Archive for the Rays of Light Category
HAPPY NEW DECADE!!!
2010 is FINALLY here! I am so grateful and happy to have survived 2009, and to be celebrating with my friends.
Life is good. Its finally turned around. 2010 is going to be a great year!
Peace,
Melissa
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Reel & Fundraising Updates
I’ve been reaching out to find work and to help fundraise for the different documentary projects I’m invovled in – please check out first contact email below:
I’m a filmmaker, who mostly focuses on editing. I have a strong webisode, narrative and documentary editing background and would be very interested in any freelance or full time [...]
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From 0 to 90 – A Barack Obama Joint
From 0 to 90 is the working title of an interactive documentary, produced by Melissa Ulto. With interviews in person and online, Ms. Ulto seeks to cover the first 90 days of Barack Obama’s presidency, both nationally and internationally.
From bail outs to Iraq, Obama has a hard road ahead as president. Will the problems he’s [...]
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XMAS 2008
So another year is over and what have you done? The wild, magic, lovely and insane year I’ve had in the city I love more than any man has put me through the crucible again, and I’m come through diamond bright and petal soft.
I’ve built and lost a studio. I’ve interviewed some of the most [...]
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Day Without A Gay!
http://www.daywithoutagay.org/
If you can’t call in, don’t shop!!!
Peace and much love,
Melissa
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The Struggle
I’m burning, pushing back, hoping for the best but expecting the usual. Oh, my heart is heavy. I seem a bit lost now, sucker punched, or perhaps now just waking from a knock to the head, groggy and dull. Sapped. Back two steps. Tripped and falling.
Its been rough, wild, complicated and miscommunicated. Trust is so [...]
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“The Fall” in love…
I saw “The Fall” tonight, and fell in love with filmmaking all over again. The magic of storytelling and moving pictures is fully alive in this movie. I watched in awe and joy, the same way I watched movies as a child. I was in wonderment, thrilled, laughing, crying, charmed and wowed. [...]
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Busy and Belize
On the Ocean…
I am crazy busy. In a once in a lifetime kind of way. So its spectacular, hard as hell, exhausting, complex, full of excitement, worry and love for what I am doing. And for the people who’ve made this happen and keep making it happen. I am blessed…
Conch Fisherman
I’m building [...]
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New Poems
Point your bow to the clouds and keep on til the morning star…
I’ve been hard at work on some amazing new projects, but in the meantime, to feed my soul, I scribbled these down:
We All Have A Little Envy In Us
she, confused
angry
unhinged
watches what she wants
walk away
her throat clenches
eyes water
teeth grit
shame and disappointment redden
her wet cheeks
she [...]
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Mandatory Service WINS at Tribeca Film Festival!
I am thrilled to announce that a film I was Director of Photography for, “Mandatory Service”, received the award for BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival:
http://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/Mandatory_Service.html
About the film:
The cultural impact of the militarization of Israeli society has both challenged and stifled the cultivation of creativity in the country. Mandatory Service asks a [...]
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The Killing of Georgie
The TOTP performance circa 1977
A discussion of the song, decades later
I remember my sister and I begging my brother to play “The Killing of Georgie” over and over. Little girls with big hearts, we would sing this at the top of our lungs and cry over the last lines – “Oh Georgie’s dead – don’t [...]
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Éireann go Brách!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
I celebrate being a Celt on this day, my roots deep in green shamrocks. Its evident in my red hair and my innate storytelling brilliance. And my utter lack of modesty! Hahaha…
We Irish are fierce, and when we fight, its not to win, its to destroy. We have no fear and we [...]
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Buddha’s Head
For D:
Buddha’s head
Like my heart
Shattered
Scattered
Reckless handling
Mindless rambling
Explaining air
Over and over
No tap dance
No sliding out
I pin you
Caught in thought
Called for behavior
You scramble
Crab-ways
From my glare
Cold hard and disgusted
Buddha’s body
Disconnected
Disrespected
Accidental
Your act was not
Incidental
Your motives were
Monumental
Cruel to joy
Poorly chosen
The glass before you
Was never empty
Overflowing
Abundant
Accepting
You lost me
Throat dry?
Peace,
Melissa
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Art & Apathy @ Tribeca Film Fest
The Art & Apathy Project was selected for inclusion in the next Tribeca Film Festival. Directed by Jessica Habie, this film addresses the militarized conditions artists struggle to create under in Israel and Palestine, and the complexities of occupations. I was one of the DPs for this project, and it was my [...]
