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August 2008
August 6 - Ross Rowland, Jr., Barry Howard, Christopher Coppola
 CHRISTOPHER COPPOLA (www.earsxxi.com www.pahnation.org) - has completed eight feature motion pictures. His most recent project, The Creature of the Sunny Side-Up Trailer Park (a.k.a. Bloodhead), had its world premiere during the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival and has since screened at the following festivals in 2004: Jacksonville, Guerrilla Fest in Washington D.C, Santa Cruz, San Jose's Cinequest, San Francisco's Indie Horror Fest-Hole in the Head, Albuquerque's Digi-Fest Southwest Film Festival, Chicago Indie Fest, Germany's Oldenberg Film Festival and most recently the European Film Market at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. The film stars screen legends Frank Gorshin and Shirley Jones, and television icons Lynda Carter and Bernie Kopel.
Coppola's other film credits include the Trimark Pictures release Deadfall (1993) starring Nicolas Cage, Michael Biehn, and James Coburn; Gunfighter (1998) starring Martin Sheen, Robert Carradine, and Clu Gulager; Palmer's Pick-Up: An American Roadshow Odyssey (1999) starring Robert Carradine and Rosanna Arquette; Dracula's Widow (1989) which he produced for De Laurentiis Entertainment Group; G-Men From Hell (2000) starring William Forsythe, Tate Donovan, and Gary Busey; Bel-Air (2000) starring Charles Fleischer and Barbara Bain; and Clockmaker (1998), a children's fantasy film shot on location in Romania for Kuschner-Locke.
Coppola is co-founder and spokesperson for EARS XXI, a film and television mini-studio that handles all phases of production including pre-production, production, post-production and distribution. EARS XXI is also committed to building an education arm which extends to universities and reaches users on the Internet. The company's first educational initiative was the EARS XXI High Definition Research Laboratory located at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), Coppola's Alta Mater. The state-of-the-art high definition lab provides equipment for shooting, editing, and viewing, enabling students and visiting artists to discover new artistic uses for high definition technology.
For television, Coppola is currently in post-production on a high definition one-hour episodic pilot, "The Biker Chef." Shot in cutting edge high definition video, the show will combine high energy cross country adventure with humor, local culture, motorcycles, and fine cuisine. The series will be directed by Coppola, who is also playing the title role of the Biker Chef.
He is also developing a new reality show in association with The Tom Lynch Co., entitled "Real Life." The show will be a half hour docu-dramedy that follows the lives of three disparate American high school students, in three different neighborhoods, and through their eyes capture the real essence of today's teenager. Coppola's other television work includes writing and directing numerous episodes of "America's Most Wanted" for Fox Television, "Bonechillers," which he directed for ABC, "The Journey of Allen Strange" and "100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd," two children programs he directed for Nickelodeon, as well as Disney's hit show "The Magic Jersey."
Coppola has played a vital role in bringing film and television productions to the state of New Mexico by encouraging filmmakers to utilize their filmmaker friendly tax incentives. Through his close relationship with Governor Richardson and the state's film commission, Coppola recently wrapped production on a television pilot ("Biker Chef") and is currently in pre-production on an untitled feature film project that will be shot entirely in New Mexico.
He is also founder and chairman of Project Accessible Hollywood (PAH) a non-profit organization dedicated to technology education and skills building, community engagement, and artistic expression through digital empowerment. A digital film festival, PAH-FEST celebrates the creative process by helping everyday people tell their stories using digital technology. To date, Coppola has successfully taken PAH-FEST to 15 cities and towns around the US and abroad (Germany and Slovenia) bringing digital empowerment to everyday people by providing them with the tools and skills to tell their stories in the 21st century. Please visit www.pahnation.org for more information.
Coppola continues to be an active member in the Director's Guild of America (DGA) and frequently speaks at public forums on independent filmmaking and HD digital technology, demonstrating his work with such HD technology as Mobiflicks, Cell Phone Art and HD American Portraits.
Currently, Coppola is aggressively working on co-venture business pursuits in the German Market.
Coppola studied music composition at Redlands University, where he received the prestigious California Arts Council Award for his opera "Plato's Cave," and for his clarinet quintet "Reverie." He then went on to study film at The San Francisco Art Institute, where he completed four student films before he graduated in 1987.
