Things that occur when not speaking...

As some of you know, I found out recently that I developed nodes on my vocal chords from talking/yelling over the loud music at my bar job. Nodes are like callouses. In a healthy voice, the vocal chords seal completely to vibrate, producing sound. In a voice with nodes, the vocal chords can't seal around the bump of the node, thus diminishing the vibration and resulting in an attractive, bedroom huskiness, but also less clarity, range, volume and stamina. As an actor and singer, I'm choosing the latter and am halfway through a doctor-prescribed week of not talking, humming, singing, lauging or any other tonal noise-making. Coupled with a cortisone shot on Day 1 and daily doses of the oral steroid Prednazone, the nodes should be greatly diminished by this Thursday. I'll find out when the doctor sticks a camera back down my throat. Then it's into training with a highly reccommended vocal coach to relearn how to breathe properly and support my voice at the bar. If the nodes come back, I'll have to switch restaurant jobs and probably move out of bartending and into serving which happens in a quieter environment with better hours, but could result in less income. This would be sad, as I really like my current bartending job and the folks I work with, which is rare in the service industry. The plusses would be if I could find a place nearer to where I live, I could bike or walk to work and use much less gas, which would also result in spending less money, burn more calories, and get more sleep because the restaurant hours end earlier than a bar where I get off around 2 am. Not so hot for a morning person who's cat likes to wake her up at 7 am. There is, always, a bright side. The question is whether you choose to look at it or not.
It's proving to be a really interesting experience. People's reactions to my situation have included empathy from a bank teller who'd had a tumor on her vocal chords and knew exactly what was going on with me, a dental hygenist who seemed to think I was hard of hearing, a myriad of people who's impulse is to write me back in my notebook instead of speaking back to me which they're perfectly capable of doing, and some people who seem to think it's unfair for them to talk if I can't, so they start making gestures and mouthing things. And a lot of people read my notes out loud, as if voicing my side of the conversation for themselves, and then answer back. And then there are the rare few who just go about business as usual which is becoming more and more refreshing. I didn't realize how much we change our behaviors around someone we perceive as disabled or challenged. In my dealings with deaf people, have I over mouthed words when they're perfectly capable of reading my lips when I speak regularly? With friends who are in wheelchairs, have I chosen to sit down because they can't stand up? It's very interesting to see how people respond, and I really do recommend it to all of you. Just give it a try - it will expand your understanding of other people, and really make you appreciate the power of speech.
I've realized I've really taken the ability to make noise for granted. I allow myself to get so busy that I don't make time to sing, to craft poems, to write, to tell stories. Today is Day 5 of the vocal rest and starting with Day 3, I really missed being able to express my ideas in depth, tell stories about myself, make complex philosphical observations. Day 4 I started really missing the poetry of language. When you're half of the conversation consists of typed or hand-written notes, you have to keep it short and sweet to keep up with the speed of spoken language, so you forgo the poetry. Is this where texting will take us? Communication, but no artistry? Skeletal notes without the rich flesh of language? I hope not. The ability we have to make visual art with words, to create auditory soundscapes with vowels and consonants... It's magical. It's fun. It's creative. It's a gift to make the world and our interactions more beautiful with words.
And Day 4 and 5 I've realized I really, really miss singing. Again, it's a gift to bring something beautiful into the world, and I have a gift, as a singer, that I haven't put to good use in the last few years. I pulled out the guitar I bought from a friend... 4 years ago now(?) and pulled out the "Teach Yourself to Play Guitar" book I have and am going to stick with it this time. I keep thinking about the time I spent in piano lessons and learning the trumpet in the middle school band and wishing I'd spent it all on guitar. I guess that's the lesson for me - teach yourself, it's never too late...

More soon. Love love love.

Catching up on life, love, learning

So, it's been just over a year since I wrote. A lot has happened. I'm now single, after the enormous realization that I want to put my career first, and any thoughts of starting a family far, far away. Even though I think I'd be a great mother, mothering is not what I feel my purpose is, at this time or, perhaps, ever. I've carved out that option for myself - that I may be someone who is never a mother. And equally, I may be someone who is. Only time will tell.
I delved into my childhood, and discovered what I learned and didn't learn from my parents, what I got and didn't get from growing up in the family I grew up in, and I've realized a lot about myself, including that I wouldn't trade my family for anyone else's. Happily, my relationships within my family have gotten deeper as a result of that work and I've come to know myself more clearly, and become more honest with myself and what I want.
Now, I'm working on what I want. I'm clarifying my career goals, creating a vision board, writing, etc. I have a name for my some day film company. I'm working on a few scripts. I'm meeting more and more writers, directors, producers, and hyphenates of all those labels.
And I'm slowly but surely making this place, this City of Angels, my home. Meeting more people in my neighborhood, literally putting roots in the ground via my garden, and putting energy into organizing my bedroom and desk so they're not just places I sleep in and store stuff.
Maybe this whole process was part of my Saturn Returns. Maybe it was turning 30. Maybe everyone does this at some point. I hope so. I've learned so much, and knowledge is power. Self-knowledge is power-full.

Marmalade, Nature and Friends - Oh, my!

One month into 2010 and things are still going beautifully. I hope they are for you, too. I’ve been hiking almost every day this week with some friends from Cricket Feet and Bonnie Gillespie’s Class Rules/SMFA Seminar. An hour plus a day of social time in nature with other actors who don’t work with me at the bar? Hooray! That makes for a balanced and happy Jewel. We’re building friendships and having great conversation while working up a sweat. And we’re getting outside every day so we can really appreciate life in Southern California and not just life in Los Angeles. On a clear day, we can see out over the city all the way to the Pacific, and on the other side are the rolling foothills of the Santa Monica and San Bernadino Mountains. Beyond that, the peaks of the San Bernadinos are criss-crossed and swathed with lines of grey rock and ribbons of snow.

I’ve started another blog with some friends all about getting fitter by eating well. It’s called the Foxy Rabbits Club – “Eat like a rabbit, look like a fox”. If you’re looking for some tried and true low cal but full flavor recipes, look no futher than http://foxyrabbits.blogspot.com. I also started writing a web series this week. I’ve had the idea in my head for months, but it’s only been ready to come into the world and onto paper this week. More on that as it develops…

And another “Oh my god, LA is so small” story. I did a casting director workshop on Saturday with the VP of Casting at Sony. I walked into the room for my 3 min (yes, it is timed) one on one interview with her and she immediately said, “I know you… how do I know you?” I said, “Um… I don’t think we’ve met…” And then she figured out – she’d taken my yoga class at Yoga Works while I was teaching for their graduate program. Crazy! So we had a chance to talk about yoga, then life, then acting which is a great order when you’re hoping to get to know someone as a person and not just a business contact. On the business side of things, however, I had a chance to throw in part of my pitch I developed in the SMFA seminar. Over all, me acting like me, what we talked about, and her being really good at her job combined into her casting me extremely well, so I feel like she did “get me” from that short short interview. She gave me and my partner a scene from the Drew Carey show that got lots of laughs AND had some touching moments. Very fun. Then, after the workshop, I headed across the street to the dog adoption to pet four legged friends. It was so nice to have some dog time, and this adoption (Angels in Fur) was awesome – super nice volunteers and beautiful dogs, a lot of them mid-large sized which I much prefer to the shivery little ones. My friend Laura and I are thinking about volunteering with them once a month.

