Cherif Gacis Chassis Musings

“ You can  easily  judge the character of a man  by how  he  treats those who  can  do nothing for him.”—Malcolm S. Forbes At an industry mixer recently, one of the speakers talked about a role play he would do with actors to see how they did in a very important (yet often overlooked) part of their jobs: auditioning. He would purposely throw them curve balls to see what their reaction was to changing a preconceived environment.  The purpose wasn't to confuse them and keep them on their toes, the purpose was to get a read on their professionalism and adaptability. When you're handed a script, it doesn't necessarily mean that is the final draft the project will be working with, and changes have to be made to make the story flow better and fit together.  He then reinforced something that I learned very early on during my "Friday Night Lights" days...some people don't really care for anyone else except what's in it for them when they interact with you.

"We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master"~Ernest Hemingway Two weeks ago, I found myself watching a movie I used to watch quite a bit a long time ago, "Ghost" with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore. Growing up, Swayze was one of my favorite actors, and not because he happened to be a fellow Texan, of which there aren't many in front of the camera these days. "Red Dawn" (the original one), "Dirty Dancing", and "Point Break" have all been remade in the past few years, but none of them made even remotely the same splash as the originals. How does a project with better technology, vastly higher budget, better marketing and a bigger worldwide audience, as well as nostalgic appeal not generate the same success? The remake of "Point Break" received only 5.3 stars on IMDB (compared to the 7.2 from it's 1990's counterpart) despite having an astronomical budget of $105 Million. The answer is the

"Work hard in silence, let your success make the noise"~Anonymous Any time you embark in a new endeavor, you always have to count the costs and examine the reason for doing it. Many times in the past, more than I'd care to recall, I've gone out of my way to help someone I know or sometimes even a complete stranger in furthering their life or success only to have them turn around and bad mouth me down the line. That's the real danger in wanting to help others, particularly if you do it behind the scenes to not give yourself credit or accolades. You never really know the reaction you will get down the road. When I decided to run for Mayor of San Marcos, it wasn't for personal vanity, fun or because moonlighting as the highest elected official of the city would be lucrative. The pay for San Marcos City Council members and Mayor is painfully low, and as such most people that run for the office are people who may not have to work independently, can afford to n