Hi! Yes, I'm still bouncing between Seattle, L.A. and Phoenix, and trying to find out what the end of my sabbatical entails. It's all very confusing just now, so I'll leave that topic for later! ::sigh:: Sorry, I wish I knew what was going to happen!

On a happier front, I'm on Twitter! It took a few days to get used to, and it really didn't seem to make much sense for awhile, but I _so_ get it now, and I have an account I'm using for my statuses: DanaRiceActor. I had to chuckle, one of the first "people" to start "following" me was "Gov. Schwarzenneger". I took a day off from Twitter to contemplate the implications of that. ::brain frizzles:: And, by the way, there is also a Dana Rice account on Twitter, that's not me. Although, I am "following" it because some of my friends have found them by mistake. I only tweet a status once every day or two, but I now have it hooked up to feed my statuses on Facebook, ReverbNation and MySpace.

More fun news - I was cast in a TV pilot which filmed last week! It was a great experience, really really nice people, and I was physically and mentally fatigued for days afterwards! A fab workout. Everybody wants more details, but beyond that, I can't give any details due to a confidentiality agreement. ::hands in the air:: Really! I can't divulge details for 5 years. But it was cool to have twitter set up to take statuses from text messages on my old-school cell phone so I could tweet from breaks in the green room during the days of filming. :-} And seriously, guys, just like I said after that commercial shoot last month, everybody in L.A. knows how to do shoot locations in style. Wow. Just, wow. And the director was absoutely hilarious. ::chuckle:: Good times.

I really wasn't expecting all the nice in L.A. Ya know? You hear stories about the snark and everything, and I am soooo lucky so far. Feeling very lucky and blessed, I am. ::knocking on wood::

We've had some great family time so far this year, although it's never enough. ::sigh:: Nieces and nephews get bigger all the time, people move around the world, life is always changing. Thank goodness for video chatting, eh? :-} I love talking to the kids on video chat. It usually involves many toy dinosaurs and animals and such. Love that! Ya just can't beat it! We have big hopes for our friends and family members, and for this crazy economy to right itself. Yes, I am a dreamer. It's true. ::deep, sappy sigh:: I have to say, I'm grateful for Facebook and email lists these days, keeping me up to date on family and friends and their everyday adventures. Even their odd little humour quirks. Such fun! I must say there are a few people who like to... um... over-share, but that's what scrolling to the next thing is for, right? Hyeah. I'm just sayin'.

Peace, friends. And thanks for keeping me in the loop with your news! It makes me so happy to hear what you're up to. :-}

Happy May Day, dear ones! Much has been happening in Dana-land, even more busy nowadays! 4-5 days a week of classes, but also the 4-5 nights a week of casting director workshops, and auditions, and all the rest of the stuff I've been up to! (And of course trying to see my friends and family whenever I can!)

So, let me catch up a bit. First, several people have asked about the place I'm taking classes, which is just great, you guys. I was hesitant to say so as a newbie to it, with no basis for comparison, but now I've been there for three months, and I've talked to people who've tried other places that are designed for the same purposes, and they've returned to this one. That is, places that provide on-camera actor workouts, have high-calibre actors to work with, offer casting director workshops that one has to audition to get into, provide a headshot drop service, has a great group of genuinely nice working actors so the vibe of the place is amazing, etc.

So, the name of this lovely place I'm doing so much work in these days is "The Actorsite". www.actorsite.com

I'm also working on a sister page to my Seattle-area Theatre and Callboards pages. The first draft is up, here: Dana's Crash Course on the L.A. Acting Scene

Please let me know how you're doing, especially if I haven't heard from you in awhile! I do read all my email, and I'm getting better at brief, succinct replies. You know me, brevity has never been one of my gifts!

Also, I'm working on consolidating my mailing lists, so don't be surprised if you get a message from me confirming that your email address is still good. Cool?

Peace, love, health and happiness be with you, as always.

New Headshots for the L.A. market! Shot today, and up for review in a gallery on my photos page: www.danarice.net/photos/.

