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.

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!

New Job

So, on the news front, I officially have a new job.  It's only for a week, but I'm really excited for several reasons:

a) I have a reason to get up and leave my house every morning.

b) the job is as a production assistant at a Disney Channel show (I think it's on a pilot they're producing, but I'm not 100% certain), which is going to be SO DIFFERENT from the lit department at The Public.  Not that I didn't love the lit department, but I'm really excited to try something new.

c) It's in the offices of "The Suite Life on Deck," where I spent a week observing the daily life this summer (my cousin is a writer on it) so I actually know some people in advance, which will help with first day anxiety.

I mean, (b) kinda trumps (a) and (c), but yeah.  I'm very happy with this development.

The Grammys

I've had a lot of down time on my hands since Harvard-Westlake's winter break ended as I haven't started a new job yet, so I started watching "Twin Peaks" on the CBS website.  First of all, this show is incredibly fucked up but somehow still so good.  And it also got me to watch Blue Velvet for the first time.  This movie is also incredibly weird, and also very long, although I was surprisingly engrossed and it didn't feel over 2 hours at ALL.  In fact, I was surprised when the end came about since it didn't seem like enough time had gone by for it to be over already.  Maybe I'm just a David Lynch kind of person... although my one attempt to watch Mulholland Drive was kind of a fail.

Anyway, this is all very far from my original point, which is that during the online "Twin Peaks" episodes they incessantly showed these commercials for a contest to sing Katy Perry's song "I Kissed a Girl" at the Grammy awards (I'm not really 100% sure what the prize is, although I think there's a cash component).  This reminded me of this guy Max Vernon who went to my high school.  I didn't really know him during school, he was just a friend of my best friend's older brother, but I knew of him.  Actually, I ran in to him in New York City once.  I think that's pretty much the only time I've ever talked to him.  It was outside the theater after seeing the revival of Sweeney Todd (directed by John Doyle and starring my new friend Michael Cerveris!), and we briefly discussed how great Patti Lupone is and then I had to go.

So, anyway, he has this cover of "I Kissed a Girl" that's really popular on the internet (it's actually really good, especially considering that I don't really like the song itself all that much), and I recently came to learn he entered the CBS contest.  So here's the link to go vote for him:

http://www.cbs.com/specials/grammys/moment/video_player.php?vid=93

Now, why should you do this?  Because:

a) it's pretty good

and

b) (the selfish reason) I think it would be really cool if someone I know (or... kinda know... or... kinda used to know...) won the contest

I don't know when the Grammys are exactly, but I think they're the first or second week of February so there's still some time left.

So... yeah.  That's about it.  Like I said, I haven't started a new job yet, so there's not much to report.

My parents are at Obama's inauguration today.  I could have gone, and I so very very much wish I had, but I guess I can't change anything.  So I'll get the scoop from them soon and that'll be that.

Wrapping Up

Ok, so, I have an interview for what will hopefully be my next job tomorrow, and in light of the beginning of the next gap year phase I figured I should wrap up my account of and thoughts about New York and being back in LA.  

Leaving The Public was really sad for me.  It was such an amazing job, and a huge part of the mission at The Public Theater is producing socially conscious plays, so working there is really meaningful and political.  The job I'm interviewing for tomorrow sounds amazing and will definitely be a great opportunity, but it won't be the same in that way.

I was also really sad to leave my new friends, and to leave the opportunity to be around people like Michael Cerveris and Tony Kushner on a daily basis.

Oh, the night after I saw "Road Show" for the second time I saw Mandy Patinkin in concert at The Public.  The Public had free tickets for staff, but I'd bought mine before they offered us though so I had this seat in the very very front row, which was on the floor of the stage.  It was kinda scary, although it was fun to be so close.  The concert was all Sondheim music, which was really fun, although his selections seemed almost purposefully esoteric.  He forgot a lot of the words to certain songs, including "Losing My Mind," which ended up being unintentionally hilarious, and the audience coached him through it, and he sang the concert almost completely with his eyes closed, which was a little odd but it still sounded great so it wasn't too distracting. Deborah and her friend were there as well, and after the concert we hung out in the lobby and saw Michael Cerveris one more time (my last).  I might go back to NYC this winter (if I get a chance) and see him in "Hedda Gabbler."

I was back in LA for about a week, then we left for Utah for a brief ski vacation before Christmas.  On our first day of skiing my sister fell down on her thumb at the bottom of the last run.  We took her to a clinic the next day, which took up the whole day, and discovered that she'd chipped a bone fragment off.  They fitted her with a removable cast and she was able to ski the next day.  We flew home and had a nice Christmas, then left the day after Christmas to visit my mom's parents in Michigan.  That wasn't terribly exciting but it was nice to see them, and we looked at my grandpa's old photos which are really really great.

After we came back from Michigan I hung out with friends for the last few days of the high school's break, with a really nice New Year's party at Leland's house, and now they're back at school and I'm just chilling before my next job starts (assuming the interview goes well, of course).

Oh, and it turned out that my sister tore a tendon (or ligament?) in her thumb, and she had to have surgery to reattach it.  This is unfortunate since it's her right hand, which she writes with, so she can't write well, can't play the harp in the orchestra concert that's coming up soon, can't swim with the swim team for almost 2 months, and can't even go on the trampoline our parents got her for Christmas.  Sad stuff.

So that's the short version.  And the long version is pretty boring so... yeah.  That's all folks.

