"Oh-kay, here's the situation...." DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince

Going cheesy old school here with my return to blog-dom, but it was me who went away on an extended vacation. I actually did go away and then.....excuses, excuses.  Sorry for not holding true to my word and letting inertia take over. But I'm back, so we'll start anew our relationship, my blog and I. Ok?  Here goes....

Remember how I mentioned people are always telling me how I should be a writer? Well, apparently it's in my chart. Seriously. I realize this sounds a bit self-serving: "Of course you love my writing, it's pre-ordained!" but I went to see a Vedic Astrologer (I did say this was an LA-based blog, yes?) and one of the things he told me was that I am a good writer (!) but that it would be difficult for me because I have a lot of obstacles in my chart (no shit, I've been livin' with them).  It was yet another sign to push through my fears and get writing already.

[Sidebar: If you're interested in Vedic Astrology, which I didn't even know existed until my neighbor introduced me to it (love this town), then check out his website www.chakrapani.com It's pretty informative. Apparently he is one of the formost Vedic Astrologers in the country and I have to say it was a fairly mind-blowing experience.]

Therefore, in the interest of moving forward and eliminating fear, I have decided to not stress about writing some life-altering tome every time I post (which is pretty obstacle-inducing and sets me up NOT to write). Instead, I'm going to allow myself to write whatever and just let it flow. I think part of the issue here is putting it out there, letting myself be open and (potentially) judged. (I judge myself enough on my own, thank-you-very-much).  If you let it out, then it exists for others to see and I am not really comfortable with that. No take-backs. But not letting it out, whatever "it" is, has not been very healthy or productive either so what the hell, might as well go for it.

Now, on to the actual fun stuff...

LA is a pretty quirky town, which is why I love it so much. All kinds of freaks live here, including yours truly. Now, that argument could be made for plenty of cities but in my opinion LA has a special kind of freaky-ness that makes it unique. Today I am going to address some of the wacky signage that I have encountered while out and about.

Let's start with the first sign that got me to start documenting this phenomena:

Only here would a sign for alcoholic beverages be represented by a glass of champagne (note the tiny bubbles escaping from the glass).  Brilliant!

Next we have this:

Really? Don't put random body parts in a "nonoperational" dumbwaiter? I shudder to think of the person who did which necessitated the putting up of this sign.

Here's a sort of tryptic:

Weed? Check. Botox? Check. Toe Rings? Check, check. Apartment located 10 feet from this bounty? Quadruple check.  Let your new life in Venice Beach begin...

This one is a bit more situational:

Now, in and of itself, not chuckle inducing.  What is chuckle inducing, however, is the fact that it's posted outside of a club. Which has bands playing inside. Rather LOUDLY.  I guess the message is: "We can play loud shit inside this club, but please refrain to a whisper when you find yourself outside of said club, probably fairly inebriated, and chain-smoking cigarettes at 2 in the morning..." Just sayin'.

This one was near my yoga studio:

Guess we know at least one person's opinion about parking in the red zone.


Lastly, lest you think I do not recognize the fact that quirky signage is not the sole domain of LA, here are some lovely examples I shot while in Maine last fall:

I don't even know what the hell this means, but I'll be sure to avoid accessing the void space anytime soon...

This one is a nice example of remembering it's not just cars that are on the roads in Maine:

Did we leave anything out?  Big wheels? Roller bladers? Guess if you're not on this list then I don't have to share the road with you.  Sweet!

Last but not least, my personal fav:

Well, that's no fun.  And the person making this sign might have wanted to put down that fat spliff they were smokin' since it looks like not only is this a "DRUG FREE VESSEL" but an "ANCHORLESS" one as well.  Guess we're not docking anytime soon....which really sucks since you can't have any drugs on you to while away the time on your apparently never-ending voyage....

And thus concludes this weeks blog!  Until we meet again, stay frosty people....

Just under the gun...

I thought when I originally posted my manifesto of "At least one post per week" that not only would I exceed that, but one post per week was pretty weak.  Well, here we are, Monday night around 10-something and I'm racing to fulfill my promise.  Ah, the power of Resistance.  Needless to say, I am here! 

Since I'm late, what should have been last weeks post will address taking chances and stepping into your own.  When I started to pursue acting, I always felt I needed to learn more before I could consider myself even a basic actor.  I was ALL about the learning.  And while I feel it is important to learn and hone your craft, whatever that may be, at some point it begins to be less about the learning and more about the avoiding.  There is a safety in being an eternal student and it can hold you back from going out there to pursue what it was you were learning about in the first place.  I now recognize how self-defeating it can be to always think that someone else knows more than you do.  It takes balls (or ovaries as the case may be) to throw yourself out there and take a chance, even if you aren't 100% sure you know what you're doing.  This is something I always admired in others but was hesitant about when it came to me and my goals.  I finally reached a point where I realized that in order to truly understand what I learned, I needed to apply it.  Sounds simple, right?  Ha!

