tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61171941811166691442024-03-13T04:10:02.832-07:00A Bloomsbury LifeModern life through an Old World lens.Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.comBlogger423125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-38836050847634125592015-04-16T23:33:00.002-07:002015-04-16T23:47:01.947-07:00Nine Poetic Old New Orleans Haunts (and One Must-See Plantation)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Bob Dylan once said, "Everything in New Orleans is a good idea." The man knew what he was talking about. During my recent five day spree there, I was in serious danger of turning into a gluttonous Ignatius J. Reilly from "Confederacy of Dunces." It's very hard to say no to New Orleans -- she's a mighty seductive mistress. Before I knew it, my prim West Coast ways (protein shakes, kale, dust-free living) had been superseded by an unquenchable craving for sugar, grease and moldering beauty -- and I was all the richer in body and soul for it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Below, the places I can't get out of my head.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1.<a href="http://www.napoleonhouse.com/" target="_blank"> Napoleon House</a>, 500 Chartres Street, French Quarter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This bar/restaurant could be my new favorite place in the world. </span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cFiwwsWLTLc/VSISDzKkGvI/AAAAAAAAX7E/ChktgZ8_AIw/s1600/IMG_4953.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cFiwwsWLTLc/VSISDzKkGvI/AAAAAAAAX7E/ChktgZ8_AIw/s1600/IMG_4953.JPG" height="530" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(All photos by Lisa Borgnes Giramonti, 2015.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The interior is so crazy sexy cool that my companions and I became convinced we'd fallen into a wrinkle in time and become protagonists in a classic Southern novel. FYI, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I didn't add a filter to these photos -- this is actually how golden and atmospheric the light is. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It looked like a great place for flirting -- against </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">those patina-pitted walls, everyone's skin takes on a luminous glow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4wXUYy2Wkak/VSIR3ZLsiqI/AAAAAAAAX6Q/fL3Whrb8BMU/s1600/IMG_4940.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4wXUYy2Wkak/VSIR3ZLsiqI/AAAAAAAAX6Q/fL3Whrb8BMU/s1600/IMG_4940.JPG" height="640" width="484" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our waiter told me to order the house drink, a Pimm's Cup. <i>Yessir.</i></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-charKiPkoF0/VSISDr4VImI/AAAAAAAAX7I/lcz_z8B9Zp0/s1600/IMG_4949.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-charKiPkoF0/VSISDr4VImI/AAAAAAAAX7I/lcz_z8B9Zp0/s1600/IMG_4949.JPG" height="484" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's impossible to take a bad photo of this place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2. <a href="http://www.pharmacymuseum.org/" target="_blank">New Orleans Pharmacy Museum</a>, 514 Chartres Street, French Quarter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Really, you're thinking? A pharmacy museum?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Yes.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For one thing, it's the birthplace of the original "Love Potion No. 9" -- which you can casually drop into conversation for the rest of your life whenever that Searchers song comes on.</span></div>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WdBZjslgmBY/VSIRZ8ghGZI/AAAAAAAAX2w/kopMCvgY_dc/s1600/IMG_4876.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WdBZjslgmBY/VSIRZ8ghGZI/AAAAAAAAX2w/kopMCvgY_dc/s1600/IMG_4876.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For another thing, there's an incredible old soda fountain from the days when Coca Cola actually had cocaine in it. I <i>know</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The museum is self-guided so you can wander indiscriminately past walls of vintage cabinets crammed floor to ceiling with strange-sounding elixirs, ointments, cordials, and purgatives for everything from stomach troubles to the afeared "women's maladies."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iwlHbiFAITk/VSIRXHGN2NI/AAAAAAAAX2Y/_InQFabMfDc/s1600/IMG_4871.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iwlHbiFAITk/VSIRXHGN2NI/AAAAAAAAX2Y/_InQFabMfDc/s1600/IMG_4871.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This marks the first time my son has ever taken an interest in a decorative antique.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YZFNTx3JHqc/VSIRbQIjIcI/AAAAAAAAX3E/k02b5AxrM6I/s1600/IMG_4879.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YZFNTx3JHqc/VSIRbQIjIcI/AAAAAAAAX3E/k02b5AxrM6I/s1600/IMG_4879.JPG" height="640" width="526" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">3. <a href="http://www.neworleansonline.com/directory/location.php?notmct=15&locationID=1789" target="_blank">Faulkner House Books</a>, 624 Pirate's Alley, French Quarter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I wish I'd spent more time in this snug literary jewel box, a former home of William Faulkner (who wrote his first book upstairs). The building is owned by Rosemary James and Joe DeSalvo whose enchanting four-story apartment you can see <a href="http://www.nola.com/homegarden/index.ssf/2009/11/william_faulkner_house_in_new.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>. And look, green-walled bookshelves!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TctPtUCot6o/VSIRaVPYvLI/AAAAAAAAX20/GF5TBJbz33U/s1600/IMG_4878.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TctPtUCot6o/VSIRaVPYvLI/AAAAAAAAX20/GF5TBJbz33U/s1600/IMG_4878.JPG" height="640" width="404" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">4. <a href="http://www.antoines.com/" target="_blank">Antoine's Restaurant</a>, 713 St. Louis Street, French Quarter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Antoine Alciatore opened the doors to this culinary watering hole in 1840 and his descendants still run it -- which makes it the oldest family-run restaurant in the country. Oh, and Oysters Rockefeller were invented here in case you're thinking of ordering some.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kpnJKAlRyYo/VSIRmxeKgAI/AAAAAAAAX4Q/E8GiC3hES4w/s1600/IMG_4889.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kpnJKAlRyYo/VSIRmxeKgAI/AAAAAAAAX4Q/E8GiC3hES4w/s1600/IMG_4889.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The restaurant is a history lesson in itself -- a rambling labyrinth of ten dining rooms each decorated in a different style and with its own personal story. In the corridor below you can see a display of museum-quality ceramics given to Antoine's by other restaurants over the last century.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_Fh7Z7n8Xkg/VSIRicgrw_I/AAAAAAAAX3w/-ARnJXzPLsk/s1600/IMG_4884.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_Fh7Z7n8Xkg/VSIRicgrw_I/AAAAAAAAX3w/-ARnJXzPLsk/s1600/IMG_4884.JPG" height="640" width="427" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Stork Club. <i>Sigh</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I love this brass-studded cabinet housing vintage liqueurs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Antoine's takes its food seriously as is evident from the quote on the door by culinary wunderkind Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. (He wrote the still-wonderful 1825 cookbook "The Physiology of Taste" which if you don't own already you should get in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Physiology-Taste-Meditations-Transcendental-Gastronomy/dp/0307269728/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=" target="_blank">THIS</a> beautiful Modern Library edition translated by M.F.K. Fisher.) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here's the Rex Krewe Room </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">dedicated to one of the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">private clubs that organize Mardi Gras every year. The walls are lined with photos of past members wearing masks and fancy regalia. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Is it just me or do you feel a slight "Eyes Wide Shut" vibe?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">5. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Royal Pharmacy, 1101 Royal Street.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is just a quick stop but if you're in the neighborhood it's worth poking your head in. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Family-run since the 1930's, it's another one of those places that gives you a vertiginous "falling through a wormhole" feeling. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Everything is just like it was: the tin-stamped ceiling, the tiled soda fountain, the old medicinal jars and signs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'd bet good money that Truman Capote or Tennessee Williams used to stop in for some necessities. (They both lived in houses nearby.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">6. <a href="http://shop.cohenantiques.com/" target="_blank">James H. Cohen and Sons Antiques</a>, 437 Royal Street, French Quarter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> My son and his friends went absolutely gaga over this antiques shop and I did too -- it's filled with historically significant treasures like Civil war firearms, medieval swords, Greek and Roman coins and much more. See that glass case in the foreground of the photo with the barrel and starfish? Inside it is precious bounty recovered from centuries-old shipwrecks -- I couldn't </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">take my eyes off all the gold coins still encrusted together with coral.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">7. <a href="http://www.thecolumns.com/" target="_blank">The Columns Hotel</a>, 3811 St. Charles Avenue, Garden District.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is a great stop for a refreshing libation when you're visiting the Garden District. You can sit on the wide Italianate porch of this lovely 1883 mansion and watch the gentlefolk saunter by. Interesting tidbit: It's apparently haunted by "three gentle spirits with impeccable Southern manners" (story <a href="http://www.hauntedhouses.com/states/la/columns_mansion.htm" target="_blank">HERE</a>).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I ordered a St. Charles Breeze and it was so delicious that it's on the shortlist to be my summer cocktail. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I snuck a photo of the recipe for you.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The waitress told me the Chartreuse is used very sparingly -- just coat the inside of the glass with it and then dump it out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">8. <a href="http://www.saveourcemeteries.org/lafayette-cemetery-no-1-tour/" target="_blank">Lafayette Cemetery No. 1</a>, 501 Basin Street, Garden District.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our plans to visit the cemetery sadly didn't materialize so I took these photos through a crack in the gates. <i>You</i> tour it and tell me what I missed -- it looked terrifically spooky.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eDjS9MM2Wz8/VSIRva-CpMI/AAAAAAAAX5E/1q1hVtekHKM/s1600/IMG_4896.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eDjS9MM2Wz8/VSIRva-CpMI/AAAAAAAAX5E/1q1hVtekHKM/s1600/IMG_4896.JPG" height="428" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">9. <a href="http://www.neworleansonline.com/tools/transportation/gettingaround/ferry.html?notmct=15" target="_blank">Algiers Ferry</a>, at the foot of Canal Street, French Quarter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We didn't really have a desire to take a touristy river cruise but we did want to somehow experience the mighty Mississippi, so we were incredibly thankful when a courtly local gent recommended we hop on the Algiers Ferry. The ten minute boat ride across the river gives you</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> a stunning view of the city's skyline -- and the $2 fare has got to be one of the best deals in the city.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Algiers Point is basically the Brooklyn of New Orleans. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We wandered a few blocks around the village which had a charming sleepy quality to it and is home to a rich community of artists and musicians (who must have all been sleeping because we didn't see a single soul.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">10. </span><a href="http://www.whitneyplantation.com/" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Whitney Plantation</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, Vacherie, Louisiana (about 50 miles from New Orleans)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Did you read the recent article about this newly opened plantation in the New York Times? If you did, then you know why this was the highlight of our trip. If you didn't, you can get the story </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/magazine/building-the-first-slave-museum-in-america.html" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">HERE</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Whitney Plantation is the first slavery museum in America and the first plantation wholly devoted to the slave experience. The other local plantations offer a glamorous look at the 19th century lives of the rich and white but they tend to gloss over the fact that much of that elegance was made possible through tyranny and subjugation. The Whitney tells it exactly like it was.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Behind the big house is a granite Wall of Honor with the names of all the slaves who died in Louisiana. 106,000 names have been engraved on it and there are approximately 240,000 names still to to be researched and confirmed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There are seven former slaves' quarters on the grounds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Behind the big house is the slave jail. It was moved to the Whitney from another plantation because it dates from the same period and would have been typical of the time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Walking inside the cast-iron structure, I was immediately struck by the ferocity of the heat. It was harrowing to think of the prisoners collapsing from heatstroke while mere yards away the white folk sipped mint juleps on their shaded porch. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When we finally entered the "big house", we did so as a slave on the plantation would have -- through the back door.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Upstairs the house was decorated with beautiful murals.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Guess who painted all those murals? That's right. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Guess who sewed those initials onto this cotton chemise? You would be right again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There is much more to the Whitney Plantation than I've described here but some of it must be experienced for yourself first-hand. Go. Just as soon as you can.</span></div>
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Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-74097764943898594922015-04-08T11:38:00.002-07:002015-04-08T21:00:24.392-07:00New Orleans Teaser<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There were floating gardens framed by railings wrought like shoestring licorice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(All photos by LBG.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There was music around every corner.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There were wise maxims.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KfwOEKaPtXU/VSIR0M8-1ZI/AAAAAAAAX5k/xflH09pGmoE/s1600/IMG_4925.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KfwOEKaPtXU/VSIR0M8-1ZI/AAAAAAAAX5k/xflH09pGmoE/s1600/IMG_4925.JPG" height="640" width="482" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There were </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">moody bars filled with the unmistakable presence of courtly Southern ghosts. (The past doesn't pass away so quickly here.)</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rFaAdDK9QlI/VSIRt3d5U3I/AAAAAAAAX44/RyPPiAtHPpE/s1600/IMG_4894.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rFaAdDK9QlI/VSIRt3d5U3I/AAAAAAAAX44/RyPPiAtHPpE/s1600/IMG_4894.JPG" height="484" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There was food. Oh, Lord, was there FOOD.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gAkMgIqz6U8/VSIR1colccI/AAAAAAAAX50/dJ8BlhZKTlg/s1600/IMG_4937.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gAkMgIqz6U8/VSIR1colccI/AAAAAAAAX50/dJ8BlhZKTlg/s1600/IMG_4937.JPG" height="640" width="428" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There was the mighty Mississippi River, rolling proudly on.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s5TYojrZlKM/VSISRnc0InI/AAAAAAAAX8k/zc0WHoQFmTA/s1600/IMG_5016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s5TYojrZlKM/VSISRnc0InI/AAAAAAAAX8k/zc0WHoQFmTA/s1600/IMG_5016.JPG" height="428" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There were poems in the streets.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NAKsLGT0DE0/VSIRbox5kiI/AAAAAAAAX3I/Njnn1gnsX9I/s1600/IMG_4880.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NAKsLGT0DE0/VSIRbox5kiI/AAAAAAAAX3I/Njnn1gnsX9I/s1600/IMG_4880.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Uploading photos.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">More to come.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">x/Lisa</span></div>
Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-41033410134101155882015-03-27T08:38:00.001-07:002015-03-27T08:38:40.258-07:00The Road is Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<!--StartFragment--><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">The traveler is the
greediest </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #a2c4c9; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">kind of romantic voyeur.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: x-large;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9;">~Paul Theroux</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-noOzjhm_N3Q/VRVw6QdQxOI/AAAAAAAAX10/hIfVuHzlGlw/s1600/DSC_9134%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-noOzjhm_N3Q/VRVw6QdQxOI/AAAAAAAAX10/hIfVuHzlGlw/s1600/DSC_9134%2B2.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Getting the camera equipment ready. All photos by LBG.)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 36.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9; color: #cc0000;">Traveling
without knowing </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 36.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9; color: #cc0000;">where you’re going is like marrying a stranger – </span></span><span style="font-size: 36pt;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9; color: #cc0000;">by the time
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<span style="background-color: #a2c4c9; color: #cc0000; font-size: x-large;">~Lisa Borgnes Giramonti</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Jdrazxop8Qc/VRVw3uouF5I/AAAAAAAAX1s/UnVaW4px1lM/s1600/DSC_9237.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Jdrazxop8Qc/VRVw3uouF5I/AAAAAAAAX1s/UnVaW4px1lM/s1600/DSC_9237.JPG" height="640" width="484" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Mugging up on history.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #a2c4c9; font-size: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Each time I go to a place I have not seen before, I hope it will be as different as possible from the places I already know.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9; color: #cc0000;">~Paul Bowles</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dvr91fxONuI/VRVw0bRAnfI/AAAAAAAAX1k/WSKWwYrETm0/s1600/DSC_9073.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dvr91fxONuI/VRVw0bRAnfI/AAAAAAAAX1k/WSKWwYrETm0/s1600/DSC_9073.jpg" height="640" width="430" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Last meal before the voyage.)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Adventure ahead.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">x/Lisa</span></div>
Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-43191996904414238612015-03-16T20:18:00.002-07:002015-03-16T20:23:08.465-07:00Surviving Burnout <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Life is a never-ending labor of love, and some stretches are more draining than others. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kTurqHhnmvg/VQEozEwU7UI/AAAAAAAAXxU/Kyj423Jfpj8/s1600/IMG_6659.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kTurqHhnmvg/VQEozEwU7UI/AAAAAAAAXxU/Kyj423Jfpj8/s1600/IMG_6659.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Photo by LBG.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A few days after my book was published in December, I woke up and confronted</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> a weariness beyond all imagining. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Something was clearly wrong with me (bronchitis, as it turned out). But it was more than that. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I didn't want to think. I didn't want to read. I didn't want to write. I didn't want to do anything but lie in bed until it was time to pick up my son from school, at which point I could drive home and get back in bed again. This went on for much longer than I care to admit to you.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r4V1LnyZ0ec/VQEpH6KiRkI/AAAAAAAAXzQ/_MTmYy5c200/s1600/IMG_6674.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r4V1LnyZ0ec/VQEpH6KiRkI/AAAAAAAAXzQ/_MTmYy5c200/s1600/IMG_6674.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Photo by LBG.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Fortunately, in the last few weeks, I've started to feel like myself again. I have projects and plans for the future, some of which involve the blog and some of which don't. I'm hoping it's all doable. I love blogging mainly because I am so endlessly fascinated with my readers, from whom I've learned so much (SO much!) over the past seven years. I have missed you these last few months and wondered many times what you all are up to -- what you are reading, what you are cooking for dinner, where you are traveling. Blogging is at its most richly rewarding when it's a two-way street, it really is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For me, the road to feeling better involved taking a deliberate break from books and words. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">One weekend, I sorted through my huge collection of magazine photos, saved only the images that made my heart pound with passion, and transformed a drab upstairs hallway into an intersection of inspiration. </span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AilzY9_uPsM/VQEo1bfsREI/AAAAAAAAXxk/fbkVACwTZv8/s1600/IMG_6661.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AilzY9_uPsM/VQEo1bfsREI/AAAAAAAAXxk/fbkVACwTZv8/s1600/IMG_6661.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">All that color on my walls made me feverish to be surrounded by more so </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">reupholstered a daybed </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">in rich green velvet...</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gJwAHo_W-mI/VQdMUyFdMqI/AAAAAAAAX0M/bX1uzIReizM/s1600/IMG_6664.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gJwAHo_W-mI/VQdMUyFdMqI/AAAAAAAAX0M/bX1uzIReizM/s1600/IMG_6664.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">...and gave a gilt chair an <i>amour propre</i> with cubism.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8uK4RZqkVJg/VQEo0p6uEnI/AAAAAAAAXxc/3K9FzRr6I4I/s1600/IMG_6660.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8uK4RZqkVJg/VQEo0p6uEnI/AAAAAAAAXxc/3K9FzRr6I4I/s1600/IMG_6660.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The more I engaged my senses in these kinds of simple activities, the better I began to feel.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> A</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">nother day I bought a few skeins of cashmere yarn and knitted a cottage with a grass roof and embroidered climbing roses all over it. I had no instructions, I set no rules, I just gave myself the freedom to create and the room to explore. </span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bE1IJTjD_Ws/VQEo_BCwJ8I/AAAAAAAAXyQ/EbXFSda58ec/s1600/IMG_6665.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bE1IJTjD_Ws/VQEo_BCwJ8I/AAAAAAAAXyQ/EbXFSda58ec/s1600/IMG_6665.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Knitted cottage in progress. Photo by LBG.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A few weeks ago I took a piece of canvas fabric and started to play around with some black thread and a scrap of green velvet. My only goal was to have no goal. Before I knew it, Edith Sitwell had appeared. </span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ibrqrQLktyY/VQEo43SPb_I/AAAAAAAAXxw/KohtBH7yBZA/s1600/IMG_6663.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ibrqrQLktyY/VQEo43SPb_I/AAAAAAAAXxw/KohtBH7yBZA/s1600/IMG_6663.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Photo by LBG.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">These two little projects are inconsequential, but from them I realized a profound truth: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>In order to create something, you first need to create some space in your life for that to happen. </i></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Writing my book these last two years was so all-encompassing (and rightly so) that it left very little space to do anything else.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I haven't figured out exactly what all this means yet, but for the first time in months I'm excited again. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There are exciting new projects I want to pursue (and which, when the time is right, I'll share with you). As for</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> the blog, I would love to give it a fresh new redesign -- bigger photos, cleaner lines, more videos -- and create plenty of space for things to happen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">All I know is that life means change and change means life. And that when something burns out, the surest way forward is to kindle a new flame.</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ti0zEQjjtxw/VQeSMMUmnFI/AAAAAAAAX1E/hd9cNkhpzHA/s1600/DSC_0584.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ti0zEQjjtxw/VQeSMMUmnFI/AAAAAAAAX1E/hd9cNkhpzHA/s1600/DSC_0584.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> (Photo by LBG.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Stay tuned,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Lisa</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">P.S. How are YOU? xx</span></div>
