Tuesday, 27 April 2010
-
CONFESSIONS OF A CASTING DIRECTOR - Cycling
It's been weeks since a blog entry, mostly due to the fact that I am knee-deep casting a movie right now, and without a full time assistant, I have been working around the clock to prep sessions, run sessions, upload sessions and download sessions and post sessions. It's fun and rewarding but my only free moments have been spent in Hot Power Yoga class at Pure Yoga which I highly recommend, and cycling every Saturday with the New York Cycle Club.
My love of cycling began as a young girl in Central Park where I spent many a Sunday afternoon with my family in our "backyard", the Great Lawn in Central Park. I have vivid memories of my father teaching me to ride a bike, removing the training wheels and when I least expected it, he would let go of the back of my Schwinn seat, and let me soar off on my own through parts of Central Park, mostly behind the Met. When I outgrew my child-size bike, my parents bought me a Burgundy three speed Ross bike in 1984, which I (not surprisingly) named Burgundy. I even shipped Burgundy out to Madison, Wisconsin where as a freshman in 1990, I already noticed how everyone owned Trek mountain bikes with many more speeds then Burgundy's three.
(As a side note, I often think of how easy it was when riding Burgundy. One speed for uphills, one for down, and one for regular terrain.)
By senior year, Burgundy had been stolen after I loaned her to a friend, and I was riding my cousin's son's blue Trek mountain bike - with thick tires for the snow and many more speeds then three. When I moved back to New York in 1994, I bought a black and red Raleigh mountain bike for about $200 and started doing the 5 boro bike ride, the Montauk Century, and one-day Multiple Sclerosis rides. I added handle bar extensions to my Raleigh (named Red Lobster) and rode the 1996, 1997 and 2001 Boston to New York AIDS rides, meeting great people and yes, doing 300+ miles on a sort of converted mountain bike. Then when I moved to LA in 2002, I based in riding Red Lobster with Disney friends in the early mornings up into Griffith Park and parking my bike in the casting suite at Disney Feature Animation.
Finally in 2006, I treated myself to my blue Trek road bike, discounted at the Pasadena Cyclery and could not BELIEVE how much faster I was riding by not propelling my old Red Lobster up the hills. In 2008, back in NYC I went clipless with my pedals and trained to ride through Israel in 2008 on the Hazon/Arava Institute Israel ride. My blue bike (aptly named Mrs. Blue) traveled in a box as checked luggage on Austrian Airlines all the way to Tel Aviv and enjoyed a splendid, life-affirming five day ride through the Negev from Jerusalem to Eilat.
There have been many long rides on Mrs. Blue, not to mention the past six weeks riding in the New York Cycle Club SIG (Special Interest Group) B-17 Team Alpine group.
For me, cycling has always been a way to find peace, almost a form of mediative prayer. The intense focus and concentration - be it pacelining with the NY Cycle Club or quietly pushing my way up hills in Jersey and beyond - helps my very busy mind take time to breathe and quiet down. This is most necessary when living my real life day to day.
PS - I keep making jokes about purchasing a Cervelo when I turn 40, and riding across the US to celebrate.
Monday, 05 April 2010
-
CONFESSIONS OF A CASTING DIRECTOR - Climbing Hills Towards Personal Freedom
In honor of the seventh day of Passover, today I cycled seven times up the hill at 110th street in Central Park on the bike/running loop. While climbing the seventh time, I also realized that it has been seven months since I was laid off from The Walt Disney Company, and that after seven months, I am finally embracing what it means to have a freelance life, and freedom.
The victim to my own workaholic-ism and tendency to do everything in the extreme, it is no surprise that I never let myself have a day off after I was laid off. When I found out that my position was being "dissolved" at Disney, instead of lying on the couch watching Oprah as so many advised me to do, I never took time off. Instead I immediately started casting projects, managing a few actors, and interviewing for jobs. The only sense of freedom that I allowed myself to feel was to go to the gym and take a midday thai sculpt or spinning class at Equinox, along with other "freelancers/housewives/actresses"....
In attempting to have more leisure in my life, I made the commitment to the New York Cycle Club's spring training rides over ten Saturdays from March to May and have been enjoying myself as we build mileage every week and cycle over to NJ or up to Westchester. Friends laugh that for me, cycling is my own form of Shabbat. But I am a passionate rider, who has done over twenty multiple-day fundraising rides for AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis and Israel. The challenge these past four weeks of riding has been my pace at climbing hills - a code for my own disappointment that I climb hills too slowly.
So today, a gorgeous Monday spring day, on the seventh day of Passover, while weak from the lack of carbs and a stomach that aches from too much whole wheat matzo, I took the liberty of smelling the flowers on my bike in the park, stopping occasionally to check my Iphone and read and send emails, and return a phone call or two. The world did not stop because I actually allowed myself some freedom.
And 26 miles later, 7 hill climbs later, I am better prepared not just for week 5 of New York Cycle Club bootcamp on Saturday, but for tomorrow, and the next day and the day after, climbing hills faster as I continue to approach my newfound freedom.