Oh! And I can’t believe I almost forgot this – before my workshop on Saturday, I went to a marmalade making demo! It was awesome. Kevin West of savingtheseason.com headed it up at Surfas. He demo-ed marmalade, vin de pamplemousse and then I had to leave to get to the workshop, but I think he went on to a lemon curd and… maybe one or two other things. I can’t wait to try my own!

SMFA Love!

SMFA stands for Self Management for Actors and is the title of one of the fabulous Bonnie Gillespie's books, now in it's 3rd edition. The book is available at her website, http://selfmanagementforactors.com/smfa/, as well as Amazon, Kindle, etc. Bonnie is an actor turned casting director/author and has taken on the mantle of teaching actors how much they can do on their own for their careers. As if that's not awesome enough, she's also the author of The Actor’s Voice column on Showfax (http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/) and a constant source of encouragement and concrete career advice for actors everywhere. I was lucky enough to spend my entire day yesterday in her very first SMFA seminar.

We met at the Temescal Canyon Conference Center on the first sunny day LA has had in a week and we did so much stuff! We typed each other, figured out what shows each of us would fit in on, developed our pitches, and discussed a myriad of other actor tools that will help us nurture our careers. Bonnie reminded us all that we’re here for the long run. This is a business founded on relationships and that foundation takes time to build. I also found out that your first co-star role and your first guest star role are two of the hardest things for an actor to get. So… what’s the best way to get in there? Referrals to casting directors? Play the numbers and target CDs on the shows that need the most co-stars every week? Beg everyone I know I to give me a co-star role? That’s the question I forgot to ask… I’ll email everyone from the seminar today and see what they think. Go figure, I come up with a pertinent question 4 hours AFTER we finish.

The shows that came up the most for me were Cougar Town, Modern Family, Trauma and House. Three of these shows are AFTRA which is great for me since I’m AFTRA already. Also, I’ve already started a relationship with one of the CD’s on Cougar Town, so I’ll continue to build that. For the other three, it’s time to start targeting them through casting director workshops and other networking events. I’ve set up google alerts for their names plus casting so I’ll know if they have speaking engagements or workshops I can attend or an interview on-line I can read, and I’m joining Women in Film today so I can attend their networking events. I guess if I focus on the process and not the end result, I’ll feel busy and pro-active instead of feeling like I’m waiting for something to happen, and that’s much more fulfilling!

Do you believe in magic?

22 days into the new year and it’s already been amazing! I had a great visit back east after working at the bar through the holidays. While I was gone, some magic happened to greet me on my return to LA! I met a very nice producer for a very popular show when she came to lunch at the bar. She gave me her assistant’s phone number and told me to call him and send in my headshot and resume. I did all of this – he was very nice on the phone – but nothing happened. This lovely nice fairy godmothersister of a producer came back into the bar earlier this week, asked me what had happened, I told her, “Nothing so far. I sent in my H/R but haven’t heard anything.”, and she called the office while having lunch and asked them to set up a general for me. The casting director’s office called me 3 hours later with an appointment for the next day! Amazing! I had these great juicy sides playing a character you at first thing deserved to get killed, but then later you find out she was trying help everyone. Let me start at the beginning.

I put some good solid work into my sides and then arrived at the audition neighborhood an hour early because I was determined not to be late. So, I had time to grab a tea, find a good parking spot, and run my sides a few more times in the car. In the meantime, the rain had begun again – for those of you who don’t know, we’ve had blazing sun to drizzle to mist to driving rain to hail to rainbows for pretty much the entire week. I get out of the car my pant legs were soaked in the 30 sec it took to put quarters in the meter. I got into the audition waiting room freezing and wet and shivering – thankfully the casting office had the heat on full blast for all of us cold, wet girls! I signed in and noticed that the other 2 girls their were repped by CAA (Creative Artists Agency) and Innovative Artists Agency – two major players in Hollywood. I meekly but determinedly drew a line through the box next to my name where it said “Agency”. Then I chatted a bit with the other 2 girls there and continued to look at my sides. Girl one left and a few moments later, Jewel Staite from Serendipity, Firefly and Stargate: Atlantis walked in! She was there to audition, too. The nice guy running the auditions came in and called out names and, as he read the list, he called out Meghan (“That’s me”), Jewel – Jewel S said “yup”, Julia “right here”, Jewel – I said “ yes” - and then Jewel Staite and I both said, “you’re a Jewel?” I said to the nice guy “I’m Jewel Greenberg.” “Ah!” he says, “then you must be Jewel Staite” – “Yes” she said. Then he left and Jewel S and I bonded over how each of us is the only other Jewel we know in LA. A lovely interaction and she really is as nice as Kaylee, her character from Firefly. As we were talking, it came out that I didn’t have representation. A collective gasp – “How did you get in here? It’s really hard.” Said one of the girls. I told them the story about the lovely executive producer and they exclaimed, “Wow, that is really lucky. Good for you! People dream about that kind of thing happening to them. Good luck!”
As all of this was going on, we would intermittently hear cussing and hurried walking/stomping from the casting director’s office next door. Not particularly soothing, one of the other girls said not to worry – this casting director is always like this. “Great.” I thought wryly, “My first tv audition in LA and I’m going in to a scary loud-voiced stomper”. Finally, it was my turn – I was fine when I got there, but did get progressively nervous as the waiting went on. When I went in, the cameraman met me at the door and I walked in to meet the casting director who, surprisingly, was all smiles and nice as pie. Well, maybe not pie – she wasn’t sticky sweet, but grounded and a straight shooter… Nice as a mushroom and sausage pizza pie maybe. We talked a little, she asked me how I knew the exec producer, and then we got into the sides. I appreciated how upfront she was about how they did things - right off the bat, she invited me to tell them if I wanted to do something over again because they edit the tape. We did each scene 2 or 3 time – sometimes at my request, but mainly at theirs so I felt like I really got a fair shake even though I’m new to this market. I’m proud to say I accomplished everything I set out to do – I showed emotional range, took direction well, and didn’t come off as nervous but as an actor who knows her craft and is confident. I haven’t heard anything, but I’d be surprised if I got the part. I’m pretty green to be given a juicy guest starring role like this without having a couple of co-start parts first, but you never know. Regardless, I got in front of a great casting director and I’ll keep in touch with her via postcards. Hopefully I co-star or a smaller guest star role when come out of it. And you never know – maybe she’ll call me next week, tell me the producers loved my tape and I’m go in for a producer call. That’s what Theo’s hoping for. I’m letting my hopes hone in on the more realistic eventually co-start. Whew! That long story was great thing number one.

