Artist Spotlight: H DIRT

If there's anything, I've learned in this journey, it's that we can do so much more together than we can on our own. I'd never have my music out on iTunes without the kindness and generosity of others believing in my dream. Accordingly, I'm working hard to help others with their dreams. It's time to pay it forward. That's what life is really all about. It's about learning how to move forward in a positive direction and then showing others how to do the same and helping them move in that direction.
In this spirit, I'd like to introduce you to someone who's graciously featured me and my music on his blog, "H Dirt." Take some time to check out his work. He's got his hand in several projects...reminds me of someone else I know. ;) Enjoy!

H dirt Biography: H dirt formerly known as Dirty Hari since the early 90's way before he spoke a tongue of English, has been a fan of Hip-Hop music. Coming home from school and tuning in to Ralph McDaniels' "Video Music Box". Hailing from borough of The Bronx, New York City. H grew fascinated of the Art Rap Music and its culture but never thought of persuing a rap career...

Then, Now, Still DoitYaSelf Vol.1

Mixed & Hosted by DJ TICAL

AVAILABLE NOW - DIRECT LINK > http://www.mediafire.com/doityaself

WATCH THE PROMO VIDEO! DIRECT LINK @ http://youtube/clPp3vGP1o4

MIXTAPE DESCRIPTON

New York recording artists Skylar "Points" Williams (Rapper) & Hari "H dirt" Espinosa (Rapper/Actor/Manager), who are a part of the hip-hop group M.P.H (Money, Power & Honor). Are bringing you their newest project to properly reintroduce themselves back into the rap game. Not just as artist or as a group, but also as an indie label. Devised partly from their own indie label, Do It Ya Self Entertainment titled: "Then, Now, Still DoitYaSelf Vol.1" MixTape.

Artist Appearances by Points, H dirt, Molly, Thural, Promise, Victor Dortch, Snugz, Anita Clay and battle rapper DNA. Production by Dj Tical, Victor Tortch and Joe Hernandez. 

Mixed & Hosted by South Germany's own Dj Tical. Appearances by Molly, Thural, Promise, Victor Dortch, Snugz, Anita Clay and battle rapper DNA. Music production by Dj Tical, Victor Tortch and Joe Hernandez

This MixTape also marks their first collaboration with a DJ. Mixed & Hosted by South Germany own DJ Tical (Rock The World Entertainment), The official Wu Tang DJ, Do It Ya Self Entertainment DJ and Vel a/k/a Mr. 7 Cities.

Dj Tical's WEB SITE: http://www.wix.com/thisisdjtical/portfolio

M.P.H The Saga Continues... A Short-Preview DocuFilm

THE 

OFFICIAL MOVIE TRAILER COMING SOON!

Inspired by the lives of Skylar Williams & Hari Espinosa. 

Narrative by Joyce Elwick. W

ritten & Directed by Hari Espinosa

ABOUT THE FILM:

This is the real life story of two long time friends (Skylar Williams known as Points & Hari Espinosa known as H dirt, formerly known as Dirty Hari), who shared similar goals and aspirations to follow a career in hip-hop music. This film takes place in rough streets of New The City - The Bronx, Underground Hip-Hop scene. Where they became locally known for their music. Since establishing the rap group (M.P.H), in the summer of 1999. But it was in 2005 when Points recruited big supporter Barbara Laureano, nickname Molly into M.P.H - That kicked things off for the inspiring rap group. In return making her an invaluable asset to their growth.

SYPNOSIS:

Music, Drama & Life became their struggles, yet their passion for success was undeniable and could not be ignored. M.P.H collectively were determined to become the next big act in hip-hop. Unfortunately differences in opinions, poor finances and personal rifts greatly affected the progress of the group.

A Film Written & Directed by first time director (Rapper/Actor) Hari Espinosa and edited by Victor Tortch. Co-Written by Darren Whitfield, Janice Smith and Joe Hernandez. Produced By Hari Espinosa & Joe Hernandez. Narrated by Actress/Singer/ Model Joyce Elwick

WATCH OUR PROMO VIDEOS: http://www.vimeo.com/mph

This film is presented by Do It Ya Self Entertainment

ALSO COMING SOON!

