Day two of the new devotion. I will ride this MC Chris-spiration until it doesn't do the trick anymore, and then I can switch to Perez Hilton, lord of the blog, for my daily blogging motivation.

Today was an awesome day of suiting up and showing up. Yesterday I hid from the world. Today I was OUT in the STREETS with a PICKET SIGN! Yes sir, I was in the big crowd of picket-teers in front of Fox Studios as a supporter and representative of the iO WEST with a few of my fellow improvisors/interns. There were a gang of celebrities there, and luckily one super-excitable fellow with me to point them out.

Such luminaries as, "Elaine's 1st boss from Seinfeld", "the girl dwarf from that one episode of Seinfeld", "that dude from SNL", "the bald guy from Anchorman", and Skylar from Heroes (I spotted him!), Justine Bateman (I shall never forget "Satisfaction"), and a bunch of other folks whom I half-recognized but would need Patrick and his ludicrously encyclopedic brain to tell me who they were and 6-degrees 'em from each other on the spot. Patrick is currently in intensive rehearsals for his next play that opens on February 7th, so he couldn't be there. Alas! If the strike is still going on when his play closes, we'll be sure to hit it together.

It was an awesome thing to be a part of... there were many honks of horns supporting the striking writers and one nice old lady even drove up and passed a box full of French Pastries to help the strikers to keep up the energy. Good stuff!

After collecting our picket signs, I was off to the iO to return 'em, treated myself to some alone lunch at Truly Vegan. GODDAMMIT I LOVE TRULY VEGAN! Seriously, it's so friggin' good I can't stand it. YUMMY! And pretty dang cheap, too. God bless that joint. Side note: Patrick and I saw Eric Stoltz picking up food there once. Sub-side note: This was not intended to be a celebrity name dropping post, but seriously, the more time I spend in Hollywood, the more of THEM that I seem to see.

So, then I was off to Los Feliz for a meeting with Nirvan & Dana Bean about the Collaboration Foundation and Grant Writing. What we are trying to do with this Collaboration Foundation and The 1 Second Film and the 5-Phase Plan is simply crazy... outrageous.... impossible! And it's super-inspirational and I'm so friggin' happy to be a part of it.... whatever part of it I can continue to be, I will, cause it's a mighty big vision, and I love those.

If you're not a producer of The 1 Second Film, you totally should get on board, and when you do, add me to your crew!

So, that went on for a while and we gabbed about recent viral internet phenomenons and I headed home to make some tea and take care of my puppy. I'm house-sitting (and car-sitting a Hybrid SUV - woot woot!) right now, so there's a lot of volleying between places. Thanks goodness for the bomb-ass GPS in the Hybrid... I would have never been able to navigate all that Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Los Feliz action today on my own.

Driving the SUV also gave me the opportunity to listen to the Everlovin album while driving around today. It's kinda of weird listening to my own voice, but gosh darn it that album is friggin' GOOD. On certain cuts, no amount of negative self-talk and low self esteem can stop me from really experiencing the music. For example, "We Just Get Along".... that song came out sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet! Listening to it made me really love the Evangenitals and everyone's contributions on that album. There are moments where ever single person who played/sang/worked on the record gets to shine... and that's a pretty beautiful thing.

To bed, to bed
To rise again tomorrow?
Who knows
xo
juli

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. :-)