Sunday, 28 February 2010
-
CONFESSIONS OF A CASTING DIRECTOR - A 90210 Marathon
I haven't blogged in several weeks but there is much to share.
Two weeks ago I was saddled with elevation in Salt Lake City, turbulence flying in and out of Denver, and getting stuck in an elevator at 850 Seventh Avenue for 75 minutes on a Friday night. God was definitely having fun with me that week!
And then this past week, while I cried through the women figure skaters, and laughed at the bob sledders until someone fell out of hers, I realized that I had my own athletic/stress injury from lifting weights. Indeed, my leavtor muscle is quite sore. Yes, "levator" rhymes with "elevator".
So after a painful deep tissue massage on Thursday night at the Equinox Spa, I settled into a weekend of heating pads, drinking lots of water with lemon and forcing myself to slow down and relax - hard for this workaholic, overly ambitious Jewish woman from the upper east side.
But I did relax. While my boyfriend was delayed for a day in Orlando due to the blizzard, I settled on the couch and cleared out the TIVO, watching 8 straight episodes of 90210. Yes, 8....one additictive episode after another. I shifted from different characters in terms of who I really related to...Annie rebelling from her parents by dating shady Jasper, Jen who could only enjoy camping with a bottle of white wine and the Sunday Styles section, Naomi ever-materialistic and of course the one I really related to: Ivy the competitive surfer since I am known to competitive when it comes to cycling.
But my dear friend Michael Warwick soon shook me out of my 90210 marathon. "Honey, we are old enough to be their PARENTS."
Ah yes, it was many years ago that I was a high school student hanging out in the Meadow in Central Park. It was years ago that I led the sophisticated life of a private-school student in Manhattan in the late 1980s.
I finished all the episodes right as my boyfriend landed at La Guardia, and carefully got off the couch so as not to hurt my leavtor muscle. I made the bed, did the dishes and became an "adult" once again.
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
-
CONFESSIONS OF A CASTING DIRECTOR - Thoughts on Air Travel
So here I sit, an hour and change early for my 10:00 am flight from Newark to Denver. I wonder why I am extra early when it comes to air travel, while I spend the rest of my life trying not to arrive thirty seconds late to everything.
My father, Rabbi Rudin, served in the Air Force, and I have certainly inherited his gene for flying. I'm the one who checks in 24 hours in advance, changes my seat to the best seat possible - exit row often the goal. I'll spend money to upgrade to economy plus or the exit row but refuse to pay extra money to check a bag, and have been known to argue when a security officer questions the size of my carry one suitcase. Just ask Arden about our Thanksgiving experience in the Detroit airport.
My father traveled often for his job when we were kids, and he lovingly tracks my flights and cares as much as I do to discuss aircraft type, seats, routes and the details of takeoffs and landings. My mother can sit happily on an even bumpy flight reading a good book and munching a granola bar, while my father and I feel every bump, and say Jewish prayers during turbulence. (Well, maybe I'm the only one who does this...)
Next subject: Flight prep. I drink an airborne prior to the flight, bring purell, and am known to mix ambien with a glass of wine and a dramamine. I blame some of the germ stuff on my ex-husband, who was known to use a wipee when pumping gas. Together, he and I were the most conscious of travelers - showering after a flight, purelling our hands before fastening a seat belt - and tuning out with our Bose headsets. Did I mention that we met on a JetBlue flight while waiting to use the lavatory? Though we are divorced, I still perform all these rituals, saving the half an ambien for red-eyes only!
I have counted flights the way one might count calories or internet dates. When I worked for Disney I sometimes averaged ten flights a month. And of course, I am precise about reward miles. I was able to cash in my United miles to fly round trip to Israel in 2008 for my bike ride, and have cashed out miles for business class to Los Angeles. The list goes on.
My boyfriend is the complete opposite of me. He loathes when I make him arrive to the airport two hours early. Worse, he prefers to fly at reasonable hours during the day, while I enjoy getting up at 4 am for a 6:30 am flight, believing deep down that the first flight out is often the one without delays. But despite our differences, I am thankful to fly with him. He assures me that a little turbulence will disappear and that indeed, the flight will make it to the arrival city without running out of fuel :)
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
-
CONFESSIONS OF A CASTING DIRECTOR - Peaceful snow and other topics of interest
There's so much to blog about this week:
1. The white snow on the streets of the city, coating the noise with a peaceful calm that will sadly turn into messy, slushy brown-ness.
2. Jen Cody winning the Annie award for her delicious voice acting as Charlotte in The Princess and the Frog - visit www.jenrudin.com to view her acceptance speech.
3. My 24 hour trip to teach a Master Class with the juniors and seniors at University of Michigan and turbulent skies through storms...
4. Spring biking training as A. and I prepare for our spring New York Cycle Club rides....
5. My 3 hour visit to the 67th street Apple store....tips for staying calm when you are forever at the genius bar....
I promise to touch on each topic in the next few days.
Till then, stay warm and enjoy the rare New York City snow.
-Jen
- browse entries:
- older »
