I wanted to let any of you out there in cyberspace who may care about two COMPLETELY IMPROVISED and totally FREE shows that I'm going to be in THIS WEEKEND at the iO WEST's Andy Dick Experimental Black Box Theater.

Yes, someone named a theater after Andy Dick...

1) Friday May 23rd at 11pm (following Heather & Miles at 10pm, who are incredible and I highly recommend seeing them)

2) Saturday May 24th at 8:30pm (following Laurel Coppock's "Breakdown City" at 8pm, which I can't recommend highly enough!)

I will be performing with my improv group HAMMERSPACE (www.myspace.com/hammerspace_improv).

These shows are all-ages, totally free, completely improvised, and really go a lot better and are more fun (and funny) when there's a good crowd... so it would be awesome if you could make it and see me wrestle with my new creative obsession -- LONG-FORM IMPROV!

Here's the details:
HAMMERSPACE
5/23: 11pm
5/24: 8:30pm
@
iO WEST - Andy Dick Theater (*note: this is not the mainstage, the entrance to the Andy Dick is on COSMO)
6366 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
http://west.ioimprov.com/

Greetings my friends.

I have made a play. It is called "The History of Water" and it is being presented at the 24th Street Theater as part of their Saturday Explorer Series... meaning that it's a cutting edge piece of theatrical joy that's recommended for ages 7 & up. Bring the family, bring your mom, bring you lover... there's something for everything in this erratic, dramatic exploration of the substance that makes up most of our planet, and most of our bodies.

The piece features performers Shaughn Buchholz, Lisa Dee, Andrea LeBlanc, and Patrick Ian Moore with musical accompaniment by JP Houston and a very special musical cameo by Artichoke's Timothy Sellers.

There is one show only this time round, so this is indeed the time to see the History of Water!

Reservations are HIGHLY recommended.



Hope to see some of your friendly faces there!

evaCheers,
Juli

I’m whupped. I missed Improv class at PCC today to work on the History of Water play that I’m writing/directing… it shows on May 10th at the 24th Street Theater and it’s really coming together nicely. We had a 4 hour rehearsal today, from 4-8pm, which featured my favorite food “Falaquitos” – an original creation by Patrick Ian Moore, my lover and boyfriend, who combined falafel, black beans, corn, carrots, black olives, cashews, sunflower seeds, avocado, seasonings, and probably some more stuff I’m forgetting into a delicious filling for a white corn tortilla-wrapped taquito grilled in olive oil. I think Lisa Dee ate 6 of ‘em! They are AMAZING.

Post-rehearsal Patrick, Lisa and I headed over to the San Gabriel street fair to catch Evangenitals drummer George Bernardo playing in yet ANOTHER tribute band, “Proud Mary” – a Tina Turner tribute, for his 9 o’clock set. He finished just in time to run over to his Cash’d Out gig at LIFE on Wilshire. Unfortunately, I wasn’t singing with Cash’d Out tonight… their original June, Ginger Rees, was able to make it all the way up from San Diego to do the show. (She gets first pick of the shows she can make... and that's alright. :-) See! I know how to share!). I saw Ginger singing with Cash'd Out the first time I saw Georgie playing with them at the San Diego Fair on the 4th of July. Ironically, I was soooooo envious of what an awesome gig it would be to sing the June Carter parts in the greatest Johnny Cash tribute band ever (she did a great job, too) and alas, now I get to have a shot at it! Wonder of wonders, the beauty of this world is ceaseless.

I *do* get to sing with Cash’d Out tomorrow night (which is now tonight, because it is late) Saturday April 26th, at the House of Blues in Anaheim. Cash’d Out is opening for Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine and it should be a super-good night of music. It will be nice when I get to play a show with them in LA, though, so my nearer and dearer can come check me out in my dresses and heels. It’s a crazy sight!

