You are The Empress
Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.
The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents, beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.
The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

What Tarot Card are You?Take the Test to Find Out.

Ah, but will it last?

So TomKat are married finally. Raise your hands if you thought that wedding would never happen!

I consider myself to be a cynical romantic, meaning I believe in love, hearts and flowers and the whole damn thing, but there is a part of me that wonders if it is possible nowadays to spend the rest of your life with someone? With all the stress, and temptations, and the easy availability of divorce.

Frankly, I think it should be much harder to get married. I mean, if they put people through psychological testing before they go on a reality show, why shouldn't it be a requirement before you get married. And frequent check-ups, i.e. marriage counseling along the way. If you get an annual physical, you should have one for your marriage too.

But back to the lovebirds, Tom and Katie. Okay, did the guest list seem a little strange to you? I mean JLo and Marc Anthony? Do they even know them? Why would you invite JLo and Marc Anthony and not Oprah? Seriously, which celebrity do you think is going to give you a better gift.

Let's see: Oprah, ending poverty in a small town, JLo and Marc Anthony, a gift certificate for her clothing line and perfume, dance lessons, recipes from Madre?

I'm hoping that his inviting Brooke Shields is a sign that they've truly become friends and not part of some publicity thing to get his career back on track. Brooke is too nice and sweet to be used that way. But how cool to get to go to an extravagant wedding in Italy.

Anyway, I sincerely hope that Katie's dreams have come true and that this is a true love match.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

Publishing Controversies

So, Harpers Collins and Newscorp decided to dump the OJ Simpson book and TV interview. Rupert Murdoch sent out a statement saying that it was an 'ill-considered' move on their part. Really now? Let me guess, stock price at Newscorp go tumbling? Too many affliates decided not to run the show. Booksellers like Borders saying they planned to donate all proceeds from the books to charity. Too many independent booksellers saying they wouldn't stock the book?

Let's face it, if Newscorp thought they were actually going to make some money of this book, they would have continued to publish it in the face of the controversy. But when everyone, including the people you are depending on to help promote the book, and to sell it, don't want to, you have to fold up your tent and go.

What sucks the most out of this, is that OJ doesn't have to return the money, since Harper Collins cancelled the book. And he hid his tracks so well (the man has a good team of lawyers) that it will take years for the Goldman and Brown families to find out where the money trail leads.

And Judith Regan? Her contention that she felt that the book was OJ's confession, and that's the only reason why she was interested was ludicrous. Did anyone buy that? And then her statement that well, she was a battered wife and she was publishing the book for them, to prove how a powerful man can hide his crimes? Unfortunately, Ms. Regan will live to publish again.

I hate censorship, but I have to say that in this case, I thought that Harper Collins publishing this book was in poor taste.

In other news, I read today that parents in a town in Illinois want to ban a book about how two male penguins raise a baby penguin because it promotes a homosexual lifestyle. Okay, first of all, the book is based on a true story. Second, they're penguins, people. Not humans, but birds who live in cold climates. Let's forget the fact that the book is a sweet story, or that it shows that two males, whether human or animal, can nuture a baby. Let's just focus on the fact that's it tow members of the same sex.

Oy! Now that kind of censorship really burns my but. When they start picking on innocent picture books.

Thanks for reading.

EKM

Discovering a New Artist

I went to an art opening on Friday night downtown in Soho, which I haven't done since my best friend was dating a guy who owned his own art gallery down on Wooster Street. But a colleague from work told me about this amazing artist, Daniel Merriam, and gave me the link to the gallery website, and I just fell in love with the art.

I'm no art historian, I'm one of those people who know what they like. And I really like Daniel Merriam's art. His paintings are so surrealistic and fantastical. You just want to create stories around the paintings. They provoke and stimulate the imagination.

I'm not a big fan of abstract painting. I can appreciate the talent and technique of Picasso, Francis Bacon, and Jackson Pollack, but I don't want their stuffing hanging in my house. My taste runs more to the impressionists or Chagall, Georgia O'Keefe, or even Frida Kahlo.

