We do not miss.

It has been forever since my last posting…Fortunately, I have stayed true to form and been on the hunt for stories, characters, adventures…and have much to report from the last 6 months. Travels and Hunting in Africa, Europe, California and New York…Working away on this project. Incredible collaborations with some of the most talented and inspiring people I’ve ever known.

And I have never been so thrilled to roll in a new year, um, a new DECADE.

The Spirit of 2010

My word of the year is AUSPICIOUS.

AND 2010 is THE YEAR TO TAKE THE BULL BY THE HORNS.
Love, and…World, Here We Come…

xo

Ladyflash

Directing on the Set of The Texas Huntress

Have you EVAH?

Adventures in South Texas

On Friday July 11,  accompanied by a Mr. John Wise Flournoy, one Miss Catherine “Nina” Delano appeared at my doorstep, brandishing the most excellent hostess gift I have ever received. A beautiful, hard-bound, 1960 NY Heritage Press edition, complete with heavy-weight  pages,  classical design, & fun, whimsical illustrations; a book of which I had never heard in my life, called, mysteriously…ZULEIKA DOBSON. This curious story was apparently written in 1911 by Max Beerbohm, satirizing undergraduate life at Oxford University.
…Zuleika Dobson is a stunningly attractive young woman, a true femme fatale, and a conjurer by profession, who manages to gain entrance to the privileged, all-male domain of Oxford University , where she entices the undergraduates with her manner and looks; however, as she feels that she cannot love anyone unless he is impervious to her charms, she rejects her suitors and they are driven to suicide.
This satire includes such wonderful lines as “Death cancels all engagements” and presents a wickedly funny view of Edwardian Oxford. {from wikipedia}

A little background on Miss Delano,  who so brilliantly bestowed this book upon me. She is my new favorite character, and very intriguing, in that she found her way from Greenwich, Ct down to Houston, Tx  with a detour through prep school in MA and university in Maine. She is  perfectly pedigreed, speaks French, (of course), is naturally beautiful with little to no makeup, wonderfully sporting, engages in lots of tennis, backgammon, squash and other waspy sports, and knows lots of families with names like Negley, Belliveau, and Churchill. Only someone like Nina Delano would bring me such a fabulous, totally obscure, classic book of this variety.  Even with a long history of wonderfully eccentric, itinerant houseguests, 1311 9 1/2 Street has never seen an offering so perfectly matched to the lady of the house. I look forward to our future “sporting”adventures together…Miss Delano could serve well as one of the characters for a new show I’m conjuring up… shhh.

Overview of the Heritage Press:
This is a Heritage Press book. As such, it is a class by itself. For 37 years the Heritage Press has been producing fine editions like this one. Every book selected by our editors is a classic in its field, chosen from the world’s best-known and most enduring literature.
Once a title is chosen, we employ the most creative designer, artists, typographers, printers and binders, who combine their talents to produce our fine editions. We believe that the resulting volumes are the only books of their quality available at their price level in the market today.
These collector’s volumes, beautifully slipcased, are priced no higher than the ordinary current work of fiction or non-fiction. By investing in them, you have not only benefited your own library but have also created a “reading trust” for generations to come.

a clip from Elizabeth & Nadim's Wedding

Just wanted to take a moment to rave about…Caplan Miller, the uber-talented Austin event planners with whom I have collaborated on some magical events. Elizabeth and Nadim’s Wedding was the first I shot for Caplan-Miller, and the stunning bride you see in this movie, Elizabeth Elias, is now one of the CM event gurus. Stills by Alisa Marrow, floral design by Vella Event Design, shot on location at the Driskill Hotel in Austin.

a clip from Hailey's Bat Mitzvah. Still Photo by Diana Lott.

a clip from Alyssa & Olivia's Bat Mitzvah

At Olivia Dell & Alyssa Epstein’s Bat Mitzvah, the CM ladies & Vella Event Design transformed the entire space into a never never-land…And again in Hailey Garber’s Bat Mitzvah at The One World Theater with floral design from Petal Pushers,  still photos by Diana Lott, and music by Austin’s own Asleep at the Wheel.

a clip from Philip's Fabulous 50th Birthday

Check out music from our favorite Seventies disco trio, Sister Sledge, at Philip’s 50th Birthday, along with floral design from floral guru David Kurio + musical sets by Austin’s Spazzmatics.

