Leila profile picture

Leila

For innovation to occur, there must be a high tolerance for failure.

About Me



Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are my heroes.

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My Interests

Politics
England
Current affairs
South Africa
Philosophy
Trying new restaurants
Karaoke
History
Anthropology
Guitar-playing
Writing, etc.

I'd like to meet:

Below is one of my favorite film productions of all time. Filmed in January 2006 (when Brokeback Mountain was at the heigth of its Oscar-buzz), here's a promo for the Austin Movie Show, with a Brokeback Mountain-twist. Enjoy!

Music:

Artists who defined my life: Tori Amos, Dido, Shakira, Sarah McLauchlin, Madonna, Jewel, and Sheryl Crow. But I also love rock, punk, 80s, trance, chill, soundtracks, and show tunes. And I freakin' LOVE to dance!!!

Favorite Songs of 2008:

-Miley Cyrus "7 Things"
-Britney Spears "Break The Ice"
-Leona Lewis "Bleeding Love"
-Feist "So Sorry"
-India Arie "The Heart of the Matter"
-The Church "Under the Milky Way"
-Tasmin Archer "Sleeping Satellite"
-Heart "Alone"

Favorite Songs of 2007:

-"I've Just Seen a Face" (Across the Universe Soundtrack)
-Lifehouse "First Time"
-"Falling Slowly" (Once Soundtrack)
-Sara Bareilles "Love Song"
-Regina Spektor "Real Love"
-U2 "Instant Karma"
-Sheryl Crow "C'mon C'mon"
-Bon Jovi "This Ain't a Love Song"
-Pink "U + Ur Hand"
-Tori Amos "Bouncing On Clouds"
-Shakira "Las De La Intuicion"
-Regina Spektor "Fidelity"
-Nelly Furtado "Say It Right"
-Dave Lichens "Let Go" (from She's The Man soundtrack)
-Dashboard Confessional "Stolen"
-Neko Case "Hold On"

Favorite Songs of 2006:

-The Dixie Chicks "Not Ready To Make Nice"
-Natasha Bedingfield "Unwritten" & "These Word"
-Imogen Heap "Say Goodnight & Go"
-Diego Gonzalez "Responde"
-"As Long As You're Mine" (Wicked Soundtrack)
-Blue October "Hate Me"
-Jem "24"
-Anna Nalick "In The Rough"
-James Blunt "Three Wisemen"
-Cobra Starship "Snakes on a Plane"
-Rascal Flatts "Life Is a Highway"

Favorite Songs of 2005:

-Kelly Clarkson "Since You Been Gone"
-Madonna "Hung Up"
-DTH "Listen To Your Heart"
-"No Day But Today" (Rent Soundtrack)
-Bird York "In The Deep" (Crash Sounrtrack)
-The Like "Bridge to Nowhere"
-"Come What May" (Moulin Rouge Soundtrack)
-Fallout Boy "Sugar We're Goin' Down"
-Sheryl Crow "Good Is Good"
-Eva Cassidy "Songbird" (Love Actually Soundtrack)
-Tori Amos "Sleeps With Butterflies"
-Patty Griffin "When It Don't Come Easy"

Favorite Songs of 2004:

-Frou Frou "Let Go" (Garden State Soundtrack)
-Alanis Morisette "Excuses"
-Phantom Planet "California"
-Yellowcard "Only One"
-Ani DiFranco "Untouchable Face"
-Ivy "Edge of the Ocean"
-Snow Patrol "Run"
-Alanis Morisette "Let's Do It, Let's Fall In Love" (De-Lovely Soundtrack)
-Frou Frou "Holding Out For a Hero" (Shrek 2 Soundtrack)
-The Postal Service "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight"
-Damien Rice "Blower's Daughter" (Closer Soundtrack)
-Casey Stratton "For Reasons Unexplained"

Favorite Songs of 2003:

-Jason Mraz "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)"
-Dido "See You When You're 40"
-Sarah McLauchlin "Fallen"
-All American Rejects "Swing Swing"
-Tori Amos "It's a Sorta Fairy Tale"
-Live "Heaven"
-Dido "White Flag"
-Sixpense None The Richer "Don't Dream It's Over"
-Evanessence "Bring Me To Life"
-Celine Dion "I Drove All Night"
-Thalia "A Quien Lo Importa"
-Michelle Branch "Goodbye to You"

I could keep going on and on like this, but that would just get annoying and ridiculous.

