Shira Lazar: "First Impressions" Action Short Brings Together YouTube and Superhero Appeal (WATCH)

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Director Leo Angelos brought his stars Chester See and Hailey Bright to the What's Trending studio for the live debut of their short action film, "First Impressions." The YouTube collaborators also shared behind the scenes stories, including how they trained for fight scenes and handled the on-screen romance.

Without giving too much away about the plot, Chester said that he took a break from his own YouTube channel to join this film after he received a call from one of the executive producers. "(The EP) called me and pitched me the idea and I thought it was a really cool concept, something you don't really see."

For Hailey, the choice was simple. "I never really get to kick anyone's ass," she jokes. "And I finally got to. It was amazing!" She adds, "We got to do tons of fight training and I just really loved the all the action that was involved. I love that idea that you think you're watching something and at the very end, you figure out, oh my gosh! It's a superhero."

"We did a couple of days of training, but they were very long, intense days," she says of getting herself ready for the action scenes.

This was a turnaround for Chester, who's used to being the one dealing the blows. "In this one, I was beat up," he says. "We put gear on me, so they were actually kicking me."

Finally, the team teases the possibility for a sequel, with Leo adding, "It depends on how this is received."

Show your support by watching "First Impressions" here and subscribe to What's Trending for more exclusives interviews with your favorite YouTube stars!

Follow Shira Lazar on Twitter: www.twitter.com/shiralazar

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Linnie Frank Bailey: Washington Watch: Week 23 - "The Greatest"

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This past week we celebrated the 237th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence.

Yes...our issues are many, and our Congress is in gridlock, and there are those who will never accept the diversity of our country....still, we can fight for our freedoms in ways others around the world cannot.

And, despite all those who disparage him simply for who he is...America ELECTED Barack Hussein Obama, as our President -- TWICE!!

The ideals upon which our country began are to be remembered, celebrated, and always held in esteem as our battle cry. There is still much to be done, and we are often reminded (just last week with the Supreme Court Voting Rights ruling) -- rights can be given and rights can be taken away. We are also reminded that despite the election of a black president, we live in a time when so many of our gains have been washed away by financial turmoil, political upheaval, and benign neglect.

Yet, we hold up the Declaration of Independence as a goal that it will take a lot longer than 237 years to reach. With the document we declared independence from England while chaining so many of our own citizens.

The Document itself serves us well. As described so eloquently by Jefferson, (who penned the first draft)....and subsequently edited by the Congress at the time, led by chosen editors, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin -- the opening of our Declaration of Independence speaks to our goals as a nation:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Surely, some of the founders of our great country understood the hypocrisy of slavery as juxtaposed with the above line...and yes, they had to have known there would one day be judgment.

Indeed, the famous statesman, abolitionist, and former slave Frederick Douglass described it adequately in his speech and essay: "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?"

Nevertheless, there is nothing wrong with patriotism because ALL of our blood has been shed on behalf of these "unalienable rights."

Still -- the document...the words...stand as our goal. Equal rights for ALL remains our ideal. The fight continues...

Another Reason to Celebrate

This past week, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin suggested the formation of a third political party for conservatives such as herself. Said Palin:

"I think there will be a lot of us who start saying, 'GOP, if you abandon us, well, we have nowhere else to go except to become more independent and not enlisted in one or the other of the private majority parties that rule in our nation.'"

Perhaps if today's GOP got rid of the far...far..right and the old dinosaurs who want to take us back to the 1950's...then maybe they could develop a platform of appeal to voters in today's America (who will not be relegated to the second-class citizenry found in the 50's for women, gays, and people of color.)

Celebrate with Red, White, and Blues

The White House has made available videos of "Performances at the White House" where the East Room of the White House has been transformed into a concert stage many times the past few years..

Here's are some performances from "Red, White, and Blues" a salute to the blues,featuring: (each performance is a separate video on the White House site)

B.B. King & Ensemble "Let the Good Times Roll"
Trombone Shorty "St. James Infirmary"
Buddy Guy & Jeff Beck "Let Me Love You"
Mick Jagger & Jeff Beck "Commit a Crime"
Shamika Copeland & Gary Clark Jr. "Beat Up Old Guitar"
Gary Clark Jr. "Catfish Blues"
Keb' Mo' "Henry"
Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, & Warren Haynes "I'd Rather Go Blind"
Buddy Guy, Mick Jagger, Gary Clark Jr., & Jeff Beck "Five Long Years"
Buddy Guy & Ensemble (Finale) "Sweet Home Chicago" Watch the President sing.