Hello, dear ones! I've been so quiet lately because I'm down in the LA area taking acting classes and learning about the film and TV industry. I've changed the phone number on my contacts page to my LA cell number, and included my Seattle cell for the folks back home. I carry both.

I've also revised my film resume with a new format. Please feel free to peruse it and see if you see any typos or anything. I'm an actor, not a typist, as you know!

I'm at the same email addresses as always. Please keep me up to date on what you're up to!

(Yes, I am being so brief because I'm in the equivalent of entertainment industry bootcamp! Unbelievably busy! But it's a great busy!)

I now have a new Mailing List, and a Street Team, on ReverbNation. If you'd like to receive notices of my performances (mailing list) or help promote them (street team) or both, please sign up in the widget below, or just email me at dana@danarice.net with the contact info of your choice. Thanks to everyone who's already signed up. :-}

Fun Thanskgiving Movie - What's Cooking? (2000) We saw this cute Thanksgiving movie - a hilarious look at four LA families, their holiday food, fun and drama. The DVD has some of the recipes used in the film. The ending is a fun twist. Mercedes Ruehl, Joan Chen, Alfre Woodard, Kyra Sedgwick, and directed by Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham). Lots of familiar faces and voices in this piece. And a very funny sequence of all four families preparing the different parts of the meals - the turkeys, the mashed potatoes, etc. I love the mashed potato sequence. Striking, the different tools used to make the same dish. Enjoy! (Not necessarily for kids, though - there is a scary scene with a gun and a few love scenes and adult discussions. :-})

Oh, and I have some more we site updates - I added my Voice123 profile and my new DanaRiceActor YouTube Channel to my Contact Info page.

I am laughing so much, I saw this great slogan today, "More Glitter, Less Bitter". I think the person who invented it should have a cabinet post in charge of political campaign ethics. :-} Or at least governing the tone of campaign slogans, speeches and debates. Hilarious! Seriously, unless they lighten up and stop the garbage, I don't think I can watch TV during an election campaign ever again. It's just too much! ::chuckle:: More glitter, less bitter!

I am so wired and jazzed after seeing The Drowsy Chaperone at the 5th Ave this evening. I think maybe I'm starting to grok musicals. :-}. Took me all this year, studying and learning about them, to be in the target audience of a show like this. And now, today, I am! Thoroughly enjoyed every single minute of it. :-}

It was a day of raking leaves, beginning with the trees whose branches were already bare. We have a lot of trees for such a little yard, it's great exercise, and leaves the winter grass looking so bright and green.

Oh, and I added the Harry Fox Agency to the Music copyright section of my Legal References hotlist:

Dr. Ice's WWW Law Hotlist
http://www.danarice.net/law.html

Thank you, to all of our veterans.

I made a new channel on YouTube, for things that are final video tests. The Ricinezsurf channel is still there, with the earlier tests and learning fodder, this one is for final versions. I made a third version of the Singalong with "For Good" vid in iMovie, and figured out how to swap out the audio track for a higher quality MP3. (Unfortunately, the higher quality of MP3 didn't make my singing any better. This was a test recording, after all.) Meanwhile, the 2nd test version is getting hit from all over, it's apparently been sucked into AOL video or something. Anyhow, here's the new one, if you're curious:

For Good - Dana Rice Singalong Test Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj2FR9o6X5Q

I still prefer Adobe Premier Elements over iMovie so far.

Loving election day! Oh, yeah!

Best. Birthday. Present. Ever.

High five and hallelujah, my friends. :-}

Yes, I still loathe politics, I'm just so happy to see people so happy. So many people so happy. What a rare treat in this world! And what a fine thing to be a part of, widespread happiness. :-}

I am so happy that so many of my friends, family and neighbors are voting this year - and I am amazed at how many already have! Rock on wicher bad selves! :-}.

