2009-08-15 - 7:10 p.m. Ok...this one is for my friend TJ: So, I live at a place that looks out onto acres of wetlands. This place is quite often used for film/video/model shoots because it is so picturesque. But tonight, as we were sipping drinks on our balcony, we were entertained by an odd confluence of activity: First, we noticed a pair of women in the field near the observation deck: one who appeared to be nude, the other appeared to be photographing her. They were at quite a distance, so we had to get out the binoculars....as you do. But then, as we were passing the time ogling the nudeness, we noticed that a group of three Japanese tourists (all female) were steadily hiking the trail to the observation deck. Ummm... All three of the girls sat down at the bench on the OBSERVATION bench facing the....ummm....NUDE girl and her photographer. (Well, at least, that's what it looked like from our binoculars...you know.) And they stayed there for like....forever! Ummm..... TJ....I bet your comment is going to be something like: "Thud!" comments??? (6 so far...) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2009-08-14 - 5:24 p.m. So finally, here I give you links to Erin O'Brien's visit. I could not decide which order to put these links because they are all fabulous and magical and spooky when taken together and mixed around. The first two are some of her writings about her brother Jonh (famous for writing "Leaving Las Vegas" but taking his own life before that became an iconic movie.) The last two links are YouTubes of her speaking at a recent book signing at Book Soup of her deceased brother's book Better. (I had to break it into 2 parts because of YouTube time restrictions.) Erin's spooky connection with the Rugrats Erin's L.A. Times article Erin at Book Soup on 7/16/09 part 1 Erin at Book Soup on 7/16/09 part 2 You really really must take some time and check all that out. Not only was Erin's brother an amazingly interesting writer, but so is she. I wish you could have been there at the Book Soup event. Even though we were able to get a YouTube of Erin, there was no way to completely capture on video the pure electricity and emotion of her and the other two speakers. I'm not usually a fan of fiction at all, but I love Erin, and hearing her speak, and the other two who read from the book, I was ravenous to get my hands on that book! So go check it out....because I said so!!!! And next time, Erin, you seriously have to spend more time here.....because I said so!!! (And so I can talk to you without all the nervous jitters I get when I first meet a rockstar!!!!) (PS...the sound quality is a little lacking on those videos because we were just using a teeny little video dealy. You really had to have been there!!!) comments??? (1 so far...) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2009-08-03 - 12:03 a.m. I know, I know! Everyone hates when you give some long poor excuse as to why you have dropped off the face of the earth. I don't care! I'll give you my excuse anyway. I am currently about 2000 miles from home. I've lost track of where I am because we've stopped in so many cities along the way. It's been 110 degrees most of the way. The car broke down once...in that heat. And we are staying...in that heat...in a house with no air conditioning. And part of this has been a visit with....family (uh...good and bad). This has been a long and unusually crazy trip. We leave tomorrow. Pray Pray Pray, that the car does not break down. Or, more importantly, pray that Global Cooling will start taking effect....RIGHT NOW!!! (Anyone who doesn't believe that Global Warming is real, should come sit with me on the side of the highway with a stalled car in 110 degree heat!) See you soon! My apologies to Erin O'Brien....I do have another post planned about your magical appearance in my town, but I fear if I type anymore right now, I'll short out the computer with moisture dripping off my body! (Well....it's hot here you know!) Stay tuned..... comments??? (1 so far...) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2009-07-22 - 10:03 p.m. Eeek! I know! I promised to update on Sunday or Monday. But I've had a major laptop overhaul. Still trying to get everything back together. Please stay tuned. I'll try to have things up and running again soon. In the mean time, go check out Erin O'Brien's site. She's got a couple of posts up about her trip to L.A., plus links to her article and the YouTubes. I promise to get something going here as soon as I can come up for air. There will be much to post. Hopefully, I'll be good and actually post it! Stay tuned..... comments??? (0 so far...) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2009-07-17 - 11:20 p.m. My Brush with Fame Better than a mass blogmeet, last night I got to meet face to face, one on one (sort of) with the famed blogger Erin O'Brien. She is definitely not your average blogger, and she has many claims to fame. But first, let me give you the back story on how we almost missed her all together. Because I am nothing if not "last minute," I somehow managed to wait until 6:00pm to drive to Sunset Blvd through bumper to bumper, rush hour traffic. I am insane! We were supposed to arrive at our destination sometime prior to 7:00pm. Now, in light traffic, it can take up to an hour to make this trek, but at rush hour? Eeek! So it was one mad scramble to get there on time. As the traffic crawled, I was counting down the minutes....15min...10min...2minutes!!!! Amazingly, we got there right on the dot of 7:00pm. Oh, but then there was the parking. You could spend eternity trying to find parking anywhere near Sunset, so we opted to pay $10 and park in the exclusive lot for the infamous Viper Room. It was only later that we found out we could have parked free behind the bookstore we were going to. And the bookstore was none other than the most fabulous bookstore in the world: Book Soup. Seriously, this place was amazing. Almost all the books are cover side out......much more fun to browse than walking down isles of nothing but spines. And they had some of the most delicious large format books. We're talking HUGE 2x3 foot books, several inches thick. It was just jaw dropping to wander around and take all this in. I could have easily spent several thousand dollars there without even thinking about it! So we went to Book Soup because Erin O'Brian was having a book reading/presentation/signing of her brother John O'Brian's posthumously published book, "Better." (He is also the writer of "Leaving Las Vegas," staring Nicholas Cage.) As we got to the store, I was still a bit frantic, worrying that we wouldn't make it on time. I was, of course, nervous as usual. And I was limping and lumbering along, having sprained my ankle a few days ago. Nice. The minute we walked in, I spotted Erin, cool as a cucumber, chatting with a couple of people. I'm sure she thought I was some nutcase as I gave her my goofy "I Know You!" face and hobbled over to her, hoping she would know who I was....then realizing that she probably doesn't know what I look like....then I frantically try to introduce myself....all the while trying not to topple over because my ankle is in a splint with a funky medical shoe......and and and..... Anyway, it was a really great presentation. Check back here Sunday or Monday, and I will hopefully be able to post a YouTube of her speaking, as well as an article she wrote for The Los Angeles Times which expands upon the topic at hand. So I'm calling my short time with Erin, "My Brush with Fame," not because her brother wrote a famous movie, not because she's tight with the two authors that shared the podium with her....who are famous and well connected in their own right....and not because there was generally an aura of fame and talent in the room last night, but because she just exudes "My Brush with Fame" There's no describing it. She should actually be writing this post for me, because I'm sure it would then be amazing...rather than rambly. (A quote of the evening was something like, "Think of words as costing $5.00 each, then you will learn the economy of words.") Anyway, if you're not reading her, you are really missing out. Go on and click over there right now! And check back here for more links as I get them. Stay tuned.... comments??? (1 so far...) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ previous - next Of course, you know, all of this is copy right protected. 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