Caplan-Miller coordinated a lovely December wedding for my friends, Sarah & Bert, at the Driskill… featuring the work of Ashley Garmon Photographers & Coby Neal of the Flower Studio.

a clip from Sarah & Bert's Wedding

In a recent post I mentioned Ms. Ryland Peveto, whom I was introduced to via another uber-talented Paper City writer, Laurann Claridge. {check out the end of this post for more on Laurann’s latest venture.}

While perusing a copy of Elle Décor; I came across a write-up on Laurann’s collaboration with Holly Moore, on what is now my new favorite  interior design book, Domestic Art: Curated Interiors. The perfect gift for birthdays, weddings, whatever. Order it!

The book showcases approximately 38 fabulously and uniquely designed Texas interiors and their curious and whimsical inhabitants. Most East and West Coasters would never imagine that down here in the land of Bushie and Urban Cowboy, exists some of the most uniquely stylish and unusual art and interior design in the world. Yes, y’all, right here in Texas. What I also love about the book is the writing; the descriptions of the characters who own these fabulous houses…

“Meanwhile, art director, Mike Thompson sips Scotch neat in his Scotch room, watched over by two mounted deer, a pheasant, and a wildebeest. Shouldn’t everyone have a wildebeest…and a Scotch Room?”-Holly Moore, in Domestic Art.

a clip from Penelope & Lester’s Houston wedding

One of my surprise discoveries in the book was a section featuring the home of my friend, Lester Marks, a totally eccentric and wonderful character himself, who has been obsessively collecting contemporary art for over 20 years and boasts one of the top 200 contemporary collections in THE WORLD. In 2007, Lester married one of my dearest long-time friends, Penelope Gonzales, hosting a beautiful wedding in Houston, coordinated by the uber-talented ladies of Belle of the Ball, and filmed by Yours Truly.

a clip from the Ice Hotel/Morocco wedding

While we’re on the subjects of “over the top” and contemporary art, I’d like to mention my most over the top Non-Texas wedding. Also in ’07, (yes, I am definitely playing major catch-up here since I couldn’t seem to find the time to set up a blog until 2009) I traveled from Scotland to Sweden to Morocco, all for one wedding. It really was the most bizarre trip of my life.

We met up with the couple in Scotland, converged with their group of approximately 28 guests in London, and then traveled  up to the famous Ice Hotel in Kiruna, Sweden… with a reception following at Villa Dar Liqama in Marrakech.

The Ice Hotel in Kiruna is one of only seven in the entire world and is totally unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. Each year, an international team of architects, designers, and artists sculpt the individual rooms in the Fall; the entire hotel is then melted down in the Spring.
Visually, the ice hotel provided a lush landscape for my movie, and I loved hanging out in the Absolut Ice Bar, drinking magical vodka potions in glasses made of ice, served by the very cute and flirtatious young Swedish bartenders, but I can, with all certainty say that I do NOT recommend sleeping in the ice hotel. Just don’t do it! I think many people have some kind of fantasy that it’s very sexy, and the reality is that it’s not…It is just plain freezing. Go have the luscious cocktails in the Ice Bar, and SLEEP in the warm hotel.

4 weeks after I see the film, Man On Wire, I have the great fortune of attending the Performance Space 122 benefit with my long-time friend, David Leslie.(aka “Daddy Leche” or “Dirty Pony”, depending on your mood.) A renegade East Village performance artist since the mid-80’s,  Leslie, became known as “the Impact Addict” since his stunt in which he jumped off a 3 story building while taped up in bubble wrap and Christmas lights.

