I’m still here at Cinequest in San Jose, CA, and having a very lovely time indeed.  I’ve seen lots ‘n lots ‘n lots of great movies, met tons of filmmakers, had many greasy and delicious appetizers, a few too many drinks on one or two occasions… showed a bit of knee?  and just generally had a really awesome and fun time.  There are so many ridiculously fun and sweet and talented people here.  It’s so inspiring and exciting!

Just gonna post a few things.  First off – a video that my very lovely and talented roommate Ryan Maxey put together of the Salon night we have at the intentional community I live at in Los Angeles, Synchronicity LA.  You can see and hear me singing as Amelie Julac in it, and also see a bunch of my groovy talented housemates and other groovy talented friends who are sharing  artistic creationisms in the salon.  If you’re in LA, come hang out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX9R-mReeBg

Also, here’s a photo of Kevin Sheen, Zach Gore, myself and… another filmmakers whose name I forget (whoops sorry!)… onstage answering questions at the Dam Short Film Fest a bit earlier in February, for our short “Here and Gone.”

And some great news: not sure if I mentioned this or not, but “Bummer Summer” got accepted into BAFICI in Buenos Aires.  If anyone has a friend who is a flight attendant and has access to cheap tickets, or wants to give me some frequent flier miles… let me know.  Because it’s in April and I am SO finding a way to go!

A few other favorite people I met here at the fest (who have really great movies):

http://gabiontheroofinjuly.wordpress.com/

http://twitter.com/CullenHoback

Tonight I’m going to go see Campbell Graham’s “Anyone You Want” – he’s a filmmaker who is kind of Scottish and kind of Australian, and we’ve been hanging out with him too.  He’s great.  In fact, he’s sitting right across from me in the VIP lounge as I type these words, speaking in that lovely lilt.

Last night we had to go to the emergency room.  But that story is for another day.  All is well.

Earlier this month, I went to the Dam Short Film Festival in Boulder City, NV with writer/director Zach Gore and actor Kevin Sheen.  Our short “Here and Gone” played at the fest.

I finished the art work for my demo, Amelie Julac’s 4 songs for lovers and thieves.  And got them made all pretty and shiny! 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND……. now, I type from the VIP lounge at Cinequest in San Jose, CA.  The festival has been awesome so far, and the “Bummer Summer” world premier is tonight at 6.45pm!  Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah baby.

We also just found out, on our trip up, that the film got into another really cool international festival.  But I’ll just keep you in suspense.

Pictures and lots more stuff to follow, but at the moment, this is all I can give you.  (Did you know there’s no free internet at the Hilton?  Bogus.)

Wish us broken legs for tonight.

That is super exciting.  The festival runs February 23 to March 7, and there should be a few screenings of the film (not sure of the dates yet but I’ll update when I hear more news).  I think I read that last year about 80,000 people attended….. that’s a lotta people man!  and Wikipedia says this: “Cinequest has grown to be one of the largest and most influential film festivals featuring new film makers.”  Hey.  If Wikipedia says it, it’s gotta be true.

You can learn more about the festival here.

In smaller and less exciting (but semi-related) news, I’m riding the Megabus to New York.  I’m armed with hat, gloves, boots, and hard drive, and I will be doing a few things.  Getting footage from Bummer Summer for my reel (everyone in LA says that 6.5 minutes is just teeeeeeerribly hooooooorribly extruciatingly long for a demo reel).  So – the reel that’s up here now, is going to be shortened and redone.  I’ll also record some voice-over sound, aaaand (most fun of all) get to watch the very-nearly-finished film.  Sweet!

And speaking of Synchronicity – right before I left LA, I found out that the house-full of people I’m moving in with, are actually really good friends with someone that I know in Seattle.  No connection whatsoever as to how I found the house.  I met her shooting a short before I moved to LA.  Wacky little world isn’t it?

Aaaaaaand finally, here’s the brand-spankin’ new poster for a great little silent stop-motion short I did in Seattle, which is (hopefully) being accepted to some awesome festival somewhere, right this very second, as I type these words on my laptop on the Megabus:

It’s just funny to me, because, I really thought I’d despise it.  But it’s wonderful!  Why does LA have such a bad reputation?

Maybe it’s because she’s like the sexy friend that everyone is jealous of and talks smack about behind her back, because we all know she’s so awesome and fabulous and charming and beautiful.

Not to say there’s not bad things in LA.  Good and bad exists everywhere… of course it’s all what WE say is good and bad; it all only exists because we say it does… but that’s another conversation.

