Wow, it's been almost a week since I last wrote! I've been busy... sort of.
I have been on a big health kick, which is what actors tend to do when they're not working regularly. As a result, I've gotten to know some great trails in Griffith Park (photos below), hiked in Runyon Canyon with my friend Teddy from high school, gone swimming in the Pacific with my friend Kathryn from college and her husband Giampaulo, and been to lots of yoga classes. Also got to party with my friend Vanessa from DC on her birthday and go to a movie with my friend Shawn, also a friend from DC.
It has been surprisingly easy to meet people here, and there have been numerous moments of weird connectedness... possible signs from the universe that LA is a good place for me? Only time, perseverance and hard work will tell. The first good vibe moment was talking to another hiker in Griffith Park. Despite how much I enjoy the company of my species, I am quite uneasy sometimes when talking to new or newish people. Hikers and runners, however, seem to be more than happy to share trail tips, other ways to get into the park, etc with someone new to LA. Los Angeles has so many transplants chances are good that the person you're talking to was in your shoes not too long ago, or at least remembers their own defining experience of moving to LA.
Though there are warning signs about mountain lions and rattle snakes, I've mostly seen bird, pet dogs, and lizards, but there was one sighting... I was running up one of the paved bike paths in Griffith and passed a little turn off after having just seen my first mountain lion warning sign. I was, of course, on the look out for a potential mountain lion waiting to pounce. I saw something tannish and mid-sized out of the corner of my eye, looking at me from a dirt trail to my left. I thought about grabbing two sticks, a la Haley Mills in "The Parent Trap", but then realized the thing that was looking at me while I looked at it was not a modern version of a saber tooth tiger after all, but a coyote. At least I think it was a coyote - it was bigger than any foxes I've seen, and looked leaner - not as puffy with fur. The coloring of the foxes in California is sandier than the redder foxes in DC, but this animal was definitely rangier than any foxes I've seen anywhere. It looked at me for a few seconds and then turned around, trotting quickly around the corner and out of sight. Other odd sightings have been men running the trails in hoody sweatshirts or plastic jackets when it's 80 degrees outside - that, these humans have told me, is for "detoxification". Also, a group of boy-men running up Runyon Canyon decided to ignore everyone else watching the sunset and start a sparring match, complete with boxing gloves and punching pads they brought up with them. Teddy and I decided to remove ourselves since these guys were obviously too into themselves to realize they were disturbing anyone else. Leave it to Teddy, though, to appreciate the fact that you probably couldn't see that anywhere else. Teddy and I refueled with Indian food right next to Sam French on Sunset Blvd - Sam French, for those of you who don't know, is one of the (if not THE) largest publishers of plays anywhere. They have two stores in LA and are also located in NY and on-line. It was good to happen by the shop and really know where it is now. Then we headed to our respective homes to shower and head to downtown LA for Teddy's friend's birthday at a whiskey bar called Seven Grand. I opted for an Auchentoshan and, per usual, sipped, mingled, and left. I tell you - fitness kicks take a lot out of you. ;)
That was Friday. On Saturday, Kathryn and Giampaulo came down from Seattle to visit Kathryn's parents south of LA and then drove up to hang out in Santa Monica Saturday evening. We met up at the beach and I got to go swimming my first time since I've been here. The water was awesome! Cold, but not as cold as Assateague, and some great waves. They're sneaky waves, though! Every now and then, you'll go under or through one, pop up for air and get slapped in the face with another one that crept up right on the tail of the first one. We had some big swells and, happily, not a lot of drift, so we could relax and play without worrying about how far down the beach we would end up. We worked up quite a thirst swimming and finished right around happy hour so we headed to a great tapas bar in Santa Monica called Bar Pintxo - very small with about 9 high tables in half the restaurant and a nice bar in the other half. Other than a couple of bullfighting pictures and black and white images of Spanish architecture, the decoration was mainly ceiling high shelves of dark wood full of wine bottles. Very cozy and delicious. Giampaulo, being an Italian sommelier, chose a great red from the wine list that we split with some olives and a flat bread with peppers, shrimp, more olives, and cheese. We moved onto a sushi place after that and met up with our friend Jeff from college and a friend of his from work. They're both voice over agents with one of the bigger agencies out here. Then I left the West Side crowd and headed East for Vanessa's birthday. We had a good time at a place called The Beauty Bar decorated with 1950's sit-under hair dryers and a mini photo booth. Vanessa, her friend Ben and I took a strip of photos that will probably end up on-line at some point. As with most club/bars, you stand around and dance a little, sip your drink and then go, but the people are what make the experience, and Vanessa has some great friends. :) Last night (Sunday) I went to a panel in acting in LA (more on that in another post) and then headed to The Grove to grab dinner and meet up with the my friend Shawn from DC. I know Shawn from theatre in DC - he wrote Titus: The Musical and LUNCH!, among other awesome rock musicals. At Shawn's suggestion, I had dinner at the