Frankenweenie.

Photo from here.

The other day Bill and I took Diego and Natalie to see Frankenweenie. Diego had been anticipating this movie for months. There is a part in the movie where the little dog gets hit by a car and dies. I thought that the scene was very strong for a small child. For a few seconds everybody was very quiet and sad for what was happening to the little dog. I was worry about Diego having nightmares. But as always, when we least expected it and in a loud voice Diego said: My eyes are sweating!! Some people laughed, even though their eyes were "sweating" as well. Hopefully everyone felt less sad after Diego's announcement. 

The best part about taking our kids to the movies is when Diego says something original. He never fails to come out with ideas that make people laugh. I used to get nervous about people being mad at him for being loud, but not anymore. Now I see that people appreciate Diego's good sense of humor so our movie experiences are not stressful anymore. Now it's always fun :)

 

Bill Accepting Award!

Hello amigas y amigos! Here I have a little surprise for you and this is a link to a short video where you will see Bill accepting the award as Best Young Actor in regard of Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada for his performance in The Kite Runner. Bill is the one talking. You will also see E. Bennett Walsh on Bill's right and Walter F. Parkes on Bill's left. They are some of Bill's partners in the making of the movie. Now you can see how my hubby looks in motion. I hope that you enjoy it!
Elsita :)

Yesterday: GREAT DAY!

Oh my dear friends!!! I have sooo much to tell you about!!! First of all it was a real torture having to wait until today for saying THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH from the bottom of my heart for all the beautiful comments about El Jardin de Maria Julia. Every word that you wrote means the world to me THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

Yesterday was one of those super busy-hard-beautiful days and here is the whole story about it. Early in the morning I posted the pictures of the dress since I have been so excited about sharing them with you and then I run back to all the things that I had to do with the kids. Natalie has been sick for a few days but yesterday I realized that the cough wasn’t going away but getting deeper so I decided to take her to the Dr. but the challenge was that Diego had his speech therapy from 11:00 AM to 12:00 and then at 3:00 PM I had to be ready in a black tie outfit in order to join Bill for something important that I will tell you about later. Remember that this is Los Angeles, which is a huge city where you have to drive long distances for going everywhere. Well, somehow I managed to do everything including going to the post office and to the pharmacy for Natalie’s medicine. It turns out that she needs antibiotics for a few days, I am so glad that I took her to the Dr. Once at home I was able to sit for five minutes in order to let know Lois, Danielle, Nikki and Shannon that I had shipped her little things from Etsy. I was also able to read some of your amazing comments about the dress and I was almost in tears ready to star writing…when Bill called saying that he was almost home. I wasn’t ready at all for going to the black tie event so I had to interrupt my reading and run to get ready, which I did in a record time. Suddenly there was a big limo in front of our house and a few minutes later we were in “Hollywoodland” with all the famous people. It was very surreal but lots of fun. This event was the Critics Choice Awards. You know how tough critics in Hollywood could be so it was remarkable that The Kite Runner was nominated for different categories. One of them (my favorite) it was for Best Young Actor for the boy that you would love when you see the movie and his name is Ahmad Khan M.. This little boy is a real person from the real world from Afghanistan who has had a hard life since he was a baby and he could never imagine that he was going to play an important role in a movie. Well my friends, sometimes life is fair and this time it was: HE WON THE AWARD!!! And Bill had the honor to pick it up for him and say some touching words to the audience about this little boy. It was all on TV and I feel bad that I wasn’t even aware that this event was going to be on TV otherwise I would let you know in advance.

