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FLORIDA: 2818 Center Port Circle Pompano Beach, FL 33064 • P 954.735.8223 18288 Collins Avenue, Sunny Isles Beach, FL 33160 • P 305.974.0161 • FL State Licensed Designer #000407 Winter 2015
South Florida OPULENCE
5
Never Stop
Giving BaptistHealth.net/Foundation
Give the gift of caring. At Baptist Health South Florida, we’re relentlessly committed to transforming the future of healthcare for thousands of patients and families in our community — all so that you never have to stop living life to the fullest. Get involved and find out how your donation makes a difference at BaptistHealth.net/Foundation. Together, we’re unstoppable.
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BEACH I MARINA I TENNIS I GOLF I RESTAURANTS & BEACH CLUB I SPA & FITNESS CENTER BOUTIQUE HOTEL I DAY SCHOOL I COUNTRY MARKET I FERRY SERVICE TO & FROM THE MAINLAND ORAL REPRESENTATIONS CANNOT BE RELIED UPON AS CORRECTLY STATING REPRESENTATIONS OF THE DEVELOPER. FOR CORRECT REPRESENTATIONS, MAKE REFERENCE TO THE DOCUMENTS REQUIRED BY SECTION 718.503, FLORIDA STATUTES, TO BE FURNISHED BY A DEVELOPER TO A BUYER OR LESSEE. All artist’s or architectural renderings, sketches, graphic materials and photos depicted or otherwise described herein are proposed and conceptual only, and are based upon preliminary development plans, which are subject to change. This is not an offering in any state in which registration is required but in which registration requirements have not yet been met. This advertisement is not an offering. It is a solicitation of interest in the advertised property. No offering of the advertised units can be made and no deposits can be accepted, or reservations, binding or non-binding, can be made in New York until an offering plan is filed with the New York State Department of Law.
Introducing Palazzo del Sol. 47 new waterfront condominium residences on celebrated Fisher Island. A haven of privacy and exclusivity, minutes from South Beach and the cultural attractions of Miami, with superbly curated building amenities and 6-star white-glove services.
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SOUTH FLORIDA
40
T o p F E AT U R E S 69 How to Basel
A guide to must-see exhibits at the 2014 Edition of Art Basel Miami Beach
64 Conserving Uffizi with a Contessa’s Touch An exclusive interview with the President of the Friends of Uffizi in Florence, Italy
94 Killer Heels The fascinating – and sometimes chilling – history of high-heeled shoes
78 The “Cuban Picasso” The art – and humanity – of Emilio Sauma
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126
116 90
When Elephants Paint An endearing look at some very artistic pachyderms in Thailand
ORAL REPRESENTATIONS CANNOT BE RELIED UPON AS CORRECTLY STATING THE REPRESENTATIONS OF THE DEVELOPER. FOR CORRECT REPRESENTATIONS, REFERENCE SHOULD BE MADE TO A PURCHASE CONTRACT AND THE OTHER DOCUMENTS REQUIRED BY SECTION 718.503, FLORIDA STATUTES, TO BE FURNISHED BY A DEVELOPER TO A BUYER OR LESSEE. THIS IS NOT INTENDED TO BE AN OFFER TO SELL CONDOMINIUM UNITS IN ANY STATE WHERE PROHIBITED BY LOCAL LAW AND YOUR ELIGIBILITY FOR PURCHASE WILL DEPEND UPON YOUR STATE OF RESIDENCY. EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY.
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features
57 Moonshine Nation:
39 THE War of the Roses Comes to Broadway An exclusive interview with Warren Adler
40
The Art of Creating Cornbread in a Bottle The Americana of back hills moonshine
60 Dwayne Wade & Hublot:
Dark Horse Flyer A riveting story of a rock band with the enduring power of friendship and second chances
Partners in the Art of Fusion Don’t miss the latest unveiling of this Heat star’s sporty haute horology
62 Pearls: Unique in the
42 Get Crackin’ at Joe’s!
World of Gems
The story behind the founding of the country’s most famous stone crab restaurant
The historic provenance of luxury pearl jeweler Yoko London
46 Medieval Charcuterie Makes a Comeback A historical snapshot of an old-world tradition with a new-world spin
50 Culinary Tour of Bordeaux & Dordogne Travel to taste the finest in truffles, fois gras, wine and caviar
52 Artists and Vintages of the Baroness DE Rothschild An homage to the late Baroness Philippine de Rothschild’s love for art and wine
54 Renaissance of Hungarian Tokaji Aszú The resurgence of a high-end wine nearly lost forever
74 Art of Noise: Musical Dimensions of PAMM How the Perez Art Museum Miami masterfully exhibits modern art embellished with music
80 Metal Enigma A Miami-based sculptor expresses song of movement and poetry of emotion
82 Magic with the Moonlight The slow-exposure photography of Alejandro Chaskielberg is like nothing you’ve ever seen before!
87 Media & Soccer Mogul: Riccardo Silva An exclusive interview with one remarkable Miami resident, global entrepreneur and soccer enthusiast
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South Florida OPULENCE
Winter 2015
Big Bang Ferrari King Gold. UNICO column-wheel chronograph. In-house Hublot movement. 72-hour power reserve. New red gold alloy case: King Gold. Interchangeable strap with a unique attachment. Limited edition of 500 pieces.
www.hublot.com •
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SOUTH FLORIDA
features (continued) 98 Simplicity:
132 Success through Prep Meet three movers and shakers whose success was first groomed in top South Florida preparatory schools
136 Agatha Christie Tour in England
The Ultimate Sophistication
Visit the home and sites that motivated one of the world’s most intriguing mystery authors
Steven G. turns Da Vinci’s philosophy into classic condominium living
140 FDR: Questions I Wish You Could Answer
102 Supercar Legend Ferruccio Lamborghini How an Italian tractor maker turned supercar superstar
104 3-D Golf Course Design Jack Nicklaus' new 3-D video game technology
Ava Roosevelt’s compelling theoretical Q&A with the former president
143 Presidential Style Hits the Auction Block FDR’s famous top hat, cane, cufflinks and cigarette holder
144 Iconic Palm Beach Colony Hotel Reimagined
106 The King’s Palace
Discover the stunning $9 million ‘redesign’
Inside the residence of Lebron James
112 new perspective on Football Trading Cards How one sports photographer takes cards to a whole new level
116 Polar Rover to the Lords of the Arctic
120
Historic pipes handmade by Civil War soldiers
departments
Take an arctic safari to the land of polar bears
Gadgets
30
Calendar of Events
32-36
Luxury Living on Emerald Isle
Dining Guide
49
Business: Chocolate Commodity
56
Women’s Beauty & Accessories Men’s Grooming
93 109
Real Estate Trends
110
Real Estate Professional Profile
131
Literature: Must Reads from Edwina Sandys
139
Condo Living
151
Condo Law
152
Social Living
158,160
Carleton Varney’s personal travel guide to Limerick, Ireland
125 Arthur Guinness Meet the man behind the stout beer
126 Landscaping with Gargoyles How to implement a medieval touch
128 Armani Casa Gift Guide High-style gifts with the Giorgio Armani touch 26
148 Civil War Tobacco Pipes
South Florida OPULENCE
Winter 2015
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ORAL REPRESENTATIONS CANNOT BE RELIED UPON AS CORRECTLY STATING THE REPRESENTATIONS OF THE DEVELOPER. FOR CORRECT REPRESENTATIONS, MAKE REFERENCE TO THIS BROCHURE AND TO THE DOCUMENTS REQUIRED BY SECTION 718.503, FLORIDA STATUTES, TO BE FURNISHED BY A DEVELOPER TO A BUYER OR LESSEE.
SALES AND MARKETING BY
Editor’s Letter
South Florida: No Longer an Elephant Graveyard As a child, I learned the importance of art history – thanks to my mother, an artist, who frequently took me to the Art Institute of Chicago. Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Caillebotte, Cassatt! The Impressionism wing was spellbinding. I thought everyone knew and loved art by the great masters. But then I moved to Florida. Fast forward to 1994. My own little girl was 4 years old and it was time to introduce her to the art world. I took her to the Christmas Teddy Bear Tea at the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale. When we entered, the room was filled with decorated trees. “Where are the art galleries?” I asked the guard. “This is it,” he said. He wasn’t kidding. Thankfully, we’re not in an elephant graveyard anymore! (That’s what Count Dietrich von Frank once called South Florida when he heard art conservator Gordon Lewis was moving here.) “That’s where people go to die,” he said, referring to the then lack of artistic culture. Gordon and I had a good laugh about that recently. Boy, has Florida come a long way. 2014 marks the 13th Edition of Art Basel Miami Beach – one of the largest international modern art festivals in the country. (See page 69). Yet, it’s no time to let down our guard about instilling the importance of art and culture in our children. No one explains this better than Gordon, a Palm Beacher and advisory board member of Friends of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. “In 1348 A.D., the Black Plague swept Europe and Florence, taking 50 percent of the population. It left Florence a small town of 45,000 souls. But from this 45,000 sprang the Cradle of Western Civilization as we know it today – with Leonardo da Vinci, Dante, Machiavelli, Boccaccio, Vespucci and Galileo.” Had they not survived the plague, where would we be today in math, science, art and literature? Not long ago, Gordon met Alessandro Olschki at a Corsini Palace dinner. He was the last living witness to the repatriation of the treasures of Florence after World War II when Hitler seized priceless art from the Uffizi for his own museum in Austria. Although much of the art was recouped, the dismal state of the Italian economy today has led to a three-year moratorium on government funding to restore Uffizi works damaged by bombing and flood. Thankfully, through private donations raised by Friends of the Uffizi, more than 30 restoration projects have been completed (see page 64). This year, the organization plans to restore the marble statue Hercules and Nessus. To become a member of Friends of Uffizi or to make a donation, go to www.friendsofuffizigallery.org. – Robin Jay, Editor in Chief
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HORIZON PUBLISHING Executive PUBLISHER & Owner Geoff Hammond, CEO Jayne Hammond, President Associate PUBLISHERS Mark Blackburn David Hammond EDITOR IN CHIEF Robin Jay editor@southfloridaopulence.com CREATIVE ART DIRECTOR Adriana Naylor artdirector@southfloridaopulence.com 954-331-3912 PR AND MARKETING MANAGER Chantal Forster marketingmanager@southfloridaopulence.com 954-331-3390 Business Development director Erika Buchholz ebuchholz@southfloridaopulence.com 954-609-2447 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS John D. Adams Jill Patterson Michael Bender, Esq. Andy Rand Melissa Bryant Ben Rapaport Brett Collier Ava Roosevelt Jana Soeldner Danger Edwina Sandys Mia Fineman Todd R. Sciore Hope Gainer Sharon Spence Lieb Julia Hebert Mark Spivak Ben Howkins Alex Starace Ryan Jay Clifton N. Thuma Steven Joseph Joshua Tomey Robert Kaye Esq. Carleton Varney Stephen Keeler Alex Villasuso Dale King Mary & Hugh Williamson Photographers Harry Benson Mel Jay Douglas Lance Lisa Nalven Silvia Pangaro Robert Zuckerman PROOFREADER Suzanne Shaw South Florida Opulence Magazine is published quarterly by Horizon Publishing LLC. Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved. Horizon Publishing LLC, 6700 North Andrews Avenue, Suite 400, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309 – Vol. 4, No. 4 Winter 2014-15 (ISSN # 2157-5274) Subscription Rates: $40 per year, $10 per issue. For subscription inquiries or change of address, contact the subscription department, (954) 308-4300 Ext. 4312, Fax: (954) 331-6028. Horizon Publishing, LLC, its affiliates and contributing writers have exercised due care in compiling the information contained herein, but with the possibility of human or mechanical error, cannot assume liability for the accuracy of this data. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in part or in full in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording and any information storage and retrieval system without first obtaining permission from the publisher.
g a d ge t s Glass Mug with Silicone Tea Ball Diffuser The glass mug has a silicone tea ball diffuser that is perfect for making your tea as strong or as light as you please. The mug has a silicone band heat guard and the set includes a matching saucer. www.overstock.com. $19.99
Tunes To Go Drink in your favorite tunes with this innovative design. Perfect for the gym, beach, or travel, a slot for your iPhone amplifies songs through the bottom of the bottle as you sip your sports drink or hydrate after a long, musical run. www. uncommon goods.com. $20
Shot Improving Basketball
The official smart ball of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, the basketball immediately sends data for every shot and dribble to an app running on an iPhone, iPad, or Android smartphone from up to 90’ away. www.hammacher.com. $199.95
Aquaponic Fish Tank With a surface aquafarm, this 3-gallon tank creates a symbiotic relationship where plants live and fish thrive. A pump delivers waste to the plant tray and plants convert it into food to clean the water. Includes organic wheatgrass and basil seeds, bacteria, gravel, hydroponic growstones and fish food. www.hammacher.com. $59.95
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South Florida OPULENCE
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StellĂŠ Audio Clutch The Audio Clutch bridges the gap between fashion and the functionality of technology. Listen to music, host a conference call or talk to a friend from anywhere. Pairs wirelessly to any Bluetooth device. www.stelleaudio.com. $349
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Up & Coming Events January
January 2015
1/15-29 23
An Evening with Michael Bolton
Seminole Hard Rock, Hollywood
January
FEBRUARY
Into The Woods
Irvin Mayfield & The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra
22-2/15 5 Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
DreamCatcher Theatre, led by Miami native brother-sister team Natalie and JJ Caruncho, is South Florida’s newest regional theater company making its Miami debut with this wonderful production at the Arsht Center. www.arshtcenter.org
Adrienne Arsht Center John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall
Miami Jewish Film Festival
Miami Beach venues include Regal Cinemas South Beach, Miami Beach Cinematheque, Temple Beth Sholom. Other venues in the Greater Miami community include O Cinema Miami Shores, Bill Cosford Cinema, Temple Beth Am, and Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center. Celebrate the unexpected at the Miami Jewish Film Festival’s 18th annual edition, occurring January 15-29, 2015. Enjoy the best that world cinema has to offer for 13 days and over 40 feature films at the Show Start Time: 8PM preeminent festival for Jewish film. Doors Open Time: 7PM Ticket Price: $45 / $55 / $65 Michael Bolton comes to Hard Rock Live and performs on January 23rd at 8PM. January www.seminolehardrockhollywood.com
18
Miami International Piano Festival: Nick Van Bloss
Aventura British pianist Nick van Bloss makes his second appearance with The Miami International Piano Festival.
His May 2014 performance in Miami Beach was described in The Miami Herald as "scintillating...memorable...a vast musical journey assayed with imagination and depth of feeling". His recitals and recordings have been acclaimed worldwide. Performance at 5 p.m. www.miamiandbeaches.com/event/ miami-international-piano-festival-nickvan-bloss/22055 32
South Florida OPULENCE
January
23-25
Annual Homestead Championship Rodeo
Rodeo Arena 'The Southernmost Rodeo in the United States' has a proud reputation both locally and further afield, standing as a pillar of the Homestead community. All-American entertainment including horse displays, bucking broncos and skilled cowboys demonstrating their abilities with lassos. www.homesteadrodeo.com
Winter 2015
January
30
The New Orleans star and Grammy Award winner IRVIN MAYFIELD returns to the Adrienne Arsht Center, bringing an authentic and engaging jazz experience to South Florida. Mayfield created the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. www.arshtcenter.org
FEBruARY
Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
12/14/15
Seminole Hard Rock, Hollywood Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons perform at Hard Rock Live at 8PM. Oh, what a story. Frankie Valli, who came to fame in 1962 as the lead singer of the Four Seasons, is hotter than ever in the 21st century, thanks to the volcanic success of the Tony-winning musical Jersey Boys, which chronicles the life and times of Frankie and his legendary group, Andrea Bocelli www.seminolehardrockhollywood.com Seminole Hard Rock, Hollywood Returns to Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino – Hollywood for Three Special Valentine's Shows, Thurs., February 12, Sat., February 14 and Sun., February 15. www.seminolehardrockhollywood.com.
BAL HARBOUR 305.865.1100. DADELAND 305.662.8655.
MANOLO
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Bal Harbour & Dadeland
Up & Coming Events January 2015
1 January- March
FEBRUARY-March
Broward Center For The performing arts
Adrienne Arsht Center FAMILY 3-SHOW PACKAGES
Disney’s The Lion King Jan. 7 - Feb. 1
ZIFF BALLET OPERA HOUSE
Disney’s Newsies Feb. 3- Feb. 8
Wine Down Wednesdays
Sorrisi Every Wednesday beginning January 2015 wine specials and small bites at the Sorrisi Wine Bar.
January 2015
17
Al Capone Dinner & Templeton Rye Pairing NYY Steak 7pm Celebrate Al Capone’s birthday while sampling his favorite whiskey, savoring his grandmother’s very own sauce recipe and mingle with Deidre Capone, grand niece of Al Capone and host of the evening.
January 2015
1
Ladies Night
MOTOWN THE MUSICAL Feb. 24-March 8
Disney’s Beauty & the beast Dec 30. - January 4
Legends Lounge Every Thursday beginning January 2015 live entertainment and champagne specials.
February
1-3/31
FEBRUARY
13
Tony Bennett
PIPPIN March 21-April 12
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South Florida OPULENCE
WICKED MARCH 11- MARCH 29
Winter 2015
Adrienne Arsht Center The Arsht Center is proud to present TONY BENNETT, the legendary, multiple Grammy Award-winning musician whose music spans more than six decades, for an unforgettable, one-night-only preValentine’s Day concert. www.arshtcenter.org
PEREZ ART MUSEUM MIAMI “Let's Make the Water Turn Black”
Miami Canadian installation artist Geoffrey Farmer has long admired the counterculture and music of the ’60s, a longing of someone who has realized he’s missed out on something. Growing up in the MTV and Atari generation has shaped his artistic outlook with an ADHD exuberance toward multimedia. Price: $12-$16 10:00 a.m. every Tue., Wed., Thu., Fri., Sat. 305-375-3000
Up & Coming Events February
FEBRUARY
11
13-22
HARRY CONNICK, JR.
Kravis Center for the Performing Arts West Palm Beach From his start as a 5-year-old jazz prodigy in New Orleans, Harry Connick, Jr. has excelled in every aspect of the entertainment world. To date, he has released 29 albums, won three Grammy Awards and two Emmy Awards, and garnered sales of 28 million.
MARCH
4-8
WGC Cadillac The 2015 Delray Beach Open by The Championship Venetian® Las Vegas Doral Golf Resort & Spa
Delray Beach
The top golfers like Tiger Woods, Steve A premier athletic event held right here in Stricker and others face off at the Blue Delray Beach. The February event kicks off Monster course at the Trump National Presidents weekend, February 13, and runs Doral as part of the PGA Tour. The through February 22. The event doesn’t event also includes a fashion show just focus on tennis, but is a full-fan enter- hosted by Ivanka Trump. tainment experience with live music, food www.worldgolfchampionships.com and vendors and additional events including a kids’ day and Valentine’s Day dinner.
MARCH
23-4/5
The Miami Open presented by Itau Key Biscayne
www.miamiopen.com For tickets 305.442.3367
MARCH
20
FEBRUARY
Louis XIII Dinner Pairing
12-16
Progressive Miami International Boat Show
FEBRUARY
14-16
Coconut Grove Arts Festival
Preview what's new in boating and experience fun and education on the water. From the latest in powerboats, sailboats and engines to cutting-edge marine electronics and accessories to the best in nautical gifts, services and apparel, it's the ideal shopping destination. It takes place at the Miami Beach Convention Center, as well as Miamarina at Bayside and Sea Isle Marina & Yachting Center.
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South Florida OPULENCE
The Coconut Grove Arts Festival® is the nation’s top outdoor fine arts festival. The three-day festival showcases the works of over 380 of the finest artists and craftsmen in the world. Nearly one mile of arts, food and fun, the Festival is held annually in the streets of Coconut Grove, Florida. General admission is $15 per person per day, free for children 12 years of age and under. 10 a.m. to -6 p.m. daily. Along McFarlane Road and South Bayshore Drive.
Winter 2015
NYY Steak– Coconut Creek
April
6
Enjoy the finest cognac and dry-aged steaks in the ultimate dinner pairing at Diana Krall NYY Steak at Seminole Coconut Creek. To Kravis Center – purchase tickets in advance, go to www. Dreyfoos Concert Hall seminolecoconutcreekcasino.com. The five-time Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist and singer will now perform on Monday, April 6, 2015 at 8 p.m. Her original concert date of December 10 was canceled due to illness. Tickets go on sale to the public on November 15 and can be purchased at the Kravis Center box office at 701 Okeechobee Blvd., online through the Kravis Center’s official website at kravis.org, or by phone at 561-832-7469 or 800-572-8471.
C OR S A I R B Y S C OT T C ONA N T, T H E L AT E ST C U L I NA RY D E S T I N AT I O N B Y T H E C E L E B R AT E D , AWA R D - W I N N I N G C H E F, R E S TAU R AT E U R , AU T H O R A N D T E L E V I S I O N P E R S O N A L I T Y, O P E N S I N AV E N T U R A’ S P R E S T I G I O U S TURNBERRY ISLE MIAMI.
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By Ava Roosevelt
to Hit Broadway Ava: What can we expect from Warren Adler in the future?
Warren Adler, the world-renowned author and playwright, best known for The War of the Roses, a masterpiece fictionalization of a macabre divorce turned into a box office hit starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito, hardly needs an introduction. Ava: News about War of the Roses went viral fast. How do you control the content when your book is adapted for theater? Warren: “In Hollywood, the book author controls nothing. In live theater, the playwright has a lot more to say. I have sold or optioned 17 books for adaptation. Two were major movies, The War of the Roses and Random Hearts with Harrison Ford. Adaptations of five additional books are in development. If they happen...great. I don’t hold my breath.” Ava: Do you remember our first meeting? Warren: “I sure do. We met for lunch at Gino’s the day you sold your apartment.” My heart was breaking that day as I was bidding adieu to my beloved pied-a-terre on Fifth Avenue. Teary eyed, I fell into welcoming embraces of Warren and his wife Sunny, two perfect strangers who became my closest friends. I soon found what a multimedia mogul Warren is. A former owner of radio and TV stations, Warren created his own advertising and public relations company and, with his Sunny and son David, founded the Washington Dossier magazine. Warren is noted for naming and marketing real estate projects in Washington. One of them, which he named, was Watergate. The savvy author understands the revolution in the publishing business. I have learned from him how difficult it is for
A scene from the theater production of The War of the Roses in Argentina, which starred Adrian Suar and Carla Peterson new writers when millions of books already flood the market. After 27 of Warren’s books were published by Viking, Putnam, Crown and Warner Books, he converted the entire library to digital formats under his own company, Stonehouse Press. His work ethic is impressive. Even at age 86, Warren writes daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., isolating himself to create his parallel domain. Ava: How do you generate the ideas to write so many original stories?
Warren: “Aside from the Broadway and foreign productions of The War of the Roses, movies in development include The War of the Roses — the Children; a television series “Capital Crimes” based on my Fiona FitzGerald detective stories; the Target Churchill, Mourning Glory and Residue film adaptations; a controversial new book The Torture Man; and two plays The Sunset Gang, and a play Libido, about the conflict between an adulterous President and his wife. Unlike my friend Tom Clancy, Warren believed in my talent as an author from the start. He gave me an important gift: my book title, The Racing Heart. He is advising me on negotiating with producers to shepherd my book to the big screen. Warren: “Creating fiction stories out of your imagination is an art form. Unless you are passionate and willing to take the putdowns and rejections, try another career. But if it is genuinely your passion, nothing should ever stand in your way. Like all artists, a writer writes because he must.”
Warren: “I fashion original stories from my imagination and my life’s experience and insights.” Ava: What do you see happening to the publishing world in the next decade? Warren: “Print is in a precipitous decline. Nevertheless, I do not see a world without literature. Humans are resilient, curious, searching, and indomitable. Civilization cannot survive without the wisdom and insight dispensed by the written word. Great works of literature will find their way into the public arena.”
From left: Sunny and Warren Adler with Ava Roosevelt at her home in Palm Beach
Winter 2015
South Florida OPULENCE
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By Dale King and Julia Hebert
A riveting story of the enduring power of friendship and second chances
F
or a record album that never even made it to vinyl, the 1970s-era collection, “Last Mango in Paradise,” is heavy with history. Eleven South Florida rock musicians performed on it. The cover art was complete and the disc was ready for final mixing. But then, tragedy struck. The recording company owner was killed in a motorcycle accident. The original tapes containing all the songs disappeared, as did the studio. The band known then as ‘Breeze,’ disbanded. Members dispersed, but their friendship endured, along with a strong sense of untapped potential. Their story is a testament to second chances and the courage to put dreams into action — no matter what.
Dark Horse Flyer Launches Many of the musicians featured on the 1970s album trickled into the work world, but nearly all continued to make music. Scott Lane channeled his drive and became CEO and owner of a petroleum 40
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distribution company. Don Mularz sold scuba diving equipment and accessories, though he kept his voice and guitar-playing fingers in the music game. When Scott was about to sell his interest in his petroleum firm and retire, he looked back to the musical group that he and Don created nearly four decades earlier. What fun it would be, Scott mused, with Don’s full agreement, to rally the former band members for a whoop-ass gettogether on Scott’s massive parcel of property in Parkland, Florida. “My original idea was to have a reunion party,” said Scott. But it burgeoned into the creation of the group called Dark Horse Flyer, reuniting the original charter members along with bass player Richard Taylor, drummer/percussionist Raul Hernandez (who says he came to the U.S. from Cuba by raft) and keyboard player Bob Taylor. Beth Cohen has been added on background vocals.
