FEB 15: FREE "FUEL" SCREENING IN TWO THEATRES, GO!

Here is an email we received at The LA Report - we highly recommend you see this great film, which we reviewed a few days ago - and you even get to go FREE if you read below:

"FUEL, the 2008 Sundance Audience Award winner for Best Documentary, is showing for a very limited time here in LA. Certainly an inspiring environmental film, but more importantly FUEL offers up some new perspectives and possibilities on creating tomorrow's generation of energy sources. Well-produced and the soundtrack is pretty bangin' too. Details at www.thefuelfilm.com.

"In order for this film to get more time in the theaters and national distribution, it needs to get seen by 2000+ while here this week. To help with that, we've arranged two free showings for you and your friends this Sunday night at 7pm (one in Santa Monica, one in West Hollywood). If interested, send an email to Rebecca Harrell (rebecca@thefuelfilm.com) with the word "ABUNDANCE" in the subject line and include your name and choice of theater (see below) for either 7pm show this Sunday 2/15. The filmmakers would love to see a ton of people out in the theater so feel free to pass this offer on to your friends."

7PM: AMC Loews Broadway 4
1441 3rd Street Promenade
Santa Monica, CA, 90401
or
7PM: Laemmle Sunset 5
8000 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA, 90046.

TOP TWELVE THINGS THAT MAKE TWIISTUP TERRIFIC

by Don Rose

Today's Valentine's Day. It's also Tw+Two -- that is, two days since the terrific Twiistup (Episode 5) took place at Santa Monica's Hangar 8 space with roughly 1000 excited guests, the techtelligentsia of LA, the cyber cream of the crop enjoying top notch exhibit booths, food, drinks, games, networking and much more. So, I thought, why not combine the two themes? Here goes: a dozen reasons (think of them as a dozen virtual roses) why I love Twiistup:

1. Showoffs Shine - Twiistup, at its heart, is all about showing off the best new tech startups, many of which are based in the Los Angeles area. Wake up, Silicon Valley -- LA Alley has arrived big time. The LA tech scene is healthy and growing and may just overtake you. Some of the showoff startups that won praise at Twiistup 5 included: Scour (social search, where you get points for surfing that you can redeem for Visa giftcards, sweet!), Cogi (record phone conversations or use it for dictation, sounds like it could be a journo's dream), Chi.mp (free websites to organize your online social life), Socialsimple.com (also aims to org your soc life, see your social networks on one page, etc), Heavybagmedia.com (they held a cool SMS scavenger hunt where clues were texted to players' cellphones, which holds great promise for promoting businesses who have specials, can you imagine flashmobs suddenly swamping, say, Subway after getting texts for special deals?), Cybercoders.com (tech talent recruiters who place professionals in all sorts of tech jobs, they had a kind of cyberdome to hang out in at the show, and friendly founder Heidi is a joy to talk to), Fixya (largest online tech forum community, said their booth), Userplane (a showoff that has been there with a Twiistup booth since the early days, very friendly and helpful staff explaining their services - you may know them for their enhanced IM app) and many more. Even Jake Steinfeld was there (of "Body by Jake" fame, the guy who trained Spielberg) promoting his new book about business. For the full Showoffs list, go to http://www.twiistup.com/.

2. The amazing venue for Tw5 -- the huge hangar meant more room to roam; since these events are so awesomely cool they always attract a packed crowd, but this time everyone could luxuriate with space galore. Plenty of nearby parking too.

3. Twiistup founders Mike and Stephanie Macadaan -- two of the nicest people you will ever meet, who are always making sure their guests have a great time, always pick the coolest venues, and always select the most unique and exciting Showoffs at each event. They deserve huge kudos for taking Twiistup to greater and greater heights with each edition (Twiistup 1 was at Zanzibar in Santa Monica with a few hundred people, while Twiistup 5 had an astounding thousand).

4. Shira -- a wonderful MC, the hot host with the most: sharp, fun, generates buzz and excitement for whoever she is interviewing during the event. Shira: she rocks.

5. Twiistup.com -- an excellent website, with tons of info, and myriad ways to connect with folks and win valuable prizes before the actual event occurs; check it out and get social with the coolest tech minds around.

6. The networking -- you leave with pockets full of valuable business cards when you attend Twiistup. Even waiting in the (fast moving) line to get in you'll meet a dozen people you resonate with. The top talent of the LA tech scene always comes out for Twiistup in mass quantities.

7. Value -- Think about all they provide: Twiistup 5 had over a dozen showoffs to meet, 1000 top creative cybertechgeeks to socialize with, open bars (including ), cigars (see item 11 below), giveaways and raffles, food from Kogi BBQ, 5 full hours of fun, all for $75; quite the deal. Do the math: food and a few cocktails at any eatery worth its salt and pepper would set you back 75 smackers -- and get you lots less biz cards. (I also loved how the Tw5 bars had plenty of Honest Tea, one of The LA Report's favorite non-alcoholic drinks, in pomegranate and punch. No, I was not paid for that plug. Hansens' new line of natural energy drinks also pleased partygoers.) The best testament to Twiistup's bang for the buck can be found in the sales stats: 1000 people bought Tw5 tickets, with 300 more on a waiting list wishing they were in.

