Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in julianaegley's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
3:11 pm	You've never seemed so tense, love / I've never seen you fall so hard Few things are so perfectly designed to give you deep feelings of inadequacy than a cat watching you do yoga. At least he didn't try to join me this time. Current Mood: flexible Current Music: Bob Seger - Like A Rock (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 1st, 2009
12:55 pm	You're out living it up today / I've got dues to pay Working on sundry homework projects. X's website, more posters for my putative big regional theater, maybe a logo for said theater, fixing my site. And then working tonight down in South SF. I ordered in food so my time would be less interrupted with hunting-and-gathering - bless the kebab shop for delivering. I think the biggest problem with X's website is subsuming what I want to do in favor of delivering what is best for an actor's website. At least, that's what I got criticized for the most in class last night. Still, it's fun to figure out how best to present my friend. I have next Monday night off (I got scheduled for the day bartending shift)! I don't know what to do with myself! I might go see a movie, I might go grocery or clothes shopping... but I'll probably come home and keep working on projects. Whee..... Current Mood: busy Current Music: My Chemical Romance - Our Lady of Sorrows (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
3:17 pm	Who knew that graphic design had such a strong crafting element to it? goes back to painstakingly cutting out templates Current Mood: productive (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
10:57 pm	Update, of sorts Starbelly has opened! To mostly positive reviews, huzzah! I worked the last test dinner on Sunday and the Opening Night on Tuesday. Both went pretty damn smoothly - there's timing issues to be worked out with the kitchen and the bar, but overall, it went well. Folks should come on down and try it out! (The mushroom pizza is particularaly awesome.) I'm having a lot of fun working in the Castro - it's one of those neighborhoods I always mean to visit more, and now I have concrete reasons to be there. Now it is time to get back to the graphic design side of my life - I have final projects to finish and websites to design. Current Music: AC/DC - Hells Bells (Comment on this)
Monday, July 13th, 2009
8:36 pm	I left my heart at the bottom of the bay / It's gonna wash up on those black rocks some day I've read more than one book on San Francisco wherein someone remarks upon the strangeness of imposing such a strict (for values of 'strict' that include 16 different grids) grid on such hilly terrain - cities in Europe and South America have worked with the hills, wending the streets around in order to avoid having to cut steps into the sidewalks. Not so for San Francisco. This does afford one some truly breathtaking views of the City at the top of one of the many hills. San Francisco even occasionally stacks hill upon hill - one reaches the glorious summit for which one has labored, huffing and puffing, up a 10% or greater grade, only to be confronted with a downward slope for a block or so and then an even greater ascent. This morning, I started running west towards the Pacific. This took me up some of the afore-mentioned stacked hills, into the Presidio. The Presidio is one of the places where I can forget both space and time - coming down one of the paths through the eucalyptus and conifers, the view is of old brick buildings nestled in a wooded valley. If you are able to practice selective blindness and ignore the motor vehicles, you could believe you are back in the mid-1800s. I just love the peacefulness of the woods, the few moments of time of feeling truly alone with the wildlife. I even turned my iPod off. My section of San Francisco isn't particularly green - the overall lack of *green* in the city was one of the strikes against it a long time ago. One of my favorite things about MSP was the fact that I could, if I wanted to, walk or run somewhere that was close to wilderness/away from motor vehicles. I could, for a second, think that I was no longer in a city, just a decently populated stretch of trees. (Being a city person in my bones, I get nervous if I'm away from civilization for longer than a second.) The Presidio, and specifically the path into and through Tennessee Hollow lets that happen for a bit. After my run in the woods, I turned up into the Main Post and from there to Chrissy Field, where I saw a three-masted and a two-masted ship being accompanied through the Golden Gate and into the Bay by a ship spraying water from its three cannons. I decided to "chase" them by running along the beach, and as I drew near, I could hear the sailors singing. It was a nice warm-up for the Festival of Sail and Parade of Tall Ships next week. I don't plan on going on any of the ships, but I do love watching them come into the Gate. For being a city that is famously only 7 by 7, San Francisco always has something wondrous up its sleeve. (Comment on this)
Friday, June 26th, 2009
