Yesterday was another sunny summer day in Laguna Beach where, in spite of the shaky economy, the sky was so clear, the sun was so bright and the water was so blue and all the shiny happy people were having fun. It was the perfect Southern California summer day for a family get together
Even the long drive on the traffic filled 405 freeway didn't seem so bad when we could plug in my daughter's ipod with its 6000 or so songs and listen to music from the 1980s
I'm not sure why she had this song on her ipod especially given the fact that this it came out in 1982 and she wasn't born until 1985 How could she possibly know this random song? Do you even remember it?
Nevertheless, driving to Laguna Beach with my daughter, singing Eighties music in the car, and spending the day with my family was pretty much the perfect way enjoy a sunny summer Saturday.
From the Morton Report On this day in 1967, Procol Harum went to #1 on the UK singles chart with a song that over 40 years later would be named the most-played record of the past 70 years (with more than 900 known recorded versions by other artists).
I just thought that you needed a little music trivia today.
Ah, finally Friday Lot's do to this weekend away from the computer...car shopping, training session at the gym, art gallery opening, dinner with a friend, hiking...the usual nonsense.
DSK and Arnold aka the "topic of the week" has been a gift that just keeps on giving with so much stuff all over the net. A friend wrote this to me in an email: And preying on women is big time wrong! And from an egoistic point of view where is the satisfaction ? "A vaincre sans péril on triomphe sans gloire". Indeed So here is some music to start your weekend off I like the chill sound but the video could bring on an epileptic fit so listen rather than watch
Like Faux Fuchsia, at times I must listen to the commands of the universe. Where FF is directed by the cosmos to bake I am directed to watch movies. Lately the black dog has been scratching at the door and I've keep it at bay by settling down on the sofa with netflix or amazon prime. For several years I've wanted to delve into a series of posts on films where jewelry is an important element of the story, and where better to start, as I am still in 18th Century Mode, than with The Affair of the Necklace
The film, based on the true story of an extortion plot aimed at Marie Antoinette, is told from the point of view of the con artist or should I say conne artist Jeanne de la Motte played by Hilary Swank. In the film, she is Jeanne de Saint-Remy de Valois, a woman of noble birth, who is forced into her role because she can't get the attention of the queen for restitution of her family estates. De la Motte / Valois claims to have favor and influence with the Queen in order to solicit patronage by the out of favor Count de Rohan, played by Jonathon Pryce.
and a reconstruction of the infamous Collier Reine Breteuil
Considering the historical importance of the actual Affair of the Necklace in terms of undermining Marie Antoinette and the Royal Family, I thought that this would be an excellent film. I was wrong. This film was bad on so many levels I won't name them all. But it needs to be said that casting Hilary Swank in the role of de la Motte was a mistake. And, seeing the many historical inaccuracies, large and small, such as watching Swank saunter around Versailles with unpowdered hair was so annoying.
For me, the highlight of the film was the closing credits because of the Lisa Gerrard/Brendan Perry song "Ariadne".
Back in July of 2008 I blogged about the special relationship between Stevie Nicks and Sara the beautiful daughter of my dear friend Joe, who died at the age of 24 after battling a rare form of cancer for 7 years. Here is the link to the post Stevie Nicks - A Class Act
Well, Stevie Nicks has finally released her first studio album since 2001, "In Your Dreams", and not forgetting her special relationship she has dedicated the album to Sara. Here's what Nicks had to say about it in an interview in Spinner.com
'In Your Dreams' is dedicated to "Sara, my sweet girl," tell me about her? Sara was a girl that had a very rare kind of cancer, and our friend Lisa Loeb connected me and her parents. They brought her to a show, and we became very close. She was about 21 when I met her, and she'd been fighting this cancer since she was 17. I was in very close contact with her and her parents through three years. In 2008, [after a Fleetwood Mac tour], I flew to Pennsylvania and spent a day with her. She died three days later
I lost my best friend to leukemia 30 years ago. There was a very similar feeling, except that when I lost Robin [Anderson], I was on the road and everybody was high, so it was horrible. I never got to really grieve about that because I was in the midst of this whole big Fleetwood Mac thing. But when Sara died, I was in Mexico in a very quiet house, and I was hit extremely hard. She loved my music so much, and she wanted me to do another record so much, and I was still on that "I'm never going to do another record" kick.
I just loved her so much, and it was very hard to lose her. She fought a really good fight between 17 and 24, and I dedicated the record to her because I felt in so many ways that it belonged to her.
All of this just goes on to remind me that life is truly very short and our time spent with the the ones that we care about is so very precious and shouldn't be taken for granted.
