Stick Figure Renaissance

I'm so friggin' excited to have been turned on to the Paintbrush program for Macs! Ever since I quit my job at the sex toy factory, the one thing that I have missed about my PC was MSPaint and my daily practice of drawing stick figure drawings.

Well... I'M BACK, PEOPLE!!!! :-)


SEE YOU TOMORROW!!!

I like music, and I like YOU!

What an awesome night...

Lisa Dee and I went to see Evangenitals gift from the Lord and bassist (among a multitude of other instruments-player) Keith Lubow play with Deborah McColl at South Pasadena Music. Her tunes were sweet and deep and philosophical and heartbreaking and when she crooned "it's raining, it's raining, but we're connected now" my heart did in fact break open and the tears began to flow. It was such a beautiful set I had to water it like a flower. :-)

The next song, she announced, was co-written by her and her lover, soul mate, and guitarist of 15 years (Keith's dad, guitarist Patrick Lubow). They started the song a month before he died, and they finished it, together, she said, a month after he died. Gorgeous. Lovely. Love. Straight up Rumi and Shams. I dig it.

You can download the song "We're Connected" for free, here: We're Connected mp3.

Post-show, I went back to Keith's mom's house (she and Deborah are both huge fans and supporters of the Evangenitals) and we ended up having an impromptu all-requests Evangenitals hootenanny, with Keith and I on dueling guitars. I, of course, am no match for his ludicrous multi-instrumentalist abilities. It's awe-inspiring how many different things he can play: bass, guitar, mandolin, banjo, trumpet, trombone, ukulele, harmonica... and that's just what was available in the room! I'm sure there's more.

Accompanying us were violinist Andrea Baker (formerly of Evangenitals pal-band Shaped Like a Gun! Small world!) playing the mandolin, her husband (a composer who's name is totally escaping me) playing the uke, and James Graham, mandolin-player and vocalist for Deborah McColl, plucking around on the banjo. Nashville guitar genius Gary Talley of The Box Tops was in the room and listening... however, he was on to drinking wine and off of playing for the night.

We did a ton of Evangenitals songs, including a bad-ass version of The Hole with Keith on the Trumpet, and some really awesome covers of June Carter's "Tall Lover Man", Johnny Cash's "Long Black Veil" (with 4 part harmonies!), and Bob Dylan's "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight". Good times, and such an honor to get to hang out and harmonize with such incredible musicians.

(FYI: There's actually a pretty dope video of Keith, myself, and Evangenitals drummer David Hurlin playing the new Klezmer-punk version of The Hole atop The 1 Second Film's Road to Oprah bus with iJustine and Brookers here: Evangenitals, iJustine, & The 1 Second Film.)

At 2:30am I sold an Evangenitals CD to a nice man visiting from Australia who said that my vocal stylings reminded him of one of his favorite Australian vocalizing twins, from the band "Johnny Cash Converters" in Melbourne, which is a clever play on words in Australia, where a "Cash Converter" is a sort of high-end thrift shop, he explained. The fact that I am the June Carter in the premier Johnny Cash tribute band Cash'd Out made the associations even more aligned. Then he showed me some Australian currency, which is beautiful, and it even has a little plastic see-through window in it. Transparency in Currency?!? Whaaaat?!?!

My Evangenitals heart was stretched all over the nation tonight, though, as guitarist Henry Bermudez was up in San Francisco playing with Unpopable (one of his many awesome bands) at the wedding of balloon artist Addi Somekh, and David Hurlin is in Fairfield, Iowa getting indoctrinated into a new job at the soon-to-be-launched awesome music site 3mix.com and playing some gigs, tonight's with the Jefferson County Green Band.

The gang will all be back together soon, however, for the Evangenitals Family Hootenanny at Molly Malones on Tuesday September 9th. Hopefully a bunch of folks will come out, as every show I get to play with this current collection of Evangenitals is a spiritual experience and I have a feeling the 9th is going to be a new height of sublimation. It's a feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeling.