The first half of the day was hard, I got so tired, I even forgot to have lunch and then the second part was great, starting with the reading of your comments about the dress (THANK YOU AGAIN!!!). This event that we attended was so especial! There were lots of famous and remarkable people over there but not in the celebrity superficial spirit but the opposite. The whole energy was so human, there were some touching moments like when they honored Don Cheadle for his amazing humanitarian work in South Africa (learn about this here). George Clooney was in charge of this part of the event and he was great, very funny, smart, deep and original in his comments (he was looking good too). Some of my favorite moments of the night were number one: when I had the privilege to give Julian Schnabel a big hug and tell him how much I loved his movie and what I great director I think he is. He was sooo nice and he even said some words in Spanish. The second incredible moment was getting to met a couple that you may have heard about: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie :0 :o :b :0 :9 (the two pictures that you will see in this link are actual pictures from last night, we were not allowed to take a camera with us :( that's why I don't have pictures taken by myself) Here my friends is the part when we make a pause and SIGH………………………. These two people are REALLY beautiful and gifted by nature, especially Angelina. Forget about her celebrity and everything, even if you had no idea of who she was and you see her in person you would think that she comes from another planet. She is a stunning woman STUNNING with capital letters, even her tattoos look delicate and nice in person. On the other hand Brad is such a down to earth guy and so easy to talk with. He and Bill had a little conversation about something that I didn’t even know about and that’s a trip that they did to Mexico in 1992 for some movie related reason, they were happy to see each other after so many years and I was happy about seeing them happy. I am telling you; this part was very surreal I was wondering whether the whole thing was real or if I was just dreaming. I thought that I was going to wake up in my apartment in Havana and go back to normal life thinking like: what a crazy dream I had last night! I was meeting Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. But somehow the whole thing kept going. After the awards there was a party where we went only for a few minutes. Guess what kind of music they had?: Cuban Music!!!! So nobody could stop me from dancing a little bit with Bill and that was the perfect way to say good night to our friends over there!
Now something important is going to happen today: Diego will start the most intense of all his therapies with someone that will work with him four times a week for three hours each day. This therapy is known as DTT and everybody tells me that it is amazing. I am sooo excited about it!!! Thank you sooo much for reading this looong post and see you very soon!!!!
Elsita ;)

The Diving Bell And The Butterfly.

Imagine that your body stops working right now in this second while you are reading this post, that you cannot talk or move anymore. Imagine that you are paralyzed for the rest of your life so other people have to take care of you forever. How would your life change if this was actually true? What would happen to the way you see yourself and the rest of the world? What do you do when you cannot do anything? We just saw a movie about someone who had this experience in real life. In December of 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby, 43-year-old editor in chief of Elle magazine in France suffered a stroke, which severely damaged his brain stem, and left him paralyzed. This man was an important person who had an important job, who was famous and influential, who was extremely busy and ambitious and one day it all stopped in one single second. This movie called The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is one of the most powerful movies that I have ever seen. Director Julian Schnabel did such a remarkable job. He has proved to be a genius in terms of telling a visual story.

When Bill and I finished seeing the movie we couldn’t stop talking about all the things that we take for granted. Just being able to talk, to move, to communicate with other people, to drive and run and eat and laugh and scream if we want, to hold and hug our children, to use a computer, to build things with our hands…we don’t know how lucky we are until we see a story like the one in this movie. This man learned a way to dictate words, letter by letter using the blink of his left eye, the only part of his body that he could move. The writing of this book kept him alive. Ten days after the publication of his book he died but he left an important legacy that you will appreciate through this movie. During the first two minutes the movie doesn’t feel so appealing but soon you just want to see more and more and by the end of it you feel that this move has changed something in you. I am so grateful that I got to see it.
Bill just got me the book that he wrote and I can’t wait to read it. It has only 136 pages. Here on the back I can read this by Oliver Sacks: A book of surpassing beauty, a testament to the freedom and vitality and delight of the human mind.

The picture that you see up here in black and white is Jean-Dominique Bauby. Do you think that he is just sitting there paralyzed and that’s it? Well, the truth is that with his imagination and his memories he was still able to create and enjoy the little tiny piece of life that he was left with after his physical trauma. I just had to let you know about this movie. I highly recommend you to see it because I think that you will appreciate it as much as I did. And here you can see the trailer.

The Kite Runner Premiere.

