Oscar Buzz for Director Ava DuVernay's "Selma"

Early last week Selma was set to screen for 30 minutes at the AFI Fest, held in Los Angeles, CA. However, after raving reviews of  trailer (see below) a Twitter exchange occurred between Executive Producer Oprah Winfrey and Director Ava DuVernay.

They decided to screen the entire movie.

At the AFI Fest, held in Los Angeles, on Tuesday, November 11 the movie Selma premiered in it's entirely and was given a standing ovation. And the Oscar Buzz has begun... 

 

SELMA is the story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s historic struggle to secure voting rights for all people – a dangerous and terrifying campaign that culminated with the epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and led to President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The movie opens in selected cities on Christmas Day. The movie opens nationwide on January 9, 2015.

          Will you go see Selma when it opens in your city?

Travel Tuesdays: Take Time Off Work

Sharee on a work/vacation in China (2012).

I read an article recently that noted that Americans are at an all time low in taking their vacation days and have forfeited close to 52.4 billion dollars in benefits.  This essentially means that you are working for your employer for free, and it doesn't help in getting that promotion you maybe eluding to.  More importantly, stress level on the job is at an all-time high.  As the article points out: "All work and no play is not going to get you ahead..." according to Roger Dow, President & CEO of the US Travel Association.

Taking time off from work has several benefits:

- Reduced stress
- More productivity when you return to work
- Balance work/life
- Better physical health
- Lessen chance of burn-out
- New perspectives and ideas
- Improve mental health
- Strengthen family connections

I can attest to all of these benefits, and encourage everyone (especially Americans) to use their time off to their advantage.  Whether it's a vacation (away from home), a work/vacation (conferences, training, remote work, etc in another location), or a staycation (home), it's a practice worthy of doing to keep your work and life balanced.  Other countries have more vacation days (and work less hours) and their workers tend to display higher levels of happiness with their employer than their American counterparts.

Do you use all the vacation days offered by your employer? If not, why not?

Sharee W.

Entertainment Wednesdays: Michaelveli IndieGoGo Campaign

Please consider supporting our friend Mike "Michaelveli" Dixon as he screens his heartfelt documentary that features his enlighten discovery in being an artist and the display of his extraordinary artwork.  He is looking to raise $1000 on his IndieGoGo Campaign.

Date:  December 3, 2014

Time:  7:00PM

Location:  701 Whaley @ 701 Whaley St. Columbia, SC 29201

$15 per person at door

*IndieGoGo Perks

$20- 2 tickets to documentary, art show, food & drinks

$50- 2 tickets; FREE print of any artwork on display at show

Take A Leap: South Africa Trailer

Thank you all for your support. We had a great time in South Africa and would go back again in a "heart beat".

 Would you consider traveling to another country to volunteer for over a month period of time?

What Is My Passion Thursday: Travel Dreamers Academy

April D. Thompson loves to travel. She's passionate about it too.  So much so that she realigned her career to make it conducive to travel. In doing so, she has created Travel Dreamers Academy to help others incorporate more travel into their lives. 

 
Travel Dreamers Academy is a 5 week ecourse created to help you design and live your ideal travel lifestyle. You’ll go from daydreaming about exotic locales to creating a plan to make those dreams your new reality!

Here's April in her own words as to why she created the course:

I know how difficult it is to follow your heart and step out into the unknown. There is a lot to sort out if you want to live your dream, travel more and explore the world.

It took me countless hours of research, lots of trial and error and I wasted a lot of money, but eventually I managed to make my travel dreams a reality. I visited 10 countries in one year and spent months abroad while working a full time corporate gig.

Along the way I have learned so much about how to embrace adventure, take control of my life, follow my dreams and manage the practicalities and logistics.

I believe that travel, whether it is a short holiday, long term trip or a permanent move is possible for anyone and can be a life changing experience.

That is why I created the Travel Dreamers Academy, to share my experience and enable others who have the dream to live a life of freedom to actually do it!

It’s time to step out of your comfort zone and take action. You ready?  

To learn more about April you can connect with her on her personal blog AbsoluteTravelAddict.  