In other news, I'm officially, thoroughly, and totally addicted to Twitter, so if you find yourself wondering what I'm doing just about every second of every day... I'm doing my damndest to share it. The MICRO-blogging is, I realize, having an effect on my MACRO-blogging, though. After giving mini-updates all day long via text message, sitting down and committing to a full testimonial of the day has proven rather difficult to muster the enthusiasm for. It seems, however, the trick is to have more ludicrously awesome nights like tonight which make me want to share the love and link every single person place and thing that I encountered for the world to see. I'll do my best to say yes to more of these experiences and keep the news a'flowing.

In the meantimes, however, you can totally follow me on Twitter. :-)

p.s.
You can follow David Hurlin on Twitter, too. :-)

p.p.s.
I love you. You know who you are. Yes... YOU! :-)

The Trinity

Evidence of the Union of All Things Betwixt Heaven and Earth in Trinity:
A Visual Essay

by Juli Crockett


Exhibit A: The Triangulum Nebula

Exhibit B: The Jellyfish

Exhibit C: A latex glove found on the streets of Downtown Los Angeles

Mind Body Spirit

Sky Land Sea

Waking Sleeping Dreaming

Hypothesis, Antithesis, Thesis

This is This

I am That


The End.

The Code

This is a blast from the past that was brought to mind while strolling along a surprisingly peaceful and lovely chunk of the LA River today...

Back when I was writing The Dawn of Quixote: Chapter The First and reading lots of Unamuno's Our Lord Don Quixote, I had a sort of Code of Ethics written on my wall which I am reprinting here for your possible enjoyment and edification. If you go so far as to take the word into action, all the better!

The Code:

1. Set Loose a Delirium
2. Commit an Outrage (a Barbarity)
3. Let Your Horse Lead You
4. Fight (Adventures which Befall)
5. Find the Selpulchre (Search)
6. Love (Chaste, from Afar)
7. Assuage Self-Loathing with Self-Annihilation
8. Endure the Inevitable
9. Judge Not (Lest Ye Be Judged)
10. Explore all Caves (Caverns, Crevices)
11. Attack all Puppet Shows
12. Speak Fair to All Goat herders
13. Commend Thy Self to Thy Love and Thy Lord
14. State Your Full Name and Purpose
15. Have Faith
16. Trust Not Thine Eyes, Nor Ears, Nor Tastes
17. Treat All Ladies as Maidens
18. Fear Not
19. Read Until Mad (Delirium)
20. Believe in Fairy Tales, Myths, and All Dieties.
21. Do Not Debate (Debacle) Do not Reason with the Reasoners
22. Face Ridicule
23. ________________________

We're on the Radio!

Reports have been CONFIRMED that the Evangenitals (that's Evangina + boys) single "I Just Forgot" off our new album Everlovin' was played over the airwaves of KGLP - Gallup in Gallup, New Mexico by one Mister Tom Funk of the "Green Chile Revival & Medicine Show".

Mister Funk requested that more Evangenitals tunes be sent to him as soon as possible.

You can pay a visit to KGLP (listen online, let them know what great taste Tom Funk has, etc) by clicking this link: http://www.kglp.org/

You can listen to "I Just Forget" on Last.fm by clicking this link: http://www.last.fm/music/Evangenitals/_/I+Just+Forgot

And heck, you can buy the tune in mp3 form off of iTunes, CDBaby, or the Snocap store on our Myspace page

McCann

I can tell from the "backend" reports on our website that someone out there has been searching for the lyrics to the song "McCann" -- written about the Irish writer and awesome human Colum McCann, whom I met while he was a professor at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, where I'm pursuing my PhD.

I'm guessing this may have to do with the fact that Evangina just started playing this song out and about town this fair 2008. Though written long ago, for whatever reason the Evangenitals never picked this tune up and ran with it. It is, however, just folksy and forlorn enough for Evangina to let it emanate from our lovesick breasts, so we have been doing so -- from Mr T's Bowl to the Hyperion Tavern. (So, Silverlake, if you've been smelling some melancholy and Irish jigs in the air lately, maybe it's the spirit of McCann seeping into the groundwater.)

Always quick to respond to public demands, I have gone ahead and posted the lyrics for the McCann song. You can find them here: "McCann, McCann..."

Love,
Juli

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Holy Moly... I think a new business for the Evangenitals/Evangina may have just been born!