In February 2014, members of the Dark Horse Flyer band flew on a vintage B-17 Bomber at the Wings of Freedom Tour at the Boca Raton Airport. "Our 30-minute flight was not only a thrill, but a deeper insight we shared as a band with the sacrifices made by the brave aviators from America's Greatest Generation!" said Don Mularz. we could trademark. Our logo reminded me of aircraft ‘nose art’ and I checked to see if Dark Horse was associated with any historic aircraft.” Don found a story about a B-17 bomber in World War II named Dark Horse that flew seven missions and was shot down over Germany. “We all consider the name Dark Horse Flyer to be a tribute to the crew and all American veterans.” The ‘tropic-rock’ legacy musicians of Dark Horse Flyer recorded a nine-song CD called “Breakaway”– with its heart-thumping, guitar riff-heavy “Evil Woman” issued as a single and a music video. The group released the disc with celebratory honors at the Jazziz Jazz Club in Boca Raton this past October, where the group performed live before a packed house.
A Look Back to the ’70s Ironically, back in the heyday of the ’70s, when the band was known as ‘Breeze’, an up-and-coming performer named Jimmy Buffett was recording in another nearby
Fort Lauderdale studio – and was melding his own not-far-from Key West style. He would end up recording songs called “Cheeseburger in Paradise” and “Last Mango in Paris” – similar in title to the Breeze tunes – before parlaying his “Margaritaville” sound into a billion dollar industry. Also, one of the musicians who performed on two of the “Last Mango” tracks, Gilbert Montagne, a blind keyboardist from France who came to Fort Lauderdale to perk up his career, returned to his native land and became one of country’s top performers. “He’s the Ray Charles of France,” said Scott. The rhythm of the Dark Horse Flyer’s South Florida-based sextet has earned them a reputation as ‘songwriters with chops’ from music critics. You can check out their “Evil Woman” video at SouthFloridaOpulence.com and search up the band’s gig schedule at darkhorseflyer.com.
Hernandez and Bob Taylor are seasoned musicians, having shared the stage with well-known vocalists and groups such as Buster Poindexter, Etta James, the Temptations, Kansas and Chuck Berry. Richard Taylor alternates keyboard playing with teaching “big data super-computing – I love nerdy stuff,” he said, laughing. Why the name “Dark Horse Flyer”? “We liked it for the ‘come from behind, against all odds’ sense of the name,” said Don. “We also needed a name
Dark Horse Flyer band members, left to right: Raul Hernandez, John Tillman, Don Mularz, Scott Lane, Bob Taylor, Richard Taylor
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GET CRACKIN’ By Melissa Bryant
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Beach because breathe better.
he coveted stone crab season in South Florida is in full swing since October 15 – reminding me of my inaugural experience at the legendary Joe’s Stone Crab in Miami Beach… I take my seat next to Stephen Sawitz, COO of the legendary Joe’s Stone Crab eatery and great grandson of its iconic founder Joseph “Joe” Weiss for an interview. We gaze up at a large vintage photograph hanging over the dining area picturing Joe and his wife Jennie standing on a dirt road in front of their modest seafood and specialty diner in 1918. The pastoral scene resembles a more tropical version of Grant Wood’s American Gothic oil painting (without the pitchfork). Thom Mozloom, Photo Courtesy of Amparo Fontanet a longtime family friend of the founding family who has joined us for lunch, remarks on how All In The Family South Beach back then looked nothing like the “sexy” Miami we know to- “About 101 years ago, my Hungarian-born day. This is because when Joe’s Restaurant great grandfather, Joe Weiss, was a waiter in first opened after the turn of the century, it New York,” said Sawitz. “He was an asthmatwas one of the first businesses to exist on ic and his doctor recommended he check the island of what was then unincorporated out a warmer climate. So he borrowed Dade. Stone crabs were not on the menu. $50 from his life insurance policy and took Instead, locals and fishermen came in for a a train down to scout out Miami Beach. I remember him saying he chose South taste of Joe’s fish sandwich and fries.
he
could
“Joe dreamed of opening his own restaurant one day. First, he would run a lunch stand at Smith’s bathing casino, a winter resort spot where vacationers would rent lockers to change into their swimsuits — the long ones with the stockings so iconic to the period — before going in the ocean or pool. His wife Jennie, a restaurant cook, and son Jesse eventually came down by train. In 1918, the family moved into a bungalow near the casino on Biscayne Street — a home that soon also became Joe’s Seafood.” For eight years, Joe’s was the only restaurant on the beach to serve seafood This attracted a diverse crowd of patrons and social elite, including Will Rogers, Amelia Earhart, Gloria Swanson, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and notorious Chicagoan mobster, Al Capone, who dined under an assumed name, Al Brown. Joe’s son Jessie once said, “My mom was a tough old broad. She reminded me of some of those old Zane Grey books, where the madam is tough as hell but all heart. If she didn’t like you, she wouldn’t let you in. Let’s say a man was married and coming in with his wife.
PHOTO CREDIT :AP Photo/Lynne Sladky
Eugene Green holds up a plate of stone crabs while working in the kitchen at Joe’s Stone Crab restaurant in Miami Beach. Green has worked for the restaurant for over 40 years. Joe’s Stone Crab has been family-owned from the start when it opened in 1913 as a mom-and-pop fish house. Today, it’s a must-stop spot where wearing a bib over fine-dining attire is the norm.
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Stone crab season runs from October 15 to May 15 – during which getting a table is well worth the wait at Joe’s Miami Beach location at 11 Washington Ave., Miami Beach, FL 33139. But if you can’t wait, there is a takeaway service nationally and internationally. Get crackin’!
PHOTO CREDIT: AP Photo/Lynne Sladky
Stephen Sawitz, co-owner of Joe’s Stone Crab restaurant, stands next to a photograph of his great-grandfather Joe Weiss, the founder of Joe’s, at the restaurant in Miami Beach, Fla.
Then, another time, he’d try to come in with his girlfriend — out! She’d just as soon say, don’t bring your tramp friends in here.” Jennie knew of the nefarious rumors surrounding “Mr. Brown.” One day she said to him, “I must tell you something. If I don’t like somebody, I don’t allow them to come in here, but you’ve always been a gentleman, and anytime you want to come into this restaurant you can.” “That’s basically how the restaurant operates,” said Sawitz. “If you’re behaving, you’re fine.” Capone showed his gratitude by sending Jennie a truck full of flowers every year for Mother’s Day.
Moving on Up As Joe’s popularity rose, the couple decided it was time to expand. They built Joe’s current location with an apartment upstairs where the family lived. Today, the apartment is used as an administrative office for bookkeeping, but Sawitz can still remember spending time upstairs with his grandfather Jessie. “I can still picture him fast asleep on that bed with a book lying open on his chest and wearing disheveled glasses.” It’s also been said that Joe’s grandmother would watch the dining floor from her apartment window, and if she saw empty plates sitting at a customer’s table too long, she’d personally go downstairs to take care of it. “Stone crabs became known in the late ’20s because my great grandparents brought them into the restaurant. They were a very unique item to South Florida because they were pretty much only found down here,” 44
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said Sawitz. “We were the first restaurant serving them that I know of. Fishermen didn’t know what they were or if they were even edible, so they just left them in the water.” In 1921, entrepreneur James Allison built an aquarium at Fifth Street and Biscayne which opened on New Year’s Day. Allison invited a Harvard ichthyologist down to research the mysterious crustacean. The marine scientist visited Joe’s one day for lunch and brought along a burlap sack full of live stone crabs. “Have you ever cooked these?” he asked Joe. He hadn’t. But in an effort to try, Joe threw the crabs into a pot of boiling water. It worked! “In addition to boiling stone crabs, Joe came up with something that’s just as important: the mustard sauce for dipping,” said Sawitz. “It is the exclamation point for the stone crab. Our recipe for the mustard is so simple it’s not even funny and it has stayed the same all this time. Here are the ingredients: Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, Colman’s dry mustard powder, Worcestershire sauce, A1 Steak Sauce, light cream, and salt to taste if you’re inclined.” Joe’s diners are so in tune with these distinct flavor profiles, they are usually the first to point out a deviation in the recipe. “Imagine how you would react if Mickey Mouse changed something,” Sawitz joked. With Miami in constant flux, it’s comforting to know that Joe’s Stone Crab will always remain true to its roots as a tried and true local family establishment.
Stone Crab Facts To ensure the continued survival of the species: • Only one claw may be removed so the crab can defend itself. • Egg-bearing females are not allowed to be declawed. • The crabs are captured in baited traps. No spears or hooks are allowed. • Four inches from the first joint to the tip is the minimum legal size, that’s about two ounces. • A colossal can weigh 25 ounces or more.
Other interesting notes: • The large crusher claw can exert extreme pressure. As much as 19,000 lbs. per square inch. • Stone crabs exhibit carnivorous feeding behavior. Sometimes in traps they resort to cannibalism! • The claws make up half the weight of the whole crab, they are removed by carefully grabbing from the rear and twisting. • The crab is returned to water and the claw regenerates. It takes between 12 to 24 months to reach legal size again. • In 1963 stone crabs cost 30 cents a dozen wholesale.
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Medieval Charcuterie Makes a Comeback By Ryan Jay
A historical snapshot of an old-world tradition with a new world spin
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s culinary enthusiasts grow increasingly savvy, so do their palates and expectations, keeping chefs on their toes to reinvent compelling menus, some dishes of which are revivals of old-world traditions – like the charcuterie platter.
In order to be branded with the official mark of the Parma Crown, it’s Consorzio law in Italy that Prosciutto must be prepared in certain regions and with strict processing guidelines. See image inset below at right.
Originating more than 3,000 years ago, the term ‘charcuterie’ comes from the French words meaning ‘cooked flesh.’ A ‘charcutier’ refers to a ‘pork butcher.’ Strabo, the famous Greek philosopher and geographer, in the first century AD wrote about the importation of salted meat from Gaul – a region in Western Europe that now is France, Luxembourg, Belgium and parts of Switzerland, Northern Italy, the Netherlands and Germany. After the European plague of 1348, the commoner’s diet contained a much higher proportion of protein, and butchers had to find ways to increase the shelf life of meat – at a time when modern refrigeration didn’t exist. As with most things, charcuterie was an invention mothered by need.
The Artistry of Charcuterie Like skilled painters with palettes of many hues, each chef’s charcuterie platter features a different combination of components and techniques. After all, variety is the spice of life. These days, a charcuterie platter may contain not only saltpreserved pork meats, but also any number of artisanal dishes, like dried fruits, imported cheeses and craft breads. Let’s take a look at the history of four frequent charcuterie platter elements: Parma ham prosciutto, soppressata, cheddar cheese and the baguette.
Parma Ham Prosciutto The term Prosciutto stems from the Etruscan Po river valley in 5 B.C., where pork legs preserved by salt were traded with Greeks and Italians. The pig legs, from a very limited lineage of pigs, were salted and hung to dry, then oiled and left to age for a total of several months. The environment and conditions in Parma make it the ideal location for processing the finest hams since Roman times. In order to be branded with the official mark of the Parma Crown, it’s Consorzio law that the Prosciutto must be made in certain geographical hillside boundaries. The pigs must be fed a limited list of cereal grains and whey created from the making of Parmiano-Reggiano cheese. The pigs must not be younger than nine months old and must weigh at least 140 kgs. A well trained salt master cures the meat with only authentic sea salt to preserve the sweet and tender nature of the ham. To keep the Winter 2015
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exterior from drying too rapidly, the Parma Prosciutto receives an application of lard blended with salt in a process called “greasing.” Once the greased hams age to sevens months old, they are moved to a cellar with reduced light and air. The hams hang on a special rack for a minimum of 12 months and sometimes as long as 36 months before being sent to market. The result is a tender, slightly sweet and salty lean ham that will melt in your mouth.
Soppressata Soppressata refers to pressed Italian salami made of pork. The best quality soppressata salami is made only from a pig’s thigh or ham sections. Recipes differ, but often include nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon for sweetness, and garlic, coriander, black pepper, cayenne pepper, basil, rosemary, oregano and fennel for the savory side. Some butchers even add red wine. Soppressata starts with hand-cut ground meat that is cooked with spices. It is then mixed with cubes of lard and salt and pushed into bags made of jute. The butcher shapes the jute bags into long sausages and presses them between two sheets of linen, wooden planks and heavy stones to remove any oxygen that could spoil the meat. The salami gets hung for three to five months to cure before it is smoked. For added shelf life, some butchers store soppressata in terracotta jars of olive oil.
The Baguette Bad weather in 1778 led to a bread shortage in France, causing a price spike and mass starvation. Peasants revolted and demanded bread. Eventually, the government allowed more bakers to bake and mandated
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they prepare ‘pain d’ eqalite’ (bread of equality.) When Napoleon took control of France, his regime created strict standards for bread making. He established a list of approved ingredients – a recipe of 75 percent wheat and 25 percent rye and bran. White flour was banned. The quality of mill flour was regulated, as was the mixing, kneading and aeration of dough. Napoleon also determined what shapes and sizes made for official ‘baguettes’ – which were baked in specially devised deck ovens that inserted steam into the dough. The steam caused dextrose to melt, which created a glazed look on the outer crust and a light, airy bread inside. Long, thin loaves of French bread have been made since the days of Louis XIV, but the term ‘baguette’ wasn’t coined until 1920. Some say the baguette became especially popular in 1920 when a law stopped bakeries from opening prior to 4 a.m. The time restriction made it difficult to bake traditional French bread in time for breakfast. The skinny baguette, however, took less time and could be produced in time for morning breakfast. It has been popular worldwide ever since.
The Age of Cheddar Cheese The earliest recorded date of cheese goes back to the 12th century in the Cheddar region of England. In 1170, ledgers show King Henry II purchased more than 10,000 pounds of cheddar cheese – the semi-hard, solid cheese made with cow’s milk that came in a color range of white to orange, with a mild to sharp taste. The natural color of cheddar cheese is pale yellow, but with the addition of annatto (a coloring agent) cheese producers can offer cheddar cheese with an orange tinge. The sharpness of the cheddar flavor increases with age because ongoing growth of bacteria creates higher levels of enzymes. Cheddar cheese became an official product when Joseph Harding, a dairyman from Somerset, England, invented a mill that could mass produce it. His system included a ‘revolving cutter’ that automated curd cutting, while maintaining top hygienic control. He traveled from nation to nation to teach other dairymen how to make cheese. Today, history books call him the father of cheddar cheese.
Charcuterie Today What was previously a medieval food for the masses, charcuterie has evolved into a dish of choice for in-the-know foodies. If you order a charcuterie platter, be sure to ask the chef about the historic significance of the meats and other components. It will please the chef to know his research and planning was well worth the effort.
Dining Guide Boca Raton — Fort Lauderdale — Miami PERFECTO GASTROBAR
LA FERME 9101 Lakeridge Boulevard Boca Raton (561) 654-6600 laferme.kitchen
1450 Brickell Avenue Miami 305-372-0620 www.perfectomiami.com
La Ferme promises – and La Ferme beet salad delivers–delicious food with a touch of Mediterranean flavor. Its owners and executive chef bring a solid heritage of culinary prowess. Bobby, Laura and Alexandra Shapiro own the dining spot, as well as two Flex Mussel restaurants in Manhattan. Chef John Belleme, who worked at the former Stephane’s, and with renowned restaurateur Burt Rapoport, has joined them.
Step into Perfecto Gastrobar and you’ll feel transported to an eatery in Barcelona.
Dale King and wife, Julia Hebert, contributing writers of South Florida Opulence, found the menu fulfilling, with dishes like Narragansett Dayboat scallops and herbed risotto hinting at New England roots. The menu adjusts seasonally, but currently offers kale Caesar, escargots in the shell, a variety of seafood, forever braised short rib Bourguignon, authentic Moroccan tagines for two with potato pie and accoutrements. Diners can also feast their eyes on the more than $100,000 worth of exquisite artwork. Wines from boutique vineyards, beers from microbreweries and a list of uniquely crafted cocktails round out the menu.
“We loved the distressed eclectic interior and spunky yet industrialcasual ambience. The dishes were definitely authentic to the Spanish Capital, starting from the hand-carving of the scrumptious aged prosciutto ham,” said Robin Jay, Editor of South Florida Opulence. Perfecto features dishes such as Canelon de Aguacate Y Cangrejo, Tataki de Atun, Patatas Bravas and Croquetas de Pollo. Chef Manresa’s goal is to provide an environment based on a fusion of both food and music. The quaint Brickell restaurant offers traditional Spanish fare with an emphasis on quality ingredients, creating a Europe-meets-Miami dining concept unparalleled by other Miami restaurants. “The service was superb. Our server, Pedro, was well-versed on the dishes and made our culinary journey a fantastic part of the experience. Sensational location, too!”
Valentino Cucina Italiana 620 S. Federal Hwy Fort Lauderdale 954-523-5767 www.valentinocucinaitaliana.com
Grilled octopus
“One step inside the doors of Valentino Cucina Italiana in East Fort Lauderdale and you feel the energy,” said Erika Buchholz of South Florida Opulence. “We were greeted warmly by Stephan and shown to a cozy table by the window. The restaurant has a hip, California feel to it, with mission-style arches, open beams and iron scroll work. There is a warm, comfortable, energetic vibe – lots of people for a Monday night! The meal started with the popular Calamari Artichoke Tart. The calamari is baked in a black skillet with artichokes and breadcrumbs, giving it a delicious healthy crunch, and served over bitter greens. Then came delicious Plins, ravioli-like pillows stuffed with beet puree and goat cheese and finished off with a poppy seed puree. Chef & Owner Giovanni Rocchio
“We were pleasantly surprised by the intermezzo that was presented. Arugula sorbet with pickled cucumbers and watermelon radishes – delicious and oh so refreshing!”
Entrees included two specials: homemade spaghetti with sea urchin butter, oven roasted tomatoes, zucchini, toasted breadcrumbs, and Alaskan king crab out of the shell. “My favorite!” said Buchholz. Next was roasted, pan-seared cobia with roasted local corn, cherry tomatoes and salsa verde. Chef also brought the Casoncelli – pasta stuffed with veal, guinea hen and golden raisins, with a brown butter sauce and topped with prosciutto. “It was phenomenal.” Dessert included bombolini, an Italian donut with a dulce de leche center and mascarpone crème fraiche; and a flourless chocolate silk cake with banana sorbet and peanut butter dirts. “Both were delicious – I was so full by then!” After the meal, Stephan took Buchholz next door to see the new space. It is going to be more casual tapas and wine bar, open for lunch, called One Door East. It’s opening in the spring sometime – stay tuned. Winter 2015
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C U L INA R Y TOU R O F
Bordeaux & Dordogne
By Jana Soeldner Danger
Truffles. Foie gras. Caviar. Those are some of the tantalizing temptations Laurel Pine deals with every day in her role as founder of Mirepoix USA, a luxury food company based in Reno, Nev. In April, Pine will lead a culinary tour of the Bordeaux and Dordogne regions of France, drawing on her personal knowledge of their unique restaurants and fabulous fare to create a once-in-a-lifetime experience for foodies. And, she promises, guests will sample plenty of truffles and foie gras, for which the areas are well-known. Each of the two regions has a distinctive cuisine style, Pine says. Bordeaux’s is more urban and sophisticated, while Dordogne’s is more rural and relaxed. “They have totally different feels,” she adds.
The Most Wonderful Ingredient Although the tour begins and ends in Bordeaux, it is the Dordogne region that tempts Pine’s taste buds the most. “It’s probably the best known area for foie gras in all of France,” she says. “And foie gras is the most wonderful ingredient in the world. It’s really meatflavored butter. It pairs with poultry, meat, and shellfish, and there are endless ways to use it. I can’t imagine anything that wouldn’t taste better with it. I even make ice cream out of foie gras.” The tour group will spend four nights at Chateau de la Treyne, a castle overlooking the Dordogne River. Guests can explore the medieval village of Rocamadour, built on the face of a 400-foot
cliff and famous for its cheese, as well as walnut pastries and cookies. Foie gras pate with white truffles, Chateau de la Treyne is where capers and Parmesan cheese Pine discovered one of her favorite dishes: mille-feuille of beef and foie gras, which consists of five layers of thinly sliced, rare beef tenderloin alternating with four layers of rich foie gras. “The combination of flavors and textures was exquisite,” she says. “It’s one of the most creative and interesting ways of serving foie gras that I’ve seen.” It is, however, just one of many variations. At Les Jardines d’Harmonie in Salat (Salat is another stop on the tour), foie gras is layered with scallops and chanterelle mushrooms, served on a crisp wafer and finished with a dusky sauce made with beef stock. Because so many ducks and geese are raised in the Dordogne region, they appear on most restaurant menus, as well as in home kitchens. One of the area’s simple yet delicious signature dishes is pommes sarladaise, potatoes fried in rich, flavorful goose or duck fat. “There are often black truffles in it, too,” Pine adds.
Lunching On Truffles And speaking of truffles: Another culinary highlight of the tour will be a truffle-based lunch in Les Eyzies at Les Glycines. Differ-
Each of the two regions has a distinctive cuisine style, Pine says. Bordeaux’s is more urban and sophisticated, while Dordogne’s is more rural and relaxed. “They have totally different feels,” she adds. — Laurel Pine 50
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ent courses will pair truffles with foods like bacon risotto, sweetbreads, rack of lamb, and chocolate. Black truffles and white truffles each has its own flavor profile, Pine says. “France is best known for black truffles, which are available from early December to March or April. They’re more earthy than the white truffles you find in Italy, and can stand up well to beef and veal dishes with complex flavor patterns.” While in Sarlat, the group will have an opportunity to visit its famous marketplace, where they can find both truffles and foie gras, as well as regional walnut oils and walnut liqueur, dried mushrooms, chabichou cheese, and chocolate treats called ephemeres.
Bordeaux Specialties In Bordeaux, guests can sample local culinary specialties that include seafoods like cod, oysters, clams, mussels, shrimp, and snails, as well as delicious agneau lamb, and flavorful beef dishes like entrecôte marchand de vin. Perhaps the area’s best-known classic is bordelaise sauce, made with red wine, beef marrow, shallots, and seasonings. And for those with a sweet tooth, there are the famous cannelés de Bordeaux. Tour guests will stay for three nights at the Hostellerie de Plai-
sance in Saint Emilion, where they can explore the medieval village there. The hotel itself offers panoramic views of surrounding vineyards . And, of course, it is wines that Bordeaux is most famous for. “Bordeaux makes the longest lived wines on the planet,” says Andrew Lampasone, owner of Wine Watch, a wine boutique in Fort Lauderdale that is popular among South Florida collectors. “The reason you pay big money for a wine is because it has the potential to age, and the best wines from Bordeaux can be cellared for 100 years or more.” Vineyard visits and tastings will include the Chateau d’Arch and Chateau d’Yquem in Sauternes, as well as samples of Haut Medoc. There will also be dinner at the 2-Michelin star restaurant Chateau Cordeillan-Bages. Pine says her network of luxury food purveyors helped her plan a memorable tour. “The challenge is designing something unique, and creating an experience people can’t do on their own.”
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Photo COURTESY OF Karl LagerfelD
The Vintages of the Baroness H BY CLIFTON THUMA
er father had always said “Wine is Art”. Baroness Philippine de Rothschild would live on both sides of that equation. She was known as the only child of the famed owner of a great wine estate. She became an actress and lived in the spectacle of the theater for the first half of her life. Then she began to learn the business of making and promoting wine. It was on that stage that she played her greatest role before an international audience. She became the face and personality not only of her estate, Château Mouton-Rothschild, but all of Bordeaux while being the patroness of a generation of artists. The spotlight on that stage went dark this August when the Baroness Philippine died quite suddenly following a medical 52
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procedure. We pause to remember this talented doyenne of art and wine – at home as much in museums as salons and a remarkable presence everywhere. A youthful beauty, she became an actress, rising to the acclaimed Comedie Francais. At midlife, her father, Baron Phillipe, called her to work with him in his famous Bordeaux vineyards. To this project she brought the eye and skill of an artist and the grace and talent of a proper chatelaine. These attributes served her well as she was the future heiress of one of the world’s most famous wine estates – Château Mouton-Rothschild. Her father began in 1945 to ask an artist to create a piece for the most recent vintage’s label. A short list would include Braque in 1955, Dali ’58,
Miro ’69, Chagall ’70, and Warhol in ’75. Most famously, however, is the year the château was proclaimed of the highest provenance, a “First Growth” (there are only four others). The year was 1973. The artist was Pablo Picasso. As an actress and artist, Philippine was drawn to the series of art-labels. These paintings
began to be shown about the world in 1981 and she wrote a catalogue text to complement the show. She has accompanied them to over 40 museums worldwide over the past three decades. In 2009, the pieces were displayed in Miami Beach’s Wolfsonian Museum at Florida International University. The label collection, as it grew by one artist each year, she said was... “an exhibition to which a new work is added each year, bringing together from one label to the next the most famous, and very different, contemporary artists.” It fell to the Baroness Philippine, upon the death of her father, to take over the management of the family’s several châteaux and wine companies. Nothing more symbolized this transition than Philippine’s signature on her father’s last vintage of 1987 – his 65th. One of the tasks that was hers alone now was to select an artist to create the next year’s label. She was always engaging and interested in the new talent and her commissions were always good. In 1996, she selected the calligraphic artist who survived the Cultural Revolution in China, Gu Gan. 2004‘s was a watercolour by none other than HRH Prince Charles to
“An
exhibition to which a new work is added each year, bringing together from one label to the next the most famous, and very different, contemporary artists.” mark the Entente Cordiale between France and Britain in 1904. She selected Anish Kapoor born in Mumbai now living in Britain for the 2009 vintage and France’s Guy de Rougemont for the 2011 label.
equally admired. This, her last great project for the château, opened in 2013 after three years of work. Elegant, clean, enhancing not competing with the painters’ works, she has again written a catalogue for the label collection – this time in stone. Now her sons, Phillipe Sereys de Rothschild and Julien Beaumarchais, will oversee the artistry of Mouton, the sixth generation of Rothschilds to steward the château for their families if not, as did their mother, for the world. Madame Philippine de Rothschild died at age 80. She was buried September 1, 2014, next to her father at Château MoutonRothschild, Pauillac, Bordeaux.
