THE SECRETS OF LILIANA VINAGRE

Archive for July, 2010

The oldest fight sport adage in the world is ‘styles make fights’. For that reason, no one knew quite what to expect in Saturday’s WEC Interim Lightweight Championship battle between Donald Cerrone and Ben Henderson. Henderson was known for his dominating wrestling skills, while Cerrone has a reputation as a punishing striker. Instead of being a clash of styles, however, it was an instance where the differing approaches of the two competitors complimented each other perfectly. The result was a ‘fight of the year’ candidate bout that Henderson won by a narrow-yet unanimous-decision.

Henderson opened the fight with a takedown, but quickly got caught in a guillotine choke attempt. He extricated himself from this predicament only to find himself in a triangle choke that appeared for a moment to be a potential fight ending submission. That would not be the case, however, and Henderson would take control in the last half of the round with his powerful takedowns and ‘ground and pound’ punching assault.

Rounds two and three were all Henderson, as he took Cerrone down almost at will and began to pummel him on the ground. Cerrone managed a couple of submission attempts from the bottom, and did what he could to keep Henderson off of him with upkicks but nowhere near enough to salvage either round.

The tide would turn again in the fourth round, as Cerrone began to time Henderson’s takedown attempts. He became much more difficult to get to the ground, as well as administering punishment of his own after stuffing takedowns with punches and knee strikes. Later in the frame, Cerrone came close to ending the fight when he locked in a nasty and unorthodox choke that WEC commentator Frank Mir described as ‘almost an inverted rear naked choke’. After some tense moments, Henderson was able to escape. Cerrone would also control the final round, evading Henderson’s takedowns while scoring with his striking. He had another potential fight ending submission attempt in the fifth round, as he locked in an arm bar and appeared to have good leverage as he twisted Henderson’s arm into a nasty angle.

The decision itself was somewhat surprising, with Henderson winning all three judges’ scorecards by identical 48-47 scores. He’d clearly won rounds two and three, while Cerrone was the obvious winner of rounds four and five. This meant that all three judges had given the edge to Henderson in the first round, favoring his takedowns and ground punching attack over Cerrone’s two early submission attempts.

Henderson will now face WEC Lightweight Champion Jamie Varner to unify the titles. Varner entered the cage after the decision was announced to ‘cut a promo’ on the winner, and suggested the fight take place in December in Phoenix, Arizona though neither the date nor venue has been finalized.

Gracie family patriarch and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu pioneer Helio Gracie died in early 2009 in Rio de Janeiro at the age of 95. Its impossible to overestimate his influence on martial arts, and particularly his pathbreaking role in what is now the sport of mixed martial arts. The Gracie family name will forever be synonymous with Brazilian sports, jiu-jitsu, MMA and the UFC–not only due to Helios own accomplishments but the legacy he created both by training others and through his family.

Helio Gracie began training in judo early in life, and by the age of 16 had already begun to teach others in his native Brazil. He was bothered by judo’s reliance on ‘brute strength’, however, and along with his brother Carlos began to adapt many of its forms to a new fighting system more reliant on leverage than strength. This prompted the creation of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ), frequently called Gracie Jiu Jitsu in his honor.

Gracie also had a professional fighting career of his own, taking on champions from other fighting disciplines in an early version of modern MMA. These bouts were grueling, unregulated affairs with rules that were often made up as they went along and time limits that seem barbaric by todays standards. By his own recollection, he had 15 fights against the top fighters of his day. These included pro wrestlers, boxers and other martial arts specialists.

His most famous battle was against Japanese judo legend Masahiko Kimura, resulting in a rare loss for Gracie. Despite the setback, he fought bravely and may have actually enhanced his legend after refusing to submit to a reverse arm bar (the same move that now bears Kimuras name). Only after his arm was broken did his brother Carlos throw in the towel.

Gracie’s greatest impact, however, may have been through his progeny which is an important part of Brazilian sports and mixed martial arts even today. Royce Gracie is well known as the first UFC superstar, while sons Rickson Royler, Renzo have also achieved considerable fame in professional MMA. At the time of his death, Helio Gracie was a 6th Dan Judo black belt and the only living 10th degree master of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Gracie died at age 95, after suffering stomach problems though the cause of his death was officially listed as ‘natural causes’. His last words are classic and highly fitting for a man who gave so much to martial arts and fighting sports:

Modern BMX bikes are everywhere leaning right next to the quaint and not so enticing versions. BMX bikes are undeniably in the top ten wish list for any contemporary day rider needing to prepare Freestyle tricks. Up in the air tricks and backflips is exactly the purpose of the structure of the recent bike. Advanced Bikers put on an incredible act in the famed X Games broadcasted via ESPN sports network. The acrobatics displayed appear to come to an agreement with the people watching to a great degree. The fervor and zeal raised into the fans present can show a certain amount of them to believe they can take off on their way grasping their bike and trying these turns in the air at home.

