I friggin' LOVE my apartment in South Pasadena, but they keep raising the rent!! Arrrgh! So, I'm now looking for something affordable anywhere betwixt Hollywood and Pasadena (as in under $900, and the more under the better)

It would be for myself, my man, and our vegan dog Wookie.

Any ideas?

i stay up way too late... it's ridiculous. my internal clock is all wacko. i get cookin' at 2am and i gotta ride that wave and keep working while the creative juices are flowing, so i don't get to bed till 5am. it's not practical... but creativity ain't often practical, i've found.

i'm excited as hell about the History of Water piece, as i've had some mini-breakthroughs in my mind and i'm seeing things clearly.

perhaps i should count my blessings and call it a night.

I am busy as hell... and I've brought it on myself! I have an appetite for more more more and I am certainly getting my fill.

Technically, I'm a full time student working on my PhD dissertation for The European Graduate Shcool. On top of that, I've recently started being an "almost" full time student at PCC, taking 11 credits of performance classes including Choreography, Modern Dance, Voice & Movement, Mime, Musical Theater, and Improv. On top of THAT... I'm enrolled in the improv training program at iO WEST and I start Level 4 on Thursday, which includes student shows in addition to classes every other Sunday. Oh yeah, and my Improv group Hammerspace starts performing shows on Saturday night. On top of THAT... I'm creating a new theater piece for the 24th Street Theater in my "spare time" about the History of Water.

And in the midst of all that, Lisa Dee and I are heading down to Austin for an Evangenitals gig on the fringe of the SXSW madness on March 16th at Thunderbird Coffee along with Timothy Sellers from Artichoke and Henry Bermudez from Unpopable.

With the artistic life in overdrive, I can't seem to find any time to WORK! Hopefully my big 'ol Evangenitals Radio Play Push will pay off soon and we'll start selling a bunch of albums.

There's been a few interesting new developments that I'm excited about, such as, over on Last.fm, enough folks have listened to Evangenitals tunes to merit our own station. That's right, you can just type in "Evangenitals" and they'll play you an awesome station of related muzak. I've been especially enjoying listening to our tunes up against "Iron & Wine" and "Bonnie "Prince" Billy"... good stuff and an honor to be played in their fine company.

If you're not down with Last.fm yet, I highly recommend downloading the player. It's free custom radio, folks!

And finally... George Bernardo is Awesome. Need Proof? Watch this:

Frank Zappa meets the Marimba

Alright you Diggers out there... Digg this! It's Evangenitals drummer George Bernardo playing Frank Zappa on Marimba and it's friggin' awesome!!!

read more | digg story

I just took a bath with Epsom salts in it and I fear it is not going to be enough to prevent my body from going into muscular shock in the morning. It has been a while since I've been in a dance class. :-)

Lately I've been thinking about video blogging, ala iJustine, because it seems easier to turn on the camera and talk about my day rather than type it out... however, I look like hell right now so I'm glad to be writing this (I'm invisible!). It seems the first week of my adventures in Community College caused me to break out like I'm in high school again. It's wonderfully humbling.

Today I had to dress in leotard, tights, leg warmers - the whole 9 yards - for Modern Dance and Choreography classes. Truth be told, it is a kind of fashion that I have secretly wished to participate in since I was a child. Leg warmers and "shrugs", half shirts over leotards with the tights on the outside pulled up real high and some short-shorts over the black tights. Walking with feet turned out and pelvis WIDE OPEN through the campus.... it's pretty ridiculously fun. I woke up terrified to go to school, but ended up in the library after class making copies in my thigh-high leg warmers. FREEDOM FROM FEAR!

My mother, as always, is incredibly supportive of my sudden and profound return to focusing on performance. God bless that woman. She's been doing a lot of Kayaking in Florida, drifting around and seeing manatee's up close and personal. I love it. There are rumors that one of her books (Tangerine) may get made into a movie. Things are in progress, moving and shaking... we shall see. It would be amazing if it all happened. Especially if it happened SOON! :-)

Tomorrow -- Voice, Movement, Mime, and Musical Theater. I am hereby immersing myself in every art form that I mocked and ridiculed as an arrogant artsy undergrad. Glory be.

Keep Art Alive!