Learn more about Travel Dreamers Academy and consider registering for the course. It's definitely worth the time and money.  We had an opportunity to consult with April a few months ago, and as a result we found a travel assignment that paid us a "commission" to create a series of short travel videos.  You can view one of them here> Charleston, SC

Do you dream of traveling more?  Would you consider taking April's course?

Entertainment Wednesdays: GimmeMo' on Hulu

GimmeMo’ is a docustyle talk show hosted by actress and activist Monique Coleman exploring various issues that impact youth.

Monique is a native of South Carolina. She is best known for her role as "Taylor" in Disney's High School Musical movies.  She also competed in the 3rd season of ABC's Dancing With The Stars.  Monique was also named the first ever UN Youth Champion for the International Year of Youth from 2010-2011. It aimed to advance the participation of young people on global, regional and national issues that affect them.

Travel Tuesday: Totsiens "Goodbye" South Africa

Take A Leap South Africa

We had a great time filming and taking photos of our experience in South Africa. Until we finish the 2 webisodes: Take A Leap South Africa and Take A Leap SurfShack Surf School enjoy the beautiful pics below.

Saturday, October 4-Sunday, October 5, 2014 - Life on the plane

Map of our flight to Johannesburg, SA.

Vegetarian meal on South African Airways.

Monday, October 6, 2014 - Cape Town City Tour

Milnerton Beach.

A cable car going up Table Mountain.

Take A Leap Interviewee Rob Crawford.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014 - Muizenberg & SurfShack Surfing School

Surf time.

Waiting on the waves.

Volunteer Linda getting surfing lessons.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - Cape Town Townships and Robben Island Tours

A single family unit in the Langa Township.

One of four High Schools in the Langa Township.

The hallway outside Nelson Mandela's former prison cell.

Thursday, October 9-Saturday, October 11, 2014 - Entabeni Safari

Momma and Baby Giraffe.

Aboard the safari jeep.

The finale dinner was outdoors.

You can also view more of our pics at our Take A Leap Facebook Page.

Are you willing to Take A Leap to South Africa?

Rhonda W. & Sharee W.

What is My Passion Thursdays: Meet Will Packer

We interviewed Producer/Filmmaker Will Packer in early 2013 before the string of impending successes including Ride Along, About Last Night, Think Like A Man 2, and No Good Deeds. Check out the video to his interview where he mentions the succession of movies that came out in late 2013 and throughout 2014, and his words of encouragement on holding onto your dreams.

We're also including an excerpt from a featured article in September's issue of Black Enterprise for the latest on Will Packer:

"Will Packer has built a solid track record in Tinseltown since the 2000 cult movie Trois hit the screen. It was produced by Packer and directed by his former business partner Rob Hardy under Rainforest Films, the production company the pair co-founded 20 years ago. The self-distributed indie grossed $1.2 million and launched a specialty shingle for the duo. Rainforest would produce 17 more feature films (including straight-to-DVD), connecting with an ever-evolving African American audience by presenting various segments of urban life and issues.

Packer is now a solo act, segueing into his new eponymous venture: Will Packer Productions. The 40-year-old filmmaker has parlayed his success into a two-year, overall development deal with Universal TV to produce network television programs as well as a three-year, first-look movie production agreement with Universal Pictures. He will create new TV and film projects through his production operations in Los Angeles and Atlanta, making him one of the few non-writing African American producers with an overall deal at a major studio."

Are your dreams so big that it scares you? It should!!

Entertainment Wednesday: black-ish TV Show

We were on a little hiatus last week so I'm putting out this "extra" Entertainment Wednesday News for the start of month (there will be 2 more at the end of the month).  

Photo Credit:  Huffington Post

I came across an article by VOX entiled "Is Black-ish" the next Modern Family?" in reference to the ABC show's premiere after the Emmy-winning hit show. With Modern Family as the lead-in, Black-ish retained 98.7% of the lead-in audience. Sweet!! ABC is doing a similar move with Scandal as the lead-in to Shonda Rhimes new series How To Get Away With Murder.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

"Black-ish, a new family comedy, premiered last night on ABC. 10.78 million people watched Andre Johnson (Anthony Anderson) and his wife Rainbow (Tracee Ellis Ross) banter wittily. Those millions watched because ABC placed the show in the best possible position to succeed: right after its massively popular, Emmy-winning hit Modern Family. But even with that hefty lead-in, Black-ish's performance was impressive.

