ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

"ch-ch-ch-ch-changes" david bowie

dear readers

I want to begin by thanking you.  At the end of each day I check the stats of the blog just to see how we’re doing and every day we meet or exceed my expectations.  I can’t believe that after five months I’ve managed to amass over forty posts and as many fans as we have.

Changes are abound for the blog.  First of all you are going to be seeing new contributors.  I began the blog as a way to document my time in Los Angeles and report on the observations, conundrums, frustrations, joys, and liberations of my daily life in both the real world and the digital realm.  It occurred to me some time ago however that being only one man with only my opinions the blog may not be offering up the highest quality experience.  If I was able to have multiple contributors collaborating with me, they would add new experiences and points of view.

The first new contributor will be Jaime Navarro, my wife.  I asked her to write for the blog not because she is my wife but because she is a great writer.  You can currently see her write one to two blogs a week for Fierce Inc. where she tackles topics on business leadership, communication and some other topics I don’t quite understand.

The other big change coming to the blog is going to be a slight name change.  I love secretly, i’m an important man, however that name was fit for just myself and as I add contributors to the blog especially those who are not men it begins to make less sense.  We will now be going by secretly important, which is a little catchier and encompasses anyone who might write for the blog.  The url for the blog has always been www.secretlyimportant.blogspot.com so really the name change is mostly vanity.

Lastly, you may or may not be aware that we also have a facebook fan page which you can find here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Secretly-important/176164499098145.  Or if you are so inclined just click on the little picture of the internaut on the right side of the blog tool bar.  If you have not already done so please like us on facebook.  Why should you do this?  Well, I prefer not to write little newsletters like this directly on the blog and prefer it to be devoted to new content and would like all news or possible events concerning the blog to be displayed on the facebook page.

Thank you all again for your continued support as this blog grows.  I always appreciate your questions, comments, or concerns and if you enjoy a post please don’t be afraid to share and repost it.

Thank you,

brian 
posted by: brian snider

on dedication

This post might as well be part three of an endless series called “how I get it done.”  For further reading on this subject please read what do you do and i willn’t be a prisoner.

i'm really just writing an angry letter to toms toothpaste 

The other night while she was getting ready for bed Jaime turned to me and asked “how do you stay so dedicated to write?”  I was already in bed with the laptop on my thighs and my yellow junior legal notepad on my hip, as has become my nightly ritual.

I wasn’t exactly sure how to answer her because usually I don’t feel particularly dedicated.  Either in my daily life or in my writing life.  I have many high aspirations yet when it comes to making those happen I’m rather lazy.

If she was talking about my blog then I must admit that this is the third blog I’ve started, the first that I’ve managed to keep up with.  I went from one post a week to two or three a week.  Now I’m cranking out five every week.  I write them long hand on a yellow legal pad when I have free time and transcribe them at night.

I manage to stay dedicated to the blog because I have a routine and have more or less committed myself to five posts a week.  I treat writing for it like a job, each night I have an article due and I must deliver or get fired.

Jaime wasn’t just talking about the blog though, she was talking about my dedication to write all sorts of material all the time.  To date I’ve written three complete full length plays.  Many people find that kind of dedication difficult, when they have a bout of writers block or get bored they stop and abandon their work.  Again however I am no poster child for hard work as it has taken me an average of two and a half to three years to complete each of these plays, and only one has been produced.

I suppose if I have any real answer to the question it’s this:

I write because that is what makes me feel good.  I know people who exercise, people who hunt, people who hike, drive fast cars, do drugs, play video games, have sex, etc. etc. etc.  The high that people get from performing these activities is the same one I get when I write.  I almost never feel as complete as I do when I’m writing, and when I don’t have something I’m currently working on I feel a little lost.

I am also dedicated because the only way to get better at something is to work at it all the time.  I write furiously because I desperately wish to make this my living and I have a vested interest in doing it well and often.

For those of you out there who do write or aspire to write I have some words of wisdom that I have imparted to Jaime and a few of my friends.  When you have trouble getting started or begin to suffer from writers block, write through it.  Don’t stop, just write.  It might be shit, it might be painful, in the end you might just throw it all away but if you simply sit down and begin to write yourself out of a situation, you’ll eventually come to an ending.
posted by: brian snider

the first year is the hardest part ii

this is a thanksgiving dinner for two

            Often I would meet people in LA who seemed to be making their dreams happen,  be it acting, directing, writing or working in some capacity for a production company.  I would stare at them like they were a mechanic working on a car engine or a complex math problem, something I wanted desperately to understand but could not begin to wrap my mind around.  I was curious to know just how they seemed to be making this happen, nine times out of ten what I would find out is that they were one of three kinds of people.  A.  There was family money which was paying for their living expenses leaving them with wide open days to audition.  B. They had a relative involved in the business who was advancing their career regardless of their talent.  C. While appearing to do well for themselves they were actually quietly drowning in debt which will eventually swallow them up.  That one out of ten is a real rarity, yet this is the type of person whose story the media glorifies over and over.  Everyone else that isn’t one of those ten is just hustling, trying to make it.

