L.A. Times Festival of Books: The Pre-FoB Party

With the L.A. Times Festival of Books now a wonderfully blurred memory, I have say on a personal note, it was the best ever. Having Jen and Christine (as well as the the authors) travel across the country to attend, along with Pop Culture Nerd, made it so. I don't think I've ever been in a room with so many relaxed people enjoying the company than at the festival's prelude. Kudos to The Mystery Bookstore for throwing another of their splendid Pre-Festival Parties last Friday. For more fun insight, I refer you to today's PCN Part 1 post:

L.A. TIMES Festival of Books Highlights, Part 1

Addendum: check out Jen's  MBS PRE-FOB BASH post, too.

From top to bottom: the first three show how many showed up early at The Mystery Bookstore. Author Alafair Burke and Christine. Christine, Jen, Elyse (aka Pop Culture Nerd), and author Brett Battles. Jen and Christine. Christine, author Sophie Littlefield, and Elyse. Elyse wondering where Brett got that t-shirt. Jen and Brett, author Reed Farrel Coleman (who has a great photo of author Christa Faust and Mystery Bookstore's Linda Brown in a post) and Jen. Elyse, Christine, and Jen in their natural smiling state.

If you're on Twitter, search on hash tag #latfob for all of the related tweets that came from the past weekend's festivities. More tomorrow...


Tehnorati Tags: L.A. Times Festival of Books, Pre-FoB Party

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Friday Forgotten Song: Three for the Weekend

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With an abnormally busy weekend in front of my wife and I (including an overnight school camping trip with my daughter + wedding reception [wife], and a Saturday night birthday party to take my son to at Universal Citywalk [me]), I thought today's forgotten post needed to be a triple-header. Though, the selections proved to be far easier than I'd have expected. First, let me state for the record that I've never have been into the television phenomenon known as American Idol. My wife and daughter are for sure, and sometimes my son. It's not that I haven't seen it (you can't live in the same house with the first two and not be exposed to it). It just doesn't interest me, normally. However, inspired by the great recent review by PCN, for the first selection I chose the great Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions song from 1965, People Get Ready. Covered by a host of singers (including the girl who'll probably win Idol this year, Crystal Bowersox) from Dusty Springfield to Alicia Keys, The Everly Brothers to Bob Marley, a song just doesn't get any better than this:

Next, with TCM scheduling their inaugural Classic Film Festival in Hollywood over this same weekend, I'm really going to be fighting fatigue to make some of the great classic films being presented at this fest. Check out what local film blogger Dennis has on his post for the event. Should I choose the Singing in the Rain tune since that film is on the festival schedule? A Judy Garland song from A Star is Born? How about any of the Bee Gees' tracks that reached #1 from the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever (How Deep Is Your Love, Stayin' Alive, or Night Fever)? Any of those would be good stabs for the following selection. But if you know me, you know that my all-time favorite film is being shown (twice) during this event. The 1942 Michael Curtiz-directed, Casablanca. With all due respect to the stirring La Marseillaise dueling song sequence in the film, for me the second forgotten song has to be As Time Goes By, sung by the great Dooley Wilson, as Sam:

Of course, with blogging friends Jen and Christine flying in (and Pop Culture Nerd trekking in from the Valley), the majority of my time during Saturday's daylight hours will be spent at the L.A. Times Festival of Books. We'll be getting together (at book panels and/or the book signings) with authors like Robert Crais, Gregg Hurwitz, Sophie Littlefield, and others we know or haven't yet met. And after all of that (plus the birthday event), I don't think I'll get to see my entire immediate family back together until around 10 - 10:30 PM that night. Then come Sunday, we'll get up as a clan and head out to the book fest, once more. Whew... I'm tired already just typing about it. So, for all of this excitement and goings on, there really is only one song that epitomizes all of this (and will be the final forgotten). It is 1983's I Love L.A. by songwriter, arranger, composer/singer, Randy Newman. It remains the unofficial song of this city -- at one time, city officials tried to get Frank Sinatra's version of L.A. is My Lady instituted as such. There is no way I could ever see that song played at a local sporting event. No frakkin' way! That will not ever happen, IMO. There really is only one song for L.A., and this 80's tune still embodies it:

Have a great weekend everyone (I know I will).

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Technorati Tags: Los Angeles, forgotten song, Casablanca, Curtis Mayfield

Ready for the FoB: Favorite Movies of L.A.

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The city of Los Angeles has been my home since birth. The same goes for my wife of 21 years, and naturally, my kids. One of the ongoing joys for this Angeleno family of mine is our annual trek out to the neighborhood of Westwood and participating in the annual L.A. Times Festival of Books on the campus of U.C.L.A. Besides all of the festival exhibitions, panels, and indy book store booths available for those who love books, there are all sorts of happenings, references, and information on the history and the ongoing discourse of film at the festival, too. Every year, some of the book panels are dedicated to the movies in our lives, along with the remarkable craft of screenwriting. You even have actors and directors promoting their written work from time-to-time. I found out today that David Lynch will be on hand to sign his latest book, Catching the Big Fish, at Book Soup's booth come Saturday.