Daniel Merriam's art reminds me of the artist Maxfield Parrish, or Heironymous Bosch, sort of larger than life art, but still grounded. Plus the colors are astounding! There are very few artists that I would want to own, and Daniel Merriam is one of them. I also long to collect Disney animation cells.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to make Eloisa James or Julia Quinn type of money before I can afford to buy one of his paintings. Of course, the ones that I really liked were going for $60,000. The cheapest were limited edition prints that were going for $600. Wow, I could sell a kidney and maybe then I would be able to afford a painting.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

The Best Bond Ever!

Isn't this a sexy picture. That's Daniel Craig as James Bond and Eva Green as Vesper Lynd from Casino Royale, the best Bond picture ever and the best James Bond.

I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this film. Casino Royale actually is the first book in the series of James Bond books by Ian Fleming (who amazingly enough aslo wrote the book that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is based on).

What you get in this book, is the origins of James Bond, or at least you get to see the man before he becomes the James Bond of Dr. No etc. In this Bond, he's just achieved his 007 status, and it's clear that he doesn't play by the rules.

I don't want to put up any spoilers, but I will say that what I love about Daniel Craig, is that he's a real man. You believe him when he's waving a gun around. You don't know whether he's going to shoot your or kiss you. The only other actor that I can think of who has that quality is Clive Owen (Russell Crowe would just shoot you, or beat you with a phone).

The fact that this Bond is blond? Who cares! What does that have to do with anything? Oh right because the previous bonds had all been brunets, apart from Roger Moore is kind of blond, but who always looked to me like he'd rather be sitting in the bar, then shooting anyone.

I have to say straight up that I've never been a huge Bond fan. I didn't start seeing the movies until Timothy Dalton was cast, because I adore him. I'd seen bits and pieces of the other films, but they just seemed to be full of gadgets and women moaning 'Oh James' before they get blown to bits or covered in gold paint. The only Sean Connery Bond that I've seen all the way through is the remake he did of Thunderball with Kim Basinger. I've never seen any of the Roger Moore movies all the way through, because he annoys me. I did see all four Pierce Brosnan movies, because I like him, but I felt that the villains were never that interesting. Robert Carlyle was wasted in The World is not Enough or Tomorrow Never Comes of which ever one he was in with Michelle Yeoh and Sophie Marceau.

But this Bond, I know I'm going to see again. When James Bond fights in this movie, he bleeds, you can tell that he's hurt and that he suffers. Not to mention, how hot Daniel Craig looks in his bathing suit or in his tuxedo. And the relationship that he forges with Vesper Lynd in this movie is wonderfully romantic and sexy. The scene between the two of them at the end, is so sad, it just breaks your heart.

So I give Casino Royale an A-. I look forward to seeing what else Daniel Craig can do in the role. If the writing is as good as it was in this one, the Bond franchise has now been successfully reborn.

Hot Stuff

This is going to be a short post, because I'm severely hung over. I went out last night to see a wonderful artist named Daniel Merriam at a gallery called Animazing down in SoHo. Unfortunately, I got lost on the way there, and ended up on the Lower East Side near the Williamsburg bridge. I took a wrong turn when I got off the subway at Spring St.

I finally had to take a cab to the gallery. When I got there, I met up with some work colleagues, and interestingly enough met two guys, which was unusual for me, considering my luck lately. I had planned on trying to meet the artist, because he was cute, but it turns out that he's married and lives in Maui. Call me madcap, but even if he were single, Maui and New York arent' exactly geographically close.

Both guys were attractive, employed and younger than me. The question became which one did I focus on? I finally decided to focus most of my attention on the Scottish guy. I confess I love Scotsmen. I dated a Scotsman in London when I was working there, and since then Scotsmen have always had a special place in my heart.

We went out to a Thai restaurant on Spring St. called Kin Khao. Excellent, if you're ever in New York and you want to have some really good Thai food. Afterwards, Scottish Guy and I went to Balthaszar and had a few more drinks.

I don't know if I'll see him again. I have a feeling that I won't, but it was nice after Fun Guy to have someone find me sexy and cute.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

Oh, and Casino Royale is fabulous. Run dont' walk to the cinema to see it.

