ramblings

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 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.

Kudos to Starbucks.

For three hours today, all 7, 100 Starbucks stores will be closed for barista training.

Granted, I do not like the taste of Starbucks coffee, but in a time when customer service seems to be at an all time low, I'm pleased to see a company take action to improve their customer experience. Plus, I believe this type of corporate action builds employee spirit. When employers understand that an employee who cares is one of the businesses greatest assets, customer service always improves.

Now, if Howard Schultz will, once again, have a Starbucks store on Main Street in Park City, Utah and, once again, become a significant sponsor of the Sundance Film Festival, I will really be pleased! No two ways about it...coffee and independent film go hand in hand.

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!

I just finished watching a BBC documentary about the Ocean called "The Blue Planet".  It's friggin' incredible.  This segment was on the "Open Ocean" -- sharks and dolphins and all kinds of other hunters and predators out there in the seeming wasteland that is the open ocean.  I saw bigger schools of sharks than I've ever seen on film before and seabirds that were sounding to depths of more than 15 meters.  Absolutely incredible.  Watching stuff like that always makes me really happy that I'm a vegan now. :-)

I'm really stoked to get back to watching Patrick's "Prehistoric Beasts" DVD's that he brought.  That series (also by the jolly 'ol BBC) is friggin' incredible as well.  So much good stuff to watch and learn!

We had our first improv practice today for our newly formed super-group "Hammerspace" that is going to be performing at the iO WEST on March 8th at 11:30pm in the Andy Dick Experimental Black Box.  Save the date!  Or don't... cuz I'm sure to be reminding everyone with ears when the time grown nearer.  That show is about a week before Lisa and I go to SXSW, and I hear there's a chance that Joey Ninja of Ninja Academy might be coming along to play with us, which would be ludicrous. 

Practice was really good for a first practice, even though Patrick and I both felt super-stiff and utterly bland.  Ah well, that's what improv class is for, and I've got mine tomorrow night!  I'm also starting a NEW (additional) improv class at PCC next week, and I'm pretty excited to be going back to a campus.  Yay for school libraries!  We're also hoping to take advantage of some of the open rehearsal space there for both improv practice and the History of Water piece.  Yay for resourcefulness and low-budget living!

My student loan money finally came in today, so I was able to do really important stuff like pay my rent... FINALLY!  Tomorrow I am in desperate need of a smog check, as my registration tags are expired and I've already racked up TWO "fix it" tickets that have to be settled by the end of the week.  Aye!  I hope I pass.  Also on the list of things to do is tune-ups for our bikes and buying student metro passes, right after I pick up my student ID, so I can stop driving that dang car anyhow and start riding bikes and taking the train as many places as possible.  Hooray!

I stopped by Evangenitals drummer George Bernardo's place today and got to visit for a bit.  There are some exciting developments on the horizon... such as a music video we're planning with Den and Nika Serras of Matterworks and some new recordings of tunes from the Road to Oprah tour to accompany the HUNDREDS OF HOURS OF VIDEO that has been shot. 

There's a chance that I may start performing with the Johnny Cash tribute band Cash'd Out, whom Georgie has been drumming with, filling in as their June Carter for the LA & OC region.  This, of course, would be like wet dream #4 come true for me, so I'm pretty friggin' excited at the prospect.  I'm currently working on learning the parts for 30+ Johnny Cash, Carter Family, and June Carter tunes, and I've almost got them all down.  Some day soon, if lady luck shall shine upon me, I will be up there crooning them oldies with probably the greatest Johnny Cash tribute band there is.  Glory be!

And to top it all of, I'm writing new songs, reading new books, and working on telling the world about The 1 Second Film.  Amen.

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.

Wow. 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.

I am very proud to announce that the independent feature film "The Sound of Victory" (that I happen to have a lead role in) will be world premiering in the New York International Film and Video Festival on March 3, 2008 at 1pm at the ImaginAsian Theatre 239 E. 59th St., New York, NY 10022. I ask that anyone and everyone that can make it, please come and check it out.

For more info on the film, please see the following links:

Official site: www.myspace.com/sovthef...

Festival listing: http://www.nyfilmvideo.... (scroll down to March 3 - it's on the top left)