Hi Everyone!
Hope you all had a lovely Christmas, wherever in the world you spent it?
This week’s Christmas Eve Breakfast Club (sponsored by Next Stop LAX) was surprisingly busy but as always it was great to see so many of you turning out. We will be there for New Years Eve breakfast too this Tuesday. As always, it’s at Cecconi’s on Melrose (cross street is Robertson) in West Hollywood. Stop in anytime between 9.30-11am. Don’t hesitate to come alone – I will be there next week so feel free to come and sit with me. Our lovely Mayor of Breakfast, Bernard Skibben was playing Santa Claus, dishing out gorgeous Christmas cookies to everyone, which really helped get us into the festive spirit, despite it being 80 degrees that day!
It inspired a few of us to get together for Midnight Mass at St Thomas the Apostle church (7501 Hollywood Blvd at Gardner). Father Ian conducted a really lovely service. He hails from Wales originally – so it certainly felt for a moment that we ex-pats were back in Britain. We sang a few carols and then he hosted a little reception after the mass too. Visit the church’s website at: www.saintthomashollywood.org for more info.
Christmas Day was particularly exciting for me – as my very talented sister, Sally Norris became the first woman to direct and produce the Queen’s Speech ! To say I am proud is an understatement! I loved her choice of using behind-the-scenes footage and was very impressed she managed to get the Queen to comment on a personal level about the loss of her father. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did? I am hoping she gets to direct it again next year too!
The festive season wouldn’t be festive without some comedy, so last weekend I headed down to Largo at the Coronet, (366 N. La Cienega, West Hollywood), to see Jack Black. Most of you probably know Jack from movies including School of Rock, Shallow Hal and the brilliant Tropic Thunder. However he along with Kyle Gass make up the absolutely brilliant and hilariously funny rock band Tenacious D. They are local lads, and often play locally. Their show is highly recommended so get tickets if you ever get a chance (they usually sell out within 24 hours!!). You can follow them on Twitter @RealTenaciousD. Jack Black also starred in a movie called ‘Be Kind Rewind’ which was actually the inspiration for our annual short film competition The Toscars. I do hope a lot of you will join us on February 26th for the screening and the awards ceremony. We are hosting at the historic Egyptian theatre again, which is apparently the site of the very first red carpet event to occur in Hollywood! It is a really a fabulous night, definitely the highlight of the Oscar season for me! To view the films from the previous 6 years, visit our website: TheToscars.com
(©Eileen Lee)
Those of you with a fondness for Scotland’s greatest poet with a side of offal will want to attend our first-ever Burns Night. I am something of a Burns’ Night virgin but fortunately there are lots of Scots in the group who are eager to help and make sure we get it right. Lorne Cousin (bagpiper to the stars – including Madonna!) will be piping in the haggis and thanks to William Grant & Sons, The Balvenie and Glenfiddich will be pouring freely! Ticket information to follow, but for now save the date of January 25th, its going to be a good ‘un!
Finally, we updated our Brits Gigging in LA page – Sting, Jake Bugg and The Kaiser Chiefs all have local shows in 2014. Rising British-American indie band Nightmare and the Cat will be playing on January 16th at the Bootleg Bar in Silverlake. The band was formed in Los Angeles by brothers Samuel Stewart and Django Stewart, sons of musician/producer Dave Stewart and Siobhan Fahey (of Eurythmics and Bananarama fame, respectively). Coincidentally their dad Dave is playing on the 30th of January at the El Rey.
That’s all for this week, Happy New Year to you all and see you in 2014!
Cheers!
Eileen
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