Las Vegas Obama Ball

In addition to a week-long meeting over international animation production, AniFest, which runs through May 10 in Trebon, strives to facilitate the best contacts among Central European artists who are engaged in animation, especially after the festival through the ongoing AniFest Echoes. The Council on Foundations’ 42nd Annual Film & Video Festival in Baltimore showcases films, videos, and television programs, May 4-7, that have received support from foundations, corporate giving programs, and donor networks, with the aim of encouraging grantmakers to use media to advance their philanthropic goals. A festive party atmosphere takes shape when the 16th Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film presents a program from May 5-10 of screenplay workshops, fine art by Japanese artist Kozue Kodama, live music, and animated film in the open air festival garden at the Schlossplatz, free of charge to the public.  Representatives of newspapers, television, magazines, radio and web-only outlets will come together to discuss new-media both on the business and editorial sides, and culminating  with awards for the Best Media-Affiliated Internet Services presented by Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek, at the Interactive Media Conference & Trade Show happening in New Orleans, May 6-7.

For one day, on May 11, Content Delivery Summit assembles in New York and brings together customers, vendors, analysts, and Wall Street to discuss and define where the video delivery industry is headed. And on the very next day, May 12-13, in the same New York hotel, annual Streaming Media East 2009 Conference & Exhibition continues the topic of online video in a broader sense, catering to the needs of content owners, viral video creators, online marketers, enterprise corporations, broadcast professionals, ad agencies, educators and others that come to Streaming Media East to see and hear the latest online video technology, and to discuss the business models that are coming of age. Game Developers Conference Canada 2009 meets May 12-13 in Vancouver and covers industry-leading methodologies in game design, production, programming, visual arts and writing for big-budget multiplatform games. The CLIO Awards will be celebrating its monumental 50th Anniversary in Las Vegas, highlighting accomplishments in the industry with five new and distinct award shows, after parties, conference sessions, industry networking opportunities, and more. Cannes Film Festival gets started this year May 13, continuing through May 24.

Former US president Bill Clinton will join actress Sharon Stone at this year’s Cannes Film Festival AIDS fund-raiser in southern France, Clinton will attend the May 21 event alongside Stone, Harvey Weinstein, Carine Roitfeld, Michelle Yeoh and Donatella Versace, among others. The gala will take place at the Eden Roc, at Cap d’Antibes. The Indie Film Jam is back for its fifth year as part of the Florida Music Festival, running May 14-17, screening selected films in the heart of Downtown Orlando throughout the FMF weekend and offering independent filmmakers networking opportunities as well as industry panels designed for educating, enlightening and gaining insight into the world of filmmaking. The George Foster Peabody Awards which recognizes distinguished achievement and meritorious service by broadcasters, cable, webcasters, producing organizations, and individuals, conducts its 68th annual awards May 18 in New York, with a reception that begins at 11 am, followed by lunch, with Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News the events MC. At this year’s Seattle International Film Festival, running May 21 through June 21, SIFF will present the 2009 Golden Space Needle Award for Outstanding Achievement in Directing to Spike Lee, on May 23, followed by a screening of Lee’s ‘Passing Strange, a Q&A session, and an intimate Tribute Dinner celebration with Spike Lee as the guest of honor. Later in the festival, director Francis Ford Coppola  will host a special presentation of his new film, ‘Tetro’ at a June 10 screening. MUTEK is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the dissemination and development of avant-garde digital creativity in sound, music, and audio-visual art, which it does in part through the annual presentation of its namesake festival held in Montreal, this year running May 27-31. Nashville Screenwriters Conference will again offer one of its more popular panels, “Music in the Movies,” offering aspiring songwriters, composers and artists advice on how to get their music placed in films and TV, when it assembles again this year for sessions running May 29-31.

The above events are only a sample of what is fully listed. Complete details are on the “Media, Entertainment and Performing Arts Industry News and Events” page. Video and podcast versions of this news summary are also available at popular video sites around the Web like MySpace, YouTube, Daily Motion, as well as on The Actor’s Checklist podcast blog. Leading entertainment industry publication Back Stage has redesigned their Backstage.com website to allow for better resume and picture upload, casting and job alerts, and much more. Follow the posting of the news summary on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/actorschecklist  This month on the video news summary you will again see a dynamic array of artists in performance of film and music. Last month’s video news summary showcase featured New Jersey based Mindbreak Entertainment’s with murder mystery thriller The Secret, directed by Ian J. Kenney. The futuristic 4D virtual gaming arena ‘Turbo’ a short film from Jarrett Conaway, in the tradition of the Karate Kid and Tron. Los Angeles based Rooftop Mind, with ‘Sex Text’ and The Moonlit Road. Music video production company, THEfilmboyPROJECT, of London with ‘Never Wanna Lose You’ performed by East End hip hop, r&b group, DNA. A documentary segment in which film composer Jermaine Stegall conducts the Hollywood Studio Symphony. These videos are now available on the Free Home Video Showcase which now serves as an archive for all past video presentations but without the audio news narration.

