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Monday, December 21, 2009

F.A.M.E. Red Carpet with Real TV Films, Shane Sparks, Gilles Marini and more at the Green Door in Hollywood

On Tuesday December 15th, Bannock and I walked the Red Carpet at an event for F.A.M.E. (and several other organizations listed below), sponsoring Toys for Tots and other causes as well as networking musicians, actors, artists, and other celebrities. It was hosted by Shane Sparks and featured a ton of other celebs as well. I was interviewed by the lovely model/actress/host, Mary Katherine McBride for RealTVFilms, a web-based company that does tons of celebrity interviews. I have yet to see the interview, but I remember blanking out on my upcoming projects. Don't you just love being put on the spot?


The charity event sponsored by Trevino Enterprises, RealTVFilms, itsmyurls, Insider5 and many more. The turn out at the Green Door in Hollywood was huge: the line to walk the carpet and get interviewed didn't have an end most of the night, and the open, Parisian ballroom was packed with entertainers from all different backgrounds. We met makeup artist Bethany Trotter and several of her friends, singer/vocal coach Tita Farrar, and saw some artwork by Airom Bleicher. Ms. Farrar was promoting not only an upcoming single, but also a new community project known as "Lights On America," whose goal is to provide enough aid to poor families to simply keep their electricity bills paid through the winter.


Musical Guests included Spanish vocalist Paloma, latin percussionist Paris Escovedo, and several others.

I'm looking forward to my next red carpet event!

Photos courtesy of Insider5.com

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Lights On America community project

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Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Divine Intervention Society Moon Walked My ADIDAS while Photography by Milan took my picture

I cannot BEEEE-LIEVE how busy it's been recently, and when you hear why, you're gonna be bustin' the rhymes, doin' the Moon Walk, dressin' in some snazzy digs, and takin' some pix.

Or something like that...

First off, I had my first professional photo shoot. Photography by Milan, Make-up by Myah Dillard, Extreme Happiness by me ;-) Check out some of these shots:


Just as soon as that was done, it was time to head to Downtown L.A. for some amazing music and a great video shoot for Divine Intervention Society's new single, "Moon Walk My ADIDAS." The shoot featured break-dancing, VW Bugs, and some great artists, including band members O Brown (worked with B Real of Cypress Hill among others), Christian Wicks (a DJ and president of fashion line English Laundry), and Cameron Candelaria (drummer, worked with Crazy Town), as well as special guests like Cash Phlow (who's worked with Dr. Dre, Wu Tang, and a zillion others). It was an amazing time (very cold for L.A., too!). Here's pix of me with the band members, all of us excessively 80's-ified for the video shoot!



There was a whole other photo shoot, too, but the pix aren't here yet. Expect another update soon!!

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Sunday, November 15, 2009

Can You Handle the Nightlife on Sunset Blvd?


Remember the Halloween blog? Well, Rod Baron's Baron Entertainment just reached their 10th Anniversary and threw a bash at Miyagi's on Sunset Blvd. GUEST LIST ONLY! Well, that's what they kept saying. When we arrived, there was no guest list and no one even at the door (all three of them we had to get through, so it wasn't for lack of doorways). But first thing's first...

Tim and I were a little late to the party, because as we were about to head out, police choppers surrounded our apartment complex and yelled over the loudspeakers, "Drop your weapons and come out with your hands up!" Naturally, we decided to turn off the lights and lay low for a while.

We finally get Missy and Shaun and the hunt for parking began. Best highlight: a sign saying "$10 Parking" and clearly pointing to a specific lot that, when we drive up, the attendant says "It's normally $20 but I'll do $15 for you." Thanks! Such a great deal! You'll only rip me off for $5 instead of $10. I feel so honored.

Does it even need to be said? We found free parking elsewhere.

Arriving at the Guest-List-Free party, we found it was jam-packed and featured some great freebies: T. Patterson coffee & espresso, a free photo booth provided by Party Booths, and some big-screen Wii, PS3 and XBox 360 game playing provided by MindGames Entertainment. Three sketchy folks later, we decided to hightail it across the street to The Den of Hollywood, but not before noticing a girl that was so drunk that she had rubber ankles: you know, when a drunk girl is walking all screwy because she has high heels and no balance, and her ankles are bending at 90-degree angles as she wobbles across the street. Missy called to this girl's "friends," saying, "Maybe you should take her shoes off before she hurts herself." In all their sober glory (riiiiight) they said, "She's fine" and continued on their way. I'm pretty sure that girl's probably in the hospital this morning.

Speaking of the hospital, after our super-cheap Sailor Jerry rum drinks at The Den (great place!), we were on our way back to the car when we heard a loud thump in the middle of traffic. Tim and Shaun took off across the street to help a guy who'd just been run over! He tried to walk on a broken ankle (something about ankles last night!) but clearly was in equal parts shock and drunken stupor after being drilled by the car. It was a frantic few minutes while we pulled him off the street and I kept his leg raised while Tim called for an ambulance. The driver of the car was also in shock, probably, and we're sure that another car had slammed into the back of his car and then sped off. How the guy with the broken ankle got knocked down into traffic and only got hit the once is miraculous; he's very lucky he got away with a broken ankle and what looked like just some minor bleeding from his head...but then again, we got booted aside when the cops and EMTs arrived, so who knows how serious it was.