Only One More Day!

Only one more day until Casino Royale opens with Daniel Craig and I can't wait. I plan on seeing it on Saturday at the Zeigfeld which is one of the few movie theatres left in this city that isn't a multi-plex, in fact I think it's the only one in Manhattan. I'd go tomorrow, but I'm going to an exhibition of an artist who does amazingly fantastical, surrealistic paintings.

I still feel like crap, and I didn't even get a flu shot, which is what's taking alot of people down. Oh, and it's fun guy's birthday. Happy Birthday Fun Guy! I sent along birthday wishes through a friend. I could send him a note or an e-card myself but since he made no effort to wish me a happy birthday, I'm making the minimum effort for him. If I wasn't such a nice person, I wouldn't wish him a happy birthday at all, but unlike Judith Regan, I believe in good karma. You put out good stuff, and eventually it will come back to you.

Mercury comes out of retrograde like tomorrow, and frankly it can't come soon enough for me. Oh, this is funny. An agent that I submitted to twice, I sent her a follow-up email concerning the last submission I emailed her, and she emails me back asking for me to submit to her! I almost fell over when I read the email. I'm going on the premise that she's had serious computer problems, and that's why she hasn't read the other two email submissions that I sent her. Here's hoping that the third time is the charm.

Thanks for reading.

EKM

The End of the World as We Know It

Okay, I saw this last night while I was surfing the internet at work. At first I thought it had to be a huge joke. But it turned out to be horribly, horribly rea.

I'm telling you I almost threw up in my mouth a little when I read it on USA Today. Some things are so unbelievably offensive, they require no comment whatsoever. Here is the press release from Fox. (Trust me, I only wish I were making this up.)

JUDITH REGAN’S EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH O.J. SIMPSON

“O.J. SIMPSON: IF I DID IT, HERE’S HOW IT HAPPENED”

TO AIR AS A TWO-PART SPECIAL ON FOX

Special to Air Over Two Nights:

Monday, November 27, and Wednesday, November 29

Over 10 years after he was tried for two murders in the "Trial of the Century" that captured the attention of the world, O.J. Simpson, in his own words, tells for the first time how he would have committed the murders if he were the one responsible for the crimes. Noted publisher Judith Regan will talk with Simpson in a wide-ranging, no-holds-barred interview that will be the basis of a two-part special, O.J. SIMPSON: IF I DID IT, HERE’S HOW IT HAPPENED (working title), airing Monday, Nov. 27 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) and Wednesday, Nov. 29 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.

The Simpson criminal and civil trials captivated people around the world for a decade, and now no topics are off-limits -- Simpson has agreed to an unrestricted interview with Regan. In the two-part event, Simpson describes how he would have carried out the murders he has vehemently denied committing for over a decade.

"This is an interview that no one thought would ever happen. It’s the definitive last chapter in the Trial of the Century," said Mike Darnell, Executive Vice President of Alternative Programming.

Although acquitted of murdering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, Simpson was later sued in civil court, found responsible for both murders and ordered to pay $33.5 million in restitution to the families of the victims. A decade later, Simpson has written a book that hypothetically describes how the murders would have been committed. If I Did It will go on sale Thursday, Nov. 30, under the REGAN imprint.

Is this not the most disgusting, offensive, loathsome thing on the planet? Shame on Judith Regan and Harper Collins for publishing this book. And big shame on Rupert Murdoch for letting it go through. I don't believe in censorship, but come on, what is the sense in publishing this book?

What would motivate you to write this book but money? Come on, writing a book about how if you hypothetically had killed your wife, this is how you would have done it?

I have to say straight up that I believe that O.J. killed Nicole and Ron Goldman, so I find this book particularly loathsome. If there is such a thing as karma (and I believe there is), I hope this comes back and bites him big time on the ass. I hope both families sue him for the money from his book. I hope this book is pulped.

Judith Regan has sunk to a new low. It was bad enough to publish a book by Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's ex-boyfriend Michael Bergin which pretty much dragged her poor dead body through the mud but O.J.?

