Oscar Sunday

I didn't want the day off today, but I have it, so I am going to make the best of it. Of course the best part will be spending the day with Kris, in our loft, working and then watching the Oscars on TV.

No Oscar parties for us this year. No galas or after parties or designer gowns and tuxedos. Maybe next year.

I haven't made any predictions for who will win tonight, but after seeing There Will Be Blood last night, I feel fairly certain that Daniel Day Lewis will walk away with the statue for Best Actor in a Lead Role. The film is remarkable, and DDL's performance was so nuanced and believable. (Was the opening an homage to My Left Foot?) What a despicable character.

I say nuanced and believable because as Bill The Butcher in Gangs of New York, he was fun, but I thought he was over the top and chewing everything in site.

And as Kris pointed out, I like how PT Anderson chose to look at the early titans of oil and show how evil they were, right from the start. First we'll steal from Americans, then we'll steal from the rest of the world. Pure evil. Delicious for filmmakers and artists, not so nice for the real people who have lost their lives and fortunes over oil.

For a guy who runs a movie review website, I admit I haven't seen most of the nominated films this year. In the best picture category I have only seen three of the five, and I am going to give the award to There Will Be Blood.

I hope by next year to build up Bikini Movie Review to a more recognized brand name and have a reporter on the red carpet. In a bikini of course. Cold and rainy as it may be.

And let me ask you, if the powers that be at A.M.P.A.S know how cold and rainy it is or can be in LA in February, why move the awards to this time from March? Huh? Why? Well don't complain about the weather then, okay? Just the thought of all those stars getting rained on thrills me.

Okay, gonna post this now before the ceremony starts. Off to more busy work in the life of an artist/actor/writer/producer/filmmaker/waiter.

I never thought I'd say that again. I'm a waiter. I'm a waitergonebad®. I thought I had hung up my apron for good, but it goes to show you, you never really know what life has in store for you sometimes.

Hey the sun just came out for a minute, maybe I'll go down stairs for a quick swim. Yes, I will.

I do have a call back tomorrow for a car commercial, so that is good.

Enjoy the fashions, the laughs and the celebration of tonights Oscars! Long live the cinema!

7 Days A Weak!

I'm glad today is a bank holiday. I don't feel guilty for not getting up and going to work. In fact, I'm still tired from working seven days last week. For a guy who only has a part-time job, (or three of them) I sure work a lot.

Last week was crazy, and I loved every minute of it.

I was taking a day off last Monday when I get a text message from my agent to hurry up and go to an audition in North Hollywood, in the valley. I was just about to go to the club, but instead detoured my schedule, found the sides (script) for the audition online, and raced over to N. Hollywood, learning the text while driving on the 101.

Tuesday I had one audition. I also learned I was called back for the creature-feature movie I mentioned a few posts ago. A call back, for those who don't know, means they saw a lot of actors for the project, and they whittled it down to a few choices for each role. In this case, the casting director said. "...we received 2500 photo submissions, of those we called in 120 actors to read, and of those we are calling back 21".

Already when an actor hears those numbers, it is really validating to have made the short list. Yeah!

So now I have until Saturday to prepare for the call back. Meanwhile, everyday I get more and more audition calls for the week.

I go to two on Wednesday, as well as a head shot session with a photographer. I need new head shots. I recently changed my hair style and need new head shots to reflect that.

On Thursday I have three commercial auditions, and I spent all day driving from downtown to Santa Monica to Hollywood and back to Santa Monica and then back downtown. About 75 miles all day.

I'm feeling like a working actor, even though all this driving around and auditioning is costing me a lot of money and I'm not getting paid. Each audition is like a job interview. I interview for a new job about 100 - 150 times a year. I get very few jobs, right now, but it is the most fun game in the world.

By Friday night, after eight auditions all week, I really have to concentrate on the call back. I have my wardrobe picked, I get my props set up, and I rehearse my lines for any of the ten scenes I may or may not read.

The call back was a lot of fun, and the 21 of us there are all excited and very friendly, even those competing for the same role. I look around the room of twenty-somethings, as six of the seven roles are for that age group, and I see only one other guy there for the same role as me. I recognize him from other auditions. We both have salt and pepper hair, both around the same age and height. 50/50 odds, I like that. He doesn't acknowledge me as he walks by.

My goal going into the audition was to psyche out the competition. I was really decked out like I imagined the character to be and wanted to instill doubt and fear into the competition. I think it worked. Lord knows it has worked on me in the past, only this time, I'm taking charge.

They call actors in by groups to see how they look and work together. For my role, they call the other actor in first, and he reads a few times, in a few configurations, and then I read in a few configurations. Then he reads another scene, and then he is sent home. I'm the last man standing, or maybe not?

The thing about casting, and I have been on both sides now, is you never really know what is going on and what they are thinking. I try not to think about it. I get called in a couple more times, and then I wait.

One wrinkle in the plan is I am scheduled for a party (my day job) on Saturday night and I am going to be late.

I try not to think about this either. I arranged to be late with a very nice and understanding party manager, but the longer I wait in the hallway, not being called in, the more distracting it is.

Finally, after waiting about 45 minutes, I am told I can leave. Only the twenty-somethings are left. Have they made up their minds about my character? Was I the last man standing, or was someone else being considered who wasn't there yet or didn't even need to show up? See how actors can overthink things and try to figure out the unfigureoutable?

Everything works out as planned, I get to the party late, but not so late that it messes anyone up.

