Hit and Miss

I got word last week from Steppenwolf. That word was no. Boo. What's worse is I had to find out in a truly TV sitcom fashion. When I applied in January, I did not know where to use as an address in April. I chose my folks place in Denver. My Dad had to read the letter to me over the phone. I am really pretty OK with it, but I don't know what else I could have given them. Now common sense tells me, it may not have had anything to do with me. That, however, is of little consolation. On the up shot, I no longer have to wonder what my next few months will be like.

This opened the door for Tiffany and I to look for a place to move sooner rather than later. We have been making the best of Erin's condo in Roger's Park. Both of us have developed affinities for parts of the neighborhood. One for me is the coffee shop I am writing from right now, The Common Cup. It still is not the place we want to stay for long though. It takes me forever to get to and from work downtown, even with an express bus. Additionally, it is still not the safest neighborhood. It has improved drastically since Cory and Rick lived up here and I spent my first night in Chicago with them. I did have to wait for a moronic would-be fight to be dispersed just to get into the cafe though.

We have discussed several places we would like to live ranging from Andersonville to Bucktown. It would seem though that fate is moving us towards a familiar apartment in Lakeview. Known as the Boiler Room by my friends, we are seriously considering Noah and Jason's place. They have both decided to move back to Colorado to pursue their own interests there. The place is available when we want it and is a great deal. We both love the neighborhood and apartment. Plus, Freddie and Laurel live just upstairs. It feels a little like an episode of Friends. None the less it would be a tremendous relief to have this go through and know where we are going to live so long as we are in Chicago. My hope is to follow in the footsteps of its current tenants when the time comes.

Lastly, I am taking off on Saturday for Minneapolis to join Scotty in a brief National Theatre for Children tour. We rehearse in Minnie for 3 days and then head out to Colorado ourselves for 4 days of festival performances. The whole thing feels nostalgic and fun. I have not worked for them since 2004, so it will be great to see everybody up there again. I am also excited to see a lot of Colorado too.

Cell Phone Survey

I put this out to those of you who will indulge me. What is the best cell phone out there right now? I ask this while watching my 3rd Samsung Sprint phone die painfully. First the displays both cracked, then the covers for jacked broke off, and now the phone periodically needs the battery taken off just to get it to start making calls again. This was the "top of the line" phone way back in Nov. 2006! Tiff and I were talking this morning and the topic of who is the best cell provider came up. Seems neither of us could say we had heard anything encouraging about any of them, only complaints. I am interested in an iPhone and Tiff favors the Blackberry. We are both in contracts to Sprint for a while longer and neither feel inclined to stay. If you ask me (and you did by reading this far), Sprint has lost a lot of quality when they merged with Nextel. Plus, I miss the trench coat wearing spokesman. He elicited peace of mind much better than the Verizon guy. I don't care how many people he has following him.

So is that how we decide who to go to for this service that seems to no longer be luxury, but necessity? We figure out who's adds are more trustworthy and weigh in the number of complaints we have heard against them? Tell me what you know. Who do you like? Is iPhone worth the extra bucks or am I looking at another "top of the line" toy that will be a pain in less than a year?

iactor link

http://www.sag.org/iactor/TroyColeman

Booked

I got the call last night, I am officially booked for the feature film! How strange it is to have left Los Angeles and land a role in a feature film! My road has never seemed entirely straight, but it has been fun. So as it stands now, I am heading to Minneapolis to rehearse a quick children's theatre show with Mr. Mowery in early May and then back out to Colorado for our four days of "touring." We have a day in Pueblo, Aurora, Greeley, and Boulder. I fly back to Chicago on the 20th and then have my day of shooting on May 24th. I am so excited!

House sitting in Bucktown has definitely left Tiff and I with a degree of house envy. This is such a different world from our studio living in Roger's Park, it feels like we are in a different city. I have yet to smoothly get to work from here, but that is truly not a terrible inconvenience. I am supposed to hear from Steppenwolf within the next week or so, and that will let us make the best, fiscally sound plan we can. Of course I still say an iPhone would be a nice compensation to not getting in to school. I hear Cody might differ though.

