BLUBBER-BUTT (ME-LESLIE) IN A BIKINI!!!

GO TO THIS LINK/WATCH VIDEO/VOTE STARS:

http://www.islandreefjob.com/#/applicants/watch/tLcJFFN0lzI


I don’t care what you vote or # of stars you choose (to the right of the video). Just go do it. (You don’t even have to sit through the 57 second video)

So I made this video about a week ago. I had lingered on this site long enough to see several female contestants justifying themselves as the best candidate for the Greatest Job in The World (which entails being caretaker and blogger/promoter of tourism to the paradisaical Australian Reefs) by virtue of looking fab in a two-piece.

So I thought, I can do that! I can wear a bikini!

And not only can I do that, I have been blogging and taking photos and making videos and editing videos and doing interviews for a very long time… especially in the last 8 months when I left L.A. and started my wordpress blog about traveling (www.alwaystravelling.wordpress.com)!

You can vote whatever you want and i don’t really care about the rating because they are counting the number of people that voted for the video, not the rating that it received.

http://www.islandreefjob.com/#/applicants/watch/tLcJFFN0lzI

SUPER-EASY... ONCE YOU HAVE GONE TO SITE AND CLICKED ON STARS, COME BACK TO THIS MESSAGE AND FORWARD TO AT LEAST 5 OTHER PEOPLE. THX!

PS: I had a lot of fun making this video... If you haven't heard about The Best Job In the World, check out the rest of the website where the video is posted and make a video, too!

Added Twitter Bar to my blog... Check it out!

Hey!

Look to the Left!

Your other Left!

To the left of this post (or to the left of the newest post) is my Twitter sidebar.

If you're not familiar with Twitter, it's referred to as "micro-blogging" because you keep everyone updated that is "following" you but the updates are only about 140 characters long.

Easy sound bytes... Right?

So I encourage you to click the "follow" link after you get an account.


twitter.com

Tweet you soon!

An email from my friend Tom...

Hi Leslie,

Hope you can catch me on COLD CASE this Sunday night. I play a cranky cop and it's a funny scene!

Best regards,

Tom Derek

blacknerdcomedy.com

Hey!

Check out my friend Andre's website: www.blacknerdcomedy.com!

HE IS HILARIOUS! Be sure to check out the "A Miley" rap... Excellent.

PLEASE TAKE 60 SECONDS TO HELP US WIN A $10,000 GRANT

I recently got an email from my friend Cindy about a project she is creating that I think will have a great positive impact on independent filmmakers.

It's doing really well, and I believe this is the final round, so they're really close!

Please take 60 seconds and vote.

Thanks!

Leslie
***********************************************************


Dear Friends of PATRON OF THE ARTS,

As most of you know, I'm co-founding a non-profit company (called Patron of the Arts) that's mission is to help filmmakers fund their films (wooo!!!), and in the FINAL ROUND of a competition to win a $10,000 business grant! We're currently in SECOND place, and falling behind quickly. The competition is FIERCE and I need the table to come to the rescue! Please help!! If every member of the table were to take just 60 seconds to vote, it would make a HUGE difference. I swear it is super fast, free and easy. This company will help filmmakers everywhere. Please help me win this grant to be able to start this non-profit for all of us! YOUR VOTE and support will make a HUGE difference. Thank you so much for your support.
This company will help everyone!!
-----------------------------------------------------------

PLEASE TAKE 60 SECONDS
TO HELP US WIN A $10,000 GRANT
THAT COULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

Cindy and Jenn are founding a non-profit company called "Patron of the Arts" that's mission is to help filmmakers fund films! To win they need your help ASAP! (They need the most votes before June 30th). The competition is TOUGH and they are falling behind. Voting is fast (takes only a minute), fun and free. A win for POTA is a win for filmmakers everywhere!

