Posts Tagged ‘fun’

Playground of Dreams is one of most exciting and inspiring charity events I have attended in a long time.  When I first met Co-Founders, Anna Herbert and Brian Larrabee, I was immediately impressed by their passion, commitment and joy for what they were doing.

Dash Mihok and POD Co-Founders Anna Herbert and Brian Larrabee

Playground of Dreams (POD) is an innovative mentoring program that teams industry professionals with children to build their creativity, confidence, leadership, and unique sense of purpose in the world.  Talk about giving kids a headstart in life, POD gives these kids a running start or in many instances a good sprint.

Aldis Hodge, Ashley Avis and Edwin Hodge at POD

Aldis Hodge, Lori Moreno, Host DJ, Sebastian St. George, Parris Harris, Edwin Hodge at POD

Playground of Dreams was definitely a playground for kids to live out their dreams of being an actor, poet, scientist, rock star, or musician.  Working with entertainment industry mentors to help build their confidence and creativity, these kids put on the “Coolest Variety Show on Earth,” and even delivered extremely moving testimonials on their experiences dealing with being bullied in school or on being picked on for being different.  Some of the special performances included Vassy, COED, Mosaic, Kandace Lindsey, The School of Rock, and actor Dash Mihok, Travis Van Winkle, and actress Sharon Pierre-Louis.

actor Dash Mihok and Sebastian St. George

Some may say, “Oh this is a glorified talent show.”  No, this is far from it.  I have never been to an event and seen so many people, well over 500 excited, invigorated and inspired that packed this venture.  These young kids played to a large crowd and all received standing ovations and thunderous applause; The likes of which many of today’s Rockstars would be envious.  Needless to say, I was very impressed.

This event included tons of activities for the kids who attended and even a few for the adults.  There was a creative “Time to be Your Own Superhero” where the kids went in and received a costume makeover by stylist and designer Liz Trdatyan and her team, into any type of superhero or character they wanted.

Makeup artists painted masks and lightning bolts and even ombre stripes from purple to magenta all over kids’ faces! Pretty amazing stuff!  There was also an incredible “Dream Panel,” that featured Catt Sadler, Sharon Lawrence, Frances Fisher, Martin Kove, two time Oscar-winning sound engineer Ron Judkins, and talent manager Michael Greenwald.  It was so inspiring and again, talk about giving these kids a running start.

Frances Fisher, Brian Larrabee & Anna Herbert

There was also a Peace Sign painting station with live music hosted by 24 Peaces – a World Peace Project.  24 Peaces is an incredible documentary in which artist Gene Jimenez conducts a series of twenty-four conversations with both preeminent peacemakers and a cross section of “every-day people” from diverse backgrounds and cultures throughout the world.  It was a real pleasure to meet Gene!  It was also fun for Lori Moreno, Parris Harris, numerous kids and myself to get our doodle on and draw on Gene’s Peace Sign.

Sebastian St. George, Gene Jimenez 24 Peaces & Parris Harris

Another fan favorite was a hilariously fun photo booth.  Now I don’t know about you, but, whenever I see one of these, I go crazy.  This is a great opportunity to ham it up with your friends.  Exhibit A – See the pictures below with the awesome Clemson Twins and Yael from Sweet Crush Ice.

Did I mention food yet?  This lively atmosphere included the ever so tasty Sweet Crush Ice Bar, one of my favorites, if you haven’t tried Sweet Crush Ice, you gotta!  Click on their name for a direct link.  They are located in Brentwood.  Look them up!  The owner Yael is as sweet and generous as the healthy desserts she has created.

Yael Lustmann of Sweet Crush Ice with 2 Happy Customers

More tasties: Duff Goldman’s Cake Mix, Village Pizzeria, EarthBar – Wow they had some amazing organic juices and green drinks!  We LOVED the EarthBar Liver Cleanse juice!  Also another favorite of mine was Hint Water – I love their flavored waters!  Other sponsors included Cinema Secrets, Level 3 Design Group and Lacoste.

EarthBar Liver Cleanse Beet Juice

Brad Di Pane & Allan Santana of MayaTequilla w/ Sebastian St. George & Lori Moreno

On the adult side there were two great sponsors: The award winning organic Blue Ice Vodka and the amazing Corazon Maya Tequila.  I had briefly seen Corozon at the Art.Life Art Exhibition in Downtown Los Angeles a few weeks earlier.  This time I got to talk with two awesome representatives from the company, Brad Di Pane and Allan Santana.  What great guys, but honestly their Tequila spoke for itself.   All of my friends loved the fantastic and unique heart-shaped Corazon Maya Tequila bottle design.  Talk about winning over a lot of hearts!  I also liked their creative bottle and stand.  Maya Tequila Reposado tastes great and is smooth!

Allan Santana, Liz Tradatyan, Brad Di Pane, Sebastian St. George & Dana Waldie

Playground of Dreams – hats off to Co-founders Anna Herbert and Brian Larrabee.  Thank so much for inviting me to your incredibly inspiring and exciting event.  I know this was a kids events, but I saw just as many adults having a great time as well.  It was amazing to see so many kids filled with joy and happiness as they experienced living their dreams NOW.  All of my friends and I had a great time supporting an awesome charity and we look forward to the next one!