To mark her accomplishments, she was made an Officier de la Légion d’Honneur in 2007. Her most enduring accomplishment has been to renew the château’s wine facilities. Philippine’s father had built a beautiful cave to house the barrels of the new wine in the 1920s. Philippine has matched that by building a new wine press and ‘vat room’ as well as a new museum and gallery. Here are displayed her father’s collection of wine artifacts as well as his (and now her) commissioned artwork for the château’s labels. The museum of wine has met with universal acclaim and the ‘Art for the Labels’ gallery is Winter 2015
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By Ben Howkins, Co-founder and Director of Royal Tokaji
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The legendary Tokaj wine region in North East Hungary is arguably the oldest demarcated wine region in the world. Certainly by the late 17th century, the owner of these vineyards, Prince Rakoczi of Transylvania, had listened to his subjects of the 28 villages who, for generations, had been producing higher-quality wines than their neighbors. He classified their finest vineyards into 1st, 2nd and 3rd classes. This became the forerunner of the vineyard status of what we recognize today as being AOC or DOC.
enaissance of Hungarian Tokaji Aszú quality, but it cared much for quantity. To satisfy the eager throats of their comrades back home, instructions were given to expand production by pausing the “grape selection” button, leaving bungs out in casks to artificially oxidize the wine, giving it a false more aged appearance, and sometimes to fortify the wines to give them more vigor.
Heritage Rebuilt In every story, there is always a hero, or in the case of Royal Tokaji, a maverick — someone whose morals and integrity stood above the crass bureaucrats. The maverick in this case was István Szepsy. Not only was he directly descended from the priest Szepsy who is credited with the creation of Aszú wines, but István had been clandestinely producing Aszú wines in the way that his forebears had been doing for centuries. Not for
What are Tokaji wines? They are debatably the world’s first-recognized classified sweet or rich wines. In a unique river confluence, early morning mist, carrying the botrytis fungus, was cast up and settled on the neighboring vineyards. Grapes shriveled into ‘aszu berries’, which literally means ‘dried berries.’ The rich Tokaji Aszú wines became the most sought-after wines in Europe. Popes, czars, kings, queens, emperors, poets and writers all wanted to taste these miracle wines, which were thought to be health restorative and endow these leaders with unmatched virility. Tokaji even was incorporated into the Hungarian national anthem.
The Attempted Destruction of a Legacy This is the heritage of Tokaji, which the Russian communists so very nearly destroyed after WWII. All private wine producing and exporting was banned; the state took over. This state monopoly cared little for 54
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1957 Tokaji that survived WWII and the communist ban on private production.
him, mass production. Quality was paramount. This veritable eureka moment signaled the route by which this ancient winemaking area could once again start producing and exporting world-class wines. The Royal Tokaji Wine Company was originally created with 60 enthusiastic wine farmers who each brought one hectare to the joint venture. István Szepsy made our first couple of vintages. Meanwhile, at the request of Lord Rothschild, who had a Hungarian grandmother, I was dispatched to buy a Tokaj vineyard. Hugh and I joined forces. Monies were raised. We exported our first wines to the U.S. in 1994 after the mandatory aging three years in oak casks. Our partners in the U.S. — Wilson Daniels — have contributed so much to the success of Royal Tokaji. Those early days were real pioneering. Exhilarating and frustrating in equal measure. The team was driven by the belief that we could once again bring back these extraordinary wines to the level of luxury that they had once enjoyed and were renowned for. Vineyard selection, careful blending, dedicated packaging, routes-to-market all contributed to Royal Tokaji being consistently awarded the right color medals and happy 90-plus ratings from the beginning. We had to wait 8 years before our first Essencia (1993) was ready. We made history by vinifying and bottling our 1st- and 2nd-class Aszú wines by single-vineyard status. We enabled Hungarians to once
again be proud of their heritage and worldclass brand — Tokaji Aszú. Royal Tokaji became the undisputed brand leader internationally as more and more private companies followed in our wake. The category was once again on the shelves and sommeliers loved these sweet ‘n dry wines with richness yet searing acidity. Once Royal Tokaji had established itself as a luxury brand, the trade and consumers became inquisitive as to the grape variety behind these unique wines. Step forward the Furmint grape, which we now offer as a dry white wine under the Oddity label.
New Milestone Achieved In 2015, Royal Tokaji will celebrate our 25th anniversary. Readers with more than just a passing knowledge of European history will recognize that this, in itself, is a remarkable achievement. Most importantly for Hungary, the year 1990 represents ‘freedom’ from the past communist masters. Thus, our 1990 vintage was the first vintage harvested ‘in freedom’ for more than 40 years. Secondly, it is a testament to the vision of Britain’s most esteemed wine writer, Hugh Johnson, who had realized then that all (historic) European wine areas were producing excellent wines except one, the Tokaj wine region in Hungary. Royal Tokaji has succeeded in re-creating the heritage of Tokaji; now it is up to luxury enthusiasts to enjoy these legendary wines.
The esteemed Royal Tokaji Essencia, shown here nestled in the wooden box with a crystal spoon for serving, is available in very limited supply at The Restaurant at Setai in Miami Beach. A 375 ml bottle provides 12-13 (1 oz) pours. The 2000 bottle at The Setai is $1,360.
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I N V E S TM E N T
By Stephen Joseph Keeler
Chocolate: Sweet Commodity for Investors willing to pay increasing prices for a daily dose.
Relentless Demand = Savvy Investment Chocolate confectioners are taking note. With the increased demand comes higher cost, and higher candy bar prices at many chocolatiers in the developed world, like Hershey. Regardless, consumer demand continues to soar worldwide, prompting increased efforts – sometimes as dire as cocoa-bean smuggling in Ghana – to garner supplies of the commodity. In September, cocoa futures reached a 32-year high, spiking to $3,259 a ton for December delivery and predictions that it could reach $4,000 a ton in short order.
“B
uy cheap, sell dear” is the timehonored phrase for basic, rational investing. What we don’t know, of course, is when the object of our investment desire is closer to cheap or dear. And when that object happens to be the cocoa bean, the core ingredient for chocolate, sometimes you need to take into account the irrational demand for the sweet stuff. Some cocoa experts don’t think that demand is just a trickle. They’re thinking more tsunami. As incomes, transportation infrastructure, safety and production capacity improve across the world, people who never had access to quality chocolate before are now satisfying their sweet tooth in prodigious numbers. In India, for example, by some estimates, eight out of every 10 people have never had chocolate in their lifetimes – yet now they do – and they’re
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With the expanding marketplace and pent-up demand outstripping supply of cocoa beans, some investors are making untraditional moves into the rich traditions of the sweets business. That is the goal behind BBX Capital’s recent acquisition of Hoffman’s Chocolate and several other peer brands in the United States, according to Jarett Levan, President of BBX Capital and BBX Sweet Holdings. “Everybody loves chocolate,” Jarett said with the enthusiasm of a not-infrequent-indulger of the sweet stuff. “Even though the price of cocoa beans continues to rise, people still want quality chocolates.” It’s a luxury they’re not willing to give up. “When you wrap the experience of eating great chocolate in the tradition, quality and perfection of a long-standing community company such as Hoffman’s, chocolate lovers will always be loyal customers.” But it wasn’t just a love for chocolate that brought BBX Capital into the space. They were first exposed to Hoffman’s when they ran BankAtlantic BankCorp, which BBX sold in 2012. Consistent, positive cash flow and a near recession-proof business were no less
attractive. “The customer base for chocolates and candy is large, with great variety.” Jarett informs us. “However, it’s also fragmented, with lots of small confectioners. So it’s given us an opportunity to be creative, giving the customer great value, which differentiates our chocolate, while at the same time achieving economies of scale in the manufacturing process by making intelligent, high-quality acquisitions and streamlining operations.”
Confection Commerce BBX wasted no time in implementing its plan, acquiring three chocolate companies across the country within the past year. By the end of this year, they’ll have over 2,000 square feet of production and warehouse capability, purchasing over 1.5 million pounds of chocolate each year. By rolling up companies that don’t compete with each other, BBX can take advantage of shared marketing and warehouse opportunities to improve operating margins which, on their own, the companies could never have achieved. The distribution side of the company is where tradition helps the chocolate business. “We have a well-regarded wholesale brand in Williams and Bennett, with large customers such as Nieman Marcus and Home Goods,” Jarett said. “Hoffman’s is our flagship retail brand; we have four stores throughout Palm Beach County, and are known for supporting the community with rich traditions. “Ultimately, our legacy is about creating memories,” Jarett said. “We can’t see every customer’s face when they open a gift of chocolates. So we work hard to ensure everything from our ingredients to the wrapper delights the customer and bonds us to them, adding to the pleasure of their day. “Our customers love pairing events, and tonight is Ladies Night at our factory,” Jarett said, running out the door to get to the site. “We’re pairing wine with chocolates. Gotto go prep the room.” And he calls it work. Not a bad investment strategy.
Moonshine Nation: The Art of Creating Cornbread in a Bottle by Mark Spivak
M
oonshine is corn whiskey, traditionally made in improvised stills throughout the Appalachian South. While quality varied from one producer to another, the whiskey had one thing in common:
It was illegal because the distiller refused to pay taxes to the U.S. government. Many
moonshiners
were
descendants
of
Scotch-Irish immigrants who had fought in the original Whiskey Rebellion in the early 1790s.
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t
hey brought their knowledge of distilling with them to America along with a profound sense of independence and a refusal to submit to government authority. Today many Southern states have relaxed their laws and now allow the legal production of moonshine—provided that taxes are paid. Yet many modern moonshiners retain deep links to their bootlegging heritage, bonds that go back generations or even centuries.
Mark Spivak, author of Moonshine Nation
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Moonshine Nation is the definitive book on the true American spirit. The first part chronicles the history of moonshine from the Whiskey Rebellion to the present day; the second half consists of profiles and interviews with modern, legal moonshiners. Spivak traverses the back roads of North Carolina with Junior Johnson, the legendary bootlegger and NASCAR driver; travels to Asheville to spend time with Troy
“People think this moonshine revival is a trend, but it’s really an American love affair.” — Sheila Balentine, wife of distillery owner Spencer Balentine
Confiscated moonshine. Moonshiner Junior Johnson with his restored bootleg car, a 1940 Ford. Ball of Troy and Sons, the country’s only professional female moonshiner; visits the small distillery of Spencer Balentine, whose father ran moonshine in Western Kentucky; and logs time in a shed with Cody Bradford of Howling Moon, the descendant of three generations of men who made and sold corn whiskey. At the conclusion of the book, Spivak provides a list of American moonshine producers — a list that was probably incomplete as soon as it was printed, given the current popularity of corn whiskey. What is it about moonshine that has struck such a resonant chord in our modern imagination? Spivak probes this question in his interviews, and comes up with a variety of interesting answers. “America has always been captivated by outlaws,” says Cody Bradford. “Look at Jesse James and Billy the Kid. People love that stuff. Just look at Popcorn Sutton.” Sutton was the moonshiner from Central
Casting, a foul-mouthed loner in a plaid shirt and overalls who spent his life defying the law. In his profile of Sutton, Spivak postulates him as the man who lived the life others only dream of: flouting authority, sticking his middle finger at society, and totally in charge of his own destiny. He speculates that Sutton was a role model to everyone who felt they lacked control over their lives, and provided a model for others to live out their fantasies. Over and over, what emerges is the fact that moonshine is a basic part of our national heritage. Sheila Balentine, Spencer’s wife, put it succinctly: “People think this moonshine revival is a trend, but it’s really an American love affair. You either love it or you hate it. Most people, they just love it.” The appeal of corn whiskey was summed up more clearly by Joe Michalek, president of Piedmont Distillers. Michalek moved to North Carolina in the 1990s and quickly became
fascinated with the culture of moonshine. One night, at a blues jam session out in the woods, he was offered a taste from a jar of homemade peach moonshine, and was amazed by the smoothness of it. Michalek was hooked. He eventually convinced Junior Johnson to partner with him on a line of legal products, Junior Johnson’s Midnight Moon, which is now the best-selling moonshine in the country. “Moonshine has been made in North Carolina and around the country for decades,” Michalek says. “For centuries, actually. Our customers are buying into the American heritage. It’s the history and the intrigue. And while a lot of people may buy it initially because of the intrigue factor, we’re getting our repeat business because of the juice in the jars. “Our demographics tell us that the entire category of moonshine isn’t a regional thing. It’s an American thing. What comes back to us is that the people who engage in our brand are all over the board — 51 percent male, 49 percent female, representing virtually every group and ethnic category out there. It’s people from the South, of course, but also Oregon and Washington, New Hampshire, Texas and California. It goes from bikers to bankers. Our customers look like America.” Moonshine Nation: The Art of Creating Cornbread in a Bottle, by Mark Spivak; Lyons Press, 2014; paperback, 253 pp., $16.95.
New moonshine still at Troy and Sons in Asheville, North Carolina. Winter 2015
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Partners in the Art of Fusion
&
By Robin Jay
Wade Hublot: Partners in the Art of Fusion By Robin Jay
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F
ans of the Miami HEAT and haute horology are taking their courtside seats this season wearing the second-edition Dwyane Wade Hublot timepiece that’s a 180-degree departure from the basketball star’s first sporty watch. The Classic Fusion Dwyane Wade emanates sophisticated elegance with a polished black ceramic 45 mm case.
In terms of executing the game of basketball, Wade is a timing expert. South Florida Opulence asked him how this skill influenced his input in the design of his latest wristwatch. “A basketball game can be determined by the last few seconds. Precision and timing can make the difference between a win and a loss. Timing is everything on the court and in life. The same attention to detail was taken when creating the Classic Fusion,” Wade said.
Sleek Style Wade’s signature red, black and gold embellishments are reflected in the new timepiece’s motif. The dial features a prominent Dwyane Wade logo integrated into the counter at 3 o’clock, and the printed Dwyane Wade signature at 6 o’clock. The red and black watch box resembles a luggage trunk, the type of traveling accessory Dwyane would take on the road, and can securely fit up to four watches. “A fine timepiece can complement a person’s ensemble and I predominantly wear my watches as a fashion statement. Having a watch that is reliable with a sophisticated design is an added bonus. You don’t have to sacrifice fashion for function,” Wade said.
The Collaboration We asked Wade about his interaction with the craftsmen at Hublot. Does he actually meet with the horology experts abroad to discuss the design? “Yes, I am very involved in the creative process of designing one of my watches and it is a process I truly enjoy,” Wade said. “In 2012, I visited the Hublot headquarters in Switzerland and saw firsthand how they manufacture their watches and took part in the process. I have always admired and respected Hublot. I am truly honored to be one of their U.S. ambassadors.” Hublot, which also serves as the Official Timekeeper of the Miami HEAT, has been a proud partner of Dwyane Wade since 2011, when Dwyane was named an official Brand Ambassador. Off the court, Dwyane is celebrated as a philanthropist, having established Wade’s World Foundation in 2003, and is recognized as a global trendsetter. His sense of style makes him the perfect fit for Hublot.
“Timing is everything on the court and in life. The same attention to detail was taken when creating the Classic Fusion.” – Dwyane Wade
Two HEAT fans you’ll see donning their Classic Fusion Dwyane Wade watches are Tracey and Ed Dikes, owners of Weston Jewelers, which proudly carries the Swiss Hublot timepieces. To try one on for size, visit Weston Jewelers at 1728 Main Street in Weston, Florida. For more details, go to www.westonjewelers.com or call 954-389-7990.
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Pearls: Unique in the World of Gems By Jana Soeldner Danger
t
he birth of a pearl is like the birth of a child. Each produces something precious and unique. So says Michael Hakimian, CEO of Yoko London, a company that designs one-of-a-kind pearl jewelry. “Every pearl has its own look, its own beauty, its own color and luster. Man has very little to do with what the final product looks like.”
them to guard his treasury of jewels. The current brand began in 1973, when Michael’s father, already sensing the dark political undercurrents that led to the Iranian revolution in 1979, moved his family to London. He dealt in both pearls and gemstones until Michael joined the company and the focus turned exclusively to pearls.
With pearls, there’s no need for processing. “Pearls are the only gems that come straight out of nature, beautiful just as they are,” Hakimian continues. ”A diamond comes out of the earth as a lump of rock and is put through cutting and polishing to make it shine. With a pearl, the beauty is either there, or it’s not.”
Yoko is a Japanese word meaning “child of the ocean,” a reminder that pearls are born in the sea. Originally, the gems were harvested by free divers who risked their lives descending as deep as 100 feet under water on a single breath of air in search of natural pearls. And even after completing this dangerous undertaking, there was only a small chance that an oyster brought to the surface would contain a pearl. These free divers were diving for natural pearls, and this practice only took place until the creation of cultured (farmed) pearls.
Putting the Pearl First Yoko approaches jewelry design differently than most high-end brands, Hakimian says. “Other designers start with the gold, and the pearl is the last thing — it fills a hole. With our jewelry, we start with the pearl and design around it.” Members of Hakimian’s family have been involved with precious stones since 1740, when the Shah of Persia asked
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culturing Jewels Today, almost all pearls are cultured. The process begins with nurturing the oysters in shallow water until they are large enough to insert a tiny mother-of-
pearl bead or bit of mantle tissue into each one, a process called nucleation. The nucleus is an irritant, and the oyster’s response is to secrete a substance around it, layer after layer, until it becomes a pearl. Pearl farms need to be in very clean water, Hakimian says. “The cleaner the environment, the better the pearls you get, so many of the farms are in some very remote areas of the world.” A few pearls grow to be very large. Yoko acquired one in 2003 the size of a hen’s egg. “An abnormally large pearl has the same rarity as a seven-foot basketball player,” Hakimian says. “It’s not something you can order.”
Colors Galore Not all pearls are white. They come in a wide variety of hues: cream, yellow, gold, pink, rose, blue, lavender and black. “The color depends on the pigmentation of the oyster, and the minerals and nutrients in the water,” Hakimian explains. “Different parts of the world produce different color tones.” After pearls are harvested, they are graded by color, luster, blemishes, and other characteristics before auction. Hakimian likens an invitation to a South Seas pearl auction to being invited to join an exclusive club. “It’s an exciting event, where you’re bidding against others,” he says. “The larger the parcel, the more opportunity you have to create beautiful pieces of jewelry. And if you want something magnificent, you have to buy it when it’s offered. You won’t get a second chance.” It’s an exciting time at Yoko when a shipment comes in. “Creativity starts to flow, and sometimes there are arguments over what to do with a particular pearl,” Hakimian says.He loves designs that combine different colors and pieces in which the pearls are as perfectly matched as possible. But creating a necklace of 30 or more matched pearls, or even a pair of earrings, can require patience. “If we don’t have the right pearl, we have to wait until the next season to try to find it,” Hakimian says. “A one-of-a-kind necklace might take three seasons to complete. You can’t dictate nature to do what you want it to do.” Although some people buy Yoko pearls as investments, there is usually another reason. “My passionate wish is that every piece gives happiness to whoever wears it,” Hakimian says. “Before you buy a pearl, you should look deep within it and see if it speaks to you. It should give you joy.” Yoko London is available at Morays Jewelers, 50 NE 2nd Ave, Miami. www.yokolondon.com.
Opposite page: • Carnevale Masterpiece necklace. • 18KT white gold ring featuring a pink Freshwater baroque pearl and diamonds. This page: • 18KT rose gold earrings, featuring white South Sea pearls, diamonds and morganite. • 18KT white gold necklace, with an ombre design featuring white South Sea pearls and pink Freshwater pearls. • 18KT white gold necklace, with an ombre design featuring white South Sea pearls and black and grey Tahitian pearls. • 18KT rose gold bangle, with a white South Sea pearl and diamonds. Winter 2015
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Conserving
Uffizi with a Contessa’s Touch By Stephen Joseph Keeler
“Beauty will save the world,” said the great literary artist Dostoyevsky. Many believe it was said as a prophecy; but he may very well have also been thinking of where such beauty can be understood and appreciated, which leads one directly to the fabulous, world-renowned Uffizi Gallery of Florence, Italy. Built in the late 16th century by the Medici family, those great and powerful dukes of Tuscany who called Florence home, the Uffizi – “offices” in Italian – was originally meant to centralize the emerging modern bureaucracy of the Medici and Florence. The Medicis devoted a significant portion of their wealth to beautifying Florence, attracting many of the late-Renaissance master artists and their work, including Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci.
Contessa Maria Vittoria Colonna Rimbotti
When the last of the dynastic Medici, Anna Maria Luisa, married the king of Lorena and moved to France in 1737, she signed an agreement ensuring that all of her artistic possessions would always call Florence home and be available for public display. Not many organizations have been in continuous existence since 1737. Americans know that year as the founding of the city of Richmond, Virginia, and the birth year of prominent Founding Fathers such as Thomas Paine and John Hancock. With this final act of investment in beauty from a noble family of financiers and governors, the Uffizi was transformed into one of the greatest public museums in the world, a position it holds to this day still. But that does not come without hard work from leaders in this day and age, and in the spirit of the leadership of the Medicis, The Friends of the Uffizi continue this grand and noble effort. South Florida Opulence had the distinct honor to spend some time with the President of the Friends of the Uffizi, Contessa Maria Vittoria Colonna Rimbotti.
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“We do not protect these works of art because they are old antiques,” she said, warming to the subject of why the Uffizi is vital to people in this day and age. “We protect them because they point to our roots as a civilization, and at the same time are the very creative high point of our society. People living here and now are linked to the Renaissance; you and I are heirs to the Medici, and that linkage – our inheritance – is made visible, tangible, sensible, by the great art in the Uffizi.” The mission of the Uffizi, then, cannot be discounted. “If we lose our identity, our common history, we will lose everything, we will be one of those lost civilizations which some future explorer will ‘discover’ under overgrown branches and mounds of dirt,” implores Contessa Maria Vittoria. “But while I live and breathe, that will not happen, because of the works in the Uffizi.”
Steep Challenges Neglect and the ravages of time have a formidable foe in Contessa Maria Vittoria. The Contessa traces her own lineage to an ancient Roman family whose members include Pope Clement V, the great re-builder of Rome who restored the Eternal City to glory during his reign from 1417 to 1431. So appreciative were the people of Rome for his benevolent influence that they inscribed on his tomb “the happiness of his age” in the crypt beneath the cathedral of Rome, the Church of St. John Lateran. Adoration of the Magi
But perhaps her own muse is a female ancestor, Vittoria Colonna. Born in 1490, Vittoria Colonna was most famous for poetry, and for her friendship with Michelangelo. The great artist was devoted to her, and presented her with many of his most famous works such as ‘The Pieta.’ She was able to bring Michelangelo into society, and bring him acclaim during his lifetime. But for Maria Vittoria Colonna, much of the legacy and brilliance of Michelangelo would never have been revealed to the world. Countessa Maria Vittoria’s formal association with the Uffizi began in 1993, working to develop benefactors in America, culminating in the formation of the American Friends of the Uffizi in 2006. The group’s activities are varied, and include supporting exhibitions, paintings and restorations, including that of Da Vinci’s spectacular ‘Adoration of the Magi.’ “The wood on the back is so fragile, it was in danger
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of collapsing. We now have been able to procure the talents of the top restorers in the world to ensure that one of Da Vinci’s greatest works is not destroyed.”
Michelangelo's Salon The Friends of the Uffizi also provided for the new Michelangelo Room at the Uffizi Gallery, showcasing Michelangelo's ‘Tondo Doni.’ This oil and tempura masterpiece depicts the Holy Family in the foreground and St. John in the middle ground, and is his only confirmed panel painting that has survived in its original frame. It was removed during World War II and hidden from the bombing and looting of the Nazis, with the return and restoration complete in 2008. Now it has a restored space commensurate with its history and legacy. “And work is not just about restoration and protection of the great artists of the past,” Contessa Maria Vittoria is quick to explain. “We are also working with young painters, sculptors and other artists to cultivate the next Michelangelo.” For this, the Friends of the Uffizi support the acquisition of new collections, and the education of youth, with scholarships, trips, training and promotions. “Access, availability, education, support,
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training, discernment, refinement – nothing great comes without work, and we have the friends of the Uffizi – and we need more – to provide for all that you need in any discipline to develop excellence and to create beauty,” she said.
Become a Member of The Friends of Uffizi “Culture itself has within it the word cult, and a beautiful cult will allow for the flowering of beauty and a beautiful culture,” Contessa Maria Vittoria explained. “Our legacy, the legacy of the Friends of the Uffizi, and of my family, of you and your family, of the Medicis and the Colonnas, will be how well we impart to future generations, to our youth, all that is wonderful, that is beautiful, that speaks to the glory of our civilization. By participating in the Uffizi, we participate in the creation of things divine, of things of beauty. Wherever, whenever, anybody needs an ambassador for beauty, for art, for the Uffizi, I will be there.” Given the personality, poise and dedication of Contessa Maria Vittoria, there is no doubt of her fulfilling that promise. If you are interested in participating with her in this extraordinary endeavor US-based, please visit the Friends at www.friendsoftheuffizigallery.org.
ELEVATING SECURITY TO A FINE ART For ultra-secure, private storage and moving services, trust RoboVault. Our facility offers flawless security for all your collectibles, from vehicles to wine. Our highly-trained fine art and antique handlers can be trusted with anything from a favorite painting to your entire collection. Whether you want to store a piece of jewelry or move a priceless piece of art, you’ll have peace of mind.
PACKING • CRATING • SHIPPING • MOVING • STORAGE • SECURITY For more information or to request a complimentary on-site estimate, call 954-766-9997 or visit RoboVault.com
How To Basel
New Opening Format at Art Basel’s show in Miami Beach 2014*
Art Basel returns December 4-7 at the Miami Beach Convention Center for its 13th edition, with 267 international galleries from 31 countries across North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. "Since it was founded, the Miami Beach show has ranked as the most important art fair in the Americas,� said Marc Spiegler, Director of Art Basel.