During the party I get an email (on my new pretentious iPhone) from the casting director. It is to everyone thanking us for coming out and saying we all deserved to be there. Decisions will be made on Tuesday. Have a nice week-end. Agh! I have to wait three days? That is like an eternity to an actor waiting to hear something. Okay, just focus on work and watching the playoffs tomorrow.

The party goes very late and I don't get home until two AM and my next party is a luncheon Sunday morning and I have to be in Santa Monica at 8:30AM. So with little sleep, and very tired, I get up at 7, leave at 7:45 and am in Santa Monica at 8:15, sitting in front of the house, watching early morning walkers, joggers and bicyclists move up and down the curving street over looking the hills and valleys of the Santa Monica mountain range, Pacific Pallisades neighborhood, and the ocean. Not a bad way to start the day.

The party goes fine and I am home, tired and a bit beat, at around 6PM. I just want to crash on the couch and watch the last quarter of the GB/NYG game. I'm so sorry Green Bay doesn't win. NE/GB would have been an awesome Superbowl. Okay, just my opinion. I still want to watch it and see New England go all the way to an undefeated season and a Superbowl victory. That will be one for the records!

So anyway, you see why I'm tired today?

What a week. And as I sit and wait for the news tomorrow, and as I write this, I just got an email from my agent that I have an audition tomorrow. So it goes. I'm a working actor in Hollywood. And life is good.

I'll let you know what happens with the movie tomorrow, or as soon as I hear.

Noel

PS - see why I don't write everyday? I go on and on and on. It takes too long. Maybe someday I will write a book. It's one of my goals.

incontrovertible ®

Pictured above is incontrovertible ® , a piece of art by Xavier Cazares Cortez. Xavier is one of the three artists whose work is now hanging at the Patricia Correia Gallery in Bergamont Station, Santa Monica, CA. I was working as an art installer at the gallery last week. Xavier installed his show himself, I was only there to assist. The other two artists dropped off their work and I hung it, per Patricia's directions. That's what art installers do.

The opening was last night. In French, that would be a Vernissage. Vernissages are very fun. Ils sont tres chouette. Openings are also a lot of fun. You meet fun people. You have lots of laughs. I went to lots of Vernissages in Paris when I lived there. I miss Paris. I want to go back more often. We are going in November for Kris' Birthday. Yeah!

I had to miss the opening because I had to go to my other job, being a cater-waiter. I read about it in the paper though. It sounds like it was crazy. The LA Weekly said over 3000 people showed up and traffic was backed up all the way to the freeway at the Cloverfield exit. Lots of star sighting, lots of fun. Good times. I had to miss it. I had to miss the after party. I had to miss hanging out with my friends. F*ck'g day jobs.

I want to be free to party and go to cool places and hang out with cool people like me. Arghhh. I want to be in the jet set. Flying off to Sundance for the weekend. Attend an opening of a friend's show in Rome for the day. Attend a protest march in Manhattan, then go to Elaine's for drinks. That's what I want to do.

Last night, instead of being at the Vernissage, I worked a Bat Mitzvah. I have a lot to say about working as a cater-waiter at parties. I ranted and went on for 1/2 hour this morning to Kris when she asked how my night was. If I tried to recount the whole night again, here in this blog, right now, I'd still be writing in an hour, and frankly I don't want to work so hard tonight. I'm tired. I worked my ass off this week. I want to go watch some football. I recorded some of the playoff games yesterday and today, and I'm gonna go watch some. Even though I already know the outcome of the games, I can speed through it and just watch the cool parts. Maybe tomorrow I'll do my patented Waitergonebad® rant on being a waiter. It's fun.

And you know, for how hard I worked, I really got very little for it. Not as much as I think I'm worth, at least. And not that I blame the people I work for. it's not entirely their fault. It's America, baby.

In case you didn't know it, we are in a recession in America. Stagnant wages is one proof of a recession. I've said for years how crazy it is that in 1989 when I was a cater-waiter in New York City I made $16 dollars an hour plus tips. At the time, I was happy because the same job in Chicago paid only 10 -12 dollars an hour. But my rent in 1989, in Manhattan, was $425 a month. I shared a railroad apartment in Hell's Kitchen with my friend Chris. Now, I'm a cater waiter in Los Angeles, in 2008, and I still make $16 dollars an hour plus tips. Look at how the salary has stood still for 19 years. In Los Angeles, today, our rent is $2000 a month. I make the same amount of money but my rent has increased almost 400%. Am I the only person who is bothered by that? Hello! Is this microphone on!!!!!

Oh, yeah, back to incontrovertible ®. Xavier gave me the piece at the end of the day, when he was installing his show. It was midnight. I was going home. I'd been working for 12 hours. Xavier was still working. He asked me if I wanted a piece of art and gave me a choice of five small pieces he makes. I chose incontrovertible® because it reminded me that my eyes are changing. It reminded me that a few months ago I visited the eye doctor and got a new prescription for glass lenses, but I haven't been able to afford getting the new glasses. Yeah, $16 dollars an hour doesn't go very far these days.

Xavier stenciled my name on the back and wrote, "The work of art in the age of the mechanical reproduction" He initialed it. It is # 7/250.

I like the word incontrovertible. It means:

incontrovertible |inˌkäntrəˈvərtəbəl| adjective not able to be denied or disputed : incontrovertible proof.

Proof of what, you ask? Yes, indeed.

Noel

Check out www.bikinimoviereview.com Many are. Join the crowd.