Blogging as work avoidance

Avoiding two things today that I don't feel like doing. In reality, I'm delaying the inevitable. I'll do them as soon as I finish this post...

Got my contract yesterday for year two on the tenure track. Slight raise. School is struggling with financial issues, so I wasn't expecting much. Just nice to have the contract signed, sealed, etc.

One of the things I'm avoiding: working my way through first set of headshots for the film (the other is prepping for a couple of lectures for next week). Casting is rough -- so much depends on getting the right person for the lead in this film. Lots of interested actors submitting headshots. Not a lot who look anything like the characters. I am not locked into a specific look -- all I require is that the leads not be that typical actorly "good looking" types -- which of course all these actors are.

Headshots are designed to make actors look good. So even the quirky looking people look normal and kind of good looking in their headshots. Naturally, this makes it tougher for me. There are probably 3 out fo 20 or 30 that I think might look right for the part (different kinds of right, but right in some respect). But I don't trust my instincts enough to eliminate people based solely on headshots. Then again, we can't audition everyone -- just not enough time.

So I am about to delve into the elimination process, feeling bad to be judging people pretty much solely on their looks...