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Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-62390605166792222322014-11-16T17:10:00.001-08:002014-11-24T10:35:13.921-08:00Dream, Realized<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
D<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">o you ever feel that sometimes in order to stay committed to something you love, you need to take a step back?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Because where did I disappear to the last six weeks?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I don't really know. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After my last blog post, I felt drained. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Exhausted. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Emptied.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I needed some time to recharge my battery.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And as a result, this blog went very very quiet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was as though after a thirty-month literary gestation, my mind needed time to rest before I geared up for the final push. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As it turned out, the blessed event was unremarkable. One morning last week, two years of blood, sweat and brain cells arrived nestled in a manila padded envelope. The mailman had no way of knowing that he was "delivering my baby."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But he was. </span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KWLXK_PXnm0/VF0qXXqd8oI/AAAAAAAAXdE/z5ynZs7yBT4/s1600/book%2Bcover.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KWLXK_PXnm0/VF0qXXqd8oI/AAAAAAAAXdE/z5ynZs7yBT4/s1600/book%2Bcover.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And now I can't wait for it to be in YOUR hands! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">December 2nd is the official birth day for "<a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/book/226275/novel-interiors-by-lisa-borgnes-giramonti" target="_blank">Novel Interiors</a>" so be sure to look out for it at your favorite bookseller. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If you pre-ordered it on <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/novel-interiors-lisa-borgnes-giramonti/1118889339?ean=9780385345996" target="_blank">Barnes & Noble</a> or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385345992/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=48365395042&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11896189540362141714&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_2v4gd4zv4i_b" target="_blank">Amazon</a> or any other quick-ship online retailer, you should also receive it that day. It's also available on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Novel-Interiors-Enchanted-Inspired-Literature-ebook/dp/B00KUQGR74/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=" target="_blank">Kindle</a> (</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">so you can zoom in on every detail of Ivan Terestchenko's gorgeous photos).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Note: In the United Kingdom, the book comes out on December 18th (at least it does at <a href="http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/lisa+borgnes+giramonti/ivan+terestchenko/novel+interiors/11070131/" target="_blank">Waterstones</a> and <a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Novel-Interiors-Lisa-Borgnes-Giramonti/9780385345996" target="_blank">The Book Depository</a>.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This past Thursday night "GIRLS" co-creators Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner and former HBO executive Sue Naegle threw me a very special advance book party in the Los Angeles production office I've spent the past ten months designing for them. I can't show you any overall photos of the space because Glamour magazine and Refinery 29 were just in to shoot it...but I think this tiny corner of the screening room will be all right with them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here I am with my brand-new Sharpie signing my very first book ever!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P7owudl6_1c/VGk9MhQi7aI/AAAAAAAAXdU/pRdhTZruWGw/s1600/schuyler%2Band%2Bme.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P7owudl6_1c/VGk9MhQi7aI/AAAAAAAAXdU/pRdhTZruWGw/s1600/schuyler%2Band%2Bme.JPG" height="640" width="550" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Me with designer <a href="http://www.samperton.com/" target="_blank">Schuyler Samperton</a>, whose beguiling bohemian home graces the book.)</span></div>
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</span>Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-62862574368830414902014-09-28T14:39:00.000-07:002014-09-28T17:08:50.547-07:00It's The Little Things That Count, Part Three<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Didot; font-size: 48px;">“I want my life to have a rhythm more than anything else on earth.” </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Didot; font-size: 36pt;">~Denton Welch, </span><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Didot; font-size: 36pt;">A Voice in a Cloud</i></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-btq7jiTJWV4/VChu72cR5LI/AAAAAAAAXa0/qPmDSUR16SQ/s1600/Denton_Welch%2C_Self-Portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-btq7jiTJWV4/VChu72cR5LI/AAAAAAAAXa0/qPmDSUR16SQ/s1600/Denton_Welch%2C_Self-Portrait.jpg" height="400" width="348" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denton_Welch#mediaviewer/File:Denton_Welch,_Self-Portrait.jpg" target="_blank">via</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Denton Welch (1915-1948) scribbled these words while recuperating from a horrible bicycle accident that would ultimately claim his life at the age of 33. Bedridden for months in a nursing home in the English countryside, he fantasized about his former life as the world continued on around him. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Acutely sensitive,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> it was the little things he missed most, those ordinary commonplace sights and rituals that we so often take for granted but which he felt gave our lives shape and meaning.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Didot; font-size: 48px;">“Sometimes anything will make you want to cry. Why do people feel so sad when they see beautiful things? That is always being mentioned; it must be quite common.” </span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UHvrIDQcBkM/VChpCwGq6JI/AAAAAAAAXaI/Jx-R_9bE9mY/s1600/acornpantry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UHvrIDQcBkM/VChpCwGq6JI/AAAAAAAAXaI/Jx-R_9bE9mY/s1600/acornpantry.jpg" height="640" width="428" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Pantry, Los Angeles, 2013.) </span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7RoVQrjEf8I/VChsvnWrEZI/AAAAAAAAXak/-epvl3O9kWY/s1600/photo%2B1-2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7RoVQrjEf8I/VChsvnWrEZI/AAAAAAAAXak/-epvl3O9kWY/s1600/photo%2B1-2.JPG" height="428" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Flowers at dusk, 2011.)</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gmKAlBVMUAc/VChoTuhhJBI/AAAAAAAAXZ4/PgVpON-1L-k/s1600/tiles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gmKAlBVMUAc/VChoTuhhJBI/AAAAAAAAXZ4/PgVpON-1L-k/s1600/tiles.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(London café, 2014.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Didot; font-size: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">“One of the nurses would wash me in the very early morning…then I would
lie on my back, cross my arms and float away to an old brick house set in damp
green fields in the depths of the country.”</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n7QavSs7DtE/VCh3yin9Z1I/AAAAAAAAXbY/geaWD4rlx1Q/s1600/countrywalk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n7QavSs7DtE/VCh3yin9Z1I/AAAAAAAAXbY/geaWD4rlx1Q/s1600/countrywalk.jpg" height="490" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(House spotted on a country walk, English countryside, 2012.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Didot; font-size: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">“As a child I had delighted to look in at windows…they were a sort of giant dolls’ house to me.”</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gOsrro8SGKU/VChklDmu4II/AAAAAAAAXZk/K40wGvEqrrE/s1600/night.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gOsrro8SGKU/VChklDmu4II/AAAAAAAAXZk/K40wGvEqrrE/s1600/night.JPG" height="640" width="422" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Dining room at dusk, 2014.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Didot; font-size: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">“In this daydream room, to which I was always returning, the wide floorboards were so fanatically waxed and polished that even the old nail heads glistened like silver.”</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-O5bOemGEU8o/VChoV0Y68RI/AAAAAAAAXaA/RHxfHJuksrg/s1600/dining%2Broom.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-O5bOemGEU8o/VChoV0Y68RI/AAAAAAAAXaA/RHxfHJuksrg/s1600/dining%2Broom.JPG" height="640" width="396" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Scotland, 2010.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">No memory of Denton's was too ordinary to merit a little bit of joy.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: Didot; font-size: 36pt;">“The humdrum scene...held its own unexplained poignancy for me. The dog yapped, the tea poured, the human beings smiled without ceasing. It was as if they were </span></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Didot; font-size: 36pt;">all enchanted.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Scotland, 2007.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Didot; font-size: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">“The room seemed
like a brown casserole, a baked dish, warm and comforting and heavy.”</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oSLdwAqyam8/VChKaQNJvsI/AAAAAAAAXYo/XUnv-LMCBm8/s1600/DSC_8806.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oSLdwAqyam8/VChKaQNJvsI/AAAAAAAAXYo/XUnv-LMCBm8/s1600/DSC_8806.JPG" height="422" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Antwerp, 2013.)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Didot; font-size: 48px;">“The scene...was candle-lit and fire-lit, but outside it was always day.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Antwerp, 2013.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Didot; font-size: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">“I would sit down in front of this meal and begin to eat slowly,
savoring each morsel, sometimes reading a line from the book I had been
reading.”</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q-u3C41Ul28/VCihNeDfqtI/AAAAAAAAXb0/H1oDAjR053A/s1600/lucylean.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q-u3C41Ul28/VCihNeDfqtI/AAAAAAAAXb0/H1oDAjR053A/s1600/lucylean.jpg" height="640" width="462" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Dinner chez friends, 2013.)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Didot; font-size: 36pt;">“I was utterly content to lie there and dream.”</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FOHF3h6QLtg/VChkmv86c3I/AAAAAAAAXZs/xmWzaU9xjdg/s1600/photo%2B1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FOHF3h6QLtg/VChkmv86c3I/AAAAAAAAXZs/xmWzaU9xjdg/s1600/photo%2B1.JPG" height="640" width="430" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Scotland, 2007.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">*All photos unless otherwise noted by Lisa Borgnes Giramonti.</span></div>
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Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-24876606921646309872014-09-02T23:51:00.002-07:002014-09-02T23:51:13.796-07:00The Disorderly Dinner Party<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I posted recently on <a href="http://instagram.com/abloomsburylife" target="_blank">Instagram</a> that a dinner table after a meal is bit like a bed after sex: the messier it is, the more likely everyone had a good time.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-buiYFQ58Js8/VAae7ieuUGI/AAAAAAAAXWQ/-exIXA1Oeoc/s1600/DSC_9562%2B-%2BVersion%2B2%2Bcopy%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-buiYFQ58Js8/VAae7ieuUGI/AAAAAAAAXWQ/-exIXA1Oeoc/s1600/DSC_9562%2B-%2BVersion%2B2%2Bcopy%2B2.jpg" height="602" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">("Dinner Party Detritus", Los Angeles, 2013, by LBG.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It's true that I take a keen delight in seeing my table in a state of disarray. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A messy table is sexy. It's a tantalizing record of an evening. Looking at the candle stubs, the puckered linens and drained glasses, the laughter, cheeky stories and half-whispered conversations come floating back up to me. They speak of pleasures had, gustatory and otherwise. Poet </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176697" target="_blank">Robert Herrick</a> would approve. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Eight Tips For a Disorderly Dinner Party:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1. <i>Low lights, lots of little candles.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Low lights give people a reason to lean in closer to each other. Little candles flicker and make eyes more sparkly and complexions more luminous.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>2. Scatter flowers.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is my favorite little trick. I don't know why, but the sight of petals strewn across a table lets guests know that we don't take ourselves too seriously here. Which is a good thing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">3. <i>Don't stress out about your linens.</i> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">White linens are actually quite durable because most stains can be bleached out without too much trouble. If that's too much work for you, then stick with dense dark-colored patterns -- they're much more forgiving to</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> a splash of Médoc or an errant forkful of blackberry buckle. (</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you're going sans tablecloth, use footed glasses to prevent rings and water spots.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">4. <i>Don't cook above your comfort level.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is obvious but it bears repeating. If you're not relaxed, your guests won't be either. It's much better to order take-out than to be dashing frantically in and out of the kitchen all night. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">5. <i>Make a toast</i>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It doesn't have to be grand or serious. Funny is good. Recently, a guest at our house brought the house down with this one. He said, "Here's to lying, cheating and stealing [dramatic pause]: lying to help a friend in need, cheating death, and stealing the heart of the one you love." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">6. <i>If something spills or breaks, look delighted.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I don't care if it's your last piece of heirloom china, you smile and clap your hands. Whoever did it is probably writhing with guilt so it's important to say something funny or reassuring fast. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My personal favorite? </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Excellent! Now it's officially a party!" </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">7. <i>Pass something family-style, even if it's just bread.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It gives people, especially those meeting for the first time, a nice chance to interact and help each other out ("Here, I'll hold it while you serve yourself.") Another good thing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">8. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Linger. </i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Whatever you do, don't clear the table too early. In my experience, the most magical moments come at the tail end of a meal when everyone is feeling satiated and the disarray leads them to loosen up even more and let go. When you take away the dishes, the mood you've so carefully curated usually disappears right along with them.</span></div>
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Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-50654858392013880332014-08-20T01:10:00.001-07:002014-08-20T10:59:56.108-07:00Heat Seeker? Cool Hunter? I've Got a Book For You<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I find that people fall into two distinct camps in life: those who long for the hot humid days of summer to stretch on forever…</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Jpd1GbIc33U/U_JnUuLT4uI/AAAAAAAAW2Y/B1ei5sdPDfM/s1600/vintage_cannes_03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Jpd1GbIc33U/U_JnUuLT4uI/AAAAAAAAW2Y/B1ei5sdPDfM/s1600/vintage_cannes_03.jpg" height="422" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(<a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1z9jnm/danish_actress_annette_stroyberg_sunbathing_with/" target="_blank">via</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">...and those who pull out their knitting needles in August in feverish anticipation of the increased sartorial options that autumn weather brings.</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hdyendADU6k/U_JnB8_17RI/AAAAAAAAW2Q/4rmPW-dJytU/s1600/london-1960s-fashion-models.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hdyendADU6k/U_JnB8_17RI/AAAAAAAAW2Q/4rmPW-dJytU/s1600/london-1960s-fashion-models.jpeg" height="640" width="634" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/3472713977/" target="_blank">via</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Guess which camp I'm in? </span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1pSGOVYqOY8/U_Jxsjc9KYI/AAAAAAAAW2k/M_yajo8r8VU/s1600/Photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1pSGOVYqOY8/U_Jxsjc9KYI/AAAAAAAAW2k/M_yajo8r8VU/s1600/Photo.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Fingerless mittens. Knit kit from Wool and the Gang <a href="http://www.woolandthegang.com/shop/items/montana-mittens-women/knit-your-own" target="_blank">HERE</a>.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That being said, I read several books this summer that made me take another look at the undeniable pleasures of sun, sand and Sangria. Below, a half dozen reads to suit whichever side of the thermometer you prefer to perch on.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">FOR HEAT SEEKERS</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">T</span><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">he White Goddess: An Encounter</i><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> by Sim</span></span><span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">on Gough</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Location: Mallorca</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Heat factor: Scorching. Swimsuits optional.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ikd8AEeUyj0/U_JXuB0xGCI/AAAAAAAAW04/KVWHYMAIv30/s1600/9780957185357.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ikd8AEeUyj0/U_JXuB0xGCI/AAAAAAAAW04/KVWHYMAIv30/s1600/9780957185357.jpg" height="400" width="371" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(<a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/White-Goddess-Encounter-Simon-Gough/9780957185357" target="_blank">HERE</a>.<span id="goog_1989604238"></span><span id="goog_1989604239"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I love this book so much. Set in the artistic enclave of Deya, Mallorca in the 1960's and written by Robert Graves grand nephew, it's a "subjective" memoir (i.e. all true but he doesn't want to get into a James Frey situation) with a deeply intoxicating cast of characters. There's Robert, the world-famous poet who oscillates between magnanimous host</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> and </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">irascible hermit, Margot, the bewitching mistress/muse, Beryl, the long-suffering supercool wife, and a steady stream of visiting artists and eccentrics who put on plays in the backyard grotto and argue and dance until dawn. When Simon falls head over heels in love with one of Robert's mistresses, well, there's that wee little complication too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Do me a favor -- take seven minutes of your life and watch this interview with the author </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j63fe8x87jI" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">HERE</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. My bet is you'll be smitten too.</span><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uA4p0HBg9fk/U-ho1NZH7JI/AAAAAAAAW0U/nItqTZzimhw/s1600/RG+in+deya.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uA4p0HBg9fk/U-ho1NZH7JI/AAAAAAAAW0U/nItqTZzimhw/s1600/RG+in+deya.JPG" height="640" width="640" /></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Robert Graves and one of his mistresses, Deya, 1970's. <a href="http://spcoll.library.uvic.ca/Digit/graves/malahat/Facsimile/catalog.htm" target="_blank">Via</a>.)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>The </i></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Rock Pool </i>by<i> </i>Cyril Connolly</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Location: South of France</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Heat factor: Hot, oppressive. Open-necked shirt, sailor trousers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QnnJsT8wgZI/U_JaEpkANjI/AAAAAAAAW1Q/dXx2aPTy6IQ/s1600/rock%2Bpool.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QnnJsT8wgZI/U_JaEpkANjI/AAAAAAAAW1Q/dXx2aPTy6IQ/s1600/rock%2Bpool.jpg" height="400" width="242" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Image <a href="http://apenguinaweek.blogspot.com/2011/04/penguin-n-1891-rock-pool-by-cyril.html" target="_blank">via</a>. Buy it <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Rock-Pool-A-Novel/dp/0892550597" target="_blank">HERE</a>.)</span></div>
