wednesday

well, i have been keeping so busy during my time off, seriously, i work all day every day it feels so good doing something. I really thought i'd be watching tv all day and having nothing to do,, but that hasn't been the case at all. the past few days i've been working on my old boss's pilot for FOX. i hope the show goes cause i would do anything to work with these people again. basically i've been going in to see the rehersals and then they have a group of writers they've worked with before and we sit around and help them with jokes or story stuff. it's been fun being in a writers room again. so that films friday night, so that's something to look forward to. also, today i had another meeting at my volunteer place with the girl i'm mentoring to write a mini-movie. today the teacher covered the basics of how to write a scene. next we start working one on one with our assigned kid. then also today, i had to write an article about a dog park in LA that the community surrounding the area wants to change into a more family oreiented park. I am writing for a newspaper called the canyon news here in LA, one that is local to my neighborhood, anyway, i don't get paid, but it's something to do each week. I had to go to the dog park this morning and interview some dog owners and while i was there, the MTV show Next was filming some dating show, which was werid because it was wed. morn, but i guess the guy who's going on the date and his dog picked the girl he wanted. sounds lame. anyway, i just wrote and submitted my article. its my first one and i think the paper comes out on saturday and then goes online on sunday if you want to check out

canyon-news.com

instant films

so sunday night was the instant film festival and my filmed turned out pretty great! a bunch of my friends came which i was so happy about becuase this studio was downtown and no one ever goes down there. We got there and immediately hit the bar, they have a bar set up and there was a dj playing some tunes and i ran into my cast and my director and a few people from 70s show who i didn't know were involved in this. then around 8:30pm, the film festival started and the first 2 films were really bad and i was like, that's awesome, mine is def. better than those two, which if you're not a writer you might not understand that thinking, but you never want to be thought of as a bad writer. unfortuanately, my director turned out not to do anything creative wtih my script, which was disappointing, but out of the 7 movies, i can honestly say mine was the 3rd best (my friends all agreed, it was def. not the best, which is fine with me since it was my first time.) it also felt like some of these films were conceived before we pulled the words out of the hat which is lame, it's supposed to be concieved the night of. you can see my film on the internet in a few weeks, i'll let you know and post the site.

inside man

airight, i have recovered from my writing all nighter, i was so exhausted. so i went home and wen tto bed around 5am saturday morning, then got up at 7am and drove downtown to drop off my script. all the actors and directors were there and they started the selection process/ Out of the 7 directors, 6 were new to instant films, so i was relieved when I got the only guy who'd done it before. He pulled my name out of a hat and then pulled the cast out (3 women and a man) and we went off and had a read of the script. It was pretty trippy hearing the words being said, but also disappointing because they were reading it cold and weren't hitting the jokes, so it didn't sound as funny as I had heard it, but i knew that since they didn't know they're characters yet or anything that it was going to turn out fine with enough rehearsal. i then left, went to my friend amy's house, she made me french toast while also gettig her 1 year old ready for a birthday party all with her husband out of town and then i went home and went to sleep. That night i went to sushi with amy and bernadette. AMy has the Los Angeles magazine's 10 best sushi list and is working her way through it. I wasn't that impressed with this place, i've been to a few of the others on the list, and was much more impressed. at sushi i saw this guy who i worked with on the show jesse like 6 years ago and i haven't seen him since. anyway, he walked in the door and i was like oh my god thats noel bright! now you have to understand, and i'm just imagining this to be true, but while i'm older than i was while working at jesse, i'm much hotter, much more fit and not as fat. I have gotten rid of my baby fat or as i like to call it, my actual fat. and noel is totally cute, albeit a little cocky seeing as his uncle created Friends. Anyway, i was not his type a few years ago is what i'm trying to say,. but the other night, while he was sitting with I can only imagine was his girlfriend, he kept looking over at me. now yes he could be looking to figure out how he knows me, but i think he got it at least one of the first 10 times and i like to think he was checking me out, but i will never know for sure as i didn't say anything to him and just left when our dinner was over, mostly because we were running to catch a movie. Perhaps i'll run into him again soon and all myquestions will be answered.

insant films update #5

it's 4 am, i'm wired, but i'm done well, as done as i'm willing to be, i don't want to work anymore. it's pretty bad, hopefully i'll have a great cast and director who will turn this turd into gold. the ending is lame...
stay tuned....

