Dressing up as Cleopatra – Vivien Leigh 1945
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instagram: toobeguiling, behind the scenes
“Lily harbored a den of coyotes in her back yard. They went about their nocturnal haunts stealthy-like, unless they were circling to prey and then they raised all hell. Yelps and howls, high-pitched and stunningly shrill, vibrated in the dark. In echoing canyons or flat streets stretching to meet the hilly wilderness, Los Angelinos — both dreaming and about to be eaten — startled into heightened perception.”
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Want to hear the beginning of a story? Let me read to you, link in the profile.
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#goodmorning #audio #losangeles #noir #goodreads #historichomes #amreading #amwriting #writer #storytime #bookworm #bibliophile #december #mood #explore #create #blackandwhitephotography #portrait #interiordesign #elegance #booklover #creative #antique
Do nondisclosure agreements apply to #fiction? I don’t think so... Link in the profile.
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“I had become a suit, and I vowed to myself, if not anyone else, I would never forget movies were made on cavernous stages and dusty streets all over the world; not in the corporate tower where my old boss had held sway.
What of my old boss? The guitar-strumming scion of the old Hollywood family had decamped the area for the trout streams of Montana... I do get distracted sometimes. Please forgive me. What was it I meant to say? Oh, yes. I remember. In Hollywood employees are contractually obligated not to squeal on social media about the internal workings of the dream factory.”
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#romanàclef, #hollywood, #studio, #behindthescenes, #amwriting, #writer, #novel, #explore, #reading, #visualsoflife, #agameoftones, #bookquotes, #wordsmith, #reflection #postitfortheaesthetic
Night falls on the red roofs of California. Sweet dreams.
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#historic #historichome, #historichouse #historicpreservation #oldhomelove #architecture #architecturelovers #exteriordesign #architecturaldetail #style #design #nightphotography #lightandshadow #nightsky #uplighting #nightscape #garden #curbappeal #losangeles #houseportrait #captivatinghouses #romantichome #californiadreaming #goodnight
What am I hiding? A spider bite! Do I hide much in the pages of my new Hollywood novel? Nothing you won’t have fun trying to figure out...
“Late in the summer following my sophomore year, I was living in the Beverly Hills home of a blonde former figure skater. She had met Mr. Major Movie Star on a commercial promoting California cheese...arguably a metaphor for something.”
There are more pages up on the blog today, link in the profile.
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#portrait #author #authorlife #blackandwhitephotography #bookaddiction #bookstagram #bibliophile #booklover #behindthescenes #hollywood #moviemagic #lovereading #bookworm #bookish #lovereading #excerpt #amwriting #readers #lovetowrite #californiadreaming
See what’s unfurling on the blog, it might be a new #Hollywood novel...
“Life never is a simple linear narrative; it’s too messy and senseless. On the other hand a memoir, no, make that a novel (a much less contentious prospect) is an attempt to resolve the random acts of a life and give them meaning — put them into some sort of context. Whether this reads as simply an insider chronicle of a life lived in Hollywood or another of those cautionary tales about the same, I’ll leave to you, gentle reader, my unknown confidant.”
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#bookaddiction #bookstagram #bibliophile #author #booklover #mustread #petals #rose #behindthescenes #moviemagic #lovereading #bookworm #bookish #ilovereading #amwriting #readers
It’s a good night when @kfullermendez calls me from the east to herald a moonrise over the west. #goodnight #supermoon #sweetdreams @heybillkuhn @antiquegoddess
“These stories seem at times to be stories of a long-lost world when the city of New York was still filled with river light, when you heard the Benny Goodman quartets from a radio in the corner stationary store, and when almost everybody wore a hat. Here is the last of that generation of chain smokers who woke the world in the morning with their coughing, who used to get stoned at cocktail parties and perform obsolete dance steps like “the Cleveland Chicken,” sail for Europe on ships, who were truly nostalgic for love and happiness, and whose gods were as ancient as yours and mine, whoever you are.”
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I picked up a sweet #volume of short stories in the new year, continuing my #love affair with fictional Manhattan.
