WAG Magazine January 2015

JAMES NAUGHTON A VOICE FOR THE ARTS

LIVING FOR… HELICOPTERS, HEALING, REAL ESTATE, TEA AND MORE VALENTINO AND CUCINELLI: PASSIONS BEYOND FASHION TONY WARD: DESIGNING MAN TESLA: SIMPLY ELECTRIFYING KRISTEN RUBY: FROM WACCABUC TO BRAVO

WESTCHESTER & FAIRFIELD LIFE JANUARY 2015 | WAGMAG.COM

PASSION for living

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WHAT’S INSIDE: 12 The alchemy of love 16 The art and heart of the deal 18 Hard work for the greater good 22 Sky-high passion 24 Kung Hei Fat Choy 26 Mad about anger 28 For the children 32 With a song in our hearts 34 A passion for reinvention 36 Smokin’ hot man cave 42 Hospitality, one cup at a time 45 It does a body good 48 A passion for the simply beautiful 49 COVER STORY: VOICE OF REASON 57 Glamour in the details 59 The humanist: Brunello Cucinelli

Two young baboons have a seat near a watering hole at Thornybush Game Reserve in South Africa. Photograph by Mark Lungariello.

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What are you most passionate about?

JAMES NAUGHTON A PASSIONATE VOICE FOR THE ARTS

LIVING FOR… HELICOPTERS, HEALING, REAL ESTATE, TEA AND MORE VALENTINO: AN ODE TO LIFE’S FINER THINGS BRUNELLO CUCINELLI AND TONY WARD – IN FASHION TESLA: SIMPLY ELECTRIFYING KRISTEN RUBY: FROM WACCABUC TO BRAVO

PASSION for living

WESTCHESTER & FAIRFIELD LIFE JANUARY 2015 | WAGMAG.COM

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ON THE COVER: James Naughton in Weston.

Photograph by John Rizzo

JANUARY 2015

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All news, comments, opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations in WAG are those of the authors and do not constitute opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations of the publication, its publisher and its editorial staff.

No portion of WAG may be reproduced without permission.WAG is distributed at select locations, mailed directly and is available at $24 a year for home or office delivery. To subscribe, call (914) 694-3600, ext. 3020. All advertising inquiries should be directed to Anne Jordan at (914) 694-3600, ext. 3032 or email anne@westfairinc.com. Advertisements are subject to review by the publisher and acceptance for WAG does not constitute an endorsement of the product or service. WAG (Issn: 1931-6364) is published monthly and is owned and published by Westfair Communications Inc. Dee DelBello, CEO, dee@westfairinc.com

WE BELIEVE IT TAKES MORE THAN A SURGEON TO SUCCESSFULLY PERFORM BARIATRIC SURGERY. At Greenwich Hospital, we see bariatric surgery as more than a procedure. We see it as one step in your personal journey to a healthier lifestyle. We’ve designed a completely personalized program from preoperative consultation to postoperative support.

It includes board-certified surgeons with more than 25 years of experience in bariatric procedures. They’re just part of a team of specialists, from psychologists to physical therapists, nutritionists, program coordinators and specialized nurses, all dedicated to helping you gain the strength and guidance you need to change your life. No bariatric program is more focused on your personal needs. It’s what makes our bariatric team part of THE GREENWICH HOSPITAL EXPERIENCE. greenwichhospital.org

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JOHN FOTIA, president of The Westchester Chordsmen, writes and directs many of the barbershop-quartet-style shows and handles the choreography. A graduate of the UCLA MFA Acting Company, he has toured regionally and throughout Europe. He is also a graduate of the Los Angeles Musical Comedy Workshop.

At the 2014 annual dinner, John was named “Barbershopper of the Year” and, in recognition of his almost 30 years of service, inducted into the Chordsmen’s Hall of Honor.

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EDITOR'S LETTER GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

MY AUNT MARY — A MOST PRESCIENT WOMAN — used to tell me that she always knew I’d be a writer, because from the time I was a small child I’d pull the books off her shelves at home. Too young to read, I’d nonetheless open the books — often upside down, mind you — and begin babbling, as if I were reading aloud.

Once I became old enough to read, I began building a library of my own — cleaning the shelves and arranging the books in my room, and gradually throughout the entire house, according to the Dewey Decimal System. Today that house — once hers, now mine — is a virtual library with books in every room. And as she predicted so long ago, the only thing that has eclipsed my love of reading is my passion for writing, followed by my passions for the arts (singing in particular); decorating; fitness (walking, weightlifting, yoga); sports (tennis, swimming, football, baseball); Greco-Roman culture; neoclassical Paris: I could go on and on. (My detractors will tell you I tend to.)

This year, you’re going to meet a lot of people in these pages who have any number of passions and have gone to great lengths to pursue them. That’s why we’re calling this our “Year of Passion” and our first issue to kick things off, “A Passion for Living.”

Surely, that applies to everyone, particularly when you consider the alternative. But some have found the depth of their passions fostered or thrown into sharp relief by the need to survive and thrive. Like Chau T. Dang, who with her family escaped Vietnam in 1975 under heavy fire to come to America. Today, Bob tells us, the Memorial Sloan Kettering doc is working to find more effective, less toxic treatments for breast cancer.

Or Francesco Clark. Here’s a guy who was on the fast track in a glamorous profession that included stints at Mademoiselle and Harper’s Bazaar. Then a swimming accident left him paralyzed and unable to sweat, which led to skin problems. As Mary describes, Clark turned those lemons into the lemonade that is Clark’s Botanicals, a skincare line.

For some, the passion for living is singular, more of an obsession. The Serbian-American scientist Nikola Tesla — the prototypical eccentric genius and

a daddy of the alternating current — was said to work ’round the clock, stopping precisely at 8:10 p.m. to eat a preordered dinner at Delmonico’s or the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan that was served to him only by the head waiter.

The handsome, meticulous polyglot never married, preferring to channel his passions into his work. That drive infuses the sleek, tony electric car that bears his name — or so Leif discovered when he took one out for a spin.

For others, the passion for living takes many forms. As a new Assouline book details, Valentino’s homes, menus and place settings are as elegant as his couture and the man himself.

Tony Award-winning singer-actor James Naughton has always been passionate about the theater. But this Connecticut native tells Ronni that he also has a great love of family and charity, having worked with Paul Newman on his Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for seriously ill youngsters.

Luxury ready-to-wear designer Brunello Cucinelli — who teamed with longtime associate Richards department store in Greenwich for the recent Breast Cancer Alliance Luncheon & Fashion Show — has so many passions (fabric, architecture, philosophy, management) that he built a whole complex for his workers in the idyllic town of Solomeo in his native Italy.

Men like Cucinelli — who believes money is best used when it serves others — demonstrate that the passion for living is sweeter when it is a passion shared.

Georgette Gouveia is the author of “Water Music” and the forthcoming “The Penalty for Holding,” part of her series, “The Games Men Play,” which is the name of the sports/culture blog she writes at thegamesmenplay.com.

Oops!

On page 24 of WAG’s December “Power Brokers” issue, we flip-flopped the names and representative properties of Donna Beretta and Michelle Genovesi, two top brokers at William Raveis Real Estate. Please see the ad on Page 81 for the correct information. Our apologies to both ladies.

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Two lives hung in the balance.

They hung on with our help.

Deborah Strobach Open heart surgery survivor / Mom

The second Deborah felt a sharp pain in her chest, she knew she was in trouble.

And the second she was airlifted to Westchester Medical Center, she knew she was in good hands. Eight months pregnant and suffering from an aortic dissection, our cardiac and OB teams worked together to repair her heart — and deliver Olivia.

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THE ALCHEMY OF LOVE

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

Bartholomeus Spranger’s “Jupiter and Antiope” (circa 1595-97, oil on canvas, Kunsthistorisches 12 WAGMAG.COM JANUARY 2015 Museum, Vienna). Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

T

THERE CAN BE NO DOUBT WHERE BARTHOLOMEUS SPRANGER’S ARTISTIC PASSIONS LAY. A pert bosom, a dimpled buttock, the creamy dunes of a woman’s back, her opalescent flesh offset by the tawny musculature of an ardent lover.

Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that this is where his patrons’ artistic passions lay, for the Flemish artist (1546-1611) created what Sally Metzler – guest curator of the luscious Spranger exhibit at The Metropolitan Museum of Art – describes as art reservata, art for the one-percenters of his day. They included Pope Pius V and Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, for whom Spranger painted sensuous religious works (the contrapuntal form of the dead Jesus in “The Lamentation of Christ,” circa 1576, is particularly exquisite), as well as Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II. But perhaps no one was better attuned to Spranger’s aesthetic sensibilities – and vice versa – than Maximilian’s lascivious son and successor, the anything-goes Rudolf II. An eternal, perhaps bisexual, bachelor with a string of mistresses and natural children, Rudolf was also an erudite man for whom no idea was so terrifying that it could not be entertained. That included the trending alchemy, which purported that base metals could be turned into gold.

Spranger’s art, then, wasn’t just about sex. Or rather, the sex was symbolic of love’s alchemy. In the exhibit catalog, Metzler quotes Ebreo’s “Dialoghi d’amore”: “The union of copulation … makes possible a closer and more binding union, which comprises the actual conversion of each lover into the other.”

Still, sex and sexuality are at the heart of Spranger’s art, which marries the elongated Mannerist figures of El Greco and Parmigianino to the swarthy physicality of the subjects portrayed by Giulio Clovio, the “Croatian Michelangelo.” In “Diana” – an oil painting of the late 1590s-early 1600s that was intended for the private delectation of Rudolf II, who held court in Prague – the chaste goddess of the hunt sports a corset and undulating folds of red and green satin that offset her full, high breasts, exposed save for a bit of gauzy, beaded fabric. In case we miss the point, Diana accentuates her erect right nipple with her right thumb while one of her hunting dogs nuzzles her, mouth agape. Her rapt gaze may be heavenward but her full, bow-shaped lips and crimson cheeks remain rooted in this world, as does the phallic bow she holds in one hand and the crescent moon, one of her attributes, that crowns her dark-gold tresses. (Hundreds of years later, a similar crescent tiara would appear in John Singer Sargent’s witchy “Madame X” and certain photographs of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.)

It’s not so surprising that Spranger would give Diana (Artemis in Greek mythology) the pinup treatment usually reserved for her sister Venus. After all, the bathing Diana – so affronted by the hunter Actaeon glimpsing her naked that she turns him into a stag – has been a favorite of artists, Spranger included. What is unusual, however, is the depiction of their sister Minerva (Athena in Greek mythology) – the virgin goddess of wisdom, arts and crafts and judicious warfare, whose narrative generally contains no nude scenes. Indeed, her peekaboo breastplate in several Spranger canvases, with its fearsome head of Medusa underscoring her bared breasts, attracts more than it repels.

Even the garb for Spranger’s virgin saints reveals more than it conceals,

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Bartholomeus Spranger’s “Self-Portrait” (1585-86, oil on canvas, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

sexualizing pristine flesh in an alchemy of sacred and profane love.

Elsewhere in Spranger’s work, marbled females are showcased against darker males, who wrap powerful forearms beneath their lovers’ breasts or thrust shapely legs out at the viewer in a preview (or perhaps postlude?) of the sex act itself. The animalistic swarthiness of the men – as per his selfportrait (1585-86), Spranger himself was a brunet; his beloved wife Christina, a blonde – and the pearlescence of the women might be one more pair of mighty opposites Spranger and his alchemy-loving patron were playing with. Dark and light. Male and female. Strong and weak. Hard and soft.

The dualities are upended in Spranger’s gender-bending “Hercules and Omphale” (circa 1585, oil on copper), in which the captive Hercules dons feminine pastels and takes up the spindle while his commanding queen,

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Omphale, her nude backside to us, clutches his lion skin and hoists his phallic club as she looks provocatively over one shoulder. She seems so girlish and he, hulking and older. So who’s the dominant and who’s the slave in this 50 shades of green, pink, gold – anything but gray?

You look at this triumphant depiction of molded flesh and realize that the real alchemy here is not sex but art.

For as curator Metzler writes, Spranger “transformed simple materials – pigments and inks – into erotic gold.”

“Bartholomeus Spranger: Splendor and Eroticism in Imperial Prague” is on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan through Feb. 1. For more, visit metmuseum.org.

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THE ART AND HEART OF THE DEAL

BY FRANK PAGANI PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB ROZYCKI

F

OR SALVATORE CAMPOFRANCO, REAL ESTATE HAS BEEN A LABOR OF LOVE EVER SINCE HE WAS A KID ON LONG ISLAND WHERE HE USED TO HELP HIS FATHER WHO RAN A HOME-BUILDING BUSINESS. “On Saturdays, I cleaned up the homes that my father built before the occupants moved in,” he recalls. “I learned very early the pride that comes with building a better place for families.”

He also developed an appreciation for some of the disciplines that went into creating living spaces. “I watched my father confer with architects reviewing the plans at the site and saw how those visions became a reality.”

That experience has served Campofranco very well in his 35 years as one of the region’s most prominent figures in residential and commercial real estate. As founder and managing member of Westport-based Luzern Associates LLC, he oversees a real estate investment company that redevelops a select group of significant size residential, mixed-use and Class A office properties in Connecticut and Boston. What they have in common is that they have experienced a dramatic turnaround, thanks to the business acumen, hands-on experience and expertise of Campofranco and his team of versatile professionals.

Salvatore Campofranco outside his building at 180 16 East WAGMAG.COM Post Road in Westport.JANUARY 2015

Getting favorable bottom line results has, of course, brought smiles to the company’s partners and investors. Considering that Luzern was established in 2007 – one year before one of the worst recessions unfolded – rebounding from down times in the real estate market has been particularly sweet.

“My father, who was a World War II veteran, experienced a boom market in the 1950s and 1960s, but I recall how the gas crisis of the 1970s impacted that,” he says. “When I began my career in 1980 after graduating from (St. John’s University with a B.S. in accounting), the real estate road ahead would undergo a number of downturns – notably the slump in the late 1980s-early 1990s, the dot-com implosion in 2000 and, of course, the worst recession since the Great Depression that started in 2008.”

