Bah Da Da Da Da...

I'm LOVING it... Had the wonderful opportunity to voice for a McDonald's commercial last week. It was fun to reconnect with what it felt like to be a child and get to go to Micky D's. Such a treat! I remember my mom wouldn't go, but I had this one aunt who would...it was always a special secret thing and to this day when I think of those rare trips, it brings back feelings of wonder, joy and mystery! Let's hear it for sense memory!

In other news, I feel oddly in synch with the coming closure of the year. Sometimes I feel like "No, it can't be over yet!" but this year it seems like "Yep, 'bout right". Ready to glide into the holiday season and celebrate all that has come to fruition. This has been a great year. Probably my best year ever. Seriously. I had so many thrills in my career, plus on a personal note I released a record and got on onstage as the front woman of my own band. Amen! I am excited for 2011 and all the mysteries it holds. Things seem tasty and delicious. Kinda like my old-school memories of hitting the drive through with Aunt Meg at McDonalds....Ba da da da da...I'm lovin' it!

endings & beginnings

End of summer and it's been a good one for me. Can't knock the absolute loveliness of having a regular VO gig and I had plenty of time to pal around with folks and sorta take it easy. As humans (let's face it, animals) we're cyclical. It was a super busy Spring; I needed the rest this summer-the quiet easiness, the no classes, the super breezy jobs and the "just being ok" with the quietness.

Fall always brings a new energy. It's that sort of "back to school" energy of "Ok, now I need to get serious..!". I like that too. It's like one more big push until the holidays come outta nowhere and whirl us into the next year. My dance teacher this morning was actually talking about this and offered another perspective. She said we're in the 9th month now and likened that to the gestation period of the birth cycle. We've had nine months to grow and shape this year. Now is a great time to reflect and see where we've been, how we've gotten there and where we're still looking to go. It's a time to tie up any loose ends and do any of those things we might have been putting off. Make the phone calls you've been avoiding. Organize, clean and prepare for the final chapter of the year. It coincides beautifully with Mercury Retrograde, (which ends Sept. 12th) and is also a time for going back over the past, clearing and tending to anything that needs to be cleared or tended to...

On that note, I am committing to the following actions in September:

-Cleaning & Organizing my studio. Everything has a home and should be in it's place. If it doesn't have a home, make it one... or ditch it.
-Buy the damn Indie Bible and send my cd's out. I made a cd this summer. It needs to be heard!
-Get in the studio and rehearse with the band; book some shows and play out. You are a performer, Rachel...go for it. Finish out the year on stage.
-Get a couple more audiobook demos up on the old website.
-Research the next step with Promos, (which I think is to study with someone new and/or do scratch trax for anyone who'll let me!)
-Get another healing session with Jude. Dance regularly and try to work in a yoga class per week!
-Above all else, thank the universe daily for all the magnificent riches in my life. Love people more. Be more generous not only in action, but in words and thought. Visualize absolute manifestation of dreams, mine and all my friends, family and colleagues.

Thanks for witnessing! I'd love to hear what this point in time means for you!

Supervalu Grocery!

I am excited to announce that for about 5 weeks now I've been the new insert voice for Supervalu Grocery Store Chain! Supervalu is a huge nation-wide chain, including Albertsons, Shaws, Shop n' Save, Jewel-Osco, Acme, Farm Fresh and more! I'm the voice that comes on at the end of the spot and tells you to hurry in and make sure you don't miss such and such- whatever is in season and on-sale from week to week. It is so much fun to do! I have to admit, I've been imitating grocery ads as I listened to them on the radio in my car for years now! I'm a self-admitted geek for both food and great bargains- I always knew this was in my wheel house. What a trip to now be in my car driving, listening to myself! So grateful; it's a blast, the folks I'm working with are awesome... and to have a regular gig is such a gift.

I actually happen to love grocery stores. One of the few things that my mother and I always did together was grocery shop. She taught me how to do it, and how to do it like a pro, every Friday at the ShopRite. From the time I was a baby, I'd ride in the little front seat of the cart and watch her as she piled up food a mile high, to feed four kids, a husband, a dog and three cats. She'd show me her list, how she'd organized everything according to where it actually was in the store - and I thought that was amazing; to me, that store was HUGE! How could she possibly know where everything was?? When we'd get up to the register, I'd stare as the food zipped through and the total would climb....higher and higher...and my mind would always swirl with horror and delight when I saw the final cost--Over $200??! How could she spend that much on food every week! She'd moan and feign despair as she smiled. She'd say "I know-can you believe it?!"

