Xmas Day Soccer Love

As good as my 3 nephews are in Soccer, my husband surprised them by playing a bit with them on Xmas Day. By the way, you see the life-size goal and how my parents' yard has been utterly DESTROYED this year by the grandkids playing soccer there so often? I don't even think the boys knew Patrick could play at all but he remarked, "They didn't grow up kicking a ball around with nothing else to do in the streets and fields like we do in Europe or Latin America. It's like riding a bike - you don't forget your skills." Snap!

Designer Sharon Plache segment

Here is a snippet from the show. I must point out that we did not have our normal rehearsal time allotted (since we weren't being paid, it was a lot to expect of us to be there for 8 hours for free so we only went in for 4) to choreograph the shows we normally do. Plus our spacing was different being a staircase and ballroom instead of a normal catwalk - so what you see here are me and the other models 'winging it' as far as spacing and not walking on top of each other.

Hehehe. Watch me on the bottom of the stairs, all those turns I am doing is me checking out the models to my right, to my left and even to see if there was anyone behind me on the staircase. With the slow jazzy Xmas music playing, too, it made for a whole lot of traffic jams. :)

That said, I enjoyed immensely the designs by Sharon Plache - -

San Diego 10 Best-Dressed Awards - Runway

This show was set up a month ago but with the sad news of an unexpected passing of the only son of 2 of the socialites winning an award it was canceled and then rescheduled and put on a smaller scale last week at the Westgate Hotel in San Diego.

It was decided in accordance with the smaller scale festivities and somber news of the death that the models would donate their paychecks to the charities benefiting.

"Interesting side note: This was also the show that last year (see blog) at the Spreckles Theater I fell off the stage into the orchestra pit - thus injuring myself that a good 3 months of recuperating needed.

I modeled with some younger models (outside of Nadia and Feben in their early 30s, all the rest were 16-19) and was clearly the mother of the show since our normal group of runway girls understandably couldn't make the trip from LA for no paycheck.

The designers for the most part were new for me to model for and wonderfully talented with plans to show their lines in NYC next year. And yes, Leonard, our producer, did put the boys in gold lamet hot pants with fur coats - BAM!

click on slide show below - -

San Diego's 10 Best Dressed runway

My Niece - Mi Sorbrina Works it OUT!

I had to post a picture from last weekend of one of my 4 nieces whose soccer team is in first place in the regionals and still going on to the Finals. The team they played last weekend was HUGE in comparison - - but my niece scored the 2 last winning goals probably because as you see here PUSHING the big girl in the gutt she is so small and quick that she slid underneath, past and between the competition. Thus, joining her 2 big brothers as yet another champion soccer player in my brothers' family. Just like their dad was back in the day... :)

DBIFF Director's Q&A

Film: "The Last Conversation" starring Elsa Martinez, Mona Mossayab. Written/directed by Amelia Zandi.

Dawn Breakers International Film Festival 2010

Last Spring I was cast in a short film, "The Last Conversation" for a lovely and courageous young director, Amelia Zandi.

At the time I was intrigued as it was a very heavy script, based on the true story of an 18 year old Iranian girl who was executed for her beliefs in the Ba'hai religion.

Many of you know that in my modeling and acting career I am considered 'ethnically ambiguous' and that I can certainly pass for a Middle Eastern woman. I wanted the challenge of playing another ethnicity but to play an Iranian mother and bring her to life without offending anyone (I am Hispanic and Catholic, and do not have my own children) - - certainly had its challenges for me as an actress.

I remember shooting the 6 minute film - it took us 1 day. I had a terrible migraine afterwards from the sheer heaviness of the subject and the emotional toll it took upon me. But I was grateful to my director for being 'color blind' and taking a chance casting me.

Likewise, the actress who played my daughter, Mona Mossayab, is about 30, and had her own set of challenges as an actress to play a teenager. That said, she is already of the Ba'hai religion which only helped bring a trueness and dignity to her character that, for my part, I had to dig up from other life experiences.



http://dbiff.com/take4/the-last-conversation/#more-129"

Alas our director decided to submit to a film festival and got in - - even better it was screened in San Diego this year (last year was Switzerland) - - so I went last week with my husband to the show and also did a Q&A with my director after the screening.

Watching myself on that screen I remarked later to my husband that there was nothing pretty about me or that performance at all. A far cry from what I usually do in modeling and acting. I was ugly, furrowed, tear-stained -- and I am very proud to have been a part of it. To hear the quiet sobs and sniffles from the audience around us was gratifying - not that we wanted it to be a tear-jerker - and it wasn't. But many in that room knew the story and as I commented later to the audience, "I was just appreciative that they accepted our work so well."

Many thanks to Amelia Zandi, the promoters and selection staff of the Dawn Breakers International Film Festival and to my co-star and crew.

Long live the Arts!