Today Lisa & I provided a few hours of entertainment for a kid's birthday party in Sherman Oaks and it was friggin' AWESOME!!!

We did clean-versions of a ton of Evangenitals & Evangina tunes, some cover songs (including the debut of some new Dead Milkmen covers) and ended the whole thing with some rockin' version of classics like "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "The Wheels on the Bus"... we even got to pass the mic off to the kids for some rousing renditions of the "Alphabet Song" and "You Are My Sunshine".

With 30+ parents present, many of whom said this was the best birthday party they'd ever been to, and the 20-odd kids who absolutely LOVED it, I'm thinking we may be getting some phone calls for future birthday party business. :-)

A major highlight of the day was when one of the kids asked for a "really fast song about a race car" so they could run around in a circle really fast... after a few clarifying questions on what he wanted out of the song, I composed "The Race Car song" on the spot. Lisa was a champ, right there with me on accompaniment, and all present agreed that we could make a lot of dough if we did a kids album. Suddenly Gwendolyn is making a whole lot more sense to me.

Evangina at the Hyperion Tavern TONIGHT!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Good Feeling

There's nothing better than receiving a heartfelt "Thanks" from the SOUNDMAN after a gig.

Those poor folks have to listen to every single band that drags their gear onto the stage... for better or for worse. So when a worn and torn up soundman wants to give us an earnest thanks and a big hug for bringing something beautiful to their club, it really means a lot to me.

That's what happened last night after Evangina closed the bill at Mr T's Bowl. Arlo and I had ourselves a real "moment" after the show. I really love that guy, and I love playing that venue. I can always just plug in and trust him to take care of the sound. I've yet to get very involved with monitor levels and such, as I'm always just eager to start playing, so it always sounds weird to me onstage (too much ME most of the time) however, when it was all over we had nothing but rave reviews from the crowd about how great it sounded.

It was a really fun and tender set, with Ramones and Misfits covers - Evangina Style! -- and Sarah Peters (from the Road to Oprah tour) guesting on bass and violin. We played some new versions of old songs, and some old songs that had never been played live before (like McCann). What's more, I played the electric guitar that Albert gave me as a present, and Lisa Dee played the bass (awesomely!) for the first time ever.

The audience stayed up late (we played at midnight) and was super-lovely. We brought the "instrument box" and had folks sitting down in front playing along.... just like old times. The whole scene warmed my heart and got me real excited about 2008.

It was a perfect show to kick off the New Year. And there's more on the horizon... we may be playing the Hyperion Tavern on Thursday, the Barn Burner on Friday, and we're even playing a birthday party for a friend. Creative juices are flowing, we're growing, and all is well on the Evangina front.

Everlovin'
Juli

I am eBaying!

That's right... I have officially and most joyfully burst my "selling on eBay" cherry. It is probably equal parts financial desperation and need to clear out some shizzz that I don't use at all, and it is fun!

The first item I put up was this video and film editing book that I bought long ago when I thought I was going to go to an editing school, and then didn't. It was really expensive, and still is, as you can see here:



I have a bunch of really good editing books that I'm going to be putting up for bidding. For someone who is actually an editor, I would think they'd be a score, so tell your editing friends to jump on the bidding train! I held onto these books forever thinking that I would someday read them and spend long hours learning to edit. This afternoon, in the midst of a crappy cold, I came to the realization that I've got other fish to fry and different artistic strengths to focus on! Huzzah.

xo
julio

Sign of the Apocalypse?

Here is something I never expected to see...

The Evangenitals at WalMart???

Crazy times we're living in! I dig it. :-)

Evangina Roxx TruXtop

The Evangina show last night at TruXtop gallery was awesome. It's always a crazy and incredibly vulnerable experience when Lisa and I strip the Evangenitals act back to its barest bones and do the femme duet thing. Luckily it's also always a really beautiful and validating experience as well, as folks really respond to the sweet simplicity of our two voices and the minimal guitar accompaniment.

I was playing a new (to me) guitar, a really awesome junior Epiphone electric that super friend and super fan Albert gave me as a present. I am loving its sound. I mainly played bass lines and finger-picked on the tunes while Lisa covered the strumming and rhythm parts. It was super-intimate, super-tender, and ridiculously fun. We brought along our bin of play-along instruments and closed out with "Home"... which has now become a tradition since the Road to Oprah tour.