insant films update #4

it's now 3am and i'm starting to meltdown, hearing things outside the office and freaking out about my coffee intake, like if i go to bed at 4am will i fall asleep b/c of all this coffee, i'm not sure i will. but i need sleep. i also need an ending to my movie STILL. I HAVE ONE, but it's rough. should i stay up until 8am to finesse it? I'M LOSING MY MIND

insant films update #3

okay, it's almost 1 am and I still have no ending to this thing. I've already walked to coffee bean and back, now it's too late to walk around this neighborhood alone. Although I'm across the street from the studio where we shot my t.v. show, i could go over there and roam the empty lot at least that would be safe, but I'm not sure roaming the lot will help me find the ending to my film, which between you and you and you and me, it feels more like a play, which is a bad thing since it's supposed to be a movie. I won't mention that to the director. maybe the end of my movie can be found in this weeks issue of people magazine...

insant films update #2

it's 10:12pm and i'm on page 2! and at the bottom of page 2. now, here's the problem, what do my characters say now? anyone out there? help! i want to get my coffee now, but maybe i'll wait for another hour, i don't actually need it now, but i'm a champion procrastinator.

insant films update #1

I have a feeling i will be updating through out the night as I plan on being up all night, although, i think the coffee bean across the street closes at midnight, so i'll have to take a break to hit it later. anyway, the noun that i picked was "sap" and the adjective is "allergic" or maybe the adjective was sap? i don't know, my english teacher friend cathy would be a better person to ask. anyway, the theme of this instant film is SPRING so using those 2 words and the theme of spring, I'm supposed to write a movie.... wish me luck.

instant films

so it's about 9pm here in LA on a friday night and i'm sitting at my roomates office computer writing. What am i doing you might be asking, a single woman as myself should be out in the clubs, dry humping some 25 year old and getting it on! well, a few months ago my friend recomended me to this thing called instant films. earlier tonight, i went to downtown LA, a trip not made by most Angelenos, to the LA film center and met up with 6 other writers to pick a noun and an adjective out of a hat. I now have to use these words as inspiration to write a 6 page movie script that has to be written by tomorrow morning at 8am. Actually earlier as I have to be in downtown LA (that'll be twice this year) at 8am. So right now instead of writing the script, I am writing in my blog. so then i hand the script in and director pulls it out of a hat and the director gets 4 actors and goes off and shoots it all day saturday. then its edited on sunday and we have a film festival on sunday night. the film when completed will be put up on the internet so all of you who can't make the festival in LA on sunday night can still see it. Below is all the instant film info. They do this like 8 times a year and have done 20 of these festivals so far.

The Instant Films Story

Instant Films takes all the conventional wisdom about filmmaking and turns it on its head. Taking advantage of new technologies Instant Films creates a intense and exciting environment where filmmakers don’t have time for pretension, ego or second thoughts.

Here’s how it works:

DAY ONE
At 8pm Friday night, 7 writers each select two random words and a cast breakdown (for example 2 woman, 2 men). Each writer has 12 hours to complete an eight page script which incorporates all of the above.

DAY TWO/THREE

At 8am Saturday morning, the actors and directors assemble and the writers deliver their scripts.
The directors randomly pick one of the completed scripts.
A cast is chosen randomly from the pool of actors.
Production begins. The Directors have less than two days to shoot and edit their films using the cast they were assigned.
SHOWTIME
Directors bring their finished films to the theater by 6pm Sunday.
At 8pm the films are shown to a live audience!
Instant Filmmaking is about invention, inspiration, innovation and insanity in the face of what didn’t seem possible just a few hours before. Normal filmmaking is about careful planning and design, carefully crafted scripts and cautious casting decisions. Instant Filmmaking is about instantaneous creativity and on the spot decisions. Casting is random, the budget is zero, writing is one draft and everything is done in as little time as possible.

The funny thing is that the end result is sometimes more entertaining than movies that were years in the making.

But we are not trying for quality, the rules are not set up to ensure quality, we are trying for an atmosphere of playfulness, ingenuity and sweat that is the fountainhead of creativity. Past participants have said it is the most fun they have ever had and the experience left them inspired and energized. If you can make a movie in 48 hours you can do anything!.

STEELY DAN SIGHTING

anyone ever heard of the band steely dan? i guess they're famous, anyway, the lead guy donald fagen (sp?) was in my eye doctors office today, his appt. was after mine. I guess i go to the eye doctor of the rich and famous... wait, are they famous?