Movies:

All-Time Favorite Movies:
Bridget Jones's Diary
The Matrix (original only)
Angus
The Object of My Affection
The Full Monty
Shakespeare In Love
Clueless
Sliding Doors
American Beauty
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
The Matchmaker
Reality Bites
Love Actually
Most Recent Favorite Movies:
2008
The Jane Austen Bookclub
2007
Becoming Jane
No End In Sight
Superbad
2 Days in Paris
Once
The Simpsons Movie
Ratatouille
Michael Moore's Sicko
An Unreasonable Man
Pan's Labyrinth
Venus
Children of Men
The History Boys
2006
The Queen
The Holiday
Blood Diamond
Happy Feet
Shut Up & Sing
Borat
The U.S. vs. John Lennon
Fast Food Nation
The Last King of Scotland
The Prestige
Death of a President
Little Miss Sunshine
A Scanner Darkly
Idiocracy
Keeping Mum
Clerks 2
Infamous
V For Vendetta
Dave Chappelle's Block Party
Thank You For Smoking
Why We Fight
Something New
After Innocense
2005
Brokeback Mountain
The 40 Year-Old Virgin
Green Street Hooligans
Match Point
Capote
Good Night, and Good Luck
Crash
Syriana
Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic
Just Friends
Saw II
Lord of War
Waiting
Reel Paradise
November
Everything Is Illuminated
Hustle & Flow
Chumscrubber
In Good Company
2004
Hotel Rwanda
Control Room
Motorcycle Diaries
Closer
What the Bleep Do We Know?
Shawn of the Dead
Maria Full of Grace
The United States of Leland
Shrek 2
Fahrenheit 9/11
I Heart Huckabees
De-Lovely
Before Sunset
The Fog of War
Supersize Me
My Architect

Television:

I'm never home to watch TV, I don't have cable, but nonetheless, here are my faves of all time:

-The Big Bang Theory
-The Colbert Report
-Extras
-Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List
-The Office (both)
-Scrubs
-Arrested Developement (finally discovered it on DVD)
-Star Trek: The Next Generation
-The Kids in the Hall
-The Daily Show
-Seinfeld
-My So-Called Life
-Dennis Miller Live
-The Simpsons
-Sex & the City
-Absolutely Fabulous
-Beverly Hills: 90210 (But ONLY when Brenda was on the show, after she left, I quit cold turkey)

Books:

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter (I met him and he signed my copy!)

Wicked

He's Just Not That Into You (or as I call it, my Bible... I'm tellin' ya, EVERY girl has GOT to read this book, it will change your life)

The DaVinci Code

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right

Philosophy & Seinfeld

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Fast Food Nation

Dude Where's My Country

The next book I want to read is Phillip Roth's The Plot Against America, but having never read it, I can't tell you if it's any good or not. But if you've got a copy that you'd like to lend me, I promise to take very good care of it.

Heroes:

Ralph Nader. If I could, I would devote the next 2 years of my life fighting to get him elected. In terms of consumer rights, civil rights, and "taking on city hall," it doesn't get any better than Nader. He's taking on the two-party system, and he's laying the ground work to bring about the end of two-party facism.
John Lennon. If ever the world needed a John Lennon, it's today.
Jeffrey Sachs, a world-famous economist from Columbia University who wrote the book The End Of Poverty, and he's going to do it too... end poverty I mean. I met him at the U.N. on Nov. 4th, 2005, and I'll try to get that picture posted on my profile. He was giving a speech about the role of Rotary International in the U.N.'s Millenium Goals. I wept, it was beautiful.
I'm also a fan of his student, Bono, who learned everything he knows about Africa and Third-World Debt from Jeffrey Sachs.
I also admire the other "greats" of the last century: Nelson Mandella, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr,, etc.
Also a big fan of Leonardo DiVinci.
Was obsessed, completely obsessed, with General Wesley Clark during the 2003 Democractic Primaries. I thought this was the one man who could have beat Bush in 2004. And had Wesley Clark gained the Democratic Nomination, he would have done just that. But no, the Democratic ticket went to a pansy who voted for the Iraq War, and we lost what could have been the easiest landslide in history.
...don't get me started...
I also greatly admire my favorite anthropology professor and mentor in college, Dr. Lakshmi Fjord. I want to be like her when I grow up.
But the person who has undoubtedly shaped my moral and spiritual development more than anyone else, is Oprah Winfrey. She has such an evolved soul, and to have been able to witness that over the course of my lifetime has made me the person I am today.

My Blog

Bush Security Adviser Cant Tell The Difference Between Nepal And Tibet

President Bush's National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley appeared on ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos and repeatedly confused Nepal and Tibet.Discussing how Bush has "no reason not to go"...
Posted by Leila on Mon, 14 Apr 2008 04:36:00 PST

About that last blog about Whole Foods...

I was very angry and frustrated last night when I wrote that blog comparing Whole Foods to Nazi Germany because I was told that we were not allowed to discuss politics at work. A full day has passed, ...
Posted by Leila on Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:59:00 PST

Censored at Whole Foods on the day of the Texas Primary

I had been so excited today.  Not only did I go with my dear friend Cheryl to get her ultrasound (and learned the sex of baby Mannel), but the day of the Texas Primary elections had finally arriv...
Posted by Leila on Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:30:00 PST

Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court, and deteriorating womens rights.

Another great article from ELLE Magazine. Must be shared. From the Aug. 2007 issue, pages 202-203. Check it out:The Supreme Court decided this spring to uphold a federal law that allows state legislat...
Posted by Leila on Mon, 13 Aug 2007 07:59:00 PST

My reaction to (not review of) Michael Moore's "Sicko"

I haven't been to the movies in months, but I just got out of the 10:30pm showing of Michael's Moore's latest documentary, Sicko, and since I went alone and had no one to talk to about it, I thought I...
Posted by Leila on Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:20:00 PST

Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC is my new hero!

This story is from the BBC News website. To view the footage of Ms. Brzezinski refusing to cover the Paris Hilton story, go to www.youtube.com and search for "Brzezinski + Hilton." Here's the article:...
Posted by Leila on Fri, 29 Jun 2007 09:48:00 PST

Quote of the week...by Lewis Black

Here's the quote:"It's like going from Jackson Pollack to paint-by-numbers. God love Rich Little, but he's not in this decade....He makes Bob Hope look like Lenny Bruce."-Comedian Lewis Black, on the...
Posted by Leila on Tue, 30 Jan 2007 07:57:00 PST

The "Top 8" List -- once and for all!!!

I love my friends SOOOOOOOOOOO much.  It's been so badass to find old friends and keep in better contact with the current ones.  Here's the problem.  The dreaded "Top 8 List."  As ...
Posted by Leila on Sat, 25 Mar 2006 10:54:00 PST

My brother found the COOLEST MySpace page...

So as you may have noticed (if you're stalking me... and who can blame you for that?), my brother posted a comment for me, directing me to a MySpace page completely devoted to the music of Teen W...
Posted by Leila on Sat, 04 Feb 2006 02:04:00 PST

The best love advice I ever got...("Elle" magazine, go figure)

I hate girlie fashion magazines. They bore the hell out of me. Elle magazine is NOT one of those magazines. The February 2006 issue is so fuckin' good that I wasted a whole 8-hour shift in the gift sh...
Posted by Leila on Tue, 31 Jan 2006 10:35:00 PST