DJ TICAL & M.P.H: "WE WANT IN" EP

DoitYaSelf Vol.2 (MIXTAPE) Hosted & Mixed by Dj Tical

"We Run It" by Points - Produced by Joe Hernandez

AVAILABLE NOW FOR DOWNLOAD! LINK BELOW

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/we-run-it-single/id419265186 )))

PREVIEW THE ENTIRE TRACK ON POINTS' YOUTUBE CHANNEL

URL LINK > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpiS0CaOvAs&hd=1 )))

ALL OUR ORIGINAL SONGS: http://www.soundcloud.com/mph-1

BRIEF BIOS

Points Biography: Points "That Ni*** That Sh** Poppin' " A phrase which spawned a wave of infectious tunes in the New York Underground Hip-hop circuit in 2003, when releasing his first tangible project DEMO/MIXTAPE Vol. 1 & 2 From 149Th St., 3rd Ave in The Bronx and back to his old stomping ground on 111 St. 7Th Av in Harlem...

M.P.H Biography: (M.P.H) an acronym which has signified "Money, Power & Honor", for the New York Underground Hip-Hop group which is consisted of two original members " Pac-One now know as Points and neighborhood friend Dirty Hari now known as H dirt, then in 2005, Molly, appointed by Points as a big supporter and business partner. Established in the mid summer 1999...

INDIE LABEL

Do It Ya Self Entertainment LLC is an independent record company label based out of Bronx, New York. Specializing in urban underground / alternative music. Founded in 2004 by Artist/Actor/C.E.O. Hari "H dirt" Espinosa with partner Artist/Co-C.E.O. Skylar "Points" Williams for the main purpose of do it their selves when nobody thought it would be possible...

CONTACT MANAGER: Hari "H dirt" Espinosa - EMAIL: info@moneypowerhonor.com

M.P.H Blog: http://www.moneypowerhonor.com

TWITTERS: http://twitter.com/pointsnews

                     http://twitter.com/ElDirtyNews

                     http://twitter.com/DoitYaSelfPR

                     http://twitter.com/thisisdjtical

Assumptions vs. Psychic Powers

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Hello again. I've been busy with a lot of things lately so I apologize for the lack of posts. I recently worked on an episode of Boardwalk Empire and I've been diligently working on writing new music. In the midst of all of this, I started dating someone that I met on new year's eve (that's a story for another time). Anyway, we've been slowly working our way through the pros and cons of getting to know someone new. Of course the beginning of dating someone can be exciting, but it's also loaded with so many unknown twists and turns and can be a bit of a rollercoaster ride.

In a recent conversation, sometimes known as an argument, we verbally sparred with our own personal interpretations of what should be expected of one another a month and a half into dating...keep in mind, it's the day before Valentine's day...perhaps part of the reason the conversation came up at all. He stated his case and I honestly heard him out., but I don't know if it's just because I'm a female...or if it's just because I'm me...try as I might, I just couldn't bring myself to 100% agree with his perspective. I also think that part of my disagreement with him stemmed from the fact that I really think sometimes guys mistake women's intuition with women's psychic powers....the latter, I certainly don't claim to have.

If a woman assumes something, she's automatically wrong for drawing conclusions without all the facts. On the other hand, men assume that women completely understand the logic behind certain decisions that men make. But if we're not supposed to assume, then why would THEY assume that we understand all their decisions without all the facts. The only explanation I can think of is that men believe we have a set of psychic friends to rely on when we really need to understand things that men do. Maybe I should call Cleo or something.Ugh. Happy Valentine's Day. ; )

Where Does Weight Go When You Lose It?

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I have a photo shoot tomorrow morning so obviously I'm staying up too late and watching television....and blogging. I'm watching Letterman and Ricky Gervais is talking about losing weight, which I can totally relate to as I'm fighting off nerves about how this shoot will go and how I'll appear. It goes with the territory of what I do...I'm hired based on how I look (and how I sound). Accordingly, my feelings about my looks have transitioned to a different place than they once were.

I'm considered a full size model. In all fairness, full size models are very average sizes. I like my body and I'm comfortable with my weight...but being in the entertainment industry, there really is a lot of pressure about your looks. Sometimes I can't submit for certain roles because they're size-specific, which can be really frustrating, For the most part though, I do really like my shape...something that took a little getting used to as I made the transition from a girl to a woman. Being curvy can be overwhelming at first...especially in a society where boys' jeans are marketed to girls. For the most part, however, I've been fortunate to be a curvy girl living in a curvy world...during a time when less than skinny girls are the trend.