The 1 Second Film & the Collaboration Foundation could win $10,000 to help develop their nonprofit collaborative arts organization... and all you have to do to help them win it is VOTE FOR THEM on IdeaBlob! It only takes a minute (literally) to sign in and vote. Please, give this link a click and help "KEEP ART ALIVE" as our friend Mike Alva says! :-)

Hello?

Who would have guessed that "Hello" would be the run-away mini-hit from the new Everlovin album? Patrick, that's who! It was always one of his favorite songs on the album, and it looks like that's the track that is proving to have maximum cross-over appeal.

Thanks be to Addi's balloonhat video for putting it all into perspective and into the public consciousness!

Due to popular demand, I have just added "Hello" to our songs on Myspace. Woo-hoo! Now folks can hear it whenever they like and add it to their profiles and stuff.

The message of the music... DON'T FORGET TO LOVE YOURSELF, PEOPLE!

You can grab the tune here: http://www.myspace.com/evangenitals

In other news, I just entered us into some College Music Contest in which we could win some money and some great opportunities, so please VOTE FOR US!
http://contest.cmj.com/bands/142

xo
juli

I'm loving what's been going on with this Balloon Hat video. What a dope-ass mini-sensation. Now I'm going to watch "Battlefield Earth" and think about making a video for Ode to Scientology. Woot woot!

read more | digg story

What a difference a day makes...

Yesterday I became obsessed with getting radio play for the new Evangenitals album Everlovin. I was totally inspired by the recent success of the breakups on the CMJ charts (yay!) and figured that it's time for me to get crackin' on an idea that I had a long time ago.

When I quit my full-time "regular" job (if working at a sex toy company can be called regular) the plan was to throw myself into the Evangenitals full-time. I was working as a Marketing Director for a big 'ol company and thought that if I directed all that marketing savvy at the band, then maybe, just maybe, I could support myself on Evangenital Joy alone. A lot of good stuff has happened between now and then, but the band hasn't gotten the full force of my attentions that I would like it to. So, now is the time.

In the past 24 hours I have written to a BUNCH of radio stations that play something like "our kind of music" and over 1/3 of them have gotten back to me with a positive reply so far. 1/3!!! That's some good odds!

There was only one "negative" reply, which was:

"I suggest you rename your group if you want airplay on our radio station."

These are some of my very favorite emails to respond to. My reply:

"Thanks for the straight-forward reply! Though I would love to have our music on your station, we already have far too much invested in this name and have broken down too many semantic walls of judgement to abandon it now. :-)

As an ordained minister and student of philosophy, the word "Evangenital" (which I happen to own the trademark for) is not in any way meant to be offensive (playful, yes!), rather it is an incredibly valid linguistic combination that accurately describes the passionate joy that informs our music:

Evangelical: characterized by ardent or crusading enthusiasm; zealous.
Genitals: the organs of creation

Though our band name may not be a match for your station, I hope you give the music a chance. That's where the message is at.

Cheers,
Juli"

Kill 'em with kindness. That's what my momma taught me. :-)

So... let me tell you about today!

Addi (of Balloonhat.com and Unpopable) emailed me this morning to say that he used our song "Hello" in a video that he made of him doing balloon hats at a nursing home. It is a beautiful video and such a great use of the song I was reduced to gooey pudding inside when I watched it.

Then I went for a SUPER FANTASTIC bike ride with Patrick all over South Pasadena and Highland Park.

When I got back, I called Nirvan (of The 1 Second Film and the Collaboration Foundation) and it turns out he had seen the blog I posted on The 1 Second Film site and submitted Addi's video to BoingBoing, who then featured it on the front page!

The video has now gotten over 4000 views so far and "Hello" is showing up as one of the Evangenitals "top songs" on iTunes!

Then Patrick and I went to the LA Opera to see the final dress rehearsal of "The Broken Jug" and "The Dwarf"... which was friggin' awesome! The sets were AMAZING. I loved it... especially "The Dwarf".... and I don't even love Opera that much. And I saw Timothy Sellers from Artichoke there, a few rows in front of me... he didn't see me though. I was in the back a slipped out during the applause! Woo-hoo. Home in 13 minutes flat! I love it.

