Ship Ahoy!

For any of you watching the baseball playoffs -- in between the J-Lo Fiat commercials -- you may have seen the new Citibank commercial about the girl who is working on a movie location longer than expected.  That's the one I mentioned last month that I got to work on.  You can spot me and my giant hat best in profile on the far left when the director is having a fit.  Ah, I miss that hat...

What Happiness Looks Like

This is the scene after the Brewers beat the Diamondbacks in Game 5 of the division series on Friday in 10 innings to seal their first playoff series victory in 29 years.  Unreal.  And now one of my all-time favorite pictures.  Wish I had been there!  The National League Championship Series begins today in Milwaukee against the rival St. Louis Cardinals.  Best-of-seven games to decide who goes to the World Series. Go Crew!  I'll be loudly cheering from 2,000 miles away.

It's a Small World, After All

Over the weekend, we had the privilege of going to a dinner benefiting the Nancy Painter Home for Mothers With Children, a charity that helps single mothers get their lives back on track by providing them housing, food, workplace training, etc. (An NCIS writer is on the board of the organization.)  The dinner was held in the backyard of a beautiful home in Sherman Oaks and came complete with an evening of entertainment: Hollywood legend and multiple Oscar-winning composer and lyricist Richard M. Sherman.

He and his brother were Walt Disney's go-to duo when he needed songs for his films, tv shows and theme parks.  From the Winnie-the-Pooh theme to the famous ditties in Mary Poppins to virtually every song you hear on the rides and attractions at Disneyland & Walt Disney World, the Shermans wrote them all.  We were treated to some stories and all the hits.

I didn't record his performance, so here's a link to the brothers singing with Mr. Disney himself.

A boy from Wisconsin getting to meet and hear someone who was close friends with the man behind Mickey Mouse?  It is indeed a small world after all...

Let there be weather!

Yesterday brought monsoon-style rains to much of L.A.  It was a nice change of pace to have clouds and precipitation, although the many accidents on the highway suggest that not everyone enjoyed the weather.  Even better than the rainy day however, is the beautiful, cool sunny day it left in its wake.  It feels like fall back home outside today!  Well, except for the complete lack of autumn-colored leaves...

Chasing Work

Audition for Chase Bank at TypeCasting yesterday.  This one was fun: no sides were given but a short scene was improvised and taped.  I got to run through the scenario twice, with the guy taping tweaking me in-between to give a slightly different take the second time.  Among the dozen or so guys in the waiting room when I happened to go in were several faces I recognized from other commercials -- evidently they called in the big guns!  And me.

WINsconsin

Wow!  A big weekend for Wisconsin sports teams!  I wrote a few weeks ago about how this might be Wisconsin sports' golden age.  And it sure seems like it that age is continuing.  The 7th-ranked Wisconsin Badgers football team crushed #8 Nebraska moving themselves into the AP Top 5.  Aaron Rodgers and the Packers continued to look dominant against the Denver Broncos while keeping their record unblemished.  And the Brewers won the first two games of their first-round playoff matchup with Arizona.

It must be really exciting times around Milwaukee and the rest of the state these days.  My dad said the crowd at Miller Park was amazing on Sunday; and it sure sounded like it on TV!  I wish I could be there in person, but I am following -- and loudly cheering -- from way out here!  On Wisconsin!

IMDb

The Internet Movie Database, or IMDb as it's known, is the foremost repository of all things Hollywood on the internet.  It is not always correct or timely.  But, it is typically THE site that people go to to see what you've done -- whether it be casting, acting, directing, costume design, even stunt work.

So, it is important to build up your IMDb resume as much as possible, ideally with credits from shows/movies that are recognizable.  In the absence of those dozen prime-time television credits, you do not want to include any sort of extra work on there as it makes you look unprofessional.  Besides, if casting people or other industry folk see a resume filled with extra work, what are they going to look at you as being capable of doing?  The other thing you may notice: no commercial work goes on the database.

Of course, I am still trying to build up my IMDb resume, but in the interim I recently got some of my new headshots up there.  Stroll on by my page if you're interested.