New art basel sector for 2014 2014 marks the debut of Survey, a new sector dedicated to precise arthistorical projects. From Modern masters to the latest contemporary pieces across five gallery sectors, galleries will also present works in project-based sectors: Kabinett, Public and Film. "Art Basel has transformed Miami into an impressive, warm, vibrant Center for contemporary art," said David Gryn, Proprietor of ArtProjx in London and Curator of the Art Basel Video Program. "Thanks to Art Basel, Miami has truly established itself as a paramount and vital part of this equation."
New Opening Structure Art Basel is changing the opening structure of this year's edition: The first day will be dedicated to both First Choice and Preview VIP attendees, while the Vernissage will shift to the following morning. Preview (by Invitation only): Wed., Dec. 3, 2014, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Vernissage (by Invitation only): Thurs., Dec. 4, 2014, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Public Days: Thurs., Dec. 4, 2014, 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., Fri., Dec. 5, 2014, 12 Noon to 8 p.m., Sat., Dec. 6, 2014, 12 Noon to 8 p.m., Sun., Dec. 7, 2014, 12 Noon to 6 p.m. * Special thanks to Kathryn Mikesell for her valuable input to South Florida Opulence for this guide. Winter 2015
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Art|Basel Miami Beach Galleries
Franklin Parrasch Gallery Title: Yellow Was Blue, 2013, by Joan Snyder Photo: Franklin Parrasch Gallery
Galerie Eigan + Art Title: Niveau, 2014, by David Schnell Courtesy Galerie Eigan + Art
Kohn Gallery Title: Cannibal Eyes, 2014, by Eddie Martinez Courtesy Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles
Art|Basel Miami Beach Positions
Central Galeria de Arte Untitled, 2014, by Nino Cais Photo: Central Galeria
SlyZmud Title: Numero 3, 2014, by Faivovich & Goldberg. Courtesy the artist and the gallery
Freedman Fitzpatrick Title: The Last of Us, 2014 by Lucy Stahl Photo: Michael Underwood
Art|Basel Miami Beach Edition
Paragon Title: Bye Bye Brazil, 2014, by Sarah Morris Courtesy the artist and the gallery 70
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Paragon Title: Projeto Night Club, 2014, by Leda Catunda Courtesy the artist and the gallery
Two Palms Untitled, 2014, by Cecily Brown Courtesy the artist and the gallery
Art|Basel Miami Beach Survey
Andrew Edlin Gallery Untitled, 1964, by Marcel Storr Courtesy the artist and the gallery
Garth Greenan Gallery Title: Helena by Paul Feeley. Courtesy the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York
Art|Basel Miami Beach Kabinett
Broadway 1602 Title: Yellow Pink Brown Blue, 1964, by Rosemarie Castoro Copyright Rosemarie Castoro, Courtesy the artist and BROADWAY 1602, New York
Curated group and solo exhibitions in focus at Art Basel in Miami Beach. Chosen by the show’s Selection Committee, this year’s Kabinett sector will feature 27 diverse thematic group and solo exhibitions
Francis M. Naumann Fine Art Title: Royal-Lunar Personages at Lunch, 1963, by Leon Kelly Champètre Courtesy the artist and the gallery
Galerie Lelong Untitled, 2014, by Etel Adnan Courtesy the artist and the gallery
Rhona Hoffman Gallery Title: The Breakup, 2012, by Michael Rakowitz Courtesy the artist and the gallery
Art|Basel Miami Beach Nova
Francesca Minini Untitled by Simon Dybbroe Courtesy the artist and the gallery
Jessica Silverman Gallery Title: The Golden Gate, 2014, by Ruairiadh O’Connell Courtesy the artist and the gallery
Michael Jon Gallery Title: 2C, 2014, by JPW3 Courtesy Michael Jon Gallery
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Art|Basel Miami Beach Public The Public sector offers its visitors a chance to see outdoor sculptures, interventions, and performances, sited within an open and public exhibition format at Collins Park. The sector has been produced in collaboration with the Bass Museum of Art since 2011. For details, go to www.Bassmuseum.org.
Art|Basel Miami Beach R. McNamara Ryan McNamara Title: A Story Ballet About The Internet MEEM digital C-print, 20”x30”, edition of 5 Courtesy the artist
Art|Basel Miam Beach Film Curated around the notion of ‘Playfulness’, David Gryn’s 4th edition of Film will feature a wide array of film and video works driven by the playfulness of Internet gaming, the online world, art making, dance, performing, colour, sound and music. Access is free with an entry ticket to the show. Friday, December 5, at 2 p.m.: Art Basel’s Salon program will feature 'Digital Gamer/ Animations/ Online Surfing,’ a talk between David Gryn and the artists Tabor Robak and Rachel Rose. Daily, December 3-7: Miami Beach Convention Center Film Library Nightly, December 3-6; Soundscape Park Evening Film Program Free public access, seating is limited - bring a blanket or lawn chair. For a full lineup, go to artbasel.com/miamibeach/film.
SIDE SHOWS AROUND TOWN Thirty Years On The Road. ArtCenter celebrates its 30th anniversary with an exhibition of Miami visual arts history. Runs until February 2015 at The Richard Shack Gallery and Project 924. www.Artcentersf.org
Playing With Shapes Hosted By Louis Vuitton. The Maison presents Pierre Paulin and Herman Miller’s long-lost, unrealized project, which the French designer and American furniture manufacturer thought up in 1972. Miami Design District in Palm Court, 140 NE 39th Street Suite 326, Miami. Zero Tolerance. This exhibition presented by The Young Arts Gallery will visualize themes like artistic freedom and the arts’ responsibility in society and politics. Located at 2100 Biscayne Blvd., Miami. www. Youngarts.org.
25 Years of Art Discourse From Buenos Aires to Miami. A study and reinterpretation of the Diana Lowenstein Gallery’s 25-year history. Located at 2043 N. Miami Avenue, Miami. www.Dianalowensteingallery.com.
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50th Anniversary Rubell Celebration. Don and Mera Rubell celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, which marks the start of their art collection. Large scale works from seven artists will be on display at 95 NW 29th Street, Miami. www.rfc.museum BAZA@R Art Basel Miami Beach at Soho Beach House. Featured brands include La Perla, Henri Bendel, Natura Bisse, VINCE, Givenchy Beauty, Dior Nails, Gucci Eyewear and Armani Fragrance. Dec. 2, 1-6 p.m.; Dec. 3, 12-7 p.m.; Dec. 4, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Open to the public with RSVP at BAZAARBeauty@hs-pr.com. One Way: Peter Marino. Presented by The Bass Museum of Art, this exhibition explores American Architect’s multifaceted relationship with art. On display December 4 through March 29, 2015. www.bassmuseum. org. Institute of Contemporary Art. On view Dec. 3 - March 15 is Pedro Reyes’ installation Sanatorium, a project mixing art and psychology, and Andra Ursuta’s sculpture and installation that engages the psychology of power and modernism. 4040 NE 2nd Ave., Miami. www.icamiami.org.
Museum-Quality Art Transportation and Storage Experts:
RoboVault By Dale King
W
hen the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy lends a priceless art piece to a South Florida Museum; when glass maestro Dale Chihuly needs a fragile exhibit installed in Fairchild Gardens; or when a Miami resident buys a life-size bronze sculpture during Art Basel and needs it shipped to their French summer villa, ever wonder whom they call to get the logistics handled? No doubt: It’s a museum-quality fine-art shipping expert like Bruce Tang and his team at RoboVault in Fort Lauderdale.
is designed to withstand 200 mile-an-hour hurricane force winds, the only structure in South Florida with that level of fortitude.
When the Impossible is Mandatory
When Art Basel descends into Miami Beach for what some call the country’s most prestigious art week, the art-moving experts at RoboVault are the go-to team. “One of our key specialties is shipping and installation for art fairs,” Tang says. His clientele includes museums, galleries, private collectors and companies looking for peaceof-mind and a safe location for valuable objets d’art, exotic cars and one-of-a-kind valuables.
Tang’s staff must come up with personalized plans to meet specific customer situations. “We exist to provide each client with the highest level of protection for their most treasured tangible assets.” For example, RoboVault was commissioned to move a 2,100-pound granite sculpture out of a Miami Beach home. Five technicians tackled the project and created a custom device made of a hard but smooth plastic that allowed the one-ton artwork to slide from the home into a specially made crate. Another time, Tang received a request to hang a $10 million Renoir painting behind bulletproof glass on a Norwegian Cruise Lines ship. Just recently, he created a plan for transporting a 60-million-year-old fossil out of the United Kingdom. And, RoboVault recently located a Duane Hanson life-size sculpture from one terminal to another inside Fort Lauderdale Hollywood Airport.
RoboVault provides secure moving, storing and shipping services for affluent clients who want to protect or safely move multimilliondollar art, automobiles, temperature-sensitive wine collections and priceless fine jewelry.
Tang’s RoboVault staff is comprised of experienced technicians, each with about 10 years of expertise. “That’s what separates us from the competition. Our staff is highly trained in the delicate handling of sensitive, fragile and irreplaceable items.”
The Fort Knox-style climate-controlled structure replete with highest-tech security gadgetry is perhaps the country’s most futuristic storage site. The location near Fort Lauderdale Hollywood Airport
RoboVault is located at 3340 SE 6th Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Call (954) 766-9997 or visit www.RoboVault.com.
Art Basel’s Best Friend
Art|Basel Upcoming Shows Hong Kong, March 15 - 17, 2015 Basel, June 18 - 21, 2015
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ART NOISE OF
The Musical Dimensions Of PAMM Miami. Twenty years ago, it was a cultural desert. Today, the Magic City is in the top 10 “Cities that Matter” (ahead of Dubai and Paris), according to a 2014 Wealth Report by a London-based consulting firm, and it’s the metropolitan venue for a booming international art scene. At the forefront of Miami’s modern art movement and cultural growth stands Pérez Art Museum Miami (“PAMM”), which offers visitors an extrasensory experience – music-infused art. Here you’ll discover everything from Afro-Caribbean rhythm to Zappa-influenced works and an ambitious schedule of exhibitions.
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By Todd R. Sciore
EXHIBIT: Let’s Make The Water Turn Black On view at PAMM through March 1, 2015, this is a theatrical installation involving odd combinations of found objects, which the artist transforms into awkward, puppet-like figures, and kinetic elements choreographed with sound. Together, these pieces become theater plays or small operas with uncanny objects as their main performers. Geoffrey Farmer: 2013–14 Installation view, (Main image) Kunstverein in Hamburg Courtesy of the artist, Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver, and Casey Kaplan, New York. Photo: Fred Dott
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Housed in a cutting-edge facility overlooking Biscayne Bay is a young collection of roughly 1,800 pieces and an eyecatching hanging gardens of native tropical plant species designed by artist and botanist Patrick Blanc. Well versed in the design of museums, the renowned firm Herzog & de Meuron pulled out all of the stops for this project: “They implemented a number of intriguing components here that are really unique and special,” said Leann Standish, PAMM’s Deputy Director for External Affairs. “Our auditorium doubles as our grand staircase, for example.”
Panache at PAMM While striving to be a microcosm of its host city’s cultural diversity, PAMM is not your grandfather’s art museum, as some of its exhibits come replete with musical components melding both sights and sounds for a unique, multisensory experience. “We’re very open in the museum. Music is a big part of the programming in general. We want people to have a transformative experience. The building has exquisite acoustics. We hosted an event recently with a choral group here in town called Seraphic Fire. It was a really moving experience.”
EXHIBIT Jardim Botânico This exhibit references the neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro and the dichotomy in Milhazes’ work between structure and rational order and sensuality, expression and emotion. On view through January 11, 2015, her distinct paintings are motifs from art historical movements, including Baroque, European Modernism, and North American Pop Art. (Above) Beatriz Milhazes: Chora, menino (Cry Boy), 1996 Acrylic on canvas 71 - 55/64 x 75 - 13/64 inches Private Collection
EXHIBIT Beyond the Limited Life of Paintings The exhibition from the Holding Capital Group Collection explores the evolution of fine printmaking in the United States after the 1960s. (Left) Jasper Johns: The Seasons (Summer)1987 Four prints, etching and aquatint on paper 26 -1/2 x 34 inches Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, gift of Holding Capital Group Collection © Jasper Johns/Licensed by VAGA, New York. Photo: Sid Hoeltzell 76
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As a small sampling of PAMM’s other sonic complements, experimental electronic musician Dutch E. Germ performed as part of an installation by the artist collective known as Yemenwed, while the genre-hopping music of Frank Zappa is the inspiration behind the currently running theatrical installation Let’s Make The Water Turn Black by artist Geoffrey Farmer.
EXHIBIT: Global Positioning Systems Through August 15, 2015 – This thematic group presentation explores the intersection between globalization and history.
The Global Art Quest Much like the A&R (artists and repertoire) position at a record label, PAMM’s curators are tasked with discovering new artists who can make a strong impact, while showing the depth and potential staying power needed to have a long, successful career. However, unlike their musical counterparts who have the luxury of building a songwriting team around a particular vocalist to pounce on whatever musical trend is hot at the moment, curators face the challenge of working with an artist and developing an exhibition which can be a two-year process. “Our curators are very internationally focused; they travel all over the world to discover what is happening in the various fields of art and they are constantly thinking of what’s going to be relevant here, nationally and internationally, and what’s going to engage our visitors”.
A Different Art Gallery Experience While many of us grew up thinking of a museum as being like the school library, where any talking at all is done in hushed tones, PAMM dares to be different. “That’s not the culture of this museum at all; we really want to be Miami’s living room. If you come on the day when the school kids are here, they’re lying on the floor coloring.” The “school kids” would be third graders from surrounding Miami-Dade County schools who are an important part of PAMM’s sense of community and mission, which is to both educate local youth in the arts while stimulating their creativity.
(Above) Xul Solar: Proyecto fachada para Elsetta,1954 Watercolor on Paper 9-3/4 x 14 inches Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, partial and promised gift of Jorge M. Pérez © Fundación Pan Klub - Museo Xul Solar, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Visit PAMM during Art Basel Miami BEACH 2014
PHOTO COURTESY OF Iwan Baan
With the highly anticipated 2014 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach taking place on December 4-7, rest assured that in true PAMM fashion, they have a very special evening planned for the event. “We are premiering a musical performance piece. People will have quite an amazing experience this year.” You may also seek solace in knowing that PAMM’s curators will begin dialogues with artists about potential exhibits that, a few years from now, will resonate with both the casual observer and the most enthusiastic collector and connoisseur as they pass through the museum. One can only sit and wonder what the soundtrack will be.
(Above) George Segal: Abraham’s Farewell to Ishmael, 1987 Painted plaster 107 x 54 x 54 inches Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, gift of The George and Helen Segal Foundation, Inc. © Pérez Art Museum Miami, 2014. Photo: Oriol Tarridas
PAMM is located at 1103 Biscayne Blvd. in Miami. For information, call 305-375-3000, email info@pamm.org or go to www.pamm.org. Winter 2015
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Emilio Sauma
By Jana Soeldner Danger
Cuban-born artist Emilio Sauma’s favorite time to paint is late at night, alone in his Miami studio. “I have a glass of wine, a good cigar, music, and a brush in my hand,” he says. “That’s when I explode and work for hours.”
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auma prefers to paint on large canvases, using intricate designs and bold colors to create dramatic, visually arresting works. But he was a bit taken aback when a collector in Louisiana wanted to commission a painting 20 feet long and eight feet tall. And it was to be a framed piece, not a mural. “I decided for something that large, there had to be a story to go with it,” Sauma says. To fill the canvas, he conjured up a tale about Roman soldiers trying to capture a beautiful woman, and the vicious battle that ensued. The result was the spectacular “El Rapto,” a complex painting with galloping horses, helmeted soldiers, a whispering goddess, flying spears, and a woman with a tear in her eye, crying about the suffering from the war she has caused. Sauma became so deeply involved in the creation of the huge painting that he worked till his fingers literally bled. “I have pictures to prove it,” he says. But Sauma wasn’t content to let the story end there. Instead, he continued the saga so it will eventually become a series with three more paintings depicting the woman’s capture, her escape, and her eventual triumphant rescue. Sauma says his success as an artist got a boost when, early in his career, he did a poster for a March of Dimes gala. The organization auctioned the original painting and sold signed prints, with the 78
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proceeds going to the charity. The work gave him exposure that led to commissions and wider recognition. Sauma claims Cundo Bermudez as his mentor. He was teaching language arts and drama in a Miami middle school when the worldfamous, Cuban-born master turned up at a friend’s art exhibit. When the friend introduced Sauma to Bermudez, Sauma was thrilled. “For me, it was like meeting Picasso,” Sauma says. “He was one of the great artists in the world, and he knew so much. He told me he had seen my work, and he thought I had a touch. I could hardly believe it.” As a middle school teacher, Sauma used art as a way of connecting with his students. When kids would bring their yearbooks to him to sign, he would instead make drawings on the pages for them. “There would always be a line outside my classroom,” he recalls. After his introduction to Bermudez, they developed a friendship. Sauma would visit Bermudez at his home, where they would drink coffee—and an occasional glass of scotch—and Bermudez would tell stories and offer the younger artist advice about his work. “One thing he told me is that behind all the colors on a canvas, there always has to be a drawing, and the drawing is the basis of the painting,” Sauma says. “Now I always do a drawing first.”
Sauma is proud of his success as an artist. But he is also proud of another accomplishment: the founding of the Coral Gables Hispanic Cultural Foundation, where he serves as president and CEO. Each year, the organization hosts the Coral Gables Hispanic Cultural Festival that showcases local and international artists, musicians and designers, and draws more than 15,000 people. “Emilio has done a really incredible job in forming a foundation that cares about promoting art and culture in the South Florida community,” says Leandra Lopez, a volunteer who works as treasurer for the foundation. “He cares not only about promoting his own art, but the works of other artists as well.” Every year, a committee chooses a particular artist to honor during the festival. The first year it was Bermudez. In successive years there came Mario Carreno, Rafael Soriano and Jose Maria. This year, the festival’s fifth anniversary, Sauma himself was the honoree. Sauma’s inspiration comes from simple day-to-day life with his fiancée, Lucia Zas, and his daughters, Sabrina and Savannah Sauma and Sophia Lopez. In addition to large canvases, he also does small paintings he calls details. “Not everyone has a wall for one of the large paintings, but anyone can find a place for one of these,” he says. Miami can be a good place for an artist, Sauma says. “There’s a tremendous amount of talent here. Miami is evolving, and people are getting more involved in the art scene.”
Main image: "The Beginning". Top right: "El Rapto" is 20ft long by 10ft high, Sauma’s biggest piece to date. There has been talk about its similarity to Picasso's Guernica because of the battle. Lower right: "La Caribeña" (The Caribbean Lady), official poster for this year’s Coral Gables Hispanic Cultural Festival.
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M E T enigma A L the
o f A l e x a nd e r K r i v o s h e i w By Hope Gainer
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Sculptor Expresses the Song of Movement & Poetry of Emotion From his studio in West Palm Beach, Alexander Krivosheiw finds his creative passion and a creative component of language and expression through sculpture – working with fabricated and cast bronze and aluminum, straddling the line between abstraction and representation. “I think through my work – and I create physical shape through thought,” said Krivosheiw. “This celebration reflects my world. I can communicate things I have no other way of expressing.” As a boy, Alexander discovered he had an innate attraction to movement and natural forms. His ability to conjure metaphoric designs in his mind translated seamlessly to his hands, allowing him to project his language in tangible forms. His sculptural shapes, many with the fluidity of moving water, are cast in metal, hand-welded, polished and shaped. Inspiration comes from industrial design, ancient Greek cultures, and modern design aesthetic. Ron Cavalier, who recently featured Krivosheiw’s sculptures at his gallery in NYC on 57th Street in an exhibition titled ‘Color, Light, and Movement,’ describes his work, “Each of his sculptures embodies an enigma: the story of life, told by stopping time, and capturing sensation through experiences from the past with such grace and juxtaposition that the eye cannot help but to sense the motion of the lines, shapes, and textures.” Krivosheiw was born in 1976 in Brooklyn, New York. He holds a B.A. with honors in sculpture from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. His intrigue with art gained further momentum while studying Greek mythology, archaeology, and social anthropology in Crete. Afterward, Alexander apprenticed for seven years with sculptor Kevin Barrett to hone his skills for monumental pieces, as well as with painter Tom Wesselmann to create wall reliefs.
“My sculpture brings permanence to my expressions, and for that I am grateful.” — Alexander Krivosheiw Design District, Baker Spondor Gallery at The Boca Raton Resort and Gallery Biba on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach have a representation of his work. This past spring, the Jacobson Foundation purchased Krivosheiw’s ‘First Kiss’ sculpture. “The moment I saw the beautiful sculpture I recognized its importance to American Contemporary Art. The gleaming reflections of the polished bronze and the sinuous form, coupled with the effects of light and shade, made this an ‘object of desire’, ” said Diane DeMell Jacobsen, PhD, Trustee, Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Foundation. The highlight in Krivosheiw’s career so far is the major-league commission to create a monumental 20-foot version of his bronze sculpture Moore’s Canova (shown below). The piece, to be unveiled in 2015, will grace the grounds of an exclusive luxury residential complex in Taiwan directly across from the Opera House.
Experience Krivosheiw at Art Basel Miami Krivosheiw’s sculptures will be on display during Art Basel Week in Miami at the Scope Art Fair. In 2015, Art Palm Beach, Art Stage Singapore, Art Dubai, Scope New York and Art Monaco are on his schedule. For more information, visit www.alexanderssculptures.com
Krivosheiw’s sculptures appeal to a wide array of art collectors with price points ranging from $1,000 to over $1 million. In South Florida, Collection Privee Gallery in the Winter 2015
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Magic with the Moonlight BY JOHN D. ADAMS
Magic with the Moonlight His images are at once haunting, ethereal, empowering, beautiful, garish. . . His process pushes the boundaries of light and motion through a brilliant amalgam of 19th and 21st century photographic technologies. Photographer Alejandro Chaskielberg succeeds in bringing us something we have not seen before. And while many of us have been raised to fear those things that “go bump in the night,” Chaskielberg has embraced the darkness. And the results are astounding.
Night moves After nearly 200 years since the advent of photography, it is rare to see something truly new. Working only at night, Chaskielberg creates long-exposure pictures using only the moon and select light sources to change our perceptions of humanity, time, and space. “The first time I took a night picture I was struck by how different it looked. And I loved it,” says Chaskielberg, speaking from his home in South America. Because he employs a 1960s, large format Sinar 4 x 5 camera, by necessity, his subjects undergo a physical transformation. “It is very difficult because people need to remain still for between 3 and 5 minutes… They aren’t able to see what’s happening around them so they have a very different presence,” explains 82
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Chaskielberg. “They are like 19th century images because people had to stand still.” And the darkness adds additional layers of physical and psychological changes. “They look at a certain spot and it is dark there. They don’t see what I’m doing because we are working in the moonlight. Being outside, hearing the insects, the pale moonlight, these things make you very trusting of the people around you.”
Light through the darkness Chaskielberg has traveled to some of the most devastated and impoverished places on Earth to make his pictures. And his work telegraphs the power of the human spirit refracted by the magic of moonlight. “I discovered that looking at my own work there was something I was capturing that was unique. It wasn’t just the color or the atmosphere, it’s a very powerful narrative element in the picture. I photograph people that live in very difficult conditions. However, I decided not to photograph that part of their stories. I decided to show them in a very respectful and powerful way.” And the way Chaskielberg employs light and color has a lot to do with his final images. “Working during the night you have a different kind of control over light and color. Depending on the light you use, the colors will change. If I shine a yellowish light on green, it becomes pale. Or if I add more blue light, the subjects become more vibrant. I mix the different elements that
are there,” he says. “I don’t take the actual action, you stage that action and then shoot it at night.” While some critics have called out Chaskielberg for “staging” his photographs, there is a technical necessity for his participants to remain completely still. And he often spends weeks on location observing the locals and engaging with them until he has a better understanding of how they move or carry themselves. “Of course my work has been criticized because I do set up people and situations. But I trust that other people have different thoughts about my work. And that allows for people to open up a dialogue that goes beyond the image.”
“These images are a window. This is not us looking at them, it is them looking at us. If you photograph them beautifully, powerfully, you begin to see that all people are just like you and me. And that’s the beginning of a possible change that we can do. At least a change in the way that we look at other people. And that’s a lot.” Through “National Geographic” and other media sources, we have all seen pictures of exotic peoples and places bathed in sunlight. But with Chaskielberg nighttime images, we are forced to change our perceptions. The immediate draw is his use of colors or senses of movement, but then you are engaged by the people. It is this new way of looking at things which brings humanity to the pictures.
Dark illumination It is tempting to simply marvel at the technical prowess Chaskielberg employs to make his photographs. But, like his pictures, once you get past the wonder, you sense a deeper intent. “I think besides the power of the images and the technique, the message is important. Every single human is important and has stories to tell. It’s important to me that my photography is not too conceptual. I trust that people who see my pictures can be moved emotionally beyond anything about the technical side of taking these pictures at night.
Africa: “I remember working in Turkana, Kenya… these people were suffering from continuous drought. I worked in the middle of the desert with a family of 15. Kids, older people. They loved it. They really had fun. You have never been with your family in total silence in the darkness and holding a pose for 5 minutes. There are small sounds, people may whisper, or I talk to them and it’s funny for them. The way that I do the shoots I want the people to be part of the project, to be actors.” Winter 2015
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Japan: Chaskielberg traveled to the small fishing village of Otsuchi, Japan—one of the most devastated regions from the 2011 tsunami. “I didn’t know what I was going to do. I started researching, walking through the city, and taking pictures of people who had lost their homes. Then I found a ruined photo album (see image below). And it made me think that here these people have not only lost all of their material things, the memories of their pasts have been lost too because they have lost all of their family photos. I started to think about how memory interacts with our family photos. So when I discovered this destroyed album the way the images were destroyed talks a lot about the tragedy as well. I took a number of pictures in black and white, then went in and digitally added the colors that I found in those ruined pictures. So I used the color of the ruined photos as a bridge between the past and the present.” Visit Alejandro Chaskielberg’s website: www.chaskielberg.com
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Experience Makes Us Experts. At Brown & Brown, we know that we must be as agile as the cheetah in order to thrive in the competitive insurance environment. Our unique culture has enabled us to quickly chase down new opportunities, adapt our products and services to best meet market demands, and satisfy our customers.