Here's how to help:

1. VOTE: Please take 30 seconds to vote for our program: Goto the link and vote ASAP (but no later than June 30th at 10pm): http://ideablob.com/ideas/2412-PatronOfTheArts-Sponsor-a-Film and vote! If you already voted for us, simply hit the green "VOTE" button, and login. It will take 2 seconds, and you're done!! If you have not voted yet, it will take 30 seconds to register first. Just go to the same link, and hit the vote button. Then it will ask you to register. It will send you a confirmation email, and then just goback to our link and click the green "vote" button one more time. THAT'S IT!! REALLY FAST! (feel free to leave us a comment if you want!)

2. SPREAD THE WORD: Please send this email to at least five people who you think would be willing to spend a minute to vote for this non-profit film funding company. We need support urgently to make this happen! Help us create a company to help you!!

3. CONNECT WITH US: Drop us an email to let us know you voted! And if you are a filmmaker who may be interested in participating in our film financing program, please send an email to filmmakers@PatronOfTheArts.org. We hope to launch in 2-3 months, and will be looking for filmmakers who need funding to participate in this program!or just to tell us you voted so we can be sure to invite you to the celebration if we win.

4. PARTY AND FUN: Check this out! If we win the grant, they throw us a big party, and present POTA with one of those GIGANTIC 6-foot tall checks that you see in the lottery!! Ha! EVERYONE at the Table will be invited to the party, along with all of the other Filmmaking Organizations in town who have been supporting us too! So let's win this grant! And then let's celebrate! And THEN, lets use this new company to finance our films!!!

Thanks so much for everyone's support!

With Gratitude,


Cindy Baer,
Co-Founder
Patron of the Arts


Cindy Baer
Director/Producer
Free Dream Pictures
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0046337
www.freedreampictures.com

It took me a while, didn't it?

Lately I have been working a lot on a website. In fact, today I've put in a lot of time with the hosting company's technical service. And I've also been looking into online mailing list software.

The names of these two companies would jump out at me each time I visited.

With DaDa (mail list) it made sense... Dada is pretty distinct (and fun to say). :-)

But with GoDaddy, which I've had for over a year, I was wondering why I kept being drawn to the name.

And then it hit me: Father's Day.

I don't tend to think about that day too much because my dad passed away long ago. I usually mentally wish my father well as the day approaches and think about how grateful I am to have such a great dad (great parents, actually) and then move on before I start to get sad.

Maybe it was simply my subconscious mind that was focusing on those words because I new Father's Day was coming up, but I like to think this is my Dad's way of saying "Hi!"

He always was quite a word-smith, with a dry sense of humor and a robust user of the English language.

This happened last year, too...

Last year, ON Father's Day, a friend of mine gave me a collectible coin set because she was getting rid of stuff and she felt I was the right person to give it to. I do not collect coins and I've never conversed about anything related to this topic with my friend. However, MY FATHER had a huge coin collection. We has just finished discussing Father's Day when she said, "I have something for you." I unwrapped it (yes, she even wrapped it) and I made the connection immediately.

I was so, so touched.

Perhaps I read too much into it, but it's nice to grasp on to those little coincidences, whether or not they really mean anything.

So Happy Father's Day, Dad! (Or should I say "Dada" Day?)

And Happy Father's Day to all dads!

...And thanks for reminding me.

Free eps of South Park!

Gotta love the avatar creator at www.southparkstudios.com. Check out my bad-ass 4th grade chica!

Pretty funny stuff...


9/11 Conspiracy Theories 'Ridiculous,' Al Qaeda Says

THIS WEEKEND: "Grey Street" in the Garden State Film Festival... Sort of...

The great news: My music video to the Dave Matthew's song "Grey Street" got into the Garden State Film Festival!

The not so great news: It didn't get music clearance and so it can't actually be screened. It was not a project I had intended to screen publicly. I submitted it to GSFF because I know the director of the festival. She asked me to send it in and she liked it and though it would be a good addition to the festival, so... I went to work on securing the rights for that screening. The production company said no because it was too much hassle for what they'd make for one screening. They'd actually lose money paper shuffling.

If you're in the NJ area this weekend, you should still attend the festival. It's really fun and I met a lot of people last time I went that I still keep in contact with.