Brazillian place in the Farmer's Market and it was fantastic. Your pick of a buffet of sides plus what kind of barbecued meat you'd like, and the sides are amazing; squash, collard greens, two kinds of rice, white fish stew, black beans, green beans, yucca, platanos, etc. And with this barbecue, we're not talking Texas-smothered-in-sauce BBQ, though that's also delicious. Brazillian barbeque is about the meat, and just the meat, served on huge skeweres and roasted to perfection. I sat down on my own to eat and was shortly joined by a lovely woman who was also eating by herself. Another sign from the universe. Salome and I got to talking and within the first 20 seconds of our conversation found out that both of our parents live in Bahrain! Her parents have been their for 25 years, I think, and mine have been there for just a few months. Salome grew up in Ethiopia and then in London, where she went to boarding school (another thing we have in common), and ended up in LA 5 years ago to act. She's working on a film she and her writing partner have created about two families, one Ethiopian and one American (and Caucasian) living in the same town. Shawn joined us shortly, Salome gave us her recommendation for the best Ethiopian food in town, and then he and I headed to the movie theatre to see Burn After Reading, the latest offering from the Coen brothers. It's an intense and surprising film, which is a huge compliment from the girl who usually guesses (or at least attempts to guess, often successfully) what's about to happen in a film before it happens. We headed to Shawn's place to catch up afterwards and then it was home to bed for me.
By far the best part of the last week, and especially the weekend, was getting to see friends. After a couple of days of only meeting new people in the yoga community and having conversations with random runners and hikers, it was really grounding to connect to people I know. It helps tie you in to a place. Our friends and family anchor us so that we're not off on our own, floating in the big world, one tiny plankton alone in the ocean. Thanks, guys - I love 'ya.
xox Jewel
Monday, September 15, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
The Whole Shebang
*This was actually written yesterday, Sunday, Sept. 7.
So, after driving across the country for five days, clocking untold of miles on my trooper of a Honda Civic, I finally arrived in LA on Wednesday to move into my supercute studio apartment. It's situated on the border between Los Feliz and Silverlake, has a great kitchen and living area, plus two purrfectly sweet cats I get to love for the next few weeks. I'm here until Sept.28 and just got off finished with the ever-fabulous Craig's List in my first round of looking for my next sublet. If anyone who reads this has one, do tell.
So far, I've found:
- Trader Joe's
- Gelson's (upper/midscale grocery store)
- Albertson's (reg. grocery store like Safeway or Giant)
- Nature Mart (health food store with amazing bulk section and juice bar)
- the nearest Yoga Works studio (Larchmont)
- the Silverlake Farmer's Market - beautiful tomatoes!
- The Alcove, a cool restaurant where I had lunch with my friends Ed and Anna when I was here in October
- a newsstand where I bought the Ross Reports (listings of agents and casting directors so I can send them my headshot and resume)
- Griffith Park Observatory and hiking trails - fantastic 50 min run yesterday.
- Los Feliz Public Library
and....
- my way home without getting lost every time!!!
Still looking for:
- Oct. sub-let
- nearest public pool, preferably free...
- direct routes home instead of guesswork, though my sense of direction is consistently getting me where I need to go
- nearest REI to get my headlamp fixed - I just need to get on-line for that one
- nearest Verizon store to change my 240 to a 323 area code for LA. I've found it, I just need to go there, but I hate the phone store...
- nearest Kinko's so I can scan my Ocean City Tourism shoot report to Taylor Royall since their fax machine wasn't working before I left
- nearest place to buy the Thomas Guide for LA
It's been an interesting couple of days. Not even two weeks, and yet it feels like ages. I think something happens when you drive as opposed to fly - instead of leaping forward in time, your clock gets stretched out or comes to a standstill. When you finally arrive at your destination, it feels like coming through a fog back into the real world, but the real world still feels unreal for a couple more days. Now that I understand where I am in the city and am beginning to trust my sense of direction, I'm feeling a lot more connected to this area, but it is truly bizarre not to have a job. I've been laying pretty low since I got here. I spent Wednesday and Thursday moving in and unpacking and had a chance to have dinner with my friend Vanessa from DC - she moved out here about a year ago and had some great tips for getting started out here. We went to a fun deli on Vermont close-ish to where I live and my burger patty was cut into the shape of a heart! Pretty cute. Other than dinner with Vanessa and getting groceries, I spent time acclimating to the apartment. Oh, and I did meet some neighbors - a lovely couple with a new baby - who were heading out of town and were looking for someone to water their outdoor potted plants. I was up for the task, so Markus, who's a musician, and I are trading my watering his plants for him teaching me some more guitar chords. Plus their cut flowers that would have died while they were gone and two delish organic melon that would have rotted in their fridge and can instead find a home in my belly. And Thursday night, the fabulous Vanessa once again pulled me out of the house to go to a training for some promotional work. The promotional season is picking up, so I'm hoping there will be some part-time work happening soon.
