finishing the A R T W O R K

So this is one of the most tedious steps.... album artwork and processing .

Recording is fun. Photoshoots are fun. Putting that music and pictures into an album and ordering and organizing it all on templates... is not my favorite part to say the least. the differences between .jifs and .psds. and .pfs. and .ai 's.... haha next step please? the party....



Luckily, one of my best friends, the beautiful and talented Ica studied both photography and graphic design in college, and was able to do it all with me. Ica and me have been friends since we used to sing and lead the music in church every morning. She was there the first time I learned a guitar chord, and did one of my promo photoshoots... Ica knows the style and image I aim for both in music and marketing as well as who I am as a person, so I trust her more than anyone outside of my own brain with this ( and often even more than...)



Tonight, me and ica finished the templates for the CD Booklets , Disc Silk Screen images, Tray Cards, etc ... of course last minute ;) I had taught ballet/ guitar this morning and went straight to " All that Glitters" rehersal and have a cold.... Ica lives an hour away so i got there around 9pm and now it's 3 am and I'm just getting home after driving an hour in the rain ( and of course blogging about it!) long story short, Im exaughsted.....

I fell asleep eating a banana and working:

While Ica Kept working hard:
and while gina entertained us:

Ica's photography work is amazing : CHECK IT OUT! we are both so proud of this project...and i can't wait to put it all in your hands in 20 days!

I am so P R O U D of her

LIFE

I know this blog is about my career in and passion for the arts ... but art is life.. and so this post is about life.
You know the question : "if you were stranded on an island with one ________, what would it be?"

well, if that blank said " person" ... I wouldn't hesitate, I'd say, my gramaw.

She's hilarious:

And Adorable:

My gramaw always takes me and my friends to the Red Lobster, she even threw me my 21st birthday party. When the world becomes too much, I go to her house and just nap on her lap while she plays with my hair, she usually tempts me into sleeping over by bribing me with grilled cheese and hot chocolate for dinner. She comes to all of my shows, and even offered to donate fabric from her church to our theatre department after noticing that our costumes for Wild Party were "small". lol....

Anyways, she is the funnest most lively 81 year old i know... ( although to be honest I don't know many) she is able to laugh about her age and her life, and WHOA if you could see her watch Redskins Football!!

My Granny-O ( as i like to call her) has Neuropothy, meaning the nerves in her feet and legs aren't really working at all, so considering she can't even feel her own feet anymore, she is doing quite well- she even still drives! She is staying in Florida with my Aunt Joyce for 2 months during the winter to avoid the cold of DC ... and while down there she promised her doctor she would walk as much as she could.

She is walking 3 times a day, I was there for 2 weeks and we tracked her path, 1 mile! she is walking 1 mile 3 times a day! While at dinner with my cousins Bob, tiffany and there son Greyson, they mentioned a family race in florida the following weekend that was all ages they were going to do...and we convinced my gramaw to do it!

SHE DID IT! MY GRAMAW DID THE FIRST RACE OF HER LIFE AT 81 AND CAME IN FIRST PLACE FOR HER AGE GROUP! she did 1.3 miles in 24 minutes!!!!!

she e-mailed me ( yes she has a laptop, and a cell phone...) this picture, and it makes me feel so happy and full of life, and so proud of her. it also makes me feel like we never should make excuses....

i love you to the moon, and back gramaw

a W O N D E R F U L week

Wonderful things are happening all around...

I think 2010 is going to be my year.

Since last Friday things have been wonderful, I did a great photoshoot for Phillip Noss, he went to Duke Ellington with me for guitar and majors in songwriting and music business at Berklee now.... He's quite a stud so it was fun to shoot him. I love his image, this was his first promo shoot so we did a few locations: like em?

Photography is just my side hobby but i love the immediate results. You can check him out on Youtube, Myspace, and Facebook- his new songs have a very John Mayer feel, Ithink youll dig him. My photos are the background art on his sites, enjoy loves....

After that was AU BSA Apollo night, which if you've been reading went phenomenol! and I won! It was an incredible night! And if you missed it, here is the video again!