There is also going to be (not-too-expensive) celebrity benefit on Thursday, April 3rd, which I would have really enjoyed if I were able to attend:



"On Thursday, April 3rd , Montel Williams and Starline Films will be hosting a Special Red Carpet Premiere of 4CHOSEN: The Documentary (produced and directed by Jon Doscher) at the Paramount Theater. 6:30 pm Red Carpet Arrivals, special singing performance by DANNY AIELLO begins at 7:30pm, 4CHOSEN premiere begins at 8:00, reception to follow with musical performance by BRIAN KIRK and the JIRKS"

I went to the closing gala when Real vs. Reel got into the festival and had an amazing time and met great people. This should be a good party.

"Warm Beer... Lousy Food!"

Apparently Brits posted on You Tube a while back... So here you go!



In my last post about Brits I forgot to mention that Suzanne Gutierrez hooked me up with her improv troupe and supplied me with a number of my actors for this project. We have about 30 minutes of awesome outtakes that I would love to post on a website in the future because the commercial only shows a smidgen of the great improv these actors did. And Suzanne did great work in one of my earlier projects, Real vs. Reel.

Also, thank you to Peter and Elizabeth Holder for letting us use the space until 3am. Check out their restaurant if you're into great food (despite their "Warm Beer... Lousy Food!" sign out front.)

And Now a Word from Our Sponsor...

I have been attempting to post the Brits Restaurant & Pub commercial I directed/produced a few months ago but I've been having trouble getting it to upload properly on YouTube.

I'm still going to work on getting it on YouTube (or post it on google videos) but in the meantime I would like to acknowledge the wonderful and generous folks that helped me with that project. I always end up working with awesome people, and this cast and crew was no exception. A big thank you and a big hug to Tobiann 'Cellest' Dyke, Jacqui Jordan, Jim Legoy, Mark Wolf, Sam Aaron, Robert Bitsko, David Brickman, David Lipson, Andre Meadows, Rebecca Michaels, Amanda Normington and Lynn Nonnenmacher!

You are the wind beneath my enormously large and floppy airplane ears...

Writer and BFF Kristin Colyer-Massey was in town for business and happened to be staying in Anaheim, SOOOOO....... that of course meant a jaunt to Disneyland when she had time off!

There's nothing quite as amusing as two fully grown women totally drenched ( ala Splash Mountain) freezing their butts off while sitting in a giant plastic elephant!

GOOD TIMES!

"Grey Street" Music Video

Yep, that's me. Yep, I also directed and produced it.

By they way, I actually gained weight for the roll, and (thank god) I've been dropping since the shoot back in May! Originally I wasn't sure I wanted to play the main roll because, while I feel I'm proficient enough to act and direct at the same time, it is actually much more fun for me to be on either one side of the camera or the other.

I'm actually really glad I did the roll. At this point in my life I consider filmmaking to be business more than an art, but this one was one of those pieces that I felt came straight from my gut and my heart, not just from my desire to get a kick-ass piece for my reel.

Here are all the great people that were involved. If anyone does a search for these folks I want their great work to be found by others so I'm listing their names: Rhoda Baldwin, Osa Danam, Angelique Montague, Ryan Stockstad, Shane Carther Thomas, Cole Wells, Maetrix Fitten.

Crew was Maetrix Fitten, Jacqui Jordan, Cami Kidder, Ryan Stockstad.

Hire these people because they rock!

To Noah and R.J. (and Mel)

Check it out.

Teaser pix from "Grey Street" video

2007 Year In Review

I know have been really bad about posting (Ha-when am I not?!) and so I am going to do a "Year in Review" to make up for it. Hold on to your seat because there is a lot here!

First of all, this has been a phenomenal year for me. I feel like I have changed the way I view life in such a positive way and I am so grateful for that. I have learned and experienced so much this year and I am thrilled with the progress I have made in my career, the wonderful people I have met and I have had the pleasure of spending time with this year (both professionally and socially), what I have learned about life, love, success, happiness, gratitude, etc…

I’m just happy. And I’m excited about 2008. But before we go there, here is 2007…

Jan 2007 was actually month number three of a 16-month marketing mentorship course I am still taking with Jay Abraham, which has been absolutely amazing and has totally changed my life and the way I look at the world and business. It has made me a better person in so many ways, not just in business but also in my social life. If you want to find out more about him, you can go to his website at www.abraham.com. He has a free download of the first chapter of his book, which I think everyone should read.

