Moving and Shaking.

Something is happening in my world...

Charles Francis Richter would be impressed with the momentous shifts, some detectable by the human eye, and some not, that are going on in the life of one Reverend Juli Crockett of the Evangenitals! To list but a few, I've suddenly decided to move from my (way too expensive) South Pasadena apartment that I have loved and lived in for over 2 years into a place that is WAY less expensive (literally half the price), bigger, and I love even more. Huzzah! And I'm going to be roommates with one of the Evangenitals' biggest fans, which is awesome. And perhaps a little weird, but more awesome than it is weird.

Patrick and I will be packing up our joyful, art-filled, vegan lives and our joyful, energy-filled vegan dog and taking this show on the road... just 5 miles away, but it makes all the difference in the world when I don't have to sweat about the rent payments and can focus on a life dedicated to making art -- outside of any semblance of a 9 to 5 job. I LOVE IT!!!

We're skipping school tomorrow to pack. :-)

Last Friday night Lisa Dee, myself, (that's Evangina!), guitarist Henry Bermudez, and Timothy Sellers of Artichoke all jumped in a car and drove to Austin to catch a taste of SXSW and play a day show on Sunday. It was a much-need breaking out and breaking away from the day to day, and also a grand display of willingness and mild insanity. The whole thing made me indescribably happy.

Brian and Jerimi, a WONDERFUL couple who restore any lagging faith that any of us could have in humanity and the generosity of the spirit, put us up in Austin and took great care of us. I barely know these folks, and yet they opened their hearts, ears, home, and fridge to us... for fun and for free. Incredible. I also discovered that Austin has free health insurance for musicians and the audiences actually TIP... what am I doing here? I love LA. It's twisted.

It was great to play with Izzy Cox. I've missed her. She is a powerful performer and I look forward to doing more shows with her when she comes out to LA again. We also DEFINITELY plan to return to Austin next year, if not sooner. Now that Henry is going to be playing with us, we are indeed a road-hungry band... we want to play play PLAY and bring the Evangenital joy to every pair of ears that will listen.

I'm going to be posting the photo-journal from the Austin trip on Flickr real soon. I'll post links here when I do.

Tonight we played a fundraiser show with Veruca Salt in downtown LA and we debuted a never-before-seen/heard Evangenitals lineup featuring Joey Ninja of Ninja Academy on bass and the aforementioned Henry Bermudez on lead guitar. It rocked my socks off! I am excited to be revisiting our old tunes with new energy and explore and reinterpret them -- stretch 'em to the snapping point and see what their spine looks like. Constantly changing, exploring, questioning, enjoying, refreshing... I dig it. "The Hole" almost burst into a Reggae jam tonight, people. It was AWESOME!!!

So, the short version is: the flow is flowing once again, the universe is giving me the green light on all things, it seems, and I am revved up and ready to GROW! The party is about to get started, and you're all always invited.

Love, always and already,
Juli

Inspirado.

If you haven't notice, The Evangenitals are on a bit of a hiatus. Brett is working a film editing gig, the Valentine's Season has meant that Lisa got consumed by her Flower Industry job, George has been makin' bucks playing with Cash'd Out, and I've been trying to get my life in order and figure out what I really want to be doing with it at this point in time. I think everyone needed a big 'ol break after the Road to Oprah tour. Although, I am already excited about the next tour we take. I really liked touring, which is a good thing, considering that we're the type of band, I'm told, that is really going to make our mark (and money) on the road. I'm glad I'm cut out for it!

On Monday I'm meeting with a man from USC to talk about possibly doing something with my next theater piece there, which is super-exciting. On Tuesday I'm starting some mime/musical theater/improv/choreography/modern dance classes at my local city college, part of the 'ol "honing my instrument" routine. My new improv dream-team "Hammerspace" started getting together to practice for our upcoming show on March 8th. I'm working on a bunch of new songs for the Evangenitals. My student loan checks came in. It's Valentine's Day and I'm in LOVE. I'd have to say things are going alright!

Yes, you heard me right.... I'm taking MIME!!

The Collaboration Foundation (aka The 1 Second Film's parent organization) is currently on the front page of IdeaBlob. If we get enough votes, we could win $10,000 toward our "Idea"... which would be amazing. So please vote for the Collaboration Foundation if you have a moment to register and vote.

Today I got totally inspired and started seriously pursuing some more Evangenitals radio play for our new album. I sent out a gang of emails and got some good responses, so that's promising. Tomorrow I'll be getting a bunch of CD's "radio ready" and sending them off on their fantastic voyage onto the airwaves! I figure that's something I can really get into while the band is taking a break. That and launching semi-complicated sales. Ahh... to be obsessed.