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Information deemed reliable but is not warranted. This offering is subject to errors, omissions, changes or withdrawal without notice. Equal Housing Opportunity. © 2014 Opulence International Realty
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA & SOCCER MOGUL
Meet Riccardo Silva, Miami resident, global entrepreneur, soccer enthusiast By Joshua Tomey
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R
Riccardo Silva smiles as he leans back into a couch on the second floor lounge of Cavalli Miami. This latest venture with friend and fellow Italian, Roberto Cavalli, is a fashionably eclectic restaurant right in the pulse of vibrant Miami Beach, which seems as much a nod to Cavalli’s famed designs as it is to Silva’s zealous yet soft-spoken approach to creating wealth and value. “Business is going well.” Nothing could be truer for 44-year-old Silva, President and major shareholder of MP & Silva, the international leader in television rights distribution with a focus on sports throughout Europe and Asia. Highlights of Silva’s circulations include soccer’s FIFA World Cup, the English Premier League, his native Italian Series A and the NBA, among numerous other associations and events.
The Proverbial Silver Spoon Silva comes from a long lineage of successful business enterprises. His family is one of the most prominent historic families in the Italian chemicals industry. While Silva has a stake in two well-heeled and well-reviewed London establishments, Cavalli Miami is his first eatery in South Florida, now home to him, his wife Tatiana and two young sons. “I was lucky,” Silva muses about his privileged upbringing. Born to parents with expansive holdings in chemical production and publishing, he enjoys both the challenges and freedoms of working from a place of principle. “The business I built, especially the television rights business, didn’t come for the purpose of money. I ask myself why? And I think for the passion to do something valuable.”
Soccer Savvy But Silva’s practical modesty belies the constant undercurrent of his love for soccer and its persistent theme in his life. Whether by coincidence or not, it’s an exciting time for a business mogul and fan of the beautiful game to be in Miami.
“The business I built, especially the television rights business, didn’t come for the purpose of money. I ask myself why? And I think for the passion to do something valuable.” — Riccardo Silva
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“I think Miami soccer has a much bigger potential,” he notes in reference to the city’s proposed professional soccer team, tentatively scheduled to join Major League Soccer (MLS) pending negotiations over stadium financing and location. “A football club is something I’m following.” The prospective owners of Miami’s future MLS team is led by famed footballer David Beckham and his business partner Simon Fuller. But despite the celebrity status of the would-be franchise holders, Silva thinks they, and the possible team, should think bigger. “I think the big step up should be either playing Copa Libertadores (among the most significant soccer tournaments in the world and the most admired club competition in South America) or the dream would be playing in the European Champions League,” Silva elaborates. “This could really be the turn for American soccer, playing top teams in the world from Brazil, Argentina, England, Italy, Spain.”
Making Miami Home However unclear the future of the Miami franchise, Silva doesn’t hesitate to expound on the virtues of his newly adopted home. “My two favorite cities have always been New York and Rio de Janeiro,” he says. “I came (to Miami) and here was the perfect combination of them.” Silva is finishing his new home at the Penthouse of the Continuum South Tower, a $25 million Chad Oppenheim designed condominium complete with a rooftop infinity pool and views of South Beach and the new Cavalli Miami below. “For me the most important thing is something to be proud of,” he said of the restaurant. “The balance sheets, in the end, are not the most important thing.” Lucky indeed.
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When Elephants Paint By Mia Fineman
PHOTO COURTESY OF Olivier Blaise
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Mia Fineman is a writer and curator in New York City. She is the author, with Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid, of When Elephants Paint, The Quest of Two Russian Artists to Save the Elephants of Thailand. The morning of her first art class, Sao, a 35-year-old female Asian elephant, picks up a paintbrush with the tip of her trunk and tentatively places it in her mouth. Crouching at her feet, Theung, her mahout (trainer), gently guides her trunk back toward a blank sheet of paper laid out on the ground. “Euughhaa, euughhaa,” he says, by way of encouragement. Sao swishes her tail, flaps her ears, and casually tosses the paintbrush to the ground. “Gep! gep!” (“Pick it up!”), Theung commands. Sao stretches out her trunk to retrieve the brush, and delicately touches it to the paper at her feet. She hesitates for a moment, as her breath rushes out the end of her trunk with a soft whooshing sound. Then, holding her trunk straight, she takes a tiny step backward, slowly dragging the paint-loaded brush across the surface of the paper and leaving behind a brilliant streak of cobalt blue. “Geng mark!” (“Well done!”), Theung says, smiling with satisfaction at what can only be described as a moment of artistic breakthrough. For the next several hours, Sao and Theung turn out one masterpiece after another in a focused frenzy of interspecies collaboration.
Standing 8’6” at the shoulder with the endless legs of a supermodel, Sao is stately, regal, and supremely self-possessed. Like most of Thailand’s 3,000 domesticated elephants, she was formerly employed in the timber industry, hauling teak logs out of the rain forests. Since the late eighties, however, deforestation and anti-logging laws have left Sao and many other domesticated elephants both homeless and jobless. In order to ensure their survival, Thai elephants and their mahouts desperately need to develop new skills that will be marketable in a global economy. Fortunately, as we discovered on our recent trip to Thailand, many of these elephants and mahouts are endowed with tremendous reserves of untapped artistic talent. Elephants, particularly Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), seem to possess an innate impulse to draw. Unprompted, an Asian elephant in captivity will often pick up a pebble or stick with the tip of her trunk and casually doodle on the floor of her enclosure. Of course, the leap from doodling in the sand to painting on canvas requires training, encouragement, and art supplies for both elephants and human artists. We were thrilled to find that Thai elephants, conditioned by years of close collaborative work with their mahouts, were exceptionally quick learners. Not only did they swiftly master the fundamental techniques of painting, they also began to develop distinctive sensibilities and styles. As painters, elephants are masters of the rapidly executed, spontaneous gesture. With the exception of 35-year-old Sao,
PHOTO COURTESY OF Olivier Blaise
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PHOTO COURTESY OF Olivier Blaise
As painters, elephants are masters of the rapidly executed, spontaneous gesture.
most of the elephant artists we met during our travels through Thailand were relatively young, ranging from about four- to tenyears-old. Much of their work has a youthful, exuberant quality — a pleasure in the viscosity of the paint and a process-oriented sense of exploration into the endless possibilities of mark-making. During the learning stage, the mahouts generally select the colors and determine when a painting is finished. They teach the elephants how to hold the brush, and a number of mahouts have also customized their paintbrushes, adding bamboo handles that are easier for the elephants to grip. Although no two elephant paintings are alike, we discovered a number of formal similarities that suggest the emergence of three major regional styles. Elephant painting of the northern, or Lampang school, tends to be lyrical and expressive, characterized by broken brushwork, curvilinear forms, and bold, clear, primary colors. In the central Thai, or Ayutthaya school, elephants and mahouts prefer darker, cooler colors such as deep violet, black, and forest green, which they apply with broad, vigorous brushstrokes that sweep across the canvas from edge to edge. Elephants of the southern, or Phuket school, tend toward saturated tertiary colors like mustard, plum, and magenta, mixed on the surface of the paper with broad, gentle, curvy brushstrokes.
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At this point, both the elephants and their mahouts approach the blank canvas with an innocent eye. The canon of elephant art is still in its embryonic stages — there are no firm guidelines and few preconceptions as to what an elephant painting is supposed to look like. Moreover, very few elephants or mahouts have ever set foot inside an art museum and, at least for the moment, most remain art-world outsiders. Indeed, elephant painting is the ultimate Outsider Art, reinvigorating a moribund art scene and resolving the fin-de-siècle “crisis in painting” with a bold and uninhibited return to gestural abstraction. But the “innocent eye stage” of elephant painting won’t last long. With more extensive training and increased exposure, elephant artists are bound to venture into new aesthetic territory. In order to encourage the progress of elephant art — and of individual elephant artists — we are now establishing several regional elephant art academies throughout Thailand. At these academies, elephants and their handlers will be taught basic painting techniques using non-toxic art supplies, and they will be encouraged to develop and explore their own artistic visions. The Asian Elephant Art and Conservation Project will also provide crucial exposure for these budding elephant artists by showcasing their work in exhibitions worldwide. Elephant Abstraction may only be the first phase in the stylistic evolution of pachyderm painting. Perhaps someday soon we might see the development of Elephant Impressionism, Elephant Surrealism, even Elephant Conceptual Art. The future belongs to them.
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KILLER HEELS
The fascinating – and sometimes chilling – history of high-heeled shoes By Robin Jay
Fifth Avenue window shoppers who marvel at the striking high-heel shoe styles of the season witness far more than trendy fashion statements – they’re taking in a history lesson – or at least the latest chapter in the everevolving chronological tale. The legacy of the high-heeled shoe bestows a tangible display of the metamorphosis of culture, architecture, social status, identity, sexuality and power through the ages. Vivienne Westwood. “Super Elevated Gillie,” 1993. Courtesy of Vivienne Westwood. Photo: Jay Zukerkorn 94
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No one is more familiar with this ‘podiatrical’ fashion legacy than Lisa Small, curator of Killer High Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe at the Brooklyn Museum, which runs through February 15, 2015. “The high heel, an object as well as symbol, is an icon in popular culture,” Small said. “There’s a lot of great history there to explore, as well as an opportunity to look at some really innovative and visually interesting designs.”
Winde Rienstra. “Bamboo Heel,” 2012. Bamboo, glue, plastic cable ties. Courtesy of Winde Rienstra.
The Dawn of the High Heel Historians agree that heels present an oxymoron – they aim to enhance the illusion of movement by actually hindering it. Heels shorten the length of a woman’s stride, while giving the false appearance of speediness. But despite this deception of perception, both impractical and sensible use of heels dates back to ancient times. Since 3500 B.C., Egyptian murals depict shoes as a distinction of class. Poor people went barefoot, while women and men in upper classes sported shoes made of leather straps that, to them, represented ‘Ankh,’ or life. Ironically, Egyptian meat cutters strapped on heels for quite the opposite purpose: to keep their feet from touching blood-soaked floors.
Brooklyn Museum photograph, Sarah DeSantis, photographer
Chinese. Manchu Woman's Shoe, 19th century. Cotton, embroidered satin-weave silk. Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum Collection, 34.1060 a, b.
Domination and Restraint Eventually, shoes went from a statement of class stature to use as a means of restriction.
Photo: Jay Zukerkorn
The rise of cork and wood platform overshoes called chopines rooted in Turkey in the 1400s – sometimes elevating women more than two feet taller than their natural height. The craze spread throughout Europe. Venetian women wore chopines to exemplify their social status. However, some visitors viewed them as comical and demeaning. According to fashion history author Colin McDowell, one tourist surmised that platform shoes must have been “invented by husbands who hoped the cumbersome movement entailed would make illicit liaisons difficult.” Historians like David Kunzle say high-heeled shoes were mandated among Turkish and Chinese concubines to keep them from escaping their harems.
Innovating High Heels for Fashion Fast-forward in history books to the 16th century and you’ll discover that 14-year-old Catherine de Medici is credited for formally inventing elevated shoes for fashion (and self-esteem-building) purposes. Standing less than 5 feet tall, the young girl was betrothed to marry the Duke of Orleans, soon
to be crowned King of England. Becoming the Queen was intimidating to the somewhat homely Catherine, who was well aware that the King’s mistress stood much taller than she. To enhance her height and command a more attractive stance, Catherine wore two-inch heels at her wedding. Her fashion plan worked. By 1580, French society equated high heels with wealth and privilege. And not just for women. Heels also assuaged the egos of French men. King Louis XIV in the 1700s donned ‘Louis Heels’ adorned with combat scenes. Narcissistically, he declared it illegal for civilians to wear shoes with heels higher than his, and that only royalty could be seen wearing heels painted red.
Fetishism of the Foot A keenly arched foot, prompted by the ornamental rococo style of the 18th century, motivated shoemakers to design more narrow heels as a complement to a woman’s figure. As a result, according to Kunzle, women started ‘sculpting’ their feet to look more refined and aristocratic – taping them tightly to restrict growth. Winter 2015
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Across the pond, however, the sexual connotation associated with high heels led Puritans in Massachusetts to declare it illegal for women to wear them.
The Socialism of Shoes Politically, shoes could make statements far more impacting than written slogans. During the French Revolution in 1791, Napoleon banned former King Louis’ high heels in attempt to make shoe wearing more equitable among the classes. Marie Antoinette, as her final snub in 1793, walked to her execution location wearing shoes with twoinch heels. Any wonder why the use of heels declined dramatically?
Christian Louboutin. “Printz,” Spring/ Summer 2013–14. Courtesy of Christian Louboutin.
It wasn’t until the 1860s, with the invention of the sewing machine, that the renaissance of high heels revived. Victorians once again felt the exaggerated arch of the foot, enhanced with high heels, symbolized the desired shape of a woman’s body. And besides being physically attractive, shoe marketers advertised that Photo: Jay Zukerkorn
Shoes may not be able to talk, but they certainly have made clear statements throughout the ages.
Aperlaï. “Geisha Lines,” Fall 2013. Leather. Courtesy of Aperlaï. Photo: Jay Zukerkorn
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wearing high heels offered health benefits, as well – such as back pain relief. Subsequently, growing consumer demand led to the opening of the first American high heel factory in 1888. Yet the roller coaster of historical shoe trends – and differing opinions about them – continued. During the Depression of the 1930s and throughout the period of limited luxury during WWII in the 1940s, the trend in heel design became wider, thicker and lower. It wasn’t until the post-war 1950s when fashion designer Christian Dior consulted with French shoemaker Roger Vivier to create the ‘stiletto,’ a heel with a skinny, tapered blade-like shape named after the Italian term for dagger. The sexy nature of stilettos led some regions to outlaw wearing them in public. Nevertheless, popularity of high heels soared through the 1970s, reaching an epitome of popularity when John Travolta hit the silver screen wearing thick-heeled plat-
Photo: Jay Zukerkorn
JANTAMINIAU. “L’Image Tranquille,” 2013. (Handcrafted by René van den Bezrg.) Courtesy of JANTAMINIAU.
forms. The cultural changes of the 1970s caused sub groups to vie for attention, with both women and men seeking shock value in heels with wild swirls, shapes, patterns and colors. Simultaneously, however, a growing group of feminists and hippies protested by wearing comfortable flats and flip-flops.
exhibition with a sense of the history of the high heel and its significance in the collective cultural imagination.”
Shoes may not be able to talk, but they certainly have made clear statements throughout the ages.
Tour The Fascinating History Through a tour of more than 160 artfully crafted historical and contemporary high heels from the 17th century to the present, the Killer Heels exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum examines the mystique and transformative power of the elevated shoe and its varied connections to fantasy, power, and identity. Noritaka Tatehana. “Atom,” 2012–13. Faux leather. Courtesy of Noritaka Tatehana.
Photo: Jay Zukerkorn
“Killer Heels will be of interest to people who recognize that fashion is a form of material culture that can reveal quite a bit about the personal, social, and cultural concerns of the era it comes from. Hopefully, visitors will come away from the
These “Healing Fukushima Heels,” created by the artist Sputniko!, contain a mechanism that plants seeds into the soil as you walk in them. The seeds and the plants that grow from them leach radiation from contaminated soil, and the artist made them in response to the recent nuclear disaster in Japan.
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Simplicity, The Ultimate Sophistication Da Vinci Philosophy, Steven G. Style
By Robin Jay
i
s this a pied-à-terre in Amboise, France, or a casa di lusso in Vinci, Italy? From the timeless simplicity and the utter elegance of this home’s interior, “the direction that was taken was one that could be defined as any city anywhere in the world,” said Interior Designer Steven G.
But truth be told, this classically styled condominium resides at The St. Regis in Bal Harbour, Florida. Is it any wonder why within a mere week of being listed on the real estate market, this $12 million property attracted no fewer than three interested
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“In a redesign, you are able to achieve anything your talent allows”. –Steven G. purchasers. “The demographics of the St. Regis is that of a worldwide marketplace. This stunning project was the third for this savvy investor who saw each resell setting recordbreaking prices per square foot,” Steven said. From the formality of kitchen chandeliers, to the imported European rug and tufted couches that add warmth; and from the splash of blue hues in the florals and martini glasses to the onyx-wall illumination of the soaker tub in the great master, this condominium was completely redesigned from the original developer format for a ‘welcome home feel.’ “In a redesign, you are able to achieve anything your talent allows,” said Steven G. “In this case, this design is truly one-of-kind.”
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SUPERCAR LEGEND FER R UCCIO
LAMB O R GH I NI
BY STEVEN JOSEPH
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t is 5am on a grape farm in northern Italy. A man wakes before sunrise, as he has countless mornings before and will again countless more mornings in the future. After dressing in the dark and eating a meager breakfast he heads to his barn to ready his tractor for an early plow of his fields. He puts the key in the ignition of his diesel engine and is comforted by the throaty hum as it warms up. Then he tucks his pant legs into his work boots and climbs into…his Lamborghini? I assure you, this is factually accurate. Granted, the story takes place in the 1940s, but everything else is correct. At one point Lamborghini was more synonymous with John Deere than it was with Ferrari, Maserati, or Alfa Romeo. This is because Ferruccio Lamborghini, the founder of the luxury sports car company, originally started out as a manufacturer of tractors and farming equipment. Lamborghini was born on a grape farm in 1916 but was always more interested in the equipment than the farming itself. He studied to become a mechanic and then honed his skills in the Italian Army eventually becoming supervisor of the vehicle maintenance unit. After World 102
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War II he eventually returned home and started a company that manufactured farming equipment, becoming rich during the farming boom that followed in peacetime. In the 1950s Lamborghini ventured into other areas of machinery, as well, starting companies that made oil heaters and air conditioning units. With his newfound wealth, he began amassing a collection of fast cars including a Mercedes, a Jaguar, and a Fiat. He spent his free time tinkering and racing before becoming infatuated with Ferraris. He shared a similar backstory with the company’s founder, Enzo Ferrari, both having been born to poor farming parents. After years of driving them, however, he became dissatisfied with the after-sales service, the constant need for repair, and the heaviness and unwieldiness that he felt made them a chore to drive. Knowing that he could exponentially increase his profits if his automotive parts were installed into high-end sports cars instead of farming equipment, Lamborghini started his most famous venture in late 1962. He bought a large tract of land and announced the creation of “Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini” with plans to debut his first model at the Turin Auto Show of 1963.
With the unveiling of the 350 GTV that year, Lamborghini immediately attracted attention. The following year the 350 GT as well as the 400 GT were put on display, and by the time the 1967 Turin Auto Show rolled around, the company had an attractive array of vehicles in its repertoire. Headlining the show with the 400 GT 2+2 Coupe and the Miura models, Lamborghini finally had the publicity and reputation to begin turning a profit. An explosion of Miura sales fueled the company’s growth and cash flow but just a few short years later, in 1973, the worldwide recession coupled with the gas crisis forced Ferruccio to sell his company. He didn’t retire from his entrepreneurial ways, though, buying a grape farm of his own and producing wine while managing his other interests until his death in 1993. Lamborghini could have never imagined the direction the company would head in after its resurgence in the late ’90s and early ’00s. The body types and engines continued
to evolve over the last 40 years and are now as impressive and recognizable as ever. For a chance to see the lasting legacy of Italian innovation and design in your own backyard, check out Prestige Imports/Lamborghini of Miami (www.prestigeimports.com) at 14800 Biscayne Boulevard, North Miami Beach, FL 33181.
ITALY’S LAMBORGHINI MUSEUM If you ever find yourself surrounded by every make and model of Lamborghini (including the 2013 Aventador Roadster hanging from the wall), you aren’t in the private garage of an NBA superstar or on the set of a garishly propped hip-hop music video. You have stumbled into the Lamborghini Museum in Modena, Italy.
a must-see destination for any sports car or luxury automobile enthusiast. For more information, be sure to visit the museum’s website www.lamborghini.com/en/museum/overview.
Opened in 2001, the museum is available Monday through Friday from 10am to 5pm, closing for an hour lunch from 12:30 to 1:30. Admission is 13 euros (10 for children) and the price goes up to 20 euros for a guided tour. The museum is an homage to the automobile manufacturer from the first model through present day, and features several fascinating exhibits, including a feature on The Countach, the first model to break 300 kmh. The museum is also home to a multitude of prototypes and limited edition productions and is
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Jack Nicklaus Makes Golf History – Again
Golf Course Design Via 3-D Video Game Technology By Robin Jay
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G
olfers worldwide revel in the record-breaking career achievements of golf icon Jack Nicklaus who, in a 25-year period from 1962 to 1986, won 18 major professional championships – more than any other player to date. For the past two decades, Nicklaus has given golfers a legacy gift they can enjoy for lifetimes to come – 380 custom-designed Jack Nicklaus golf courses in 38 countries and 39 U.S. states. At 74 years old, Nicklaus makes staying on the cutting edge look easy – this time as a high-tech guru. The world leader in golf course design, Nicklaus Design recently announced an exclusive new strategic initiative with U.S.based video game developer and golf visualization company Perfect Parallel to adapt three-dimensional (3-D) modeling techniques developed in the gaming and entertainment world to the world of professional golf course design. South Florida Opulence sat down with Bobby Root, Manager of Technical Application for Nicklaus design, for an inside look at the impact 3-D technology makes on the world of golf.
South Florida Opulence: Bobby, how will using a 3-D computer program ultimately improve the golf course experience? Bobby Root: “We have used computer-aided design (CAD) to design our golf courses for over 20 years. With the introduction of the new 3-D engine, we are applying a more virtual approach to our design process from the start of a project. We can sculpt and mold the course in 3-D space, which will not only embellish our process in efficiency, but also improve our ability to communicate visual prototyping of the design very early in the process with our clients and contractors,” Root said. “One of the primary benefits will be to present design revisions to Mr. Nicklaus and our clients for guidance and feedback, minimizing the long-distance travel required for progress evaluation. By having the ability to see the course design in real-time 3-D space, we can better present the vision of the final course in both contouring and aesthetics. And, by introducing simulation, our designers can evaluate shot value by virtually playing the course throughout the complete design process.”
3-D technology helps even accomplished golfers reach milestones. Gary Nicklaus, Jack’s son, got his first ever hole-in-one while playing hole No. 7 at The Bear’s Club on the simulator in our design studio.
SFO: What do you think technology will eventually do to the traditional golf game? Bobby Root: “Golf simulation is starting to get more and more traction in club fitting facilities, academies, and in the entertainment business. This is very prominent in parts of the world where the availability of land or environmental resources limits the amount of green grass golf courses. In South Korea, for example, it has been estimated that as much as 70 percent of golf is played on simulators. They have even televised tournaments using simulation. Perfect Parallel’s Perfect Golf has the ability to play interactively with players with an Internet connection anywhere in the world. Someday, there may very well be a tournament venue where players from around the world will play competition rounds in the virtual world.” SFO: Do you think technology will help golf talent develop more quickly? Bobby Root: Much has changed in this regard to technology and golf. Players today are saturated with information from video. There are launch monitors that give teachers and students instant feedback on swing plane, impact position, spin rates, ball and club
Jack Nicklaus has custom-designed 380 golf courses in 38 countries.
head speed and more. Yardage Guides – GPS distance devices showing precise yardages – also assist today’s players. These improvements in technology, paired with strength conditioning and training, are developing talent more quickly. It’s a tremendous toolset for new and experienced players alike.
ing at the contours of a site. 3-D simulation will only assist the design process by giving a photo a realistic visual aid as our design associates bring Mr. Nicklaus’ vision to life.”
SFO: What would you say to skeptics who may say having a 3-D digital practice program for a new course may diminish the challenge?
Bobby Root: “We are hoping one day that a complete site visit can take place by virtually touring the site using GPS. For example, Mr. Nicklaus can stand on the 8th tee in China on a site that has only completed preliminary clearing, and walk the site with an iPad all the while tracking his position. Any way he faces, he can look at the iPad and see the design plan rendering in real time to assess how his course vision translates into a photo using a realistic 3-D environment!”
Bobby Root: “Of course, there are purists who believe that the greats in golf course architecture allow the land to dictate the design. No one is better in my opinion than Mr. Nicklaus, who has a keen eye for seeing in his mind a finished golf hole and what challenges can face the player by simply look-
SFO: Any “inside scoop” you’d like to tell us about the future path for this innovation in technology?
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The King’s Palace A look inside the Coconut Grove residence that former Miami HEAT basketball star Lebron James once called home By Robin Jay
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ome say 3590 Crystal View Court is the most opulent estate in Miami – a noble dwelling fit for a king. And so it was. The home of former Miami HEAT player Lebron James, this contemporary compound boasts nearly 20,000 square feet of breathtaking bayfront living space in the northern point of quaint Coconut Grove. Now (at the time of press), this splendid property is on the real estate market, just waiting for its next ‘royal’ family.
“Sports professionals are extraordinary in their rightful careers, but when looking for a home that is opulent, they’re no different from other affluent buyers searching for the ideal location, quality, style and security. Like anyone, they want a home that gives them a sense of peace,” said Tomi Rose, Senior Vice President of the Sports & Entertainment Division of Opulence International Realty. “Talk about a property with positive energy and success! You can’t find a home that better exhibits the tranquility, security, peace, love, harmony, warmth and family that helped make a champion.”