In March/April I directed a commercial for one of my favorite restaurants in Pasadena, Brits Pub and Restaurant. That project will be posted in January. The project ended up in the hands of a very SLOW editor who made several mistakes and didn’t do a very good job, so the project had to be re-edited, which is why I’m still working on it. I love this project, and I had a great crew and cast to work with. This was probably the most giggly set I’ve been on, and that’s great because I think it’s good when people can enjoy themselves and work hard at the same time. In fact, that’s the ideal I aim for.

In May I directed a spec music video for the song “Grey Street” by Dave Mathews’ Band. I am so happy with how this one came out. We are still playing around with the special effects and color correction, and when it’s done I will post it (probably January).

There were also two other projects I participated in last spring.

One was helping with Troy Conrad with his Comedy Jesus (www.comedyjesus.com) project. He does a fabulous stand up show as… well… as Jesus, and he uses a lot of audio/visual enhancements. He also had me do some improv on camera which was really fun.

The other project was for a student film for Brooks Institute (www.brooks.edu) in Ventura. I played a punk girl who is murdered by this guy that has been following her because he’s attracted to her and he keep shooting footage of her with an 8mm camera. It was a very artsy-fartsy project, as most film school projects are, but very fun and though I’ve never seen it, it seemed like it was coming out pretty well. I never got a reel from them and they never returned my favorite pair of black boots, which kind of irked me. (Josh, if you’re reading this, give back my boots!) Still, I’m very grateful that I got to participate in it. It was fun. And the director was Josh Harman. He says he was one of the final 34 directors selected for Steven Spielberg’s ON THE LOT (www.thelot.com).

Meanwhile, I was also helping out with a class about Producing Ultra-Low-Budget features, taught by Suzanne Lyons. Suzanne was having me video tape her lectures so that students that were missing from class (film production often conflicts with classes) could watch the lesson before the next lecture. It was a wonderful experience to work with Suzanne and I met fabulous people in the class.

One of the people I met was Jim Shea, who owns a school called Cinema Arts Tech (www.cinemaartstech.com), which teaches film producing (bigger budget producing) and Script Supervising. I ended up in the Script Supervising class with Jim Kelly Durgin, who has been professionally script supervising for over 40 years. His mentorship was incredible, and not only has it made me a great supervisor, but it has improved my directing tremendously by making more acutely aware of details. I’m more detail oriented now than I’ve ever been, which is saying a lot for the class.

I also took at Budgeting and Scheduling class with Cleve Landsburg, who has also been in the business forever and offered a wealth of information and had great stories about the industry.

I literally finished my last class with Jim and was swooped up by Lis Fies and Heidi Hornbacher, the producers of The Commune, to work on their feature. I’ve known Lis for a few years and we’ve worked on some short projects together and so it was wonderful to finally work on a feature with her. It was awesome working with Heidi, too, whom I met over the summer when we all got together to see Troy Conrad’s Comedy Jesus show (which I mentioned earlier).

From there I worked on another feature called Eugene. The editor showed me footage when I was dropping off script notes and it looked really great. The producers are planning to do the festival circuit, so even though I don’t think is up on IMDB yet, it should be soon.

And now that Eugene has just about wrapped, I’ve finally had time to go back to finishing up the projects from last spring, which you will have an opportunity to see soon.

I have noticed that I will go to a friend’s blog once and not return unless my friend reminds me to do so, but I have friends that send updates to me via a newsletter which I always tend to read and find very interesting. Therefore, my next post will most likely be a link to the newsletter form of this blog. I will probably send a letter out as often as I’ve posted here, so there should be no worries about too much mail or anything like that. It just makes it easier for you to keep up and KNOW when there has been an update, rather than having to check back to see if something has been posted.

