2-Minute Zombie

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/video/?slug=orl-wn-zombie101207

I know copying & pasting a url is a pain, but for some reason I can't get this page to link...I promise, though it's worth it.
It's a two-minute film of a two-hour zombie make-up job done on my by Barry Andrson, head of the art department for Ripley Entertainment and make-up artist on movies like Day of the Dead and Hairspray. It's really cool - totally worth a cut-and-paste.

Sexiest Psychos in Cinema / Why Scary is Sexy

I was so overwhelmed when my first video blog got  3,497 hits on YouTube  (so far…and thanks to being picked up by alternet.org) – pretty great incentive to do another one, just in time for Halloween!

This one is on the 5 Hottest Psychos in Cinema with a special 2-minute bonus track on the physiological and psychological reasons why scary can turn people on (this is my favorite bit - short & sweet).

Thank you so much to Jim DeSantis for all his hard work, patience and AWESOME editing and titles! (check out his Movie Brain Rot podcast under “Alice Loves…”) Jim, You Rock!
And I hope everyone likes watching these as much as we enjoyed making 'em. :)
Xoxo
LL

Remember "Separated at Birth"?

They look a little alike...just sayin'...

A lot of belly for your buck

This week I had the luxury of doing a story on Orlando Belly Dance for the Orlando Weekly:  

http://www.orlandoweekly.com/artsculture/story.asp?id=12691

It's really hard to write well about something you really love - you never feel like you quite do it justice. I feel very much this way about dancing, but this profile of Suspira is the closest I've ever come to getting the words right (thanks to her help).

  I've had such great luck with dance teachers, starting with Azuri Zanaar, whose generosity and talent were an inestimable gift;  without her I'd never have had the daring to step on a stage. I've also studied with Vanessa, Bhirgha Gypsikelt and Belle Abbas, all of whom have made the dance their own in a brilliant and influential way. Now I'm studying with Suspira, who, like Azuri, is an inspiring mix of comfort and provocation - she always makes me feel like I'm good enough to be better. 

Anyway, there is a tradition in dance of honoring your teachers - I hope I've done that, here, on stage and in class.

Wow, that was kind of serious. Isn't this where someone should say "Bring on the dancing girls?" 

The 105 Year-Old Virgin

         Clara Meadmore was a quite a dish in her younger days. Certainly there were a few young men - and probably a few young women – who’d have liked to hook up with her.

         Well, tough tittie for them. Clara is still a virgin at the age of 105 and doesn’t feel like she’s missed anything. A BBC news story on her 105^th birthday, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/7663662.stm>Celibacy the Key to Long Life

says that when she was younger sex meant marriage and she never wanted to marry.

         “I have just never been interested in sex. I imagine there is a lot of hassle involved and I have always been busy doing other things.”

         You go, Clara!

         No, I mean it. In giving the finger to getting the finger (or anything else) Clara showed a lot of personal style. It’s all about authenticity, and in bucking the tiresome mandate of marriage and kids and all socio-sexual expectations, Clara showed some balls – and having them is more important than seeing them. Just because I write a lot about sex and relationships doesn’t mean I think everyone needs to be getting it on 24/7….or ever…it’s all about doing things your own way.

         And I’m sure she’s onto something with the “better things to do” motif. I often think that if I wasn’t besieged by hormones I could have been a gazillionaire and had my own cartoon, arts foundation and ape preserve by now. In the time we spend jockeying for, having and recovering from sex and relationships we could have found life on other planets. And had sex with it.

         On the other hand, the subhead of the BBC story says that Clara attributes her long life span to celibacy. If that’s the case, and I have to leave the earth little earlier for all the amazing times I’ve had, well, I have three words to say: I’ll get packing. In fact, it’s kind of fun to consider this idea and rate various escapades: ‘Yep, that was worth a day…oh, that was worth 6 months!…oh, I want some time back for that one...” You should try it. But only alone or with your friends. If you play this game with your partner and you assign vastly different time values or accidentally say “Remember that time we did it in the airplane bathroom?” and it turns out is wasn’t them, well Bob Eubanks isn’t going to be there to help you. As ever, play wisely.

         (Speaking of, I hope it’s obvious that when I say there is sex that’s worth dying a little younger for I’m not implying there’s sex that’s worth risking your life for – this is by no means and endorsement of unsafe sex. This should be apparent, but in 17 years as a writer I’ve discovered that I can say, “Flowers are pretty!” and there will be one reader who interprets that as “Hail, Satan!” so I thought I better clarify).

         I certainly do appreciate Clara’s spunk (insert own spunk funny here). Her story, however, has also made me reflect that I’ve had some experiences that were worth an awful lot, (even losing years, though, as Denis Leary famously said about smoking, they’re the years on the end so who cares?) Hopefully they won’t come to mind when someone at this year’s Thanksgiving celebration says ‘So, what are you thankful for this year?”

Sarah Palin and Newspapers

Sarah Palin can’t name a single newspaper

I like this because it reminds me of when cats try to be very sneaky by crouching behind a blade of grass in the backyard, convinced that you couldn't possibly spot them there.

I know print is dead and I know it's tough to speak on the fly, but the fact that Sarah Palin couldn't even come up with the name of a single newspaper - The New York Times? The Hooterville World Guardian? Anything? - is troubling. Even "I watch the news on TV and the web," would have been good or "Why, I often watch CBS news, Katie Couric...of CBS news!" that would have showed a little charm and savvy (that's what you would have done, I know). To come up totally snake eyes on this, though, is comical...or would be...if it wasn't so goddamn serious.