8. Fun -- yes, the fun factor was in full force, with Tw5's 80s theme, cool outfits, retro chairs to lounge in (remember those eggish roundish cushioned chairs from the 70s/80s?), chic geek heaven all around. And an essential element of Twiistup fun is the fact that you always get...

9. Surprises! -- like The Dating Game at Tw5. Who else but Twiistup would concoct the idea to have a fun version of this popular TV show where tech PR babe Heather Meeker had to select among three eligible techgeek bachelors. Again, the fun factor. I was humming the original TV theme by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass in my head. (Bet you never thought you'd get a Herb Alpert reference here. See? Surprises! And by the way, his music during one period sold more than the Beatles; wikipedia him. Bet you never saw wikipedia as a verb before. See? Surprises!) And you never know who will show up --- for example, a dead-ringer Bono double held court at a previous Twiistup and you'd absolutely swear the Irish U2 frontman was right there mingling amongst us mere mortals. See http://www.bonodouble.com/. His name's Pavel, but his body's Bono. Where else but Twiistup could you see a sight like that? (Fun fact: I actually worked with Pavel a few years ago, when a firm hired a dozen lookalikes for a party; his Bono rocked, as usual, while I got to channel Garth from Wayne's World; yep, blonde wig, black glasses, drumsticks and all. I might even send you a pic if you e-me...)

10. Giveaways -- Twiistup is superswagolicious, since showoffs like to shower guests with goodies -- some promotional, sure, but always creative. Scour even went so far as to staple dollar bills to the flyers they were handing out (a tad enticing in tough times, and a brilliant marketing ploy to lure Twiistuppers into grabbing a flyer -- hey, a buck ain't chopped liver, and it gets the point across that you do make dough using their social search service). The raffles by Showoffs were also stellar, including an XBOX by Socialsimple and a cool electric Trikke by Cogi. And there was a brand-new giveaway during this latest Twiistup... cigars! Yep, you could even get handrolled cigars outside by the heat lamps and enjoy some Puffy action for a while. (No, not P.Diddy. Come on. And no, no sight of President Clinton.)

11. Games - even before Twiistup took place, you could get some fun gaming action via Ringorang (www.ringorang.bom), which ran a trivia game that incorporated Twiistup people into the gameplay. At the actual event, you could partake in classic arcade games via Multicade (remember that 80's theme!) as well as more modern mayhem via a 3D shoot-em-up and, of course, the greatest gaming hit in recent memory, Guitar Hero.

12. The joy of anticipation -- for Twiistup 6. (They may have to hold it in the Superdome...)

TLR BEST BET: "FUEL"; DOCUMENTARY, OPENING FEB 13, IS A MUST-SEE OSCAR-WORTHY JOY THAT INSPIRES, EDUCATES AND MAY JUST "FUEL" A REVOLUTION

Event/Film Review by Don Rose

Go see "Fuel"! In theatres! This weekend if possible! Spread the word!
Why am I so excited? Read on...

The new documentary "Fuel" was screened at a special VIP event February 11th to a lively crowd of folks who, after braving the cold temps to watch the film, gave it rousing cheers. A panel discussion followed, moderated by the host of Air America's "Hollywood Clout" talk show, Richard Greene, featuring the film's director, Josh Tickell, as well as actor Peter Fonda. The event was held in the perfect spot (Brentwood's Conserv Fuel station, which sells both old-school gasoline and its better-for-environment cousin featured in "Fuel", Bio Diesel). During the evening, libations were served (including drinks from one of The LA Report's favorite companies, Steaz - love their Peach Ice Tea!), as well as samplings of hot tea, healthy savory snacks and sweet treats. Other celebs and notables in attendance, in addition to Greene and Fonda, included actor James Cromwell, and Lisa Garr, host of KPFK's excellent program, The Aware Show (http://www.theawareshow.com/).

The LA Report highly recommends that everyone go see this film, and tell ten others to do the same. This weekend is the best time to go, for at least 3 reasons: (1) the director will be appearing here in LA, and it is inspiring to hear Josh speak; (2) a strong opening weekend box office will help keep the film in theatres, and (3) big tix sales will show Hollywood that audiences are hungering for this kind of movie experience: enlightening while entertaining, informative while inspirational.

To convey a sense of this film's importance and quality, I consider "Fuel" to be a cinematic soul-brother to "An Inconvenient Truth" and every bit its equal (one of that film's producers, Laurie David, even appears in "Fuel"). Tickell's film also deserves to follow the same path as "...Truth" to win the Oscar for Best Documentary. To go a bit further with this analogy, "Fuel" could be considered the intellectual heir of "An Inconvenient Truth" and "Fahrenheit 911", integrating and inheriting some of the techniques, controversies and narrative power of both films into a new whole. I think we will look back at these three films as this decade's daringest documentaries, and its most politically potent. The top trio of the "Oh-Oh" years.

