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.

Happy (Belated) Valentine's Day!

In celebration of Hallmark Day, Leland and I went to the Long Beach Aquarium (aka the "Aquarium of the Pacific").  The picture above is me petting a sting ray (with its stinger clipped), which was one of the highlights of the day.  They are ridiculously soft.  We also petted other aquatic creatures, including sharks, anemones, starfish, and sea cucumbers (yay!).  As our day was winding down we were sitting in the aquarium lobby drinking cherry coke together and they started playing this video about whales on the lobby walls.  Which was awesome, and well-timed as far as our day went.  We also spent a lot of time looking at sea lions (so cute) and all the other marine life on display.  Quite a nice day.

Earlier this week I headed back to "The Suite Life" to visit my cousin Jeny (a writer on the show) and watch the run-thru of their next episode.  Everyweek the day before shooting starts they do a run-thru for the network and all the writers to see how the episode is shaping up and make notes on any final changes they want to make.  This week in particular was special since their guest star is Michael Hitchcock, notably from the Christopher Guest-directed series of mockumentaries. (the link is to his imdb listing, for those curious about him).  I'm a fan, so I was excited to see him.  He plays a guidance counselor and it was pretty darn funny if I do say so myself.

So right now I'm getting ready to go to my friend's party, since tomorrow is a holiday i.e. no school for all my high-school-senior friends.  It should be fun, some of my friends cooked what sounds like a delicious feast and it'll be a nice relaxing time for everyone (I mean, at least that's the goal!)

Livin' the Suite Life

So I spent last week working in the production office of the Disney Channel show "The Suite Life on Deck."  The show was on hiatus, which means that they weren't producing an episode that week although the writers were still in and the production office stayed open.  Since The Suite Life was on hiatus, the Disney Channel was producing a pilot for a potential new show on the lot.  One of the regular production assistants from The Suite Life went to work for the pilot, so I took her place for the week.

Day 1 - I was pretty terrified, not gonna lie, considering how young I am and how scary Disney seems from the outside, all giant and corporate and terrifying.  I had similar thoughts about The Public on day one there, though, although minus the corporate thing.  But I soon found everyone I was working with to be pretty welcoming and friendly.  During hiatus week there isn't much frantic activity in the production office, so my duties were mostly going on a few runs and answering phones ("Production, how may I help you?").  I went to Best Buy to get something they needed on the pilot, and to Starbucks to get something (I'm sure you can guess what) they needed in the Suite Life office.

Day 2 - It was actually remarkable how soon I started feeling comfortable at The Suite Life.  I wasn't totally at home by day two, or even by the end of the week, but the learning/comfort curve was WAY steeper here than at The Public (also since at The Public most of what I was doing I did on my own, whereas at The Suite Life all the PAs are in an area together).  On Tuesday I made a run to Smart & Final and Ralph's to restock the kitchen in the production office.  They feed people awfully well on these Disney shows (well... at least on The Suite Life and the pilot they shot last week.  Since The Suite Life wasn't in production we'd all go get the catered breakfast from the set of the pilot and it was AMAZING.)

Day 3 - Ok, honestly, I'm trying to remember everything specific that happened on each day and it's kinda blending together.  But I'll do the best I can.  Yet another reason for why I should get better about keeping an actual journal.  Anyway, Wednesday night I was sent to a postproduction studio and I put the address into my GPS wrong (substituting an 8 for a 6 as the first digit of the address) and ended up in the completely wrong place.  It's funny, because I'd written the address on a postit so I'd know it, then in some brain fart moment threw the postit away.  And when I was inputting the address, I was certain the first digit was 6, then second guessed myself and put 8 instead.  Silly me.  But I found it eventually and dropped off what needed to get there, so it was all OK.  Also, as I was leaving the lot for the day, I'm pretty sure I saw a Jonas brother leaving the stage (more like a fortress, with all the security necessitated by who they are) where they shoot their show, which wasn't super exciting to me but I know it is to a lot of people so I thought I'd share.  I didn't meet a whole lot of "disney channel stars" since it was hiatus week on The Suite Life, but I saw pretty much the whole cast of "Wizards of Waverly Place" since I walked by their stage on my way from my car to the office, I saw one Jonas brother (possibly more, but only one recognizably... the youngest band one, I think that's Nick), and Debby Ryan from "The Suite Life" was in all week for school with the set teacher, so she had lunch with us and although I didn't talk to her a whole lot, she was pretty nice in the few interactions we did have, as was her family.

Day 4 - This was a VERY busy day for me.  I went to the Director's Guild, Starbucks, two postproduction facilities (I picked something up at one and dropped it off at another), a restaurant (to pick up lunch), the post office, and to a far-away parking lot to get this important woman's car and drive it up to the front of the building since the front gate had sent her to a really far away lot.  Oh, and it was raining.

Day 5 - last day.  Not many runs -- I'm pretty sure maybe just one to the post office and then one at the very end of the day to take mail to one of the producers/writers at his house.  There were some interesting/sad phone calls though.  This one kid (a boy) kept calling and asking to talk to Cole Sprouse and hanging up.  He called back one more time asking to talk to Dylan Sprouse.  I happened to pick up on that call (the PAs kinda race for the phones whenever they ring) and I just stayed silent until he hung up.  I also picked up on a call from this little southern girl with SUCH an adorable voice.  She said "Hi, I'm calling about a role for me on the show," to which I responded, "Uh..." She insisted, "I'm very talented," and I said, "I'm sorry, we don't take cold calls about casting, but we do all our casting through central casting so you can look there."  (centralcasting.org, if anyone is super interested.  Also, tickets to the show are released the week of taping at tvtickets.com, if you're interested in that.)

I don't have anything specific on the radar right now, although I'm looking in to a few options.  Well, I do have Biology tutoring for a few of my sister's friends on the horizon, but nothing entertainment industry or travel-wise exciting going on.  Yep.  If you want to read something interested check out blogs by my high school classmates Becca (who's in rural Thailand) and Zack (who just had a ridiculous adventure in China that makes my NYC money issues seem like delicious, delicious angel food cake).  (Zack's link is to his livejournal, not the blog linked to on the side of this page)

Enjoy!