artichoke

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 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!

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

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