It's Thursday and I'm Too Tired to Think of a Good Title.

The Oscars were fantastic!!! And so was the party. :)

As usual, I took lots of notes. But, as the subject of this blog warns you, I'm too tired! I'll just say that I got 19 categories correct--woo-hoo! And then I'll post a few pics:

No, nevermind. I somehow managed to save them in a different folder than I had intended, so who knows where they are? And I don't wanna upload them again!

Next time, I promise. :)

I had a voiceover audition for Target.com earlier this week, and have a film audition this Sunday--woo-hoo! Still working on getting to Baz Luhrmann...I have a couple very tine--very tiny--ways that may help. :) I'll keep you updated.

Lana Veenker, a Portland-based casting director (TWILIGHT, INTO THE WILD, CORALINE) posted this blog today:

Acting and Modeling Scams

Which led to THIS from the FTC.

It's always good to be wary. Though most of you probably already know this stuff, consider it a friendly reminder. :)

Okay...time to forage for dinner and get caught up on LOST--one of this season's best shows! (Aside from PUSHING DAISIES, which is now pushing up daisies because no one was watching it! Don't get me started on that.)

I miss you, Piemaker.

Oscar Frenzy!

It's everyone's favourite time of year!!!!!! Okay, maybe just my favourite time of year.

Awards Season!!!

This is my Super Bowl, baby. This is my...ummm...my Oscars. :p

Tomorrow we'll have our annual party

...this year's dinner comes from the Best Picture nominees, as always!

The Curious Case of Beer

Milk

The Reader's Brats

Slumdog Curry

and Frosty/Nixon.

We'll also be having Heath crumble cookies. (I'm trying not to call them Heath Crumbles, because that's...kind of sad. ) Kris will be making a Two-Face Cake in protest of The Dark Knight not being nominated for Best Pic, and we'll also be having La Maison en Petite Quiche.

Definitely comfort food! There's not even a vegetable! Shame on me for forgetting that. Eek. Ah, well. It's the Oscars. Add some champagne into the mix, and it's a glorious night all around! Plus we'll be in our pajamas...sooooooo comfy while I drool over Rob Pattinson presenting. (I'm pretty sure he will be, anyway. It's all a huge secret!)

Speaking of secrets, I'm pretty excited for this year's Oscars. It's going to be completely different from past shows. I think Hugh Jackman will make a great host--you know some song and dance will be involved, so: yay! I've already decided one year I'm going to perform with him for the Tonys or the Oscars. Yet another goal. I only have 3000 goals to meet before I die. Not a big deal. One of these days I'll have to blog about them. :)

Some of the presenters won't be on the red carpet--at all, adding to the element of surprise and mystique (and ratings?) the new producers are going for. But what I'm most looking forward to is this "structure" everyone's whispering about. The awards are supposed to be given out with some sort of structure to the evening, like a story, in a way. Whaaa...? I don't know what it's about, but I like it already!

I'm a little peeved that they're doing a medley of the nominated songs, instead of featuring the full song. Thank goodness they didn't do that last year, when "Falling Slowly" won. I'd been talking about that movie for ages, but it took the performance on the Oscars to get a lot of people to see it.

I heard Peter Gabriel's not a happy camper. And won't be performing. He can pout in his corner all he wants--he's not ruining my Oscar Night!

As usual, I've waited till the last minute to really do my research. Ugh. There are a couple categories that I just cannot decide. (I'm looking at you, Actor and Supporting Actress! Damn the lot of you!)

Anyway...as I do every year, here is my list of who I think will (and/or should) win, major categories only. You'll have to wait till Monday to find out how many I got right in all the categories!

BEST PICTURE

Will win: Slumdog Millionaire

Should win: Milk

Slumdog was a great movie, don't get me wrong. I loved it! But I'm not sure it deserves all the hype it's getting. Still, it's a good movie and I won't be displeased when it wins. :) "It is written."

BEST ACTOR

Ugh. Ugh, ugh, ugh.

Will win: Beats the heck outta me! Sean Penn or Mickey Rourke. I haven't seen The Wrestler, but domestic audiences seem to love Mickey...which bodes well for an Oscar win. All the foreign awards went to Penn...but most people are saying Mickey Rourke will walk away with it. I'm still trying to decide!

BEST ACTRESS

Will win: Kate Winslet, my BFF

Should win: Kate, Meryl, or Melissa.

I haven't seen Revolutionary Road yet, but I understand that's Kate's strongest performance. She really should have been nominated for a supporting actress for The Reader, but...*sigh* She wasn't, so...here we are. Meryl and Kate. Meryl and Kate. I think Kate will finally, finally get her Oscar this year. But...Meryl Streep.....hmmm...

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Will win: Heath Ledger

Should win: Heath Ledger.

I think the NY Times said it best: "An indelible performance and an untimely death."

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Will win: Uhhh...

Should win: Uhhh...Viola Davis.

For me, it's between Viola and Penelope. But people are saying Amy Adams could be the upset here, with so many votes being split between the other two. And this category is a "who the heck knows" every year. (See last year: Tilda Swinton.) I'll decide...sometime before 11 PM tomorrow night! (I may have to pause it before they announce, like we did last year!)