I have to share this quote with you from an old friend from City Light who now lives in Portland with his wife and baby daughter. He said, "Waiting on the world to change can seem to be a long wait ahead, but I guess you have to get in line somewhere..." Ladies and gentlemen, Eddie Byrd of Portland, Oregon. Eddie, man, you rock! Brilliant! (Yes, I asked his permission to quote him. :-} )

Today, I am a little perplexed - it still feels as if I'm jet-lagged, after the 19-hour driving trip... on Saturday! ::chuckle:: ::sigh::. There was no time-zone change in this trip. Phoenix doesn't change to DST...

I'm home again in good ol' Seattle, hangin' with the home crowd and lovin' that rain. Oh, yeah!

I did make it home in one day, driving all the way through from Camarillo to Seattle in 19 hours. I only stopped for food and yoga/ stretch breaks. It took 8 Monster drinks (sugar free variety) rather than 2, and there was a _lot_ of construction on I-5, so I just put on my iPod and randomized it. I discovered some amazing things on there. Great classical pieces, and rock, folk, jazz, swing, blues, R&B, hip-hop, flamenco, holiday tunes, show tunes, some mildly country tunes, standards, classics and whatever - in several languages and many intrumental arrangements. Man, what fun!

I'm home! Hooray! I just have a few cramps in my legs, is all, even with the cruise control... And I feel kinda jet-lagged or something...:-}

Just a quick status update. I made it out of Phoenix a day late, and today I'm in Camarillo, CA, visiting our Aunt Gloria. I hope all of you have someone like Aunt Gloria and Uncle Jim in your lives. They are gifts from heaven, as is my mother-in-law Jeanne. We are so blessed.

I'll be driving back to Seattle tomorrow-to-Sunday. When I asked around about how long of a drive it is from Camarillo to Seattle, I got a range of answers - from &three days, with lots of stops for pictures and sight-seeing" to "16 hours, with a couple of Monster Energy Drinks, a couple of sandwiches and a few stops to stretch your legs". Well, I'm going to try for somewhere in between. I'll leave at 5 in the morning and see what happens.

I am accepting that not everything could get done this trip, but we did the best we did, my friends. There's just lots more to do, is all. I'm just praying everything is set to be the best for everyone.

I am so busy with the details, and bunches of things are getting done. Oh, yeah. ::weary sigh:: I'm still targeting leaving Phoenix on October 15th, even though that's going to need a miracle to pull it off. Wish us luck, friends!

Oh, the headhots got another glitch in the process, by the time they got to Phoenix and I got online to pick my choices and place my order, they had shredded their copies of the test prints, so now I have to try to drop them off in LA or mail them or some such. It's like this process is jinxed or something! ::weary chuckle:: Seriously? Is this normal?

I wasn't going to say anything about the design, but I am seriously disgusted with the rampant linkrot on the "New! Facebook!", you guys. ::imitating sound of Wylie Coyote falling off a cliff:: Anyone who can't do a redesign without linkrot should be forbidden from coding! Hyeah, and prevented from promoting code! Grrr. Argh. And prevented from managing web servers and domains! ::hmph:: ::sigh:: I resisted saying anything for awhile, but the new design messed with a lot of things it shouldn't oughtta. Not that any of its users have a right to complain, it's free and blah blah blah whatevercakes. But the transition to the new design was poorly managed, and forced on users without a choice, and a lot of change at once. The poor dears who have to develop under those conditions, I feel for them, I really do. ;-}

Not that I have an opinion. No, no. ::chuckle::

I am attempting to recover gracefully from the mess they've made, so if you're on Facebook and we haven't found each other yet, there's a link to my profile on my Contact Info page. There are also links there to my MySpace, Friendster, TPS, ReverbNation and other places I'm hooked in to social networking.

I feel like I'm living a line from one of my songs ("Didn't You Know"), I feel like I'm "sanguine in the open air", as in battle-weary and wounded, still standing and fighting, stinging from the elements pounding on the wounds. Metaphorically speaking, of course. Could someone please just rip Alzheimer's off the planet, without leaving something worse in its place, pretty please? Mercy on us. So heartbreaking, this is.

