Things have been very exciting lately in Britternet Land. As you may recall from my last post, I got drunk in space for hundreds of thousands of people to see. 700,623 documented viewers–to be exact (as of 12pm, Sept. 4th, … Continue reading
Today… is a big deal.
I am leaving my day job to…–GASP–… ACT FULL TIME! And then… move to Los Angeles.
Yes, folks, it’s true. WHAT GOLD I HAVE STRUCK!
Let me explain.
I got a job at Artists Repertory Theatre doing the West Coast premiere of The Big Meal by Dan LeFranc. And let me tell you… I have never been so excited to do a play…EVER. The script is amazing, the cast is amazing, the director is amazing… I am on cloud nine. I cannot wait to get to work for our first rehearsal on Monday.
The Big Meal at ART
This show opens the beginning of September and runs through the middle of October. And then…! I am OUT. See ya, Portland, Hello Hollywood! (Read as: See ya, Moderate Stability, Hello, Poor-Britt-Living-Out-of-Her-Car-and-Only-Eating-20-Cent-Bananas!) It’s going to be rad.
Life is good. And scary. And uncertain. And thrilling. And EVERYTHING. And I love it.
ALSO! DANI returned home to LA today from her Grand India Adventure!!
TODAY IS SUCH A BIG DAY!!
Okay. I’m coming down off of my caffeine rush a little bit now, I promise.
So, I’m leaving my day job. And I’m kind of sad. I love my day job. I love the people, I love the place, I love how flexible they are with my hours and how understanding they are of my other commitments. I love how I can show up when I want, leave when I want, and– as long as the job gets done– no one seems to care. I feel very lucky. And am very grateful to have had this job for the past year and a half.
I had a going-away lunch party this afternoon.
Check this out:
awww.
Awww!
AWWWW!!!
In case you can’t tell, this last photo displays the beautiful “Advice For When You Move to LA” cards that each of my co-workers bestowed upon me. It’s pretty brilliant shit. I am keeping them forever. In my wallet.
Some of my faves include:
~”Don’t mess with people who have bad pictures of you/wearing headphones do not make farts silent/enjoy the moment”
~”Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Bynes are NOT appropriate role models”
~”Don’t get on the highways during rush hour “(impossible)
~”Stay an Oregonian–don’t use an umbrella if it rains”
~”Protect the ‘Secret’ of Portland”
~”Eat more ‘choklit’ “
-“Make sure to get a cat to keep you sane…purrrr”
…Like I said, I love my coworkers.
I am genuinely sad to leave, but I am proud to make the first big step in moving forward with what I want in my life. And I know that making that step is seldom comfortable or easy.
Today I feel lucky, content, a little shaky, and very, very grateful. You’ve been good to me, reliable-office-job… you have been good to me.
See? Look! I am so happy! Look at me filing!
I am also very grateful for the awesome crap that has been going on in my real world the past two weeks:
My (Past Couple) Week(s):
I have had excessive commercial auditions, ordered and printed my new headshots, got my reel cut (Thank you, Americonic Films!), and got a little more sleep than expected (…score).
Also, The Tamer Tamed with Portland Shakespeare Project opened:
…And we’re having a lot of fun!
Clearly. I mean, look at us.
I shot a new short film with Chris R. Wilson (We’ll Fix It In Post Productions) of Cleverbot (Do You Love Me)/Bad Signs/James Vs. Reality fame:
(c) We’ll Fix It In Post Prod.
(c) We’ll Fix It In Post Prod.
I guarantee that this film is one for the books, people. I’m not going to give it away, but let’s just say you’ll be seeing a lot of this little short all over the interwebs soon. It will be epic. And I may be a bit of an idiot in it. We shall see. But regardless, this was–hands-down–the most entertaining shoot I have ever been a part of.
this will all make sense later. I promise.
Speaking of Chris R. Wilson and his shenanigans, Cleverbot (Do You Love Me) was featured on Buzzfeed again! Seeing as I waste a shameful amount of my life on Buzzfeed looking at pictures of stoned cats and Things That Remind Me of My Childhood/ 90’s, it is crazy to see my face on there. And this happened not once, but twice! The first time (back in February) there was a thumbnail of my face at the top of the webpage in between a thumbnail of Miley Cyrus’s face and a thumbnail of Kate Middleton’s face. MIND=BLOWN. Aaaaaand… that was the high point of my life, folks! We can all go home now.
