I've been in a good mood lately. This is not totally unheard of, but it is nonetheless a nice thing. The weekend was very busy, and very cool. Friday I went to Frank's to watch some edited footage from the movie. Frank hooked himself up with a G4 and editing software, so he's been editing the footage himself. He's cut a trailer/sales tool and we watched that, in addition to some other footage. It looks great. Next, the trailer goes out to investors and we see what happens. And I actually like my work in the thing, which is also not totally unheard of, but, well, kinda.

That night I rode this scooter we bought for the film. I had to go out and get beer so I hopped on this old Elite 100 (I used to have a 50) and after run-starting it, rode around the dark valley for a while. Fucking hell if it didn't make me very happy. I would just run out and get another one right now if I didn't have a bad vibe about cycles and Los Angeles. People really do drive like crap here. Maybe I'm getting old, but I'm a bit scared of driving one in the city. But driving it was so much fucking fun that I might change my mind someday.

Most of my weekend was taken up with an improv master class. My comedy group hired a great teacher to spend the weekend with us, going over the basics just to kind of ground ourselves and get reacquainted with things we might at times forget. Anyway, it was 9 hours on Saturday and 5 hours on Sunday. Tiring, yes, but very very good for us. I had a fucking blast actually. I love improv. I'm just scared of it. My group is sort of half improv, but there is a scripted element to it. As an actor I feel totally comfortable on stage - when I'm doing a play. It's second nature. It's what I do. Even sketch is fine. But improv is where I feel the most shaky. And I have a quick mind and know a lot about improv and am fairly good at it - I just feel less confident at it than other things. So for me it was particularly good to go back and touch some points I'd forgotten and/or just gotten away from. It was also great for the group as a whole. But today I'm sore, man. It can be hard work, I'm telling you.

Saturday night we went back over to Frank's and sat around a big ol' fire pit and drank beers and told stories like we were at camp. We fucked around on the scooter again and I installed napster on one of the roommate's computers. I then downloaded tons of shit I like, while he really just wanted Tim McGraw.

Sunday was more improv. Funny-funny ha-ha. Then I headed out to Dodgers' Stadium to see a game against the Pirates. But we weren't just in any old seats. We were in a luxury box. Aw yeah. We went to the luxury box lobby, and this very nice very corporate woman lead us into the suite and showed us everything. It was like a hotel room, with a kitchen and a bank of TV's and a stocked fridge and food all over and beer and hot dogs and shit. There's a bank of glass windows you can then open out onto two rows of seven office chairs each (the Herman Miller Aeron - a chair of which I'm a big fan) facing the field (we were on the 3rd base line.) Chet and I were early so we got drinks and sat, watching batting practice. The place eventually filled up and more food came and we had front-row seats. It was the box for a sports talk station here in town and they had people from the station catering to our needs and everyone was chatty and happy and though the Dodgers won, I had a blast. I used to feel so uncomfortable in luxury anything, not having come from that world, but seriously, I could get very used to that shit.

So tonight I have a meeting with a group of stage directors and producers. A theatre company in town is going to put on an evening of my one-acts, and I have to go meet with them and talk about the plays. Two of them have been put up before, but one is new. I'm not going to have a whole lot to do with this production, as it's not my money and I don't really want to when it comes down to it. I think I'm going to sit in on auditions and maybe a few rehearsals, but that's about it. The thing is scheduled to open in December and will run through January. To be accurate, I also don't really have time to get too involved. On Saturday night after this was confirmed and I was tentatively asked to be in another film shooting all August, I started freaking out about the next few months of my life. It's an old story, blah blah blah too much on my plate don't want to give anything short shrift blah blah blah, but it's true. However, I'm pretty excited and happy about everything. I feel somehow less when I'm not doing a lot. So this is good.

Oh, and I wanted to humbly thank reader Jane for sending me a spare cell phone. It was unnecessary, but much appreciated. I hate getting free shit, but in this case I'm just going to shut up and thank her. So thank you. You rock. And I'm going with SprintPCS - since I know you all had been losing sleep over the outcome of my phone dilemma.

Finally...

...tonight I stopped to buy smokes at a gas station. When I approached the window, the little guy in the little booth, was asleep. I politely said, "excuse me" a few times, and he eventually woke up. He gave me the smokes and I slid a five through the slot. He slid it back out to me, and waved me away. He was giving me the smokes for free. What the fuck? I just stood there for a while, and then left. Either he was still partially asleep, or he just didn't care about the Shell profit margin. It was very strange.

The Larry King Happy Song Corner

 
 
If I could tell the world just one thing, it would be that we're all OK. And not to worry, cause worry is wasteful. And unless in times like these I won't be made useless, I won't be idled with despair. I will gather myself around my faith for light does the darkness most fear. My hands are small, I know, but they're not yours they are my own. But they're not yours they are my own. And I am never broken... speaking of which. Larry's hands are big, and you know what I used them for this weekend? No, dirty minded youth! I used them to clap. That's right, Larry took the kids to Las Vegas to see Blue Man Group. What a crazy show that is. Oy. Three bald blue guys doing all sort of crazy antics. It reminded me of seeing Henny Youngman up in the Catskills, only totally different.
 
 
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