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#stories #manhattan #nyc #johncheever #bookbliss #bibliophile #exploretocreate #empirestatebuilding #architecture #streetscape #citylife #literature #author #writer #bookstagram #bookstoread #cityscape #skyscraper #bluesky #writerslife #thestoriesofjohncheever
Traveling SW I promised @heybillkuhn I’d take pictures... Over breakfast in the dining car I learned how to bet the horses. Sharing a meal with people I’ve never met is now one of my favorite things to do.
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So relaxing watching the country roll by, thinking about what to make for Christmas dinner back home. #Pavlova? #ChocolateMousse? For recipes check out the link in the profile.
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#trainstation #exploretocreate #artofvisuals #waiting #portrait #citylife #architecture #homewardbound #urban #dawn #interior #graphicdesign #art #lifeisbeautiful #journey #style #friends #everyonehasastory #itsinhiskissbyvickielester #amwriting another #hollywood #novel
Drenched in romance.What images.I knew nothing of this film.Amazing stills.
Strange to think that Cleopatra was Greek and had apparently not a drop of Egyptian blood.
Part of the Ptolemaic dynasty – there’s a book you might like called: Cleopatra: A Life, by Stacy Schiff – I couldn’t put it down.
Vickie,yes she was.I have not heard of the book to be honest,but will see if public library can order me a copy.I have a big problem with reading these days-not enough time.I have two things stacking up constantly-books and DVDs-eventually I get to go through them.
Vickie,I just quickly looked up the film on Wiki and will go back to it.What an odd thing it was that the director ordered sand from Egypt to get the right colour as well.I am now trotting off to find a DVD of the film.Thanks for the posting.
That’s realism!
Dearest V
One I’ve seen!
That shot of Viv in full headgear is actually a rather convincing resemblance to much Ancient Egytian statuary… but this was not to be her great epic…
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
After all… tomorrow is another day. 😉
She’s gorgeous. I haven’t read Schiff’s book but have heard, from others as well, how great it is.
I know the film rights to it were purchased by David Fincher — interesting to see what he’ll do with ancient Egypt.
Ah! It will be interesting. If you have some little views in your stats from Australia, some of them will be my daughter who is a Cleopatra fan. She tells me of ardent debates on Tumblr about Cleopatra, the real one. Fascinating how Cleopatra continues to influence our lives.
The shadow cast by historical events and persons if often very long-for good or ill and often a mixture of both.Its not hard to see for example how the history of the crusades still effects both parts of The Middle East as well as our responses to it.
Ah, petite, dark-haired, haunting Vivien. The most beguiling, thoroughly glorious Cleopatra in these pictures. Thank You, Vickie.
The writer Steven Saylor has penned a series of murder mysteries set in the Ancient World, featuring the fictional Roman Gordianus the Finder. What really makes the books work is the depiction of character and the politics and society of Rome and beyond. The first novel of Saylor’s I read – and my favorite – deals with Cleopatra et al and is both well-researched and compelling. Certainly worth seeking out.
Oh, as an aside, an oft-overlooked Cleopatra is Amanda Barrie in the very silly, vulgar but funny British spoof Carry On Cleo. Shot on some of Cleopatra’s leftover sets it is, for all its broadness, much more entertaining than the Taylor behemoth! Oops. Bitchy me! A famed example of the fantastically terrible jokes within, Caesar (camp, waspish, and, finally, tragic comic actor Kenneth Williams) yelling “Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it In-fer-me!” Bwahahaha! Yep, I grew up with that stuff! 🙂
George,Carry on Cleo-Ah yes I remember it well.Maybe you have to be British to like Carry On films-maybe not.I am still picking them up at Charity shops over here after they were given away with newspapers.Kenneth Williams was a National Treasure and could make anything funny as far as I am concerned.
To the library I go… And perhaps YouTube for Carry on Cleo?
Vickie,there is a good/bad Carry On film called Carry on Screaming sends up Frankenstein etc.Have not seen it in years.Dumb as a rock but somehow appealing.For my money however-The Young Frankenstein.