You Do The Math

We finally went to see "The Devil Wears Prada" yesterday. A really good movie about the cutthroat fashion world in New York city. I know the main character of Miranda Priestly is supposedly a shallow portrait of Vogue doyenne, Anna Wintour. But I also saw a lot of Vogue original Diana Vreeland and her abrubt replacement, Grace Mirabella.
It seems skullduggery has been the norm when choosing editors over there. Each woman being surprisingly thrown over for the next editrix. Watching the movie, I did not see a recognizable Andre Leon Talley but Stanley Tucci does a nice turn as a hairless Hamish Bowles.
Back in the 1990's I did a piece at Vogue and got to see some of this cast of characters (including Polly Mellon) at work. It was a fascinating week I will always remember.

Dishing some dirt on Anna is The New York Post's Page Six

"In And Out Of Vogue" is Grace Mirabella's memoir of her editorship.

Read an except from Vreeland's "Allure" here. And she wrote one of the best fashion autobiographies ever called "DV". Ever wonder who was the first to say, "Pink is the navy blue of India"? A review of DV is here

Busy Days

It was a busy 4 days in NYC. I got to see the main locations of the next flick we are doing, Gondry's "Be Kind, Rewind". Looks like it will be an okay shoot. Then we did the nicoderm commercial with dutch director Wim Wenders. I very easy shoot over at Ceco except for the heat. Everyone sweating up a storm. Poor actors under the lights. But I suppose that's why they make the big bucks.
Saw a bunch of friends and found a few more good restaurants in brooklyn.
I head out to Los angeles this afternoon for a few days. We will be meeting friends at an outdoor screening of "Manhattan" tonight.
I believe I will be in Mexico soon. Seems the house is finally all ready to go. So we may go down for a few days to sign papers and look for architects.
Off to the airport now. ciao, John

Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell Confirmed For Casino Royale Title Song
26th July 2006

Press Release
It was announced today by producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and Sony Pictures Entertainment, that Chris Cornell, the singer/songwriter behind Soundgarden, Audioslave and Temple of the Dog, has written, in collaboration with Bond composer David Arnold, and will perform the main title song entitled "You Know My Name," for the new James Bond adventure Casino Royale.

Democracy at Risk

The mainstream media [Lou Dobbs in particular] is finally picking up on how easy it is to hack those computer voting machines. It seems it had to happen to a republican or two before it was no longer a vast left wing conspiracy. To keep up to date on all the news and goings on, read the most comprehensive blog devoted to voting irregularities. Read BradBlog.

Brad Blog

Hot Hot Hot

On Saturday, the heat peaked at 106 outside the Eagle Rock house. We took the dog out early to one of our favorite breakfast places but by 10:30am, it was too hot. We kept the dog inside in AC and we went shopping.
Today, the temp seems to have peaked at 98. Still, Seven and I are staying inside and cool. It's a good thing the weather should be cooler tomorrow, I'm heading back east to do a commercial with Wim Wenders and to start scouting the next feature. The dog should be able to cope the rest of the week.
Today we were playing tug of war and you can see who was winning.

Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Having 95,000 buried people around you is creepy at first. But then you realize you're there to see Brian DePalma's homage to Hitchcock's "Psycho"...... and then you get reallllllly creeped out.

It was a beautiful sunset. Super hot day but a little breeze at twilight. We all chomped away on cold chicken and colder white wine. Yummy.


At twilight, they started a slide show of vintage foreign movie posters. This one is an Italian poster from "Hud". Paul Newman. The screen for the night is the side of a huge mausoleum.

The movie was great. I'd never seen it. Angie Dickinson and Michael Caine are great. But the venue is truly unique and those of you in Southern California, I hope to see you next week at Woody Allen's "Manhattan".

Living Room

Finally finished re-doing the living room in Eagle rock. I just had to put up another shelf and repair a few holes. Also, I found this groovy watercolor of Hong Kong on Ebay for only $15. You can also see one of my lamps in the reflection of the mirror, the wood disks. I first made that for Amy's new house but I really liked it and made a few for me.

War Photo

Israeli school girls writing messages on mortar rounds about to be sent into southern Lebanon.

Robert Kennedy

Robert Kennedy wrote a great article about the irregularities in the 2004 elections. This is a fascinating and disturbing read for anyone interested in the state of American Democracy today.

Rolling Stone Article
And for up to the minute disclosures and news on e-voting mishaps, Bradblog is indispensable.

Sam Bassett

Love these photos from Brooklyn guy, Sam Bassett

Cemetery Film Series

I've never seen a film at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery but I think we will have to go this weekend. Love this creepy film.
Check out the whole schedule here.

