Published on Sunday December 14, 2003 .
I had my doubts this morning that I could give a good performance in class because I wasn’t feeling that well, but I decided I would commit myself fully to my performance and try my best. Well it worked. Tom actually said he enjoyed our performace! He had a few notes for us, but the notes mainly concerned blocking. He even told us that we should be able to finish our scene next class!
Tom actually spoke about full committment in class today. He basically said that we should fully committ to everything we do in life. We shouldn’t wait for the “acting career” we want before we start committing ourselves in life. Tom has this favorite phrase, “wherever you go, there you are”. That’s pretty deep. It’s really made me think.
Another thing I realized is that I need to make sure I am fully committed to getting the most out of my training at the studio. Where else would I get the chance to play leading roles, characters and heavy dramatic scenes? It’s not like Hollywood is offering these types of roles and characters to asian actors. Now is my chance to prove that I have the skills and emotions to play these types of roles.
Published on Sunday December 14, 2003 .
I spent most of the day being sick, drinking a ton of green tea and resting in bed but made time to listen to Christmas songs and help Heather decorate our Christmas tree (ok, she did most of the decorating and I just watched).
Published on Friday December 12, 2003 .
Tonight I picked up some Filipino food at this new take-out place called Bahay Natin (our house). I was actually in the area to pick-up sushi and I saw the restaraunt so I decided to get sushi for Heather and Filipino food for me. I ordered the Pancit Long-Long, a chicken dish (chicken in a tomato sauce with potatoes), cassava cake and a mango nectar drink. It was all very good. I will defintely be going back in the future.
I think Heather and I are getting sick. This afternoon my sinuses started bothering me and I was getting congested. It doesn’t surprise me though. I’ve been around a lot of sick people lately. Tonight Heather made me green tea with honey and gave me some vitamins (she’s the best). We were suppose to decorate our Christmas tree tonight. Instead we’re gonna go to bed. I hope we can fight this thing off. I hate getting sick.
Published on Thursday December 11, 2003 .
Tonight I picked up a “Living Christmas Tree” from the store. I can’t believe Christmas is almost here!
Published on Wednesday December 10, 2003 .
I was talking to one of the guys in my acting class tonight. Recently, he quit his computer job to pursue acting full time. He has even been purging his life of technology (giving away/selling all his computer equipment) in order to completely break ties with the computer world. All I could say was “Wow”. He is a much braver man than me. I don’t think I could ever purge my life of technology. But I do think I need to scale back on my computer freelance work to focus on getting my acting career going. Another friend of mine quit his high-paying computer job two years ago to pursue acting. Now he’s struggling to make money - like most actors. This is definitely a hard business to break into. But you have to pursue your dreams!
Published on Tuesday December 9, 2003 .
It was the usual suspects at the 21st century audition today. After working in the “biz” for a while, you start to notice the same people going out on the same auditions as you. In this case, it was the young, asian guy - type. While sitting in the waiting area waiting for my turn a casting director approached me and asked if I could help him out in one of the other rooms. They were about to start a voiceover audition and he needed to set the levels on the mic and the mixing board. While I was in the room, I was hoping that maybe this casting director might like my voice and ask me to audition for the project. Well, that didn’t happen. Oh well.
Today we had contractors starting work on restoring the living room and den in our house. Currently, our den is also our office and has our desks and computers. Because of the restoration work, I had to relocate our office upstairs, where we had planned our office to be anyway. Also, because of wiring issues, I also decided to make our computer network wireless. Needless to say, I was up ’till 3am dissasembling Heathers’ desk and computer putting it back together upstairs, installing the wireless network and configuring the new network router and both our computers.
I think AT&T needs to start paying me for advertising their phone. Everyone I’ve showed my phone to is very impressed with it. At my work I’ve had 6 people ask to see my phone because they hear other people talking about it.
Christmas is coming! I love Christmas! I still need to do some shopping, and Heather and I need to get our Christmas cards out as well. I’m also eating too much. It’s sorta intentional. I’m trying to put on some muscle. But I’m eating too much junk. I’m going to go low-carb next week to prepare for Christmas week when we’re at my parents house. One thing I’ve noticed though. Ever since I’ve started taking creatine I’ve definitely felt stronger at the gym. My bench press (with dumbells) went up 10lbs and I was able to do two more sets than usual. I’ve also been able to execute this “Jackie Chan” move where you sit with one leg extended and the other leg bent (as if you were squatting) and stand up (push yourself up) balancing on one foot with the other extended.
Published on Monday December 8, 2003 .
I received a call from my commercial agent this evening! Tomorrow I have an audition for 21st Century Insurance. I’m suppose to be “hip and cool”. The audition is in Studio City, which I really hate because that means tomorrow I will be crawling through traffic to go through the canyons into the valley. I hate the valley.
Earlier I downloaded the sides from Showfax (another ripoff). I don’t know why I needed to spend money to download a script for the audition. It’s not like there’s a lot of dialogue. It’s wierd too, because the sides mention an african-american couple and another husband and wife couple. I didn’t see any mention of a “hip and cool” character. My look doesn’t really work for the husband and wife thing anyway (they usually want clean-cut people. Not guys with long hair like me.)