Isn’t it time you… #LiveYourDream

Stay Luminous

Sebastian St. George

Parris Harris, Lori Moreno & Sebastian St. George

Art.Life Art Exhibition Downtown Los Angeles – On March 30^th, 2013, my close friends and I attended an exciting art opening in downtown Los Angeles – the Art.Life Exhibition.  This event was hosted by Amy Demirchian of EWI Collections where a portion of the proceeds were donated to the Los Angeles Art Alliance.

Opening nights of art exhibits are always enjoyable for me and I was pleasantly surprised at the excitement, energy and the honest gratitude I felt from the artists and from many of the people who attended.

Andre Miripolsky – Sharks of Hollywood and Sebastian St. George

The show was on a grand scale and it included such a great mixture of Art from mixed media, oils, prints and some incredible bronze sculptures.  This exhibit presented approximately 50 artists in an elegant 30,000 sq. ft. loft and what made it so appealing was that it was great to see so many different forms of artistic expression.

Liz Trdatyan & her awesome art – Perpetual Bliss

One of the highlights was discovering a new up and coming artist Liz Trdatyan, whose work showed an almost seemless fusion of creativity, technique, style and a strong sense of fashion, all culminating together on the canvas.  She uses paints, textiles, and even pieces of poetry to convey her expressions.

My favorite piece called Eccentric Muse, was the artist’s expression of the frustrations and conflicts she faced with her own sense of identity and culture, her struggles as a woman and how Hollywood objectifies beauty, hence most of the face in the painting being covered, except for the beautiful entrancing eyes.  The layering and the glazing technique adds a magnificent luster to the painting.  This is a truly a one of a kind and excellently composed mixed media work.

Liz Trdatyan – Eccentric Muse

Sebastian St George and Stuart Kusher – Renaissance Man

Now, moving on to one of my favorite forms of art: sculpture.  All of us were definitely impressed and moved by the bronze sculptures of Stuart Kusher, and not just because of the scale of his works, but because of the time he takes to pay attention to the small details, like the gentle sloping of the woman’s breasts as she drifts underwater in Patron Saint of Sanonofre.  It is the artist’s mantra of ninety-nine percent observation and one percent application that really shines through in his work.  I personally loved the way he infused a fresh twist to this classic medium, the twisted coils of hair and goatee on the Path to Stonehenge, the tree branches and leaves branching out of the head in Afrinesta, and the mohawk in…Mohawk Mafia.

Stuart Kusher discusses the Patron Saint of Sanonofre

Stuart Kusher – Patron Saint of Sanonofre

Now it’s time for a little drink, and what can I say about the spirits served around the bar?  Another one of my favorite new discoveries is Maya tequila (smooth).  The great people at Maya Tequila are rocking with a fantastic and unique bottle design that is sure to win over a lot of hearts!  I know it got mine!

Another winner was Mascarade, a new cocktail blend of French Armagnac, vodka, peach and apricot juices.  This tasty blend kept my friends going the entire night!

POP!  What is art nowadays without representing pop culture?  No one does it better than this particular artist, whose iconic imagery of Los Angeles has splashed all over magazines and billboards across town for the past three decades; not to mention that his Art has graced Absolut Vodka bottles.  Andre Miripolsky has once again created a fun, bright collection called the Sharks of Los Angeles and the Sharks of Hollywood to keep us uplifted in our spirits and our views of living in this temperamental town.

Sebastian St. George and Andre Miripolsky City of Angels

Andre’s Sharks of Hollywood had all of my friends and I laughing!  This painting is a fun, edgy and ballsy take on Hollywood reality.  Where else in the world do sharks eat sharks?  And shark directors eat their own films?  Oh and some of these Sharks are even on rollerskates?!?  Welcome to the hilariously entertaining and fascinating world of Andre Miripolsky.

Andre Miripolsky Sharks of Hollywood

Hollywood spoiler alert: Don’t get eaten by the sharks….., well, you certainly won’t by Andre, whose happy, honest and humble personality really left a significant impression on me and had me walking away feeling like I met a true gentleman, honorable and full of integrity.

Sebastian St George and Liz Trdatyan Art

Liz Trdatyan, Stuart Kusher and Andre Miripolsky are artists that are on the rise and worth watching and most importantly worth supporting and buying their work.  All in all a good time was had by everyone.  Art.Life is a must see event and well worth your time.  My friends and I look forward to the next Art.Life Exhibition.

Stay Luminous

Sebastian St. George

Liz Trdatyan – Perpetual Bliss

The Path to Stonehenge by Stuart Kusher

You are what you Tweet!  Visual.ly is an exciting new site that allows you to twitterize yourself and generate your personalized infographic.  The infographic is created by the content and data taken from your tweets.

What’s even cooler and kinda reminds of Alien vs Predator is that you can compare yourself to others. What I love the most is the custom caricature that you can create of yourself and your friends.  Check out the pics below, pretty hilarious!  You can also leave a section blank and the system will randomly compare you against a celebrity Twitter account.

Either way it’s fun fabulous fantastic coolness for everyone!  Enjoy and don’t take the comparisons too seriously.

Here are some of my awesome Twitter Friends that I have chosen to use to demonstrate:

@LoriMoreno @MySoDotCom @terrinakamura @zbleumoon @MomsofAmerica @PHashion_Army @DrJeffersnBoggs @AnnTran_ @JeanetteJoy @Bensonix @SuuperG

You are what you Tweet!  All of these Tweeps are great friends and amazing people that you should follow on Twitter.  They  share and spread a positive and uplifting message in Social Media.  I am grateful to call them a friend.