June 15, 16, and 17, 2007

The nights are cool in Los Angeles. Sometimes, when the sun’s on its way down, I catch the scent of cigarette smoke in the breeze and it hits my nose in a way that takes me back to middle school, when I used to sneak off into the woods with my friends to take awkward puffs off of a Marlboro or a Newport or a Benson Hedges that we’d pass around like a joint. It’s one of the things I miss most in life and it’s gone for good.

A passage from Tom Perrotta’s Little Children comes to mind:

Memory has a way of distorting the past, of making certain events seem larger and more significant in retrospect than they ever could have been at the time they occurred.

The other day I mentioned the Obsession cologne and the Amy Winehouse album I’ve been listening to. I know what’s coming – the missing of things – but what you prepare yourself for mentally you can never prepare yourself for emotionally. Years from now, perhaps when I have money and structure in my life, I’ll look back on all of this and it’ll be one of the things I miss most in my life and it’ll be gone for good.

But right now it’s just an air mattress and a dream.

I’ve been chiseling away at my latest script. It’s still messy and will need another rewrite, but the shape is there, and that’s the hardest part. I find myself trying to limit the amount of times my characters say “fuck”, but then I take a step back, think about who my characters are, and realize they’re saying “fuck” when they need to and when they would and that I have the right amount of “fuck’s”. In fact, I may need more.

I get a call back today from a nice guy named Cosmos. He’s heading the production on an indie short called “The Quickie” that’s shooting up in North Hollywood. He says he’ll put me on as a PA. I tell him I’m waiting to hear back from Equinox.

“No problem.”

Like I said: nice guy. We’ll see how it all works out.

Other than that, nothing else is happening. I’m still freelancing and using the restroom in dirty but familiar places. Maurice is still odd and laconic, but friendly. Today he’s walking around in a calf skirt and Willie Nelson braids – that avant garde, Little House on the Prairie look.

Oh yeah. And I’m still amazed at the horribly unfunny shit Myspace posts on its front page. The latest video is about a girl that’s dating a hammer. It’s entitled “My boyfriend is a tool”.

Hollywood has probably already secured the rights.

Shit List:

June 1: Held it
June 2: Walgreen’s on the Miracle Mile
June 3: Best Buy Culver City
June 4: Gold's Gym Hollywood
June 5: Wood Ranch at the Grove
June 6: 8000 West Sunset Boulevard (Birthday shit)
June 7: 7-11 at the corner of San Vicente and Hauser
June 8: 7-11 at the corner of San Vicente and Hauser
June 9: No urge
June 10: No place to go
June 11: Gold’s Gym Hollywood
June 12: Chipotle at the Beverly Center
June 13: Carl’s Jr. on Fairfax and Olympic
June 14: McDonald’s on Vine and Sunset
June 15: No urge
June 16: Carl’s Jr. on Fairfax and Olympic
June 17: No urge