nell's dish du'jour

This is Nora Lee – an outstanding little girl we had the pleasure of hanging out with yesterday.  I always get so much joy out of watching children play with bubbles.  Bubbles inspire such an unbridled enthusiasm in children, which I guess makes sense… I mean, they’re iridescent little floating balls.  That is pretty magical.

On another note, this is our last evening in LA.  I have been here for 10 nights and Adam for 12… we are truly excited to return to NYC… we miss it!  Though the LA Film Festival has treated us like royalty.  It’s been a totally outstanding experience and we’ve met some awesomely friendly, talented and inspiring people.  I am so proud of Adam and of his film, Hello Lonesome,  which won one of only two jury prizes for the narrative category  - “outstanding performance in a narrative feature” – given to the entire cast of the film.  The performances are completely amazing – so this award really meant so much to Adam. What an incredible beginning for Hello Lonesome!

We are off at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning to fly back east – it’s been a crazy ride.  Expect more from Adam in the next couple days… I will link to his post as I’m sure he’ll be summing up this entire experience!

Here’s Adam turning on the charm during an interview with RealTVFilms host Kaki West at LAFF.  Doesn’t he kind of look like an old Jewish grandpa?  God he’s adorable!  Kaki told us she wanted to join our entourage… but she would make it a “blondetourage”.  Adam was cracking her up during the interview… typical.  I was watching, taking photos and enjoying this hilarious scene immensely.

Here is another “Blondetourage” photo I enjoy:

Anyway – finished up our last screening tonight!  It was another near full house and once again the audience really seemed to love it.  The majority of the theater stayed afterwards for the Q&A with Adam and he got LOTS of great questions and positive feedback on Hello Lonesome.

We are EXHAUSTED!!  What an emotional roller coaster the last week has been!   We took off for Santa Monica after the screening this evening and are spending a couple days by the beach now to unwind.  On Saturday there is an awards brunch where the winner of the narrative competition will be announced.  Adam is up against 8 other films in the category… I keep saying I’m not getting my hopes up – but in all honesty, I really can’t help it – call me a cockeyed optimist.  I truly think he deserves to WIN!  So fingers & toes crossed.  I’ll keep you posted!

These Lakers fans are pretty crazy!  Our first night here was opening night of the film festival, with the premier and after party of the movie The Kids Are All Right AND the Lakers were playing game 7 against the Celtics at the Staples Center (literally next door to the festival’s main hub).  Needless to say, downtown LA was BUMPING!  While mingling at the after party we started to see a commotion – people going over to the wall of parking garage (festival village is set up on the top floor of a parking structure) – looking down at the ground below.  Apparently, there were all kinds of riots!  The fans were rioting and LA WON the game!  I’d hate to have seen it if they lost.  I heard there were cars on fire and all that kind of drama.  The LAPD were on the scene with the riot police – I caught some pics from the roof.

Yesterday – while on our way to see Toy Story 3 – the Lakers parade was going on in downtown and Adam and I accidentally found ourselves in the middle of it.  We were a little frightened.  Luckily – it was pretty tame and I think we were just on the fringe of the parade so all was well.  Until I got sick at Toy Story!  What a day.

We are on our way to Adam’s radio interview and then it’s the 2nd screening of Hello Lonesome.  The theater seats almost 300 people so hopefully it’s nice and crowded!  Til tomorrow!