Blogs from Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States, North America

Considering how poorly Asian men are portrayed in Hollywood, I was genuinely surprised to learn about Sessue Hayakawa, a Japanese actor who became one of the biggest stars during the American silent era of the 1910s.He became one of Hollywood’s first sex symbols after starring in the film, The Cheat (1915) in which he plays a cruel villain (there’s a scene in which he literally brands a woman). Despite his portrayal, Hayakawa became extremely popular with American women for his “broodingly handsome” good looks. At one point, he was the highest paid actor in Hollywood (making over $3,500 a week), and his fame was on par with that of Charlie Chaplin.Although, Hayakawa was highly sought after during the 1910s and early 1920s, he became disillusioned by constantly being typecast for the same roles. He decided to ... read more

One of the longest running TV shows of all time, is a day time "soap" opera, Guiding Light. Binge-watching the longtime-favorite soap opera Guiding Light would take quite a while: Between 1952 and 2009, the show aired 15,762 television episodes. Before that, Guiding Light began as a radio show in 1937 — between the airwaves and the small screen, 18,262 “stories” were broadcast overall. Not only does that make for a lot of long-lost relatives, murder, and clone plot lines, that makes ... read more

To our dismay we looked out of the window in the morning and it appeared that the cloud has been following us from San Francisco. The sky was drab and grey and not what we were expecting from August in the city that brought the world Bay Watch. Not that it could make the early morning view from our hotel any more depressing. We watched a bit of the Olympics coverage whist we were getting ready for the day. Needless to say it was focused around the American athletes (but then I suppose any Americans on holiday in the UK will be making a similar complaint) although the plucky Brits did get a mention or two. For our first full day in LA we planned on going to Hollywood, starting with the sign. My daughter had ... read more

We have tickets to Universal Studios! Hello everyone and hope you are enjoying reading the blogs as much as I am experiencing them! We were told by Hugh's friend that Universal was packed out because they had only just opened The Harry Potter World 2 weeks ago, so when we got back we ordered tickets online. Has a few problems getting it to work and had to go back on myself a few times, but as I pressed buy, I realised that I had bought tickets for the Monday and not the Tuesday and it was now 11.30pm Monday night! Stupid system! So, I woke up at the crack of dawn and called them in the morning. Luckily they changed it over and so one excited little girl yesterday was secretly like Tigger, bouncing around trying ... read more

After two and a half years in L.A., I'm taking my show on the road again. I've done a lot while here... I've joined a fire conclave, spun fire poi at Burning Man in 2014 1n 2015, face painted at El Pueblo on Olvera Street and at the Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round, taken painting classes with Julio P. at Art Works, taken a Cyr Wheel class, done some Capoeira, saw Evita, Wicked and Matilda... and walked a lot. I saw my daughter play a million princesses, Mary Poppins, and Ursula the Sea Witch at Creating Arts, perform in Burlesque and Freak Show formats and fire dance. I helped a friend to live with joy and not die alone. I conquered my fear of choreography and savored the joy of face painting. The time is ripe for leaving. ... read more