The big news is that, after much deliberation and long-distance chatting between Jeanne and as many of their ten kids as feasible, the move to Boston is off, as Terry's condition has worsened. Quickly, in a big way. So, now, Jeanne and our brother Christopher are working on finding a place, a "memory care facility", for Terry here in Phoenix. Chris owns a franchise of Home Instead, and he says it's way past time for Terry, and that there is nothing available in Boston, all of the places there are full with waiting lists. Prayers are welcome in this regard, friends. ::weary sigh::

I knew that song would come back to haunt me. That's the problem with writing from one's reality, eh? Sometimes, realities repeat, with a vengeance. Grrr. Argh.

I watched a beautiful Arizona sunset tonight, and learned that the climate and flora in the Sudan is very much like that in Phoenix. One of Terry's caregivers (from Home Instead) is from the Sudan, a former attorney there who moved here to be with his wife and baby while she finishes up med school and he learns English so that he can pursue his aspirations of helping disadvantaged people via activism and political means. I wish him the best, we will miss him when he moves to their next home in Georgia. He is great with Terry - the biochem professor enjoys many a conversation with his brilliant caregiver.

And the pretty sunset almost makes up for having to live in a climate like the inside of a toaster oven. For one night, anyway.

I'm back in Phoenix with Jeanne and Terry, sorting Alzheimer's medications into 4-per-day containers, which produces sounds remarkably like those in a game of Mankala. I miss playing Mankala. :-} The plan is to finish helping these guys pack up and move to Boston, and then start auditioning around the country in places I have family and friends to visit. First, I have to sort these meds tonight. One step at a time, eh?

The test prints did arrive in Seattle, two days after I left. Now they have to catch up with me! ::sigh::

I truly enjoyed seeing Phantom of the Opera (at the Paramount in Seattle) and Eurydice (at ACT in Seattle) in the same day. :-} From a lake in the basement to a pool in the underworld in a few short hours! ::happy sigh:. :-}. I am now doing housework, while pondering the significance of handwritten notes being passed between realities in both plays - how the Phantom sends notes up from the sewer/basement to the opera house, and how Eurydice and her father send handwritten notes between the living and the underworld in ancient Greece... no phoning, no texting, no video chatting, handwritten notes. In both plays.

One big snag at the moment is that my print order for my headshots got mondo delayed. They had some kinda computer switcheroo when I put my order in for test prints, so they are just now sending me the tests. I hope they get here before I leave for Phoenix, so I can approve them and get the real prints ordered.

I am so totally daydreaming all day about the great hike we took with friends April and Jean to Lake Valhalla last Sunday.::happy sigh::.

I am itching to get back on stage, y'all. And ISO pix from any show I've ever been in. If you've got 'em, please email or call me and let me know. :-}.

(Update: Thanks, you guys! I have a bunch of photos now, and now I have to upload them all and whatnot! Woo-hoo!)

Just a quick note to remind friends that Vicki is walking with her Weyerhaeuser team in the Alzheimer's Walk at Magnuson Park on Sept.14, 2008. If you'd like to lend support, she has set up a donation page on the Kintera site, and invited our friends and co-workers who'd like to contribute to the Alzheimer's Association. We are participating in support of our stepdad, Dr. W. Terry Jenkins, who had a brilliant biochemistry career, and did great research work on ATP and other topics (ironically linked to Alzheimer's Disease). Our brothers Chris and Mark Jenkins have compiled his research into a web site here: Dr. Winborne Terry Jenkins' web site.

And yes, we saw the news that there is promising new medication out, but it looks like it's about 4 years out from being available. If you know of any trials that we can get our beloved poppa into (near Stow, Massachusetts) before then, please let us know, eh? (please email me or call me, contact info is at the top and bottom of every page on this site).