As a veteran of slumps and the opportunities that present themselves in-between those dips, he observes, “Time is your best ally in real estate.” That stickto-itiveness, plus the good fortune of having “great partners and a very supportive family, helped me to navigate a very tough and stressful period of time.” He cited the 92,000-square-foot office space at 372 Danbury Road in Wilton that was part of Luzern’s portfolio when the market plunged. The property was only 40 percent occupied, but Campofranco and his partners remained committed and, seeing the long-term potential, proceeded with extensive renovations in 2009. The persistence and investment paid off as new blue chip tenants signed on, thereby increasing the market value of the property. In early 2014, the property sold for $19.2 million.

Campofranco is proud of 372 Danbury Road, which has been well received by the community. Having a beneficial effect on the local economy is another aspect of real estate that he enjoys, pointing to the 360 Hamilton Ave. office building in downtown White Plains. The building had been vacant and a stigma for more than 10 years. While Campofranco served as COO and executive

vice president of Reckson Associates Realty (a position he held for more than 10 years before going out on his own), the company made the decision to renovate 360 Hamilton, which paid off.

“It was a risky decision but turned out to be a highly desirable office destination, one that all the tenants loved. But more important, one can argue that it set the stage for the greater redevelopment and revitalization of the city’s downtown that soon after ensued.”

Campofranco’s interest in attracting and retaining Westchester employers led to his appointment to the Westchester County Association’s Executive Committee Board of Trustees, a position he held for more than 11 years, concentrating on initiatives aimed at promoting Westchester as an attractive business destination.

Similarly, as chairman of the building committee for ArtsWestchester – for which he also served as member of the executive committee board of trustees – his efforts were instrumental in the nonprofit’s acquisition and redevelopment of The Peoples National Bank & Trust Building at 31 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains, as its new Arts Exchange headquarters.

There’s no question that the art of the real estate investment deal drives Campofranco, but there is much more to the man. His number one passion is his family – wife Alice and children Nicholas and Victoria. They enjoy taking ski vacations together and have a second home in Vermont for that purpose. “In addition to my family, I have been very blessed to have enduring and sincere friendships that started out as business relationships.”

He also loves fly fishing, which given the nature of his business, may be a fitting metaphor for the reward that comes with being patient – if not today, then perhaps tomorrow. But the odds are over time that you’ll catch a fish, and the catch may be something to shout about.

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Hard work for the greater good STORY AND PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB ROZYCKI

Chau Dang, MD, chief of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s West Harrison Medical 18 WAGMAG.COM JANUARY 2015 Oncology Service.

F

ROM THE MID-1960S TO 1971, BLACK AND WHITE TV SETS ACROSS THE NATION GLOWED IN THE EVENING WITH IMAGES FROM THE VIETNAM WAR. U.S. forces were shown sloughing through rice paddies and along muddy roads. Blasts from exploding artillery shells punctuated the narrative by war correspondents. Close-up shots of bandaged and bleeding soldiers along with bodies of civilians in small villages conveyed in near-real time the horrors of the war.

As the conflict wore on and American casualties mounted, the antiwar movement grew in the U.S., gaining such momentum that troop withdrawal began in 1971, leaving the South Vietnamese to fend for themselves.

Chau Dang, MD, chief of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s West Harrison Medical Oncology Service, was an 8-year-old girl in 1975 Saigon. It was a tumultuous time as the North Vietnamese communists began their incursions into the south.

Dang’s father was an executive with Exxon, and he, like the rest of the employees, kept a close eye on the North Vietnamese troops’ movements.

With a wife and six children, he made plans to find a safe escape using a boat. With Dang being the fifth of the six children, her parents worried for her and a brother’s ability to survive the sea voyage. They feared they would drown. So they decided to place the two children in an orphanage with the thought they would be flown to the U.S. as the other orphans were.

“So we were in an orphanage for two weeks, (while my parents) prepared the other children to be ready for eventual escape by boat in the middle of the night,” Dang says.

During that time, the sounds of the new conflict grew closer. Exxon decided to evacuate the American personnel and also asked Dang’s father if he and his family would want to join the airlift to the U.S. So he ran to the orphanage to “adopt” his two children and then get to the airport, where he would meet his wife and the rest of the family as well as a few aunts and uncles.

Dang says she slept in fear that night in the terminal hearing gunshots in the distance.

“It was early in the morning, around five or six o’clock, I remember walking in a straight line into the military plane,” Dang recalls with clarity. “I could just see the fear in the parents who were there with other kids.”

As the plane took off, Dang says she heard gunshots from below.

“It was common for the communists to try to bring down any planes that were escaping. We had soldiers on our plane and they, I guess they shot back and we made it. We made it.

“My memory was, as a child at 8, that this was being part of a movie. It felt like that. There is a war going on around us, but somehow I felt protected because Saigon wasn’t hit yet, but we were going to be attacked and I just felt safe with my parents and my siblings. … We were lucky. We saw so many families that were torn apart.”

After landing in Guam, the family was then flown to U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California, where they lived with the other refugees.

“We had a grand time. We learned the life of a free world. It was such a gift to have a second chance,” she says.

“We had beds, we had blankets, we had water and we ate on the base. …

We counted our blessings for getting out alive. That was my new beginning in America.”

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JANUARY 2015

19

You remember their hair, their hair color. Just the essence of the patient. And that stays with you. And that was the tipping point (for me). I know that we should all find purpose in grief, and what it teaches you is to make something positive out of it and make something better for others.”

ON TO NYC

First lady Betty Ford meets with Vietnamese refugee children at Camp Pendleton in California in May 1975.

NEW ADVENTURE

After two months in the camp and with their government-approved paperwork in hand, the family loaded their meager belongings into an old sedan bought with money her father had saved up while in Vietnam and headed east.

First stop was Missouri where her father had a friend and the family enjoyed the kindness of this man and his family. From there it was on to North Carolina for her father to find work.

Even though he was a vice president with Exxon in Vietnam, Dang says her father took on any type of work to take care of his family.

He eventually reconnected with the oil company and the family moved to Charleston, S.C., where Dang began her education in earnest.

She recalls entering fifth grade at Mount Pleasant Academy in Mount Pleasant, S.C., being the new kid knowing just a little bit of English. It was there she says she learned an important life lesson.

“Back then they had something called ‘reduced lunch’ for families of little means. There was also free lunch and regular lunch. I remember that they would call us in groups. So as part of the reduced lunch group I was standing in back of the line, and I didn’t mind it. I thought wow at least I’m getting lunch.”

The lesson learned?

“You have to earn your keep. … You don’t have to have the best, you don’t have to have the fanciest, you just work for what you want. … Be proud of what you have and have a purpose in life, and give back to help humanity. And that has stayed with me ever since.”

It was early on in high school that she discovered she wanted to be a doctor, because she thought the human body was “such a unique, complex machine, a more complex machine than any other machine that we can create.” After high school, it was on to Clemson University and then Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

Dang thought that she wanted to be a surgeon.

But it was at Eastern Virginia Graduate School of Medicine that she realized surgery was not for her. So she left that field and went into internal medicine.

It was a patient she was caring for at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh that made Dang realize that she wanted to go into medical oncology.

“She was a 37-year-old mother of three who came to the hospital because of complications with metastatic breast cancer. And I was the intern taking care of her and I remembered meeting her family, her husband and her three young children. … The three children were standing next to her and they were going to lose their mother. This just made me extremely sad and touched me profoundly. This woman is going to leave behind her family. It made me understand that this disease affected more than just the patient, but everyone around her. I felt that if I could do something with my career, it would be to go into the field of oncology and try to find new ways, or more therapies to extend the lives our patients, to improve their quality of life, to improve their outcomes and hopefully keep their disease in remission for as long as possible.”

“I remember what she looked like, I remember her hospital bed, I remember where her family was standing. She was beautiful, but stricken by her cancer.

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Dang declared her fellowship in hematology oncology and landed in New York City in 1996.

Flying in on an American Airlines flight into John F. Kennedy International Airport, she recalls looking down at the city and asking herself: “Am I cut out for this?” then adding, “This is what they say: If you can make it in New York City, you can make it anywhere.”

That sense of being at once overwhelmed and exhilarated continued on the ride to the Upper East Side, where she felt like Marlo Thomas in “That Girl” as she left the taxi. She knew that for the next three years of the fellowship at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, “I had to buckle down, work really hard to know the science and see if I was cut out for this. And I knew that the challenge was going to be great, but I did not know how great it was. And I just kept working harder and harder, learning the field of oncology, meeting incredible people and scientists and physicians who taught me oncology.”

But the greatest lessons came from patients.

“Who will teach a better lesson in life, or any disease, than your patient if you sit down and pay attention? Just sit down and talk to them. They will tell you why they’re sick. You’ll be able to make a diagnosis by just listening to them,” she says.

“I’ve always held it in my heart that I went into this field to be with patients, to take care of them. So when I’m with them, nothing else matters. I don’t look at anything else, not even a computer when I’m with them. … Human contact is so critical. Humanity is so critical.”

Dang knew she wanted to go into breast cancer medicine research. During her last six months of training, she did rotations at Memorial Sloan Kettering to learn breast cancer oncology. It was there she met her mentors, Drs. Clifford Hudis and Larry Norton. “Having rotations with them really sealed my desire to go into research in breast cancer medicine.”

That was 1999. She has been with them ever since.

IMPROVING PATIENTS’ LIVES

Long days of research have helped improve the outcomes for breast cancer patients.

If you’re not in the field, her description of the various drugs and their interactions with patients can make your head spin. Suffice it to say, Dang and her fellow researchers have developed less toxic treatments and targeted therapies for women fighting breast cancer and have had treatment regimens endorsed by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

“It’s a wonderful feeling that patients with HER2 positive breast cancer, who were doing poorly, are now doing very well,” Dang says.

Where are we heading in the future?

“Many times we are in the area of targeted biological therapy to improve outcomes, but these agents are expensive,” Dang says. “We’re looking at biomarkers to help us identify predictors of response and resistance so we can give the right treatment to patients who need their therapy and spare patients who don’t need therapy. We are in the era of precision medicine, to tailor therapy.

And also some thoughts about going back to the basics. We need to go back to exercising and eating well as part of the overall package of getting well.”

But for the doctor it’s all about the patients. “They are our inspirations and heroes. They help us to move the research trials forward, because without them we couldn’t do this.

“I want to say I really feel very privileged to have been given this second chance of life in America, and being given the privilege to work with such incredible minds, my colleagues and scientists. But I owe my utmost gratitude to all of our patients, truly. Allowing us to care for them and to continue doing research through them. And it is through the research that we are able to find better drugs for the greater good.”

Forever thankful for her blessed life and ever an optimist, she says: “Embrace life, work hard, never give up, help others in need, and keep on working, keep on working hard. … I think that if you put your mind to anything, you can reach your potential. No matter how hard it is. Even when you think you’re not cut out for it.”

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George D. Mitchell Jr. holds one of Igor Sikorsky’s patent notebooks in Sikorsky’s original office.

Photo courtesy of Sikorsky Aircraft.

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SKY-HIGH PASSION SIKORSKY AIRCRAFT BETTER, FASTER, STRONGER THANKS TO GEORGE MITCHELL

G

BY FRANK PAGANI

GEORGE D. MITCHELL JR.’S INTEREST IN HELICOPTERS BEGAN ABOUT THE AGE OF 10 WHEN HE WAS GROWING UP IN ANSONIA. “A neighbor started to tell me about the work he did as a flight inspector for Sikorsky Aircraft. It struck me by the way he spoke how much he loved what he did and the pride he felt for Sikorsky. That no doubt sparked my passion for aircraft that could fly vertically and horizontally with revolving overhead blades. It also inspired me to pursue my dream of one day working for what sounded like a great company.”

Fortunately, the youngster was also mechanically inclined – something he no doubt inherited from his grandfather, who was a welder, and father, who worked in the home improvement business – a talent he would need in order to qualify for acceptance by a college to successfully pursue a degree in engineering. In 1983, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Technology-Manufacturing from Central Connecticut State University. It was a very proud moment for him and his family as he was the first Mitchell to graduate from college.

With degree in hand, the young man applied for a job at Sikorsky and soon after was hired as a junior manufacturing engineer. Over the next 10 years, he worked literally on the nuts and bolts of producing precision aerospace parts for the latest line of helicopters that the legendary manufacturer was making for the military and commercial markets. During this time, Sikorsky’s search and rescue HH-60 Jayhawk made its first flight and the VH-60N helicopter, used to transport the president of the United States and VIPs, entered service.

In 1991, Sikorsky helicopters played a key role in Operation Desert Storm, one of a number of significant contributions the company’s aircraft would make in conflicts and disasters in the years ahead that would make Mitchell and “everyone who works here fiercely proud to be part of the Sikorsky legacy.” He cited how Sikorsky helicopters saved the lives of U.S. service members in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, rescued hundreds of people in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, aided in the relief of the victims of the Southeast Asia earthquake and tsunami and safely and quietly, under the cover of night, safely transported the Navy Seals who killed Osama bin Laden.

Mitchell’s 30-year and counting career track took a significant turn when he was promoted to chief engineer. Meanwhile, he obtained a Mas-

ter of Science degree in Organizational Management from Central Connecticut State University. Now he was on his way to gaining increased responsibility and recognition for his leadership in the areas of operations, manufacturing and engineering.

Among his notable contributions that have helped the company to manufacture more streamlined, faster and efficient helicopters to meet the rigorous demands of the modern military, Mitchell is an inventor with four patents to his credit. One, in which he served as co-inventor, improves the process of manufacturing lighter weight gears. Three others are innovations in tooling components that save costs. His body of work has contributed, for example, to the development of the latest Black Hawk UH60A which is “more capable of lifting heavier payloads and has more lift and speed,” Mitchell says. Building on Mitchell’s innovations, Sikorsky’s next generation attack helicopter, known as the X2, is a game-changer for tactical missions with the ability to move at unprecedented speeds of upward of 220 knots and soar as high as 10,000 feet and more.

As vice president of Defense Systems and Services, Aircraft and Support, Mitchell and his team provide product support for more than 5,000 Black Hawks around the globe via a network comprising 1,200 field service specialists. Under his direction, his team has also managed numerous aircraftbased maintenance programs domestically and internationally.

Though Mitchell has been acknowledged for his achievements with numerous company accolades as well as community service awards for his work with the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce, Valley United Way and Boys and Girls Club of the Lower Naugatuck Valley, he proudly proclaims that his wife, Shirley, and three children – Stephanie, Amanda, and Katherine – as the “single greatest accomplishment of my life.” He especially loves celebrating holidays with the family at their Oxford home.

