{"id":639,"date":"2015-02-13T00:05:50","date_gmt":"2015-02-13T00:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maxkochuncorked.com\/?p=639"},"modified":"2015-02-13T00:34:46","modified_gmt":"2015-02-13T00:34:46","slug":"im-going-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maxkochuncorked.com\/?p=639","title":{"rendered":"I’m Going Out…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m going out with a friend tonight and I think I’m ready. I’ve been kinda reclusive these days and that’s not entirely been a bad thing. As it is, I have a fairly steady at-home gig that keeps my acting and\u00a0improvisational\u00a0chops greased…but for the most part, outside of errands and a meal or two with a person I care to see, I’ve not left the house for an extended period of time since last Saturday night! It was then the wife dragged\u00a0me to a Hollywood bar called The Well<\/a> as part of a Groupon<\/a> deal, and just driving over the hill to the damn\u00a0place was an absolute undesired nightmare. Between the traffic and the construction up and down Vine and Gower streets\u00a0and the clusters of wax-moustachioed\u00a0hipsters farting about the\u00a0Hollywood Palladium<\/a> on Sunset…and the inability to even properly\u00a0locate<\/em> this\u00a0sufficiently-hidden establishment (Waze<\/a> was NOT on our side)…it was simply enough to ask, “why<\/em> the hell are we doing this again when we could be HOME???”<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"well-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It should never take me an hour to get to Hollywood. And The Well didn’t\u00a0even seem that interested to have us. Perhaps\u00a0they right-away disliked\u00a0us because we had the stink of\u00a0Groupon on. I\u00a0have no idea, but\u00a0we immediately found the perfect booth when we walked in, sat down, and waited. And waited. And wait–<\/strong><\/p>\n

ME: So…is the bartender going to come take our order?<\/strong><\/p>\n

NIC: It doesn’t look like it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

ME: Maybe there’s a cocktail server we-just-can’t-see-because-it’s-so-dark that\u00a0will come around.<\/strong><\/p>\n

(10 minutes later…)<\/strong><\/p>\n

NIC: It doesn’t look like it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

ME: So you’re telling me this place is so hip that WE have to go to HIM to get served?? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

NIC: If we ever wanna get served.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ugh. Fine. I spent the entire evening getting up and down and down and up, from the booth to the bar, from the bar to the booth, bussing and carrying my own damn food and drink items. I shoulda tipped MYSELF at close-out but instead gave my usual 20% to the subdued bartender because I, too, worked in service for many years and am now permanently stuck with a debilitating case of WAITER GUILT (over-tipping even if the\u00a0service blows). Add it to my endless<\/em> list of\u00a0foibles.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I did enjoy the jukebox at The Well very much. I had forgotten how fond I was of “Celluloid Heroes”<\/a> by the Kinks. I wish I could be a celluloid hero. I also wish I wasn’t so bummed out listening to this song again right now as I type.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Everybody’s a dreamer and everybody’s a star<\/strong><\/em>
\nAnd everybody’s in show biz, it doesn’t matter who you are<\/strong><\/em>
\nAnd those who are successful<\/strong><\/em>
\nBe always on your guard<\/strong><\/em>
\nSuccess walks hand in hand with failure<\/strong><\/em>
\nAlong Hollywood Boulevard<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Great. Now I’m totally depressed and don’t even WANT to go out tonight. Alright, alright, I don’t mean that. Do I…?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Look, what can I say. \u00a0I can’t deny that I have gotten crankier and more withdrawn in my 44 years of suffering thus far. But I think that just might be part of my late-blooming desire to tend a little more to the needs and wants of MYSELF before others…at least once in a while. Just reading that back makes me feel like a selfish dickface.\u00a0But that’s\u00a0<\/strong>been ANOTHER one of my biggest problems: I’ve been the eager-to-please guy for so long, I’ve forgotten what it is I<\/span> want out of life. And right now, it’s to hunker down in my house and figure out what the hell I want to create next. And I am wholly aware of how fortunate I am to have such a luxury. And so I am\u00a0weighing my options. And planning. Scrapping ideas and birthing new ones out. It’s been a real process.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"600full-its-alive-screenshot\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Have you ever seen the 1974 horror movie “It’s Alive”<\/a>? About the mutant baby that’s born to a couple who have no idea what they’ve spawned? The thing erupts from the mother’s vagina and slaughters every doctor and nurse in sight. Then it crawls up into the hospital’s air ducts and spits itself out into the world. The world of Los Angeles at Night…where it proceeds to destroy nearly everything in it’s wake…including a poor, unfortunate milk delivery man!<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don’t know why I’m bringing up that dopey flick but that’s the kind of baby I feel like I’m just about to give birth to over here. One that really makes an impact! No, no, I don’t want my baby to murder everyone…I would just love to “kill” an audience on an emotional level with whatever it is I manifest next.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I guess we’ll just have to see what comes. Meanwhile, I’m gonna go out. Yeah, yeah, I’ll catch a breather from this desk. I think it’ll be good for me, come to think of it. I’m gonna hang with my friend. I’m excited! I might\u00a0even have some wine. And see a band play. And try not to think about how I should be back home hiding in my office conjuring up things I may never see through.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can see all the stars as you walk along…<\/strong><\/em>
\nYou can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard<\/strong><\/em>
\nSome that you recognize, some that you’ve hardly even heard of<\/strong><\/em>
\nPeople who worked and suffered and struggled for fame<\/strong><\/em>
\nSome who succeeded and some who suffered in vain<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

La la la la…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Oh, celluloid heroes never feel any pain<\/strong><\/em>
\nOh, celluloid heroes never really die<\/strong><\/em>
\nI wish my life was non-stop Hollywood movie show<\/strong><\/em>
\nA fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes<\/strong><\/em>
\nBecause celluloid heroes never feel any pain<\/strong><\/em>
\nAnd celluloid heroes never really die<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

WINE PAIRING: Hollywood and Wine<\/a>. Because an entertainment industry guy like Doug Barr<\/a>\u00a0got the hell out of here and made NEW dreams come to fruition…<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m going out with a friend tonight and I think I’m ready. I’ve been kinda reclusive these days and that’s not entirely been a bad thing. As it is, I have a fairly steady at-home gig that keeps my acting and improvisational chops greased…but for the most part, outside of errands and a meal or two with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Out...","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[176,175,177,173,174],"class_list":["post-639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-doug-barr","tag-hollywood-and-wine","tag-its-alive","tag-the-kinks","tag-the-well"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4VgPA-aj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxkochuncorked.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxkochuncorked.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxkochuncorked.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxkochuncorked.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxkochuncorked.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=639"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/maxkochuncorked.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":645,"href":"https:\/\/maxkochuncorked.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639\/revisions\/645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxkochuncorked.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxkochuncorked.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxkochuncorked.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}