Cafe Lebowitz Hits The Road

Yesterday we filmed Fran L conversing with Toni Morrison at the DGA theater in midtown. The night was filled with wit and humor (Fran delineated both for us). It was great to see some old friends in the camera department at the new year. In particular, Rick G had cut off his Bush inspired ponytail. He'd been growing it for eight years and said only when Bush left the white house would he chop it off. The new do and his stories from the inauguration were inspiring.

Freezing Fog Oasis

I touched down for my 26 hour stay in Birmingham England yesterday morn about 5:30am. As we landed, the pilot warned us of the freezing fog outside. I had never heard of this. Sounded nasty. We were whisked away to our non descript hotel and caught an hour sleep. We met for a traditional english breakfast (tomatoes, baked beans, toast, sausage, etc.) and walked to the convention center where this commercial will take place. Birmingham proper is about 20 minutes away. So we didn't get to see any of the city. What we did see was an unheated massive 12,000 square meter space. Warehouse, really. About 6 hours later we finished up our recce, scout, production meeting and retired back to our empty hotel. Empty restaurant, empty bar, empty reception.
We hopped in a cab and made our way to a small town 30 minutes away called Leamington Spa. Looks to be a really cute little village. Near Warwick Castle. There we drove into a tight turnaround infront of an ivy covered entrance. Inside, we found our head people at the Mallory Court. Very nice old manor house converted into a hotel and restaurant. Amazing meal at the Brasserie. Fantastic staff. Had a great time.
Drove back to "near" Birmingham, got a few more hours sleep. A short 3 minute drive back to the airport and Continental flight CO27. We landed in Newark to same weather... freezing fog!

Oscar Buzz

The documentary has been nominated for an Oscar. And it has only one serious contender as I can see. I think this film has a better than 50/50 chance to walk away with the gold! Congratulations!
Another interview with Ellen here

Day 1

1 More Day

Via Politico, Team Obama isn't wasting any time. They've got a very, very busy work plan from the first hour of the new administration:
Vans will be poised at the Capitol to take a few top aides of Barack Obama's to their new offices at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. as soon as he is sworn in, transition aides told Politico.

About 20 senior officials have had their paperwork cleared to enter the White House complex on Tuesday. Some will attend a traditional lunch with the new president in the Capitol, then get to work while the inaugural parade is under way.

From Paul Krugman:
Old-fashioned voodoo economics — the belief in tax-cut magic — has been banished from civilized discourse. The supply-side cult has shrunk to the point that it contains only cranks, charlatans, and Republicans.

From Reuters:
A Reuters summary of more than a dozen newspapers spanning the globe found an almost universal lugubriousness about the havoc they felt Bush had caused to the world. "The United States was once the symbol of justice in the world but that has been damaged by Bush," wrote Austria's Wiener Zeitung. "A web of manipulation has cost America $900 billion and the lives of 4,000 soldiers -- along with at least 500,000 Iraqis."
"Papers in Canada and France say he's the worst president ever. An outlet in Scotland says Bush drove the world to the brink of economic collapse. A pan-Arabic newspaper penned a headline, "The Joke's On Us."

"Goodbye to the worst president ever," declared the Toronto Sun's editorial page. "Bush was an unmitigated disaster, failing on the big issues from the invasion of Iraq to global warming, Hurricane Katrina and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression."

Fireplace

We went to a fellow's moving sale friday night and picked this Malm fireplace for the back patio. I always wanted some kind of fireplace for the new house and this will be a great addition.

Green Bathroom

This is what we are thinking about for the new bathroom. Trying to keep it in a 1940's period. Researching the green color tiles yesterday brought up the fun fact that only the government could use green paint during WW2, and that at the end of the conflict, any shade of green on any fabric, tile, paint become super popular.
The thing that's also clairvoyantly interesting is that the top photo is from the Raleigh hotel in South Beach. I stayed there in the spring while filming.

New Year Dog

Red

Talented niece KN painted WL and I a vibrant red painting for Christmas. Now we have to figure out how to frame the two panels..... I think I like it best in a more linear way.
These panels remind me of some of Saul Bass's signature red posters of the 50's and 60's.

Turkish Gambit

A few weeks ago I wrote about the films based on Boris Akunin's Erast Fandorin character. Last week while in NYC, I came across a Russian who had put subtitles to the second and most popular film, "The Turkish Gambit". You can watch it over @ Veoh or in 12 installments on YouTube.
The subtitles are a little amateur-ish but the film is very watchable and will hopefully lead you to read the series.
" The film takes place in 1877 during the Russian-Turkish war. Erast Fandorin has just escaped from Turkish prison and is trying to get on the Russian side as soon as possible to give important information about the upcoming attack of the enemy. On his way he meets Varvara Suvorova, a young lady who is going to see her fiance - a soldier of the Russian army. Erast also knows that there is a spy somewhere in the Russian army, everyone is under suspicion."
Below are some mock up posters for the big budget western version of "The Winter Queen" being directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Milla Jovovich.

Frozen North

We arrived in Rochester the other day to a winter wonderland. There was 4" of snow last night and the icicles have encased the lights on the front bush. Nice effect. We are splitting before the real cold comes. Tuesday is predicting a high of -6

Before And After

A few photos of the house we are putting a bid in on. WL has done his photoshop magic to give us a view of how it might all look after a little updating and cleaning. And of course, how Seven might look over in his new digs.
The property has a large mexican lime tree on it as well as two fig trees. I want to put french doors leading from the master bedroom to the outdoor porch area. The inside has great bones and most of the renovations would be cosmetic rather than structural.
This is a probate sale so there is a whole court process involved which won't be settle for five to eight weeks. Bt we are keeping our fingers crossed.

Finnish Global Warming

New ad campaign in Finland by the local WWF about animals being homeless due to global warming.
Read about the ads here