Combining digital art, literature, and interpretation, VOIDOPOLIS is a time-sensitive, augmented reality book that quite literally degrades as you read it, so apropos for our time span, and tentative connection with each other. Shortlisted for the 2023 Lumen Prize. Winner of the Arts And Letters ‘Unclassifiable’ Prize For Literature Winner of the Dante Prize, Dante Society London /Ars Electronica Prize Shortlist Chautauqua Janus Prize For Literature Finalist A hybrid digital artistic and literar...
Jan 03, 2024•28 min
An important message from Janeane For some of you, the holiday season is anything but relaxing and stress-free. You might be struggling mentally and emotionally, reflecting on your rocky road over the past few years or your entire lifetime. You are not alone. In my end of year message, I share the importance of boundaries, mindfulness and taking time to connect and nurture yourself mentally, physically and emotionally. Remember to be good to you. As a member of the National Alliance on Mental Il...
Dec 27, 2023•7 min
Ah, the holidays. Lucy Raulie (Raye Levine Spielberg) has always had a complicated relationship with her dysfunctional family, but when her mother disappears on Christmas Eve (and it’s maybe Lucy’s fault...) it’s going to be up to Lucy to bring her family back together again, whether she knows it or not. Directors Caroline Keene and Dan Kennedy are releasing an upcoming Dark Comedy with a Warm Heart titled MERRY GOOD ENOUGH in partnership with Freestyle Digital Media starring Ray Levine Spielber...
Dec 20, 2023•21 min
Irvine, Calif., Nov. 13, 2023 — The Basic Needs Center at the University of California, Irvine will unveil its new mobile food pantry, a 22-foot-long customized delivery van, at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 15, at the Pereira Drive roundabout in front of the Aldrich Hall flagpoles. The first 200 attendees will receive collapsible Tupperware products. The center will also launch its ZotFunder campaign, running until Dec. 31, to raise money to stock the mobile pantry, which is designed to make food mor...
Nov 29, 2023•20 min
Elie Kaplan Spitz is an author, rabbi, attorney, meditation teacher, and popular lecturer. He served as the spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai Israel of Tustin, CA for over 33 years and as a member of the Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee of Jewish Law and Standards for twenty years. He has published four books: Does the Soul Survive? Jewish Views of the Afterlife, Past Lives, and Living with Purpose (2000, 2015); Healing from Despair: Choosing Wholeness in a Broken World (2008), and Increasin...
Nov 22, 2023•27 min
Kelly Sather, winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize for her forthcoming powerhouse of a book, Small in Real Life. As a former entertainment lawyer, and screenwriter, Kelly has really captured the emotion, ambition, humanity, and conflict in her characters on their search for power, fame, love, and the possibility of and redemption. Kelly's writing is undeniably moving and sharp-- an easy read with so much to discuss-- the dark side of the quest for a better life. more: getthefunkoutshow.kuci...
Nov 15, 2023•18 min
UC Irvine-led science team shows how to eat our way out of the climate crisis Researchers explore the benefits of producing farm-free food Irvine, Calif., Nov. 6, 2023 — Agriculture is one of the hardest human activities to decarbonize; people must eat, but the land-use practices associated with growing crops account for roughly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions evaluate a new solution to this problem, one tha...
Nov 08, 2023•13 min
What do you do when you find out you have terminal brain cancer just before graduating from high school? Live life to the fullest, of course, which is what Nathan Lee does in this high-spirited Asian LGBTQ+ film. This high-spirited LGBTQ+ drama LAST SUMMER NATHAN LEE, starring Harrison Xu, Natasha Tina Lia, Matthew Mitchell Espinosa, Dru Perez, and Aaron Guest, follows Nathan Lee (Harrison Xu), an Asian American teenager, who finds out that he has terminal brain cancer right before his 18th birt...
Nov 01, 2023•20 min
BEAUX GRIS GRIS & THE APOCALYPSE Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse (pronounced \bo\ \gree-gree\ ) California-based blues rock americana soul band created by Louisiana-born-and-raised musician Greta Valenti (Well Hung Heart) and UK British Blues Hall of Fame Inductee, Robin Davey (The Hoax, DVL, Well Hung Heart). Joined by the talents of musical heavyweights: Tom Rasulo (Dave Matthews, Gerard Way) Drums/Production in the UK & USA OR Alex Thomas (Anna Calvi, Bat For Lashes, Squarepusher...
Nov 01, 2023•19 min
G.B. Smith and his stunning photobook “Pathways” (G Editions, Nov. 7, 2023). The book features several of Smith’s recent multi-award winning images, and the curation reflects the simplicity and uncluttered form of his distinctive black and white style. Informed by his experience with color blindness, Smith’s work encourages the viewer to examine a world that exists beyond color. Among Smith’s many accolades are three consecutive Gold Medals in the architecture, fine art and nature categories at ...
