This, That and a little more of This

Yeah, I know.
It's been a while.
But yesterday I had the pleasure of checking in with my favorite Australian blogger
and it inspired me to write post about a little of this and a little of that.
I've got to start with Beladora....of course.
From young hottie Michael Fassbender in W Magazine to
surprisingly senior femme fatale, Betty Whit
in the May issue of Vanity Fair.
Beladora jewelry...it gets around
but you knew that

Next...important election news
No not "dog in a crate vs dog on a plate"
(which is my favorite line describing the US elections)
but what's going on in France
and you know what I'm talking about
Carla Bruni Sarkozy

The Daily Mail takes on the topic.
Seriously Madame Sarko
leave the botox and fillers to the women of a certain age in Beverly Hills
The French appreciate their women as they do their wine...
with a little age.

And speaking of age...I do like this antique beauty, don't you?

The Beau Sancy, a 34.98 carat diamond that will be put on sale by Sotheby's auction house in Geneva next month, is presented in Paris, Monday April 23, 2012. The Beau Sancy diamond, a stone of historical importance with a royal provenance stretching back to Marie de Medicis is estimated between two and four million dollars, (1.5 to 3 million Euros).(AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)

Imagine what it took to cut a diamond 400 hundred of years ago without modern technology.

Onto fashion.
Is everyone as excited as I am about all of the bright colors used in this season's ready to wear?
My take on it is that all the bright colors signal a new optimism in our national mood.

Or maybe I'm just feeling optimistic because I finally found a dress at  Neiman Marcus  that I can actually afford, in a color that I like.
And, I would wear it with this ring

Aquamarine and Diamond Ring in 14K

...if the universe doesn't tell someone else to get to it first....

I believe that I've told you that from time to time I like to read, real books not ebooks.
So I've estimated that over the last 12 months I've read something in the range of 20,000-25,000 pages.
Admittedly, with the giantical tomes of the Outlander books by Diana Gabaldon
and the Game of Thrones books by George R.R. Martin
the pages really added up.
But if you like to tackle big books I recommend both series.

With all that reading, no wonder I haven't had time to blog.

And worse, I've been away from the blogosphere for so long that I'm totally perplexed by the new blogger interface. 
It was bad enough that Google changed the Gmail interface, now they've gone and made blogger less user friendly.
Why Google why?
Is it time to check out WordPress or Tumbler?

September Stories and Garden Galas

Over the summer I like to take a break from serious reading.
What about you?

Here are some of the books that I've read in the last month.

The George R.R. Martin series starting with the Game of Thrones.
If you like an epic story with political intrigue among competing clans, characters with unbridled ambition who are willing to destroy all in their paths in their lust for power, kind of like Washington D.C., these books are for you.
Consider them to be a sort of a Lord of the Rings type fantasy, except darker, much darker.
Jill, has read these books too and she's as anxious as I am for the final book to be released.

The 19th Wife, is the story of Eliza Young, the apostate renegade wife of Brigham Young who publicly denounces polygamy, cleverly interwoven with a murder mystery involving a contemporary 19th wife of Fundamentalist LDS cult member.  Ebershoff combines the development of Mormonism in 19th Century with the cult's bizarre behavior in the 21st Century. Of particular interest to me was the history of "hand cart" migration of European immigrants.  Their treatment was deplorable.

If you enjoy well written historical fiction you will like Cleopatra's Daughter.  Did you know that Roman women worried about stretch marks from pregnancy?  I didn't either.

I'm a huge fan of the New York Times bestselling author Daniel Silva.  He writes amazing international thrillers centered on a main character who is an artist and art restorer.  I recently finished The Rembrandt Affair and Portrait of a Spy. If you like thrillers, I highly recommend these books, but start from the beginning of the series because the story and the characters evolve with each new book.

When not reading it's been all fancy pants parties and soirees for me.

Well not really but I was happy to attend the 100 anniversary gala for the Friends of Virginia Robinson Gardens.  It was a beautiful event held in the gardens of Viginia Robinson's home, the first estate built in Beverly Hills in 1911.

Look how pretty the tables were under the lights suspended above the lawn.  And I loved the way that pink shawls were provided for all the ladies because it was a little chilly after the sun went down.

The guests were treated to a water ballet as pre-dinner entertainment which I thought was charming until the silk chiffon of  the hem of my dress sopped up water left by the swimmers on the brick path next to the pool. Luckily, no permanent damage was done, because I really loved my dress.