Upon returning home, I had gotten a couple MORE positive responses from radio stations, one of which even asked for the Evangenitals to do a "station ID" to put in their permanent rotation. Glory be!

Yes, I'm definitely feeling good about making the Evangenitals my full-time job for while. Radio waves, here we come!

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?

Today I did something I hardly ever do... I wore underwear. Why, you ask? Well...

I was having a theater-filled day with my main squeeze Patrick to celebrate the closing of the play (that he was starring in, that's right!) and one of the stops on our tour of Los Angeles theatrical offerings - right after seeing Del Arte's production "The Golden State" at the 24th Street Theater was the smash-hit sensation "Point Break Live" going down on weekends at Charlie O's Bar at the Alexandria Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles on Spring Street. Aww yeah...

Now, if you don't know already... Point Break Live is a live theatrical version of the awesome classic movie "Point Break" in which the Keanu Reeves character is picked from the audience. I had been invited to the show by friends involved with the production (Bill and his wife Anne - who's sister is the producer of the show) so I was real excited to go. My friend Shaughn Buchholz had recently gone and gotten picked to play the lead role of Johnny Utah, so I had a general idea of what we were in for.

So, the underwear. The underwear was for the rare chance that I got up the nerve to "audition" for the role of Johnny Utah AND was the audience favorite AND got picked by the director to play the part. If all of that HAPPENED to happen, then I would need to be able to do costume changes backstage... thus, the underwear.

As for why I never wear underwear... that is for another blog post.

As luck would have it... I *DID* muster to courage to audition for the role, and much to my surprise, I got it. That's right folks. For a few hours tonight, my name was Johnny Utah. I had to wear a wet suit, was soaked, smacked, fondled, tackled, squirted, and otherwise abused much to the delight of the crowd. I did exactly as I was told and delivered a most monotone and deadpan performance, only speaking what was on the cue cards, and only moving when told to move. I got to hang from the ceiling in a harness, chase a man through the streets with a gun, yell a lot, and learned to surf in the mix. It was exhausting and awesome.

I highly recommend the show. Tobias Jelinek, who plays Bodhi (the Patrick Swayze character) and Jennifer Jean who plays Tyler/the Lori Petty character (and studied improv at Second City AND we've had the same teacher - Scot Robinson of The Lampshades) were friggin' inspired. And Christi Waldon who was my personal PA and helped me survive the whole show was absolutely adorable. I will be eternally grateful and in awe of her energy.

Great cast, great concept, a great friggin' time at the theater. Thumbs up, yo! What's more... I got the whole thing on tape! Woo-hoo!

All in all, today was a very good day. I'm exhausted, I'm inspired, I've got fake blood in my hair. It's a wonderful life indeed.

Today I woke up (earlier than has been usual - I've been staying up REALLY late), wrote in my journal (my REAL journal, not online stuff), and did PILATES! Yes yes YES!

Any day that starts with Pilates is a success, dammit! I used to be much more regular with the Pilates when Lisa and I were neighbors and we could start every day the Pilates way... *sigh* now I have to self-motivate. I think my impending Modern Dance class is quite the motivation! Yee-haw.

THEN... I canceled my cable (hooray!) which made sense, seeing as Patrick and I stopped watching television 2 months ago, and went by The 1 Second Film office to drop off some tapes from the Road to Oprah tour and our bomb-ass fund-raiser at Mr T's Bowl with 8-Bit and saw some awesome new videos that they are working on, went to Target and bought an actual HOME PHONE (which is going to be ye 'ol "business line" for the Evangenitals central office) which will hopefully reduce my exposure to tumor-causing cell-phone radio micro-waves.

THEN... my friend and frequent actor in the theater I create Shaughn Buchholz came and picked me up and we went off to PCC to see Patrick's play. Post-play, one of the gals in the cast, who happened to be a huge fan of the show "Scrubs" (that Shaughn had the recurring role of 'Jason "Cabbage" Cabbaggio' on for a bit) and happened to be a HUGE fan of Shaughn's character, came out to have her picture taken with him, which was awesome. I love those moments of excitement and joy, on both sides. As Shaughn pointed out, actors spend most of their time auditioning for parts that they DON'T get, so to have someone get real excited about the work that you DID do is pretty nice.

