Breakfast for a working actor

Today, it's coffee and Cap'n Crunch Crunch Berries.

Earlier last week at the grocery store, I had a weird sentimental urge to pick up a box of this stuff.

Y'know, last time I ate this, the berries were only red. Now they're red, blue, purple, and green. Not that they taste any different.

I wonder if Samuel L. Jackson ever eats Crunch Berries?

"I am tired, of these motherf***ing green berries, on my
motherf***ing spoon!"

It's almost like not working ...

Things like this every once in a while are really nice.

Tonight I shot an industrial for Centex Destination Properties out at Horseshoe Bay, a resort built against constant-level Lake LBJ.

This place was gorgeous (probably still is, but I'm not there now). I got paid to tool around a golf cart on the Slick Rock Course, trying not to dump my super-sexy co-star Angela Rawna and our cart off of a water fall.

Got paid ... to not ... jump a cart off a waterfall ... at a resort.

Kinda surreal. Good surreal, not bad surreal (bad surreal is that dream where I'm "accidently" getting kissed by a sexy nurse who turns into a guy cousin of mine I haven't seen for 15 years).

Sure, I had to schlepp an hour and a half each way, and there's probably political capital burned at work for my leaving early at the end of BigHugeCorp's fiscal year, but like I'm going to complain?

Anyhoo, good gig, and the production crew (including amazing makeup maven Pamela) was tight -- super professional and talented and an incredible blast. I'm seriously bummed they're located in North Carolina, because I will travel to work with people like that.

And the amazing Katherine Willis was there, too, but her gig was after ours. On a 24-foot boat. I'd say she's a jerk but she earned it; I am seriously impressed with that chica.

Feeling good tonight. Kinda takes the bad taste of last night's Meisner class out of my mouth ...

When "Idealism" means something else ...

"Adam, you're very idealistic."

Lately, I'm much more aware of people and what they mean -- as opposed to what they say.

My epiphany today is people usually aren't being positive when they say this. It's kind of like saying "thank you", but not meaning "thank you" (watch the edited-for-television version of Goodfellas, if you need help with that concept).

At best, they mean,

"Adam, you're being naive."

Or the slightly more derogatory,

"Adam, I think that's very Pollyanna."

The wake up I had, though, is it's usually a bigger deal than this. When someone uses this phrase with me (particularly at BigHugeCorp), it's when I'm taking an ethical stand.

For example, OneWhoHasPower at BigHugeCorp once sat me down to say, "Your doing the right thing is much admired. However, 'Doing the right' thing can be a little subjective." (Note: It wasn't at this little sit-down.)

So, assuming I am in the right, they're not praising me for my idealism -- they're marginalizing my stance to justify their lack of one (or to justify their stance on the "wrong" side).

Put bluntly, if I'm doing right, and they don't want to invest the effort or burn the political capital, they minimize my stance as being "idealistic" -- and implicitly unrealistic, and therefore not valid.

Well, thank you ...

Voice over today

A director with whom I've done a few gigs called me today and asked if I could come down and do some voice over for him today.

He's talented, a good guy, and knows his stuff. So I said yes.

The piece is an on-spec political advertisement for a state representative race. All positive, no mud, and short and to the point.

I haven't done any political ads previously, but this was basically a "it's OK, this guy'll take care of you" kind of industrial vibe (which I have done), and pretty easy going.

Outside of that, I can't articulate how jazzed I am a director with whom I've worked called me for a gig, I was able to jet down and do the work, and then get back to the toy job with no hiccup or interruption o' those important things. Almost surreal, as I think about it.

And the turnaround was so fast, the dialog hadn't been written, so the director was feeding me lines over the headset, I'd tweak, we'd agree, then roll. We got into a pretty good groove.

That's a good way to spend 1.5 hours (end-to-end)...

I know you're looking at my site ...

I've noticed some traffic this week that appears to be from some of the companies/domains I target, which is exciting and frustrating at the same time.

I work really hard to build opportunities for my acting, so when I see folks on my Website apparently from some of the companies I have hit recently (like at the Austin Game Conference) or over the course of the last 3-4 years, I'm bummed that they're not calling my agent, offering me vast sums of money to emote brilliantly on camera or on mic.

