Fun Things to Do When You Live in LA

It has been an incredibly busy two weeks around here.

First, I needed to get through the second "Creative Voices" program that Donna Accardo, head of the English Department at Pierce College and I have arranged at the school. We had Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, the writing team behind all three Pirates of the Caribbean films (as well as Shrek, The Mask of Zorro, Aladdin, Small Soldiers, and a few to many others to mention), as our speakers. When we had Harlan Ellison in the spring, we just let him go on stage in performance. For Ted and Terry, we had to work out a Q&A format, which actually went quite well. The school paper called it "well organized" and we've gotten many compliments from the president, veeps, and faculty and staff.

Ted and Terry, whom we've known since 1993, put together a great clip reel of scenes from their films, using the Pirates score behind it. The only dialogue is an exchange with Jack Sparrow ending with "but you have heard of me" which closed the 3-minute reel. I'm looking forward to seeing a second version of what they called a "vanity reel" which includes the sharp dialogue they've written.

Our next event will be early in the spring semester, when we will have novelist Larry Niven. I've asked Barbara Hambly to handle the Q&A for that.

After things finished on October 2, I spent the next week scrambling to get our taxes for 2006 done before the expiration of the extension. The paperwork got turned into our accountant on Wednesday, and we are now awaiting the bad news.

Last night, after much debate about whether we were too tired or simply did not have the enthusiasm to leave the house, we headed across the Valley to the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences auditorium to see a program about television theme music.

We are so glad we did.

It was the best program we've ever seen there in the 10 or so years Len's been a member (beating out the night with the West Wing cast or any night a David Kelly show has been featured.) Octogenarians (or possibly nonogenarians) Earle Hagen (I Spy) and Vic Mizzy (The Addams Family) were both interviewed on stage and both of them were sharp and entertaining. Mike Post was interviewed along with Steve Bochco, with whom he has collaborated on many shows. John Schneider and Jean Louisa Kelly showed off their Broadway chops by singing a number of themes. Mr. Schneider did the Dukes of Hazzard theme and Ms. Kelly did a torch-song version of the Mickey Mouse Club theme, after which Schneider said "Walt Disney is no longer frozen."

The program was produced by Ray Colcord and Arthur Greenwald, and the interviews were conducted by Jon Burlingame who wrote TV's Greatest Hits. Mr. Colcord (who has a pretty interesting website, check it out) introduced the program and was so funny I was very sorry when he left the stage. Fortunately, everyone else was equally good. I guess it does help when when you get a writer (Mr. Greenwald) to write the show. Henry Mancini's daughter hosted most of the evening, with theme opening montage (Comedy, Action, Detective/Spy, Drama, Science Fiction) introductions by Maureen McCormick, Lindsay Wagner, Robert Vaughn, Stacy Keach, William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett.

Since Len knows virtually every TV theme song ever written, we had a great time singing along--which was encouraged, but probably annoyed our neighbors.

And while I'm hanging around today, a big Happy Birthday to the personification of Wolverine himself, Mr. Hugh Jackman. It would be really nice if Len did a cameo in that new film that's coming out. If Chris Claremont got one in X-3, it would be only right for Len to get one in Wolverine.

Dinner Party as a Status Symbol?

I love to cook. I really do. I started collecting recipes when I was in high school--I still have the note books. I used to take great pleasure in having friends over to my house for a good meal and conversation which lasted for hours. This goes back to college, where I'd go off campus to borrow my aunt's place to cook. I impressed the hell out of my first boyfriend when I researched and gathered the recipes to do a complete Greek meal, starting with the lemon-egg soup and ending with home made baklava (a sure-fire winner at parties I held for years.) My roommates at the New York apartment I where lived after Hofstra and before Columbia decided that they would clean up after me so I would cook most meals. That was an excellent arrangement, since neither one of them could cook.

Some of my more memorable parties include the chocolate party I gave for painter Michael Whelan when he was in the D.C. area for a gallery opening, the one I gave photographer Corson Hirschfeld the night after he had an exhibit of his hand-colored "Places of Power" open at the National Museum of Natural History which was mostly mezze, the dim sum brunch I did for friends on a challenge, and the night out here in L.A. when screen-writers Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, and Paul Guay wanted to have dinner with Harlan Ellison and I cooked Italian (Marcella Hazen is my kitchen goddess.) That dinner for ten is the closest thing I've had to replicate what I used to do all the time in D.C., except for cooking Thanksgiving dinner, one of my least favorite things in the world.

I did try to do a big Christmas dinner one year. It was our first anniversary (yes, Len and I were married on Christmas) and we had to get Michael to the airport for a trip back east to his father's late that evening. I did invite friends and, although the food was very good, it was a rushed evening and I've vowed never to do it again.

