Man, I hate when I get this far behind in blogging, because I know I end up glossing over some good stuff in order to catch up.  Before I get to the Clay Aiken shoot, I should mention that Jamie got some free tickets through work to Cirque du Soleil's Varekai.  It was pretty awesome, though less awesome than it could have been had I not already seen parts of it on TV.  As it was with the last Cirque du Soleil show I saw, it was the juggler that amazed me the most.  I can't describe it, you just have to go see it.  After the show we went to eat with the manager of Quiksilver and his wife.

The next morning I had a 7 a.m. call for the video.  Clinton and I rode together wearing our neutral, solid colors, parked his huge truck in a parking garage that could barely fit it, and then walked down to Hollywood & Highland where the shoot was going down.  Extras holding was in the empty lot next to the Chinese Theater that you may remember from the story about going to the premiere of Grind.  We filled out some paperwork, and then we sat and waited with all of the other extras.  Before long, one of the casting people called Clinton over to another area, and I was really worried that he was going to be doing something else the rest of the day, and I was going to be alone in the sea of extras, bored out of my mind for the next 10+ hours.  After he left, I turned my attention to eavesdropping on a couple girls that were sitting across from me.  It turns out that they are in an all-girl punk band called Switchblade Kittens.  One of the girls was clearly less experienced than the other and was asking a lot of questions about how the release of their CD would work if they got picked up by a label.  The one being asked was very knowing, and explained that their 'hits' would all get put on to the first CD, but that you never knew what would be a 'hit', because 'the people' always chose something different.  Like, for instance, who would have thought that their song 'My Dad's a Janitor' would be so popular.  More conversation like this but with a serious tone ensued until a PA called us to the set.  I was quite relieved to find Clinton already at the set, and that we would not be separated the rest of the day.  Not that I didn't want Clinton to get his big break as the bike messenger in the video.

When Clinton was called away, he was put in a line of about 8 guys, and the director and casting people studied them to figure out who would be the best bike messenger for the video.  Two things were funny about this.  One, the director came right up to Clinton, made a circle with her fingers, and looked through the circle at him.  Needless to say, he had a hard time keeping a straight face.  The other funny thing about all the deliberation that went on to select a bike messenger is that the bike messenger is really just a guy who rides by the concert on his bike.  I guess they could have shot some other stuff with him later.

For the next 5 hours or so, we would walk up to this spontaneous Clay Aiken concert that is supposed to be set in NYC, but is actually happening on Hollywood Blvd, and act like we are really enjoying the music.  I must say, I acted more that day than any other day of my life.  More to come...

Sorry that it's been almost a week since my last blog.  Much has happened, and I don't think I'm going to get to it all tonight.  Part of the reason, apart from busyness, that I haven't written is because I've been frustrated with the comment-emailing abilities of this relatively new dasBlog software in conjunction with my web host.  I modified the old version to email me whenever someone commented on the blog, so I didn't have to try to keep track of how many comments were there on a particular entry the last time I checked.  The new blog software had this feature built in, except for one little problem.  It had a line of code in it that my web host server doesn't seem to like, and since the source code project was created with VS.NET 2003, and I hadn't installed that yet, I could not go into the code and take out the naughty line of code, which by the way is setting the SmtpMail.Server property to anything at all.  I finally got 2003 installed this week, went in to take out the offending line of code, recompiled, and everything works dandily.  I don't know if dandily is a word, but I do know that it is describing a verb, and I'm pretty sure that dandy is just an adjective.  Anywho, now that I've gotten this working, I'll be updating the blogs for the Segues, which hopefully will jump start a bit more material out of you guys.  When I pick up next, I'll tell you all how the Clay Aiken shoot went.  Oh, the stories.

Looks like they need somebody invisible.  I'll be spending all day Saturday as an extra in the new Clay Aiken video.  Wow, am I ever going to hate that song by the end of the day.  Oh wait, I already do.  If Jamie can get off work, she'll be there too.  No word from Clinton.

With a title like that, I'm bound to get a bunch of hits from Google.  So here's the story.  Clinton, Jamie and I went to Johnny Rockets on Melrose for lunch today before taking Jamie to work.  Afterwards, Jamie wanted to do some shopping at Urban Outfitters and some of the other Melrose boutiques.  So, we were walking down the street, and this young woman with a polaroid camera stops us to tell us that they are casting for the new Clay Aiken video.  Would we mind if she got our pictures, and if the casting director liked it, we would get a call.  The spiel.  We naturally consented, and so we stepped into this little stairwell in between two shops and she took our picture.  The picture on the left is the first picture that she took of me.  As the polaroid developed, she looked at it strangely, and asked, "Why are you so washed out in this picture?"  Apparently she's blind.  "I'm washed out like that in real life.  See, I'm white, that's my thing."  So, she took another picture, in which my face showed up a little bit better.  I've really got my hopes up though, because the name of Clay Aiken's new single is "Invisible."  If I'm not perfect for the role of the invisible guy, who is?  While we're on the topic, I thought I'd share something I decided the other day.  Tony was talking about how on some movie set, Bette Midler was such a diva that she wouldn't allow any other red-haired people on the set, because that was her thing.  So, if I ever become an actor that reaches diva status, my plan is to not let any other white people on the set, because that's clearly (pun intended) my thing.