Great thing number two is that I have a commercial agent! Right before Thanksgiving, a good friend of mine who’s a voice over agent gave my headshot and resume to a commercial agent (Rich) at his sister agency. I didn’t hear anything so I asked him to touch base with Rich a week after Thanksgiving. Still nothing, so I asked him to touch base with him again after New Year’s. He did so and they finally called. I went in for my interview last week and end up talking with the head of their non-union department for an hour – for those of you who don’t know, that is a loooooong time to be in an agency meeting. Rich and I really hit it off – I felt comfortable talking with him, I liked the atmosphere in the office, and the woman at the front desk was really nice and friendly. All major points for the agency! During our meeting, I felt that Rich took the time to answer my questions and ask me more than once if I had any questions for him. I felt cared for and I felt like he cared about the progression of my career as well, not just getting me signed. He really wanted to make sure his agency was the right fit for me. And I felt it was! I called him a few days later to confirm that I wanted to sign with them and now we’re all systems go. I’m going in to sign contracts next week, but I’ve already switched my LA Casting account over to BB&R. Now that it’s official, I can give you the details – I am the happiest new client at Brady, Brannon & Rich! That’s great thing number 2.

Great thing number 3 is that I met another (!) producer at my bar who offered to put me in touch with some great managers he knows. Yes, that would mean paying out more of my meager acting salary as I get jobs, but it would also mean I have someone looking out for me and my career and another person on my side who can get me in the door. That, so far, is the hardest part. I’m thrilled to start going out on commercial auditions, but I’ve been doing lots of casting director workshops and, though I feel like I have a good vibe with the CD’s and I get good feedback, I haven’t been called in theatrically yet. Maybe I should be targeting AFTRA shows? Maybe I need to start pulling on my contacts and asking for auditions? I’m not sure. I’m doing Bonnie Gillespie’s Self-Management for Actors Seminar (SMFA) tomorrow, and I’m planning to get answers to some of my questions then.

SMFA is going to be great because we’re going to talk about how to talk about ourselves. I’m great at networking, it turns out – I like talking to people, I’m able to craft an interesting conversation, I’m fun and I put people at ease – but I get all tongue tied when I feel like I’m on the spot and have to impress people with what I’ve done. Also, I always want to get into the details when someone asks, “How do you see yourself getting cast?” Probably, they just want to hear, “Doctor, lawyer, detective, mom, smart and slightly quirky lead.” But I want to say, “Well, I can play the smart, nice girl who gets a little crazy when stressed, or the cop who’s friendly most of the time but kicks ass when she has to, etc.” I need to keep it short, clear and to the point, and we’re going to tackle that tomorrow.

Oh, and one more exciting thing. We finally had our wrap part for Simply Simon and we got to watch Episode 1! It’s very funny and sweet and it looks amazing. Jarrett, our DP, and Tom, our director, did an amazing job visually. Ben, of course, did an incredible job writing (and acting). And the rest of us… oh, we did a’ight. More this spring when Simply Simon airs at www.watchsimplysimon.com.

late posting from Nov... 2009! Was that really last year?

Nov 29
So, as usual, it’s been a couple of months since I wrote! I can proudly say I’ve been busy. Since my last post, I’ve gotten a job, wrapped a web series, updated both my website and commercial reels, had new headshots taken, and had a lovely Thanksgiving with my mom and my boyfriend’s family, all together, for the first shared holiday. Sigh. You can check out the updated commercial reel at www.jewelgreenberg.com. I’m quickly approaching a year in LA and it’s satisfying to be able to look at my reel and say – these are all new spots. This is the image I’m promoting for myself within 8 months of moving to LA. It’s great to have something concrete to measure my progress by instead of the usual, “Oh, I’ve been doing workshops… I love my acting class… I’ve just been meeting a lot of people…” It’s also great to realize that there really is more work out here, and I’m getting some of it! After having short hair for 2 years in DC, I moved to LA and still had commercial footage of myself with long hair on my reel. After being here since for 9 months, my new commercial reel is all short hair footage!

Other exciting news is that we wrapped Simply Simon! I can’t tell you any details until we air in January, but it looks like my character may be coming back for Season 2, hopefully after some huge sponsor sweeps in and decides to pay our production costs. Keep your fingers crossed, and check out our behind the scenes blogs at www.watchsimplysimon.com.

I’ve also been learning a lot about myself. I’m bartending now at a restaurant pretty near my house and my awesome all girls bootcamp ended the same week I started training. I’ve been doing yoga, but no weight lifting or running plus I’ve been eating more restaurant food and drinking more than normal for me and what happened? Not only do I have a new job, I also have a new 5 lbs. So, it’s time to start running again and lifting weights, even though I’ll be doing it by myself. Theo and I have mad a pact that we’ll lose 7 lbs by mid-Jan. Here goes! We’ve both gotten a little puffy around the mid-section, even though Theo swears that Thanksgiving foods don’t have calories… It’s nice to have a challenge with my love.

I’ve also been reading a book called “The Drama of the Gifted Child” all about how our childhoods – both the good parts and the bad parts – shape our perception of ourselves and the world. As the oldest sort of – my older brother grew up with his mom and my younger brothers and I grew up with our dad – I’ve never really given much thought to birth order other than feeling like I had it the hardest – paving the way for the younger siblings and all. But as I was reading this book, and over a couple of weeks of thinking about it, I realized that a couple of things are linked to the experience of having three younger brothers…
a. having extremely high expectations for myself
b. feeling like I have to get it perfect, whatever it is
c. worrying about being not enough

As the oldest kid, and perhaps as a girl child, I felt not just like I should help my mom with my little brothers, but that she really needed me to. I don’t know what I thought would happen if she didn’t have my help, but it must have been something big… of course, at that age (5 or so), Mom being unhappy in anyway is a huge concern, so maybe that’s all I was worried about. I’ve always expected great things from myself – perhaps that all started with expecting myself to keep the little brothers on track to help Mom and Dad. I’ve also felt that, at least with things that really important to me, I need to get them perfect before I turn it in, perform it, mail it, etc. That’s certainly linked to having high expectations, and acting class has been a huge help in relearning this trigger of not performing until it’s “perfect”. What will happen if I perform something that’s not perfect? I’ll get some great direction and some great feedback and will have the opportunity to bring it back and do it again better. What will happen if I never perform it because I need to get more solid on my lines, I haven’t had enough time this week to work on it, I’m still thinking about the character? I’ll never put it up, never have the opportunity to learn and sit in the back of the class feeling like I suck because I’m not good enough, brave enough, smart enough, etc. Much higher consequences than just deciding to put up with imperfection. And as for feeling “not enough”, it’s all linked up. By believing I have to get it perfect and having extremely (read “too”) high expectations, I often feel not enough – not skinny enough, not brave enough, not knowledgeable enough, etc. These feelings keep me from excelling and meeting my high expectations – I stop myself before I even get started. Not a recipe for success. How do I quit?
a. Lower the expectations – a run doesn’t have to be a hard 45 min every time. It’s enough to get out and move a little every day.
b. Get rid of perfection – do silly things! Don’t worry about the consequences of things that aren’t that important. Be brave.
c. Tell myself, every day, in lots of ways, that I am enough. Visualize it. Believe it.