 KATE LANGRALL - is currently serving as Director of Project Accessible Hollywood (PAH), a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing digital empowerment to the “ordinary person.” Founded by seasoned filmmaker and “Digivangelist,” Christopher Coppola, PAH offers technology education and skills building, community engagement and artistic expression to people from all walks of life through a week-long digital media festival in which participants learn to tell their stories in short, digital films. PAH-FEST travels throughout the US and abroad in an effort to help scale the digital divide and bring cultural understanding to communities across the globe.
Prior to joining PAH, Kate founded Nightingale Entertainment, an entertainment production, management and consulting firm. For five years she coordinated the entertainment component of Cover the Uninsured Week and Covering Kids and Families, national media campaigns funded in large part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She is the former director of The Media Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the media on all aspects of adolescent sexuality and reproductive health. She joined The Media Project in 1995 after serving five years as Director of Special Projects at the Scott Newman Center for substance abuse prevention. Ms. Langrall Folb holds a Masters Degree in Education from UCLA, and Bachelors Degree in Spanish from the University of Denver. Prior to her work in media advocacy, she worked in the television and music industries on numerous musical programs including Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert and the American Film Institute Awards and worked with musical performing artists such as Alice Cooper, Luther Vandross and Michael Martin Murphy. Through her experience in television production and music she learned how various media can be used to convey vital messages and influence behavior. While at the Scott Newman Center she combined her knowledge of education and media to help create AdSmarts, one of the first media literacy curricula for middle school students on how alcohol and tobacco advertising targets young people. She also produced the annual Scott Newman Awards honoring television programs that portrayed the realities of alcohol and other drug abuse. At The Media Project she produced the annual SHINE Awards for Sexual Health In Entertainment, hosted informational briefings for the television industry and worked closely with networks, executive producers and writers of top TV shows. She also worked with the UPN network to create a custom PSA campaign for sexual responsibility. Ms. Langrall Folb speaks fluent Spanish and has helped create several outdoor media campa is targeting English and Spanish speaking at-risk youth. In addition to her foundation and media work, Nightingale Entertainment also managed performing artists such as Tierney Sutton, a two-time Grammy nominated jazz vocalist on Telarc Records. She and her husband, Brian, have two children, three Pomeranians and a horse.
 Barry Howard (www.barryhowardlimited.com) - As Creative Director, Mr. Howard is responsible for the overall design philosophy of the office as well as for the generation of individual design concepts relevant to each project. In addition, Mr. Howard’s’ expertise encompasses all design disciplines---form, structure, graphics, film, video and the written word---as well as all phases of project production. His commitment to protect the integrity of the concept and the design aesthetic extends from development through implementation.
Over the course of his career, Mr. Howard has brought these skills to bear on a wide variety of projects, from this country’s most successful Bicentennial exhibition, The American Freedom Train, to the National Automobile Museum in Reno---from the world-renowned California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento to the unique Mississippi River Museum in Memphis---from a journey through the Black Hills in the Journey Museum of Rapid City to a breakthrough multi-video produced for United Technologies at EPCOT Center. Under his direction, the office has been responsible for Museums and Interpretive centers at Hoover Dam, Mount St. Helens, Niagara Falls, Vicksburg Military Park, Hollywood Boulevard, Saratoga national Historic Site and other national landmarks as well as major World’s Fair Pavilions at New York, Montreal, Osaka, Seattle, Spokane, New Orleans and Taejon, Korea.
Of particular significance among current projects are The Guam Museum of Art, History and Culture; The Southern California Railroad Experience in Fullerton, California;, Silver Rails Resort in La Plata, Missouri; The New Mississippi River Museum in Memphis, TN; American Money & Gold Rush Museum in San Francisco and The Harlem Visitor Center in New York City. Each of these projects combine storyline-driven content and experie ntial environments that explain, excite, and entertain. And each is envisioned as an economic engine benefiting both immediate commercial developments and/or the host community.