10:25 am	Oh, Seattle. I just spent a long weekend up in Seattle. It's always weird when I go up there - as a kid, I was convinced that I would move down there from Alaska. That was the nearest actual city, our entrance into civilization, and to this day the evergreens, mountains. and Sound pull at something inside of me. They say "home" in a way nothing else ever really will. It's a very atavistic response. The overlaid response to Seattle is one of frustration. You see, Seattleites have an ingrown wariness of strangers, and are therefore often distant and passive-aggressive to such strangers. Especially strangers from California. So there's that, and then there's the - measured - pace of Seattle, which often results in it taking an unacceptably long time to get my godsdamned coffee. Both of those traits run smack up against my tendencies to be brash and open and impatient. The resulting culture shock is sometimes hilarious, but usually frustrating. Please don't misunderstand me. I still love Seattle and her people very much. It's an awesome city. My relationship to it is very much like visiting someone I had a wicked crush on back in the day - they're still a really cool person, but now I can see why we never got together and why it never would have worked. As my friend Whisky Pills once said, "I moved to San Francisco because it made me look normal." It is so very, very true. Bless this crazy little city I live in. Current Mood: amused (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
12:30 pm	Website Still plugging away on designing my website, mumblety months after I paid for 2 years on DreamHost. Le oops. I've learned a lot of DreamWeaver, though. So I've got that going for me. Now I'm trying to pick out which artwork to put up. So, of course, I hate everything. Sometimes I wish I truly had the ego that I act like I possess. Current Mood: busy Current Music: Propellerheads - History Repeating (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
10:31 am	Mmmm, colors. So, I'm trying to pick a color scheme for my website. I'm running smack up against the fact that my favorite colors are red, silver, and black - those colors are too dramatic to be an effective backdrop, you know? So I'm playing around with blues, greens, etc., in various color-scheme websites, and I just... they don't feel right. I want red, I want black. So I have to find a scheme that will allow me to use red as an accent, without it looking too primary or Christmassy and, most importantly, without it overwhelming the portfolio pieces. It's not the end of the world, it's just one more thing to obsess about. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009
8:11 am	NIN/JA A few of us went out to Shoreline last night to see NIN|JA. The opener, Street Sweeper Social Club, is Tom Morello's (of Rage Against The Machine) new project, and is pretty damn awesome. Very Living Colour. NIN was... okay. Frankly, this is why I won't go to see other heavily electronic acts like Depeche Mode, either. Too much fog, lights, keyboards, and boys standing in front of them. But still very good, and he played "Head Like A Hole" as a closer, which, yay.. Jane's Addiction was VERY good. Perry Farrell is just the prettiest pixieish princess. They actually performed "Been Caught Stealin'", which made the crowd go apeshit, and closed out with the acoustic version of "Jane Says", which was fantastic. Farrell felt up Navarro at one point (can't blame him), and Navarro kissed Farrell on the cheek - which, from everything I'd heard about the band, was surprising. And awesome. The whole night brought me back to being 17-18, and hearing a lot of this music for the first time. Looking around the audience, it was pretty clear I wasn't the only one. Lots of aging rockers, still stuffing themselves into their corsets and plaid mini-skirts. Good times. (Comment on this)
Friday, November 21st, 2008
4:45 pm	Doctor Faustus, Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, 11-20-08 This production has some shining moments, but overall left me wanting more followthrough. I originally thought that there was going to be an Orientalist spin on the play because the cast, with the exception of Mephistopheles, were all dressed in karate outfits, and the minimalist set design had a very Zen spa meets the Council of Elrond feel to it. There were moments, like the demon originally appearing as a dragon head in a cool piece of ensemble choreography, but overall it felt like there had been too much of an emphasis on exciting movement and easy jokes. I have no problem with anachronisms in classical theatre - lord knows both Marlowe and Shakespeare didn't concern themselves overmuch with remaining true to period and location - but the soundtracky feel of the sound design and the choice to make one of the low characters a Western-accented hick didn't serve to further either the play or our understanding of it. Marlowe's language is by no means difficult, but I found myself losing my place often. I wondered if the cast was, too, because there were quite a few instances where I felt they were just saying these words instead of actually talking to each others' characters. One of my companions said it felt like a "goofy-through", which is when you run the show making the weirdest, goofiest choices possible, so you can get it out of your system and return to actually telling the story. I think he was right. note - I don't like giving negative reviews. This is partially because I don't want to appear impolitic and rude, especially since I know how hard it is to put a show up, but also partially because I don't want to cost anyone any ticket sales (not like I'm in danger of that here in SF, but still). However, Doctor Faustus closes this weekend, so the second concern is even more miniscule. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