Thanksgiving is especially close to his heart because it is not only a wonderful occasion to be with his loved ones but it’s often a time when he starts a new home improvement project. Working with his hands to create something uniquely his own remains his favorite lifelong hobby.

This year’s endeavor is a new hardwood floor for the living room. That, and doing his own landscaping around the house, are about as terra firma Mitchell can be when not thinking about how to make Sikorsky soar to even new heights.

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JANUARY 2015

23

Chinese New Year is celebrated with lion and dragon dances, along with fireworks and feast that make it the biggest Chinese event of each year.

KUNG HEI FAT CHOY (Wishing You A Prosperous New Year) PHOTOGRAPHS AND STORY BY AUDREY RONNING TOPPING

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NOWHERE IS THE PASSION FOR LIVING EXPRESSED MORE EXUBERANTLY THAN DURING THE JOVIAL CHINESE NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONS, WHICH ARE ALSO HELD IN MANY OTHER COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD. (This year, the moveable feast begins Feb. 19.) In China, the New Year is celebrated with all the traditional festivity – fireworks and feasts as well as lion and dragon dances that mark it as the largest and loudest festival of the year.

I was initiated into the evocative symbolism and subtleties of Chinese New Year while living as a student in Nanking, China, when it was Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist capital, and later Hong Kong, when it was still a British crown colony. My husband, Seymour Topping, and I participated enthusiastically in the frantic preparations that begin 15 days before Chinese New Year actually arrives. We joined in the crush and chaos at the flower fairs and markets and witnessed firsthand the excitement and sense of abandon the Chinese have for their festivals. The overpowering sensation is one of joie de vivre. And it is contagious. Even though both Hong Kong and China have changed governments, the ancient tradition still goes on.

It is impossible to compare Chinese New Year with Christmas or with New Year in the Western world. To the Chinese, their New Year means much more. It is a time for settling debts, reappraisals, good resolutions, worshipping ancestors, family reunions, preparing special feasts and – appropriately enough among the people who invented gunpowder – for noisy firecrackers

and spectacular fireworks.

It is the only time of year the Chinese voluntarily close their shops. This may the best indication of the seriousness with which the Chinese regard New Year for they are an exceptionally business-conscious people.

During Chinese New Year, the clock stops and the time machine winds back to ancient rituals and customs. Some of the outward manifestations have changed, but the essential elements of these traditions – a combination of Buddhism, Taoism and folk religion – still exert a spellbinding force on millions of Chinese. Whether in China, Singapore, London, Vancouver, San Francisco or New York City, this most important of all Chinese festivals is celebrated in basically the same way.

With indefatigable zest, the Chinese continue the festivities for days, the length being determined by the family’s wealth. About a week before the New Year, the preparations reach fever pitch. Strings of firecrackers 20 to 30 feet long are hung from thirdfloor balconies to be detonated when the time is ripe. Amid the cooking and cleaning, the women must find time to bargain for suitable branches of plum, peach and bell blossoms at the flower markets because tradition insists that the blossoms bloom ex-

actly on New Year’s Day if the family is to prosper. Some families will pay hundreds of dollars for the perfect promising branch. Artificial blossoms are frowned upon. China’s tenements and homes are hung with red and gold streamers, the colors of luck and prosperity. The business districts are gaily decorated with peach blossoms.

People flock to the department stores, open-air stalls and food markets from early morning until late at night. Paper shops are busy producing scrolls with auspicious slogans and couplets written in old-style characters to adorn homes and shops – “Success Affairs,” “Ten Thousand Generations and Long Duration,” and, most popular, “Kung Hei Fat Choy” in Cantonese.

The 13-month lunar calendar, said to have existed for more than 4,000 years, is the method used to calculate Chinese holidays. Consequently, Chinese New Year by the Western calendar can fall as early as Jan. 21 or as late as Feb. 21. The ancient Chinese zodiac of the 12-year cycle of animals still identifies the year. The characteristics of these animals are quite different from Western attributes. For example, the rat is a symbol of abundance, because a rat would hardly inhabit a poor home with lousy food. The snake, which disturbed the bliss of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, has cura-

tive powers to the Chinese.

The pig is an auspicious symbol, as are the dragon and the lion. Ferociouslooking lion and dragon dancers in full costume, accompanied by drums and cymbals, wind their way through the streets, temples and restaurants.

On New Year’s Eve, the shops close and everyone goes to their ancestral home to celebrate with family. No outsiders are invited to the New Year’s feast. Old quarrels must be forgotten.

In more traditional homes, the family joins in the ancient rites of honoring ancestors and family deities. Children are given small gifts of “lucky money” wrapped in red paper. Mahjong, dice, cards, dominoes and other forms of home gambling are popular, for what other way is there to test the effect of New Year’s good luck? Many of these time-honored ceremonies, though, are fading in The People’s Republic, and in many homes television provides New Year’s entertainment with its Cantonese and Mandarin films and operas.

On the last night of the 12th moon, no one goes to bed. Families gather, often in ceremonial garments, to take leave of the old year and share 10-course dinners lasting several hours. The fare is exotic. The foods in themselves aren’t symbolic, but the character ideograph of the food or the

sound of the word means something appropriate for the holiday. Absolutely essential are sweet lotus seeds and melon seeds. Lotus is a play on the word meaning “continuous children” and women eat these in hope of “a full quiver of sons.” Oysters mean prosperity; clams mean promotion; fish means plenty; chickens mean life.

Vegetables are also selected for their meaning – mushrooms, success; seaweed, prosperity; and bean vermicelli, a play on the word for “long life.”

It is an old Chinese custom to have household gods. These deities look after members of the family and intercede on their behalf in the court of heaven presided over by the August Emperor of Jade. The beginning of New Year is marked by the departure of the Kitchen God, who is dispatched to heaven with fanfare, from his temple above the stove, to report on the family. He has finished the important role of the old year of watching over the family, distributing riches and deciding the length of life of each member. A new Kitchen God is welcomed home and a new effigy is placed above the stove.

On the fifth day after New Year’s Day, shops reopen and a feast is held in honor of the God of Merchants. Tradition appeased, the Chinese return to work satisfied that nothing more can be done to secure a prosperous year.

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MAD ABOUT

ANGER

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

T

THE 2012 FRENCH OPEN MEN’S FINAL WAS IN THE WORDS OF THE SUPERB SPORTS/CULTURE website Grantland “an absolute mess.”

It rained in Paris that June Sunday, and the players’ collective mood matched the spirit of the Symbolist poet Paul Verlaine: “Il pleure dans mon coeur comme il pleut sur la ville.” (“It rains in my heart as it rains in town.”)

Rafael Nadal, the perennial winner whose kvetching matches his clay-court capabilities, never let up on offiAchilles atop the Wellington Monument in London. Sculptor Richard Westmacott made the 18-foot, 1822 statue from cials. enemy cannon that was captured and melted down. Dreamstime.com “You made us play in the rain and then you said we didn’t have to play in the rain. Make up your mind.”

Novak Djokovic, the perennial challenger, kept his lip zipped, for the more as a war prize and thus, showing impiety to the gods. Demonstrating who’s the it rained and Rafa complained, the better he himself actually played. Until it boss, Agamemnon takes Achilles’ war prize. was fi nally too much for Nole, who took his racket and proceeded to demolish This leads the warrior to sulk famously in his tent, strumming his lyre as his the Perrier sign under his seat. rage gathers into the eye of a psychological storm. But his sulking does not have At least one observer was sympathetic. the effect he intended. Sulking rarely does. With the tide of war turning against “I can relate,” said John McEnroe, tennis bad boy-turned-NBC elder statesman. the Greeks, Achilles’ beloved kinsman Patroclus – often interpreted today as his So could many of us who are just a teensy, weensy bit passionate about everylover – dons his armor and sets out to battle the Trojans, only to prove fatally that thing we do. The passion spectrum has many colors – the crimson warmth of he’s no match for the Trojan prince Hector. Achilles’ rage now rains down on the compassion, the jazzy black and blue heat of lust – all of which we’ll explore in this Trojans. He slays Hector as they watch from their walled heights. Then piercing WAG’s Year of Passion. But then there’s the white-hot fury of anger, which gets a the heels of the body, Achilles ties it behind his chariot and drags it around the bad rap, perhaps deservedly so. Indeed, we could people Wikipedia with the lives city walls, back to the Greek camp and around Patroclus’ tomb three times before that have been destroyed, the families, communities and cities decimated, because leaving it face down in the dust. we had to – another poet here, Dylan Thomas – “rage, rage against the dying of But even then Achilles’ rage is not dissipated, and he holds the body as a war the light.” Someday, some clever grad student at NYU is going to write a thesis on prize for the Greeks to abuse. It’s not until Hector’s father, King Priam, comes to the literature of rejection – those men, and women, though mostly men, whose beg for the release of his child’s remains that Achilles’ passion approaches compasdisproportionate rage at seeing a homeland humiliated (John Wilkes Booth, Adolf sion.

Hitler), a military career fizzle (Lee Harvey Oswald, Timothy McVeigh), a patriAnger, like any other quality, is neither here nor there. It’s the context that mony ridiculed (Osama bin Laden) led to megalomania and unfathomable evil. shapes its meaning. And Achilles fails to understand the context. Or rather he fails But the literature of rejection is also about actual literature. Here the Western to give his anger its proper context. canon is populated with antiheroes – Lucifer in Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” HeathHe may be the greatest warrior. He may be on the side of the gods. But Agamemcliff in Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights,” to name two – who could not “go non is his boss. gentle into that good night.”

He may sit out a battle to hurt Agamemnon. But he can’t foresee and thus conPhilip Roth alluded to as much as he revisited his seminal novel, “Portnoy’s trol the devastating domino effect that his pettiness will have.

Complaint,” in The New York Times’ Nov. 16th T magazine: And while he may channel his rage into killing Hector, he crosses the soldier’s “Portnoy is as rich with ire as with lust,” he writes. “Who isn’t? Look at Robert line when he desecrates his enemy’s body.

Fagles’ translation of ‘The Iliad.’ What’s the first word? ‘Rage.’ That is how the He does not see that anger, like a sword, must be tempered to be most effective. whole of European literature begins: singing the virile rage of Achilles.”

You think here of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and all those who took part The wrath of Achilles drives “The Iliad,” the 8th century B.C. epic by Homer in the civil rights movement. (or a group of Homers) that centers on the turning point in the Trojan War. The There was cause for anger to fuel a million Achilleses. But instead the rage was poem begins with righteous anger. Achilles – the Greeks’ greatest warrior, son of funneled into peaceful protests, demonstrations, Freedom Rides – actions that led the sea goddess Thetis and a king in his own right – rebukes the arrogant, incomto legislation and change. petent Greek high commander Agamemnon for taking a temple priest’s daughter Without that creative purposefulness, rage is just another Achilles’ heel.

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their families, Child First is based on the principle that all families want the best for their children. It also recognizes that consistent, stable and nurturing parent-child relationships provide a solid foundation for mental health, cognitive and language development and physical health, a jump-start that remains with them throughout their lives.

Child First is also the means by which the veteran pediatrician – who has dedicated nearly 30 years to working with and for young children – continues her efforts.

FROM THE START

Dr. Darcy Lowell, in her Shelton office.

Lowell, also an associate clinical professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Child Study Center at Yale University School of Medicine, says her own childhood had a tremendous impact on her life.

She was born in New York City, a “daughter of a social worker and a lawyer.”

Her mother, Vivian Lowell, and father, Stanley Lowell – a onetime deputy mayor and chairman of the city’s Commission on Human Rights, “someone who had a real passion for social justice” – had a great influence on her life.

“I felt that I could do anything,” she says.

That included babysitting by age 10 and later graduating from New York City public schools and going on to Yale and then New York University’s School of Medicine.

“I always knew I wanted to work with children, and I always knew the important thing was relationships,” she says. She first considered becoming a child psychologist, then psychiatrist, wanting to do “something that was impactful.

It was in my blood.”

Lowell would eventually choose developmental behavioral pediatrics and would start her career.

“I thought, as I was in the first class of women at Yale, that we could have it all. What I really learned is you can have it all, but you can’t have it all at the same time.”

For Lowell, when children came that meant stepping back from the so-called career track to focus on motherhood.

“I don’t think there’s any more important job than being a mother,” she says.

“It’s not just the quality of your time but it’s about being there, with them. I wanted my kids to think back and say ‘She was always there.’”

Once the youngest of her three boys was midway through elementary school, Lowell returned to her career filled with firsthand experience.

“When I think back on my kids, I probably learned more from them, not only how to be a good parent but what are the essential elements of being a parent.”

Lowell, who lives in Weston, says she realizes she was in an enviable position, being able to step back from her career and then also to go into nonprofit work. She points to the career of her cardiologist husband Jay Meizlish – they met at Yale – for allowing her the freedom to pursue her passion.

“That has been a huge gift,” she says.

For the children

DR. DARCY LOWELL DEVOTED TO THE VERY YOUNGEST

BY MARY SHUSTACK PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB ROZYCKI

PUTTING CHILDREN FIRST

T’S HARD TO MISS THE ARRAY OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF YOUNGSTERS POSTED IN THE HEADQUARTERS OF CHILD FIRST IN SHELTON. And walking into Dr. Darcy Lowell’s office, a large image of an infant immediately catches the eye.

“Most of the pictures around are of our families, but that one is mine,” the founder and CEO says of her granddaughter, then just three days old.

Lowell using the term “our families” is a most telling choice of words, a window into the way she feels about the countless children who, along with their parents and caregivers, are served by the nonprofit organization.

Child First’s stated goal, “to intervene with children at the earliest possible time to decrease emotional and behavioral problems, developmental and learning problems, and abuse and neglect,” is accomplished through an innovative and intensive home-based model.

Identifying and working with the most vulnerable young children and

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Spending time with Lowell, it’s more than evident how committed to her work she is.

She will reel off statistics and study findings, crediting pioneers in the field and Child First’s own track record.

Child First’s roots date back to 1995 when Lowell led a collaboration of early childhood service providers in Bridgeport who came together as First (Family, Interagency Resource, Support and Training) Team, an organization based out of Bridgeport Hospital.

“They allowed me to start this new program, gave us space and all kinds of in-kind support,” she says.

“What I was learning about, what was happening to our most vulnerable children, was the system was broken,” she says. While services might address a child’s problems, “when you actually looked beyond the child, you saw a family that was so stressed. … These were not parents who didn’t want to do it; they couldn’t.”