I'd like to thank the LAPD for just how well they covered the scene, and how little they did for the poor guy. I provided medical assistance; they stood around. Since when was this how things worked?

To be fair, they did immediately get some witnesses and started piecing everything together, so hopefully the driver and the guy who got hit don't end up in any worse a situation then they were already in. It'd be really nice if someone identified the car that sped off. What an ass!

I think that's enough excitement for this year! I doubt that's the end though, because this year's still got a month and a half left, and (in the words of Tim Bannock) Hollywood's nothing if not batshit crazy!


Link Happy:

Baron Entertainment talent agency - http://www.baronentertainment.com/aboutus.html
MindGames Entertainment - http://plurlife.com/myspace.com


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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Baron Entertainment's Halloween party was scary, Chicks With Guns' was rocked by Shiloe!

Zombies Tim and Laurie w/ Freddy

The two Halloween parties this weekend were PACKED, and the costumes were all fantastic.

At Baron Entertainment on Friday - a really cool talent agency that'll be celebrating their 10th Anniversary soon - we saw a girl walking around with a refrigerator box that she'd done up to look like her Facebook Page, her head in the profile photo area, her friend list, her Wall posts, everything. Amazing costume, but probably not the best idea for a party where the amount of room to move by the bar is measured in eighths of an inch ;-) Not to say the venue wasn't big: it was enormous, featuring a haunted graveyard out front and a second floor done up as a haunted house (but the "ghosts" were a little too drunk to pull off the tour!). Great place, and the people were all in great spirits, except for a drunk girl out front trying to puke up her alcohol and - in the process - unintentionally showing us all her unmentionables.

Girls, remember this: no matter the costume, underwear is probably a good idea.

Saturday was Chicks with Guns' Halloween party, and it was like a mini-concert. Shiloe played some great music, and there were more great costumes: a girl dressed up as a box of Franzia wine, complete with pour spout, as well as a fully-suited Gumby busting out the moves on the dance floor.

Shiloe rocking out

Both nights we were accompanied by Dave Brooks (who you should friend on Facebook, because he loves it so much), who works with Tim at Chicks With Guns and L.A. Wheel and Friday was the workings of Topie, who we met during a zombie wedding photo shoot ("That Special Day" by Junebug Media).

Tim and I stole our costume ideas from our good friends Noel and Jim, and hopefully they don't hate us for it...gotta give credit where it's due, and it was such a great idea (not to mention it wasn't too expensive to pull off, and we could move around freely at the parties, unlike Franzia and Facebook!). And as you can see, we even got to dress up Oliver and we brought him around the block, but surprisingly did not get any candy for the little devil...


Oliver

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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Social Networking Tip of the Week: What Su.pr can do for you


There are all sorts of sites you can go to and paste in a link, then have it "shortened" so it looks like this: http://su.pr/2TMnFh. This is great for updating your status to Twitter and other places where word-count matters; with only 140 characters, every one of those matters so people actually have a clue what you're directing them to or telling them about.


But http://su.pr/ has some advantages that others don't. For one, you can link it to some of your accounts, so you could post to Twitter right from there. For another, it gives you a good idea on when to schedule an update based on traffic to various sites. If you post an update on a Friday night, for example, it's a lot more likely to get lost on Twitter, because everybody with an iPhone is also posting an update then. It's easy for someone to login on a Monday morning and see dozens of updates, and that's when your update is most likely to get ignored, missed, or skimmed, and so any links you post get lost.


But the best part of Su.pr? It's run through StumbleUpon, so any links you shorten automatically get submitted there. If you don't know StumbleUpon, it's a place where you submit links and they get "broadcast" to the Stumble program that allows people to just happen upon your site (get it? Stumble?), people can review and rate the link, and basically, just a lot more people might see it.


Judging by Google Analytics, StumbleUpon and Su.pr have really helped my website get out there, and if any body happens upon my site and is a casting agent...that's a really good thing!



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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Pix from the Wild Night of Holiness, Celebrities, and Goof Balls

Here's a few pictures from the night we got hassled at the parking lot, sat next to Nicole Richie, and saw the big J.C. breaking it down on stage. Tim was the camera man, so he unfortunately is playing the role of "Sir Not Appearing In This Film."

Free candy bar on November 1st to who ever guesses that reference and posts it on my Facebook: www.facebook.com/laurielandry





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Sunday, October 18, 2009

What do Nicole Richie, Girls Gone Wild, and Dancing Jesus have in common?...

...the Playhouse Hollywood, of course! Fridays are their Dirty Sexy House nights, jam-packed with two DJ areas rockin' the beats simultaneously, one in the main section and one in the VIP area.

