Category Archives: Los Angeles

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living…” Dr. Suess

September 16, 2017 by Vickie Lester

I’ve gotten to the point where I’m not going to tell you my age anymore, but I still listen to Dr. Suess (pictured reading to a lucky kid above). I wonder how many generations do?

Categories: Art, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Fiction, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Photography, Story, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #amwriting another novel about Hollywood, baby boom, brain cells, Dr Suess, Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, I am a woman of a certain age

The Oliver House — glass and sunshine and all those angles — designed by Rudolph Schindler

September 12, 2017 by Vickie Lester

Completed in 1934, The Oliver House: Another view: The living room:

Categories: Architecture, Art, Culture, Design, Film, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Movies, Photography, Uncategorized • Tags: 1934, Adolf Loos, Architect, bauhaus influence, California, cantilever, cubist, Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollywood, house, Los Angeles, modern, Oliver residence, Otto Wagner, Rudolph Schindler, Silverlake, Vienna

“Let conversation cease. Let laughter flee. This is the place where death rejoices to help the living.” Giovanni Morgagni, an 18th c. physician

September 11, 2017 by Vickie Lester

On this overcast day in Southern California I wasn’t going to post anything in reference to 9/11 — more eloquent voices than mine have noted the passage of 16 years. I will just say this, a friend of mine was piloting one of the American Airlines flights up in the air that September 11th. I was awake before six in the morning when another friend called, panic stricken, and said, “Turn on your TV, something’s wrong.” I watched as the […]

Categories: Architecture, Art, Blogging, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Movies, New York, Photography, Travel, Uncategorized • Tags: "Casablanca", 9/11, American Airlines, directed by Michael Curtiz, Glendale, Grand Central Air Terminal, Manhattan, Old Hollywood, World Trade Center

“Unless you were raised by ferrets in the Catskills, you’re going to know this is a problem.” Josh Marshall

September 10, 2017 by Vickie Lester

What has this to do with baking? Let me back up a little bit and we’ll get to that. Josh Marshall is a journalist who writes about the political scene. He is astute, insightful, and sometimes he cracks me the-hell-up. So in the midst of one of his essays on nefarious insider doings with foreign powers he’ll get me to remember a point by cracking wise. At times a little levity goes a long way. Click here to read the […]

Categories: Architecture, Art, Blogging, Cooking, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Friendship, Gastronomy, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Photography, Recipes, Story, Theater, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: almond lemon cake recipe, baking, baking raises my spirits, cake, comfort baking, grandmother, holiday baking, Mother, recipe

Imagine a playwright writing a character four centuries ago that is still vividly familiar to us today… William Kuhn

September 6, 2017 by Vickie Lester

M.B. What inspired you to write a story with Prince Harry as your main character? W.K. I saw a production of Shakespeare’s two Henry IV plays. I was surprised to find how much Shakespeare’s Prince Hal resembles the modern Prince Harry. Isn’t it great when someone from today suddenly illuminates a Renaissance text? Imagine a playwright writing a character four centuries ago that is still vividly familiar to us today. Source: William Kuhn – Fascinated by History, Politics and Popular […]

Categories: Advertising, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Fiction, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Life, Literature, London, Los Angeles, Movies, Photography, Publishing, Story, Theater, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: A little laughter in grim times is better than Xanax, book promotion, British, Laurence Olivier, manybooks, monarchy, Prince Harry Boy to Man, Shakespeare, William Kuhn

“Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book, and remembering — because you can’t take it all in at once.” Audrey Hepburn

September 5, 2017 by Vickie Lester

Categories: Art, Blogging, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Fiction, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Photography, Uncategorized • Tags: #amwriting, #itsinhiskissbyvickielester, Audrey Hepburn, living is like tearing through a museum, unnatural state of self-promotion

“If you want a thing well done, get a couple of old broads to do it.” Bette Davis

September 4, 2017 by Vickie Lester

Categories: Art, Blogging, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Fiction, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Relationships, Story, Theater, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized • Tags: #amwriting another novel about Hollywood, #itsinhiskissbyvickielester, Bette Davis, Bette Davis once posed nude, forever friends and Hollywood, if you want a thing well done get a couple of old broads to do it, Lillian Gish, lillian gish bette davis the whales of august, we all have a scandalous past

Before I could read I used to leaf through everything in the house that had illustrations, which ranged from Harry the Dirty Dog, to The Divine Comedy.

September 3, 2017 by Vickie Lester

Thanks to the pictures, I had a rudimentary understanding of both. Then one day when I was about five my older brothers and sister — probably tired of my constant “read to me!” demands — sat me down and changed my world. Suddenly those inky hieroglyphs — words — marching across the page made sense. Not only were there endless stories told, there were worlds to explore, people to meet, and new ways of thinking to grasp. Now I’m going […]

Categories: Art, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Fiction, Film, History, Hollywood, Life, Literature, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #resist, absolute power corrupts absolutely, Dante inferno, Gustave Dore, I used to write screenplays, JFK, music business and the mob, power corrupts, roman à clef

“I’m not a film star, I am an actress. Being a film star is such a false life, lived for fake values and for publicity.” Vivien Leigh

September 2, 2017 by Vickie Lester

Categories: Art, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, History, Hollywood, Life, London, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Uncategorized • Tags: #amwriting another novel about Hollywood, #itsinhiskissbyvickielester, I am a woman of a certain age, I never considered myself a movie star, Vivian Leigh

← Older posts

BEGUILING HOLLYWOOD

If you want a little historical perspective you're home.