If one were to ask me what my favorite food is I would answer…the Hamburger. My cousin in Atlanta recently told me about the best Hamburger in America.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann’s_Snack_Bar
The best in the nation? That’s a bold statement! The BEST hamburger? Hmm…I had to check this out for myself. So my cousin and I set out to find and try this best Hamburger in America.
I met my cousin James at his soul food restaurant (a def blog to come) around 2pm. One of his employees Barbara gave us directions to Ann’s Snack shop, the home of the infamous Ghetto Burger. She said I was going to be full and walked away. A warning? No, a promise! Read more...
I use to think that about what people around me could help me…100% of the time the results never served me, as a person, in business, in life. Disappointment always lead to anger and closed off eyes to the new. Once I made the mental shift to how I may contribute to the lives of the people around me the surprising result was the people around me appeared to be a wealth of knowledge that contributed to growth personally, business, and an overall healthier way of life. Read more...
Can’t sleep, went for an easy 7 maybe longer didn’t have any gps gear. The humidity is keeping me up at night. I decided to put on my shoes and just go til I had to come back. Running has become my place of rest now. My mind is quiet when I run. Thoughts calm to a thick and slow tempo. I got lost around mile 6- maybe. A couple of stray dogs chased me for half a block. I’m faster than any homeless dog. Fear also ads an urgency to ones step. Read more...
I run into a friend and he introduces me to a guy he just met…he happens to be a Gypsy. I never met a Gypsy before. Ignorance and media has put a stereotype in my head. There is no crystal ball, no creepy old lady, no horse drawn cart. Just normal dude with normal looks, normal conversation. Local scene, family talk, politics talk, mostly bla, bla bla talk. His wife and kids come by and ask for a picture and I ask “how long he has been married?”…‘twelve years, she cost $32,000′….”huh?”…”yeah 32 g’s”…huh? He goes on to tell me that in the Gypsy culture a man pays the parents money for a bride. 32 for a virgin and 25 for a non virgin. pretty much it’s a dowery, many cultures share this custom. However, in the Gypsy culture it’s a bit more complicated. Read more...
5:13 am. ”That’s a wrap!” Last day on set feels like saying goodbye to relatives after spending a summer with them. Indi films rarely feel like a summer vacation, more like a suicide deployment to Afganistan. There is a fine line between a good indi film and a horrible one. You are at the mercy of so many things on a film, weather, locations, etc, etc. With money you can buy your way out some problms, on a Indi film your currency goes as deep as your belief in the film. It’s amazing how far sincerity and belief in something goes. However, there is a thin line between belief and lunacy. By the second week, people are way too tired, way under payed, way too sick. Idealistic fervor is replaced with thoughts of regret and time waisted. Think of it like a battalion of soldiers. It’s nice a exciting when you start but you quickly realize the reality of not having enough of anything to fight a fair fight. Read more...
Fiancée mad at me… she in hate me mode. It’s periodic…will pass, passed in the past hopefully it will once more. Really, nothing life and death, just normal relationship editing. With each hurtful moments comes a lesson of the utter waste of energy most of the issues were about. I guess when two people love one another there is bound to be happy time recessions. If one positive thing does come out of these fights it would be that it gives me some bro time. Hanging out with your guy friends, your buds, bros, homies. And we do bro like things. What kinda things you ask? Well here is a chronological list of what me and say three dude friends would do.
1. Meet up at diner.
2. Eat
3. Talk smack about each other.
4. Catch up on FYI news. Job family kids health politics cars sports interesting places.
5. Drink something. Johnny walker black rocks.
6. Talk life lessons.
7. Talk smack some more. Read more...
In fourth grade I was asked by a few friends of mine to join their break dance crew. The crews name was the Gigolo Five. With me we would be the Gigolo six. Popping and breaking were at its height, movies like Breaking had come out and kids all over America had dreams of being the freshest, ill-est, dancer on the floor.
Now my moves were pretty fresh. At least it was in my living room. I would force my baby sister and my mom to critique my ‘Fresh’ routine nightly. My sister thought I was Fly and my mom thought, well she felt all that spinning and centipeding on the ground wore down my clothes too fast. It didn’t matter, if she didn’t like it, I knew it was because I was so ‘Off the hook’. Read more...
