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07/15/02: Eight Legged Freaks is coming to town
July 19th along with Courtney Cox's husband, David Arquette. This is yet another epic movie filmed right here in Arizona at the defunct Valley West Mall on the southeast corner of Northern and 59th Avenues in the never-beautiful city of Glendale. Of course there is a Master Thespian connection to a movie this grand and that connection is 'Moon Valley' John. Naturally, Moon Valley John (I say that because I don't know what stage name he'll be using) trained with Master Thespian at the Herberger Theater Center. This lad is so intense it's scary. He looks a lot like James Dean, only I think MV John is better looking. John is an extra in this movie only because if they got him too close to Arquette, the audience, 'specially the girls, would be aching only for him. I believe if John sticks with it, endures the trials and the travails, he will be a well known actor before too very long. Way to go John!
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07/01/02: Are you a professional? Most of us define 'Professional' to mean that we
receive regular wages for our efforts. This being the perception, many striving thespians who have never earned any money acting, your Master included, are reticent to refer to ourselves as professionals. As my regular readers know, this writer is currently employed in the security business and at the level I'm currently laboring, only packing warm and fragrant human feces with my bare hands into used Chinese take-out containers for eight hours a day could be a worse position. (My friend Danny informed me, as security guards, "We're lower than whale shit.") In an effort to improve my standing in the security industry, I've recently been awarded my 'Certified Protection Officer' rating. The main requirement being is to be able to crush the scales with a minimum weight of 250 lbs packed into a stature of no more than 5 feet 9 inches. Inside the CPO training manual, I found this definition of a professional:
 " A true professional has the following:
1) Education relating to the profession
2) Training for the tasks and duties that must be performed
3) Experience within the profession.
4) A commitment to the profession marked by continuously striving for excellence. "
Note, that while I do receive weekly compensation for my efforts as a now 'Certified Protection Officer' officer, I do not consider myself a professional security officer anymore than Angelina Jolie considers herself to be normal. However, even though I couldn't purchase a single stick of a golden wrapped Juicy Fruit gum with my acting earnings so far, I do consider myself a professional actor.
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06/24/02:  The Culkin Rundown: Thanks to the July 2002 Premier magazine for this
rundown of the prodigious Culkin, as in Macaulay, clan. The father Christopher "Kit" Culkin is 57. The mother is Patricia Brentrup. Then there is Shane, the oldest, Dakota Culkin, a daughter, Macaulay, remember him?, Quinn another daughter, Christian, Rory and Kieran. But what I really found interesting was the fact that Bonnie Bedelia (Bruce Willis' wife in Die Hard and Die Hard 2) is the youngest sister of Father Kit Culkin who is currently living in the greatest state in the Union, Arizona.
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06/11/02: One of the great things that can happen in the acting business is that both
father and daughter (Alycesun Leigh Strupp) can participate. And enjoy. Since acting is a passion and in no way just another job, sharing even complaints and frustrations (mostly about the hours it takes to set up the lighting) can actually be great fun, because we enjoy what we're doing.
 We love to act. We live to act, it is, dare I say? in our DNA. It's not like the JOB, where we are forced to ACT like we love it. Or, at least really really appreciate our position in the pyramidal team-approach hierarchically driven homogenized economic entity that craps out our tax decimated paystub every one hundred and sixty eight hours. The JOB where we have to pretend, and sometimes are called to demonstrate, that the JOB, enjoys priority and comes before everything else in our life . . . and then later, after work, after the eight to five, or the six to two, or the eleven to seven, we drag our carcass into the sports bar or through the Kentucky Fried Chicken drive-in, or the Walgreen two-laned pharmacy, or the walk-in cooler at Albertson's or where ever we go to purchase the magic elixir which will temporarily dull the throbbing pain deep in our soul, if only until sleep thankfully draws the curtain on our consciousness. The Actor's Nightmare isn't being thrown into a play not knowing our lines. The true actor's nightmare is not having the opportunity to perform. Gawd! what a friggin' release acting is! I do so look forward to spending hours and hours memorizing my lines, giving life and soul and depth to my character, the endless rehearsals, the repeated discoveries with the goal of stepping onto stage or take and morphing my being into some acting-creature and throwing everything I am, everything I know into my performance.
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