The Boxing Day of Boxing Day

I've always been a little confused about what to do in between Christmas and New Year's. I mean, everyone's off work and sleeping in and stuffing themselves on leftovers, but there are still 4 big days left till the ball drops and you kind of find yourself aimlessly trying to do something. Well, this year, it's more animated and I actually have some stuff to do before I get on the looong flight back to L.A.

1) Exchange a dress at Karen Millen: It's a beautiful dress (see above left) but some strange person made it fit every part of my body besides my ribcage...ouch! Now this is pretty unusual because my chest (cough, cough) is not usually the thing that prevents a garment from fitting me. I'm also currently at my scrawniest (as my mother reminds me daily) so I am quite surprised by not being able to fit this bugger. I will seek some beautiful alternative this afternoon.

2) Trying to meet up with nice couple visiting from L.A.: My friend Adam Beechen, whose sketch I performed in aaages ago is visiting London with his fiance. He told me to call the hotel and I did finally yesterday...late...because I had some other hotel number that was wrong. Duh! Left a voicemail. I hardly ever see him in L.A. so not meeting up in London would be quite pathetic on my part.

3) Drinks!: This afternoon/evening...and probably longer with my good doctor friend, who is also an on-call doctor friend, so we will have to drink "slowly" for the first few hours to make sure she does not have to rush to an emergency with google eyes. Something was mentioned about us meeting up with the rugby team to watch rugby? (Or rather, to watch the brutal, unprotected, Anglo version of American football, yeah!!)

4) Missing Anthrope?: Let's see if Keira Knightly has acting chops in the Moliere classic The Misanthrope. Yes, on Monday night I get to witness hotness on stage but want to know if the talent supports the hotness...apparently she's gotten quite good reviews, so whadya know? And my friend did give a special shout out to Damian Lewis, who she labels the "hot ginger." That's one burning proscenium.

5) Old friend's flat party: On my last night (Tuesday) in the good ol' city of Londonus, I will see someone I possible have not seen for 9 or 10 years. Yes, thanks to the wonders of Facebook I got invited to a party that I can actually attend cause I'm HERE. I used to take flute lessons with this chick and we did duets and took music exams together...oh the memories. I think I broke down in tears during one of the exams because I couldn't name the note the examiner was testing me on.) The old friend lives about 10 mins walk from me, so I can go schmooze and get back to bed at a decent hour to wake up early the next day and fight the increased security at Heathrow airport after the latest terrorist attempt....3 hours check-in time now!!

Alright my darlings, I am off to tie up my greasy hair, exchange that dress and possibly paste on one of my cool, new temporary tatoos....I got some amazing presents this year... Mwah.

From London..with Dog

Clueless & the Cold

I am keeping my hands off the "Revivals" footage..though it's like a crack addict keeping her hands off crack.

Speaking of which, Brittnay Murphy dead? Poor soul. I remember when she said in an interview that she was researching dependence on crack for her role in "The Dead Girl" and I was apt to wonder if that wasn't a bit dangerous and close-to-life. But the autopsy isn't out yet (though I'm suspicious of her husband not wanting one) and all we can do is speculate.

I've had too many posts this year lamenting dead celebs & friends, so before Thesy Surface in Los Angeles becomes a morgue-fest, let me say that I grew up on "Clueless" and actually think that was her best role to date. It seemed Hollywood (or herself?) tried to make her into this bad, edgy girl that I never thought she was. Even "8 Mile" steered away from her essence. The good thing about "Clueless" is her character starts out innocent and we see the transition to the fake "Mean Girl" because of the crowd she falls into, while always knowing how she started. So R.I.P. Tai, you will be missed!

I'm back in London and (don't say you told me so) it's COLD!! Miraculously the sun has been shining, so that's nice but still...I am permanently unable to feel my toes. I guess I have to blame Payless Shoe Source for their ultra-sexy yet ultra non-thermal boots. Or rather blame myself for not wearing an extra pair of socks...brrrr. Still, London and it's people have never looked more beautiful (teeth and all!) in the crisp, cool rays of the sunshine. Ahhh, it was good for me to come here and wander these lovely urban streets.

