Vickie Lester reads you a story | BEGUILING HOLLYWOOD

It’s that time of year, my angels. Get comfy and I’ll read you a story… Ketamine Christmas, 1991

December 25, 2019 by Vickie Lester

I didn’t know what to get you, so… This story is 34 minutes long, and in fine Hollywood fashion it’s about a dysfunctional family’s Christmas. I hope you have as much fun listening as I did recording.

Categories: Audio, Books, Christmas, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Fiction, Film, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Short Stories, Story, Uncategorized • Tags: #hollywoodandmine, Archangel, audio, Christmas, Hollywood story, home for the holidays, Ketamine, short story, Vickie Lester reads you a story

Happy Eve, sugar-plums!

December 24, 2019 by Vickie Lester

If you visit here (the website, not the downtown location where this picture was taken) on Christmas Day you can hear a short story which turned into a not-so-short half hour recording about a Hollywood holiday twenty-eight years ago. In the meantime something suitable for the children by Clement Clarke Moore (because the one I’ll be reading you tomorrow is most certainly not). The image of A Visit from St. Nicholas in the author’s hand is courtesy of the New-York […]

Categories: Architecture, Art, Culture, Design, Film, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Photography, Uncategorized • Tags: a visit from st nicholas, Christmas Eve, Clement Clarke Moore, Dasher Dancer Prancer Vixen Comet Cupid Donner and Blitzen, DTLA, Hollywood Holiday, Vickie Lester reads you a story

And lo, chiaroscuro!

December 24, 2019 by Vickie Lester

How did I achieve this painterly effect? Sit tight and I will tell you how to go all Caravaggio for Christmas. First do a load of hoodies and sweat pants in the laundry. Put them in the dryer and when they come out all toasty and warm pile them on top of you on the couch. Find your phone. Set it on portrait, then stage light, strike your best Leonardo-esque (I mean the Renaissance painter, not the actor) pose. Have […]

Categories: Art, Christmas, Culture, Design, DIY, Film, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Photography, Uncategorized • Tags: #hollywoodandmine, Caravaggio, chiaroscuro, Christmas, Christmas cheer, Leonardo, painterly, Vickie Lester reads you a story

Is it any wonder they used to call it Tinseltown?

December 23, 2019 by Vickie Lester

Last year I arrived in Los Angeles via train after a long sojourn back east. When the Sunset Limited rolled into town at five a.m. a few days before Christmas, I, with my runny nose and high fever, stepped outside feeling pretty dreadful. Yet when I saw the tall palms and glorious angles of Union Station my heart soared — I’m not ashamed to say it, there really is no place like home. As the sun rose — tucked into […]

Categories: Architecture, Art, Christmas, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Photography, Travel, Uncategorized • Tags: #hollywoodandmine, art deco, Christmas, Christmas in Los Angeles, Union Station, Vickie Lester reads you a story

Home for the holidays

December 22, 2019 by Vickie Lester

Somehow our Christmas prep involved me saving a coffee table from the trash heap. Shown here with our delightful spokesmodel, The Mister. A friend of ours had bought it from a movie studio’s sale in the 1980s. For many years it sat in our shared rental in the Hollywood Hills. At one point we slapped a coat of house-paint on the leather cover (what can I say, we were young). Then we grew up, bought houses, and the table that […]

Categories: Art, Christmas, Design, Hollywood, Movies, Uncategorized • Tags: #hollywoodandmine, Christmas, Hollywood Style, home for the holidays, Kirk Douglas, Vickie Lester reads you a story

Waiting for the Muse to Skype

November 28, 2019 by Vickie Lester

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. Lily and her coyotes (well, they would doubtless have been surprised to discover […]

Categories: Art, Audio, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Fiction, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Life, Literature, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Pets, Photography, Publishing, Story, Thanksgiving, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: Cecil Beaton, coyote, Happy Thanksgiving, Los Angeles, Thanksgiving, Vickie Lester reads you a story

Aftershocks in Los Angeles, how about a tanker of coffee and a recap of the novel so far?

March 30, 2014 by Vickie Lester

*** The beginning… *** and some of the sexy bits… *** Now, my angels… Not to be craven, or anything… But there are occasional ‘quakes in L.A., what with all the big egos and wait…is that another tremblor? I thought Spielberg dropped his wallet! I thought my husband finally picked up his shoes! I thought George Clooney fell on bended knee to…oh, George, you shouldn’t have! From Cartier? No? Still, it can be a wee bit disorienting and while one […]

Categories: Advertising, Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Fiction, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Humor, Life, Literature, Los Angeles, Marriage, Memoir, Movies, Mystery, Photography, Publishing, Relationships, Romance, Story, Theater, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #ForallthoseHollywoodWiveswhoarealsoHollywoodBeards, #myfirstnovel, #vickielesterbook1, aftershocks, earthquakes, George Clooney proposes, GeorgeClooney, https://vickielester.com/book-1, husband, If Audrey Hepburn had a potty mouth, It's in His Kiss by Vickie Lester, Los Angeles, marriage, Spielberg, the beginning, the saucy bits, tremblor, Vickie Lester reads you a story, vickielester.com/book-1

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