Len's idea of entertaining is to throw hot dogs on the grill and watch TV. That's not entirely fair. He's in love with Rachael Ray, so dinner (at least in winter) will often be something from 30 Minute Meals, which always take at least 90 minutes to make. It's an improvement, but his reason for having friends over is to watch television. Therefore, dinner never takes place on the dining room table, even when friends are present. Except for Thanksgiving.

I hate Thanksgiving because it involves the least imaginative cooking and no one wants to mess with the traditional turkey, stuffing, two kinds of potatoes and all other manner of starchy foods like green bean casserole. Thanksgiving's only redeeming points are baking pies and the fact that people sit around a table and talk to each other for hours. And that the television is turned off once guests arrive. In all the years Len and I have been together, I've never had fewer than 12 people at the Thanksgiving dinner table and I have had as many as 23.

So, as I said above, I used to take great pleasure in having people over for dinner or to come to my place when I make a party. The point is, I enjoy cooking for my friends who appreciate what I've done. I don't waste my time cooking for people I don't like. Cooking has always been one of my hobbies. I have deflected any suggestions that I turn to catering as a profession because I've already turned one hobby (photography) into a business. I am considering opening a bed and breakfast artists' retreat someday, though.

Today's New York Times had a terrifying article entitled "Dinner at the Foodies': Purslane and Anxiety" by Katherine Wheelock. First off: what the hell is purslane and why do I need it? (It's an herb from India, said to be Gandhi's favorite, and is used in salads raw or as a cooked vegetable. It looks a little like one of the succulents I've got potted in the garden.) The gist of the article is that dinner parties are becoming a status symbol like a good car or a great lawn, which aren't things to be had in Manhattan. Some people in New York are going nuts giving dinner parties, jumping on the latest trends and traveling hours to get just the right ingredients, or trying to avoid looking like they are responding to a trend instead of being on the cutting edge of new trends. One woman, in the midst of a divorce, talked about throwing a first birthday party for her child and ordering pizza and then having her husband go out and buy $1000 worth of food to serve. There is apparently a one-upsmanship competition going on among foodies in New York. I knew there was a good reason I didn't want to live there any more.

Very few people I know are particularly competent or interested in the kitchen. What does the well-educated woman make for dinner? Reservations. I'm good at that, but I was raised in the time when girls took home ec, not shop. I was raised in a kitchen where one grandmother made pasta by hand (when I think of her I smell flour and eggs) and the other could make a translucent strudel pastry stretched across the dining room table (I have her mother's Hoosier kitchen cabinet with an enamel top in my kitchen for a prep area.) Dining out, except for Sunday breakfast after church, was a rare occasion, reserved for The Little Venice restaurant in Binghamton (some 60 miles away) although the women in my family were excellent Italian cooks. The nearest pizza place was Molinari's in Oneonta (30 miles away), so we made pizza at home. I learned by watching and reading. I firmly believe that anyone who likes food can learn to cook if they are curious, know how to read, have a decent set of taste buds, and a sense of adventure.

I probably have four or five women friends out here who are as good or better than I am in the kitchen: Laurie, Suzenna, Karen, Gillian, and Suzanne. I've recently made friends with someone who writes about food for a living, Tory (connect to her blog on the right.) Karen's taking up baking as her third career (she was a second-career trademark attorney) and she's turning out fabulous breads. Laurie and Suzenna are phenomenal cooks and make a party's food, no matter how complicated, look totally effortless. Either one of them could be a professional caterer. Laurie works as an editor for the same company that produces Gourmet and Bon Apettite. Suzenna has a cookbook and food magazine collection which puts my considerable library to shame. (I've often said that my goal is to have as many cookbooks as Phyllis Richman had in her office at the Washington Post.) We've met many interesting people at Suzenna's house on those Sunday evenings when she does her dinner parties. While I do find Laurie and Suzenna's skills admirable, I know that I would have nothing to be embarrassed about when they come to my house, if left to my own devices.

O.K., so I do like to show off in the kitchen but remember: I only cook for people I like. I'm hoping that the remodel will make working in the kitchen easier so I spend more time there. I'd like to have people over for dinner and conversation, without the television on. If I intimidate some of the people in our circle of acquaintances, that's not really the intention (unless its a new way of counting coup, in which case I'll make notches in my new counter.)

If you don't think you can compete with me in the kitchen, you can reciprocate for dinner by taking me out to a good restaurant. I'd be happy to suggest one.

Vacation, What Vacation?