You might think that my gown was a little too 'mother of the bride-ish', but I thought that it was rather Edith Wharton-ish.

My peeps from Patrick McMullin liked it too...and why will they only sell hard copy prints instead of digital jpegs?

I thought that the french blue color of my dress was perfect for this suite of moonstone and diamond jewelry as you can see from the before photo.

And here is the after photo...specifically after a couple of glasses of wine photo. 

The jewelry looks good but what's up with my shiny forehead?

We've been busy buying at Beladora and hopefully I will be able to show you some awesome Art Deco pieces soon.

Weekend Reading - Sarah's Key

If you haven't already read Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

I recommend it highly.

It's a fast easy read about a serious subject.

I haven't seen the film yet but I'm looking forward to it.

It stars Kristin Scott Thomas, I love her don't you?

Also, when reading the book I noticed a strange coincidence.
The main character in the book is from the same town in Massachusetts that I lived in, she attended the same school that I went to...and she had a friend from that school by the same name as one of my friend's from that very same school, and the name was unusual. 
Isn't that weird?  

Books - Love and Louis XIV

I don't know what happened to Spring.
It was here, now it's gone
Temperatures have been well below normal
and Saturday night I woke up to the sound of rain...of all things
It was a good weekend to stay inside with a good book
But no, there were places to go and things to do
reverting to the norm, if you will.
Sunday morning at the gym and Sunday afternoon on a hike
both made palatable by this audio book on my ipod

Love and Louis XIV by Antonia Fraser

So far I've listened to the tale of interconnected relationships between Anne of Austria, Richelieu, Mazarin, The thiry Years War, Condé, Conti, Henriette-Anne Stuart, Marie-Louise d’Orléans, les Mazarinettes and La Fronde
and I'm still in the Regency Period.
It's a very interesting book and I recommend it.

Last night, a quiet dinner at home

I made an asparagus, roasted red pepper, spinach and feta frittata
and served it with Fino
it was delicious and healthy...well except for Fino

The week ahead will be busy
with beginning preparations for the upcoming Antique and Estate Jewelry Show
and watching the ongoing saga of DSK
could he really have been that stupid or was it all a set up by Sarkozy?

BHB Recommends - William Boyd's Any Human Heart and Brazzaville Beach

If you haven't already watched this Masterpiece Theater program I recommend that you do.
It is an excellent adaption of William Boyd's novel which tracks the life of a failed author, Logan Mountstuart, from his youth at Oxford through his old age in the south of France. 
Along the way the character has first hand experience with 1920s Paris, the Spanish Civil War, WW2 and Mid-Century Manhattan and 1960s-1970s London.
He also interacts with Ernest Hemmingway, Ian Flemming and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor who are absolutely vile. The Duchess was very well played by Gillian Anderson.

I am a big fan of William Boyd and I particularly liked his novel Brazzaville Beach.

Here's what Charles Michaud had to say about the book in the Library Journal
In a book packed with scientific and mathematical metaphors, Boyd explores how people create, defend, ignore, or subvert the belief systems that govern their lives. If on one level this is an intellectual thriller, on another it is very much an exciting and riveting adventure story, and on yet another a subtle examination of the power grid of personal relationships. Highly recommended.

So, if you haven't already read William Boyd's novels I suggest that you add them to your reading list.

Recommended Reading or How To Handle A Head Cold

Last week I thought that I was going to spend this weekend doing the domestic thing, like finishing my closet de-clutter project and cooking FF's lemon, chicken, potato dish that she kindly wrote the recipe for, thank you FF.
Well, I was right about being domestic, but wrong about getting anything actually done this weekend as I got  whacked with a nasty head cold with fever and have barely been able to extricate myself from my bed.
Thankfully I don't get sick often which I credit to clean living having limited interaction with other people, therefore cutting down my risk of being exposed to something contagious. Apparently my non interaction strategy hasn't been fool proof.

So what can I do besides spend the weekend in bed with these things.
I don't know about the Chai Spice Tea, the Evian or the Emergen-C
But I can vouch for the fact that the books do make me feel better.

