Los Angeles and Hollywood

[Dalehiggins69]

Associates or Bachelors? And does it matter what degree?

[Dalehiggins69]

What did you do to make money in Los Angeles? I am wanting to move there in a year or so to pursue acting, and in the meantime will be trying to save up money. That's my biggest concern; not taking acting classes and becoming a well rounded actor, but to be able to AFFORD the acting class, rent, food, gas, insurance, phone bill, etc. Thanks.

[TheLogicJunkie]

I did tutoring and test prep out there, and I also registered with Central Casting over in Burbank, just under this overpass-bridge thing. Also, if you have a college degree, you can go through the process of substitute teaching with LA Unified or one of the other school districts.

[TheLogicJunkie]

@HeLovesCulture

As I've been investigating all this, I'm finding that there seems to be an ethno-racial conflict within western Europe, too, whereby you have a more indigenous Celt-Iberian strain of people -- spanning from Spain to Ireland and Scotland -- who were dominated by the more Germanic tribes of Scandinavia and greater Germany, and their cultural remnants are now the Welsh, Irish, and the Scottish to some degree. I think that makes a cultural difference.

[TheLogicJunkie]

I think that what you ended up with, in America, is an offshoot of that heavily Germanic part of England, as well as Germany and Scandinavia itself that came to comprise America's core power culture that persists to this very day... I refer to this as the "Mayflower Mafia". It's a very stern and narrow-minded form of Aryanism that employs its choice of Protestant religion in service of its incessant and all-pervasive xenophobia and ethno-racial narcissism -- all over the world.

[TheDemocraticEmpire]

Well, I'm from Los Angeles. East Los Angeles. Having worked at NBC-Universal, I got to see what evil was like. I didn't have a problem with people, but with the childish mannerism of management. The company is awesome, but some of the managers made me disgusted with their abuse of childish power. I felt like I was being ruled by teenagers on crack.

[TheLogicJunkie]

@TheDemocraticEmpire You may not be too far off with your "crack" comment. I've had enough experience with LA to know that cocaine rules that town.

[MrJuno6]

You could be over analysing a bit. Every place on the planet you will find good and bad. Maybe you where hanging out with the wrong people?. We also call it "agro" in Liverpool UK by the way. I enjoy your videos a lot. Thanks.

[maybetuesday1790]

Oh yeah,East Coasters tend to be mean and uptight, especially the northern part. I know.I've lived on the east for years.NYC is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.The smog and crowding is too much.I couldn't agree more about NC.I've met the most well-mannered people in NC.My best friend lived in LA for a year.She loved it.

[visionimagify]

@maybetuesday1790 Southerners are always nice. :d

[TheLogicJunkie]

@visionimagify Except when they're not! *L*

[LucherTV]

did u ever been in the hood?

[TheLogicJunkie]

I was all over LA when I was there -- there's a college called Whittaker in the south central, I think, and I stayed in the town in that area when I first got there. But I didn't spend any time in Watts or Compton, if that's what you mean. Does Long Beach count?

[LucherTV]

@TheLogicJunkie yea, and nobody diss u cuz u wite and shit?

[TheLogicJunkie]

I don't usually have a problem with that sort of thing, because I don't carry myself like a perfect Anglo-Saxon android. I don't know how to explain it, but my family is Spanish and Italian, and so I don't feel like I'm on Mars or something when I'm around hispanics, latinos, or whatever other term is popular.

[TheLogicJunkie]

If anything, I tend to get treated worse by the blue-eyed Nordics and Anglos than anything.

[LucherTV]

@TheLogicJunkiei m latino too

[fthis12345]

ya la( where i live ) is kind of shallow. People here are too good to claim or talk about anything trendy...lol. It's sorta of like "been there done that" vibe around here, and thats probably why it seems depressing. People here aren't to openly "in your face' positively/negatively in any way here.

[TonyManeroNY]

Thanks for this, I favorited it. I'm coming to LA from New York (not sure when, I might renew my lease and work on theater stuff here for another year). My question was, did you find it very hard to get around? I'll definitely be using a car there, but I'm wondering how hard it is to get to know the town.