Memorial Day Weekend was one event after another. We were invited to two birthday parties, one "great to see you in L.A. for the weekend" party, and went to one touring Broadway show and one blockbuster film showing. Exhaustion canceled out one of the birthday parties, but we managed everything else.

"The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" was an absolute delight. There was a bit of me in most of the characters on stage (except for the spelling part--I can spot misspelled words but I've always had a unique approach to spelling, as one of my college profs put it), so I was hard pressed to side with only one character to win. My husband had his Broadway debut last year as one of the guest spellers, but I wasn't on that trip. If you live in Southern California, it is definitely worth seeing with the original Broadway cast at the Wadsworth Theatre on the VA hospital grounds during the next month while it is here.

We finally got to see "Pirates of the Caribbean 3" on Monday morning at a 10 a.m. show. We figured we could get there and get good seats and then still have the rest of the day for other important things (like taking care of the Arabian Prince.) Our friends Ted and Terry have written an action-packed and entertaining film with one of the most heroic women characters since they put a sword in the hands of Catherine Zeta Jones in the first of the recent Zorro films. Ted and Terry pointed out that it isn't Will Turner on the hero's journey in Pirates, it's Elizabeth Swan.

I've been a fan of Keira Knightly's since "Bend it Like Beckham." I'm told she's also a Padme body double in the first/fourth "Star Wars" film, but she made no impression. (Let's face it, only Liam Niesson and Ewen MacGreggor did because they were able to transcend George Lucas' inability to direct live actors.) I even liked her in the ill-reviewed "King Arthur." She does know how to handle a sword, which is a good skill for most women.

The Boys Behind the Pirates

We went to see our friends Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio interviewed at the Writers Guild of America, west, Inc. theater last night. Like the one last month with Harlan Ellison, the event was a benefit for the WGAw Foundation.

Ted and Terry have a little film opening today called "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End." We've known them well since 1993 when Ted sat up 'til 4 a.m. talking to us in the lobby of an hotel in San Francisco--mostly about Len's career. They were nominated for the Hugo Award for writing "Aladdin" for Disney. Len was the designated acceptor for the Hugo for someone that year. As often happens, we took them under our wing (it was their first World Science Fiction Convention) and they've been in our lives ever since.

We've watched them grow from that first success into the A-list Hollywood writers they are today. It hasn't been all smooth sailing (talking about Godzilla might make them cry), but that first Zorro with Antonio Bandaras, Shrek I, and the Pirates movies have cemented their bankability in Tinsel Town.

For a year back in the late 90s, Terry held a once-a-month salon at his house in the Hollywood Hills. He had to discontinue them when they became over-run with friends of friends of friends, but they were a huge mix of up-and-comers, journeymen, and wannabees from all parts of the entertainment industry. The biggest downside (except for what it must have cost him to pay for food and drink) was the lack of safe parking on that stretch of Mulholland Drive. I was certain that we'd get hit by a car coming around a curve as we walked back to our vehicle at 1 or 2 a.m. Another factor was the climb up to the house from the street. I swear the driveway was at about a 65 degree slope. When the sprinklers would go off, the walk back down was treacherous. To avoid climbing to the house when I was on crutches, we actually drove up once. I felt like the car was going to flip rear over nose on the way down, it was so steep.

When Pirates 1 premiered, the boys made sure we got to attend. Len and I shared Ted and Kim's limo to Disneyland and we walked the red carpet with them between Jane Seymour and Danny Bonnaduce. That was a night to remember. (Len had actually gotten to go on set when they were filming and met everyone except Johnny Depp--and yes, that does mean he's met Orlando Bloom. Grrrrr.) The best way to go to Disneyland is in a limo that drops you off behind the Lincoln exhibit and picks you up near the statue of Walt in the middle of the park. And, oh yes, you are one of only 3000 people in the park for fun. No waits on the rides and you can do the Indiana Jones ride twice in 15 minutes (because it does take a while to go through the maze.) Also, that night had the best food I've ever eaten at Disneyland.

We've had a lot of fun together over the years, but as Ted and Terry's star has risen, we don't get together nearly as often as we would like because these guys are always busy. We managed to corral Ted and Kim for dinner during the brief break between the finish of principal photography on Pirates 2 and the start of principal photography on Pirates 3 and then a year flew by. We saw Terry a few weeks ago for a dinner which Ted missed because the invitation was caught in a spam filter (why e-mail is unreliable.) Last night, we all bemoaned this lack of contact.

I've corralled them to doing the second of the "Creative Voices" programs for me at Pierce College sometime in October. I think it will be an excellent opportunity for students to get insight about the process of collaborative writing, a very different animal than the solitary writing of Harlan Ellison. I'll have dinner with them that night, but I fully expect to spend quality time with both of them well before next October.