Easter Crucifixion

Marina del Rey, California. Jesus Christ, today is a beautiful day in Los Angeles! Happy Easter to everyone! You may recall my November 1st posting "Crucified", in which I reported on performing as a Roman Centurion for a History Channel documentary? Well, nearly five months later and the documentary is here. Tonight, the two hour Crucifixion airs on the History Channel at 8pm. If you miss it this evening, you will have another chance at midnight. Additionally, the DVD can be purchased on line by clicking the image below.












On other fronts, this continues to be a busy time with television. Last week I worked three days on a pilot entitled Danny Fricke, a drama centered on a tough female detective coping with her sexist colleagues while investigating high-profile cases. The show stars Connie Nielsen of Gladiator fame. I also played a doctor on an episode of Without a Trace, set to air on April 17th. And last night, I attended a screening of John Elfer's Finale. My friend and acting colleauge, John Snipes, was there as well and the film looks amazing. I can't wait for the final release!

Desperate Water

Marina del Rey, California. Hey gang! Sorry for my recent absence - things have been BUSY!! The Writer's Strike ended and television production is now in full swing. Since my last posting I have worked as a Presbyterian churchgoer on Desperate Housewives, a strip club goer and a mug shot suspect on CSI Miami, a tenant escaping from a burning building on CSI New York and a NASCAR pit crew member on Shark. All of these were fun and James Woods is quite the character and lady's man... Aside from the television shows, I also worked three movies during this time. The first was as a bank patron on Armored directed by Nimród Antal, a feature film with Matt Dillon and Laurence Fishburne. Next, I worked on a confidential project in a confidential location, in a scene with Paris Hilton, Simon Rex and Kevin P. Farley. Finally, this past monday, I was a beach bicyclist in Bedtime Stories, an Adam Shankman film staring Adam Sandler and Keri Russell. The fun Allen Covert, who seems to be in all Adam Sandler movies, was also on set. This was a great set to work on, basically consisting of 12 hours of riding a bike on the Santa Monica boardwalk, riding circles around Adam and Keri. The cast and crew were a blast to work with and Adam and Allen, who are both big basketball fans, had a mobile tent complete with a flatscreen tv so they wouldn't miss the game between takes.

In other news, Laura Bauman came down from Santa Cruz a weekend ago along with her friend, Kristi Hoffman. The three of us took the day to explore Malibu Creek State Park. This place is amazing! Only a 15-20 minute drive from Los Angeles, this is truly another world and a fantastic natural area. To get there, you drive through the Malibu Canyon, a dramatic and rugged geologic feature that washes away any thought of the nearby metropolis. The park itself is littered with steep rock monoliths - the Goat Buttes - reminescent of southern Thailand. This wonderful and highly accessible wilderness has been the filming location of many well known films and television shows, including M*A*S*H and Planet of the Apes! Take a look a the video montage from our hiking day, along with a silly M*A*S*H spoof I put together.

Secret Adventures

Los Angeles, California. The phone rang early yesterday morning and it was Julie from Adams House Productions wanting to know if I could come back to shoot another scene for The Secret Adventures of... Per my previous post, I had such a great time with the cast and crew on this project that it took me all of one second to say yes, followed by about ten minutes to make sure I could clear my schedule for the evening. So, last night I was back at the Linda Vista Hospital in Boyle Heights, along with Archie Tullos (my co-agent in arms) and a new super female agent, Promise LaMarco. Without throwing any plot spoilers at you, I'll just say that the crew really gave us a workout last night. Although we didn't work into the wee hours of the morning as on the previous night, last night far exceeded the first night in terms of being physically demanding. Basically, it involved a lot of running and throwing our bodies full force into a door, again and again and again. But you need to see for yourselves. There is a tight deadline on this project, so hopefully I can provide you with a link to the finished film in the not so distant future.

Accompanying this post are a series of pictures taken by Eric Thomas Harper (copyrighted). On the middle right we have a shot from night 1, in which I am listening to direction and preparing for the night's green screen shoot. And on the lower left we have the three supporting agents - (left to right) - me, Promise LaMarco and Archie Tullos.

Thanks again to Director Santiago Tapia and the crew from Adams House Productions for a fun-filled and rewarding acting experience!

New Shots

Marina del Rey, California. A few weeks back, I worked with Los Angeles-based photographer, David Noles, to create a new set of headshots for my entertainment industry work. David took several hundred shots and we have since been narrowing them down to a handful. After much sorting and prepping, I now have three shots ready to go. This includes the shot above and the first two below. I have also included a couple of additional, but not yet touched up, favorites below. I chose to go with David due to his amazing sense of light and composition. He is a talented artist and does a lot of work beyond headshots. I encourage you to check out some of his galleries at: http://www.davidnoles.com/ .

Checkmate Dianetics

Los Angeles, California. You may be getting sick of seeing my ongoing series of "Snows of Los Angeles" photos here on my blog, but I am not. And, well, its my blog so you'll just have to suffer through! Here are a couple more images of the local mountain range, this time taken from downtown L.A. I shot these yesterday, adjacent to the DWP 's John Ferraro Building.

