Rays of Light

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, [...]

The Wager

Healthy Food by MiraRuido
Today starts a six week wager with my friend Brad. I’ve been complaining about getting in shape and getting healthy for months now, since moving and general life chaos took me off point. But I haven’t done anything about it – I’ve just been sort of stuck. So [...]

These Words…To You, Wherever You Are…

Rock and Roll Love Search – M. Ulto 2007
Yah, dating…um…yah…
What can I say? Its never easy for anyone. And I have less patience and time to spare than most. I skim deep dialectics in minutes, absorbing and comprehending meaning instantly. Yet men – can’t read them or figure them out at [...]

Binary Does Analog aka Online Dating

By Fotofrog on Flickr
I’ve started dating again. My last relationship fizzled in and out, off and on, for a few years. Whether it was convenience or fear, I kept going back to the Well. He was a mighty fine Well, but our hearts are pointing in different directions. So recently, we [...]

Rainbow Choices

I created two versions of a Mandala video art experiment.  One is the entire color spectrum, the other is created of hues of love – pink, gold and white.  Still wondering which version is more interesting.
Let me know what YOU think.  Bonus points if you can identify the song used to animate the Mandalas by.
Peace,
Melissa
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H20 Award Pix Online!

Tribute to Iris Morales, Kathleen Cleaver and Ted Demme
The images from the Hip Hop Odyssey Awards are up now in the photo section. It was a wonderful night and I got to spend with some of my closest friends in film – my girls Jessica and Bobbi.

Jessica Habie and Rosa Clemente
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Notes On Father’s Day

ICE T @ Hip Hop Odyssey Festival Awards – M. Ulto
Last night, I went to the Hip Hip Odyssey Awards with my collaborators on “The Art of Love & Struggle” – Director Jessica Habie, Performer/Writer Bobbi Williams and Composer Spiritchild.
It was where Hip Hop lives – the real culture, not the parody of it in [...]

Bubbling Up

Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig.
Marcus Aurelius
Meditation lately has yielded a vibrant connection to the universe. My mandala art reflects this inner bubbling up of joy. Prayer is more dialogue than passive smoothing out of mind. [...]

The Pink of Me

The Pink of Me Mandala – M. Ulto
Somehow you are crawling in on long, sweeping thoughts
My white hot wound suddenly sweet, rich and pink with you
The sky bloomed bright instantly to my unfinished why
Trust, faith, dream and let love unfold
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Sleep vs Shoot

Shooting with Christi Smith from PFF Entertainment
Last night I shot a couple of interviews for the next edition of SheStory.tv – the theme being passionate persistence. Christi Smith, from PFF Entertainment, lives, works and partners with her passions. She started her business around a board game she created, PervArtistry, a charades/pictionary type game, [...]

I Love My View & My Mac Loves Me…

Weehawken Nights 1, M. Ulto 2007 (click for large version)
Above is my evening view from the end of my street in Weehawken. I get to gaze at the glittering spectacle of the skyline from a high perch. It is always dazzling, like a magnificent beast covered in scales of glass, metal and concrete, [...]

A Spring Heart

Take full account of what excellencies which you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.
Marcus Aurelius Antonius
What keeps an artist going is the joy at being able to express with great faculty their thoughts. To create tangible expressions of their inner world is a great [...]

Vote for A Fantastic Film – “Honor Killing”

see the video here
From my sister in art, Nirah:
Dear friends and family…
I pray this finds you all feeling fresh and inspired. I am writing this missive in the hopes of sparking a swift movement of support. After almost three years of living and working out of Jerusalem, the Art and Apathy Documentary Project is nearing [...]

Jeremy Penn & His Proposal Video

I had the honor of creating a marriage proposal video for a client, Jeremy Penn. His vision and my creativity yielded the most romantic fruit, and his girlfriend said yes! It was wonderful to create with Jeremy and for Jessica, though I never met her in person. It is amazing to think [...]

SheStory.tv Launches!

SheStory.tv, the first channel of the new MULTO.tv network, launched today! It’s a soft launch – we’re working out the kinks before doing a massive marketing campaign in early May.
What is SheStory.tv?
Pioneers, Mavericks, Mavens
SheStory.tv is a new online magazine inspired to cover stories of women in history and women working today who are the [...]

