Take home Celia on DVD

Dear readers, it gives us incredible pride to announce that the ground-breaking, breathtaking artistry of Celia: The Queen, the documentary of Celia Cruz's life starring Celia, David Byrne, Quincy Jones, Willie Colon, Wyclef Jean and Gloria Estefan is now on DVD and available on Amazon.com , just click on the link for the page. Directed by ñ BFF's Joe Cardona & M. De Varona - (and associate produced by ñ's own billy teck. Ahem! Excuse me.) This is a source of joy, pride and damn it's a great movie. Get yours now by clicking on the pic. The toast of The Miami Film Fest (5 sold out shows!) it also appeared at the Tribeca film fest (3 sold out shows), Sao Paolo, Rio, Los Angeles, Madrid and Tokyo film fests. Below: A trailer

Azucar!

Star Wars: The Clone Wars. This is a toy from the new film, you can get it at McDonald's. My kid LOVES 'em. This one's name is Ashoka. She reminded us of a very special lady who used to say Azucar! Is this like an homage? Either way. Azcuar, Ashoka.

Hi Sugar!

It's Monday. We need a little shot. There's no video. But there is this where someone takes a great song and posts it with some video. We're just posting for the song. This will get you 'goin, not that you should watch the weird video. But you can groove to the great best. A cover of 'Sugar Sugar' by the Archies. But done by someone who knows a little bit more about Azucar than a cartoon character.

Celia The Queen Premiere at Tribeca Film Fest - NYC

Celia played on sat night and Sunday afternoon where it screened at the Tisch School where they film inside the Actor's studio. Here's some pics from the premiere from Getty Images. Below, The films producers Antonio Gijon & Gabriel C. Mena with Co-Director Joe Cardona - Mr. & Mrs Johnny Pacheco - Pacheco (The Coolest Man of All Time) and Celia Co-Director Joe Cardona share a laugh - American Idol star Christina Christian and Co-Director Mario de Varona, (Christian plays the young Celia in a Vignette).






Below: Jose Vazquez who was the director of photography on Celia and has shot most of KIE's films, (also the man responsible for me running shirtless in slo-mo in Bro) looking pretty dapper - - Narciso Rodriguez (who designed many of Celia's dresses) does the media line at Tribeca - Celia the Queen's directors Cardona & De Varona.





You can view the small pics of afterparty at Indochine and other thumbnails at Wireimages. Both Getty and Wired offer services for downloading these pics for print or web use for media professionals or the average peep.

Saturday Night - New York City.

Joe, Mario, Michelle's labor of love premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival. It's been a long time comin'. Props to G. Mena and Antonio Gijon as well. Here we go.

All people need a queen.

Thanks for telling her story.

ñ is proud of all of you.

Celia Cruz doc at Tribeca

About 10 years ago Celia Cruz herself handpicked my friends Joe Cardona, Mario de Varona and Michelle Zubizarreta to tell her story. And they spent the next years filming (not videoing-filming) her story - interviewing everybody from David Byrne of Talking Heads to Johnny Pacheco, from Quincy Jones to Wyclef Jean to Willy Colon.

They filmed her concerts, her fans, her family. I'm so proud of my friends at KIE films as their film has been accepted in Robert DeNiro's prestigious Tribeca Film Festival. Check the trailer and site here.

These are the gang that made everything from Cafe Con Leche to last summer's White Elephant. For this picture they added the killer combo of Producer Gabriel C. Mena and Exec Producer Antonio Gijon. Prop, kudos congrats to all. That trailer is amazing. The press release is here.

You Could Travel all around the word and not hear music like this....

You could travel all around the world and not hear a better band than this group of hot players. Tito Puente (timbales)Johnny Pacheco (güiro) Chocolate Armenteros (trompeta)
Papo Vasquez (trombón)Joe Santiago (bajo) Patato Valdéz (congas) Mauricio Smith (flauta).

I lifted this off youtube, where some kind soul posted this to rescue it from some PBS pledge drive oblivion. A little something I know something about. My fave youtube comment? "William Rodriguez is playing piano. He is the founder and principal of the Celia Cruz High School of Music in the Bronx. He is also the best DAD on the planet ....GO DAD." Go to youtube to read the rest. This is as HOT as it gets. Machito deserved this for sure. And Patato moves too good to be true and like a man half his age. What a star.