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<i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Rock Pool</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> was Cyril Connolly's only novel (you can read a more extensive post I wrote about him <a href="http://abloomsburylife.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-very-cool-guy-you-really-should-know.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>). It chronicles the adventures of an aspiring writer in search of the chic Riviera lifestyle depicted in F. Scott Fitzgerald's </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Tender is the Night</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> but who discovers instead a small French artists' colony that's altogether darker and more callous. Connolly writes with strong undertones of sexuality. Take this passage:</span></div>
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<i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Dry again?" said the Crab to the Rock-Pool. "So would you be," replied the Rock-Pool, if you had to satisfy, twice a day, the insatiable sea."</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Characters are always always sleeping off hangovers in dark airless rooms and the feeling tends to stay with you -- you'll want to make sure you stay hydrated while reading this book.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Let It Come Down</i><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> by Paul Bowles</span></span></div>
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Location: Tangier</div>
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Heat factor: Fry-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk hot, but wear a jacket anyway, you're going to a party.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JxYJkZrNdGc/U_JcTLoZK9I/AAAAAAAAW1Y/dc3sWgwy8po/s1600/51QVCSHYVPL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JxYJkZrNdGc/U_JcTLoZK9I/AAAAAAAAW1Y/dc3sWgwy8po/s1600/51QVCSHYVPL.jpg" height="400" width="266" /></a></div>
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(<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Let-It-Come-Down-Novel/dp/0061137391/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1408520962&sr=1-1" target="_blank">HERE</a>.)</div>
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Bowles' second novel, <i>Let It Come Down, </i>is set among the Tangier elite ("Tangerinas") and has a fish-out-of-water American protagonist but there's more drugs, more parties, and more corruption than in <i>The Sheltering Sky </i>-- think <i>Less Than Zero</i> meets <i>Casablanca</i><i>.</i> Bowles' spare stylized prose packs a wallop: he doesn't go heavily into description but with a cafe called Lucifer, he doesn't have to. And in true Bowles fashion, just when you think you're having fun, there's a bit of nihilism to remind you where you're headed:<br />
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<i>"If you let yourself have a really good time, your health goes to pieces, and if your health goes, your looks go. The awful part is that in the end, no matter what you have done, no matter how careful you may have been, everything falls apart anyway."</i><br />
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</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: #cc0000; font-size: x-large;">FOR COOL HUNTERS</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>The Post Office Girl</i> by Stefan Zweig</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Location: Swiss Alps</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Cool factor: Bracing mountain air. Wear your summer ermine.</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-20Dysp2OUj8/U_JYzswscJI/AAAAAAAAW1I/8IrIUt7Mm40/s1600/410Ic0a19SL._SY344_BO1%2C204%2C203%2C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-20Dysp2OUj8/U_JYzswscJI/AAAAAAAAW1I/8IrIUt7Mm40/s1600/410Ic0a19SL._SY344_BO1%2C204%2C203%2C200_.jpg" height="400" width="250" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Post-Office-Girl-Review-Books-Classics/dp/1590172620/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1408521014&sr=1-1" target="_blank">HERE</a>.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If you're new to Stefan Zweig, this is a very good place to start. The story of a penniless village girl who receives a Cinderella invitation from her aunt to stay at a luxury Alpine spa, it starts off stylishly and spirals disturbingly downward, a Zweig literary hallmark. But oh! the textiles! From fur-lined cloaks to embroidered bedspreads and felted alpenwear, you'll completely forget that outside it's ninety in the shade.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Interesting tidbit: Wes Anderson based "The Grand Budapest Hotel" partly on Zweig's description of the hotel in <i>The Post Office Girl</i>. Read all about it <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/10684250/I-stole-from-Stefan-Zweig-Wes-Anderson-on-the-author-who-inspired-his-latest-movie.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aWA6L3_BsRg/U-hpVor8qsI/AAAAAAAAW0c/56f2Dfxl23o/s1600/The-Grand-Budapest-Hotel-Still.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aWA6L3_BsRg/U-hpVor8qsI/AAAAAAAAW0c/56f2Dfxl23o/s1600/The-Grand-Budapest-Hotel-Still.jpg" height="472" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>A Story Lately Told</i> by Angelica Huston</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Location: Ireland, memorably</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Cool factor: Misty, damp. Turf fires, Aran sweaters, riding boots.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I started listening to this on a recent 3,000 mile road trip and was immediately captivated by Angelica's lyrical evocation of her childhood in a romantic manor house in Ireland. It's all there: the sparkling hoarfrost at dawn, the roaring fires in the hearth, the fox hunts and the buttoned-up Irish nannies stirring porridge on the stove. Listen to it on Audible and I wouldn't be surprised if you told me you'd knitted a sweater by the last chapter.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nht9u8CYPwI/U_Jc9QMAcbI/AAAAAAAAW1g/TCOJ46Gk9_o/s1600/81nHUCHwVTL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nht9u8CYPwI/U_Jc9QMAcbI/AAAAAAAAW1g/TCOJ46Gk9_o/s1600/81nHUCHwVTL.jpg" height="400" width="260" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Story-Lately-Told-Coming-Ireland/dp/1451656297" target="_blank">HERE</a>.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(St. Clerans, where Angelica grew up. <a href="http://www.architecturaldigest.com/celebrity-homes/2005/john-huston-ireland-home-slideshow" target="_blank">Via</a>.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><i>The Worst Journey in the World</i> by Cherry Apsley-Garrard</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Location: South Pole</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Cool factor: A frigid hell beyond all imagining.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9caSi3AFgl8/U_JeNGec4YI/AAAAAAAAW1o/q1XJQ8Dbm7Q/s1600/9780099530374.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9caSi3AFgl8/U_JeNGec4YI/AAAAAAAAW1o/q1XJQ8Dbm7Q/s1600/9780099530374.jpg" height="400" width="371" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(<a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Worst-Journey-World-Apsley-Cherry-Garrard/9780099530374" target="_blank">HERE</a>.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Cherry Apsley-Garrard was one of the only surviving members of Scott's doomed expedition to the South Pole and his memoir of their hardships makes for a gripping read. What elevates the book to a classic, however, is the record Garrard gives of his team's spirit and grace in the face of heartbreaking odds. It's a stirring testament to the tenacity and -- yes -- humor that lies at the core of the British character:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>"Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>"I am glad The Worst Journey is [being published by] Penguin; after all it is largely about penguins."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Read with a tumblerful of Scotch within arm's reach.</span></div>
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Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-41955272819240225822014-07-21T00:24:00.003-07:002014-07-21T07:22:39.571-07:00A Novice's Guide to Israel: Part Two<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's the intensity of the light you notice most. Everything -- buildings, trees, rocks, people -- stands out in stark sculptural relief. And Goethe's observation that "where there is much light, the shadows are deepest" applies to the political landscape as much as it does the terrain. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There is no gray in Israel.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C_zkgTcpjG8/U77-aF9Pi3I/AAAAAAAAWf4/wVO30ZoIoUw/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-5-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C_zkgTcpjG8/U77-aF9Pi3I/AAAAAAAAWf4/wVO30ZoIoUw/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-5-1.jpg" height="490" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(All photos by LBG, 2014.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We stopped at a Bedouin outpost where a convoy of camels awaited us. FYI, the hardest part of riding a camel is the getting up part. First, they lurch upwards with their forelegs so you need to clutch the saddle to keep from sliding backwards, and then when they extend their back legs you nearly get catapulted head over heels. Once you're up, though, it's relatively smooth sailing.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uZ-OIwi_RNk/U785ZrrvXPI/AAAAAAAAWn8/SRJz3baaFUE/s1600/photo+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uZ-OIwi_RNk/U785ZrrvXPI/AAAAAAAAWn8/SRJz3baaFUE/s1600/photo+1.JPG" height="588" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Contrary to reputation, our camel was a jovial fellow.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_TpdCBk5dok/U77_JraGiiI/AAAAAAAAWnc/rI_5mjUYEdY/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_TpdCBk5dok/U77_JraGiiI/AAAAAAAAWnc/rI_5mjUYEdY/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37.jpg" height="474" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We spent two days at the <a href="http://www.cntraveller.com/awards/the-hot-list/hot-list-2012/page/beresheet,-mitspe-ramon" target="_blank">Beresheet Hotel </a>which sits perched on the edge of the three million year old Ramon Crater. It's an entirely new genre of resort: "luxury science fiction."</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7hM0jSrDlbg/U77-5Vv6MvI/AAAAAAAAWjQ/sY6J8CTSqog/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-9-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7hM0jSrDlbg/U77-5Vv6MvI/AAAAAAAAWjQ/sY6J8CTSqog/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-9-2.jpg" height="496" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Colonies of minimalist architectural villas rise up out of the earth like natural rock formations. Underneath the stinging gaze of the sun, you're hard pressed to distinguish them from the landscape.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U1vzIIME39M/U779_B73YsI/AAAAAAAAWdI/lFCi1yxRnks/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-1-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U1vzIIME39M/U779_B73YsI/AAAAAAAAWdI/lFCi1yxRnks/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-1-1.jpg" height="486" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's a strange feeling to sit in a modern hotel room and gaze at the ancient world. Do you recall in the Bible the part where the Jews wandered in the desert for forty years to get to Israel? Well, that's where they wandered. Right down there.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rKGrN1A2GGQ/U785ZRLN4EI/AAAAAAAAWoA/Hiuu0EECL_U/s1600/photo+1-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rKGrN1A2GGQ/U785ZRLN4EI/AAAAAAAAWoA/Hiuu0EECL_U/s1600/photo+1-1.JPG" height="534" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One morning, we hopped aboard this sturdy Lego-like contraption and traveled down into the heart of the crater. <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sgdZVcd3TQk/U77---hx85I/AAAAAAAAWkk/CKA4MsB9Fys/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-2-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sgdZVcd3TQk/U77---hx85I/AAAAAAAAWkk/CKA4MsB9Fys/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-2-2.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But in the Judean wilderness even all-terrain vehicles have their limits...</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mH7m2Ihztd8/U77_KENOZmI/AAAAAAAAWnk/Hx2S-m-Agtc/s1600/2014-07-10+13.14.23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mH7m2Ihztd8/U77_KENOZmI/AAAAAAAAWnk/Hx2S-m-Agtc/s1600/2014-07-10+13.14.23.jpg" height="640" width="516" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">...so we left our spaceship and trekked to this ancient motel frequented by weary ancient Spice Route travelers. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Squint and you can almost see the c</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">aravans of camels bearing fabled spices, perfumes, silks, gems and precious salt on their way to the port of Gaza. </span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Gxl5yTf19og/U77-EPd1tsI/AAAAAAAAWeY/Jqf1N14VBPA/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-3-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Gxl5yTf19og/U77-EPd1tsI/AAAAAAAAWeY/Jqf1N14VBPA/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-3-1.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After dinner one evening we were invited into a </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bedouin tent for some music and mint tea. Outside, a fierce wind whipped the tent fabric causing it to undulate in time to the drumbeats. I sipped my sticky sweet concoction and was completely caught up in the romance of taking refuge from a desert scirocco in a goat skin <i>beyt sha'r</i> ("house of hair"). </span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--LzTWbviHto/U77-BSMBSKI/AAAAAAAAWdw/5Oxght2seF8/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-2-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--LzTWbviHto/U77-BSMBSKI/AAAAAAAAWdw/5Oxght2seF8/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-2-1.jpg" height="640" width="578" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In Israel, every square inch of land is an open-air museum. You realize this of course after a day or two, but it never loses its ability to shock. I was gazing out the window when our tour guide suddenly remarked, "By the way, that's the valley where David fought Goliath." <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-98vFQR__lUw/U77-A52cVEI/AAAAAAAAWdo/zPN-Yt4ORyY/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-98vFQR__lUw/U77-A52cVEI/AAAAAAAAWdo/zPN-Yt4ORyY/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-1.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We spent an afternoon at <a href="http://www.yadvashem.org/" target="_blank">Yad Vashem</a>, the national memorial to the Holocaust. After touring the underground museum with all of its profoundly affecting artifacts and video testimonies, you emerge into light and air and a view of the city of Jerusalem. The message is clear: Despite the horror, what endures is hope. </span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sRW-TplPsw8/U786fz4zLPI/AAAAAAAAWpE/OQUtvV5edZ8/s1600/photo+2-2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sRW-TplPsw8/U786fz4zLPI/AAAAAAAAWpE/OQUtvV5edZ8/s1600/photo+2-2.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When we visited <a href="http://masada.org.il/en" target="_blank">Masada</a>, a few in our group chose to hike up to the fortress at sunrise. I wish I could tell you I was one of them. The rest of us took the five minute cable car up to the top.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FM3sGvA1E54/U79avh4JuMI/AAAAAAAAWtk/9G1R5pEKnn8/s1600/Photo5-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FM3sGvA1E54/U79avh4JuMI/AAAAAAAAWtk/9G1R5pEKnn8/s1600/Photo5-4.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">From the lookout points, you can still see the remains of the Roman ramp that breached the fortress walls when it was under siege in 73 A.D. It's horrible to think of the 945 Jewish rebels watching helplessly as that ramp slowly grew higher day after day, knowing there was no escape.</span></div>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--wneg0Hk6vs/U79auxBtkwI/AAAAAAAAWtU/LLnRW0DOYc4/s1600/Photo2-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--wneg0Hk6vs/U79auxBtkwI/AAAAAAAAWtU/LLnRW0DOYc4/s1600/Photo2-5.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If heights don't bother you, by all means take the hairpin series of wooden steps which lead down to the Northern Palace, King Herod's royal villa. Very few people seem to go down there, so photo opportunities are spectacular.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kvtfecxJXPY/U77-C6MXlmI/AAAAAAAAWeI/9nzBorvXq1o/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-2-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kvtfecxJXPY/U77-C6MXlmI/AAAAAAAAWeI/9nzBorvXq1o/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-2-5.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">On the way out, I couldn't resist taking a photo of this adventurous-looking nun in a baseball cap.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZRPjnCBH9YM/U77_JVeTojI/AAAAAAAAWnU/pE8SbSu02ak/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZRPjnCBH9YM/U77_JVeTojI/AAAAAAAAWnU/pE8SbSu02ak/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-9.jpg" height="640" width="436" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">From Masada, the <a href="http://www.goisrael.com/Tourism_Eng/Tourist%20Information/Discover%20Israel/Geographic%20Regions/Pages/The%20Dead%20Sea%20General%20Info.aspx" target="_blank">Dead Sea</a> is just a short drive away. At 1400 feet below sea level, it's the lowest spot on Earth. I knew the water was going to be salty (at 34% salinity, it's ten times saltier than the ocean), but what I didn't realize is that it would be the temperature of a hot tub in July<i>.</i> However, the floating part is no exaggeration. You are so supported by the buoyancy of the water that you can pretty much fall asleep. In fact, I think my son did.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At the end of the trip, we flew to Eilat and took a day trip to Petra, Jordan. </span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OqiLVH96Emg/U77_DIiJ4gI/AAAAAAAAWl4/-tVk8JUvwoo/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OqiLVH96Emg/U77_DIiJ4gI/AAAAAAAAWl4/-tVk8JUvwoo/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-5.jpg" height="620" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Again and again during this trip, I found myself invigorated by the emptiness of the landscape. There's still a lot of nothingness in the world. </span></div>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_BmkdnbbBQM/U77_H3VoBWI/AAAAAAAAWm4/VEOLrfrtc4c/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_BmkdnbbBQM/U77_H3VoBWI/AAAAAAAAWm4/VEOLrfrtc4c/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-8.jpg" height="400" width="640" /></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You can see the city of Petra on two feet or four: camel, donkey, horse. </span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G81_xYW0Cls/U8yxwuN_p_I/AAAAAAAAWxI/AXOEWciqIMk/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-2-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G81_xYW0Cls/U8yxwuN_p_I/AAAAAAAAWxI/AXOEWciqIMk/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-2-1.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We opted for two feet because it seemed much more sociable.</span></div>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2bEJKmPM7os/U8ywynOxFnI/AAAAAAAAWwY/kWBFMUpXJZM/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-1-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2bEJKmPM7os/U8ywynOxFnI/AAAAAAAAWwY/kWBFMUpXJZM/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-1-1.jpg" height="640" width="526" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">From the main entrance, you walk steeply down a two kilometer sky-high gorge of sandstone that in one place is only ten feet wide.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Along the way, you pass ancient tombs and statues that date from as early as the 5th century B.C.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qayoiavL9ck/U8yxwe_uFRI/AAAAAAAAWxA/XDxihlL_I-k/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qayoiavL9ck/U8yxwe_uFRI/AAAAAAAAWxA/XDxihlL_I-k/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-2.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I was familiar with the famous Treasury building from movies like "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," but even though I knew it was coming, when I turned the corner and caught my first glimpse of that ancient facade through a sliver in the rock walls, it was breathtaking.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qo1L5BieQYE/U77-9JR53_I/AAAAAAAAWkM/D7M4Yw8HSl8/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-10-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qo1L5BieQYE/U77-9JR53_I/AAAAAAAAWkM/D7M4Yw8HSl8/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-10-1.jpg" height="640" width="472" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And there it was, <a href="http://www.poetryatlas.com/poetry/poem/3771/petra.html" target="_blank">rose red and half as old as time</a>, complete with camels and costumed centurions to make the illusion complete.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0m-RLyOHLv0/U77_BkmxXnI/AAAAAAAAWlU/AaTasrOV6Vo/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-4-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0m-RLyOHLv0/U77_BkmxXnI/AAAAAAAAWlU/AaTasrOV6Vo/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-4-1.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While the children hid from the sun underneath the lantern-bedecked awning of a souvenir shop, my friend and I did some Bedouin-style bargaining to hire donkeys to take us up a nearby mountain. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8Eb8Klp7dIU/U77_GwemH6I/AAAAAAAAWmo/D_vx9jeoSuo/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-8-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8Eb8Klp7dIU/U77_GwemH6I/AAAAAAAAWmo/D_vx9jeoSuo/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-8-1.jpg" height="640" width="452" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm happy to say we were successful. </span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aaJi_hRJ7bs/U8y8eMED-EI/AAAAAAAAWxw/o70zs81FtZU/s1600/petra.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aaJi_hRJ7bs/U8y8eMED-EI/AAAAAAAAWxw/o70zs81FtZU/s1600/petra.JPG" height="640" width="616" /></a></div>