I keep having to reassure friends that I really will be auditioning again - starting this October, if not sooner! As soon as I get our relatives moved from Phoenix to the Boston area. I'm working hard on audition material, and getting my final new headshots printed, etc. And looking for regionals in places I can visit family and friends and audition at the same time. :-}

Dear friends, thank you so much for your concern, I know the sabbatical will be over before I know it, especially if things at Weyerhaeuser get worse and my honey's job is in jeopardy. Mercy! The timing! There is plenty of motivation for me to get more paid acting work, just so ya know, as my sabbatical is not a paid one, and my union contract won't let me work in the same field as my regular day job while I'm on sabbatical. So, oh darn, I'll have to do acting work. Theatre possibilities open up starting in late October, and earlier of course for one or two-day film shoots when I'm in town. I'll be back in Seattle by October 20th, no doubt. I'm in and out of town off and on until then. I have another film project possibility lined up for late October after I get back.

Go to Dana's Media Page

You know who you are, thank you for the reminders about how stale this site is getting and how much more up-to-date I'm keeping my Facebook profile than I am this page. :-} That's partly because I've been away with just my macbook and there are things I do primarily on my PC like edit web pages and Word documents and PDF files. Yes, I know my resumes are out of date on this site and on TPS, and that I haven't added newspaper review quotes to this site (except for the one on this page about me and Shanna Allman in Trifles.) I do have those things on my checklist while I'm in Seattle.

Oh, and there is technical progress on my learning audition material. I recorded a bunch more rehearsal tunes and put them up on ReverbNation. I now have 13 tunes plus my voiceover demo on there, with player widgets on my media page and my Facebook profile. These new trax are the first with a real microphone, and following my new rule that I can't do any more recordings - not even rehearsal recordings to learn the words by - without plenty of sleep, a real theatre performance warmup beforehand, a few more days' rehearsal to know the material better, and _not_ sitting on the floor at 2am with less than 5 hours sleep, with the sheet music spread out on the floor around me and my head moving all kindsa ways to see the music so I don't get paper rustling noises on the recording. ::taking deep breath:: It turns out, people actually listen to the MP3s I have up - especially "Defying Gravity", "When You're Good To Mama" and "Popular", so I'd better shape up, eh? (People download them, too. Which isn't that easy to figure out how to do... Yikes! I mean, thanks and everything, but yikes, I'd better make better quality stuff if I'm gonna put it up there... :-} )

For my techie friends helping me out with software and recording hardware issues, you can tell the difference between the new trax and the older ones - if the word "scratchtrax" is in the title, these are the new trax with the SM58 and Lightsnake USB cable. The older trax have the word "rehearsal" in the title, they were recorded with the built-in iSight mic, sitting on the floor at 2am after learning the words and notes just enough to rough it out. I'll eventually re-do them all with the new mic and other criteria. (Yes, I know I need to re-do "Lady is A Tramp", it was the first try with the new mic setup, and I was learning the new deal with enunciation and the pop filter on the SM58 unidirectional mic. Apparently, the lady is a "tram" most of the way through. ::chuckle:: I'm also discovering that this tune sits right on my break. Mercy.)

I just got home after the lovely video shoot today. The folks at Talaria are always so great to work with. I am, however, pondering the question - is it so wrong to enjoy playing drug addicts in movies? ::chuckle::

I enjoyed a short, but charmed, bike ride today with Katie and Vicki, finishing up just as the rain started falling. Snoqualmie Falls is so puh-retty...

I am sooooo happy to be back in Seattle and my home, sweet home. ::happy sigh:: ...and I'm so looking forward to the video shoot on Monday with my friends at Talaria.

I had a better day with my favourite Alzheimer's patient. There's nothing like a 76-year-old with the giggles.

It was a rough day with Poppa Terry today. Mercy, this breaks my heart. I now despise Alzheimer's with a purple passion that verges on a venomous vengeance. Where is that Buffy the Alzheimer's Slayer when you need her? Grrr Argh.

Back in the reality of finding ways to help, Vicki has set up a donation page on the Kintera site, with a picture of Terry, and invited our friends and co-workers who'd like to contribute to the Alzheimer's Association. Poppa Terry had a brilliant biochemistry career, and did great research work on ATP and other topics (ironically linked to Alzheimer's Disease). Our brothers Chris and Mark Jenkins have compiled his research into a web site here: Dr. Winborne Terry Jenkins' web site.

