Final Post

This is the final post of The Busking Project. I've deleted this post about twenty times at this point trying to write down a summery of events that happened in Los Angeles, but everytime I start writing, words fail me. So you'll have to make due with this.

It was an amazing experience. I learned so much about life, the world, and myself. Espescially myself.

And to everyone who made it possible for me to have had this adventure (well, the beginning of a larger adventure): thank you.

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It took me over twenty hours of thinking and writing to get those 88 words down on paper.

Day 1

Well, it looks like I made it to Texas, safe and sound.

Getting ready to head into CS today to get my stuff loaded up and clean up the apartment (if it needs it). Tomorrow I'm headed down to New Braunfels, then back to CS for social time and back to DFW for the family stuff this weekend.

Already missing everyone in Los Angeles (especailly the dog), but am excited to see everyone here.

I have one more post before officially retiring this blog: my debriefing of my time in Los Angeles. This blog has served it's purpose, and I'm not much of one to drag things on way past their purpose.

Other than that, I'll keep in touch with everyone, even if I have to start a new blog!

An hour in Denver

Well, made it to Denver International without too much hassle. Professor Peanut is sure getting some awesome looks in his incognito disguise, and my hat has recieved several compliments as well.

The gate my flight is supposed to leave from said the next flight was to Nashville, so I walked up to the desk to ask if this was actually the flight to DFW only to be told, before I asked anything, in a very rude manner that the man behind the counter couldn't help me. I then asked if the next flight was...but that was all I got out before him sighing and saying in a gruff, lispy voice (yes a gruff lisp...shocking) "I don't know" and then proceeded to help the guy behind me. Asshat.

Luckily, the sign behind him changed at that moment, shining the bright light of clarity on the situation. The Nashville flight had left; the next flight was to DFW. Fantastic!

So in just a few hours I'll be back on native soil, probably being the single strangest looking person in the place. Would love to be out scampering over rocks by the ocean instead of stuck on a plane all day, but...

See y'all soon.

4 hours to go

Well, I'm awake, packed, dressed and Stevie has the coffee brewing. I've got Professor Samuel Louis Peanut III strapped into my backpack. As he is quite the celebrity, he'll be traveling incognito: flat cap and sun glasses, no monocle and cravat here!

I made the same mistake I made this morning as I did the morning I left for here: forgot to lay out socks. Luckily, it doesn't matter if my clothes make it to DFW in a perfectly pressed or tidy manner (not to say the bag isn't packed neatly, just more efficiently). My backpack is still the seventh wonder of the world in terms of how much it can hold without spewing it forth in a small burst of stuff.

Well, back to prepairing for my trip. See you on the other side!

There's never just one right answer. And there's never just one right question. ~www.tut.com

T -10 hours 46 minutes

Today was incredible.

Stevie got dressed up in her troll costume and we went out to Point Dume, a beach up in Malibu. We climbed all across the rocks and had waves crashing all around and stood on places that were too small to stand. I never knew there could be so many colors of blue at the same time.

We took lunch a Hugo's, a small restaurant down the road from the apartment. Stevie managed to rack up a few looks in her costume, and the guy across from us had on an amazing green, straw fedora.

We stopped in Topanga Canyon on the way to the beach and ran into a small second hand store where, as fate would have it, there was a green, straw fedora. Well Stevie got it for me as a present, and as it turns out it's not straw but braided paper.

So the climbing around the rocks was increadible, and I'll be putting up pictures when I make it back to Texas. For the record, a paper fedora stands up rather well to the wind and the ocean (yeah, after making such a big deal about it being paper, we didn't think about the fact we were going to the ocean...)

Then it was off to a Mediterrainian restaurant that was wonderful, then home to shower, pack, and watch Love Actually with Daniel and Stevie.

The neighbors are trying to coax me to stay with promises of introducing me to some high ups in the Magic Castle who are taking voice acting lessons from a friend of ours. That and other things. There are some really great people here, and I'll miss them.

So,  it's off to bed. I've got to be up at 6:30 to be ready to leave by 7:30 to get to Longbeach in time for check-in, followed by a long day of traveling. Hopefully there will be some sort of alcohol at the end of it!


"Can miles truly separate us from friends? If you want to be with Rae, aren't you already there?" ~Richard Bach, There's No Such Place As Far Away

One day to Texas

It's my last day here, and Stevie is taking me for an adventure down near the beach.

The Friday dinner party was fantastic, with so many good people showing up. We had roast chicken (stevie), pork loin (a mix of credits there), salad with homemade dressing (neighbor's in #4), cake and ice cream (#6), bread (#5 and #3) and mashed potatoes (#4). There was also plenty of wine (everyone) and it was a great time.

Saturday was more or less uneventful.

Just had to take a break and blow dry Stevie's hair, which she has poured paint into and made up into troll horns for our little excursion. She's testing out her costume for Faireworlds.

Anyway, I'll keep y'all updated on today.

~Cheers

3.5 days to Texas

So a good many of you probably saw via Facebook that I came home last night with a severely screwed up wrist (yes, my left one, the one you'll remember has severe soft tissue damage already), a twisted ankle, a pulled calf muscle, and two hyper-extended knees. That's three out of four limbs incapacitated!

All I have to say for myself is that if you pay more attention to what you're doing in Parkour, you're less likely to screw yourself up (gotta keep that "To be and to last" motto in mind). On the other hand, I will miss the Parkour group here in LA but am going to try to hook up with the Texas group.

So far today has been pretty great: I was woken up by a beautiful girl slipping into bed (okay, into couch) next to me, Stevie and I went scrumping for oranges, we (well she more than I) made roasted chicken, found out how to make your own orange oil (who knew it was extremely flammable), planted what will become a lemon tree and submitted my application to The Tiny Life.

Now, I'm going to work on some magic and some other writing and get the place picked up for the weekly dinner party, my *sniffle* last dinner party with these guys for a while.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

~ Leonardo da Vinci

The Official Countdown: 5 days

I have to apologize for my spotty reporting as of late. There hasn't been anything too terribly amazing happening or there has been too much, I'm not sure which.

Just got back from our friend's place where Stevie and I are working on their soon-to-be amazing yard. We spent an hour there and made significant and visible progress. Headed back tomorrow for round two.

Tomorrow is my last Parkour class. Parkour has been amazing, and I encourage everyone who is interested to take it up. After the three week break though, last week was tough. I'm hoping to hook up with the PK Texas group that operates in the DFW area. Two hours of working out was never more fun!

But there will be a lot to keep me occupied. I'm taking on quite a few projects when I get back home: windmill design, solar panels, building a barn, networking, trying to run the equivalent of Dallas Metblog, working on magic, getting a job, writing up some lecture notes, and hopefully finishing up my novel soon.

Well, I look forward to seeing everyone again soon. 'Til then, take care.

Back to Parkour

So today I went down to Santa Monica to take some photos so all you nice people can see where I've been. So I wandered around and did some unexpected urban exploring and made it to the pier where I ran into my friend Vince.

Vince is an artist (he does caricatures on the Pier) and is more in the know about the recent switch to the lottery system in Santa Monica. Apparently now what happens is that ten minutes before a shift, the lottery is done for anyone who is there. This is good because it cuts down on having to be somewhere for eight hours, but it is also bad because it means you don't need to wait, so people like the guy dressed like Elmo (holding two Elmo heads) got to sit out there today. Vince put it eloquently:

"It's the beginning of Shit."

And so it is. I'll be doing an update post on Magic Today.

Then there was Parkour, which is fantastic. Made a new friend who may be coming to dinner tomorrow. Speaking of dinner, got free food from the place next to Stevie's work. Was amazing! 

On other news, I'm putting in an application to do some writing for The Tiny Life, a blog that focuses on tiny houses, minimalist living, gardening, and do-it-yourself projects. I've also been trying to contact MetBlogs, but they don't seem to have any reliable way of contacting them. I wanted to try to help out with the Dallas Metblog (because it's shit) but Daniel and Stevie suggested simply making my own blog, so I'll probably be doing that, so keep an eye out for Blogging.DFW coming soon!

tl;dr: Even the book "Philosophy and Twilight" has a hard time coming up with topics. Most of them are on the topics of vegetarianism or who's good for Bella. 

