Announcing...

We... Have... HYPERLINKS!

How sexy is that? And if you want to know how I did it, just click on that link right up there in that first sentence and a new window will open and show you! It's internet MAGIC, I tell you, MAGIC!

And coming soon: pictures!

And also: a new look for the blog!

WOO-HOO!

Oh, Cheez, How I Do Love You

I'm a big movie watcher. I sometimes fool myself into thinking that it's a form of professional research, but really, I just like to watch movies. Two movies I've seen recently have proven to be pretty educational from the standpoint of the struggling actor, however, and when that happens I do a little happy dance and watch them again (and again, and again, and again...).

In this spirit, I am encouraging every actor who hasn't hit the really big time yet to watch What Just Happened with Robert DeNiro, supported by a stellar cast including Bruce Willis, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, Stanley Tucci, John Turturro, and Robin Wright Penn, among others. Everyone was great in this hilarious send-up of the film industry, told from the perspective of an over-caffeinated producer during a turbulent two weeks of agonizing, bribing, berating, threatening, begging, acquiescing, painful film-making.

But that's not why I'm recommending it to you. I'm recommending it to you because one of the bonus features on the DVD is a collection of some of the actors' audition tapes, paired with the scenes as they appeared in the film. This is far and away the most educational DVD extra I have ever seen. By turns making me think "WOW, he is so good! Look at his eyelines! He's so ALIVE in this audition!" and "WOW, that audition tape was nothing like the way they played the scene - I wonder what process they went through to get from there to here?" and everything in between, this had my eyes glued to the screen from start to finish. Rent it. Watch it. Learn from it. Know that one day, that could (will!) be you.

I am also encouraging you to go out and rent a really bad movie or two (or ten). I had the pleasure of renting and watching a (blockbuster!) movie recently that was so unexpectedly bad, I laughed out loud. A lot. It was not a comedy, but it was hlarious. And then in the middle of the movie, I realized that despite the cheezy special effects and wooden acting and plastic sets and overdone musical score, I would be lucky to get cast in a movie like this. I would be so lucky to get cast in any movie that hits the mainstream theatres, as this one had. Sure, I can aspire towards better, I can dream about the Oscars and the Emmys and the Golden Globes, but to actually get cast at all? I would be lucky. It was a very humbling moment. I need those moments once in a while; I think we all do. So, next time I find myself smirking at the contrivances in a script or about to complain that I have an audition for this thing that really looks lame, I'm going to rent this movie. And remember that I am LUCKY to even have an audition to go to in the first place.

Actors blog, Too

I was just surfing the net a bit looking for actors' blogs, and came across this gem.

With posts about working in the theatre, in front of the camera, and everywhere in between, this varied blog provides information, inspiration, and some downright hilarity. Check it out!

And thanks for stopping by.

The iPad Cometh

There has been a lot of e-buzz about the recent announcement of the iPad, the ensuing fallout between MacMillan and Amazon, and all things eBook recently. And I mean, a LOT. Other than to briefly say that I'm really not that into the digitization of the stuff in my life - I like my books on paper, and my movies on video - I'm not going to get into what I think of the pros and cons and forevermores of this medium, that medium, and the other one. Everybody else is already doing that, and what's already out there is dizzying enough without me adding my own two cents into the mix. Besides, it doesn't really matter: the eBook is here, and so are Twitter and Facebook and YouTube and everything else. And this has led to a number of prominent bloggers talking about how this heralds the leveling of the playing field for creators of art, (be it music or film or books), because now we don't have to wait for a publishing house or a film studio or a record label to pick us up and make the world see our work for the brilliance that it is: WE CAN DO THAT OURSELVES.

This, to me, presents a problem.

First, because most of what we collectively create is just not that brilliant, and with all of the cyber-clutter out there, it's getting harder and harder to find the good stuff. It's like panning for gold a decade after the gold rush folks gave up and left. There's a lot of schlock. And I don't want to have to sieve through all of that schlock. It's bad for my eyes. And my brain. Not to mention that with all of the Tweeting and blogging and posting going on, it's hard not to feel lost in the morass of cyberspace that has become the modern social networking medium.

