"Once"

Tonight I saw "Once" - a beautiful story with flawed characters, a simple music filled story about two people. It's honest and it's fantastic. It's a breath of fresh air from Pirates, Spiders and Ogres that have invaded this summer in the theaters. There are no computer graphics, no visual effects. Just pure acting, music and great story telling. If you were/are a fan of The Commitments, this film could actually pick up where it left off, following the guitar player (Outspan in the "The Commitments"; Guy in "Once") where he is left off - on the street with nothing but his guitar.

Go see this movie - it will give you back a little faith in the movie making process. No - it's not Hollywood and so this can't speak as a saving grace for Hollywood, but I am happy to say that this movie was a film financed by my new company, Summit Entertainment, a fact I found out tonight after seeing the movie.

The real writer in the family...

So as you know, by the fact that you're reading this, I enjoy writing. I sit down and peck away from time to time here on the net, have tried my hand at scriptwriting whilst I've been here in LA, been known to pen a few long winded e-mails, and like just about everyone else entertained the idea of writing that book about my life, my friend and our experiences (that of course are so different yet so like everyone else's that there is no way it won't be a huge hit!....right?)

I'm not a writer, I'm a Hollywood whore, and now a corporate Hollywood whore! But I am fortunate enough to know a real writer, a brilliant writer and hell I even call her my big sister. Today I read an amazing article that she wrote in the LA Times. And I felt obliged to be able to repost it here on this blog:

Mad Nazi Dream of Racial Purity Revealed

By MELISSA EDDY
Associated Press Writer

5:01 PM PDT, May 6, 2007

POZNAN, Poland — On a sunny April morning in 1944, 6-year-old Alodia Witaszek was combed and scrubbed, sitting in the children's home that had primed her for membership in Hitler's master race.

Over the past year she had been snatched from her family, gone hungry in a concentration camp and been beaten for speaking her native Polish. Now she had a German name, "Alice Wittke," and a new -- German -- mother.

"Guten tag, Mutti!" she called in flawless German to the young woman approaching her. Good morning, Mommy.

Only years later would she discover the full truth: that she was among some 250 children seized from their families as part of a Nazi attempt to improve the Aryan gene pool in pursuit of a mad dream of racial purity.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

Um, Los Angeles is burning....again

Same story, different day except this time I didn't have a front row seat. This time I was tucked back into the dark corner of my new job, the same job that has kept me from updating this little diatribe of mine. Mostly because the next update would logically be about the new job and the first week and how it went and what I do and yada yada yada. Don't worry, that is all coming. Sooner than later.



But while you wait, I just wanted to let you know - that Los Angeles is burning....again. The above picture was taken from my friends office about 20 minutes ago. My friends office that is right in the middle of LA. The flames on the left are on the hillside that has the Observatory and on the right is the Los Angeles Zoo. However, currently instead of live news coverage, the three major networks are playing "Access Hollywood," "Entertainment Tonight," and Wheel of Fortune! Sigh...only LA.