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Dear Casting Networks aka LA Casting,

Let me get right to it: Please include all dates in notification emails that go out from you to actors. Currently, dates for callback auditions and shoot dates are not included in emails that actors get via their commercial agencies, yet this information is known to you and can be viewed manually by the agencies.

If you do not include callback and shoot dates in notification emails because of some business decision, that is, if you are doing this by choice, reconsider that choice! You are doing an immense disservice to the acting community, to the thousands of actors that you rely on to make a profit. That alone should be reason to change.

If it’s for technical reasons, please hire me to fix it. Are you currently understaffed? Is it some other reason? I don’t know, but I do know this: I could fix it easily and quickly, so easily and so quickly that I would be willing to do it for free. You do not have to pay me to fall off a log, is what I’m saying.

Thanks for listening, and I look forward to a change very soon, or at least an explanation. The acting community deserves one or the other right away.

Respectfully,

Kevin Ashworth
http://www.lacasting.com/kevinashworth

P.S. In case you’re wondering, yes, I took a very big hit last week because of this issue.

P.P.S. If you don’t receive these notices and are curious to see what they look like, I’ve uploaded a few sample screenshots of emails I’ve received over the last year in this addendum.

Some words of wisdom from Don Miguel Ruiz:

Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

Over the last 3 days, I’ve had a lot of replacement parts to my black MacBook. Thanks to AppleCare and my 2 external backups, it’s been pretty painless, if a little time consuming. I got new RAM, and an unexpected boost from 2GB to 3GB. Then I needed a new hard drive, too, and an unexpected boost from Mac OS X 10.5 to 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

Embracing change, I switched the DNS servers on our Time Capsule settings from Time Warner Cable’s default values to the settings over at OpenDNS. The internets have gotten peppier with every one of the above changes. Upgrading your RAM or your OS will probably cost most of you money, but you can all upgrade to OpenDNS for free … and I highly recommend you give it a shot!

Just be sure to write down your current settings so you can reverse them if it doesn’t make things peppier for you. (Sidebar: If you say it in French, a peppier might be the guy that walks around fancy restaurants to grind some pepper on your soupe or salade.)

In the last week or so, Google downed my quality of life. They used to up it with changes, but now they are downing it. I’m refering to the change in Saved Locations within Google Maps. Google used to remember addresses, and allow you to label them with such words as “home,” or “fff” (which is easier to type). Suddenly, last week, that feature is no more.

As the Googledouches explain on this page, it’s a thing of the past. Their new approach of using personalized suggestions is faster, they say.

Ba. Lo. Ney.

Is it worth complaining about? Yes. I signed up for the Google support forum and in one pertinent thread I posted my opinion. I urge you to do so, too. Let’s keep it short and simply write, I want Saved Locations back, now.

As you may know, Los Angeles has a blight problem: too many billboards. As a counterexample, Santa Monica is a much better city today than it would be if it had LA’s lax billboard laws. Imagine Ocean Blvd done up like the Sunset Strip. Ick! But back in LA, the latest looming evil is projection billboards. Recently, an evil corporation ran tests projecting ads on the sides of large buildings at night.

Oh look, we’ve become the hellish future portrayed by Phillip K. Dick, author of the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which 27 years ago was the basis for the movie Blade Runner. Dick is turning over in his grave, and crazy replicants like Sean Young the actress not Sean Young’s character may as well be on the loose all over this town. Run, people, run!

You know about the NYT article last week that got the hefty-bonuses story started. It made me extremely upset, and somebody prominent called the year’s bonuses “shameful.”

But you know all that. What you might not know is that my brilliant friends from Massachusetts, triplet performance artists called Triiibe, went to Wall Street a few months back with this intriguing guerilla performance piece on the topic. They stand there asking for dough, in a carefully stylized performance. It’s great. Check it out!

Whoa! Check out this warning from The Founders’ Great Mistake in The Atlantic (Jan/Feb 2009): “Unless these problems are fixed, it will only be a matter of time before another hot-rodder gets hold of the keys and damages the country further.”

Garrett Epps writes an article that has a cogent, liberal summary of weaknesses in the Constitution vis-à-vis the presidency. I recommend the article to you. At the end, he makes a couple of recommendations for change along the lines of what you’ve learned — and a couple recommendations completely out of left field!

From nowhere, he suggests a Cabinet – Vice President – Midterm Election shuffle. Wha?! Maybe this is a good idea, maybe not. But your other good ideas are connected in some way to the previous paragraphs in your article, Mr Epps. Did The Atlantic trim your writing, or did your political ideas trump your writing skills?

Same with your suggestion to vote for President and Attorney General. Not a worthless idea, no sirree. But you threw another curveball there, buddy! Please provide additional history and background on this one, too.