So, all that said, it’s true that at the moment, I don’t fit the body type of leading lady. It’s also true that leading lady is what I want to play. Since I don’t think the industry is going to change as quickly as I hope my career does, I’m changing my size, but not by beating myself up for being “average”, telling myself to do it while believing I can’t really, and feeling not enough. Instead, I’m going to run a little bit every day, keep doing yoga, keep a food journal and plan meals for calories, and cheer myself on positively. And look at bikes on Craig’s List to find a cheap road bike I can take to work. Consistant and dedicated effort, in the words of the yoga sutras.

More on working, and then some.

Work opportunities are flourishing! I got called in for a Swiffer commercial last Thursday and have a callback on Monday! Woo-hoo! What makes it a double “Woo-hoo” is that the first time this casting director called me in, I was out of town, so I couldn’t make the audition. Then, when I mentioned that my agent wasn’t calling me in, he said to tell him that he (the casting director) said I should be called in for anything I’m remotely right for because I would get callbacks. And he was right – I got one! I also dropped off a load of yoga resumes at a businessy area near where I live. I’ll follow up on those in a couple of days and see who wants to do lunchtime yoga at their office. AND I’m training in a week at a local bar. Now we’re talking “bar”, not club. Dive bar. Better yet, a dive karaoke bar. It feels like a real neighborhood family place. My friend, Laura, who just moved to LA from DC… she’s only the first of many… the rest will come. ;) Anyway, Laura and her fiancé arrived 2 weeks ago after a ridiculous , SERIOUSLY ridiculous moving saga, and Laura had no luck with the temp agencies, so she did a bartending course. Through that course, she found out about this opening in Culver City. I happened to have an audition near her place yesterday, she told me about this bar, and I called and got an interview today! They like us both. They’re training us both. And some day we will both work at the same time and have a blast and the whole place will burst open with love, great drinks and baby unicorns. You just wait. It will be super to be working with her and to have some extra money coming in because reproducing headshots, getting them touched up, doing casting director workshops, paying for acting class, joining unions, getting reels edited, having a website built, and keeping up your casting pages on Actor’s Access and LA Casting, not to mention joining all of those sites and Showfax, really adds up quickly. Then you add the work I had to get done on my car after driving cross country 3 times in 5 months PLUS the gas you go through driving all over a huge city… you get the picture. So, I gave myself 6 months to start, I’ve accomplished a lot in that time, and it’s time to add in a couple of jobs. I’m also sending my standardized patient resume into the local med schools and, since my resume rocks and I have great references from DC, I’m sure something will come of that.

In retrospect -
I got called back for Swiffer, but didn't book the job. The bar likes me, but hasn't called me in to train yet - they said they'd get back to me by Thursday. Thinking about doing the bar training Laura did just to get onto that hot line and submit for catering jobs. And still waiting for folks in DC to give me the last little bit of info to complete my resume. But I did get cast in a short film - no pay, but some good people. I've completed the last of the voice over work for a USC project and the director said that even his composer, who had to watch the footage over and over again while figuring out the music, told him I was really really good. And the General Hospital casting director cast me in a one day shoot next week. It's background work still, but she remembered me! And I dropped of 10 resumes at local businesses and 2 at Equinox gyms, and no one is looking for yoga instructors. But I have great people around me to encourage me and I'm not giving up!

xox Jewel

Home is where the... not sure what home is...

It’s interesting how my relationship to place has changed since moving to LA. At first, I felt very divided between LA and DC. Recently, I had a trip home that felt like saying good-bye. Then I had a trip at the end of which, for the first time, I really wanted to get back to LA. Now, for the first time, I feel like I’m going back as a visitor… as a little bit of an outsider. My friends, of course, would say, “Oh, come on, Jewel, you’ll never be an outsider.” But it’s the internal experience that we know best. It’s how we feel inside that is the lens through which we see the world.

More and more I find myself not caring as much what other people might think. I wear sneakers with a skirt when I travel. I don’t drink as much. I don’t go to every birthday party I’m invited to. I choose to be practical when I travel. I drink when I feel like it. I go out when I feel like it. It’s quite freeing – I’ve heard this happens in your 30’s, so I guess I’m just a year early! But this is a tangent. What I really wanted to write about was home.

As a kid who grew up overseas – an expat kid, a 3rd nation kid, etc. – I’ve always had a bit of an outsider thing going on. Even though I was popular and had a lot of friends in school, I always felt a little apart. Do all of us who grew up overseas feel this way? Do all the kids in my family? Does every human?

There are so many transplants to LA that a frequent topic of conversation is where you’re from. This, inevitably for me, leads to my life story. What I find interesting is that while I was in DC, DC never felt like home. Now that I’m in LA, DC is actually becoming home. DC will be where I go back to for Thanksgiving, Christmas. Where I get to go see Dad and Mom. Where I know my way around the city and have favorite places I want to visit every time I’m there. Yet, I’m not from DC. I didn’t grow up there. I don’t identify as someone who grew up in DC because I didn’t. I’m still a kid who grew up in Saudi on a compound surrounded by empty lots with goats in them that is now surrounded by buildings. But, if we consider Saudi Arabia as home, I haven’t been home since 2000. And now, in my new home – Los Angeles – I feel very much at home after only a few months. More so than I ever did in DC. Am I just adaptable or have I found my essential place, my true home, the place where my dharma unfolds? Hopefully, LA is that, and not just the best of 2 US choices for actors. “Always look on the bright side of life” a la Monty Python.

To be continued....

Working and learning...

This was really written 3 weeks ago... still working on that procrastination thing.

So, I graduated from yoga school June 28th and I’m up to teaching about 3 classes a week with great feedback every time. It’s certainly down from the 7 or so classes I was teaching in DC, but the numbers will rise, like the carbonation bubbles in a glass of soda water. I’ve gotten referrals from my friend Mellissa for two other yoga studios in Hollywood, and there’s a new studio that just opened on the West Side (closer to where I live) where I’ll be dropping off resumes when I get back from this trip to DC. I have realized that one of the main things I allow to hold me back is marketing. Instead of just making up a simple postcard to advertise my services as a yoga teacher and dropping them off at area businesses, I agonize over how I don’t have the skills to design anything and I let myself get distracted by other things so I can keep putting it off. Ridiculous! And, like all things thus far, repeated in my life over and over again. My acting teacher, for instance, has been talking a lot recently about how we each need to know how we get in our own way. Once we know, we can simply decide, albeit over and over again, not to do it again. Easier said than done, but a simple solution never the less. So, I should just make a damn postcard, print 20 off and hand deliver them. I should also start learning a monologue a week to put up in acting class – the more I do, the easier they will get, and the more confident I will be. So, I’m learning lots and now it’s time to put it all into practice. Just decide. Just do it. Decide. Now.