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Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-2389030497141632722014-07-13T22:50:00.001-07:002014-07-13T22:54:07.729-07:00A Novice's Guide to Israel, Part One<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's said all roads lead to Jerusalem, so that's where I'll begin. </span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tPX3Gz5Bi4I/U786fxXDbmI/AAAAAAAAWpI/W2rV-cIIWuU/s1600/photo+1-2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tPX3Gz5Bi4I/U786fxXDbmI/AAAAAAAAWpI/W2rV-cIIWuU/s1600/photo+1-2.JPG" height="640" width="442" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Old Jerusalem, June, 2014. All photos by LBG.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I recently spent two days exploring this ancient city on a ten day tour of Israel with a group of friends. I've travelled to many holy places in my life -- the Vatican, the Potala Palace in Lhasa, the sacred Ganges in Rishikesh -- but Jerusalem feels totally different. It's holy not in a peaceful way but in a primal way. Entering the walled gates, you are immediately swept up in the noise and clamor and dirt and magnetic energy of the place and it doesn't matter if you're </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">affiliated with any of the religions</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> that worship here (I'm not), you're suddenly <i>part</i> of it.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--W7hRg63NdA/U77-1TuEoxI/AAAAAAAAWis/9I-OyXN8vbw/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-10-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--W7hRg63NdA/U77-1TuEoxI/AAAAAAAAWis/9I-OyXN8vbw/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-10-3.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Southern wall of the Temple Mount.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Getting around is no easy feat -- </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the streets are laid with ancient cobblestones (wear good walking shoes!), and some alleys are so narrow you have to flatten yourself against a wall if someone pushing a cart wants to get by. </span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OB1VVKqMxgk/U8LaAN0KplI/AAAAAAAAWvg/jqEdFm9c-oA/s1600/jerusalem+photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OB1VVKqMxgk/U8LaAN0KplI/AAAAAAAAWvg/jqEdFm9c-oA/s1600/jerusalem+photo.JPG" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What follows is a highly selective guide to the top sites we visited. There are so many places we unfortunately didn't have time to see -- if you have any recommendations you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1. <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Western_Wall.html" target="_blank">Leave a note in the Western Wall</a>. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It's a remnant of the ancient wall of the Second Jewish Temple (now part of the Temple Mount) and is considered the holiest site at which Jews can pray. </span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r3zomnbqd18/U785ZVAU5tI/AAAAAAAAWn4/3XRqttKqX4I/s1600/photo+2-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r3zomnbqd18/U785ZVAU5tI/AAAAAAAAWn4/3XRqttKqX4I/s1600/photo+2-1.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I had someone I needed to pray for so I wedged my note into the wall (it's that large one) and stood there for a minute just taking everything in. On one side of me a young girl recited Hebrew verses in a quiet voice. On the other, a woman hugged her body to the wall and closed her eyes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UzSlBDFtso0/U77-jk_DAvI/AAAAAAAAWiI/9Vag33EoXY8/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-8-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UzSlBDFtso0/U77-jk_DAvI/AAAAAAAAWiI/9Vag33EoXY8/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-8-3.jpg" height="640" width="510" /></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2. <a href="http://www.goisrael.com/Tourism_Eng/Articles/Attractions/Pages/OldCityJerusalem.aspx" target="_blank">Walk the Quarters.</a> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There are four distinct quarters to the city -- Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Armenian -- and I managed to make it to three of them. </span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s_cYrGU8jT8/U8LlhopxrYI/AAAAAAAAWv0/XXOddUTZTi8/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-8-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s_cYrGU8jT8/U8LlhopxrYI/AAAAAAAAWv0/XXOddUTZTi8/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-8-4.jpg" height="640" width="574" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Muslim Quarter, Old Jerusalem.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you get turned around, you only have to glance at the market stalls to find out what neighborhood you're in.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Muslim Quarter, Old Jerusalem.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Christian Quarter, Old Jerusalem.)</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-84cfnsCZoZo/U77-h7HyiyI/AAAAAAAAWhs/aBqShwabWPY/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-7-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-84cfnsCZoZo/U77-h7HyiyI/AAAAAAAAWhs/aBqShwabWPY/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-7-4.jpg" height="640" width="542" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Jewish Quarter, Old Jerusalem.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On our way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Franciscan monk suddenly sprang out of an alley and catapulted ahead of us. It was almost super-heroish. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Apologies if it's not appropriate to view religious clothing through the prism of fashion, but I love his cassock, don't you?</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Completely utilitarian and yet so stylish: Martin Margiela, fall/winter 1300 A.D.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Monk on a mission.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">3. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre" target="_blank">The Church of the Holy Sepulchre</a> dates from 325 A.D. and is run by a status quo committee of Christian officials -- Eastern Orthodox, Ethiopian, Roman Catholic and others. According to a centuries-old pact, <i>nothing in the church can be touched or rearranged without everyone's unanimous consent.</i> If you're already shaking your head over the perils of decision by committee, you would be absolutely right. See that ladder under the right-hand window? </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Because nobody can agree on what should be done with it, it's been leaning there for over 170 years!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OTDBoeZcjRQ/U77_EnZyJhI/AAAAAAAAWl8/Hw_34_h0c2E/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OTDBoeZcjRQ/U77_EnZyJhI/AAAAAAAAWl8/Hw_34_h0c2E/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-6.jpg" height="640" style="cursor: move;" width="426" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Church of the Holy Sepulchre.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Think I'm kidding? Look closely at this etching from 1834 and you can see the ladder in the <i>exact same</i> place!</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EryXL_MO2Qk/U8KizWYfh4I/AAAAAAAAWvQ/1mb2PV4n8kA/s1600/cohs_1834w420.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EryXL_MO2Qk/U8KizWYfh4I/AAAAAAAAWvQ/1mb2PV4n8kA/s1600/cohs_1834w420.jpg" height="293" style="cursor: move;" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(The Immoveable Ladder, <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Immovable-Ladder-1834.png" target="_blank">via</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Interior, Church of the Holy Sepulchre.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The little building below is called the aedicule and is where Jesus' body is believed to have been buried.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">4. <a href="http://walking.about.com/od/traileurope/ig/Via-Dolorosa/" target="_blank">Walk the 14 Stations of the Cross.</a> The Via Dolorosa, or "Way of Sorrows," marks out the path Jesus is said to have walked from the courthouse to where he was crucified. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Sixth Station, Via Dolorosa.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">5. Trek the <a href="http://www.cityofdavid.org.il/en/virtual_tour/hezekiah%E2%80%99s-tunnel-city-david" target="_blank">Underground Tunnels</a> (not for the claustrophobic). If you don't mind hip-high water, venture through Hezekiah's Tunnel, the ancient aqueduct that fed water to old Jerusalem. If you prefer to stay dry, go for Warren's Shaft. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I took Warren's Shaft. Our guide wasn't kidding when he said it was narrow. It was like being in an Indiana Jones movie. The man ahead of me had to angle his shoulders to get through!</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uFc_kuYW-NM/U77-5nB--8I/AAAAAAAAWjU/nZP9U21yCX4/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-9-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uFc_kuYW-NM/U77-5nB--8I/AAAAAAAAWjU/nZP9U21yCX4/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-9-3.jpg" height="640" width="452" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Warren's Shaft, discovered in 1867.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My husband and son naturally took the more adventurous wet tunnel. They came prepared with water shoes, swimsuits and mini flashlights. That beam is them finally emerging from the darkness -- it took them about thirty minutes to navigate all 533 meters. My husband's reaction? "Totally amazing, but at times the ceiling was so low and the water level was so high even I was a bit apprehensive." I decided I was very glad I chose the dry tunnel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Hezekiah's Tunnel, built in the 8th century B.C.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">5. <a href="http://www.americancolony.com/" target="_blank">The American Colony Hotel.</a> That evening, we travelled into the West Bank to have dinner at a legendary old hotel that I'd been desperate to visit. Although officially in East Jerusalem, the American Colony has always had a neutral status, being owned not by Jews or Muslims but by Americans, British and Swedes. Everyone from Lawrence of Arabia to Winston Churchill to Bob Dylan has stayed there. To me, it's Jerusalem's <a href="http://www.chateaumarmont.com/" target="_blank">Chateau Marmont</a>: old-school, elegant and a little bohemian around the edges. </span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1ONGjoQPz2E/U77-dnhwwMI/AAAAAAAAWgw/MqgnMthVgmU/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-6-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1ONGjoQPz2E/U77-dnhwwMI/AAAAAAAAWgw/MqgnMthVgmU/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-6-2.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We sat in an lush open courtyard surrounded by a symphony of foliage. The atmosphere was so magical that I recorded it on my iPhone -- clinking glasses, hushed voices in a medley of foreign tongues and the rustle of palm trees overhead, all wrapped up in the deep velvety intonations of a muezzin from a nearby mosque.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We did a little exploring around the hotel and</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> stumbled on this underground bar (only open during the winter) and were told that it was the nightly meeting place for all the foreign correspondents who used to stay here in the 1930's and 1940's. Oh, if those walls could talk.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G96zv7BBnu8/U77-YZfShlI/AAAAAAAAWfY/pgkPlZdLR8E/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-4-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G96zv7BBnu8/U77-YZfShlI/AAAAAAAAWfY/pgkPlZdLR8E/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-4-2.jpg" height="468" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">6. <a href="http://www.danhotels.com/JerusalemHotels/KingDavidJerusalemHotel/" target="_blank">The King David Hotel</a>. If the American Colony Hotel is Jerusalem's Chateau Marmont, then the King David is definitely the Plaza Hotel in New York. A soaring Art Deco edifice with gorgeous hand-painted ceilings, it's stately in a way that the American Colony isn't. If you're a world leader, you probably stay here. </span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-10Z_Nq-s8pQ/U77-bOXrS7I/AAAAAAAAWgQ/l3292oskUvg/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-5-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-10Z_Nq-s8pQ/U77-bOXrS7I/AAAAAAAAWgQ/l3292oskUvg/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-5-2.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The carpet was a wonder unto itself.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NujLz018Y7Y/U779_aSMepI/AAAAAAAAWdM/E7W2U79IajA/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-1-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NujLz018Y7Y/U779_aSMepI/AAAAAAAAWdM/E7W2U79IajA/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.36-1-2.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We sipped cocktails in the gardens overlooking the old city and pretended we were a coterie of important dignitaries. It was wonderful while it lasted.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_Pg5ODnufp4/U79auvWq6QI/AAAAAAAAWtM/4465RbkdDiM/s1600/Photo3-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_Pg5ODnufp4/U79auvWq6QI/AAAAAAAAWtM/4465RbkdDiM/s1600/Photo3-4.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Leaving the next morning, we passed by the Israeli West Bank barrier wall. </span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VE_FaWsIf3E/U77-8B4zlWI/AAAAAAAAWj8/b2n8fDLcE4w/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-1-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VE_FaWsIf3E/U77-8B4zlWI/AAAAAAAAWj8/b2n8fDLcE4w/s1600/2014-07-10+12.37.37-1-2.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'm already dreaming of going back.</span></div>
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Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-60720827769040648212014-07-02T16:28:00.001-07:002014-07-03T12:47:30.838-07:00Shalom Y'All<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Just returned home from the most magical trip to Israel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Yarmulkes in Jerusalem, June 2014.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We rode camels in the Negev desert, walked with jaws dropped through the ancient stone city of Petra, pilgrimaged into Old Jerusalem, floated in the Dead Sea, explored the bottom of a three million year old crater and much more. </span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FomNWXevkf0/U7SNWgmNolI/AAAAAAAAWbc/isUSGmQp7l0/s1600/camel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FomNWXevkf0/U7SNWgmNolI/AAAAAAAAWbc/isUSGmQp7l0/s1600/camel.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In retrospect, Luca and I probably shouldn't have been so close to the camel!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While I was away, <a href="http://www.toryburch.com/blog-post/blog-post.html?bpid=105392" target="_blank">a lovely piece</a> about my upcoming book </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Novel-Interiors-Enchanted-Inspired-Literature-ebook/dp/B00KUQGR74/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404339349&sr=1-1&keywords=lisa+borgnes+giramonti" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">"Novel Interiors"</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> was posted on Tory Burch's blog. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">To say I am honored is an understatement -- a big thank you to editor Venessa Lau for interviewing me and writing the article. </span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UWfGQiusW08/U7SHeI7G4WI/AAAAAAAAWbE/fdjMJCMd5Xc/s1600/tory+blog.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UWfGQiusW08/U7SHeI7G4WI/AAAAAAAAWbE/fdjMJCMd5Xc/s1600/tory+blog.tiff" height="218" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-__jbpnce8l0/U7SIwNjrjSI/AAAAAAAAWbM/lF-Vs_Lg0z4/s1600/tory+copy.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-__jbpnce8l0/U7SIwNjrjSI/AAAAAAAAWbM/lF-Vs_Lg0z4/s1600/tory+copy.tiff" height="66" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Click </span><a href="http://www.toryburch.com/blog-post/blog-post.html?bpid=105392" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">HERE</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> to read the interview.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">More very soon...I'm busy uploading photos and tussling with a fierce case of jet lag.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">x/Lisa</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">P.S. My friend Ione Skye just wrote a wonderful children's book called "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Yiddish-Vacation-Christy-Ottaviano-Books/dp/0805095128" target="_blank">My Yiddish Vacation</a>" about her funny childhood experiences with her grandparents Ruth and Sammy in 1970's Florida. It's full of essential vocabulary words like "shvitz" which my son now uses as often as he can.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Luca</i>: Mom, why are you shvitzing so much?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Me:</i> Because it's ninety degrees and I'm lugging groceries. How about you put down your DS and help me?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> You can buy it <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Yiddish-Vacation-Christy-Ottaviano-Books/dp/0805095128" target="_blank">HERE</a> and read a great interview with Ione about it <a href="http://blog.firstbook.org/2014/06/02/yiddish-vacation-qa-ione-skye/" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Jeanne Tripplehorn and me at Ione's book signing, June 2014.)</span></div>
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Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-90117026869518242502014-06-14T03:42:00.000-07:002014-06-14T03:43:24.951-07:00Pardon My Hiatus<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4YwGSmPPiT0/U5wjQbEC0DI/AAAAAAAAWaQ/KdZBmOOfRTI/s1600/25-tilda-swinton-glass-box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4YwGSmPPiT0/U5wjQbEC0DI/AAAAAAAAWaQ/KdZBmOOfRTI/s1600/25-tilda-swinton-glass-box.jpg" height="448" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Tilda Swinton at MoMA, 2013, <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2013/03/jerry-saltz-moma-sleeping-tilda-swinton.html" target="_blank">via</a>.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What have I been doing since finally finishing <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Novel-Interiors-Enchanted-Inspired-Literature/dp/0385345992/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1402742580&sr=1-1" target="_blank">my book</a>?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Writing as little as possible!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'll be back after the 4th of July with heaps to share.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">x/Lisa</span>Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-15735801777411680252014-05-07T21:13:00.000-07:002014-05-09T09:46:02.143-07:00Birth Announcement<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After two-plus densely packed years of writing and researching and revising and editing (and the entire last month especially!), I am so thrilled to announce that the gestation period for my <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Novel-Interiors-Enchanted-Inspired-Literature/dp/0385345992/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399514621&sr=1-1&keywords=lisa+borgnes+giramonti" target="_blank">book</a> is finally over:</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AKdaranB3bs/U2rfnQo1t4I/AAAAAAAAWQE/WWGtlKusPiE/s1600/LBG+on+Amazon.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AKdaranB3bs/U2rfnQo1t4I/AAAAAAAAWQE/WWGtlKusPiE/s1600/LBG+on+Amazon.tiff" height="460" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And if you wonder whether I woke up last night and clicked on the Amazon link just to make sure I wasn't dreaming, I have zero embarrassment in telling you that <i>yes, yes I did. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>(Me at 2:51 AM: Phew, it's still there!)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here's a bigger photo of the cover:</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e7aB0CgMeU8/U2rfzfnoxHI/AAAAAAAAWQU/v7NsgH4WRzM/s1600/image.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e7aB0CgMeU8/U2rfzfnoxHI/AAAAAAAAWQU/v7NsgH4WRzM/s1600/image.jpeg" height="640" width="562" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Photo by <a href="http://itopus.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Ivan Terestchenko</a>.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There will be lots more to say about the book in the coming months, but I wanted you to be the first to see it here. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was this blog, after all, that inspired me to write it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And it was YOU, my blog readers, with your unquenchable passion for literature and design, who I think of as the silent co-writers on my shoulder. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What's <i>Novel Interiors </i>about?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's about taking cues from the enchanting worlds of classic novels to show you how they can inspire your decorating style, the way you relax and entertain, even the colors and fabrics that you're drawn to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In a bouillon cube, it's about living a well-read life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's for design aficionados who want to add another layer of meaning to their personal spaces. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It's for lovers of classic literature who want to hone in on the design style that reflects who they truly are. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Whether you're a fan of Austen or Proust, Woolf or Waugh, Cather or Fitzgerald, I promise there's a chapter for you. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It comes out December 2nd, and you can pre-order it <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Novel-Interiors-Enchanted-Inspired-Literature/dp/0385345992/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399514621&sr=1-1&keywords=lisa+borgnes+giramonti" target="_blank">HERE</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">x/Lisa</span></div>
Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-2996931446074457942014-04-07T01:06:00.000-07:002014-04-07T01:06:05.839-07:00Why Eccentrics Matter<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/k9tpad0dyjg" width="640"></iframe>Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-76438439603100764162014-03-16T23:30:00.000-07:002014-03-18T08:40:20.516-07:00Build Your Own Designer Memory Palace<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What if you could remember your entire grocery list just by retracing Peter Seller's steps in the house he goes to in the movie "The Party?" </span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-k1Q7hiYagkc/UyaDBiO65nI/AAAAAAAAWO4/En5v8hMnw7M/s1600/Archiset-illustrated-film-sets-by-Federico-Babina-_dezeen_ss_9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-k1Q7hiYagkc/UyaDBiO65nI/AAAAAAAAWO4/En5v8hMnw7M/s1600/Archiset-illustrated-film-sets-by-Federico-Babina-_dezeen_ss_9.jpg" height="456" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Artwork by Federico Babina. <a href="http://federicobabina.com/ARCHICINE/.UyXrp9zi6rc#.UyaWoNzi6rc" target="_blank">Here</a>.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Or recite the seven ancient wonders of the world by "walking" through your favorite apartment on <a href="http://theselby.com/" target="_blank">The Selb</a>y?</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2inIfhPa9ss/UyZq9rKufaI/AAAAAAAAWOE/5xUDi1x2x98/s1600/10_14_08_Thibault_Sofia17533.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2inIfhPa9ss/UyZq9rKufaI/AAAAAAAAWOE/5xUDi1x2x98/s1600/10_14_08_Thibault_Sofia17533.jpg" height="404" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Photo by Todd Selby. <a href="http://theselby.com/galleries/sofia-achaval-thibault-de-montaigu/" target="_blank">Here</a>.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Or remember Charles Dickens' twenty major works (15 novels, 5 novellas) by taking a mental tour of Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel"?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Zkw1dLCgqzU/UyYQgfZKitI/AAAAAAAAWN0/4AqDudTVy_o/s1600/GrandBudapest.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Zkw1dLCgqzU/UyYQgfZKitI/AAAAAAAAWN0/4AqDudTVy_o/s1600/GrandBudapest.png" height="640" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I know, I know, it sounds too weird to be true. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But with a memory palace, you <i>can</i> -- and I'm going to tell you how.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A memory palace is a </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">mnemonic technique invented 2,000 years ago by the ancient Greeks </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">that uses your brain's superior spatial memory to memorize information.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It works like this: </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You think of the layout of a location you know well -- your house or apartment, for instance. Then you "attach" whatever objects or items you want to remember (i.e. your to-do list, the American presidents) to specific places within that location. When you want to retrieve your list, you take a mental walk through your memory palace and "see" everything right where you put it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">[There's a great TED talk about it <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_can_do" target="_blank">HERE</a> by Joshua Foer. Watch it and be gobsmacked.]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Why am I so sure it works?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Because in</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> forty minutes, me, the person who can't find her keys in the morning and who routinely leaves her sunglasses in restaurants,<i> </i></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic;">memorized all 37 of William Shakespeare's plays in the order they were written. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Even more impressive,<i> so did my 12 year-old son.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And he has zero interest in Shakespeare.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But w</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">hen he heard me reel them off, he got jealous and wanted in.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The book that taught us how?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">("The Memory Palace: Learn Anything and Everything, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Starting with Shakespeare and Dickens", $3.33. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Memory-Palace-Everything-Shakespeare-ebook/dp/B007V3FLTE" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">HERE</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: x-large;">"The general idea with most memory techniques is to change whatever boring thing is being inputted into your memory into something that is so colorful, so exciting, and so different from anything you've seen before that you can't possibly forget it."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">~</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Joshua Foer,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> </span></span><i><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Remembering-Everything/dp/0143120530" target="_blank">Moonwalking with Einstein</a></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here's the best part, though:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For design-minded folks like you and me, who </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">carry around a treasure trove of unforgettable spaces and layouts in our brains already, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">who says our memory palaces have to be places that we've actually explored in real life? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Why not use the charming English cottage you saved from that magazine?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Or the layout of the S. S. Belafonte from "The Life Aquatic"?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> ("The Life Aquatic.")</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Or how about a location from your extensive literary wanderings?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Holly Golightly's apartment in "Breakfast at Tiffany's"?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Marchmain house in "Brideshead Revisited"?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Odette's Oriental-influenced apartment in "Swann's Way"?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">How fun would it be to "visit" Gatsby's West Egg mansion when you need to remember your shopping list? I can see it now: </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Look, here's the pile of colored silk shirts that Daisy wept over, but how strange, they're completely ripped to shreds! Oh, I remember -- </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">craft scissors</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For more information on how to build your own memory palace, here are some helpful articles and links:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Click <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/student/student-life/how-to-sherlock-your-degree-the-art-of-building-a-memory-palace-9087779.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Or <a href="http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Memory-Palace" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Or <a href="http://litemind.com/memory-palace/" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIg73ppoVZw" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Or </span><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/secrets-sherlocks-mind-palace-180949567/?no-ist" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">HERE</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Before you go, do you have a favorite location from a book, movie or magazine that you would use as a memory palace?</span></div>
Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-65838869428006375972014-03-03T12:34:00.002-08:002014-03-04T17:48:01.246-08:00Geek-end Getaway<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Two weeks ago, I went away for a long-anticipated weekend to Palm Springs with my friend Jeanne. (I have to plug an amazing performance she gave recently with Eddie Vedder -- ever wondered how Julie Andrews would sound singing The Rolling Stones "Shattered"? Click <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VLAGhOetAk" target="_blank">HERE</a> and wonder no longer.) </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We had been plotting our escape for months and had finally managed to coordinate the schedules of our respective husbands and sons so that we could slip away for thirty six hours and indulge ourselves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"You all ready for our geek-end getaway?" Jeanne asked as I loaded my bags into the car.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Geek-end getaway</i>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I had been wondering what to call it. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Instead of bathing suits, sandals and embroidered caftans, our suitcases were loaded with </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">laptops, iPads, digital writing tablets, creative manifestos (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Make-Good-Art-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0062266764/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393863986&sr=8-1&keywords=make+good+art" target="_blank">this</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ignore-Everybody-Other-Keys-Creativity/dp/159184259X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393864111&sr=1-1&keywords=ignore+everybody" target="_blank">this</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Manage-Your-Day-Day-Creative/dp/1477800670/ref=pd_sim_b_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=0XGSP1XPSZSF22G2TPN4" target="_blank">this</a>), and our comfiest clothes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Our dream weekend had nothing to do with yoga, mountain hikes, massages or mani-pedis -- and everything to do with recharging our brain cells.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This was going to be a learning vacation. Our goals?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">~Inspire each other creatively</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">~Provide each other with constructive feedback on personal projects</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">~Trade sources of inspiration (What books/magazines/music/videos were obsessing us?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">~Learn new apps (Which ones could we not live without?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">~Brainstorm without limits</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Heck, if we were really on a roll, we might not even leave the room until Sunday checkout. (We didn't.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Two of my favorite discoveries from that weekend?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1. The <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/noteshelf-notes-pdf/id392188745?mt=8" target="_blank">Noteshelf</a> app ($5.99) which lets you create amazing layouts and collages just like the ones you see in design magazines like Domino and Lonny -- great for people like me who don't have Photoshop. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You can create your own little notebooks from the covers provided or do like I did and upload photos from the internet to make your own custom ones. (I found some good old book covers <a href="http://lostandtaken.com/blog/2008/9/5/15-old-book-cover-textures-high-res-and-free.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>.)</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LohPuQEDaUM/UxPSCoad66I/AAAAAAAAWI4/6A6_JkH7fR4/s1600/photo-1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LohPuQEDaUM/UxPSCoad66I/AAAAAAAAWI4/6A6_JkH7fR4/s1600/photo-1.PNG" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here's one of my books devoted to collages of favorite fabrics and patterns. I find that putting them together like this is a super helpful way of seeing what works together and what doesn't.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j_OQbSG7uug/UxPLmE8WH-I/AAAAAAAAWIg/dCE1nanaH60/s1600/photo2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j_OQbSG7uug/UxPLmE8WH-I/AAAAAAAAWIg/dCE1nanaH60/s1600/photo2.PNG" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here's another</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> book I made to explore an embroidery series I've been working on. Noteshelf makes it super easy to choose the kind of paper you like, upload photos, add text and draw. Bonus: They have good </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">type fonts like Gill Sans and Bodoni (the two I used below). Type fonts make a HUGE difference in giving personality and character to a layout.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lP_VB4dq2fk/UxPLjTMt9TI/AAAAAAAAWIY/EBOMv10ZqGk/s1600/photo.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lP_VB4dq2fk/UxPLjTMt9TI/AAAAAAAAWIY/EBOMv10ZqGk/s1600/photo.PNG" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here's another one I made for various random ideas.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PIbWz1nHUog/UxPXWvul8MI/AAAAAAAAWJI/PzI6kgQr7Bk/s1600/photo5.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PIbWz1nHUog/UxPXWvul8MI/AAAAAAAAWJI/PzI6kgQr7Bk/s1600/photo5.PNG" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2. The other app I am absolutely in love with is <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/procreate-sketch-paint-create./id425073498?mt=8" target="_blank">Procreate</a> ($5.99) It lets you sketch, paint, draw and create virtually anything you can imagine. I could go on and on about this app -- it's intuitive, easy to learn (be sure to download the free <a href="http://savage.si/downloads/Procreate-User-Guide.pdf" target="_blank">user guide</a>) and as simple or advanced as you want it to be. I can't see myself ever getting tired of it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And it has one specific feature I'm crazy about:<i> </i></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It lets you write directly over a photo. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You know, like <a href="http://www.garancedore.fr/" target="_blank">Garance Doré</a> does.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aCQ9RusUdUA/UxTYlyShCeI/AAAAAAAAWKg/agPaXwW28pA/s1600/mansur_gavriel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aCQ9RusUdUA/UxTYlyShCeI/AAAAAAAAWKg/agPaXwW28pA/s1600/mansur_gavriel.jpg" height="448" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Remember <a href="http://abloomsburylife.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/monday-miscellany.html" target="_blank">the post I did last week</a> with all those hand-drawn titles over the pictures? I made them all with Procreate. I just uploaded my photos, chose the style of "pen" I wanted, and drew right onto the iPad with my finger.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The upshot of our geek-end getaway? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Brains were stormed, ideas were generated and t</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">he groundwork for great future projects was laid. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here's a photo I snapped of the hotel as we were leaving on Sunday -- it was the first time I'd seen the grounds since check-in. I bet it's a lovely place to spend some time outdoors. </span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1ffNodEeIRo/UxQjRG592yI/AAAAAAAAWKI/o0uZzOIMCP4/s1600/Photo+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1ffNodEeIRo/UxQjRG592yI/AAAAAAAAWKI/o0uZzOIMCP4/s1600/Photo+2.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(<a href="http://www.colonypalmshotel.com/" target="_blank">Colony Palms Hotel</a>, 2/9/14.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Next time.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d0e0e3; color: red; font-family: Didot; font-size: 20pt;">“For my belief is that if we have five hundred a year and a room of our own; if we have the habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think; if we escape a little from the common sitting-room and see human beings not always in their relation to each other but in relation to reality…then the opportunity will come and [we] will be born.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: Didot; font-size: 20pt;"><span style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">~Virginia Woolf </span></span></div>
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Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-17871340421617161272014-02-17T00:28:00.000-08:002014-02-19T10:08:58.970-08:00Monday Miscellany<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This week, instead of creating, I'm curating. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Below, eight totally random things to boost your energy, tickle your brain, and fire up some of those adorable endorphins.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1. Turmeric. I love it in Indian food, but did you know it makes an incredibly delicious and healthy tea? (</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For a list of benefits, click <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-weil-md/turmeric-health-have-a-happy-new-year_b_798328.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>.) </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This one hits the sweet spot and has a earthy kick to it that's not unlike coffee.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ObtDiV0djW4/UwGOIhpb2nI/AAAAAAAAWFA/ciEkMwIqZPM/s1600/photo+4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ObtDiV0djW4/UwGOIhpb2nI/AAAAAAAAWFA/ciEkMwIqZPM/s1600/photo+4.JPG" height="408" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Creamy Turmeric Tea</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder (if you're timid, start with 1/4 teaspoon)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1/2 teaspoon cardamom or cinnamon</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1 inch slice of fresh ginger, peeled and minced</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1 tablespoon honey </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">8 oz. almond, coconut or soy milk</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mix first four ingredients together in a mug to form a thick paste. Heat the milk and then slowly pour it into the mug, stirring all the while. Strain out the ginger if you like, or leave it in for a more intense kick.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2. "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/ElbowVEVO?feature=watch" target="_blank">New York Morning.</a>" This documentary/music video by English rockers Elbow is a paean to true love, punk music and NYC in the '70's. Plus the song is amazing. If you ever thought soul mates don't exist, you are about to be proven wrong. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">3. <a href="http://www.waterlogueapp.com/" target="_blank">Waterlogue</a>. This iPhone/iPad app has taken the design blogosphere by storm recently -- basically, it transforms any photo into the kind of stylish watercolor that you'd pay really good money to hang on your wall. I love what it does to the light in a room -- everything seems lit with an enchanted glow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m9qCxfiRnWM/UwEUJTaVvnI/AAAAAAAAWCE/gwKh74HGU0U/s1600/photo+6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m9qCxfiRnWM/UwEUJTaVvnI/AAAAAAAAWCE/gwKh74HGU0U/s1600/photo+6.JPG" height="444" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s8UFmnQG4i0/UwGoX4QJAgI/AAAAAAAAWFo/tKfMihPIPkk/s1600/PicFrame+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s8UFmnQG4i0/UwGoX4QJAgI/AAAAAAAAWFo/tKfMihPIPkk/s1600/PicFrame+3.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">4. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Have you ever wished a cute English guy would write a brilliant and heartfelt poem about how he appreciates girls with big books instead of girls with big boobs? Well, his name is Mark Grist and he has. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmEbF2uhsZk" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</span><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fOn7NKYSr_s/UwGrAz3hMYI/AAAAAAAAWF0/SFZ2Nmt3Rvc/s1600/Untitled_artwork+18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fOn7NKYSr_s/UwGrAz3hMYI/AAAAAAAAWF0/SFZ2Nmt3Rvc/s1600/Untitled_artwork+18.jpg" height="452" width="640" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">5. I discovered <a href="http://pushkinpress.com/author/stefan-zweig/" target="_blank">Stefan Zweig</a> (1881-1942) about ten years ago and I think I would be hard pressed to name my three favorite authors and not include him. Part </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">F. Scott Fitzgerald, part </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Freud, h</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">is stories are as seductive as they are haunting</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. If you're a Zweig virgin, start with </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://pushkinpress.com/book/beware-of-pity-2/" target="_blank">Beware of Pity</a>, </i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">a</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> psychological boy-meets-girl horror story that reads like it was written in one long exhale. Make sure you get the editions from </span><a href="http://pushkinpress.com/author/stefan-zweig/" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Pushkin Press</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> -- they do his style justice</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. </span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6U2dcD1NcOk/UwGLSq5oskI/AAAAAAAAWEc/IhW8pfZY3Ww/s1600/Untitled_artwork+13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6U2dcD1NcOk/UwGLSq5oskI/AAAAAAAAWEc/IhW8pfZY3Ww/s1600/Untitled_artwork+13.jpg" height="452" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Interesting tidbit: <a href="http://variety.com/interstitial/?ref=http%3A%2F%2Fvariety.com%2F2014%2Ffilm%2Fmarkets-festivals%2Fwes-anderson-talks-about-his-grand-influences-1201091911%2F" target="_blank">Wes Anderson loves Zweig too</a>.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">6. I've always secretly thought the art and lifestyle of the Bloomsbury Group had a punk sensibility to it, so when my friend Vanessa Leigh Price forwarded me this video of Patti Smith sitting in Vanessa Bell's studio in Charleston House, I about keeled over. You will too. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-TrNzM-r2M" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">7. This year marks the hundredth anniversary of World War One and I'm using that as a reason to plow through all the WWI novels I never got around to reading before. Richard Aldington's <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Death-Penguin-Classics-Richard-Aldington/dp/0143106872/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1392620724&sr=1-1&keywords=death+of+a+hero" target="_blank">Death of a Hero</a></i> was new to me and I loved it -- Aldington's prose is a mashup of Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell, with an armored cynicism to it that feels incredibly modern.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zDtHLHNR0TE/UwGUj-b56UI/AAAAAAAAWFY/FJq3ixbYiAQ/s1600/Untitled_artwork+17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zDtHLHNR0TE/UwGUj-b56UI/AAAAAAAAWFY/FJq3ixbYiAQ/s1600/Untitled_artwork+17.jpg" height="452" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">8. Charles Dickens as Morrissey. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2Dy2n2H2qA" target="_blank">HERE</a>. Leave it to BBC's brilliant "Horrible Histories" to turn a Victorian biography into compulsive viewing for kids and parents alike.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So what are you all up to this week?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">xx/Lisa</span>
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Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-13315357081437236712014-02-05T21:08:00.000-08:002014-02-09T17:26:12.121-08:00Does Art Make the Life? Or Life Make the Art?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #ea9999; font-family: Didot; font-size: 22pt;">"Nothing very extraordinary happened really. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #ea9999; font-family: Didot; font-size: 22pt;">But the life we lived was amazing."</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Didot; font-size: 22pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Didot;">~Angelica Bell</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Angelica Bell and friend, Charleston House, 1978. Photo by <a href="http://www.howardgrey.com/process/" target="_blank">Howard Grey</a>.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We are all artists, every single one of us. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Our canvas is our lives. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Every choice we make is a dot that goes onto our canvas.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At first, the dots are tiny and scattered and seemingly unconnected.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But gradually, over time, a picture appears. </span><br />