Good day

So I woke up this morning with a start, partly due to Stevie making a noise near me, but mostly due to a rather strange and apparently shocking dream. Immediately after waking, I was invited to go to a Tree People thing where we help take care of trees.

So we made it out there and listened to the little instructional on how to properly dig out and make the little mulch beds and went to it. We had a grand time and got to speak with Socially Awkward Lady, who wanted some sort of praise for taking care of her trees (they were the best and easiest for us to re-mulch) so she elevated Stevie and I to position of Grand Tree Knowledge People.

After we went to Aroma Cafe, which was amazing, and then wandered to a park and had a SPONTANEOUS SCRUMPING EXPEDITION and gathered some more plums which turned into a present for some friends we were going to see to consult on their new house's yard. Their house is actually a yard that happens to have a house on it.

Then we came back and Stevie gardened some more and I practiced with poi and managed not only to get down the move I was practicing yesterday, but I didn't even rack myself (a major accomplishment).

Then we had casserole and beer and talked and are about to watch Harold and Maude.

Had a great day.

tl;dr: Arboring, spontaneous scrumping; consulting; poi; beer; movie; good day.

:(

Destroyed my breakfast to an irretrievable point.

That is all.

Watch this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTO5yiN1b-I

Something strange

So I arrived at the Pier today and immediately noticed that something was a bit off. I didnt recognize any of the cars, and there were no other buskers there. Now when I say this, I don't mean that there were three of us, I mean I was the *only* one there. The office where the admin people are was also empty.

There were no buskers. There was no list. It was like suddenly everyone had just walked away. It was very strange.

So I decided that I'd wait 'till 11 to see what was going on. But 11am rolls around and no one comes out of the admin building. 11:15, no one.

3rd Street Promenade also seemed rather barren.

So I have no idea what's happening. I do know that parkour is tonight, and I'm looking forward to that. 2 weeks off means that tonight may indeed suck.

Like a brick to the face

You know what I really hate? More than politics or a mouthful of spoiled milk? It's when the solution is right in your face and you're too close to something to realize it.

Writing crisis solved.

Writing...

I think the worst part about writing is getting stuck and not knowing how to continue. I'm at a point where I'm just not sure where the story is going. I have the first 45 pages and the last 15, but how do I connect them? What is the main character actually doing? What is he going to find? Why do we care?

Someone is screaming obsenities at someone else outside, so I may about to get stabbed.

*EDIT: Turns out that the guy wasn't screaming at someone, just screaming. Everything he said was freestyle rap, all of it mixing together and all of it rhyming. His eyes were a terrifying shade of blue, and in them you could see the pain of a thousand lifetimes, the anger of a thousand deaths. He was crazy, or maybe he was too sane, I'm not sure. All I know is that he was the first person I've ever been truely afraid of.

Scrumping!!!

So for the last 3 days, I have gotten the opportunity to go scrumping! Now some of you (those of you who don't know me or haven't seen Bill Bailey's stand-up comedy) are asking yourselves right about now: what is scrumping? Is it some sort of strange new plastic or perhaps a hip-new trend that involves the combination of juggling hedgehogs while doing slant rhyme?

No, sadly scrumping usually has little to do with hedgehogs (but more things should involve hedgehogs) and nothing to do with plastic. Scrumping is harvesting fruit from a tree that you don't own. In our instances, the trees were on public property and no one was using the fruit, so no harm done (except for the scratches on my arm from the orange tree.)

So we've managed to get oranges and elderberries. The oranges are amazing, and we are making jam out of the elderberries, very much like we made jam out of the plums that were scrumped from the tree outside the building.

It's all very exciting!

Other than that, I have a friend coming over to do a photo-shoot this evening, which should prove fun. Also I'll be emailing the guy from the studio my copy (read stuff that you put into a brochure) so that I can start teaching lessons there soon.

Anyway, off to take a look at possibly hitting 20,000 words on my novel today, depending if any other scrumping comes up.

Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. It's where all the fruit is.

Shirley MacLaine 

Last Night

So the show last night went well. Lots of good people watched me produce a cantaloupe from under my hat.

Today is prepping material for the studio that I will be teaching magic at, looking over my promotional materials (BTW, y'all [my family] are going to have a few small packages come your way. Don't throw them away!!!!) and figuring out how to update the website, as well as doing an after-action report on my show last night and cleaning up the kitchen.

Demo Video

So tonight I'm shooting a demo video and am about as ready as it gets. The shot of rum is wearing down nicely. After five (six?) years of performing you'd think that you'd get over being nervous before a show, but you don't really. I'm sure that glorious moment of calm, cool collectedness will descend upon me in the final moments before the show; the rum's for the moments leading up to those.

I've got a pretty good set down. I apologize, because you not-magicians won't fully understand the effects named here, so feel free to skip this part. The set is as follows:

• Audience hand twisting trick
• Here-then-there
• Coins through silk
• Steel ball routine (Lou Serrano)
• Two Card Monte
• Ambitious card
• Cups and Balls with Cantaloupe ending
• Bill to lemon finale

Stevie has also spent all day cooking an amazing dinner for everyone and our neighbors have prepared a pork loin! The only thing missing is the people, and they are on their way!

So here's to a great show!

~C

Preparations for Tomorrow

Just got back from the fabric store (by the way, people look at you weird when you try out every piece of fabric with a deck of cards...just saying...).  I also went to the grocery with Stevie this morning where, apparently, you get a $5 or so discount for using your own bags. $5 per bag. Awesome!

Now I'm about to head downstairs and clean the picnic/lounge/filming area for tomorrow and figuring out exactly where the best spot is to film. After that, I'm reworking my table with the new fabric ($# down from $30...I'm awesome) and prepping my routines.

Then...making croutons and zesting lemons and juicing said lemons (and some limes). After that? Probably cleaning up around the apartment and getting my stuff together for tomorrow's meeting with the studio in Venice that want's me to teach magic there.

So yeah...busy day.

Sewing sewing sewing...

So yesterday and today, Stevie and I have been working on what will become a performance outfit (and possibly an everyday style thing). It's Victorian style clothes: slacks, shirt and waistcoat (pronounced "waiscot"). I've gotten the pants and vest cut out and will be working on the shirt tomorrow, and Stevie's got a good deal of the pants put together. It's mostly linen with the lining of things in muslin; the shirt is a white on white floral fabric which is going to be tea-dyed slightly.

It's a long, tedious stuff, but I can't wait to see it finished. I'm learning to sew button holes right now and so far I feel like I'm absolutely perfect at it - if I were sewing some sort of Frankenstein/ Tim Burton character.

I may also be performing at a promotional dinner for the new movie "The Dinner for Schmucks." It's a remake of a French film le diner de cons (which is fantastic) and someone from Paramount asked if I would be interested in performing at their dinner event thingy. Also Friday I'm talking to a studio about teaching magic classes there and I've emailed a group that is doing a new vaudeville/speakeasy style show downtown, so keep your fingers crossed.

Other than that, tomorrow I'm going running with a friend and then hanging out a bit and this week I'm fixing up my table and such for the demo video I'm filming Friday night.

Anyway, back to Aladdin and buttonholes.

Men build bridges and throw railroads across deserts, and yet they contend successfully that the job of sewing on a button is beyond them. Accordingly, they don't have to sew buttons.

- Heywood Broun

Politics

So somehow the Santa Monica Buskers have managed to keep themselves in line for years, but this summer, "the man" wants to change the busking assignment to a lottery system, effectively making it to where you are assigned a spot, at random, for two weeks at a time. At the end of the period, there is another lottery. So what if you don't get drawn (there are over two hundred street performing permits)? Sucks for you. Don't get drawn two periods in a row? Sorry.

