Goodbye 2007

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Hope your 2008 is great!

Star sighting and a tangent

Last week when I was Christmas shopping, Asher and I ran into Kirstie Alley at Anthropologie.

I wasn't as lucky as Asher, who last night went to see a screening of Francis Ford Copolla's new film Youth Without Youth with a Q & A with FFC at the end. How lucky. He also ran into the stars of one of my favorite movies this year Control (Sam Riley and Alexandra Maria Lara-she is in Youth Without Youth) Asher liked the movie a lot, it is a very artsy movie, reminiscent of Italian and French New Wave, so expect to not understand it at first viewing. (like 8 1/2, I had to watch it twice)

Speaking of Asher, he was featured in a British comedy website called < href="http://www.channel4.com/4laughs/feature/4laughs_a_day/nov/nov28.html"> 4 Laughs
I guess one of their writers found him on Youtube and featured his Transformers spoof. You can she that spoof as well as other videos at www.youtube.com/asherglaser

There you go star sighting and a tagent.

I am getting new Neighbors

I can't wait, we are totally going to be BFFs.

What I have been doing lately

Cleaning.

One thing about Los Angeles that you do not consider when you move here is how dusty you how gets from smog (car pollution)

I feel like I am constantly dusting something and vacuuming up stuff.

Lately I have been on an anti-clutter rampage, but am overwhelmed by the fact that first you must lay out all the clutter and then decide what to do with it.

Since I have been inside a lot I haven't seen any celebrities.

what have I been up to-general

I have had a lot of friend who have had birthdays lately, so pardon the hiatus.

Including Asher's birthday last weekend. We spent a nice day together, got massages and went to a French restaurant that has been in L.A. since 1927 call Taix. It reminded me of a 60's supper club that you would find in Mad Men. (another ploy to get you to see the show)

I have been watching a lot of Netflix. I love Heroes!!! I am a late comer to the show, but I think being able to see it all in a row is better than trying to remember what happened in episode 2 when it becomes important again in episode 17.

Another series I have just found and love is Carnivale It reminds me a lot of Twin Peaks. Too bad the show ends abruptly at the end of season two.

Next week begins Asher and my film noir week. I let you know what we watch.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving today.

Eat lots of turkey and take lots of pictures and send them to me.

Star sighting

Yesterday I didn't realize that the person holding the door open for me at Starbucks was Rachel Griffiths. Yet another daft star moment for me. At least I said "Thank you" instead of something stupid like "You Rock"

Soliel Moon Frye (a.k.a. Punky Brewster and the girl who hits too hard on Friends) opened her environmentally friendly kids store called Little Seed last week on Larchmont, I'll let you know if I spy her next time I get Starbucks.

best burger joint

The Counter Look at this website and I dare you to not be hungry.

This is the place I chose for after beach time fun with the fam. The Counter is by far the best burger joint out there. You can build your own burger, and not with your standard tomato, avacado, and four different cheeses, but you can choose, brie, pineapple, turkey burger, veggie burger, carrot strings, wasabi mayonaise, ginger soy glaze or an English Muffin for a bun instead of the plain old bun. Or scratch that be healthy and take out the bun all together and put it all in a bowl.

Mmmmm the counter.

Happy Halloween

I love Halloween. It is the only time Cleopatra would ever be seen with a Transformer.

Oh.....

....how you laughed at my itinerary, but we actually got quite a bit done and covered a lot of ground.

Sunday:Beach day
After a leisurely, not intentional, breakfast at Tart. We headed to Manhattan Beach. Here are some pics:

I was very excited to show Evan the Ocean for the first time. Unfortunately at first he wasn't so excited about it at first.


But soon got over it and made sandcastles with grandma, Brandon and Fruncle Asher. I think everyone was amazed by the fact that it was 70 degrees in October. On a walk along the sand we were attacked by seagulls and entertained by a pod pf playful porpoises. (these proved to be elusive to my camera, and I spent most of the time trying to figure out my camera, instead of watching them jump into the air)

Here is a picture of Evan a bit more excited at the beach.

a break in the vacation reporting action

Instead of reporting to you about the family vacation, I am taking a break to ask for some happy thoughts this Wednesday. Asher has an important audition for a current NBC show.

In the meantime here is a related picture.

pictures and stuff

Wow! What a week and a half.

I have been working hard to prepare for my family's visit and now I am recovering from all the fun.

One thing that I learned early about my nephew is that he likes to pose for pictures. Which is nice especially since you want to take as many pictures as possible. This is a picture of him and Mandu at Cafe Marmalade at the Farmer's Market. This is day one of the trip. I hope to bring you all of the day by day pictures and what we did.

Day One Star Sighting: Dave Navarro
You may know him from Rock Star INX, Rock Star Supernova or as Carmen Electra's ex. I know him from Jane's Addiction which was one of my favorite bands in High School.


I am glad that this weekend was not the week of the visits, because a lot of north of where we were is currently on fire.

Did you know?

That it is banned books week? Why don't you celebrate by reading a book that has been banned once or almost banned like:

The Whitches- Roald Dahl
Fahrenheit 451-Ray Bradbury
To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
Don Quijote- Miguel de Cervantes
Farwell to Arms- Hemingway

Can you imagine half of what we read in high school English was once banned?