For happy fanatics of bikes all over, there are currently free online games they can have interaction in without jeopardizing a bone. Adobe Flash is the language of choice for coders to set up these games. Safety is the most attractive advantage when playing games online, an unfortunate incident will never arise in the road. It is spot on that a backflip on your visual display unit will not feel like the actual thing in terms of the wind dazzling through your hair, or the somewhat intimidating sensation of unsteadiness as you hop one or two meters in up in the air. But lets evaluate the upbeat side, accidents never occur while playing BMX games online, a enjoyable time with friends is at all times certain.

A number of includes and special features are poured into flash games online with the aim of perfecting the players overall activity.. Better resolution images, such as in Extreme Stunts, together with enticing sound special effects and plain to use instructions hold the overall goal to make you stop thinking about all the technical and safety qualities, and set your mind on the pleasure of cycling. Bicycle games are amusing to play for the total family. Modes of play include single mode, to play by yourself, or multi-player style in order to play in gatherings at dinner or afternoon treats.

Novice riders wishing to get their feet wet might ponder playing BMX games online to prepare as you would in a simulator. All probable results are unveiled, including problems. Some of the acrobatics part of the freestyle discipline, entail further hours of rehearsal and sting. Should it arise that you desire to sample any of these routines at home, you should always take good care in sporting all your protection supplies.

A coach of some kind, or a friend who is learned in Freestyle BMX is also a sound idea to take along with you to the track. If you wish to set all security precautions behind you, you can always play in BMX games online where none is required.. BMX games online have no time restrictions, and the participant is allowed to play free for as long as he desires.

I once knew a girl in school who could sometimes and quite accurately tell us things like whether a teacher would be absent that day or her own marks in a certain paper before the results. Though we held her in awe but never really thought much about her abilities except concluding the phenomenon as a exceptionally good gut feeling. Well, now when I come to think of it, my childhood friend was a psychic having a well developed psychic power of precognition.

Psychic powers can be defined as those special abilities in a person which enables him/her to know about things which another person cannot perceive. Thus, it is an extra sensory perception that tells the person about things that our five ordinary senses cannot detect. Generally psychics are born with this sixth sense, but it may also happen that this ability develops in a person after a very tragic event or a near death experience.

Various types of psychic powers exist in the world. The most common being those of telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition. While telepathy involves perceiving and knowing the thoughts of another person, clairvoyance refers to seeing things which are far away or are otherwise not available to you or anybody else. Precognition on the other hand is the psychic power of predicting future events.

Talking about telepathy, this sixth sense helps the psychic to read another person’s thoughts. Psychics who have very well developed telepathic abilities can also inject their own thoughts into the thought stream of others.

If you have the special ability to see things which are hidden or are occurring at a distance then you have the psychic power of clairvoyance. A clairvoyant person is capable of remote viewing of things, events or persons which are thousands of miles away. In contrast to remote viewing, if a person can hear or know about things which are otherwise hidden, the psychic powers are termed clairaudience and clairsentience respectively.

Precognition is the ability to foresee future events. As human beings have a great desire to know about their future, this type psychic power is the most popular.

Other than that of these three psychic powers discussed above, there are various other types of psychic powers. These include the power of taking off from the ground to a higher plane know as levitation, power of influencing things and moving them around with the power of your thought or psychokinesis, power to perceive another person’s energy fields radiating from him/her known as aura reading, power of communicating with outside intelligence known as channeling or the psychic power of leaving your own body to travel to another place, known as astral projection.

If you are a psychic, chances are that you take yourself to be either gifted or cursed. Always remember that psychic powers are extremely rare and are special abilities that not many people are born with. Hence, consider it as a blessing and try to make it come useful for the betterment of others.

Roger Corman directed some truly commendable films in his day, and Shame may be one of his crowning achievements. The director may be most well known for his proficiency at churning out schlocky B movies with cheap monster costumes, cute girls in their underwear and Z grade scripts, but he found time now and then to really put his heart and soul into creating more personal, meaningful films in between all the more marketable drive-in flicks. Put Shame on your queue next time you sign into your movie download service.

The film is remarkably brave, focusing on racial hatred and tension in the south. This may not sound like a big deal, and civil rights movement films have since become a genre. However, you have to consider… It’s easy to make a movie about tolerance in the 1990′s, filming on Hollywood sets designed to look like towns in Georgia and Alabama. Corman actually took his crew to a small southern town at the start of the movement. It’s not hyperbolic at all to say that he really risked his life for this movie, as he and his team received death threats.