After tomorrow’s Cash’d Out gig I have a bit of a break from shows of the musical and improvised variety in order to focus on getting the play ready for it’s big day on May 10th. Right after that, however, it is full steam ahead with upcoming Hammerspace, Cash’d Out, Artichoke, and Evangenitals shows.

In randomly personal other news, my old boxing trainer Dub Huntley would be so proud of me right now… I currently am walking around at my old fight weight! NEVER did I do that back when I was boxing! I was always walking around about 10 lbs (at least!) heavier than weigh-in. Patrick and I started this experiment with portion control and the results have been crazy… we just keep losing weight. It’s totally weird and awesome. Next step, build lean muscle! So we’ve been lifting weights, doing pull-ups, and we ordered a pair of vegan focus mitts and I’m going to teach him some basic punches. I think I’m finally sane enough to be able to do boxing exercises for fun without starting to plot my comeback. ☺

Date Night Doldrums? How 'bout some Johnny Cash!

Hey there.

This blog entry is intended to simultaneously inform/invite/intrigue you with the news of my newest career move -- oh yes, I'm up to MORE excitement! I'd like to share the good news with you.

On Saturday night (4/26) I'm going to be performing at the House of Blues in Anaheim with "Cash'd Out" (www.cashdout.com) the only Johnny Cash tribute band to be endorsed by the Cash family. I'm singing the June Carter parts, and I'll be wearing a dress. This will be my 3rd show with Cash'd Out this week, and I've been having a BLAST! It's VERY different from my Evangenitals antics, that's for sure.

Just in case you were wracking your brain in search of an adventure, a road trip, and a good date destination for this weekend, I thought I'd let you know! :-)

Here's a link to more info about this show:
http://hob.com/tickets/eventdetail.asp?eventid=51064

There are more gigs to come for sure, and if you're interested in coming to a future show closer to LA, let me know and I'll keep you posted!

Much love,
Juli

Last night I had my debut performance with the world's premier Johnny Cash tribute band "Cash'd Out" in front of a sold out crowd at the Belly Up in Solana Beach, CA. It was an amazing night, and an amazing experience to have the opportunity to play with such an incredible band and be a part of such a great show. The crowd was fantastic -- excited, supportive, and totally into it. They welcomed me to the stage with big 'ol cheers and really seemed responsive to what I was giving them. I loved it. I even had a posse of girls screaming that they loved my shoes... which was awesome. Especially since I got them at Target! Woo-hoo!

Before this gig, I was only able to have ONE rehearsal with the band. Other than that, I have obsessively been listening to Johnny Cash/June Carter and Carter Family tunes almost constantly trying to learn all the words, harmonies, and nuances of the real deal. At night Patrick and I walk the dog and I wear my iPod and sing all the June Carter parts like some crazy person with a bad case of the Johnny Cash Tourette's. I feel for the folks whose apartments we walk by every night, as they get a 1am surprise performance out their window.

At home I'm learning to play a bunch of the Carter Family stuff on guitar and it would be super awesome if we ended up working that into the Cash'd Out stage show somewhere down the line. While I may have played it a little coy last night on stage (out of first gig nervousness and respectfully not wanting to overstep my bounds first show out the gate) I'm very much looking forward to how my role in the band might grow and develop as I do more gigs and more songs under my belt and get more comfortable with the group and finding my place in it.

All in all, it was awesome. It's awesome being in another band with George Bernardo. It's awesome being in a band where I wear a dress and curl my hair. It's awesome singing classic Cash & Carter family tunes to shrieking crowds of totally into it fans. It's awesome. I am blessed, blessed, blessed!

Next show is at UCSD and it's already sold out, and then there's the House of Blues in Anaheim on Saturday night. I'm stoked to get to play that stage!

I can't wait till I get to do a show closer to Los Angeles so that my friends and curious Evangenitals fans could come check it out. It's definitely one hell of a show!

- Juli

There are exciting things going on in Evangenital-land, and a LOT of them. This weekend is a Nexus of sorts, with 3 shows happening on one night - none of them Evangenitals shows - yet all of them Evangenital-related! Let me explain...