BEST DIRECTOR

Will win: Danny Boyle

Should win: Danny Boyle or Gus Van Sant

For other categories, I'm going with Man on Wire for Best Docu. Having a hard time deciding between The Class and Waltz with Bashir for foreign-language.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see. :)

Oh, and just so you know: my first Oscar will be for Daisy Buchanan in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby. I'm going to make a name for myself before casting goes underway, and I am putting myself on Baz's radar. I am Daisy. And that Oscar will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.

Baz Luhrmann + The Great Gatsby = Holy cow! A dream movie for me!!!!!! MUST. BE. IN. IT.

Start the good juju now. I'll need more than ever before!

Voiceover Auditions!

Tonight in my voiceover class, I'll be recording auditions for three characters in an upcoming cartoon called THE LEGEND OF SANTA CLAUS. Guess who's already in it?! Zooey Deschanel, Sarah Silverman,  Andy Richter, Richard Dreyfuss!

This would be another way to help get my SAG card...keep sending your juju!!!

Onwards and Upwards!

First, I should start with SERPENT RISING.

I did not get the role, and that's okay. :) Really! Once Julian Lee (www.julianjunglee.com) was cast as the lead, I had a feeling my chances got even smaller. He's in his 50s, and though he doesn't look it, he still looks older than I do and no amount of acting would make people believe that I had a massive crush on him.

That may not be why I wasn't cast, it's just what I suspect. It's happened a few times before. (It's why I wasn't cast as Nelly in South Pacific, though I was clearly the only one who could play her!) Wow, that sounded conceited. I didn't mean it like that at all. It's harder to cast men most times, because there just aren't as many auditioning. So when they get a good one, they have to go with it! And that's what happened with South Pacific. *shrugs*

I know they (the people for SR) really liked me and want to work with me in the future, so maybe one of their next films, which have bigger budgets and will be filmed in Chicago and New Zealand. Um, yeah...sign me up for the NZ one!

Onwards and upwards!

I'm hoping to start filming the detective show within the next couple of months, but I have no clue what's going on with pre-production at this point.

There will be an audition for a film called JIMMY SAID pretty soon. I went to a workshop the writer gave Saturday on cold reads, and was able to see sides of some of his other scripts. It's hard to find a good writer, especially around here, but I loved his stuff! I'm especially interested in another one of his. It won't be cast for a while, they're still drumming up interest. I'm hoping I can at least be included in the table read.

Speaking of the cold read workshop--it went well! I'm a sick puppy, in that I actually love cold reads. But part of my resolution is to "hone my craft" more through the year, and this was a perfect way to continue doing that. I'm so glad I did--I met some new people, Paddy Sheridan (the screenwriter) among them. And I learned some things I wasn't aware of, which is why I went!

I'm a theatre kid first, film second. That doesn't mean I prefer theatre to film...I just mean that I was trained in theatre first. So I tend to be overdramatic in some things. I've toned it down a lot over the past couple of years...in fact, my theatre auditions aren't really dramatic enough anymore!

But it still comes out on occasion. Paddy first gave us Dr. Seuss books to read from...and since it's Dr. Seuss it was just second nature to be dramatic and add motions and actions and what-not. Paddy reminded me that film is "all here," framing his face with his hands.

Turns out, you're not really supposed to do the actions so much. Which was so hard for me, but I found keeping my free hand in my pocket worked well. And he told me that I was very talented and he could see why I'm getting roles.

So that's good! I'm excited for the JIMMY SAID  auditions. They should be announced sometime this week, and they'll begin filming in April. We'll see. I have no clue if there's even a part for me, but I plan on auditioning anyway.

Troy helped me *ahem took over* edit my slate and another (happier) monologue. It looks fantastic, and it makes me laugh! He hasn't emailed it to me, or I'd put it up everywhere. :)

The Oscars are next week--hope everyone's ready!

Finis.

the scattering

I feel like I should be writing at least one blog a week...not only to keep my name out there--ha, ha--but to keep my goals and dreams always foremost in my mind.

You know those quizzes that will occasionally make the rounds on Facebook and MySpace? One of the questions is usually, "What are you most afraid of?" For me, the answer is always "Not meeting my goals, failing to make my dreams come true."

Well, that...and aliens.

But if I had an Oscar in my hand, I think I could face an alien. First of all, I could throw the eight-and-a-half pound statuette at it to give me a little bit of time to escape. And maybe it would hurt, if thrown in just the right way and at the right place. Where are aliens weakest, I wonder?

An Oscar would not only mean a life-long goal achieved, it's also a lifesaver. See? It's a good thing, as Martha always says. :)

Still no word on SERPENT RISING. Your continued good juju to the Universe is much appreciated, my friends! It may be a while. There's never a set time for these things...you just have to wait. I do know they start filming on 2nd March, so that gives us some idea of when they'll let me know! I also know that Julian Lee will be playing Paul and Sean Young will be Geraldine. (Sean Young!) They're still in talks with John Savage, too. :)

I had great advice from my boss this week. He asked, "If the universe doesn't think you can handle the waiting, how will it know you can handle getting the role and having that potential change in your life?"