Now we're going to get down with some "Glengarry Glen Ross". Awww, yeah.

FYI: Patrick's play closes tomorrow night, so if anyone lives in the LA-area and wants to check it out, there's a matinee at 2pm and I'll be at the 8pm show.

Peas,
Juli

I went to see Patrick in a play tonight. He's the lead in Tina Howe's "Museum" at PCC. He was great and it's always awesome to see him up on stage living the dream. Glory be!

I've decided to go "back to school" in a sense... even though I *am* in school (working on my PhD dissertation for EGS).... I am also going to take some classes at the 'ol Pasadena City College. It seems I'm on a journey right now, getting back in touch with my love of being an actor/performer. It started with the classed at the iO WEST that I took in preparation for the Road to Oprah tour, where I was going to be filmed a lot and wanted to get as comfortable with myself as possible as soon as possible, and I totally fell in love with improv, the training, the theater, and all these old ideas and dreams about being an actor came back.

When I was in high school, I was OBSESSED with acting. My big dream, since my first play in Kindergarten where I played the Queen of Hearts and got to sit on a throne and wear a cool dress, was to move to New York City and be a STAGE ACTRESS. I got into NYU (Tisch School/Playwrights Horizons Studio), moved to New York, and started directing. I did a couple student films (directed by my then-boyfriend) and cameo roles in plays for friends, and eventually abandoned being the performer completely.

This wasn't a bad thing. I got really into directing and became really good at it.... good enough to get an MFA at CalArts in directing, do some pieces at the REDCAT & 24th Street Theater and gain the respect and admiration of some awesome collaborators. Pretty good! Directing totally changed my view of the theater. I got real experimental and enjoyed coaxing amazing performances out of other people. It seems I was going through a phase where I simply couldn't handle the attention/disappointments/pressure/etc of being an actor. It terrified me. Directing was akin to being the great OZ... I could hide behind the curtains, pull levers, flash lights, and blow people's minds. I love it.

The performance desire was still there, though - suppressed, repressed - and eventually it started kicking its feet and demanding expression. I think that's where the boxing thing came from, and why I was able to so passionately throw myself into it. And the band... the band was a huge step toward my getting back in front of an audience, facing them, performing *to* them... not just beating the tar out of someone in front of them. Improv was another step. Now PCC is one more step. Step by step... someday... I'm going to be on BROADWAY, dammit! Or something like that.... we'll see where the passions lead me next.

Driving through New Mexico
Originally uploaded by the1secondfilm.com

Last night at about 3am I suddenly was inspired to go on a wild "tagging" mission on Flickr. Part of the inspiration came from my discovery of the new features on Blogger which allow you to add slide-shows and videos to your page, based off of keywords. So I jumped on Flickr and went keyword crazy... making sure that I had "The Evangenitals" and "Juli Crockett" on every awesome photo from the Road to Oprah tour that I could find.

The thing I realized is... there are a TON of awesome photos from the Road to Oprah tour because, it turns out, we to a ton of awesome places and had more perfect moments and photo ops than you can shake a stick at. That's not to say there weren't hard times and disappointments and all that other goo that life flings at you... but holy moly, there are so many pictures of people looking downright glow-wormy with big smiles and amazing vistas behind them.

I still can't get over the fact that we actually DID it. We bought a bus, we fixed it up, and we drove it across the country in pursuit of a dream. And we're still pursuing the dream... dreams are funny that way. They are quiet pursue-able. One foot in front of the other, we keep trudging toward it.

Amen.

I'm so happy to be back in my own house. I love housesitting in the fancy house, but I do miss my little apartment (HOME!) sooooo much every time. Ahhhhh..... back in the saddle again.

My hair is so dirty when I take it out of the ponytail holder, it stays up. That's gross. Time to shower. :-)

My hands and feet get abnormally cold. I think I may have bad circulation or something. Of course there's also that "cold hands, warm heart" saying... but I'm thinking it's circulation. Need more Yoga in my life.

I took an African Dance class at Heartbeat House last night and my spine aches today from all that rib & hip thrusting. I love African Dance. I need more dance in my life.