Letting go of the idea of being "less than" is so important to moving forward.  (In that vein, there's a great post on "Purpose Fairy" that really addresses this: http://www.purposefairy.com/3308/15-things-you-should-give-up-in-order-to-be-happy/ )  Needless to say, when I started to let go and take action, I felt sooo much better.  I got new headshots, updated my listings on casting sites, took a bunch of workshops with casting agents, etc., etc.  I am taking charge and moving forward.  Who knows where is it will lead but either way I am embracing where I am now, instead of where I think I should be.  And that is the greatest lesson of all....

**On a different note, since this is an LA blog, I recommend checking out the new MOCA exhibit downtown "The Painting Factory: Abstraction After Warhol"http://www.moca.org/museum/exhibitiondetail.php?&id=466  It's a fun exhibit and shows some lesser known Warhol pieces as well as some really great newer artists.  Love it, hate it, decide for yourself.  (The above pic is with my friend Agnes in front of one of  Warhols' giant Rorschach paintings)

I'm back
I'm back in the saddle again
I'm back
I'm back in the saddle again
- Aerosmith

Well, it's been a little over two years since I first started and posted to this blog....and wow, I can't believe it's been two (!) friggin' years.  WTF?  Since I started (and subsequently stopped) this blog, my friend Alex continued with hers and has exploded.  What was wrought that fateful night in her apartment in October 2009 has borne fruit, just not by me.  Here is Alex's site:

www.girlwhereyouat.blogspot.com

I'm really proud of her for sticking to it.  So in the spirit of sticking to things and continuing with what I started, I am back "again" with a goal of writing at least an entry a week, if not more.  Right now, once a week feels like a doable goal.  My goal for this blog is twofold:

• Find a forum for all the crap floating in my head and write it down
• Post/write/share things that I find interesting that might be of use to others

The hard part is the actual doing.  I've been debating what to put up here for over a week, once I decided to dust this off and try anew.  Should I do a "recap" of my life over the past 2 years since I wrote the first post?  Should I throw up a bunch of links to stuff that I really like?  Should I just write and find my voice?  I think I'm going to go with writing and finding my voice....

That being said, what the hell do I write? I've been reading this great book by Steven Pressfield called the "War of Art" and it is all about resistance and the roadblocks we put up to not do our work.  If you ever have creative blocks, I highly recommend it.  Since reading that book it has helped me to recognize that writing is something that always makes me cringe.  I have no idea why. Maybe it's because of the fact that with writing you have to get what's in your brain and put it down, let it out, let it fly free.  Not something I'm comfortable with.  So I've been resisting writing for as long as I can remember.  And the most frustrating part of all of it is that people have said to me, many times, "Are you a writer?" and "You should write".  Once again, I have no idea why.  Agghh!  But they must have sensed, or I put out there, my own inner conflict with the whole writing process.  This blog is a way for me to break through that barrier and just get to the writing....wherever that may lead.  So even if I'm the only one who ever reads this, at least I'm doing my work!

**Lastly, in my video bar I'm posting videos from TED and I love, love, love the Elizabeth Gilbert one.  Peace out....

Diving right in...

To be willing to die for an idea is to set a rather high price on conjecture.
- Anatole France

And....Welcome!

This is my first blog ever so I guess I have joined the 21st Century. My friend Alex is putting up her first blog as well...as a matter of fact, right next to me. How modern of us - we are together, hanging out, and tapping away separately on our computers. Ah, to be a city dweller. So, as I keep typing/erasing/typing/erasing (what do I really want to say anyway?) I keep thinking about how I could never figure out why people blogged to begin with - seems so strange to empty out your everyday random thoughts onto a page and put it out there for the "world" to read and yet here I am, joining the fray.

Well, since this is La-La land centric, let me you give you a little current Geography: i'm typing out this here post in the heart of K-Town, after having eaten some mighty tasty "Kyo Chon" chicken. Check out this site, some things are definitely lost in translation.

http://kyochon.com/usa/us/la.asp

I'm an actress (really? in Los Angeles? You don't say) and now I can add blogger to my ever-expanding list of skills......sigh...

Saw a good show this weekend that my friend was in: Private Eyes (I was waiting for them to play Hall and Oates but I guess that would be too on the nose). It was actually really good (thank god) and the story was funny. LA is not a theatre town like NY or even Chicago, for example. There's a lot of it (hell, this is a town filled with actors, right?) and to be honest a lot of it is simply about people getting out there so some agent/manage/guru/savior can see them and tell them 'You're it!' which tends to produce some pretty puerile stuff.......therefore, it's either big-name productions that originate elsewhere (i.e. NY) or small 99-seat theatre stuff that tends to be...."interesting"...if you catch my drift. The upside is that you can get out there and just put up a show without a lot of capital since there are so many small theatres around town. We got a lot of strip-mall theatre out here, which is about as american as you can get (at least in my world)...