But seriously. I am going to go home now because I am about to leave my cubicle for the last time from the day job I (surprisingly) love. And that is a BOOOLD statement, coming from someone who has trouble sitting still.
Peace out, Office Job… it’s been real.
keep it classy, cubicle.
Thanks for reading, friends!
~britt
Rehearsal and prep work for the feature-film Birds of Neptune have been keeping me pretty busy. As indicated by the photo below, I think I had a bit too much fun at our makeup/camera test this past Saturday:
Molly Elizabeth Parker & I are sisters in real life, apparently.
Photo by John Campbell
Dani and I, we be nerds.
Whilst chatting during our usual I’m-Driving-In-The-Car-Let’s-Conference-Call thing that we do, Dani and I started talking all NERD up in here.
I think that it started when I said something to Britt along the lines of, “Dude, it’s funny how we (us, people) are always like ‘ERMAHGERD** MY LIFE IS ENDING’ when really, our lives are constantly beginning.” And then I said “Duuuuude it sounds like I’m stoooooned,” and the conversation quickly spiraled out of control as we talked about the possibility that human life expectancy could be extended to 150 years and which specific humans we thought might survive partial bionic conversion and how being part-android would really only be available to rich white men and how most archetypal evil geniuses are rich white men, etc., etc.
I wish I could simply re-enact the conversations that we have for all of you . I mean, how cool would it be to have a device that would download our full conversations from our brains and then transcribe them into written word? Then we could simply transfer said convo onto this blogsite. Ka-bam! No more re-inventing the wheel here. [Yeah, Britt! No more of these puny fingers and keyboards slowing down our thought vomit!] …Dani and I should be able to upload our real-life conversations directly from our mouths and brains to the interwebs. Now THAT’S how nerds think, people! And let’s be real…we often talk about some pretty interesting (and profound!) shit.
Welllllll I dunno exactly how profound we get, but I LOVE being a nerd. I think being a nerd means just being totally out of the closet about the cool things that tickle your brain in all sexiest ways. I mean… the things that get all your brain juices flowing in imagination land. In that spirit, Britt and I are gonna nerd out so hard right now. Ready, set, GO!
Okay, D, what is your ideal nerdy double-feature?? I need to come out about my obsession with these two films–which I prefer to watch back-to-back:
Ooooo solid choices, B. Mine are more questionable, and I haven’t yet watched them back-to-back, but in the spirit of being open about my nerdness, here goes.
Let me just say that I know Aeon Flux got HORRIBLE reviews and is not in the same league as 5th Element or Serenity but IT WAS AWESOME and everyone can just leave me alone with my bad taste. Also, Ender’s Game is the beginning of one of my all time favorite sci fi book series, and the movie is currently in post production. I am SO EXCITED.
I’m going to be “that guy” right now and totally nominate myself for the Nerd Of The Month Award. This photo should do all all explanation you need.
my face= the face of cleverbot.com
Yup, that happened. I will now skip my acceptance speech (you’re welcome), take my 7-ft-tall-gold-calculator-statue award, and gracefully leave the stage. Thank you, Internet.
I will second that nomination, dear Britt! Partially because I want to get my paws on that 7 ft-tall-gold-calculator-statue and flip it upside down and type HELLO in majestic gold font, but also because I do declare that you are indeed the Nerd of the Month! Britt was in a video directed by Chris R. Wilson written by A MOTHAF***IN’ ROBOT. Chris R. Wilson is being interviewed by HuffPost Live alongside the creator of Siri for the segment “Artificial Creativity”. So many nerd points!!
And also I just like taking picutre of things and putting cats on them. I’m pretty sure that counts for Nerd.
I’m gonna go ahead and round out this post with this ridiculous, un-scientific video of a Dancing Gigantoraptor, in honor of the fact that scientists recently figured out the true color of a dinosaur called Archaeopteryx, and that it had iridescent black feathers. COOOOOOL.