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Living is an art.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Don't let anyone tell you differently.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(And don't let anyone tell you it's easy.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It takes hard work to keep life simple.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It requires focus to make it meaningful.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sometimes it feels like a balancing act between learning to hang on and learning to let go. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But your art is your life. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ea9999; font-family: Didot; font-size: 22pt;">"It takes a lot of time to be a genius. You have to sit around so much, doing nothing, really doing nothing."</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Didot; font-size: 22pt;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Didot;">~Gertrude Stein</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas with their poodle Basket, 1938. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Creating a good work of art takes time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It demands patience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It can't be rushed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There will be days, months, years even, when you look at your canvas and think all the time you've spent on it has been for nothing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But that's just exactly when you have to keep on going.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Because the day will arrive when you realize that all those insignificant little dots were adding up to something extraordinary.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #ea9999; font-family: Didot; font-size: 22pt;">"There are some things that cannot be learned quickly, and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring. They are the very simplest things, and because it takes a man’s life to know them the little new that each man gets from life is very costly and the only heritage he has to leave."</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Didot; font-size: 22pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Didot; text-align: center;">~Ernest Hemingway</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Ernest Hemingway in Cuba, date unknown, <a href="http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/GdUnbpSTHEmokXteemtZ4A.aspx" target="_blank">via</a>)</span></div>
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Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-34959990885503673052014-01-20T08:38:00.000-08:002014-01-20T08:59:45.268-08:00Victorian London: Alive and Kicking<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Terraced homes in Holland Park. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">All photos by LBG, December 2013.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One of the most fascinating aspects of London is that it's a layer cake of history. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The city doesn't seem to grow up as much as it seems to "grow over": Roman foundations are covered with medieval cobblestones which are then overlaid with Victorian brickwork. Manor estates turn into Rococo pleasure gardens which turn into Edwardian hospital grounds. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">No matter where your interests or passions lie -- </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> in the Romans, Tudors, Bloomsbury bohemians or even Sex Pistols -- the footprints of every culture are still there, you just have to know where to look.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Below, three fantastic Victorian-era destinations that will make you feel as if you've tiptoed back into the nineteenth century:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f9cb9c; font-family: Didot; font-size: 22pt;">1. Paradise, by Way of Kensal
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">By day, this restored pub is a gastronome's dream with fresh, locally sourced cuisine and one of the best Sunday lunches in London. On weekends, it turns into a nightclub where you're likely to bump shoulders with Kate Moss and Jamie Hince, and also hosts special culinary dinners by the likes of Alex James, Blur bassist turned cheese farmer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is the bar in the front room. Coffered ceiling, check. Gray mirrored bar, check. Tufted leather chairs approaching retirement, check.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Website <a href="http://www.theparadise.co.uk/" target="_blank">HERE</a>.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Design note for the brave: If your walls are peeling, shellac over them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You're in the main dining room now. Doesn't it have such warmth and energy? </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Let's break it down: </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Gray walls. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">White floorboards. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Gilt-frame paintings. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Vintage birdcage pendant lamps. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Flea market antique furniture. Secondary c</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">olors: Gold, black, cabernet, burgundy, brown.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I ordered a traditional pork roast with Yorkshire pudding and greens. Delicious. It nearly made a man out of me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I don't know if the Paradise was ever a private residence, but it certainly feels like it. In addition to the pub and restaurant on the ground floor are a variety of rooms upstairs for dining and drinking in.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> I love how</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> the stairwell has cleverly been transformed into a nook for entertaining, don't you? That area is usually such a dead space.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Upstairs, the tarnished glass chandeliers, shaggy greenery, and general attitude of crumbling glamour lend a distinctive Miss Havisham quality to the place...and I mean that in the best possible way, <i>of course.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Only one of the rooms upstairs was unlocked, but if this one is representative of the others, a return visit is definitely in order. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now about that name. It refers to a line in a G. K. Chesterton poem called </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"The Rolling English Road" about how the Roman roads were all straight and precise but the Englishman, usually being drunk, created reeling and rolling ones. Funny, right? The Paradise is next to the famous Victorian cemetery, Kensal Green, final resting place for writers like William Thackeray, Anthony Trollope and Harold Pinter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Before we go to <b>Paradise by way of Kensal Green.</b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><b> </b>~G. K. Chesterton, "The Rolling English Road"</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We walked through the cemetery afterwards and I spied this haunting tombstone. "My heart lies in England, too," I thought to myself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Kensal Green Cemetery, 2013.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f9cb9c; font-family: Didot; font-size: 29px;">2. Tea at the St. Pancras Hotel </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If you watch "Downton Abbey" then you're familiar with St. Pancras Station -- Lady Edith is always alighting here to visit her paramour. The station, designed in 1863, has recently undergone a 2oo million pound renovation and the former Midland Hotel inside has been magnificently restored. Whether you're catching a train or not (the Eurostar leaves from here), it's worth popping your head in--if only to say you've visited o</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: center;">ne of the greatest Victorian buildings in London.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-58yNa3Dy59M/UtrLQ16bOmI/AAAAAAAAV3A/zvU66V5HphM/s1600/DSC_8029.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-58yNa3Dy59M/UtrLQ16bOmI/AAAAAAAAV3A/zvU66V5HphM/s1600/DSC_8029.JPG" height="422" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Hotel website <a href="http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/lonpr-st-pancras-renaissance-london-hotel/" target="_blank">HERE</a>.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I oohed over the colorful Gothic-inspired halls with their fleur-de-lis wallpaper, carved marble arches and ornamental tile work...</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DSdxS6uAFYA/UtrLCtCrI7I/AAAAAAAAV2w/CtK6VCXeW-g/s1600/DSC_8017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DSdxS6uAFYA/UtrLCtCrI7I/AAAAAAAAV2w/CtK6VCXeW-g/s1600/DSC_8017.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">...and Luca aahed over the absolutely gigantic train shed (my camera only captures about an eighth of it). If you've read the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Invention-Hugo-Cabret-Brian-Selznick/dp/0439813786" target="_blank">The Invention of Hugo Cabret</a>, then you know a child can never look at a train station clock the same way again. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We had a restorative pot of tea in the Booking House Bar...</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-56MgaOxTBAg/Utx6UPVufWI/AAAAAAAAV6I/zULNrAQJPvM/s1600/DSC_8006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-56MgaOxTBAg/Utx6UPVufWI/AAAAAAAAV6I/zULNrAQJPvM/s1600/DSC_8006.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">...where I discovered the most amazing tea strainer <i>I've ever seen</i>.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WtxgTv_7Q7I/UtrKhW-OQGI/AAAAAAAAV2Y/ui1FJjXqWwQ/s1600/DSC_8009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WtxgTv_7Q7I/UtrKhW-OQGI/AAAAAAAAV2Y/ui1FJjXqWwQ/s1600/DSC_8009.jpg" height="640" width="516" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Look, it's a tiny umbrella-shaped bristle that fits into the spout of your teapot and prevents the leaves from coming out with the tea. Why don't they sell these in America?</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qx8in3ckZJo/UtrKv7OSozI/AAAAAAAAV2o/iY-AfFHwhyk/s1600/DSC_8012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qx8in3ckZJo/UtrKv7OSozI/AAAAAAAAV2o/iY-AfFHwhyk/s1600/DSC_8012.jpg" height="640" width="502" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f9cb9c; font-family: Didot; font-size: 29px;">3. The Charles Dickens House</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I visited the Dickens House years ago but it's undergone a renovation so I was eager to see it again, and since my son Luca loved reading "The Christmas Carol" in school last year, I was hopeful there wouldn't be any foot-dragging.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Before the redo, the museum was drab and fusty (and I say that as a fervent Dickens fanatic). You had to peer across roped doorways to see anything. Now, the entire house is open, and they've annexed the house next door and opened a café and tiny gift shop. Period Victorian furniture has been added to Dickens' original possessions to give the house a cozy lived-in feel. </span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VTwdituV-ag/UtrLnNW6G6I/AAAAAAAAV3Q/tmneeKauZww/s1600/DSC_8042.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VTwdituV-ag/UtrLnNW6G6I/AAAAAAAAV3Q/tmneeKauZww/s1600/DSC_8042.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Website <a href="http://www.dickensmuseum.com/" target="_blank">HERE</a>.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The master bedroom was dark and still, a perfect sanctuary after a long day of writing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When we went downstairs, there was a group of school children getting dressed up as scullery servants to "assist" with dinner preparations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I don't envy the woman who had this job.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Why, thank you, Charles. How kind of you to offer me a hand up these stairs. </span></div>
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Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-42652206778657505662014-01-11T16:11:00.001-08:002014-01-17T22:05:29.289-08:00Straight Outta Antwerp<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Apartment o1 at <a href="http://www.boulevard-leopold.be/" target="_blank">Boulevard Leopold</a> was like a feature out of the <i>World of Interiors. </i>I almost prayed for some kind of cataclysmic weather event that would keep us trapped there forever. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Those silvery green walls.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That opulent beaded chandelier. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The antlers reaching yearningly from the wall like the outstretched hands in Jean Cocteau's 1946 surrealist fantasy <a href="http://www.criterion.com/films/177-beauty-and-the-beast" target="_blank">La Belle et La Bete. </a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It gripped my heart.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It doesn't matter what your favorite design style is, I promise you if you walk into this room all you will think is, "I'm home."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-urRwJXuv-VM/UszRPdRJK0I/AAAAAAAAVyU/gcECi2EItM0/s1600/DSC_8107.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-urRwJXuv-VM/UszRPdRJK0I/AAAAAAAAVyU/gcECi2EItM0/s1600/DSC_8107.jpg" height="640" width="423" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(All photos by Lisa Borgnes Giramonti.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The apartment's enormous windows looked onto Boulevard Leopold in the heart of the city's old Jewish Quarter. The owner, Martin, has furnished it in keeping with the city's Art Nouveau history. The green blur on the velvet sofa is my son -- he didn't want to leave the room either.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our bedroom had painted murals, another beaded chandelier and more of those magical gray-green walls. The black velvet pillows added decadent punctuation points to the stark whiteness of the bed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Down a little corridor was Luca's bedroom. History Lesson: Old houses in Antwerp were built on different levels, so when residences were joined together, homeowners solved the issue of different floor heights by building these delightful M.C Escher staircases everywhere -- you're continually going up into one room, down into the next. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M5U3wjX1tOE/UszRI7_wQSI/AAAAAAAAVyI/aL_6kjmcuoQ/s1600/DSC_8116.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M5U3wjX1tOE/UszRI7_wQSI/AAAAAAAAVyI/aL_6kjmcuoQ/s1600/DSC_8116.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You can see our bedroom at the top of the stairs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Eventually, we tore ourselves away from the hotel. The oldest part of the city was only about a fifteen minute walk, but it was easy to lose yourself wandering through the narrow cobblestoned side streets. <a href="http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/PAINT-IT-BLACK-lyrics-The-Rolling-Stones/2176F9F5BFC3E5074825689A0027309B" target="_blank">Mick Jagger's design wisdom</a> loomed. "I see a red door and I want it painted black," I kept humming to myself. "No colors anymore I want them to turn to black."</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PzrNu4FAgzE/UszOYqhOB8I/AAAAAAAAVxA/RySNWzX_QAY/s1600/DSC_8193.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PzrNu4FAgzE/UszOYqhOB8I/AAAAAAAAVxA/RySNWzX_QAY/s1600/DSC_8193.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">These 16th century skyscrapers flank the Grote Market and were built by the guild houses of Antwerp. Each building vied to be the most impressive, hence the variation in height and rhythm...and those fabulous golden ornaments on top. <i>"I'm prettier! No, I'm prettier!" </i>(The mother in me: "You're ALL pretty.")</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oFJ5syjMfxc/UszOf4aPY-I/AAAAAAAAVxQ/mzRAP27SbHg/s1600/DSC_8239.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oFJ5syjMfxc/UszOf4aPY-I/AAAAAAAAVxQ/mzRAP27SbHg/s1600/DSC_8239.JPG" height="422" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On the streets, it was wet and cold and the locals' garb conjured up visions of "The French Lieutenant's Woman. " Once inside, however, people would peel off their monastic shrouds to reveal a kaleidoscopic wardrobe worthy of local hero </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dries van Noten</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That's Antwerp to me in a nutshell.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Outside, cold, gray, forbidding.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Inside, a Fabergé egg of splendors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A6ZJ0RxZ4KU/UszPMzs3MgI/AAAAAAAAVxw/P9lLgEtVygU/s1600/DSC_8441.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A6ZJ0RxZ4KU/UszPMzs3MgI/AAAAAAAAVxw/P9lLgEtVygU/s1600/DSC_8441.jpg" height="640" width="468" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once you start to approach the old part of the city, all "straats" lead to the cathedral. It dominates the silhouette entirely. In case you were <a href="http://www.dekathedraal.be/en/geschiedenis.htm" target="_blank">wondering</a>, the tower "points toward God like a finger."</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-abKNCK-m6U4/UszOD-VqLlI/AAAAAAAAVw4/VwdagIyVHwM/s1600/DSC_8227.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-abKNCK-m6U4/UszOD-VqLlI/AAAAAAAAVw4/VwdagIyVHwM/s1600/DSC_8227.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Can 2014 please be the year we bring back big knobby ornamental hardware?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The combination of that elegantly carved wood with those primitive iron studs is titillating--like a duchess dating a blacksmith.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Travel Note: When you travel with two males, it is VITAL that you build in frequent treat stops. <i>This can make or break your vacation.</i> Blood sugar levels must be maintained at a constant level, especially if your wish list includes any shopping. </span><a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/frituur-number-one-antwerpen-2" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Frituur No. 1,</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> considered to have the best french fries in Antwerp, was a hit. Bonus: twenty kinds of ketchup. The curry-flavored one demanded refills.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o_FCur99zPc/UszN9iBgzsI/AAAAAAAAVww/pZ46LW5Xf_g/s1600/DSC_8234.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o_FCur99zPc/UszN9iBgzsI/AAAAAAAAVww/pZ46LW5Xf_g/s1600/DSC_8234.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The male mood restored, we were museum-bound. I figured I had a good two hours before my comrades took a downward turn. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As it turned out, the places we visited -- The <a href="http://www.museumplantinmoretus.be/Museum_PlantinMoretus_EN" target="_blank">Plantin-Moretus</a>, the <a href="http://www.rubenshuis.be/Museum_Rubenshuis_EN" target="_blank">Rubenshuis</a>, former home of Peter Paul Rubens, and the <a href="http://www.museummayervandenbergh.be/Museum_MayerVanDenBergh_EN" target="_blank">Mayer van den Burgh</a> -- earned an enthusiastic two thumbs up from everyone. Luca loved the M. C. Escher staircases, Piero was mesmerized by the kitchens and I loved every square inch of everything.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What's not to love about a room upholstered in leather? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And walls of silk? </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(This is what I mean by Antwerpian interiors feeling like jewel boxes.)</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s05vw5LDAro/UszHXuvxikI/AAAAAAAAVsk/TfdheLltJ_M/s1600/DSC_8329.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s05vw5LDAro/UszHXuvxikI/AAAAAAAAVsk/TfdheLltJ_M/s1600/DSC_8329.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And velvet-curtained four poster beds? </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> I always thought the beds were so short because people were more petite. Turns out that, in Antwerp anyway, people slept sitting up because it was believed much more beneficial for the digestion. </span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LezrCisU5DU/UszAHfwOuyI/AAAAAAAAVoI/sirX1lCtfFI/s1600/DSC_8607.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LezrCisU5DU/UszAHfwOuyI/AAAAAAAAVoI/sirX1lCtfFI/s1600/DSC_8607.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If we're bringing back knobby ornamental doors, then we have to bring back rugs on tables too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-geJv619KCiA/UszHOlOfs_I/AAAAAAAAVsc/XSU-KXcxc7w/s1600/DSC_8374.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-geJv619KCiA/UszHOlOfs_I/AAAAAAAAVsc/XSU-KXcxc7w/s1600/DSC_8374.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If someone asked me for the ingredients of an Antwerpian interior, I would write down these words on a piece of paper and hand it to them:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Leather.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Gilt.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Sensuality.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Brass. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Stone.</i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Darkness</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Velvet.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Warmth.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Mystery.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Glamour.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Incense.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Oil paint.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Red brick.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Candlelight.</i></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6OdMFz67CHk/Usy_sVruUQI/AAAAAAAAVn4/x3dnbfjGov4/s1600/DSC_8590.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6OdMFz67CHk/Usy_sVruUQI/AAAAAAAAVn4/x3dnbfjGov4/s1600/DSC_8590.jpg" height="640" width="500" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My husband Piero was besotted with this stove. His dream is to have a hearth like this in our kitchen one day--which of course is so über practical for our Los Angeles climate.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5TAyPamIZgA/Usy_wAMAP_I/AAAAAAAAVoA/NaOOQiIFUWo/s1600/DSC_8586.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5TAyPamIZgA/Usy_wAMAP_I/AAAAAAAAVoA/NaOOQiIFUWo/s1600/DSC_8586.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P05d3DzYoLg/UszAlhTrFEI/AAAAAAAAVog/O-NJn55lWkY/s1600/DSC_8628.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P05d3DzYoLg/UszAlhTrFEI/AAAAAAAAVog/O-NJn55lWkY/s1600/DSC_8628.JPG" height="478" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At night the hipsters came out to play. </span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VGS_ncW_8Og/UszJqDdYc0I/AAAAAAAAVuY/_Koy1DqeRVk/s1600/DSC_8830.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VGS_ncW_8Og/UszJqDdYc0I/AAAAAAAAVuY/_Koy1DqeRVk/s1600/DSC_8830.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> We walked home through streets glistening with rain...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GVWm0a4y0kw/UszINNf3jSI/AAAAAAAAVtU/1-XtXcZC82s/s1600/DSC_8480.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GVWm0a4y0kw/UszINNf3jSI/AAAAAAAAVtU/1-XtXcZC82s/s1600/DSC_8480.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">...and discovered that our room was even more enchanting by night. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B41FUET-dO4/UszIfgFQYrI/AAAAAAAAVtk/DC_viYe7BBg/s1600/DSC_8490.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B41FUET-dO4/UszIfgFQYrI/AAAAAAAAVtk/DC_viYe7BBg/s1600/DSC_8490.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The next morning, we headed downstairs for breakfast. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Antwerp is moody in the morning. