Okay, okay, we know, it’s almost the end of the first week of January, so Happy New Years seems as dusty as those leftovers of plum pudding. But we’re here on the fifth for a reason – because only five days into 2012, many of us have probably already given up on our New Year’s Resolutions.

I mean, let’s be honest, resolutions are hard. First of all, chances are good that half your resolutions are direct responses to behavior you’ve been reveling for a solid month, correct? Eat well after a month of christmas cookies, drink less after the booziest month of all, go to the gym after, well, let’s not talk about how long it’s been since we’ve set foot in there – we’ve been busy, right?

We here at Liz Caplan Studios want to suggest some resolutions for the year ahead that are 100% totally keepable. We promise! So let’s dive on in, shall we?

1. Support the arts.
This is probably the easiest resolution ever, because it’s really just fun. Go see a movie (we’re partial to the truly beautiful and deeply moving ‘Shame’, and not only because our own Liz Caplan is in it!), go see a show, go see an opera, go to a museum, go read a book. You’ll be better for it, and the arts will too – they are a vibrant and necessary part of all of our lives, and they all need audiences. So put your money where your heart is (or don’t, there’s lots of good free stuff around too!) and make 2012 the year that you experience as much as you can.

2. Go for a walk.
We know, we all should exercise more. But let’s be honest, sometimes going to the gym is boring and expensive. You know what isn’t? Going for a walk. It’s good for you, and totally free, and you might just find yourself noticing things you never do, like birds or people or the free performance that is New York City all of the time.

3. Find your voice.
We’re especially partial to this here, because Liz Caplan is all about finding your voice. But let’s be honest, if you’re reading this now, you’ve at least sung in your shower pretending that you’re the next American Idol. So why not give yourself the gift of learning how to use that fierce instrument to its best advantage? Liz Caplan Studios released a number of different iPhone apps in the past year, all of which can help you train your voice for less than the cost of a fancy cocktail. So why not treat yourself, and kill at your next karaoke office party? Don’t let your shower tiles be the only things that hear you sing!

4. Go somewhere.
Travel! Get on a plane! Get on a train! Get on a subway! Get on your feet! Go somewhere you’ve never been in 2012, preferably many different places. We’re all citizens of the world, there’s nothing greater than getting to see as much of it as we can.

5. Give yourself a break.
This resolution encompasses all of the others. Most of us work way too hard, and then we are way too hard on ourselves about what we look like, what we do, what we can’t do. It’s vital to give yourself a break every once in a while, both in the sense of taking time to go for a walk or see a movie or sing a little song or learn to breathe, and in the sense of forgiving yourself for whatever shortcomings you think you might have. Because one thing’s for certain in 2012: you’ve got you. And shouldn’t you treat yourself right?

So best wishes for the year ahead – no matter how you choose to spend it, we hope it’s happy and healthy!

That’s Liz Caplan herself tinkling the ivories, with vocals by Carey Mulligan. And there’s more where that came from (and more of Michael Fassbender’s remarkable abs), so we’ll see you at the theater in December!

However, there are always exceptions. And currently, we here at the studio are a big seething mass of jealousy at the people who currently live in LA, San Francisco, Denver, Houston, Fayetteville, Des Moines, St. Louis, Charlotte, Durham, and Providence.

Why, you ask? Well, because the denizens of those fine cities will get a chance to see the new musical ‘Bring it On’, according to their recently released tour schedule. And so, they will get a chance to see not only the acrobatics of cheering onstage, but also one of our favorite movies adapted by some of our favorite people (Lin Manuel Miranda, Tom Kitt, Amanda Green, Jeff Whitty, Alex Lacamoire, Andy Blankenbuehler – I mean, come on. That’s ridiculous.)

So, I mean, whatever, people in those cities. We’ve got other stuff, like, um, really good pizza, and the Empire State building, and a lot of other great shows. We’re totally over it, you guys. You just go see the show, and have a great time, we can be mature about this. And at least we have this preview video to tide us over:

Okay, never mind. We’re going to go cry and look up cheap plane tickets.

Kitty Lambert and Cheryle Rudd (via: The New York Times)

And, our gift to you, one of our favorite poems about marriage, by Kahlil Gibran:

On Marriage
 Kahlil Gibran

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.

Sun. Burn. It happens every summer, it seems, despite our best attempts to slather on the SPF every morning, like we always intend to. But luckily, this year, we have a secret weapon at the ready to combat our inadvertent Oompa Loompa costume – Aloe vera.

Yes, we know, that’s not a new remedy at all. You can buy it in big tubes at the store for exactly this purpose, what’s the big idea? Well, this year, after worrying about how much aloe vera was actually in those mystery tubes (some of them seem to be a whole lotta chemicals and not a whole lotta aloe), we tried something new – we bought an aloe vera plant.