The Final Three Egg Omelette

So its done.  Edited, shipped off, and now I’m putting myself to bed for a couple of days.  Oh, except I’m performing Sunday night at The Delancy…more details when I wake up later…
Until then, enjoy my On The Lot entry…
(This is not the full short, however, but the first scene – expect the full short [...]

The Sleeze by Bradley Gallo

So we finished Bradley Gallo’s entry for The Lot – The Sleeze.
Check out my amazing editing below!
Peace,
Melissa
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Three Egg Omelette & The Lot

Okay, so I’m almost done…
After shooting all day with Bradley Gallo as his Assistant Director for his “The Lot” entry, I went back to my office and shot intensively with my three person cast. The short is called “Three Egg Omelette”, written by Jerrod Bogard and directed/edited/shot by me. My entry will be [...]

Dream Awake

This is a piece I created as a Valentine to myself, a blueprint of all I hope to manifest in love, career, family and life!
They used to call me a daydreamer…now it’s called visualization.  Got my dream goggles on and making the magic happen.  I’m a goosebump factory, so hold on for a fantastic ride!
Peace [...]

Democratizing Media Seminar

At Southern Regional High School
I had a boot camp of a teaching session yesterday. Five presentations, one right after another, to high school students in the Long Beach Island area. The presentation was titled “Democratizing Media: Social Activism & Critical Thinking”. I had a great time, and I hope I inspired some [...]

Happy 2007!

Gama Rama Fun Fest
The arts must be considered an essential element of education. They are tools for living life reflectively, joyfully and with the ability to shape the future.
Shirley Trusty Corey
I am blessed. Last year, 2006, was a litany of lessons and challenges, aligning my intentions, skills, talents and passions. And returning to [...]

The Season of Miracles

“And I have put my words in your mouth, and I have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant heavens, and lay the foundations of earth, and say to Zion, You are my people” (Yeshayah 51:16)
I am grateful for a challenging, productive, complicated year. I have been pushed and [...]

Let Your Light Shine

Philly Fountain – M. Ulto 2006
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You [...]

Pool Art Show Piece – Motion & Mood 2006

This past week, I showed my work at DIVA Pool Art Fair. It was a good sized crowd and all the artists featured their video and digital art on their laptops. Unique and fuss-free affair, I had some great reception to several of my pieces, including the one featured in this post, MOTION & MOOD [...]

Making Movies That Matter

I’ve been home with a cold, watching movie after movie. This is my favorite part of being sick – alleviating the boredom of couch napping and coughing.
This weekend, I watched a range of movies, from “Sideways” to “Millions”. I noticed several key issues with the movies being produced inside the Hollywood system or its close, [...]

Peace of Small Moments

Mother & Son, Sister & Child – M. Ulto
While wars rage, greed and egocentric behavior flourishes, hate grows and misery spreads, there is the peace of small moments to reflect on.
Love in a touch – the touch of an eyelash on a child’s cheek – butterfly kisses.
Peace in a touch – the soothing of cool [...]

The Woman Writer – Pillaged for Talent, Raped for Content

Sophia Stewart, Mother of The Matrix
I watched “V for Vendetta” last night, and was moved, but also wary. The art is excellent, but the people behind the art are flawed, deeply flawed. The Wachowski Brothers seem to be very derivative in their works. Some have accused them of outright plagiarism, including Grant Morrison, creator of [...]

Virtue & Truth Are Never Convenient

Durga: Avenging Goddess, Nurturing Mother
But the Woman that God gave him, every fibre of her frame
Proves her launched for one sole issue, armed and engined for the same,
And to serve that single issue, lest the generations fail,
The female of the species must be deadlier than the male.
She who faces Death by torture for each life [...]

Why I Create – Reactions to “The Art of Love & Struggle”

Still from The Art of Love & Struggle – Nemesis
When sisters stand shoulder to shoulder, who stands a chance against us?
Pam Brown
Sweet is the voice of a sister in the season of sorrow.
Benjamin Disraeli
The below email is from my friend Wendy, living in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. She held a screening of “The Art [...]

What Would You Fight and Die For?

An Israeli soldier climbs on an armored vehicle in a field at a gathering point near Kibbutz Mefalsim, southern Israel, just outside the Gaza Strip, Thursday June 29, 2006. Israeli troops rounded up dozens of ministers and lawmakers from the Palestinians’ ruling Hamas party on Thursday, while pressing a military campaign in Gaza meant to [...]