I’ve also gotten plugged in to radness pretty quickly, and my experience has been pretty unique I’m sure.  I mean, on my trip in October, I was sleeping on Andy Dick’s couch.  I used to watch his show when I was a teenager, and then there I am, sleeping on his couch and playing him songs and rubbing his shoulders… staying longer so I can hang out on the set of his new pilot, shaking Jack Black’s hand…

Then when I come back, doing the Landmark Advanced Forum, getting some really amazing insights into the nature of reality… seeing how much power and control each of us really does have in our own lives and the world… making a bunch of awesome connections there.  Finding an incredible place to live in a community of fellow artists, musicians, dreamers——-> Synchronicity LA <——-I am so stoked to live here!

I keep finding things here that excite and delight me.  There’s so much to discover!  I know that cynicism is supposed to be cool or something, but I’d prefer to go to bars and drink tea and eat chocolate chip cookies rather than play cool.  I am decidedly uncool.  I just do what I like to do, for the most part, and it seems to work.  The preservation of childlike wonder, through the reality of things we call Very Ugly and Awful… that is a grand venture, and a gift.  A challenge worth taking on!

I also fully recommend any korean spa… 15 bucks t0 soak for hours in many pools and rooms of varying temperatures and contents… hot, cold, wet, dry, mugwart, oxygen stone… and a nap room with a warm tile floor.  Who said heaven doesn’t exist on earth?

I also saw an impromtu Fiona Apple performance the other night at Largo… she really is wonderful.  Her voice is just sooooo rich and complex and evocative.  Old timey songs.  And she dances like a total spazz!!  I loved it, it was totally adorable and ridiculous and charming all at once.  Kind of refreshing really, very unpretentious.  She did a little “cheers” clink clink with us, left her wine on our table, and then we finished it for her (who’s going to waste good wine?!?!).  So… I’m choosing to believe that, through this exchange of bodily fluid – however slight – I’ve shared some karma/destiny/music/magic with Fiona.  It’s a good story anyway.

Also – right after I posted my reel a little while back – I immediately got some hate mail.  From “anonymous.”  Mhmmm… though I have a feeling I know who it is.  Anyway.  Obviously I’m doing SOMETHING right if I’m already getting hate mail!  If I’m not even famous or important, and people are putting that kind of energy towards me… well geez.  I must be pretty compelling then, huh?!  Haha.  So, please, send me love mail or hate mail my way.  Either one is welcome.  I wouldn’t be a performer if I didn’t like attention.

And to prove that point… now for a photo!

See the sparkle in my eye?  I was on my way from Ashland OR to Los Angeles… it was Monday morning, almost 2 weeks ago now.  I was staying at Ashland Hostel, and the guy working there happens to be working on a photo project called Hostel Women.  So, click!  Early morning photo session on my way to LA (makeup was added in photoshop).  Thanks to the photographer, Stuart Gray, who can be contacted at: graystuart@usa.net

Iiiiiiiit’s SHOW TIME!

Let’s see…

“Land of the Lost,” the feature we shot in Oly WA this summer, has had the title changed to “Bummer Summer,” and submitted to a bunch of festivals (look in my photos to see the new poster!)…

“Here and Gone,” a stop-motion short I worked on a little while ago, is complete!  And also submitted to a bunch of festivals…

So I have a couple new IMDB credits… sweeeeeet…

And, I’m moving to LA in about 2 weeks!  AHhhhhhahsdhfhsasdlfkaepoiruqp57203948729307A*(@&$(@*&$@(*$&!~~~!!!

Right now I’m looking for a place to live, and tying up some loose ends here.

If you see me driving in my old Corolla from Seattle to Los Angeles, packed to the brim with all my earthly possessions, make sure to wave hi at me.

Wish me luck!

My reel should be up today or tomorrow, so geeeeeet ready…..

I finished shooting all my scenes for “Lost to Love” – and I think it’s going to be really great!  So that’s also very exciting.  Everyone was really great to work with, especially the other actors who were a ton of fun (very silly when not working).

Here’s a behind the scenes photo of the photo shoot we did for the film (Clarissa’s cheesy beauty head shots):

Whatcha think?  Is it me?

Stay tuned for more…

I’ve done a few photo shoots with some really cool photographers, and have more lined up.

I’m also working on a short silent film by Zach Gore called “Here and Gone” – the final shoot is all day tomorrow, and it’ll be screened at the Northwest Film Forum as part of the “Silence Is Golden” film challenge.  Last weekend was really fun, the cast and crew are really great, and we had a blast, so tomorrow should be fun as well  The filming style is totally different from anything I’ve ever done – so that’s always new and fun and exciting, and also totally a challenge!  It’s being shot in a stop-motion style, so we have to move and freeze, move and freeze, move and freeze – which for fluid movements is kinda hard, and for facial expressions, is nearly impossible!  And since it’s a silent film, of course there’s no dialogue – so for the actors, it’s all about movement and expression – so it’s kind of acting in its pure form.  Which is really cool.