Now so far, everyone has managed to keep their cool over this and deal with it rationally. That is until some busker was slighted by another and now they have a feud going that has polarized the entire Pier and led into some sort of fiasco which proves to "the man" that we can't govern ourselves and we do in fact need a lottery.

Thanks children.

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In other news, this week has been rather average. Got patterns cut out for the clothes Stevie and I are making and have started reading Niel Gaiman's Sandman. It's quite good.

I'm talking to some people this week about teaching magic classes at their studio, sot hat should be fun, and I was going to shoot a commercial yesterday, but it fell through.

Also been dealing with the bank. F***** bank.

Also, I may be going to the Hollywood Improv on Tuesday. I have a bunch of free tickets, but I'm not sure about it because it's a 2 drink minimum, so I'll have to talk to the gang (the crew? the assorted group of random personalities? The inmates! There we go) about it.

So that's what's happening here.

Three in the afternoon

And I'm having a glass of wine...my grandmother would be proud.

It's been a long day of job hunting again. For those of you who missed it, we're looking for a part time job so that we can keep on this adventure. It seems that most places I've applied for I have insufficient work experience and am over-educated (apparently Fossil thinks you can't learn to sell a watch if you haven't done it before.)

I'm beginning to see the horrible problem that has been facing graduates: 2 years experience needed. Just because you're educated doesn't mean you can learn. Someone told me that the difference in Europe and the US is that in Europe they want employees to be educated and here we want them to be experienced. The real problem with this is where the hell do you get experience? I'm pretty sure that it's not that damn hard to sell a bloody watch. Here, let's try:

Customer: Um...I want this watch here.

Me: Ok.



Me: Have a good day.



Perhaps I'm wrong...perhaps they want a high-pressure, boiler-room style watch sale:

Me, dragging a customer in from the street: How are you today sir? Great! Now this here is our top of the line Aviatronix 275000. What's that? You betcha it's a genuine japanese time movement, made by hand in the finest watch shrines, carefully cultivated by the highest order of Quartz Monks. Look at the detail! How exquisite! And look at this genuine leather* band. Doesn't it look sooooooooo comfortable? Oh and look, it goes perfect with your eyes, i mean hair, i mean belt, i mean shoes, i mean girlfriend. Fantastic. Well, have a good day sir, and enjoy your new low-quality over charged watch!

See... perfect for the job.

It should be noted that I'm picking on Fossil, but this equally applies to every other place that thinks you need 5-7 years experience to sell their handbag/hamburger/insurance/pony ride.

Anyway, back to the grind.

Gogol Bordello

So yesterday I managed to get two tickets to go see Gogol Bordello at the Mayan in downtown. So Curls and I headed down there and the person in front of us, gives us another ticket (which, after determining that there wasn't anyone who could make it downtown quick enough scalped for $15).

The Mayan is incredible! The entire club is set up on a multi-level plan, so there really isn't a bad view of the stage. Also, the entire club is decked out in Mayan artwork and carvings. It was great!

But Gogol Bordello was even better. Talk about an amazing mix of gypsy/punk music. They put on a great show and had everyone at the club dancing and jumping and having a good time.

---------------

This morning I woke up and immediately had a 15 minute nose bleed. I guess it's to be expected since I was having a dream where a giant, spiky trebuchet looking thing hit me in the head (I was wearing a helmet...a crappy helm, but I had one on).

Yeah, talk about insanity fueled dreams...I can't remember them all, but I do remember most of them being crazy.

Anyway, gotta run.

Submitted an Article

This is a semi-cross post from Magic Today, but this one contains more info on what else is going on.

I submitted my article, "Exposure and the Real World", to MAGIC Magazine today, so keep your fingers crossed on that. It doesn't pay anything, but if the editor decides to use it, I'm hoping to at least get a subscription to the magazine in return, especially since there are other articles of mine that he wants to read.

So had a great small birthday gathering last night with Stevie, Daniel and Curls. Stevie and I went to the farmer's market and then spent all day cooking spinich and ricotta pie, stuffed zuccinii, and cherry-rhubarb pie. Stevie also whipped up a cucumber salad and a side of oranges too. We introduced Chopper (Stevie's boxer) and Jack (Curls' pitbull). Talk about an interesting experience. I think the two dogs would get along if they had some acclimation time, but as it was it was a bit stressful (for me, less for the dogs I think.)

After dinner we played a game of Demon in which Daniel and I reached 100pts at the same time. Stevie (who is like a god at this game) managed to score a 72ish (because she *let* me win...) and Curls, in his first time playing this fast-paced, screaming, yelling card game, scored a -78.

Towards the end of the game, the neighbors (who were at Disneyland all day) made it back and had gotten me a fairly large package. I started opening it and the wrapping just kept going, and going, and going until the rather large package became a rather normal sized mug with Mickey Mouse that said something like "To me you're magic." Apparently they decided against the "Once a princess always a princess" mug. Thank you.

Anyway, today is a writing day, so I better get to it. I've got another article for MAGIC to finish up and then I may have a deal doing some of those little "fingertip" books (the reall small ones, think pocket sized). It's not a particularly wonderful gig, but I could write on an amazing amount of hilarious topics (like how to survive the impending zombie invasion.)

Oh, for those of you who care, my brother will not be deploying early (date is still september) and I may be joining him on 4 July for a boat party.

"Too few people understand a really good sandwich."James Beard

World Vision Fundraiser

I just got back from the World Vision fundraiser event that I was performing at. It took place at the Graystone Mansion, where X-men, Spiderman, The Prestige, and a crap-ton of other movies were filmed. I've got some pictures on my phone, so as soon as I can figure out how to transfer them, they'll be up here.

The event was fantastic, and I got to mingle with an amazing number of people who could buy a new Rolls or Bentley and not even blink. The show Desperate Housewives? The Real Housewives of Orange County? Yeah, these people are who those shows were based off of.

Anyway, I also became friends with the executive director of World Vision, and I may be doing more events with them directly. I may also be doing things for the Women of Vision group in Orange County and the new LA group. I also met the women who run a classical Chinese Dance school in San Fransisco and train the touring groups, one of which will be in LA in three weeks or so, so I may go to see that.

Anyway, I've gotta go walk the dog. Pictures ASAP!

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. ~Margaret Mead

Malabamba

Wow... The Bordello club is amazing, black crystal chandeliers and red light bulbs and fascinating people, and the music at Malabamba (the event that I went to tonight at the Bordello) was simply fantastic!

Anyway, time for sleep. If I remember, I'll try to write more.

Dunno...

It seems like a bit since I last posted anything of relevance, but I guess it hasn't really been.

Tomorrow I'm going to be writing two articles for the editor of Magic Magazine to read and see if they are something publishable. I sent him a synopsis of the articles and he said he's interested, so here's hoping!

Stevie is helping me put together a character for my performances. We ordered patterns for victorian era clothes (thanks Sage!) and I'll be shaping my character from there. I think I'm going to try to write out a few paragraphs about what kind of character he is. It's easier than sitting here just thinking about it. But he's definitely designed around the Victorian style of clothing, most likely with a steampunk twist.

Other than that, it's been the same stuff running through my head.


Again and again, the impossible problem is solved when we see that the problem is only a tough decision waiting to be made. Robert H. Schuller 

Cheer Up

http://i.imgur.com/HWhvy.jpg

A Long Day

Today I called thirty five different places to see if they're hiring (gotta get a job...it happens) and then called another thirty event planners to see about getting listed with them as an entertainer.

Out of that one of the event planning companies I called actually offered me an audition-gig. There is a charity event on Saturday (http://worldvisionusprograms.org/second-start.html ) and I'm going to be doing some walk-around magic there. The really cool thing is that the woman who owns the event company is donating her time and energy as well and actually said she wouldn't ask me to perform for free otherwise. Finally someone who understands not performing for just "exposure". The coolest part is...drum roll please...she's an Aggie! So there is a fantastic opportunity. Whoop!


