I love old movies and new books

Two things appeared to me recently that encouraged, motivated, terrified and entranced me.

One of them was a black and white classic starring Anne Baxter and Bette Davis. They other was by Kelly Cutrone.

All About Eve is a brilliant movie about an aging diva and a manipulative rising star. Anne Baxter is frighteningly brilliant and I wasn't sure whether I loved her or hated her - regardless, she is GOOD at what she does. One of my favorite aspects of the film is that there is no clear hero. The audience is never clear who they are supposed to side with; the drama queen who's career is crumbling? the ingenue who looks sweet but is a fearless liar? the best friend who isn't very exciting but does her best to hold everyone together? or the conniving, schemer of a theater critic who in the end proves to be a match for all of the characters? It is a gripping, captivating story that left me reevaluating my own ethics and speculating the inevitable rises and falls of a dramatic career.


If You Have to Cry, Go Outside. This is a brilliant book. No other way to say it. I devoured it in one four hour sitting. Alex Angst wrote a particularly good review on the blog http://goodbooksinbadtimes.wordpress.com/

"The tough-girl’s guide to a kick-a$$ life

It’s on, b*tch.

In If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You, fashion PR tycoon and reality TV boss to Whitney Port of MTV’s The Hills/The City, Kelly Cutrone proves she’s no sweet-talking mother of an author. Her writing rages against the current in that it advocates the unconventional lifestyle of the modern adventurer in Cutrone’s classic, shut-up-and-listen kind of voice. OUT is the A-to-B-to-C type of life that today’s media consumers have been catering to.

It’s Cutrone’s signature tone, coupled with her brutal-but-hilarious honesty, that makes this a refreshingly unique and spicy read. Her anecdotes – from being home- and car- less to establishing her own business to single-handedly raising a daughter (with an average of three different lovers in the house at one time) – will inspire readers to diverge from the glorified path of perfection and to follow their own hearts, minds, and mouths in whichever order suits them best. A literary chili compared to the average, low-cal celery of a book."

I highly recommend these to an up-and-coming young woman who wants to make her mark in the world.

Getting Official

Just got back from a meeting with my videographer (the aforementioned insanely talented Nicolas Wendl) and the final cut of the runway show is looking beyond fantastic! I can't wait to post it! My web designer and I have been exchanging at least five emails a day, running through mock up after mock up of the LCS Designs home page. (See our "Coming Soon" page at www.lcsdesigns.com) So exciting!

Meanwhile, LCS Designs has been getting official!

We have a logo...
A Facebook page...
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=lf#!/pages/LCS-Designs/120284238021015?ref=sgm



A LinkedIn account...
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/1158626/LCS+Designs?trk=pro_other_cmpy


A Twitter...
https://twitter.com/LCSDesigns



And BUSINESS CARDS!!!

(Designed of course by the beautiful and talented Alexa Espinoza)

I dunno about you, but this is starting to feel pretty legit.

Madness and school hasn't even started yet

This week has been complete insanity. Next week looks even better!

To make a long story short, this week has consisted of the following:

- Work at Dodge College

- Lookbook meetings with photographer and make-up artists (My photographer, Adam Ottke, is a ridiculously talented young man who spent the summer living the dream with his model girlfriend in a posh little apartment in Hollywood with an insane view. We met at a nearby Starbucks in the golden light of a perfect early morning, he bought me coffeecake and I was insanely jealous of his beautiful life. )

- Garment district hunting (Shan't tell you what I got in the garment district - trade secrets! )

- Boutique and mall scouting (This is a ridiculously fun occupation. Basically, you drive around and check out stores to see if there's a place where you would pitch your clothing line. The conclusion of Wednesday's adventure: Opening Ceremony in LA is the Holy Grail of boutiques and Santa Monica Place is a really fantastic new mall (besides, can you possibly beat the location?)

- Studying FIDM textbooks

- Dessert at the Melting Pot (consistently awesome - something about gooey chocolate...)

