I don't want to laugh, I promise, I don't want to...

This video was meant for no one's eyes except my mother's.  Her birthday is today, and last night, Matt and I were preparing to send her a video of us singing Happy Birthday to her.  For some reason, we could NOT stop laughing.  No matter how hard we tried (and we gave it a good college try) we couldn't keep a straight face.

Aside from obvious reasons, no one was supposed to see this cause we are looking toe up from the flo up since we were about to go to bed.  I, for one, don't have a stitch of make-up on.  And after seeing this, you'll know why I don't sing in public.  But after seeing this little compilation of us failing so miserably, we knew this comic gold could not be kept to ourselves.  So without further adieu:

 

*please notice Matt's serious "I'm trying SO hard not to break" face (1:31)

The Palm Tree and the Pine Tree

The day after Christmas happens to be my birthday.  I turned the big 2-3 this year (ok it's not that big), and enjoyed a day with the hubs.  As a gift, Matt bought me a top from my very favorite store, Madewell.  But the really good gift came next.  Many of you know, some of you don't, that Matt composed the song I walked down the aisle to.  You can listen to that song here:

*I started walking when the music builds and the violin comes in.

For my birthday this year, Matt composed another song for me.  He titled it "The Palm Tree and The Pine Tree".  You can give it a listen here:

"I hope that in it you hear things we've done and places we've been, 

and overall I hope you hear how much I love you."

I love it.

Christmas for Two

This year Ellen and I had a quiet Christmas by ourselves.  We're developing our own holiday traditions now, and one that I am particularly grateful for is letting Ellen cook like crazy and then freaking eating our weight in food.

This year's Christmas eve menu: Sauteed asparagus and fingerling potatoes, roasted roma tomatoes with goat cheese, filet mignon with a balsamic reduction, and baked apples for dessert.

After dinner we opened our gifts from each other and from our parents.....

And all day on Christmas we took it easy.  Ellen made a frittata for breakfast, and that night we went to see a movie.  It was a great Christmas that Ellen and I got to spend together, and even though we always want to see our families, especially this time of year, it was nice to just have a quiet, relaxed Christmas for two.

Potty Humor

Hands down, our favorite pilot from this past season of TV was Fox's Lone Star.  It only lasted two episodes, but it was well written, well acted, and had the potential to be a great story.  The writer of that show, Kyle Killen, also has a blog that we've started following since we became fans of the show.  Please click this link and read his latest entry.  It's one of the funniest stories I've heard in a very, very long time.

Merry Christmas to you.

Rainy Day

It has ben raining three days straight here in LA.  A rare treat for us.  Or at least I am choosing to look at it that way.

Matt and I have been snuggling on the couch all day with only a candle lit and the Christmas tree lights on.  We have watched Mad Men, The Holiday, and both finished an entire book.  We took a bath and listened to the perfect rainy day playlist.  We made brownies and ate straight from the pan with a fork.  

Tonight, I will thank the Lord for this weather and the wonderfully romantic day it gave me.

Engage-A-Day 2010

3 years ago today in New York City I asked Ellen to be my wife.

3 years later, we're living in Los Angeles and we're very happy to be together.

Given the choice, I'd ask her again in a heartbeat.

Picture Post: Community Group

"I'm using this pic for our submission to ABDC, season six." - Cody Gibbs*

This is our LA family.

Every Wednesday night, the people in the picture above (minus a few) come to our home. We spend time together, study God's word, and pray for each other. We really do have SO much fun with them. To say they are a blessing to us is an understatement. Matt and I feel like we have met life long friends in this group and are so glad the Lord has blessed us with their friendship.

A couple weeks ago, our Community Group divided in two because, once again, it grew in size. Now, half the group has stuck around and still meets at our place and the other half meets at Annie's in Los Feliz. It really is bittersweet because we definitely miss seeing some of them every Wednesday night, but we are genuinely excited that a new group has been planted. But, it isn't like we don't see everybody during the week and at church on Sundays.  If we didn't, I think we'd go crazy.

*ABDC = America's Best Dance Crew

Top Chef: Fantasy Challenge

Ever since season one I have been a fan of Top Chef. The new season (which premiered 2 weeks ago) is actually Top Chef All Stars. They've brought back some old contestants who almost won but didn't quite make it, many of them actually being the runner up of their season. Some of my friends are fans of the show as well and we decided to create "Top Chef: Fantasy Challenge." It works a lot like fantasy football for any of you sports people out there (me not being one of them).

First we had to draft our teams and we chose picking order by drawing names out of a hat. I got to pick second! On my team I have Angelo, Carla (forever my favorite), and Fabio as my normal draft picks and Richard as my wildcard pick (meaning I could have him on my team regardless if someone else snatched him up yet).