Throughout, there was a purpose.

“We’ve got to find out the core, the underlying issue of these problems,” and that planted the seeds for what would evolve into Child First.

CRYSTALIZING THE PLAN

It was a time of research and a new way of looking at the issues, with the First Team’s work evolving into Child First in 2001.

“People hadn’t thought about stress in the environment as toxins on the young brain,” she says.

The program is designed for children prenatal through 5 years old, primarily serving children with or who would be prone to emotional/behavioral or developmental/learning problems. The families served generally have multiple challenges, ranging from extreme poverty to maternal depression, domestic violence to substance abuse, or homelessness to incarceration.

Families work with a highly trained Child First team on a weekly basis. A clinician works on strengthening the parent-child relationship, while a coordinator strives to reduce the stressors in the home by connecting family members with needed community services.

As Lowell explains, when children are in highly stressful environments and lack nurturing that enables them to cope, they fall victim to what has been called “toxic stress” which can, literally, damage their brains both in the near and long term.

Early and intensive intervention is where Child First comes in – decreasing the stress on the child by helping the parent learn to cope and also helping them receive services that target the stressors themselves.

“Every time a child does something, behavior has meaning. It’s our job to understand what they are trying to communicate.”

Once established, Child First conducted its own progress studies.

“Once we had proof that this works, we had an avenue to go for funding,” Lowell says.

She points to pivotal support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and other funders both public and private.

“We have lots of wonderful support from lots of wonderful sponsors,” she says, adding they make a “profound difference” in what Child First is able to do.

Today, Child First has 15 sites throughout Connecticut, through which 40 teams go into the field to serve 1,000 children and families a year. Child First has begun to roll out on a national level, with interest expressed by 25 states so far and Florida already signed on to implement the model.

“We’re both prevention and intervention,” Lowell says of the Child First efforts, which she takes to heart.

“In a way, it’s really a calling,” she says. “I don’t feel like I have a choice. Can I not do this? No. I have to see if we can make some real progress.”

Such commitment earned Lowell the Community Service Award in the inaugural Fairfield County Doctors of Distinction Awards program this past October (presented, in part, by the Fairfield County Business Journal, WAG’s sister publication).

Lowell, it should be noted, is dedicated but not single-minded.

“I also like to garden, and I like to dance,” she says with a laugh.

Still, it’s clear that children are never far from Lowell’s thoughts.

“I just love little people,” Lowell says. “They are, to me, absolutely fascinating.”

Giving them the chance to thrive, she says, is paramount.

“A child who feels loved and protected and nurtured, they can do anything.”

For more, visit childfirst.com.

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PRINCE WILLIAM HAS PRINCE HARRY, SNOOPY HAS SPIKE – YOU KNOW, THE BAD-BOY BABY BRO WHO’S A CHUNK OF CHARM AND A TON OF TROUBLE. That’s what WAG Weekly is to WAG. In our e-newsletter, we let down our hair (and occasionally, our grammar) to take you behind behind-the-scenes of the hottest parties and events, offer our thoughts on the most controversial issues of the day, share what couldn’t be contained in our glossy pages and tell you what to do and where to go this weekend – all while whetting your appetite for the next issue.

If you can’t get enough of WAG — or you just want to get WAG unplugged — then you won’t want to miss WAG Weekly, coming to your tablet.

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With

A SONG in our HEARTS

BY JOHN FOTIA PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN RIZZO

ONE COMMENT WE AT THE WESTCHESTER CHORDSMEN OFTEN HEAR IS, “YOUR CHORUS IS THE BEST KEPT SECRET IN WESTCHESTER.” Whether it comes from our newest candidate for membership or from someone in the audience who has recently discovered our charms, it’s a secret we want to share with more of you.

Our repertoire extends beyond our barbershop roots to Broadway, doo-wop, gospel and contemporary songs in four-part a cappella arrangements, and our members come from the tristate area. One of the particular joys of being a Westchester Chordsman is the year-round relationship we develop with great songs. We have explored the soaring melodies of Richard Rodgers, the hypnotizing rhythms of George Gershwin and the intoxicating harmonies of The Beatles.

Our travels have taken us from the White House to China’s Great Wall. We’ve sung before audiences in England, Russia and Italy. One of our chapter quartets has appeared multiple times on “Late Night with David Letterman” to sing his Top Ten List. We have helped Charles Osgood salute the Easter holiday and entertained the ladies of “The View.” Last year, we brought our act to Carnegie Hall where both our opening number, “Strike Up the Band,” and our closing number, “New York, New York,” brought audience members to their feet.

We were thrilled to open the show at the International Competition in Toronto in that same year and are currently preparing our contest package for the 2015 division competition. A package consists of two songs, usually an up-tune and a ballad. Since our annual show this year explores the wonderful world of Disney music, we will be bringing two Disney songs to the contest. For those unfamiliar with barbershop, it should be pointed out that we don’t just sing. There is a whole lot of dancing that goes into our routines.

In addition to our annual shows, we strive to reach out into the community through singing valentines, holiday concerts at senior care facilities and by promoting a cappella singing in Westchester County schools. This year, we partnered

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with The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry to produce our first a cappella festival. It was a huge success with more than 80 students taking part. Participants from Rye Neck, Pleasantville, Bronxville and Horace Greeley high schools and The Masters School displayed an array of talent and good will, with each group cheering on the others as they took to the stage. Members of our chorus will never forget the reception these kids gave us for our set. They leapt to their feet after every song. All the groups were brought back on stage for the finale, “There is Love Wherever There is Song,” written by our own Stephen Delehanty. The song was commissioned by the National Harmony Society to mark the organization’s 75th anniversary. It has become an anthem for our a cappella festival. Plans are being made now for our next festival.

To look at our director, Keith Harris, it’s hard to imagine that this young man has accumulated so many years of experience in the worlds of opera and barbershop. He holds a master’s degree in vocal performance from the University of Washington and a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from Lawrence University in Wisconsin. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in the world premiere of David N. Childs’ “Requiem.” His Metropolitan Opera debut was in Verdi’s “Don Carlo.” Recently, he joined the cast at the New York City Opera as Belcore in “L’elisir d’amore.” Despite an active career at home and abroad, Keith has managed to find time to bring his expertise to The Westchester Chordsmen. Under Keith’s guidance, the chorus continues to grow and the journey from technique to art remains an exciting, life-changing one.

John Fotia is president of The Westchester Chordsmen, a 501(C)3 nonprofit performing arts group, chartered in 1952. Their mission is to spread the joy and fun of singing around the community, the country and the world. Rehearsals are held every Monday night at the Temple Kol Ami in White Plains.

For more information, visit chordsmen.org.

Adam Samtur, an actor and member of The Westchester Chordsmen, playfully promotes the group that has been 33 called WAGMAG.COM JANUARY 2015 “Westchester’s best-kept secret.”

A passion for reinvention

FRANCESCO CLARK MOVES EVER FORWARD

F

BY MARY SHUSTACK PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY FRANCESCO CLARK AND CLARK’S BOTANICALS

RANCESCO CLARK’S LIFE IS ALL ABOUT CHANNELING HIS PASSION. The Bronxville man cares deeply about what he does, which makes any recognition all the sweeter.

So when Clark was named a 2014 Martha Stewart American Made Winner, it was a moment to savor.

Clark’s Botanicals was one of 10 companies selected from a field of more than 3,200 nominees in the program that “spotlights the maker, supports the local and celebrates the handmade.”

Presented with the award during an early-November summit in Manhattan, Clark was honored in the Style category for the skincare line. The products, sold around the world, are noted for their use of Jasmine Absolute, an essential oil that naturally rebalances the skin.

This is not the first award for the company, also recognized by The Fashion Group International with a Rising Star Award and by Allure and Self magazines, among others.

While certainly grateful for the attention, Clark doesn’t let the recognition go to his head. Its biggest bonus is the way it raises the company’s profile – and allows it to continue its mission.

“You can’t ever assume that just because you win an award, it’s going to be a walk in the park,” he says. “I still have to do five hours of physical therapy every day.”

And that statement is a key to not only Clark’s persona but the company’s genesis.

EARLY DAYS Raised in Bronxville, Clark would go on to double major in international relations and Romance languages at Johns Hopkins University.

“After college I made a promise to myself I’d live in a city I’d never lived in and work in a job where I’d learn a new skill.”

That led to Chicago and working on a website for law companies. He did what he set out to do, though Chicago winters soon found him heading back in New York where he embarked on a career in the publishing industry.

Clark was an assistant special projects director at Mademoiselle magazine and then fashion assistant at Harper’s Bazaar.

It was, he says, the “dream job” for someone in his mid-20s, attending award presentations, working with celebrities and fashion models and really “seeing the industry inside and out.”

“What I learned from that experience, working with these people who are so passionate and creative, there’s this drive and ambition and creativity I saw and it translated to an ambition that I wanted,” Clark says.

Soon enough, though, Clark would find he had to draw on his own inner strength and creativity to fashion a second act. It was on a Memorial Day weekend trip in 2002 when Clark jumped into a pool, unaware he was at the shallow end.

“The second that I dove in, the bottom of my chin hit the bottom of the pool,” he says of a move that would result in being on life support for a week and a crippling spinal-cord injury.

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Francesco Clark.

“While all this happened, the thought of me dying never crossed my mind.”

He would, instead, go through a process that saw him rebound after much effort and persistence, as shared in his memoir, “Walking Papers.”

MOVING FORWARD A few years after the accident, Clark read about how Christopher Reeve, the Bedford-based actor injured in a horse-riding accident, was “pushing so much to find a cure.”

Inspired by Reeve, Clark would travel to China for experimental stem-cell surgery that proved a game-changer.

“Obviously my voice came back, because I don’t shut up now,” he says with a laugh.

“It’s really captivating and it’s breathtaking to see how a lot of little changes can lead to a revolution,” Clark says of the improvements he would experience.

One, though, remained – his inability to sweat. As a result, he says, his body was unable to balance itself. He said he looked like he was “hyper-aging” with a combination of dry, flaky skin and oily skin with terrible acne.

Nothing worked, from inexpensive to the most expensive commercially made creams and treatments. It was a hindrance when Clark was ready to do more.

“It was a point in my life where I wanted to not do just physical therapy every day. I wanted to become a voice. I wanted to become an advocate. I wanted to do more than try and move my pinkie.”

Clark and his father, Harold Chandler Clark, a longtime New Rochelle doctor who had background in homeopathy, began to collaborate on creating a cream.

They hit on the key ingredient, Jasmine Absolute.

“It is the core of all our products,” Francesco Clark says, which at that time were very much home-based. “We were making it in the kitchen in Bronxville.”

At first, it was just to help Clark’s own condition.

“I wasn’t doing it to sell it. I was just doing it as part of my rehabilitation, to gain my independence.”

After dozens of formulations, they found a winner. Soon Clark’s sister, then mother, then father’s patients were trying it out. In time, Clark would be visiting with Glenda Bailey, his former boss at Harper’s Bazaar, who noticed how good Clark looked.

“I gave her a bottle,” he says. “That eventually made its way to their beauty director.”

He was told it would be shot for the September issue – a big deal.

Clark’s reaction? “Thank you very much but we’re not a company. We’re not a brand sold in stores. … The answer that we got back was ‘You have five months.’”

As Clark says, “That was the tipping point from when this went from an idea of something to an actual, tangible product.”

He secured a handful of stores, including early supporter Maison Rouge in Bronxville as well as C.O. Bigelow Chemists in Manhattan and Fred Segal in California.

Right from the start, Clark knew sales would help the Christopher Reeve Foundation, as the late actor’s example “was the reason I went to Shanghai.”

Throughout, Clark adds, “It was about connecting the dots with my former life and industry, my former life working in fashion and having the injury and the skincare line.”

And the company that resulted, which today features moisturizers, cleansers, lip balms, masks, serums and more, has been Clark’s focus since its 2005 launch.

“It happened in a very organic way, and I think that’s why it resonates with our customers,” he says of the independent, family-owned business that has no outside investors. Formulations are still done in Bronxville, with production in Florida.

“We’re always introducing new products,” hinting at a few that will be launched in spring. “We’re always working on three or four different formulations at any time.”

The market has been welcoming, Clark says.

“We just launched in Hong Kong and just launched in Russia. We’re sold in the UK. … It’s about a slow and steady growth.”

The product and its backstory seem to have captivated the Martha Stewart American Made program.

Melissa Goldstein of Chappaqua, the beauty director of Martha Stewart Living and Martha Stewart Living Weddings, was one of the judges for this year’s American Made program.

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“American Made is all about the makers, those entrepreneurs who see a gap in the market so they go out and fill that need themselves – and Francesco’s story is no exception,” she says. “What started with a tragedy quickly blossomed into something grander than he could have imagined. That one acne-clearing product he developed with the help of his father soon became a line of skin-loving products that have garnered cult status. They’re that good! His products have purpose and soul.”

Recognition, Clark stresses, benefits more than just sales.

“My goal is to, I mean my ultimate goal, is to help find a cure for spinal-cord injuries,” he says, with the company donating a portion of its profits to the Christopher Reeve Foundation (of which Clark is a national ambassador).

As the market changes and products are developed, Clark seems ready to take the business where it needs to go.

“You can’t rely on a certain set of rules, because there’s constant evolution. You have to be on your toes. You have to maintain this energy.”

And it seems like Clark is more than poised to do just that.

Clark’s Botanicals are available at Maison Rouge in Bronxville. For more, visit clarksbotanicals.com.

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Josh DeSiena lights up in the Doc James Cigar Lounge in Mamaroneck.

Smokin’ T HOT MAN CAVE

BY LEIF SKODNICK PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB ROZYCKI

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WO PILES OF LEAVES SAT ON THE FLOOR OF A TOBACCO BARN IN NICARAGUA WAITING TO BE SOLD TO CIGAR MANUFACTURERS. After their purchase, the leaves would be shipped to factories where cigar makers would chop, cut, bind, press and wrap them to make the finished product – coronas, robustos, torpedos, and Churchills – that would find its way to cigar shops around the world.

Among those buying tobacco that day in 2012 were Josh DeSiena and his brother Adam, who have been in the cigar business in Westchester County since 1993.