Drink Play etc...by Andrew Gottlieb is a cute parody of 'Eat Pray Love' from the male point of view.
Here's the description from Publishers Weekly
As an impudent retort to Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling Eat Pray Love, the book that swept book clubs and bestseller charts throughout 2006, this comic travelogue is nothing if not a conversation starter. Fortunately, it's also a dizzyingly fun parody that apes Gilbert in its premise (Ireland, Las Vegas and Thailand replace Gilbert's post-divorce destinations, Italy, India and Indonesia) and its particulars, mirroring plot developments and platitudes line by line (where Eat Pray Love opens with its protagonist contemplating a kiss with an Italian named Giovanni, Gottlieb starts moments from a liplock between his narrator, divorcee Bob Sullivan, and Giovanna. That kind of parody can wear over pages, but Gottlieb's protagonist is a likable and entertaining enough rascal to carry the story and, with the help of a happy-go-lucky personal trainer named Rick, do some good-humored philosophizing on the gender-trumping predicament of heart-break. Still, anyone who has suspected that boys have a bit more fun than girls will find their theories confirmed, as Gottlieb packs in just as much adventure as Gilbert, with a quarter of the self-seriousness.
Not serious reading but a cute book
and

Heresy by S.J. Parrish, is a 'Name of the Rose' type murder mystery thriller set in Elizabethan Oxford with an Italian ex priest/philosopher/astrologer/scholar, Giordano Bruno, tasked by Elizabeth to search for Catholic conspiracy amid the newly formed Protestants at Oxford.  The book isn't as linguistically or semiotically as exciting as a book by Eco...and who can write like Eco but Eco?  But is is a very clever story and I look forward to reading her next Giordano Bruno historical mystery Prophesy.

Next week when I feel better it will back to blogging.
Until then I leave you with
Colonel Qaddafi - A Life In Fashion
and
Qaddafi Kid Style
While these articles make fun of Qaddafi and his brood, Libya is no laughing matter.
I'm guessing that there's going to be a lot more bloodshed before all of this is over
and it's probably going to end up with that megalomaniac Qaddafi
and his utterly insane Little Green Book still in power.

The 4 Hour Body and The 4 Month Face

Even though I wasn't raised by a superior Chinese mother, I still make an effort at self improvement, especially at the start of a new year.

So high on my list is reading this book....although probably the only progress that I can make in 4 hours is to get the book read.  And if I am sedentary for the 4 hours that it will take for me to read this book, I'm not sure exactly what kind of self improvement I will actually be making.

But any book that tempts me with rapid fat loss, incredible sex and becoming superhuman is worth reading when self improvement is the goal.

The 4 Hour Body

A more realistic goal in my quest for self improvement than becoming superhuman is taking better care of my skin.  While not a product person per se, I do see the need to do something besides injections and laser to cope with ageing.

A very nice person sent me an article about the Lifeline products and their near miraculous results. 
All kinds of stem cell biotechnology has gone into creating these serums and they affect the skin by using messaging molecules or proteins.

Basically a bunch of smarty pants research scientists came up with this.

Another long story short, they came up with two solutions. One, they started using a technique from a Japanese nanotechnology firm that enabled them to encapsulate the proteins from stem cell extract inside a nanovessicle in order to keep them stable and give them the ability to penetrate the upper layer of the skin, and then they figured out how to "blow up" the cells in order to harvest the other 90% of the messaging proteins. That is very important, because cultivating stem cells is not easy-it takes time, some very expensive equipment, and cleanrooms. The cells are cultured in numerous batches, because if a batch goes bad it must be thrown out.

Then

And then they started rigorously, indefatigably testing it to get the right mix that produced just the effect they wanted. They conducted all official safety and efficacy tests according to the highest FDA standards, with independent laboratories and physicians. They confirmed the following anti-aging claims: moisture effect, increased skin elasticity, sun protection, decreased fine lines and wrinkles, improved skin tone.

This product doesn't claim to give you great skin overnight, but with consistent usage for at least 4 months one should be able to see positive results.

Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, but I'm committed to giving it at least 6 months, alternating usage with Atralin, which is the latest and greatest of the new Retin A products. 

Very cleverly the makers of Lifeline, the International Stem Cell Corporation, have stated that the production is limited so only a very fortunate 4000 people will be able to try the product until manufacturing gets ramped up. 
Smart marketing...there's nothing like claiming scarcity to promote demand and justify higher prices. 

But it if works, I'm certainly willing to pay the price...god knows it's cheaper than the laser.

