Thirty Day LA

Scratch DJ Academy
Located at Rehab Records near Cotner and Pico
Price: Fucking Expensive

I have these turntables that have pretty much sat in my room for the past year. I can’t remember the last time I touched them. Learning how to DJ is something I have wanted to do for a while, but the turntables have still just sat there.

A couple of months ago I helped run a mentorship event in which we invited the DJs from the Scratch DJ academy to teach a rotation for the kids in our program. It was pretty amazing. For those who don't know the Scratch DJ Academy was founded in New York by Jam Master Jay of Run DMC and has made its way to LA in the past few years. They teach classes in DJing and Beatmaking to students who range from six-year olds to soccer moms.

This summer I had told myself that I wanted to get really good at DJing, but that didn’t happen. So with only a few days left in the summer I decided it was time to enroll in the DJ Academy and make something happen. On Day 6 I attended my first class of DJ 101 and it was amazing. The class itself not only teaches you how to scratch and blend but also musical theory. I have started to feel inspired to create mixes and want to delve further into DJing. I’m pretty sure I am going to take the next level class (or maybe even the beatmaking class). Hopefully the DJ academy will be my catalyst to pursue DJing even further after my 30days are over. I can't believe I waited this long to start. This class is highly recommended to anyone who has a desire to DJ regardless of your knowledge or skill level

Day 7

As I have repeated probably 30 times by now when I thought of what I wanted to do with 30dayla I set out to push myself outside of my comfort zone. I also hoped to immerse myself in different cultures. Now I'm not an actor, so I thought that a good thing to do would be to attend open auditions and jump in to the world of low-end struggling actors. I mean this is LA. One problem holding me back from going to legitimate auditions was a lack of headshots and a resume (which I am going to get made before the end of 30dayla). So I was pretty much limited to random casting calls. When I heard of a casting call for Rush Hour 3 I figured I might as well go for it. It would be my chance for me to be remembered forever as airport protestor #57 or foreign dignitary #25.

The crowd at the casting call was pretty much what I expected it to be; basically a number of actors who were deluding themselves. Many came with headshots hoping that somehow they would be noticed and have the possibility of being bumped up to an actual speaking role in the film. The people running the casting call threw pretty much all of those headshots in the trash. As I walked in I saw the casting director pull aside a couple of "attractive" Asian females saying that Brett Rattner was looking for super hot Asian women to audition for a couple of principle roles and was hoping he could book them for audition time. Someone indicated that this most likely means, "Brett is looking for someone to rub his penis against". Sounds like a career making opportunity.

I caught a "break" of my own when someone there told me they were looking for middle eastern looking people for another movie and told me I should give her a call. I let her know that I wasn’t Middle Eastern but she didn’t care, since I’m sure they were desperately looking for someone to fill the role of Terrorist #41. This role could be my chance to join the likes of Naveen Andrews (from Lost) to help confuse white people even more about the difference between what Middle Eastern and Indian people look like. I couldn't wait for al the misguided racial stereotypes. I decided to let the casting folks for Rush Hour 3 take my picture then leave, having made the decision that I have no desire to become another stereotype (an incorrect one at that).
I still hope to go to an actual audition once I get my pictures taken. An audition with actual lines is what I was looking for to push me out of my element and open to the harsh judgments of others.

Final Note: After the audition I went to this place for a friend's bday brunch
Geoffrey's
27400 Pacific Coast Highway
Malibu, CA 90265
Price: It's an Oceanside restaurant, what do you think

Here's my quick description. The food was good I really like their French toast. The restaurant overlooked the ocean so the view was pretty amazing. Downsides: Food is expensive. Also expect to see a lot of pretentious and rich white people or Asian women who are accompanied by older white men. I still think it’s a good place to go for special occasions.