I also had a photo shoot recently for the indie feature I recently got cast in, Lost To Love by Stephen Les – and had a rehearsal which went really well.  The cast is really talented, and the script is great… not to mention that my character is really cool – I get to be an 18 year old girl with blonde highlights who lives in a trailer park and may or may not be sleeping with a 50-something year old guy (she clearly is).  Her name is Clarissa; she listens to Patsy Cline and acts really angry, even though she’s just pretty sad and romantic and lonely.  So I’m super excited about being a part of that!  We’ll be shooting in the coming weeks.  ’Twill be great, I imagine.

And I’m going to LA for a week in mid October – yay!  That’ll be a fun adventure!  Yay life!  haha

Here are a few pictures from recent photo shoots.  They’re all unedited so if I have a visible zit don’t judge me.  I’m naked in one but you can’t see any girly bits, and in another I have a shirt on but you can totally see my nipples.  Is that edgy?  Not for me.  If my private life I’m basically a nudist (ask my roommate because it really is true)!

I wish I could say I’ve been busy shooting guns but… well, that’s just not true.

I have, however, been busy doing a bunch of other stuff… (including some other kinds of shooting)…

We finished shooting the feature film I was working on (tentatively titled “Land of the Lost” – but I really hope that Zach calls it something else because… a movie with that title just came out this past summer…starring Will Ferrell… and our movie is not that movie) a while ago… wow!  My first feature finished!  Awesome!  (Well actualy…. technically it’s not really my first feature; I was in Phillip Roebuck’s “Shaniko” a couple years ago… my head was shaved at the time and I wore some bright colored wigs and played the stripper who snorts blow backstage at the club… you know that girl… but.  It was a rather small role and this one was much more substantial.)

So that’s a great feat.  It was really fun, stressful and frustrating at times, and a great experience.  We knew what would happen for each scene, but with all improvised dialogue.  All the people involved were great.  Now it’s out of my hands and in editing, gonna be submitted to some film festivals.  I just hope it turns out well!  :)

I also moved on Sept 1, which took a bit of time and energy.

I’ve also been volunteering at Radio8Ball each Wednesday for a little while, being a sacred usher, which means I hang out and help out and hold space for the show.  It’s really fun; the last show for a couple months is this upcoming Wednesday with the Moore Brothers.

The photo above is from a sweet modeling gig I did recently.  It was for a pro flash photography workshop that Neil van Niekerk came to Seattle to do.  It was really great, Neil is really awesome and fun and a great photographer; the other model was really cool, and the photographers taking the workshop were super cool.  I had fun thrashing around on the floor and having a bunch of people photograph it.

Neil wrote this on his blog, I thought it was funny: “As for the wild child Julia sprawled there on the ground .. um, yeah .. that’s all Julia.  No direction needed!”

Zach Weintraub, the writer/director/actor who made the feature film I just finished shooting (I’m still going to say TENTATIVELY TITLED “Land of the Lost”), was awesome in helping me shoot something for my reel.  I got permission to do a scene from Mark Stein’s really cool play “Mating Dance of the Werewolf,” and acted in it with my manager/friend Andras Jones.  Big thanks to Luc Heüer too, for coming out to use his mad skills to help with sound!

So, Zach is going to edit my reel for me; it should have stuff from “Mating Dance of the Werewolf,” from “Land of the Lost” (tentatively titled), and from “Kristi 18.”  I’ve also been stalking out some other people who have other films that I’ve done… so hopefully I’ll get some other clips as well.  (Stephanie Lou Hauge!  Phillip Roebuck!)

Yes, lots of my energy lately has been been devoted to stalking people out, and trying to organize scheduling stuff… I have some other film projects and such coming up, so check back to find out what’s goin on!

This weekend I’m going to participate in the Landmark Forum.  I’ve heard it’s really amazing, lots of people say life changing!  We’ll see.  Which reminds me, I have to be there at 9am and it’s about quarter past eleven.  So I should peace out.

Ohhhhhh.  And I’m going to LA in October for a week.  To survey the scene.  And then plan to go in November, and stay for a few months.  Y’know, skip the rainy Seattle winter.  Check it out.  Audition.  See what happens.  Who knows?

The Fool, eight of swords, five of swords, and seven of rods (wands in other decks).

I feel like I almost always get the answer I’m looking for when I do a reading… sage advice from inanimate objects, and magic is alive and well!