Evangenitals lead singer Juli Crockett (that's me!) has just landed a new gig singing the June Carter Cash parts in the greatest Johnny Cash tribute band ever - Cash'd Out. (http://www.myspace.com/cashdout) Evangenitals drummer George Bernardo has been drumming with them for the past year, and this Saturday night - April 19th at 11pm - I will having my debut performance with Cash'd Out at the "Belly Up" in Solana Beach, CA. If you happen to be in that part of town, I would LOVE to have some friendly faces in the crowd cheering me on!

At the SAME TIME that night, Evangenitals crooner Lisa Dee will be joining our seemingly joined-at-the-hip buddy band ARTICHOKE (http://www.myspace.com/artichoketheband) at MOLLY MALONES for a sure-to-be-awesome show of bumble bee-filled joy. So if you're in THAT part of town, I highly recommend it. (If I weren't singing with Cash'd Out that night, I'd be performing with Artichoke too!)
AND... down at the iO WEST on Hollywood Blvd, Evangenitals flier artist and videographer Patrick Ian Moore will be performing long-form improv with HAMMERSPACE (http://www.myspace.com/hammerspace_improv) - a group that I, Juli Crockett, am normally a part of, yet I simply can't be in three places at once at 11pm on April 19th! Not yet, anyhow! So... if you like to laugh and happen to be in THAT part of town, GO SEE HAMMERSPACE! IT'S FREE!

And if none of this works for you, fear not! The Evangenitals (yes, the REAL band) are playing on April 21st at the Verity Room in Canoga Park... and we would love to see you there. Details on that show are here: http://www.evangenitals.com/calendar.html

So, here's the summary for Saturday April 19th, all at 11pm:

Evangenital Juli as June Carter with Georgie on drums in Cash'd Out:
Belly Up Tavern
143 S. Cedros Ave
Solana Beach, California 92075
http://www.bellyup.com

Evangenital Lisa Dee with Artichoke:
Molly Malones
575 South Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036
http://mollymalonesla.com/

Evangenital-artist Patrick at iO WEST with HAMMERSPACE:
iO WEST's Andy Dick Theater
6366 Hollywood Blvd (entrance on Cosmo)
Between Ivar and Cahuenga, on Cosmo
http://www.iowest.com

That's the news! Hope to see your smiling face soon!

xo
Juli of the Genitals

Official Site: http://www.evangenitals.com
On Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/evangenitals
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5456766961

Improv is a Battlefield...

Hey there.

My improv team HAMMERSPACE (which is me, Patrick Moore, Robin Reiser, and Shaughn Buchholz) is performing in a Student Cagematch at iO WEST tonight and we could use some friendly faces in the crowd.

An improv cagematch is a great opportunity for stage-time for a new team (which we are indeed) yet it is also a horrific competition/popularity contest in which two teams square off against each other -- someone wins, and someone loses -- and it's all audience votes that make the decision.

If you could make it out to support us in our awkward adolescence, that would be awesome. It's FREE, it's ALL AGES, it's at 10pm.

Here's the details:

10pm - Student Cagematch
iO WEST's Andy Dick Theater (entrance on Cosmo)
6366 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
On the corner of Cosmo & Hollywood Blvd, between Cahuenga and Ivar.

Pray for us!
Juli

"good tired"

I'm exhausted from running about! Today I woke up in San Gabriel, walked dogs in Mount Washington, went to choreography & modern dance class in Pasadena, dropped Patrick off back in San Gabriel so he could walk OUR dog, recorded some tracks for Artichoke in Highland Park, ran back to San Gabriel to print scripts and pick up Patrick for rehearsal, and then went to a History of Water rehearsal in Silverlake. Yee-haw! After that, it was over to Rosemead to buy a full-length mirror at Target, and home to San Gabriel, where we ate some vegan cake and took the dog on another 2 mile walk wearing ankle weights. Then I strapped on the headphones and practiced Johnny Cash songs on the electric guitar for my upcoming gig with Cash'd Out. Now I'm making tea. It is bedtime.