“I have been creating public spectacle as an artist/daredevil in the cultural arena of performance art in NYC art houses and club venues since the mid eighties. My addiction for art and adrenaline drove me to my first stunt in SOHO, when I attempted to fly a small single seat rocket over a mountain of watermelons. That night I almost broke my neck and was nearly burned alive in the flaming wreckage. I loved it. Throughout the mid to late eighties I offered up many outrageous acts and actions mostly in admiration, imitation and respect for of the men and women who inspired me. My over the top outrageous acts were in simpatico with a temperament that was pervasive in the East Village at that time.”

Stay tuned this summer for an upcoming interview with the Impact Addict here in the LFlash blog. For now, read the NY Press article on David’s Box Opera 3…

It is WEDNESDAY, MAY 27,  & David terrifyingly Vespas me across the East Village  to the PS-122 Spring Benefit: “Real Dancing with the Real Stars”. Hosted by Isaac Miszrahi & Bebe Neuwirth, and attended by David’s friend, artist, Karen Finley, etc. with performances by Bill T. Jones,(whom I just saw several days ago at the Yale graduation) and the extraordinary Philip Petit. The movie, Man on Wire follows the story of Petit, the tight-rope walker who traversed between the Twin Towers  in August of 1974.  Upon my introduction to the film six weeks ago, Petit became one of my greatest inspirations and fascinations primarily because of the metaphor he creates about transcending fear. It is a beautiful surprise when he appears to perform at the benefit, and then when I am introduced to him later in the evening.

Just in case you were wondering…Ladyflash movies are… For the girl who says she’d never have a wedding video.

It’s officially Summertime in Austin, and everybody’s in the mood for love and in the mood for a SALE. The only good thing I’m seeing about the Recession is that everybody’s seems to be jumping on the sale bandwagon… Ladyflash can jump on too and offer a 15 % off “Let’s kick the recession in the you-know-what” sale for last-minute Summer bookings.

a clip from Maria and Kyle's Wedding

a clip from Cile and Mandon's wedding wt. Stills by Sarah Bork Hamilton

While we’re on the topic of endorsements, my new friend, Ryland Peveto, Paper City style-writer-extraordinaire, raves:

“These movies are SO SPECTACULAR, they make me want to get married all over again, and I FILED FOR DIVORCE last week.”

Can we make this into our new t-shirt?

P.S., just in case you’re loving the movie poster at the top of this post, check out the new coffee table book called Art of the Modern Movie Poster, by Chronicle Books…It’s being added to my list of new favorite birthday/wedding gifts.

So I was up at Yale University last weekend for my Smartypants brother’s  graduation…and I was totally captivated by Christopher Buckley’s Class Day Speech. Christopher Buckley  is an American political satirist and the author of Thank You for Smoking and, most recently, Losing Mum and Pup: A Memoir, about growing up as the son of William F. Buckley Jr. and Patricia Buckley.

“On this day, over 30 years ago, I stood right here on this very spot in the capacity of Class Historian. My speech concluded by quoting a bit of graffiti that I had found in the men’s room of the Cross Campus – now, Bass — Library.  A bathroom stall is, yes, an odd place to find inspiration, but it seemed perfectly to sum up the very essence of the Class of 1975.  So I felt I had no choice but to quote it verbatim. The problem was that its punch line contained a certain four-letter word beginning with the letter that designates a failing grade. Here it is, in a cleaned up version.

God didn’t create the world in seven days.  He f—ed off for six days and pulled an all-nighter. ”

Well.  There was this gasp – the sound of all the oxygen in Old Campus being rapidly sucked into 8,000 lungs.  One owner of those lungs was my dear old dad, Class of 1950.  The next day, he presented me with my graduation present – a typewriter, four of whose keys had been removed. So I’d like to start off today, 34 years later, by formally apologizing to God, Country, and Yale for my appalling lapse of lux and veritas on that otherwise lovely May day.   Or as we say in Washington, “My prior statement is inoperative.”