PBS (not just the home of Big Bird) also has the entire show as well as other White House Performances shows celebrating jazz, Motown, country, classical, Latin, Memphis soul, spoken word, etc.)

For more visit: Our-Gov.com

Follow Linnie Frank Bailey on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LinnieFB

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Louise Leakey: WATCH: Is The Human Race In Danger Of Becoming Extinct Soon?

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Posted: 07/05/2013 8:00 AMUpdated: 07/05/2013

TED and The Huffington Post are excited to bring you TEDWeekends, a curated weekend program that introduces a powerful "idea worth spreading" every Friday, anchored in an exceptional TEDTalk. This week's TEDTalk is accompanied by an original blog post from the featured speaker, along with new op-eds, thoughts and responses from the HuffPost community. Watch the talk above, read the blog post and tell us your thoughts below. Become part of the conversation!

__________________________________________

In the rush of today's world, and with more than half of us now living in cities, the majority of people are less and less connected with the spectacle of Nature. How many of us stop to think about our place on the planet, and how close we came as a species to going extinct just 75,000 years ago? How many of us appreciate that all our roots are African, as Homo sapiens left the continent only some 75,000 years ago to populate the globe?

The fossil record presents an opportunity to contemplate how this human story unfolded, although we will never find the fossils that represent the complete record, as preservational events are in themselves very rare. With the discovery of Zinjanthropus at Olduvai Gorge in 1959, my grandmother Mary Leakey pioneered the research in East Africa, with my grandfather Louis. Many more spectacular fossil finds have since been made both in Africa and elsewhere, by many researchers driven to understand our past. These are exciting times, and new and often unexpected finds are announced quite regularly. Since I presented this TEDTalk in 2008, we now know of several new species of hominins from different places in Africa, including additional fossil material from Lake Turkana, helping us to understand our own genus Homo.

Photo credit: Louise Leakey.

Technology has furnished us with a fascinating genetic story as well, allowing us to map the migration of early humans in more intricate detail than ever before. The work of Spencer Wells, a National Geographic Explorer in Residence, allows us to participate in his study by providing a cheek swab to discover how we fit in to this incredible journey of humanity. In addition, genetic research has confirmed that there was gene flow between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. Perhaps even more surprising was the further discovery that we humans also shared genes with a totally different hominid species, only known from DNA extracted from a finger bone found in a cave in Denisova in southern Siberia.

Photo credit: Louise Leakey.

We are undoubtedly the cause of the sixth mass extinction event that the planet has seen in its history. -- Louise Leakey

To put the history of life on planet earth into a time perspective, imagine unrolling a toilet roll down a hillside. If there are 400 sheets of tissue paper in the roll, then the very first life in the oceans is seen at sheet 240. The age of the dinosaurs begins at sheet 19. Dinosaurs in their many forms and great diversity are around for 14 and a half sheets. Dinosaurs are extinct by the end of the Cretaceous, 5 squares from the end, making way for the mammals. Our story and place on the timeline as upright walking apes begins only in the last half of the very last sheet. The human story as Homo sapiens, is represented by less than 2 millimeters of this, some 200,000 years.

Our own individual lifetimes cannot be depicted on this final sheet of the toilet roll as it would be too thin a line, yet we have been witness to more change to the planet, to the diversity of life, global climate and natural habitats in this same time period. We are undoubtedly the cause of the sixth mass extinction event that the planet has seen in its history.

The last 50 years has shown an enormous increase in human population, but also extraordinary leaps in technological innovation. The question that needs to be asked is if we can rise to the opportunity, to use our technology to better understand our impact, to stem the tide of extinction on land and in the oceans, to preserve what we have left, and to discover and understand more about our past. What the fossil record does do is to force us to contemplate our place on the planet. We are but one species of several hominids that inhabited planet earth and like our distant cousins who went extinct fairly recently, our time on planet earth is also finite. It won't take much to tip the balance against us.