If you feel strongly either way regarding the change to a newsletter, please post a comment and let me know your thoughts.

Some great youtube stuff...

This just makes me giggle. Does anyone recognize the voiceover?

Wear Green!

Happy St.Patrick's Day!

Happy New Year! (belated)

Is this not the most terrible picture you've seen EVER?!!! It makes me laugh...

New Podcast Songs

There are a few new posts to my Podcast (see sidebar). I played these for a friend and she asked me to post them. The copies are a bit rough and it was a rush job so try not to be too picky about the vocals/guitar.

These songs were written during my younger, more outspoken and rebellious years. :-)

OUTSIDE THE BOX 2

Outside the box 2...



If you haven't seen Outside the Box 1 yet, check out the earlier posts! I'm quite proud of this one. :0)

Robert Redford

This has nothing to do with what I'm up to but I enjoyed watching it so I am posting it. It's a youtube video with Robert Redford.

http://www.nrdcactionfund.org/tellafriend.asp

Lis' Reading

Whew! It's turning out to be a busy weekend! On Saturday my friend Lis is having another reading of the new-and-improved script of Pistoleras!

The reading is a private event, but if you want to attend, email me (or leave a comment) I could check with Lis to see if it's ok. It's this Saturday at 3pm!

Annette's show

My friend Annette is in a show called THE LARK, about Joan of Arc. Here are the details:

Angels Theater
2106 Hyperion Ave.
L.A. 90027
323-833-1717

Show Dates: Wednesday (today), Friday 8/18 (that's when I'm going) and next Wednesday. All shows 8pm.

It was almost to sold out when I made my reservation yesterday, so act fast! Annette is an amazing actress and I love watching her work!

Pictures from Freeway Star

Here are pictures from Freeway Star, which was shot last May. Enjoy the pictures!

It was really cold on set, which is why I was all bundled up. :-)

new IMDB post

I just realized how much my website is in need of updating. Not just the pictures... the whole focus. For anyone who doesn't know, here's the update: I love to act but it's not my focus anymore. I've decided with all the time and energy and money I put into mailing out pictures and networking myself as an actor, I could just produce something myself, which is what I've been doing.

I don't turn down rolls if I like them and don't have to audition, but I don't go out of my way to get the roll. It's just not worth it.

See, presenting oneself as an actor might or might not illicit an audition...
which might or might not illicit a callback...
which might or might not illicit the roll...
which might or might not be a quality roll to being with (the last audition I was requested to attend was for was a bimbette slasher flick... Needless to say, I declined).

This also seems like an appropriate moment to mention Real vs. Reel was added to IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0823630/

So here I am: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1853477/

There is another credit that is supposed to be up there from something I shot a year ago, but they are running into complications with IMDB (I did, too, but I persevered and cleared up the kinks of my application). I'm very happy that this project was added and everyone involved totally deserves the credit (as do a lot of people who were not credited like Jerry Kernion, Jeremy Feig, Frank Woodward, Suzanne Lyons, Ryan at Blueprint and George Chen. Because it was a 48 hour film we were crunched for time when preparing the credits and we left out the special thanks to a bunch of key people that were instrumental in making the film happen. My apologies to those people and my deepest gratitude for their participation.)

Outside the Box, Episode 1

I'm not in this episode (I'm in #2), but I think Jeremy (Feig) did a great job!

I was on the news / Directed a stage piece

This is news from about a month and a half ago…

My last post mentioned that I performed for First Stage’s fundraiser in May.

I am very proud to announce that we were so well received that when a news station (I think it was channel 4 in L.A.) wanted to do a story on First Stage, we were called in to perform.

Of course, the news only takes sound bites of the performance, but it was still cool!

It aired about 5 days after the performance. I missed the segment and so did all of you (b/c I didn’t tell you… Sorry.)

The interviewer was a weenie though. When cameras and live theater step into the same room, there’s no guessing who is more self-impressed.

Still, I was on the news! Yeah!