Also yesterday, I participated in two back to back film shoots, completely across town from each other. In the morning, I performed as a Secret Service Agent for the American Film Institute thesis film, PAWN, directed by Jeremiah Friedman. The crew was amazingly efficient and we were in and off the shoot in no time flat. Following this, I headed down to Orange County for a project entitled Dianetics in the 50's, a short film being prepared for the Church of Scientology. I played a meeting recordist in a recreation of a lecture given by L. Ron Hubbard to his London-based staff in the early 1950's. The film was directed by Michael Gilchrist with Golden Era Productions. Again, it was a short and sweet shooting session, topped off with some great Chinese food!

My Little Mountain Town

Los Angeles, California. In keeping with my recent theme of highlighting the unexpected aspects of Los Angeles, I took a side trip today to the nearby Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area. You may recall from an earlier post that I was working on a film called Ticket to Ride earlier this week. The film was shooting in this park and I was so impressed by the view of snow covered mountains (see my Snows of Los Angeles post) that I just had to come back for some photos. And the park has more to offer than just this view. It is a pleasant wooded hilltop area, perfect for a family outing and seems great for birds (I even saw a hawk on the shoot day). Of course I have to gripe about the abundant eucalyptus, not to mention the adjacent oil field (see oil well picture below) - although the latter is interesting in its own right. I did have one big regret of the day and that is that I have had some camera difficulty. While checking out the oil wells, I met an amazing musician by the name of Erol Griffin. Erol was camped out on the side of the road, right by an oil well, playing some killer jazz. The juxtaposition of the incredible music with the oil well was a sight to see and Erol kindly let me film a bit of his work. Unfortunately, the file ended up being corrupted, so I'll have to leave it to your imagination!


My trip to Kenneth Hahn was only the midpoint of a great Los Angeles Saturday. The cold spell we have been having snapped and temperatures were in the high 70s today. We also have a nice swell coming in, so I started the day with a little surf in Marina del Rey, just north of the Venice Pier. As I can't film myself out in the water, I went back at sunset to take a few shots for you. Unfortunately, the best surfing takes were among the files to be lost along with Erol's oil well jazz. However, I have included a little sunset montage here for you. The winds shifted onshore in the afternoon, so it doesn't reflect the beautiful glassy conditions from this morning - complete with dolphins and sea lions keeping us company in the line up!

Finally, after sunset, I stopped by my neighbor's art show. I am extremely lucky to live adjacent to some of L.A.'s most talented artists - including Dustin Otterbach, Cain and Pie's Little Army - and tonight was an open invitation for everyone to check out their wares on Catamaran. There is a video clip of this for your viewing pleasure as well!

Another Week on the Westside

Marina del Rey, California. The picture below is the Venice Pier this evening. Beautiful sunset! I just came off the beach now to write you this blog post.

This week has been a bit slow, mostly running around to auditions and the like. However, on Tuesday, I worked background on a film called Ticket to Ride (also called The Post Grad Survival Guide) with Michael Keaton and Carol Burnett. Then, yesterday, I appeared as a guest on Lesbian Knows Best, discussing ocean conservation concerns with host, Vicki Wagner.

Finally, on a humorous side note, my IMDb Starmeter has once again climbed to a new record! This week I am #74,995.

Getting to Know the Neighbors

Marina del Rey, California. This weekend, other than getting things organized on the homefront, has been about getting to know my neighbors a bit better. On Friday night, I joined Venice the Menace (VTM) Comandante Scott Braman for a performance of The Quick Six, a mean band composed largely of VTM co-conspirators. Then, last night, friend and former Conservation International (CI) colleague, Hari Balasubramanian swong over from Silverlake to the Westside and we were able to catch up for a bit. Hari has the all time sweetest job at CI. Well, it's the sweetest if your thing is being based in LA rather than DC and spending 75% of your time traveling to remote jungles and coral reefs on every continent!

Following my meet up with Hari, I swung back over the neighborhood for a party hosted by my next door neighbor, actor Andrew Keegan. Hosted in an off-the-hook penthouse condo across the street, this was my first night to really hang out with my eclectic neighbors including marine biologist, Craig Schuman; artists, Dustin Otterbach and CAIN, and holistic health and fitness guru, Sandie West. The party was, well, WOW! Just imagine the stereotypical Los Angeles high life party from the movies and you get the idea...

This Week in Hollywood!

Hollywood, California. Just a quick update on some recent activities and news. Yesterday, I worked on an Internet film project with Fred Armisen and the team from Funny Garbage. My part was as a seminar attendee in a comedic short entitled 1,000 Virgins. The short is scheduled to appear on Super Deluxe sometime this spring.

On the exciting news front, I was also cast this week to play Captain Bacca in a film entitled The Mandalorian Legacy, directed by Aaron M. Johnson. This film is a Star Wars spin-off that follows the life of Boba Fett - one of the all time coolest characters of the Star Wars galaxy! Filming begins in April, so be sure to check back here or The Mandalorian Legacy website for updates!

Part of Your Network

Malibu, California. Yesterday, I worked on a Verizon commerical being filmed at beautiful Zuma Beach in Malibu. I was a company worker (you know, part of your network...). It was a perfect day and the site was absolutely stunning - almost Hawai'i-esque. There was also a nice small swell coming in, so I'll be back there for some surfing before long. Here are a couple of pictures of Zuma at sunrise, the waves and a video of yours truly, as part of your network!