Winter Reading

I didn't think that I would like this book but I enjoyed it.  Alexandra Lebenthal, ex-bond babe (and I don't mean the films, I mean muni bonds), socialite and New York Social Diary editor, weaves a clever story about trials and tribulations of Wall Street wives as they deal with private school admissions, cheating hedge fund husbands and the collapse of Lehman Brothers.  The tidy ending is certainly contrived but the book is worth reading for the description of the characters alone.

Next on my list of books...

What are you reading this winter?

On Austria, Assimilation and Art - The Hare With The Amber Eyes

The Hare With The Amber Eyes: A Family's Century Of Art And Loss

I have been super busy these last few days, as I'm sure that you gathered from my lack of posting and commenting on all of your blogs. 
It is the season, after all, and the Christmas crunch is on.

Marie Antoinette - The Journey

Do you read only one book at a time or do you have several books going simultaneously?
I generally have 3 entirely different types of books going at the same time; a downloaded audio book on my iPod, a downloaded book on my nook (like a kindle) and an actual physical book.

Last week while finishing 'The Hare with the Amber Eyes' on my nook and 'Marie Antoinette' on my iPod, I was struck with the similar theme that runs through both books, the concept of being 'The Other'. 

No matter how Francais the Austrian born Marie Antoinette became, including bearing the dauphin, she was never truly accepted as the Queen of France.  She was libeled and maligned in print in Paris.  She was accused of cuckolding the King and of having numerous lovers.  She was blamed for adding to the national debt, for hoarding wheat during the low harvest and for virtually everything else that was wrong in France.  No matter what she did  for France, she remained 'The Other', an easy target and scapegoat for all that was wrong.

Stepping into the next century we have the flourishing of the Ephrussi family, a highly successful Russian Jewish Family that expanded their grain trading business in Odessa into a European banking powerhouse that rivaled the Rothchilde's. With branches of the family in London, Paris, Lucerne and Vienna, the great wealth enabled the family to become patrons of the arts and of the cultures of their respective cities.

Note the man in the top hat in Renoir's The Boating Party.  That was Charles Ephrussi, art historian, owner of the Parisian art journal La Gazette and patron of the Impressionists. 
He was also the model of Proust's character Charles Swann of 'Rememberance of Things Past'.

Amongst his vast art collection was a group of 264 netsuke which he purchased at the onset of the French fascination with all things Japonnais in 19th Century Paris.
'The Hare With The Amber Eyes' traces the journey of these netsuke from Charles'  elegantly art filled Palais Ephrussi to his nephew and niece at the Ephrussi Palais on the Ringstrasse in Vienna, to post WW2 Japan and finally to the author, British artist and Eprhussi descendant, Edmund de Waal.


As with the great nouveau riche families of 19th Century Europe, the Viennese branch of the Ephrussi were highly educated. Vicktor read history as he reluctantly took over as the head of the bank.  His daughter Elisabeth Ephrussi was the first woman to graduate with a degree in Law from the University of Vienna. All members of the family spoke Russian, French, English and German fluently.  They were full citizens of the Hapsburg Empire and loyal supporters of the Emperor.  They were titled. 
They were completely assimilated.
Or so they though.


All this of course changed with Kristallnacht.
They were 'The Other'.
But unlike Marie Antoinette, they were able to leave everything behind and survive.

This week I've been thinking about Thanksgiving, and about all of the things that I am thankful for...and there many. On this most American of holidays, I am indeed thankful that America is perhaps the only country where immigrants can indeed assimilate and become truly American. 

'The Hare With The Amber Eyes' is the best book that I have read all year and if you like History and Art History I encourage you to read it.

Kenya - From Happy Valley Hijinks to Laid Back Lamu

I was chatting with a European client this week about alternative locations to raise a family, away from the high costs and social nonsense that permeates Los Angeles.  He suggested Kenya.

And I can understand why. 
White sand beaches, laid back lifestyle, and it's got to be cheaper than the Hollywood Hills. 
But as for social nonsense.  Kenya has had it's share of it with the Happy Valley Set.

The Bolter: The Story of Idina Sackville

and

The Temptress: The Scandalous Life of Alice de Janze

And I'm guessing that even laid back, low key, Lamu Island has a certain amount of celebrity silliness.

I probably wouldn't want to live an expat life there, but it would be nice for a holiday.

If you were going to escape from your current life, where would you go?