Sunday, January 1, 2012

“Don’t SUCK!”

Quote of the day:
“Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!”
-From Napoleon Hill’s Think & Grow Rich

Song of the day: “Robot Boy” by Linkin Park

What did I dream about this week? 
Mostly, I dreamed about working on a TV project like PORTLANDIA.  And I dreamed about finally starting to film, edit, and post this really great, or really crappy idea I’ve had for a YouTube channel. 

What did I do to get closer to my dreams?
I got the home page of my website designed.  It’s super sleek!  Watched my new favorite TV show PORTLANDIA … yes, it does count as work.

House keeping…
Should I limit posts to a week?  I don’t think so.  Maybe, it should be a minimum of once a week.  What do you think?  Post a comment below.

OK…”Don’t SUCK!” …
Something I’ve thought a lot about recently since I got my Netflix account a few days ago and started watching Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein’s PORTLANDIA, (yes, I’m obsessed) is how crazed I can get about trying to be perfect.  It is a deadly killer in art, the desire to be perfect.  I suffer a lot from trying to be perfect and I could safely blame my ‘failed’ auditions on trying to be perfect or even trying to be good. 

I was talking to one of my best friends about Linkin Park’s newest album when it came out a while back.  We were riding in his car at something like 3AM to go to the nearest Wall-Mart (20something ridiculous miles cuz our school is in the middle of NOWHERE!)  He told me that the band had written and recorded over 100 songs in preparation for the album.  We listened to the album on the way home and by 4AM Linkin Park had a new fan…me.  The album was one of the best sonic experiences I have ever witnessed, even when the guy was screaming his head off!  But, it took over 100 songs to get to the 15 that made the album.

I was watching the behind the scenes for PORTLANDIA show today.  Fred and Carrie talked about it’s inception as a little website project where they would film these little skits, sort of like a “mixtape” of video clips.  The clips got picked up, pitched, and now they are going into their second season of the TV show.  Here’s a link:  http://www.hulu.com/watch/306536/portlandia-inside-portlandia

What I love about this project is that these guys were not worried at all about their audience when they were doing these videos.  They were just having fun and let that run its course.

I spent so much time at school trying to be the perfect actor.  I wanted, so bad, to be the best.  I started letting go of that as my last term was ending, and I suddenly was playing this character that had become better than I could have ever made him on purpose. 

I think this art is a job of “oops.”  I think we can do ourselves a favor by doing something, regardless of if it’s good or not.  Each audition and performance should be the work of the moment.  The best that there is at that moment.  And sometimes that best is going to really really suck.  And that’s ok. 

In the end, I think what I’m talking about here is practice.  Practice, practice, practice.  I don’t know one actor who does it enough. 

I think what I need to work on in order to make some good strides towards doing this job well is to balance all the different things an actor must practice.  That’s the art, the skill, the business, and the personal/spiritual growth.

And I was worried about writing to little in my posts…oops.

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