The office has also been involved in Master Planning and Conceptual Development and/or Design for a wide variety of sustainable attractions throughout the world, including the expansion of the National Railway Museum in York, England; Creative Planet in Wroughton, England; Museums and related facilities for Saudi Aramco, Dahran, Saudi Arabia; the Samsung Auto Museum, Seoul Korea; The Great World Café, Singapore; and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia.
 Ross Rowland, Jr. (www.yellowribbonexpress.com) - As Founder of the American Freedom Train, Ross Rowland has devoted much of his life to entertaining and educating North Americans about their heritage and the historical role railroads have played in the growth of the continent. Ross has also led a successful 30-year career in commodities futures history.
In 1966, he founded Floor Broker Associates, Inc.,which grew to be the largest floor brokerage company on COMEX. He was elected to the Board of Governors for COMEX and, in addition to precious metals, has been a member of four other exchanges: New York Coffee & Sugar, New York Mercantile, New York Cotton Exchange, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
As the Co-Founder in 1980 and Chairman Emeritus of the Commodity Exchange Center Children's Fund, Inc. Ross has been instrumental in raising more than $10 million for children's charities.
Throughout his career, he has maintained an avid interest in the promotion of railroads. Coming from a long line of railroad men, he developed an abiding interest in trains as a young boy growing up in Cranford, New Jersey, spending much of his time at a nearby steam locomotive roundhouse. Childhood passion grew into adult purpose: preserving the heritage of the steam engine and communicating the impact railroads have had on North American history.
In 1966, Ross founded the High Iron Company, Inc. which restored mainline coal burning steam engines used to power numerous excursions throughout the Northeast. In 1969, High Iron ran the "Golden Spike Centennial Limited",from New York to Promontory Point, Utah to commemorate the centennial celebration of the driving of the Golden Spike and the linking of the nation by rail. The wire services covering the trip estimated more than 1.5 million people turned out track side to see the Golden Spike train pass. It was the overwhelming interest that sparked Ross's idea for the American Freedom Train.
In 1966, he founded the American Freedom Train Foundation, Inc., a non-profit, educational foundation to commemorate America's Bicentennial. The only successful national project during the nation's celebration, the Freedom Train was a 25-car long, steam locomotive-powered exhibition train carrying a precious cargo of more than 550 original documents, artifacts and memorabilia on loan from the The National Archives and 285 other public and private lenders. During its 21-month, 25,000 mile journey to 138 cities throughout the 48 continental United States, the Freedom Train hosted 7 million paid visitors while an estimate 40 million more viewed the train from track side.
In 1982, Ross was appointed by President Reagan to the Board of Directors of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation-Amtrak-on which he served for five years.
Ross has been a licensed steam locomotive engineer since 1964 and has logged nearly 250,000 mainline miles behind the throttle of his locomotives.
Professor. John Hopkins and the University of Illinois recently wrote" I know for a fact that [Rowland] has single handedly brought more real railroading and more honest-to-God spectacle on rails to more people than any single living person."
In 1995, Ross co-founded Iron Horse Enterprises, Inc. to create and manage unique events and strategies-specialized to marry railroads with marketing-in both the public and private sector.
In 2003, Ross co--founded Kaross Corporation, with his wife, Karen. Kaross is the owner of two (2) Sackets Harbor, NY restaurants.
August 12 - Christopher T. Landavazo
 Christopher T. Landavazo (www.cops4causes.org) - 33, was born in El Paso, Texas and grew up in Yucaipa, California. He is a new resident of Los Angeles and serves as a Deputy Sheriff for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Mr. Landavazo earned his Bachelor of Science in Applied Science and Technology from Thomas Edison State College and is currently work on a Master in Executive Leadership at the University of Southern California.
Prior to joining the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Mr. Landavazo served six years with the Ventura Police Department and seven years in the United States Navy as an Air Traffic Controller. While serving on the Ventura Police Department, Mr. Landavazo served as the Ventura County Law Enforcement Torch Run Area Director for Special Olympics. His involvement with Special Olympics was the result of his family’s loss of his sister, Monique Landavazo at 1 year and 3 months old, due to birth defects’ complications caused at birth.
Mr. Landavazo is the President and Founder of the nonprofit Cops 4 Causes. The organization represents the giving hand of law enforcement and seeks to raise money and awareness for children, adults, and law enforcement personnel with life altering circumstances.
