Author: Sonia Iris Lozada

Happy New Year! Yes, I have to admit that I haven’t been the best at posting during the holidays, but I did want to wish you all a wonderful 2023.
I know that 2022 was challenging for many; myself included, but there seems to be a joy and excitement about 2023. Unlike from the 2021 to 2022 year, where many people felt an uneasiness about the coming year (2022).
This year (2022), I broke my stream of not booking acting jobs. I had several bookings this year and met amazing people on the sets.
What I’ve learned.
1. I’m a grateful person and I learned to be more grateful for the smaller joys and lessons.
2. I’ve accepted that every challenge is an advantage. It allows me to learn who and what I want and am.
3. I’m kinder to myself.
4. I’m accepting of myself.
5. I’m finding joy in the smallest accomplishments.
6. I’m lucky to be healthy.
Find joy in your surroundings and the people in your life. Tomorrow is another day and a new year.
Many Blessings!

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Overheard at Chica’s Café Podcast

Moving along with my podcast until the next booking (hopefully soon). I’ve been doing self-tapings and writing my own skits. I only have one video called Green Screen Lesson up on my YouTube channel. Check it out and subscribe.

My podcast Overheard at Chica’s Café is going well. It’s a light and fun podcast focusing on entertainment friends. Check it out here.

This month is Adoption Month and on the Poetic Resurrection Podcast we have Jeanette Yoffe we discuss Yoffe Therapy her solo show and now available in paperback and Audible
What’s Your Name, Who’s Your Daddy?

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve blogged, life is good. I’ve been going on auditions and I’ve been put on hold. As an actor, this is something you don’t want to hear. You want to know you got the job or not.

Check out the episode with fellow actor and great friend Danny Mora on Overheard at Chica’s Café, if you want to know what actors go through for work, this episode is for you. You’ll hear how we started in acting the play we did together with Emilio Rivera, and the trials and tribulations of the acting career.

On Chica & the Man, Alex and I finally catch up with each other since our last recording in July. I’ve had several guest host on the show while Alex was on hiatus. Check out this episode and as always we laugh and banter.

It was so wonderful being on a set again. I had a great time working on Bosch Legacy with Denise Sanchez. Great cast and crew. Can’t wait to see the episode. Season 2 streams in Spring of 2023. I’ll keep you posted.

Check out season 1 of Bosch Legacy

The award winning short film I worked on during the pandemic has been released to film festivals and has won several. It’s called “Love in the Time of Pandemic” Check out the link to see the awards. Keep up the great work Emmanuel Todorov!

In the meantime, check out the gallery.

Yes, what it is all about? I’ve been asking myself that for some time. I’ve been keeping busy with self-tapes and in person auditions.  I realized I get more auditions when I find joy in them. I’d be more joyous booking, but that’s another story for another day. As I’ve posted before I have been busy writing short stories. I gave up on my deadline of September to finish the poetry book Inspire Me: Awakening Dreams until later this year.

I had one audition that I went all out for. Got a coach, director and a reader to help me and it came out great. I sent out my thank you for the opportunity and let it go. My agent and I were very happy with the recording. It was for a major role in a TV series. Sadly, didn’t get it but it did make it to the producers.

My podcast are doing good. I had changed the Poetic Resurrection podcast to twice a month. My other two podcasts Chica and the Man and Overheard at Chica’s Café are once a month.

Please get my current poetry book Inspire Me Series: Book 1 & 2.

In the meantime, check out the Gallery.

One of the pluses of being in entertainment is you get to meet great people and one of my favorite people is Uli Bella a founding member of the music group, Ozomatli. He and I have been friends for many years and I was excited to interview him for the show. We talk about the new album Marching On and its singles: El Destino & Marching On. Ozomatli’s journey from the formation of the group to the current core members. Their music collaborations with Gaby Moreno, Lisa Lisa and B-Real of Cypress Hill.

Ozomatli’s collaborative, energetic blend of multi-cultural music and activism has earned them three GRAMMYs®, four Hollywood Bowl shows, a TED Talk and much more. Since forming in 1995, the Los Angeles-bred lineup has inspired and energized listeners as far away Burma and Mongolia: Ozo’s messages and music, sung in both Spanish and English, need no translation. Like The Doors, X, Los Lobos, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and other L.A.-based artists who take cues from the city and also reflect and unearth its movements, Ozomatli reaches from the curbs to the high-rises.

Ozomatli’s commitment to social justice is ongoing. Their 2019 single “Libertad,” with founding members Chali 2na (Jurassic 5) & Cut Chemist, was the first release together since Ozomatli’s 1998 debut album. It highlighted the struggle of Latin workers in the U.S. who sacrifice everything to help family on the other side of the border wall. In 2008 the U.S. State Department appointed the band United States Cultural Ambassadors; in 2009 and 2010 Ozo performed for President Barack Obama. Hometown honors arrived in 2013, when April 23 was deemed “Ozomatli Day” in perpetuity, and in 2011, Ozomatli was awarded the NCLR (National Council of La Raza) Capital Award.

