Whataweek. Okay so I met just about all my event obligations this past week, which was no easy feat considering a fair amount of drinking or insomnia and consequent hangoverish symptoms prevailed. And that’s what coffee, vitamin C in double doses, jogging and hot showers are there to assuage.
Monday we had a successful first day of casting our new project. That night I attended a commercial acting seminar by popular teacher/coach Stuart K. Robinson, as his guest speaker Mark Measures was a colleague of mine and I wanted to hear what both had to say. The studio is unusually close to my house, in an industrial section of Culver City just south of the 10. I was really impressed with the information Stuart imparted to his students. When his guest, Abrams Artists commercial dept. head Mark Measures was introduced, things got exciting. Mark is as hilarious as he is astute. The buzzwords and phrases he’s coined and uses repeatedly perfectly convey his outspoken straight-shooting take on the industry. He’s been an enigma to us over the past several years during which time he placed us with a succession of other agents on staff. But they rearranged their agent/casting director assignments recently in light of staff downsizing and brought us back into Mark’s province. Yeah! It’s been too long.
With the happy reunion intact, I was able to laugh freely at his irreverent take on the biz, even chiming in when I couldn’t help not to.
The next day, Tuesday, we cast a different spot’s hero role. This one was good but for some reason the talent just didn’t excite us as much as the previous day’s choices. That night I had 3 options on my calendar, elected to pass on all and jogged up and down Pico instead. That was pretty interesting; other than the sidewalks being to firm a surface for my knees and causing loss of buoyancy, I enjoyed stopping at the local dojo, “Traditional Karate Academy” where I had the luck to be able to witness a black-belt class being taught by former world champion Avi Rokah. Other than that, there was much energy on the lively street with people traipsing around.
Wednesday we cast our 3rd day of the same project, splitting the day in 1/2 for each spot. It was a pretty successful day, and we think that there are some terrific choices from our 3 days of casting. Tomorrow (Monday) our clients will edit the DVD to their choices and get the directors’ picks on Tuesday. That night I went to a BINA event b/c it was so close (jogging distance) and I got a $5 promo ticket on a $30/door-priced event. There were four speakers this time (as opposed to the home BINA event I went to which featured just one, Einat Wilf). All four speakers were quite terrific: The Rand economist Claude Berrebi who’s specialty while at Princeton became terrorism and who spoke on the Economics of Terrorism; Luke Ford, a self-avowed sex-addict and former porn-industry journalist who converted to Judaism, opting for its more devout, religious “brand” as perhaps a displaced projection. I didn’t know what to expect from his speech, and it was really good. It’s moral was that the 12 Step Process is indeed a successful one, insofar as for him it invokes Hashem as the higher power to which he’s accountable. A empowered yet charming woman spoke on successful tools for selling—whether it’s a product or oneself, and an Indy Film & Commercial Director spoke on his passion, Zombie movies, with an affectionate and entertaining spin.
Afterwards there was schmoozing, but b/c the group’s demos are younger than me I didn’t spend time w/that. I just approached Mr. Berribe and discussed some items he mentioned. He said he enjoyed chatting w/me and after that I left.
Thursday I didn’t have to work so I just ran tons of errands, including my Farmer’s Market Thursday ritual, where I spend too much money on colorful organic produce.
Friday didn’t have to work but had tons more errands to do, and had to rush to get them all done in time for davening and attending a Friday Night Shabbat dinner event at my present shul, The Chabad of South La Cienega (SoLa) which had an Israeli theme. Thank goodness I sprung for a bottle of wine from new local boutique wine store The Cask, where the owner suggested a bottle of Shiraz to go w/the Israeli food. Yum! It was suchhhhh a great recommendation! My friend Shoshanna loved it too, and while everyone else’s wine got drunk, we still had a little left…until…ours ran out too! Everyone kept asking us to have some but the black bottle was empty! Socialized with lots of folks after dinner for what turned out to be a fun night. Shoshanna, her friend Yoni and new friend Iliana walked me home, at which point we stopped in Inon’s house to say hi. He offered dessert and I quickly ran to my apt. to grab the strawberries and Shmerling Chocolate Liqueur. We all enjoyed it over conversation w/Inon’s friend Shalom and property-mate Viki Atia, who joined in as well. Nice cap to the evening. Too bad they had to walk so far after that, which was after midnight by then.