Mr. Landavazo is most proud of his family and is proud to serve alongside his father Michael, who is a Dispatch Supervisor for the Redlands Police Department, his brother Michael, who is a Deputy Sheriff in San Bernardino County, his brother Sean, who is a firefighter in Riverside County, California and his mother Lucille, a breast cancer survivor and their family’s pride and joy.
 Wendi McLendon-Covey - In between hot bubble baths, Wendi McLendon-Covey has been known to do a little bit of acting. In addition to her leading role as Deputy Clementine Johnson (or as she puts it, “Queen of the Dog Track”) on Comedy Central’s hit, RENO 911!, Wendi simultaneously starred opposite Jane Lynch in the Eric McCormack-produced hit series, LOVESPRING INTERNATIONAL, which debuted this past summer on Lifetime. And come February 23, 2006, WENDI will be seen on the big screen in FOX’s feature, Reno 911!: Miami which is garnering buzz months before it hits theaters. The picture follows a rag-tag team of Reno cops who are called in to save the day after a terrorist attack disrupts a national police convention in Miami Beach during spring break.
LOVESPRING INTERNATIONAL, a half-hour improvisational comedy about a matchmaking agency that markets themselves as an “elite Beverly Hills” company (even though they are located in Tarzana, CA) is just about to premiere internationally. This dysfunctional group of “relationship counselors,” the last people you would want helping you find true love, garnered impressive reviews during its run on Lifetime Television. Wendi, portrays “Lydia Mayhew” (“what doesn’t kill you, makes you strong and bitter”), who has been involved with a devoted man for 20 years. Unfortunately, he’s a little too devoted—especially when you learn that he has been married to someone else for 20 years and has four children with his wife! As relationship expert Lydia says, “what kind of pathetic loser would trust a computer with their heart?”
Wendi recently produced, co-wrote, and co-stars in another improvised, independent feature film, COOK-OFF, which centers on amateur "chefs" from around the country who compete for a million dollar prize in the ultimate food fight with a million dollar prize. The film will make its World Premiere at HBO’s Aspen Comedy Festival this coming Spring.
She has completed the improvised, comedy film, CLOSING ESCROW, about three quirky families seeking to buy their next home who collide when trying to purchase the same property. Hilarity ensues and the bidding war tests the limits of their marriages and the resolve of their agents.
She is also a Main Company member of the famed Groundling Theater in Los Angeles and is one of the stars of their summer show, the “Groundlings Good Time Pig Farm.” You can find her on E! Television and VH1, providing smarmy commentary about pop culture. Wendi was the co-writer of the critically-acclaimed sketch shows "We’re Blond and Pretty What Happened To You?" and "Girls Who Say Yes."
Wendi lives in Long Beach with Greg Covey (the world’s only perfect man) and their two cats. She and her husband are active supporters of the SPCA Los Angeles, homeless causes, the Special Olympics, Cops 4 Causes and literacy efforts.
 DeJuan "Mista DJ" Verrett (www.mistadj.com) - DeJuan "Mista DJ" Verrett hails from Harbor City, California, where his first musical influences came from War, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Al Green and all of the early hip-hop artists. They were the foundation for his current style of music. The multi-faceted performer, whose first CD is appropriately titled OUTTA MYSELF, draws inspiration for his songs from his personal experiences of life in the streets, and living on both sides of the fence.
DJ Verrett, the co-author of the critically praised Prison: Getting Out by Going In (First Light Publishing), is currently working on his life story, An Inside Job, with plans for the soon-to-be published book to be turned into a major motion picture. DJ's story is a compelling journey which chronicles his life from a youngster growing up in the projects to present day and a new way of life. DJ’s story is one of struggle, confinement, and discovery that come along with one's ability to change 180 degrees. It is sure to make your mouth drop and your heart stop in his quintessential travail towards redemption.
DJ looks to actors as role models including Louis Gossett Jr., Harrison Ford, Denzel Washington, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson and Laurence Fishburne. He enjoys volunteering his time as “Coach DJ,” working with "at risk" youth as a way of giving back the gift he was freely given, letting his past become one of his greatest assets.
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