We did a few new tunes/covers... including the Ramones, Misfits, and some Bob Dylan. Good times! The art show was great, and I loved the gallery/space. Be sure to pay them a visit, check out the art, and support this new gallery. As for Evangina, I'm thinking that we need to get out on the town and play some more gigs. It's really good practice for us to put our asses on the line like that. :-)

Lick the Beaters with Evangina!

Friday, November 9th, 2007

truXtop gallery

Lick the Beaters w/ Evangina! - 9:30pm

2876 Rowena Blvd
Los Angeles CA 90039
USA
323-661-1665

Price: free

truXtop gallery is proud to present:



LICK THE BEATERS 4: CANDY and the WHIP

KIO GRIFFITH

MISATO NAGARE

ALLEN D GLASS II

a mixed media extravaganza sure to get your artistic taste buds tingling...with a custom cake centerpiece to boot! these 3 artists all have incredibly varied approaches to their work, and it's the way in which the work visually plays off each other that makes this grouping particularly engaging. their feisty familiarity is conveyed to the viewers by the stunning visuals created by each unique artist within the individual pieces themselves, with the proverbial icing on the cake being the overall cohesiveness achieved by grouping the work together in a single show. get a sneak peak at http://www.myspace.com/lickthebeaters , then come to truXtop gallery to get a chance to lick the beaters yourself...c'mon, you know you wanna!


"I think I understand why they choose to exhibit as a group: each one's work inevitably (yet unpredictably) refers to the others' in one of those happy accidents for which we should all be grateful. I applaud their obvious confidence about what they're doing (we're not talking ego here; we're talking maturity!), and their acknowledgement of change as an artistic imperative. These three are presenting work that "speaks" to our need for mystery and brilliance. Tempting as it is to succumb to "art blather," I will leave it for the experts to address issues of composition, color, and vision (except to say that everybody gets an A+ on the test!).

Recently, I told this to Allen Glass II, but it is equally true for Kio Griffith and Misato Nagare : "You have this knack for making me see things as if for the first time. If that's not Art, I don't know what is." "

~Dorothea Grossman, Los Angeles 2007

Artists' Statements:


Allen D Glass II

"When the moon shines like a dead garage I travel with gasoline ghosts
down all those haunted miles of the past, twenty-seven Model A miles
an hour in 1939, going to where I have forgotten. (Richard Brautigan)"

Lick the Beaters 4: Candy and the Whip!

and after a bit of a hiatus, truXtop gallery is oh so excited to announce a live musical performance by Evangina ( www.evangina.com)!
evangina: Bio
evangina - the love band
juli crockett and lisa dee are best friends, late bloomers, and totally goofy. they have made an artform out of humility via humiliation and take great joy in showing people that it's okay to be completely retarded in public. they are best friends, not lesbian lovers. they are very romantic girls, love the d, and like to play their guitars and sing. they are in the band the evangenitals.

lovely local ladies juli crockett & lisa dee are crooners of the highest caliber, and they have graciously agreed to put on one heck of a sweet set for all of you who show up at the opening this friday, november 9th at 7pm ...music to start around 9:30 0r 10pm.

Opening night:

November 9, 2007 7pm till midnight (or beyond!)
Evangina (live band) goes on round 10pm
"there will be snacks..."
Full bar / Credit Cards accepted

What a Wonderful World?

The Evangenitals are closing out Indie 103.1's Summer Block Party at Universal Citywalk on September 1st. Sign of the apocalypse, or did the world just get a little more awesome for Genitals worldwide?

You be the judge:

Sweaty Pits and Hot Pics

Drunken Sailor
Originally uploaded by juliocrockett

I just got home from the El Cid show and I've already uploaded the photos for your viewing pleasure!

It was a great, short, barn-burner set. I wore my long-sleeved cowboy shirt and paid the price by getting some sweaty pits from all my running about.

I figure it proves I was working hard. :-)

Thanks to those of you who came out to the show, played along, and for all the hooting and hollering.

