Dreams

Dec 19, 2019:

One thing that I realized fairly quickly as a young adult was that my dreams were exactly that, my dreams. For years as I worked in my various occupations, I held onto the belief that one day I may be able to do something about them. That day is here, but the fact that they are still my dreams hasn’t changed any. It would be imprudent of me to think that suddenly, because I’m retired, people are going to go out of their way to help me fulfill my visions and aspirations. Right?

The fact is however, that there are plenty of individuals out there who would love to get involved in one capacity or another (gratis or non-gratis) to help me or anyone else out for that matter, as we travel along on our respective journeys. It’s the (gratis) individual that I’m most interested in.

To find some of these people, I have joined several group chats and websites that are geared towards like-minded folks in similar industries, such as Vancouver Casting, Actors in Vancouver, Vancouver Film Industry, Actors Access, etc. There are plenty of sites that cater to creative souls looking to reach out and be part of something inspired. It doesn’t have to be about acting. It can be about writing or music, voice work, the opportunities are boundless. The internet has really opened up a vast ocean of self-marketing potential from which one can cast their creative net.

It was through one of these sites that I met up with a young man named Alberto at a coffee shop in East Vancouver to discuss doing a music video for one of the songs that Dan and I wrote called Senorita (on my NFA page). Alberto, a producer/director (his demo reel shows that he has some music video experience), had posted his desire on one of these group sites to collaborate with whomever wanted to work on a project. I had never done a music video (I say that as though everyone else has but me) but his resume ticked some of the boxes on my “What if?” list and I thought it might be interesting to see if we could make something happen.

He wound up being an hour and twenty minutes late for the meeting due to various reasons, but I had resolved to wait it out since anything that’s free still has a price tag of sorts attached to it. I was happy I did as I found him to be quite credible and sincere in his offer and after a brief meeting it was decided that I would write a story line for the video and we would revisit Senorita in the new year.

I have yet to hear back from Mark, the gentleman that reached out to me from the open mic a few weeks back. Since he was out of town on business when we first connected through email, it was agreed that he would get back to me once he returned. However, with Christmas around the corner it’s understandable that everyone is a little busy, so we’ll wait it out until the next decade.

I took my last acting lesson of 2019 this week and thought that it might be fun to bring my six-string acoustic guitar in with me so we could end the fall sessions with a couple of Christmas songs. Unfortunately, my scene partner was MIA along with a couple of other students, but the rest of us had a sing along to end the night, which was videotaped and is available at the bottom of this page. It's all in fun.

It may seem old school (because it probably is), but every once in a while, I come up with a list of motivational one liners that I try and remember to read every morning when I get out of bed. I stick them to the mirror in my bathroom. Suck ass lines like I am preparing daily, I am surrounding myself with the right people, Good karma is coming my way. It seems kind of hokey I know, but I figure what have I got to lose and who can really say for sure if there might not be some kind of subliminal osmosis at work that has yet to be realized.

I am scheduled to see the specialist about my shoulder injury in the new year on February 20th. Maybe, I should amend one of my motivational lines to read The pain in my shoulder is gone (which, of course, it isn’t), but one can dream.

Merry Christmas.

Until next time.