Ugh, I need to take a shower now, I feel so dirty even blogging about this.

Thanks for reading,

EKM

Stop the World, I want to get off

I've just moved my blog to the latest version of blogger. That's one thing that's been going right lately.

Do you ever have those days when you just want to crawl into a hole and pull it in after you? Or just sleep 24 hours without waking up? Just pull the covers over your head until things settle down? Well, that's the way I've been feeling lately. I've been so stressed with work, more work, writing, and friends who seem to just keep taking until I have nothing left to give anymore.

Ever since I've been back from London, I've been like the energizer bunny. I went right back to work the day after I came back to both of my jobs. Then my chapter had our 20th anniversary event. Then my birthday parties (I've had about 3 now). I've also been trying to put into play the revisions I have to do for my first YA, at the same time trying to continue with my current YA for the class that I'm taking.

Then we had our November chapter meeting, and we've just finished making the arrangements for our first Christmas lunch. Normally, we've had our Christmas party at one of our member's gorgeous apartment overlooking Washington Square Park. But unfortunately BD moved to Washington DC (her husband is the head of the business school at one of the universities), and we had to make other arrangements.

I found a great restaurant with a fabulous private room, but it's not cheap. And I'm waiting for the fall out when the members find out just how much it's going to cost them. Now I have to write my President's letter for December. P.S. I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to come up with 24 more President's letters over the next two years.

Then I have family issues to deal with that are consuming up a shit load of my time. Plus, trying to have a social life, and ooh I don't know, find a guy that I like, who doesn't have commitment issues. Just a thought.

Now I'm fighting off a cold and I feel like crap. I did finally take an exercise class on Sunday, which did a great deal to relieve some of my stress, but not enough. Getting up in the morning to go to work is like wading through quicksand for me. I need more sleep! Or sex, one of the two.

Thanks for reading,

EKM

How May Of Me

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 71 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

What Flavor Jelly Bean Are You?

You Are a Cherry Jelly Bean

Sweet yet strong, you have a distinct personality without being a weirdo. You're the most normal of all flavors - but you're never boring.

What Flavor Jelly Bean Are You?

(I'm a Cherry Jelly Bean)

When Pretty Girls Get Ugly

This is Vanessa Minillo from Entertainment Tonight/ET aka Nick Lachey's girlfriend dressed for her hard-hitting investigative report on whether or not people treat 'Ugly' girls differently than pretty girls.

Guess what? She discovered that they do! Quelle surprise. What a novel theory.

Can I just say how tired I am of seeing woman like Tyra Banks and Vanessa Minillo putting on a fat suit and a bad wig to try to experience life on the other side. The bottom line for these women is that at the end of the day, they get to take off the fat and put on a Gucci mini-dress, Jimmy Choos and go back to their fabulous lives as B and C list celebrities.

Oh, they cry and wring their hands about how cruel people are, and how they've been changed by the experience. But do we really believe that in a week or two they're even going to remember it?

Any girl who has ever been even slightly overweight knows what it's like to grow up feeling invisible, and to be picked on.

I certainly know what it's like to be the last one to be picked in every gym class for a team, and to be made fun of because I was chubby or because I developed early. I hope that because of that experience, it's made me more compassionate. I certainly don't need to put on a fat suit or make myself look ugly to learn that.

Most women know that if we put on make-up, or a pretty dress and smile, we get treated differently than if we don't. It's no big secret. Still it just burns my butt when women like Tyra and Vanessa think they're doing something noble by 'getting ugly.'

What do other people think?

Thanks for reading!

EKm

Revisions, Revisions, Revisions

So I spent a day looking over my partial of my first YA, thinking about the notes that an agent gave me who wants to look at a revised submission. *Sigh* After reading it again, I really, really like what I've written, which is so unusual for me. Most of the time, I'm thinking about all the things I've gotten wrong. While I agree with some of the proposed changes, I'm not sure that I agree with all of them.