[TheLogicJunkie]

Personally, I found it incredibly easy to get around in LA. And I actually have no grudge against LA at all, or any bad blood toward the city whatsoever. The only problem was that it was a lonely place for me, with a lot of depressing and lonely immaturity.

[theshooter2000]

@TheLogicJunkie I'm from LA (Not downtown or Hollywood though) and I'm glad you were able to have an overall good experience. It can get lonely there, that's for sure. The immaturity is also abound, but I find that in LA unlike other places there are places to go if you look hard enough to avoid it and still be apart of a crowd instead of a small rebel like faction.

[TheLogicJunkie]

@theshooter2000 You're right about that. I just had other things I needed to explore at the time...

[jb2134]

"They didnt have much in the sense of inner compass"....you nailed it, I live in LA ;)

I think alot of it has to do with the rush/rush mentality, and traffic/congestion. People dont have time to be centered. Also its very media driven. Has its pros and cons.

But the schools are horrendous, probably the bottom 25% of the country nationally. Incomparable to "normal" schools elsewhere.

[TheLogicJunkie]

What's weird is that LA county has all these little mini-districts within the county. They have a school district for Santa Monica, one for Beverly Hills, and on and on, and then the meandering geographic leftovers form a gnarled, winding mess that they laughingly call the "LA Unified School District".

"Unified"? *LOL* "LA Unified School District" is no less an oxymoron than "jumbo shrimp".

But it's also like this all across the Pacific states -- the school districts, that is.

[TheLogicJunkie]

Before I moved to the west coast, I thought the east coast held the monopoly on chaotic stupidity but, clearly, I was wrong.

In Florida, for example, school districts encompass THE ENTIRE COUNTY, and then that county may be sub-divided into zones, but all of them still fall within the coordinative purview of the county. And, beyond that, if you want to apply for employment within a school system, you just apply once, with all the paperwork, and then you're in the system.

[TheLogicJunkie]

...And, once you're in the system, you're in. Then all you have to do is go online and search positions, and then just check off the box beside the position and that constitutes the entirety of applying for that position -- you don't have to fill out the ten-plus pages of a WHOLE NEW APPLICATION for EACH SEPARATE POSITION. You apply for multiple positions with just the check of a box.

But on the west coast they have no such system. It's madness.

[Bellbird275]

I'm planning on going to LA for maybe 3 months to study with Ivana Chubbuck - obviously I won't get her as a teacher, but at the studio. Im from Australia so what you say about finding places to stay is very interesting... I don't know what would be the best way to go if im only planning to stay for 3 months without a working visa.

[TheLogicJunkie]

Why wouldn't you get her as a teacher? Her class is great. It's just the class theme that is sinister -- and nobody does sinister better than Ivana Chubbuck, I don't think.

[Bellbird275]

I wouldn't get Ivana because she'd be taking the Master class wouldn't she? If i went and did the Beginner i doubt she personally would take the class... she doesn't take EVERY class does she? Haha 'sinister'??? What do you mean by that? What did you think of the technique? Do you know what 'auditing' a class is exactly btw???

[TheLogicJunkie]

I don't know if she teaches any beginner classes -- she might have assistant teachers teach those; that's oftentimes the way it's done.

And when I say "sinister", I mean that I once sat in on her classes, and all the scenes her students were doing were of very dark and sinister themes. She herself has this very dark and foreboding personality, with a heavy Russian-ish accent, and between each scene everybody ushers out to the patio to smoke with her.

[Bellbird275]

Thats really interetsing what you say about her classes having sinister themes and about her students. I can totally visualise all these arty farty types wearing black performing these heavy scenes and then smoking together! my tutor said the american way of teaching is completely different to australian in that americans are totally full-on types, australians are more more gentle by nature.

Cool and thanks for the advice - best of luck with your persuits!

[TheLogicJunkie]

Also, I read Chubbuck's book, and it's amazing. I think her and Larry Moss' books on acting are two of the best I've ever read. So, as far as the conceptual part of her technique goes, I think it's stellar.

Also, "auditing" a class is where you get to go in and watch a class -- usually a master class of the most advanced students -- for free, to get a taste of things. Oftentimes you have to register in advance to do so, though.

[Bellbird275]

AH! Thanks for the definition. Yes i am currently trying to get my hands on a copy of her book - my current acting tutor studied with ivana herself [im in melbourne australia] - my tutor is getting ivana out to australia for a short time [not for my class though].