But you came here for the dirty sexy scoop on what happened, so here it is: Hollywood newcomers Laurie, Tim and Melissa decided to tear up the town, and after an incredibly tasty (and shockingly inexpensive!) meal at Palms Thai restaurant on Hollywood Blvd, as well as a few drinks and carousing at Katana in West Hollywood, took a drive over to the Playhouse, a nightspot that just opened it's doors in July. Traffic was typical Friday night fare in downtown Hollywood: not fun. Luckily, on the way to the club, a bright light shone from the street as we entered a McDonald's parking lot to get some McNuggets and Flurries, and -- quite literally -- Jesus was there, arms up-raised, and thus did the traffic part and many good blessings were bestowed upon our cholesterol-laden foods. Quite the biblical moment.

And so the journey continued, and lo and behold, there was a parking spot opening up not 200 yards from the door into the club!

The two lovely gents who were about to get in there car and drive off to their roach-infested apartment to play Playstation because they couldn't pick up any "hawt chix" at the club decided it'd be funny to demand a toll of the two ladies in the front seat (Tim was minding to his Reese's Flurry in the back seat): "You can have the spot if you put down your top." You see, they thought they were cool using a double entendre, because we were in a convertible. How clever.

My response was something to the effect of: "Why don't you just leave and give us the spot?" Seemed easy enough for them to do.

Undeterred, the guys said it again: "Just put down your tops." And it was at that moment that a cop strolled over, and asked very nicely of these two upstanding citizens (who were clearly too messed up to drive), "Why don't you two come over on the sidewalk for a sec?"

Oh, the humor doesn't end there, but it probably did for those two dudes. And that would be the Girls Gone Wild reference, in case you're keeping score.

After finding parking elsewhere, the three of us strolled into the club, and thanks to some connections, we got a tour of the control booth (two words: technologically awesome!) and got seated in the VIP area. That's where we saw Nicole Richie bustin' the moves with an entourage of hip-looking cats (sorry for the 70s slang), and honestly, the DJs had this place going fierce. They had some of the "typical" modern hip-hop stuff going on, but their mixing skills and their occasional blocks of 80s songs ("Hungry Like the Wolf," "The Humpty Dance," and several others) definitely kicked it up a notch.

And that's when the Heavens parted once again, and Jesus -- the same Jesus who'd led us to the Holy Mecca that is McDonald's late on a Friday when you're starving and have very little cash -- appeared on the main stage and was going all Holy Trinity on the place. Holy Trinity being:
  1. Raising the roof,
  2. The Mom shuffle (you know the one your Mom does at weddings, where her arms are positioned like she's about to do the chicken dance), and
  3. A very, very poor rendition of The Carlton.

Ah, Hollywood: my #1 new source for comedy...you know, ever since they cancelled Wonder Showzen.


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Thursday, October 15, 2009

Social Networking Tip of the Week: LinkedIn Links

Use LinkedIn? I sure do (click the LinkedIn button over on the right to check out some of my connections); it's a great way to contact with the folks behind the camera in the industry, as well as friends, coworkers, former employers, and potential future employers.

Well, if you use it, here's a sweet little tip that's come up in several sources, including Laura Roeder's site:

"When entering in your links, such as My Website, My Company, or My Blog, don't actually select those generic titles. Instead, select "Other" in the drop-down box, and type in a descriptive title before the link." So, instead of "My Website," you'd put in "Laurie Landry.com" or whatever your site is called.

This is an awesome way to put a relevant and descriptive link on your LinkedIn page, which is always weighted pretty highly in the various search engines.


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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Expanding horizons!

Social networking is a big deal, something we (Laurie and Tim) have learned quite a bit about in the past few months from all manner of sources. One thing that was hard to come by, however, was information specifically targeted at increasing online/social network exposure for an actress. Sure, there's tons of places that will tell you "Social networking for an artist is probably the key to success, if any one such 'key' actually exists," but they don't really tell you the how's of it. Again, not in any targeted manner.

Then, a good friend of ours -- Jim (whose music has often been a great friend at work!) -- pointed me to Laura Roeder's site(s) and...well, the floodgates opened. There's lots of great info to be had, and I'm very thankful Jim's a guru of social marketing, because without him, we wouldn't be as far along as we are. And without people like Laura Roeder, crazy new networking ideas wouldn't be the bread and butter that is Social Media Strategy.

Anyway, part of what I'm getting at is that I'm now on LinkedIn and Twitter. But it's way cooler for me to have put together a big story around that. Perhaps more importantly, maybe it's worth expanding the horizons of this blog: not only to do a little social networking promotion for my site, Laurie Landry, but also to show a clear path on how that social networking is done, and what it leads to. Expect to see some really cool stuff very soon!


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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The Official Website of Laurie Landry

My official website has been created! It's still undergoing some construction and the format will be a little brighter soon, but feel free to check it out by clicking here!
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