For example, I don't agree that one of the main female characters is whiny, but I think that because my first person POV voice is so strong, it might come across that way, or maybe it's this agents perception of what she herself was like as a teenager. After watching several episodes of My Super Sweet Sixteen, Hermione is so not as whiny as those beatches. However, switching to the third person might soften her a little.

I do agree that I need to move the paranormal element to the beginning of the book and have the paranormal character comment more on the action of the story and also bring in the fairies sooner than I do.

I hope to have the revisions done in time for Mercury to make it's way out of retrograde. I can then email them to her and see what her reaction is. If she likes it, I then have to go through the whole manuscript and change it to the third person.

In the meantime, I have several other agents interested in reading the manuscript. Part of my problem I think that I'm having with the revisions is that I'm not sure this agent and I are a good fit. She didn't seem excited when I told her that I envisioned this first book as part of a series. She seemed more focused on the fact that the book had a paranormal element and paranormal is hot right now. But that's not what the book is about, that's just one part of it.

I'm happy that this agent seems interested in enough to want to see a revision, but I don't want to just sign with an agent to be signed. I've seen that happen to friends, and that can set you back like a year or more in your career. I want an agent who gets my writing, gets what I'm trying to do, and can guide me a little bit. We need to be on the same page.

I also have to at some point finish my current YA manuscript. I'm on the first draft, and I need to beef up the character elements in it.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

Oh no she didn't!

So Britney finally wised up and kicked K-Fed to the curb. Thank God! Girlfriend finally saw sense and dropped his broke do-nothing, no talented, lazy, spend no time with his kids, ass. Although I'm sorry that little Sean Preston and Jayden James (personally I liked Sutton Pierce better, what you do wanna bet that she changes the kids name again) will come from a broken home, but hopefully Britney can move on, get her career back on track and find a man who wants more than to ride her coattails to a questionable career as a really bad rapper.

Come on though didn't we all see this coming? Better yet, didn't Britney see this coming? She had to have known that a man who would dump his pregnant girlfriend for her was ultimately bad news.
Thank god, she apparently managed to get him to sign a pre-nup agreement that gives him basically nothing, but the track suit on his back.

I'd like to see Britney and Whitney start their own version of the First Wives Club, maybe write a book about how to deal with your trifling hubby. Ooh, they could record a duet together. She's with Jive Records which is owned by Arista. It's entirely possible that Clive Davis could hook the two of them up.

Isn't amazing how they both cleaned up their acts, the minute they decided to dump the chump? Both Whitney and Britney are looking better than they have for years. Britney even cleaned up her roots and is starting to dress less like she's auditioning for the movie version of L'il Abner, and more like the pop princess we've come to know and love.

The woman who frenched Madonna, and wore a snake around her neck on live TV.

Welcome back Britney, we missed you!

Thanks for reading,

EKM

Books, Books, Books

So today's post is all about the lovely bookstores of London. And I do mean lovely. London must have more bookstores per square foot than any other city in the world. Seriously. If you walk up Charing Cross in London you'll pass at least 10 or more bookstores. That includes the big chains like Waterstones, Blackwells, Hatchards and Borders. Yes, there is a Borders in London. In fact there are two that I know of, one on Charing Cross and the other in Islington where the Sephora is. There used to a chain called Books etc, but I think they died apart from the one at Gatwick Airport. Also, WH Smith and John Menzies which are large chains of Newsagents also carry books. You can find one at either airport. A good place to stock up on those UK magazines, crisps, and chocolate before you get on the plane.

My favorite bookstores are Waterstones, Foyles and Murder One. Waterstones is like a more upscale version of Borders. In fact, I think that when Borders opened that lead them Waterstones to add a cafe in their gigantic store on Piccadilly. What's great about UK bookstores is that they are actually well-stocked compared to American bookstores. Read this week's At the Back Fence at All About Romance to read about the sorry state of American bookstores where most of the staff haven't the faintest clue about the books they are carrying.

At Waterstones in Piccadilly, the fiction section is huge. It takes up the entire floor, plus it's divided into romance, fiction, classics, mystery, and science fiction/fantasy plus graphic novels. You can find Georgette Heyer's entire oeuvre at Waterstones. Plus they carry all the Mills & Boon/Harlequin Romances as well as a nice selection of American romances.