I was also contacted today to put together a Halloween show. The guy asked for 2 magicians for 600 "VIP's CEO's & CFO's" so it looks like it will be a fun gig. Keep your fingers crossed on that one.


I skipped out on playing parkour in the park tonight because after all the phone calls and trolling craigslist and going up to Citywalk to look at job-y stuff, I was exhausted. 


So yeah, long day. Just got back from dinner with Stevie and Daniel. Fantastic sushi place. Really awesome. 


Also, I did laundry and Stevie is helping me develop a character for my act (well, develop a character to develop a cool act around.) I'll post links and such to coolness later.


"...I love you as certain dark things are to be loved
in secret between the shadow and the soul..." ~Chile's Great Poet: Pablo Neruda

Scrumping!!!

Just got done scrumping with Stevie. It was awesome. I'll expound pon last night's events (hung out with Curls and his neighbors) later.

Just had to brag about scrumping plums.

P.S. Being in the tippity-toppity-tip-top of a tree when a strong gust of wind blows is amazing!

Wow...strange moment

Ok...just got a call from the Ex-Mother-in-law... talk about insane. I've been expecting a call from a friend back home about some gig advice and when I answered, she just started talking and it took me a few moments to realize this was not the person I was expecting (the phone was cutting out so I was only getting every other word or so).

The conversation went something like this:

Her: Hello, Cameron?

Me: Yes?

Her: This is Mar *STATIC* do we got you se up *STATIC*. It's behind the table so *STATIC* or not. Anyway *STATIC*...

Then the phone cut out, and I thought about it and realized that the "Mar" sounding name I was waiting for was not the "Mar" sounding name that had called me. So when she called back I checked the number...Yup, 830 area code. Definitely not the person I was expecting a call from.

Her: Cameron?

Me: Yes, but I think you have the wrong person.

Her: *awkward silence* I'm sorry.

Wow...

What a crazy random happenstance... Well, back to working...

Just made it home

Just got in from parkour. Class starts at 8:15 - 8:30. Curls and I stayed 'til 1 with a handful of other people.

I am so exhausted and my arms hurt and I twisted both my ankles (separately) and my back is sore, but it was amazing. I may have to start staying every night. Curls said that sometimes they stay until 3 or 4am.

So this won't make sense to most of you, and it's too late to find youtube videos for examples, so just stay with me: I managed to do a kong over a tall balance beam and stick a precision landing onto another balance beam. It's exciting. Took me forever, not because I couldn't make it to the spot, but because I was terrified of screwing my foot up on the balance beam (which I didn't...it was my ankle). Got a lot of tips on my form for the various moves we were messing around with and a greater insight into everyones personalities.

Got lost on the way home but Curls found an awesome taco stand. We may be expanding our Monday parkour group (it was me, Stevie, Curls, <---his friend, and the neighbors this week), and that would be cool.

Curls told me about a site called Meetup where people get on and find groups with the same interests. Sounds fun.

Ok...sleepy time.

 I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. ~Ghandi [truer words my friend, truer words]

Clean air without the chlorine smell

So my family has had these "ionic air purifiers" for a while and the absolute worst thing is that you walk into the house and it smells like chlorine or possible an over concentration of O3.

Now that's a thing of the past! As it turns out, plants, something that occurs naturally, can actually, wait for it, you'll love it:

Plants can actually clean and purify air.

There, I said it. I know you don't believe me, but take a look at some of the best plants to purify air:

http://proswhoknow.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/best-houseplants-to-improve-indoor-air-quality/

Parkour in the Park

Yesterday was fun. I went to the grocery store (2 of them) with Stevie and she dropped me off at the coffee shop that I like to write in, Lulu's Beehive, where I spent several hours writing. The Robin Hood story is up to about 12,000 words and most of it isn't crap, so that's a plus.

Afterwards a group of us went to do parkour stuff in the park which was a lot of fun, but still more difficult than inside. As it turns out, trees and tables and the like aren't padded gymnastics foam.

Then dinner, which was fantastic. Curls and his friend (who both were at the park with us) stayed for dinner, and hilarity ensued.

So overall a good day.

Spending today trying to finish up what I can on my press packet stuff. Need to get that done ASAP so I can apply at all the places.

Other than that, an Orange County appellate court ruled that red light camera tickets were not legal because they were hearsay. The reason behind the ruling is that no one who actually has first hand experience with the way the system is run or maintained nor the person who processed the photo originally testified. So that's another step forward to get those damn red-light cameras gone. For once College Station is ahead of the times. (It's a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I for one am all misty eyed when I think about it. /sarcasm)


Congress, the press, and the bureaucracy too often focus on how much money or effort is spent, rather than whether the money or effort actually achieves the announced goal. Donald Rumsfeld 

A thank you

I know that I'm not the best at keeping in touch with everyone, which is a big reason for me having this blog, but it recently occured to me that I may be, in my attempt to keep in contact with everyone at once, be  neglecting everyone at the same time. So, this post is for everyone at the same time as well as for everyone individually.

Thank you. Thank you all for your unending support. It's great having a group of people who are cheering me on and wishing me well.

I love you all. You guys are fantastic and without your love, help, support, and hope for me, I wouldn't be able to do this. I miss you all, each and every one of you, and I cannot wait to see you all again.

So please remember that if I'm not constantly updating you individually on everything that I am thinking of you when I post on here. So once again, Thank You.

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.
C. S. Lewis 

Universal Studioso,

So my brother wasn't able to make it on Saturday, but that's no reason to allow $120 tickets (a piece) to go to waste, so I invited a friend from parkour named Curls.

Let me just say that Universal Studios was fantastic! It was amazing and a day filled with easy fun and entertainment. The park isn't sprawlingly huge like some are, and this made it very easy to find everything and see it all in a single day.

We started at the Waterworld (after the movie of the same name) show and it was amazing! They threw an actual plane that was on fire at the audience. Then we moved on to the haunted house which was great! Our imaginations, along with the live actors, really made the place great.

Then there was the Simpsons Virtual Ride. Talk about something absolutely phenomenal! I can't even describe it, all I can say is that it was amazing and everyone should experience it if they can.

So the day was outstanding, partly due to the free tickets, partly due to the innate amazingness of the park, and a large part due to how awesome it is to hang out with Curls.

After returning to the apartment, we (me, Stevie et. al. [not Curls]) went to see Prince of Persia. It was...about what you'd expect. The parkour was pretty amazing and the graphics were good, but overall it was a video game movie.

Today I'm working on figuring out how to put a press-kit together so I can apply at Disney, Universal Citywalk (not giving up on that), and Six Flags. I'm also working up a silent act, which I need to have in order to think about working with a group Stevie knows.


When the world says, "Give up,"
Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."


EDIT: spelling

A new friend

So I headed down to the pier today and spoke for a bit with my characiture friend. After a bit, as I sat there waiting for my spot, an attractive young woman with a video camera walked up and started talking to me.

Turns out that she is traveling the country interviewing people about life and things in general. It was pretty spectacular talking to her, and hopefully I will stay in touch. Talk about a much needed breath of fresh air. I can't wait to see the film at the end of her trip.

The pier in and of itself was pretty slow today.

Bitched about life to Tegan, who so far is very tolerant of my complaints.

Ian can't make it tomorrow, so, having tickets I don't want to waste, I invited a friend from parkour.

Had Shepperd's pie for dinner. Fantastic.

One experience after another

Showed up at Santa Monica Pier today and made a new friend. He does characitures and we spoke a bit. Then an older man came up and started talking to us about quite a few random things; from gangsters and drug users to why women think men are complicated, we covered it all. One thing that my new characiture friend said was that for Memorial Day, spots for the 9am-11am shift and the 1pm-4pm shift were gone the night before and people started lining up for the 7pm-10pm shift at 2am on Memorial Day. So...if I want to get a spot for a holiday, 17 hours before hand I need to be there (remember, you can't leave for more than 10 minutes at a time or you lose your spot.