While all three of these docs are highly entertaining while conveying important information, "Fuel" strikes me as a bit more concrete and hopeful. It not only packs Bio-Diesel-truckloads of information for us to learn, but masterfully illustrates concrete steps that we the people, as well as cutting edge companies, can take and are already taking to solve the immense problems we face in the arena of power generation and consumption. BioDiesel, BioMass, Solar, Plugin Hybrids, Wind, even a kind of "Algae Energy" -- all these technologies are presented and shown to be viable options NOW, TODAY, not in some nebulous future. Even the end credits are packed with specific steps we can take to make a better world. By film's end, I felt for the first time that, my God, these persistent questions of can-we-get-off-polluting-fuels and what-ways-work actually have a positive answer: a combination of existing technologies that bright minds are already putting to work. It's not pie-in-the-sky Polly-Anna pipe dreams, it's real working solutions that come together to show how we can get off polluting power for good and get on with the green memes -- solutions already proven to be an economically plausible path to a sustainable world.

In short, "Fuel" shows us what our best and brightest future can be. We just have to claim it. Other countries are doing it (Sweden, for one, plans to be totally off fossil fuels by 2020 -- talk about 20/20 vision), and we can join the conscious caravan too. "Fuel" shows us the roadmap, and inspires us by showing we can get to the desired destination, powered by a combination of private investment plus more intelligent use of government resources (like, say, no more $300 million per day for an Iraq war that only gives us access to foolish fuels that kill us, for instance).

So, big kudos to director Josh Tickell for a stellar achievement, one which may just "Fuel" a revolution in our thinking about how we can solve our energy woes while also saving the planet -- and ourselves. Everyone should see this film. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

In fact, Peter Fonda proposed a great idea during the post-screening panel. He plans to buy lots of tickets and give them to friends so they can see this great movie. Smart idea. By pre-buying packs of passes, he can boost ticket sales opening weekend while making it easier for his friends to see the film. Just the kind of win-win idea this film is filled with. And with Valentine's Day arriving the day after "Fuel" opens, I can't think of a better gift for one's loved ones.

Special thanks to Dawna Shuman and Nicole Landers, who put on a great event, as they always do; they have earned a well-deserved reputation as the preeminent PR team for green-oriented eco-conscious events in Los Angeles.

Feb. 13, 2009: opening day for documentary "Fuel". Check local listings for times and locations. Website: www.theFUELfilm.com. Film features director Josh Tickell as well as Woody Harrelson, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Julia Roberts, Richard Branson, Larry Hagman and more in an intellectual and emotional powerhouse that is a cinematic cousin to "An Inconvenient Truth," "Fahrenheit 911" and "Who Killed the Electric Car." A TLR BEST BET.

FEB 8: AMANDA FOUNDATION MARTINI MADNESS BENEFIT AT LOLA'S ON FAIRFAX

Posted by Don Rose

The Amanda Foundation invites you to celebrate the one love that will never let you down: the one you share with your furry pal! The event is called MARTINI MADNESS! Sunday, February 8, 2009 from 5:30 to 8:30 pm at LOLA’S RESTAURANT, 945 North Fairfax Avenue, Hollywood, 90046. Valet parking is available.

Find the perfect gift at the silent auction, lounge by the pool (table that is), or get a Tarot card reading about romance! Take a chance on the “Ruff Raffle” AND enjoy “HEARTBREAKER MARTINIS” included with your admission! Wine and soft drinks are also offered, complemented by scrumptious tasties from Lola’s fabulous kitchen! All this for just $35. And to think you can help save a dog or cat’s life and have fun at the same time —— ya gotta love that! RSVP: 310-550-0101 from 9 am to 6 pm; after 6pm call 310-278-2935.

The LA Report thinks this event is a great deal, and for a great cause. A perfect pet-oriented pre-Grammy party! The silent auction is expected to include items such as Pet products, Hotel Packages, Restaurant and Spa Giftcards, Celebrity Items, Jewelry, Gift baskets and more; sounds like plenty of possible Valentine's Day gifts to choose from.

MCCARTNEY VS. COLBERT: FUNNIEST INTERVIEW THIS YEAR (FROM THE COLBERT REPORT, COMEDY CENTRAL, STREAMED ON HULU.COM)

Here is the best interview of the year so far: Stephen Colbert giving the "Colbert bump" (and Colbert treatment) to Paul McCartney. Funny, well produced, and you even get a duet between Sir Paul and Stephen (Ebony and Ivory, no less). Paul plugs his latest album, "The Fireman: Electric Arguments"... Colbert claims to not know any of Paul's work... and Paul accuses the Dalai Lama of resorting to cannabilism in an emergency...

http://www.hulu.com/watch/55318/the-colbert-report-better-know-a-beatle---paul-mccartney