Rollin' in the Hollywood Hills

I write this blog post from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's Cecil B. De Mille Reading Room. That's the Academy. Of little golden Oscars fame.

And clearly I am using my time judiciously.

I jest - this is my second day here, and I just finished flipping through handwritten post cards by Salka Viertel and Fritz Lang; an ode to Katharine Hepburn by Marlene Dietrich and the original Paramount pressbooks for Sunset Boulevard and Double Indemnity.

My thesis is cooler than your thesis - all I'm saying.

The AMPAS library and staff has been so hugely helpful, if only for making me feel like a slightly more legitimate scholar/person. AFI, tragically, was less so, but it did give me a chance to do at least a little bit of shopping while I'm here in LA (I am dreaming up a myriad of ways to style the leopard print romper-style short shorts I just acquired - I am thinking Doc Martens are in my future..)

AND - exciting news : this girl got herself a new camera. Or rather, begged and pleaded until her merciful and beneficent parents bought her one. And a nice one. I owe them eternally. So here are the results of my playing with my new Canon G12 and proof that it isn't all work and no play in LA (such fun with rhyme!)

every trip to the Venice boardwalk requires a photo of an oldschool VW van

So hopefully there will be more to come, and I will share with you soon the delayed results of my photogenic but horrific adventures in gazpatcho making. Sorry Chop - your incredulity may have paid off this time. Teaser: beware excessive red onion.