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We ate in a garden room with red-topped tables and wooden</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> settles upholstered in green leather. </span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aDRGQ_F79EY/UszIbK3tv6I/AAAAAAAAVtc/guv0eQq-WmQ/s1600/DSC_8549.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aDRGQ_F79EY/UszIbK3tv6I/AAAAAAAAVtc/guv0eQq-WmQ/s1600/DSC_8549.jpg" height="640" width="430" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Eat, I urged my men. Keep those blood sugar levels steady. Mama wants to do some serious perambulating today. </span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_SqniD1xsl8/UszJCmNHptI/AAAAAAAAVt0/aurz4yIQ1w4/s1600/DSC_8554.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_SqniD1xsl8/UszJCmNHptI/AAAAAAAAVt0/aurz4yIQ1w4/s1600/DSC_8554.jpg" height="640" width="464" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While they ate, I took photos of Flemish leather-bound books, preserved butterflies, r</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">eligious iconography...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8N1FBmJ0Fp8/UszIph18LFI/AAAAAAAAVts/YWiJHdnnzAU/s1600/DSC_8553.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8N1FBmJ0Fp8/UszIph18LFI/AAAAAAAAVts/YWiJHdnnzAU/s1600/DSC_8553.jpg" height="640" width="476" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">...and curiosities under glass. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You know, the things one normally take photos of.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6xbY00WcmMI/UszJIuA6zZI/AAAAAAAAVt8/bQiIVVBkDqg/s1600/DSC_8559.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6xbY00WcmMI/UszJIuA6zZI/AAAAAAAAVt8/bQiIVVBkDqg/s1600/DSC_8559.jpg" height="640" width="434" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here's Martin. He owns this incredible joint. He shyly told me that Mario Testino had shot a fashion shoot there recently (in our very hotel room no less). Well, of course he did, Martin! Your table tableaux alone are enough to merit a magazine cover.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Honestly, is there anything sexier than a dark morning? They're so strangely creative. </span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5KNPzumlMqk/UszByle8weI/AAAAAAAAVpM/d6NFmxWTQ_M/s1600/DSC_8564.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5KNPzumlMqk/UszByle8weI/AAAAAAAAVpM/d6NFmxWTQ_M/s1600/DSC_8564.JPG" height="422" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The most sunlight we saw the entire time we were there was at the <a href="http://www.dekathedraal.be/en/" target="_blank">Cathedral of Our Lady</a>. Somehow, the exterior gloom, when filtered through those glorious Gothic windows, transformed itself to heavenly light inside. </span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B7a-ytkweSI/UszGKqB3MJI/AAAAAAAAVsE/0nwLHpiA8WA/s1600/DSC_8741.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B7a-ytkweSI/UszGKqB3MJI/AAAAAAAAVsE/0nwLHpiA8WA/s1600/DSC_8741.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If we're bringing back knobby ornamental doors and rugs on tables, can we also bring back dusky medieval jewel tones like brown sapphire, smoky topaz, ruby and carnelian?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After the cathedral, we made a quick fuel stop at La Confiserie Burie, one of the countless candy stores that appear at least once on every block in Antwerp. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once purchased, this hapless little frog prince didn't stand a chance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If you go to Antwerp, be sure to take a walk along the river Scheldt. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A few minutes walk from the Scheldt is the most important new museum in Antwerp right now, the <a href="http://www.redstarline.be/en" target="_blank">Red Star Line Museum</a>. (It opened in September 2013.) The R</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ed Star Line was the sister company of the White Star Line, owner of the ill-fated Titanic. If you wanted to emigrate to America or Canada in the last 2oo years and you didn't leave through Southampton, your trip started in a warehouse in Antwerp.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uL3_VY-rlGE/UszC-nw9ihI/AAAAAAAAVqI/VYLxisGnEmo/s1600/DSC_8798.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uL3_VY-rlGE/UszC-nw9ihI/AAAAAAAAVqI/VYLxisGnEmo/s1600/DSC_8798.JPG" height="422" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Below is a vignette of a first class passenger's experience--not all people experienced a privileged crossing like this. In the museum, we passed through former showers, interrogation rooms and medical inspection areas. If you made it across the ocean and the Ellis Island inspectors deemed you unfit (lice, a stubborn cough, etc.), they sent you back to Antwerp at the Red Star Line's expense. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was haunting, it was inspiring, and I highly, highly recommend you visit it if you ever can. </span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-n9wKAfpjYgg/UszCzTOcR-I/AAAAAAAAVp4/HDEfoiJTYCs/s1600/DSC_8782.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-n9wKAfpjYgg/UszCzTOcR-I/AAAAAAAAVp4/HDEfoiJTYCs/s1600/DSC_8782.JPG" height="422" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And that was it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our two days and nights went by in a flash.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When we arrived at Antwerpen-Centraal to catch a train to Brussels where we would transfer to the Eurostar, workers were setting up this gigantic purple slide. If only our train had left thirty minutes later! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Next stop: London.</span></div>
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Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-78525971832215804482014-01-08T18:32:00.000-08:002014-01-08T19:14:35.144-08:00Preview: Land of Dries, Diamonds and Darkness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I spent a bit of time in Antwerp over the holidays. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was like falling into a Hilary Mantel novel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was cold.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was foggy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was wet.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-USFPPnBe7H8/Us4C84LiezI/AAAAAAAAVzE/R0jFlMKnBp4/s1600/antwerp1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-USFPPnBe7H8/Us4C84LiezI/AAAAAAAAVzE/R0jFlMKnBp4/s1600/antwerp1.JPG" height="640" width="496" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(All photos by LBG.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was velvet.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was brass.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was leather.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was meat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was marzipan.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was potatoes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was decadence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was depravity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was Dries Van Noten.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lqbtax9ebBI/Us4TijoVK1I/AAAAAAAAV0U/7mh9UalRJEo/s1600/dries.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lqbtax9ebBI/Us4TijoVK1I/AAAAAAAAV0U/7mh9UalRJEo/s1600/dries.jpg" height="640" width="504" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And it was darkness.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QUBNufCOuPw/Us4FZ39TO3I/AAAAAAAAVzQ/eW-VActrJuE/s1600/Photo-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QUBNufCOuPw/Us4FZ39TO3I/AAAAAAAAVzQ/eW-VActrJuE/s1600/Photo-1.jpg" height="428" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm working on a post about it now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But I wanted to check in with everyone and wish you a Happy New Year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">More soon,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">x/Lisa</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Heads up...I caught the Antwerpian design bug and I caught it bad.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rILmSNSiTNw/Us4P5y0hPNI/AAAAAAAAV0I/BKFpkU4omvo/s1600/Photodfh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rILmSNSiTNw/Us4P5y0hPNI/AAAAAAAAV0I/BKFpkU4omvo/s1600/Photodfh.jpg" height="484" width="640" /></a></div>
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(Back in Los Angeles.)</div>
</span>Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-74547244084123540322013-12-16T09:59:00.003-08:002013-12-17T09:31:31.088-08:00Holiday Books 2013: Let's Do This Thing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Here you go.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My top ten most stylish books of 2013. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">All picked </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif;">with you and the people on your holiday list in mind.</span><br />
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And all still deliverable by Christmas if you act promptly.</div>
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x/Lisa<br />
<span style="background-color: #93c47d; font-family: Didot; font-size: 18pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #93c47d; font-family: Didot; font-size: 18pt;">1. EAVESDROP ON THE CENTURY’S </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Didot; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="background-color: #93c47d;">MOST FASCINATING AND ENIGMATIC ARTIST.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A few facts about Lucien Freud:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">He loved paint and sex and Earl Grey tea. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">He was ruthless and destructive and utterly charming.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">He guarded his private life so jealously that he stopped two biographies from being published during his lifetime (the latter incident involved East End gangsters).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Well, now it's all here in intimate eye-popping detail. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Over the last ten years of Freud's life, journalist Geordie Greig had breakfast with him regularly and Freud gradually opened up to him, allowing him to tape their conversations, interview his friends and family, and gain intimate access to all facets of his life. The result is a warts-and-all glimpse at a man who until the very end of his life kept everyone guessing.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MbIKIPwcDz8/Uq4z0PxGI4I/AAAAAAAAVhE/PFRy0H3yWwQ/s1600/Photo1+9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MbIKIPwcDz8/Uq4z0PxGI4I/AAAAAAAAVhE/PFRy0H3yWwQ/s640/Photo1+9.jpg" width="496" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Available <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Breakfast-Lucian-Astounding-Outrageous-Britains/dp/0374116482/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387215469&sr=1-1&keywords=breakfast+with+lucian" target="_blank">HERE</a>.) </span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EM2K2dSPIxo/Uq3KDAujXeI/AAAAAAAAVXs/4lkbe-Kdl_k/s1600/photo+3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EM2K2dSPIxo/Uq3KDAujXeI/AAAAAAAAVXs/4lkbe-Kdl_k/s640/photo+3.JPG" width="432" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Lucian with daughter Bella, 1985. Photo by Bruce Bernard.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Didot; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="background-color: #ea9999;">2. TIPTOE THROUGH</span></span><span style="background-color: #ea9999; font-family: Didot; font-size: 18pt;"> AN ENCHANTED NEW YORK REALM…</span><span style="background-color: #ea9999; font-family: Didot; font-size: 18pt;">AND COLLECT COUNTLESS PRACTICAL </span><span style="background-color: #ea9999; font-family: Didot; font-size: 18pt;">DESIGN
TIPS ALONG THE WAY.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What makes this book so effervescently magical is not just the apartment with all of its swoon-worthy luxury but the personal warmth of the owner and author, Howard Slatkin. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In cheerful down-to-earth prose, he welcomes you into his home as if you were a dear friend and, room by room, reveals all the little details that can help transform an ordinary room into a cozy sanctuary. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Admittedly, not many people have the resources to create a palace like his, but as Howard points out, it's not how much an object costs, it's about how it fits into your life. Every page is filled with tips and ideas to increase the comfort and style of your home, whether it be exalted or humble. Among my favorites is </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">knowing that a thirty-inch-high coffee table is the perfect height for serving meals and playing board games -- Howard, I'm getting right on that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fji_OZP21Sg/UqybsdvR1tI/AAAAAAAAVVE/39Tr6fNtJeM/s1600/FifthAvenue_jacket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fji_OZP21Sg/UqybsdvR1tI/AAAAAAAAVVE/39Tr6fNtJeM/s640/FifthAvenue_jacket.jpg" width="531" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Available <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Avenue-Style-Designers-Apartment/dp/0865652899/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387215502&sr=1-1&keywords=fifth+avenue+style" target="_blank">HERE</a>.) </span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z9-JnCKsfj0/Uq3UTNqKlEI/AAAAAAAAVYI/QsIJox4Imxo/s1600/photo+6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z9-JnCKsfj0/Uq3UTNqKlEI/AAAAAAAAVYI/QsIJox4Imxo/s640/photo+6.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ULQSRdILzDQ/Uq3UUqxax1I/AAAAAAAAVYU/Vz07PgJ4X3w/s1600/photo+7.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ULQSRdILzDQ/Uq3UUqxax1I/AAAAAAAAVYU/Vz07PgJ4X3w/s640/photo+7.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(How genius is the miniature theater curtain on that painting?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Didot; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="background-color: #93c47d;">3. PEEK INSIDE THE SANCTUM SANCTORUMS OF THE WORLDS MOST PRIVATE DESIGNERS.</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ivan shot my upcoming design book so I have an extra-special fondness for everything he does. This book, an exclusive collection of photo essays shot over the past twenty years, grants the reader access into the intimate worlds of fashion designers and shows you how they really live--soulfully, poetically, and surrounded by inspiration. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Maxime de la Falaise's New York apartment is a riot of color and coziness. Nicole Farhi's London garden is a portrait in shaggy chic. Coco Chanel's Paris home (yes, he went there!) is fifty shades of beige and a million kinds of elegant. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">From the décor to the works of art to the fascinating personal collections of these designers, t</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">hese aren't just photographs, they're visual explorations in living authentically.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As Ivan says, " </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">I have tried to capture the spirit of the homes of these great fashion designers because</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"> first of all they are true artists and as such whatever they touch</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">, they do it with all their heart and skill. </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">Their homes are where they find inspiration, nourish their creativity,</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"> nurse their doubts. It is the less public face of their world, </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">it speaks eloquently of who they are when alone." </span></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pFXCPp3sx_k/Uq3xu5pKC8I/AAAAAAAAVdM/tsWs26prEkg/s1600/Photo2-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pFXCPp3sx_k/Uq3xu5pKC8I/AAAAAAAAVdM/tsWs26prEkg/s640/Photo2-1.jpg" width="514" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Available <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Chic-Great-Fashion-Designers/dp/0865652872/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387215533&sr=1-1&keywords=beyond+chic+great+fashion+designers+at+home" target="_blank">HERE</a>.) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Manolo Blahnik's home in Bath, England.)</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_dhggNusn7s/Uq4tkWrXq8I/AAAAAAAAVgI/gmotGDfMaqc/s1600/Photo1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_dhggNusn7s/Uq4tkWrXq8I/AAAAAAAAVgI/gmotGDfMaqc/s640/Photo1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Maxime de la Falaise's apartment in New York.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Nicole Farhi's London home.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Didot; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="background-color: #ea9999;">4. TAKE REFUGE IN THE FAVORITE SPACES OF BRITISH LUMINARIES (AND ENJOY BENEDICT
CUMBERBATCH GAZING AT YOU FROM THE COVER).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Derry Moore (a.k.a The Earl of Drogheda) has photographed some of England's most beloved celebrities in their favorite spaces, and the result is a fascinating testament to essence of the English room. In introductory essays, each subject explains their particular spot: for Jeannette Winterson, it's the magical history of Paris' legendary Shakespeare and Company bookshop. For Alan Bennett, it's the rumpled coziness of his flat in Primrose Hill. And for Benedict Cumberbatch, it's the library at the members-only Garrick Club where his father used to take him as a little boy. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Editor's Note:</i> Check out Derry Moore's earlier series on English rooms (</span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Englishman's Room, The Englishwoman's Room </i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and others) available at used bookstores and online sites like Alibris. I have them all and still refer to them all the time. From Diana Cooper's bedroom in Little Venice to Dirk Bogarde's living room in Provence, they're an enduring paean to the distinctive qualities of an English room. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TxAJnWM03ds/Uq3xwdt_BNI/AAAAAAAAVdY/9mtrPb42-Jk/s1600/Photo1-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TxAJnWM03ds/Uq3xwdt_BNI/AAAAAAAAVdY/9mtrPb42-Jk/s640/Photo1-3.jpg" width="480" /></a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Available <a href="http://www.amazon.com/English-Room-Derry-Moore/dp/3791347292/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387215563&sr=1-1&keywords=an+english+room" target="_blank">HERE</a>.)</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gdytlTKLSwg/Uq4yZwyhMTI/AAAAAAAAVgg/FqOsSMkB9KQ/s1600/Photo1+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gdytlTKLSwg/Uq4yZwyhMTI/AAAAAAAAVgg/FqOsSMkB9KQ/s640/Photo1+5.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Tino Zervudachi's vacation home in Hydra.)</span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Jeannette Winterson's pick, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shakespeare and Company, Paris.)</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ExQOT38IQrE/Uq4zMqc1ZpI/AAAAAAAAVg4/mZgL8-YgfEw/s1600/Photo1+8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ExQOT38IQrE/Uq4zMqc1ZpI/AAAAAAAAVg4/mZgL8-YgfEw/s640/Photo1+8.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Cressida Bell's kitchen.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #93c47d; font-family: Didot; font-size: 24px;">5. CHANNEL COOLNESS.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>"My childhood is streets upon streets upon streets upon streets. Streets to define you and streets to confine you, with no sign of motorway, freeway or highway. Somewhere beyond hides the treat of the countryside, for hour-less days when rains and reins lift, permitting us to be among people who live surrounded by space and are irked by our faces."</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And so it begins. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Wave upon wave of lyricism, hurtling you past a dreary childhood into the glittering heights and depths of </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">rock stardom and beyond. Morrissey is devastatingly eloquent. His prose burns itself into your brain and smolders there. Whether you're a fan or not, this book is a stunner: it's a soul-baring look into a poetic man in a world that (to him) is devoid of poetry.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c4ChfpjQxqA/Uq31nqSvDdI/AAAAAAAAVe4/j5NVnyP4Xjw/s1600/Photo1+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c4ChfpjQxqA/Uq31nqSvDdI/AAAAAAAAVe4/j5NVnyP4Xjw/s640/Photo1+6.jpg" width="496" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(US version available <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Morrissey/dp/0399171541/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387215588&sr=1-1&keywords=morrissey+autobiography" target="_blank">HERE</a>. More explicit UK version available <a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Autobiography-Morrissey/9780141394817" target="_blank">HERE</a>.) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Didot; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="background-color: #ea9999;">6. SEE IRELAND FOR LESS THAN LAST YEAR. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This celebrated book has been on my wish list for a while, so when it was re-published a few months ago in a smaller softcover format, I jumped at it. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Lovingly photographed by Simon Brown, these farmhouses, manors and grand estates are fertile ground for design inspiration</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. A dark red room pulses with warmth despite the gray winter sun. Tattered rugs and peeling wallpaper radiate a delicious shabby elegance. In this land, beauty doesn't fade with age, it intensifies...and if that's your primary takeaway from the book, I consider that more than enough.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QB9BWEcjpjg/Uq3nmTQ9mZI/AAAAAAAAVcc/2wB_JR_f67o/s1600/Photo1+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QB9BWEcjpjg/Uq3nmTQ9mZI/AAAAAAAAVcc/2wB_JR_f67o/s640/Photo1+4.jpg" width="508" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Available <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Romantic-Irish-Homes-Robert-OByrne/dp/1908862904/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387215666&sr=1-1&keywords=romantic+irish+homes" target="_blank">HERE</a>.) </span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PclsxgZ62Uo/Uq3fAVNA9AI/AAAAAAAAVY8/ToV1fbn5TRA/s1600/photo+11.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PclsxgZ62Uo/Uq3fAVNA9AI/AAAAAAAAVY8/ToV1fbn5TRA/s640/photo+11.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Didot; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="background-color: #93c47d;">7. TRANSFORM YOUR HOME INTO A PLACE YOU LOVE THAT FITS THE WAY YOU LIVE.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Remodelista.com is one of my favorite design blogs and this handbook is filled with all the genius tips, how-to's and suggestions that I've come to treasure from them. In the opening pages, Julie Carlson and her team lay out their "Ten Rules to Live By" manifesto and then take the reader on a detailed tour of twelve very different houses that each embrace their pared-down aesthetic. (The chapter on building the ultimate IKEA kitchen is a revelation. Just saying.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is a book that really trains your eye to notice what works, what doesn't and why.