Back To Nature

Los Angeles, California. Recently I have had a number of blast from the past visits from old Palm Beach friends. Neil/Tim Aho visited over New Years, Justin Kesl has been in and out of town on State Farm business, and Rob 'Rabbit' Schaffer came for a fun visit this past Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend.

The visit from Rabbit in particular was a catalyst for getting my butt back into nature! The first morning here we got up early and hit the waves off the Venice pier. From there, we decided to explore nearby Temescal Gateway Park in Pacific Palisades. Only five minutes from downtown Santa Monica, this is one more example of just how off the pervasive perspective of Los Angeles actually is. Climbing into the Santa Monica Mountains, Temescal is a true slice of nature. There are hikes of up to 8 miles in length and the woodlands are home to a fascinating flora and numerous wild animals. We chose a shorter loop hike of about 2 miles, complete with stunning vistas of the ocean, downtown Los Angeles and even a waterfall. On Sunday, we opted for a roadtrip up the Pacific Coast Highway, stopping to check out popular surf breaks along the way. We spent the night in Santa Barbara and then continued up the coast to check out the Point Conception area. We ended up missing any decent swell for this region, but the coastline and vistas of the Channel Islands were spectacular. And to make up for lack of surf, we opted to drive into Los Padres National Forest, where we went bouldering on steep mountain cliffs. A day in Los Padres is a perfect reminder as to what a stunning and diverse state California really is. Living here makes it difficult to imagine ever returning to live on the east coast of the U.S.!

Rabbit and I wrapped up his trip with more surfing in Venice and finally a visit to the La Brea Tar Pits. Our final surf session was graced by a super curious little harbor seal, who spent nearly the entire time with us, competing with our duck dives and sneaking up behind our boards when we were not looking - such a great animal! For those of you not familiar with La Brea, the tar pits are located in central Los Angeles and are considered the richest deposit of Pleistocene fossils in the world! It has been a dream of mine to visit this site ever since I was little kid reading books on mastodons and sabertoothed tigers. Check out the short video clip here to see methane oozing from the surface tar!

On a side note, I just want to extend my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Heath Ledger. His death is a tragic loss to our world and he will be missed greatly. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

My New Home

Marina del Rey, California. This week I have been settling in to my new Los Angeles area apartment, right off Venice Beach. I have had three auditions in the past four days and today I worked as audience on the gameshow Deal or No Deal. My IMDb Starmeter also reached a new record this week - 75,308. Check out this post's video for a glimpse of my new neighborhood beach...

City of Angels

Venice Beach. Los Angeles, California. Venice the seething
dripping edge of a tragic metropolis - the concrete city of angels whose barrios ooze across the desert landscape like cracked mud. Going on endlessly - a megacity of concrete houses and hearts.

But not Venice. Washed by the cold Pacific, licked by salt, it is vibrant, alive - the bloom in the desert. And this is where Scott now lives. Scott, the Braman. My old buddy from our days living like kings high in the hills above Quito.
He is now the web mogul behind VenicetheMenace.com and fits here like a pea in pod.

I have spent four great days here in the City of Angels, bunking here by the beach in Venice but trekking into LA's underbelly each day for work. I came down originally for a run through reading with the cast of The Rains of Astoria, but ended up being cast last minute as a ghoul in the Indy horror flick Finale. Finally, I tested for and then appeared as a contestant on the NBC syndicated gameshow Crosswords. It has been a long, but fun journey through Hollywood. Tomorrow I head back to San Francisco...

A Night With The Braman

Los Angeles, California. On Saturday, I took a last minute flight to LA and had my first audition actually in Hollywood. It was for a television pilot called Run Riot and I auditioned for the part of a burnt out music magazine editor. It was loads of fun and I saw the Hollywood sign for the first time ever. In LA, I had some serious Deja Vu resulting from a dream that I had about four years ago and wrote down! I had never even been to California at that time, but had a dream that I was driving by LA through fields of oil wells. I saw the exact images from the dream driving down La Cienaga in the heart of LA.

After the audition, I headed over to Venice Beach, to hang out with my bud, Scott Braman. When not selling real estate in Costa Rica, Scott is the Comandante of a great website project called Venice the Menace - check it out! We headed over to a local Venice party, where his buddies' band - the Quick Six - were playing. Great music, great people - I am seriously considering moving there...

Also, if you haven't done so before, check out Uncontacted.com. This is a site done by a cool young explorer named David in support of the Huaorani - a people very close to both Scott and my hearts.

Oh, and today is my birthday. Thanks for remembering...