I’ve had a restaurant for nearly seven years already. How time flies. I don’t have children but maybe to a certain lesser degree the restaurant is a bit like having a child. Well at least the cliche’ of worrying about them all the time. Man! That thing is a living, breathing baby! For the most part the restaurant has given me a wealth of life experience that will help me. Experience in leadership, teamwork, money, and the value of hard work. However, sometimes I don’t like it. Sometimes I down right hate it. Like this morning, I woke up in a cold sweat because I dreamt that my cooks didn’t show up to work. I’m sure there is a deeper subconscious reason I had that dream but the fact that I have nightmares about that place concerns me. Read more...
I had to consider for a moment before admitting that one of the actors that influenced me to become an actor has tragically passed. I realized our influences are unique and they make each of us who we are, so I freely admit that I have been a fan of Gary Coleman. I feel as if I’ve lost a cousin. In a way Gary Coleman and I grew up together. I would come home and no matter how the day had turned out, at 4:00 PM I had play time with Arnold and Willis. I hoped Arnold’s catch line would be cleverly used so I could repeat to my friends at the school the next day. In hind site, it was a interesting time for television from the mid 70′s to the mid 80′s. The subtle indication of progress is we assume ethnic representation was always around. Read more...
I was influenced and taught at an early age, say around 12 years old that I should be like “that person” or that person. Follow in the foot steps of that or this person and you too will be a criteria for someone else’s model of success. “Thinking“, about self and how one can evolve into the best “you” is the first and d often times the most challenging stage to actual successful “self improvement”. Self Improvement, in essence is a very relative definition. Before I forget or loose the aroma of the lesson I learned in my ‘self tune up’ if you will… I will write them down in this blog. Read more...
You ever wake up and realize that Calculus problem was not as challenging as you thought? Once you learn the steps to understand the question, the answer is often more pragmatic. I’ve been facing crippling conditions of “Self Confidence”, or the lack of. Something I’ve had since a child. Often times, ‘Self Confidence’ is an over used catch phrase, cheapening the value of the skill. However, there lies a difference between confidence and conceit. Finding fluency in one while defending from the other is the exercise. Read more...
After leaving the nut job manager, I found a guy who hustled for me. Believed in me. Pushed me. Never said to no to me. That manager was me. Seven of us from acting class pooled our tip money from waiting tables or bartending and got the ‘breakdowns’ every morning. ’Breakdowns’ are a daily list of projects and the roles being cast. Two of us would look through the breakdown and see what was right for everyone on the team. We made letterheads and envelopes with some phony Management name. Each day we would take turns delivering the submissions around town. The submissions looked official. This is highly risky, highly a hustle. The phone number was a pager with a nice sounding outgoing message with voicemail. I don’t think anyone noticed no one ever picked up phone. Once casting left a message we would call back to confirm the appointment. It was shady stuff. But it was hustle or wait around for the phone never to ring. Two years passed, then one glorious day I booked my first paid job. Cal State Fullerton Univ. made educational videos about racism and cultural crap for PBS. I played a racist immigrant at a bus stop; my costar was Romany Malco from 40-year-old virgin and Weeds. Read more...
My first “acting” job in LA came from pure hustle. I heard about people getting discovered by a famous producer and the next day their face is plastered all over movie billboards. Stories like that are what ‘movies’ are made of. In my case, I knew know one and wasn’t related to anyone. And actually knew nothing about what it took to be an actor. It was a slow and sometimes frustrating learning curve. I figured things would just work itself out. Most of the time it didn’t. The thing that kept me going was that I loved to act. When I got to do it, I was happy. It’s hard explain, just…feels right. Maybe what a junky feels like when he’s high, or a drunk when he’s drunk. Bad analogy, but whatever, let’s move on. Read more...
After all the problems I caused I have realized one should be more politically correct. So we at YOMYOMF.com created this show to show that we have changed our ways.
Four movies are slated for release in the next year, including ‘Hot Tub Time Machine’ with John Cusack and Oliver Stone helmed ‘The American Dream the Tom Vue biopic’ with Sung Kang. The studio’s owners hope to sell MGM by next month.
LA Times. April 1st 2010 . By Claud Schtuss
If it were a movie, it might be called “Hollywood Parallel Universe.” This nail-biting thriller would center on a group of harried movie executives scrambling to push pictures out the door while their studio teeters on bankruptcy and is sold to the highest bidder.Read more...