Follow me on Twitter @louiseleakey, and at africanfossils.org

For a digital and interactive look at some of the showcase finds from Africa you can see www.africanfossils.org and follow on Twitter for updates to this digital collection. In a few months downloadable files will be available here for 3Dprinting.

Photo credit: Louise Leakey

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TEDWeekends will highlight some of today's most intriguing ideas and allow them to develop in real time through your voice! Tweet #TEDWeekends to share your perspective or email tedweekends@huf?ngtonpost.com to learn about future weekend's ideas to contribute as a writer.

More in Saving Our Species From Another Mass Extinction

"Daymon Patterson of food to bring best Daym take reviews of fast food on the way (watch)

YouTube fame is fleeting, but a most demanding palette? I am now places. First stop: New Orleans home to James Beard award-winning fried chicken, another world oysters and a one-stop shop for sandwiches and doughnuts that some say puts Krispy Kreme to shame.

You are served up in three restaurants in Louisiana than Daymon Patterson, revising food take-out and host of the Travel Channel series "Best Daym Takeout," believed to be essential for any trip to New Orleans.

Patterson, who began his career delivering hilarious and insightful commentary on YouTube driving your car, credits social media with help you discover local gems in the United States. But it is his unique perspective that has helped millions to determine which menu items are worth the try.

"I really need to know what the love of the people. Let me know what the best thing is food to carry, because it will represent--I don't live here, live here, "says Patterson."Let me know what is ideal for you and I'm going to do my review and find out if it's great for me. "Sometimes I love, I sometimes just do not feel that well with me, but in any case, I am able to share with the rest of the world."

It is that candor which not only landed to Patterson, his own Travel Channel show, but also a place in the list of viral video of 2012. The theme of his work on YouTube: five guys burgers and fries, a meal Patterson said is virtually impossible to mess up.

"I'm big on burgers with cheese; I call it my food base. If an establishment in particular can do a cheese burger right, I don't know what is on the menu, because they miss a meal of base. That is as damaging a glass of water."

Congratulations to five guys, but how settlements which appears in the episode of "Super official New Orleans" of show to do?! Check out the comments of Patterson down and take a preview of the "best Daym Takeout", above.

Presentation of the load

"Never want to tell your mother that food from someone it is better she... but that mix [of Willie Mae], that is not what MOM used." That chicken was soft, it was Golden, crispy, it was juicy when take a bite. Not to say chicken my mom is bad--never, never that - but if you choose between the two, I can't play Willie Mae first. Willie Mae would fall just below the stem into the level of mac and cheese, but the chicken that you have to have." 2401 St. Ann Street New Orleans, Louisiana. 70119

"I don't want oysters, but this is really the first time that he would eat an Oyster again. In the program, I however, was there for the crab. When you take that first bite, enjoy the freshness and then gets spicy, like a second layer of flavor. His nose is opened and is smelling tomorrow." 724 Iberville Street New Orleans, the 70130

"Snacks for New Orleans is something that you will find almost in every corner, but in Frèret there is history with everything that has happened with Katrina and the rebuilding of the area." I went with the roast beef po boy. When you see it breaks up, the hours it takes to baste in all the juices of the meat, it puts a smile on your face. Now that glazed doughnut, it is what will set on top. "If you have ever had a Krispy Kreme, this is Krispy Kreme times five." 4701 Frèret Street New Orleans, the 70115

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Shira Lazar: "First Impressions" Action Short Brings Together YouTube and Superhero Appeal (WATCH)

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Director Leo Angelos brought his stars Chester See and Hailey Bright to the What's Trending studio for the live debut of their short action film, "First Impressions." The YouTube collaborators also shared behind the scenes stories, including how they trained for fight scenes and handled the on-screen romance.

Without giving too much away about the plot, Chester said that he took a break from his own YouTube channel to join this film after he received a call from one of the executive producers. "(The EP) called me and pitched me the idea and I thought it was a really cool concept, something you don't really see."

For Hailey, the choice was simple. "I never really get to kick anyone's ass," she jokes. "And I finally got to. It was amazing!" She adds, "We got to do tons of fight training and I just really loved the all the action that was involved. I love that idea that you think you're watching something and at the very end, you figure out, oh my gosh! It's a superhero."