And yes, we saw the news that there is promising new medication out, but it looks like it's about 4 years out from being available. If you know of any trials that we can get our beloved poppa into (near Stow, Massachusetts) before then, please let us know, eh? (please email me or call me, contact info is at the top and bottom of every page on this site).

Thank you to our friends Erin and Drake who got us free tickets to the world premiere of "Shrek The Musical"'s pre-Broadway "Tryout" performances. We truly enjoyed seeing its debut incarnation! The cast is great, it's a great start. Go see it, if you are in Seattle. This version is long - they are surveying the audience to see what to trim down and beef up. It'll be fascinating to see how this version turns into the Brodway version... Oh! The donkey is great, Shrek is great, all the Fionas are great, I especially love the tower scene where all three Fionas sing a trio together! Love that! The dragon was confusifying to me, I didn't understand that all the parts of her were one person, and thought it was a male dragon with a female witchy wife and a bunch of their kiddos. And then the witchy wife comes on to the donkey. Perplexifying. I do think that the most frightening thing about the dragon is her brassiere. No joke. :-} I don't think her boobs are kid-friendly, plus I think maybe somebody might hurt the donkey with those things someday... Really! Oh, and the little Lord guy was fabulous, and his costuming was brilliantly designed, although several people at intermission pondered why they had him stand up and reveal the costume's trick. The show was a little rough on opening night - light and scene cues off a few times, but other than that, the main thing that made me cringe was the bathroom humour that's right out of the movie, so legit but just not my cup of tea. Yes, I knew to expect it, nothing against the production for it. I just had to endure that part, just like when I watched the movie with my small nephews, I'd go ewww and they'd giggle.

I'm rehearsing monologues and show tunes again. And every whippoorwill is selling me a bill... by the sea with the fishies splashin'... how perkifying... And yes, that does mean I've been singing three of my new favourite show tunes - "A Cockeyed Optimist", "By The Sea" and "Popular". Tomorrow, I'll stick to the edgier tunes for balance. I promise.

I got home from Phoenix last night, just in time for our kitty Edgar to have a seizure and leave us. Safe journey, old friend. We will miss you so very much.

I really wish that Alzheimer's Disease didn't exist. I am headed home from Phoenix today, and am so sad that there aren't better meds for this heartbreaking illlness.

I watched a few movies on the 9-hour flight home, and I highly recommend the movie "Young @ Heart" about the rock 'n roll chorus of seniors that plays to sold-out audiences all over the world. :-}.

Check out the movie trailer on YouTube:

        "Young @ Heart" Movie Trailer

We just got back from visiting in Europe, and I am refreshingly not annoyed that travel to England and Spain involves so much jet lag when you get home. Naps are a good time for fond memories to return. If you're on Facebook, we'll be adding photos to our galleries soon.

You know what? Contentment is a summer day with soft Spanish music, three sleeping critters and a tall glass of iced tea. :-} Now where's my to-do list? ::sigh::.

I'm psyched to be getting into the recording studio this weekend with my friends Bruce, Bill and Jeff. We're recording Bruce and Bill's rock tunes. They go by the name "Blood and Biscotti". I'm plaing bass and singing backup vocals for this project.

I'm being outfitted in heavy metal garb for the movie shoot this weekend. :-}

I am officially on sabbatical from my job at Seattle City Light. I celebrated by recording a rehearsal recording (scratch track) of the song "Defying Gravity" and being costumed for the movie shoot this weekend :-}. The movie is called "The Day My Parents Became Cool", in which, of course, they don't. All the adults start dressing in heavy metal and emo clothing and the kids have to figure out what to do about it. :-}

Upcoming summer projects include helping family members move from Phoenix to Boston, going to England and Spain to visit family and attend a family wedding.

Well, it's been a long three months since the Trilogy closed, but I met some great folks in that show, and they have inspired me to get auditioning for real - not just for friends or by referral, but auditioning for real for strangers and new companies and all that.