Despite proctastination and lack of confidence in some areas, I continue to get great opportunities! I filmed a PSA (public service announcement) recently for breast cancer with a group of USC students. Their team, along with 3 others, won grants to cover production costs of their version of a PSA for the Army of Women organization. The directors emailed us all this week with the good news that they’d sent the foundation a rough cut (first draft) of our PSA and the organization wrote back that it’s quality and vision were above and beyond what they’d imagined any of the teams would pull off. Hopefully we’ll win and our PSA will actually air! The next great thing that happened was that I got hired to do background work on the set of General Hospital. I met Gwen Hillier, the GH casting director as a result, and had a great 4 days of filming, hanging out with new people, and getting to see what it’s like to film on a multi-camera day time television set. That would have been fine as is, but I ended up getting bumped up from background to an Under-5 role which I can actually put on my resume. So, I’ve met my goal of having at least 2 tv credits my first year here. Now it’s time to surpass that! Under-5, by the way, is a role with a line that’s less than five words long. I got to say “Augh! Oh, my god!” while riding a ferris wheel into which a car crashed, pinning an evil lawyer to the carnival ride. Good times! From that shoot, I had an audition last night for a short film directed by a guy from Philly who moved to LA with his crew of filmmakers after winning a festival with one of their shorts. All networking, all good. The audition was improve and I got the director and the camerawoman to laugh a couple of times, so we’ll see what happens. As a casting director I met recently said, “Anything you do now for your career is an investment that will come back to you in 10 years.” I have to keep reminding myself that a career in acting is not a sprint. It’s not even a marathon. It’s a loooooooooooong distance run. You just have to keep going, trusting that you’re good enough, believing that there are enough water stops along the way to get you to the end which you know – you just have to know – you’ll find eventually. And, from yoga, abhyasa vairagya – work with consistent and dedicated effort toward your goal, but don’t be so focused on the goal that you miss the joy of the journey, or so set on the goal that you feel like a failure if you don’t make it in this life time. Don’t worry – you’ll have more chances! And, finally, a casting director I know invited me to join her A-List, a list of her favorite actors that she sends occasional emails to when certain opportunities come up, like a last minute casting need or a great agent or manager looking for new clients.

To sum up what the recent months have been about… I’m learning a whole lot about myself, both the good and the, well … let’s not call it the bad, but, rather, the fixable! In this process of learning so much about what I can fix, it’s sometimes hard to remember that there are a lot of parts of me that don’t need fixing. Lesson 1 – I’m in pretty good shape, just as I am, the good and the fixable included. As a result of all this self-inquiry and yoga and acting practice, I’m becoming more aware of, and more sensitive to, the fixable parts of myself. At the same time, as a result of the same work, I’m learning the tools I need to fix those parts of myself. Lesson 2 – My increasing sensitivity to and awareness of my fixable parts is equaled by my growing knowledge of how to fix those parts. And finally, as has happened over and over again the last few months, I’m feeling more and more settled in LA, opportunities continue to present themselves, and I get more and more great feedback from casting directors and other teachers and peers. Lesson 3 – I really am supposed to be here.

As we go forth, may we all have the journeys we need to be strengthened and to feel safe, to teach and to learn, to love and be loved.

Xxo Jewel

So much for that...

You know, that whole thing about writing once a week? It just ain't happenin'! So, feel free to check in when you feel like it and see if anything new is up. Perhaps if I stop trying to schedule it in, I'll naturally find time to write... That's the new plan. Organically creating my blog. Allowing the stories to unfurl like the tiny leaves of a seedling. We shall see.

Since I last wrote, I have:
- Seen the Creative Artist’s Agency building, locally dubbed The Death Star for it’s architectural design.
- Caught up with my friend Ed at the NYU Writer’s showcase.
- Signed with AVO Talent for voice-over representation – they are great!
- Celebrated my friend Melissa’s new path and recent birthday
- Started teaching a small group yoga class.
- Met lots of CD’s at CD workshops.
- Introduced Mom and Dad to LA.
- PERFORMED in the 2009 Cricketfeet Showcase!

This has got to be short because I need to catch you up on what’s been going on so I can post on my most exciting news tomorrow.

LA continues to be full of good people, and I’ve been fortunate to be part of two great groups – my teacher training group with Yoga Works and my cast and crew of the 2009 Cricketfeet Showcase. These folks make me feel welcomed and connected here in LA – I am so very grateful! I’ve run into some particularly lovely folks who I hope will become better friends – they’re the kind of person always ready to give an honest answer, a sly joke, or a hug. I am surrounded by them! Lucky me!!

I’m especially lucky that my housemate, Birdy, rocks my world even though we barely see each other. When we do get to hang out, it’s great conversation. We had a full house this past week between my parents and Theo with good times all around and the house abuzz with talk.

I’ve added Lemon Thyme, Spearmint, Regular Thyme and Oregano to my front porch plants. Theo and I ran out of thyme (ha, ha) to build the plant boxes I wanted for the backyard, so I’m on my own for that. Anyone have a drill I can borrow? On the garden list are cherry tomatoes, summer squash, garlic, sweet potatoes, cilantro, basil, and eggplant. The citrus bounty has been added to by Birdy’s friends’ heavily laden grapefruit tree. The peach tree in the back yard is covered in green, but ripening, baby peaches! Tiny peachlets, soon you will be ripe and juiceful.

Clarified that this point of my career is the investment part of starting a business – must put out before getting back. Point was proven in voting results at Cricketfeet Showcase. More on that tomorrow. Really!

Xox Jewel

The Industry-al Complex

Blog Entry 4

Wow… writing a blog is not as quick and simple as it seems. Like everything I have ever found challenging, it takes consistent effort. In yoga, abhyasa means practice, but not just practice. It's practice in the way of a concentrated and conistent effort without a break. Getting up and doing it every...single...day. So, the hardest part of my yoga practice is simply getting onto the mat and sticking with it. It's why the most frustrating part of rehearsing is just getting the damn lines down. And it's why some friendships and some relationships fall apart. But that’s also why it’s possible to have joy every day in your life. It’s why it’s possible to feel loved and loved every day of your life. And that’s why over a lifetime, yoga does make a difference… but only if you make a true effort to do it every day. Let that be a lesson to myself in blogging consistenly… at least once a week, though probably not every day.

