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Daily Archives: May 12, 2012

On writing. My manifesto

12 Saturday May 2012

Posted by Floreva in Writing

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Manifesto

I like coffee and I love movies and series and…

…I write.

I am a writer.  I just rediscovered that unexpectedly. I reconnected with that part of me only two years ago, just before moving to the USA. An acquaintance of mine  who turned out to be a coach approached me (she’s a friend now).  In exchange of me being one of her clients to practice her skills and tools on (so that she could get her certification), she would give me a whole session (7 hours) of free coaching .

I have long adopted the  motto : “when life hands you lemons, do not regret those are not oranges, and make a good lemonade out of them”.

So, here I was, presented with a crazy opportunity. A “win/win” opportunity.

So I accepted and made my lemonade. I had no clue I needed a coach. But I needed one. In the first place,  it helped me assume this identity, my writer identity. The working identity, this social cloth you have to wear when people ask what you do in /of your life, and that everyone can translate into chunks of perception of your person. Not that they will really understand your being, your (personality/soul,…you name it), or simply you. It just helps them in creating a shape in which you can fit. Easily identifiable.

Now, 5 months after the session has ended, I am proofing a book I already wrote in 2010. I have been working on the corrections for too long now, and I need (soooo badly) to have that one finished and sent to find its path to publication… Paradoxically, to gather forces from other fields and make a mind change, I also wrote a novel,  have half-written a second, produced a novella, dozens of poems and I am involved in a scenic project (a friend proposed we produce something together, she’s working on it on her side, me on mine, and we meet, acknowledge things, meet again, see the progress, it’s wonderful).

I am in the state where I need to think of the future of those writings and their making into books. First will come this proofed book. Considering the subtle arcane of such an adventure, a business plan is needed (I come from marketing, y’know), in order to market the product (the book) and the brand (pen name/author and maybe what stands behind).

I suppose that a literary agent will ask : “so, you write… and do you have a blog?”.

How very embarrassing it must be to confess that, well….lack of  audaciousness…and time, hum….busybusybusy….

No this cannot be an acceptable anwser

One  wants to write, one writes since childhood, there’s no other work in the whole world that brings more joy. It makes one’s guts on fire when one answers people’s questions about the subject.

So I started a blog. I must confess that it’s been a while (ahem, nearly 4 years…) that I wanted to experiment the blogging thing.

And it is hard. And demanding. And one wants to change subjects, or the tagline. All the time. Until one finds on’es songline. ( it’s a clumsy reference to Bruce Chatwin for you, but utterly meaningful to me).

As I need entire jugs of caffeine to force my eyes to stay open (life is short, and things must be done, the Big Sleep will provide plenty of time to rest), as I am a cinema fan from an early age (I started to read the upscale TV magazine received at home, with cinema review, critics and intelligent comments, very “Cahiers du Cinéma”-ish, if that rings a bell,  @ 9years old, and had begun to watch the Midnight Club cinema, when I was 14 and never stopped since), I knew I had to blog about those subjects. And occasionally about  myself (like I just did), but do not be afraid, it won’t happen often ;-).

I’ll do my best to produce decent posts, and please my readers, who are so kind to spend a moment with me. Do not be harsh on judging me or my style, English is not my mother-tongue, nor am I an experienced blogger. Let me experiment your benevolence, fellow bloggers. We have so much to learn.

Stay tuned.

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Celebrating Hollywood Glamour

12 Saturday May 2012

Posted by Floreva in Cafés, Movies, Places

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Cinema, Elizabeth Taylor, Hall of Fame, Hepburn, Hollywood Blvd, Humphrey Bogart, Jack Lemmon, L.A.

Hepburn.

A name shared by two major actresses. One epitomizes dry wit in screw ball comedy. The other embodies charming ingenuity. Both are symbols of The Hollywood Glam. Today, Golden age movie lovers (as me and 5 other very good friends for instance) remember Katherine, born May 12th, 1907.

Portrait of Hepburn, 33 years old

She’s best remembered for her role alongside Legend Humphrey Bogart in “African Queen”, “Mary of Scotland”, “Bringing up Baby”, with Cary Grant playing a deliciously geeky paleontologist, “The Philadelphia Story”, “The Lion in the Winter”, “Woman of the Year”, “Guess who’s coming for diner”.

Miss Katherine was a theater wonder too. She even played the role of Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel, in the Musical “Coco”, in Broadway.  And of course, played most of Shakespeare’s immortal chef-d’oeuvres. Let me mention “Taming of the Shrew”, “The Merchant of Venice”, “Anthony and Cleopatra”, and “Much ado about nothing”.

66 year long career, 44 feature films, 33 plays. She liked her numbers to be even, one could say.

This reminds my of my trip last year, in L.A.

It was in February,  the blue sky was bursting with sun, the air was light and breezy, the palm trees were nicely trimmed.

My camera was showing impatience to encounter Hollywood Blvd, the Chinese Theater and Sunset Blvd.

I went also on top of Observatory Hill, to catch an amazing view of the city, the ocean sparkling away in the horizon, and all the memories of “Rebel without a cause” secluded in my mind, as I strolled around and inside the building.

Later, I drove on Sunset Blvd, photographing the houses of those who built my love for the cinema and my interest for the entertainment industry. Below is B.Karloff’s former house (dark pic, I’m afraid, for the impersonator of dark characters).

Lana Turner’s former house.

Mansion of a beautiful one (alive and above).

In the vicinity of the loop where Cary Grant used to live ( below)…


…one stumbles upon this…

…Undoubtedly handy for the Bentleys and RR owners in the neighbourhood.

While in L.A. I tried those super trendy flavoured coffees from various shops, in Malibu, on Hollywood Boulevard, on the beach, in Santa Monica district, and I wanted to taste different kind of brews. Conclusion : I’m not a fan of vanillastrawberry/cinnamon/citrusblueberry/whatever fancy/ aroma. I prefer my Italian to be strong, rich, well scented, and easy going.

No fuss coffee for me, please, even in super glam bold California’s City of Angels.


The organic deli just around the corner was so inviting, I sorted my pix in there, while resting my sore feet, and made myself a wish and a promise : to come here again with more time to be able to visit a studio (or two), and work harder, to get to live here.

I raise my ultra-caffeinated black coffee to thy, Hollywood.

A toast for the joy, the drama, the humor, the laugh, the thinking, the glamour, the cogitation instilled in our lives.

A toast also to The Frères Lumière and Georges Méliès who made it all possible,

Th. Edison,  Buster K., Abel Gance, DW Griffith, Renoir, John De Cuir, Edith Head, Givenchy, Chas Chaplin, Ealing Studios (UK), The Studios de Joinville (France), Cinecitta (Italy), Babelsberg Studios (Germany), Fritz Lang, Alec Guiness, Jimmy Stewart, Garbo, Marilyn, Jeanne Moreau, Godard, Wiene, Murnau, Jean Dujardin, Michel Gondry (“Science of dreams”, “Be Kind, rewind”), Mitchum and Lancaster, Ozu, Bruno Ganz, Nino Rota, Mancini, Agnès Varda, Imamura, Dame Judi Dench, Jack Lemmon, Damian Lewis, Brenda Blethyn, Hannah Schygulla, Romy Schneider, Bibiana, Begalu, Daniel Brühl (“Goodbye Lenin”, “Joyeux Noël”), Patricia Mazuy, Joséphine Siao, Maggie Cheung, Guillaume Canet, Eva Green, among many others.

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