Foyle's is hands down the most frustrating bookstore in the world or at least it used to be. They'd made a lot of changes in the store. For one thing, it's cleaner and the books are better organized than they used to be. When I first started going to Foyle's, they used to divide the books not by genre but by publisher. So it wasn't enough to know the title of the book when you came in, you had to know the publisher as well. Then you had to go to two different tills before you could take your book and walk out of the store. One clerk made up the bill slip, and then you went to a cashier to pay for the book. I don't know if that system is still in place but it was tres weird.

Murder One is a bookstore on Charing Cross that carries only mysteries and romance novels. They even carry Romantic Times or RT Book Club. Here you can find pretty much every romance novel that's been published both in the UK and in the US. That means books that have been imported and not published by a UK publisher. Like here in the States, Rachel Gibson is published by Avon but in the UK, she's published by Little Black Dress (Hodder Headline), but other American authors don't have a UK publisher, so you end up paying more than twice the price for their books. What was great about this bookstore, was that I was able to find a couple of Mills & Boon authors that haven't been published in the States yet like Julie Cohen. I found two of her Mills & Boon Modern Romance Extra books (think Temptation), plus her single title.

Because books are so much more expensive than they are here (for example Rupert Everett's autobiography was 15 pounds which is almost 30 dollars here), I tried to limit what I bought. Also I didn't have much room in my suitcase. So I bought 3 of Julie Cohen's books, the Rupert autobio and a book by Fiona Walker. I almost bought Melissa Nathan's last book but I couldn't after I read the dedication. It was the last book she wrote before she died of cancer, and she dedicated it to her little boy who she wouldn't see grow up. I just burst into tears and I had to put the book back.

Speaking of books, I bought the Janet Evanovich book on writing the other day. Almost bought several other new writing books but I managed to contain myself, at least for now.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

Here they are: RWA NYC Golden Apple Awards

Hey! I thought I post some pictures from our Golden Apple Awards reception that took place about two weeks ago in lieu of a full post. I'm a little tired today. Saturday was our chapter meeting and then I went out twice to celebrate my birthday. Once with friends from the chapter who bought me a lovely gold card case from the Met, and then again with one of my best friends. Yesterday, I worked until almost 1 a.m. writing two shows, Fall of the Empire: Rome on Tiberius Gracchus and Without a Trace.

This morning getting to work was nightmare. All the trains were backed up because someone was sick on a train at the 59th Street station. There were no cabs to be had and the buses were a nightmare. I finally managed to get an express train at 96th but I was still almost an 1 1/2 late this morning. Thanks mercury in retrograde.

That's me in the red dress looking a little hippy I might add. Not a good angle for me.

That's agent Ethan Ellenberg reading a statement from Bertrice Small, who was our author of the year. With me are Vice President's Darlene James (on the left) and Barbara Gale who helped give out the awards.









This lovely lady is editor Leslie Wainger from Harlequin Silhouette who was our Editor of the Year. I'm in the background looking at my notes to prepare for the next introduction. I started off with author, then agent, editor, and then finally publisher, to illustrate the trajectory of an author's career. You get the picture. I thought it was mildly cute.






And finally we have our Publisher Walter Zacharius who announced that at the tender age of 80 something, he's starting a film company with Roy Campanella (legendary Dodger short-stop or catcher, I'm not sure which but he's legendary!) to make low-budget African-American films. Gotta love it. He started Kensington in his fifties after years in the business and published his first novel 2 years ago when he was 80. We should all have his energy.


So that's it for today. I promise to be back tomorrow to talk about bookstores in London.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

Marvelous Marie

Yeah, Blogger has finally let me upload a picture to the site. Phew! That's a relief. I thought I'd never get to that again.

Well, last night was my birthday and I went out with my lovely friends to SAPA for $5 happy hour. Unfortunately they did not have my favorite cornmeal crusted oysters, although they did have oysters on the half-shell which I love. One of my good friends brought me a dozen of the most gorgeous roses, and a particularly lovely set of earrings and a necklace, which I promptly put on.