Part of the reason I don’t blog every day is that I don’t think that much is happening. Then my boyfriend points out everything that IS happening and I realize there’s more going on and plenty to be proud of. Then I remember that I’m a Greenberg-Ogorzaly and there are always ways to DO MORE - BETTER! Thankfully, Theo is not a Greenberg-Ogorzaly and can see through the fog of overachieving “I’m only as good as the number of things I’m doing” mania. And, thankfully, he’s not a Greenberg-Ogorzaly or he’d be my relative instead of my boyfriend and that’s just too many bad Arkansas jokes to live through.

So, what have I been doing? Manifesting like crazy, that’s for sure. I had a wonderful 2 months in the pretty little house in Santa Monica where I felt safe and cared for by Theo’s visits and by my lovely landlord/neighbors who will someday be my red carpet dates. Now, I’ve found a fantastic place to live for 6+ months which I love in Culver City, walking distance to: Sony Studios, Culver Studios, Trader Joe’s, a yoga studio where I’m going to start working a few times a week, the farmer’s market, the bike trail AND a fantastic coffee shop. Please, can I stay here forever? I live with a great housemate, Birdy, who’s a 3rd grade teacher and her cat, Quincy, who I’ve nicknamed Q and who welcomed me to my new home by sleeping on my knee my first night. There’s good light, a great living room, a breeze that comes all the way though the house when the back and the front door are open, and a peach tree in the backyard and an orange tree next door. Best of all, I feel like I can finally put down some roots (albeit shallow ones - still working on manifesting a job for Theo) after being a nomad since September. It feels soooooo good to be moved in.

On the acting side of things, I finally put up a monologue in my acting class – the first time is always the hardest – and got some good, concrete feedback that prompted me to connect to the piece in a different way which means I connected to part of myself in a different way which means I’m already becoming a more versatile actor first time out. And now I won’t be nervous next time… which is… tomorrow! Ok, make that not AS nervous. Nerves are just something you have to act your way through until you outgrow them. Then there are my reels – 2 of them, commercial and theatrical – which will be finished by March 17 so they can go into my kits for the showcase (more on that soon). I got referred to a commercial agent through a casting director I met recently, though nothing’s happened there… yet. I met a commercial agent at a party and then met one of her client’s the next day, so there’s a double whammy Universe hook-up going on there. And, last but super definitely not least, I got into the Cricketfeet Showcase!

Now, Cricketfeet is something I’ve wanted to do since I first visited LA and my friend Anna was in rehearsals for it. For those of you who don’t know, a showcase is an evening or two of scenes put on by a group of actors seeking representation or exposure. The audience is invitation only as the point is to get as many quality industry folks there as possible – agents, managers, casting directors. So, come mid-April, I’ll be performing a comedic 2 person scene and a comedic 5 person scene in front of 40-60 industry folks, two night in a row. It’s run by Bonnie Gillespie, an actor turned very successful writer and casting director, and directed by Chil Kong, a director out of the Boston theatre scene who’s now in LA. Bonnie teaches 5 marketing workshops while we prepare for the big night so that our press kit, marketing know how, and understanding of how we will fit best in this industry will be as strong as possible. We’ll be at the Colony Theatre in Burbank where the evening will proceed like this. First, we’ll perform our outrageously funny and heartwarmingly sweet scenes. Then, we’ll go backstage and lose some of the stage make-up while the audience changes pants because they wet themselves laughing we were SO FUNNY. Then, we’ll wine and dine with the audience and schmoozola our pants off to find agents we connect with and casting directors (CDs) who want to hire us. Then, we maintain relationships with the CDs we met and make the tough decision of who we sign with for theatrical and commercial representation. Then, we have people fighting for us to get into bigger auditions while we continue to find work ourselves, and in a few years, when we outgrow our agent, we do this all again! Sounds like fun, no? There are 45 actors and I am thrilled to be part of the cast this year. It’s a big opportunity, especially for one as new to town as I am. Talk about getting to make a splash! Obviously, there will be more on that soon. More details on http://www.cricketfeetshowcase.com/. If you know any agents or CD’s in LA, let me know and I’ll add them to the guest list.

So, that’s the lowdown on the acting front. I’ll talk about yoga next time. ;)

Xox Jewel

Journey 'Cross America

We finally made it! Theo and I left Chevy Chase, MD on Jan 3 and, after stops in Nashville, Baton Rouge, Austin, and Tucson, after friends and family, after Cajun, BBQ, Tex-Mex and New-Mex, and about 3,400 miles on the road, we made it into Santa Monica, CA yesterday, Jan. 5. With Theo’s help, unpacking the car and moving in took almost no time at all. Then it was right off to my first meeting with my yoga mentor, Annie Carpenter, where I finally got to meet the rest of my apprentice group. Everyone seems great and it was a treat to find out that I have quite enough teaching experience to get by. Our group ranges from early 20’s to late 50’s with people who have just finished their first teacher training and don’t have much teaching experience to folks who have taught for 1-3 years. After my 12 months of teaching in DC, my wonderful experiences with all my students, and all the great questions they asked while I taught, I’m ready to get back into school, find new teaching jobs and finally find the answers to all those questions. Once I got back, we were treated to dinner – homemade burgers, fries and a great salad – by my landlord, Kathleen, the aunt of my friend Jen in DC. We had dinner with Kathleen, her daughter Cheyenne, Kathleen’s college friend Carolyn and their other renter, Annalise, who happens to be from Tacoma, WA where I went to college. Then it was off to bed by 10pm b/c were exhausted! Up at 6 this morning for me after a full 8 hours.

So, that was last night once we arrived, “What about the actual journey?” you’re wondering. Well… it was great fun and happily uneventful outside of seeing my friend Nikki in Nashville and my family along the way. No flat tires, no food poisoning from roadside meals, no accidents (and only one near one), no roadkill casualties larger than insects and NO TICKETS! Instead, we had interesting conversation, funny conversation and dreamy conversation, silly car games, music and made-up songs, books on ipod, the entire 2nd book of Harry Potter and ¼ of the third, and 4 chapters of Hemingway’s “As the Bell Tolls” read aloud. We liked the Hemingway so much we’re going to keep reading it aloud until Theo flies back to DC on Sunday. Then I’ll have to get my own copy and just read to myself. As for the remaining ¾ of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Theo will have to download that bad boy and listen to it on the plane.

Driving from MD to TN was misty and partially stormy. We saw buffalo, cows, and horses. We made it into Nashville around 10 or 11 pm and stayed up to chat with Nikki before we all crashed. She had just arrived from Rhode Island via DC (driving as well) a few hours before us, so we were all pretty tired. We grabbed breakfast at Panera Bread after having yerba mate at Nikki’s and were back on the road.

