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There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction,
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2002-10-06 - 7:19 p.m.

Long entry with agents and film shoots and ShyGirl and wicked, wicked tired

Okay, waaaaay too long since I updated, and lots has happened. I've actually been oot and aboot much more than usual in the past few days. And right now I am *wicked* tired. So this entry might be a tidge peculiar. Read at own risk.

Thursday I went to "training" for a possible temp job. Turns out the job would be to stand on the street and accost passersby with promotional material for a large corporate coffee chain. Not exactly my dream gig. I sat through the training, and when we did little role-play things, I knew I did well (It's just like acting, and everyone there was sympathetic). But I don't want to do it. I hate when people do it to me, and I don't want to be that guy. Even for just a little while.

Thursday night I had a pickup rehearsal. BoBoGirl went up this weekend, so we did a rehearsal for her. She had a public battle of wills with Herr Director that made me just want to hug her. Herr Director made a bad decision because he refuses to be challenged in front of others. (I've learned you have to bring certain things up in private, or not at all). It was a molehill that mountainized, and unfortunately, we all were there to witness it. It was pretty hard for BoBoGirl, because she was right, and she had to swallow her pride.

Friday I went and auditioned for a talent agent. It went pretty well. She wants to represent me, which is awesome. At her suggestion, I postponed giving her a decision for a couple of days (more on that later). I celebrated by having dinner at the B&B (by myself).

Friday night's show was okay. Kinda spotty. Small, quiet crowd. BoBoGirl did a good job, but dropped a few lines, and got down on herself about it (as she is wont to do). After the show we went out for Karaoke. It was so much fun I can't even tell you. I'd only ever done karaoke once before (part of the California trip, and I did it after drinking my dinner, so generally not a good performance). Friday almost the whole bar was folks from the theater, so I felt very comfortable. I got up and sang three times (from nervous wreck to ham in one night) but my singing and especially my *confidence* in my singing has gotten much better in the last year. I sang Norwegian Wood, She's No Lady, and Born Under A Bad Sign. There were some surprisingly good songs belted out. CG did a bring-down-the-house-then-dig-a-pit-under-the-rubble version of When a Man Loves a Woman. It was huge, huge fun, and I ended up staying out way too late.

Saturday (that'd be yesterday) I got up butt-crack of dawn early and drove to Longmont to serve as crew for a film shoot. I pretty much knew one guy when I got there (and he barely remembered me). I know nothing about film-making, but it's an independent film, and no one's getting paid, so they figure what the hell. I was basically assigned to a grip (that's film terminology for some guy who does stuff with lights, I think) and I just followed him around. He did stuff and explained what he was doing. I handed him things and tried not to get in the way. I did pretty much anything required. The sound guy had me unplugging freezers and turning off the A/C. It's a good experience for me. Part of what I learned is not what people told me, but what I can observe. I was there for almost nine hours, and they did maybe three shots. (Probably less than a minute of screen time.) Now, granted there were dolly shots and crane shots, and other cool shit like that, but there was a *ton* of people just sitting around for long, long periods of time.

Last night I was wicked tired, and afraid I wouldn't be able to get up the energy for the show. Of course, as soon as I hit the stage, I was fine. We had a nice, lively house, and the show went pretty well. ShyGirl was there, with her boyfriend. (Awkward in a weird way, for me.) I went home pretty early and went to bed.

Today, I was back up at the butt-crack of dawn to go back to the film set. Things were more efficient today, but still more haphazard than I'd like. I found myself doing a lot of consistency work. See, we're shooting one location, and effectively one scene over four days. And it's in a bar, so we have to return everything to the way it was after each day of shooting. So to make sure that the little details in the background don't shift around in a distracting manner, you have to be absolutely sure that all the beer bottles, and tables, and chairs, and pool tables, and etc, are all in exactly the same place as they were yesterday. And when you have the cast and extras moving things at random, and no one person in charge of props, that makes it difficult. And when the guy who's supposed to be in charge of dressing the set is a moronic asshole, who puts stupid crap into a shot, then leaves that same stupid crap at home the next day, it goes from being difficult to being near impossible. Not that continuity is really in my job description. It's more that I'm a reasonably observant guy, and nobody else seemed to be stepping up to the plate.

Anyway, I left the shoot early to go audition for a staged reading of a musical. I saw ShyGirl there too, but she was on her way out as I was on my way in. The audition stretched much longer than I expected it to, which means I missed going to an "acting workshop". The deal with that is that I contacted another agent for an audition, and the just said "come to my workshop". (This is why I didn't give a decision to the first agent yet. She knew I was talking to another agent. I'm up front like that.) Anyway, I'll have to call tomorrow and see if I can get a real audition. I thinking that if the dude isn't amenable, or accommodating, I'll just go with the first agent. She has a good reputation (from what I've heard) and I liked her pretty well.

This entry has gone on way too long. And I'm wicked tired.

Signing off. Have a happy tomorrow.

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