I am competeing with four other teams, and this is how scoring works:

QUICKFIRE CHALLENGES
Winner (if individual challenge): 3 points
Winner (if team challenge): each chef on the team receives 2 points
Mentions in the top: 1 point
Mentions in the bottom (team or individual challenge): -1 point

ELIMINATION CHALLENGES
Winner (if individual challenge): 5 points
Winner (if team challenge): if one chef is identified as the winner on the winning team, s/he receives 4 points, all other chefs on the winning team receives 2 points (if only one team is invited to Judges' Table) or 3 points (if more than one team is invited to Judges' Table)
Invited to Judges' Table (in the top): 2 points
Invited to Judges' Table (in the bottom, team challenge): each team member loses 1 point
Invited to Judges' Table (in the bottom, individual challenge): -2 points
Eliminated: -3 points

BONUSES
Every chef that survives each week receives 1 additional point
Every chef on the winning team of Restaurant Wars will receive 1 additional point

FINALE SCORING
All chefs that make the finale receive a bonus 3 points
Chefs will no longer receive any deductions in the Finale rounds
The winner of Top Chef: All Stars will receive a bonus 5 points (on top of the 5 points s/he wins for that challenge)

It is serious stuff. I am happy to report that I am currently in the lead! BUT we have a long season ahead of us and that could change oh so quickly. Am I a huge nerd? Yes, but I'm loving it.

Picture Post: Lots of Screenings

This week we went to The Social Network (which you read about), True Grit (which was awesome) and How Do You Know (which wasn't).

Farm Fresh to Us

We've gone local! Let me explain.

Since we started watching LOST, Matt and I have been following Jorge Garcia via his blog about life in Hawaii. When he moved to LA, Jorge started a new blog and one day this post caught my eye. In it, he explains how he subscribed to a CSA called Farm Fresh to You in order to be more intentional about supporting local farmers and eating organic produce.

I thought this was pretty brilliant and researched around to see if this is something that we could afford and incorporate into our lives. Turns out we could and we did! For the low price of $25 dollars ever other week, we get a box of locally grown fruits, vegetables, and herbs delivered to our door step. The price actually hasn't affected us at all because we do our grocery shopping every two weeks and have just cut our budget by $25 which is almost what we were spending on fresh produce anyways. Matt and I LOVE our grocery store Fresh and Easy (seriously, we should be the spokespeople for it) but one thing it does lack is a bountiful produce section. It is more like one long aisle instead of an entire section of the store. So now with the combination of our grocery store and the CSA we have the perfect balance.

I love the Tuesday mornings when we get our box. Every other week something new is inside and I know that whatever it is it is freshly picked and in season. It has forced me to get creative with some of my cooking since we sometimes get things I have never even heard of. Still, before we ever received a box, we were able to list things that we don't like (brussell sprouts anyone?) and those things will never ever be put in our box. It is pretty great! I also love how the farmer always includes a newsletter in the box that includes a personal letter from him that explains what has been happening on the farm. It is so fun being a little greener and a little healthier!

The Social Network, again

As we've blogged about before, Ellen and I are getting a lot of invitations to special screenings of films that are campaigning for Oscar nominations. This past Sunday night we saw The Social Network (again) with a post-screening conversation with Aaron Sorkin and Armie Hammer.

It was a really cold night here in LA, and we were having one of our thrice-yearly rainstorms. We got to the screening 45 minutes early but still had to wait in line to get inside behind around 100 people. Once we made it inside the theatre filled up pretty quickly and you could tell everyone in the room was excited to see this great movie one more time.

That's the cool thing about going to these screenings. Everyone in the room is a member of one of the entertainment guilds: Screen Actors Guild, Directors Guild, Writers Guild, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, etc. Everyone in the room shares the same love for entertainment, which makes for a really cool vibe during a screening. Everyone is just excited to be there watching the movie, and everyone is particularly excited to hear the question and answer with the filmmakers/actors afterwards. And that is the best part.

Aaron Sorkin

Once the movie was over you could tell everyone was on edge waiting for Aaron Sorkin and Armie Hammer to come out. Finally they did, and they were such easy-going, cool people. Aaron Sorkin is certainly a formally educated writer, and he had some great insight on screenwriting and life in general. When asked his opinion on social networking and the internet, he told us that despite the ease of access to information, social networking bred inhuman, insincere relationships and the internet was a hotbed for wrong information. He said that at some point recently he'd become his grandfather.

Armie Hammer

Armie Hammer was also really interesting. He plays a set of twins in the movie, and he told us how that worked technically on set. There was another actor there who fed him lines, then when it was time for him to switch characters everyone would leave set and David Fincher would set up a couple of tennis balls in place of the other actors for his eye line. He was hearing audio from his previous takes in a hidden earphone and responding to that. It would have been extremely difficult to pull off, and he does a fantastic job. Another thing that's very encouraging to me about Armie's story is his relative lack of previous work. He had a short guest run on Gossip Girl, but aside from that his experience on film is not drastically different from mine. He's just an amazing talent and he has the right agent to get him into the right rooms. And the next thing you know, he lands a meaty part in a David Fincher film.