As well, there's always something going on in this city, and sometimes they involve both book and film... and they conflict. Case in point, TCM (Turner Classic Movies) chose this same weekend for their inaugural TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood (April 22 - 25). Late last year, my friend Corey encouraged me to go this (he'd been having his own TCM-fest on cable). I didn't realize, at the time, it was going to all occur on this weekend! Arghhh... So, on top of the Festival of Books, some of the all-time great film classics will be on glorious display in theaters by the area of the Cahuenga Pass. I'll still try and make a couple of the films late at night this weekend (if time and energy allow) while spending my daylight hours with my good blogger friends over at the book fest by the Sepulveda Pass. I'll also begin lobbying TCM to move next year's film fest away from the same traditional weekend as the Festival of Books (we'll see how that goes). In the meantime, I will complete the latter segment from yesterday's FoB post which was based upon the recent Jacket Copy blog interview of author T. Jefferson Parker and his annual attendance at the festival. JC's last question for the local  author fit well into this week's forthcoming festivities:

"Do you have a favorite book or movie about Los Angeles?"

TJP's favorite L.A. movie: Chinatown. In keeping with his excellent book choice of yesterday, the author sure knows his movies (my answers are after the jump).



I've moved and updated this post to my current blog, which can be found here.

Technorati Tags: favorite movies, Los Angeles

Ready for the FoB: Favorite Books of L.A.

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When I think of the month of April, besides the annual bloodletting involved with state and federal income tax preparation, this time of year has a decidedly literary bent for those of us who love reading. I'm referring to the upcoming and annual L.A. Times Festival of Books. It really is a large, one of kind event where books and authors take center stage big time on the campus of U.C.L.A. The collegial setting seems to bring out a huge number of local readers and draws others from across the country. Last year, I got to meet book blogger Jen in her first foray out here to cover this event (and that was a real treat). And because of her, and the nature of the web, last year's event led to further connections with writer/blogger Naomi, who just so happened to recommend a book panel post by the blogger known as Pop Culture Nerd (who was also there and lives in the southland).

Following all these folks on the internet then led to friendships and further connections to a host of others I now read on a regular basis. This now includes the spirited reader and social butterfly, Christine. All of this makes for lively conversations flying through the ether. Jen is soon to be heading to SoCal from Ohio once more to attend this year's FoB, and Christine will be making her first visit (leaving a day later from Nashville) to be present at the book event, as well (though, she's already familiar with L.A.). So, it promises to be a much bigger happening this time around in 2010. The coordination of the when and where's for this group is already in full swing. I'm sure we'll have a brainstorming session during Friday's annual Pre-FoB party at The Mystery Bookstore. We'll be primarily plotting to see how we can 1) covertly abscond Naomi, Novel Whore, and Lesa temporarily away from Ohio, New York, and Arizona (respectively) and into LaLa Land orbit for next year's book occasion, 2) find our missing and dear friend Corey Wilde, and 3) figure out why the publisher continues to hold back Don Winslow's great sequel to The Dawn Patrol, The Gentlemen's Hour, from U.S. readers. In the meantime, Pop Culture Nerd already started the Festival of Books sneaks by linking us to the recent Jacket Copy blog interview of author T. Jefferson Parker and his annual attendance at the festival. I thought JC's last question for the local  author fit well into this week's forthcoming festivities. So, I'll use his response for a couple of posts this week to stay in that celebratory spirit:

"Do you have a favorite book or movie about Los Angeles?"

TJP's favorite L.A. book: True Confessions. And a good choice it is -- one I'd expect from the SoCal native…

This post has been updated and moved to my current blog, which can be found here.

Friday Forgotten Movie: Sorcerer

Whether some films are doomed to failure because of bad timing on their release, or in combination with a lack of understanding by those (few) that initially see it, it is a continual shame when a great film is left on the trash heap of history. Such was the case for the forgotten gem from 1977, director William Friedkin's Sorcerer. It remains a movie lost to time and notoriety (due of its difficult shoot in a jungle location in the Dominican Republic, and a host of travails in getting it completed), and being the production where its director earned his less-than-affectionate nickname, "Hurricane Billy." Big name stars (or soon to be big names) either wanted the lead role or turned it down. Although I was one of those few who actually saw this film in a darkened theater on its short-lived first run, the film has never really left me. It made that much of an impression. Still, I can't take credit for identifying it for this week's forgotten post.

The rest of this post has been updated and moved over to my current blog, found here.