Anyway, today went ok. Not great, but ok. I'm very sunburned. The backs of my hands are sunburned. Stevie reminded me to get sunscreen on the way home from parkour. But the pier was good, except for one Japanese man who, while I was performing (crowd-building) grabbed my hands and forced my hand open while I was doing the rings. The only reason I didn't hit him or throw him from the pier was the baby in his hands. Bastard.

Parkour was great. We did rolls. They were amazing. I made people's minds melt with magic (you'd think after eight hours of performing you'd be tired, but not really...) A group of us is going to the park on Monday to practice/workout. Made a cool new friend. He looks/acts/is a laberdoodle.

Ian may(not) be coming Saturday, depends on Navy stuff, but I did manage to score tickets to Universal Studios, so that's a plus, which reminds me, I need to email that lady and say thanks...again.

Really enjoying things out here. Everything is starting to fall into place so things should only get better from here. It's not as easy as I'd hoped (or become accustomed to...damn not having to study in school!), but it's good.

Anyway, sorry for not a whole lot of detail, but it's enough for me to remember what happened to expand upon later. I gotta get up at 5am to be out of here at 5:30, so G'night!

~If people were meant to pop out of bed, we'd all sleep in toasters.




UPDATE: I almost forgot, Stevie managed to really mess with me today. Her expression was perfect. She just flat out pulled one over on me, though now I know what she looks like when she spins stories, so nyyygh! (That's the sticking out your tongue noise) expounded upon later :)

Cabaret and Magic Apple

So last night we went to see the UCLA production of Cabaret, and it was fantastic, absolutely amazing. Definitely worth flying in here this week to see!

Today I went to two different magic shops to try and find 7/8" or 1" crocheted balls and neither magic shop had them. The first one was Hollywood Magic Inc and it's inside a costume shop. Now I don't tell you this to insult all magic shops inside costume stores, Magic Etc in Ft. Worth is fantastic! Hollywood Magic Inc is  amazingly crappy.



Then I headed down to the Magic Apple, a genuinely good magic shop, but they were out of the balls I was looking for, but the guys ordered them for me, which means I'll be doing a revamped routine with just two cups. I hung out there for a while and made it home a few minutes ago.

That's about it. Plans now? Laundry.

“I believe you should live each day as if it is your last, which is why I don't have any clean laundry, because, come on, who wants to wash clothes on the last day of their life?”

So...it's been a few days

Things have been. That's about the size of it. Sunday was fun. Hung out with a Stevie and a friend. 

Monday I forgot it was Memorial Day (a holiday and thus a good day for busking) and managed to be chided and talked down to by almost every person I spoke with. Since I forgot it was Memorial Day, I headed down to a coffee shop where I wrote something like thirty pages of absolute worthless crap. It's all getting deleted. So all in all, Monday sucked. Except for learning Majong,

Today I headed out to busk (Stevie drove me, sparing me the pains of the Metro) and managed to be number 7 on the list, guaranteeing me a good spot, and I got one and got signed up to finish out the 9-1 shift at a good spot. Set up and gathered a large crowd straight away. Did my show, and everyone seemed to enjoy it though they didn't display it in a...how do you say...monetary fashion. Also I'm still nervous performing for people I know/give a damn about their opinion.

Then I moved on at 1 to my other spot down the pier directly across from Pacific Playground (thankfully zombie free) and proceeded to hang out for a bit before one of my rings broke it's weld. *great*. Shortly after, the wind caught the balls from my cups routine and decided that they were better off being donated to  the ocean than being used for their intended purpose. I thought about jumping in after it but decided going to jail wasn't worth it, so with 2 of 3 routines shot, I thought about an airline ticket, decided it wasn't as bad as all that and headed home.

Only to get on the broken bus, the one where the little voice that says "You're coming up to this stop" is all fucked up. It told me I was at my stop 11 stops before I was and trusting it, myself and seven other people got off only to realize we were at the wrong place. So we got on the next bus which was also broken (didn't have a voice) and the driver decided people didn't need to know what stop was coming up. So I missed my stop and got off on one where I knew there was a metro station and took the Purple line to the Red line to the Orange line to Home.

Then I had a Cuba Libre. Now I am waiting to go to the UCLA production of Cabaret. Also I emailed Disney World and Universal CityWalk about busking requirements (Disney) and about getting back to me (Universal). 

So tl;dr: two pretty sucky days, sucky metro, but there was Majong and Theater. 

Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive.  And then go and do that.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.  ~Attributed to Howard Thurman

Friday to Saturday

Well, yesterday I spent my day busking. Didn't do too badly either. I'm coming to the conclusion that the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica may not be the best spot for busking, at least for a magician. The hip-hop dance troupe who was to my left, and then my right, and then my left again were having no problems drawing people in, and they were quite good. It's just a little difficult to draw a crowd when one group is so noisy and bouncy and is holding two of the three spots on the street. Asshats.

Anyway, I did have some good come of yesterday: had a few people come up and ask me for a business card, and one man who was wearing an "FBI Special Agent" badge (can't say if he was or not, but I'm going for not...) asked me, out of the blue, "How has magic changed your life?" Not kidding. First words out of his mouth after introducing himself. I'll be posting a bit about that on my Magic Today blog in a bit.

Then there was the little kiwi kid (kiwi being slang for New Zealander) who thought I was amazing and his dad had him take a picture with me. Really kinda made my day.

Right now I'm sitting at the bakery, it being 8am, waiting until I can head into Santa Monica (legally can't start busking til 9 or 10) to get my pier registration (yup...they don't tell you about that extra little rule that you can be ticketed for when you get a permit) to perform on the Pier today.

I figure the pier might be a better place to perform seeing as no one on the pier is there to shop or anything other than just be entertained, so I'm not interrupting them. I'm pretty excited about the prospects; the pier is nice and cool and there will be a good number of people there, so wish me luck...

Other than that we have a dinner party tonight. Lots of Stevie's friends whom I've heard quite a bit about and now get to put faces to names. So that's what's going on with that...

Oh! Parkour was fantastic. We did precisions which involve jumping from balance beam to balance beam and doing tic-tacs (running and then jumping off a wall to scale an object.) Then Stevie and I stayed after and those of us left messed around with random insanity. We stacked a set of mats up to where there was two foot clearance from the top to the bar above it that we were using to swing through the gap. That was great! I'm loving it.

Well, I guess that's it. On disk 5 of season 3 of Galactica. Fantastic show. Everyone should watch. Just spilled coffee on my favorite shirt (which, in it's defense already has a tea spot and a blood spot...This is why I can't have nice things...) though the coffee is fantastic.

There are a slew of other things I'm sure, but I just can't remember them. This having no internet at the apartment thing is really hampering my spilling my brains into words...

Oh, and it turns out google spell-check things "internet" needs to be capitalized and that "asshat" isn't a word.

Rainy days are here again

So it's another rainy day here in the city of angels. Rainy might not be the best word...misty might be a better word. But despite the fact that there isn't actual rain (not car-flooding rain) there are people out with umbrellas and ponchos, afraid to get their precious hair wet. Think of the frizz (and not the teacher from Magic Schoolbus).


So plans...I haven't really got one, at least i didn't until today. I've been kind of lost the last bit, not really sure where to go or how to begin anything. Stevie gave me a pep-talk of sorts and made me realize that while being fiercely independent is fine and all, in this town you need to know people. You ask for help or you drown are the words I think she used. Apt advice. So I guess it's time to get over the 'I don't need help' shtick and start using the tools at my disposal which, it appears, are vast. Apparently I know people who know people. So that's going to help.

Still attemtping the busking, though it's seeming more and more like the magicians who have tried here before are right: it's hell. But I'm planning on hitting the pavement some more anyway. If nothing else, it's good experience and exposure.

I'm at the public library, North Hollywood branch, because the internet in the complex has been disrupted while some people move out and others move in, so if I don't post often or reply to emails, that's why.

Anyway, parkour again tonight. Stevie and I went out and did the warm-up bits at the park two days ago (Tuesday I guess) and let me tell you, it's harder to do those things in the park than in a gymnasium.


