Feb.1, 2008 - The Month In Review

Hello Reader,

I am starting a new feature here on It's Okay called The Month In Review. On the first of every month I will write about the highlights of the previous month. Its a way to keep friends near and far current on what I'm doing.

I used to send an email out to a select group of people called Noel's News that did the same thing, but really, who wants to have someone else's life forced on them every month?

So my idea now is to write it here for everyone to read if they want. I will still send a link to the email list, for awhile at least, but this way if they don't want to read it, they don't have to come here and read it. Easy, peazy, not too sleazy!

So, January 2008 was a really fantastic month. I had a fun job working at an art gallery in Santa Monica.

Next, I found out the photo I shot for Playboy back in August of last year was finally in print, in the February issue of Playboy. You can see the photo HERE. If you read Playboy, its on page 20. No, I'm not the blond. Truth is you can hardly tell its me, but it was still fun to do, and how many men can say they were in Playboy!

I had many many commercial auditions and booked my first national commercial. It was for Civilization:Revolution, an interactive video game. Their new website will have three very funny commercials featuring characters from history. I play Abe Lincoln in two of them. Honest, I do. After the website launches they will cut thirty second spots that will air on TV. Our photos will also be used on the box art for the game. Very fun.

We had our first Bikini Movie Review party and had a blast hanging out with everyone who made it. The party was a thank you to everyone who has helped us create the site and a kick off for the growth we see for 2008.
Our friend, Steve Gibons was here from Chicago. Steve writes most of the music for Bikini Movie Review and it was great he was here to celebrate with us.

In addition to all that, I worked as a cater waiter most weekends. I also had two verbal altercations/fights with strangers and co-workers - in one night! That was strangely fun. A great release.

So here we are already in February. Kris (my wife, the supremely talented Kris Cahill)has proclaimed February the month of high havingness. What that means is we are going to allow the energy of havingness into our lives. We are going to "have" a lot. Not by worrying, or being in survival, but by letting it come to us. Alright, sounds good to me.

I hope you had a great January too. I hope you had a lot of fun and exciting work and a lot of good times. And I hope February will bring you much havingness also.

I'll write more in my daily posts, but this wraps up the first Month In Review.

Enjoy the photos!

Peace.

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

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