I am back!!!
OK, the premiere was WONDERFUL WONDERFUL WONDERFUL! It was one of those nights that I will always remember as something very especial. As you know the quality of any event has everything to do with the quality of the people in it and the people who came to the premiere last night were just great. Making a movie like The Kite Runner takes hundreds of people and traveling and lots of planning and work and everything that you can imagine in terms of human dedication. By the time the movie is finished the whole crew becomes like a big family. The movie itself and what you will see out there is only a little part of a much bigger picture. Last night it was a possibility for that huge family to get together and have a great time and celebrate the results of such a great effort. It was a privilege for me to witness something so especial.

Now let's talk for a second about my dream dress and the whole fashion thing. In the end Anthropologie didn't have the dress that I wanted and I couldn't go to other stores because I was really busy transporting the pieces that didn't sell from the gallery to my studio. So in a case like this my solution is always to grab the gray Hollywood uniform that has saved my life so many times. Then I added a couple of accessories and I was ready to go! I wasn't looking especial at all but at least the fashion police didn't stop me. I wore the most comfortable shoes that I have which are almost invisible and I was more than happy to go out and have a great time. A long time ago I learned that what really matters in order to have a great time is not the way you look but the way you feel and I was feeling very comfortable with my plain clothes and simple shoes.

The first thing of the night was the red carpet walk, then the movie and after the movie a wonderful dinner.
I never stopped laughing because I spent lots of time with a friend of mine that I adore, he is the funniest man on earth. Everything that he says is funny. His name is Phil Bray and he is a super talented photographer. He gave me two beautiful photographs last night from the movie as a present and this was a beautiful surprise. Thank you sooo much Phil!

And now you can see some of the photos that I took!
(The ones that I am in were taken by Phil Bray).
I leave you with them!!!
Elsita :)

Elsa and Bill in their Hollywood uniforms. Bill's "fashion statement" of the night: Who said that I have to wear black shoes with my dark suit? Elsa's statement of the night: Who said that I have to wear shoes at all?

Elsita's portrait by Phil Bray at home before we left for the premiere.

Elsita and Darrel Couturier.

We made it! This must be the place!

The Egyptian Theater, that's it.

A family picture please?

Shohreh Aghdashloo.

Lights and people and movement.

Atossa Leoni and Bill.

Atossa again!

Great to see you man!!!!! (Bill and Homayoun Ershadi)

Homayoun Ershadi who plays Baba in the movie, you will love him.

Conversations.

Bill, Rebecca and Homayoun.

Bill looking at me and Alberto Iglesias.

From left to right: Jim Tauber Bill and Sidney kimmel. The three of them run Sidney Kimmel Entertainment.

Rebecca Yeldham and his partner Curtis Hanson. Rebecca produced The Motorcycle Diaries and Curtis directed 8 Mile. They have a beautiful son named Rio.

David Benioff.

From left to right: Bill, Sidney Kimmel, Khaled Hosseini and Marc Forster..

Director Marc Forster on the right and the Writer Khaled Hosseini on the left.

From left to right: Caroline Kimmel, Sydney Kimmel, Hosseini's wife, Khaled and Bill.

Khalid Abdalla and his beautiful girlfriend. Khalid is the protagonist in The Kite Runner.

The man who taught the Director and everybody else how to fly a kite. He looked sooo happy with his beautiful family.

Abdalla's Dad and sister.

Marc Forster and Sidney Kimmel.

Will Ferrel walking really fast!

Will Ferrel still walking fast.

Lars and the Real Girl

This is one of those special movies that you should definitely NOT miss. BELIEVE ME. It hasn't been released yet but I was lucky enough to have access to a screening (the fact that this movie has been produced by the indie company that my husband runs is just a coincidence:) This film is BEAUTIFUL, MOVING, UNIQUE, ORIGINAL, FUNNY, WELL DIRECTED, WELL ACTED. It is one of those movies that stay in your heart forever. I won't tell you the story but you can see the trailer here. I can tell you anyway that the big box in this picture contains Lars' (Ryan Gosling) girlfriend who he got on the internet. I'm in love with Ryan Gosling; he is one of the men in my secret love life (don't worry Billy, you will always be my numero uno) and he is one of the finest young actors alive! Did you see Half Nelson? He was amazing.