Nov 01, 2023•22 min
It’s one of the greatest runs in television. During his more than four-decade run on Days of Our Lives, Thaao Penghlis has kept the plots twisting and the passions burning by playing two look-a-like villains, Count Tony DiMera and his impersonator Andre DiMera. But the Australian-born star is much more than a guy who knows how to deliver a nasty line and take a woman’s slap. A world traveler and celebrated host of Hollywood dinner parties, Penghlis has authored the memoir Places: The Journey of ...
Oct 11, 2023•28 min
STATE OF THE UNITY Directed by Nathaniel Paul Hoff & Jillian Speece Releasing Friday September 8th @ Laemmle Monica Film Center, September 11th @ TCL Chinese Theatre, and On Digital and On Demand October 6th In 2016, Brooklyn-based band, The Bergamot embarked on a timely journey to perform in all 50 States while inviting people to sign their message of unity on their station wagon (known as The Unity Car). What ensued is a heartwarming tale of human perseverance, empathy and understanding du...
Oct 04, 2023•27 min
Well-being improves across young adulthood and into midlife, according to a new study by Susan Charles, professor of psychological science at the University of California, Irvine. “Contrary to negative stereotypes of aging, late life is a time of relatively stable and high levels of well-being,” says Charles. “With older age, people focus more on the present and less on planning for the future, and this mindset is one possible explanation for high levels of well-being later in life. Older adults...
Sep 20, 2023•24 min
In the mid 1980s, Canada's worst public health disaster was unfolding. Catastrophic mismanagement of the country's blood supply allowed contaminated blood to be knowingly distributed nationwide, infecting close to two thousand Canadians with HIV. Among them was Melanie Brooks's surgeon father who, after receiving a blood transfusion during open-heart surgery in 1985, learned he was HIV positive. At a time when HIV/AIDS was widely misunderstood and public perception was shaped by fear, prejudice,...
Sep 13, 2023•22 min
ERASING THE FINISH LINE: The New Blueprint for Success Beyond Grades and College Admissions, author, academic advisor, and educator, Ana Homayoun addresses issues that are critical and timely for parents, teens, educators, and anyone who cares about our kids today. With mental health issues on the rise, college pressure, new technology like ChatGPT, social media, and the fear of what's to come in the future, Ana re-envisions what skills young people really need to thrive in school, and more impo...
Sep 13, 2023•18 min
“Bryan Robinson is the seminal voice in work addiction recovery. I have greatly benefited from his guidance, experience, knowledge and wisdom on the topic of healing from what I consider to be the quietest and most insidious (and often praised) addiction in today’s times.” —Alanis Morissette, singer/songwriter A step-by-step guide to reestablishing work-life balance Americans love a hard worker. The employee who toils eighteen-hour days and eats meals on the run between appointments is usually v...
Aug 21, 2023•22 min
FANTASTIC HUMANS features guests from all walks of life whose passion is contagious and awe-inspiring. Creator and host Andrea Westmeyer will premiere her immersive talk show on Saturday, August 26th @ 5:30pm, at the Harmony Gold Theater in Hollywood, and has sponsored a fundraiser for The Rhythmic Arts Project (TRAP), a charity founded by her guest and musician Eddie Tuduri. Tuduri is a prolific drummer who has worked with many of the world’s greatest entertainers, both touring and in countless...
Aug 14, 2023•39 min
Toll shares the story of her journey to becoming what Forbes called “a real-life Professor Sprout from Harry Potter” and founder of the Herbiary stores. From her early years as a seeker yearning for a life filled with magic, to her apprenticeship in Ireland with an acclaimed herbalist and healer, Toll’s colorful account reveals how her relentless search for magic led her to live the life of her dreams. About Letting Magic In From Maia Toll, the best-selling author of the Wild Wisdom series and T...
Jul 31, 2023•14 min
Lisa Cornwell never shied away from standing up to bullies. As a freshman in college, she saw a man punch a woman in the face while a paralyzed crowd stood by and watched. Seconds later, she took matters into her own hands—with a 3-iron from her golf bag. This impulse crystallized years later when Cornwell publicly spoke out against the misogynistic culture she and others experienced at the hands of their employer, Golf Channel/NBCUniversal. Throughout her time at the network, she challenged the...
Jul 31, 2023•17 min
In his latest solo comedy show “Unassisted Living,” now airing on Tubi, Fritz Coleman reminds audiences why he’s been welcome in people’s homes for nearly four decades, whether as a legendary Los Angeles weatherman or as a tireless comic always developing new material for his act. “This one is about getting older,” says Coleman, “and, as always, it’s just the truth of my life lately.” As a young-ish 70-something who has dealt with aging in the time of Obamacare, big pharma and the pandemic, Cole...