See the full speech

Other highlights from the weekend at Yale were…

Riding up in the elevator at The Study Hotel with Chris Buckley after the speech, & receiving signed copies of his new book, as gifts of the hotel.

Meeting Annette Benning during our dinner at the hotel restaurant…So beautiful and charming and Despite all of her talent and prowess as an actress, we were all secretly more in awe of her status as THE WOMAN WHO HAS KEPT WARREN BEATTY IN CHECK for the past 20 years.

Seeing Hilary Rodham Clinton, sculptor Richard Serra, choreographer, Bill T. Jones, among others, receive Honarary Degrees.

Reconnecting with my former step-mother & perusing through her husband’s new “Eros ’08” photo series of her…

a clip from CLCV event honoring Al Gore & the filmmakers of An Inconvenient Truth

I’m thinking about the looping connections we end up making from person to person, the six degrees, etc… I was hanging out in NY with one of my favorite people, the hilarious, brilliant, and supremely effusive Ben Famiglietti. Ben started interrogating me about my wedding movie business, and began insisting that I absolutely must meet his friend Rachel Hollis, who had started a new event planning firm in Los Angeles called Chic Events. So on my next trip out to L.A. I connected with Rachel over coffee and totally fell in love with her. Really, I wanted to BE her. She’s a total power-house. She was 27 yrs old at the time, had an amazing new company, more moxie and business acumen than anyone I’d ever met, was married to a fabulous guy and pregnant with her first child. Shall we say, OverAchiever? Rachel immediately brought me on to film an event she was coordinating in Los Angeles, for the California League of Conservation Voters, honoring Al Gore and the filmmakers of An Inconvenient Truth. The worlds of documentary film and political activism colliding together in that room on that night were particularly magical…

a clip from Max & Victoria’s Santa Monica wedding

Several months later, I flew back out to Los Angeles to work with Rachel and the Chic Events ladies…and with uber-talented California photographer Susan Bordelon on the wedding of Victoria and Max Collins, at the Jonathan Club in Santa Monica. You may have heard Max on the radio with his former band, Eve 6.

a still from Max and Victoria’s wedding

an image from the artist, Dustin Yellin

So. I have again been on the strangest train of serendipitous connections….I was in NYC 4 weeks ago and having a movie marathon with my friend, BerMonkey. (aka Amber Voiles, NY actress extraordinaire whom I met working on the Newton Boys years ago) I happened to have brought my Netflix movies of the moment, The Devil and Daniel Johnston and Man On a Wire. One of the most memorable scenes in the Daniel Johnston film was ” a trip to the dentist with Butthole Surfers frontman, Gibby Haynes where the camera takes you up inside of Gibby’s mouth, yikes!…Cut to 2 days later, I cab up to Chelsea in a last-minute plan to meet up with my compadre, Alex Kilgore of The Stagefarm, which produces “Plays for Play-haters,” in Alex’s words. He is longtime friends wt Gibby from back in their punk rock days in Texas, and Gibby’s friend Dustin Yellin has a show up at Robert Miller that really blows my mind.  I walk through the gallery with Alex, Gibby and Dustin, who has created these large transparent boxes with what-appear-to-be  lush 3-dimensional specimens encased in amber, but are actually many drawings, suspended in layers of resin..

Anyway, BerMonkey and I are very amused that after just  having watched that “up in Gibby’s Mouth Scene,” we would be running around in a strange and frenetic evening with the man, himself. A favorite moment occurrs when Gibby  unsuccessfully attempts to run off with a fabulous Oleg Cassini number i had discovered earlier in the day… My ex, Lalo, had asked me to find him some “cool vintage shirts” on my trip to NY, and I had literally stumbled upon some total gems  at a funky sale warehouse called Peach Frog in Williamsburg. I scored THREE 70’s nylon Cassini shirts, for $7.50 apiece. Gibby tries on the red and white checkered number, which fits him perfectly, but which I refuse to give up, and instead give his wife the address of Peach Frog.