December 31, 2008

It's New Year's Eve, and I'm going to Leland's house tonight so I won't get another chance to post in 2008, so I'm taking the opportunity now.  I still have a lot to write about re: the end of my time at The Public and in NYC, but for now I have just a few things to say.

First of all, I ran into one of my teachers from 7th grade in the Ralph's parking lot today.  Crazy.

Today I also tried to go to the post office, but the doors were literally locked.  I got there JUST after 4:00 PM, and on the door it said they closed at 5:30 Monday through Friday.  But the doors were locked.  It listed holidays, and today was not one of them, so, thanks Post Office for being a jerk.  But I went to the nearby Kinko's and Fed-Ex'ed what I needed to send, and the guy there was nice, I didn't have to wait in a long line, and it was pretty cheap, so I'm not that upset.

Finally, is there like a law somewhere that states that all 7/11s have to be super sketchy?  I was driving in Westwood today, which is the area of Los Angeles near UCLA and is a pretty nice, clean area, and I passed the 7/11 and it just looked so sketchy.  Is it in the franchise agreement that the location has to be the seediest lot on the block?

New (Old) Photos

So yesterday I went to Harvard-Westlake and hung out with Mr. O'Malley for a little while and got some CDs of my old photo projects from the backup files O'Malley keeps, since I'd lost my own backups when my external hard drive fell on its head.  One of the CDs didn't work, but on the one that did work were some portraits I took with the digital Hasselblaad (nicest camera I will ever use) in the photo studio last year of my friend Sarah, Jordan, Laura, Catie, and Angela, which I've put up on facebook here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015939&l=a2f33&id=1063440464

You don't even need to log in to facebook to look at them, although if you're my facebook friend I always love photo comments, haha (clearly I am not above begging).

Book List

So, I'm still trying to make sense of what NY meant to me and how I feel about moving back to LA (not so great right now), but in the meantime I'll share the list of books I've read so far on gap year and some thoughts.

Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett

-  Very funny, usual discworld stuff from Terry Pratchett.  My enjoyment was also heightened by my prior investigation into/infatuation with ancient Egyptian history in my early years, since this is highly mocked (in a loving way) in this book.

The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells

-  I wrote a previous blog post about this, but I adored this book.  It was wonderful.

The Thirty-Nine Steps, by John Buchan

-  nice little thriller, the basis for the movie and play of the same name.  However, those two are very loosely based on this book.

Bright Lights, Big City, by Jay McInerney

-  I thought this was going to be more about NYC drug culture in the '80s, but it was more about one guy and his dissatisfaction with his life and stuff.  It was good, though.  And a quick read.

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

-  This prompted SO much thought, my goodness.  It describes a world controlled, not by fear like in 1984 (George Orwell was a colleague/I think a student of Huxley's), but by genetic predestination and euphoria-inducing drugs.  It's pretty good, and, like I said, very thought-provoking.

Brave New World Revisited, by Aldous Huxley

-  Huxley discusses why the world of Brave New World is still feasible 20 years after its publication, in the '50s.  He discusses how he didn't include nuclear technology in the book and wishes he did, as well as ways in which he thinks we can avoid the future of Brave New World.  I took a lot of notes in the margins in this book, since quite a few of his ideas are pretty outdated, and I want to write more about that at some point, but not right now (especially since I don't know exactly where the book is at the moment...)

Stiff, by Mary Roach

-  This is a book about cadavers.  Quite a good book, actually, although the first half, when discussing the more direct scientific uses of cadavers, is better than the second, which gets a bit metaphysical.  I'm also pretty morbid, so... yeah.

Just After Sunset, by Stephen King

- As much as his novels (well, mostly the recent ones, but really anything since like Misery) are quite self-indulgent, he's still a great story teller and the short story form really helps him stay focused.  I was so happy to see that he had a new book of short stories out when I found this at the airport.

The Mayor of Castro Street, by Randy Shilts

-  This book was AMAZING.  It's a biography of Harvey Milk and it's so inspiring.  It tapped into the part of me that, in the sixth grade, wanted to join the Peace Corps or save the world or something like that.  Harvey Milk has a lot in common with Barack Obama, actually.  Both were charismatic leaders who changed the face of politics.  Also, Milk's stump speech was called the "Hope Speech" since it revolved around the message that life is always worth living because there is always hope.  And Milk relied on grassroots volunteers, and had his swearing-in outside because he knew so many people would want to see it, much like Obama had his convention speech in a football stadium for increased capacity.

The Tales of Beadle the Bard, by J.K. Rowling

-  I had to, for completeness.  Not amazing, not incredibly disappointing.  Obviously a must for Harry Potter fans and those of us who have grown up with those books.

So... yeah... that's what I've been up to, at least reading-wise.

Last Day

So this is probably my last blog post ever from The Public Theater. I'm incredibly sad to be leaving this office. New York I won't miss, but working at The Public has been amazing. And I mean, where else do you have experiences like this? Yesterday I had to scoot around Tony Kushner in the hallway in order to get to my boss' office, on top of which, said boss is also a very well-regarded director. Crazy. And the people I've met here are all incredibly kind and supportive.

And I'm writing this from reception, my last day as a sexy secretary as well.

This is depressing. I'm sure I'll write much more about this tonight or tomorrow on the plane, but I'm just sad to be leaving.

What the...?!

I just found this article and it's crazy. There was an episode of "Monk" about this, and probably many others. Check it out:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/11/actor-slits-throat