On Friday I went to my first yoga classes and spent the day in Larchmont Village where the Yoga Works (YW) studio closest to me is located. First was a really wonderful Level 2/3 Flow class with some great mini vinyasas I'm going to hold onto for my own classes. Then I went to the local deli, spilled goji berry juice on my yoga pants and was cast on the street as a young mom asking a general question to doctors on a show called.. wait for it... "The Doctors" - "My 5 year old son has an imaginary friend and every time he gets in trouble, he blames it on his friend. How can I teach him to be responsible for his own actions?" An excellent question, if I do say so myself, and not bad for my 3rd day in LA. Of, course, no payment involved, but I did feel like the universe was smiling upon me. It could have just been the hot SoCal sun, but sometimes they don't feel that different on a beautiful day. I ate my sandwich while sitting on a brick wall and read the LA Yoga Times, LA's free yoga magazine. I walked around Larchmont which is full of beautiful old Hollywood homes - tropical gardens, Spanish style houses, fountains and I even saw my dream tree in someone's yard - pomegranite! Someday I WILL have lemon and orange and pomegranite trees along with my very own abundant organic garden and a dog. Also had my first sighting of the Hollywood sign.
Next was yoga class 2, Yoga For Your Type, your type referring to your dosha according to Ayurvedic principles. More on that in a later blog - for now, you can check out these websites and take the dosha quizzes to learn more about yourself and ayurveda:
http://www.pratimaskincare.com/pratima_dosha.html
http://doshaquiz.chopra.com/
Mela Butcher, who taught, is an excellent teacher and educator and the director of the Center for Ayurveda in LA. She's 48 and her skin looks better than mine does, so if that's not a reason to try an Ayurvedic lifestyle, I don't know what is. Since we're moving away from Summer, a season of change blossoming outwards, and into Fall and Winter, seasons of storing up energy and turning inwards, we did a restorative practice focused on detoxification, breath and the bandhas. Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful. Especially in my ungrounded, new-to-the-city state. Already, I've learned so much in just two yoga classes - it's a privelage to have access to such great teachers who have trained in my style of yoga. I also gained some perspective from one of the women checking people in for class - we got to talking and she told me that, in fact, a lot of working yoga teachers in LA only had their 200 hr certification like me. This was encouraging, though I'm still interested in getting my 500 hour certification in 2009.
Yesterday, I finally got my Actor's Access page completely finished. Actor's Access is a site on-line where you can submit electronically to different film jobs. Vanessa told me about it. I also paid for a year subscription to Showfax ($68) which is another site on which you can get breakdowns for shows. Breakdowns are a list of characters and their type - if you see one you're right for, you submit. Actor's Access charges you $2 per submission but if you're a member of Showfax, it's free. I've submitted for 3 projects already, so just 31 more submissions and it'll be the right decision. ;) Of course, there's no guarantee that a submission will get you an auditions, but here's hoping.
After that, I headed up to Griffith Park, an enormous park only about a 15 min drive from where I'm staying. The Hollywood sign is set into the hills just West of the park and you can see it from a lot of the trails as well as from the observatory which overlooks Los Angeles as far as the eye can see into the smog below. The ocean, I was shocked to realize, is not really visible b/c the air is so dirty. I think I might ask Mela, the ayurvedic doctor, about some respiratory support. Seriously - I have seen three people in air filtering masks just walking around the city. Looking up, however, is another story. The observatory has a huge telescope that's open to the public after sunset - I didn't stay that long, but I'm looking forward to going back. There's also a planetarium and some interesting exhibits on space. My run took me into the hills, along some ridges, through a dusty fissure that probably turns into a gushing stream when it rains and into a small green park called Dante's View. I'm sure some would say it's called that b/c you can look down into the hell that's Los Angeles below, but I'm not saying that. Instead, I saw a hawk flying overhead, heard a raven chuckling that sounded like deep-toned castanets, and had two nice conversations with fellow runners while cooling off in the sprinkler. Despite the smog, you can see some of the city - long wide avenues with palm trees and lots of buildings, plus a couple of other green spaces. Then it was home to make turkey chili (which turned out really well) and to watch a movie and hang out with the cats. Today, I'm headed to a yoga class, but I'm not sure which one yet, and then meeting my friend Teddy from college for Vietnamese food. I'm not sure how long he's been here, but I'm psyched to catch up and find out what he's doing in LA. I think tomorrow I'll send out a real "I'm here" email to everyone, and look for yoga jobs and more sublets on Craig's List.
