Last weekend, UCLA hosted the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Of course, I had to go.
J’s Mom came down to LA on Sunday early in the morning, we went over on Campus to reserve tickets for some of the panel discussions and then started the day with a hearty breakfast at the DC [= Dining Center]. We roamed around a little while before we could attend the first of the two sessions that we had signed up for – “Land and Sea: The Health of the Planet”. It was very interesting discussion about environmental issues and what each of us can do to act more responsible on a daily basis. The second session’s title was “Iraq: What’s next?” and the panel was made up by well-known American authors and journalists. This panel discussion was very popular and the whole lecture room was packed. As you can imagine from the title, the discussion got very political and sitting amongst all the Anti-Bush people in this room, you could almost wonder how this guy could have been elected in the first place – but wait, there are people out there who still support the government, even though current numbers are dwindling.
All over campus, there were hundreds of booths taken up by exhibitors, bookshops, publishing companies and the like. A lot of the authors and journalists had book signings at certain designated areas and overall it was just a really cool event. Unfortunately, I didn’t know any of the authors, otherwise I probably would have been more excited about the book signings, but it was still very cool. I do regret that I didn’t check out the book festival on Saturday already, as there were more interesting stage performances and panel discussion that would have been interesting to attend.
In the evening, when we got home and my feet burned like hell [I think after all, high-heels are just not made for walking – as comfortable as they initially might seem ;)], we ordered some pizza and watched “Blood Diamond”. It was a very good movie – last but not least because of Leonardo DiCaprio’s excellent acting skills :)
P.S. Happy 1st of May. I know it comes a little late and since the 1st of May is not a holiday in the US, it wasn’t really a special day. I did think of all the may festivities in Germany though and I hope you had a great time :)
infineon
May 2, 2007 at 7:21 pmi got to AZ safely, thanks for asking. the weather is beautiful, matt and i are getting along great, everytrhing is perfect and im happy. im glad you had a good time at the book festival.
Susi
May 2, 2007 at 8:22 pmwell – boots are made for walking (just HAD to think about that song), not high heels ;-). Glad you had a great weekend!
sanna
May 3, 2007 at 1:34 amUoah, I hear you about walking in high heels. I’ve been wearing my flat shoes to work forever because of the walk there.
Sounds like you had a great time at the book festival. Something to keep the mind occupied.
Smoochie! I hope everything’s alright over at your end of the web!
ilka
May 3, 2007 at 1:51 amthat sounds like an awesome time on campus. sounded very interesting.so post some of the imformation that you can do to be more responsible on a daily basis, please;-)smoochie
Viviane
May 3, 2007 at 5:00 amYou’re brave for wearing high heels when you knew you would have to walk all day. I really only wear them when I “have to”. But that sounds like an interesting day. :)
ute
May 3, 2007 at 7:05 amhi sunshine, i am counting the days!!! oh gosh i could not even survive five minutes in high heels. hurray for you!i love leo too!! isnt he just great? have a great thursday!! big hug
Sukie
May 3, 2007 at 4:14 pmI wish we had something cool like that around here to go to.
Maren
May 4, 2007 at 8:19 amSounds like an awsome day. The burning feet – not so much. I want to see Blood Diamond!
Nocturnal
May 4, 2007 at 11:41 pmFor some reason that gig reminds me of the movie Wonder Boys.
Cheers
Jess
May 5, 2007 at 7:15 pmSannie, da waer ich gerne mit Euch mitgegangen. Hab vorhin schonmal gegoogelt ob die NY Times hier etwas aehnliches anbietet, aber ich konnte nichts finden. Naja, Anfang Juni ist ja auch schon die NY Book Expo.
Gruss von Ost nach West,
Jessi
infineon
May 5, 2007 at 11:42 pmdanke fuer deine comments!! ja, matt hilft mir schon wenn er zeit hat :)
Susi
May 6, 2007 at 8:51 pmyou got lazy writing entries!!! Write, babe, write!!