I'm also available for birthday parties.

And Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. If your dog is now 13 years old, we can have a bark mitzvah. (shows self the door)

Attention Astoria Males and NYC actors as well

Astoria Males:
 Deals and Discounts...a bargain store on Broadway and I wanna say.....36? Has some good deals.  Yesterday I bought some Fruit of the Loom V-Neck t-shirts for $1.99/each.  They came in a bunch of colors.

Sidenote: this is what happens when PhillyRay doesn't audition....he turns his acting blog into a shopping blog.  What a turd I have become.  

NYC Actors:  Are you looking for new heashsots?  If you are, I recommend Alden Ford.  He did my last two head shots and also photographed my wedding.  He has good prices and you keep the data CD with all the photos.  None of that "I keep the negatives" stuff that other head shot artists do.  here is his website

My Israeli coworkers are furious about this....

...it's a matter of national pride. 

From "Eater" - Israel loses hummus and falafel title to Lebanon

When times are slow you gotta make stuff yourself

Things have been pretty slow for PhillyRay as of late.  No auditions in like 4 weeks.  So I've been focusing on a few other things. 

(In my best John McLaughlin voice)

Issue Number....err....excuse me "Issue NUMBAHH One!" - losing some weight.  Boxing has been good to me, I've dropped perhaps 35-40 lbs since my I started exercising back in November, but I want to kick it into high gear and drop another 40.  That would bring my weight to 225, which would still make a me a large guy, but healthy for life.

Issue NUMBAHH two:  Keep active in acting however I can.  This means tackling new monologues in class, getting new headshots, and writing for gutpunchnyc.com  I'm very lucky to be involved with these guys.  They are very smart and great to work with. Also, I call and check in with my agencies once a week.

Issue NUMBAHH three : make money in real estate so I can afford more things and put some money away.  This summer is like......THE summer of weddings.  I have like 5....hundred.  No, just about five.  But that's a  lot of suit buying, hotel reserving, well wishing and check cutting. 

Spoke with my agents...

About any wardrobe requests for my new head shots this month.  They all basically said the same thing, "most with a goatee, some without."  "Some in a suit and tie, some in a t-shirt, some in a collared shirt, unbuttoned." "Some friendly, some menacing."

I had another conversation with my agent/manager based in Lancaster. She usually sends me out for Philadelphia auditions.  Personally, I really don't mind hopping on the boltbus to go to Philly.  The tix are usually $20 and it only eats up half of my day.  It's just a 2 hour ride from NYC after all.  So anyway.  My agent told me that a lot of film action is happening in Pittsburgh.  I love Pittsburgh, my Dad's family is from there, it's a really great town.  And recent Roethlisberger rape allegations aside, I love the Steelers.

Pittsburgh is a 6 1/2 hour drive away from NYC.

It turns out that the places are OK with an actor recording an audition and sending it in via e-mail.  But for callbacks......ya gotta be there.  My question is to my fellow actors (assuming any actually read this): would you rent a car and drive to Pittsburgh for a callback?  Let's assume its for a BIG project.  Like a recurring role in a network TV show in prime time.  Would you do it?  I know I would.  Let's also assume it could be for a day player role for  a pilot?  Would you do it?  I probably would......I suppose.

What's everyone's thoughts?

Cool view

Admittedly, this doesn't have much to do with acting.  But I suppose it has a little sumpin sumpin to do with the 11102, as I took this picture out of my bathroom window.  I've only seen rain from far away a few times in my life (always lived in a crowded area with a lack of open spaces). 

Ok ok ok ok ok.  Without any further ado...

Not bad for a blackberry photo.  Ja?

Last few days have been slow

...professionally wise, at least.  But personally, it's been a lot of fun.  There was a bachelor party for my aforementioned "brotha from anotha motha."  It was gangbusters.  We went down to see the Mets play (read: get daddied) by the Phillies.  General debauchery and hilarity ensued.  The next day was a birthday party.  I was horrifically hungover, and a day that was originally planned to include "just one or two rounds" turned into 7 hours of drinking.  I felt as  if I was fooling death on Sunday, escaping my hangover with more drinking.  Apparently, hangovers are compounding, because Monday was atrocious.

Mondays and Fridays are my boxing days too.  I decided that I would "sack up" and go to boxing.  I needed that hooch out of my system with the quickness.  Man oh man, my sweat smelled like straight up vodkas.  Of course, this was the day that the instructor had us spar.

Eesh. 

I landed a few powerful jabs on that doods face, and a few high left fake to body blow right combo.  But I'll be damned if this dood didnt hit me in the liver!  As if my liver hadn't had enough.   This enraged  me.  I also noticed that  if I threw a double jab, he would block my second jab way far away from his head, almost like he was pushing my gloves away.  Ok buddy, Ok.  So I landed a jab jab left hook combo right before the bell.  Then I vomited. 

No joke.