Here is another great book website that some of you may be able to assist with.


The Book Inscriptions Project

Basically you take a picture of a cover of a book you have and a picture of the inscription in it and post it. It is a very interesting to see the motivations on why people give other people books.

Star sighting-lost in the melee

I did have the chance to see teh wonderfully creepy James Spader a couple weeks ago with his lady and his dog. They live somewhere in my neighborhood.

I have been.....

busy busy busy.

Last weekend I went to San Jose to visit my friend. We also went to Santa Cruz for a couple hours. I remember Santa Cruz when I was younger because it was a very popular skateboard label. I love beach towns they are very cute and manage to keep their main streets very non-commercial.



(Here is a picture of me eating an ice cream cone as big as my head)

I went to a cold opening of a new restaurant in Culver City. A cute little italian cafe, that definitely had opening night jitters. The food was good, when we finally got it, but I hate when server argues with you when you get something you didn't order.

I saw Keiffer in his SUV in Los Feliz. I know he is having troubles lately.

Mainly I have been brainstorming and spring cleaning for my visitors coming up. I cannot wait!!!

I am mad about mad men

My favorite show as of late is AMCs Mad Men

I do not get AMC, but it appears on On Demand (cable service) the day after it airs. I am a complete addict. I watched it last night and I am already counting off the days until next Friday.

1) the production design is amazing. Someone has to win an award for this one. There is a scene in a grocery store with all of the 1960's era labels throughout the entire store. It must have taken days of work to pull off that one shot.

2) most of the actors really haven't been in a lot of other shows. (Yes Nicole, that is Connor from Angel)

3) like the early sixties the actresses are not twig girls.

4) Finally it really interesting. It is interesting to see a time when everyone smoked, the Kennedy-Nixon presidential race, how different advertising was.

If you do get AMC I recommend watching it, and if you want something to add to your netflix queue, you might have to wait a while, but it is worth it.

Caution, like most prime time cable shows, this is not for young viewers.

Powder Blue

Just a note. I found out what film they were shooting at my favorite Thai restuarant. The film is called Powder Blue. It stars Jessica Biel, Patrick Swayze, Forrest Whittaker among others.

Read a synopsis of it Here (Sounds very uplifting)

Celebrity sighting i am most jealous of

Although I wished it were me, Asher sighted Quentin Tarantino this weekend at the restaurant he works at. He was having a quick drink before seeing Superbad at the Mann's Chinese 6 and then came back after seeing it.

So jealous.

I don't know if I did have the chance to see him if I would have said anything. I loved Pulp Fiction, I loved Kill Bill Volume 1. More importantly I love the fact that he introduced me to one of my favorite directors of all time, Wong Kar Wai . Through Tarantino's now defunct distribution company, Rolling Thunder pictures, QT gave a few unknown directors their chance at American audiences. One of those directors was Wong Kar Wai and his film Chungking Express. Every year since that fateful day in 2000, I have watched Chungking Express every year on my birthday.

All of WKW's movies are beautiful to watch and I have a good chunk of his movies in my personal library. I can't wait for My Blueberry Nights to come out this winter.

Thank you QT.

Odd Coincidence

Lately Asher and I have been catching up on an ill fated television series called Undeclared . I really liked the show and was bummed when it was canceled. It was one of Jud Apatow's first project, Freaks and Geeks was another. Both were great funny shows that I really liked, but it was before people recognized his genius and he brought you movies like Anchor Man, 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. Those two television shows only lasted a season.

I wonder if those channels are kicking themselves now?

Mr. Apatow is one among many director/producers who uses the same actors over an over in many of his films. For example:

The mentioned films are all Apatows:
Will Ferrell- undeclared, anchorman, kicking and screaming (w/ mike ditka)
Steve Carrell- Anchorman, 40 year old virgin, knocked up
Seth Rogan- freaks and geeks, undeclared, 40 year old virgin, knocked up superbad

Another actress who has made it in a lot of his films/tv shows is Carla Gallo who after seeing Undeclared again I wondered what she was up to. Besides random small parts in Apatow films, after seeing her in Superbad, we ran into her at a tea house on Sunset and Vine.

How strange.

wow

Heatwave is an understatement.

I cannot believe how hot it was here last weekend. According to the thermometer/clock at the corner of 3rd and Fairfax on Saturday it was 105 and of Sunday it was 114.

There really wasn't too much you could do to escape the heat, it didn't help that last weekend was a pretty dismal weekend for movies.

I watched movies in the only room with air conditioning in my apartment. I am sad that i didn't set up wireless in the apartment but I am afraid that I would have wrote.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 31ST 2007
I got off work and I wish I could have stayed in the air conditioning because it is so hot in my apartment

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1ST 2007
I went to Superbad and I thought it was super bad and it is still hot.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 2ND
ME KRISTEN. HEAT MELT BRAIN.

MONDAY, SEPTMBER 3RD
HOT. not as hot but hot. I am going to BBQ i don't want to, but I can't do nothing the entire weekend. I will suffer through it.

I do have a lot to write about, and now that my brain has re-constituted, i will write about it next.