TN to Baton Rouge was also misty here and there. Unfortunately, by the time we got close to Baton Rouge, it was already nightfall, so we didn’t get to see the landscape and flora until we left in the morning. Baton Rouge was definitely one of the highlights of this trip for me. I’d never been down there and it’s a city with a long history in my family. My maternal grandmother, Jewel (nee Claitor) Ogorzaly, who I’m obviously named after, grew up in Baton Rouge, went to LSU and moved to New Orleans after graduation with her 3 best friends, Bennett, Chi Chi and Wink. You can imagine the family stories! Her mother, Mabel, and father, Otto, (my great-grandparents) started Claitor’s bookstore in Baton Rouge. The bookstore has grown from a general local bookstore into a publishing company and out-of-print collection specializing in hard to find law books. After dinner with my 2nd cousin Dan, his wife Sharmaine, their 2 kids, Sam and James, and DiBelle, a family friend, we hit the hay, bellies full of Sharmaine’s homemade turkey gumbo. In the morning we chatted with Sharmaine and Dan before he left for work. Then Sharmaine snapped a couple photos of me in the bayou in my great-granddad’s old rowboat (family tradition) and then headed over to the bookstore! We got to see my great-uncles Bob (Dan’s dad) and Jim as well as Dan’s brothers (more of my 2nd cousins) Rob and John. Dan’s other brother, Jim, was already back in Iowa after New Year’s in Louisiana. We had poboy’s at the restaurant next door to the bookstore and then got back on the highway after learning one thing to never forget – gumbo ain’t gumbo unless it’s got roux. If you’ve never heard of roux, look it up in Joy of Cooking or, if you’re lucky enough to have it, a copy of River Road Recipes.

Driving out of Baton Rouge it was pretty misty. Theo, after 2 previous foiled attempts to see the Mississippi River, is just going to have to come back for Jazz Fest because Ol’ Miss was covered by fog. We loved seeing the Spanish Moss hanging from all the trees and the highways crossing over the swamps. Though we kept our eyes peeled for gators, we didn’t see any this trip. We had some sprinkles of rain as we headed to Austin, saw longhorns once we got into TX, got lost (of course) in the Austin hills, and finally made it to my Uncle Bob’s and Aunt Molly’s house. We got a tour of the house as it’s different every time – Bob’s an architect and Molly’s a botanist/writer/artist so it’s always fun to see what’s new and different at their place. Bob arrived with Tex-Mex from Chewy’s and my cousin William who had just come back to town after snowboarding in Colorado. The UT game was on so we chatted and watched the game and finally saw the UT Tower turn red from the living room window once they won and the game was over. Then it was off to bed and, in the morning, after oatmeal and chicory coffee (wait, didn’t we leave Louisiana?), we got back on the road. We stopped for BBQ at Cranky Franky’s in Fredericksburg, TX and still a zillion light years to drive before… finally… making it to the other side of the state. Boy, how we cheered when we finally hit New Mexico.

New Mexico remains one of my favorite states to drive through. Maybe it’s a desert thing and that connects me to my childhood, but the huge skies and the way the light turns violet against the falling night and the sand and the rocks in the distance… You can’t beat it. It is just so achingly beautiful to watch the texture of the light change, the colors alter and deepen, the start come out. I texted my friend Kat, from college, about where to get good New Mexican food in her hometown of Las Cruces. She texted back from NY, NY and said to head to Si Senor so we did. We had waaaaaaaay too much good food and lots of good green chili queso and green chili salsa and then got back on the road. We’d decided to drive as far as we could so that we could miss rush hour in CA and get there with plenty of daylight to use as we unpacked the car. I took a nap after dinner, we switched driving shifts after getting into Arizona and made it all the way to Tuscon. Then we realized it was only another 2 hours to Pheonix so we just kept going. We finally stopped after driving and found a Comfort Inn off of I-10. In the morning, we got right back on the road for our remaining 6 hours of roadtrip.

The I-40, which I took driving out the first time, and the I-10, which Theo and I took this time, become one highway in CA heading into Los Angeles. It was fun to me that Theo got to see exactly what I saw heading into LA my very first trip. What was new about this time is that there was actually snow in the mountains! It was full sun, breezy and warm where we were and up above, right at the tops of the hills was snow. We pulled over for lunch at the Wheel Inn which sounds ridiculous but has fantastic sandwiches. If you’re headed into LA on the 10, you’re feeling a little hungry and you see the brontosaurs coming up on your right, take that exit and head to the dino. The Wheel Inn is only about 100 ft from his back leg. As we approached, it was a smoggy day in LA town. The air looked hazy and there was a thick brown smudge along the horizon. Theo caught one last catnap while I maneuvered the LA highways and we finally made it to my new place in Santa Monica at 2:30 in the afternoon!

Carolyn, Kathleen’s friend who’s visiting form NY, gave us a tour of the house and then we started moving things in. I have one bedroom in a two bedroom fix it upper. Carolyn’s in the other room, Kathleen and Cheyenne live in the house behind the one I’m in and Annalise lives in the casita which is Los Angeles slang for “converted garage”. Theo took a walk around the neighborhood while I did the little unpacking and we’re headed off to explore now! He’s going to show me what he found and then we’re going to see if we can find a beginning and intermediate yoga class at the same studio around the same time. I have unlimited free yoga for the next 6 months so the next time you see me, I’ll be even more yoga buff. Then we’re thinking about going to the Getty Museum or taking a hike up in Malibu. More soon!

LA is full of People - Good ones!

I'm happy to report that L.A. is not, in fact, full of surgically altered plastic people. Though there are those, I have been fortunate enough to make new friendships and renew old ones every week since Sacred Fools! First there was Beth from the show, then Melissa from yoga who's a voice over agent, then Bob who's a friend of a friend from DC and a director/actor, Jack who I did "Photograph 51" with in DC, J.T. and his wife Lauren who I know from "Curveball" in DC but they live in LA, and Ben, Brigetta, Jeff, Kathryn, and Mairi all from UPS. UPS is the University of Puget Sound for those of you who don't know. It's been pretty awesome. The week of Oct. 6-12 was just chock full of good people! I've realized that you can go off and do whatever you want on your own, but it immediately gets more fun and more meaningful when you have people to share it with. Our friends are what tie us down, in a good way. They don't hinder; they anchor, and in a time of transition you really need some ballast.

Towards the end of the week, I got to head back to DC for the long weekend to see Theo and go to a great wedding! My friend Bekah from middle school in Riyadh AND from college married her boyfriend from college in VA last Tuesday. They're now honeymooning in Greece and, hopefully, trying all the good Greek dishes Theo and I told them about. With some luck, they'll fit in some ruins between meals. I think Pete, who majored in history major, is going to take care of that.