Taking a tip from Belette Rouge, recently I've been listening to a lot of meaningful songs, personal anthems if you will, with lyrics that express my feelings in way that is more on point than anything I could write on my own. I am not a poet. Wouldn't you know it that Stevie Nick's new album would just happen to have another one of these songs that would be so meaningful to me at this very specific time in my life. In fact it is the perfect song for the now ex Mr BHB.
i used to love you see light inside of you i used to dream that you were an angel
This is such a beautiful ballad, don't you agree? It may never become a commercial hit because of the long 5 minute running time which is almost impossible for radio play, but I do hope that she will get millions of downloads of it.
La Belette Rouge recently posted about our need for having personal anthems at different points in our lives. We've all had them haven't we?
Well, after certain events last weekend that resembled a French farce this is my current life anthem.
Luckily, the timing for these events couldn't have been better as Easter, at least for me, signifies Spring and a time for new beginnings and paying more attention to the things that add value to my life. Bon, on y va.
I'm really not one for partying it up on New Year's Eve and I generally prefer to stay home with champagne and caviar, but this year Miss de Ville and I were invited out so we put on our fancy duds and made a night of it.
Miss de Ville New Year's Eve 2010 in her mom's Oscar de la Renta
It was cold, really cold for Los Angeles, so I went in full Dr. Zhivago mode and wore my vintage swakara coat with the fox collar and my mink head band. And I'm glad that I did because it was 42 degrees outside. That is like sub arctic temperatures for Los Angeles.
(blurry photo thanks to iPhone)
After surviving the night with controlled alcohol consumption...I was designated driver....I slept late and woke up happy on New Year's Day. The sun was shining brightly through my window and I just felt that 2011 was going to be a great year.
Resolutions? Yes, I have them. They are always the same. Will I keep them? I hope so. I will try.
New Year's Day was full of friends and football. A comfortable and low key way to start the year.
Then today, rain again.
In August 2008 I blogged about the beautiful wedding of my dear friend's daughter in Napa Valley. It seems like not so long ago that this girl was a student at John Thomas Dye with my children. Today this young lady is having her first child, and my friend will become a grandmother. For some reason, like the sunshine on New Years Day, it is a good omen to me. Kids get older, life goes on, one becomes a grandmother.
On the agenda for 2011. Work, work and more work.
And some travel. I'll be off to the antiques and estate jewelry show in Miami Beach in February with a side trip to Palm Beach to visit friends in the polo world. In the spring I should like to take a trip to the UK and France to visit the blogger babes. You know who you are. Also, I should like to work in a trip to Germany to visit friends. I shall certainly go to Spain at the end of June to see my brother finish up his command and then I would like to go to either Sicily, Majorca, Corsica or the Swiss Alps. I haven't decided yet. Oh yeah, Oz is on my short list too. Can I tie that into the Hong Kong show? (I'm terribly afraid that if I take a trip to Oz, I won't want to come back to the US.)
Last year I didn't see much of my friends. This year I would like to change that.
Cooking. I need to do more of that. Perhaps I will start cooking Sunday dinners for my family.
Working out with the wonder woman trainer, that's on the agenda too.
This is enough. I don't like to make too many plans, because you know happens when you do that. Yes, god laughs.
Sunday morning, while I decide whether to go to the gym or go to the office before settling down with a book by the pool, I leave you these four chords to contemplate.
I've always admired Bono and his many years of work to help Africa so it disappoints me to read this Bono’s charity, ONE, is the poster child for feel-good limousine liberal activism. In 2008, they took in $14 million in donations, and disbursed a mere $184,000 (or1%) to charities. A whopping $8 million (or 57%) of those donations went to executive and employee salaries. Meanwhile, ONE spends a bunch of cash sending expensive schwag to New York newsrooms to make them help convince the government to cough up $6 billion of taxpayer cash to fight AIDS and tuberculosis in Africa.
Somehow this doesn't surprise me after reading this Bono and his wife Ali, who created Edun to help develop industry in Africa, moved their manufacturing to China.
And of course Bono and U2 lobbied the Irish government to send more taxpayer money to feed starving children in Africa. Then U2 moved their publishing business from Ireland to Holland to reduce their taxes.
Somehow this nicely shot photo of Bono and Ali for Louis Vuitton just isn't effective for me I still like the song though, especially this version with Mary J. Blige
Ah Friday, finally It's been such a busy week, mostly taken up by getting product organized for magazine photo shoots which of course I can't write about yet... I can tell you this though, there is a definite a trend toward Mid-Century style. We saw the beginning of that trend a couple of years ago with Mad Men, now it is going more mainstream with extrapolations of it in Vogue, Elle and W magazines. And I couldn't be more pleased because I appreciate that aesthetic, that distinct look of sleek understated chic of Audrey Hepburn, Babe Paley, Marella Agnelli, Jean Seaberg, Diane Carroll, Grace Kelly and the Hitchcock heroines. The look is all about quality, not quantity and it need not be expensive. It doesn't have to be all about Harry Winston style diamond cluster earrings, A single strand of cultured pearls, A bracelet with a single charm, A pearl circle brooch, A pair of pearl earrings that sit on the ear, will do.
