Los Angeles Cuban Festival - A Winner

Me and Amy with Pitbull

I love doing giveaways here on my blog. I seriously love hearing from you folks and I appreciate that you take the time to write out some thoughtful responses to my questions. Thanks for all your input.

I'm delighted that I can now add to my growing list of "Best Cuban Restaurants in the LA Area." Thanks, guys!

So, the LA Cuban Festival is coming up in about 10 days, people! I'm hoping to see some of you there. I wish I could give you all free tickets, but The People In Charge Of These Things have limited me to giving away a set of two tickets. (For which I'm totally grateful.)

For those of you that are wondering how this is done, here's how I chose the winner. 

1) I took the number of entries and entered that number in the True Random Number Generator over at Random.org. 

2) I took a screen shot of the result so you could see how it works.

3) I gave each one of your entries a number and I did a screen shot of the winner.

4) I then write this post and congratulate the winner. 

The winner of the Two Free Tickets to the LA Cuban Festival on July 13th is Ed Nuhfer. Congratulations! I'll forward your email to the generous folks at Fiestalegre Promotions who will provide your tickets to this year's fabulous LA Cuban Festival.

For those of you who didn't win, please be sure to buy your tickets soon. I still hope to see you there! 

Again, here are the details...

Date: Sunday, July 13, 2014
Time: 10:00 am - 8:00 pm
Place: Rainbow Lagoon Park, Long Beach (Across street from Shoreline Village)

Performing

• Issac Delgado
• Timbalive
• Charanga Cubana
• MC Paloma Morales
• Super DJ Robby
• DJ Warapo
• y mas ...

TICKET INFORMATION

• Advance Online* (before July 12, 2014)
• Order directly from the Fiestalegre website.

Also, the photo of me and my daughter, Amy Kikita with Pitbull at the top of the post has nothing to do with the LA Cuban Festival. It's just to get your attention. No, Pitbull is not going to be at the LA Cuban Festival, but I am!

I just think it's a cute photo. And I like to randomly talk about That Time I Met Pitbull. There's an equally cute story about that photo. (This is a few years ago when I was still straightening my hair. Now I'm all-curls-all-the-time, but that's not important right now.)

Why do I even bring up Pitbull? Because if you come to the Festival (which I totally hope you do, because hello! Cuban music and food and dancing!), you must stop by and say hello to me. Then we'll have our picture taken together and you will be just one degree away from Pitbull. 

As you can see, my Cuban logic is completely intact. 

Wassup En LA? A Kickstarter Project

Do you love sitcoms? Do you miss real-old-school-laugh-out-loud-funny sitcoms? Are you as tired as I am about what passes for comedy on tv sometimes?

Say hello to my little friends...

There's a group of very talented Cubans who are producing a fabulous bilingual comedy called "Wassup en LA?" And I've been following their progress for months now on Facebook. (You should too, but that's not important right now.)

They describe their effort as a family-themed comedy sitcom that follows in the footsteps of classics such as I Love Lucy, The Cosbys, Chico and the Man, and Que Pasa, USA?

Here's where you come in. Have you heard of Kickstarter? It's a way you can get involved and become a part tv history by helping to get this remarkable show on the tube. I'm proud to say we kicked in to help get this project made.You should, too.

I'm asking today for your support in this effort. They have until September 8th to reach their goal and every little bit helps. We can do this. You can kick in $5, $12, $25 or more. I encourage you to become a backer. Click on the Wassup En LA? Kickstarter Link and show them some big, fat, Cuban family love.

I fell in love with these guys the first time I saw them and I want to see this show get the recognition it deserves. It reminds me so much of the first time I saw ¿Que Pasa, USA? and my mind was blown.

I'd love for us to become a part of TV history here. Kick in a few bucks and tell them Marta sent you, and share it with everyone you know. Let's make this happen.

Or as my friend, Pitbull would say, "Dale!"

You will recognize your own Cuban family on the screen. It's awesome. Be sure to spread the word. This is a project that's worthy of our backing and our support. I want to bring back family television. How about you?

Con mucho cariño,

Marta

When is a Pitbull NOT a pitbull?

It seems that lately I've been getting invited to all kinds of  "events"- apparently bloggers are the new press. Who knew?

Iwas invited by a fellow Latina blogger, Ana Flores from Spanglish Baby (Thanks again, Ana!) to come to the launch of the new Victoria's Secret perfume called Bombshell. It turns out that one of Ana's close friends, the lovely Susan Stipcianos from the Dream Team Agency was spearheading this event.

So I took Amy to L.A. with me, of course. The event was held at the enormous Victoria's Secret store at The Grove and there were all these gorgeous skinny semi-famous VS supermodels that we were supposed to interview. (I'm the new press, after all...)

But I got a little distracted because of all the fun we were having (but that's not important right now).

We got the Royal V.I.P. treatment. We had makeovers done by professional makeup artists

 

...and they had us do a glamour photo shoot...

 

...and they gave us swag bags with beautiful umm....things....

...and, of course, the new perfume, Bombshell.

In the middle of the craziness, I notice a handsome young man having his photo taken with the supermodels (whom we have yet to interview.....because....Hey! Is it my turn for the photo?)

So Amy says, "Mami, that's Pitbull." He's getting his photo taken with the supermodels and then he leaves.

In slow-motion, I went Wait! (or more like W-A-A-I-I-T-T!) I'm the CUBAN BLOGGER here!

So I grabbed Amy and we head towards where Pitbull was last seen and he is now exiting the building - *sigh* We missed him. (Sad faces.)

Right at that moment, the very-on-top-of-it PR gal, Susan (that I told you about earlier, who was in charge"OMG! Come on!" And she proceeded to run down the internal alley of the mall, in her stilettos, yelling, "Wait! Pit!"

And here come Amy and Marta chasing Susan who is chasing Pitbull through the bowels of the Grove. (Talk about a surreal moment.)

When she finally caught him, she said to him, "This is the Most Important Person At This Event!" (If you look at the photo, you can tell we were far away from people and totally in the bowels of the mall.) And Pitbull was treating me like I was, well... The Most Important Person At This Event.

Of course, I spoke to him in Spanish, and I may or may not have called him a muñecon.

I think because of that awesome introduction he was very charming. (Amy was upset that he barely looked at her and paid me so much attention. I quickly reminded her of my Most Important Person Status. =D)

We chatted briefly, took our photos and he was delightful and charming and funny and when he turned to leave, he left behind a small puddle of what was formerly The Most Important Person There and Her First Born.

We regrouped beautifully and made the executive decision to skip the supermodel interviews. After all, we just had makeovers and got to meet Pitbull. (Which proves the existence of God.) Our evening was pretty complete with the added plus of the Pitbull meeting. I had my story. I came strutting back into the store and showed the photos on my camera to the swooning, skinny girls. They were staring at me with a total "WHO ARE YOU?" vibe. I loved it.

I decided it would be wisest to skip the supermodel interviews and focus my story on meeting Pitbull. Yeah, I'm shallow that way. =D

I do have a comment giveaway today, but you'll have to travel.

I want you to go over the TikiTikiBlog and follow this link to the Pitbull story post.

To be entered in the drawing for the new VS Bombshell perfume, (I promise you...you want this!) go over to the Tiki Tiki and leave a comment on that post. Instructions and deadlines are over there.

Also, be sure to watch the video I put together. Then come back and tell me your opinion of how I'm handling my mid-life crisis. Or how jealous you're feeling right now. Bring it. =D