Thought for the Day

As to salvation and all that... The greatest teachers, the true healers, I would say, have always insisted that they can only point the way. The Buddha went so far as to say: "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense."

The great ones do not set up offices, charge fees, give lectures, or write books. Wisdom is silent, and the most effective propaganda for truth is the force of personal example. The great ones attract disciples, lesser figures whose mission it is to preach and teach. These are the gospelers who, unequal to the highest task, spend their lives converting others. The great ones are indifferent, in the profoundest sense. They don't ask you to believe: they electrify you by their behavior. They are the awakeners. What you do with your life is only of concern to you, they seem to say. In short, their only purpose here on earth is to inspire. And what more can one ask of a human being than that?

- Henry Miller, Sexus

It's Nothing

Lisa Dee gave me the 1st season of Ashton Kutcher's "Punk'd " on DVD for Christmas, along with a Border's gift card (cuz she knowz I gotz to read!) and a pair of pink slippers that say, "I love my BFF" on 'em. It's a good thing her mom was in town to enforce Christmas upon her, as Deedle often likes to try to hide from the formal participation in holidays. :-)

My all-time favorite Punk'd is the one with Justin Timberlake, where they make him believe that all of his possessions, house, pets, EVERYTHING is being seized by a Tax Enforcement agency. Not only is the prank executed with such immense orchestration and precision that it is awe-inspiring... Timberlake's post-prank reaction is so beautiful and joyous and relieved and funny that it really makes me love that guy.

Today I was turned on to Stefan Bruggemann's "Nothing Boxes" by David Hurlin, who is one of the few people I have met who shares my intense obsession with nothing. I am grateful to have another set of eyes and ears out there on the front lines of art life and experience sending me reports whenever nothing makes its appearance.

At the end of the Justin Timberlake Punk'd episode, he finally picks up one of the boxes that he assumed was full of his stuff. They were all completely empty.

Absence is the new presence. Everything is connected. Nothing is real.

Happy New Year?

Love,
Juli

For the Love of the Damon

I know this video is uber-old news, but who cares! I was telling someone about it today and they HADN'T seen it, and the memory of it so delighted me that I had to look it up and watch it again. Then I figured I'd share it with YOU, too. It's Sarah Silverman's "I'm F@cking Matt Damon" song. And it's funny.



Now, I've never been particularly responsive to Sarah Silverman's comedy, which I know is blasphemy to some folks. Oh well. This video, however, is really funny to me, mostly because of how hysterically awesome Matt Damon is in it. That guy has made some interesting career moves and come out as a friggin' superstar. He kicked some major acting ass in The Departed and The Bourne Trilogy is just friggin' awesome. That's right. I love 'em all. Can't wait for the "Untitled Jason Bourne Project" to come out in 2010. That's almost as exiting as the coming of 2012!

The conversation that reminded me of the Sarah Silverman/Matt Damon video was regarding Alanis Morissette's version of the "My Humps" song (which, incidentally, I finally heard the original version of recently, whilst driving in my car, and was utterly horrified at how completely base and idiotic it was. Amazingly Fergie's "London Bridge" was a MASSIVE development in poetics and content from this banal piece of mediocre asininity.) In the end, the Alanis video was determined to be "not that funny" by those conversing on the topic, as it didn't really "go" anywhere after the initial "joke" was revealed. As a wise man once said, it "missed the rising action." :-)

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i really, really do.

i love my band.

seriously.

love,
juli

i want what you want

reciprocally inspired by drummer tabla philosopher poet player enthusiastically inclined zen dada motivational speaker david hurlin of the drum theory and revelation blog i've decided to write this abandoned blog entry here now tonight at this very moment because i am to some extent or another what i would consider to be BEHIND SCHEDULE with THIS, my personal blog.

i will, however, now utilize some punctuation, which AT THIS MOMENT strikes me as a funny word in it's relation to punctuality and is something that i will now have to dig up the root on, define for myself in poetic fashion, and perchance make a graph determining the intersection and the direction of these two terms. if it makes a cross, i will not be in the least be surprised, yet utterly delighted at the repeating pattern.

so, what's what? life is good. the evangenitals are playing shows. i just got hired by my alma mater CalArts to direct a really wild opera. lisa dee is blogging again. i'm going to start learning TM tomorrow (today). my student loans came through, giving me the illusion of financial security for the time being. cash'd out gigs continue to be a blast for me and i'm becoming more and more of an essential part of the show. i'm reading more, feeling more, thinking more, writing more, loving more, feeling my heart open it's barn doors more, tasting and sensing and aching more acutely. and i smell a lot. :-)

i helped a friend move today. i read nietzsche today. i spent a couple hours in a bookstore today and ran into some folks i really like. i talked about poetry with a stranger today. i lifted a lot of boxes and moved furniture. i ate a spicy thai salad. i saw my old boss. i got pulled over by a cop for my headlight being out and he didn't give me a ticket. i watched a movie on netflix today. i got to see mister turtle's sleepy/closed eyes today, which is one of my great ecstatic joys of pure adorability. today was a good day.