In Shrub Oak, Adam runs the Doc James Tobacco Shop, first opened by Harold James in 1938, and 312 Cigar Club. In Mama-

roneck, Josh opened Doc James Cigar Lounge in 2007 and five years later, converted a 19th century horse barn into the new lounge.

“I’m very proud of this place,” Josh DeSiena says over the front desk of his East Prospect Avenue shop, the sweet-yet-spicy aroma of the cigars hanging richly in the air. “Myself, my father, my uncle, we built everything, designed everything and figured it out.”

On a Thursday afternoon, the first round of the weekly PGA Tour event was playing on two different screens – among the several nods to DeSiena’s past as a PGA professional at Doral Arrowood in Rye Brook and other area courses.

In the lounge, patrons can rent a locker named for a famous golfer, golf course or professional athlete to store cigars. Customers are welcome to relax on the comfortable leather chairs while enjoying a cigar or they can walk through the barn door and sit outside on the patio.

“I’ve always tried to provide the private club feeling at a public place, and if you’re a golfer, you know the difference,” DeSiena says of how he appointed the interior of his cigar lounge.

And there can be a big difference. But DeSiena notes that memberships are offered but not required. And while the upstairs of Doc James Cigar Lounge is generally reserved for its 115 members, anyone is welcome to come in and enjoy a cigar.

“In here, you get a great bunch of guys,” DeSiena says of his patrons. “This is why cigars are what they are – there’s a great sense of camaraderie. Smoking a cigar is an event. You plan your day or your night around it.”

DeSiena says that the atmosphere that makes Doc James Cigar Lounge a draw for customers is a combination of selection, expertise and experience.

“The best thing about cigars is that you smoke according to your mood or according to the time of day,” DeSiena says. “That’s going to determine if you have a medium cigar, a full-bodied cigar, a spicy cigar or a more earthy cigar.”

They’re contained inside a walk-in humidor, which holds such a vast selection of cigars that DeSiena couldn’t put a number on exactly how many there are.

“This is where we house all our goodies,” DeSiena says, waving an arm past

shelves upon shelves of cigars, each handmade and individually wrapped in cellophane and displayed in wooden boxes.

“I try to carry cigars that you can’t find at a lot of other places. I’m very picky about what I carry,” says DeSiena, who taste-tests everything that he sells and is one of fewer than 200 retailers in the United States that carry Davidoff cigars, one of the world’s premier brands. Davidoff cigars generally retail in the $15 to $60 range, although some varieties and vintages carry higher premiums.

“We just got in a new La Flor Dominicana. It’s called Chapter Two, which has a medium-to-full body,” DeSiena says. “Cigars have gotten much, much more complex. And that comes from the different tobaccos that cigar makers can get their hands on.”

DeSiena theorizes that a lull in the business in the past decade created a surplus of tobacco that has led to more diverse blending by cigar makers.

“Cuba has bottomed out. They never let their soil recover,” DeSiena says. The U.S. trade embargo, which was extended to cover all Cuban imports on Feb. 7, 1962, hasn’t helped either. “They’re not the best in the world anymore.”

The best cigar tobaccos nowadays, despite popular misconceptions, come from Honduras, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Mexico, which is why Josh and Adam were at that tobacco sale in Nicaragua.

“We’re trying to get into the distribution end” of the cigar business,” DeSiena says, holding a DeSiena Corona that was made from the tobacco purchased on the brothers’ trip to Central America. “This just got rated a 92 in Smoke magazine. It’s all Nicaraguan, with a little touch of Colombian tobacco in it.”

And like a craft-brewed beer or small batch whiskey, the uniqueness of the flavor is what matters with a hand-rolled cigar.

“Nicaraguan tobacco has a bigger depth of flavor. There’s more complexities,” DeSiena says. “You’re going to get a little bit more body, but the flavor is certainly there.”

Doc James Cigar Lounge is at 133 E. Prospect Ave. in Mamaroneck. For more, call 914-630-7333 or visit docjames2.com.

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WARES

A well-crafted

LEGACY Aileen Osborn Webb’s pioneering passion

BY MARY SHUSTACK PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY THE MUSEUM OF ARTS AND DESIGN

I

IN RECENT YEARS, THERE HAS BEEN A NEWFOUND INTEREST IN ALL THINGS ARTISANAL.

This growing respect for works made by hand has given renewed value to everything from a charming little watercolor to an intricately beaded necklace.

Aileen Osborn Webb would likely smile at this turn of events.

After all, it’s the kind of appreciation that Webb cultivated throughout her life (1892-1979), one fueled by her passion for crafts.

Webb’s legacy is being celebrated at The Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan, where “What Would Mrs. Webb Do? A Founder’s Vision,” continues.

Webb established MAD – then called the Museum of Contemporary Crafts – in 1956.

The exhibition, organized by adjunct curator Jeannine Falino of New Rochelle and curatorial assistant Barbara Gifford, is described by the museum as one “highlighting Webb’s advocacy and dedication to skilled makers across America and featuring objects drawn largely from the museum’s permanent collection.”

It’s a varied show, one that reaches from the historic through the contemporary. And sometimes, with groundbreaking work on display, the eras seem to blend, proving

that true style endures – something Webb understood.

Webb was born in Garrison to an art collector father and philanthropist/social reformer mother and raised with a strong sense of the importance of both education and the arts. She would marry Vanderbilt Webb, a greatgrandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt.

“She was born into privilege,” Falino says. “Her father was a very prominent New Yorker.”

There was, though, always a sense of the need to give back.

“She grew up understanding an obligation,” Falino says. “There was an implied obligation to help people.”

It was in 1936 that Webb launched Putnam County Products to sell “country items,” including amateur pottery produced by rural residents who needed money.

“She realized people were bringing in handicrafts that were beautiful, had beautiful construction,” Falino says.

That grew into marketing and further organizing, with This 1964 oak-and-rosewood music rack

by Wendell Castle is featured at MAD. Photograph by John Ferrari.

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America House opening in 1940 in New York City as an outlet for members to sell their work. Webb would also be instrumental in creating magazines, scholarly programs and other organizations.

“It kind of grew organically,” Falino says.

“She had the commitment to stay” the course, she adds, something the exhibition clearly traces.

The first half of the exhibition spotlights work by American makers from the 1950s through the ’60s whose work directly benefitted from the support of Webb and like-minded individuals. Also featured are the institutions Webb launched, from the American Craft Council to the School of American Craftsmen to the World Crafts Council. The museum under her direction is also spotlighted, with a focus on “Objects: USA,” a landmark exhibit that debuted in 1969 and would travel to 30 other museums in America and abroad.

The second half of the exhibit is dedicated to those who carry on in Webb’s footsteps, showcasing advocates and institutions that continue to

MUSEUMS, LIKE SO MANY NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS, WE DON’T REALLY SURVIVE WITHOUT THE HELP OF DEDICATED PEOPLE LIKE MRS. WEBB. – JEANNINE FALINO

Aileen Osborn Webb at work on her own art. American Craft Council photograph.

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support makers.

In total, there are some 100 works in glass, ceramics, wood, metals and fiber representing “makers” – artists and artisans – from textile legend Jack Lenor Larsen to ceramicists Peter Voulkos and Jun Kaneko.

Falino says the Webb exhibition has proven particularly rewarding. Her affinity for the topic and era was demonstrated in “Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design,” a 2011-12 exhibition at MAD that Falino says was likely instrumental in her being tapped for the Webb show.

“I had a lot of that in my pocket about that period,” she says of her background.

The Webb show came about, Falino says, soon after Glenn Adamson began his tenure as MAD director in October 2013.

“He really wanted to set Mrs. Webb’s legacy straight, because she’s been forgotten,” Falino says.

There was a feeling, she adds, that it was time to put the spotlight on “her absolutely essential and seminal role” not only in founding the museum but promoting craft in general.

“She was extraordinary,” Falino says.

Webb also was, Falino adds, an artist, though her own work was done “for sheer pleasure.”

“It gave her a sense of understanding” those whose work she supported.

In the show, for example, one of Webb’s humble creations is displayed near a more skilled ceramic piece that she owned, a way “for us to just appreciate her empathy,” Falino says.

Throughout, there is a vivid connection encouraged between the viewer and the object.

“The museum is fortunate in that we have a lot of tremendous objects to back up the story,” Falino says.

So are more people discovering not only “Mrs. Webb,” but the treasures of MAD’s collection?

“I certainly hope so,” Falino says. “When I’ve given my talks, I think people are very responsive.”

And, she adds, the show’s catchy name doesn’t hurt.

“I think the title of the show, actually Glenn’s title, has been a lot of fun,” Falino says.

It’s not, she says, at all religious – though it does play on the “What Would Jesus Do?” phrase. She says it instead offers a “subtle kind of moral imperative” as to how the museum needs to continue the work of Webb.

“There is an invocation that there is some good she is doing,” something that needs to carry on, Falino says.

“Museums, like so many nonprofit organizations, we don’t really survive without the help of dedicated people like Mrs. Webb.”

“What Would Mrs. Webb Do? A Founder’s Vision” continues through Feb. 8 at The Museum of Arts and Design at 2 Columbus Circle in Manhattan. For more, visit madmuseum.org.

Installation photograph of “Mrs. Webb” exhibition at MAD. Photograph by Gulshan Kirat.

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Hospitality, ONE CUP AT A TIME

BY MARY SHUSTACK PHOTOGRAPHS BY BOB ROZYCKI

W

When Anupa Mueller welcomes you to Silver Tips Tea Room, it’s no surprise she offers you a cup of the signature beverage.

What is a surprise, though, is how she helps you make a selection.

She’ll ask what you like, the flavors you favor and how you take your tea, with milk or not.

A few pointed questions lead to a recommendation that is, as they say, spot on.

And that is a skill Mueller has perfected not only through her longtime ownership of the Tarrytown destination.

Tea, you see, has been a part of Mueller’s life since her earliest days growing up in India.

“I never lost the craving for a great cup,” she says with a warm smile.

Mueller, who went to English schools in Darjeeling, says tea and tea culture were part of everyday life.

“Just as schoolchildren here go to museums for their field trips, we were taken to tea plantations,” she says. “I knew tea long before my

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Anupa Mueller at Silver Tips Tea Room in Tarrytown.

sister married (into the Makaibari Tea Estate family).”

It’s fitting, then, that Mueller would eventually end up in the tea business. Her route, though, was not direct. She would go on to spend time in the United Kingdom before coming to New York in the late 1970s. She would eventually work at both the United Nations and in corporate America, earning an MBA along the way.

“At one point I said, ‘No, I want to follow my own vision,’” she says, and turned to her love of tea.

THE BUSINESS OF TEA

IN THE MID-1990S, Mueller launched what would become a successful, home-based wholesale tea business, Eco-Prima Tea, which she ran for some four years before realizing there was something missing.

“I still don’t see a customer,” she says. She wanted that interaction – and realized, too, “you could not get a good cup of tea anywhere,”

back then.

Within five years of starting the wholesale business – today it’s based out of an Elmsford warehouse where she can most often be found – Mueller would launch Silver Tips Tea Room, which marked its 15th anniversary in November.

And that family connection to the Makaibari Tea Estate, established in 1859 and the oldest garden in Darjeeling, would prove more than just a happy coincidence.

Makaibari, now farmed by the fourth generation of its original family, was an early proponent of 100 percent organic and Fair Trade products, which Mueller strongly supports.

And the tearoom’s name is a nod to one of the highest grades of tea. When Mueller opened her establishment, Makaibari Silver Tips was a limited edition, reserve tea manufactured by the Makaibari Estate.

Today, the tearoom continues the tradition, Mueller shares, by carrying the record-breaking Makaibari Silver Tips Imperial, a limited reserve white tea.

From the start, Mueller’s vision for her tearoom was very clear.

She didn’t want to be serving the clichéd cucumber sandwiches in what she calls a “frou-frou” setting but rather one that would appeal, from décor to menu, to women and men alike.

The tearoom is indeed quietly welcoming with a simple, elegant décor.

Rotating exhibitions of work by local artists serve as the main decorative element gracing the yellow walls.

“That’s also by design,” Mueller says.

“That’s what I wanted. I think it keeps it fresh and gives (the artists) an outlet.”

She searched Westchester towns before finding what would become a 19-seat space on Broadway, an easy commute from her Ossining home.

An expansion in 2009 virtually doubled the space, which today welcomes shoppers, tourists and often, business people on midday break.

“Look where we are, right on the main drag,” Mueller says, motioning out the window to the downtown business district.

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

AT SILVER TIPS, Mueller notes, everyone is welcome.

“Everybody’s point of view on tea is valid. Just because I don’t serve it Chinese style doesn’t mean it’s not valid, because it is.”

And customers can relax, have their tea however they want it – extra milk

Tea accessories are featured at Silver Tips Tea Room in Tarrytown.

or no milk, lots of sugar or none.

“It’s to your taste,” she says. “There are no rules.”

Mueller, who herself likes different teas at different times of the day, says tea has many purposes.

“It’s one of those crazy beverages. At the same time it energizes you and it relaxes you.”

And it also captures the imagination.

“We definitely see trends,” Mueller says, with increased requests for green or white teas based on published studies or mentions by personalities such as Dr. Mehmet Oz. Mueller says she promotes the “general” health benefits of tea, but isn’t about to go suggesting particular blends to cure ailments and such.

There are plenty more places to get tea today than when Silver Tips opened, and Mueller says she welcomes all competition – from sleek Asian salons to full-on Victorian escapes where chintz reigns.

“We’re happy for all kinds of tea experiences everywhere because it broadens the market.”

When Mueller launched Silver Tips, the idea of dedicated places for tea was novel.

“Fifteen years ago you still had to teach people what to drink,” she says.

“For me, the first couple of years it was all about education. ... ‘No, it’s not when you’re sick. No, it’s not (just) chamomile.’”

But that was a part of Mueller’s mis-

sion, which includes a dedication to serving the perfect cup of tea and educating customers about all aspects of tea.

Today, Silver Tips has a loyal clientele, but it took time to build.

“The first couple of years we did anything,” she says, from hosting gardening clubs to book groups. “We taught a lot of people through our tea tastings.”

Mueller continues to do presentations on tea, from a local library program to offering training on tea to the staff at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills.

Participating in charitable activities such as silent auctions is also important.

“It makes us feel we are part of the community,” she says.

TEA AND GOOD COMPANY

AN EMPHASIS ON good customer service is also key, Mueller says.

“I hire purely for attitude and how pleasant you are.”

