After the other Kendrick Ong - I posted the story about him in 2007 - left a comment on one of my LiveJournal entries, I thought it would be wise to point interested parties to where my blogging life resides now:

And There the Antic Sits

Pick up time was 05:20 this morning.

I was up at 04:30.

I'll write about the shoot tomorrow.

I have my Czech Visa now. I don't have to leave the country every 3 months to renew my tourist visa.

I've been cast for the role of "Leader of the Avars" for the upcoming movie The Crown of Vyšehrad. As far as I know, I'm scheduled to shoot on September 14, 2007. I went to the costume check a day after I returned from Berlin. The costumes, I'm told, were mostly from the TV production The Lost Empire. The lead costume designer, Barbara Lane, was very kind and helpful. I give her a thumbs up for recognizing my accent wasn't from the US.

It's a pity that Production owns the copyright for the still photos taken of the actors in their costumes, otherwise I would try to acquire one and post it.

Oh yes, this was requested:



This is my second week of not shaving.

We plan to leave for Prague's hlavní nádraží at 15:00 today. It will be the culmination of a process that involved lot of paper shuffling, stress, and frustration.

My girlfriend, mkaro, has been there for me all the way. Without her, I'd be lost in the Post-Communist bureaucracy of this Central European state.

Tomorrow, we plan to visit the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Berlin to hand in the last piece of documentation required for my year-long Visa (which was issued on August 28, 2007). I need to provide proof of health insurance that will last me until next August (when I would have to renew my Visa).

Everything for the trip was purchased yesterday (including the insurance), leaving our nerves a bit frayed due to the last minute rush. Should all go well, I'll return to Prague on Wednesday (September 5, 2007) with a Czech Visa in my passport; no more having to leave the country every 3 months for at least another year.

Indirectly related is the fact that I have to grow some facial hair for a role I had been cast for in an upcoming American, film project.

More on that after my return.

It could also be read as I-Mercenary, or better yet, i-Merc; sort of like i-Tunes.

Today, I learned that some castings are just there to round up a herd of witless cattle. Do some production companies have the Kool-Aid motto on their company letterheads when they send out casting calls to agencies in Prague?

"Just pennies a glass."

I won't work for pennies - it's an insult. In this business, one can't sell themselves short. If an actor works for pennies, then that's what they'll be offered for future jobs. I learned this the hard way - through experience. During my first two commercial shoots, the pay was awful AND we were treated like sheep.

"Never again," I vowed.

For my last commercial (Volkswagon), my agent wasn't going to send me unless production offered a buyout for my role. The daily fee was laughable for a prominent role. Without a buyout, I was being ripped off. So kudos to my agent (she's from Los Angeles) for pressuring production.

It's an example that I look back upon when a casting agency sends me a casting call for crap.

I lost a day somewhere. It's not Friday, as I believed it was up until 16:40 this afternoon.

It reminded me of the times paratwa used to "lose time" between the years 1998 and 2001.

Anyhow, I went to Vienna, Austria. Full story can be found here.

I disappeared for a while; I needed a break from people. Some folks may have taken it as a snub of sorts. No one is to blame - I just wanted to be out of the loop.

I decided to get back into respectable shape, health-wise. It's not like I was sitting on my duff and drinking beer all day. After doing a few rounds of Bas Rutten's MMA Workout about four weeks ago, I realized that I needed a lot of work.

There was that one day I decided to work out for an hour (again, using Bas Rutten's MMA Workout), and proceeded to feel very, very ill afterwards; that was 2 weeks ago.

Writing about work, I've been involved in a few commercial projects since January 2007. I've never seen any of the final cuts. Ironically, many of you probably have. I was almost in a movie with Angelina Jolie some months ago. I wrote about it here. She was in Prague filming a project with Morgan Freeman. In summary, it was exactly the type of role I was trained for: shooting firearms, getting shot, and dying. At the casting, I was the best one there, bar none. The problem? I was the wrong colour (it's true!). In the end, production settled for black gang members.

Tonight, it's junk-food for dinner: pizza and fries (chips to those in the UK).

I feel like there's a lot to write about; I fail to find the motivation to continue though.

For a summary of my day, go here.

I didn't get one of the roles that I was cast for, specifically for some stunt work.

The casting involved reacting to being shot. I've been trained to do this, so it wasn't anything new to me. Even the crew at the casting mentioned to me and M that I did a lot better than most of the people there (which were all untrained, according to my eyes).

So it's a bit difficult not to take it personally, since this was an opportunity that I had hoped would come to fruition.

Still, destructive thoughts beget more destructive thoughts. I'm going to actively work to collapse my worries in the name of progress.

M comes back from London today. We'll have a nice dinner and catch up on our lost week.

M is off to London until next Friday. I suppose one could classify it as a "business trip", as she's there because she needs to purchase yarn for her upcoming projects. Despite a promised delivery of yarn sample cards from one company, she is having to make a personal visit to the UK due to the failure of one (or both) postal systems.

We've experienced the long distance relationship blues, and this (not-even-a) week long trip is hardly a comparison to those hardships.

Still, I do miss her.

In other news, I went to two castings recently, both for Hollywood budget movies. I'll write more about them if I get positive news from those ventures.

I went to see 300 with M this evening. I would mark our first night out in Prague, even though we've been living here together since early January 2007.

I lived in Prague for over a year before actually visiting any of the obligatory, tourist attractions within (and outside) of the city. A couple of M's friends from London came over for a week's visit, so we put on our walking shoes and did a tour.

A picture says a thousand words, so I'll be cheap and leave it to the images.




