An 8 year old boy was brought into the emergency room by his mother, having fallen off his bike and cut his knee open.
I was stitching his knee back together, when he pointed out the pictures of the clowns on the wall. I put on a Homer Simpson voice and said "Heh heh heh- clowns are fun-ny..."
He stared at me blankly.
"What's the matter? Don't you watch the Simpsons?" I asked him.
"I don't let him watch the Simpsons. That's way too adult" his mother interrupted.
"What??- That's a form of child abuse!!" I responded.
"It's completely inappropriate for children. He's not allowed to watch it." She reaffirmed.
"Oh. OK" I said, and carried on stitching.
"But I let him watch Family Guy because that's a family show"
I dropped my forceps.
I stared at her. "Have you actually SEEN an episode of Family Guy?!?!?"
"It's for families, isn't it?"
"Um....... yeah....... families......." I said. And left it at that.
I think she was admitted to the coronary care ward the following week after seeing Quagmire for the first time.
How is everyone?
I hope you are prospering in the New Year. I've been keeping myself busy, as you've probably become accustomed to. The acting is very slowly taking shape. Facebookers may know about the film I'm involved in at the moment. I auditioned for it in September the same day I auditioned for a music video, and was surprised to get a call a few days later that I'd got the part. It's kind of Blair Witch-ish in its setup- a group of mountain bikers are on a final expedition in the Blue Mountains just outside of Sydney, and one by one, they get hunted down and killed by the mythical big cats of New South Wales. I play Aaron, who's 3rd to last to die.
At rehearsals a few weeks ago, the director was telling us about the logistics of the whole operation. I told him that the Blue Mountains was pretty far away to make it for a 7am start each day, and asked if we'd be expected to travel that far each morning. He said "Nah- we'll just pay for a hotel for everyone"
I just stared at him.
I have an old, rusty mountain bike that I get around town on. I asked him if he would like me to bring it to the set each day. He said "Nah- we'll just buy new mountain bikes for everyone."
At this point, I was feeling like Eddie Murphy in 'Trading Places' when the CEOs are trying to tell him that all of Dan Ackroyds possessions are actually his. I was flitting between thinking "There's something up with this", and "Wow! This is like a REAL film!".
We film it in 3 weeks time, and it should be out on DVD about 6 weeks after, although he's aiming for a cinema release. I'll keep you posted.
I also got the part in the music video, but couldn't do it because I was just starting a new rotation in the intensive care ward, and couldn't get that week off to film. It was a 70s blacksploitation theme, in which I would have been playing an african-american private detective up against a drug gang, with 4 scenes: a gunfight, a boat chase, hip-hop dancing and a capoeira/jiu-jitsu fight scene. I was just kicking myself: "WHAT?!?! I WAS MADE FOR THIS!!!" But I guess you can't have everything.
Even with that in mind, it's painful to turn on your TV and see something that you cold have been in. Our tutor in New York told us that you have to go to 30 auditions to get one role. If you're good. I can see why most people give up on this.
It's the Sydney Salsa Congress this weekend, but I won't be going, as I have tendinitis in my knee from weight training and acrobatics, so I need to give it a rest for a few weeks. The only thing I can really do is swim right now, which is probably for the best, as anyone who went to school with me will tell you, I swim like the Titanic. However, it is in my interest to push myself, and I'm close to doing my first 500m ever. That's hardly olympic, but it's the equivalent to me of climbing Mount Everest.
The thing I like most about living in Sydney is the work-like balance. Medicine is still tough, but, especially being in emergency, there is enough flexibility to fit in, within reason, other things that are important to you. The downside of that is that I end up doing a disproportionate number of night and evening shifts to make it to auditions and filmings, but I think life's too short to wait or hope for things to be easy for you.
One thing I considered doing was doing contract work for a few months, which is higher paying, but only normally available in relatively remote regions. I did 4 nights in Grafton last year, which paid me almost as much as one month in my regular job. This would clearly give me much more time for auditions and performances, although it puts your medical career on hold. And also, being an ethnic minority in Australia can be likened to being an American Express card: whenever you go to a new place, you worry that you might not be accepted. However, Grafton was fine.
Rachel and I called time on our relationship last week. It was heartbreaking, but mostly on my part, it felt more like a friendship than a romance. It's incredibly saddening to be faced with such a wonderful person, but feel like you can't love them the way that you want to, and the way that they deserve to be loved. I feel like I'd be wasting her time if we were to continue as we were. It's very destabilising, personally, but I really need to take the time to centre myself emotionally before finding someone new. The most recent of my friends may not know that Rachel and I were together for 2 and a half years when we were in New Zealand. Within a month of that finish, I was seeing Abigail (who the salsa dancers may know), which was fun for the most part, but it ended horribly, and in retrospect, I was rebounding like Dennis Rodman on steroids. Definitely not doing that again.
I live in Manly, in North Sydney- one of the most affluent parts of the state. It's very beautiful here. As are a lot of the people. If you've ever been to Sunset Beach, or Western LA in general, it looks and feels very much like that. I was at a hip-hop club on Long Beach a few years ago, and got talking to a guy there, who was a great dancer, and liked my dancing, too. I told him I was from London. He asked me what I thought of LA. "There are SO many beautiful girls here!' I told him. "Everything about them is fake" he replied. I didn't quite realise the gravity of what he told me until about a year of living here. Lots of blonde hair dye, buckets of make-up and spray-tan, but zero integrity and conversational skills. I sometimes feel like I'm more likely to win gold in the female gymnastics than finding a decent girl here. I guess that's part of the reason I was so eager for Rachel and I to work out together: she's real. There's no substitute for that.
It's getting late, and I've got lines to learn for rehearsal this week. Childhood friends may remember that I don't withstand horror movies too well, so it may be surprising that I'm acting in one. Although I did see one that I did like, recently. Wasn't that scary, though.
It was 'Buffy the Vampire Layer'.
Definitely NOT coming to a cinema near you.
Victor.