William Shatner turns in one of his finest performances as the charming villain, a political agent who has arrived in town for one purpose only: To incite racially motivated violence so as to sway the vote in favor of his segregationist employers. He enjoys doing this, and he uses his boyish good looks and innocent charm to deliver a villainous performance that really crawls under your skin.

The concept of the charming racist villain may have been inspired by Adolf Hitler. Corman could have hired a villain actor to play the villain, but the inspired choice of casting someone who seems innocent on the outside exemplifies a primary theme of the film, that being that you need a handsome spokesman to sell ugly ideas.

The final shots of the film were literally grabbed on the run. The shots used at the start of the film were actually recorded while the police were literally, physically closing in and chasing Corman out of town, forcing him to hurry up and wrap the shoot, throw all the equipment in the trucks, and get the heck out of there.

Corman may have his lifetime achievement Oscar by the time you read this. It’s about time. Corman’s reputation as a schlockmeister has always seemed to invalidate the immense contributions he’s made to the world of American film.

It’s true that Corman is primarily remembered as the maker of some truly cheap B films, but that’s only one aspect of what he’s done for American film. Besides making some true classics like Shame, he also launched the careers of Dennis Hopper, Martin Scorsese and Jack Nicholson, to name only a few of his many efforts and gifts to the modern cinematic landscape.

If you still haven’t seen any of Corman’s good movies, start with this one, then check out X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes. Yes, he made a lot of cheap monster movies, he made the sort of sci-fi flicks where you could see the zippers on the alien’s suit, but he also made some true classics both in the horror and sci-fi genres, and outside of his familiar territory, and Shame is an example of what gifts the man has when he can step away from the marketable genres and really put his heart and daring into a project.

Sound Advice From Avenue Productions Fort Lauderdale

When you’re finally ready to take your modeling and/or acting skills to the next level, it’s important to have the correct talent agency in your corner.

Do they take everyday people and evaluate talent and then work on educating and promoting that talent into the best models and actors possible, and do the owners bring a ton of experience to you. Will they work extensively on connecting you with the best advertising companies, production companies, and casting directors after they’ve improved your natural talents.

Fort Lauderdale Talent Agency Experts

One owner possesses an extensive acting background. Having studied for two years at the American Musical Dramatic Academy after spending fours years at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute. Having been in many TV commercials, theatrical productions and films. Later on, head booking agent for the commercial print and fashion divisions of Foster Fell Model & Talent Agency.

Another owner began their career back in the 1970′s in the fashion industry where they worked with department stores, public relations firms, talent and advertising agencies in the development of catalogues, brochures, editorials, print work, as well as magazine, television and newspaper ads. Later, they figured they’d use their talents in the talent agency and modeling fields.

Fort Lauderdale is the Place to Act

Avenue Productions came into being after these two experienced and knowledgeable staff united all their various industry talents and over the years they’ve been able to match the correct television series, TV commercials, music videos, print/runway work, and movies with the best talent.

Avenue is a commission based agency, with no registration fees, so if you’d like to have the opportunity to work with them, then fill out their registration form and ask them to begin building your new career. You must come to the table, though, with the right attitude, a willingness to work long hours on casting calls and to work flexible hours.

Improving Your Audition Blueprint

There are some basic strategies and ideas to pay attention to whenever you’re going off on the next audition in your modeling or acting career. You must present yourself in the proper manner and show everyone at the audition that you belong there and have what it takes.

You’ve got to relax. Even if you perform better than someone else, if that other person is more relaxed in their performance, the director may leave the audition feeling better about them than you. Be sure to relax your feelings and be alert but not too alert.

Perfecting Your Audition Approach

In preparation for being relaxed before you hit the audition, you should get good at practicing your breathing. When you can control your breathing through deep breathing exercises, you’re going to get more oxygen to your brain and this results in an alert brain and relaxed heartbeat.

Once you enter your audition, you should pay great attention to how you shake hands with the director. Be sure to great each director with a strong professional handshake rather than a weak, limp one. This is your first and last impression so do a good job with your handshake.

Effective Audition Scenarios

Your listening skills are a big part of success on your audition. If the director is explaining to you the script and your role inside that script and you’re not actively paying attention, then you’ll look like you have no interest in truly being a part of the production. This is why you want to be relaxed going in…a relaxed state creates a better listener.

You also need to take care of yourself in terms of diet and a good night’s sleep before the audition day. There’s nothing worse than walking into an audition with red eyes from a night of partying. If you pay attention to these simple, yet effective tips, you’ll find that your audition performance improves.