The World Still Turns As California Burns

The deeper we get into 2020, the more of a post-apocalyptic wasteland it becomes. As I write, the skies of Los Angeles are a pinkish-orange hue due to the horrible air quality from the fires up north, raging in part from a family that wanted to have a gender reveal party and bring attention to the fact that their baby has a penis. Congratulations when your child grows up and learns that people died because of your stupidity, and has to have therapy because they feel responsible. My thoughts go to all my family and friends in NorCal, Oregon, and Washington. NorCal in particular has had a shitty past several years when it comes to fires, and 2020 is proving again to be the perfect storm for all things horrible.

Speaking of horrible, our air conditioning unit broke in our apartment during the hottest day of the year (temperatures were up to 115+ degrees). Of course no one was in the rental office for Labor Day Weekend, so Amanda and I had to scramble to find fans and ways to keep cool. When we tried calling to request an emergency fix, apparently roasting to death in your apartment isn’t considered an “emergency.” Thankfully a neighbor helped fix the problem a few days later, because we found out the maintenance wouldn’t even be around to fix it for at least a week. I think a bag of flaming dog poop is in order for a certain rental property’s office doorstep.

In the meantime, I’m still furloughed and looking for work. Like everyone else in Los Angeles, I’ve been applying to places every day, even updating my resume and cover letter to try and stand out. I’ve also been exploring different venues as well, specifically Voice Acting and Hosting. Voice Acting is an incredibly difficult industry to break-in to, so I’m not getting my hopes up. Nevertheless, I recorded and uploaded a Voice Over Reel that can be heard on my Podcast page highlighting a few different voices I’m capable of. All original characters, showing my range. It was fun spending a day writing the dialogue and recording it, and even if nothing comes from it, you the reader can go listen and enjoy. I did meet with a gentleman a few years back who hired voice over actors for theatrical trailers, but my voice just couldn’t get that deep, and I was more interested in characters at the time. In the time of Corona, any opportunity is an opportunity.

As for the hosting I mentioned, G4TV is relaunching in 2021 and are holding open auditions for hosts online. I grew up loving Fresh Ink and Attack of the Show, and dreamed of working for them back in the day. Now that they’re holding open auditions, I felt like I had nothing to lose and recorded a 2-minute video explaining why I would make a great addition to their team, either in front of the camera or behind it. I’ll never be as amazing as Blair Butler, but I can still try! Obviously my specialties are comics and kaiju, so fingers crossed I get an email! How cool would that be? In the meantime, if you want to retweet or share my video online, I’d be eternally grateful.

I’m in the middle of writing the pilot episode of ABROAD, and all my years of reading movie and television scripts is paying off. I took a screenwriting class in college several years ago, but just writing with Final Draft makes the entire process so easy. It’ll be around 30-40 minutes, because thanks to streaming nowadays there aren’t any firm guidelines on how long an episode has to be. I imagine this show would be best suited on Amazon Prime, Netflix, or Hulu, not cable or anything with commercials. A boy can dream, can’t he?

I recently finished reading my 17th book while in quarantine, and was thinking about having a whole article of reviews when I hit 20. You can read my mini-reviews on my Instagram, but an article on my site would be more organized and easier to read. I’m about to start on another classic from Papa Hemingway next, For Whom the Bell Tolls, for it’s been too long since I’ve read some Hemingway. Bob Woodward’s Rage will definitely be on my list as well when it comes out next week.

Little stinky-face Dinah is going to the vet tomorrow to get her tooth extracted, so wish her luck! She’ll be getting extra wet food tomorrow night to help soothe the trauma. In the meantime, here she is in all her “glory.”