Your Taxes Working for You

"The US government is insisting that prospective US evacuees from Lebanon sign a promissory note promising to reimburse the government an unspecified amount for their evacuation. Their passports will be unusable till all the money is re-paid"
The liberal editorial is here.
"I call this an absolute shame," one relative wrote. "We give billions and billions (of dollars) to help other nations; we spend billions and billions on wars and we have to charge our own trapped few thousand citizens to move them from Beirut."
The conservative WND article is here.

Jazz Series @ Hollywood and Highland

Hollywood and Highland

Last of July 4th

The last of the pics from our weekend in the mountains at Amy's cabin. 2 bedrooms, 6 adults, 5 dogs......whew!

Head Scratcher of the Day........Bush's "Good" News

"If the deficit this year matches the expectations Bush is touting, it would come in as the fourth highest ever, at $296 billion"

"This good news is no accident," Bush told taxpayers

"FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DEBT of $7.9 TRILLION = $26,750 per PERSON".

I hope you didn't spend all of that $300 check Bush gave you in 2001.
Hard to believe he's proud of having the top 4 deficits in history.

The Washington Post has the transcript from today's festivities

Green Zone

This is one of those beauty out of horror moments. I saw this AP photo from the greenzone in Iraq yesterday. I think it's an amazing war photo

More July 4th

A few more pics from our July 4th trip up to Crestline, CA and Amy's cabin

Recent Commercials

I've been seeing the JayZ commercial we did for Hewlett Packard alot. You can read about it and see part of it here.

JayZ for Hewlett Packard
Meanwhile, the new Jaguar summer nights campaign is being shown in the the States now. Several of the ads can be viewed on the Jaguar website. This is the Rome job we did in March.

Jaguar Ads
My original post

Gaffer63: Italian Jaguar Shoot

July 4th Series

Wilton and Amy conversing, reacting, and telephoning.

Barnsdall Park

Independent Shakespeare

France VS Italy

The first lady of french film, Catherine Deneuve, is the president of the Venice Film Festival this year. Famous friend to fashion icon YSL, she once boasted of her capital, “Paris is just special. I don't say that there are no other cities in America or Italy. But everybody wants to show in Paris.”

Venice Biennale

Catherine Deneuve Site (en francais)

Italian beauty, Sophia Loren plans to appear wearing only her diamond earrings next year in the infamous Pirelli calender. As she says,"Everything you see I owe to spaghetti." Mamma Mia!

The Pirelli story on Yahoo.

Pirelli Calendar Site

The Pack

Another picture from July 4th weekend. Amy and her pack of dogs. 2 of which she rescued from New Orleans after Katrina.

Screwball

Old Town Pasedena just got a bit funnier. Friday and Saturday nights will host a summer screwball comedy film festival at One Colorado. And although it's kind of a small outdoor venue, the films screening are classic 1930's comedies and well worth a looksy.
check out the schedule here

Seven Swims

We went to the mountains this weekend above Los Angeles with Seven. Being a city dog, he rarely sees big water. And he does not like ocean waves and salt water. So we took him to Lake Gregory and we saw him swimming for the first time. He went running after some ducks, plunging head first after them. He went over a drop off and sank. But instinct kicked in and he was able to doggy paddle back to us.
Afterwards, we were walking back to the car and Seven had a seizure. It was so terrifying to see him lose muscle control and shake violently. It lasted only a few minutes but we were so scared for him. And after it was over, there was no signs that it had ever happened. He was running and sniffing like normal.
We have been reading up on the web about these things and it seems over stimulation can bring on seizures in dogs. We will be taking him to the vet to get some blood work done to make sure it is not something more serious like epilepsy. But I love that he is a water loving dog and will try to get him wet again soon. But next time we will do it slower and not too crazy.

Bathroom Redux

I finally finished the Eagle Rock bathroom by putting up the light fixture we both wanted. A little touching up of the paint and the project was finally over.
The original post is here

Unleashed in Central Park

I got above 14th street yesterday to go to the Arsenal in Central Park to view pictures from Frances Sheridan's book "Unleashed". They are on the 3rd floor gallery if you have not been yet. But only until July 6th, so go now. My favorite picture was of a large tongued pooch entitled, "Lick".
Read more here or buy her book here

Apple Store and Midtown

After seeing France's pictures, I ambled down 5th Ave to the gleaming new glass cube store front of Apple. The store is underground and this green glass box beckons you entry from above.
After perusing the new toys down below, I contiuned down 5th to Rockefeller Center. I have always loved the statue of Atlas there. And above the golden fountain of Prometheus, they have the US Challenger. It will be in competition for The America's Cup.