Family

C is for CARPET

Arriving at 11:00 AM to prep, have our auras red, act like Mary Poppins and have a dove land in my head. All in the name of glamour??

Academy of Arts at Academy Awards

Great to see the movie "Theeb" in the line up of outstanding Foreign Film Nominees at Samuel Goldwyn Theater today during Oscar Week. The Academy of Art students can be very proud.
The Director, Naji Abu Nowar, honored his entire crew and gave a terrific presentation about the generosity and creativity of his team, living with Bedouins for a year and hiring them to play roles using their inherent acting skills - which presented challenges and opportunities to depict native character and culture. Imagine "The Revenant"set in the desert. It is the first nomination for a Jordanian film and Nowar's first film. All five nominees are under 40. An innovative, diverse, passionate vision - from five different continents.

Now available on iTunes.

Red Carpet pics and picks

We got a backstage tour of the Red Carpet, Interview Room and hint of what's being served at the bar.
The votes are in for what Lauren is wearing on Sunday. Look for her dashing around starting at 5:30 AM.

Ready for the rain and reign

Friday night before Sunday's show, the Red Carpet is being rolled out and the rain tent readied and Lauren does her final dress check (she's got to be able to move through the crowd). She's the reigning QP(Queen of the Press).

Bad Hair Day

Or maybe a bit too much pre-Byzantine Botox which gives rise to an ode:

Pity the Beautiful
The ancients so frozen
In marble and bronze
Clearly the Chosen.
Perhaps she's a Vestal
Or lover of Nero
Or she is a he,
A warrior hero.
Go right ahead,
Try if you might,
There are very few rhymes
For hermaphrodite.

In any case, apologies to Dana Gioia and J.P.Getty for besmirching both poetry and sculpture in one fell swoop.

Let the buzz begin!!!

Oscar starts out looking a lot like molded chocolate and the carpet is surprisingly pink, but all this will come together in the next few days.

Let's Put on a Show!!!

And so Oscar Week begins with the screenings and panel discussions of all the nominated Short and Feature Documentaries,Short Live Action and Animated Films and Foreign Films. It's a film-lover's heaven not just for old white men, glamour gals and gossip.
This evening, one of the woman directors eloquently and optimistically pointed out the POWER of documentary film: On Monday, her film ("The Girl in the River") was viewed by the President and leaders of Pakistan and that very day they enacted a national mandate making "honor killings" illegal.
Here's a sampling from some of the ten films tonight: a nurse's courage dealing with Ebola in her country, the long-term effects of Agent Orange on a Vietnamese teen aspiring to be an artist, citizen heroes in the Ukraine and Mexican border towns, what happens when the death penalty comes knocking on your family's door, and a nearly silent film revealing the long-held secrets of Indonesian genocide. These are NOT white girl problems...

Who needs to travel to eat?

Travel to Art stays home for a day of cooking with Kay Baumhefner. We gathered together to chop, scrub, sauté, flavor, add cream, taste, sip, chat and even dance to make a most delectable fish stew. There is no camera that could capture the fragrances, conviviality or profound satisfaction of such a nourishing celebration of everything Spring.