art | BEGUILING HOLLYWOOD

I love Los Angeles. I love the light. I love the eclecticism and the architecture. Most of all I love the people.

May 19, 2014 by Vickie Lester

So, when I satirize, or say dark things about the city in my novel, know that it comes from an abiding devotion to a place I call home. These pictures are not from my home. This place was designed by Rudolph Schindler and opened to the public this past Sunday by a generous soul who let us enjoy the intersection between architecture, art, and tranquility. And yes, I did walk in and say, “Wow!” Today there will be only one […]

Categories: Advertising, Architecture, Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Fiction, Film, Friendship, Gardening, History, Hollywood, Humor, Life, Literature, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Mystery, Palm Springs, Photography, Publishing, Romance, Story, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #itsinhiskiss, architecture, art, available on Amazon, design, eclecticism, Hollywood insider reaveals all, home, humor, Kindle version coming soon, kindness, light, Los Angeles, love, mystery, romance, Rudolph Schindler, satire, sunshine

William Faulkner’s Little-Known Jazz Age Drawings, with a Side of Literary Derision | Brain Pickings

April 16, 2014 by Vickie Lester

Have you read Maria Popova’s always intriguing “Brain Pickings”? Beautifully written and researched pieces…an eclectic and fascinating collection of essays, often slyly funny… In 1916, as he was about to turn twenty, Faulkner began contributing poems and sketches to the Mississippian, the literary magazine at Ole Miss — the University of Mississippi, in which he would enroll three years later for a brief three-semester stint before dropping out in 1920. But Faulkner continued to draw for the magazine until 1925 […]

Categories: Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Fiction, History, Life, Literature, Paris, Poetry, Publishing, Story, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: art, Books, culture, illustration, Jazz, literature, out of print vintage, William Faulkner

Gala and Salvador Dalí — a post for WJM

December 4, 2013 by Vickie Lester

“I name my wife: Gala, Galushka, Gradiva; Oliva, for the oval shape of her face and the colour of her skin; Oliveta, diminutive for Olive; and its delirious derivatives Oliueta, Oriueta, Buribeta, Buriueteta, Suliueta, Solibubuleta, Oliburibuleta, Ciueta, Liueta. I also call her Lionette, because when she gets angry she roars like the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lion” WJM… I’ll have to do a little more research to see if there is any history of Dalí left in Monterey. Cheers dear, and welcome to […]

Categories: Art, Blogging, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, History, Hollywood, Life, Literature, Marriage, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Story, Theater, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized • Tags: art, Del Monte Lodge, Gala Dalí, history, Hollywood, Man Ray, MGM, MGM lion, Monterey, painter, photography, Russian, Salvador Dali, Salvador Dali hosts a party, Surrealism

Camelot

November 21, 2013 by Vickie Lester

But there’s this one thing I wanted to say… I’m so ashamed of myself… When Jack quoted something, it was usually classical… no, don’t protect me now… I kept saying to Bobby, I’ve got to talk to somebody, I’ve got to see somebody, I want to say this one thing, it’s been almost an obsession with me, all I keep thinking of is this line from a musical comedy, it’s been an obsession with me… At night before we’d go […]

Categories: Blogging, Books, History, Life, Marriage, Photography, Relationships, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: art, Artist, assassin, assassination, Camelot, Camelot interview, Dior, fashion, fashion photography, grace, graphic artist, Hyannisport, illustration, interview, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, JFK, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Life Magazine, Mark Shaw, Memoir, René Gruau, T.H. White, Walter Cronkite

René Gruau – fashion illlustrator

November 20, 2013 by Vickie Lester

It’s all in the eye of the beholder: I find this illustration both somber and vital, and I wanted to post something that reminded me of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Let the skeptics snort about Camelot, but there was something during the Kennedy years that was magic. Jackie was more of that than anyone admitted for a long while. She smoothed the rough Kennedy edges. As much as anyone in those heady days, she grasped the epic dimensions of the […]

Categories: Advertising, Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, fashion, History, Life, Paris, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized • Tags: art, Artist, Camelot, fashion, graphic artist, illustration, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, René Gruau

HOUSTON, WE HAVE LIFT-OFF

August 16, 2013 by Vickie Lester

Dearest friends… All the visa paperwork for a certain young man has come through and he’s on schedule for departure this Wednesday for four years of study overseas: I couldn’t be happier or prouder. Here at Beguiling we are over and out through the weekend. Keep your wings level my angels, and we’ll see you soon.

Categories: Architecture, Art, Blogging, Culture, Design, Education, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Humor, Life, Literature, Los Angeles, Marriage, Memoir, Movies, Parenting, Photography, Relationships, Story, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: 1931, architecture, art, art deco, Artist, aviation, behind the scenes, California in the 1930s, celebrate, design, fashion, film, happy, history, Hollywood, Los Angeles, overseas, photography, proud, Royal Academy of Design, student, student visa, The Flying Wing, University, visa

George Clooney To Hedge Fund Honcho Daniel Loeb: Stop Spreading Fear At Sony – Yahoo! Movies

August 2, 2013 by Vickie Lester

“Hedge fund guys do not create jobs, and we do,” he said. “On the movie we just made, we put 300 people to work every day. I’m talking about nice, regular people, and when we shot in a town, we’d put another 300 people to work. This is an industry that thrives; there are thousands of workers who make films. You want to see what happens if outside forces start to scare the industry and studios just make tent poles […]

Categories: Art, Blogging, Culture, Entertainment, Film, Hollywood, Life, Los Angeles, Movies, News, Politics, Story, Uncategorized • Tags: art, civic responsibility, daniel loeb, ebb and flow, fear, films, George Clooney, hedge fund, jobs, money, new, responsibility, sony, sony movies, studios, tent poles, the industry

FOUND ART IN HOLLYWOOD

April 28, 2013 by Vickie Lester

Sometimes I just post things that are pretty — this is a corner in our living room. The deco tile is architectural salvage and the wooden cylinder is industrial – once used as part of an assembly that printed wallpaper.

Categories: Architecture, Art, Culture, Design, DIY, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Photography, Uncategorized • Tags: architectural salvage, art, design, found art, Hollywood Style, home, home decorating, industrial salvage, living room, Los Angeles, neutrals, printing press, tile, wallpaper

SALVADOR DALI STAYS AT A HOUSE DESIGNED BY THOMAS JEFFERSON AND OWNED BY THE NOTORIOUS CARESSE CROSBY

February 26, 2013 by Vickie Lester

She patented the first modern bra at the age of 19 in the year of 1910 and married Harry Crosby after scandal and divorce. They joined the expatriate crowd in Paris in the 1920s where they published early works of twentieth century greats at Black Sun Press. Theirs was an unconventional and fraught alliance, the best account I’ve read can be found here: Amazon.com: Black Sun: The Brief Transit and Violent Eclipse of Harry Crosby (New York Review Books Classics) […]

Categories: Architecture, Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, DIY, Entertainment, fashion, Film, History, Hollywood, Life, Literature, Los Angeles, Marriage, Movies, Parenting, Photography, Relationships, Story, Theater, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: 20th century authors, actor, architecture, art, behind the scenes, Black Sun Press, Caresse Crosby, celebrities, design, Ernest Hemingway, fashion, film, Hampton Manor, Harry Crosby, history, Hollywood, inventor of the bra, James Joyce, Life Magazine, Mrs. Phelps Crosby, photography, publisher, Salvador Dali, Thomas Jefferson

BEGUILING HOLLYWOOD

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Tag: art