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Tomi knows firsthand the unique features a home requires to accommodate the niche lifestyle of a professional athlete. Her fiance played in the NBA for more than a decade. “His experiences in the professional world of sports have translated well into my professional world of real estate. He likes to stress to me that there’s a certain ‘WOW’ factor that an athlete’s home needs to offer, and as a mom, I like to focus on functionality,” she said. “There are definitely aspects of The King’s Palace that are especially appealing to my partner – like the state-of-the-art Crestron system, which controls the entire home from wherever you may be in the world.” Besides the stellar curb – and seaside – appeal of this $17 million property, the interior of this estate features a chef’s kitchen, sommelier’s wine cellar, custom movie theater, six spacious bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a well-appointed office, guest home and a private rooftop sun deck. For entertaining, the 4,500 square feet of outdoor space could host an entire basketball team, their families – and some fans. The luxurious outdoor space contains a summer kitchen, infinity pool, as well as a feature that would make any sports star take notice: “One especially exceptional feature that impresses me is its concrete dock built to accommodate not one but two 60’ yachts!” said Rose. “I am also impressed by the size of the men’s closet in the master
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suite. Very often in luxury homes, the man is always shortchanged in terms of closet space. Not in this home. The master suite has equally opulent his-and-hers closets, as well as entirely separate bathrooms.” And when it comes to security, this home rivals Fort Knox. “The state-of-the-art security system is very impressive. Safety is a very important feature for someone who is a public figure. This home offers everything needed – from security quarters to infrared lasers, heat detection, cameras and sensors covering every inch of the property. “I pride myself on understanding ‘the business,’ ” explained Rose. “And when I say business, I don’t only mean real estate. I have been around athletes, celebrities and VIPs for as long as I can remember. This world isn’t new to me; I know what I expect when in the market to purchase anything for myself and my family, and I wouldn’t give my clients anything less. My Sports & Entertainment division knows that it’s not only about pulling out all the bells and whistles for athletes, but all clients – whether they are VIPs, Fortune 500 Corporate CEOs, Presidents or entertainers. My high-profile clients have seen my track record. I won’t give up all my secrets, but I will let you know that my reputation, integrity, honesty and understanding of the business is what keeps them coming back.” For more information about The King’s Palace, contact Tomi Rose at 786-229-1949 or go to www.opulenceinternationalrealty.com. 108
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Your quest to fragrance utopia begins with two first-class tickets to Paris near the House of Creed atelier where you’ll meet Master Perfumer Olivier Creed to create your ultimate custom scent. Dine with Olivier, enjoy five-star accommodations, car service and private tours. Your custom fragrance will arrive in 24 14-karat gold-gilded six-liter flacons and 12 14-karat gold-accented leather atomizers. Neiman Marcus will donate $5,000 to The Heart of Neiman Marcus Foundation dedicated to supporting youth arts education. www. neimanmarcus.com. $475,000.00
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Real Estate Trends
By Jill Patterson
South of Fifth Sticker Shock: Is it really all that?
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s prices soar for property in the exclusive South of Fifth neighborhood, buyers may ask, is it worth it?
South of Fifth (SoFi) is a rags-to-riches story in record time. “South Pointe,” as it was known in the '80s, was a very dangerous place. Refugees from the Mariel boatlift slept on its beaches, while crime and poverty reigned. These were the Miami Vice days, and from how things look today, it’s hard to believe they ever happened. German entrepreneur Thomas Kramer was the first to see the area’s potential and began snapping up property in the early '90s. In June of 1993, Kramer assembled 10 of the country’s best architecture firms, along with civic officials and residents at Joe’s Stone Crab for a 6-day think tank to create a new plan for the blighted area [see the interview with the owner of Joe’s Stone Crab on page 42]. Although none of the stunning results came to be realized, the ball was rolling. When Kramer ran into financial trouble a few years later, Jorge Perez bought much of his portfolio, and the rest is history.
The Renaissance of SoFi This new second wave of developments happening right now seals the fate of South of Fifth as a unique, exclusive enclave with a character all its own. Having no more waterfront parcels to build on, Mr. Perez went boutique luxury and has created his One Ocean and Marea on inland parcels. He has employed a dream team of artists, including the genius of Swiss landscape architect Enzo Enea, to enliven the concrete. Enea has carefully chosen hearty plant materials to bring a lushness to the area.
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Architect Rene Gonzalez, a student of Richard Meier, has given us Glass, with one unit per floor, made largely of glass, with landscape by Raymond Jungles. 321 Ocean and One Ocean are designed by ‘starchitect’ Enrique Norten. These high-profile projects, sold to a healthy combination of New Yorkers, Europeans, and South Americans, add only 120 units to SoFi’s condo inventory and urban density. Compared with other international cities, Miami is a bargain. Luxury prices in London range from $4,000-11,000 per square foot (psf) for a flat in Mayfair. Manhattan’s luxury market has an average price of $2,700 - $4,000 psf. Hong Kong rings in with psf’s at $11,000; Paris, $4,400; Tokyo $7,600; and Moscow, $4,250. By these standards, Miami’s most expensive neighborhood seems affordable. Prices for the larger units at the Continuum have reached into the $3,000 psf territory, with Apogee just slightly behind. The four new developments in construction, Glass, 321 Ocean, Marea and One Ocean, sold out in a matter of months. Their average sold price per square foot varies from $1,400 (Marea and One Ocean) to $2,600 (Glass) and $1,800 (321 Ocean). Three out of the four are not even on the beach.
SoFi remains a club free zone (with a few exceptions). South of Fifth represents 18-20 percent of the tax base of Miami Beach, and 20 percent of those taxes are reinvested into that neighborhood. That spells new roads and a stellar park (South Pointe Park, $22M). South Pointe Elementary School is A-rated. The lifestyle is luxurious, low density, and, in fact, owners don’t need a car to live it. So close to South Beach, South of Fifth has nowhere near the craziness factor to the north. In fact, within its confines are some of the finest restaurants in Miami, including Joe’s Stone Crab, Milos, the Prime establishments (112, Italian and Fish), and the newly opened Il Mulino and Porfirio. Finally, luxury condos South of Fifth have appreciated nearly 40 percent from 2013-2014. South of Fifth is a very unique place with a unique history and, yes – it is all that.
The Value of SoFi So what does a buyer get for their $2,000+psf price tag? South of Fifth has the forever advantage of being surrounded by water on three sides providing breathtaking views, a lovely beach, 18-acre park, boardwalk and deep-water marina. The active South of Fifth Neighborhood Association (SOFNA) led by Dr. Steve Mandy has ensured that
Jill Patterson is a Sales Associate at Opulence International Realty. 305.203.9985 or visit Opulenceinternationalrealty.com
health care
Meet Healthcare Fundraising Powerhouse
William Wilson III By Dale King and Julia Hebert
W
hen it comes to fundraising, William Wilson is a team player. The chairman of Baptist Health South Florida Foundation in Miami has crafted many strategies in his years of philanthropic giving, community service and accumulation of donated funds.
“My role as chairman is to assemble, motivate and excite board members to deliver the results we need,” Wilson said, describing his volunteer post at the largest faith-based, not-forprofit healthcare organization in South Florida. “It’s about an amazing team of people.” That assemblage includes the 140 board members spread throughout the reaches of hospital and medical facilities that operate under the banner of Baptist Health South Florida. Wilson understands the importance of fundraising at a time when the government and insurance companies are cutting back on reimbursements to hospitals. “Philanthropy is more important to Baptist Health than it has ever been before,” he said. “The foundation provides the funding for the centers of excellence, like the Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute and the Miami Cancer Institute. It allows us to purchase things like equipment and support services for employees.”
Understanding Gratitude FirstHand All that translates to “top-notch service for patients and families.” Wilson is well aware of that aspect. “My son, who is now 11, was born with significant medical challenges. Baptist Health was instrumental in helping him get through, and he is now 100 percent cured.” Based on that, Wilson realized that the most generous donor is likely to be the person who has received first-rate service at a Baptist Health facility. “Maybe that was what did it for me,” he said. “I have kids – and I realize how important healthcare is to your life and the lives of your family members. Because people who are treated well and receive excellent care are grateful, they are inspired to become donors.” Gratitude does translate to large donations. At this year’s “Pulse of Innovation” luncheon to support the Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute – one of the foundation’s centers – Virgin Atlantic’s owner Sir Richard Branson donated a ticket on the first flight of the Virgin Galactic space plane to thank the institute for its treatment of his wife, Lady Joan Branson. The event raised $1 million overall, including $300,000 for the ticket to space bought at auction by Mike and Constance Fernandez, who hosted the luncheon at their Coral Gables estate.
Baptist Health Foundation Board Chairman William W. Wilson III
Making History In 2011, Baptist Health Foundation held what was then the largest fundraising event in its history: “The Heart Will Go On,” a private concert by Celine Dion that raised $6 million. The proceeds were also earmarked to the institute in honor of the physicians who saved the life of Dion’s husband, Rene Angelil. Wilson heads the foundation as it moves ahead with a major capital campaign to fund construction of the $100 million expansion of the Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute and the new Miami Cancer Center, a $430 million, 395,000-squarefoot structure with “a sizable research program.” Both are slated to open in 2016. The foundation raised $17 million during the fiscal year ending Oct. 1, and is shooting for $30 million during this financial term. The funds, along with the people and facilities they support, will boost Baptist Health, Wilson said, from “the best in South Florida to one of the most outstanding in the country.”
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By Brett Collier
Get the Serota Perspective A look at the nostalgic legacy of American sports trading cards and one clever photographer who is taking the look to a whole new level.
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Just days before Super Bowl 2014, thousands of football history fans flocked to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for a glimpse of rare trading cards donated by the late Jefferson Burdick, known as the father of card collecting. Burdick’s 300,000 card collection (which he donated to the MET) contained a series of football cards dating back to 1894 – decades before the start
on Football Trading Cards of the National Football League in 1920 and the first Super Bowl in 1967. Burdick would be pleased that the nostalgic fervor for collecting football trading cards today is more avid than ever. After all, if you stop and think for a moment – what do you remember most about a professional football game? Is it a wide receiver making a spectacular sideline catch, a running back
breaking a tackle on his way to scoring a touchdown, or a defensive back swarming in for a bone-cracking hit on an unsuspecting player? Loyal fans want to hold on to history-making moments of their favorite sports teams – and that’s why Panini America and its memorializing sports cards have grown into an integral part of iconic Americana. Winter 2015
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Carrying on a Tradition from Across the Pond Founded in Modena, Italy in 1961, Panini has been a household name in Europe for more than 50 years, thanks in large part to the universal appeal of popular sticker collections honoring the world’s greatest soccer players. But when Panini purchased the assets from Donruss Trading Cards more than five years ago and opened a subsidiary near Dallas, Texas, a new chapter in the proud history of NFL trading cards was born.
At first glance, it can be tough to see what kind of personality each of
“Donruss was a huge part of the American trading card scene for more than 30 years and we wanted to retain the best of what that company had to offer, while injecting new passion, new creativity and new innovation with Panini America,” said Jason Howarth, the company’s Vice President of Marketing.
these high profile athletes
To that end, the company has delivered a steady stream of history-making NFL trading cards, including the industry’s first video trading cards, cards embedded with real diamonds and 14-karat gold trading cards. For now, the company’s football focus is fixed firmly on the 2014 NFL season and a highly anticipated rookie class that ranks as the most-hyped of all time.
as Serota describes, each
“We haven’t seen this much anticipation for NFL trading cards and a rookie class like this in a long time. It’s been phenomenal,” Howarth said.
The Serota Persective With all of this hype around the 2014 NFL Draft class, it’s clear the fans want more and more of these talented players. That’s where award-winning photographer Marc Serota comes in. Serota, who got his start working as an intern at the Miami Herald in the mid ‘80s, is a renowned news, sports, and entertainment photographer based in South Florida. Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine, and many other publications have featured Serota’s work. Just recently, he received first place Sports Action Award from the National Press Photographers Association. Having such a stellar background in the photography business, it’s no wonder that Serota was tabbed to shoot this year’s NFL rookies for Panini America during the 2014 NFLPA Rookie Premiere in late May. “We shot in Los Angeles at the end of May at the Memorial Coliseum,” Serota said. “All of the first-round picks and notable late-round picks were there for this shoot.” Known for his ever-clever approach to sports photography, Serota worked this year’s NFL shoot differently than other photographers would have. He took it – quite literally – out of the box. “I had the athletes stand inside of a Plexiglas case, and I was underneath the case,” Serota said. “With this approach, I was able
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brings to the table. But,
athlete was unique in their own way. to create an optical illusion not usually seen on a trading card. In the trading-card business, everything has been done before. With the Plexiglas, we’re giving fans a fresh new perspective on collectible football cards. One thing fans notice is the shoes. You see the pressure that’s put on the glass by the shoes, and people say, ‘Oh that’s cool. Wait, wait how did they do that?’ And that’s the reaction we’re going for.” At first glance, it can be tough to see what kind of personality each of these high profile athletes brings to the table. But, as Serota describes, each athlete was unique in their own way. “Jadeveon Clowney, for example, looks like he can scare the crap out of you, but he is one of the nicest, funniest guys to work with,” Serota laughed. “He’s a quiet, ominous figure who can tell a story just by the look on his face. In Johnny Manziel’s case, there’s definitely a nervousness about him. But he came in, did what I asked him to do, and we made some good images together.” Panini America’s 2014 Rookie Cards first released inside the company’s landmark 2014 Score product over the summer and will punctuate the company’s entire line of 2014 NFL products.
Tw o P r i v a t e 1 8 - h o l e l e g e n d a r y G o l f C o u r s e s P r i v a t e C l u b L i f e s t y l e • E a s e o f Te e T i m e R e s e r v a t i o n s C h a m p i o n s h i p L a y o u t s • S p e c t a c u l a r Wa t e r F e a t u r e s S p e c i a l e v e n t s • C a ñ a s Te n n i s • S p a & Fi t n e s s C e n t e r
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Polar Rover to the
Lords of the Arctic by Sharon Spence Lieb
Churchill, Manitoba Canada. “The Polar Bear Capital of the World.” On my flight, the onboard magazine reads, “Polar bears are the largest, strongest, and most bloodthirsty of Arctic predators,” according to a wildlife biologist. “They only know how to hunt and kill to earn their next meal.”
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I’m on my way to join Churchill Nature Tour’s “Polar Bear Adventure.” Of course, they’ll take good care of me, but am I really ready to encounter bloodthirsty beasts? I hop off the plane into the frigid air, wondering if I’ll need my return ticket. Upon climbing aboard a polar rover and heading into the tundra, a local photographer and guide Mike Macri shares his dramatic human vs. bear story. “One day I’m walking along Hudson Bay’s shoreline,” Mike says. “A huge polar bear rises up from a rock behind me. I grab my gun and turn to face him. Six feet from my face, I’m terrified, yet thrilled. I’m prepared to shoot him if I have to. I don’t want to. After what feels like forever, he snorts in my face, then lumbers away. What a relief. Then I check my gun: It was jammed. That bear easily could have killed me with one paw swipe. Why didn’t he? I’ll never know.”
Bears Out My Window The next morning, it’s 25 degrees. Our group climbs aboard a polar rover emblazoned with “Great White Bear Tours.” Our Churchill Nature Tour guide Patrick Rousseau gives us safety tips on meeting the “Lords of the Arctic.” “Polar bears are super aggressive,” Patrick warns. “Males can weigh 1,320 pounds and stand 10 feet tall. If you want to return home with your hands and head, I suggest you keep them inside the bus windows.” We laugh, but he’s serious. The driver fires up the engine. Every snow-covered rock seems to be a sleeping polar bear. Huge bear paw prints meander into the distance. “Bears at 11am,” Patrick calls out. “Two young males, sparring.” Cameras click as two yellowish polar bears stand on their hind legs, swatting each other’s shoulders and heads 20 feet from our polar rover.
“Are they fighting?” I ask. “They’re exercising,” he replies, “getting in shape for a long winter of hunting seals. If they don’t build up their stamina, they can’t hunt, and they’d starve to death. This behavior is critical for their survival. Their paws are the size of a dinner plate and their heads are 14”-16” wide. Their
Photo Courtesy of Canadian Tourism Commission
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powerful teeth can crack a seal’s skull with one crunch. And they can pick up a scent from 20 miles away. That’s why they come so close, smelling our lunch. And us.” A mother bear appears, adorable cubs in tow. She stops and sniffs the air as a strange male bear walks along the horizon. She freezes, staring intently as if to say, “Stay far from my kids or you’ll be forever sorry.” Safely inside our polar rover, we take incredible photos from the back deck. Polar bears stand under the grate, smelling our feet. During two exhilarating days, more than three dozen bears make an appearance. Some jaw each other’s teeth, others snooze in the willows. One looks like a giant stuffed toy, on his back, huge paws in the air.
Crush on a Polar Bear So here I am in Churchill, thrilled that a massive hungry polar bear is right outside my window. I can’t hug him, or pet his ivory fur. Yet I can’t give up my girlish infatuation either. I stick my vulnerable head out the bus window and blurt: “I love you!” But this ferocious Lord of the Arctic is hungry. Sniffing my warm flesh, his expression says, “Why don’t you give me your head? For a snack.” Rejected, I sulk into my bus seat, as Patrick saunters down the aisle. “So Sharon, now you’ve got a hot date with a polar bear?” he grins.
“Sharon, you know what’s so great about this place?” our driver Bill says, “Every fall in Churchill we get to watch these incredible bears get ready for winter. In December, when Hudson Bay ices over, we watch their bums waddling north onto the ice. With a big bear smile on the other end.” Now that’s my idea of a happy ending.
IF YOU GO Churchill Nature Tours offers their “Polar Bear Adventure” in Churchill, Manitoba Canada every fall. Contact: www.churchillnaturetours.com. 1-877-636-2968.
“Nah. Not my type.” We laugh.
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There’s Luxury Living on the Emerald Isle By CarlEton Varney
Ireland – in all counties of the country – is a picture postcard: green fields, cows, houses, flower gardens, mountains, lakes, golf resorts, beachside pubs and cities with lyrical music. It’s the country where you can see the Book of Kells, where you can attend a medieval banquet at Bunratty Castle that was built by the Vikings in 1425. Yes, there is much to love and learn about Ireland, so if you are planning a trip to Europe, don’t just stop off on the Emerald Isle, stay for a week or a month for a vacation of sunshine, rain and rainbows. This past summer found me at my home in County Limerick, enjoying all the magical sunshine – and don’t think I’m “fibbin” – Ireland’s summer and fall have been sunshine filled.
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If you are a golfer, there are so many courses to play – Ballybunion being one of the most frequented by the golfing set. Of course, there is the “K” Club course in County Kildare, where the very popular “K” Club resort/hotel is located. If you follow star ratings – the “K” Club has many. In today’s world, I forget the stars and diamond reviews, preferring to check the Internet and read guest comments.
The Land of Limerick Ballybunion Golf Course
Bunratty Castle
The Irish city of Limerick is this year’s Culture City, so do visit and see the multitude of events happening here. The Hunt Museum, right on the river, offers special shows and presentations. I am a fan of the artist Roderic O’Connor whose work is strong, colorful and dramatic. At Limerick, don’t miss a dinner at the Locke Bar, right on the quay. The owners, Jacqueline Costello and her son Richard, an all-Ireland rugby star, offer Dublin Bay prawns, fresh wild salmon, grilled filet of sole, as well as my favorite Irish delights – succulent lamb and pork dishes and, of course, the daily made chowders and the dark brown breads that are Irish “cannot be copied” cuisine. Go brown bread, with creamy butter when you are in Erin. This coming holiday season, everyone has a different brown bread recipe, some with nuts and an unusual mix of natural grains. The Locke Bar is perhaps one of Limerick’s, and the country’s, best known gourmet pubs – having received many awards each year.
Main shot— Cliffs of Moher
On Route to Foynes From Limerick, on route to Foynes, stop by the roadside pub – The Coach House in Kilcornan. At Foynes, the actress
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Dunraven Arms Hotel
Maureen O’Hara has created a museum in honor of her husband, Charlie Blair, who made one of the first ‘across the Atlantic’ crossings on an air boat plane. At the Foynes Flying Boat Museum, you can walk through the flying boat plane where Cary Grant traveled. After museum sightseeing, stop at the Coach Inn, operated by Maureen Delany and her daughter Ann. You’ll enjoy the collection of paintings by Irish painters.
Lodging in Ireland The Limerick hotels are many. Allow me to guide you through my favorites. Dunraven Arms Main St, Adare, Co. Limerick, Ireland TEL: +353 61 605 900 122
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If you prefer a nearby inn, stay at the Dunraven Arms, owned and operated by the Murphy brothers. Named after the original owners, Lord and Lady Dunraven, the Dunraven Arms hosts many parties and has a great dining room and bar menu where Guinness (that dark brew) is always filling the pints. I enjoy, on a cold evening, a taste of the toddy Jameson Irish Whiskey with water, a spoonful of sugar, cloves and a twist or two of lemon. One sure way to get rid of a cold! Imagine yourself in Ireland this winter, sitting by the open fire, sipping on an Irish toddy – but only Jameson please. Dromoland Castle Dromoland, Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co. Clare, Ireland TEL: +353 61 368 144 While castle hotels are considered somewhat passé (too many of them), I do recommend a stay at Dromoland Castle in County Clare, once the home of the Royal O’Brien clan. The castle
Dromoland Castle
Cashel House
is Victorian and built in the 1800s. The current Lord Inchiquin has removed the family portraits, but a stop there for lunch is a charming idea. While there, you’ll want to venture to the Cliffs of Moher. A must-must is a ride through the Burren, the rocky rock filled terrain, right at the Atlantic seashore where small pretty flowers grow right amongst the rocks. Cashel House Cashel, Connemara, Co. Galway, Ireland TEL: +353 95 31001 My very favorite place in Ireland is Cashel House in Connemara, where the landscape is lakes, and mountains and a vision of restful people – joyous for the life that God has given. Ballyfin Demesne Ballyfin, Co. Laois, Ireland Tel: 011-353-57-875-5866 Ballyfin is somewhat like a touch of the past. You might even think the staff at Downton Abbey is attending to your every
wish. A 15-bedroom manor house in County Laois, Ballyfin Demesne is owned by Palm Beacher and Chicago industrialist Frederick Krehbiel and his wife, Kay. This past summer, Kay and I chatted at a luncheon given by the fashion designer Michelina Stacpoole of County Limerick. The Krehbiels purchased Ballyfin, an hour and a half drive from Shannon Airport, some 12 years ago and reportedly spent $20 million restoring the dilapidated 600-acre estate. A single room is 580 euros, or $777 dollars, meals included – and you will understand why once you have passed through the hotel’s elaborate metal gates. The estate has a family chapel, as well as a lake and a neo-classical great house. The house was built in 1820 by the aristocrat Coote family. You’ll find everything of top order – service, food, and décor. You’ll even find your private workout room, near the indoor pool and a massage with a cup of peppermint tea.
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Ballymaloe Country House Shangarry, Co. Cork Tel: 011-353-21-465-2531 email: res@ballymaloe.ie Ballymaloe Country House in County Cork is where you can live on a 100-acre organic farm and dine in a gourmet dining room that is chef’d and served by students at the Ballymaloe Cooking School. There are three generations of the Allen family who operate this delightful adventure. The well-known Darina Allen and her daughter-in-law and granddaughter-in-law have continued presenting dishes that attract the cognoscenti of the cooking world. This is a farm-to-table experience and one not to be missed. Try savory cabbage and a crackling pork dish or some seaweed creamy pudding – all delightful. You can find a room for under 200 euros a night and enjoy the charmingly decorated rooms – the outdoor swimming pool and a shop filled with Ballymaloe goodies. Mustard Seed Hotel Ballingarry, Co. Limerick Tel: 011-353-69-68508 A short distance from Adare, home of the thatch cottages, you’ll find the village of Ballingarry and the hotel – The Mustard Seed. Remembering the Biblical words: ”If ye have faith as strong as a
St. Patrick's Day Parade in Limerick, Ireland
Anchor Beach, Connemara
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grain of mustard seed, nothing shall be impossible unto thee!” This Biblical sentence holds true for Dan Mulane’s charming inn hotel, which he invented and saw come to life, some 20, or more, years back. Everyone who visits the Adare region looking for a beautiful garden, country style guest rooms and Irish country house style, will love Dan’s hospitality. I have known Dan Mulane for many years, and when I was designing the interior for Adare Manor, I often spent an evening at Dan’s gourmet dining restaurant in the village, appropriately called “The Mustard Seed.” Dan’s cuisine was featured on the Aer Lingus First Class menu – so Irish prawns and Irish cheeses were always readily available in flight. The story of Ireland today is definitely the west, where people go for the luxury of life today–ease, quiet and friendly faces with friendly greetings. Travel to and through Shannon Airport, an airport that is still easy to enter, and easy to leave, and best of all, travelers clear customs in Shannon, before returning to America – no long lines to think about when arriving to your American destination. Oh, there is such luxury – simple though it might be – in Ireland. Come and enjoy a grand stay.
Arthur Guinness:
The Stout Poured ‘Round the World BY Alex Villasuso
S
tout beer enthusiasts around the world drink more than 10 million glasses of Guinness Draught every day. Have you ever wondered where that dark creamy Irish stout got its start? I’ll never forget the story told by the tour guide at Guinness Brewery on St. Patrick’s Day three years ago. The tale goes that back in the mid 18th century Dublin, at the St. James’ Gate Guinness Brewery, two brewery workers were roasting grain for the day’s batch. However, they broke a cardinal rule of brewing and enjoyed a few too many. When the pair sobered up, they realized they had overcooked the grain, and fear for their job securities set in. They faced a choice of using the overly-roasted malt or telling their boss, brewery founder Arthur Guinness, about the mistake and taking the consequences. They went with the former. What was the worst case scenario? They’d still lose their jobs either way. So, they used the very dark malted barley in the brew.