Also, I directed another piece the following weekend. It was called Paul Newman Hops The Amtrack Train, and was written by East Coast author Marcia Rudin.

I really lucked out getting such an powerful, well-written piece. And my actors, Annette Reid, Zach Brooks and Jason Kraid, were great, too!

Lots of chuckles from the audience, but the actors also gave it incredible emotional depth.

For anyone looking for material to shoot, I would highly recommend attending First Stage’s fundraiser next year. I stayed to watch many of the other performances and took notes on the writers and actors I was particularly impressed with.

"Love So Pure": A staged reading

I'm in a one-act plays this tonight. This Saturday May 20 at 7:30PM, I play a woman in love with a serial killer in a short play called "Love So Pure." It's an evening of plays... a fundraiser for a group called First Stage.

The plays actually start a lot earlier. Feel free to come by at 5pm and enjoy the entire evening!

These plays are part of the First Stage one-act series at the church on Franklin and Highland in Hollywood. Plenty of parking and lots of other great one-acts are playing as well. Hope to see you there!

New Directing Project!!!

I directed another short movie for a friend for her CalArts thesis project. It's about a woman brought over to America from India, who is coping with the restrictive life she must endure in her pre-arranged marriage to a domineering, controlling husband.

It is screening at CalArts in Valencia, CA this Friday.

We will be showing the film between 2-4 PM at the Bijou theater, located across the library on the 2nd Floor.

You can park in the main lot and enter through the main entrance, take an immediate right, walk across a small lobby, take a left, go down the stairs to the second floor and the Bijou is on your right.

Come by 1:45 to get good seats!

http://www.calarts.com/

Mania TV: AIRING TONIGHT! (MONDAY)

Hi Everyone,

I received this email today. Hope you can catch this!

Leslie


Hello! I am happy to inform you that you have been chosen as a ManiaTV!
Featured Filmmaker. Your film, “Real Vs. Reel“ will be airing tonight
during Too Short For Hollywood at 10 pm EST.

Be sure to inform your friends, family, fans and viewers that you have
been chosen as a ManiaTV! Featured Filmmaker and that your film will be
broadcasted worldwide www.maniatv.com..

Benny was right

I just want to say that I fell in love with Rent when I first saw it many many years ago. I was all about the tent city and the squatters staying in their space. I was all about saying "Fuck you" to Benny and his razzle dazzle offer.

Maybe it's that I'm getting older, but my opinion has completely changed.

Benny was not the bad guy.

Here's this guy telling his friends that he can hook them up with a fancy movie studio, where they can do all their work without someone looking over their shoulder at their creative choices. And free rent, too.

But Roger and Mark say, "No, Screw you Benny! We like our angst." And instead, Mark takes a job at a sleazy tabloid where he is miserable because although he is shooting a lot, he is told how to shoot it, what the story is, what he should include and not include, etc.

I had a dream last night related to this, and I thought about Benny and how in my younger days I would have said no to him, thinking that that choice was noble in some way, which totally doesn't make sense to me now.

Being a starving artist is both a choice and a reflexive habit, but I think the same people that find nobility in being a starving artist, would completely change their ways if they saw what was keeping them starving. It's not nobility, it's bad choices. I've seen it in my own life and I've seen it in others. It's saying no to the giftings the universe brings. It's a safe, attractive label to take on when things get too zippy and the universe actually grants exactly what they want. Or worse, the universe grants them what they want and they fuck it up by being irresponsible.

The ironic thing is that starving artists rarely have time to do their art. They're too busy working to pay rent, and rarely can afford their artistic endeavors, which cost money.

And then all those starving artists look at other people doing what they want to do and making money from it, and call them sell outs. That's bullshit. That's exactly what Mark became after he took the job at the tabloid. Not because it was a tabloid, but because he didn't enjoy what he was doing.

So therefore... Benny was right. He made a generous offer and he was snubbed.

I pray the universe guide me to always give a resounding yes to the Bennys in my life. I pray the universe help me to get out of my own way.

And I pray the same for you, whatever your circumstance may be.

Peace.