For about the same price as a tub of the gooey clear stuff, we got a nifty and attractive plant, which is almost impossible to kill (which is a necessity for any plant in our care, alas). And, best of all, when we need to soothe a burn or a scratch, we can just cut off a leaf, cut it open, and put it right on the injury. We know that it’s 100% pure and fresh, and the results speak for themselves – this plant is not messing around (and hasn’t been for a while – Aloe is mentioned as a healing plant on Sumerian tablets from 2200BC, and appears in the bible). Aloe is credited with helping skin heal, both from burns and small injuries, blisters, open wounds, and with conditions such as psoriasis and excema. Plus, when taken internally (you can buy aloe juice in many forms, or simply taking a leaf of your aloe, allowing the yellow sap to drain out (you’ll definitely want to do this – it is stinky), then cutting the leaf open and scraping out all the clear gel, which you can add in a blender to water or juice), it can have incredible benefits to the digestive tract, and help with indigestion and more serious diseases like Crohn’s disease.

The good stuff - Aloe Vera's clear interior gel. Via aloelf.com

So do yourself a favor – next time you pass the crazy green spikes of an aloe plant, buy one. You, your skin, and your stomach will thank you.

First of all, the Tony Awards were on Sunday, as you are all probably well aware. And since we at the studio are all devoted theater people, we approach Tony Sunday with all the fervor that most people reserve for the Superbowl. But this year was extra special – not only was the always-amazing Neil Patrick Harris, studio favorite and studio client, back to host, but two studio clients, Josh Gad and Nikki M. James, were nominated for Tonys for their brilliant performances in ‘The Book of Mormon’. So already we were in seventh heaven just watching them sit in the audience all glammed up and gorgeous, and knowing that the world could now recognized the talent we always knew they had in spades. But then, well, let’s just say they better invent some higher levels of heaven, because our beloved Nikki M. James won for best Featured Actress in a Musical. And as if this wasn’t enough, she gave our very own Liz Caplan a major shout out, as you can see in her charming and moving speech:

Congratulations, Nikki, we love you. And we’re pretty sure your crazy talent level means this isn’t going to be the first time you’re up on that stage holding one of those little medallions.

So, really, what could make this week better? Well, funny you should ask. Another favorite and student of Liz’s, Stephen Colbert, lent his talents to the Tony broadcast, both in an opening number cameo and in a number from the most excellent concert version of ‘Company.’ But as if that weren’t treat enough, we were listening to NPR this morning, only to hear those familiar dulcet tones talking to Terry Gross for the program ‘Fresh Air’. And what did they talk about? Well, quite a lot, as the program is 40 minutes long. But one topic was Stephen Colbert’s path to singing, and his experience with voice lessons, which he was, naturally, incredibly charming and eloquent about (You can listen to the entire interview, which we highly recommend you do, here, but here’s a snippet - ”What I rediscovered was the therapeutic nature of singing lessons,” he says. “They’re like doing yoga but for [the] inside of your body. You open up and use muscles that you don’t think of as malleable. … You can turn your head into a bell. … That’s what we kept working on: resonance and projection and relaxation and just remembering or relearning how to breathe through a phrase. The technical aspects of it are fascinating to go through in the lessons. And then you have to forget all of it, and sing.”) And then he gave a shout-out to our very own Liz Caplan.

Martha Plimpton, Stephen Colbert, and Neil Patrick Harris. We love these guys.

Now let me make something clear – Liz truly loves the work she does and the relationships she forms with all of her students. If she had the time and/or self-cloning capabilities, it’s highly likely that she would be at every single performance that any of her students ever does, cheering them on in the stands. Watching them all go forth and sing with lessons she has taught them is a thrill in itself for all of us who work in the studio. But we have to say, hearing Liz get a shout-out from not one but two beloved students in two days; well, that’s just the cherry on top of a cherry jubilee.

So here’s to the rest of the week! Although it’s already set a pretty high bar for itself with the first two days, we have to say!

Adorable.

And for good measure (although it has nothing to do with the Tonys):

NPH and his partner, David Burtka. Even more adorabler!

*This is a lie, it would not require all the internet’s bandwidth. We do love a lot of people, though.

Yesterday the Tony Award Nominees were announced, and in a crazy competitive year, studio students Josh Gad and Nikki M. James were both nominated for their genius performances in ‘The Book of Mormon’, and great friend of the studio Stephen Oremus was nominated for his orchestrations of the same show. So congratulations, you guys, and all our fingers are crossed for you!!