June Recap

New York remains what it has always been : a city of ebb and flow, a city of constant shifts of population and economics, a city of virtually no rest. It is harsh, dirty, and dangerous, it is whimsical and fanciful, it is beautiful and soaring – it is not one or another of these things but all of them, all at once, and to fail to accept this paradox is to deny the reality of city existence. Paul Goldberger

Once again, New York did us right, this time for my daughter’s 15th birthday.  June was a month on the go.  Nashville, New York and Vegas twice for good luck.  My sister kicked some cancer ass. Lakers won it all.  My parents celebrated another year on planet Earth.  Oh, and then there was soccer.  We’ve watched nearly every game of the World Cup and have become even bigger fans.  Brittany can’t wait to play again. As for the list…

What’s Done

#10. Saw at least ten new movies. Can’t wait to see Inception later this month.

#39. Tripled my bets on the craps table and won.  However, we’re still down for the               year.  Must get back and rectify this.

#41. Enjoyed a couple of pizzas at Adrienne’s, our favorite NYC pizza joint.

#42. Took Brit to see Blue Man Group in NYC. 

#55. Saw a great bar band on Honky Tonk row in Nashville.

#61. Enjoyed some Southern Hospitality. 

In Progress

#1. We leased a downtown office to run our production house out of. I really do need         to learn spanish. 

#14 & 15. Read Kitchen Confidential, London, the Biography and Extremely Loud and                      Incredibly Close.

#20. Added the pools at the Bellagio and Cesar’s Palace to the list. Hopefully the June           Gloom burns off soon, so we can try out some LA pools.

That’s about it. We return to July already in progress. 

Gritty search for thread. Another glamorous day in the fashion biz.

LA Fashion Insider had the day off… To shop.

Out to lunch with my girls.

Remembering some of the best 4ths in Gustavus, Alaska.

From Venice to Paris in ten minutes.

Michael Jackson lives in Vegas.

The girls enjoying another day at the pool. The more time not gambling the better.

At The Bellagio for another Vegas weekend.

Building furniture for our new downtown office.

Here’s a new discovery. A chili cheese, kobe beef slider in the middle of a donut. Just gained two pounds.

#18. Motivation. Writers on writing.

Stephen King: I am the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries.

Ernest Hemingway:  Write drunk, edit sober.

Hunter S. Thompson:  The only thing to be said this time about Fear & Loathing is that it was fun to write and that’s fair, for me at least because I’ve always considered writing the most hateful kind of work. 

Elmore Leonard:  I try to leave out the parts that people skip.

Isaac Asimov:  If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood.  I’d type a little faster.  

Moliere:  A writer is congenitally unable to tell the truth and that is why we call what he writes fiction. 

William Faulkner:  Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money.

Robert Frost:  Poets need not go to Niagara to write about the force of falling water.

Flannery O’Connor:  Everywhere I go I’m asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them.

Robert Benchley:  It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.

George Orwell:  In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning.

Steven Wright:  I’m writing an unauthorized autobiography. 

William S. Burroughs:  In my writing I am acting as a map maker, an explorer of psychic areas, a cosmonaut of inner space, and I see no point in exploring areas that have already been thoroughly surveyed.

Gustave Flaubert:  The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.

Click here to see some of the photos from our New York trip.

Finally saw Invictus on the plane back from New York. I liked it well enough. However I still don’t understand rugby and it was clear that Clint Eastwood didn’t care.

#14 in progress. Read Foer’s novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Great writer, but ultimately I was a little cold on the nine year old narrator.

Last late night meal. Virgin Pina Coladas and mashed potatoes at Rockefeller Plaza.

Grand Central. 

Shopping on 5th Ave.

Belvedere Castle overlooking Turtle Pond.

Zabars picnic in the park.

Walking in Central Park.

Times Square.

2am shopping at Forever 21 in Times Square. Brittany can’t contain herself. 

1am Cheesecake.

Eating Machines.

Washington Square Park.

Statue of Liberty.

Me at Battery Park.

#41 Done. So good.

Swept away at Battery Park.

At New York’s first public park, Bowling Green.

At the wrong end of the Bull.

Happy Birthday, Pa. I hope you have a day only a dangerous evolutionary such as yourself deserves.

City Lights.

#42 Done. Took the girls to see Blue Man Group in NYC. Always a good time.

Hot Dogs de la cart.

Rush Hour.

California girl, New York attitude.

Walking it out.