Second, the lines between promotion of our work and promotion of ourselves have become blurred. Once upon a time, a writer could toil away in comfortable obscurity, secure in the knowledge that his work would stand on its own. The rules for an actor have always been different - the nature of the profession has always mandated a certain degree of public accessibility - but any public hawking was typically limited to the usual promotional tour of chat shows, late night shows, and premiere appearances.

Flash forward to today, and it is quite a different story. We are all now exhorted to maintain a blog, keep an up-to-date website, tweet, use Facebook, etc., as well as continue to write/act/audition/query/research possible agents/publishers/producers/future projects/stay current on what's out there, and have you made sure to have a life on the side, by the way, because your fans will want to hear about that, too. Except that I don't think that last part - the part about my life on the side - is anyone's business. And I don't want to know what Ashton Kutcher had for lunch, either.

We're operating now in a world where the most talked-about, most publicized, most visible people are enjoying a lot more success than their mediocre work deserves, simply because they self-promote ad nauseam. I don't want to be one of those people.

I want to enjoy success when my work is good enough to deserve it.

Farewell, Conan

By now, you all probably know that Conan O'Brien has left The Tonight Show after a major controversy involving weeks of back-stabbing, statements, and apologies. When bad ratings for Jay Leno's show at 10 led NBC to move Leno back to a later slot and bump The Tonight Show into the wee hours of the next morning, O'Brien refused to make the move, resulting in Leno once again hosting The Tonight Show and leaving O'Brien with a multi-million-dollar payout, but no job.

A lot of people have weighed in on this one, and a lot of people have chosen sides, so I'm not going to do that. What I do want to do is ask: What are we actors to make of this? How does show A's bad ratings lead to show B getting shafted so show A can have its time slot? Shouldn't the show with the crummy ratings be the one to get the boot? In an industry that is so over-saturated, the networks pretty much have the actors by the short-and-curlies: you do what they want and co-operate, because unless you are the most amazing of the most amazing, you're replaceable. So how did the guy with bad ratings end up getting the other guy's job? Are there back-room deals to be made in television, too? Has politics infiltrated the entertainment industry?

I want to hear what you think.

Thanks for stopping by.

It's Party Time!

Picture book author and freelance writer Jean Reidy is having a party to celebrate the release of her picture book, Too Purpley, now available at a bookstore near you. Head on over to www.jeanreidy.com for more about the book, as well as free gifts for all guests, prize drawings, a chance for authors to win a free picture book critique, a chance for librarians to win a grand prize, and a lot more.

And congratulations to Jean Reidy!

And as always, thanks for stopping by.

Oops, They Did it Again

A big wag of the finger goes to Bloomsbury this week for their second book cover screw-up in six months. After a huge controversy over the cover of Justine Larbalestier's Liar, which came out in September of last year but whose jacket design depicting a blond caucasian teenager representing the bi-racial narrator was released two months prior, you'd think the folks at Bloomsbury would have learned their lesson. But no, not yet. It took another similar blunder, this time depicting debut author Jaclyn Dolamore's Thai heroine in Magic Under Glass as a caucasian in traditional Victorian dress. Bloomsbury has re-jacketed both books, but this will not help them shake the reputation they are forming as a house that doesn't pay proper attention to its manuscripts.

As an author, it is extremely frustrating to work so hard for so long only to have your words ignored by the art department. The authors of both these books intentionally wrote stories about people from certain backgrounds, and their editors intentionally chose these manuscripts in large part because of this choice, and these manuscripts were misrepresented in both cases by the depiction of the main character on the cover. And we're not just talking skin color - we're talking clothing, setting, attitude, the whole deal. Issues of race aside, there is a problem when the art department is so misinformed (or uninformed) about a manuscript that they can miss the mark so completely not once, but twice in six months.

And as a consumer, it is equally frustrating to see a book, like the look of its cover, and then open it to find that the manuscript and the cover bear no relationship to one another. Or to turn it around, I might overlook a book based on its jacket design, only to realise later that I missed out on a good thing because the actual story bore no relation to the jacket itself. Either way, Bloomsbury, you're misleading people, and it is wrong.

Has Bloomsbury learned its lesson yet? I certainly hope so, but only time will tell. In the meantime, I guess we'll have to take the old adage "you can't judge a book by its cover" literally.

Thanks for stopping by.