xox and love,
Jewel
So, after driving across the country for five days, clocking untold of miles on my trooper of a Honda Civic, I finally arrived in LA on Wednesday to move into my supercute studio apartment. It's situated on the border between Los Feliz and Silverlake, has a great kitchen and living area, plus two purrfectly sweet cats I get to love for the next few weeks. I'm here until Sept.28 and just got off finished with the ever-fabulous Craig's List in my first round of looking for my next sublet. If anyone who reads this has one, do tell.
So far, I've found:
- Trader Joe's
- Gelson's (upper/midscale grocery store)
- Albertson's (reg. grocery store like Safeway or Giant)
- Nature Mart (health food store with amazing bulk section and juice bar)
- the nearest Yoga Works studio (Larchmont)
- the Silverlake Farmer's Market - beautiful tomatoes!
- The Alcove, a cool restaurant where I had lunch with my friends Ed and Anna when I was here in October
- a newsstand where I bought the Ross Reports (listings of agents and casting directors so I can send them my headshot and resume)
- Griffith Park Observatory and hiking trails - fantastic 50 min run yesterday.
- Los Feliz Public Library
and....
- my way home without getting lost every time!!!
Still looking for:
- Oct. sub-let
- nearest public pool, preferably free...
- direct routes home instead of guesswork, though my sense of direction is consistently getting me where I need to go
- nearest REI to get my headlamp fixed - I just need to get on-line for that one
- nearest Verizon store to change my 240 to a 323 area code for LA. I've found it, I just need to go there, but I hate the phone store...
- nearest Kinko's so I can scan my Ocean City Tourism shoot report to Taylor Royall since their fax machine wasn't working before I left
- nearest place to buy the Thomas Guide for LA
It's been an interesting couple of days. Not even two weeks, and yet it feels like ages. I think something happens when you drive as opposed to fly - instead of leaping forward in time, your clock gets stretched out or comes to a standstill. When you finally arrive at your destination, it feels like coming through a fog back into the real world, but the real world still feels unreal for a couple more days. Now that I understand where I am in the city and am beginning to trust my sense of direction, I'm feeling a lot more connected to this area, but it is truly bizarre not to have a job. I've been laying pretty low since I got here. I spent Wednesday and Thursday moving in and unpacking and had a chance to have dinner with my friend Vanessa from DC - she moved out here about a year ago and had some great tips for getting started out here. We went to a fun deli on Vermont close-ish to where I live and my burger patty was cut into the shape of a heart! Pretty cute. Other than dinner with Vanessa and getting groceries, I spent time acclimating to the apartment. Oh, and I did meet some neighbors - a lovely couple with a new baby - who were heading out of town and were looking for someone to water their outdoor potted plants. I was up for the task, so Markus, who's a musician, and I are trading my watering his plants for him teaching me some more guitar chords. Plus their cut flowers that would have died while they were gone and two delish organic melon that would have rotted in their fridge and can instead find a home in my belly. And Thursday night, the fabulous Vanessa once again pulled me out of the house to go to a training for some promotional work. The promotional season is picking up, so I'm hoping there will be some part-time work happening soon.
On Friday I went to my first yoga classes and spent the day in Larchmont Village where the Yoga Works (YW) studio closest to me is located. First was a really wonderful Level 2/3 Flow class with some great mini vinyasas I'm going to hold onto for my own classes. Then I went to the local deli, spilled goji berry juice on my yoga pants and was cast on the street as a young mom asking a general question to doctors on a show called.. wait for it... "The Doctors" - "My 5 year old son has an imaginary friend and every time he gets in trouble, he blames it on his friend. How can I teach him to be responsible for his own actions?" An excellent question, if I do say so myself, and not bad for my 3rd day in LA. Of, course, no payment involved, but I did feel like the universe was smiling upon me. It could have just been the hot SoCal sun, but sometimes they don't feel that different on a beautiful day. I ate my sandwich while sitting on a brick wall and read the LA Yoga Times, LA's free yoga magazine. I walked around Larchmont which is full of beautiful old Hollywood homes - tropical gardens, Spanish style houses, fountains and I even saw my dream tree in someone's yard - pomegranite! Someday I WILL have lemon and orange and pomegranite trees along with my very own abundant organic garden and a dog. Also had my first sighting of the Hollywood sign.
