Year: 2013

“Central Park Five”–Today’s Scottsboro Boys?

Written by diana on April 22, 2013. Posted in movie reviews. 2 Comments on “Central Park Five”–Today’s Scottsboro Boys?

In 1989 the “Central Park Jogger” trial had the country’s attention and a media frenzy fed the heightened fear of New Yorkers who saw their beloved Central Park and the city as a whole becoming a dangerous environment simmering with crime and mayhem. “The Central Park Five”, a new documentary from award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns, retells the story of the five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were wrongly convicted of brutally raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park on April 22, 1989. The film chronicles The Central Park Jogger case from the perspective...

“Leonie”–The Lioness and the Sculptor

Written by diana on April 16, 2013. Posted in movie reviews. 3 Comments on “Leonie”–The Lioness and the Sculptor

“Don’t bore me by being ordinary” –These are words Leonie Gilmour (exquisitely acted by Emily Mortimer) admonishes her college friend, Catherine (Christina Hendricks) at Bryn Mawr. After graduation, she departs on an astonishingly unconventional life at the turn of the 20th century. Based on the true story of an American intellectual, “Leonie” introduces the story of Leonie Gilmour, mother of the renowned American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Filmed in lush period detail in the US and Japan, “Leonie” is a biopic of a woman who straddles two morally...

Bottega Louie–A Mega Bottega

Written by diana on April 8, 2013. Posted in Local travel, Restaurants, Unhealed Wound. No Comments on Bottega Louie–A Mega Bottega

Bottega Louie opened in 2009 in downtown Los Angeles and is in good company with some of the finest restaurants in the area. The 10,000-square-foot paean to the good life is more than a marble and brass palatial restaurant/gourmet market/patisserie with 20-foot ceilings. No detail has been overlooked. More than three years under construction, Bottega Louie also has a European style bakery and about 200 employees. The bakery creates 800 pastries a day and is a destination throughout the city for its pastel-colored macaroons. In addition there is a counter devoted to 20 kinds of breads and...

Osteria Mozza–A Tongue Thriller

Written by diana on April 2, 2013. Posted in Local travel, Restaurants. 1 Comment on Osteria Mozza–A Tongue Thriller

Burrata de Puglia Last week we had a wonderful gastronomic adventure at Osteria Mozza in Los Angeles on Melrose Avenue (West Hollywood). We selected this restaurant on a friend’s recommendation (see Mia’s food blog, “Dubu Diaries”) and we definitely were not disappointed. We would place this restaurant in the top 20 we have been to around the world! We started with three antipasti, after receiving a complementary amuse bouche (what is the equivalent in Italian?): delicious little spirals of mozzarella packed with basil leaves, sundried tomato and olives drizzled with...

“The Sessions”, “NoBody’s Perfect”, and “The Intouchables”: Twisted Bodies, Open Minds

Written by diana on March 27, 2013. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. 1 Comment on “The Sessions”, “NoBody’s Perfect”, and “The Intouchables”: Twisted Bodies, Open Minds

Recently, we have seen a series of engaging movies portraying handicapped people without pity. These three deal with body image in the nearly unexplored territory of the disabled: “The Sessions”, “NoBody’s Perfect” and “The Intouchables”. All three are surprisingly gentle yet fearless journeys into the human needs of sexuality and respect. “The Sessions”, nominated for multiple Academy Awards, reveals the often unacknowledged and ignored subject of human sexuality for the disabled. Based upon a true story, the severely handicapped Mark...

“The Following” Redux–Not Going There Again

Written by diana on March 18, 2013. Posted in Television reviews, Unhealed Wound. 1 Comment on “The Following” Redux–Not Going There Again

In February I reviewed and recommended “The Following”, a Fox television drama series starring Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy. There have been a total of nine episodes so far, but this past week’s episode has made me recant my earlier review. How disappointed I am in this series! The story is focused on two main characters: an FBI agent, Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) and a brutal serial killer Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) who has a cult following of wannabe killers, mostly young outliers trying to find a place to belong. But the last episode has overstepped the boundaries for...