Did the Risk Pay Off? By the time that batch had made it into the hands of the public, the workers had nearly forgotten about the incident. Mr. Guinness stormed into the brewery and pulled them aside. He demanded answers. What was this beer? This dark stout was unlike anything he had ever tried. The workers thought surely their termination day had come. Little did they know the boss and the public loved the unexpected brew. They had stumbled upon a fluke that would eventually help Arthur Guinness drastically change Dublin, and, ultimately, the world. It was in 1759 when Arthur founded the Guinness brewery by signing a particularly massive lease – one that gave him rights to the St. James’ Gate property for 9,000 years! But, he never would have had the opportunity to purchase his brewery at all had he been born Roman Catholic. It is important to understand the religious influences in Arthur Guinness’ life that shaped the way he built his legacy. When Arthur moved to Dublin, he was Protestant, as was the ruling class of Ireland. Even though Roman Catholics made up the majority of the country, they only owned a very small amount of land. They were the majority, but they were the shunned, as well. It became clear to Arthur that the injustice being dealt to the Catholic people of Ireland was not acceptable. As Mr. Guinness’ empire grew, so did his passion for helping his fellow man and fighting for equality.
Manning the Politics
Castle, where all Dublin’s politics were held. Another huge decision was marrying the very lovely and very wealthy Olivia Whitmore. Olivia was stunningly beautiful, and the two shared a long, loving relationship. The Whitmore’s massive dowry and connections to high-society in Dublin were also excellent perks enjoyed by Guinness. By 1781, Olivia had given Arthur 10 children, four boys and six girls. She built a dynasty of heirs for Arthur’s legacy. Arthur Guinness founded the first Sunday schools in Ireland, fought against dueling and violence, and chaired the board of a hospital for the poor. He gave returning WWII British soldiers a pint of stout with their Christmas feasts in December 1939. He gifted the St. Patrick’s Cathedral to the city of Dublin, along with many other landmarks. Arthur Guinness built a beacon of compassion and community in the heart of Dublin, and his legacy lives on to this day. Thanks to Arthur’s legacy, Guinness became the largest brewery in Ireland in 1838 – and the largest in the world just six years later. Today, it remains the largest stout brewery on the planet. So the next time you order up a pint of Guinness Draughts, have a toast to Arthur and his two absentminded brewers whose debacled recipe resides in your glass. Cheers!
Arthur Guinness made many important decisions in the rise of his brewery – such as making Guinness the official beer of Dublin
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Intimidating Art in the Landscape: Series Part VIII BY Mary and HUGH Williamson
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All Gargoyles are Grotesques, but not all Grotesques are Gargoyles
A
rchitectural sculptures that portray animals and demons, particularly in and on Gothic structures, are called ‘grotesques.’ If they also serve as a decorative means of handling rainfall – such as gargling water away from the structure – they are known as ‘gargoyles,’ a term from the French word, ‘Gargouille.’ Both are seen on many European cathedrals, including Notre Dame de Paris, and the Duomo di Milano, the Milan Cathedral. They are also seen on this side of the world, prolific on neo-Gothic university buildings, churches and early modern skyscrapers. The Chrysler Building’s architect William Van Alen saw the completion of his New York City Art Deco marvel in 1930, and when viewed from a high floor of the former Mobil Oil Building across the street offers a spectacular close-up of huge, beautifully crafted architectural grotesques that are evocative of Chrysler radiator caps. In another application, the secreted but much-loved Staircase Grotesque in the lobby of the Mediterranean-style Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables is another example of how these creatures fuel our interest and have intrigued us through the years.
There is even a Darth Vader grotesque that was placed on the Northwest Tower in the 1980s as a culmination of a children’s competition. It is hard to find, but fun to hunt. A hit with the kids, there is even a Darth Vader souvenir available in The Cathedral Store.
And a More Practical Application Being enlightened as we are in this day and age, we may now see grotesques as fun and festive Art in the Landscape, the hardscape, and as a part of your balcony or patio. Many hidden gardens feature these creatures to surprise, beguile and, of course, to offer protection from evil spirits! If you look, they are abundant and fun to study and to enjoy.
They’ve been Scaring Folks for Millennia Having been around since antiquity, gargoyles found favor in the Romanesque and Gothic periods, as the Catholic Church flourished and cathedrals were built. Why would the church encourage the decorative use of seemingly Satanic images? Perhaps it is because the new converts were accustomed to these scary reminders of what was in store for them if they wavered! Early Rome, after all, was largely pagan. It seems that it is possible that religious symbolism was merged to make the new way palatable. Some believe that the halos seen in ecclesiastical paintings are reflective of the beliefs of sun worshippers. Others will argue that halos instead represent glorious auras. In any event, the evolution of art objects and depictions of deities and demons are fascinating, open to discussion and often enjoyed in statuary and fountain accoutrements for your home and garden, big or small.
A Great Fundraiser The neo-Gothic Woolworth Building in lower Manhattan, completed in 1913 and designed by the legendary Cass Gilbert, boasts grotesques honoring and portraying mastermind Frank Woolworth along with his architect, engineer and tenants. Those images live on for posterity, with humor and fanciful artistry. What a fundraising idea! There are many designers and carvers available today.
They are Everywhere — Even the National Cathedral From April through October, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. offers guided tours of the building’s gargoyles and grotesques. A self-guided tour is also available all year long. There are many mystical items to discover, and visual treats in store, especially if you have binoculars! The gargoyles are part of an elaborate water management design, and deserve investigation.
Hugh & Mary Williamson Winter 2015
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real estate professional profile
The Pulley Effect By Dale King and Julia Hebert
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avid Pulley launched his real estate career during the recession of 2007-2008. “Everyone thought I was completely nuts,” said the Realtor who is now a principal of the David Pulley Group and a top-producing agent for Opulence International Realty. “I have to tell you, the first two years, when the market was soft, was an amazing time to learn about the business of selling. A considerable amount of inventory at the time was just sitting around.”
The Booming Luxury Market David Pulley
That’s not the case anymore, at least not in Pulley’s main sales niche: luxury properties in Miami, South Beach and Miami Beach. “Because there’s not a lot of inventory, real estate professionals need a strong understanding of the market, good connections and must really keep their ear to the ground.” High-profile clients and real estate professionals alike look to Pulley to get exactly what they want. His clientele includes CEOs and executives of Fortune 500 companies, members of the A-list Hollywood community, recording artists, among others – all who appreciate his team’s strict confidentiality and work ethic. A native Oregonian who found his way to Manhattan, Pulley earned a degree in Communications and Advertising from the New York Institute of Technology. He then headed to Miami where he now lives in a luxury oceanfront condo, much like the dwellings he sells. Pulley still has an apartment in the Big Apple.
This skilled real estate professional has developed a system that melds travel with business. “I am fortunate to travel on a regular basis and, many times, I connect with people who end up becoming my clients.” He recently visited the Greek island of Mykonos where he met a group of entrepreneurs from New York. “I’m negotiating a multimillion dollar deal with them right now.” Pulley joined Opulence International Realty in early 2014, bringing with him a “team of four that has been with me for the past few years. They go wherever I go.” He is proud to be part of Opulence International Realty’s team. “The company has influential, impactful players in the business on board,” Pulley says.
Philanthropy David is a member of both the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing and the Million Dollar Guild. Pulley is also a philanthropist, supporting the Humane Society, the amfAR AIDS research organization and the Trevor Project. He and his partner also recently created the Macricostas Pulley Foundation, which supports charities that promote, protect and defend equality for the LGBT community. Demolishing existing records, creating his own in his mid 20s, and laying down one of the most solid foundations this city has ever seen before the age of 30 makes David Pulley one of Miami Beach’s top producing agents. In 2013 he was also featured on “Hot Listings Miami,” Style Network’s reality docu-series. “Miami is going through a renaissance and is considered a top destination for people around the world. It’s really fun to watch. Billions and billions of dollars are being poured into this city. It’s exciting to be here.” To contact David, call 305-794-1500 or e-mail at David@DavidPulley.com.
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Meet three movers and shakers whose success was first groomed in top South Florida preparatory schools By Jana Soeldner Danger
Students who aim to apply to Ivy League universities are almost all top-notch scholars. Attending a preparatory school may give them the edge they need to stand out among the best of the best. Sending a child or grandchild to a prep school is prudent because the education institutions have more freedom than a
publicly funded school to nurture and develop a student’s unique strengths and talents that go beyond academics. Selecting a school where it is assumed that everyone is headed for higher education can offer a curriculum and extracurricular experiences specifically designed to help students polish themselves to become more desirable to the best universities. “A private school focuses more on its mission of preparing students for college,” says Stephen Keeler, a Harvard graduate who recruits for his alma mater. “A public school has to — and should — offer a broader curriculum. A prep school can craft and customize its mission.” Keeler attended St. Joseph’s, a Jesuit prep school in Philadelphia. His four children also attended St. Joe’s, and all went on to top colleges: Penn State, George Washington University, Loyola and Boston College. While Keeler believes that public schools can also offer top quality education, a prep school name on a college application may give a student a differential edge.
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“It’s human nature to look for what’s reliable, and the reliability factor develops over time,” he says. “Because a prep school has a track record, we know if we accept this man or woman, we’re not taking as much of a risk as we would be with someone from a school we haven’t had anyone from before. It’s a more measurable risk. “A student won’t automatically get in to an Ivy League school because he or she is a valedictorian, because everyone who applies is a valedictorian,” says Keeler, who interviews prospective Harvard students. “Everyone has high SATs and good grades. It’s a matter of defining and differentiating yourself. And prep school can help students identify and develop that skillset.” South Florida Opulence would like to introduce you to three impressive success stories so you can see firsthand how their prep schools helped shape their lives. Turn the next few pages to meet former students of Gulliver Schools in Miami, University School at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, and Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton.
“I’m very passionate about teaching kids who are interested in art about how art
Education Character Leadership
changes life.” – Alex Slato
Alex Slato, Pine Crest school
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t would probably take three or four people to replace Alex Slato.
That’s because he is accomplished in so many areas of the art world that are usually separate specialties. As president of his own company, The Business of Art, the Pine Crest graduate helps manage galleries, conducts art auctions, performs appraisals, and coaches artists on legal steps they need to take to protect themselves.
Slato entered Pine Crest as a freshman boarding student in 1983 and graduated in 1987. His father died shortly after that, making it necessary for him to return to his native Venezuela to run his family’s art gallery. “I was the youngest curator in Latin America,” he recalls.
Pine Crest Made A Big Difference For Me Slato enrolled at Universidad Catolica in Caracas, where he attended classes while working full time at the gallery. He credits his experiences at Pine Crest with helping him maneuver that difficult period. “Pine Crest taught me how to study, and the high academic standards there helped me learn how to juggle all that,” he says. Slato majored in communications, believing it would help his career more than a degree in art. “Every day at the art gallery I talked with artists and collectors. I was getting so much education interacting with living icons in the art world, I wanted to enhance other skills.”
In 2001, he was recruited to become part of the executive team developing the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, Calf., a 60,000-square-foot structure that is the largest Latin American art museum west of the Mississippi. He remained there until 2010.
An Anchor in the World of Art Today, he continues his career as an appraiser, a professional art auctioneer and a coach, as well as an art educator. “I’m very passionate about teaching kids who are interested in art about how art changes life,” he says. “For me, art is a healing process. When I see a child look at a painting, and see in his face the ‘aha moment,’ that’s what’s most rewarding for me.” Although he still maintains a presence on the West Coast, Slato is currently expanding into South Florida. “So many of my friends are here, and many of them are ones I made at Pine Crest,” he says. As a boarding school student at Pine Crest, Slato also grew close to teachers who helped fill the roles of parents who lived in another country. One of them, Linda Brunner Weiss (“I called her Mama Weiss,” Slato recalls) remembers him as one of the most enthusiastic students she ever taught in her art history class. “He was thoughtful and always open to new ideas,” she remembers. “He worked hard for his grades. He was also very polite, which stood out, as so many teens are anything but polite. He was a gem.”
ADMISSION OPEN HOUSE Pine Crest School invites you to attend an upcoming Admission Open House.
Boca Raton Campus Wednesday December 3, 2014 at 9:30 a.m. Grades Pre-K through Eight Please email us at pcadmit@pinecrest.edu or call 954.492.4103 to RSVP.
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“The school makes you want to do well and make something of
Santamarta moved to South Florida from his native Venezuela when he was 8, and entered NSU University School as a second grader. He graduated in 2001 and then studied business and finance at the University of Miami. Immediately after receiving his degree, Santamarta returned to his native Venezuela to work in the family business, which his father insisted he learn from the ground up. “My first job was in the warehouse loading shipping containers,” he says.
Innovative Pharmaceutical Commerce in Tamarac The Tamarac facility will produce liquid and cream medications like pain relievers and cough suppressants in individual vials so that each dose is precisely the correct one. The innovative manufacturing process forms, fills and seals each individual container in a single, continuous process without human intervention. Too often, dosages of liquid medicines packaged in bottles are imprecise because patients use kitchen spoons or other devices to take them, Santamarta says. “One tablespoon isn’t necessarily the same size as 134
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JUNIOR KINDERGARTEN & KINDERGARTEN Setting the Foundation for Success
– Reinaldo Santamarta
University School’s Early Childhood Program provides students with a warm, inviting, and safe school environment where state-of-the-art teaching takes center stage.
NSU University School
A
N O VA S O U T H E A S T E R N U N I V E R S I T Y
yourself.”
Reinaldo Santamarta, s vice president of Unipharma USA, Reinaldo Santamarta is at the helm of a business that will employ 150 people and annually produce 1.4 billion units of innovatively packaged medications when it opens next spring. The American division of his family’s Venezuelan pharmaceutical business is scheduled to begin production in April in a new 160,000-square-foot facility in Tamarac.
University School
another one. The single-dose packaging units guarantee exact measurements and can help prevent overdoses.”
NSU University School A Catalyst to Success
OPEN HOUSES: Grades JK-5: January 13 Grades 6-12: January 14 Tuition includes lunch and healthy snacks
Attending NSU University School helped put him on the path to his success as an adult, Santamarta says. “The school makes you want to do well and make something of yourself. The students push each other, because everybody wants to be the best. It makes you competitive.” When Santamarta gets in touch with former classmates, all of them also seem to be in impressive careers, he says. “Everybody I associated with at school is doing something important now.” Sharon Smith, chair of University School’s math department, remembers Santamarta as someone who not only focused on achievement, but also recognized the importance of giving back to those around him. “His genuine compassion for others, his fierce determination and his beautiful smile distinguished him from the thousands of students I have taught in the past 27 years,” she says. Oh, and University School did something else for Santamarta that has nothing to do with business success. It’s where he met his wife, Lisa Marie, a 2002 graduate. They have two children, 2-year-old Reinaldo, and Valentina, six months. In the not too distant future, they will also be University School students. “It’s important to me that my children do what I did.”
Challenging Academics Passionate and Experienced Educators Innovative, Technology-Rich Curriculum Personalized and Hands-on Learning
Call 954.262.4506 to RSVP or to schedule a tour today!
3375 SW 75 Avenue • Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314 uschool.nova.edu
“My dad always told me that when you can mix your passion and your talent, that’s the key to unlocking opportunity.”
Saif Ishoof, Gulliver
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xecutive Director Saif Ishoof oversees a team of 200 AmeriCorps Members who serve as tutors, mentors and role-models to empower students at risk for falling off track from graduating on time with their peers. The graduate of Gulliver Schools left his position as CEO of FCT Technologies, a firm engaged in international renewable energy, crop science and water resource management, to join nonprofit City Year Miami in 2009. “My parents embedded a spirit of service in me,” he says. “They told me that we honor the American Dream by helping others achieve it. At City Year, I see the power young people can have in transforming the urban environment.”
A Quest to Make a Positive Difference Born in Guyana to a family originally from India, Ishoof moved to South Florida when he was 2. He attended Gulliver from 6th grade until graduation in 1993, and then went on to study history and diplomacy at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he graduated with a degree in foreign service. A year later, he entered the University of Miami School of Law. “I thought that it would be a doorway for me, because I’d seen the power that lawyers have to effect change in our society,” he says. “Before Thurgood Marshall became a Supreme Court Justice, he was a civil rights lawyer.” Ishoof graduated with a juris doctorate in 2000. Then, when the tragedy of September 11 happened the following
– Saif Ishoof
year and touched off widespread distrust of Muslims, the young Muslim lawyer found himself working to build bridges with law enforcement, elected officials and the media. Ishoof’s career has also included founding a startup technology firm and serving as an executive in the agricultural engineering sphere. But he discovered where his true passion lies when he joined City Year Miami. “My dad always told me that when you can mix your passion and your talent, that’s the key to unlocking opportunity.” Marguerite Graham, a biology instructor at Gulliver, recalls Ishoof as a good student and caring human being who went the extra mile to help others. “My most significant memory is of him coming to my home with his friend to help me, a single home owner, after Hurricane Andrew,” she says. “To this day, I am touched by his thoughtfulness.” Ishoof’s years at Gulliver taught him the importance of top quality education, and he has made it his mission to help disadvantaged youth understand that, too. During his five-year tenure, City Year Miami has more than doubled in size and scope, with an expansion from eight to 17 schools. “I was so fortunate to have the kind of education I had,” he says. “It really positioned me to be a difference maker in leveling the educational playing field for everyone. That’s what wakes me up in the morning and keeps me excited.”
A DMISSION INFORMATION
PreK3–8 305.665.3593 Grades 9–12 305.666.7937 www.gulliverschools.org
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AGATHA CHRISTIE By Jana Soeldner Danger
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M
ost crime fiction lovers know Agatha Christie was a terrific and prolific writer of mystery novels. Fewer know that she was an expert on poisons, dabbled in archaeology, married a much younger man, and was once investigated by the British intelligence agency. Someone who does know all that is Alex Graeme, owner of Unique Devon Tours in England. He helps fans retrace Agatha’s steps at sites that were important in her life.
ovated bedrooms, each unique in size and decor, this classic Georgian manor-houseturned-hotel is a perfect place to begin channeling the spirit of the great mystery writer.
A Happy Childhood Agatha’s penchant for diabolical plots and sinister characters was not the result of a troubled youth. “She had a very happy childhood,” Graeme told South Florida Opulence. “She was educated at home till age 11 and was reading by age 5.” Although born in 1890 when women were not encouraged to be athletic, Agatha loved to swim in the sea. “In those days, most beaches were segregated by gender,” Graeme said. “Her favorite was Meadfoot, because it was the only mixed beach in the area, and she liked to swim alongside the gentlemen.”
A Romantic Encounter
Agatha Christie
Written On A Bet Agatha wrote her first novel on a bet: Her sister Madge wagered that she couldn’t write a decent detective story. And for a while, it seemed as if Madge might be right. Three publishers rejected The Mysterious Affair at Styles before one finally accepted it. Oh, but wait. We’re getting ahead of the story. Graeme’s Agatha Christie tour begins when he picks up his guests at Orestone Manor. With its ocean views and 12 beautifully ren-
“She enjoyed the company of men,” Graeme continues. At Ansteys Cove, a young Agatha went on a romantic midnight picnic with a man named Amyas Borton. “They sat on a rock and watched the moon rise,” Graeme said. The romance didn’t last, and the two had only a couple of dates. “But when Agatha was in her 60s, she was contacted by Mr. Borton, who by then was a high-ranking officer in the British Air Force. He wanted to see her again. “She said no; she wanted to retain the memory of their relationship as it was.”
A Wartime Bride Agatha married her first husband, Archie Each fall, the English Riviera turns into the murder mystery capital of England. Guests and guides dress in period finery – such as this man dressed as Hercule Poirot, the fictional detective in Agatha Christie’s British television drama in 1989.
Agatha Christie was once a nurse and pharmacy dispenser – and an expert in poisons. Tour guests can visit the Potent Plant Garden at Torre Abbey that still grows plants that killed characters in Christie’s mystery novels.
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Tour gets to ride in the vintage bus from Torquay to Agatha Christie’s holiday home called Greenway in Galmpton, England. Christie, on Christmas Eve in 1914, and they spent their honeymoon night at the Grand Hotel in Torquay. But two days later, Archie went back to fighting in World War I, while Agatha worked on the home front as a nurse and pharmacy dispenser. Her volunteer occupation proved useful in more ways than one: “She became an expert in poisons,” Graeme said. “So it’s not surprising that a lot of her victims die by poison.” Tour guests may shiver when they visit the Potent Plant Garden at Torre Abbey. “They grow many of the poisonous plants there that are found in her books,” Graeme says.
Best of Times; Worst of Times Agatha finally found a publisher for her first novel in 1919. It was also the year that Archie got a peacetime job, and Agatha gave birth to their only child, Rosalind.
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But if 1919 was a wonderful year, a dreadful one lay ahead. In 1926, Agatha’s mother died, Archie left her for another woman, and she struggled to complete another book. “It was a very difficult time for her,” Graeme said. “After that, she disappeared in a way that was like the plot of one of her novels.”
in her novel, N or M. The main character, Major Bletchley, seemed to reveal the existence of the British code-breaking center at Bletchley Park. And to make matters more suspicious, Agatha was a good friend of a leading code breaker there.
One winter night, Agatha simply vanished. Her abandoned car was found several miles away. “People worried she might have taken her own life,” Graeme said.
Agatha died peacefully in 1976 at age 85. Her books rank third in volumes sold, after the Bible and Shakespeare, and 3 million of them continue to sell annually Graeme says. “She was so important to the literary world. And I think I would have liked her as a person.”
After 11 days, she was recognized by people in Harrogate. “She was diagnosed with amnesia,” Graeme said.
For additional details about the Agatha Christie tour in England, go to www. uniquedevontours.com.
After Archie and Agatha divorced, she traveled to Baghdad and visited an archaeological site. There she met Max Mallowan, an assistant archaeologist 14 years her junior, and they married in 1930. “He brought her a lot of happiness,” Graeme noted.
Real-Life Spy Thriller It was during World War II that Agatha became embroiled in her own real-life spy thriller. MI5, the British intelligence agency, believed she had given away one of the country’s major wartime secrets
England’s Orestone Manor Orestone Manor, a classic Georgian guesthouse nestled in the coastal village of Maidencombe, provides nostalgic hospitality ideal for guests of the Agatha Christie tour. It offers ocean views, beautiful gardens and 12 renovated bedrooms, each different in decor and character. Its award-winning restaurant serves local meats, fresh fish and vegetables grown in the hotel garden. The Manor is the former home of John Callcott Horsley, designer of the firstever Christmas card. Today, the family owned hotel provides easy access to the English Riviera. Visit www.orestonemanor.com or call 01803 328-098.
Literature M U S T - R E AD S F R O M TH E D E S K O F E D W I N A S A N DY S Edwina Sandys is an artist and sculptor living in New York & Palm Beach. She is the granddaughter of Winston S. Churchill
THE CHURCHILL FACTOR HOW ONE MAN MADE HISTORY By Boris Johnson Riverhead Books, 2014 USA $27.95 Boris Johnson is Britain’s most popular politician, Mayor of London now, and soon to be a Member of Parliament again. He has written this lively book about my grandfather, Winston Churchill. Boris himself may one day become Britain’s Prime Minister. Why ANOTHER book about Churchill? There are already more than 1000. But Boris may have the answer. He brings to life the myriad qualities of Winston Churchill that changed the course of history.
A New Take on Churchill Three qualities stand out for me: Churchill’s Derring-Do, his Humanity, and his Love of Language. I like the way this book is organized by highlighting the decisive moments in Churchill’s life. Boris takes us helter-skelter to different places setting the scene like speeded-up episodes for a film script. In 1898, at Omdurman in the Sudan, Churchill fights in the last full cavalry charge by the British army. Twenty-one of his comrades are killed while he and his horse gallop through without a scratch. It is 1915. We walk in the war-torn woods on the Belgian/French border. It takes Boris less than a few minutes to lead us across no man’s land — a feat that took the British army five years to capture. You can imagine Churchill’s frustration in the trenches as he saw his men dying without an inch of territory to show for it.
A Near Miss Surviving an airplane crash in 1919, Churchill’s flying instructor was killed three days later in another crash. We sit beside him in the cockpit. Boris writes, “It was then just 10 years since the very dawn of flight. Here was Churchill, a not-especially-fit-39-year-old, asking for tuition in flying these objects that – to modern eyes – are barely recognizable as planes. They look like weird giant canvas box kites mounted on pram wheels with a lawnmower engine shoved on one end, and the whole thing lashed together with ropes or leather straps.
“Churchill was made like that. The spirit of derring-do just pumped through his veins, like some higher-octane fuel than the one the rest of us run on.”
Love For Fellow Man Churchill’s humanity shows time and again. We see him standing in the bomb sites in Bristol, accompanied by Clementine, comforting the homeless, the little children, tears in his eyes. There are many qualities in Churchill’s armory but one stands out above all other, the Power of Words. In 1901, we stand beside him in the House of Commons as he makes his maiden speech, overcoming and incorporating the slight lisp that was to make his voice on the radio in the Second World War so recognizable throughout the world. We visit Chartwell, his country home. We stand behind his desk, where he wrote so many books and so many of his speeches. This is a room I myself know well, where as a child I would run in to say, “Good morning Grandpapa!” He would often be at work on a speech, sometimes at the stand-up desk. But, oftentimes, he would be in bed with papers all around him, spectacles on his nose, cigar in his mouth. It was in these rooms that the scourge of Nazism was conquered. As President John F. Kennedy quoted, “Churchill mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.” Boris continues, “He might be thought as a man whose love of lush language exceeded his good sense, who lacked that vital note of sincerity — and therefore who lacked the final power to persuade. All that changed in 1940, because by then events themselves had reached their own pitch of hyperbole. The crisis facing Britain attained the exalted level of Churchill’s speeches. At once he seemed neither over the top nor archaic in his manner, because he was required to evoke ancient instincts – the deep desire of the islanders to beat off an invader; and the danger was so intense and so obvious that there could be no question about his sincerity.” My grandfather was a man in full, and Boris Johnson has portrayed him in all his facets: bravery, humanity, and sparkling wit and wisdom, bubbling to the surface against the backdrop of terrible times. As Churchill said of himself, “History will be kind to me. I intend to write it myself.”