Next was yoga class 2, Yoga For Your Type, your type referring to your dosha according to Ayurvedic principles. More on that in a later blog - for now, you can check out these websites and take the dosha quizzes to learn more about yourself and ayurveda:
http://www.pratimaskincare.com/pratima_dosha.html
http://doshaquiz.chopra.com/
Mela Butcher, who taught, is an excellent teacher and educator and the director of the Center for Ayurveda in LA. She's 48 and her skin looks better than mine does, so if that's not a reason to try an Ayurvedic lifestyle, I don't know what is. Since we're moving away from Summer, a season of change blossoming outwards, and into Fall and Winter, seasons of storing up energy and turning inwards, we did a restorative practice focused on detoxification, breath and the bandhas. Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful. Especially in my ungrounded, new-to-the-city state. Already, I've learned so much in just two yoga classes - it's a privelage to have access to such great teachers who have trained in my style of yoga. I also gained some perspective from one of the women checking people in for class - we got to talking and she told me that, in fact, a lot of working yoga teachers in LA only had their 200 hr certification like me. This was encouraging, though I'm still interested in getting my 500 hour certification in 2009.
Yesterday, I finally got my Actor's Access page completely finished. Actor's Access is a site on-line where you can submit electronically to different film jobs. Vanessa told me about it. I also paid for a year subscription to Showfax ($68) which is another site on which you can get breakdowns for shows. Breakdowns are a list of characters and their type - if you see one you're right for, you submit. Actor's Access charges you $2 per submission but if you're a member of Showfax, it's free. I've submitted for 3 projects already, so just 31 more submissions and it'll be the right decision. ;) Of course, there's no guarantee that a submission will get you an auditions, but here's hoping.
After that, I headed up to Griffith Park, an enormous park only about a 15 min drive from where I'm staying. The Hollywood sign is set into the hills just West of the park and you can see it from a lot of the trails as well as from the observatory which overlooks Los Angeles as far as the eye can see into the smog below. The ocean, I was shocked to realize, is not really visible b/c the air is so dirty. I think I might ask Mela, the ayurvedic doctor, about some respiratory support. Seriously - I have seen three people in air filtering masks just walking around the city. Looking up, however, is another story. The observatory has a huge telescope that's open to the public after sunset - I didn't stay that long, but I'm looking forward to going back. There's also a planetarium and some interesting exhibits on space. My run took me into the hills, along some ridges, through a dusty fissure that probably turns into a gushing stream when it rains and into a small green park called Dante's View. I'm sure some would say it's called that b/c you can look down into the hell that's Los Angeles below, but I'm not saying that. Instead, I saw a hawk flying overhead, heard a raven chuckling that sounded like deep-toned castanets, and had two nice conversations with fellow runners while cooling off in the sprinkler. Despite the smog, you can see some of the city - long wide avenues with palm trees and lots of buildings, plus a couple of other green spaces. Then it was home to make turkey chili (which turned out really well) and to watch a movie and hang out with the cats. Today, I'm headed to a yoga class, but I'm not sure which one yet, and then meeting my friend Teddy from college for Vietnamese food. I'm not sure how long he's been here, but I'm psyched to catch up and find out what he's doing in LA. I think tomorrow I'll send out a real "I'm here" email to everyone, and look for yoga jobs and more sublets on Craig's List.
xox and love,
Jewel
She's moved?!?
She has!.... kind of. But it's only for a couple of weeks, folks, so... I didn't say good-bye. I didn't throw a big party with a slip-n-slide and apple cider, or even just a BBQ. "Why not?" you ask. Well, it just doesn't feel real yet, or forever. I'll be back in DC for my friend Bekah's wedding mid-October, and then I'll be back to do A Christmas Carol at Ford's from Nov. 11 to the end of December. And, since I'm subletting here in LA and not looking for a permanent place to live yet, I feel like I'm just visiting. And you don't throw a party when you go visiting. You throw a party when you move, so wait until December and I promise you cider. Lots and lots of cider.
With that said, to catch you up on my journey West and the journey still to come, I have started this blog. Enjoy!
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