tomorrow. today. it's late. same difference. the sun doesn't actually rise anyhow. :-)

love always. seriously.
reverend juli crockett

I Make The Rain

I love hot tea. I'm not sure if it's the agave nectar which I use to sweeten it, the warmth of the liquid, or the actual flavor of the teas that I make that pleases me so; whatever it is, it works a magic on me. I like the ritual of making tea. I like putting the loose leaves in my Japanese-style teapot and mixing weird combos to make a hot wet flavor experience. And I like the cups that I drink it from. I like the way they fit in my hands. I just like it all.

Some time ago, my teapot (the one I boil the water in, not the Japanese-style one) stopped whistling, so now when I boil the water for my tea, I have to stay generally alert as to the fact that there is water boiling on the stove, since the pot is not going to be so kind as to whistle and let me know. Alas, I am not always good at this.

More than I'd like to admit, I get distracted and totally forget that I'm boiling water. It has, on more than one occasion, come to pass that I will end up participating in the transformation of an entire pot of water into steam by neglecting the boiling water on the stove. This used to make me feel bad, as I thought I was wasting water, until I realized that perhaps I am playing a small part in the Hydrological Cycle, helping the big 'ol water wheel of the world with it's turning.

The way I see it, every time I offer up a pot of steam to the heavens, I'm helping to plump up the clouds, weigh down the sky, and bring the rain. And I like the rain, too. :-)

And another thing...

On the bagged tea tip: I friggin' love the teas (like Yogi Tea or Good Earth Tea) that give you some words of wisdom or a famous quote on the paper tag. I'm a sucker for lil' nuggets like that, and I appreciate chunks of literature and/or anything I can take as a sign and/or signal from the universe wherever I can get it.

I like music, yes I do!

I really like music. I especially like GOOD** music that makes me really HAPPY.

What is making me happy RIGHT NOW is:

• The fact that the King's of Convenience's ENTIRE ALBUM "Quiet Is The New Loud" is on Last.fm!
• The fact that an awesome band called "Hippie Cream" from Hemet, CA just found the Evangenitals on Myspace and I suspect that not only are we musical soul mates but we shall play together very soon!
  
• The fact that the Evangenitals just got asked to play ANOTHER show with Hello From Reno (at Mr T's Bowl on December 30th) and we friggin' LOVE those guys!
• The fact that Matt Reischling of Confessions of a Corn Silo is as good a PERSON as he is a MUSICIAN and that's PRETTY DAMN GOOD!
• The fact that Evangenitals drummer DAVID HURLIN is BLOGGING like CRAZY.
• The fact that I, too, have a new blog: One Book : One Week

Taken together, that is an awful lot to be happy about... and I am awful happy. AWFUL! HAPPY!

** It is in fact BECAUSE the music makes me HAPPY that it is indeed GOOD...
according to the general philosophy of ethics, morals, and WTF is goodness anyhow.

Too Much of a Good Thing?

Rock Fatigue?
Originally uploaded by juliocrockett

Many thanks to Michael for taking pictures of the show at T's Bowl last night!

I've posted some gems to my Flickr account for your viewing pleasure and am writing a big 'ol blog post about our residency at Mr T's Bowl over on the General Genitals Blog: http://evangenitals.blogspot.com

Also, there are some new Evangenitals videos from LAST week's Evangenitals jam at the Bowl freshly posted on MySpace Videos, thanks to fiddle player Andrea Baker's family clan. It was our first show ever with accordion player Ari Desano and I'm real happy to have it documented in perpetuity on the interweb!

Much love,
Juli

An Evangenital in Spaceland

*** THIS JUST IN ***

Evangenitals drummer David Hurlin is going to be drumming with EZRA REICH (http://ping.fm/f4xDC) TONIGHT (Tuesday Dec 2nd) at 11pm.

Since I can't be there (I'm in San Diego recording Johnny Cash/June Carter tunes with Cash'd Out) I'm hoping YOU can go and see this rare spectacle. :-)

Ezra Reich's music is (in my opinion) like John Maus arm-wrestling David Lynch in a Technicolor water ballet. Yes, you can quote me on that.

Regardless of how you felt about the 80's, you will be sure to appreciate how friggin' TIGHT this act is. I'm talking ORCHESTRATED. With STRINGS, man.

So go do it, dig it, and support our dear David Hurlin on his fantastic voyage. :-)

Much love,
Juli Crockett & the Evangenitals