Tomorrow the forecast is very much the same, as I've got lunch dates, more recording, 2 band practices (evangenitals and artichoke), a drummer (with drums!) to transport, and all of the scheduling intricacies of being part of a one-car, low-carbon-footprint family to work into it all. I love it.

improv, oh improv

you make me want to tear off my face and crap on it

and yet

for your golden rod

i grasp

why am i still awake? it is so late. i've been obsessing on Facebook and trying to start promoting the Evangenitals show in Canoga Park on April 21st. Canoga Park??? who lives near there?

Hey y'all

My improv group HAMMERSPACE (which consists of myself, Patrick Ian Moore, Robin Reiser, and Shaughn Buchholz) is performing TONIGHT in the iO WEST's Andy Dick Experimental Black Box Theater at 8pm.

It's fun, it's free, and it's a great opportunity to watch us perform terrifying feats of making shizzz up and trying not to panic. Weeee!

The iO WEST is located at:
6366 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
between Ivan and Cahuenga, corner of Cosmo and Hollywood Blvd

The entrance to the Andy Dick Black Box is on the Cosmo side of the building.

Come and get it!

xoxo
julio

Evangenitals in Austin - The Photos

Evangenitals in Austin
Originally uploaded by juliocrockett

I finally posted some photos from our recent trip to Austin and SXSW on Flickr. Huzzah! Video is coming soon, as our friend Chris Haro has been chopping away at clips from Izzy Cox's performance (check out YouTube, he's put about 6 different videos of her performance up so far), next he'll be putting up the Henry Bermudez solo set, and then the Evangenitals.

Unfortunately, he ran out of battery power and didn't get the Artichoke and Clock Hands Strangle sets on tape. Oh well... they shall live on in my memory, and any of y'all who live in Los Angeles can check out Artichoke on April 19th at Molly Malones!

All in all, the trip to Austin was a much needed spiritual journey into a very musical land and I can't wait to hit the road with this crew again.

xoxo
julio

The Bruise of Rock...

Tonight I sang backup for Artichoke and played the Tambourine. That may sound like a walk in the park... HOWEVER... the way *I* play the tambourine is a full contact sport! Check out the battle wounds:


You can imagine how messed up I look after playing the tambourine on Gasoline with the Evangenitals... with my groin. Youch!

After the Artichoke show I ran off to Hollywood and performed Improv at the iO WEST, then I ate a Vegan burrito from Cinnamon in Highland Park. Now I'm going to bed. I think I've earned it. :-)

Love,
Me

Life is full. Full full full! Almost done moving into my new place, the car broke down (but I've got a big tax return coming in that will pay for it!), LOTS of rehearsals for plays and gigs and music and improv.... and now, on Monday I'm going to be driving down to San Diego with Georgie to audition to be the June Carter for the best-ever Johnny Cash cover band "Cash'd Out". Anyone that knows me seems to think that this is the "day job" I was BORN to have... it's only a question of me not freaking out and dazzlin' them in the audition. Heck, it would be awesome to be in ANOTHER band with George Bernardo, that's for sure. :-)

Before that big day, though, I've got two shows in one night (Friday the 28th) -- Artichoke at La Casa Blue (9:30pm) and Hammerspace (my Improv team) at iO WEST (Andy Dick Experimental Black Box at 11pm)-- to get through. It's a lot, and I'm loving it.

Saturday and Sunday we have to officially finish moving, clean out the old apartment (throw a couple of rehearsals and a class show for our Improv class on Sunday) and turn in the keys Monday morning. Then, at around 1pm I'm jumping in a car with Georgie to head down to San Diego... and DESTINY! In the meantime, I've got all my Johnny and June tunes on repeat play and I'm getting ready for greatness.

Say a prayer for me. :-)

- Juli

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

i can't believe i'm taking off for Austin in just a few hours! this is CRAZY!!!

SXSW, here we come!

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