We met Tony and Martel for dinner tonight at Madame Wu's, right next door to Jamie's work at Hawk.  David Spade was there in the lobby waiting for a table.  Tony thought Martel might know him, since she used to do makeup for SNL, but Martel was pretty sure he wouldn't remember her.  After dinner, they came over to our place, and Tony brought the pilot for his show.  Their friends Greg and Maria also came over to watch the pilot.  Jamie made this new brie, walnut pastry thing that she learned from the Food Network.  It was tasty.  And we watched the pilot, which was excellent.  I think I'm really going to like this show.  If you liked Andy Richter Controls The Universe, you'll like this show, though this show is shot more like a documentary.  The whole cast is great, especially Tony (and I'm not just saying that, he doesn't read this), but I was most pleasantly surprised by Jason Bateman, who plays the lead.

So, Terence and I headed to the set of Arrested Development yesterday at about 4:00 pm.  The show is shot in studios 3 and 4 of Culver City Studios.  We met Tony, and he took us all over the place, to wardrobe, hair, makeup, production offices, and the sets, introducing us to everyone we met along the way.  We met most of the cast, including Jason Bateman, David Cross, and Jeffrey Tambor.  Tony got his hair cut in the trailer next to his at the same time that Jessica Walter, who plays his mom on the show was getting her hair done.  She was mildly interested in meeting Terence and I as Tony's friends until she asked what we did.  When Tony told her that we were working on becoming producers, she perked right up, and said, "Hey, aging Jewish actress, right here!"  I think she was only half kidding.

Next up, we hung out in the wardrobe trailer while Tony was fitted for his various 'Buster' costumes.  Then, we raided the food wagon.  Sour skittles to take home for Jamie, and a little hot chocolate for yours truly.  Then, we went back to Tony's trailer so he could run his lines.  We didn't actually move to the set for taping until around 7:30 pm.  Terence and I stood watching the monitors, because it's a four-walled set.  It was pretty amazing being in such a professional studio.  I mean, the air conditioner cut off whenever they yelled, "Rolling", for crying out loud.  Anyway, it was fun and a good learning experience.  Chances are good I'll be going back.

Last night, we went out to Venice to James Beach (a restaurant) for Tony's birthday.  Jamie had the lobster tacos.  I had the bacon cheeseburger.  Mark, you would have been proud.  Just about everybody there was a 'couple'.  Gar and Rebecca, from the Lost in Translation night, were there.  Terence and Elise were there, and they sat across from us, so they were our conversationalists for the most part for the evening.  If I haven't mentioned Terence before, now's a good time to give a little background. 

I first heard about Terence through working on Matt Diffee's short film Walk.  Terence had been the original producer for Walk but had moved to LA, and so he was then only marginally involved.  Terence is also involved with Scott Teems on the short film The Locusts Have No King, which I worked on while still in New York.  Back in April, when Jamie and I were just visiting, we met with Terence, because we were going to be working on this film together.  Then, we moved out here.  So now, the Terence context is at church at Pacific Crossroads.  Also, his goals are very similar to mine producing-wise.  Chances are good that we'll be working together on something in the near future.  Today, Terence and I are going to hang out on the set of Arrested Development, the show that Tony (and Liza) are in.

Well, first let's back up and do Saturday.  Jamie was working last night, so I had to go by myself to have dinner with some friends (Susan, Tony, Martel, Tricia, and Tom) at the house at which Susan is housesitting.  The house is somewhere on the other side of Bel-Air.  I know this because I had never driven near Bel-Air, and well, la-de-da.  Anyway, the house belongs to Michael Chapman, a cinematographer with films such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Kindergarten Cop to his credit, and Amy Holden Jones, a screenwriter with films such as Maid To Order, Indecent Proposal, and the Beethoven franchise to hers.  I'm not sure how she knows these people, but the house was really cool, and we had a fun time.  Well, as much fun as could be had without Jamie being there.

Today, we went back to Pacific Crossroads Presbyterian.  The 'lead worshiper' that wasn't there last time was there today, and the music was a little bit better than last time.  There was also a different preacher, who was completely different, but still good.  The best part about today was that Tony brought his love interest from his show to church today.  Since he brought her to church, I figure it's not a big secret that she's going to be on the show or anything.  So, we met Liza Minnelli today.

Hey there.  Hopefully, my day off yesterday gave everybody the chance to catch up on my blog.  Wednesday night, Jamie and I drove down to her parents house where we get to hang out until Saturday morning.  I'm still pretty busy working, even from here.  I got a call today from the sales guy at 24 Hour Fitness.  He wanted to let me know that that they're anniversary is coming up, and they're going to be having a some cRaZy deals!  We'll see.