Saturday I was invited to lunch at the home of a couple who found my lost Driver’s License at the park. They looked me up in the phone directory and got ahold of me. Once I had their name, I did a little internet research and found he is a retired captain in the military who moved to L.A. His name and home location told me he was religious, so I dressed tznius and brought them a family-sized apple tart to show my appreciation. At that point he told me he wrote a screenplay, and did I have any ideas how he could get someone to look at it. I didn’t, but I told him about JEN, our Jewish Entertainment Network in the neighborhood, where if he’d attend, he’d meet others or hear speakers that could give him ideas. An email correspondence ensued. He has since attended two meetings, which was really nice.
Anyway, I didn’t know what to expect at this lunch. Would it just be their family of 3 kids? Would they be kind enough to invite a single guy with prospects for me? I was the first one there. Hey, I’m always embarrassingly late otherwise. But for the military man, I felt I had to be on my toes. So I clocked my exit based on how long it’d take to walk there. Google maps said 13 minutes. I walk slowly. But I was still the first. Finally, people trickled in. One family, then another, then another couple, then finally what turned out to be a single gentleman, who they sat next to me. Nevermind that it’s not a “shidduch”; the simple fact that they cared enough to have us both be there was a class-gesture, which I wholeheartedly appreciate. I went to great lengths to do the same for Viki when I tried to set him up w/Shoshanna at our Israel Independence Day Bar B Que on the property—which also didn’t work out (b/c Viki was too clueless to even realize the purpose of said BBQ, not even sitting with her until I strategically put them together 1/2 way through the dinner—so I suppose my efforts were remunerated here.
Rivkah’s menu was so vast and so delicious. I truly want to lose 10 lbs. and have made an effort this past week to not eat so indulgently. But that lunch was a huge exception. First of all I was hungover from all the wine and other libations the night before, and needed sustenance. I partook in none of the 4 bottles of wine on the table. Just Diet Coke, which is a major exception for me. My brain needed it to crack open. But other than that, she started with a salmon salad tart in filo dough with fresh basil and an herbal cream sauce. Then a green salad. Then we moved on to the entrees, which were a fabulous breaded, pan-fried chicken with onions; steak strips with a teriyaki-like sauce, and a terrific cholent better than I’ve had in years b/c they didn’t use beans as a filler I guess; just beef, potatoes, onions and kishka. Kishka! Yeah. Comfort food! There was a yummy Israeli Couscous with mushrooms, more salads, and even a home made apple tart and some sort of cake—and those were served as side-dishes! Eventually we made it to desert, which was a three-tiered melon and raspberry display (that’s all I had) but also a layer cake with chocolate shavings and ladyfingers which a guest brought, as well as a fresh blueberry pie that Rivkah made. I almost tried the pie but refrained.
The kids had their own table, but spent most of the time playing in other rooms. The adults attended Beth Jacob, B’Nai David and Anshe Emes synagogues. Each conveyed what was discussed at their respective d’vrei toratim. It was an extremely intelligent, highly functioning group of people. Poor Rivkah was so busy serving and frankly, waitressing (despite the fact that she had help in the kitchen) that she didn’t get to be part of the lively conversation ‘till dessert.
After I walked home I hightailed it to the beach where I needed the salt and sea air to jog through to rid myself of the lingering hangover. It was a gorgeous day of at first hazy sunshine, but then full. I drank so much throughout the day that I had to pee 4 times. Thankfully the city of Santa Monica tore down the old decrepit ones and has completed their newly replaced bathrooms. It was lively with all manner of beachgoers, tourists, et al.
I so wanted to just chill at home, but picked myself up around 10 pm to get ready to go to friend Shula and Maimon’s homemade margarita party honoring Maimon’s sister’s visit and birthday. That was a nice nightcap to the night, but I ran out of steam and left about 1.5 hours after arriving.
Now it’s the end of Sunday night, a night after which I did a lot of nothing today: woke late, drank coffee til late, got out of the house late and went to the Palisades to jog. I wanted to stay out there to chillax and read, but a symptom overcame me that made it too uncomfortable for me, so I came home. Showered, made/had dinner, read, and as you can see, wrote.
Time to think about the week ahead.