Jul 31, 2023•16 min
Farewelling is a wildly creative psychological thriller made out of the deep frustrations the creators were feeling from the pandemic. The Director particularly wanted to focus on the challenges women specifically went through during the pandemic, and through the female lens. There were so many mental health challenges women faced, but yet due to prioritizing everyone else’s well being above their own, they neglected their own mental health. Logline of film: In the midst of the pandemic and afte...
Jul 03, 2023•19 min
After nearly thirty feature films as a director, and another several dozen credits as a stunt performer and coordinator on major Hollywood blockbusters, filmmaker JESSE V. JOHNSON Is wrapping up work on no fewer than three action features to be released in 2023. With the western-influence crime drama “One Ranger” (with Thomas Jane and John Malkovich), the period action adventure “Boudica” (with Olga Kurylenko, “Quantum of Solace”), and the CIA spy thriller “Chief of Station” (starring Kurylenko ...
Jul 03, 2023•14 min
Told through individual stories with families, and grief experts, the documentary explores how we can normalize grief in our society and actively help others to process the pain of losing a loved one. Actor-author Anthony Rapp (Broadway’s RENT, StarTrek: Discovery), author and grief expert David Kessler (Finding Meaning, ABC Good Morning America contributor) and actor John Farley ( the brother of late comedian Chris Farley), will attend the world premiere on Sun July 2 @ 12:15 PM to share their ...
Jun 30, 2023•13 min
Based on a true story, a sheltered little girl spends an unnerving afternoon with her estranged father and is left with only her imagination to stop time and escape impending disaster. “Five and a Half,” an unsettling drama about a little girl on an afternoon drive with her ex-con father, will make its West Coast premiere at this year’s Dances With Films (DWF) Festival, June 22-July 2, 2023 at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood. Based on a true story, writer-director Heidi Nyburg and produc...
Jun 30, 2023•12 min
Julia Morizawa is a writer/producer/actress whose work spans all media. Her improvised feature film, JesusCat (or How I Accidentally Joined a Cult), won Best Comedy Feature at the Asians On Film Festival in 2014 and the Movie Heroes Rising Star Award at the Action On Film Festival in 2013. She earned a Best Female Filmmaker nomination at the Action On Film Festival in 2007 for her short, Sin & Lyle. Her play Twenty-Two premiered in Los Angeles in 2010, and her audio drama American Comedy Hor...
Jun 30, 2023•11 min
“Angie’s Cure,” the story of a rape victim’s disturbing road to recovery, will make its World Premiere at this year’s Dances With Films (DWF) Festival, Thursday, on Tuesday, June 27th, 9:30PM at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood. The film tells the gripping story of Angie, a former rape victim, who uses the thug robbing her shop to take out her repressed anger. When she decides to prolong the experience by secretly keeping him a prisoner in her basement, the victim turns vigilante, and has...
Jun 30, 2023•14 min
The Segerstrom Shelby Event Center is a place of preservation, education, and celebration. The automobiles and artifacts in this collection conjure memories of a recent past filled with power. This power is unique to America and Southern California. The act of saving and preserving the specialties within these walls is near to our hearts, as is our commitment to helping those who need it most. Carroll Shelby also wanted the best for everyone around him. He became a legend by doing what he loved ...
Jun 16, 2023•29 min
Over the course of her 25-year career, psychologist and learning expert Ellen Braaten has begun to notice a trend. More and more parents are coming to her because their kids couldn’t care less about anything. How do bright, motivated young children become such unmotivated older kids and teens—and what can parents do about it? In this warm and encouraging guide, Dr. Braaten explains that kids who have lost the will to do anything (other than play video games) need more than simple encouragement o...
Jun 12, 2023•23 min
Cindy Alexander is brilliant and multifaceted, like a prism in sunlight. She’s a songwriter, a singer, a storyteller. She’s a mother of twins and a daughter of mother nature. Fans of her music know she’s beautifully messy and heaven-sent. This award-winning singer-songwriter has a cult following and an independent streak. Affectionately called “Pnut” by her fans, Alexander has a voice that defies her petite stature. In one moment, she hits rich and earthy lows; in the next, she adds the trill of...
Jun 09, 2023•28 min
Year of No Garbage is Super Size Me meets the environmental movement. In this book Eve O. Schaub, humorist and stunt memoirist extraordinaire, tackles her most difficult challenge to date: garbage. Convincing her husband and two daughters to go along with her, Schaub attempts the seemingly impossible: living in the modern world without creating any trash at all. For an entire year. And- as it turns out- during a pandemic. In the process, Schaub learns some startling things: that modern recycling...
Jun 05, 2023•24 min