If you missed it, this photo set (taken by Patrick Ian Moore) actually gives a pretty good idea of just what went on over there.

Hope to see you all next weekend at the Old Towne Pub. Until then, please enjoy, comment on, spread around all these Evangenitals pics that I've been obsessively uploading onto Flickr.

Love,
Juli & the Evangenitals

We've got PRESS!

The Evangenitals take over Universal Citywalk with Rock Sermon

Former employees of a sex toy company have joined together in musical harmony to spread the gospel of love in the form of alt-country, indie-pop, psychedelic rock, acoustic ballad, folk tunes. Universal Citywalk has the cojones to let them close out their summer music series.

read more | digg story

May the luck of the Irish enfold you (this Saturday night)

Top of the morning to you!

The last time we played Molly Malone's, a bunch of you turned out to see a legendary set on amazing stage with great sound and successfully helped us to win our spot as "Lords of Hollywood" for a day. JT the booker was so pleased he has invited us back for another dose of Evangenital joy, this Saturday night!

Now, here's the catch: we want to out-do the last appearance. So
I've got a proposition for you: if we draw 50+ people to Molly Malone's to see the Evangenitals practice their A-game for the upcoming Universal City gig and Road to Oprah tour I hereby declare that I, Juli Crockett, will have a star in the HEAVENS ABOVE named EVANGENITALS in your honor. Our own STAR, people! That will help
when the earth shakes us off its back like a bad case of fleas. We can all go to our STAR!

Mark my words! And mark the time to our tunes with snapping fingers,
bobbing heads, and dancing feet at our triumphant return to Molly
Malones THIS SATURDAY NIGHT:

This Saturday, August 11th, at 11pm
Evangenitals @ Molly Malones
575 South Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036
$6

Full line up:
8:00 David Courtney, 9:00 Doschus, 10:00 Bruce Beacom...
And the ones that truly love you: The Evangenitals (11PM)

And heck, here's an Irish Blessing for the road, to guide your way to
the Evangenitals at Molly Malones:

Walls for the wind,
And a roof for the rain,
And drinks beside the fire -
Laughter to cheer you
And those you love near you,
And all that your heart may desire!

If you live far away and/or have some REALLY GOOD REASON why you won't help us get a STAR for us all to immigrate to (should the
need/desire arrive) you can help us in another way...

By donating $1 or more to The 1 Second Film
(http://www.the1secondfilm.com) you will be helping to finance our
Road to Oprah tour, which commences on September 19th. We need all kinds of help, and we very well may be coming to a town near you, so please visit the Road to Oprah website and check out the tour route and other fun ways you can help out: http://www.roadtooprah.com

May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light!

Loving you,
through it all,
The Evangenitals
http://www.myspace.com/evangenitals
http://www.myspace.com/lovepunkslove

Better Late Than Never! :-)

Here's some pics of The Evangenitals perfoming at the Cybernet Expo in Tampa, Florida:

The Evangenitals:

Juli Crockett

Brett Lyda

Lisa Dee:

Jason Chesney:

See George Bernardo in the back there?

A Blue Moment:

Thanks to AEBN for sponsoring our show and to JFK from Fubar Webmasters for snapping the pics!

The Hero's Journey

1. A call to adventure, which the hero has to accept or decline
2. A road of trials, regarding which the hero succeeds or fails
3. Achieving the goal or "boon," which often results in important self-knowledge
4. A return to the ordinary world, again as to which the hero can succeed or fail
5. Application of the boon, in which what the hero has gained can be used to improve the world

Let's do this!

xoxo
Julio

Please help! Click click click

We need you to show your love to The Love Punks: www.myspace.com/lovepunkslove

In other words, add our Love Punks profile as your friend on Myspace!

We need to transfer some of our Myspace pals over to our alter-ego profile in preparation for some Road to Oprah press. :-)

If you haven't heard the story yet, the Evangenitals (traveling as The Love Punks) are going on a 45 day tour with the documentary crew of The 1 Second Film all over the US and Canada in a bio-diesel bus (with composting toilet and solar power!), ending up in Chicago, IL where we will ask Oprah to give us $1.

Big fun, baby.

Add the Love Punks, please!
www.myspace.com/lovepunkslove

xo
julio