But I digress...going back to what Ricky Gervais was talking about that prompted this whole thing. He said that he hasn't really changed what he's eating, he just started working out. That got me to thinking about my latest attempts at weight loss. I work out generally about 5 days a week. I was thinking about what I would look like if I worked out less frequently. My father calls me an eating machine...and I think he may be right. If I could just stick to a steady diet, I may see some further results from all that working out that I do. So where did the title of this post come from? It was another thought that stemmed from the notion of weight loss. I understand that if you get liposuction, your fat actually goes somewhere. But when you lose weight the good old fashioned way, where does it actually go? Weird, right?

1st Date Makeup

Image by Ninja M. via Flickr

So if you know me, you know that I may or may not be mildly obsessed with my Blackberry. But in my own defense, I depend on my phone entirely to do what I do. Accordingly, my phone is usually in my hand...or at least within arm's reach. Aside from getting my casting notices and calls via email, I use my phone for a whole gaggle of other purposes. One of these purposes is to give myself reminders for things I want to blog about. Every once in a while, I'll go to my random list of blog topics in my phone and laugh to myself. Tonight was one of those such nights.

If you've been following me for a while, you may have seen the video I had to do for a commercial submission. If not, I've recently re-posted it for your viewing pleasure. It's a bit of silliness I did with my friend, and fellow actor, Jenn Jacober. While getting reading for a music video, Jenn joined me for some antics and helped me come up with some ideas. Somehow, perhaps because of the fact I was putting on makeup at the time, the notion of first date makeup came up in our conversation. Sorry to the dudes who read this...you may not fully understand.

Do you ever think about the level of care you put into getting ready depending on the situation? For instance, would your preparation time/ intensity be the same if you were getting ready for a first date versus getting ready for a family function? I'm just saying...certain situations just call for that extra sweep of blush and another layer of mascara....ooooh and lip gloss. Don't forget the lip gloss.

I hope you weren't expecting to read something inspirational or uplifting tonight...since all I have to offer right now is a silly blog about 1st date makeup....but I do hope that you have something to put some 1st date kinda makeup on for soon! Until then, I'll go back to my list of blog ideas and write about something more meaningful.

Speaking the Blessing

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I was flipping channels and caught a moment of Joel Osteen (not something/one I generally watch) a few weeks back and he said, "You have a blessing locked up inside of you that's just waiting to be released." Sometimes you just need to speak the blessing in order for it to appear before you. And then a couple weeks ago, I had the privilege of learning just how true speaking the blessing really is.

I worked on a short, horror film a couple weeks back called Green Plastic Sandals. I was on the set for 3 days and met different people everyday I was there. There were a few people who were there all 3 days with me so by the end of the shoot, we were all pretty tight. That 3rd day, I wasn't particularly interested in making anymore friends. In all honesty, I was exhausted and looking forward to getting home so I could put on some sweatpants and sleep. That was pretty much the only thing I had on my mind that day.

I introduced myself to some of the newbies on set, but didn't really hold any conversations with them, preferring to stick with the people I had gotten to know over the last couple days. There was one girl that had mentioned she lived in the Bronx so we briefly talked about where in the BX we each lived respectively....but that was just about the only conversation we had during the shoot.

As we wrapped for the day, I was grateful to be one step closer to slipping into my sweatpants and starting my weekend. The girl from the Bronx offered me a ride to the subway station by Yankee Stadium since it was right by her house. I thought about it for a second and then decided why not...I'll probably get home a lot faster than if I took the train the whole way.

On the way to her car, she mentioned she needed to stop for gas before she could go anywhere. Being that we both live in the Bronx, we had no idea where the closest gas station was. It was the first time I had ever been to Park Slope and everytime I've ever been in Brooklyn, I manage to get lost so I was no help at all. We both got on our Blackberry's (Blackberries?) and started to search for nearby gas stations. She set up her GPS to the apparent closest location and we got on our way. Before I knew it, we had made a giant circle...she had taken a turn too soon and we did a complete 360. I was tired and my patience was wearing thin. For a moment, I considered asking her if she could just drop me off at the closest subway station and giving up on the ride. But almost at the same time that this thought crossed my mind, she said something to the effect that she was glad to have me with her for the ride back. I took a deep breath and settled in. After we asked for directions from someone, we made our way to the busiest gas station I've ever seen. There were cars upon cars backed up, waiting for the next available gas pump. I sighed from impatience...I'm not sure if she realized at this point that I was kind of over the whole thing. Eventually, after careful manuevering, she backed up next to a gas pump and I could feel the tension releasing from my shoulders...knowing that we were back on track and I was another step closer to my beloved sweatpants.

