Been going through the archive of “almost-blogged” videos from before I actually started editing and posting stuff. Posting it now and starting a project I’ve had in my head for a while: Retrovlogging!
Archive for the 'Hollywood' Category
I can’t explain it any better than this. And when the networks start pumping out crap reality television to fill in for the scripted shows that aren’t being written…DON’T watch it!
Yahoo! TV apparently watched the Emmys last night in fast-forward. In probably the funniest part of last nights broadcast, after an impassioned morality skit about making sure this years Emmys were truly green, Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert presented the award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. The winner was Ricky Gervais, from HBO’s Extras. As Ricky Gervais was conspicuously absent, Stewart said that Gervais isn’t here tonight “so we’re giving it to our friend Steve Carell.” After which, Steve Carell leaped out of the audience and ran up to Colbert and Stewart. All three yelled and hugged and ran offstage together.
This morning I checked the winners list, here’s what I saw (emphasis mine):
Link to Yahoo List of Winners (Steve Carell appears as of 8:00am. That could change at any time)
I just found out that John Spencer passed away. John played Leo on The West Wing, and was one of the kindest, most generous people I’ve had the pleasure to meet, in Hollywood or anywhere else. He will be missed.
I’ve been riding my bike to work a lot lately. Feeling good about it. I’ve been working at Universal full time for the past couple weeks and am definately making improvements. The hill — Universal is on top of a big-ass hill — is getting easier every day. I stopped having to walk up part of it last week and now I’m able to pedal all the way up.
The point is, I’ve been riding a lot lately. Today, I took a different route because I went to Ralphs at Ventura and Vineland to pick up some bread for dinner. They only had the regular french bread, not the wheat that we like, so I decided to head to the Ralphs on Vineland and Magnolia. Which is more-or-less on the way home. Only a slight detour.
So I’m heading up Vineland, just south of Lankershim. Though I usually try to stay on the sidewalk, at this point I’m on the street. It’s one of those stretches where it’s hard to get up on the sidewalk. I’m not in the middle of the street, I’m staying close to the parked cars and ducking in when there’s space to allow room for people to pass me easier, even though it’s a two lane street and they can go around (and most do).
I hear a car coming up behind me so I tuck in closer, he starts honking. Not a warning honk, an aggressive “get-the-fuck-out-of-the-way” honk. He zips by me, really close, nearly pushing me into the parked cars. And there’s no traffic in the other lane, so the asshat could have easily gone around me. I recover and don’t hit any cars or him and yell out something to the effect of “Jesus! Fuck you, asshole!”
I then see his car turn into the parking lot of Little Tony’s Pizza, right at the intersection. It was an aggressive turn, if a turn can be described as aggressive. “Shit.” I pick up the speed, the light had just turned green to cross Lankershim, so I plan on booking it out of there. I get about 20 feet away from his car and his door opens. “Fuck.” Can’t stop. Pump those legs, Jared. This insane motherfucker runs toward me yelling “Fuck WHO?!! FUCK WHO!?” and takes a fucking swing at me! Now I’d like to say I was nimble and planned this out, or who knows, maybe he meant to miss, but I doubt it: I leaned away and swerved as far as the sidewalk would allow and felt his fist pass over my right shoulder.
I tear through the intersection and, looking over my shoulder, stop in front of Odyssey Video. The light has changed and he’s still in the parking lot. Some really cool guys in a Cherokee or a 4 runner, not sure which, had seen the whole thing and stopped to see if I was OK. I said I was fine, and the asshole tore by in his early 90’s, beat-up, red, poor man’s sports car. A Mazda/Toyata/Nissan whatever type POS. That’s all I got. No plates or anything, he was moving too fast. I thanked the guys that pulled over to help and took off, in a slightly different direction.
Who the hell does that? I had to have been going at least 15 mph when he tried to hit me. If that had connected, holy shit, I would have been on my back or my head on the concrete. And really, if he was in such a hurry to get around me, why the hell did he stop?
So, my thanks go out to those guys that pulled over. That was cool and, unfortunately, not a lot of people would have taken the time. And as for the neandrathal in the poor-man’s small penis car. Holy shit, dude. You need to have a long talk with yourself and work on that rage issue. Do yoga. Something. Christ, man, just relax and learn to take a little “fuck you” in stride. This is L.A. after all.
If you’re checking out my site because you received a submission, thank you for opening my envelope. If you’re interested in meeting with me, contact me using any of the methods on the contact page.
Thanks for stopping by!
-Jared
So, those of you who watched The West Wing on Wednesday, October 4th saw my Featured Extra role of ‘Secret Service Guy’. (That’s me on the right) It was a lot of fun, but I half-expected them to cut the scene in a way that left only my shoulder or something, so it was pretty cool to have full screen face time. Even if it was ‘just an extra’ part. They’re supposed to call me back for a SAG voucher, since they couldn’t give me one for this. Click here to view the clip (Realplayer - 2.8 Mb).
On Thursday I was just at the beginning of one of those actor slumps. As much as I tried to fight it, I could feel myself starting to feel very far away from my goal. I’m sure there were many reasons for this, Tuesday’s events probably being a major factor. Not finding any work for Friday was minor factor, but a factor nonetheless.
With perfect timing the phone rang. It was Summer at Central. She told me that they wanted me back on Men In Black for a matching shot. OK. And it’s on a SAG voucher. “Absolutely!” So, after a relatively short 10 hour day, I walked away with number one of three SAG vouchers. And much better pay for a day’s work.
And now I’m in the midst of an exciting game of phone tag with my photographer, and we’ve nearly got an appointment set up for Thursday. I should have been doing this a while ago, but I’ll finally have some decent headshots. So I’ll be able to submit for other projects hopefully by next week. Don’t get me wrong, except for the pay, and sometimes the lack of respect, I really don’t mind doing extra work. It keeps me busy and at least on the cusp of the industry. But there are only so many times you can walk back and forth without saying anything.