We'll keep updating you as we learn more stuff, meet more people, and see more film. We're praying that one day soon I'll be doing a Q&A. Until then I'm available for birthday parties and bar mitzvas.

Picture Post: Celebrating Cody's Birthday

Tonight was our friend Cody's birthday, and we celebrated with him at the super-cool Bigfoot Lodge West in Culver City. It's a bar modeled after what appeared to be a ski lodge from 1984, and I mean that in the best way possible. It wasn't too crowded but it wasn't empty; it wasn't too loud but it wasn't quiet. It was a very cool place and I'm sure we'll be back soon. Here's our friends who were there, and please forgive the terrible photo. It was taken with a phone in a dark room.

This is our friend Annie. I'd like to let you all know that my glasses were her inspiration for getting those glasses you see. I'm impacting millions.

My family calls my glasses "birth control" glasses because of their nerdiness. Judging by this picture I'm not so sure they're controlling much....

Our Christmas House

Our house is decorated for Christmas!  It was so great to properly decorate after last year where we were living in our tiny studio and had a two foot tall tree.  This is what our house is looking like these days:

The Tree

I am all about some white lights on a tree.

The Centerpiece

The Stockings

I am a little more than sad that we never got to decorate this mantel and 

hang our stockings from it.  This year, this solution will have to do.

The Coffee Table

This candle makes our house smell SO good.

The Nutcracker

Cause it isn't Christmas without one.

My "Days Off"

As you all no doubt know, Ellen and I moved to LA so I could continue my career as an actor. What maybe you don't all know is that being an actor in LA means you better find a side job or you'll go broke. My "survival job" is working at an Apple Store in Beverly Hills. I work behind the Genius Bar fixing iPhones, and I also train our customers on how to use our machines and software. I only work part time at Apple, so every week I get a couple of days off. "Day off" is a pretty loose term, because being an actor is a full time job that pays like a part time job, so when I'm not at Apple I'm working my butt off on furthering my career. I thought maybe I'd give you guys a little look into what I actually do on my "days off."

First off: submit, submit, submit. I have an agent who submits me for roles, but this doesn't mean I sit around and wait for him to call. Casting directors for movies or TV shows release breakdowns for each role they're casting, which are basically descriptions of what each character is like. I look through these and find which roles are a good fit for me, then I submit myself for them. This could be done electronically through online casting services, or it may mean writing a cover letter and sending my picture and resume to that casting director. That's part one.

Then there's networking. This town is literally built around the entertainment industry. Almost everyone you meet is involved in the industry somehow, and part of my job as an actor building his career is to know as many of these people on a personal level that I can. I email or call producers, actors, directors....anyone I can find. Sometimes I meet these people out in public and get their email address there. Sometimes you just have to root around and find it. To a lot of people this may seem like using someone - getting to know them solely to further your own career. That's why so many people become bitter and jaded in this industry. They're either using or being used by other people. I try very hard to never do that. If there is someone I need to meet because I think they can help my career, I'm very clear with them that I'm looking for a business relationship where hopefully we can both help each other. But there are several "networking" contacts that I have developed over my time here in LA that are truly my friends. One is a producer whose movies you all have seen and have in fact been nominated for several Oscars. Another is an amazing comedic actor who you all have laughed at. These people I meet with regularly to keep up our friendship, but I am extremely careful about asking them business-related favors. Sometimes it's appropriate, a lot of times it's not. You just have to be smart about it. I don't meet with them to get ahead, I meet with them because they are great people whom I love.

I also am constantly looking for other members to add to my "team." I need an agent, manager, career coach, acting coach, etc. to help me succeed. I'm constantly looking for the perfect fit in an agent or manager to get me to the next level of roles I could be getting. Securing meetings with agents or managers is possibly the most difficult of all tasks I try to do.

Next, I audition. It's amazing how the Lord works out my schedule. Miraculously, 8 out of every 10 auditions I land come on my days off. I think God knows I need to be at work to make money, so He works things out like that. I am so grateful. This step is kind of self explanatory. I go into a room with a script, pretend like I'm someone else, read a few lines like that other person I'm pretending to be, and hope the casting director wants to later pay me to keep pretending I'm that person. That's about all there is to it.

Lastly, I hone my craft. I work on scenes, I read acting books, I go to class. You have to be ready when an opportunity comes your way, so this step is extremely important.

Maybe this gives you some more insight into what a working actor does. I need just about all day every day to get this stuff done, but I only have a few days a week to make it happen. It takes a lot of discipline that often I don't have. I always love prayer for that sort of thing. If this is a subject you're at all interested in, I would recommend getting the DVDs to the HBO series Unscripted. It's an amazing look at what happens to young actors trying to build a career.

Well, while I've been writing this blog post I could have submitted to about 10 new shows, so I better get going.