Lower….lower….lower…TOO LOW!!!
I haven’t written about my weekend yet. That time has come.
On Friday Amberjane came in all the way from Chilliwack to watch The Fog of War with me at Tinseltown. It traumatized her. It’s a very hard-hitting documentary and I learned lots and lots of things, so that’s good. I would like to see it again. I was discussing with Liam’s mom Isla about school and how I didn’t fulfill my potential in high school or college (I only took 2 years and change of college) but told her I counter that shortcoming by a) trying to be autodidactic (through reading and watching documentaries on my own time) and hanging out with lots of really smart people so that I can absorb their genius. Indeed I do all those things – but it’s pretty spurious to say that it “makes up” for not taking years of university. Still, if I put my mind to it I bet I could find someone to teach me all the things I need to know to improve my art skills (let’s be realistic – what else would I take in university?) – it’s just a matter of motivation.
But I’m all with the digressin’ here. On our way out from the theater we bumped into Mike Jackson who was getting in line to see some undisclosed movie. He kindly invited me to an Oscars-watching party to which I said “maybe.” Amber drove me back for my big Chilliwack weekend. At Amber’s I met her new roommate. I recognized her from the old party scene (Chilliwack’s where I spent my formative years, you know). She came into the kitchen and immediately said “Hello Toren! How have you been?” and the conversation went on from there – answering questions and carefully asking others. Trying desperately to keep the conversation from going in a direction that would reveal my shameful secret – that the only thing I remember about her is her face. Later I found out from Amber that her name is Krista.
Next morning I walked down to the Dairy Queen to meet with Mr. Woods – we drove out to the Value Village where I picked up a red sweater that I’ve been wearing constantly since then. We bumped into Jordan, who was looking for pineapple-shaped gelatin moulds for some art project of Tara’s. Then, after a brief game of Magic: The Gathering with Chris, I went to Garett’s for band practice but since Bob was at Science World with his kids it was more of a band meeting. We might play at the Purple Onion on May the 20th. We are working on new songs!
Band meeting over, Chris and I made up his new character for D&D – a halfling rogue, interspersed with some Curb Your Enthusiasm and some classic video games (Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Galaxian) made all the more challenging when a chihuahua is licking your eyes while you play!
Sunday we drove back to Vancouver and made a quick trip to Opus. We made our requisite share of cracks in front of the clerk as we paid for our spoils side by side. I got some new pens and I also did something idiotic – I meant to buy mechanical pencils in .03 and .09 size but for some reason my brain told me that what I needed was the lead itself, the overabundance of which was the whole reason I was searching for the pencils. So now I’ve got even more useless mechanical pencil lead. Then we came back to my place and played D&D. I got to try out my new character Exeter the halfling monk-sorcerer and it was lots of fun, but it took eight hours. We were supposed to start playing at 4pm but we kind of jerked around (mostly waiting for people to level up or write up their stats for their animal companions) for an hour, and then we played until shortly after midnight with no real break. Is it possible to play too much D&D?
Next morning I got up to meet Yvonne to see Mystic River at Tinseltown. This is the first time I’ve seen Yvonne since January, and it was great. For those who are keeping score of my life, you’ll know how momentous this is. I missed her! After the film we walked around downtown to get some coffee and chatted about things. Due to drama in her current household, she and her roommates are looking for a 3-bedroom so if you come across anything, let me or her know. Then I had to leave her for an audition. Moments after we had our goodbye hugs (yes plural) I bumped into Nathan, and we chatted for a few minutes on the noisy corner of Cambie & Broadway. He doesn’t have the internet which means–like all my friends who don’t check email–they don’t hear from me very often, if at all. So, more catching up.
The audition was postponed because the director and producer were held up at the border, so I was rescheduled for Tuesday. I went home and Marlo came over for dinner. She brought lentil soup and I supplied the carrots, grapes, and bread. She had been trying to get ahold of me to tell me her recent dating stories, so I got to hear them at last. The best part was when James thought that Marlo and I had a thing so when I had told James that Marlo came to me about his “interest” in her, he thought I would be mad or jealous or something. Even though Marlo was supposed to go to Tai Chi Monday night, she ended up staying and reading Stewie’s collection of “Alias” comics (not affiliated with the tv show) and watching cartoons and the first half of the Spider-Man movie while I worked (drew a beetle-monster). She was constantly insinuating that she would rather spend the evening here than going to tai chi but I have some sort of mental block towards insinuation. Insinuation just doesn’t register with me. You have to say it. You can imagine how this mental block impedes the first tenuous steps towards a romantic relationship: “Why are you looking at me like that? Duh….”
So yesterday was the audition, for reals. I had time for tennis in the early afternoon with James and that was funtastic. Then I walked to the studio where they were holding the auditions. This is how it works: You go into the building and you follow the signs on the wall telling you what room your audition is in. In the room are a bunch of other actors sitting on a bench. The liaison (secretary, whatever) has you fill out a form and if you’re clever enough to bring one, you offer your resume and headshot to go with it. Then you sit and wait until you’re called. In this particular case, the commercial involved a silent on-screen actor, and the voiceover guy (me) both auditioning at the same time. It was unexpected and a little challenging. They called me and this guy (I think his name was James) into the room where there is the guy behind the camera, the guy who is directing us, and about four other people sitting behind them on a couch, watching. There was a table of food as well – but not for us! This commercial involved a wheelbarrow and a caulking gun, but they used a chair for a wheelbarrow prop. They had us stand side by side to get photographs of us both. Then they had me walk off of shot to deliver the voiceover while James did his acting. One take, and James was done. Then they asked me to come on camera to deliver the lines once again, doing different voices, inflections, etc and even doing some improv. I think I did okay, some of them chuckled during my performance. As is to be expected I thought of something hilarious to say right after I left. No call back yet so I guess we’ll see. Actually, technically that audition was the callbacks. I don’t know how unusual it is for your agent to send you to the callback rather than the initial audition.
I got home and had to get ready for a mentoring session with Liam. Isla picked me up and drove me to Liam’s school where we picked him up and then drove to their apartment where we immediately got to work. We started working on armor and weapons for his game, tidied up the hit location chart, revised some of the special abilities and spells, and Isla fed us a fantastic dinner of almond chicken and stir fry. We worked for about 4 hours which is longer than usual, and I started to get a bit of a headache, so when I got home instead of working I lay down and read D&D books in preparation for today’s girly game.
Phew!