It was great to catch up with folks from college, especially at the henna party! Bekah wanted to honor her roots, so she got all the ladies together at her mom's house and we snacked and listened to middle eastern music, caught up on each other's lives and had henna designs painted on our hands. That was Saturday. Sunday was a day off to hang out and Monday was the gorgeous wedding - small and outside in a botanical garden in VA with lots of family and friends. So many of our friends are musicians, including Bekah's brother Pete, that we were treated to a great band made up of friends and many songs to honor the bride and groom. I was enlisted at the last minute to sing back up for Kirsten's, the Maiden of Honor, toast, but the biggest surprise was the Chinese Dragon! As Bekah and Pete, now Mr. and Mrs. Nelson, were announced, a drum beat started from somewhere in the distance, then some sort of cymbal and suddenly a Chinese Dragon danced out of the hallway from whence the bride and groom had come! The three person band followed behind and the bride and groom were honored with an extremely gymnastic dragon dance. Pete and Bekah kept the whole thing a secret from the entire wedding party and it was great fun.

Despite all the fun, Theo and I did learn a good lesson this weekend: It is possible to schedule in too much fun. We've realised that when we get to see each other, we need to have two days just for us. It was so great to be home and be involved with the wedding and meet friends for drinks and go pick our pumpkin and go the Fall Farm Fair and go the wedding and go to the henna party and go the Jack&Jill party that we got so busy, we started to feel like we ran out of "us time". No more of that, we've decided. If you feel left out when I'm home, at least you'll know I'm in good company.

Speaking of home, I start driving Nov. 5, so I should be back in DC sometime on Nob. 10. See you soon!

- Jewel

Serial Killers

My first show in LA was a success! At least as far as the experience. We got "voted off", unfortunately, but that didn't make it any less awesome. So what exactly is Serial Killers? Serial Killers is an ongoing short play contest produced by the LA theatre company Sacred Fools. Writers submit Episode 1 of their play and, if it gets into the contest, it gets performed at Sacred Fools on a Saturday night at 11pm with 4 other short plays. At the end of the night, the audience chooses the plays the want to see continued. The writers of those plays then write Episode 2 which gets performed the next Saturday. If you don't get chosen, ie. you get "voted off", you go back to your dull life away from the theatre, but you do have more time for hiking! So, despite having an excellent script created by Shawn Northrip, a great director and an awesome cast, we didn't make it into the next week. It was, however, unanimously decided by those outside of our play that we were up agains a very very difficult night of other plays. Within our night, there was
- a Children of the Corn-esque horror/thriller in which the children take over and begin killing all the adults
- a sci-fi suspense in which all the parents have been replaced by aliens but only one child has realized it
- a hilarious spoof of a day time soap both on screen and behind the scenes (my favorite)
- a toker movie about the first 2 Latino astronauts in space (close second favorite)
and finally...
- Ours! The Story of My First Baby, a coming of age story about a group of girls in Massachusetts considered to be a coven by their principal.

The best news about Serial Killers is that it's a group of great people. I made another great friend in Beth who played one of the girls in the play to my school nurse. And, of course, I got to work with Shawn again, and go to Scoops! I'm telling you, Scoops has the, or at least some of the, best ice cream in LA. I had the Dark Chocolate Guinness after we teched, but the Brown Bread and the Mascarpone were also excellent, though my favorite is still the very first one I tried - Lavender Berry Honey. Angel breath frozen in a cup. Yum.

xox Jewel

O, my, I can't believe it's been three weeks since I wrote! Things have been busy. First of all, Theo came to visit - you can see pix of him below. We had such a great weekend. He flew into LAX on Thursday night and we went straight to Bar Pinxo in Santa Monica - that's the tapas place I found with my friends Kathryn and Giampaolo when they visited. We had an amazing tapas with quail eggs - those little baby quails are so tasty! A much richer flavor than their larger counterparts, the chickens, as well as a creamier texture. On Friday, it was off to The Huntington Gardens for the day and then on to Shawn's house to pick figs! He has three treese where he's staying and he let us have the last big pick of the season. Then we headed to The Grove to walk around and show Theo the LA scene, and we met up again with Shawn for dinner at The Farmer's Market to celebrate his new job! He's now an assistant at a Literary Agency. Saturday we got an early start and headed to Griffith for a run/hike and then to the Silverlake Farmer's Market where we bought some great fish and were given a free jalapeno. Then, I spent the day at the Yoga Health Conference in LA while Theo had lunch with his sister Thaphne, who lives in LA, and explored the city on foot.

My favorite speaker was Dr.Timothy McCall who I first heard speak at NIH's Yoga Week a few months ago. He's an internist and a yoga teacher who studies yoga's effects on the body and teaches how to treat ailments such as osteoporosis, depression, carpal tunnel using yoga. There are some amazing studies out there, both about yoga and meditation. I remember one that shows a brain scan of someone with Ahlzeimer's before and after meditation and their brain had actually filled out a little bit - the empty spaces had gotten a little smaller after the mediation. So, Dr. McCall studies why that happens and how we can benefit from it. That talk, my time at the NIH conference, and completing my application for my 500 Hr Yoga Teacher Training (basically my Master's in teaching yoga) have helped me realize that I'd like to focus some of my study on yoga as a healing treatment. I think in Western medicine we often think we have to depend on doctors to tell us how to get better through prescriptions, but we may find we don't need as much of the prescription if we're self-treating with other forms of healing. verrry verrry interesting. I think we came home and took a nap and then made delicious Jalapeno Fish with Lime - see recipe below. Saturday night we may have done something, but I think we just made delicious dinner and hung out. It was a loooong day. Sunday we drove along Sunset Blvd aaaaaaall the way West as we headed to the beach, but first we stopped in Topanga Canyon for a hike in the Santa Monica Mountains. We were told by fellow hikers to beware - they'd seen two rattlesnakes, but we were S.O.L. on the snake sighting. We finally made it to the ocean and popped into the cold cold Pacific to cool off. Then it was back home for showers and out to dinner for fish tacos on Vermont ave. at "The Best Fish Tacos in Encinitas". They were delish, and a great dinner for only $4 per person. We sat outside on the patio and got the local's shortcut to LAX which is where we headed next. After a tearful good-bye, Theo was headed back to the East Coast and I was headed back to Semi-Home.

Though I'd been liking LA, I didn't truly feel like I was part of it until after the weekend Theo came. I felt afraid and lonely and not very strong, but to show Theo what I'd found so far made me realize that I had learned a lot in month and it was time to stop being scared and start conquering! Which is what started to happen the week after he left. I got my first audition which I booked - it was an unpaid Public Service Announcement for a production company affiliated with the Scientologists, but it was a job none the less, and it felt great to be on set. Then I got a slew of auditions off of Actor's Access AND a short play that my friend Shawn wrote for the Serial Killers competition at Sacred Fools Theatre. I met some great peeps on the show and made my very first girl friend! Beth has been out here for a year focusing on theatre and getting to know LA and she hails originally from Maryland. I guess the East Coasters stick together out here.

More on Serial Killers soon, this time I mean it.

xox Jewel

Hiking and friends about town

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

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

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!