Black-ish's viewership, at 10.78 million, was only slightly less than Modern Family's 10.93 million viewers. That's 98.7 percent of Modern Family's total viewers. Since the number of viewers a show retains from the show leading into it is a very important number from a network's point-of-view, that's phenomenal for the new show.

Of course, some small number of Black-ish's viewers were likely people who tuned in to watch it specifically, but 89 percent of Modern Family's audience among 18-49 year olds (the group advertisers care the most about) stayed to watch Black-ish, another phenomenal retention number for any show, but especially a new show.

That's the best premiere night for any show gifted with the post-Modern Family slot in four years. Cougar Town only kept 86 percent of Modern Family's viewers in 2010, and Super Fun Night kept 76 percent last year. Happy Endings kept just 54 percent in 2011, and The Neighbors only 58 percent in 2012."

Have you viewed ABC's new show black-ish? If so, what are your thoughts?

Travel Tuesdays: Take A Leap S. Africa & Ancestry DNA Results

We're less than a week away from our trip to S. Africa.  The trip is two-fold in that it was a personal trip that Rhonda desired to go on after she found out she was cancer free September a year ago. It was also enthusiastically the location of the next installment of our Take A Leap Webshow.  The segment will highlight Rob Crawford, a Black American, who has spent more than a decade in S. Africa, and a few of his friends and associates. It will highlight their motivation to move to S. Africa and their perspective of Africans views of them being Black Americans.  We'll also share the sights and sounds of Cape Town and it's colorful neighborhoods, and a safari outside of Johannesburg where we expect to see the Big 5. 

A few weeks ago, we have found some interesting news about our ancestral background based on an Ancestry DNA test previously taken.  Here are the results:


Africa                                                                              93%
Cameroon/Congo  31%
Ivory Coast/Ghana  29%
Senegal  16%
Nigeria  7%
Benin/Togo 6%
Africa South-Central Hunter-Gatherers  3%
Mali  <1%

America                                                                             1%
Native American   1%

Europe                                                                               6%
Ireland   5%
Iberian Peninsula    < 1%

N

© 2014 Nokia© 2014 Microsoft Corporation

Interesting enough, most Black Americans who take the test are less than 80% African.  However, because of our strong family connection to the South where the slaves were known to have journeyed from the West Coast of Africa, our 93% African heritage is quite impressive and denotes only a recent occurrence of the other ancestral backgrounds.  I thought we were more Native American (1%) because of our great-grandmother's features, but apparently we're more European (5% Irish) than American. A visit to Dublin maybe on the horizon, along with Ghana (29%) which has also been on our bucket-list of African destinations to travel to!!  

Knowing our background makes the trip even more intriguing considering the very first stop-over will be in Senegal (16%) for a one hour break and refuel before heading on to Cape Town via Johannesburg.  Senegal's Goree Island is home of the monument known as the "Door of No Return" which is a doorway high above the Atlantic Ocean and symbolic of slaves final step from Africa on-board the slave ships to America.

What do you know about your family history? Any surprises?

Wednesday Entertainment News: The NewFilmmaker Film Festival in New York City

Sharee and I are proud of fellow Columbia, SC filmmaker Thaddeus W. Jones, Jr., Fanatik Productions, on his short film The Down Downs "JENA"  being accepted into the The NewFilmmaker Film Festival in New York City. He is currently fundraising for his travel expenses.

Donate if you feel led.

More information about The NewFilmmaker Film Festival.

Travel Tuesdays: How Would You Spend A Day in Charleston, SC?

5 Must See & Do

We recently had an opportunity to spend a day in Charleston, SC and were able to create five short videos of our adventure.  Check out the sites and sounds of Charleston, and decide how you'll spend your day.

Charleston City Market

 
Fascinating Locations

 
Free Activities


The Old Village (Mt. Pleasant, SC)

What Is Your Passion Thursdays - Misty Copeland

 "I Will What I Want "

Misty Copeland
Photo Credit: www.adweek.com

Under Armour's new slogan campaign for balleteria Misty Copeland. Her memoir "Life In Motion" is an instant New York bestseller.

Have you read Misty's memoir? Does it motivates you to go after your dream? How can you inspire the people in your life?