A Garden Party - It Must Be Summer

One of the things I really like about what I do and about my life is that I get to meet a lot of people. I usually meet them in all kinds of different circumstances. One way is I get invited to a lot of really fun and interesting events.

This week I was invited to a Garden Party at the beautiful Santa Monica home of Kara Fox because of a friend of mine who co hosted it, Linda Breakstone, former CBS national television news investigative reporter and political editor, both pictured here (Kara is on the left).

Of course, Linda Kara being involved in the art foundations and Linda being a former anchor woman you would expect that many of their friends have similar backgrounds, though not all. So I wasn't surprised to run into TV personalities that I knew and happy to meet ones I didn't.

One person that we all know from CBS television, especially in Los Angeles for example, is Laura Diaz,

who I was happy to meet again and this time get a photo with her so I could post it. We played around with the shots and I would say, had fun doing it.

Pictured below on my right is another anchor woman you may recognize and on my left is a former CBS news producer and the host of the All About Race Blog at www.AllAboutRace.com, is Carmen Dix. I have read her blog and it talks about racial issues and prejudice on all races, and since our meeting, her blog now includes articles on prejudice against Italians in this Country.

One of the great surprises I have had in a long time was seeing this next person at the party. Here is the

story. You know how we tend to run around and socialize in different groups of friends during certain periods of our lives? If not you, then me, I do.

In any event, one particular group of friends that I enjoyed and I used to socialize with often for several year disbanded about ten years ago, one person died, one person moved to Italy, another person to Las Vegas, another got married... you know. And somehow some of us didn't see each other again for years.

Well, I was talking to a person within that group who I hadn't even talked to in over five years and I thought about Ian Jessel. And I mentioned him in the conversation saying how I would love to see him and connect with him again. After hanging up the phone from that conversation I got my phone book and looked up his number. As I was about to call him, I was distracted and ended up having to do something else. I remember saying to myself, oh well, I'll call him eventually, but I wish I could see him soon, I would enjoy that.

Well, here I am sitting at this party talking to a bunch of beautiful people at a table outside and who walks out into the yard from the house, not a week after I said that? Ian Jessel, who I had not seen in ten years. Is that a story or what?

I think I startled everyone at the table including Ian when I yelled out his name in surprise and amazement. He looked at me like who is this crazy person and then recognized me immediately. Ian is a Producer a former President of MiraMax Films, a member of the Academy Awards Governing Board and the British

Film Academy, and on and on, and at the moment I might say he even speaks Italian better than I. He is pictured here sitting with me and his good friend Kara.

I won't talk about everyone at the party, I promise, but this is fun for me, I must say to write about and relive. Okay, this is the last person I will talk about and then I will just post fun pictures for all who wanted to be on the blog to see themselves.

This next person is a composer, so you know I have to talk about him. Pictured above with me is Carter Larsen who is making a splash with his music appropriately called Fantasia Suite. You will want to check out his website at www.Fantasiasuite.com and see and hear what I am talking about.

He and his music are being requested to appear throughout the world with this new style that he says he discovered. I only learned about it at

this party but it sounded fascinating and I couldn't wait to go to the party and hear it. We are planning to get together one of these days and discuss music, as we musicians do, and I look forward to that. Maybe I will have more to report.

Okay, no more stores on this post or names, except my shout out to my friends Marco Missinato and Isabella Carlini who were at the party with me and to Rick Orlov, the "Dean" of City Hall Bureau Reporters for the Los Angeles Daily News, because I promised him I would put him in my blog. You will see them all below.

And so as to make sure I don't say anything more as I post these pictures I will sign off now.

Filippo

P.S. Since I always end with a video, and since I have mentioned so many anchor women, I thought it would be cute to post a video of an Italian news team (Telegiornale). This is one I found on Youtube that is of a show called "Ora TV Toritto," a young student broadcast. This is not the national evening news, and better yet, it features a few bloopers. (In Italian) (See video at the end of all the picture posts).