corbin bernsen part 2

okay so this is not the first time in my blog i've spoken about corbin bernsen. as loyal followers will recall, i once wrote about how this idiot was jogging in the middle of mullholland drive, well, not the middle per se, but out in the road on a blind corner, and i almost hit him and it turns out it was corbin bernsen. Anyway, this morning, i go to the chiropractors and lo and behold, in his jogging outfit and sporting an awesome body figure, was mr. bernsen himself. i couldn't believe my very eyes. and then my chiropractor comes out and says "corbin, come on in." which is strange, i mean I work with ashton and topher and wilmer and call them by their first names, but its weird to hear other people call celebs by their first names. today i went to the pilot table read for one of my friends shows, then i stayed after and helped re-write the pilot. it's actually really good and it's only going to get better. it was fun to get back into a writers room today with people i've never written with before. other than me, everyone there were seasoned tv veterans, guys who've created their own shows and gotten them on the air and ran them, and then there's me a lower level writer, im' like what the hell am i doing here? anywho, i'll be working again on friday and monday and tues, so that's something to look forward to! went to yoga tonight, but i might have been a little careless in my eating this week and that might be reflected on the weight watchers scale come friday afternoon!

tax day

okay, so i owe an insane amount of money to the tax man due to an error by my company, nothing i can do about it, but my tax lady is an awesome accountant. she really is, and shes so freakin nice. The only one thing thats a little strange about her is her love of weiner dogs. weiner dogs you ask? i'm not exactly sure what isup with weiner dogs, but she loooooves them i guess, i only can tell by how her office is decorated. I sat there for 1.5 hours and while she entered in all my info and came up with some creative tax adjustments, i stared at the vast collection of weiner dog parapahnelia. here's what she's got in her small office:

weiner dog mugs, statues, cookie jar, cards, wall of weiner dog framed pictures and weiner dog silleuttes (sp?), weiner dog framed cartoons, comics, stuffed animals (plural), weiner dog books, light switch frame, key chain holder, paper weights (3), pcutres, framed articles, faux magazine cover - like when your family went to the boardwalk on the jersey shore and your dad took a pciture and was put on the cover of forbes magazine - yeah one of those, wooden blocks that look like a weiner dog and look like could've been made by her 7 yr. old niece, but was more likely made by a 52 year old artist in santa barbara, and a few more weird weiner dog statues. phew! that's a lot of weiner doggin.
celebrity sighting: ask and you shall recieve, yesterday i lamented that I hadn't seen a celebrity in ages and bam, a few hours later, i saw candace bergin hiking with her dog.

i'm so borin

i'm sorry my life is so boring these days. i've been out and about in all the typical celebrity haunts, the newsroom on roberston, Kitson on robertson, the center for yoga on larchmont, etc and i haven't come across one celebrity to talk about on my blog. this is disappointing. tomrrow i'm working on a pilot, so i'll be back on CBS radford studio where my show was filmed and hopefully i'll see someone of note. today i'm meeting with some girl from my hometown who i have no idea who she is or how she got my emaill, but she just moved out here and wants to be in the entertainment industry, and since i'm the only one from my hometown out here, i'm the go-to person when anyone needs help and i'm more than happy to give it as i didn't have anyone helping me and it was so hard, so i'm happy to help anyone avoid the hell i went through when i first came out here.

sunday supper

dinner last night was really great. it all worked out. turns out the restaurant was confused and only 1 friend of mine called to add onto the reservation. the food and company was amazing, i think i'm gonna get a few people... a few only,and do it again next weekend, the food was that freakin' good. italian food is a perfect combo with a night of red wine and the sopranos. I also worked out furiously yesterday, but i'm not eating that great so i'm worried when i weigh in on friday i might gain this week. i'm not eating bad like candy cause i gave all that up for lent, but pretzels are my weakness.

weekend high

so i had fun this weekend which is good cause during the week, it's just usually me and myself and i, and i while i like my own company more than the average person likes being alone, it is starting to wear me down. so i was feeling blue at the end of last week, but this weekend boosted my spirits. i didn't do anything too crazy, i had soccer on saturday but wasn't feeling well and sucked big time, so now i'm totally embarraassed by this performance so much so that i'm thinking of quitting. i missed a few balls due to dizziness and had to take myself out of the game. saturday night, my friend (and former dating guy) bryan and his friends were hanging out and invited me over and we drank beer and played charades. I was so excited to see him cause he has been living in NY the past 5 months and i've missed him terribly. i really adore him, even though i dumped him 2 years ago. tonight i made reservations for 8 at this restuarant that has sunday supper for $15 and $10 bottles of wine. I had sent out an email a few days ago garnering interest and so made the reservation for 8 because if you have more than 10 people they charge you more and change the menu. well.... apparently last night my friend liz casually mentioned to melissa this girl who was out with us that we were doing this and i guess melissa called and added a bunch of people to my reservation! then my friend andy called and said she was bringing her friend and i explained to her the situation and she called the restaurant and added her friend anyway and so now the restaurant is pissed at me cause they thought i was the one calling and constantly changing the reservation!!!! HOW RUDE ARE THESE PEOPLE, I WOULD NEVER DO THAT!! So i called the restuarant to see what was going on and they said the reserv. was now at 13!!!!! so i have no idea who's coming to my little dinner and i just wanted a small dinner with some friends and this girl melissa and who knows who she is bringing is now coming and i'm super pissed. totally ruined my night.