EDWINA’S PHOTO COURTESY OF HARRY BENSON Winter 2015
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Questions I wish you could answer By Ava Roosevelt
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in the arms of his longtime companion Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd on April 12, 1945, leaving an immeasurable nationwide void that hasn’t been fulfilled to this day. Eleanor Roosevelt, his wife, was absent. His legacy can be summed up with The New York Times’ poll taken during his first term, which placed God as his distant second. Q. I wonder what it felt like to be the epicenter of the universe for millions worldwide, the only beacon of hope amidst the despair of the U.S. Depression. What did it take to carry on all the expectations placed upon you, especially while braving your own health challenges? How did you manage to conceal doubt and keep your laughing-poker face? Did you give the credit for appearing perpetually invincible to your mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, who idolized you? At the time of his death I wasn’t born, yet FDR’s heritage had a profound impact on my country of origin, Poland, a geographically controversial battleground of omnipotent neighbors who shifted borders to satisfy their religious and political expansions for centuries. A Treaty of Yalta was signed by FDR, Churchill and Stalin two months before his death. A casualty of FDR’s misguided trust in Stalin and abandoned by the Allies, post-Yalta Poland suffered immeasurable consequences, but as a nation it has given its all to defeat the Nazis. At Stalin’s insistence, not one dollar of the Marshall Plan’s millions was spent on its reconstruction. With three signature strokes, Poland was transformed into a Sovietcontrolled satellite state. Sadly, history repeated itself. I never cease to wonder if there was another way. Would the outcome be different if you were well? You didn’t live to see the consequences of Stalin’s betrayal. And for that I am glad as I am certain it would have crushed your spirit and bruised your heart.
When a friend called and suggested that I take her place at a luncheon with Bill Roosevelt, I was reluctant. “Please, you must go,” she pleaded. “I am still in Southampton and Bill already left his office.” This was clearly a pre-cell-phone moment. I must admit curiosity took the better of me. I put aside my feelings, shared with almost all Poles, as they had little to do with FDR’s grandson, I reasoned, and braved the freezing wind. I entered Arcadia, a fashionable bistro on East 63rd Street, my feet were soaked. Bill Roosevelt, sporting a three-piece suit, rose to greet me. His kind, passionate eyes spelled trust with a hint of mischief. When I shook his hand, FDR became real. Bill’s resemblance to Eleanor was uncanny. “I bet something happened to Barbara, again!” Bill laughed. “Who might you be? What a nice surprise.” “I am here to tell you Barbara isn’t coming,” I said, preparing to leave the restaurant. “Please stay.” I did stay, utterly charmed by Bill’s unassuming manner. Later, on the way back to my office, Bill invited me for dinner. “I am not sure.” “Why not?” “I am Polish. Given what your grandfather did at Yalta…I don’t think I can.” Bill gently took my hand. “My grandfather had brain cancer which affected his thinking. He was out maneuvered by Stalin. Forgive him. I’ll make it up to you.” He did so for 20 happily married years until his untimely death in 2003. During the course of our marriage, we often visited Hyde Park. The proximity of Sara’s room to Franklin and Eleanor’s bedroom defied any level of privacy and mystified me beyond measure.
My future husband Bill Roosevelt was 7 years old at the time of his grandfather’s death. His mother Elizabeth Donner Roosevelt and his father Elliott Roosevelt, FDR’s son, divorced when Bill was 18 months old. Subsequently, each of his parents married four more times. I marvel how such a disjointed childhood could have resulted in Bill becoming goodhearted, unpretentious and humble. Simply, a good person. Citing various anecdotes from their times together at Val Kil and Hyde Park, I learned that Bill credited Eleanor, his beloved Grandmere, for being both his surrogate mother and father. Her influence had far-reaching consequences on Bill’s upbringing, he told me. His work ethics, punctuality and deep sense of responsibility that stemmed from being a Roosevelt were apparent from the moment our fates collided on a rainy November 1980 in New York.
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Standing left to right: James Roosevelt, Elliott Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Curtis B. Dall (Anna’s Husband), John Aspinwall Roosevelt, Elizabeth Donner Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr.
Seated left to right: James Roosevelt's wife Betsy Cushing Roosevelt and her daughter Sara Delano Roosevelt, FDR's mother Sara Delano Roosevelt, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Woman seated on floor, Anna Roosevelt.
Q. You must have been keenly aware that your mother’s constant presence would eventually carve a canyon-deep division in your marriage? Did you notice Eleanor’s despair and isolation, when in the early years, she had little to say in matters other than childbearing? To me as a woman, the absence of Eleanor at the time of FDR’s death speaks volumes about a man who changed the landscape of the nation, and that of the world we know, who evoked love and admiration everywhere he appeared, yet who seemed unable to remain intimate with the one person who loved him most, his wife. FDR’s indiscretion with Lucy Mercer, Eleanor’s social secretary, satisfied Eleanor’s greatest fears and broke her heart. She was never able to forgive him. Q. Why did you carry Lucy’s letters, did you desire to be found out? FDR’s omnipotence, his great looks and personality made him easy prey. All a woman had to do was to admire him. Eleanor knew it to be true. Q. Did you ever wonder what it felt like to be living, waiting for your affairs to actually materialize? To her credit and in the face of FDR’s prominence, Eleanor realized that sharing him was a matter of personal and political survival and catapulted her to becoming the most influential woman of the twentieth century.
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Recently, millions of Americans watched Ken Burn’s brilliant portrayal of The Roosevelts, a chronical of America’s greatest political family of which I am proudly a part. Sadly, I never met Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, but knew well Bill’s father Elliott Roosevelt. Today, I am close to his children, David Roosevelt and his wife Manuela, Chandler Roosevelt Lindsley, Tony Roosevelt and his wife Joan and their families. Over 70 years ago, FDR, Churchill and Stalin led the world into a war to obliterate the Nazis, one clearly defined enemy, and they prevailed. Today, Obama, Cameron and Putin are waging a battle with faceless terrorists, geopolitically dispersed and mushrooming in a reign of extremism, unified by increasing loathing of everything we hold dear. No clear solution or end-result are in sight and it might not be found for decades to come. Q. What advice would you give our leaders today? On October 9th, 1941, FDR approved development of an atomic bomb. At the dawn of the nuclear age, the United States hoped to maintain a monopoly on its new weapon. Today, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Israel, and Pakistan possess nuclear arsenals. Q. As a father of the atomic age, would you repeat today President Truman’s decision which effectively ended World War II? I pray the unthinkable doesn’t ever occur, but it keeps me awake. I know I am not alone wishing you were here to guide us in the face of multiregional conflicts which conceivably could become World War III.
Presidential Style Hits the Auction Block By Robin Jay
FDR’s Cigarette Holder Sold Price: $6,250 President Roosevelt’s cigarette holder measures 3.5” long and features a yellow celluloid body with a metal tip to secure the cigarette. FDR smoked Camel cigarettes incessantly. He was known for the trademark cigarette holder dangling from his mouth and was often seen in photographs and political cartoons with the device dangling from his lips.
FDR’s Cufflinks Sold Price: $3,375 This ornate pair of gold-tone cufflinks was personally owned and worn by FDR. Crafted by Sporrong & Co., they featured blue enamel stones decorated with three crowns. President Roosevelt once said, “Since they often accuse me of wanting to be King, I might as well wear these.”
Raleigh DeGeer Amyx grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and became a prodigy collector at a young age – a remarkably young age. When he reached the ripe old age of 7, Amyx opened his first museum. Visitors paid 2 cents per admission to see his collection of battlefield artifacts from World War II, butterflies, coins, fossils, stamps and even a deceased bat. Since then, Amyx has amassed one of the largest private collections of presidential collectibles. This past September, at RR Auction in Boston (a globally recognized and trusted source of rare documents, manuscripts and historic artifacts), a portion of Amyx’s presidential relics went up for sale. Following is a selection of items personally owned by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and descriptions provided by Amyx. They fetched a tidy sum.
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1933 Inaugural Top Hat Sold Price: $46,875 President Roosevelt’s personally owned and worn beaver-felt top hat, size 7 3/8, was worn for his first presidential inauguration on March 3, 1933.
FDR’s Walnut Cane Sold Price: $46,875 President Roosevelt’s personally owned and used walnut cane with a white bone handle and tip. This cane is a historically significant reminder of FDR’s personal struggle with the crippling effects of polio that inspired one of his lasting legacies – the fight to eradicate the disease. He contracted the disease at the age of 39 during a family trip to Canada. Winter 2015
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Like a colorful butterfly, the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach emerged in October from a $9 million “reimagining” that was so extensive, it required a five-week closing just to finish the work.
Iconic Palm Beach Colony Reimagined By Dale King and Julia Hebert
C
arleton Varney, proprietor of Dorothy Draper & Co., one of the oldest design firms in the U.S., named after its famous founder, executed the massive makeover using a playful palette of hues to brighten the six-story hotel. He and Brinsley Matthews, director of design and operations, “used bright colors and rejected all that is impractical, uncomfortable and drab” in the 91 guest rooms and three penthouses.
Matthews put it another way. “There are no sad rooms” at the remodeled Colony, which stands on golden turf, about a block from the ocean and steps from affluent Worth Avenue, a shopping mecca for folks with deep pockets. The exterior walls, which had been finished in many shades from brown to yellow over six decades, are now painted Wolcott Salmon – Dorothy Draper’s favorite – at Varney’s direction. The color is named for her ancestor, Oliver Wolcott, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The entryway is much brighter than the old lobby, with vividly painted corridors leading to the Polo Steaks & Seafood Restaurant, the Royal Palm Room, the expansive check-in desk and the new 1,300-pound chandelier with 637 individually hand-hung crystal pendants.
Carleton Varney and Brinsley Matthews
Delayed a few years by World War II, the British Colonial-design boutique hotel was built in 1947, said Jim Ponce, an executive assistant manager at the Colony in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Now 96 years of age, he is still a hotel tour guide. His memories of the Colony are fond. The original owner, he said, “lived in a mansion across the street.” Years later, the hotel acquired his 1928 residence called Casa Manana and converted it into seven spacious villas that are still in use. In the early days, said quick-witted Ponce, “right behind the Colony was the Ocean View Hotel.” He quipped: “You had to have a long neck to see the ocean from there.”
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The elder hotelier’s first job was at the Breakers, but he moved to the Colony because it stayed open all year. Most Florida businesses close for the slow, hot summers. Even stores on Worth Avenue were “boarded up like two picket fences.” The Colony, he said, “was never empty.” And celebs found it a fortuitous spot to spend leisure time without being hounded. “I can still hear the laughter of Liza Minnelli running in the lobby” when her mother, Judy Garland, was a guest. While she was staying there, President John F. Kennedy invited her to a White House function. “In her haste, she forgot a blue sequin dress in her suite. I had to rush the outfit to the airport in West Palm Beach where a fighter jet landed to pick it up.” The venerable Mr. Ponce still recalls “the deliciously wicked sense of humor of Victor Borge and then-little known Bill Blass. There
“I have known and loved this property for years and it is truly the one iconic hotel in Palm Beach,” said Varney. was the eternal smile and joie de vivre of Liberace. The young George Hamilton, whose charm and playfulness remain untouched. A witty and delightful Phyllis Diller, whom I had the pleasure of picking up at Miami International Airport.” Ponce delivered cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post and her new husband to the airport so they could fly to a honeymoon spot aboard her Lear Jet. (He had one, too.) And then there were the duke and duchess of Windsor. He can picture Wallis Simpson walking through the lobby a few steps ahead of the man who gave up the British throne to marry her. The penthouse where they stayed is named for the Windsors. And a framed check for $1,000 signed by the duke hangs in the lobby. General Manager Roger Everingham now presides over operations at the grand hotel. He has added his own touches, including candlelit cabaret dinner shows Saturday nights in the Royal Palm Room and Motown Friday nights in the Polo Restaurant. He also created Café 155 in the hotel at 155 Hammon Ave. The popular New York-style deli “has good food, good coffee and a friendly atmosphere,” said the GM. Everingham and Varney are old friends, which helped make the overhaul manageable, even pleasant. They both have an abiding affection for the hotel that locals call “the center of Palm Beach society.” “I have known and loved this property for years and it is truly the one iconic hotel in Palm Beach,” said Varney. “From the day Roger and I started talking about this project, my goal has been to enhance and continue the Colony’s classic tradition by celebrating the glamor and charm of yesterday while simultaneously integrating the high-tech convenience of tomorrow.” The hotel’s metamorphosis is a tribute to that transformation. 146
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Civil War Tobacco Pipes: A Soldier Craft of Conflict* BY Ben Rapaport
Gunboat Jeff Davis CPT J. L. Dodds pipe, 1865, courtesy Cowan's Auctions, CincinnatiÂ
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Exclusive to South Florida Opulence Magazine We’re nearing the end of the American Civil War sesquicentennial (2011-2015), a gala four-year period of celebrations, studies, exhibitions, and special events to remember a tragedy that nearly tore this country asunder. No doubt, the estimated 250,000 Civil War buffs who collect everything from weapons to uniforms, from belt buckles to buttons, Winter 2015
A soldier’s demand for tobacco is a notable fact of military life in every war. To him, tobacco represents comfort, convenience and consolation.
Army of the Potomac pipe bowl, undated, courtesy Cowan's Auctions
and from diaries to daguerreotypes, and everything else attributed to this war, have been thrilled with all the memorialization and remembrance events that have occurred since 2011 across the country. One of the hundred or so collectible items from this war is the soldier’s tobacco pipe. There is an interesting confluence between Winter 2015
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men in uniform and tobacco, war and pipes. A soldier’s demand for tobacco is a notable fact of military life in every war. To him, tobacco represents comfort, convenience and consolation: The cigarette is an icon of glamour, the cigar represents victory, and the pipe signifies comfort and solace. As to war and pipes, the proof is three distinctively different pipes associated with three 19th-century wars. There was the very popular German porcelain pipe, mass-produced during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), the Reservistenpfeife (regimental pipe) a kitschy, complicated affair that exhibited all sorts of martial symbolism. The Oom-Paul, a deep-bent briar pipe popular during the Second Boer War (1899-1902), named after Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (Oom Paul is Afrikaans for “Uncle Paul”), the State President of the South African Republic (Transvaal), who smoked this particular pipe shape. English pipe factories sent Oom Pauls to British soldiers and Colonial troops in South Africa who then carved their personal messages—unit designations, battle dates, and other symbols — in English or Afrikaans into the bowls. The pipe defies easy classification: Soldiers on both sides in camps and in prisons crafted hundreds, perhaps thousands, of personalized pipes between 1861 and 1865. The Regimental and the Oom Paul have their own dedicated following, while our own soldier-carved pipes have been an underappreciated and overlooked, relic from this war. More often, what have survived are the pipe bowls, absent their stems and mouthpieces.
Carving Pipes in the Trenches Clay tobacco pipes were abundantly available during the war, but most soldiers preferred to smoke a more durable, less fragile pipe. They scavenged for whatever hard woods were locally accessible and easy to carve: laurel, greenbriar root, hickory, holly, sweet brier root, rhododendron, walnut and burl, among others and, without trade experience or apprenticeship, using pocket penknives or hand tools forged from iron hoops, they carved, sculpted, whittled, etched, engraved and used . . . an unpretentious, utilitarian utensil that, like most all Civil War artifacts, symbolizes a tragic period in American history. As Vishvajit Pandya (In the Forest) so aptly states: “Collecting tobacco pipes is a part of contact history and culture.” Every old object has — more precisely, tells — a story, and every decorated Civil War pipe that has survived tells a remarkable story, mementos recording the soldier’s patriotism, military experiences, and travels. They embellished their pipes with various emblems — battle flags, cannon, swords, eagles, the names and dates of battles and their leaders — often adding selfportraits, scrolls, floral Bull Run pipe, designs, pledges, and 1861, courtesy special inscriptions. Skinner Whether considered trench Auctioneers art, folk art, the arts of survival, mementos, memora-
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Col. Jacob E. Taylor pipe bowl, 1863, courtesy Cowan's Auctions
bilia, or combat clutter, what these soldiers accomplished — American ingenuity under duress — is an amazing feat of craftsmanship applied to a small chunk of wood that evolved into a tobacco pipe that offered utility, pleasure, comfort and decoration. As Marian Klamkin (Wood Carvings. North American Folk Art Sculpture) asserted: “Southern prisoners carved their patriotic and political sentiments in elaborate and intricate patterns on pipe bowls. . . . Many of the Civil War pipes are tours de force that only someone faced with endless hours of idleness would attempt. The end product was certainly of less importance to them than the process. Carving and whittling was, for so many, occupational therapy.”
American Collectors And from my research, only two American collectors, both recently deceased, recognized the intrinsic beauty and the historical significance of these utensils of smoke: Jan Walter Sorgenfrei of Findlay, Ohio, whose small collection was auctioned in the summer of 2013 in Cincinnati, and E. Norman Flayderman, N. Flayderman & Co., Inc, Historic Arms & Militaria, Fort Lauderdale, one of the premier companies in the antique firearms and militaria business. Norm’s collection of about 150 different pipes remains with the family. The few illustrations included in this brief article visually demonstrate a striking fidelity and a balance in carving, a credit to the soldier’s hand-and-eye coordination under wartime conditions. *The only book on the history of these pipes has just been published: Tobacco and Smoking Among The Blue and Gray. The Illustrated History of An American Folk-Art Curiosity; The Civil War Soldier’s Tobacco Pipe, available from Briar Books Press (www.briarbooks.com). Photo above: Pipe bowl with patriotic symbols, 1865, Cowan's Auctions
condo living
SOUTHEAST FLORIDA CHAPTER
Board Members:
Read Your Financial Statement, or else! By Andrew Rand, Director of Association Accounting at CSI Management Services Reviewing your Association’s financial statement package each month will assist in the internal control monitoring process and aid in preventing and detecting fraud and errors. And it will help the Board plan appropriately to maintain the healthy two-to-three months of cushion to meet emergencies or non-budgeted unexpected expenses. An industry standard Association financial statement package should include a balance sheet, budget comparison income statement, bank reconciliations, copies of bank statements, the unit owner balances subsidiary ledger, accounts payable subsidiary ledger and other relevant supporting schedules. It is not possible to read and begin to understand your financial statement package if they are not reconciled and provided on a regular basis. If your property manager or property management company isn’t providing timely financial statement packages, question it. As a board member with a fiduciary responsibility, the President and/or Treasurer should be reviewing these monthly reconciliations with original bank statements. The Association’s banking institutions should supply duplicate original bank statements each month directly to the designated board member. This is to ensure that the bank statements have not been altered to hide fraud or error.
It’s important to compare the bank balance per the original bank statements to that on the bank reconciliation to make sure they match. The bank reconciliations may also have reconciling items that include deposits-in-transit and outstanding checks. Any deposit that remains on the reconciliation for more than a month should be researched and resolved because it may become stale dated after 180 days. Outstanding checks that sit on the balance sheet for more than a month should also be accounted for. According to Steve Mason, Director of Manager Education for CSI Management Services, “It all starts with monitoring the monthly variances on the budget comparison income statement and the chain reaction that can result in a negative fund balance. Look at the effect your total year-to-date net income or loss has on the financials and plan on how it can be monitored to achieve desired results.” For industry-related education events sponsored by the Community Associations Institute SE Florida Chapter, please scan the QR code at right for our Calendar of Events or visit our website at www.cai-seflorida.org
What is it about your community’s risk management program that keeps you up at night? Does the D&O policy we purchased fully protect the board? Will our Disaster Preparedness/ Recovery Plan be effective when we need it? Is our Insurance Program in compliance with our bylaws? With all these recent natural disasters, how do we effectively budget for next year? If we have a claim will it be adjusted and paid correctly?
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By Robert L. Kaye, Kaye Bender Rembaum
Reserves: An Overview For Condominium Associations
T
he topic of “reserves� in condominium associations is one which can be confusing. Chapter 718 (governing condominiums) of the Florida Statutes contains provisions regarding reserves.
For condominiums, reserves are required to be included in all proposed budgets each year, as set forth in Section 718.112(2)(f ) F.S.
Budget Details For Reserves Reserves are required to be included for the roof, painting, paving and any item of deferred maintenance that will cost more than $10,000. A separate schedule for the reserves is required to be included in the budget and the method of calculating the amount that must be reserved is provided in Section 61B-22.005 of the Florida Administrative Code. Funds held in reserve may only be used for the matter for which they are being held unless a different use is approved in advance
Robert L. Kaye
by a vote of the unit owners. The Statute also allows an association to consider reducing or entirely waiving the reserves each year. Whether it be for using the funds for a different purpose, or to reduce or waive them, the association must obtain the vote of a majority of the unit owners present at a meeting of the membership at which a quorum has been established. Unless a lower number is provided in the governing documents, a majority of the unit owners constitutes a quorum. The actual number of votes needed in such a vote will therefore depend on how many unit owners participate in the vote. For cooperatives, Section 719.106(1)(j) F.S. contains substantially the same provisions as for condominiums and should be treated in the same fashion.
For homeowners associations, the issue of reserves was added to the Statute relatively recently, in 2007. For more information on reserves related to HOAs and Cooperatives, go to www.KBRLegal.com.
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Justin Coe: Bringing People Together Without a Voice By Jana Soeldner Danger
Shari Coe and her husband Mark have made it their mission to promote better understanding of people with special needs. People like their son Justin. During her pregnancy, Shari bought a book to record the developmental milestones of her son’s life. But it quickly became apparent that Justin’s life was going to be different from the lives of other children. The book became a reminder of all the things Justin couldn’t do, and she put it away on a closet shelf.
As Justin progressed, Shari got the milestones book down from the shelf. She started to fill it out. Life had become hopeful again. Today, Justin is a happy 23-year-old with a job he enjoys. He cannot speak, but thanks to technology, he can communicate with those around him. He carries an iPad and types out what he’s thinking. “He can have a full conversation with it,” Shari says. “He has lots to say. We just have to listen differently.” Justin loves people. “What makes him unique is his loving heart,” Shari says. “Everyone remembers him. He brings people together without a voice.”
The Coes’ daughter, Breana, was born 14 months after Justin and developed normally. When Justin reached school age, the Coes searched for a program that would meet his special needs and allow their two children to attend school together. They found the answer at Keshet, a program that provides educational, recreational, vocational and social programs for children with special challenges, while integrating them with “typically” developing individuals. Prior to attending Keshet, none of Breana’s friends had known a child with special needs. Sometimes she was embarrassed by him. That changed. “She realized we weren’t alone, that we had a community,” Shari says. “She became a proud sister.”
Partnership of Hope Fundraiser on Fisher Island On December 11, the Coes will host a Partnership of Hope fundraiser at the Beach Club on Fisher Island. It will benefit four organizations that work with special needs individuals: Keshet, Best Buddies, the Dan Marino Foundation, and the University of Miami Center for Autism and Related Disabilities. South Florida Opulence is proud to cover the event and support the Coe family’s mission. To find out how you can contribute to this Special Needs Fundraiser, go to www.SouthFloridaOpulence.com.
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Social Living Celebrity Chef Private Book Signing at Ritz-Carlton Residences Miami Beach
Ricardo Dunin, Ashley Jung, Chef Fabio Viviani, & Ophir Sternberg
Erika Buchholz, Chef Fabio Viviani, Amanda Aguiar & Ann Keenan
Celebrity Chef Fabio speaking to guests
siena tavern grand opening – miami beach
Housewives of Miami Alexia Echevarria and guest attend the Siena Tavern grand opening.
Celebrity Chef Fabio Viviani and CSIMSI COO Mark Blackburn.
Saks Fifth Avenue Dadeland Celebrates 30th Birthday
Robert Procop - the Beverly Hills Jeweler who designed the wedding rings for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
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Deirdre Capone, grand niece of Al Capone, signed autographs as samples of Templeton Rye Whiskey (Al’s ‘good stuff’ during Prohibition) was served.
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Guests enjoyed a selection of Siena Tavern’s delicious new menu offerings
Guests enjoy the grand opening celebration.
20th Anniversary InterContinental Miami Make-A-Wish Ball
Nicole Gamen and South Florida Opulence’s Amanda Aguiar
Legendary Diana Ross performed. $2.5 million was raised to grant wishes for local children.
XPO • CSI ANGELS • UFFIZI • HATS OFF
Social Living South Florida Real Estate Forum & Showcase
Recovery Unplugged
Opulence International Realty agents attend the event.
Developer Richard LeFrak and CSI’s Amanda Aguiar.
Developer Daniel Kodsi and South Florida Opulence’s Erika Buchholz.
CSI Angels - Making Strides against Breast Cancer Walk
Parque Towers Groundbreaking Ceremony
Aeorsmith’s Steven Tyler performs at Recovery Unplugged in Fort Lauderdale with Richie Supa.
The Pop Up Dinner Miami Presented by Acura
600 Miamians gathered on the secret location of Virginia Key Beach for Miami’s first pop up dinner hosted by Hand Made Events and Acura.
Groundbreaking ceremony for their latest project, Parque Towers, in Sunny Isles.
The CSI Angels participating in the American Cancer Society Making Strides of Broward Walk.
Friends of the Uffizi Event at RoboVault
Prep Party for the Hats Off Gala
Guests attend the Friends of Uffizi event at RoboVault in Fort Lauderdale. The Multiple Sclerosis Foundation rounds up auction items elegantly at Alpine Jaguar in preparation for its Dec. 6 ‘Hats Off Gala.’ Gordon A. Lewis, Jr. of the Fine Arts Conservancy spoke on the damage the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, has faced since WWII and the work dedicated to restoring the art treasures.
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