Monday, July 28, 2008

Jade at Open Mic Night


Talk about a character - here's Jade during a break from Open Mic night last Thursday... we had such a blast!

Art of Fashion in S.A. 2008


I got to film Agosto Cuellar's Fashion Show last weekend - probably San Antonio's biggest fashion event of the year. Everything was beautiful, especially Agosto's. I'll see if Agosto's gonna post the footage or perhaps I can give you a little peeky. This pic is after the show with Agosto and Mari - who helped run the show behind the scenes. You might recognize Mari from our ProSpectives show on Vlog4Reel.com. This girl is a character. I love her!

Friday, July 25, 2008

Elephump


I painted this picture a few months ago in honor of the amazing creature that is Elephant. A friend sent me a link (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=5435466&page=1) to this article today on Elephants - evidently they now believe Elephants can suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, just like us humans. What a notion, huh, that a creature who's seen its mother shot and killed by poachers, nearly starved to death and/or been tortured for years in various unhealthy environments such as zoos and circus' might actually experience trauma?

Are we so self-absorbed that we can't see how we affect other lives on this planet? I've always been particularly fascinated and drawn to elephants - such beautiful, wise animals, probably more so than the typical jack-ass that cuts you off in traffic. Wanna help out, you can donate to this Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee:
http://www.elephants.com/

Let's start one here in Texas! Anyone game???

Fools4Real

It's been an interesting week for me... I'm guessing the universe wanted me to get some practice making a fool of myself in public since it happened twice this week! The nature of launching a business like Blog4Reel and Vlog4Reel that requires the interest of the public at large means not only do I have to put what I'm doing out there but myself as well. Yay.

Although many moons ago in H.S. I enjoyed drama very much and was even pretty decent, if I do say so myself, I found a more comfortable fit for myself writing, producing... always behind the scenes. A lot of people think writers are trolls. Not true. We just wish we were. If I had my own bridge with a computer and a nice little fire pit, I'd be a happy camper.

Well no more! No, I must stand in the glaring sun of other people's judgment, criticism, and if I'm lucky some small manner of admiration or at least appreciation. This week I was asked to sit on a panel for the San Antonio Film Commission. I was very honored to do so, of course. The problem was there seems to have been a miscommunication between the Commission and the Host - who kept asking me questions about Blog4Reel that really weren't relevant to the Topic: Promoting your film locally. I came prepared to talk about my short film we premiered last year, The Theory of Everything. I got so discombobulated that at the end when she asked me where people could find my movie, I couldn't even remember to tell them it's on Vlog4Reel. It's on Vlog4Reel, dammit! I mentioned my MySpace page and then couldn't even remember the URL for it.. granted for Blog4Reel I have about 100 such pages.. I have URL's & passwords coming out my arse, as the Scottish so eloquently put it. Regardless, it was embarrassing. I felt my face flush red and wished I could twinkle my nose and vanish into thin air but alas... The one uplifting moment was when this little girl who'd been dragged there by her actor father said that I was "the most interesting one out of all of them." She was sweet and sincere and as my friend said later, Kids don't lie.

Then last night I went to go check out Jade at his Open Mic night at Sam's Spot in San Antone and he called me up in front of the crowd to talk about my film and Blog4Reel. Granted it was a small crowd but I could feel my nerves buzzing as I stood there in front of the hot white lights covered in my chihuahua's hair (which gets everywhere). I was not prepared. And maybe that's ok. The world did not come to a crashing end, I did not die and nobody pointed a finger and laughed. I've been listening, in my car, to this really cool zen artist Alan Watts. He talked about the art of spontenaity and maybe that's what I'm supposed to be getting out of this.. to enjoy such things, go with the flow, be in the moment, blah blah... but I am a novice spontenaitor and therefore fell on my face. Hopefully next time I'll do better. Hopefully. Either way, you'll be sure to find out!

If you wanna hear the infamous panel discussion, check out the podcast on the San Antonio's Film Commission site (it's the July panel discussion) -

http://safilmforum.blogspot.com/2007/08/now-on-splashcast.html

If you'd like to see me looking flustered and also see some pretty funny stuff from Jade and others, I'll put up a link once the video's posted.

Hope y'all have a beautiful weekend. We plan to see Batman, finally. Have you seen it? Did you love it? Also taping an episode of ProSpectives for our Vlog4Reel Channel. Should be fun to be with my peeps again! We're gonna get crazy, ya know, with Brunch on Sunday!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

"Deep Thoughts" Revisted #2

"I wish a robot would get elected President. That way, when he came to town, we could all take a shot at him and not feel too bad." - Jack Handy

In today's political climate, that poor robot would probably be tasered, bombed, burned and completely incinerated. After the New Yorker's tasteless cover of Obama & his wife as terrorists, there's no telling what people are capable of... I, for one, would hug the robot and let it know it's all okay. After all we have to start somewhere and I do like robots... robot chicken, Bender, K-9 from Dr. Who.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