"We did a couple of days of training, but they were very long, intense days," she says of getting herself ready for the action scenes.

This was a turnaround for Chester, who's used to being the one dealing the blows. "In this one, I was beat up," he says. "We put gear on me, so they were actually kicking me."

Finally, the team teases the possibility for a sequel, with Leo adding, "It depends on how this is received."

Show your support by watching "First Impressions" here and subscribe to What's Trending for more exclusives interviews with your favorite YouTube stars!

Follow Shira Lazar on Twitter: www.twitter.com/shiralazar

Subscribe

Caroline Manzo talks Teresa Giudice Legal scandal in ' watch what happens: Live' (VIDEO)

' Watch what happens: Live': Caroline Manzo does not tell much about Teresa Giudice Legal controversy

Caroline Manzo addressed the legal issues of the owners about their "Real Housewives of New Jersey" co-sta, Teresa Giudice during his visit to the headquarters of the Club in "watch what happens: live."

Giudice and her husband Joe, were charged last week by a federal grand jury of conspiracy to commit mail and fraud, wire bank fraud, making false statements in loan applications and bakruptcy fraud in a 39-count indictment. All told, the couple faces up to 50 years in prison.

"Even I can not wrap my head", said Caroline host Andy Cohen. "I think for me and the Manzo family, our position is going to be, rest assured, because it is too large and too serious for the peanut gallery. ''

Caroline said that he sent a message with Teresa on the day of the indictment, but that these texts remain private between them. Other stars of the "Real Housewives" franchise have had more to say about the scandal.

"Miami" Star Black Lea told People magazine, "Reality TV, I've always said-- brings out the best-- and worst of all over the world." The magazine also spoke with former "New York", Jill Zarin, housewife who said, "many stars of reality are naive if they think that everything you have done in the past not to examine. Be a star of the reality comes with good and evil. ""

Bethenny Frankel was not nearly so nice. She told Us Weekly, "[it] is curious how some people [as a] moth to a flame..." People who love to be in the limelight often have a lot of skeletons in their closet... sorry for them? No. Not so much, because the law was broken. You've broken the law and it went on television. That is not really so smart."

Despite his legal problems, Teresa still allegedly will participate in the meeting of the upcoming "Real Housewives of New Jersey".

In 'The Real Housewives of New Jersey' Teresa Giudice catch every Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo. The same network is transmitted "watch what happens: live" every Sunday to Thursday at 11 p.m. ET.

TV Replay through the vast landscape of television to find the most interesting, fun and, on a good day, incredible moments and delivers them to your browser.

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Shira Lazar: Comedians Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel Join Rapture Films of The Summer (WATCH)

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With the horror comedy "Rapture-Palooza" hitting theaters and on demand this Friday, June 7, we spokewith the hilarious Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel, who are kind enough to share their thoughts on failed Kickstarters for sexy kids clothes, Benghazi, Google Glass Porn and surviving the apocalypse.

As Huebel points out, since the movie comes out in theaters and on demand on the same day, if viewers choose, they can technically watch it on the big screen and on their phones or tablets at the same time.

But that's not all the material Huebel has with which to sell the film. Here's his elevator pitch: "What if everyone got raptured and the only people left behind are the crappy people and it starts raining blood, but then, you know Craig Robinson from 'The Office'? He's the antichrist." Catch that twist there?

Scheer adds, "Basically, last year everyone talked about the apocalypse. By the time a script is written and made, it takes about a year and a half. So it's about a year and a half late, but I feel like we have fond memories of when everyone was talking about the rapture."

As it turns out, they're actually right on trend. Apocalypse comedy films seem to be all the rage right now.

Follow Shira Lazar on Twitter: www.twitter.com/shiralazar

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WATCH: YouTube User Hartbeat Tackles Butch Lesbian Stereotype In Hilarious Watermelon Video

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Lesbians get asked all sorts of silly questions.

One of them is, "If you love women so much, how come you don't dress like one?" In the video above YouTube user Hartbeat offers a hilarious (and brilliant) response.

Want more from Hartbeat? Follow her on Twitter.

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