There's no recession apparently in our neighborhood because the shops and eateries are swamped. SOMEONE must be making money...or, rather, maxing out their credit card.

Tomorrow I wander more streets. At night. In the extra extra cold. Someone tell Santa I need to borrow his sleigh...with the heat at full blast!!

Back to "Normal"

Hello my sweets!!

The pilot presentation wrapped, the wrap party involved tequila, beer and cocktails (ugh) and now I'm doing some small postmortem tasks, like the final budget, asking people to pick up stuff they left behind and, of course, absorbing how it all went.

I decided I won't even look at any of the footage until the New Year. I think it's healthy to stand back from the whole thing, clear my mind and return to the project as a fresh audience member. I've been absorbed for so long in the world of one-hit wonderdom that it would be hard now to have any objectivity. What does this mean?

1) I only have the fabulous still shots of photographer Timothy Moore to laugh at (one of them, see above)

2) I WILL actually have a life before I leave for London on Friday.

3) When I say life, I mean I will drink a lot...

4) I can finally set up my very tacky, Target Christmas tree today.

Also, I'm attending acting class at Lesly Kahn tonight. I feel like I haven't been digging into my actor work since I became producer bitch...well, besides my very fun character on-set, Rita Chassin, of course. But now me needs to stretch my thespian muscles again!!

Some Funky Thoughts

I was innocently asked today what the goal of my blog was? "Goal?" I thought. Uh-ohhh, I don't have one. It's just a blog. Should I have a goal for my blog? The answer, of course, after much deliberation is "no." This is the one goal-less thing I have in my life and God bless it.

The comment made me think how our society is now so competitive that everything has to be given a rational purpose. A lot of my pangs of unhappiness this year have been based on this kind of external absorbtion of the "shoulds" I should be doing: Jobs (even if they are side-jobs, they're money to support your dream), friendships (how can they help me? can we hang in the same circles?) and even romantic relationships (are we compatible? will they support me psychologically? does he like the same TV shows/movies I do...blah, blah, blah...borrrring.) Whatever happened to just doing stuff for fun with absolutely nooo point to it? Especially when a certain part of your life (i.e. Hollywood career) is so pressurized in itself, you might as well include an element of plain ol' mindless joy in your life.

I was made aware of my inner control-freak with the events of these past few weeks: "Letting go" has never been my forte...aside from after a few cocktails...oh, and on the dancefloor...but the true joy I felt on the set this weekend was from doing something I loved rather than the intellectual realization of my goal being fulfilled. It was a feeling, not the ticking off of a task. And believe me, I discovered I feel a lot and pretty well actually. Phew! Good to know I made the right career choice.

I've heard people say that's what's hard in this town- balance. On one hand we have to stay mega-intuitive artists, living life on the edge, on the other hand we're pounded (or pound ourselves) with the kind of discipline that is supposed to get us places. But controlled purpose drowns the creative kitten, which probably made you endearing in the first place. So for God's sake (excuse my screenwriting book pun) Save The Cat!!

I looked into my closet today and noticed all these sexy dresses and wacky clothes I had not worn in years. I'm not trying to delve too deep but I think it was a great reflection of the person I'd become. More straight-laced, guarded, self-conscious. I started trying on those suckers and other than discovering that I lost weight (not necessarily a good thing for skinny me) I immediately felt my "wild side" come back. No, not some slutty sorority girl in college, for those dirty minded, but my real "crazy" self. My fun side, which apparently has been hibernating for a looong time.

Ahhh, pointlessness is such a relief right now, especially for a workaholic like me.

I don't know how many people read this and if they care (remember, my blog is goal-less even in audience numbers) but sometimes a girl just wants to let out her demons like any good American-German citizen with a British accent!?

So thank you for reading my goal-less blog and please visit again, for your own pointless purpose :)

Let the Mayhem Commence...