As she writes about her employees on Silver Tips’ Facebook page, “I tell them I can teach them all about tea, but I can’t teach them how to be nice.”

It all makes for a memorable experience, one praised by countless customers on the tearoom’s very active social media outlets.

In addition to a charming place to have a cozy lunch or a leisurely afternoon break, Silver Tips has a retail element. There is a large collection of tea cups, pots and cozies as well as tea-themed gifts. And, of course,

there are those walls of green-andgold canisters filled with some 150 varieties of loose tea, all available for purchase.

Having people comfortable enough to buy loose tea to prepare at home is especially rewarding to Mueller.

“It is so gratifying to see people now just buying tea.”

Over the years, especially at the start, Mueller says she tailored selections to people’s tastes.

“We changed based on what people asked for,” she says.

The menu has also expanded.

“Our food is a little eclectic. The egg salad is not what you expect.

Our eggs have been marinated in a Souchong tea.”

Today, the Silver Tips offerings include everything from savories such as samosas, soups, salads and wraps to sweets including scones, fruit tarts, English puddings and cakes. Of course, there is a traditional afternoon tea, as well.

Portions are generous, complemented by hot tea and in warmer months, iced teas and lemonades.

And for those who must have their coffee? There are other places for that, Mueller says, gamely mentioning Coffee Labs Roasters just around the corner.

At Silver Tips, Mueller’s passion takes center stage.

“We know tea, so we try to really focus on what we do well.”

For more, visit silvertipstea.com.

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IT DOES A BODY GOOD Wellness center supports a passion for living

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB ROZYCKI

Once upon a time you went to the doctor when you were sick or needed an annual physical.

Those days are gone. Now it’s all about taking a proactive approach to aging and preventing disease in a suite of offices that provides all the services needed to support your passion for living.

“This is what patients are asking for,” Dr. Timothy Morley says. He’s the medical director of NY Health & Wellness Westchester, a new, 6,000-square-foot center that’s part of a modern white and glass building that stretches out along Mamaroneck Avenue in Harrison.

Clockwise from top left, Dr. Timothy Morley, Mitchell Suss, Lisa Avellino, Carol Cummings and Jacqui Justice.

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Morley’s background is in emergency medicine, and he’s also certified in pain management. But along the way, he became interested in integrated approaches to anti-aging and opened up an office in Manhattan. Among his patients was Mitchell Suss, who became an advocate and the founding CEO of New York Health & Wellness.

As earthy as Morley is urbane, Suss explains his passion for anti-aging medicine with an automotive analogy: “What the center is about is natural hormone optimization. Think of hormones as premium gas for people. … It’s so easy in today’s society to get in a hormone imbalance. We’re trying to balance the body naturally through stress reduction, fitness, nutrition and bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.”

Suss knows what you’re thinking: Hormone replacement therapy has

been a hot-button issue ever since the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative study of women taking synthetic estrogen and progestin was suspended due to increased risks for breast cancer, heart attacks, strokes and blood clots.

But bioidenticals are made from yam and soy extracts. “Molecule for molecule, they’re what your body makes,” Morley says. “They’re extremely safe if you do it right.”

And that means proper testing and an extensive blood panel to see what if any hormones a perimenopausal or menopausal woman may need. (About 80 percent of Morley’s patients are women, though he says men also go through the change of life, called andropause.)

Hormonal imbalance resulting from the change of life is not the only problem Morley sees.

“Many times when we do blood and

urine analysis, we find that people have elevated levels of heavy metals, such as mercury, iron, lead or aluminum, among others. Heavy metals in the blood can cause hormone imbalance, extreme fatigue, allergic reactions, brain fog, problems losing weight, headaches, skin problems, frequent colds and low immunity.”

Diet is the usual suspect. Morley says the average American eats four pounds of pesticides a year, including arsenic, which is present in things like chicken and rice. Supplements – up to 90 percent of which contain fillers – can also be a culprit. “It’s almost impossible to find fish oil that doesn’t contain some amount of mercury,” Morley says.

To treat metal toxicity, Morley relies on chelation therapy.

“The therapy includes either oral or IV infusion of binding agents, which allows your body to eliminate the toxins. We

continue the chelation until the blood work shows that the toxicity is gone.”

Other patients might be exercising in a manner that causes them to gain weight instead of losing it. That’s where Lisa Avellino, the center’s fitness and movement therapist, comes in.

Or patients may be gluten or lactose intolerant, which is where nutrition director Jacqui Justice steps in. (The other key members of the team are Nina Chaifetz, a licensed clinical social worker/certified holistic health counselor, and Carol Cummings, practice manager and clinical assistant.)

“Everybody has a different specialty,” Avellino says. “We are experts as a team at creating customized programs.”

“Our philosophy,” Suss says, “is to give the body what it needs.”

For more, visit nyhealthandwellness.com.

THE NY HEALTH & WELLNESS TEAM DR. TIMOTHY MORLEY,

NINA CHAIFETZ,

Timothy Morley, D.O., is a board certified physician specializing in hormonal changes with a focus on women’s health, especially in the perimenopausal and menopausal stages. He is among a select group of physicians pioneering a new approach to wellness that integrates the cornerstones of optimal health — nutrition, fitness, quality sleep and stress management — with bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) and vitamin therapy, as well as detoxification programs. Morley received his degree in osteopathic medicine from Ohio University and did his emergency medicine residency at South Pointe Hospital, now part of the Cleveland Clinic health system. He has also completed a fellowship at the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. In addition, he has a degree in law and is a member of several medical organizations, including the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and the American Osteopathic Association.

Nina Chaifetz, a licensed clinical social worker and a certified holistic health counselor, has provided counseling and support to people for 15 years. Chaifetz is an active member of the National Association of Social Workers. She has her masters in social work from New York University, is certified in art therapy as well as holistic health counseling and is expected to receive her certification in gestalt therapy in 2015.

MEDICAL DIRECTOR

LISA AVELLINO,

FITNESS AND MOVEMENT THERAPIST Lisa Avellino is creator of the “ISO-Towel Weight Loss Workout” DVD series and presenter for the AFAA (Aerobics and Fitness Association of America). Avellino started teaching classes as a teen at the Susan Marlowe Fitness Club for Women in Scarsdale, a center she now owns. A master certified instructor, personal trainer and health club owner for more than 15 years, she is also a published author who has been featured in The New York Times, Shape, Fitness, Prevention and First for Women magazines and seen on Fox, NBC, ABC’s “Good Morning America,” News 12 and others. She has hosted several TV and radio shows that focus on wellness, fitness and nutrition. Additionally, Avellino is a blogger on diet.com.

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LICENSED CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER/CERTIFIED HOLISTIC HEALTH COUNSELOR

JACQUI JUSTICE, NUTRITION DIRECTOR

Jacqui Justice holds an M.S. and C.N.S. in clinical nutrition as well as a certification in functional clinical nutrition from Designs For Health in Suffield, Conn. Justice has been in private practice since 1996 with offices in Eastchester and Scarsdale. Specializing in weight-loss resistance, digestive wellness and menopause management, Justice’s focus is on identifying and addressing her clients’ underlying factors and then designing a sound customized plan to help them reach and maintain their wellness goals.

CAROL CUMMINGS,

PRACTICE MANAGER AND CLINICAL ASSISTANT TO DR. TIMOTHY MORLEY Carol Cummings is a graduate of the Mandl School, The College of Allied Health. She is a certified medical assistant and phlebotomist with more than 35 years of experience. She has extensive training in integrative medicine and has completed postgraduate courses in functional medicine.

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attractive. It can make them feel confident. It can make them feel alluring,” says Fong. “I have a huge passion for clothing and design and for making customers feel special.”

Within her brand are two separate businesses: readyto-wear and custom. For her ready-to-wear line, Fong designs full collections to sell. For custom, she creates original pieces to specific budgets.

“It’s rewarding to be able to work with a client and make something for them that no one else will have and have it fit them so perfectly. It’s very special.”

With custom design, popular for graduations, clients choose from eight different tops and bottoms and a range of fabrics, linings and colors to create a one-of-akind look. Once a client selects a certain combination, Fong will not sell the same combination to a fellow classmate that same year.

Clients can also select a made-to-measure option, popular for wedding gowns, where a garment is made entirely from scratch. A longer process, this can require anywhere from two to 10 fittings, depending on the client.

“We go over all the details: what types of fabrics they like, if there’s any dresses they’ve tried on in the past that they own, that they love and personality – really getting to know your client. I like to be as involved as I can.”

Fong’s designs have become known for two signature features: lace and beading.

“When I design, I always look to bridal and lingerie for inspiration. I think there’s something so feminine and alluring for women in both categories, and I think both types of garments should be incorporated into everyday clothing.”

Despite her age, Fong’s brand has been long in the making. Graduating from Greenwich High School in 2008, she attended The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. While there, she interned for comKatie Fong models one of her own designs. panies including Tocca, Stella McCartney, Vera Wang, JCrew and Maggie Boutique, learning merchandising, sales and public relations. Her longest internship was with Oscar de la Renta, where she worked alongside his design director for nearly three years.

“When I was at Oscar, I was told by someone I admired, ‘Designers design best in their 20s.’ I kind of took that advice to heart and really just went for it.”

During this time, Fong also began freelancing custom work for brides, mothers of the bride and bridesmaids, as

BY DANIELLE RENDA well as those with a gala to attend. She was so successPHOTOGRAPH BY BOB ROZYCKI ful that clients began asking about the potential for her own brand.

“I knew it was very important that when you start a Katie Fong welcomes WAG into her Greenwich brand, you not only have to be creative, but you really have to know the workspace with a smile, a warm contrast to the business side. You can make beautiful clothes, but if you can’t sell them apday’s glum, winter weather. Displaying her work, propriately, it’s harder to make a company successful.” a luxurious collection of late day-into-evening Fong ambitiously launched Katie Fong LLC in January of 2013, using wear, her sheer passion for design is apparent. her parents’ home in Greenwich as a workspace. Soon after, the company As the 24-year-old founder, CEO and creative relocated to a workspace in New York’s Garment District, where it has been director for her own brand, Katie Fong LLC, for two years.

Fong’s collection is available at Richards of Greenwich and Wilkes Bashshe creates garments for special events, including ford in San Francisco and through taigan.com. For custom orders, clients weddings, graduations and galas. can send an email to info@katiefong.com. For more, visit katiefong.com.

“I really feel like clothes can make a woman feel

A PASSION FOR THE SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL

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JAMES NAUGHTON PASSIONATE ABOUT THE ARTS

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James Naughton

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HIS

BY RONNI DIAMONDSTEIN PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN RIZZO

is a face that you’ll surely recognize but may not be able to place right away. The soothing, assured voice may be more familiar, either narrating a TV commercial for Audi or one of NPR’s “Selected Shorts.”

But make no mistake about it: James Naughton – the veteran actor, singer and director – is the real deal, with a true star’s comfort in his own skin. And that puts you at ease as he welcomes you to his Manhattan pied-à-terre on the edge of the theater district. Pet-sitting for a friend, Naughton’s just in from a walk. As he settles in, he launches into some of his favorite subjects – the arts, family and his artistic family.

Naughton hosts and performs in many galas in the course of a year. Born and raised in Connecticut, where he’s a longtime Weston resident, he spoke recently at an event for the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County. As a parent and the child of teachers, he is passionate about arts education and its place in schools relevant to sports. And he has done his homework on the subject. He rattles off statistics about student success and cites Winston Churchill, who refused to move art treasures out of London during World War II, saying, “That’s what we’re fighting for.’”

Both his children, Greg and Kiera, followed him into show business.

“Poor kids, they didn’t have a chance. They saw the best of this business.

The most fun I can have is performing with my kids.”

Naughton has performed with his singer-songwriter son, a member of the band The Sweet Remains. Keeping things in the family business, Greg is married to Broadway leading lady Kelli O’Hara. “Both my kids finally found the right people and when I’m with them now I have four kids – and the grandchildren, too.”

Last summer, Kiera, who is an actress and director, directed Naughton in Erik Tarloff’s one-man play “Cedars” at the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, Mass., where he starred as a cranky fiftysomething defense attorney with major life troubles. “I loved it and wanted to do it but wondered who should direct.” Kate Maguire, the festival’s artistic director, suggested Kiera whom Naughton thought was perfect. But his daughter was having none of the famous Naughton charm that beguiled audiences when

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he played another defense lawyer, Billy Flynn, in the 1996 revival of “Chicago,” for which he earned a Tony Award. (He won another in the 1989 musical “City of Angels.”) Kiera, he says, told him, “You’re not going to charm me. You have a vast internal rage.” “I have a long fuse,” Naughton says, “but when I get angry I have a white-hot anger, very intense.”

To learn a part like “Cedars,” he takes to the outdoors with his two dogs, a Schnauzer and a Schnoodle. “I have a lot of memorizing to do and the best thing is to go out in the woods with them. We log a whole bunch of miles.

I let them run and have my ear buds in.”

Naughton thinks of himself as an actor who sings. “I always sang. My father sang to us in the car. We would sing in the car back and forth to grandma’s house on Sundays.” At Conard High School in West Hartford, Naughton sang in the chorus, but baseball was his first love. In his junior year, he was cast as Emile de Becque in “South Pacific.”

“The coaches shared me so that I could do both. Today that wouldn’t happen in schools. It would be one or the other.”

At Brown University, he played soccer and baseball, but the stage beckoned. He credits the drama coach, James Barnhill, for giving him direction.

“He said to me, ‘I think you could do this and then go on to Yale Drama School.’” He took Barnhill’s advice. “I was lost and didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I took his drama course in my junior and senior year and I knew this (acting) was it.”

Often the well-dressed husband or a president, Naughton is best known for his stage work. Besides his Tony Award-winning roles in “City of Angels” and “Chicago,” Naughton gained attention on Broadway in 1971 in Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” for which he won a Theatre World Award. His TV credits abound, ranging from “Planet of the Apes” to “Who’s the Boss?” and “Ally McBeal.” More recently, he appeared on “Gossip Girl” and last season in “Hostages” on CBS. His steady film work includes “The Paper Chase” and “Factory Girl.”

Naughton says that some of his best movie scenes ended up on the cutting room floor: “In ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ with Meryl Streep, my character (Stephen) gets really drunk at a party, and there was a great scene with Heather Locklear that was cut from ‘The First Wives Club.’”

As an actor, it stings. As a director, he understands.