Starting Saturday I went back to filming with HAZE. It is a full feature indie film I've been a part of for 2 years, the bulk of the cast has had off since August, and we were back in full swing this weekend. We shot at George Mason on Saturday, a huge party scene, Sunday at University of Maryland, and Monday in Arlington, Sunday was a 17 hour shoot day so .... things got cranky, but I loved being back around all of my -faux-sorority sisters again. I had some ridiculously mean Haze-ing lines, but i love my little and she knows it. We all had a feast at La Tasca in Clarendon and it was, oh to die for. For obvious reasons we can't have a camera on set, but I can post some behind the scene cast shots ... These are our fake frat boys, who i love:


and it keeps getting better! Tuesday I filmed a music video/ promo with 8112 Studios, the guys are AMAZING, and my friend Zach is interning with them and got to be there so that was fun too!

photo via. Douglas Sonders iPhone

On Tuesday, On my way to the 8112 Studio , I found out I got cast in a show at H.Street Playhouse, here in Washington D.C. called "All that Glitters" It goes up February 17th-28th, so keep an eye out! It has a great cast, including Jabari Exum and David Lamont Wilson, both great friends of mine, and is directed by the ALWAYS fabulous Courtney Baker-Oliver. The show is part of Restoration Stage. The link to the facebook event for the show is : http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=262389712067&ref=ts



Then Tuesday Night... I finally made it to a Greg Holden show... at Jammin Java, funny enough last time i tried to see him ( when he toured with INGRID MICHAELSON) i was at jammin Java to see Emily play with FUN. and missed it. He came down with his friend Ian Axel, who I was ABSOLUTLEY BLOWN AWAY BY... I had talked to Greg Before via E-Mail, in fact i started keeping up with his music before he was in even in the United States, and we go to talk for a few hours after the show. Both guys are just so insanely talented, nice, and funny- they are living in NY but hopefully I'll be playing more up there soon. These are my favorite songs by them:



IAN AXEL: (feat. greg)



GREG HOLDEN:( feat. Ian)

and the W I N N E R is....

Tonight was a huge deal for me.

I sang at my school's 1st annual Apollo night, hosted by our BSA ( Black student Alliance) I got into it through my friend Tia who is the president of BSA this year, and a delta sister. The talent was rockin' all night. There were about 20 acts. Slam Poetry, Rap, & Singing. There was also a great house band who backed up the vocalists and rocked the night!

I was nervous for a lot of reasons, I knew literally less than 3 people in the audience, and it was packed, literally standing room only in the tavern, all the seats filled... and in true Apollo Tradition, you could be boo-ed of stage ( and yes, some people were) and the winner was left into the hands of the audience vote, which in this case, I assumed I wouldn't get much since I didn't have many friends in the crowd.

I sang one of my R&B mixes ( and updated it to pick popular songs) the band rocked out and the audience sang a lot, and i couldn't ask for more, I just didn't wanna get bood! and then...

I WON!

when the audience cheered for me at the end on their feet, I almost cried, my stomach was doing flips- and it was an amazing feeling, I've only played acoustic, so to be standing playing guitar in front of a great band and a packed house who loved it was so rewarding, and was a huge personal achievement for me. ( and i won money too!)

But a huge shout out to all of the other performers, it was so wonderful to be a part of it and if i can do this every night for the rest of my life... i think i will


Check it out: Express tied me for first! I LOVED his song: so check it out too, its hilarious:

Such a P E R E Z nerd

Free copy of my A L B U M

Follow this link for instructions on how to be a part of the h o p e . makes. m u s i c street team and receive a free signed copy of my album!

http://hopeleigh.webs.com/streetteam.htm

die hard F A N S ?

What the Elf?

I am not the best with technology - building a website took me forever, but last night I decided to start exploring my site stats! [ Remember them from my last blog post] Anyways, I found out that it tracks each unique visitor ( someone there for the first time) by their I.P. Adress . I don't know much about those so it isn't like I can then tell who you are BUT it can tell me what city they are from which I was very interested in, because I want to know what cities I have a base in to play shows...

So most were in NYC, DC, and LA... cool right? Right where I want to be.

Whilst looking at an LA supporter... I tried the zoom button on the map tracking their IP Adress...trying to just sort of see if it was a part of LA where I knew people, or what not....


THIS VISITOR IS FROM A CEMETERY! Rosedale Cemetery to be exact. ( click on the picture it will come up more clear for proof.... ) Now - I had one of two ideas about this:

1) Someone is in the cemetery and looking at my site from their iphone or something... like, they needed a little positive distraction at , oh I don't know, their dogs funeral?

2) someone is a DIE HARD fan and following me from the grave... in which case, I am very greatful for their extreme dedication and I would REALLY like to know which cell phone or interenet service works from 6 feet below because I barely get reception in my own home...