Shaquille O'Neal was signing his book, "Shaq Uncut", tonight at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena. As you can imagine the line was rather long just to see the retired basketball phenom. My friends Vic & Yolanda showed up with their son, Lil' Vic, to get a glimpse of the former Laker and have a book signed. I'm sure it was because of his age (10) that Lil' Vic was able to also get his shirt autographed by Shaq. 

One problem I have with celebrities who write books is when they don't take even two seconds to speak with those who've waited often an hour or more to see them. Granted, they can't be expected to have a one on one with each person, but surely they can at least thank the crowd for coming out to support their latest project. Maybe Shaq will keep this in mind while on the remainder of his book tour. Maybe it's just me...

While I've seen large print/type publications, e.g. newspapers, Reader's Digest, The Bible. At an unwieldily 5'x7', the upcoming issue of VISIONAIRE 61: LARGER THAN LIFE Magazine can undoubtedly be read from space. At $1,500.00 I suspect I won't have an issue of trying to house this behemoth read on my bookshelf. With photogrpahy by the likes of Steven Mesisel, Marilyn Minter and even Karl Lagerfeld, it would be nice to see this issue up close.

I've always thought the regular magazine to be prohibitively costly (2 issue/year, $500.00), and  now they've introduced yet another issue that keeps me from owning this magazine. Oh, well there's always GQ and People.

Since I needed to go to my tailor yesterday, I decided to stop by the bookseller, Assouline, at South Coast Plaza. If you've never been, it really is a treat. While small in size, they still offer a rather well-curated selection: travel, fashion, automobiles and all subjects sophisticated, really. 

I was hoping to see the book, CARS: The Impossible Collection, but unfortunately, it was sold-out. At $650.00, why do I find that shocking? I suppose the economy hasn't affected everyone.

ASSOULINE
South Coast Plaza
3333 Bristol Street
Costa Mesa, CA  92626
714-557-1882

STORE HOURS: 
MON-FRI: 10AM TO 9PM 
SAT: 10AM TO 8PM 
SUN: 11AM TO 6:30PM

I came across this DVD the other night while in Macy's. As you can probably tell from the title, it's based on the famous letter that was written to the New York's Sun editorial desk in 1895, by then 8 year old Virginia O'Hanlon (1889-1971), asking whether or not Santa Claus exists. The animation really is quite amazing. It would be a nice addition to the classics (Rudolph, Frosty, etc) that I spoke about last year, here.