Then three of us went to see Marie Antoinette since it was also her birthday yesterday. Can I just say what a sumptously lovely film it was? Not to mention that Sophia Coppola managed to get the French government to actually let her film at Versailles. Ooh la la! My head was filled with visions of chocolates and macarons, not to mention escargot and lots of French champagne.

When I was in London, my friend Chip and I cracked open a bottle of Perrier-Jouet Rose, a lovely pink champagne which was excellent. I adore pink champagne. When we were walking down what Chip likes to call Old Condom Street (Old Compton Street), we saw mini-bottles of Moet and Chandon Rose. Sigh, I miss London.

I came home to find a birthday card from my former in-laws which was very sweet of them. I had hoped that Fun Guy might at least call me for my birthday or relay a message through our mutual friend birthday wishes (he knew it was my birthday) but it was not to be. When am I ever going to stop hoping that people are really good at heart?

Anywhoo, back to the film, the only quibble that I have with the film was the lack of characterization. Some things were glossed over that I thought were particularly important like the reason the Dauphin couldn't consummate the marriage. He had a medical condition that required surgery. Also her affair with Axel Fersen was just seen in a few brief scenes, in fact I dont' think the guy had any actual lines. One minute she's meeting him, the next they're having sex.

The one thing that she did get right was the stultifying amout of protocol that went on in the Royal Court from dusk to dawn. And the gossiping, although there could have been more made of that as well. The Affair of the Necklace wasn't really mentioned, nor the way the French women at court treated her as an interloper because she was Austrian, although her father was the Duke of Lorraine.

The whole Madame duBarry sequence didn't ring true to me either. I would have liked to have seen the women that she hung around with encouraging her more to vicious to the King's mistress. I really liked Kirsten Dunst, and she was certainly naive enough in the early scenes but again it didn't go far enough. Marie Antoinette was only 14 when she was married off to the Dauphin. She was torn away from everything that she knew and loved, all her women were taken away, not to mention her dog (very nice scene by the way when this happened). I would have liked to have seen more homesickness.

So I give the movie a B+ instead of an A. The worst moment of the evening was when I lost one of the earrings that I'd just been given and we couldn't find it in the movie theater. That put a huge damper on the evening.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yes, today is indeed my birthday along with alot of other people, but they don't count apart from my friend, J, who is my birthday buddy but 3 years younger than me, that bitch!

I thought I'd share some of the birthday horoscopes, or horrorscopes I've pulled from the web for my special day. I'm off with some friends to SAPA tonight for nibblies, and then off to see Marie Antoinette, since it's her birthday too, although she's dead. But I've heard she was quite the partier in her time.

It is also the day two of the Day of the Dead in Mexico.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY Nov. 2, 2006 HOROSCOPES

You have what it takes if you are focused and direct. Creativity stems from your natural mental and emotional resourcefulness. Methodical might be your defining style, but you are also capable of enormous leaps of imagination and process. If you are single and have not met your sweetie yet, you might not be waiting much longer! If you are attached, allow great excitement and nurturing into your life. ARIES adds to the quality of your daily life.

Sydney Omarr

Let the valuable memories of the help you've received in your life inspire you to help other people today. Your selfless nature runs deeper than the people in your life realize, and it's time for you to let them know how generous you can be. Get involved in a low-profile volunteer activity; it will give you a great sense of accomplishment. Even donating old furniture, clothes or used books will mean a lot.

Birthday Horoscopes for 11/02

The November 2nd person has keen instincts and uses them to adapt to changes around them. The moon which is the ruling planet for this day gives a mothering tone to people born on this day. This can be used in a good way but has the potential to effect those around them in a negative way if its used in a manipulative manner. As a Mate the November 2nd person can provide overwhelming amounts of sex and monetary comforts. The mate of this person must be willing to adapt to the many changes in this persons life.

A look ahead; Change in our life is actually a constant, for we have been dying since our first day and will continue to do so till our last.

