BLUE NEON NIGHT is one of the first films I've seen that is about a writer's reasons why and I'm already ordering his book "The Narrows," as the first Micheal Connelly I'm going to read.
His genre is detective fiction. He has a consistent character - the detective - through his whole series of books. In this DVD Connelly discusses the way Los Angeles as a city, a city that is a sunny place full of shady characters, informs his fiction. The film itself consists of brief passages in which the author discusses his writing, along with readings of various passages that mention the streets and buildings of Los Angeles, which are filmed as if you were going on a ride with the detective. Prior to making his living as an author, Connelly was a journalist with a beat. Not a native, he found LA to be his city, a city where you can find everything including the contradictions.
LINKING TO HIS OFFICIAL WEB SITE NOW!
2/19/12
DIANE VON FURSTENBERG : A SIGNATURE LIFE : BOOK EXCERPT
DIANE VON FURSTENBERG with LINDA BIRD FRANCKE : A SIGNATURE LIFE : BOOK EXCERPT
about designing a perfume.
pages 104-105
"I want something that simply smells good, like cut fresh flowers, a scent you can inhale and almost swallow, like you can with the smell of a roasting chicken," I told people at the different companies, whose perfumers are called "noses."...
"I understood what I meant, but the chemists and noses did not. The poor account executives kept bringing in new notes in various combinations to our office, but they were always too heavy, too obvious, too reminiscent of another fragrance of another time.
"I tried words such as "alive," "Up," and "Open: and urged them to use only white flowers such as jasmine, honeysuckle, lilac, hyacinth, gardenia. But not gardenias in full flower; young, green gardenias has the lighter, fresher scent I was looking for. But nothing came of my efforts. After I had sniffed and worn and rejected a hundred or so samples, we were stalemated.
about designing a perfume.
pages 104-105
"I want something that simply smells good, like cut fresh flowers, a scent you can inhale and almost swallow, like you can with the smell of a roasting chicken," I told people at the different companies, whose perfumers are called "noses."...
"I understood what I meant, but the chemists and noses did not. The poor account executives kept bringing in new notes in various combinations to our office, but they were always too heavy, too obvious, too reminiscent of another fragrance of another time.
"I tried words such as "alive," "Up," and "Open: and urged them to use only white flowers such as jasmine, honeysuckle, lilac, hyacinth, gardenia. But not gardenias in full flower; young, green gardenias has the lighter, fresher scent I was looking for. But nothing came of my efforts. After I had sniffed and worn and rejected a hundred or so samples, we were stalemated.
2/16/12
ONLY YOU MARISA TOMEI and ROBERT DOWNEY JUNIOR
"Only You," was a Romantic Comedy I thoroughly enjoyed. Maybe that's because I'm a fan of Robert Downey Junior, or because this film had an element of synchronicity and magic to it.
"Damon Brinkley" is the buzz word: Character Faith Corvatch of Pittsburgh is 9 days away from marrying a podiatrist when a friend of her fiancé calls to say he's in Italy and won't make the wedding. Faith was 11 when, while using a Ouija board with her brother, she asked for the name of her future husband and what did it spell ? "Damon Brinkley."
(I played the Ouija board once with a teenage friend and when we asked what spirit was communicating it spelled "Jesus Christ." So much for my girlfriend pushing on her end to make it spell. I got the hell out of her too fluffy pink bedroom and ran all the way home and that big full moon sitting on the top of the hill sure did spook me!)
Ok, but then when Faith is a full blown teenager, she goes to a crystal ball reader and guess who the mystic says she will marry? "Damon Brinkley!" The man on the phone from Italy is named "Damon Brinkley." How could she get married without first meeting her soul mate?
Of course she has a couple friends who support her choice, though they see that if she could do this then maybe she shouldn't get married. What follows (I won't spoil it for you) is a romp through Italy.
The movie ends with Faith knowing just who Mr. Right is. Ha!
Re-edited Sept 2013
2/12/12
CASANOVA'S LOVE LETTERS : CHRISTINE TRZYNA FILM REVIEW
The world's greatest lover, or a man so controversial in his own time that it wasn't until the 1960's that his sexsational memoirs could be published?
This BFS Entertainment (Canada) three disc video was fascinating and so well done that I listened to the entire miniseries twice! (OK I was also crocheting at the time!) Subtitle "The Key to Immortality is to lead a life worth remembering." So, Casanova started out in life as a musician - a fiddler - born into a theater family in Venice Italy.
His second chance in life was to go into the priesthood. He fell in with wine, women, and rich patrons.
He was also, like many at the time, someone who grew fascinated with the mystical search for the elixir of life (Kabbala and other interests not Catholic (though he apparently continued to worship and go to Mass into his elderhood), and perhaps sexual escapades were part of that. Maybe sexual experimentation was not the point at all. Or maybe in the 19th century in Europe love and romance were very much part of seduction?
I don't want to ruin this film experience for you by telling you the whole story... Of course part of the question is, do we have an erroneous view of the morals of 18th century Europe? Is the way he lived so unlike the way so many are living today?
C 2011 Christine Trzyna Book Review All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
This BFS Entertainment (Canada) three disc video was fascinating and so well done that I listened to the entire miniseries twice! (OK I was also crocheting at the time!) Subtitle "The Key to Immortality is to lead a life worth remembering." So, Casanova started out in life as a musician - a fiddler - born into a theater family in Venice Italy.
His second chance in life was to go into the priesthood. He fell in with wine, women, and rich patrons.
He was also, like many at the time, someone who grew fascinated with the mystical search for the elixir of life (Kabbala and other interests not Catholic (though he apparently continued to worship and go to Mass into his elderhood), and perhaps sexual escapades were part of that. Maybe sexual experimentation was not the point at all. Or maybe in the 19th century in Europe love and romance were very much part of seduction?
I don't want to ruin this film experience for you by telling you the whole story... Of course part of the question is, do we have an erroneous view of the morals of 18th century Europe? Is the way he lived so unlike the way so many are living today?
C 2011 Christine Trzyna Book Review All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
2/10/12
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