It has been such a weird time. My grandmother passed away on 5/19, so I flew out to CA to be with my family. We poured over old photo albums and shared so many stories. My Dad said he would scan a lot of the black and white photos and send them to me on a disc, and I'm grateful for that. Seeing where we came from, what our families went through, it's all very eye-opening. Pictures of my Dad as a child looked just like my brother as a boy, and I found an old high school pic of my Mom that for me was like looking in the mirror.

My grandma was named Eleanor and she was born in 1918. Her mother, Leila, was a great believer in music, so she schooled all three of her girls to play an instrument, and Eleanor played the trumpet. When I first heard this, I thought it was so wild, because Eleanor had always been such a quiet, subdued person. I hope she felt great when she blew her horn.

I think it's so interesting that my brother and I came from a musically inclined family, because the arts are so essential for us both. My great-grandmother Leila would've been delighted that Sean and I are both making our livings with music and art. There's a great freedom of spirit and a lot of love.

Blessed be.

Laundry and Laughs

Last year I had the lead in a short film called Laundry, playing a high-haired laundress with a thick New "Yawk" accent. It was a fun film that had a "Clerks" (in an East Village laundromat) kind of feel to it.

We filmed in the wee hours of the night, and a great deal of it was improvised, which is interesting considering I just did some improvisational filmwork for The Onion News Network last week. Ha!

The director, Julia Suo, wanted my character to have a wild and crazy hairdo, so she brought in a hair artist to sculpt my hair each night (it's shown mid-sculpt here). It took about an hour each night and you don't even want to know how much hairspray was used! There are stills of the final 'do on my website: http://www.lauradaniel.net/laundry.htm

And for the full reel, you can catch this quirky little film on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mswi_6z_R6U

Hope you dig it. :)