- Visiting my fabulous aunt in Oxnard

- Dinner with one of the guys I met on my European adventure in Ventura. (We ate at this amazing Mexican place in the Marina with a great live band and better people watching. Good night, plenty of leftovers, and I now have a vineyard to escape to once the stress finally starts to get to me)

- Day trip to San Diego to get new contact lenses

- Really cheesy Hogfather movie night

- Helped too best friends (including LCS Designs VP, Alex Angst) move back into their SoCal apartments - school starts on Monday!

In Summary:
Momentum for LCS Designs is really starting to build and at times it feels completely overwhelming, but always beyond awesome if that makes any sense. Meanwhile, the rest of life proceeds at its usual breakneck pace.

Pics from a bonfire in San Clemente last weekend. The sunset alone made the 30 min drive totally and completely worth it.

Food Files

As anticipated, I've spent most of my first week back in the apartment cooking. It's way too hot to cook before 8pm, but once that time hits, I'm invariably in the kitchen. I tend to make gigantic batches of things and then freeze them and eat them bit by bit for ages - saves money and allows for variety! Here's what I've been cooking up lately:

Banana Bread - it fell in the middle for some reason...not enough baking powder, maybe? Or just not enough time in my rather unreliable oven. The second loaf came out better.

Whole wheat carrot nut muffins. These are a breakfast staple. On busy mornings I just grab one of these as I dash out the door.

All time fav: Chocolate chip cookies. Duh!

Probably my mom's most popular casserole: Cheesy rosemary chicken bake. Here it is before...

...and after!

This bubbling mass is a curry concoction known to my family as Ugandan peanut butter chicken. I have no idea whether or not it actually comes from Uganda, but it's GOOD.

Zucchini quiche. More yum. My parents brought me a pile of produce from their garden a few days ago. The pile included three ginormous zucchinis. Thus zucchini quiche. And there's zucchini bread (sounds weird, but it's amazing, I promise) in the oven right now and zucchini madelines coming in another day or so. Yum yum and more yum :)

On Roman gods and Cathedrals

Italy.

Just the sound of the word makes me smile. Last November I visited Venice, Florence and Rome with my family, so this trip I decided to give the northwest coast and Milan a shot. (Sicily, don't you worry, I'm coming someday!)

Three trains from Nice (trains in the south of France are notoriously terrible but I had a cute Parisian adventurer named Roman to help me through) carrying my gigantic stack of luggage, and I finally arrived in Varazze, a smaller town on the coast about halfway between Nice, France and Genova, Italy. It was cute and comfortable but didn't hold a candle to Nice. I did, however, meet a young man who looked like a cross between a San Clemente surfer and a mythological Roman god, who apologized for not being able to get off work to take me to dinner but kindly pointed me towards a restaurant (called Perche No - "Why Not" in English, "Porque No" in Spanish, "Pourquoi Pas" in French...by this point my brain was thinking in four different languages which can be very confusing) where I had the most delicious muscles of my life in a seafood pasta. Fantastic.

All of the stuff I lugged around Europe...pictured in an Italian train station, probably Ventimiglia.

Varazze.

The next day, I took yet another train to Milan. There I dropped my luggage at the station and headed into the city for three hours. For basically two seconds in Milan I covered most of the bases: the Milan Cathedral, check, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, check, gelato, check, piles of leather golves, check, shopping, check, el Teatro de la Scala, check, drinking wine in a piazza, check. Done. Not a bad way to wait for a bus to the airport.

Milan Cathedral. Not exactly subtle, but very photogenic. (Metro stop is Il Duomo. Three stops from the train station)

Stained glass inside the Milan Cathedral.

Famous statue in the piazza. Note the Ray Ban sign in the background? Bienvenuto Milano.

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Statue of Leonardo de Vinci by the Teatro de la Scala.

I finally survived the airport bus (crazy Chinese tourist who hit me in the face with a curtain rod included), the Milan airport, a 15 hour overnight stay in Heathrow, and a 12 hour flight home to LAX where my wonderful friend Stephen picked me up and bought me a hamburger. SO good to be home.

My original camp in the Heathrow airport. That's before they kicked me and six other nomads out of the cafe and we had to seek refuge downstairs...oh and I'm pretty sure all the outlets in the airport shut off at midnight just to spite us.