“Directing is my favorite thing to do. My whole life in the theater world is the rehearsal process – the figuring out how we tell the story.” He has

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directed plays, including two on Broadway – Arthur Miller’s “The Price” and Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” which starred his close friend, the late Paul Newman, as the Stage Manager and was first performed at Westport Country Playhouse. “It’s the most fun I’ve ever had. I get to use all the tools and work with set designers, lighting and all the actors, ” Naughton says as he sips coffee from a souvenir mug from “The Price,” a play he directed first at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and then on Broadway in 1999. A member of the festival’s board of directors, Naughton has done a lot of directing there, as well as acting and singing with son.

Naughton has also witnessed some lovely personal moments at Williamstown.

“I was there when they met,” he says of the late Christopher and Dana Reeve. A copy of Christopher Reeve’s “Still Me” is on one of his book-lined shelves.

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Cabaret is another arena in which Naughton shines. Not only do you have the pleasure of his velvety bass-baritone voice, but he sets songs up with a story. “Storytelling” is a word that comes up a lot when you talk to Naughton, who likes to juxtapose songs that pluck the heartstrings with edgy numbers. “He is very methodical about the material he chooses, ”says John Oddo, his musical director and arranger. “He has to have a point of view with it. The material is eclectic with songs like ‘Stardust’ and Dave Frishberg’s ‘I’m Hip’.”

Oddo has collaborated with Naughton since his first cabaret act at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 1997. “He has a great voice, but it’s his acting ability. He takes a song and makes it come alive and brings himself into the lyrics. He does that as good as anybody.”

Naughton has performed at the White House and had a solo show of songs, “Street of Dreams,” at the Promenade Theater in Manhattan in 1999. His show “The Songs of Randy Newman” launched the Lincoln Center “American Songbook” series and was broadcast last April, the first singing he had done in the four years since his wife Pamela became ill. (A social worker, she passed away in 2013.)

He never could imagine that his wife would go before he did. “It was a shock, something I wasn’t prepared for and it was devastating to lose her. We’ve been together for 50 years. I took care of her by myself to the end, which is a source of comfort to me now.” Friends suggested that he get help, but his answer was, “What would I do?” Naughton acknowledges that it was a huge accomplishment to be married for 47 years and says with a smile, “She would have been a great old lady.”

He carries on, finding comfort in his commitment to pal Newman’s The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for seriously ill children. “My association with The Hole in the Wall Gang gives me the most satisfaction. Paul took me up in 1988 when it was being built and I’ve been on the board of directors the last 15 years.” Naughton directs the camp’s galas, reaching out to the talented performers who take part.

He gives his time to many other charities, too, among them The Marfan Foundation, which is researching a cure for the genetic disorder; 52nd Street Project, which matches inner city kids with theater professionals to create works, and SAY: The Stuttering Association for the Young. Recently, he joined the board of Symphony Space.

Naughton knocks on wood when asked about his voiceover gigs. “It’s nice to do them and a great source of income which allows you some independence. You don’t have to worry about how you look or what you’re wearing.” He was the voice of Jeep for 13 years and these days you can hear his dulcet tones pitching Cialis and Head & Shoulders as well as Audi.

But he’s never far from the stage. “I have been talking to Deborah Grace Winer at the 92nd Street Y about artistic directing and putting together a show for the ‘Lyrics and Lyricists’ series in 2016.” Fans can only hope. And he wants to explore some inequities in the theater world with Actors’ Equity. “I’m in a position now to help more. You can’t say I haven’t spent my time or paid my dues.

“It’s been a good ride. I don’t have a lot of complaints.” And what has surprised him most in his life: “I realize my children are my best friends. That’s a surprise, I guess, but a delightful one.”

WAY

Chappaqua estate indulges a passion for elegance – and golf STORY BY HOULIHAN LAWRENCE PHOTOGRAPHS BY TIM LEE

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PRESENTED BY HOULIHAN LAWRENCE

JANUARY 2015

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his

SUPERB ESTATE MANOR CAPTURES THE ULTIMATE LUXURY LIFESTYLE in one of Westchester’s premier locales. Overlooking the Whippoorwill Club golf course, this totally customized residence is a tour de force featuring exceptionally warm and welcoming living spaces filled with light and serene views of the memorable surroundings.

Finished to a level of quality and aesthetics that is truly rare, the home showcases fine craftsmanship throughout its three levels. Custom millwork, rich woods, soaring ceilings and gorgeous fireplaces define all the main living areas, whose many highlights begin in the two-story entry featuring lustrous marble flooring and an alluring floating staircase.

Elegant entertaining is easily accomplished in the beautifully scaled formal living and dining rooms, both featuring exceptional detailing at every turn. A lavishly paneled study, a great room finished with a custom limestone fireplace and handsome built-in cabinetry and an exceptional kitchen are among the many other special highlights of the main level. Expansive multilevel terraces further extend the entertaining space while leading to the spectacular pool and beautifully planted grounds bordering the prestigious golf course.

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A family room on the upper level is complemented by an entire lower level designed for entertaining and family living on an enhanced scale. Amenities include another family room, a custom bar room, a game room and an expansive gym to rival any sports club. A large, full kitchen opens to the magnificent pool and waterfall.

A modern-day masterpiece encompassing an extraordinary backdrop for living and entertaining, this special estate stands as one of Chappaqua’s most exceptional offerings.

• Totally custom-built manor on 1.66 acres overlooking the Whippoorwill Club golf course.

• Approximately 10,000 square feet, four bedrooms, four baths, two powder rooms and three fireplaces.

• State-of-the-art entertainment systems, recreation rooms, bar, gym and wine storage.

• Grand terraces and heated pool with waterfall.

• Attached three-bay garage.

• Served by the award-winning Chappaqua school district.

• Close to highways and within 45 minutes of Manhattan.

For more information, contact Lesli Hammerschmidt of Houlihan Lawrence’s Armonk brokerage at 415-272-8788; 914-273-9505; or lhammerschmidt@houlihanlawrence.com.

WHIPPOORWILL MANOR AT A GLANCE

• Chappaqua • Approximately 10,000 square feet • 1.66 acres • Bedrooms: 4 • Baths: 4 full, 2 half • Price: $6.495 million

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GLAMOUR in the details

BY DANIELLE RENDA PHOTOGRAPHS BY BOB ROZYCKI

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A new design from Tony Ward.

ON A CHILLY AFTERNOON, WAG VISITS MARY JANE DENZER AT THE RITZ-CARLTON, Westchester in White Plains, where designer Tony Ward is showcasing pieces from his Spring 2015 collection. In contrast to the dreary weather, Ward’s ready-to-wear and couture looks feature a variety of rich colors, details and textures.

“I think it’s the height of glamour,” owner Mary Jane Denzer says.

We’re immediately greeted by model Candy Frisbie, who is wearing one of Ward’s gowns, a striking creation with a sweetheart neckline and intricate beadwork.

“I like to work with lace and light material, like chiffon and georgette,” Ward says. “I like to work with all different materials and build volume around them.”

The couturier, based in Beirut, is the son of Elie Ward, whose designs are now collectors’ items. Tony’s professional experience began working alongside such designers as Claude Montana, Gianfranco Ferré and Karl Lagerfeld.

“Everything inspires me,” Ward says. “I try to look around me, live in the moment, check for details around what I can build.”

Ward’s garments are known for their elaborate, custom needlework, using pearls, Swarovski crystals, fabric petals, ribbons, silk thread and silicone.

“The wonderful part is that he’ll make any changes, and he’ll do any color,” Denzer says.

Ward launched his ready-to-wear line in 2008, followed by his bridal line in 2011. Both collections are available at high-end boutiques around the world.

He remains focused on his growing collection.

“I am currently finalizing the prototypes of our next couture collection (Spring and Summer 2015) and simultaneously I am preparing the ready-to-wear collection for the Fall-Winter 2015-2016 season.”

For more, visit tonyward.net. For select pieces, visit mjdenzer.com.

Candy Frisbie models designs from Tony Ward’s spring 2015 ready-to-wear and couture lines.

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THE HUMANIST:

BRUNELLO CUCINELLI

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

Brunello Cucinelli

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HE PHRASE “RENAISSANCE MAN” HAS BEEN USED SO OFTEN BY THE MEDIA to apply to anyone with multiple interests that it has become a cliché. But clichés have a basis in truth. And so it would be fair to characterize Brunello Cucinelli – president and CEO of the luxury prêt-à-porter brand for men and women that bears his name – as a Renaissance man in the best sense of the term, espousing the humanist values of his native Italy.

A case in point: Cucinelli’s fall and spring lines for women – with their sleek use of richly colored and textured furs, wools, silks and leather – were the finale of the 19th annual Breast Cancer Alliance Luncheon & Fashion Show, held Nov. 6 at the Hyatt Regency Greenwich. Scott Mitchell – co-owner and women’s store manager of Richards department store in Greenwich, which has had a long association with Cucinelli – spoke of the designer’s philosophy – that money is only good in service to others.

“When we organize or sponsor events, we always try to uphold the idea of helping others and giving relevance to issues that matter to people around the globe,” Cucinelli tells WAG in an email interview. “This is why we partnered with Richards to

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support BCA, an incredible organization with a mission that is very dear to all the women in your area and around the world. I was moved by their passion and their desire to support each other in times of need. Life would be empty if we didn’t have the support of those around us.”

A highlight of the luncheon involved another aspect of the multifaceted Cucinelli – his love of architecture. One attendee happily bid $20,000 for a stay at the Umbrian villa he has built – part of the complex of buildings he has created or restored, including the castle that serves as his company’s headquarters.

“I have always lived between Castel Rigone and Solomeo, small hamlets in the province of Perugia in Umbria. My home is in Solomeo, the town where my wife Federica grew up. We wanted a place where our family (including daughters Camilla and Carolina) could live comfortably and grow. It is decorated with accents from our local culture and medieval art pieces. To me, the idea of home is a place of rest and peace where I can share memorable times with my family and friends. The village overlooks the olive groves and Umbrian hills, which, in my humble opinion, are the most peaceful places on earth.”

It was amid that separate peace that Cucinelli grew up, the son of a factory work-

Looks from Brunello Cucinelli’s Spring 2015 collection for men and women. All images courtesy Brunello Cucinelli.

er. The harshness of his father’s workplace would have a profound effect on young Brunello.

“Seeing my father humiliated by his boss, when I was a child, had a major impact on my decision to build a humanistic enterprise. Ever since I was a young man, when the idea of starting my own business first came to mind, I always knew I would work to improve the life of those in my company by giving dignity to their work.”

Cucinelli began his career in 1978 at age 25 with a small workshop measuring just 431 square feet. By the following decade, his brand was sold not only in Italy but in Germany and the United States. Today, Brunello Cucinelli SpA, which offers men’s and women’s wear, is in 60 countries through 100 single-brand boutiques and about 700 select multi-brand stores, with $446.5 million in net revenues and more than 1,200 employees.

But as the Cucinelli brand grew, so did the town of Solomeo. First there was the 1985 purchase of the castle-turned-headquarters, which took 25 painstaking years to restore. Then came the Forum of the Arts in 2008. Five years later, Cucinelli founded the School of Solomeo, which elevates the skills needed for crafts and trades.

This year saw the rise of the Contemporary Lay Oratory, a place of recreation and sports surrounded by parks and gardens. It’s merged with the Castel Rigone Soccer Club to become an international and multiethnic school for boys’ soccer and girls’ volleyball for those ages 6 to 12.

“I am a big sports fan. As a young man, I played tennis very often, but soccer is my true passion. It is a very Italian passion, but we grew up playing soccer on the streets of our towns and, even today, I make time to play with my friends every week. It is a healthy way to stay active and connected to others. That is why I wanted to create a sports center for children, so their parents could rest assured that they would be spending their hours after school in a safe environment focused on solid values and camaraderie.”

With his light-filled company, schools, parks and gardens, Cucinelli has done more than create a brand. This Cavaliere del Lavoro (the highest Italian honor for an entrepreneur) has created a workers’ utopia.

“I wanted to give people an opportunity to feel good about their commitment to our company and allow them to have time to also be with their families and loved ones.”

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WEAR

Each fragrance is sold separately with a suggested retail price of $300 for 100 mls. Photographs courtesy The House of Creed.

BOTTLING A PASSION FOR ADVENTURE

the Malaysian terrain. Described as “citrus/rich,” For nearly three centuries, the fragrances of the the top notes are bergamot, mandarin, lemon and House of Creed have been worn by notables from lemon petitgrain essential oil, with middle notes of King George III and Queen Victoria to JFK and a violet, heliotrope, rose and cassie bouquet blended Julia Roberts. In fact, the elite brand only became with green tea and a base blend of amber, sandalavailable to the public in 1970. wood and musk.

Founded by James Creed in 1760, the House of Creed has its origins in London. Royal English CEDRE BLANC Leather, a scent made for King George III, was This perfume celebrates his love of Virginia’s Blue created after Creed-spritzed gloves captivated the

BY DANIELLE RENDA Ridge Mountains by capturing fresh, woodland king’s senses. scents with delicate florals. Described as “woody/ Some 250 years and seven generations later, fresh,” the top notes are laurel, spicy cardamom, the house has relocated its headquarters to Paris, bergamot and bitter galbanum, with middle notes opened shop in New York City and released its of geranium, water lily and jasmine and a base fusion of Virginian cedar, vetiver newest, five-fragrance collection, inspired by wanderlust. The house continues to and sandalwood. use 4,000-year-old infusion methods to maintain the authenticity of its scents.

Sixth-generation perfumer Olivier Creed has capitalized on the technique for IRIS TUBEREUSE his latest, The Acqua Originale Collection, bottling his appetite for adventure.

Tuscany and India, two of Creed’s favorite destinations, unite for this exquisite The perfumes are stored in iridescent, hand-blown bottles, created in partnership fragrance. Described as “floral/rich,” the top notes are fresh galbanum, green viowith the 400-year-old luxury glass bottle-maker, Pochet de Courval. let and orange, with middle notes of Indian tuberose, ylang ylang and lily of the “The Acqua Originale Collection is very personal to me,” Creed says. “When valley and a base mélange of Sicilian orange blossom, musk and Mexican vanilla I leave a place I love, I long to capture its essence in a bottle. That’s how this new orchid. collection was born – many years and trips in the making.”

