I'd assumed I didn't book the VO audition I posted about earlier this month as I hadn't heard.  Happy to report I see producers on Monday!  Really happy about this one as I had a particularly good time with the material.  I left thinking I liked the material, I liked the vibe in the room and it reaffirmed for me my interest in pursuing VO work.  Great to have the affirmation.  YAY:)

I miss LA desperately and wouldn't be surprised if I ended up back at some point but... New York is so rich with opportunities to be inspired! Last night I went to the SAG shorts showcase. There was a wonderful showing of support for the artists and some really interesting work.
This weekend I go to a screening at MOMA of a documentary a friend produced Purgatorio and Monday I go to a reading of Jose Rivera's "The Last Book of Homer" which is at a great creative space called the Torn Page that another friend co-founded.  It seems there are endless plays, readings, screenings, talks to go to in New York at any time. I keep intending to do a month at Actors Access but my schedule has been filled with going out to see amazing work. It's a good problem to have.

I am a long time fan of Forest Whitaker so this was a treat for me.
Listening to these guys talk about auditioning for one thing after another and not getting it and hearing Benicio Del Toro was notorious for being one of the worst auditioners ever (yet he still managed to carve out a career)... shows you really need to find a way to go out and out and out and out!  Inspirational and informative talk in many ways.  Highly recommend!

And as I sit here almost a week after Phil Hoffman's passing, having read the many posts from friends mourning the loss and highlighting his goodness and his talent and his art I realize- what makes Phillip Seymour Hoffman such a loss to people such as myself who didn't have a relationship with him, is that he did not shy away from showing humanity at it's deepest most desperate core.  He made us see ourselves, identify with his characters, feel his struggles. He was in a sense, naked.  

New York has been a weird place to be this week.  I belong to a writing group many members of which are members of the LABryrinth Theater.  Almost every actor I know it seems is devastated if not because they worked with him then because they were friends or because they simply admired his art.  I spoke to a client's wife last night who told me the client, Clark, was close with Phil and had been a mess and while she had not known him personally she had been crying all week.  The loss has been taken hard.  I swear I can feel it palpable in the air.
My only personal memory of Phil is a silly one but of course I can't help but remember it now.  I met him back in LA about 15 years ago.  I was with John Ortiz (Co-Founder of the LAB) and Javi Mulero at El Coyote Cafe in Los Angeles.  Phil was friends with them so he joined us for dinner.
I remember sitting next to him being so intimidated even then.  He was one of the most riveting actors I'd ever seen and I sat there wondering how this very regular joe just hanging out at the Mexican restaurant produced such genius.  I don't remember what we all spoke about that night but if I had to assign one word to my memory of him from that brief encounter it would be humble.  He came across as very humble and very kind. 
I could go on and on as most of us I suspect could so I will leave this with a quote I came across recently in an interview Phillip did with The Rubin Museum of Art.  If you have the time this is a great one.  The subject is happiness.

.. and I LOVED it.
It's funny because the character was not at all the down and out in recovery in the midst of a torrid love affair character I yearn to play and yet I had so much fun at the audition.  I think I get off on the challenge of getting something across with only one's voice.  There is probably also a freedom in not needing to worry about how you look (let's be honest)!
From a critic's POV I think I rushed it a bit today mid-way but you have to leave that at the door.  We are all our worst critics and while I hope what I brought was what they are looking for if it wasn't I had fun the three minutes it lasted!