Newness & the time is NOW.

Today is the Spring Equinox. A new season, we've made it. It's Spring, the time of rebirth and nature's wisdom pours from the clouds today, cooling quenching and calming with her steady flow of rain. Things certainly have felt strange these past few months. Things feel like they're changing at warp speed. Intensity abounds. All we can do is ride the waves; to struggle against them would be futile. A dear friend of mine passed away of an unexplained heart condition a week ago. He was 41. We are bombing Libya. Japan stands in tatters from an earthquake a tsunami and a nuclear disaster. Our very foundation is being tested. We are in the middle of so much change: a sea change, a paradigm shift leading us to a new dawn. Things are almost unrecognizable or unfathomable. In my own life I see it in many different areas. Yesterday I became a member of Rawsome, the FBI raided raw food co-op in Venice, so I could buy goat's milk, the first dairy product I've bought in over 20 years. I bought Bison (which I've never eaten) and raw uncleaned jumbo shrimp (I'd normally buy them frozen, cleaned & precooked). This week I had my first colonic ever, something I've intended to do for years. The woman is not only a colon hydro-therapist, but a sort of psychic healer. She suggests things; I'm taking her suggestions. There's a lot of them.

Yesterday was a "super moon", the closest the earth has been to the sun in 18 years. 18 years ago, I was in my senior year of college, preparing to go out into the "real" world soon, the start of my "adult" life. I feel like I'm on a similar precipice now. About to leave all I know for a new chapter, except I don't really have to "do" anything. I've done the work. I am doing more. I am willing and I am naturally moving forward.

Yesterday I started the day at an informal workshop with a new group of fellow actors that is quickly becoming a trusted circle. We are learning a new language: Promo. Well, in a sense, the new language is "language", really; it's words and how we use them. We are learning to love and elongate our vowels. To invest ourselves emotionally. To be playful and relaxed and energetic and sparkly- from a place of truth, because we believe what we're saying. We're learning how to stand up and simply BE. This is all being taught by an incredibly talented and giving powerhouse woman named Cedering Fox who is becoming a mentor. I've never really had a female role model like this before. I was referred to her 3 years ago by a guy I met while I was bartending. And now, she's helping to transform my life. Timing is everything. I wasn't ready before. I am now. It is exciting.

After the workshop I went to a yoga class, the first yoga class I've been to in years. It was free, a celebration of a brand new yoga center that just opened down the street from my house. I have been wanting to return to yoga for years. Now, there's a center right down the street, quietly calling, "It's time".  After the class, a woman whom I've been following for quite some time gave a free "sound bath", another first, something I've been wanting to experience for months. She had singing bowls and three huge gongs, one tuned to Earth, one to Mercury and one to Jupiter. I still don't really know what that means, but it was exciting. Intense too.

Lots of NEW in the air as Spring 2011 is born. This week I was encouraged to walk differently, stand differently, talk differently and breathe differently. I keep getting the same message from different places, and it's resonating.

Stop holding. Relax and own your power. Come back to the simplicity that you know and remember. You don't have to push, it's all right there. Pay attention to where your breath comes from. Open up. Let it go. Trust you have everything you need.

I am ready to change, to have a shift in vibration, to welcome that with open arms. I feel I am finally taking that last foot out of my old life and placing both feet in the new. It's been a long time coming.

I've been feeling a strong desire to bathe in mineral salt baths, to release anything old that doesn't serve me anymore. I've always wanted to go to one of the Korean Spas in town. I'm thinking now is the perfect time...

to be continued.

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!