The Evangenitals are officially slated to host a day during SXSW at the Thunderbird Coffee House. Izzy Cox and some other friends are going to come out and play with us... whomever "us" is going to be for that show... seeing as Brett is doing a Hollywood editing job right now, and Georgie and Chesney are far too professional to be running off doing gonzo trips to Austin for no guaranteed $. Lisa and I, however, are totally down for tent-living and mad-cap touring... so we're off! The 1 Second Film crew may be coming along with us (read: Nirvan) so there's a chance we will be heading to Austin in the Road to Oprah bus, which would be super-fly.

It's time to start rehearsals, both for my History of Water piece that I'm creating with Avatar: The Last Airbender composer Jeremy Zuckerman, but for HAMMERSPACE - my improv team that Patrick and I hand-picked and are crafting into the greatest show on earth... or something like that. We start doing shows in April, and we want to be READY!!

Things are gonna get busy, but that seems to be the way that I like them. I am so grateful to have the full-up life that I have and people around me who get it. Lisa and Patrick, for example, totally get it. If there's any room left on the plate -- FILL 'ER UP! Life is short, life is long, life is for living so let's get on with it. Pack it in! Pack it in!

Now if only I could prioritize, write some grants, and get some more money to make some more art!

Long day today...

Patrick and I stayed up super late last night playing with new designs for the soon-to-be-utterly-revamped-for-improv-comedy-etc SouperKlawBrazzz website. Hit the hot tube (ah.. the joys of housesitting), watched some Home Movies, then off to bed.

I love Home Movies. I am secretly in love with the utterly hopeless and damaged Coach John McGuirk. I guess it is not so secretly now. It is one of the greatest animated cartoons ever. I FRIGGIN' LOVE IT. Home Movies = Highly Recommended. Netflix that shizzz. You'll get over the shitty, shaky animation. Trust me. :-)

Patrick had rehearsal for his play today, and I had some student loan nightmare stuff to handle (god, please send me that student loan money soon!) and then it was off to the iO WEST for Improv Class. Patrick runs the light for the Tuesday night show, so I go to class and then stick around and watch the Harold teams until he's done for the night. Powerhouse and Sweetness are consistently alright, but GOAL with Dave Hill & Eric Hunicutt KICKS ASS! My improv teacher, Karen Graci, is on the team too. They are awesome and fun and flawed and human and supremely talented. I dig it. I'm inspired by it. I'm working toward it, dammit!

I've decided to take an Improv class at PCC in the Spring because a legendary dude is teaching it. Good reason, eh? I love school. I am not in the least bit ashamed by the fact that I will probably want to stay in school, to some degree, forever. FOREVER! I will probably also NEED to stay in school because my student loans are horrific, but that's another story. :-)

PCC is a hidden jewel of insanely awesome professors. A little diamond in Pasadena... right there on Colorado Blvd.

It looks like the Evangenitals may in fact be playing SXSW. That is supremely exciting.

I heard from Mike Flynn today, and that just put a cherry on everything. I hadn't heard from him in ages, and he's alive and well out there in Lowell, MA. For those of you who know me well, you've probably heard me speak of my undying love and adoration for one Mister Mike Flynn, formerly of Venice Beach (corner of California and Electric Ave). It made me all warm and fluffy inside to hear his voice again, and know that he and his woman are a-okay.

Life is good. Money is tight. Love is in the air. I'm opening up.

How are you?

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. :-)

Alright, for any Office Space fans in Los Angeles, this is big news:

Ron Livingston (that's Peter from OS if you don't know) is going to be hosting "The Armando Show" at the iO WEST (formerly the improv olympic) in Hollywood on Monday January 21st (that's TONIGHT!)

So, if you could come on down and/or help spread the word to other Office Space fanatics, this is an awesome opportunity to see him performing LIVE improv comedy. Heck, you can also bring all your Office Space memorabilia and have him autograph it... take some pictures.... all that fanboy stuff that I AIN'T TOO PROUD TO DO!!!

The show is at 10:30pm, only costs $10, and half the box office goes to the WGA Writers Fund.

For more info about iO WEST, you can go here: www.iowest.com

Cheers,
Juli (an Office Space uber-fan)

Del would be proud...

Bill Murray speaking at Manhattan High School where founding father of long-form improv Del Close was inducted onto the Wall of Fame.

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