Right on the Stoop!

I just sent Will this email to let him know that it's not all sedate and domestic back here in Carroll Gardens:

so i'm walking up toward the stoop with my laundry just now, and I notice that there are some kids, maybe 15-17 years old, three of them, sitting on the stoop of our building. they don't live in our building, from the brief bits of conversation when one of them approached the building next door the girl was all 'shit, no, that's my crib, yo.'

well, the girl was making a transfer from a small plastic baggie to a shiny metal tin. marijuana. on our stoop. now, obviously considering a fair percentage of my friends have indulged in the smoking of pot, i'm not calling the feds, but REALLY. kids are selling pot on our stoop.

there goes the neighborhood.

My Very Own Apartment

Will left for Italy this past Friday and has been taunting me with emails of how wonderful and relaxing it is and how I'm a perfect fool for not going along. I didn't want to take two whole weeks off from auditions and such, so I leave this Friday.

Sure, I miss him when he's gone, but I am developing some coping mechanisms, such as:

• Keeping the apartment as tidy as I like (which, for me, means an absolute mess, but MY mess, my very own mess!)
• Watching whatever TV shows or sappy movies I choose-- I recently blasted through Season 2 of 30 Rock and ... well, let's just say I could watch Say Anything seventeen times in a row if I wanted to!
• I get the WHOLE BED to myself and can twist and turn to my heart's delight without waking up any light sleepers. In that same regard, I can actually make the bed when I get up, which is a task Will deems unnecessary. Or something.

So I'm coping, but I'm very much looking to getting on the plane Friday night. Because as much as I'm doing here, it will be nice to get away for a bit. Really, there's not too much stress when your schedule isn't filled with much more than staring at sheep over lunch:

Ups and Downs and Ups!

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks for me, which may explain my lack of posting. Here's the highlight reel:

Ups:

• After four months of recording demos and waiting, I officially booked the Campbell's Soup spots two weeks ago. I believe they are already airing, so keep an ear out for a soothing voice selling you soup.
• I joined SAG.
• I finished (well, my friend Mark, the super-genius editor actually finished) my film Thursday. I picked up the final cut today and will turn it over to the Mister Sinister himself, Bryan Enk, tomorrow! It will first screen on 10/30 and Halloween-- more info to come.
  
• I booked a couple of spots for Bounty Paper Towels, an industrial for Captain Morgan, a promo for the new Duffy album and some pick-ups on the Prime Outlets commercials I did earlier this year. I just found out this afternoon, too, that I also booked another industrial that records tomorrow.
• I started another round of ass-kicking Fight Studio with Qui and the Vampire Cowboys -- this, mixed with 4x/week of Boot Camp has left me near-hobbled, but I feel great.

There have been a few downers, including riding my bike over my own glasses (really- CRUNCH!) and my good friend Katie Brack packing it up and moving to LA.

But all in all, things feel very much like they're coming together. It's been a long time coming and a lot of hard work, but... it's all very exciting!

Bootcamp: The Open House

Alex and Ruben opened their doors last Friday night to friends, family and anyone wanting to see just what goes down at WFBC. It was fun to hang out with my bootcamp pals while not covered in my puddles of my own sweat!

Mark and Will came along-- Sari and I were secretly hoping that once they saw all the fun climby things they would not be able to resist signing up. No dice.


Although... Mark did manage to find a way to turn the torture devices into toys. I saw him notice the Giant Tire and I was all,

Dude, your wife flips that thing!

And he was all,

WHAT?!

So he decided to look further into the situation. From the inside out.


But hands down the most exciting part of the night was the Demo, featuring five of the most serious bad-asses you'll ever meet just destroying the obstacle course. If there were like honors classes in bootcamp, this would be the class:


It was loud and fast and furious, and in middle of it all I realized,

Uh... I'm at a party: at the Gym.

It was a good time, and I was glad to finally have Will see just why it is that I come home gimpy each morning. That part sounds a little nuts, but it's really the people involved that keep me going back.


Did I mention that I just signed on for three more months? I'm hoping to pass legislation to have the Tire Ride become part of the warm-up.

The Difficulties of Working from Home

Our neighbor across the hall has a dog, some type of poodle-y thing. Her name is Joey (the dog) and she's awfully sweet. And surprisingly not too yappy for a small dog. Although the poor dog does suffer from anxiety, according to her owner. Dog anxiety. Which causes her to FLIP THE FUCK OUT sometimes during the day when there is an unusual level of stirring in the apartment.

Well, this week our neighbor has visitors. Visitors with children! Which makes today one of those days, and unfortunately, I've had a lot of recording to do.

I am writing to you from a little ramshackle pillow and blanket fort I've constructed in the bedroom. Will just lambasted me over IM about how, when we first moved here, I laughed at him when he offered to make me a secret recording room in the office closet.

As I recall, I loved the idea until he mentioned that we could cordon it off with a beaded curtain. That's when I started laughing.

Now, I'll take any sort of foamy sound proofing attached to any tiny space as long as I can lock myself away from the cries of Poodle Anxiety.