Here’s the meaning I gleaned from this today…

• great power will come from remembering that I Am The Fool!  The Fool looks at the world as a child does; he is curious, extremely present in the moment, and he trusts himself without question.  The Fool sets out on his journey without knowing how it will turn out, reveling in the new world.  Release control.  EMBRACE THE ADVENTURE!  The world is amazing!
• “Live in the present and trust in your own abilities – this is the way of the Fool…. the Fool has no qualms about taking chances, so why should you?”
• The eight of swords reminds me that powerlessness is almost always self-imposed.  You can cut yourself free from your own bonds.
• The five of swords is a reminder that defeat can and will happen.  When it does, get up and try again!  The battle is NOT over!  I think this is especially appropriate for advice to actors, since we deal with rejection almost constantly!  Learn from rejection, but don’t let it make you too upset because otherwise you’ll just get pouty and give up!  Every rejection is an opportunity to learn to be better, and a challenge to try again.
• The seven of rods is also about battle.  It shows a figure holding up a single rod getting ready to fight 6 oncoming figures (symbolized by the 6 rods).  This tell me to: learn and embrace my fears (I will be stronger for it in the end), and also KNOW WHAT I’M FIGHTING FOR, make sure it’s what I want, and then fight for it until the bitter end!  “The appearance of the Seven of Wands can often be a reminder that you must stand up for yourself and for what you believe in.”  I must be brave!

In other news, life is good and busy!  Tomorrow I am playing a Radio8Ball show with my good friend Andras Jones (he’s the host and I am playing music for the pop oracle)… both the radio show in the day (with guest sacred sex activist Veronica Monet!) and the live show at night… if you miss the radio show, you can listen to the podcast afterwards online at Radio8Ball.com

Scheduling has been all crazy with the feature film project I’m working on… due to lack of sunlight on days we were supposed to shoot and stuff like that, so it’s changed a bunch.  But!  Unless if something drastically changes again, this weekend will be my final 3 days of shooting!  It’s been really interesting and fun, sometimes frustrating (it always is), silly, and a good learning experience for everyone involved I think.  Wish me broken legs for the last few days.  I can’t wait to see how it’ll turn out!

I am also doing a recording session on Friday with Neal of Deseo Creative; I’m going to do some vocals for the score of a short film I acted in a little while ago, Tex: Vampire Hunter.  (Check out the filmmaker’s blog for info and production stills.)  So that should be fun!

I also met up with a new friend last night, who I met doing Tex.  He’s a filmmaker and offered to do a music video for me, so we hung out and talked about a bunch of different ideas… so that is in the embryonic stage.  It’ll probably be at least a month before that’s really rolling… I think it’ll be really fun.

Yay, so many projects!

xoxo,

Julia

Tarot card photos from the Rider-Waite deck, by Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith, published by U.S. Games Systems… I also went to, and took a few quotes from, this cool site for help with interpretation.

My name is Julia McAlee and this is my brand spankin’ new blog.

Here I will record musings, updates, bitchings (hopefully not too many of those), inquiries, thoughts, feelings… etc etc etc… all about what I’m doing in my life, and how my journey is unfolding!

I’ve been a performer pretty much all my life, and I have pretty recently decided to pursue that more… what’s a word… emphatically?  No that’s not right.  Seriously?  No no, certainly not that!  Precociously?  Maybe.  Ambitiously.  Ahhh yes that’s the word!   Much more accurate.

So!  I just moved from Olympia to Seattle a few months ago, and I’ve been acting in a bunch of short films recently, and am now filming my first feature (in Olympia, ironically enough).  You can read about the movie here: http://lotlmovie.com/

I’ve also been working on writing more music, and I am planning to record an album within the next couple months.  I now go by Amelie Julac (an anagram of Julia McAlee) when I play music.  Amelie is also a character of sorts that I have in the works, and I have plans to take my songs and make future shows more theatrical than just typical singer-songwriter sets, adding some mini-monologues, perhaps audience interaction.  We’ll see.  She’s an ex-pat who leaves the states to go to France, sometime in the 1920’s.  You’ll see.  Amelie will evolve into her own brave life force in due time… yeeeees, all in due time.

Besides that, what else?  If all goes as planned tomorrow morning, I’m moving soon, down the street, into Columbia City.

I am also part of a study group called an Iseum, and I am learning how to be a witch.  Studying mythology and history (or perhaps more accurately, herstory), doing ritual, being with a community, it’s wonderful!

I’ve also bought a whole slew of books lately, mostly acting and acting related books, as I continue to learn and study “the craft,” as they call it.  “No Acting Please” by Eric Morris is first on the list.  I just flipped through it and wow!  It’s all about not acting and instead “being” – which sounds exactly like the embodiment/Tantra work I’ve been doing.  Also, this method apparently involves delving into your old patterns/crap so that you can grow past it, which is also something I’ve been meaning to do (y’know, it’s on the list).  So, there we go.  Acting is life, basically.  Some smart dead white guy once said that all the world’s a stage.  Perhaps he was on to something, eh?

So here, I will be posting more about my current projects, what I’m procrastinating on, what I’m actually doing, my inner and outer work, what I’m learning… and, how it all relates!  Yay to interdisciplinary approaches!

That’s all for now folks!

I leave you with a cool public domain image I found, of the infinity viper.

xoxo,

Julia