When we got home, it was everybody's job to help unload the car. If you were home, you helped. That was the rule. Mom did not bring in the groceries. Instead, she'd be inside, cleaning out the fridge. Throwing out the old and making room for the new. Restoring order to our lives. Soon, the brown paper bags would be in rows across the kitchen floor and everyone would disappear, back to their own lives. And the next thing you knew, she had put them all away, folded up the bags and started dinner...and we had a fully stocked house. Another week of safety, comfort and stability realized in that weekly ritual, put away lovingly on our shelves.

Timken/United Way

Here's one I did a while back for United Way. I remember having fun with this-it was one of my first bookings! I love doing super "conversational" reads and I love what the United Way does. I am glad to have a copy of it!

LasikPlus

Here's a new spot I did while I was in upstate NY for my parents 50th wedding anniversary. I found out I booked the job and they couldn't wait for me to get back to LA...so I jumped down to NYC and cut it there at a cool studio called Headroom. I love that about this industry. When I was doing on-camera, that never could have happened! You have to be where the shoot is! I love the world of remote connection--such tasty freedom and flexibility!

first female voice of HBO

I'm taking a really fun promo class with Gene Cordes and Joyce Castellanos on Thursday nights. The class is "to picture". It's excellent. Their basic approach with promos is that every station is a family and all of the shows are their kids. And, as the voice, you are an insider- a member of that family - either a crew member or really in the show, but that you know the cast really well. I had just practiced one for a block of Fox shows, ones that I knew very well and I was remarking about how much easier it is when you actually know the shows. Then without thinking (or I might not have said it? why is that?), I announced that I want to be the first female voice of HBO. I know and love all those shows. It seemed like the people I was talking to really heard me, and in a few seconds, visualized that with me. What's more, I felt everything go so still, just for a moment. It actually felt like universe was listening. Absorbing the call. Let's hope so! Here's to the Power of Specificity!

great day

Today I had two sessions, a morning one and then an afternoon one. The morning one took one hour, a promotional video for Aquatic's Ava Bath, recorded at Voice Trax West in the Valley. They offer their ISDN to talent for $1/minute with a minimum of 30 minutes. What a great deal! Why bother paying for your own? And they are super cool, too. Totally my kind of folks over there.

The afternoon one was for Beaufort Memorial Hospital, this amazing hospital in South Carolina. I recorded it at my home studio, a series of six :15 spots for tv. I knocked them out in about 2 hours. Coulda been faster, but I tend to be a perfectionist.

The cool thing is, not only did I thoroughly enjoy myself today, I made more money in 3 hours than I would all week at a "day" job. What a fun life. This is how I imagine it will be every day sometime soon. I love it. I love that nothing is ever the same and that I get to learn about all these interesting products and services, offering up my creativity to complete a picture that a lot of people have worked really hard at manifesting.

Everybody is selling something. I get to sell in a creative and exciting way that feels right to me.

happy client

I got this note the other day. I love these!


Hi Rachel,

Hope this finds you well! I can't recall if I sent you the final video for
St. Margaret's Episcopal School. The project came out SOOO well, and the
clients love it. We are likely doing an admissions video for them in the
near future, and will be in touch about that when the time comes.

Again, thank you for lending your talent to this piece, your narration was
the perfect fit.



Here's the clip on Vimeo

P&G's DDF Anti-Aging Protocol Booking!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of doing a gig for Proctor & Gamble's DDF (Doctor's Dermatologic Formula) Anti-Aging Protocol. It was a a long piece - we were in the studio for about 3 and a half hours as they recorded me and dropped my voice into the piece. Originally they had intended to use two different VO women for the two different parts, but they ended up giving it all to me! It was fun to play two different "roles"; one voice was a more clinical/scientific/expert read and the other was a more friendly/peppy/everyday person read. It was a Direct Response/Call to Action type of infomercial, which I am finding I have a knack for! I had a great time doing it. Everyone was fun, focused and positive. I hope it plays over and over again!! It was recorded at Dave and Dave's in Toluca Lake, which I had heard of, but never been to. As it turns out, they are the ones who produce the VORG (Voice Over Resource Guide)! I left with two copies. They were great, and it was a beautiful studio. I love my job!

CD/DVD for SAIOE

I did a narration for an interesting DVD/CD set. The company is called SAIOE. It's pretty intriguing. They said they'd send along a copy when it's published...looking forward to finding out what it's all about!