If you have just entered the online gaming world for the first time and are unfamiliar with the acronym, RTG stands for Real Time Gaming. This company is known as the leader in the online gaming industry in the development of the latest and most sophisticated slots, video poker and many other games. In an RTG casino, there is a game for every person, regardless of their individual tastes. RTG offers the best in gaming software, the best selection of progressive games, the best customer service and the most timely payments to players.

The Best Gaming Software

RTG is always striving to make its games better through frequent updates in order to give RTG casino players the best online gaming experience available. The result is an experience with all of the gaming excitement of Vegas right there in your own home. RTG’s gaming software is quite simply the best in the industry, right down to the smallest details like the way that the cards flip and the dice roll. The game play is also faster in an RTG casino: in just one minute, as many as seven hands can be played at their virtual blackjack tables.

The Best Progressive Games

The choices of progressive online casino games available at an RTG casino are also the best in the business. With hundreds of different casino games offered, there is more than enough selection to keep anyone entertained. Since so many of the games in RTG casinos are progressive, your odds of winning substantial jackpots is also much higher than at other casinos; and the thrills never stop coming!

Timely Payment

Maybe you have won a payout from an online gaming site and found that they will go to great lengths to avoid actually giving you your winnings – or you may have read horror stories along these lines. However, this is something which is not a concern when you play at an RTG casino. Unlike some other sites, your winnings are immediately posted to your account and you will receive online account statements that list all winnings as well as losses. You should remember to set limits on your losses – it is a basic rule of responsible gaming and your statements can be a valuable reminder of where you stand.

The Best Customer Service

RTG casinos are famous in the world of online gaming for having the best customer service around. This is a company which believes that a gaming site is defined by the quality of its customer service – and this belief shows.

If you wonder why it is that an RTG casino is the best place for online gaming, try it for yourself. It is one of those things you really need to see to believe; and once you try it out, you will know why so many online casino gamers won’t play anywhere else.

As you may know I have been very heavily involved in the Las Vegas real estate market for the last six years, both as a private investor and as a licensed real estate agent. As an agent specializing in undervalued properties, I have sold homes and condos to both owner occupants and investors at great discounts…before and after the bubble burst.

The current Las Vegas market represents one of the greatest buying opportunities that we have ever seen in real estate. Prices have over-corrected as a result of the credit crisis and have come down to levels that are way below builders’ costs. We are seeing condos selling at about $35-$45 per square foot and single family homes selling as low as $50 to $60 per square foot. From October of 2007 to May of 2009, the average median home price in Las Vegas fell approximately $10,000 per month…every month. As prices began to stabilize in the summer of 2009, investors realized that a bottom was arriving and began to flood back into the market. This past summer saw record sales volume in the Las Vegas valley. There were over 3700 closes in both June and July, 2009…beating even the previous monthly highs set in the summer of 2004, at the height of the bubble. Of these closings, 45% were cash deals and 40% were to investors (as opposed to owner occupants)…these numbers also exceed the percentages posted in 2004.

This extraordinary demand for great properties at great prices in Las Vegas caused the median home sale price to increase in September…the first increase in the Las Vegas market in over two years. September also saw sales taper off slightly. The general consensus, however, is that this decline is not because of a reduction in demand, but rather because of a drastic reduction in supply. In September only around 1800 homes were returned to bank ownership through the foreclosure process. In contrast, 3358 single family homes sold in this same month. Since almost 70% of all these sales were on foreclosure/REO properties, this represents a situation where more homes are being sold than are coming on to the market. The prices are low, the demand is high and, as a result, prices are starting to creep up on these REO sales. In addition, we are seeing multiple bid situations on almost every REO property that comes up for sale. These circumstances are making finding good deals by buying REO properties very difficult.

The most viable option at this time for acquiring properties below market value is at the trustee’s sale. Once the owner of a property passes his 90 day notice of default period, he is issued a notice of trustee’s sale. After the NOS, or notice of sale, is given, the owner has 21 days to cure the default or the property will be sold to the highest bidder at the trustee’s sale. Buyers at the trustee’s sale in Las Vegas are currently picking up properties for a discount of about 20% under the already heavily discounted REO listings that are setting current market values. For example: If a home sold in 2007 for $300,000, and it is now worth about $100,000 on the REO retail market, it may be picked up at the trustee’s sale for around $80,000. This would represent a buy price of approximately 25 cents on the dollar from the highs of just a few years ago.

I have spent the last several months working with a handful of investors and have made several purchases through the trustee’s sale. Buying at the trustee’s sale represents not only a great opportunity for the buy and hold investor to purchase properties for cash flow, but also represents the only viable opportunity for flip investors in Las Vegas to actually resell a property for a quick flip profit.