Well, if anyone pops up any good ideas for anything, let me know.


Most people are other people.  Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.  ~Oscar Wilde, De Profundis, 1905

Seven down...

Well, spent my day today first writing up some more lecture notes, these over vanishing an object. Perhaps I should look at submitting things to some of the magic journals.

Then I spent a while contacting seven restaurants around the area. Out of seven of them, two said to contact corporate (both said they didn't need me though), one said just send me a brochure, one the GM is there in the mornings, one I left a message on the GM's machine, and the last two refused to allow me to speak to the GM (one of them actually hung up on me).

So...going pretty well. There's another that the GM is out of town until later this week.

Fantastic.

So I'm trying to come up with other ideas, but I'm fresh out. And no, I still haven't heard back from the CityWalk people yet.

Pics

Here are the pics from Huntington. The link has 10 downloads on it, so let me know when it runs out and I'll get another one.

http://rapidshare.com/files/391580451/huntington.zip.html

Huntington Gardens

So we went to Huntington Gardens today. We saw about half (if that) of the total gardens and museum exhibits that are there. Talk about Stendhal Syndrome. I took over 100 pics, so I'll put them in a compressed file and link to it later.

Get this in mind early: we never grow up. ~Richard Bach

A good night

Tonight was pretty awesome. Stevie got home and cooked a meal of brautwurst, mashed potatoes and saurkraut. The neighbors brought over some salad and we all had a great dinner full of laughing and carrying on.

Then we played cards for a while. Stevie won (like always) and afterwards we took Chopper (dog) on a walk. I think the high point of playing cards is definitely the creative cursing at each other. Try adding twizzler to a string of curses. Works like a charm.

Anyway, off to another episode of Galactica.

Electronics

Well, here I am, a beautiful sunny day here in California. The temperature is a brisk 63 degrees with a high today of 68. The low tonight is 49 degrees and a high tomorrow of 63.

What's that sport fans? What am I doing at a computer typing away about the wonderful weather instead of being outside enjoying it and practicing my trade? Why I would assume that with a group as smart as you, the answer would become apparent. No, I haven't come down with necrotizing fasciitis (something you won't want to look at pictures of I assure you [the real question is how many are going to now that I've said that?]). What's that? No, no I haven't been hit by a bus. Legs? Still intact. Nope, still got a spleen, as useful as that is to busking.

No folks, the real reason that I'm sitting here at a computer instead of out enjoying the day busking is...drum roll please... my alarm didn't go off!  That's right folks! Or at least, when it went off it was set at the quietest possible setting, so it took me a bit to realize what the funny music playing through my dream was.

No problem, you say. It's only 9:45 there. Get out and do something! Let me remind you that the ride to Santa Monica is 2 hours long on a good day, and almost 3 on a bad one. That puts me at the Promenade at about 12-noon. That's not bad, you say to yourself, Scooby-Doo playing in the background (the ones without Scrappy), you munching on your Cookie Crisp cereal (if it can be called cereal) waiting for Mikey down the street to come out and play after the Scooby-Doo marathon.

Well let me remind you that last time we went out all the spots were gone by noon and we just happened to weasel our way into one. One. And then we didn't get a spot for the next bit.

So what have we learned kiddies? Monsters are just people in costumes? No Timmy, the monsters are real and are going to eat your toes like little round olives. Ride bikes! Ride Bikes! Ride Bikes! Oh, a penny. That's right Jason, eating seven bowls of Cookie Crisp in an hour while watching Scooby-Doo is probably the reason everyone and their mother has ADHD in this country. Any other guesses? That perhaps if you want to accomplish something you should ensure that you set your alarm clock and check all of the settings instead of taking out your frustration in a sarcastic and partially cynical blog post about it where you insult little children and tell them their toes taste like olives. 

Wow, Susie, um...you're real Johnny on the Spot there. (No Johnny, sit back down.) Anything else to add?

Yes, I will eat their toes like little round olives.

Scouting

Today I'm headed out to Griffith Park, a place closer by that Stevie said might be good for busking.

Also, a huge congratulations to Travis for making it trough the interview and into the Comal County Sheriff's Office. Well done.

Parkour...again

Just got back from parkour. Did climbs and grabs which pretty much means you try to climb a ten foot wall and then you try to throw yourself at a wall from as far away as possible and grab on.

It was a lot of fun. Hard work, but fun.

Busking tomorrow.


You've got a lot of choices.  If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you're not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice.  ~Steven D. Woodhull

Public Broadcast Message

{Begin Transmission}

People in California look at you strangely when you say "Howdy". That is all.

{Transmission Terminated}

Restaurant Magic

So I almost forgot (well I did forget for a bit) that part of my plan out here was to find a few restaurants to work in in the evenings. So I'm spending time today putting together a list of interesting restaurants to work at here in Los Angeles.

So far I have five restaurant/lounge-type-things:

• The Stinking Rose
• Engine Co. No. 28
• Monsoon
• The Yard
• The Edison 

So take a look and let me know what you think of those. I'm looking for restaurants that are unique and would fit my personality. Sure there are some very, very, upscale restaurants that would be great for magic, but they really aren't my thing. Imagine me with my sarcastic humor and eccentricities trying to play a five star black-tie restaurant. I'd need a better coat.

So any other restaurants people can think of that "fit the bill" so to speak would be welcome.

Anyway, other than that Parkour tonight. It's going to be painful and fun!

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things. ~Ray Bradbury 

Yesterday...

Sorry I didn't get to posting yesterday.  I am glad that nobody took that to mean that I was dead, just that it slipped my mind.

Yesterday started with me waking up and deciding that it was a writing day, thus I spent most of my day working on my story which, for anyone who is interested, is coming along. I'm well over twenty pages into it and just finished up the ending scene (which came to me all at once. Also Tegan isn't allowed to tell anyone about it though she may not remember what I told her).

Also it was intersperced with watching Battlestar Galactica which is a fantastic series. I'm through season 1 and will start season 2 shortly.

Also I had dinner with the neighbors last night and watched part of Flight of Dragons, a movie I haven't seen for years about the war between magic and science. It was quite good and I enjoyed watching it again.

Also, Stevie has me on this new book called Neverwhere, about the world of the London Underground. It's pretty good so far. I'm on Chapter 6 and I'll let y'all know how it goes. It's by Neil Gaiman, by the way.

Oh! Also I started trying to optimize my website for search engines because when you search for "Cameron Rivers Magician", you don't find Kings To You Magic. You find the Order of Aggie Illusionists site which has me on it and links to my site (thanks Clay!), but not mine. So if anyone knows (or has) a website and would like to link to mine, please do so.

Also, click my links damnit! They're there for you to be clickin' on!

And it wouldn't kill y'all to comment on my posts (or kill Suit and Clay to comment on my rambling posts at Magic Today).

Take care and don't explode.

CityWalk

Well, this morning at 5am I was present at Universal Studios' CityWalk to be on KTLA, the local news channel. We ran two bits with me, and let me say that when performing for a news camera, it's very difficult to figure out where they are focused. Also the reporter we were with was a little on the ditsy side, but that's okay I suppose.

I was rushed through my routines and didn't really get a chance to say anything. I was trying to plug StreetFest on CityWalk as well as Kings To You, but wound up not doing much of either.

Then when I got back, I found out that it's very hard to find the Kings To You website searching for "Cameron Rivers magician". So I'll be spending part of my day trying to optimize my website for search engines. Hopefully I get a few gigs out of this...

As it turns out, I should be performing at CityWalk, so keep your fingers crossed.

It's a rainy day here, so no busking.

Shiner!!!!

So when Stevie got home this afternoon she had a six pack of Shiner Hefeweizen and the store will have Bock next week!!!


My life is complete.

Tomorrow on the News

So tomorrow morning I'll be on the LA morning news. I've got my set down for the most part, but have to switch out a trick because it's to damn hard to find the props for it in LA.

So if anyone knows a place (not a bank because apparently none of the banks in LA carry new bills) to get brand new dollar bills...

