LA Times Festival Of Books
This is the panel I moderated Sunday afternoon: "Memoirs: Lessons Learned," with...
Karen Stabiner
The Empty Nest: 31 Parents Tell the Truth About Relationships, Love, and Freedom After the Kids Fly the Coop
Aimee Liu
Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders
Jessica Hendra
How to Cook Your Daughter: A Memoir
and Arianna Huffington
On Becoming Fearless.... in Love, Work, and Life
Hours before:
One very cool development for one of my panelists -- Jessica Hendra's book is being made into a movie by my friend David Bottrell, a very talented writer/director who was in the audience at my panel, and who has a very familiar face to some through his accidental side job as the creepy peeping Tom on "Boston Legal."
Attention Hollywood: They have a great star attached (not sure I'm allowed to say who, but she's hot, and a really good actress), and they just need a few more bucks in financing to put the deal together.
That second picture looks like my office after my 7 year old boy gets done with my office supplies...
André-Tascha at April 30, 2007 8:36 AM
Somebody asked me if I was nervous. I said, "No, I'm prepared." Really makes all the difference!
Amy Alkon at April 30, 2007 8:42 AM
Your look puts me in mind of a famous stage direction, from Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit:
"Enter Madame Arcati, in barbaric jewellery".
Stu "El Inglés" Harris at April 30, 2007 10:35 AM
I was trying for something a little more Madame Chanel, but thank you...I think!
Amy Alkon at April 30, 2007 10:52 AM
Cool! Glad it went well!
I was trying to get to the Festival but got tied up at a lunch meeting & Office space hunting.
Next year!
RedPretzel in LA at April 30, 2007 11:21 AM
Thanks...and get tickets early next year. My session was sold out...which meant Bottrell and Lena had to get VIP passes. Life is rough!
Amy Alkon at April 30, 2007 11:51 AM
The thing that struck me in the second picture is how the scissors matched Lucy's bow.
I may need to get out more.
In the first picture, from this angle, at least, you look the most well put together of the panel. Of course.
Kimberly at April 30, 2007 3:07 PM
Its a fricking book festival. Why should it matter how "well put the together" the panelists are?
Todd at April 30, 2007 4:28 PM
Because we're not speaking to the blind?
Amy Alkon at April 30, 2007 4:46 PM
I think the other panelists look just fine. I would prefer to hear what they have to say than be judged for how they've dressed for the event.
I know a lot of assholes that dress well and a lot of intelligent courteous people who just don't have the time and resources to be so "well put together."
Todd at April 30, 2007 4:58 PM
Todd, to hear what they have to say, you have to buy a ticket and come to the event.
Amy Alkon at April 30, 2007 5:11 PM
I went to Festival of Books on Saturday. Had I wanted to hear what this panel had to say I would have purchased a ticket as I did for the two other panels I attended.
My comments are in response to the thought presented by Kimberly.
Todd at April 30, 2007 5:25 PM
Todd,
I didn't say anyone looked bad, or indeed that it mattered if they did. I said Amy looked the MOST well put together. None of them looks unkempt.
That said, I would expect people speaking on a panel, representing their profession, to look presentable. I wouldn't really want my lawyer coming to court in a tank tops and flip flops, or my lifeguard at the pool in a three piece suit.
In public life one should dress appropriately to the circumstances. In private life one is free to dress however the fuck one wants.
Kimberly at May 1, 2007 12:53 AM
In private life, I'm usually home writing in my evening dress and my tiara.
And as for "a lot of intelligent courteous people who just don't have the time and resources to be so "well put together"...
Oh, please.
My jacket cost $20 on eBay, my Michael Stars shirt was $15 on eBay, one of my two chokers of pearls I got for $1 at a garage sale and it's being held together by a kilt pin, and my Les Copains pants I got at Daffy's for $39.99, and my boots I've had since around 1993, and I get them resoled at Alex shoemaker in Santa Monica. The only expensive thing on my body is my bra, which is Empreinte, and costs half some people's car payment.
I've learned to dress by caring about style my whole life -- I get dressed as a kind of fun for myself -- and by going to France. There's really no reason to look like crap, and pretending it's a virtue is silly.
Amy Alkon at May 1, 2007 4:12 AM
Oh, scuse me...jacket was $20 INCLUDING shipping.
Amy Alkon at May 1, 2007 4:13 AM
So your just cheap?
Samantha Don at May 1, 2007 8:31 AM
Samantha Don,
Do you know what connotation is (as opposed to denotation)?
Compare the connotation of these words:
cheap....inexpensive.
Ahhhhhh.....see.....?????? A little extra thought can move mountains...dicknut.
kg at May 1, 2007 10:01 AM
...and it's "you're" not "your." At least be grammatically correct if YOUR going to try at an insult.
kg at May 1, 2007 10:12 AM
If by cheap you mean "gets good value for her money" - the actual meaning - I doubt there would be carping.
opit at May 1, 2007 6:35 PM
That bottom picture is charming as Hell. The dog is looking up like you've badly bungled an important subtheme, but might still be brought around before it all gets taped together.
Crid at May 1, 2007 8:06 PM
Crid, you've done an amazing job of reading dog.
As for Samantha, who writes: "So your just cheap?"
I have a fantastic assistant, and I pay her as well as I can. Doing that necessitates being clever about buying clothes and things, and getting a $150 haircut for $32 with tip (I'm a big tipper -- it's only $20 without tip) at Supercuts by finding just the right person. Also, it's kind of fun to look fab for not a whole lot. Even if I were swimming in money, I think I would shop pretty much as I do.
Amy Alkon at May 1, 2007 8:59 PM
I could not I'm afraid, resist revisiting sadly no. To be truthful I thought my original commenatry would go unread. On that point I was wrong. Whatever can be said of them, they do read what is written there. I'll even give one of them credit for correcting me on the clothing styles of the 1500s, (Italian rather than English).
That said though, I could not help but note the ease with which they slipped to boorishness.
The "actor212" fellow for example, was quick to make a penis based insult. Whether he thought he was being humnorous or whether he actually considered it a good way to debate, I couldn't guess.
One of the responses suggested that it wasn't Miss Alkon's physical appearance that garnered the transexual or mannish comments, but rather her fashion choices. (You can go read the whole thing if you wish, I won't spam it here, I posted under my name as usual)
Afraid I could not resist a response again, which might have been rather lengthy, but brevity has never been my strength.
It was probably a waste of time though, I doubt that any of them got the point. Nobody after all, is the villain in their own story.
Robert at February 19, 2010 4:25 PM
Why would it be a virtue to pay more than necessary for a particular product?
Oh I don't consider it a virtue to be a meagre tipper for service, pay what it is worth.
But when shopping for goods, paying more than bottom dollar is vanity not virtue, foolish, not fairness, wasteful, not wise.
Robert at February 19, 2010 5:15 PM
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