.  Since I'd be going with a friend, and I want to have gap year adventures, I agreed.  There was really, really bad traffic getting out to the studio (in this neighborhood just south of downtown), and I was afraid of being late, but nothing had happened in the 10 minutes between the call and my arrival, so it was all good.  So yeah, Julia and I got to the studio and filled out some release forms so we could appear in the movie, and also so they'd have our names to give us credit, which was the only form of payment for the background actors in this movie.

Now, about the movie.  It's called "Dispatch," which I think might be a working title, but anyway, it's directed by a guy named Steven Sprung and it's his first movie.  I think it's about limousine drivers or a limo dispatcher, but the scene they were shooting while we were there was a movie premiere.  Julia and I got selected right off the bat to play fans at the side of a red carpet cheering the celebrities.  I was wearing a purple shirt with white and purple stripes, a nice black vest (waiter-ly), and tight jeans but the costume lady had me change into some grey dress pants I brought that have black pinstripes so it would look "kinda funky."  It ended up being cute.

The extras coordinator (or possibly one of the Assistant Directors) led us out of the extras holding room, around a long building, and to a soundstage where a fake red carpet and press area had been set up.  We were clumped on the non-red-carpet side of the velvet ropes and those of us who had left our cell phones in the holding area were given prop cell phones to pretend to take pictures with.  One guy also had the idea that we could be asking for autographs, so they distributed paper and pens to a few of us extras.  After getting some footage of us screaming (silently!) for the celebrities (who hadn't arrived yet, I guess it was just B-roll or something), and this guy (I think one of the limo driver characters) holding a tiny dog and waiting for the star of the movie (within the actual movie) to arrive at the premiere.  Then they sent the extras on a break so they could block the next scene with the actors.

During the break Julia and I discovered the craft services table, which was wonderful since neither of us had eaten dinner beforehand.  We also started talking to the other extras, particularly a girl named Ashlee.  She's from Minnesota and came to L.A. for pilot season to pursue her acting career.  She's only 14 but very mature for her age.  She's only in 8th grade, doing school online for now, and next year she'll be at a performing arts high school.  She left at 10-ish (during dinner) since she can't work past 10 with her underage work permit.

Anyway, in terms of shooting our job was to stand by the edge of the red carpet, and get excited (silently) when the faux celebrities walked by.  There was a media area set up at the end of the carpet where they had a fake entertainment news show set up.  First the director and producer (married couple) of the movie came out of their limo and were interviewed by the entertainment news show anchors.  The woman who played the producer is the woman who played Grams on the show "Charmed."  Then this really busty woman in in TINY halter dress and knee-high boots walks by, ignoring the interviewers.  The little red dress literally looked like a shirt.  The actress playing that woman said she would NEVER wear something like that on an actual red carpet (which is good, since no one ever should).  Then the female star of the movie arrived in her limo, took the dog from the man waiting for her, and walked over to where the entertainment news interviewers were interviewing the director and producer.  Then we broke for "lunch" (at, y'know, around 10:00).

After dinner (pizza), those of us who were still there did more "fan"-ing.  By this point I had pulled out my actual camera and was taking actual pictures instead of fake cell phone pictures.  After the break the scenes were an old Hollywood veteran arriving at the premiere (this guy), then the lead actor pulling up all dirtied up in a yellow cab.   Then, finally, we got to be the crowd waving at the camera and trying to get on TV while the entertainment news presenters signed off for the night.

During this second half of the night we met a girl who also goes to Chapman (like Julia).  She's not a film student, but she does make short films.  She mostly wants to be an actress though, although she's a trained EMT and loves rock climbing.  Anyway, she wanted me to maybe be in a short film she's making this weekend, based pretty much entirely on my hair color, but I'm pretty sure I won't be able to do it even if she follows through on that offer.

So, yeah.  We ended up being there until almost 2AM (or possibly later?), standing up for most of the time, so our legs were TIRED.  But it was an interesting night.  Hooray adventures.

ALSO, I have new pictures up on picasa, from the shoot and some selections from other things I've been doing since I got back to L.A. from NYC.  CHECK IT OUT.