We reset the GPS and were on our way. We started talking and I realized how much we had in common...it made me feel a little guilty for having not spoken to her more while we were on set. We talked about our dating history, our ethnicities (she's Dominican and referred to me as "a white girl with swag"...bonus points for spot-on accuracy haha), acting, music, our families...and somewhere along the line, we got to God and spirituality. I can't remember where it began, but it was the best part of our conversation.

We had similar upbringings and I explained being born and raised Catholic to the transition I made to a Baptist church when I lived in Florida. She had had a similar experience and had stopped going to church regularly because she had found a good church home while living in VA for school and hadn't taken the opportunity to find a new church since she had moved back to NY. I could empathize with this since I hadn't started going back to church regularly until fairly recently. I returned to Iona College where I had faithfully practiced my ministry...music and was grateful to be back practicing my ministry. I invited her to join me at mass sometime since I figured she might enjoy that particular setting.

Our conversation transitioned back to acting and as I told her about the newness of my acting endeavors, we got back to the notion of God and spirituality. I told her about the last year of my life...about losing my job, the heartbreak the loss of that job had caused me, the time I spent in and out of hospitals due to sick family and friends, the time I took to help my friend plan her wedding, and several other events that I had allowed to de-rail my ambitions of getting into the entertainment industry. I talked about my prayers to God to allow my creativity to be my livelihood. It was a prayer that had become a kind of song in my heart. But in the same breath, I told her that although I had been praying to God, I still felt some kind of disconnect from Him lately. I couldn't seem to feel Him or connect with Him the same way I once had. I was feeling lost...even while the conversation was taking place, I felt the sadness this realization had caused.

In saying all of this out loud, I had an epiphany....right there and then while I was talking to her. And because I was so taken off guard by this revelation, I don't think I even told her that it was just dawning on me. I said it as if I had already learned the lesson. The last year of my life had been dedicated to others...not something I was mad about...just a simple truth. However, all the time and energy I had spent on others were blessings unto themselves. It was a blessing that I had the time to be there for those so dear to me. And all of that positivity and giving had come back to me tenfold. It was now raining blessings in my life...the auditions, callbacks, booked gigs...they were the answers to my prayers. My disconnect with God was because I forgot to look inside myself. It was with God's grace that any of that was possible. I had forgotten that God could be inside of me....I was looking for Him everywhere else. In speaking the blessing to my new friend...I can honestly call her a friend even after such a short time....I had released the blessing that had been locked up inside of me. I got goosebumps as I tried my best to explain this revelation....fumbling over my own words and my excitement at the realization.

We arrived at the subway station and I was sad to say goodbye. We traded contact information and I walked slowly into the station...no longer thinking about sleeping...or my sweatpants. I got on the subway and smiled as I reflected on what had just happened. I got off at my stop and as I walked towards my house, I was overcome and started to weep tears of joy. I had spoken the blessing...and I hope that in sharing this that somehow, in whatever small way, I helped you discover...or rediscover...the blessings in your own life.

Grabbing the World by the.....

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I missed you! No, seriously...I really missed you! I've been so busy lately that the blog has gone to the wayside. It's been on my mind, but I've been entirely too busy and/ or tired to write anything...and there's certainly been plenty to write about with all the things going on lately. It goes without saying that I have been seriously blessed in the last month or so...things have just been falling into place.

After spending an entire year helping others and being the person that other people have needed me to be, I can honestly say that I'm living for ME for the first time since I can really remember. All of my auditions and submissions have really paid off because I'm actually DOING what I set out to do. I've been booked for small acting gigs (i.e. short films, television episodes, etc.) and a music video. I am having the time of my life...I really couldn't be happier.

I can honestly say that I am a living testament to the fact that you can live your dreams...you can do whatever it is that you set out to do...and it's never too late to start. I've also learned that there is no such thing as "trying" to do something...you either do it and it works or you do it and it doesn't....but thinking about doing something does not constitute trying. For a long time, I was convinced that if I thought about something long enough that perhaps I could think it into existence. I know how ridiculous that sounds even as I write it, but I'm just being honest. And I'm sure I'm not alone in this thinking.

I have had a constant force in my life who has believed in me more than I believed in myself many times. She has been my guardian angel here on earth, my rock, my second mother, my best friend, and anything I needed her to be at any given moment. It was with such delight that I emailed her and sent her texts about my latest projects. And this blog post is inspired by and dedicated to her...I know I usually keep my blogs (and most of everything I do) relatively PG, but I have to end this blog with the quote that she has instilled me over and over again...even though it's a little vulgar, I can't think of any better way of putting it. I am finally "grabbing the world by the balls"....I highly suggest it!