**ERMAHGERD:
There are many, many reasons why I admire Britt as an artist. One of them is this recent viral nugget, which is AWESOME.
Another reason, which you can see in this video, is the fearlessness and dedication with which she encounters her creative work. The thing about acting is that it is hard to forget you’re doing it while you’re doing it. It’s hard not to watch yourself in your head while you’re doing the thing that you’re supposed to be doing. (…My brain just imploded.) But Britt beautifully gets lost in the imaginative joy of it all.
I was reminded of this quality of Britt’s the other week when she mentioned her song-writing adventures with her brother, which will be happening a lot more now that they are ROOMIES!! WOOOOO!!!
Have any of you out there in internet-land ever tried to write a song and totally failed to? What was it that stopped you? Even if you are in an empty room with no one watching, it takes a lot of courage to just express yourself freely, especially using music. EVEN IF you have the courage to be honest enough with yourself to allow your truth to come out, EVEN IF you can own your point of view enough to express it: It is so easy to stop yourself, to judge your own skill as a musician, your voice, your rhyming abilities, whatever.
I have never successfully written a song. But I do have a lot of musician friends, and I can’t express how absolutely precious it is to me when one of them pulls me aside and says, “Hey I just wrote this song–can I show you?” This means that my badass, fearless friend has let something awesome coming pouring out of their soul, and I admire the hell out of it. For example, I had the great “misfortune” of growing up with a very talented musician for an older brother. In his current band, he writes sweeping, masterful 7+ minute long instrumental post-rock songs with Red Hands Black Feet, which I will now shamelessly pimp out:
redhandsblackfeet.bandcamp.com
If you have 7 minutes of leisure time in your life, they will take you on a soul-soaring journey. Also, their album is free for the downloading. PIMP.
In the spirit of admiring musicians, check out this excerpt from Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1986 commencement speech at Bryn Mawr, which I have been obsessed with lately:
“Early this spring I met a musician, the composer Pauline Oliveros, a beautiful woman like a grey rock in a streambed; and to a group of us, women, who were beginning to quarrel over theories in abstract, objective language – and I with my splendid Eastern-women’s-college training was in the thick of the fight and going for the kill – to us, Pauline, who is sparing with words, said after clearing her throat, “Offer your experience as your truth.” There was a short silence. When we started talking again, we didn’t talk objectively, and we didn’t fight. We went back to feeling our way into ideas, using the whole intellect not half of it, talking with one another, which involves listening. We tried to offer our experience to one another. Not claiming something: offering something.
How, after all, can one experience deny, negate, disprove, another experience? … People can’t contradict each other, only words can: words separated from experience for use as weapons, words that make the wound, the split between subject and object, exposing and exploiting the object but disguising and defending the subject.
People crave objectivity because to be subjective is to be embodied, to be a body, vulnerable, violable.”
Over a year ago I was having lunch with my friend Will, a mountain of a man, and I was seeking his advice about something; really floundering for words and struggling to communicate. He just looked at me with this sort of empathetic amusement in his eyes and said, “It sounds like you’re not accepting the validity of your experience.” Those words have been resonating with me ever since. As our good friend Ursula says, “How, after all, can one experience deny, negate, disprove another experience?” Musicians and songwriters, in a huge way, accept the validity of their experience and turn that into art. I think that’s what all artists do, and it’s especially why I admire songwriters so much. They offer their experience as their truth. Here’s some more Ursula:
“Singing is one of the names of the language we never learn… Yes, but it can be speeches and science, any use of language when it is spoken, written, read, heard as art, the way dancing is the body moving as art. …you hear the coming together, the marriage of the public discourse and the private experience, making a power, a beautiful thing, the true discourse of reason. …This is their baby, this baby talk, the language you can spend your life trying to learn.”
That is what I am doing with my life. I am trying to to learn this unlearned language, and offer my experience as my truth. This blog thing is a part of that, so thanks for reading.
Imma have to end this post with some Gaga. Whatever else you may say, she is artist who owns her point of view and turns it into some awesome shit. Hot damn.