No Cheeseburger in My Paradise

So so so much going on. Where to begin. Well I guess the best news is we taped the footage for the CNN bit last week and overall it went well although I was a little disappointed with my performance. I wasn't nervous exactly. I think the problem was I had so much to say and I couldn't remember all of it - the second the camera went on I forgot everything. I guess it's the idea of all those eyes on me.. like the camera's big EYE represents every eye in the world and well, since I can't imagine the camera naked I had nothing to shake me out of it. So I used cue cards and that was challenging. I'm praying it's useable, but if not I'm totally down for a reshoot although I'll be lucky to get my hair to look like that again. Lisa Weller, amazing stylist, did my hair and I don't know what she did but for a day I had celebrity hair. I felt like cinderella. But the second I washed it, poof, my chariot turned right back into a pumpkin and the starlit was gone. Se la vie.
So I've sent out the press release to all the major and local media and I got a call today from a guy I've never even heard of from a company that doesn't even show up when I google - and he critisized me for sending out info on it when it's so new (no one's using it yet). I'd like to know how you get people on if no one knows about it. I think people in the industry are so used to pretending their one thing when they're another. I'm not ashamed of the fact that we're new, that we're grassroots. I think it gives us an edge because we're fresh and we're honest and we are what we are and we're not afraid of that. I refuse to live in a world anymore where I have to hide any part of myself and no one should. We should all be loving and appreciative of our differences and our uniqueness. That's what keeps it all interesting. Viva la Liberty!

So I'm really excited about where we're going with both Blog4Reel and Vlog4Reel. I think the News To Me show will catapult us into the public eye which is what we need and the rest is up to you, the viewer, the artists, the eyes of the web. All we can do is create and hope you like what you see. Of course we are always up for suggestions. Tonight we're having a ProSpectives meeting for our next episode. Has anyone watched it yet? I think Tom's edits/drawings are brilliant and make me laugh.

The only blah part of my life right now is my difficult tummy. I had an "attack" Friday night. I thought it was food poisoning. My nutritionist thinks it's my gallbladder, my healer friend thinks I might have an ulcer.. so I don't know what to think. Either way I'm cutting WAY back .. only eating clean foods and attempting to be Postive about the whole thing. NO STRESS = SUCCESS! I believe that. Getting to that peaceful happy placing and Staying there is the hard part in our society. But I will perservere, GD!

Deep Thoughts Revisted

Remember Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey on Sat. Night Live? They were one of my absolute favorite things they ever did. So a while back I went through an old box of stuff I'd had shipped from WA - my old stomping grounds, and found a book of Deep Thoughts. So for your amusement and mine....

DEEP THOUGHT by Jack Handy:

"Today I accidentally stepped on a snail on the sidewalk in front of our house. And I thought, I too am like that snail. I build a defensive wall around myself, a "shell" if you will. But my shell isn't made out of a hard, protective substance. Mine is made out of tinfoil and paper bags."

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Updates & Holiday Slack

So I've been horribly inconsistent with the blogging thing again - blame it on the new site VLOG4REEL (yay!). We've been working hard on getting some content up for the VlogStar Channels. I've been working with Comedian Jade Esteban Estrada - who just MC'd the GLAAD Awards on TV - very cool. He's absolutely one of my favorite comedians - he can tell a joke with just his facial expressions alone. I feel so honored that he's agreed to do some stuff for Vlog4Reel. I met Jade through another one of our VlogStars - Eric Fonseca. See no one thinks we have cool stuff in San Antonio but we've just been hiding under the radar... but no longer!

Also we've been doing a lot with the ProSpectives - which is still something we're working on defining - it's kind of a talkshow but then it's kinda just us gals sitting around bullshitting... for the moment we're sort of letting it be organic and define itself through the process. Amazing editor Tom Trevino's on board and I think with his energy and creative input we're gonna have some interesting episodes. The one we shot this last week we decided to dress up in 60's style so we raided Jive Refried's closet and found some hideous dresses to wear. It was a blast although I think the getups threw off our normal synergy but that's ok. Hopefully Tom will come up with some funny shiz to spice it up! Mari, Susan & Tom have been so much fun to work with. I'm excited to see where we go with it.

I just sent out the first press release for Vlog4Reel and we have another surprise coming soon that will be announced on CNN's "News To Me!" I'll let you know when we have a date. Biggest challenge I have now is getting the word out on this shoestring budget and having the time to do it. With both sites & a regular job I've been putting in 12 - 14 hour days (including weekends). But I love it so it's not a complaint.. just a little tired. I got a good nights sleep though last night so gearing up for a productive week.

My bf's dad's in town from GA this weeekend for the holiday. Just got done making the world's BEST potato salad. Yummy. We're grilling and the boyz are playing video games (surprise surprise)! I plan to takeover at some point and catch up on Mario Galaxy - which is just like the most fun video game ever!

So as it's almost time for dinner I'm gonna take off but leave you with well wishes for everyone's 4th Weekend! I didn't do much yesterday but got to see fireworks from my balcony. I soooo LOVE fireworks!!! The best show I ever saw was on the Pier in San Francisco... some big show they do every year where they introduce the latest in pyrotechnics (is that the right word). I'll never forget it... the crowd was huge and vibrant and noisy but once the fireworks started everyone was silent, mouth open in awe. My friend, Weiner, said it was like an orgasm for the eyes. And oh, yes, it was!