Lastly, I just wanted thank those of you out there that take the time to catch up on my ridiculous adventures. I just spoke to my friend Jack in New York who I get the privilege of catching up with every month or three. Before I even got to launch into what I had been up to he told me he catches these blogs on occasion. It always amazes me when I hear someone has read any. I am deeply appreciative for the interest. Each and everyone of you has influenced my life in some way and I just wanted to say thank you!

Oh yes... Go Avs!

Live from Wicker Park!

I am checking in from our sweet house sitting gig in Wicker Park. Well technically I think we are in Bucktown, but close enough. Tiffany's friends Shannon and Zubair just bought a place here and we are house/dog sitting. for them. It is a beautiful, new home with a very modern feel to it. By comparison to our sweet studio in Roger's Park, this feels like a palace. In some ways it is though. The marble floors in the bathroom and basement are heated. Envy not only me but my happy feet.

I other news from the artistic front, it has been a more exciting week to be sure. I am officiall on hold for a day on a feature film in May. That seems to be a step away from booking, but as I learned in LA, nothing is guaranteed until they have you on film. None the less, I would get to do a scene with the star of the movie. Un til the whole thing is more for sure, let's just say it's one of the stars from the new Ocean's 11 movies.

Yesterday, I had an audition for a big casting director here in Chicago. I tried an unconventional route to get them interested and it worked. I finally got to go in and read some comercial copy for them yesterday. It went fantastic and the interview went very well. At the end I received the bittersweet compliment that had they seen me 4 months ago they could have used me in the new Depp/Bale movie being shot here. A great compliment, but makes you wince a little too at the near miss factor. None the less, more positive signs. I am having a lot of fun with my approach to acting right now. Being much happier where I live is seemingly influencing the way I approach getting work.

I am also getting quite a bit of work from Caldera to design. I just wrapped up a new design for their business cards and have a wopping 9 renderings to get done this week. It's fun, but I am still struggling a little with making those more efficiently. I am seeing progress though and am excited to get to do more art. As Cody reminded me of yesterday, this is the year of Bringing the Art Back.

So far so good.

Good times

The weather is getting nicer here in Chicago and things are going well. I am getting good results on my auditions lately and to be honest, just having a damn good time with it all. The decision from Steppenwolf for callbacks should come next week at some point and will determine how my next three months will look. It will also answer several questions regarding money as the program is ridiculously expensive. If I get it, things will be tight for a while. If I don't then Tiff and I can get into a place that's got more than one room. Oh, and I could get the iPhone finally and tell Sprint to piss off finally. I tell ya, since the merged with Nextel and fired trenchcoat guy, it's never been the same.

I also have some steady design work coming in. I am loving getting to be creative again. I am yearning for a new place on that account alone. I miss having a space to paint in. I don't need much, but when you have two people in a studio, things get a little tight. That's it for now from the front.

Web Denied

So as of late I have been unable to access the Internet from home and as Roger's Park is such a fun neighborhood to run around in at night (especially with you laptop) I have just enjoyed the break. It's funny how the last post was about having so much on my to do list and then I lost access to the web. Amazingly, that made life feel a little quieter. Huh.

Some quick updates then from my coffee shop downtown before I go to work. Sunday was my 16 year milestone. For those in the know, I am grateful for your support. For those not sure what the hell I am talking about... don't worry about it. Let's just say it marks the day I became less of an asshole to all around me.
Next, I got to enjoy a true perk of being back in Chicago yesterday. I got to go to the Opening Day of the Cubs season. It was perfect in the way that it was freezing rain, the Cubs came back in the bottom of the 9th and then let it go in the 10th. Ah, world champs 1908!

I will hopefully be adding more soon if we get connected again. Otherwise all will have to be said from the lovely confines of Cafe access.