Yasmin Shiraz

Me at the Regal Cinema in San Diego

Hey peoples! My film, Can She Be Saved? is screening tomorrow at 1pm at Regal Cinemas in downtown San Diego and also on Sunday at 11am in the same location! I’m excited. It’s a big milestone. Someone told me yesterday that thousands of films submitted for this festival but only 100 made it. So there’s stiff competition.

I want to give a big THANK YOU and SHOUT OUT to Karen Willis for putting the festival on and giving us filmmakers a place to go! Much love.

Me and Kenneth Gamble

Above is a picture of me and Kenneth Gamble of Gamble and Huff. He’s one of the founders of the Philadelphia International Sound. He had a documentary that screened at the festival. And ya’ll know I love music, so I had to  get a photo with this legend.

Also, I’m not sure if everyone who is reading my blog has heard of the Village People, but for those of you OLD HEADS who know the deal, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to take a photo with Victor Willis who was the lead singer of the ORIGINAL VILLAGE PEOPLE. That was really cool cuz again I love music. Somebody out there has to remember the song, “YMCA!”

Me and Victor Willis of the Village People

Also, here’s a photo of me in front of the San Diego Black Film Festival backdrop.

And screen legend, Danny Glover kicked off the opening night reception. As I told my friends on Facebook, Danny Glover has a “God-Like” presence. Believe it. He was on his way to South Africa and then Haiti but he stopped by to support his new documentary and inspire the crowd.

Danny Glover at the San Diego Black Film Festival

Me and fellow filmmaker Michael Melvin. His film is entitled, Broken. He’s a cool cat, he hails from the Baltimore area.

Me and fellow director, filmmaker Michael Melvin

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Boost Mobile. All opinions are 100% mine.

SANYO Incognito

I want my peoples to be in the know so here it is: Boost Mobile is ‘bout to go Incognito with a new product! Boost is steppin’ up their phone game with the SANYO Incognito which has a full QWERTY keyboard (no scrunching your fingers to type,) 2MP camera with a VGA camcorder, music and video player!  But guess what? It’s a $50 Monthly Unlimited Plan which offers unlimited talk, text and web with NO CONTRACT. This is No Contract for NATIONWIDE COVERAGE!

That’s right, you read it here, first. If you’re tired of a busted phone, if you’re tired of having to be tied down into a contract, here’s the low down:

- Price point: $129.99 (excluding taxes) with free shipping when purchased through the required link

- Model Number: SANYO Incognito™ SCP6760

- Unlimited Plan: $50 Monthly Unlimited, no contract required

You know it comes with multi-media messaging- this means you can share video and photos with family and friends within seconds. And like every phone on the planet, you can connect it to your Bluetooth. All this for $50 dollars a month? Come on, now.

A lot of phones out there are NOT offering all of this stuff and without a contract. Me, personally, I pay like $129.00 per month just to have all of these features. I guess its time for me to get a Boost.  My contract is up in like four months, so know what I’m looking at!

**Food for Thought: Teens & Parents of Teens- a $50 phone bill is WAYYYY better than a $100 one.

Robby is on the far right.

It breaks my heart to see anybody losing their life force to alcohol addiction so when I saw Robby, former singer of the 90’s group City High, I knew I had to post this video. City High was signed to Wyclef’s record label.  In the video, Robby’s mother said, “I gave the music industry a cub scout and they gave me back an alcoholic.” Having been in the music industry, I know how hard it is. You are always seeking approval, but approval is something you must provide for yourself. You cannot seek stardom believing that all your demons will go away, if you do not deal with your demons, your demons will find a way to deal with you.

Robby- I pray that you get better and realize that you’re better than the life of an alcoholic. On a side note the video says a lot about how his mother treated him… SMH. And another note, it appears that Robby really has a broken heart. The girl in the center of the video used to be his girlfriend and then broke up with him and started a family with the guy on the left. Sometimes, life sucks.

Here’s the full episode of Intervention of Robby and his family.

Here’s the link to their #1 song, What would you do?

http://popup.lala.com/popup/432627047854252742

When I’m not wearing braids or weaves, my son often tells me, “You need to get the InStyler for your hair.” LOL. He watches WAY TOO MUCH tv. Well, I didn’t think the Instyler could do anything for kinky hair but the video below will shock you. I mean is it real? I think so. This lil girl’s hair ends up being hooked up. So I say, “Sistas, the Instyler might just be for us.”  If you get one, email me your story, a photo and if you’re tech saavy, a video. I’ll post it up right here!

According to the Advocate there are 15 cities that are more gay than any other cities in America. By gay they mean that there are a lot of same sex households, gay bars, gay elected officials, etc, etc. Fellow sociologist, Mike Albo, did a great job on the article. You  can read the full article here:

http://www.advocate.com/Print_Issue/Travel/Gayest_Cities_in_America/

But here’s the top ten.

1. Atlanta – Has at least 29 gay bars! Yowzah!
2. Burlington, VT – Where?
3. Iowa City (T-Boz is from Iowa)
4. Bloomington, IN (I spoke at a university here once.)
5. Madison, WI ( I spoke at a university here once.)
6. New Orleans (Home of hurricane Katrina)
7. Ft. Lauderdale (Great spring break parties!)
8. Portland, ME – Where?
9. Austin (Home of Matthew McConahey)
10. Seattle (Home of Grey’s Anatomy)

I know all the 16 year olds in the US want Diddy to be their Daddy, now that they’ve seen son Justin has gotten a $360k Maybach for his birthday! My goodness. What is he gonna get for his 18th birthday? It’ll have to be worth at least 500k! And for this 21st b-day, that gotta be a gift worth at least 2 million! That’s what I’m saying. Anyway, happy birthday Justin. Drive safe. That Maybach is like a young limo so make sure you look thru your rear view mirrors!

I was recently notified that my debut film, Can She Be Saved? has been selected to screen at the 5th Annual Women’s International Film and Arts Festival in Miami which is being held March 26 – April 3, 2010. I look forward to meeting my fellow women filmmakers. And for the people who indulge me and encourage me to pursue my dreams: I love you.

Here’s the trailer–Feel free to rate it. It helps or something like that:

People magazine’s website www.people.com is reporting that the Hope for Haiti benefit telethon full of performances with the likes of Mary J. Blige, Sting, Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, etc. has raised $57 million dollars! That should buy a whole lot of hope, help, and HURRY–as in get to Haiti and help out! I’m pleased that so many people chipped in to assist this country. I wish them a speedy recovery and rebuilding.

For my young fans who are obsessed with the Diary of A Wimpy Kid books, the trailer is already out on the internet though the movie doesn’t hit theaters til April. So, here it is. I hope the movie doesn’t disappoint you but honestly, its hard for a movie to give you what a book does. Its very rare that a movie is better than the book. Now, I will try to make that happen when Retaliation becomes a movie. But hey, I’m not making any promises.

You know I like Ron Artest–the controversial, spirited NBA player who is currently reppin’ the Lakers. Well, for you hip hop music lovers you probably remember him spitting on a Neptunes track a few years ago. In his 16 bars, he killed it. Well, Ron hasn’t lost a step. Here he is droppin some knowledge on Haiti.  I ain’t mad at a brotha for having more than one talent. Are you? Listen to the track…

**Thanks Rashaun for sharing the track with me.**

02 HAITI FEAT RON ARTEST ,WARIERS AND JUNE SUMMERS 1