On Myspace, the Evangenitals are approaching the 30,000 view mark, which seems like it should be some kind of a big deal.

Evangina is in the planning stages of a covers album, and the long-awaited Evangina album PEAS should be available on iTunes any minute!

So things are good, right?

How are you?

Mc Chris is awesome. And not simply for his outrageous talent, dope ass music, improv comedy, participation in rockin' adult swim cartoons, unique business model... no, I'm talking AWESOME because of his ludicrously committed blogging regularity. That guy's communication with his cyber-friends-a-plenty is friggin' inspirational.

In fact, he's inspired me to try to get back on the beam with this blogging stuff. Open up. Live in the digital age. COMMUNICATE in the CURRENT MODE of COMMUNICATING with the WORLD AT LARGE... or whomever happens to be out there reading. Even if it's nobody, it's kinda therapeutic and the equivalent of a modern ritual to B.L.O.G. ones thoughts and experiences, so... TAA DAA! Thank you MC Chris.

So, what the heck IS going on?

2008 started out busy as hell, it seems, yet also in slow motion. The Evangenitals are still kind of in a stupor after the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual exhaustions of the Road to Oprah tour, so Evangina was playing a ton of shows. Right now we're waiting on a couple of dates for both bands, so the calendars are empty, and that always makes me really uncomfortable.

For the past couple weeks, though, my calendar NEEDED to be empty, as I was teaching theater workshops up at my alma mater CalArts for my History of Water project with the supremely awesome sonic artist Jeremy Zuckerman. That was an incredible experience, and I've been super-tired and doing this fighting off a cold/giving into a cold dance since it ended.

In the meantime, I've performing improv and taking classes at the iO WEST (I'm in Level 3 now, and it's kicking my ass -- this is the level where you face your improv demons!)... so here's the real deal....

Long ago, when I was but a girl in high school, I was CRAZY about acting. Since I was in Kindergarten, I wanted to be an ACTOR. I went to one of those "Fame" schools in High School, as an ACTOR, and then I went to NYU and started DIRECTING. Acting quickly fell away (I did a couple short films and plays for friends) and I focused more and more on DIRECTING. I went to CalArts and got my Master's in Directing.... of course, I started boxing at the same time I started grad school (misdirected performance desires?), and then I graduated, retired from boxing, started a band, yadda yadda yadda... the point is, I'm suddenly overcome with the profound desire to get back into ACTING. HORROR OF HORRORS!!!! I am seriously out of shape for that... it's been a looooooong time. But of course, I've been doing all this other stuff that has given me a rather interesting foundation as an actor.

And then there's the question of finances. Yes, another phenomenon that has taken over my life is my total (seeming) inability to work a "regular" job. Call it stubbornness, call it impracticality and denial, but there simply has to be a way out of the rat race. Seriously now. I can't do it anymore. Technically, I'm working for The 1 Second Film (sort of) helping that production along... however it seems that I'm having more and more difficulty doing ANYTHING that isn't DIRECTLY related to my creative life. Yes, yes, I know that it may sound like I'm being a big, selfish baby and maybe I am... but maybe it's about time. At the end of the day, it's like the song says... Fuck 'em All. I'm going for the brass ring, dammit. I'm reaching for those friggin' STARS!!!

So, I'm going to try to start blogging more... from the heart, from the hip, and all that shit. Hopefully it will bring us closer together and we can inspire each other to greater and greater feats of human experience. Or not. Either way, I am loving you from over here. :-)

The Evangina show last night at TruXtop gallery was awesome. It's always a crazy and incredibly vulnerable experience when Lisa and I strip the Evangenitals act back to its barest bones and do the femme duet thing. Luckily it's also always a really beautiful and validating experience as well, as folks really respond to the sweet simplicity of our two voices and the minimal guitar accompaniment.

I was playing a new (to me) guitar, a really awesome junior Epiphone electric that super friend and super fan Albert gave me as a present. I am loving its sound. I mainly played bass lines and finger-picked on the tunes while Lisa covered the strumming and rhythm parts. It was super-intimate, super-tender, and ridiculously fun. We brought along our bin of play-along instruments and closed out with "Home"... which has now become a tradition since the Road to Oprah tour.

We did a few new tunes/covers... including the Ramones, Misfits, and some Bob Dylan. Good times! The art show was great, and I loved the gallery/space. Be sure to pay them a visit, check out the art, and support this new gallery. As for Evangina, I'm thinking that we need to get out on the town and play some more gigs. It's really good practice for us to put our asses on the line like that. :-)