2:55 pm	I voted! At 9:15 this morning, to be exact, after waiting 40+ minutes. My usual polling place did not have the usual amount of booths. One the one hand, I get that SF increased the number of polling places, so the booths had to be spread out. On the other, we were facing a ballot that included *12* state-wide measures and *24* city/county-wide measures. I think more booths would have been a Good Thing. I was voter #260 - at 9:15 a.m. Dude. 260 people in my teeny little district voted within 2 hours. Kind of amazing, no? I'm running 5 tabs of election coverage in a separate browser than my usual one. The Laughing Squid has a blogroll of coverage that I'm going to run back to when I get home post-root canal (whee). The non-CA, non-Presidential races I'm watching are Senate: Franken vs. Coleman in MN and Begich vs. Stevens in AK. FiveThirtyEight.com is calling Begich a lock to win and tilting towards Coleman. I hope they're right.</p> And yes, I'm wearing a hoodie today. Partly because I am getting sick fast, and partly in tribute to Eminem's 2004 "Mosh". My ex-husband and I went to Target, bought our black hoodies, and went and voted. That hoodie is faded and holey now, but I still have it. I still hoped. Also, I would just like to share this photo of an Alaskan voting. It's in Chatanika Lodge, which used to be a mining camp. We used to visit there a lot, when I was a kid. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
2:41 pm	Goes to show we're not ALL crazy hockey moms. Awesome, wonderful, joy-inducing "Alaskans for Obama" video - my mom was at the Fairbanks one. I teared up, no lie. Gods, I miss AK sometimes. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 6th, 2008
5:19 pm	Theater! Sunday, I helped load in and light hang for No Nude Men's The Monk, and I'll be seeing it opening night. If you're in the Bay Area, you should see it, too!! THE MONK is a riveting gothic masterpiece that explores sexual desire, abuse of power and violent erotic impulses. Savaged by critics for its obscenity, the story pivots around a 17th century Spanish friar, Ambrosio (played by long-time NNM member, Ryan Hayes), whose life is crossed by a pair of young women: the tragic nun Agnes (Lisa Swanson) and the impoverished aristocrat Antonia (Margery Fairchild), both of whom contribute to the arrogant cleric's fall from grace. As Ambrosio is guided down a path of dissolution by a mysterious beauty named Matilda (Cassie Powell), the story weaves in and out of the quest for Antonia's hand by the handsome cavalier Don Lorenzo (James Tinsley) and the desperate search by Don Raymond (Paul Rodrigues) for the missing mother of his child. Along the way, ghosts, demons and malicious Mother Superiors intervene; bandits attempt murder on hapless travelers; and nothing short of the Spanish Inquisition turns up for the harrowing finale. Current Music: Sleep - My Chemical Romance (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 4th, 2008
12:01 am	Pardon my southern accent. Yeah. Palin's accent is an extreme example of a city Alaskan accent. It's city because it's more with the Midwest flatness, less with the Native lilt. The accents I grew up around (and with) were a weird hybrid of Western Canadian, Midwestern, Texan/Oklahoman, and Native. Sigh. I really don't like this woman. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
3:11 pm	Of politics and former homes. I try to avoid politics in this journal - I'm not so much a political animal, and I'm aware that some of my friends do not share my (admittedly socialist) views. "Minnesota Nice" left enough of a mark for me to attempt to avoid making people uncomfortable if I can at all help it (which can become a detriment). However, the Republican Party has managed to drag both the state of my birth and the state where I spent most my adult life (so far) into the national news over the past week. MN being in the news was expected - the RNC has been scheduled in St. Paul for years now - but McCain's nomination of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was, by all accounts, a surprise even to GOP insiders. It certainly was a surprise to Palin's fellow Alaskans. Palin herself said she wasn't being vetted as recently as August 14th, and various Alaskan politicians have stated that they were not contacted re: Palin prior to the announcement. AK's got a small political field - someone would have said something. Palin's nomination points to a lack of preparation within the McCain campaign - he's had the party nod for over 5 months, and it comes down to an 11th hour choice? There are rumors that McCain wanted former Mass. Governor Tom Ridge or Senator Lieberman, both of which must have sent the GOP's right-wing hardliners into fits. Promised a fight, McCain punted and picked a female governor that espouses traditional family values (how successfully she lives her convictions is a matter of debate). This is actually not as disturbing as the news coming out of St. Paul. Demonstrators being arrested is sadly not news. However, journalists from Democracy Now! and the AP getting arrested while trying to cover a national convention should be news and should be protested. As should the news of protestor's homes being raided. It sounds like the RNC & St. Paul have chosen not to trust the citizens - I wonder why not? (Note: arrests of journalists also happened in Denver during the DNC. I have yet to hear of any protestor's homes being raided, however.) Current Music: Letterbomb - Green Day (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008
3:53 pm	Mmmmmm, weather. Today was one of those rare days in SF where it actually smelled hot.  Normally, it's not hot, and if it is, the wind's blowing too hard for the smell to develop and stay (which is sadly not true for some of the piers).  Today, though, it was nice and just on the edge of hot and sunny and I could believe it was actually summer for a second.  It was nice.  (Comment on this)
