Andy Cohen and the Ducklings

MAY 16, 2012

So we’re at Barnes and Noble at The Grove – this upscale Disney-world-esque shopping village – to see Andy Cohen. His book’s sold out. S can’t get one. We’re late and a sea of people are ahead of us. S pushes through and finds a guard. “Tell Andy [S] is here.” Some lady takes us to a room down the hall behind the bathroom. A line of people parts and there’s Andy, all smiles. “Fantastic to see you [S]!” She’s introduced to his mother and father, perched nearby. I am too. I wave, silently. “Okay, I’m on. Follow me.” The star weaves past a giggly pug-cheeked Asian baby in a stroller, squats down and flashes a picture of himself with her with cell phone. “So cute.” He says. He takes one of him and S. She’s beaming. He’s beaming. Like ducklings, we follow the star. The crowd parts. It’s roaring. Screaming, clapping. “Andy! Andy!”

I don’t even know who this guy is.

Windey Road and Johnny Mathis

MAY 15, 2012

You can't walk down the mountain to the main drag - Sunset Boulevard - because the road is narrow and windey, and people FLY around the curves. Day before yesterday I was coming home from yoga and two black Mercedes had crashed nearly head-on into each other. Both drivers were walking around dazed. One was crying.  Everybody had their cell phone out, though, so I moved on up the mountain. Slowly.

Tomorrow I’m going to walk up the hill on the other side of the street, where I’ve seen the guy upstairs walk  his dog. “What’s up there?” I asked him today. “Nothing, it’s just where [his glorious Great Dane] goes to pee.  Johnny Mathis lives up there.” Oh, how old is he now? Like 100? I ask. “No, he’s in his 70s. He drives a red Mercedes.”

Cultural Creatives and CineWomen

MAY 10, 2012

The cultural creatives have their own breed of innovation here in L.A.

Today I’m watching this guy on UCTV (the University of  California station) who looks like Tiny Tim, but with way longer curly hair and red metal eyeglasses. Turns out he's a Music PhD who invented the Performance Florist. So now we’re watching the La Joya symphony orchestra - all serious and sometimes chaotic instrumentation - and a tuxedo'd florist furiously cutting and arranging flowers around the perimeter; on a table by the conductor, on a spotlighted ladder unfurling white silk and sparkly lights down its legs, poking all kinds of flora into place until it all ends in a crescendo of activity and ultimately - unusual beauty.  It's funny at moments. They get a standing ovation.

Watch for Performance Floristry coming to your neighborhood soon.

Yesterday we attended a CineWomen meeting in a Santa Monica  apartment filled with intellectual liberal (oh joy!) women, accomplished documentarists. The director featured is in the distribution stage of WE ARE WISCONSIN, a goose-bump-raising film about that new governor who literally in the middle of the night, held a secret vote and dumped all the unions, and the way people stormed the capital as they found out - in the middle of the night. What Aime caught on film was not what she went there expecting. (The governor's recall vote is on June 6th.)  Here's the trailer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP0jM4P5bmg .

Tonight's my first yoga class at Equinox, down the street. The studio is beautiful, especially during the candle light yoga class. The shampoo, conditioner, soap and lotion is all Kiehl's.