Family Visit

My family was in town for Easter weekend. It was great seeing them. We did a lot of touristy stuff since this was the first trip to L.A. for my parents. The coolest thing that we did was go to The Getty Museum. This museum sits on top of a huge hill and is more of a compound, than a museum. They have gardens, multiple buildings with tons of different types of art, and one of the best views of L.A. The best thing about it is that it is free to the public. You have to pay $7 to park all day, but other than that you can stay there as long as you want and they have lots of places that you can sit and just be at peace. It was a very inspiring place, and I think I will go back there a lot.

My sister stayed with me in my apartment. We had a really good time just hanging out and watching Arrested Development. My sister told me about Arrested Development last year and it has become my favorite show. In my opinion it is the best show on television and if you are not watching it yet, you should be.

One of the WEIRDEST coincidences in my life occurred while my parents were here. About 5 years ago I shot a short film for a student at Columbia College in Chicago. His name was George and he was the writer/director. I can’t describe the experience in words, but if you ever watch those movies about the making of a movie where everything goes wrong, this experience tops all of those combined. I hadn’t really thought about it in a long time, except to tell people a funny story about being an actor. My family and I were driving up the coast to Malibu. The road you take is Pacific Coast Highway and it was under construction due to rain and mudslides on the highway. It was getting near to lunchtime and since traffic was really bad, we pulled into the first restaurant we saw, a place called Dukes. I noticed one of the waiters looked familiar and I asked our waiter what his name was. Our waiter said that his name was George and that he was from Chicago. It was the same guy. I talked to him after we ate lunch and the one of the first things out of his mouth was “I’m really sorry about the film”, which I found hysterical. He had moved out to L.A. about a year and a half ago. We exchanged numbers and I left it at that.

I really would like someone to figure out the odds of me running into him out here after all these years. I bet that odds are better that we would have lived out here for fifty years and never run into each other than to have randomly picked his restaurant to eat in with my family.

I strongly believe that things happen for a reason. I believe in the random acts of the universe having some sort of equation and that we need to be open to seeing them. I don’t really have anything in common with this guy and I don’t know if I will ever speak to him, but it is just too big of a coincidence running into him to not be aware of that.

My parents also got to see me perform in an improv show Saturday night. It was a really small crowd, about 8 people. The show went okay, but I have come to realize that I really don’t like to do short games for an entire show. I like the freedom of just having a half an hour and from one suggestion from the audience, the improvisers with me create a piece of art that will never be duplicated again. I think I am going to audition again at Improv Olympic out here. That is where I believe I can grow the most as a performer.
The catering company that Rockstar works for hired me this week. He put a good word in for me with the company and I think that is why they hired me since I have no experience in the catering world. I also have a phone interview with a company tomorrow for a job where I will be following up with schools on sample textbooks that this company has sent them. The good thing about it is that I can work from home and the money is really good. The bad thing about it is that it sounds too good to be true, and that means that it usually is.

This entry has been all over the place and for that I apologize, there was just a lot to write about over the last week. More movie reviews will be coming tomorrow as well as some more Overheard Conversations.