The West Coast Best Coast was settled by some crazy muther fu*kers. No doubt. Imagine looking at that canyon, one of the seven wonders of the world, well deserving of it's implicated grandness, thinking, "let's see what's on the other side". But their horse and carriages didn't stop for the great chasm in the earth, no, they relented not, they pushed forward, they dreamed big and over the snow-covered avalanche/blizzard frozen gray mountains they persevered. Many surely died trying. Many surely decided the risk was not worth their family's lives so they settled in desert or plains before. But some ... the people I choose to feel an ancestry with, are the believers. "There's gold in them thar hills!" - an alchemic purity of spirit that existed in this world, worth searching for, possible to find. These are my people. Only stopping when land disappeared - at the ocean, my people may not have discovered the alluvial nuggets that beckoned their impulsive idealism, but they did find something. Every day, setting sun across and aquatic horizon - we are touched and our dreams continue for one day more. The gold rush, I am convinced, is legitimate and lives on. The mind of the people on the West Coast remains that of pioneers. Things change more rapidly here than anywhere else in the world. The fashion of the moment, the progressive thinking mind, the suggestibility required to try something new simply because it's new and ... who knows how brightly beauty may shine? But the exact speed at which this city, Los Angeles, is capable of change, not only lays the foundation for eternal youth and sets the stage for the embracing of all modern practices, including cultural arts, science fiction religions and overwhelming international commerce via mass media, but also ignites a convenience compulsion that covets all things that don't take too long, last too long or require too much effort. In other words, the West Coast's Pioneering mind was the first to embrace organic agriculture while driving packing highways single-passenger in lieu of the car pool lane. Disposability is the down side of too rapid a change: disposable wardrobe, architecture and even identity. This change - obsessive change - for change's sake, leaves landfills needlessly where cemeteries and public basketball courts used to shine. My industry, the film and television industry in particular, is the most excessively expendable industry of them all. The waste generated on set in one of filming a major motion picture, from the plastic, glass and aluminum beverage containers alone, leaves me wondering how I, who goes all the way for clean living inside and out, can possibly be content with quietly reusing my little glass water bottle while dozens are being tossed this very minute with only two sips depleted. If five more people on set are inspired to be responsible for just their water bottle after reading this, then ... maybe it really does matter. As an actor in the Los Angeles film and television industry, my ability to even get through a casting director's door lies gently in recommendation and reputation, but heavily on headshot. Printed, mailed, dropped off, then resubmitted, the headshot often gets saved when one's audition warrants possible employment, but too often follows the path of common, unsolicited junk mail: straight from the press and into the trash. The advent of online casting submission services like LA Casting and Breakdown Services allows managers and agents to communicate actors' images digitally, saving literally forests in paper production, hours in time and hundreds of dollars in photo reproduction. And while I wish with all my might that the digital headshot, resume and demo reel will take over as the exclusive professional casting exchange, I still count 300 headshot, postcard and business card reprints every other month in my promotional output. 1,800 shots/year really is something when you add it up. So I asked the photo reproduction facility, knowing that recycled paper is being used in everyday paper items due to it's actually being cheaper to produce than virgin paper and far more agreeable with our precious environment, "What percent of your reproduction paper is recycled?" They did not know, but they were happy to find out; "25%". Now, that's fantastic! "I'd like to print on 100% recycled paper. Can you help me do that?" It took four weeks, $200 extra dollars and a small sacrifice in image clarity, but I can with near complete assurance state that with only tiny effort, I have become the first actor in film and television to print her shots on 100% recycled paper. This is the industry that so heavily relies on headshots. This is the city of where said industry's epicenter lies. This reproduction house is one of the most popular in Hollywood, and I was their first. They found out for me. And the next time someone else says, "I want to print on 100% recycled paper. Can you help me do that?" - it will be fast. And the twentieth time someone asks the same question - it will be cheap. The paper will be in stock and available. We Who Travel West ... I stand at the ocean bathing in sunset's magick hour, dreaming that the next rush of gold might be right beneath my dirty fingernails. Feeling like the pioneer of everything that is about to be. Reminding myself that Pioneers are not settlers. My people before me did not settle on the plains. They did not settle at the canyon. And I won't be settling either - especially not "down". So while I welcome with open arms the countless pioneers I see rushing gold one by one, and encourage them to insist on 100% - nothing less, I still press on towards digital exclusivity and the legalization of the hemp plant so that deforestation for paper products can cease altogether - for once and for all. I will not settle down.
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tonya kay
August 2008 
creature