The week before Thanksgiving Jaime applied to a stylish new restaurant in the heart of Hollywood, called Citizen Smith.  This was one of those restaurants where it was you along with 1000 other actors/writers/directors hopefully applying for 5-10 jobs.  It seemed like a long shot but when the interview went well things were looking promising.  The initial interview was designed to weed out the completely incompetent, so Jaime was called back for a second interview.

The writers strike was still going strong, we had to dodge protests to get to the restaurant.  Despite this Hollywood shutdown Jaime and I traveled deep into the Valley to an agency which claimed to help actors get agents.  This is basically like going to someone who promises to find you a temp agency, not a job, your paying them to talk to agents who may or may not be interested in you.  Best case scenario is that you sign with a talent agent who then still will need to find you an audition.  At the interview which lasted two hours they told Jaime something we would hear a lot over the next year and a half.  “Your great!  But with the writers strike there’s just no work.”  Even reality shows employ writers and so many of them had stopped production as well.

Trying to find a balance between accessing auditions, getting jobs and having actual consistent work which pays you enough to cover your bills is the biggest hurdle to overcome by far, harder than any audition you will go on.  Most former actors I met left acting exactly for that reason, they were busily working to find that balance when they landed a good day job and never went back.  You’ll eventually learn what your truly passionate about (even if it takes you 15 years) you’ll either stay passionate about acting or find something else you enjoy doing just as much.  There’s no shame in that it’s just the reality of the business, many great actors have found jobs they were much happier at.

Jaime wasn’t anywhere near that point, she was still full of hope and willing to make huge sacrifices to make her dream happen.  During her “call back” interview with Citizen Smith Jaime really hit it off with the manager and his suggestion to her was to come back that night and have dinner, get a feel for the restaurant.  Citizen Smith is a swanky place and there is nothing cheap about it, but in the hopes of getting Jaime this job we sucked it up opened our wallets and went in for a few drinks and appetizers. 

Like most of the trendy Hollywood clubs and restaurants, Citizen Smith looked like nothing from the outside but on the inside it was a sight to behold.  The design could best be described as the offspring of an Andy Warhol painting and a TexMex family restaurant.  If there was ever a place that screamed out “HOLLYWOOD” this was it.  The seat cushions were cow hide and the tables looked like (and for all I know were,” enormous slabs of sliced Redwood trees.

It was early about 6:30 and Hollywood doesn’t come to life until 9:00 or 10:00 so the place was mostly empty.  At the bar we ordered two $15 drinks a $20 Macaroni and Cheese and something else which I found so memorable that I cannot remember it now.  We watched Easy Rider on the t.v. and when are bill came the total was $60, which for two kids with no income was pretty steep.  We never met with the manager and I just hoped that somehow he would know that we’d been there.

On our way back to our car we saw the most adorable black and white cat sitting lonely in an empty parking lot.  It was the spitting image of our cat at home only about fifteen pounds lighter.  He sat looking mournfully as if asking me to come and take him home.  We watched each other for a long moment and I crouched low and slowly moved to pick him up.  I’m sure he was covered in flees and his intestines were full of worms but I just had to see how close he would let me get to him.  I was right on top of him when he darted away and under a car on the opposite side of the street.

The following Thursday was Thanksgiving, our first away from friends and family.  Often the week before a big holiday you would run into someone you knew and start talking.  The subject of Thanksgiving would be brought up and they would mention some orphan dinner that was taking place at a friends place or a friend of a friends place.  You would either show up with a dish or you find an excuse to decline.

Since the only two people we knew were going to be out of town we held our own Thanksgiving dinner in our apartment.  We got dressed up and spent the day watching t.v. and snacking as if company was going to arrive any minute.  For dinner we made enough food to feed eight people and then preceded to make ourselves sick trying to eat it all.  It was lonely knowing that 1,100 miles away our families were laughing, catching up, and getting full together without us.  On the other hand doing this all by ourselves made me feel more like an adult then I’d ever felt before.

The following week Jaime waited patiently to hear from Citizen Smith, after two days she gave them a call, only to be told that they were going to need another week to decide.  This was their way of saying “sorry we didn’t hire you.”

It was upsetting for her not to get the job but infuriating that we went down there and dropped $60 on mediocre drinks and appetizers with money we really didn’t have.

By the end of the week I got a call from Borders bookstore to schedule an interview.  I had applied for it two weeks previous and had forgotten all about it.  I would be going in Monday for an interview at their Century City store.  

To be continued...