Matt Damon on Absurdity

"I need to know if she really thinks dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago... I want to know that. I really do. Because she's gonna have the nuclear codes."

Friends and family, if you won't listen to me or any other "crazy liberal" around you, listen to Matt Damon. For the love of God (that's what it is with the über-conservatives, right? The Love of God?), Book Banning! Roe v. Wade! Polar Bears! Think about it.

But look no further than the comments section on YouTube for disapproval -- tgilleece writes:

So Matt Damon thinks Sarah Palin becoming president is a "really scary thing" because HE doesn't know anything about her. So go learn something about her, sissy. Of course he then acknowledges that she was mayor of a "really, really small town" and that she was governor of Alaska for "less than two years" and that's why he's wetting his pants. He's "terrified" that she may have the nuclear codes. I guess he feels much safer with those codes in community organizer Obama's pocket? Absurd indeed.

But "go(ing to) learn something about her" may be difficult, sissy or not:

... now the campaign's playing it safer. She's sticking to a greatest hits version of her convention speech on the campaign trail and steering clear of questions until she's comfortable enough for a hand-picked interviewer later this week.

via AP

Eight weeks to become entirely informed about your choices. But information is being carefully metered out to the public on certain topics. Hrmmm.... reminds me of some other notable leaders...

Why Couldn't I Have Been There on THIS Day?

There is a reason that Sesame Street has been on the air now going on 40 seasons!! They're Just. Plain. Cool.

via Will

Bootcamp: "Because you’re not going to take any shit from the terrorists"

Warrior Fitness Boot Camp is listed in the Spas & Sport section of Time Out New York this week. Check it out, then CHECK THEM OUT!

For Real, these guys will whip you into shape like nobody's business. And they offer a trial class. If you're in the city and looking to get into a serious work-out regimen, get yourself over there now.

True, it is very hard and very tiring. But then again, isn't being a sad sack of chubby sloth also very hard and very tiring?

It's Coming...

Mark your calendars for Thursday October 30 and for Halloween night when my first film, Thursday, will screen as part of Bride of Sinister 6.

We shot on Labor Day weekend and the raw footage is with my editor now. I'll post more stills over the next month or so and keep you posted as to how it's coming together.

It Was on the Tip of My Tongue

I have been trying to find the words for this. Heather Armstrong figured it out just ahead of me:

I get the feeling that people around the world are looking at this election as a gauge to see if America is finally ready to wake up and realize that we are not the only country on this planet. They are waiting to see if we are going to put yet another fundamentalist loon in charge of public and foreign policy, someone who doesn't think that global warming is in any way caused by humans, so screw the rest of you who live here on this planet, we need that cup of oil with breakfast in the morning.

To my readers who do not live in America, who are not American, please know that there are so many of us here who are disgusted with what we have let happen in the last eight years and are doing everything we can to ensure that it stops. We are just as scared as you are of those around us who have their fingers in their ears and are going LA LA LA LA LA in an attempt to convince themselves that their behavior and their policies are not in direct violation of the teachings of the God they think put them in power.

Before the RNC started up, I really didn't think I knew a single Republican, save for a few of my friend's dads from other states. I am flabbergasted by how many of my friends, friends that I think highly of, have said that they are "impressed by" and "HUGE fan(s) of" VP Nominee Sarah Palin.

Really.

I just got this in an email, from a friend that I've known almost 20 years:

I'm really sorry but I"m a huge Palin fan. I mean, HUGE. Did you see her speak?

I told her that no, I had not seen Palin's speech at the RNC, but that I did happen to catch this gem. I also told her that I don't for one second believe that she, my dear smart friend, could truly want this woman, fueled by her "devotion to Jesus Christ", a single degree of separation from her getting her finger on the button.

My fingers are in my ears and I'm all "LA LA LA LA LA".

John McCain is Bugging the F**k Out!

"November Fourth. We have to protect our future. Because John McCain is bugging the fuck out."

via FREEWilliamsburg

I never realized how much I enjoy P.Diddy! Especially after receiving this in an email yesterday, from (I think) an uncle from my father's side of the family*:

I believe that if you are selling me a Big Mac, do it in English.


I've never owned a slave, or was a slave, I haven't burned any witches or been persecuted by the Turks and neither have you! So, shut up already.


I believe if you don't like the way things are here, go back to where you came from and change your own country! This is AMERICA .

I can't even begin to write how much I wholeheartedly disagree and dislike the sentiment behind these statements, never mind the statements themselves. All I can say is whoever keeps forwarding these emails to me is BUGGING THE F**K OUT!!!**


*I am an only-child, but I have an incredibly large extended family-- I am the youngest of 49 grandchildren on my father's side. So there's bound to be some-- um... differences in opinion, especially on the topics of race and religion. I don't know that side of my family very well, so to learn about these aspects of them via email forwards is hugely eye-opening and sadly disappointing. I have since asked to be removed from this mailing list.
** Thanks, Diddy.

Icon: Don LaFontaine

You may not have known his name, but you absolutely know his voice. Sadly, Mr. Movie Trailer Don LaFontaine passed away yesterday.

I hope he laid those trailers down years in advance, because the movies just won't be the same without him.