Here are some quick updates of this past week. Finished Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff. I loved the information about Egypt and Cleo and Mark Antony, but I was missing dialogue (the book is serious nonfiction). Still, Schiff impressed me with her knowledge and Cleo impressed me with her sheer tenacity. My office at home is [...]

Posted in Ink, Movies, San Diego Writers, art, books, crafts, cute photos of me, fiction, my latest man-crush, my writing, poetry, shopping, teaching No Comments »

Ok, that’s a little misleading…a couple of weeks ago I had a letter to the editor published in the print edition Entertainment Weekly, but hey, it’s a publication, right? A few people emailed me to say they had seen it. Click below to see/read it. Rob in EW My letter was regarding a fantastic review [...]

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A few weeks ago LA Times book critic David L. Ulin gave a talk at San Diego Writers, Ink (at their venue, that is– The Ink Spot) and he was fantastic. He was in conversation with San Diego’s Arthur Salm, who is also pretty great. (by the by, Mr. Ulin is also quite the Silver [...]

Posted in books, fiction, my latest man-crush, nonfiction, writers 1 Comment »

Did you happen to read the piece in the January 3rd NewYorker on Joan Crawford? It was called “Escape Artist: The Case for Joan Crawford” and was written by David Denby. I like how the subtitle in the table of contents said: The Joan Crawford Problem. The piece is mostly a review of Donald Spoto’s [...]

Posted in Movies, books, nonfiction, writers 1 Comment »

Did you watch the Golden Globes last night? I’m a sucker for awards shows, though I don’t watch all of them, mostly, of course, the Oscars, the Emmys, Golden Globes, and Grammys (and sometimes MTV Music Awards). I thought that Ricky Gervais started sort of slow but then he picked up momentum with some REALLY [...]

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Latest addition to my vintage paperback book collection: Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl– with the 1959 George Stevens movie tie-in (the book features actress Millie Perkins on the cover). My other vintage paperbacks are here. And here. And here. (click on the link on the sidebar for vintage books to see others [...]

Posted in Movies, books, nonfiction, shopping, vintage books 1 Comment »

I was thinking that putting a picture from The Poseidon Adventure on my New Year’s blog entry might be too foreboding but what the hell! I love the movie– you know, massive tidal wave flips over a cruise ship and survivors, including Shelley Winters, Red Buttons, and Pamela Sue Martin, have to climb their way [...]

Posted in Movies, art, books, cats, collage, crafts, cute photos of me, fiction, hermia, postcards, ted, vintage books, writers No Comments »

So I’ve decided to read Cleopatra: A Life, a biography of the queen of eyeliner (of the Nile, I mean) by Stacy Schiff before I read the other book.  Ted’s aunt gave it to me for Christmas and I’m very excited about it. I was obsessed with Egypt as a kid. This was during the [...]

Posted in Movies, books, my latest man-crush, nonfiction, travel, writers No Comments »

I’m off for about three and a half weeks, which means writing and reading and being creative. I’m almost finished reading the book I spoke about in my previous post (The Prince, The Showgirl, and Me) and I’m eying a stack of books by my bed. Which one next? The Pure Lover by David Plante? [...]

Posted in art, books, crafts, fiction, my writing, nonfiction, writers 1 Comment »

The end of my semester. How it flew by– but doesn’t it always? I taught at a new school this semester and enjoyed it immensely. There’s a full-time position opening up that i’m applying for… cross fingers for me. I can’t believe it’s my winter break (and Christmas!). Cannot wait to get to some serious [...]

Posted in Movies, Uncategorized, books, my writing, nonfiction, writers 2 Comments »