Anyway, as part of my weekly Web traffic review today, I noticed I apparently had visitors from Disney, Harvard, Best Buy, Microsoft, and Turner, (among others).

So, if you're visiting my site, do let me know (and hire me and pay me vast sums of money to be brilliant, if you're so inclined).

That pretty much sums up class tonight ...

International Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day

Evidently, today is "International Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day".

One of my fellow managers sent this Email out to our entire, 300-person staff in the local Austin office:

Avast ye, mateys!

Yes, it's September 19th and, just in case it may have slipped your mind, it's International Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day!

So, stop by Adam Creighton's office to hear just what kind of pirate a suburban software development manager can be when he really tries. You'll be glad you did!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Talk_Like_a_Pirate_Day

Yarrrr!

Which has led to a flurry of phone calls and walk-ins as people ask me to "talk pirate to them".

Well done, my friend. Well done ...

The day I took the low road ...

I know someday will by my last day at BigHugeCorp.

Maybe I'll get to choose it; maybe I won't. Maybe I'll work there until I die. Maybe I'll die prematurely.

Usually, I have delusions of grandeur about may last day, where I'll do something big and important and elevated that means something and changes that soulless entity to a bastion of employee kindness.

And, sometimes, like this week, I have a really, really bad series of days where I lose faith that there are thinking individuals worthy of trust in the world, and I think, "Maybe I'll just wear one of these shirts on what will become my last day of work" (Not safe for work; or those easily offended):

• My wardrobe for my last day of work

Maybe the hoodie. And the thong (so I feel pretty). And I'd drink coffee from the mug. And if I still had Loki, I'd bring her to the office and have her wear the doggie tee (even though I'm opposed to dogs being dressed up). That's a picture.

Damn, I miss that dog ...

The one where I was a jerk ...

Yesterday at BigHugeCorp sucked

I sent and received about 200 Emails yesterday.

In a 10 hour day, that's an average of 3 minutes to per message. Are we really receiving, comprehending, evaluating, and delivering considered responses in 3-6 minutes?

Of course, 3 minutes assumes that all I'm doing is Email. Which I wasn't.

Looking at my IM log, I had like 27 separate IM conversations, and there were 4 scheduled conference calls, multiple other ad hoc calls, hallway meetings, and personal interactions.

Sure, many of these happend concurrently; but that doesn't make this whole problem better.

We are so broken ... Gotta think about how to fix it ...

Loki Girl has gone home

Regular readers know my poor dog Loki has gone through a lot since January. Today, she was all done with that.

Loki took a turn for the worse yesterday, and I stayed up with her most of the night. In the wee hours of the morning, I fell asleep, and she did, too. Now she's past all of that pain.

I'm in a midst of a pretty big professional opportunity this week, so I'm trying not to let this own me, but I plan on having a nice little breakdown after Friday, thank you very much.

Hey, she and I got 8 more months than we othewise would have had ...

Rachel Leigh Cook voice over video

Continuing from yesterday's post about voice acting and video games, from over at gamevideos.com, here's a brief snippet of Rachel Leigh Cook doing voice over for the upcoming Yakuza PlayStation2 game. She's actually done a bit of voice work, including fan-favorites Final Fantasy and Batman Beyond.

(UPDATED: Found out there are a bunch of voice session video for Yakuza, so I've added it. Mark Hamill and Michael Madsen are my heroes. Good stuff.)

Mark Hamill:

Michael Madsen:

Michael Rosenbaum:

Eliza Dushku:

Interviews on the video game voice over front

If, like me, you're into voice acting for video games, GameInformer Unlimited has three new interviews:

• Lev Chapelsky (the luminary behind Blindlight)
• Cam Clarke (voice actor behind The Tick's Die Fledermaus, Akira's Kaneda, and Metal Gear Solid's Liquid Snake, and more)
• Jennifer Hale (voice actor behind Metal Gear Solid II, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty ("except on the original films"), Jonny Quest, Iron Man, and more)

The Chapelsky interview is new, and different from one done some time ago in the print magazine. And all three are the full interviews -- not what's in the print mag.

To get to these articles, you need to be a subscriber to the mag, with the easiest (and cheapest) way being to get a GameStop Value card. Ten bucks gets you 10 issues, extra trade in value, and other goodies; if you're a gamer, why wouldn't you? Seriously, this is one of the better gamer pubs out there.

