Review of Chasing Harry Winston

Author Lauren Weisberger gets back on track with her third and newest novel, Chasing Harry Winston (2008). As with her first book, The Devil Wears Prada (2006), we are in the heart of New York City with a couple of gals definitely into brand identity.

Weisberger is a master at the product push. New York City is her canvas of images, interweaving the hip hotspots, cool designers and brunch spots of ill repute into her narrative. She wised up and dropped another big name designer in her title. The product placement is slick, even Project Runway has nothing on her.

The story’s best appeal is as a primer for the girls trapped in the flyover states. We miss out on the hottest things if it is not featured on Oprah’s Favorite Things or in Sex and the City. Because of Winston, I now know things like Sky Studios, Kérastase Products and Dwell Magazine exist. Lucky me.

As for the writing, Winston is better crafted than Prada with more character development than monster recall. This is a definite improvement over her second novel, Everyone Worth Knowing, a hard-to-believe take of boutique public relations and party girls.

The bottom line is Chasing Harry Winston is like Lucky Magazine in paragraph form.

Crosswalks are where it’s at

So many pedestrians lately have been waving me to pass them while they’re standing in crosswalks. Is this the new power trip? Today, I refused to turn into crosswalk where a guy was standing there in the street, 5 feet from the curb. It was like the Titanic leaving port: He waved, I waved. He waved, I waved and cursed. Finally, he scampered across the street like he should have 45 seconds before.

It felt good fighting back. The pedestrians are out of control.

Ah, Robert’s Rules of Order

You, like me, have probably witnessed many meetings where Robert’s Rules of Order, the popular parliamentary procedure, was used. It’s the go-to guide for deliberative bodies to conduct meetings in the United States.

But is Robert’s still relevant today?

No one gets over his or her first time witnessing Robert’s in action. I was first exposed while watching my college’s student government meeting. Nothing prepared me for seeing thirty 20-years-olds in deliberative furor.

Robert’s can be intimidating. It can be tedious and can be used to bully people who may not understand its intricacies. Maybe there’s a better system. The politicos use Mason’s Manual, the United Kingdom has the Westminster system. I never did crack the spine of Thomas Jefferson’s Manual of Parliamentary Practice, which I bought at a souvenir shop in near Independence Hall. (As to why, I have no idea.)

New York Times tackles the issue of Robert’s in this essay by Rachel Donadio. Robert’s was embraced and later abandoned by the radical movements of the 1960s. “(Robert’s) institutionalizes a win-lose mentality, when often there are close decisions in which both sides need representation” said Tom Hayden, former leader of the Students for a Democratic Society, in the article. That certainly doesn’t sound good.

But, Robert’s does get things done. It can harness the chaos, at least for a while. Personally, I have a new appreciation after attending the League of Women Voters national convention in June. Locked in plenary sessions for four days, nearly 700 delegates debated and deliberated on a whole, whole lot of issues. By using the Rules, all of us got out alive and tons of stuff was decided.

Thanks for the time limits, Major Robert.

Review of Audition by Barbara Walters

Audition: A Memoir (2008), Barbara Walters’ autobiography, made me think of the word tome. Clocking in at 612 pages, Audition is no small snack of a book, but a dense-as-cheesecake read.

If you’re a celebrity, no doubt you received a shout out as Walters probably opened her Rolodex as she was writing, saying, “Oh, I forgot about him.” And the second half is more like a Barbara Walters’ Special retrospective in print…Anwar, Monica, Fidel, Rosie, Oprah and on and on.

But it was the first half that I enjoyed most. As the daughter of famed nightclub owner, Walters grew up in New York and Miami around the entertainers of the 1930s and 40s. She learned not to trust the dreamers, as least financially, because her father made and lost many fortunes through his work. She says she had to work to support herself and her family (nightclubs were a losing business once televisions became the family entertainment). So ironic.

Her first TV job was in the publicity department of an NBC affiliate and soon became a producer, thus on her way to “becoming Barbara Walters.” She was a woman in a man’s world, and she seemed to not let them bother her. Sure, there were lecherous men, condescending executives, and Walter Cronkite on the next plane trying to scoop her exclusive. But a girl can’t let them get her down.

Between relating her life story, Walters throws in some good interviewing tips. One is to ask someone about his or her first job. “Trust me, everyone, from presidents and movie stars to policeman and moving men, remembers his or her first job and will relate it in minute detail,” she writes.

The bottom line is Audition is a must for those interested in television news and media. Just be prepared to spend many, many hours with Barbara. She is persistent.

Review of I Am Not There

Whenever there is a conversation where Bob Dylan has come up, everyone has a strong opinion of him–not matter if fan or foe. And from watching I Am Not There, the 2007 film based on Dylan-esque characters, I’m sure Dylan himself knows this all too well.

A major theme of the movie is fame and how it is like to be a person in society whose life doesn’t just belong to himself (the theme of another favorite film of mine, The Queen). The Dylan personas are fighting the expectations of others, and there is no internal character introspective–no reflection from the Dylan-esque characters. Instead we have his songs, and the challenge of the audience to figure what the hell Dylan’s songs mean while watching the movie.

I enjoyed the challenge, but the movie is a tad “arthouse” to be really accessible for me. And since I am not a Dylan-phile, I know hundreds of references went pass me unnoticed. But I did know of his folk music betrayal in 1965, and it was superfun to watch Cate Blanchett take ‘em on.

I liked the movie more because I have been recently introduced to two women of Bob Dylan: Factory Girl’s Edie Sedgewick and Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan cover babe, Suze Rotolo (during a NPR interview).

The bottom line is I Am Not There is as complicated as Dylan’s discography—something you can follow if you pay attention.

Poetry revisions

I have been working on my poetry revisions. I’m trying to get more submissions out there. I was appreciative of Robert Lee Brewer’s post on how to write cover letters for journals. It’s good to be reminded to just keep it simple. I have been focusing on poetry contests this winter. I placed in two: The Poetry Society of Virginia and Inktank/Citybeat contest. PSV judge provided some great comments. But always more to revise…

A few months’ ago, I indexed all my poetry notebooks from the past five years but haven’t gone back to mine for gems yet.