Category Archives: Random Thoughts

On the Recognition of Our Need to Be Recognized

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So the Emmys aired last night. After weeks of build-up, people spent all day crowding outside the Nokia Theatre, here in L.A., hoping for a glimpse of their favorite celebrity on the ubiquitous red carpet. Twitter lit up with play-by-play commentary, snarky riffs on what was happening every second of the red carpet and the subsequent hours-long telecast. Now days will be spent obsessing over who won, who lost, who got robbed, who looked good, who behaved well, who was funny, who wasn’t…

Who cares?! Or more to the point, why do we care?

I’m a little torn on this. As an actor, I understand the desire to be recognized by your peers for doing great work, particularly since a lot of us take up this craft and profession to compensate for our own insecurities. (Much as I hate to admit it, I absolutely include myself in that group.) The trophy you get is merely a symbol that says “Hey, we, the people who do this as much as you do, think that you’ve done some amazing things professionally this year and that merits a token of our esteem.”

On the other hand, as a TV viewer I’m not a big fan of the spectacle that these things have become. I didn’t watch the Emmys this year. That’s not a slam on this year’s host (the incredibly funny Jane Lynch) or the nominees (I’m a fan of most of them). I haven’t watched any awards show in quite a few years. It’s just gotten too ridiculous for me. The musical numbers, the awkward pairing of celebrities who deliver jokes that just don’t land, the stiff applause of those who don’t win while seething with rage and/or tears inside… the endless commercial breaks!!

You cannot swing a dead cat without hitting an awards show these days. Off the top of my head, here’s a short list of awards shows that air their ceremonies on TV:

  • Oscars
  • Emmys
  • Tonys
  • Golden Globes
  • SAG Awards
  • People’s Choice Awards
  • Kid’s Choice Awards
  • MTV Movie Awards
  • Independent Spirit Awards
  • Blockbuster Awards (defunct)
  • Webbys
  • Streamys

Again, that’s a short list. And that’s just the ones that affect actors directly! There are awards for every part of the industry out there. And many televise their ceremonies. It’s even become a gala event and breaking news when they announce the nominees — that’s right, we’re supposed to get excited to hear them tell us names of the people who only might have a chance of winning.

What can be done about this? How do we return some sensibility to these things? IMHO (and this is a long shot), if they’re going to televise it they should do it like the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Prize Patrol. Throughout a particular day, they should roll an armored truck up to the winner’s house and deliver the award with a bunch of balloons and one of these legendary “swag bags” I’m always hearing about but have never seen. They can televise those without disrupting the normal broadcast schedule or depriving the viewing audience of either the spectacle of an awards show or the programs these people are being recognized for. Done and d–

Excuse me… there’s someone at the door.

OMG! It’s TV’s Jon Cryer with my Emmy Award! I take it all back! This is the greatest day of my life! Outta my way, world, I’M BETTER THAN YOU!!!!

(UPDATE: Ummm… so it turns out the guy at the door was just a UPS guy who looks like Jon Cryer. And it wasn’t an Emmy… it was a Lemmy. Which is really awkward, because I’ve never even listened to Motorhead. But still an honor… I think…)

In Which I Mention A Random Thing

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This is a short, fun moment because I saw a couple of things that warrant note for no other reason than they were there.

It begins:

  • I’m pretty sure I saw former game show host Mark DeCarlo on the subway the other day, but I did not speak to him, because I am not a Stud.
  • I got on the bus this afternoon with a guy who looked like Eddie Deezen’s doppleganger.
  • I met a guy on the bus as I was headed to the theatre tonight for a shoot. He talked my ear off about the concerts he had seen and how a certain allegedly cult-like church was responsible for the death of David Carradine. I don’t know that I believed him, but he was friendly enough.

And thus endeth the post…

Change is inevitable… right?

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This week has been somewhat productive for me.  With the upcoming move to L.A., I’ve had to start mapping out how I’m going to pull this move off.  Some choices are really easy, like quitting my current job before I leave; others are not so much, like when to give notice on said job.

Additionally, motivation can be a factor.  My room in its current state could probably be declared a federal disaster area, which would be really great because I need the money.  However I don’t see that happening, so I’ll have to clean it myself.  I also find it a challenge to actually get rid of things.  I’ve managed that sort of mega-purge a couple of times before.  Most of the crap this time is paperwork that I need to carve through one step at a time… fun fun!

I also had my last business meeting as the head of my local Mensa chapter this week.  I’ve had that gig for two years and I think it’s been largely positive for me — better growth of my social skills and trusting others with accomplishing tasks while still feeding the control freak in me.  But I am glad my time is done in that job… honestly, in some cases term limits can be a blessing. (With a friendly nudge, nudge to Congress) So now it’s time to look forward.  I don’t know what will come next in Mensa for me…  I’ll still be a webmaster for a while.  I’m sure I’ll be active in one of the several L.A. area chapters as well, but I’m also needing to focus on my entertainment career, too.

Thankfully, if I’ve timed everything right, I’ll be able to take a small road trip before landing in L.A.  I haven’t been up to my uncle’s house for a couple of years at least and I could really, really use the downtime away from everything.  I’ll also get to stop in on the way to visit my brother and his family, which has now grown by one with the gold master release of Son V2.0!  I’m excited to see the little critter and all the rest of them, too… it’s been too long.  Almost wish my parents lived within this circuit too, but I’ll have to wait until the bigger holidays to see them, I suppose.

 

Per my previous post, I’m still working on the video end of things.  I’m working on finding a way to keep the bandwidth costs down for doing this, but I may just end up sticking it on my YouTube channel and linking it here. Stay tuned for that as well as additional updates from me as I keep working on this site!