Launching a new man on the street movie review series called: Ask You Movie Review. Website coming soon. You can also watch and vote for it on FunnyOrDie.com.

I’ve recently set up the best way for me to communicate to a mass of people regarding my acting career. Starting next week I will be sending out a monthly newsletter (tastefully done, of course, no hard selling or spam from me!) Initially the subscriber list was going to be industry folk (directors, CDs, writers that I’ve met or worked with before) but I welcome all who are interested in keeping tabs on me.

Please feel free to sign up to The Nailbox!

Hope you are well!

Jonathan

I’m a big believer in “less is more”. This is probably the shortest reel I’ve produced (edited on Final Cut Express HD), but it really packs in the good stuff. Enjoy.

p.s. I know, the ghostlight may still be on, but this can at least play on the screen in the background.

Thanks for reading. I’m still here, plugging away in Hollywood. Just focusing my energies a little differently.

Dragging out the ghost light for now…

That’s my word of exclamation this week: Woot!

I have a callback for a commercial on Monday, my birthday! Send the vibes…

She answers back: “small potatoes… all the big potatoes started small — don’t forget that. You short yourself too much.”

And then a flurry of smiley faces.

This is why it is important for an actor in this town to have a wonderful group of supporting friends and family. I honestly don’t give my wife enough credit for the IMMENSE AMOUNT OF SUPPORT she provides. And I need that support now more than ever.

I’m hitting a low in my “optimistic viewpoint of my overall career”. The lengthening WGA strike, and the slim possibility that the members of SAG (of which I am a proud member) will find themselves walking the pickets with WGA come the end of June (this is just a really light “gut feeling”) means that I will put more faith in my day job and focus less on my acting career. I need to get back into an audition class and keep those skills sharp, but with lack of money (down to one income in our household) that’s a hard goal to attempt.

I was even regretting passing on that job offer from Disneyland to play the Genie in “Aladdin’s Spectacular” a year ago.

Sigh…

There’s a lot more adding to this malaise than just the lack of work. It just seems recently that I am making a lot of wrong choices. Projects that seem to have some promise are falling flat. What seemed like a promising direction to be moving in turns out to be a dead-end and years of effort getting to that point seem wasted. Then again, if I wasn’t making any attempts (even if they are failing miserably) it would mean that I’m not trying. I would be stagnating. AND I am learning from my failures or “lack of successes”, as I like to spin it these days… Making an educated decision based on those learnings is how we succeed in business and in life.

I won’t go into the feelings I have of utter mediocrity on my part. That’s just self-indulgent, pity-party crap. I’m desperately trying to ignore those feelings.

All right. Back to growing my potatoes…

It’s all hand-held, single camera POV. So be aware there may be some motion sickness if you are prone to such things (sit further back in the theatre). But I think that is what really makes this flick work, it becomes YOUR POV. It’s YOU in the middle of the panicking crowd. It’s YOU in the middle of a massive fire fight. It’s YOU running for your life.

The film is roughly 76 minutes long (or short, depending on how you view these things), but they pack every minute with spine-crunching, stomach-twisting, rocket-fueled action. In my opinion this film serves it up hot and leaves you wanting more. Perfect length for such a roller-coaster rush!

Loved it. Can’t wait to see it again.

I hope you had a wonderful holiday break and a fantastic start to the New Year. I polished off a bottle of Dom with my father-in-law to bring in the New Year, and I finished installing the wood trim in my house! Now to find the time to paint it… (resolution for 2009)

I’m setting myself some pretty strong goals. I’ve always been rather remiss in doing so, and I’m trying to hit the ground running. I’ve been working out on a regular basis (with the usual “break” during the holidays). I’m determined to hit my target weight of 165# and then work on some weight training to add some tone and a teensie bit of mass. Currently at 170′ish. Need to get back to it. The good part is that there is an excellent gym in the building complex where I work. The tough part is that on the days when I have an audition (like today), that eats into the time I would have used to work out. I could go right after work, but then that means getting home late and I wouldn’t be able to see my baby girl before she goes down for the night. And I can’t stand working out past 5pm. Earlier in the day is better for me. The challenge here is to make the time.

Also, I am planning on working on my networking skills. I see this as my weakest point. Need to get out into Hollywood, get to some events and meet some new people this year. Also need to maintain and strengthen the relationships I’ve built so far. And this is the hard part: I am going to have to spend more time away from home and my family to accomplish this. I wish I could take my wife to some of these events, but we just can’t afford a babysitter and with Gilli’s sleep schedule… This is part of the “making sacrifices” to grow my career that we have to accept. I need to capitalize on any opportunity I may encounter and really get the most out of my time out in the trenches.

Audition skills. I’ve gotten rusty, I’ll admit it. Need to get back into a classroom to sharpen up those talons, flex those muscles and get on top of my game again. This is a great time to do so since the WGA strike continues and pretty much every TV show and film is sulking in the corner. Gonna be ready when this town comes back to life.

There are a few other goals I have, but not really mentionable here (super secret stuff!)…

And all the little business of maintaining the business side of my career: update my reel, rethink my headshots, more frequent/focused postcarding… All these little details have been sliding over the last couple of years. Need to sharpen up and put my best foot forward.

All right… Back to work, but keep the champagne handy!

Just been really busy with life, as per usual. Moved into a new position at my day job that really keeps me busier than I’ve ever been before and I love it. Still adjusting to new schedules and an overt lack of auditions. But it is also the end of the year and the holidays are in full bloom.

I’ll make a more detailed posting later this week. Just know I’m thinking about ya!