Florida is a fantastic place to go to get away from it all.  You can find yourself alone with the ocean in a number of places, and you can also get involved in some lively local scenes.  There are places that are very secluded, with exotic natural settings that speak to the quiet part of the soul, but there are also places that are just buzzing with human activity.  The bigger cities have a lot to offer, just as much as the quiet spots on the beach.  It’s one thing to come here to become part of a scene, however, and quite another if you’re coming here to do research for a part you’re playing when the part is an old man who is sort of a lot like Hemingway or whatever.

I found a place to get hotels here that my friend recommended, and I decided to go right into Miami, because I knew I’d be spending a lot of time alone, but I also wanted to have the option to be around people if I started to feel crazy.  I’m trained in the old-school way of acting, where you have to inhabit the character from the inside.  So that if I’m playing the part of an old man, I have to understand what it’s like to be old.  So I spend part of the morning meditating on gravity until I feel really heavy, and I try to have as many memories as I can so my head is full and I can’t remember much more than what my head is already full of.

Then I put on a fake beard and talk with a raspy voice and I am almost ready.  The day was much easier than the night because I could get an inner image of Robert Duvall, and what would he do if he were me playing this part, in my head.  And I also tried to think about peanuts, because that’s all my grandfather talks about.  I am not so sure why, but I think something might be wrong.  The day is great because I can hang at the beach and no one’s asking too much, but then at night I’m so bored and I go out to the club and someone is approaching me and wants to know what’s with the beard.  I don’t want to talk about it, because an old man wouldn’t want to talk about the beard, because he is above such things.  Before the night is out, I am not very popular, but tomorrow night I might go to the senior center and see if bingo is better than techno for meeting people, in my state.