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Obama Piece
I think it not improbable that man, like the grub that prepares a chamber for the winged thing it never has seen but is to be – that man may have cosmic destinies that he does not understand. And so beyond the vision of battling races and an impoverished earth, I catch a dreaming glimpse [...]
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Happy Valentines Day 2008!
Happy V Day! Every day can be a loving, lovely love filled day if we choose it.
In little or large amounts, love is precious. Savor what comes your way today and every day!
Peace and much love,
Melissa
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Scientology Gets A Message…
THE conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.
We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely [...]
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The Ever Expanding Nature of Love
We are each of us angels with one wing, and we can only fly embracing each other.
- Liciano de Crescenzo
Love of all levels comes naturally to very young children – they laugh, smile, fully express awe and wonder at the world around them. Kids will eagerly embrace any person who comes close enough, touching [...]
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And So It Is…
Blower’s Daughter – Damien Rice
É Isso Ai – Ana Carolina E Seu Jorge
I love this song – so achingly loving, full of gorgeous longing. And yet in Portuguese, (such a lovely language), it sounds strong and passionate. Both version stir something in my soul – one sad and reaching, one alive and [...]
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My Art…
Oh so very very true…
Love is elemental, necessary, important even, but art, oh my god. Art is like that crazy boyfriend – hot, then cold, volatile, withholding, abundant, bitchy even. As much as he drove you nuts, you craved, needed, lusted for him.
Art mirrors sexuality – first we start tentatively, gingerly attempting what we long [...]
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Happy Holidays!
My 2007 Xmas Tree
Happy holidays! Xmas…Channukah…Kwanza…Solstice…whatevah…
Life is good – love my apartment, my art, my filmmaking, my joy of living! It’s wonderful to realize happiness is a choice, and the easy part is choosing it. (It’s getting rid of the things that don’t support my happiness that has been a long chore, near completion).
2008 – [...]
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Blazing
“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
- Harold R. McAlindon
My life has been a study in blazing. Sometimes I scorch as I blaze. Sometimes I barely glow, dimmed and alone and wondering where the darkness is leading. The way before [...]
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Gratitude & Perspective
Gratitude 12 2 2007 – M. Ulto
Grateful…
I am grateful
Grated, crushed, reborn
Full of light, love, purpose
Struggle has polished me
Not diamond hard but
Soft like old jeans
Sweet smelling and lovely
Deep as down
Lightly substantial
Loosely connected
To all things, I’m understood
I am peaceful
Though storms tore me
Lies rend me still
Hate has been bile
Expelled by the Universe’s hand
Thumping my back
Each whack a lesson
Each [...]
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Thought and Spirit of Love
A man asks his rabbi, “Why does God write the law on our hearts? Why not in our hearts? It’s the inside of my heart that needs God.”
The rabbi answered, “God never forces anything into a human heart. He writes the word on our hearts so that when our hearts break, God falls in.”
- [...]
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Touching and Moving
Anthony, Wendell and some buddies hugging it out
There is not a single true work of art that has not in the end added to the inner freedom of each person who has known and loved it.
-Albert CamusÂ
This weekend, the Church of Smile descended on Union Square and gave free hugs and candy. The Church is [...]
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The Art of Living
Art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. A stillness which characterizes prayer, too, and the eye of the storm… an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.
-Saul Bellow
I had an interesting weekend. Lots of art, lots of struggle, lots of seeking that silence to create, despite [...]
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Reconfiguration Of Modern Life – Plan2Evolve.tv
We are reconfiguring our view of modern life, and that means re-framing how we look at ourselves and our impact on our environment – both the physical and metaphysical. Part of that re-framing is looking at the underlying conflicts in our lifestyles and how we are triggered on them, to the point of mass [...]
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Daddie’s Shakti Flower
Daddie’s Shakti Flower – M. Ulto 2007 (click for full sized image)
I am Daddie’s Shakti Flower
I am his moon and his stars
and his stain unclaimed
when the riddle unravels
first on my skin in freckled code
later in DNA stripped bare
petri me attached and new
Daddies are plenty
Fathers are rare
I in faith renew
my search for you.
- M. Ulto, August [...]
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The Wager – Update Week 2
My Diet…
So far, I’ve lost a few pounds, look younger (didn’t realize this was possible hahaha), went down a pants and cup size. I feel good, but damn, the chocolate cravings have not decreased. The craving for cheese and dairy has, though. Not missing fish at all.
I’m basically eating only whole veggies, fruit, whole grains, [...]
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