On the plus side, I've discovered the secret to preventing jet lag. Stay up for 48 hours while traveling and then crash at 10pm local time. My body snapped right back on schedule :) - turned out to be really convenient as I had three LCS Designs meetings the next day!

Nice is Nice...if you like well-dressed beautiful people and toppless old ladies

More European adventures...

I left Barcelona early (NOTE: Never take a taxi from the center of Barcelona to the airport! I was stupid enough to try this and it cost me 38 euros!!! It was 29 until he added all of these random other charges for my "baggage" and the fact that we went to an airport and it was early in the morning... at least, that's what I could gather from my limited knowledge of Spanish. Grrr...) and arrived in Nice, France by 10:30AM.

It was beautiful.



I was staying in an adorable little hotel (Le Petite Trianon) maybe three blocks from the beach. It was owned by a friendly French couple with a kid running around - I felt like I was being welcomed into their family! After a late breakfast in a cafe in the plaza right by the hotel, I headed to the beach. Perfection.

View from my hotel window.

Of course, I'd only been settled about 30 minutes when clouds rolled in and it started to rain. That's when I learned that this is a sort of cycle for Nice. During the day, the weather changes drastically from gorgeous sunshine to warm downpour and back again repeatedly. When the sun is out, everyone piles onto the beaches and soaks it in until the rain comes back and the crowds retreat to the cafes lining the Promenade to sip wine and cocktails and continue their lounging until the sun comes back.

I fully enjoyed my submergence in the world of beautiful people, lounging, sipping, reading, browsing, people watching, indulging myself in macaroons, chocolate mousse and wine, entertaining compliments from motorcycle riding movie stars, fleeing from prowling restaurant owners interrupting my martini, and listening to music in the street playing as I drifted off to sleep past midnight that night.

I rose early to a golden morning. I walked the empty streets with my camera, basking in the quiet beauty of the sleeping city. Then it was back to the hotel, a brief trek to the train station and off to Italy!

Nice in the morning...

Perfection.

Spanish Lost and Found

To continue the recap of my European adventure...

After three fantasy days in Paris, it was time to return to my favorite country (after the US and Italy): Spain. However, when I made it to the station I discovered that my overnight train had already left.

I was stranded.

To make a long story short, I got shipped out to Irun, a small town on the Spanish/French border to wait for another train to Barcelona. I had 8 hours to spend in a place I'd never heard of where I could barely speak the language. I started the day off really upset and pretty scared, but the Spanish countryside was so beautiful and the people were so kind that my mood quickly shifted and, after getting some food in my stomach (I'd been so preoccupied I hadn't eaten or drank in 18 hours!), I managed to enjoy myself.

The Irun train station. My temporary home.

I love Spanish plazas!

I'm pretty sure this river marks the French and Spanish border. I could be wrong, but I think so...regardless, so quaint and picturesque!

Spanish morning glory. (Or French...not sure which side of the river it was on. We'll just say Basque morning glory then...)

More Irun countryside.

On the train to Barcelona I met two really great guys; a Canadian carrying baguettes in his guitar case, and a viticulture major from Cal Poly SLO. We had such a great time together, the six hour train ride passed quickly. I wish I had pictures - they were both so cute!

We arrived in Barcelona around 10pm and a beautiful Spaniard friend of a friend was waiting there to pick me up. Talk about a knight in shining armor... SLO boy and I hung out with him until 4am and had an amazing night!

The next day was absolutely gorgeous. I didn't take many pictures because I was so busy soaking in everything my Spanish friend had to show me. We drove all around the city, had lunch at the W on the shores of the Mediterranean (yum!), browsed through the shopping district, and checked out the fantastic architecture of the city (ex: the Sagrada Familia=architecture on crack!). He dropped me back at my hotel around 6 and I wandered around the Plaza Espanya for a bit longer and then called it a relatively early night. I had to be up at 5:00 the next morning to catch my plane to Nice!

Some amazing palace thing. Photo taken through the top of my friend's car.

Plaza Espanya right outside my hotel.

More Plaza Espanya. As you can see, it was PACKED with people even at 9pm!

Cool palace thing at night.

On a side note, another friend of mine is living in Japan for a year and just offer to pay half of the airfare for me to fly out and see him...I'm smelling more adventure to come!!!