I had been pretty cranky last week. I'm not a patient person, and I was letting the waiting get to me, unfortunately. But when Bob said that...wow...that really opened my eyes.

Not so cranky, anymore! Also just not dwelling on it. I'll get the news when I get it.

There are a lot of projects coming up to look forward to, other than SR. For one, a new detective show has been written and will be produced for HDNet...I believe. I don't have all my facts straight! Troy, if you're reading this, you can leave a comment to correct me!

Anyway, it's sort of  like House (the Fox show) for detectives. And I am going to be playing the main guy's partner. I've read the first script, and I really like it. I'm not featured much in that one, which is fine. "It's not always about me!" Tee-hee! But it's a good script, and that'll be a lot of fun to work on.

Another project I may potentially be attached to is a children's cartoon (Pixar-like animation). It's being developed for Noggin TV (Nickelodeon's 24-hour commercial-free channel). It's very cute...it features kids from many cultures...it's adorable. I think what they have in mind for me is an occasional guest voice. They added a line for the first show...something like, "Thanks for all the fruit!" So, things like that. I'm not picky! I just want to work, work, work!

Except in porn. I will put my foot down on that!

I'm building up my voiceover reel, and my film reel. I'm even learning how to edit it myself. So it may be a while before I have it up, but it's going to look good. Once I get the hang of it!

I've recently attached myself to a project that I believe needs to be made. It's a film called The Scattering based on a book called "because they never do" by Patrick Monaghan. It's a true story about Patrick's great-great grandparents who escaped the Famine in Ireland, each thinking the other dead. They run into each other in Rhode Island...it's an amazing story. Not just a love story, but history--and you know how much of a sucker I am for that. Patrick tells me that there really hasn't been any movies about the Famine...which is a shame. It's a part of our heritage that shouldn't be forgotten.

Richard Harris was originally attached to the script, before his death. Yes--Richard Harris! The film has spiraled down since then, momentum  and interest slowing. Everyone was sure this would be an Oscar-winning role for Harris, and I think they just didn't have the heart to continue without him.

But not anymore.  I am now an Official Fan, and you will hear me discuss The Scattering in the future! I've promised Patrick to help in any way I can--and he knows I'll be begging for an audition when the time comes. ;)

I've read the script, which is wonderful...I've seen the powerpoint presentation with music that will be used in the film by artists like Loreena McKennit...and the book "because they never do" should be arriving in the mail any day now.

I urge you to visit www.blackthornscribe.com to learn more about this story. And keep in mind, every bit of it is true.

"An Scaipthe"
(The Scattering)

Her branches stripped bare
Swept clean by the raging storm
Her children scatter beyond the sea
She grieves.

She grieves hidden by a pervasive, perpetual darkness
Ireland wasn’t dying
She was ending.

And so with a son’s promise to his mother
They leave.

They leave promising someday that they will return to her
And she knowing all the time that they never would
Because they never do.

And then they are gone, forever gone
Scattered beyond her shores
Scattered beyond the seas
Scattered.

And so she waits.

Silently.

Broken.

Alone.

I'm considering using this as a monologue for my reel. I wanted to do a scene from the script, but there's not much in the way of female monologues. And finding a gentleman with a good Irish accent isn't exactly easy. ;)

Okay, I need to get started on household projects now, and stop dreaming about film projects!

Thanks for reading!

The Waiting Game

I did get callbacks for Serpent Rising. They had me read for Maria a few times, and then Rose once or twice. I love callbacks, because you get a partner if your scene requires one, and you can actually act it out a bit more.

When I walked in, there were about 7-8 people there. Larry, the writer/director announced me and they all started to cheer. Jason, the guy reading for Paul--I think he actually *is* Paul--turned to me and said, "Don't you wish every audition began like this?" YES. What a reception! So we had fun the moment I walked in.

I found out a bit more about the movie...it's an action-thriller a la The Bourne Trilogy...and they're trying to get John Savage as one of the cops! This would be the biggest project I've worked on to date. For sure!

I told my agent I wanted to do my own stunts, and he said, "No, you don't. If you get hurt, that's forever. 'Body double!!!' " He's right, but...man, I'd like to do some rolling around with a gun! LOL...

Anyway, that was Thursday. I did very well, I'm quite pleased with the audition. And now we play the Waiting Game. It's hard not to be impatient. And I like to go around thinking--and talking--like I already have the part. I'm putting all that good juju into the universe...and thanks to all of you who are doing the same. :)

I know I'm on a short list, I just don't know how short. I also know that they were going to cast a gal from LA, but then I auditioned. I can't tell you how thrilling it was to hear that! That made my month, man!

I've been saying for months now that 2009 is my year. It SO is.

Thanks for reading, guys. Don't forget to subscribe to the RSS to stay up-to-date on all my goings-on. This promises to be a busy year... :)

Cannon, out.

*kablooey!*

I'm such a dork. :p