Photo A Day 296 - 351

A MAJOR update to my picture a day experiment. Here are the last few months.
Getting down to the end!


296.  Travelling the the freakin' Mac store in order to get the recalled hard drive replaced. Hindsight: Did you know that Apple Care will come to your apartment? Huh.

297.  Hooray Public Art! Sometimes I miss it cause I'm rushing by so fast.

298.  Go on, Laugh. I don't care. Halloween costume! Tony Stark! With my custom-made arc reactor chest piece.

299. Here is another of my projects that's slowly being finished. The Millenium Falcon. Fired up the lights and added a few little details to the hull. (Bonus points: Unicycle tire in the background)

300. APPLE! Ugh. That's all I have to say. The freakin Cube on 5th Ave is like a zoo. Always.

301. Halloween is fast approaching and the first sighting for the weekend is a Fairy Football player. I'm told it's from a commercial. (I should watch more t.v.)

302. The beautiful and evil HellGate Bridge through Astoria Park.

303. Aftermath of Sandy in our neighborhood.

304. We slowly ventured out. Since there was nothing else to do for a week with the subways down. This massive tree crushed 2 cars, a house, and knocked out power to a street.

305. Halloween! Robin Hood being stopped by the Police. What can ya do? (Or is he Peter Pan? Either way, damn the man!)

306. Just my birth date on a NY Plate. No big.

307. Possibly the greatest thing to come out of college. Don Hertzfeld. You MUST check this filmmaker out.

308. Just stocking up on essentials after the power was turned back on.

309. The dreaded gas lines everyone has been talking about. This one was over a 2 hour wait for those people in cars.

310.  I love my neighborhood.

311. Despite being somewhat handicapped as a city...we still turned out to vote!

312. And if a Hurricane wasn't bad enough, snow. Yup. First real snow. 

313. And the next morning? More than a dusting. A lot more stuck than I thought it would have.

Happy White...not a holiday.

314.  This is the block where the giant tree crushed two cars and a house.  A lot of repairs still going on. Con Ed has been there non stop.

315. Quite possibly the world's most adorable wife and amazing Standee!!!!

316. Somedays you just have to take a pic of your cat with laser eyes. You  just have to.

317. This world runs on Dunkin'. And oh look, a holiday cup that doesn't cost twice as much.

318. Love Union Square all throughout the year and especially love the people trying to figure this out. I know it's secret, do you?

319. Spending a few days in Union Square shopping for gifts from all of the amazing vendors. Sun Set over the Square!

320. Here is the market from above. Looking over from the Buildings on USqu, South.

321. Sword! To add to my arsenal. Here is a rapier that just needs a little cleaning.

322. The stantions are out and the city is gearing up the the Thanksgiving Day Parade!

(no I will not be there, you crazy?)

323. How is it that a BANK with 3 ATM machines only has one working. You'd think of all places the BANK!!! would keep their machines running? TD I'm looking at you.

324. Look WHO arrived. Finally. You're jealous, I know.

325. This is specifically for Lauren. Lean something from these forward thinking people.

326. Now I Vigo can rule the earth!

327. Sidling Hill on the way to Kentucky!

328. Wine..turkey...wine...zzzzzzzzz

329. The Natural Bridge we hiked up to...

330. Welcoming us home on the GW.  I love home.

331. And the Christmas Season has officially started for me. The Trees are here...

332. I think this sums up the day quite nicely:

333. New little side project. I'll be pulling this apart and painting the details on it in order to make a Hotwheels...hotter.

334. I love you NY.

335. Doin' it classy, Astoria.

336. You just don't know. Rolf's in the city is pure amazing. It's like eating inside of a Christmas tree all year round.

337. I want a Vespa. I do, really. And I think were I to have one it would be yellow in honor of it's older sister, my VW.

338. First official house on my block with all the trimmin's

339. Bryan Park

340. You know, the things you find lying around.

341. Dad's Christmas present. Well part of it. Almost done.

342. NY Apartment "Fireplace"

343. Misty Mountain hop. I love it when the buildings reach the clouds.

344. Roamin' around Ft. Greene. And these popped up.

345.  Talk about out of shape. Or maybe it's cause I find running SO boring.

346. So sad to see Colony go. It's windows are empty and they're taking down all the signs.

347. I watched. Did you? I kinda waited all day, then all night for Sir. Paul.

348. The Beer Garden may have lost some of it's charm thanks to the douche crowd who piles in, but it's still the freakin Beer Garden.

349. Professional gifts ready and on the way out the door. Merry Holidays everyone. (book me)

350. The extent of our decorations this year. Enjoy. We go all out. I know. Baller.

351. I'm trying to get more and more organized. Do I smell a resolution? Here are these AWESOME folders I found that are the perfect size for headshots and sides down around Union Square. I've got to look up the name. But if you're curious, ping me I'll get the name asap.

Online Video Auditions!

I LOVE technology. Who doesn't?

Don't answer that.

I especially love when technology works how it's supposed to. By making our lives better. For example. Auditioning. It's not the most fun thing in the world. Sometimes it can be soul sucking and destroying. Oh yeah, and disappointing. Even more so, sometimes, when there is an amazing project out there but there is no physical way to attend the auditions. As happened to me recently. So what did I do? I contacted the theater and asked if it would be alright to record my audition...Resounding YES!  So I went to work recording myself.*

It's easy, fast, I can edit it for the best possible take. It's still stressful, don't get me wrong. but I feel like there is a little more breathing room when sending in a pre-recorded submission. I've been asked a few times for various projects to audition via online video. I wish more things would go this route. But I write this saying...if you see a posting out there for a project you feel right for, contact the casting department and see if they'll allow you to submit online.

All that being said, now that we can upload auditions online, I have some advice for doing so. Being actors and artists, we are always trying to maintain some kind of online presence for our work. The internet is a wild crazy land and information is all over the place. Some auditions we post online now might not look so great a year from now. Or might cause casting directors who are looking into you to suddenly see you in a different light. One not favorable for their current project. Feedback I've received from casting directors seems to say, "if it's not relevant, take it down."

1) Privacy Options. All video upload sites, you tube  Vimeo, etc., give you the option to make the video private and password protected. If not password protected, they at least give you the option to make the video available to anyone with the direct link. Not the whole world. Make sure when you're uploading an audition for a specific project you check these options.

2) Social Media. Don't share this with the world. YouTube has the option to share videos to people by giving the direct link and not making it public. However posting it on Facebook or twitter kind of defeats that purpose. No?

3) Delete! Once you're done. You know the project has been cast. Get rid of that video. You don't need it anymore. For anything. And keeping it on your account is just begging you to give in and make it public and start sharing the crap out of it.

Sadly we're in a field where it's all about perception. You may have nailed an audition with one of these videos, but to another CD who may stumble upon, it could make them think twice. I'm not saying this will happen, but it could. And it's something that's come from the mouths of several casting directors I've met with.  Examples of your work are great, too much and it gets muddy.

That's not to say actor slates, or videos from classes are not usable. By all means. Those are fair game. Because they're things picked out for you to exemplify your type. And they're examples of you working with a CD. You working with a professional? Perfect. Use it. You auditioning for a part you may or may not be right for? Don't keep it around.

Again, these are my opinions based on what I've heard navigating this crazy business. But to me it sounds like sound advice. Especially coming from people who are in the business of trying to sell you.  In a non sex-trade kinda way.

*No I didn't get cast. But I did receive an amazing thank you email.