Well I’m not sure why I’m really complaining. At least I’m still getting auditions. Now if I could just book one of these gigs…
Published on Sunday December 7, 2003 .
Today was a pretty busy day for Heather and I. After my acting class this morning we went to the gym. Today was Heather’s first appointment with a new personal trainer and we ended up being there for an hour and a half. I usually only spend a 30-45min on my workout, so after doing a killer workout on my arms I did some cardio and worked on my abs. During my workout I noticed the trainer working with Heather on the elliptical machine then teaching her some pretty mean ab exercises. Heather was pretty exhausted after the whole ordeal but is looking forward to her future training sessions.
After the gym we came home, washed up and went to the annual holiday cookie party that our friend Happy and her husband Brett have been hosting for the past couple of years. Heather and I know Happy and Brett from the old dot-com days when we all worked together at Magnet Interactive. Every year Happy cooks around 3000 cookies in 5 different varieties. She then holds a party and hands out cookie bags as holiday presents to her guests. Isn’t that sweet? As you can see, her name fits her perfectly.
At the party, Heather and I were able to connect with a couple of old friends from the dot-com days. We were excited to find out that one of our friends, Monica, recently landed a co-starring role in the TV show Malcolm in the Middle. She appears as a redheaded german relative who speaks in german during the show. Her episode appears next Tuesday so I’ve programmed it into our Tivo (I love our Tivo!).
After the party we decided to drop by the Grove just to walk around and browse the magazines at Barnes and Nobles. The Grove was packed full of people bustling beneath the Christmas decorations hanging between the buildings and from the street lights. A large Christmas tree with brilliant lights was setup in the center of the marketplace and Santa flew overhead with his reindeer. It felt very much like Christmas, although we didn’t care for the crowds of people who were out doing there Holiday shopping.
Published on Saturday December 6, 2003 .
Yesterday a person came out from the heating company to look at our heater and find out why it doesn’t work consistently. Well, in diagnosing the problem he disconnected a vital pipe and told us that it wasn’t installed properly and that we shouldn’t be using the heater. So now it’s freezing. I had to buy a space heater to keep us warm. (You can read more about our house restoration adventures here)
I went to bed at 2.30am last night and woke up at 7am this morning to meet my acting partner at her apartment for an early rehersal. I hate waking up so early, but this was the only time we both had available. As I was leaving the house today I noticed several large trucks parked down the street. They were production trucks used to carry film and lighting equipment. I guess they were filming something down the street. I saw a couple of grips getting equipment from out of the back of the truck and they were also putting down orange cones in the street to block traffic. I wonder what they were shooting. Maybe “Boyz in the Hood Part II” (just kidding). There is actually quite a lot of film production that happens in the neighborhood and around USC. The houses around here have a lot of character and used to be where the rich movie stars lived before Beverly Hills existed. Marvin Gaye’s house is actually 5 min from our house. If you look closely at the houses on TV and film, you will start to notice that most of them are craftsman style houses.
I talked to my parents the other night and found out that there is going to be a Chiu family reunion (decendants of Chiu Wei Hong) this summer. I guess one of my relatives owns a Marriot hotel and has blocked off 25 rooms for relatives. I’m excited to attend and meet all my relatives I don’t know!
I’m currently really pissed off about AT&T customer service. I love my new phone, but AT&T’s computers have been down for the past week so nobody can help me with my account! ARGH!!!
Published on Friday December 5, 2003 .
Tonight Heather and I were watching this new show on VH1 which featured my childhood idol - MC Hammer. The show was called “I Married MC Hammer“. I actually thought it was a pretty good show. It dealt with MC Hammer and his wife and how they met, married, lived through the high-points of Hammer’s rocket to stardom, and survived the downfall of his wealth and career. Through all the hardships they stayed together. I think that is pretty special. Most people who achieve that level of fame and fortune usually don’t stay married. But they did. I think the next show should be “I Married Bobby Brown”, or Bobby Brown could do a show called “I Married A Crackhead”.
It’s a good possibility that I will have one of my poems published in a new magazine! I might also be lending my face to a book cover! More info to come as the details get worked out…
My acting partner and I rehearsed our scene today incorporating blocking. It felt good to be up and moving to express what I’m saying and feeling in the scene. The only thing I worry about is “the slap” that happens at the end of the scene. My acting partner is suppose to react to something I say and slap me across the face. This is something we need to choreograph so that we both feel comfortable with it and it looks natural and organic when we perform it.
I’m itching to get out and perform. I need to find my next acting/performance project. I want to start gaining more visibility as an actor and entertainer.
I haven’t heard from any of my agents for a couple of weeks now. It’s frustrating. It also makes me nervous because I feel my agents might be losing faith in my marketability.
I found out another ex-colleague of mine is getting a divorce. He just had a baby last year. Divorce is so sad and unfortunately too common here in CA.