Famous Birthdays; David Schwimmer, Pat Buchanan, Stefanie Powers, Burt Lancaster, K. D. Laing, Marie Antoinette, Daniel Boone, Nelly, James K. Polk, Warren G. Harding, Ray Walston, Phil Woods, Earl "Speedo" Carroll (The Cadillacs/The Coasters), Bobby Dall (Poison).

(Okay how sad is that I share a birthday with Pat Buchanan, and one of the worst presidents in US History, but yeah on the KD Laing and Nelly).

Scorpio's Birthday Reading

This year is about discovering and using the power of love. There's no trick involved; in fact, sincerity is required. Anticipate miracles. (I particularly like this one)

Thanks for reading!

EKM

Trisha!

So I promised that I would blog about my trip to London. Sorry about the lack of pictures but I've been going to London for so long that I just don't take pictures anymore, plus I don't have a digital camera apart from those cheap ones that you can buy in the drug store. Normally, when I'm in London, if I take pictures it's when I'm out in the countryside exploring other parts of England but I stuck to London this time mainly because of weather and there were so many people that I wanted to see.

However, I did take a trip outside London to Maidstone to watch a taping of the Trisha Goddard show. Trisha Goddard is sort of the British equivalent of Oprah mixed with a little Sally Jessy Raphael. What I mean by that is that she's genuinely interested in helping people like Oprah but her shows tend to be more sensationalistic like Oprah's used to be before she decided to use her power for good rather than evil.

Trisha is a celebrity in the UK, and you have to remember that aren't that many black celebrities in Britain. Although she's English, her career actually started in Australia where again she was one of the few non-whites on television. Seriously, they didn't even have an aboriginal newscaster until several years ago.

What makes Trisha different from say Sharon Osbourne who also has a chat show in Britain (she just took the one she was doing here and transported the whole set to the UK), is that she has a degree in conflict resolution.

The reason why I traipsed out to Maidstone at the early hour of 9 in the morning is because my friend Chip has a friend who directs the show, and he invited us to come watch the taping of the last two shows of the week. Apparently they tape all five shows in two days. When we got there we checked in and got our lovely badges, and then were whisked backstage to the production book where J was getting ready to direct the first episode. We watched themtape the intros for the show.

I wasn't sure what to expect and I thought the first show was going to go in a completely different direction than it did. Trisha's first guest was this skank who masqueraded as a journalist named Tara who had a six week relationship with the head of the Crystal Palace FC. After he dumped her, she sent him threatening emails, sometimes up to 200 a day. Then Tara came out on stage in a strapless gingham sundress, dark fishnets and yellow sandals, posing madly. It turns out that she deliberately harassed this guy, hoping that she would be arrested. At first she claimed it was because she wanted the world to know what a bully he was, but then it turned out that she had really done it for the publicity. What, there were no reality shows casting at the time?

So after that, I expected more guests who were similar but the next guest was a man who's son had died in this entertainer Michael Barrymore's swimming pool 5 years ago. The poor man still hasn't gotten closure over his son's death. His health has been ruined, his long-term girlfriend has left him. His only support is his younger son. It was so sad.

The other segments included a lesbian couple who wanted to change the laws on assisted suicide (one of the women has the gene for Huntington's disease, and she's already seen other relatives die of the disease), and a woman who had been abused in a group home as a child, who hadn't told her boyfriend about the abuse until she was called to give testimony at the abuser's trial.

We sat in the audience for this one, and I was even planning on asking a question. I raised my hand and everything but didn't get picked. Darn! For the second show (about people who abuse themselves) Chip and I sat up in the book watching J direct. That was fascinating. Although for one of the promos they filmed, they had this poor woman who was overweight sitting in front of two huge plates of sandwiches and cake to introduce the fact that she was an overeater.

Afterwards, J told us that they have a hard time getting guests for the show sometimes. It seems that Brits aren't as eager to share their dirty laundry as Americans. I noticed that Trisha didn't probe too deep with any of the guests. Totally different than here where if you don't share, you don't get on the show. And where they ambush you regularly on certain shows like Jerry Springer and Maury.

Thanks for reading!

EKM

P.S. Blogger is giving me fits again with the picture thing.