Oh! Speaking of "A Trilogy of Terror", here's a nice review from that show:

"...Shanna Allman and Dana Rice effectively convey their growing understanding of the costs of that reality and its social implications. Much is learned here, much growth takes place, but without actor tricks, or sentimentality. It's all the more powerful because of the subtlety with which it is presented." - Nancy Worssam, Queen Anne News

Shanna was so amazing to work with, you guys. I was so lucky to have that entire cast and crew come into my life. They kicked my acting chops into shape and are now inspiring me to great endeavours of learning and new horizons. Seriously.

If you saw the show and would like to catch Shanna's next gig, she's in The Miser at the Seattle Shakespeare Company. Everybody in the Trilogy cast is busy on their next projects - not surprising, eh!?! Corey McDaniel just closed Sense and Sensibility at the Meydenbauer. He was on stage in that with Jane Martin, you remember her as Mrs. Ravenscroft a few years ago on Mercer Island.

So, to prepare for my beginning to audition sometime in the next 6 months, I have spent the last 2 months reading a large list of plays, listening to a ton of show tunes, finding old lists of monologues and songs recommended by coaches (and/or friends and/or internet bulletin boards for theatre people that recommend songs for my age/vocal range/ typishness, etc.), made lists of the potential material, got copies of sheet music and plays, edited a dozen monologues down to a minute or so, found recorded backtracks for as many of the show tunes as I had music for (and some that I don't), spent every night for weeks playing and singing and speaking through material to learn it, spent long hours at Kinko's compiling the book I now have of tunes with music in the right key, with edges taped together for the accompanists' convenience and arranged in the same order as the backtrack CD that now I sing along to to practice them.

I did most of that on my own.

Mostly in my basement.

I _really_ needed some external reference information. Someone to verify things I had no way to know.

So, for one thing, I signed up for a kick-bouton amazing class at Freehold - Singing and the Alexander Technique. I totally recommend this class, you guys. Even if you don't think you're a singer. Seriously!

Oh, and meanwhile my friends from BLT called me to their auditions for Lysistrata, and cast me in the title role! I know! How nice are they, anyway! ::chuckle:: We've just had one rehearsal so far, but it looks like a lotta fun, and a big challenge! I think it will definitely push the limits of my prudish sensibilities, but so many of my friends are saying that's just what I need! ::exasperated sigh:: I get no sympathy for being a prude. And the cast ofthe show is already telling jokes I don't even _want_ to understand. ::sigh:: Mercy. Well, I figure if Cherry Jones can play this role in a bawdier translation, I can certainly handle this milder one in a community theatre in Burien. :-} ::knock on wood::

Oh, and I got myself a little macbook because my PC had fallen apart to the point that I could no longer make line-learning recordings, or burn CDs of the backtracks of the songs and monologues I'm trying to learn. So, I spent the first weekend with it learning Garage Band and made a couple of test recordings with backtracks for audition tunes I'm learning. These are just tests using the built-in mic and basic settings on the machine. I loaded them up onto ReverbNation, which I found through FaceBook, and here's widget of them so you can see how crazy people can get when holed up in their basement a bit too long:

Meanwhile, we've had yet more friends diagnosed with Alzheimer's, breast cancer and brain tumors. We've taken to working mainly for those charities, now that opportunities for Katrina relief are fewer and farther between. We still carry on my mother's wish for us to support animal rescue groups like Pasado's Safe Haven. We can't believe that they've had to investigate such things as someone placing rat poison in parks in Seattle. What is this world coming to!?!

I also redesigned my web site and gave it a new green design with a regular toolbar at top and bottom instead of the previous array of oddball buttons. And I finally realized a dream of adding a new page called "Which Dana Rice are you looking for?" because I get so many calls for other people with my name, I'd like it to be easier to find them. I also have a new Photos page, so I'll be moving photos from their current shared location with resumes and contact info onto their own screen. Once I pick a final headshot for print purposes! So much to do!

After this show is done, I'll be re-designing the Dr. Ice site, as well, in a similar but ice blue color scheme. :-}

Well, that's about all to say for now. I hope all is well with you, dear ones.

Peace, light, art, music, magic, health and happiness be with you.