happy st. patricks day

quote of the day: "can you make her softer? she's vulnerable." -- my actor roomie giving me acting notes on scenes i was rehearsing with him.

so if you're a writer in this town and you have writers guild insurance, you probably know about the massage scam. Basically if you go to the pain relief center which is a chiropractor place and get your back adjusted, you can get an hour massage for a measly 25 bucks! oh yeah. rarely do i take advantage of this, maybe like twice in a year, but yesterday i went and as i was standing outside the door waiting to go in, i saw the massuer's schedule of upcoming and past appointments and it was all people who i've written with, a wife of a person i wrote with and then another writer who i'm good friends with! that's hilarious. forget spending $130 for a massage at spa mystique, i'm sticking with this shenanigan. last night i went to this awesome wine bar with karen, jake and bernadette. i told karen i would drive, but only if she allowed me to drive her mini cooper, aw yeah, it fucking rocked, i've never been inside one before. today is st. patricks day, not sure what i'm going to do just yet, but seeing as i'm still sober, i'm doing something wrong. gotta run to weight watchers.

lazy, i am

yesterday morn i had bfast with one of my agents, melissa. I hadn't seen her in a few years as she's not my main agent, but we're friendly. anyway, during the course of the meal, we both dropped a few f-bombs and s words, she more than me, and the lady sitting next to us was giving us the most disgusted dirty looks every time the f word dropped. it was really funny becuase once i noticed she was annoyed, i stop swearing, but melissa didn't know and i was laughing every time she cussed. such a fun game. my volunteering went well, i've been paired up with a girl named nazneen, say what? i know, not one of these 10 kids had a name any of us had ever recognized, and i knkow you're thinking thats racist, but most of the kids were white with names like ilsa and mateai. as you know my roomate is an actor and is currently auditioning for pilot season and i've become his acting partner rehearsing with him all day long, it's exhausting. It's 1030am and i'm lying in bed, not sure where the day is going to take me. i know i'm going to yoga at 430pm with amy but i have no plans until then. quite honestly i don't even know what day it is since i have no where to be ever. ok, i need to get coffee and see what celeb i see at the coffee bean and tea leaf.

did anyone else think jessica alba was emaciated?

did any of you watch the oscars and jessica alba came out and was so ridiculously skinny? that's what i want to look like. anyway, i saw her yesterday at kings road cafe in w. hollywood where i was having a nice daytime vanilla latte. so enjoyable. anyway, she was there with some friends and she was actually eating. whether or not it stayed in her stomach at a later time, i'm no judge, but she was at least picking at her food. i felt like, okay we eat at the same place, we're both skinny (not me yet but getting there) yesterday i worked out another hour and again this a.m. now i'm in bed, in pain from working out so much. today i start my volunteering for "young storytellers." it's a program where writers volunteer with kids in a underfunded arts programs and go into the school during lunch 1 hour a week and mentor kids who are writing mini screenplays. and then at the end of the program, the kids do a showcase and huge actors come and read their work, i'm talking like matthew perry, hank azaria have come in the past. it's really a great idea and i'm so excited to start today. im' giving back, people. i'll let you know what my kid is like.

j. netics

so i worked out again at the j netics place in the valley where you do it for 30 mins and it's so intense and insane. so i'm there and who walks in, sheila e, i guess she's some sort of famous singer from the 80s and she's slim and built. i just googled her and she didn't used to look that way. anyway, also working out is this tv star from the UPN, his nameis Flex and he's on some show called, i think one on one anyway, he worked out with the owner J and i worked out with his wife who wasn't in that good of shape, which was actually good cause the teacher couldn't push us that hard hehehehe. then erica and i went to see the worst movie ever made and concieved. it's called Aquamarine and it's about a fucking mermaid. now i saw splash and llooovvveeed that movie, but this one is so so so so so so so so so bad. so bad! don't see it, i'm sure none of you had even thought you might. erica made me, or she suggested it at least and i was like, why not, ihave nothing to do today except avoid writing.

swedish olympic snowboarder

if you scroll down to the my pictures from the torino 2006 winter olympcis, you will see a picture of Daniel Biveson who is a swedish snowboarder. I just read that a swedish olympic snowboarder died and was worried it was daniel cause he was so nice and gracious when, i, a loud obnoxious cow bell ringing american, sitting directly in front of him after he competed, asked for a picture with him, which is not on the site as emma has not emailed me pictures yet. thankfully, he didn't pass away, but i am sad for the one who did.