Actually slept well last night, despite having a day where my stress meter went from 3/10 to 11/10. I won't bore you with the details but let's just say it ended with yours truly having to drive the UHaul with super-expensive equipment from Burbank Airport, up the windy hill, to my house. Miraculously no accidents, though I nearly hit a surprised squirrel.

Today our scenes are: PLAYGROUND, KITCHEN & JAKE'S OFFICE. Meaningless to anyone who does not know the script but fantastic for the crew because two locations are in the same building and the other one only two minutes away. Our DP had a night shoot last night...oy vey.

My neck and back are definitely creakier than they were yesterday but fantastically I have a massage scheduled on Thursday. Until then, an evening bottle or two of the leftover supply of Mike's Hard Lemonade (from the Mad Men party) will have to do. Although I will feel rather underage.

Now it's time for me to get pretty for my later scene. Fake tan here we come...

DAYS OF SHOOT: 1ST DAY

STRESS METER: 8/10

The Day Cometh

Equipment: Booked.

Make-Up: Booked.

Green Screen: Gotten.

Cast: Informed.

Instead of a toy trumpet I invested in a kids red guitar, with a flash on it...that's right, a flash!! Toy'R'Us did not have a trumpet and I was lazy and the gas to get to the other side of town would have been expensive. Though, speaking of expensive, this "toy" was 40 bucks and now I've forced myself into a position to make full use of it.

So after this crazy weekend, I will give myself guitar lessons via the instruction manual, which looks like a few pieces of recycled paper stuck together by the minor it was supposed to educate.

Other achievements? Securing an office location thanks to my new personal hero, Noah Pohl, blasting out a ridiculous load of emails with wardrobe information (bet I forgot someone) and buying a tube of hair mascara. This hair mascara looks like quite the thing!! I will experiment on our child actor and see if I can incorporate it into my own funky "going out" gear.

Tomorrow will be rent-a-truck-and-pick-up-the-gear day. Also, last minute set design has to be "workshopped" at my house in the evening. If I don't superglue myself to something, I'll consider it a success.

I desire a troubleshooting guide to check I haven't forgotten something but all in all I am actually pretty relaxed and confident about the shoot ahead....who'd have thought?

I'll be peeking over a cocktail till anxiety comes a-knockin'.

DAYS TO SHOOT: 2

STRESS METER: 3/10

Quotes from Pop Royalty to Get You Inspired

I've assembled some memorable words from the Queen, King & Prince of Pop. NB. The Prince of Pop i.e. Prince does not say much...that's why there's only one.

“A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That's why they don't get what they want.” (Madonna)

“In the end, the important thing is to be true to yourself and those you love and work hard. I mean, work like there’s no tomorrow. Train. Strive. I mean, really train and cultivate your talent to the highest degree. Be the best at what you do. Get to know more about your field than anybody alive. Use the tools of your trade, if it’s books or a floor to dance on or a body of water to swim in. Whatever it is, it’s yours.”
(Moonwalk- Michael Jackson)

“The fact of the matter is that you can use your beauty and use your charm and be flirtatious, and you can get people interested in your beauty. But you cannot maintain that. In the end, talent is the only thing. My work is the only thing that's going to change any minds.” (Madonna)

“I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.” (Madonna)

“A perfectionist has to take his time; he shapes and molds and he sculpts that thing until it’s perfect. He can’t let it go before he’s satisfied; he can’t. If it’s not right, you throw it away and do it over. You work that thing till it’s just right. When it’s as perfect as you can make it, you put it out there. Really, you’ve got to get it to where it’s just right; that’s the secret.”
(Moonwalk- Michael Jackson)

And something more sentimental to think about from the Queen: “To be brave is to love someone unconditionally, without expecting anything in return. To just give. That takes courage, because we don't want to fall on our faces or leave ourselves open to hurt.” (Madonna)

Finally, the Artist Who Never Spoke Much: “Cool means being able to hang with yourself. All you have to ask yourself is "Is there anybody I'm afraid of? Is there anybody who if I walked into a room and saw, I'd get nervous?" If not, then you're cool.” (Prince)

But then I guess Prince's music speaks for itself. Happy December!