[TheLogicJunkie]

Well, understand that there is nothing insincere about what her students produced -- it was very real and very powerful, but deeply disturbing, though. My point is that it seems selectively on the dark side of life. I'm not sure I could see her having any interest in particularly innocent or uplifting themes -- that's my point. If that's your natural leaning, I don't think she'd be a good fit for you.

[Bellbird275]

Thanks a lot for the insight - I really value what you've had to say. Thanks! x

[Bellbird275]

Optimistic??? LA IS THE CITY OF DREAMS - people flock there with the idea of making their dreams come true... of course you are going to feel optimistic!

[74u73hjd]

You only had a good time because you're over a certain age. Growing up in LA myself it was a complete hell hole. The education system is in the dump not to mention the disgusting divorce rate. On the surface people might seem nice and friendly but, you don't really know how they act around thier families.

[TheLogicJunkie]

Oh, I'm not sure I'd want to grow up in LA, so I'll take your word on that. I was mortified by how their countywide school system is so balkanized into all these strange little turf-districts.

I'm more than grateful I got to grow up in North Carolina.

[74u73hjd]

Which city do you think has the best job market right now? Because LA sucks in terms of jobs some people go through all that college shit just to get rejected by stupid assholes and work at Mcjobs.

[katdanmo]

I have been there too, very nice place to go but Hollywood is just a street and not a city!

[TheLogicJunkie]

Well, Seattle and Portland are a good deal more aggressive, too. Seattle is very pro-success and status, and the Portland mobs will attack you for committing some trendy political correctness violation.

[TheLogicJunkie]

Yeah, LA was never mean or nasty to me... the people were actually very courteous and well-mannered, for the most part. The only problem I found was that, so often, there wasn't much more to them than met the eye.

I don't know what the SF "feel" is, though.

[TheLogicJunkie]

Go to Wilmington, North Carolina, or anywhere along that coast.  Also, the Virginia beaches would be good.

Time to get outta Dodge.

[toadenk]

no hope in seeing you in Detroit i take it

[TheLogicJunkie]

Never been to Detroit... What's it like? I hear it's hit rough times.  Is that true?

[toadenk]

number one in unemployment

not to mention still very high in crime and i sure you herd of our mayer king kwome kiltzpatric (sp)

and still rated one of the worst cities to viset

[TheLogicJunkie]

Jesus. You gotta get out of that hellhole. Do you have a degree? Get over to North Carolina, STAT.

[toadenk]

lol i got 16 pages of classifieds i have responed to

and no degree but a diploma from a radio broadcast school, and millitary and factory worker backround, though i just wanna surf again

[montaramike]

If you ever want to get a feel of the San Francisco Bay area look me up, we may have a spare room you could stay in depending what is going on at the time. My wife and I don't do much socializing so I could not point you to the social hot spots.

[TheLogicJunkie]

Sure, that sounds cool. I've never really been to SF for any real length of time. My family was there for like a day or two when I was a kid, so I remember walking up and down those insane hills through Chinatown, but that's about it.

I'd also like to see Palo Alto and Berkeley...

[montaramike]

Local Bay Area residents usually won't buy a used car that belonged to a San Francisco resident, because most of its mileage is spent on those hills :-)

I live 20 minutes South of San Francisco, about 45 minutes from Palo Alto and an hour from Berkeley.

I was born in San Francisco, moved to Sunnyvale as a child, and have lived in the bay area my whole life. I love this area except for the cost of living.

[TheLogicJunkie]

Yeah, I would consider giving the Berkeley area a try. What's the most expensive part of cost of living? Is it housing? I'll bet it is...

[montaramike]

Gas and car prices are high here, but housing is off the charts. We were renting a small unit in our house, 1 bedroom,1 bath, with a kitchen in the living room for $1200 a month.

Parts of Berkeley are cool, but you also get crime spill-over from Oakland.

[TheLogicJunkie]

Yeah, those rental rates sound like what was being charged in Losa Angeles.

[montaramike]

Actually probably pretty close to the same cost of living up here.

[toadenk]

love north carlina, whats with all the acting classes?

[TheLogicJunkie]

I had done it in college, and wanted to try it again.