Also, here are the links to the above folks' official sites:

• Blindlight
• Cam Clarke (official site)
• Jennifer Hale (official site)

Last night was rough...

I had a better week last week, and more important repetitions outside of class than I did last night.

I was so bad I got put into "Meisner Chair Jail" (Steve said it wasn't, but it was).

Steve was justifiably upset last night. He was calling for a someone to step up and be a leader for the rest of the class.

I feel like the two things for which God made me are acting and leadership. With Meisner, I can't seem to do either.

And my greatest strength? I'm a thinker. And I can't intellectuallize this stuff.

It doesn't help that my body has been so screwed up the last few days from massive allergies.

Great, I'm screwed on the mental, emotional, and physical fronts. Nice.

I'm having a peach of a day.

I'm stuck.

I'm emotionally constipated...

Nervous for class tonight ...

I'm on the road, and, wow, I'm suddenly nervous for class tonight Weird...

Great name for a security company...

Busy on the acting front

Been busy lately on the acting front, which is obviously good.

Sunday I did another Meisner workout, this time a 1:1 with Errich Petersen, who's really talented, a good guy, and he and I have some overlap in the things on which we need to work for this class.

Right after that I recorded a 60-second voice audition for an AFTRA Lay's/Super B**l radio spot. The copy was well-written (it flowed, had a lot of range, and was easy to fit into the target time) and a lot of fun.

My agent called me Saturday about the opportunity from New York (she's absolutely amazing; working on her vacation and getting non-Austin gigs for me), and sound engineer Chad Furrow spun on a dime and helped me record the thing so I could have a clean, professional submission. If you need a top-notch, skilled engineer who knows his stuff and is a joy with whom to work, Chad is your guy. Seriously, if you want to get a hold of hiim, let me know.

The last several days, I've been going back and forth with several sound production and casting agencies on the West Coast. The interactions have largely been around their preference for union talent. I've been talking to them about the merits of professional talent in work-at-will states like Texas, which also hosts a bunch of their clients. I'm in no way trying to undercut the unions, but I certainly need to sell why the reality of where I choose to live doesn't impact my professionalism and contribution to their project. We'll see. A couple of the folks have been really interactive, and seem interested in exploring this more.

Last night, I finally got my specialized CD burner fixed (I hate software), because I need to burn a ton of voice demo CDs for next week's game conference.

I also wrote another full episode of my "Project X(ish)", and recorded and mastered some test audio. This particular episode is in homage to one of my favorite 90s action cartoons, and is funny sh**. To me. Other people may say, "Not so much." Screw them.

Tonight, I'll probably do another Meisner workout (I so don't feel ready for class), and start burning and printing a ton of demo discs and resumes for next week's conference.

I am so running out of hours in a day ...

I have a problem with clock watchers.

And legalists in general.

comMeisnerating

Tonight was an intense Meisner class.

Up to the 5th change (for those who know how this works), which comes from a bunch of 4th changes boiling over.

We each went up twice, and my first round I was out of head, working with phenomenal guy Marcus Lorenzo, and we were locked in and real and working through important stuff and ratcheting up real intensity with perfect repetition.

I wanted to vomit afterwards.

The second time -- not so much.

It's like that moment in Miss Congeniality where Michael Caine says, "A brief, shining moment, and then that mouth."

Yes, I've seen Miss Congeniality. Like eight times. You should see it, too.

Anyway, the second time I walked up trying to make something happen (wanting it to be different from my first time up, so that I wouldn't be trying to make that happen again), and really screwed up. I was in my head, not dialed in to my partner, superficial, read the riot act by my coach, and so on.

And that's OK.

Because I knew instantly how I was screwing up, and I know how to fix it. And it doesn't take anything up from my first time up.

I'm learning so much about giving myself grace in this class. Nice, unexpected side effect.

And so much was just clicking tonight. Not that I was getting everything, but there was so much important stuff going in the room tonight. Everyone had some moment that was better than they've had in class up to this point, and I knew that before Steve said it. I knew I had my best moment tonight.

Amazing, amazing people with whom I'm working. I'm blessed to work with every one of them.