In 2022, Ozo’s new songs, stronger-than-ever brotherhood and creativity culminated in Marching On. Produced by David Garza (Fiona Apple, Sparta) at El Paso’s Sonic Ranch, the LP’s 11 songs are a unified blend of the members’ influences and ideas. Guests include J.J. Fad and Lisa Lisa on “Fellas,” while “Mi Destino,” sung in both English and Spanish, features Cypress Hill’s B-Real and Guatemalan singer-songwriter Gaby Moreno, who also lends her vocals to the title track “Marching On”.

If the city of Los Angeles had a soundtrack, it would be Ozomatli’s music. As founding members Jiro Yamaguchi and Uli explain: “You drive down Sunset Boulevard and turn off your stereo and roll down your windows and the music that comes out of each and every different car, whether it’s salsa, cumbia, merengue, Hip Hop, funk or whatever, it’s that crazy blend that’s going on between that cacophony of sound is Ozomatli, y’know?”

Band members:

Raúl Pacheco – Lead & Backing Vocals, Guitar, Tres, Jarana
Asdrubal Sierra – Lead & Backing Vocals, Trumpet, Piano
Justin ‘El Niño’ Porée – Percussion, Rap Vocals, Lead & Backing Vocals
Ulises Bella – Saxophone, Lead & Backing Vocals, Requinto, Jarocho, Keyboard, Melodica
Wil-Dog Abers – Bass, Marimbula, Backing Vocals
Jiro Yamaguchi – Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals

Ozomatli – Moving On Album available on Amazon

@ulibella

https://ozomatli.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ozomatli/

https://www.youtube.com/user/OzoVideos

Listen to the podcast on our page.

Check out the current episode of the Poetic Resurrection Podcast. Prioritizing and Promises. This past weekend, I had everything planned. I was going to organize my guest/craft room by taking everything out and only keep what I will actually use and need. I woke up early on Saturday and then realized that I had an audition self-tape. On Friday, I remember replying to my agent that I will look at the sides for this TV show. Something was nagging at me to look at the sides in the morning. I figured I would clean the room then spend the rest of the day reviewing them. Didn’t realize this was an important audition and merited much of my weekend.

I like to memorize my sides (script section) because it makes it easier to perform. As I read the breakdown and reviewed the sides, I realized I needed a coach and a reader to help me learn the lines. Saturday was gone and even though I spent most of the day learning lines, they wouldn’t stick. After making a list and prioritizing what I needed to do, I saw the problem with memorizing my lines.

I just couldn’t get away from breaking a promise to myself, YET AGAIN. The truth is housework will always be there. My sister pointed that out to me and she’s correct. I had a great opportunity to work on a funny script. I asked a friend if she knew anyone who’s a coach and can help me with the lines. She did. I set an appointment and headed to Ojai with my friend for the day. Well, at least I thought it would be for about three or four hours, but no, it was the day.

The coach was great. Why wouldn’t he be? He’s also a stage director and had brilliant advice on the character. We were able to record it there. I am grateful to him and my friend who, by the way, drove.

The fact that I actually hesitated to stop everything I was doing to delay this great opportunity surprised me. Why would I do that? I dream of opportunities like this. Was it fear? Was it not feeling that I’m good enough?

Louise Jackson states: “We often have opposing desires, feelings, beliefs, and ideas. These can create internal conflicts and struggles that mean clashing forces feel like they’re fighting each other inside your brain. And expecting dramatic change overnight is incredibly stressful. …Trying to do too much at once makes you way more likely to break your promises to yourself.”

Yes, this was me. I had opposing desires and ideas. I rather be working on my creative endeavors, acting, writing and my podcast, yet, I like calmness. For me, calmness comes from a clean and organized home. I’ve started so many projects around the house only to leave them partially finished. I’ve worked on all my creative projects, just not the chores.

“Think about this same scenario, but played out in your relationship with yourself. You break your promises so many times you can start to doubt yourself. Even if your intentions to change are good and pure, it can be difficult to change because you lost credibility with yourself.” Ayodeji Awosika

So, what to do? I left the housework behind and decided not to beat myself up. Maybe I set too large an expectation. I then learned the script lines, got coached and recorded my self-tape. I understand that the biggest hurdle I had was that I didn’t want to once again break a promise to myself. I learned to practice self-kindness and to acknowledge that I might have perceptions (ideas) for the day, but life happens and there are gifts in the unpredictability of it.

So, I’m taking my sister’s advice and I’m spending an hour or less on clearing the guest room every day until it’s done.

Be kind to yourself. Understand life happens and many blessings.

Get a copy of my latest book: Inspire Me Series: Book 1 & 2