Other than that, things seem to be going fine. I'll just have to change up my routine a bit. Three tricks. Should be fine.

So....

Well, today was semi-productive.

I did a mock-up of a new show.

Then I found this:

http://newsjunkiepost.com/2010/01/08/domestic-espionage-alert-spy-drone-discovered/

So...the police say they are only going to use their new toy for good and honest things...

Looks like we're trying to win the "Surveillance State of the Year" award.

First day on the job

Well, I've been out here a week and finally managed to get out to busk. Yup, went out to Santa Monica's famous 3rd Promenade.

I arrived about 12:00 and found a spot on the far South side of the Promenade. It was the only spot available. I forgot, it's Saturday, and apparently Saturday is the day to be out there. So I set up and start going and before long have a small crowd. I get to my cups routine and am inturrupted by one of the "Promenade Ambassodors" who informs me I was blocking a fire lane. He was very polite about it, but really? Blocking a fire lane? Buddy, if a fire breaks out, I'm moving. So I move my show twenty feet to the North and continue. Grand total from that show: $5

I continue on until 2pm when, as all of you should know, you are required by law, to move to a different spot more than 125 or 150 feet away (aka off that street and onto the next). So I move to the center street of the Promenade, the Mecca of performing in this area, and I find a perfect pitch. Oh, it was so beautiful! But then 35-40 feet in front of me, the distance required by law, a guitar duo hooked up to some very, very, very loud amps and began to play grunge music. Needless to say, I couldn't hear myself speak, let alone the audience hear me. And there weren't any other pitches open.

So I thought I'd head to Santa Monica Pier, but the magician I ran into earlier this week ran into me and we started talking. Apparently there is a secret law that they don't put into the booklet they give you on busking laws that states that you must be present at 11am on the pier at the second gazebo to sign up for a spot to perform. On top of that, they will tell you exactly where you will perform and you are by law not allowed to perform anywhere else but that 7.5 foot square. But that only lets you perform til 4. If you want to perform after 4, from 4-7 (the next time slot), you must be present at the second gazebo at 2pm to sign up for a spot. again at 5:30 or so.

So, what I've found out today:

1. Everyone and their dog (or iguana in the case of one guy) is out there trying to perform on the weekend.
2. The bums are out in force.
3. There are hidden, secret rules that no one will tell you, even if you ask. You gotta find out by being issued a ticket (not me, my friend).
4. Some bums have great stories.
5. Don't sleep on the metro (CHANCE: Missed your stop on the Metro. +45 minutes to your already 2.5 hour trip)
6. 5 hours a day on the Metro will steal your soul.
7. No matter how bad your day, a puppy makes it all better.

So, grand total for the day: $5

Keep your fingers crossed I get the CityWalk thing. It's closer and I could actually use my "getting a crowd" bit (confetti storm) without being afraid the cops would write me 10,000 tickets for littering. (CityWalk is private property)

More CityWalk News

So just got a call about the audition I did yesterday and Universal Studios CityWalk and they think that I would be a good fit for what they are looking for.

The guy I talked to said that they want to have me come back out and do a bit with the guests and see how I interact with everyone and how everyone responds.

Things are looking up. CityWalk is only 3 miles or so from the apartment, a simple 5-10 minute bus ride, and if things work out then I may be there part of my week, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

The morning news

So, I just got a phone call from the Public Relations office at Universal Studios Hollywood and apparently the local news (KTLA) will be filming a program at a comedy club up on CityWalk. What this means for me, my dear readers, is that the news people need some extra footage of "cool and interesting" people/things and I'm supposed to be one of those "cool and interesting" people.

The downside? 5:30 am. Yeah.

But I should be getting an email with the details tomorrow, so when I know more, you'll know more.

~Your favorite "cool and interesting" person

YEA!!!!!

So I just googled it and aparentlly there is a bar one, read it, one (1) mile away from the apartment that serves Shiner!!!

So we'll see if it does...

Still leaves me needing to find a store that sells it...

My life's goal

Or at least the goal for the summer is to find a store that sells Shiner Bock.

That is all.

Pause

I was getting things ready this morning to head out to Santa Monica and start my first day of busking when I realized that my servante was really not suitable for the table it is attached to. The thing hangs way low and all foldy-openy and prone to dropping props...

So... I'm going to be re-working things to either:

1. Re-rig the servante to work better or
2. Work out of my pockets

Either option fixes the problem, but both prevent me from busking today. One of these days I'll actually make it out there to busk damnit! 

Exhausted...but in a good way

Today was fantastic. Let's just get that through now.

I got up this morning and Stevie took me to my audition at Universal Studios CityWalk. The audition went well, and I should hear back by Friday, so everyone keep your fingers crossed. The audition is for an event called "Always Unexpected" and will occur on every Sunday through mid June (5 days I think).

After that, I dropped by Santa Monica City Hall and now have my permit in hand. I then took a walk over to Third Street Promenade and watched a movie called The Losers. It was entertaining. Lots of explosions and such.

Then I wandered up and down the Pier, trying to figure out where to set up for tomorrow. Looks like a pretty easy gig.

Made my way to Venice and watched a performer draw a crowd of 40 people and hat them twice!!! I can't really explain what he did. He was doing some pop 'n lock dance and then got others involved. Very entertaining.

Made it to the bakery and zoned out 'til Stevie closed and we went next door to a yoga/massage/tea place where we waited for our Parkour class to start. I got an egg salad sandwich and it was great. Also found this really good book called Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung. It's written by a theoretical physicist turned Buddhist monk (now an Abbot) and it's a bunch of inspirational stories. YOU SOULD ALL READ IT. There's a partial copy avaliable through Google Books here.

Parkour was exhausting. It was a very difficult workout for someone who hasn't worked out in forever. But it was fun, and I will probably be headed back next week. Lot's of fun people there. Lot's of crazy people there.

Now it's time for what you've all been waiting for: My hero of the day. For those of us who don't know (all of you) I've decided to have a hero of the day; someone who catches my attention or does something amazing (in a positive or negative way).

My hero of the day is the artist at www.magicbeansarereal.com. I was on the bus and he looked over at me and said "Can I draw you?" I know. Creepy, huh? I thought for a moment and said sure, and the drawing came out pretty great. He should be emailing me a copy (because I didn't have a $20 spot on me) soon, and then I'll send it out to you guys.

So that's that. I'm a gonna go eat an egg.

Audition-y Things

So, here I am preparing to audition for a busking spot at Universal City CityWalk. It should be quite exciting. CityWalk is only three miles or so from here, so hopefully the bus won't take forever (actually I've been told there's a metro rail line to Universal from North Hollywood, so there's very little waiting).

Anyway, if I get this spot, it will provide me with some fun busking for the next few Sundays, and perhaps for more than that.

So I've got everything together (after spending nine hours collecting it yesterday...thanks buses), and all I need to get are some fruit on the way there.

So wish me luck.

Metro...again

Just got back from the store. Stevie dropped me off at noonish and I was done with the first store (getting a tray stand) and the second store (graphite powder for the front door) in ten minutes. Then all I had to do was get on the bus. It's a 15-20 minute bus ride.

You extrapolate.

The Magic Castle

So, as it turns out, the Castle is only 6 miles or so from the apartment, so it was a quick drive.

It's amazing, and yes, you really do have to say "Open Sesame" to get in through the hidden bookcase-door. The entire place is rather confusing, and the rooms don't really seem to lead where you feel they should. Everything is covered in gaudyness, but it works amazingly.

We had dinner, which was fantastic. We got to sit in the Dante room. The walls were covered with old (reproductions? I dunno) posters from Dante's shows. The thing that kept bothering me was there were two windows side by side to the other room, and I would watch people walk past and then when they got to the third window, they had vanished!

I knew of course, this was a mirror. It wasn't exactly a secret either; the mirror was huge and hung in the room we were dining in and framed with gold scrollwork. It was just the angle that I was at you expected to see people continue to walk through, and they never did.