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Their obsession with details pays off big-time for the reader: I love their suggestion of using painters tape and see-through plastic covers to create a cool informal art display on a wall. And their "Remodelista 100", a list of their all-time favorite objects, should become the gold standard for every wedding registry.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l_kzeT6Qb84/Uq3e_Fs-MUI/AAAAAAAAVY0/atHOy5W-mIw/s1600/photo+12.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l_kzeT6Qb84/Uq3e_Fs-MUI/AAAAAAAAVY0/atHOy5W-mIw/s640/photo+12.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Available <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Remodelista-Julie-Carlson/dp/157965536X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387215697&sr=1-1&keywords=remodelista" target="_blank">HERE</a>.) </span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nVfwmx-jPsw/Uq3fKJ7h7yI/AAAAAAAAVZg/fQ5nPPNtDdk/s1600/photo+14.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nVfwmx-jPsw/Uq3fKJ7h7yI/AAAAAAAAVZg/fQ5nPPNtDdk/s640/photo+14.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #ea9999; font-family: Didot; font-size: 24px;">8. IMMERSE YOURSELF IN A DEFINITIVE PRIMER ON CLASSIC STYLE. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Jennifer Boles, the wunderkind behind the blog <a href="http://thepeakofchic.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Peak of Chic</a>, has exhaustively researched the vintage rooms of legendary decorators to give us 100 of the leading design essentials behind classic style. I love the way this book is laid out in dictionary format, making it brilliantly simple to find everything at once. What you immediately realize is that these objects and details have endured for very good reasons: </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Painted ceilings can add as much life to a room as a sunny sky. Sisal matting takes the edge off a room that's in danger of becoming too precious. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Slipper chairs are the chairs that keep on giving--they add extra seating in a pinch and take up very little room. And as for the entry on "Evening Rooms", a civilized space designed to soothe nerves after a long day out in the world's glare, well, it'll make you want to create one in your own house ASAP.</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YM28PDNZiC4/Uq3fMVDNOpI/AAAAAAAAVZs/B-v_kELOidQ/s1600/photo+17.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YM28PDNZiC4/Uq3fMVDNOpI/AAAAAAAAVZs/B-v_kELOidQ/s640/photo+17.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Available <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Old-Classic-Decor-Z/dp/038534516X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387215443&sr=1-1&keywords=in+with+the+old" target="_blank">HERE</a>.) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Didot; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="background-color: #93c47d;">9. INTRODUCE A CHILD TO GRAPHIC DESIGN.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Cult book designer Chip Kidd (you've seen his <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC0KxNeLp1E" target="_blank">TED talk</a>, haven't you?) has written an utterly charming guide for children on the basic principles of graphic design. Form, color, use of white space, and why type fonts matter, plus lots of fun projects like designing your own logo -- it's all there. My friend bought it for her 11-year-old son and he insisted on bringing it in the car to read on the way to school. My son wants to read it too and he will -- as soon as he's able to pry it out of my hands (I'm almost done).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Available <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Go-Kidds-Guide-Graphic-Design/dp/076117219X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387215728&sr=1-1&keywords=go+a+kidd%27s+guide+to+graphic+design" target="_blank">HERE</a>.) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Didot; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="background-color: #ea9999;">10. GIVE YOUR IMAGINATION A WAKE-UP CALL. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Originally published 65 years ago, "Exercises in Style" has been blowing people's minds ever since. Ostensibly an ode to creativity, the book's premise is breathtakingly simple: author Raymond Queneau takes an anecdote of the utmost banality and proceeds to tell it in ninety-nine different ways. </span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vKmZo8mNLQg/Uq3nPoFw6QI/AAAAAAAAVcU/Ji0GaYMGQ98/s1600/Photo1+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vKmZo8mNLQg/Uq3nPoFw6QI/AAAAAAAAVcU/Ji0GaYMGQ98/s640/Photo1+3.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="452" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Available <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Exercises-Style-New-Directions-Books/dp/0811220354/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387215755&sr=1-1&keywords=exercises+in+style+raymond+queneau" target="_blank">HERE</a>.) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here's the original anecdote (most of it anyway):</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And here are just a few variations:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Crazy amazing, right? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Buy it for anyone who's ever said, "I'm plumb out of ideas."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Or "There's no other way to do it."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Or "I have writer's blah."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Which includes me, by the way.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This special anniversary edition </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">includes homages by contemporary authors like Jonathan Leshem, Lynn Tillman and others.</span></div>
Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-85677715132366203532013-11-18T09:06:00.001-08:002013-11-18T09:06:23.905-08:00Buckling Down<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">("Young Woman Writing," Pierre Bonnard, 1908.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left;">I haven't spoken about it much, but I'm nearing another big deadline for my book and after going over all the chapter revisions that need to be done and </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left;">counting out </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left;">every hour that remains between now and the morning I have to email it to my editor, I have to admit it's going to be an incredibly pressure-filled race to the finish! And although I would hate to think the dark hollows underneath my eyes have taken up permanent residency, at the moment they provide an excellent explanation for anyone who asks me what I've been doing lately.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You have always been most gracious in understanding when I have to take a small step back from ABL, and this is another one of those times. I have to shut out the world and go inward now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and promise to return refreshed and with plenty of exciting December posts...including my Holiday Book List (which is especially fabulous this year).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">x/Lisa</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(And just out of curiosity...does anyone have a favorite under-eye concealer?)</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-43659311107649013072013-11-11T14:39:00.000-08:002013-11-11T16:27:48.681-08:00Hogarth and the Art of Messy Chic<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">William Hogarth (1697-1764) understood what it meant to really inhabit a room. In his paintings, he shows ordinary people enjoying their personal spaces in a manner that can only be described as -- shall we say -- "soulful." Beds are left unmade, chairs are toppled on their sides, tablecloths are wine-bespattered, and there's usually at least one person so brutally hungover they can barely sit up straight. This is the world of Daniel Defoe's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Moll-Flanders-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0192805355/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384203282&sr=8-1&keywords=moll+flanders+oxford+world%27s+classics" target="_blank">Moll Flanders</a>, Lawrence Sterne's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Opinions-Tristram-Shandy-Gentleman-Editions/dp/048645648X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384203318&sr=1-2&keywords=tristram+shandy" target="_blank">Tristram Shandy</a> and Tobias Smollett's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Humphry-Clinker-Penguin-Classics-Smollett/dp/0141441429/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384203369&sr=1-2&keywords=humphrey+clinker" target="_blank">Humphrey Clinke</a>r -- unbridled, sensuous and flagrantly alive.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I love it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is what rooms are for, people. For <i>living in.</i> Leafing through design magazines it's easy to get the impression that a house should be perfect. But trying to be perfect is a losing proposition because there's no endpoint -- you'll never reach it. (I speak as an ex-perfectionist.) </span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dqk5d6HikLs/Un_09jGhRgI/AAAAAAAAVME/tdFjw5Ea8b8/s1600/998px-HogarthMarriage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="492" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dqk5d6HikLs/Un_09jGhRgI/AAAAAAAAVME/tdFjw5Ea8b8/s640/998px-HogarthMarriage.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">("Marriage a la Mode: The Tete a Tete", 1743)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In a Hogarth painting, tables aren't for sitting primly at--they're for leaning on, eating on, gambling on, putting feet on and sometimes drooling on. They may be spread with white tablecloths, but they're usually stained. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Chairs are for perching on sideways, scooching across the room, or teetering backwards on so no one else can see your cards. Okay, maybe his characters push the line a little, but erring on the side of messiness is better than living in a room that doesn't accommodate any degree of personal freedom, don't you find?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A perfect room intimidates. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It foists an unspoken question upon the visitor: "Can you live up to me?" I actually know of a home where nothing but clear-colored drinks are served. Perhaps it works for the people who live there, but I feel strongly that our personal spaces should be a judgment-free refuge, and if there's no room allowed for human error -- or comfort, for that matter -- I think I would unlock the front door every night with a heavy heart. </span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QZKXAyC3nNE/Un_1DReNoqI/AAAAAAAAVM8/irHmMzGyY8M/s1600/hw085ch-william-hogarth_marriage-contract.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="488" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QZKXAyC3nNE/Un_1DReNoqI/AAAAAAAAVM8/irHmMzGyY8M/s640/hw085ch-william-hogarth_marriage-contract.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">("Marriage a la Mode: The Settlement", 1743)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A home should be lived in, not worshipped. So the floors get scuffed. So the furniture gets worn. So the tables get scratched. So what? </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Why do you think chefs reach for their favorite seasoned cast-iron pan and not a new teflon one when they want to cook something that's got their heart and soul in it? That's right -- because the cast-iron one is a repository of all the love that's been inside it. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Your house is no different.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So make it interesting.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Make it creative.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Make it loud.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Make it convivial and filled with laughter and ideas and crazy plans and dream projects and anything else that gets your heart pounding faster.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And for Hogarth's sake, make it messy.</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PQr1sTUQfRk/UoEWL9_6AxI/AAAAAAAAVUE/Mvtdbv8pNk0/s1600/scene-in-a-tavern-1735.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="526" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PQr1sTUQfRk/UoEWL9_6AxI/AAAAAAAAVUE/Mvtdbv8pNk0/s640/scene-in-a-tavern-1735.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">("The Orgy", 1735)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Editor's Note:</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Stare at one of Hogarth's paintings long enough and you can practically HEAR it -- a polyglot cacophony of laughter, grunts and high-pitched squeals. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you want to hear the way I think the above painting would sound if it came to life, click </span><a href="http://www.sounddogs.com/previews/2156/mp3/121134_SOUNDDOGS__cr.mp3" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">HERE</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.</span><br />
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Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6117194181116669144.post-81413342454457035792013-11-04T07:44:00.000-08:002013-11-12T09:32:22.574-08:00Question: When Is a House More Than a House?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Answer: </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When it's also an art project, a collaborative labor of love and a 3-D ode to enchantment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Welcome to Acorn Manor. Could it be called anything else?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'd been hearing about it for months. My friend Vanessa Leigh Price had been hired to decorate the home of an LA musician, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">and every time I ran into her, she would drop another </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">beguiling nugget.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>"Did I tell you the house was built in 1910 and is shaped like an acorn?"</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>"We're ordering a cream Aga." </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>"We're doing one of the bathrooms based on a photo you posted on your blog of the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace." (Wow, really?!)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My invitation to see Acorn Manor arrived last week and I </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">am extremely honored to be the first one to show it to you. It's a house with great personal warmth, the kind of place that makes everyone who enters it feel immediately at home. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ready? Let's go.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K2kPga27IQ4/UnDRt8L5_UI/AAAAAAAAVKo/U_PQCcbKdHg/s1600/DSC_7768.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K2kPga27IQ4/UnDRt8L5_UI/AAAAAAAAVKo/U_PQCcbKdHg/s640/DSC_7768.jpg" width="472" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left;">(Stained glass windows hint at the decorative story that lies within.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left;">Do you mind if we head straight to the kitchen first? I want to do a quick genuflection in front of the Aga. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I love the dramatic paint colors in this room. And how about that leggy teal chair? It's such a great visual counterpoint to the monumental heft of the stove.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R37HZUh0bUg/UnDQQQKteoI/AAAAAAAAVJk/ubceJHTOF90/s1600/DSC_7408.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R37HZUh0bUg/UnDQQQKteoI/AAAAAAAAVJk/ubceJHTOF90/s640/DSC_7408.jpg" width="446" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left;"><i>Interesting Fact</i>: Vanessa and the owner were so intent on having every detail in the house convey the historic sensibility of Acorn Manor that even the <i>names of paint colors </i>were<i> </i>taken into account. Case in point: The kitchen walls above are painted in </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Churchill Hotel Ecru and Lincoln Cottage Black from </span><a href="http://www.valsparpaint.com/en/explore-colors/find-ideas/national-trust-historic-colors/georgian.html" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Valspar's National Trust Collectio</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.valsparpaint.com/en/explore-colors/find-ideas/national-trust-historic-colors/georgian.html" target="_blank">n</a>. (See, that's what I mean about it being an art project.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Cheeky Detail That You Would Never Know Unless I Told You: </i>What color do you think they painted the food pantry? What else but Farrow and Ball's "<a href="http://us.farrow-ball.com/arsenic/colours/farrow-ball/fcp-product/100214" target="_blank">Arsenic</a>"?</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7kdP9stas6E/UnDQmQT969I/AAAAAAAAVKE/qqP8clgcViQ/s1600/DSC_7751.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7kdP9stas6E/UnDQmQT969I/AAAAAAAAVKE/qqP8clgcViQ/s640/DSC_7751.jpg" width="446" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The cool autumn light creeping in bounces off those mini subway tiles in the most enticing manner. (Vanessa found them at <a href="http://www.lowes.com/" target="_blank">Lowes</a> -- I love when something cool doesn't cost a fortune.) And what's better than dark gray grout? I'll tell you. Nothing.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TJAhao4ehJ4/UnDRod0dbeI/AAAAAAAAVKU/I7y3K3FvDC4/s1600/DSC_7401.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TJAhao4ehJ4/UnDRod0dbeI/AAAAAAAAVKU/I7y3K3FvDC4/s640/DSC_7401.jpg" width="496" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Fancy a cup of tea? There's some mugs on the top shelf of the butler's pantry. The cabinet interiors are painted in Farrow and Ball's <a href="http://us.farrow-ball.com/hague-blue/colours/farrow-ball/fcp-product/100030" target="_blank">Hague Blue</a> -- grand, right? -- and Vanessa had the wood doors sanded and stained to their original color. There's a coziness to this room that makes me want to sit down with a cookbook and lose all track of time.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hF4Im589oY4/UnDRnU25RNI/AAAAAAAAVKQ/izDjFQozd2s/s1600/DSC_7389.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hF4Im589oY4/UnDRnU25RNI/AAAAAAAAVKQ/izDjFQozd2s/s640/DSC_7389.jpg" width="460" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is the "Pub Bathroom." Did I mention that every room in the house has a name? The <a href="http://ww.timorousbeasties.com/" target="_blank">Timorous Beasties </a>wallpaper, antique brass details and red boudoir curtains have a sexy decadence perfectly in keeping with late nights. All it needs is an antique dartboard on the wall. </span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-E-jEmJECOzM/UnDQYG2i0fI/AAAAAAAAVJs/beBgNYYi6Is/s1600/DSC_7450.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-E-jEmJECOzM/UnDQYG2i0fI/AAAAAAAAVJs/beBgNYYi6Is/s640/DSC_7450.jpg" width="422" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-align: center;">Down the hall is the "Rebel Room", so called because of its remote location and because upon moving in, the owner discovered an old peeled Bacardi sticker on the door mirror -- a memento from a former teenage tenant, perhaps? (Side note: The sticker's considered part of history and is still there.) </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There's a creative calm to this room that whispers, "No hurry. The idea will arrive when it's meant to arrive."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Creative gods Marcel Duchamp and David Bowie offer inspiration from on high.)</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here we are in the Great Room. The warm hues of that antique rug inform every piece of furniture around it. And look at the light. This is a house that accommodates all weather. How wonderful to be inside this room on a rainy day --</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> can't you see yourself on that window seat, stack of books at your feet, music going, logs crackling on the fire?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Decorative Details</i>: The red chair is from <a href="http://www.obsoleteinc.com/" target="_blank">Obsolete</a>, the fringed lamp is from <a href="http://rayferra.com/company.htm" target="_blank">Ray Ferra's</a>, and the poufs are from <a href="http://www.nickeykehoe.com/" target="_blank">Nicky Kehoe</a>.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vCSusTGgJt4/UnDPv_DC3aI/AAAAAAAAVJU/qbXLTVxt6yU/s1600/_DSC0627.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vCSusTGgJt4/UnDPv_DC3aI/AAAAAAAAVJU/qbXLTVxt6yU/s640/_DSC0627.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Photo by Olga Roth.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If I had to name the style of this house, I think I'd call it "Domestic Libertine."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Come upstairs for a minute. I want to show you the "Stable Bathroom." I'm <i>extremely</i> chuffed that the design is based on one of my photos. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Royal Mews. Photo by LBG, 2011.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And here's the bathroom. Note the same green tiles, the same dark panelling (Farrow and Ball's <a href="http://us.farrow-ball.com/black-blue/colours/farrow-ball/fcp-product/100095" target="_blank">Blue Black</a>), and the same cream walls. Vanessa and the owner even carried the pop of red on the bottom of the stable post over into the bath mat!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Photo by Olga Roth.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Stroke of genius: Vanessa found the brass towel rack at an equestrian shop -- it's made for hanging horse blankets.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aWWyRFPN1TU/UnDOX0H71NI/AAAAAAAAVIc/843X_JNN3CY/s1600/_DSC0502.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aWWyRFPN1TU/UnDOX0H71NI/AAAAAAAAVIc/843X_JNN3CY/s640/_DSC0502.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Photo by Olga Roth.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Look at this bathroom, would you? It's been dubbed "The Oval Office" because it sits directly off a large oval sitting room. Those tiles. That tub. That green pendant lamp. It has an Old World sensibility to it that conjures up a country estate in the Cotswolds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Have you noticed the running theme of red and blue and green throughout the house? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I find that interesting because red, blue and green were popular colors with eighteenth century artists like Thomas Rowlandson, James Gillray and Isaac Cruikshank --it adds another layer of meaning to the owner's passion for historic accuracy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shall we step outside for a moment? Yes, that would be a vineyard.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now you're in a separate studio called "The Lodge." </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is obviously where the magic happens.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Upstairs is another creative refuge especially designed for audio odysseys and mental wanderings. Soundproof velvet curtains add a layer of intimacy and keep the neighbors at bay. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Admittance to The Lodge is strictly by invitation only.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To contact Vanessa Leigh Price, you can email her at excelsior watts.com. Or just click <a href="http://excelsiorwatts.com/" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</span></div>
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Lisa Borgnes Giramontihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08708026781435832810noreply@blogger.com0