Monday, August 4th, 2008
10:21 pm	I'm only happy when it rains... Okay, not true.  Not that we couldn't use the rain, but it's not the season for it. However, the cool misty weather we have right now?  Perfect antidote to the <i>112 fucking degrees</i> in Las Vegas, where I was last week.  Holy jeebus, I thought I was going to dessicate and blow away on the spot.  I am a delicate Northern flower, and canna stand the heat.   Vegas was a blast, though.  Fun bands, the Double Down, great people, good food, and lots and lots of drinking.  Perfect combo.   Happy Fringing to my MSP folks! (Comment on this)
Friday, June 6th, 2008
1:27 pm	I guess that's a good sign... It's no secret that I feel an affinity for and admiration of ravens. I have a tattoo of Raven on my back, for crying out loud. And, I'm working on a little play entitled Heist A Crow that makes great use of the mythological attributes of corvids. The production has gotten a little chaotic as we charge towards opening night, but we've got a great show with us. So it felt like a benediction, of sorts, when a real-life raven - not a crow, not a corley (crow-raven hybrid) - but a real-life raven landed 10 feet in front of me on the sidewalk as I walked to work yesterday. He settled himself, and started walking towards me with that hilarious raven walk. As he got near me, he looked at me, cocked his head, and - I swear on a stack of souls he did this - he nodded, and then kept walking past me. Pretty cool, I tell you what. Current Music: Grey Ghost - Mike Doughty (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, June 2nd, 2008
5:14 pm	Heist A Crow, June 6-28 HelpWalrus Produces Sean Kelly’s HEIST A CROW written by Sean Kelly directed by Stuart Bousel assistant directed by Juliana Egley - (that's me!!) featuring: Matt Gunnison Jay Middleton Jesse Mueller Carol Rhyu Tony Sommers Rana Weber Performances: Fridays & Saturdays, June 6-28, 8:00 pm, 7:30 door. Tickets: $15. Pay at the door or purchase on the web at Brown Paper Tickets Location: Stage Werx at 533 Sutter St . (at Powell) Info: HelpWalrus.com or 415.385.6296 HEIST A CROW is an original, absurd comedy about the afterlife. Follow John, a newly-dead, recently-spurned thief (Matt Gunnison) and a disgruntled reaper (Rana Weber) through eternity and points elsewhere as they try to win back the lives they never had. Battling an evil coke-fiend real-estate agent (Tony Summers), an abused angel looking to blow the joint (Carol Rhyu), and a misogynist higher being who may be all powerful or may just be lazy (Jesse Mueller), the duo must track down the souls guarded by a reluctant pentecostal priest (Jay Middleton) before John loses himself (and his love) to a fate worse than death. Buzzing the metaphysics of Judeo-Christianity and Greek mythos in a blender, Heist a Crow is a family story about the not-so-desirable effects of inter-planar transport, life, death, shiny objects and subverting faith. Stage Werx Theatre is a cutting edge underground theatre located in San Francisco 's throbbing Theatre District one block from Union Square . Stage Werx is an intimate 55+ seat theatre with a steampunk cabaret lobby that will transport audiences even before the show starts. Look for cutting edge new works, brilliantly twisted adaptations, circus, comedy, movies, music, mayhem and more. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
12:27 pm	Review - Looking For Normal, Artisphere Theatre, Theater Garage, Minneapolis So, I flew to MSP this past weekend to go see "Looking For Normal", produced by my friends' company Artisphere. My friends Sally and Fred have been trying to get this thing up for over 5 years, and approached Fifty Foot Penguin with it at one point. Zach was going to direct, but we didn't have the money and had to back out. Sal & Fred didn't give up and finally, with the help of Terry Lynn and Beth Carlson, produced it themselves. It was worth the wait. "Looking For Normal" deals with a middle-aged couple in a small Ohio town. They've been married for 25 years, have two children, and seem like the most traditional of traditional Middle American couples. In a counseling session with their pastor, the husband, Roy, reveals that he was born in the wrong body and wishes to change his sex - to become a woman. The rest of the play deals with the reverberations created by that particular bombshell. Fred plays Roy and Sally plays Irma, Roy's loving and patient wife - the interaction between these two is where the play really came alive for me. Mo Perry as Roy's grandmother who left her son (Roy's father) to live as a crossdresser in Paris provides the spiritual side of the play, and Garry Geiken and John Middleton as the pastor and Roy's supervisor, respectively, represent the community's response. But watching Fred and Sal up there as Roy and Irma - damn. At one point, the pastor gives Irma permission to divorce Roy, and Irma responds, "Why? He's my heart." This is true for Roy and Irma as well as Fred and Sally. Randy Schmeling and Taylor Bolstad are absolutely engaging as Roy & Irma's children, and Anita O'Sullivan and Larry Roupe do a very good job of showing us the older generation's perspective. (Side note: due to my own issues, I lost it when Roy-now-Ruth gently kisses the top of his dad's head as she wheels him away. It was just so perfect and poignant, it killed me.) After the show, Mo said that doing this kind of theater is what will feed her artistic soul for years to come. I know what she means - it was absolutely worth waiting five years and flying 2000 miles to see the show. You should go see it, too. Current Music: Sad and Lonely - Lucero (Comment on this)