The entire place was fantastic, and the magicians were wonderful. I saw one of the best manipulators I have seen in a long time as well as the MC of the show who could juggle ping-pong balls with his mouth...

Long story short, it was amazing.

And yes...Irma plays any song on request.

We're legal!

Just got back from my two and a half hour bus ride home. The Metro trip planner says it's only an hour and fifteen minutes...

Anyway, all that aside, I have my permit to busk anywhere in Santa Monica. Some of the rules are strange, like if a holiday falls on a Monday and there is not a holiday on Tuesday then Monday is actually a Sunday and Sunday a Saturday, but if the Holiday is on a Friday, then Friday is a Saturday and Thursday is a Friday. However if a Holiday falls in the middle of the week, then that day is a Sunday and the day before it a Friday.

It gets worse, but I won't subject you to it. Those of you who are magicians and actually want to know how these rules work, I'll be posting something on the Kings To You Blog.

After getting my permit, I finally made it to the fabled 3rd Promenade!!! I had lunch there and listened to a fantastic guitarist and wandered a bit. As I was leaving, I noticed a guy with a close up mat on top of a trey table and some cards. So after watching for a moment, I wandered over to give him some pointers. Turns out it was his first day out there and he didn't really know what was going on or how to build a crowd. In return, he insisted I take a trick he had. It looks promising, so once I get it going, I'll review it over on the other blog.

Then it was the two and a half hour ride home. Talk about boring, and I kept thinking I missed my stop. Luckily I looked at the schedule and it said that there was a connection to the Red Line Metro we met yesterday at one of the stops after mine. Thankfully, I didn't have to use it.

The bus dropped me off right up the street, so now it's time to go pick up my jacket, shower, shave, etc for the trip to the Castle. More on that later.

So...we're trying again

Today is another adventure. Stevie doesn't have to be at work until noon, so she has offered me a ride down to Santa Monica, it's just up to me to find my way back.

The Metro trip planner has told me that I went a crazy way yesterday (at the trip planner's instructions) and instead need only catch these two busses. So, eventually I will know about ten dozen ways to make it to Santa Monica and Venice Beach.

Anyway, it is quite cool here and there's a nice breeze. Weather.com just informed me it is 59 degrees and sunny, though the sunny part I knew myself.

So goals for the day:

• Performing Permits
• taking a look at the 3rd Promenade 
• Making it home (important)
• Picking up the jacket from the tailors
• MAGIC CASTLE!!!!!!! (not excited at all ;) )

And perhaps find a hat. 

At the end of the day

So it seems that everyone in the apartment had a pretty horrible day. Between truck repairs, being told that your work is crap, and my metro problems, everyone needed a beer.

But as we all sat there round the kitchen laughing and drinking, we found that perhaps the day wasn't a complete loss.

Here's to the little things that make everything worth it.

Oh, and stay away from the Kaltenburg Pils beer...it's not so great.

LA Metro, Part the Second

So after arriving home, I decided to do some other errands, as I previously mentioned. So I got my jacket and took it to the tailors (sleeves were only three inches too long) and then got some photos for my permits (the guy there was pretty great "Uh...do you want to look stoned?") and then I decided to pop down to the magic shop that's about 20 minutes down the way.

Well to get there, I have to take the bus, Metro 230/239 to Metro 150/240. Well I got on the first one no problems and when I got off, the other bus was already at the stop.

Finally, I thought. A break. This should be easy as pie

Well, turns out the reason the bus is already there is that it has broken down. So I decide to walk to the shop. I'm at 12015 and the shop's at 11390. It can't be that far right? Wrong. Took me thirty minutes to walk there, and in all that time, not a single bus 150/240 passed me. So, had I chosen to stop at the next bus stop and wait (which I did [+5 minutes]) I would have waited longer than it took to walk.

Well I finally arrive in the shopping center where the magic shop is, the Magic Apple it's called, and I saunter up the stairs ready to talk Ascanio spreads and Elmsley counts and what's the best way to turn over a card and turn it into a house and whatnot only to find that the shop...

...Wait for it...

...Is...

CLOSED ON MONDAYS!!!!

So I descended the stairs to the regular level and I see a bus 150/240 go by on my side of the street and one on the other side.

Sweet, I think to myself. It should only be a few minutes before that bus gets back around to me, and there are at least two buses on the route.


Thirty minutes pass while I wait for the bus that had just gone past. Several Red Line 740's came by, and fifteen minutes into my wait, a 150/240 goes by on the other side of the street.

Fifteen more minutes, and the same bus that went by fifteen minutes ago is on my side of the street. This means that the bus I saw go by thirty minutes ago, and was waiting on forever, just disappeared. That's right, it's gone, never to be heard from again. So either it just gave up and went home, or it broke down too!!!

That's two buses, count 'em, 2, that broke down on this one trip.

F*** it. I'm going to sleep.

The LA Metro

So, today I decided to go down and get my permits so that I can start performing in the next few days. L.A. can be a pretty lonely place when you have nothing to do all day, and I'd really like to get going on the busking.

So with that in mind, I got some help from Stevie to route my metro trip to take me to Santa Monica City Hall, the magical building where all the street performers are given little pieces of paper that allow them not to perform without fear of being accosted by the local blue people.

Well, I make it all the way to Downtown LA sans problem. It takes about a half hour to make it to the station, and my instructions say to get on Santa Monica 10. What the instructions fail to tell me is if this is a train, bus, taxi, or some sort of hot air balloon that will take me away to my desired destination. Turns out, it's a bus, but the designation for the bus is not "Santa Monica 10". No, that would be too easy. Turns out the designation for the bus is "BBB10" and the map outside the 7th Street Station tells me it stops at stops 22, 23, 24 and 29.

Well, stops 22, 23, and 24 are unfindable (it's a word...now) on this map, so I head down to stop 29. Well There isn't a stop 29. I found the stop for "BBB10". In fact I found it just as the "BBB10" was pulling out. Turns out "BBB10" stands for, and I'm not joking, Big Blue Bus 10 to Santa Monica, and the complicated metro map made me spend valuable minutes deciphering it instead of walking the ten minutes to the bus stop

So in my naivete, I assume that another bus will be along shortly. Well I wait for a full hour, and during that time I think "Well, they have to have two buses. It's an hour trip each way, so about 12:20 the other bus will be here."

During this wait, I watched an armored car pull out of what I can only assume to  be a bank across the street, and another armored car pull in. Turns out that if you stand in one spot, across from a secured bank entrance for an hour, the cops armed with AR-15's start getting twitchy. Luckily, about this time, the "BBB10" shows up.

And drives off. That's right. In Los Angeles, if you are standing under the bus stop sign with the designation of the bus approaching on the sign and make eye contact with the bus driver, he will pull in and out of the stop in less than a second. That's right. I had now waited a full hour and the bus, which was mostly empty, had tapped it's breaks at my stop and then pulled right back into traffic.

Perhaps he didn't see you, you say. Well, considering I was on the curb under the "BBB10" sign looking him in the eye and wearing a bright yellow shirt, I have to disagree. So, defeated, I headed back to the subway station. At least that one stops.

On the way back, there was a Metro employee helping people figure out where they were going. "Of course there is," I muttered as I approached the metro entrance. Then I paused for a moment, not able to believe my eyes. Could it be? The Big Blue Bus 10 to Santa Monica? It was!!! Hurray all was not lost. At least, until I fully read the display on the bus:

"BBB10 Santa Monica, Freeway Express, departure only"

Departure only? Departure only? How can a bus be departure only? Once the doors open, there isn't a field that only lets people through in one direction. So I watched as it passed, and defeated, walked back to the Metro Red Line to North Hollywood and came back to the apartment.

Once back, I remembered that I needed a passport photo to get a permit, so perhaps I wasn't defeated, but merely re-routed to the correct first destination. There's a passport photo place across the street from here.

So it's off to there and then to find fabric for my table top. Tomorrow...MAGIC CASTLE...and another attempt at the metro.

EDIT: spelling