Astrological Clock in Old Town Square, Prague




One of the basilicas in Prague Castle




Crossbow shooting range in the armoury on Golden Lane, Prague Castle




On Golden Lane, Prague Castle




Ossuary in Kutna Hora (75km east of Prague)




Alchemy Museum in Kutna Hora

The Coca-Cola commercial reminded me of the exploitative nature of the film industry. I was one of the main actors of the shoot, thus I got a bird's eye view of how they treated the Extras. I used to do Extra work until I found out just what it meant. For 2000 kc (about £50) a day, an Extra can work for as long as the director wants them to remain on set, drink substandard coffee, and feed themselves on the stacks of bread that are piled in the crowded tent where they herd the faceless actors that walk from point A to point B in a shoot.

I was on set for three days. On the first day, I was picked up from my flat at 14:05 and didn't come home until 08:00 the next morning. The second day, I did nothing. I sat around and waited for the director and production to get their asses in gear and stop filming objects in front of a green screen for the "special effects" of the commercial. On the third day, we arrived on set at 17:00 and didn't leave until 05:00 the next morning. The crew and production were under pressure on the third day as they only had use of the train station in Plzen for three days. The "rush" nature of shoots for that day did not impress me.

I went to a casting recently for a small role in an American production. I haven't read the script, so I don't know the plot of said movie. I was informed that Morgan Freeman was in it. I went to the casting, and it went well. With movies, though, the director already knows what look he/she wants for a particular role, regardless of an actor's acting experience or training (another reason why I don't believe in paying big bucks to attend a prestigious drama school).

Anyhow, my CV and photo are in Los Angeles somewhere, along with the CVs and photographs of every other actor that went to the casting.

I love my girlfriend. She's ill at the moment, having caught a bug while we were taking a stroll along the river.

I'm involved in a Coca-Cola commercial. It is Day 2.

I am very tired.

I've slept my third night in the new flat. It's much more spacious than I've been used to in the past 4 years, hence my lack of stuff to make it feel as 'homey' as possible.

Today marks the first day snow actually settled on the ground in Prague. Up until yesterday, winter in the city was mild. Two days ago, I saw people walking around in shorts.

M asks in her LJ how I can not be excited with the first snowfall. It's likely due to the fact that I grew up seeing snow all the time. There were some years in Ottawa where I saw snow 7 months of the year. There was also that one day on August 30, 2001 - as I was heading to the Ottawa Airport to leave for Beijing - that it snowed heavily. I shoveled my parents' driveway clean every winter for 14 years when I was living in Toronto. We owned a snow-blower, but guess what? We never used it. Lastly, I experienced the Ice Storm of 1998.

On Friday, M and I receive a cargo shipment of our belongings from London. It'll be like receiving presents, to be honest (including a Collector's Edition of The Burning Crusade!)

I'm happy to be here with M. It's cold and I'm longing for Spring to arrive.

Loneliness is not a temperature that I have to endure any longer.

M arrives back in Prague on Wednesday. Thursday evening, we finalize the lease agreement and make plans to move into our new flat.

It's time like these - when everything appears at once - that I oft look too far into the future and play the "what if" game. I have a few grey hairs because of that game.

As my lovely girlfriend put it: "Things are coming together faster than they are unravelling themselves." To me, unravelling in that sentence is akin to revealing. I have an over-active imagination that will fill in the blanks to my future, whether or not they turn out that way. Being cynical and pessimistic clouds this imagination with some pretty negative thoughts.

Early last week, I was calm, because I decided to look at things in a more narrow view - not looking to the future at the expense of the present, as it were. Suddenly it was one week until we move in, the contract arrived in my inbox, and it all needed sorting out. Then my brain told me I needed to do this, and that, and that.

I need to find that neutral space I was at early last week.

Visit Pixipets.

They are not what they appear to be...

Nice title; I may as well have called this entry Uxorious.

Time is getting crunchy. My lovely girlfriend and I are feeling the effects of starting our lives out in a (relatively) new city, without limiting our dreams of having our own, miniature empire. Paperwork kills more than just trees; brain cells seem to be a target as well.

Somewhere in the middle, we can't forget that we're doing this to preserve the life we've dreamed and talked about for the 10 months we were absent from each other's company.


---

With the help of wildelf, I was able to locate someone I had lost contact with in Toronto. Check out his establishment, Cafe Taste, the next time you're in Toronto.

How difficult is it to get rid of a habit?

Well, if you take away the 'h', you still have 'abit'. If you then remove the 'a', you still have 'bit'. If you kill the 'b', you still have 'it'.

Things I need to be aware of:

1) My temper and where that energy is directed at.
Solution: get a punching bag.

2) Bringing up my past, especially ex-relationships.
Solution: stop bringing them up cause they're not a memento.

3) Being more expressive with those close to me.
Solution: communicate more with those in question; the rest can die!

Sincerely,

Moi

Industrial Radio Podcast

ReGen Magazine

Best of all, they're both FREE!

I was feeling a bit masochistic today, which resulted in me Google-ing my ex-girlfriends - a pointless venture; reminds me of the respective relationships.

ZING!

Then I decided to enter my full name in Google.

The search will result in showing my profile at my former talent agency in the UK, and listing another person with my name who is a MMA Fighter based out of British Columbia (formerly of Scarborough, Ontario).

Here's the story: the other Kendrick Ong was born a year after I was. My grandmother was trying to set his mother up with my father back in the Philippines. It didn't work out, which resulted in my dad eventually marrying my mom, and the aforementioned woman marrying someone else with the surname 'Ong' (no relation to my father).

Still with me?

I knew the other Kendrick Ong (as well as his twin brother, Kenneth) as I was growing up. His family were friends of my parents. He also went to the same Mandarin classes I went to as a kid. I attended Brebeuf High School in North York. He and his brother also attended the same high school, albeit a year below me. We're both into martial arts and MMA, and we've both done fight choreography on film.

This is too f'in' weird. Maybe I need more coffee; or maybe less coffee.