By the way, the company that hired me, InnerVision Design Group http://idg-partners.com/ were the nicest people... they provided me with the finished audio track (which sounded great on the file they sent me but seems to be slightly distorting once compressed for this blog page...)

hilton irvine orange county airport

Here's something I just did for the Hilton Irvine Orange County Airport. I believe it will play on their in-house tv station and in shuttle.

http://files.cityexplorer.tv/rough/flash/hilton_irvine.html

it's a new year.

it's been a great one so far. i feel an opening that i haven't felt in so long. i see the future as if it's here. i am back to that which i have avoided and overlooked.

in addition to voice over, i am a singer. my husband and i have a musical project called fantasizer that we've been working on for about 3 years intermittently. it is time to give it some attention. i'll describe it as electro-metal industrial with some trip-hop elements. psychedelic and heavy. i personally love it. which i suppose is in order since it's our music. but i really do love it. like if i heard it at someone's house in the background i'd find myself listening to it and then be compelled to ask "what is that you're listening to?" is that obnoxious to say?

right now we're working on a cover. it is really morphing away from the original and i love that. I never saw the sense in doing a cover exactly like the original. why do it at all? i'm not usually big on covers, but i think they can be fun, under two conditions: firstly, it has to be a really cool song to begin with. secondly you've gotta put your own spin on it. make it your own. i believe with this one we are fulfilling these conditions.

so we rang in the new year in making music and we haven't stopped. i am a firm believer that whatever you do on your new year's eve and new year's day kind of sets the tone for the entire year to come. i feel really glad to have stayed home and made music.

below i'm going to post something someone sent me via email yesterday. even though it says to do the exercise on new year's eve, i think it would be great to do it anytime soon. this is really a big year. a big turning point for us all. things that don't work have fallen away. we're left with a lot of potential energy. how we use it is up to us. happy 2010 everyone!

Once in a Blue (New Year's Eve) moon:

Only once in every 20 years, the blue moon appears on New Year’s Eve, as it will this year. On a plain physical level what is happening is that the moon is out of phase with the days. For it to make its complete cycle it’s about 29.5 days. It doesn’t coincide with our month, and that’s why it is out of sync with our Julian calendar. It’s the occurrence of two full moons in one month, which happens every two years, hence the popular quotation “once in a Blue Moon” which means ‘not very often.’ On average, there will be 41 months that have two Full Moons in every century, so you could say that once in a Blue Moon actually means once every two-and-a-half years.
On December 31, 2009, we have a Blue Moon Lunar Eclipse. On a spiritual level it is as if it asks us to ‘flash forward’ into the next two years to see what we can see. This is the most important New Years Eve we have ever been gifted in a long time. No matter how much you do not believe prophecy from time and earth, it will still affect your energy field and your choices.
Someone suggested this exercise to me and I am glad to pass it forward. This New Years Eve 2009 create an I AM TEMPLATE, an energetic road map into the next two years. Command the energies into a direction that serves the better good on all levels of your life. Ask the Light/Angels/Divine Spirit/God/ to release what still pushes your buttons and pulls your strings.
Release the pettiness between you and others, the green-eyed energy that sucks your light.
Release the anger that drains you of your strength, just keeping it alive.
Release the expectations you have of others, as they ride their own horse of a different color.
The I AM TEMPLATE consists of an eternal circle.
First, draw the large circle repeating the words I LIVE IN A PLACE OF PLENTY.
Second, on the inside of the circle place everything you plan on creating in the next two years.
Put down all of your dreams, aspirations, wants, needs, as well what you want for the planet.
On the outside of the Circle write everything you are choosing to release. Release all that does not serve your highest good any longer. Be specific in those releases.
On New Years Eve bless the ‘I AM Template’ and then burn it, releasing its ashes like a sacred prayer on smoke.
This December 31, 2009, Partial Lunar Eclipse is numerically a 7/11 (#9) vibration
Cosmic and personal completion! Entering the next level of love of heart, of soul and service to the planetary evolution through healing self. Free-falling from the height of the nine into the next level of Light. Entry and exits all in the same breath. A quantum leap into unknown gifts comes through the nine. Are you ready to see and be more than you are at this minute of time? Nine is the photo finish on the heavenly line of multiple choices. If you believe you have won, you have. Your New Years resolutions on 12/31/2009 will be more powerful than a super nova. Their vibration will surpass space and time and land at the feet of God.
Be careful what you pray for, as it will come to past.

Much love,
Ton Pascal