ABERDEEN LAVENDER Creed created this scent as an homage to Queen Victoria’s love for the Scottish Highlands. Described as “green/rich,” the top notes are anise-flavored absinthe, rosemary, bergamot and lemon, with middle notes of lavender, tuberose, iris and rose bouquets and a base medley of dark and dry patchouli, smoky leather and vetiver.

ASIAN GREEN TEA Inspired by Creed’s fondness for Japanese civilization, this fragrance bottles

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VETIVER GERANIUM Java, the most populated island in Indonesia, influenced Creed’s vision for this scent. Described as “woody/fresh,” the top notes are Granny Smith apple, bergamot and lemon, with middle notes of geranium, warm cinnamon and rose and a bottom potpourri of patchouli, cedar, musk and amber.

The collection is available at Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue New York, Holt Renfrew, The Creed Boutique in New York City and on creedboutique.com.

For more, visit neimanmarcus.com.

The all New

Surf Club On The Sound

Redesigned Refined Reinvented “After hearing about all the great things happening at The “New” Surf Club on the Sound, I decided to visit the venue. Within minutes I knew this was the place for my event. I also became a member of the Beach Club. This is a must see!” - Mariano Rivera

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CHIC Gifts and new products ideal for any occasion COMPILED BY MARY SHUSTACK

ALWAYS IN GOOD TASTE

Photographs courtesy Ralph Lauren.

A new year, another chance for the enduring style of Ralph Lauren to shine. We turn our attention to the gentlemen this month, with a selection of fashions and accessories for that man of style and good taste. From peacoats to gloves, boots to belts and wallets to aviators to luggage, the lifestyle brand’s choices are plentiful. How luxurious are these Ralph Lauren Purple Label Dark Charcoal Cashmere Sweatpants? ($1,695). Very! We’re also dazzled by the Men’s Gator Fidel Hiking Boot ($5,000); cufflinks including the Sterling Silver Horn ($495) and Car ($395) designs; the Denim & Supply Ralph Lauren Men’s Fringe Shawl Sweater ($298); and the Polo Ralph Lauren Men’s Black Shearling Peacoat ($2,695).

For more, visit ralphlauren.com.

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1. CAPTURING LIGHT

A dragonfly’s flight can seem as fast as light, something that inspired designer Catherine Marion when creating the Dragonfly Pendant for Jemily Fine Jewelry. Capturing refracted light in shimmering colors, this interpretation of the design features Santa Maria aquamarines and green tourmalines ($2,400). Jemily Fine Jewelry is sold online and in boutiques, including Addessi Jewelers in Ridgefield and Landsberg Jewelers in Rye Brook.

For more, visit jemily.com.

2. A SNEAK PEEK

Photograph courtesy Jemily Fine Jewelry.

Photograph courtesy Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams.

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WAG had the chance to meet home-design icons Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams when they were visiting their Signature Store in Greenwich last spring as part of their namesake furniture company’s 25th anniversary festivities. Today, we continue the association with a sneak peek of the new spring collection of Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, which hits stores in February. The options range from sleek desks to cuttingedge storage units to this high-style Kazan Chair, shown here in Gavin Pewter fabric ($2,530). Are you ready to start your shopping list?

For more, visit mgbwhome.com.

3. SHAKEN, NOT STIRRED

Start the year off with something new – G’vine gin, which offers two different interpretations of the old standby.

Combining ancestral grape distillation knowledge and infusion practices with the groundbreaking production of the rare grapevine flower, G’vine is all about shaking things up.

Small-batch crafted in the Charente region of Cognac, G’vine options include the smoothly robust G’Vine Nouaison and the vibrantly floral G’Vine Floraison. Designed to appeal to gin lovers old and new, the 750ml bottles of G’Vine ($35.99) are distributed by Domaine Select.

For more, visit escapetothegrape.com/index.asp.

4. SURROUNDINGS MOST SERENE

The subtle and elegant creations of Spin Ceramics add a serene touch to any surroundings. The New York-based company has tapped the history of Chinese porcelain, merging the production heritage of Jingdezhen with modern design.

Green-White Glaze Vases (from $130) add timeless elegance to any setting. All products are available for purchase at Spin Ceramics at 13 Crosby St. in Manhattan.

For more, visit spinceramics.com.

Photograph by Bob Rozycki.

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Photographs courtesy Spin Ceramics.

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Luxury skincare

TO SPARK YOUR SKIN

BY DANIELLE RENDA

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GREGORY BAYS BROWN NOTICED A TREND IN HIS PATIENTS’ REQUESTS – COSMETIC PROCEDURES TO RESTORE LIFELESS SKIN. Realizing no surgery could resolve these concerns, the Harvard University-trained plastic surgeon founded RéVive, a luxury skincare line.

Brown’s products use renewal epidermal science (RES) technology to recreate the look and feel of flawless skin.

RES, along with a biochemical mélange of ingredients, works to recharge cell performance.

“There is nothing surgically that can do what RéVive does to give one the dewy glow and beautiful skin of youth,” Brown has said. “If used as a daily regimen, RéVive can delay plastic surgery and will ultimately decrease the magnitude of any surgical procedure ever desired or needed.”

RéVive offers a selection of products, but its newest include the Perfectif Even Skin Tone Cream and the Perfectif Even Skin Tone Serum, expected to reach shelves nationwide in February.

The new serum and cream dark spot correctors reduce prior damage by creating a smooth, even-toned surface.

By eliminating dark spots, the serum reveals the skin’s

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natural luminosity, while the cream with an SPF of 30 prevents sun damage. Brown recommends that the products be used together for immediate change and continued improvement.

The serum and cream, $325 and $275, respectively, are suitable for all skin types. Apply the serum in the mornings and evenings, after using a cleanser and toner. Apply the cream in the mornings, following use of a cleanser, toner and serum.

In addition to dark spot correctors, RéVive treats the other signs of aging, including wrinkles, enlarged pores and volume and elasticity loss. Other RéVive products treat general skin concerns, such as dryness, acne, sun exposure and dark circles.

For more, visit réviveskincare.com or neimanmarcus.com.

430 BEDFORD ROAD 路 ARMONK, NY 10504 路 914.273.7900

Notes from the bush

FOUR DAYS ON SAFARI IN SOUTH AFRICA’S GRASSLANDS

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK LUNGARIELLO

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Two lions in the midst of one of many naps.

SLEPT LIGHTLY THAT FIRST NIGHT IN THE HUT AT THE SERONDELLA GAME LODGE IN SOUTH AFRICA. THERE WEREN’T ANY LOCKS ON THE DOORS. I’d placed one Converse sneaker in front of the glass-plated double doors at the entrance, with the idea that if an intruder came in, the sneaker would block the doors and make a sound loud enough to wake me. (What would I have done then other than sit up and gasp? I now ask myself.) Later, I realized the flaw in my booby trap: The doors swung out, not in.

That first night, I lay awake and jetlagged – seven hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time – in a giant, comfortable bed, staring through mosquito netting at the cavernous interior of a randovel, the traditional African name for a hut with stone walls and high thatched roofs. Our randovel, called The Lion Suite, was built for two and its walls were decorated with African masks that stared back down at me as I tried to rest.

When I finally did sleep, I dreamt of a living marionette with a face like an “Elf on the Shelf.” I’m not sure if that was a side effect of the antimalarial Malarone pills – bad dreams aren’t listed as a side effect as they are on some other similar medications – or if it was just a side effect of being too chicken to embrace the safari experience. At first.

Sometime during the second night, I accepted the fact that I was in the middle of a private resort in the bush, or bushveld, South Africa’s savannah, and that there was no one but other vacationers on safari for miles in any direction. The only things that might be lurking outside on the resort grounds were nyala, a type of antelope, and small, long-tailed vervet monkeys.

An electric fence around the grounds kept out larger animals like elephants, our hostess Kelly told us upon check-in, although “a persistent leopard” could get through the fence, she noted calmly. Regardless, none of the creatures from the bush turned door handles, so it wasn’t necessary to sleep lightly, although ensuring the doors were closed was a good idea so that thieving monkeys and defecating baboons didn’t make themselves too at home in the randovel.

What I came to realize was having no locks on the doors was a luxury, not a danger, that went along with the air conditioning, Wi-Fi connectivity, his-and-her sinks in the wash room, and an indoor Jacuzzi and shower with ample hot water and views of a watering hole where animals like giraffes and warthogs came to drink. The windows near the tub and shower didn’t have curtains, but again, the only peepers could be the occasional curious monkey. I figured there was no reason to be shy in front of one of them since if they came near, they too would be naked.

Serondella, which can accommodate only about 12 guests at a time, is one of several resorts in the fenced-in Thornybush Game Reserve, a 30,000-acre habitat adjacent to Kruger National Park. The private resorts offer travelers ample opportunity to view African game in their natural setting without ever roughing it. There was a private chef to cook dinners like beef Bearnaise and desserts including berry–and-buttermilk

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A cheetah out searching for prey.

panacotta. A bartender fittingly named Trust served cocktails and after-dinner drinks, including a locally made, Irish Cream-like liqueur called Amarula made from the fruit of marula trees. It probably wasn’t what Hemingway had in mind when he romanticized safaris and you could bet the famous lion tamer Clyde Beatty or even Groucho Marx’s Capt. Spaulding didn’t get five-star meals during their travels, both real and imagined.

Summer in South Africa runs through what is our winter. We visited in November at the end of spring and when we’d wake at 5 a.m. for our morning game drives, it was still cool enough for a jacket. It was the dry season and the banks of the Monwana River were sandy and covered in animal footprints. The flora’s palette was all gray and yellow from lack of water, offering camouflage for golden-furred predators but creating an obstacle for plant-eaters like the dozens of pregnant impalas. They needed green plants to deliver healthy babies, rangers told me.

Game drives consist of piling into an open-top Land Rover with three rows of seats. A ranger drives and a tracker sits on a throne on the front of the truck, which has a steel-plated undercarriage for when it off-roads over shrubs and small trees. Our ranger, Chad, and tracker, Sidney, spoke in English and Afrikaans to other rangers and trackers on radio – forming a network of Land Rovers across the preserves with knowledge of where particular animals were or where they might be headed next.

The bush and the preserve teem with everything from the guides were looking for them and did their best to 300 bird species to black mamba snakes, crocodiles and stay out of sight or appear only briefly before disappearing hippopotamuses. On our game drives, we came across giinto thick foliage. raffes feeding off the leaves of tall trees, a herd of zebras In four days in the bush, we saw a female on foot and prancing through the brush and a couple of cheetah lookone afternoon we got close enough to a couple that we ing for breakfast. heard the male growl something to its female companion.

The goal each day for Chad and Sidney was to show And on one of our late afternoon drives, we finally met tourists as many of the so-called “Big Five” as possible. one ready for its close-up – a young male who licked his The Big Five are lions, leopards, elephants, buffaloes and paws much to the delight of his photographers, who felt a the elusive black rhinoceroses, which are on the critically deep gratification as if they had accomplished something endangered list. just by sitting there in the truck as passengers.

It is jarring for a passenger to first encounter lions in At the end of each of the day’s two game drives, the these environs. What strikes a first-time safari-goer is just ranger would find an open spot and park. The vacationers how close the Land Rovers get to the lions, which are would file out of the Land Rover and have a snack and a largely uninterested and lethargic. The animals are acdrink. During the morning drives, we drank coffee and The net-covered bed of Serondella’s Lion Suite. customed to being watched by tourists in Land Rovers ate muffins. On the later drives, just as the sun was about and rangers and trackers said that as long as passengers stay in the truck and don’t do to set, Trust packed us a beer or a cocktail to drink as a “sundowner” while we snacked anything to call attention to themselves, the cats don’t look at the truck as either a on exotic jerky and chips. danger or prey. And so, the rangers pull the truck close enough to the cats that you are The sunsets in the bush start like a blast of glowing orange juice on the horizon beas close and comfortable as subway passengers. The lions don’t seem to acknowledge fore the sky turns into various flavors of sherbet – peach, than orange, then raspberry your presence at all, although, of course, they might look at you differently if you – and finally a sip of red wine. Soon the sun is gone and the large African moon is all were on foot. that remains to light the sky.

The rangers carry rifles, but the only time I saw any draw the weapon from its case One night, we found a spot in an open field amid bone fragments from animals was when they ventured off on foot away from the immediate vicinity of the truck. that had ended up as meals for the big cats. But before we could park and get out for The guides worried little about the big cats, but they always tried to keep a safe disour sundowners, we noticed a female elephant slowly walking toward us. We sat there tance from animals that might charge, specifically elephants, black rhinos and even breathlessly and without a word as she walked on my side of the truck, close enough the placid-looking buffaloes. that I could have touched the creases in her hide.

She let out a low, guttural hum that was a call to find others of her kind. Slowly, she walked through some trees – her trunk swinging, her massive size crushing branches Leopards are not as few or elusive as the black rhino, but they are certainly more in her way as easily as a person might part a curtain. Soon she was out of sight into the camera-shy than lions – which are leopards’ only natural threat in the bush. If you sherbet sunset while insects played a steady, rhythmic symphony.

This is the first of a two-part report from Mark on his African holiday. Next stumble upon leopards, they are not as carefree as lions and will get up and walk away month, Mark visits Mauritius. Follow him on Twitter, @marklungariello. to find somewhere more private. In our tracking the animals, they seemed to know

Follow:

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WHAT’S UP

Finding the new in the now

I

BY MARK LUNGARIELLO

WOKE UP ONE TUESDAY MORNING IN DECEMBER 2006 AND BEFORE I DRESSED FOR WORK, I WENT OVER TO THE DESK, TOOK A BALLPOINT PEN AND WROTE THE WORD “ATTICA” ON THE BOTTOM OF MY FOOT. THEN I SNAPPED A PHOTO OF MY FOOT, POSTED IT ON MY BLOG AND HAD SOME COFFEE. It was the first time in my life I had ever done that. Indeed, it remains the only time I’ve ever done that. It was the day after I started my blog, called “Off the Mark,” which had the stated goal of documenting me doing something each day that I had never done before.

(On the first day, I started a blog for the first time in my life).

I was 27 years old and living in my parents’ house next to my 17-year-old sister, who often interrupted my video-game playing by blasting pop music I didn’t recognize. It’s easy to feel out of touch with society when you live at home with your parents at 27. It’s also easy to stay single. I had been single since June.

That was when I moved to London with my longtime girlfriend, who was transferred there for two years by her company. We agreed to move even though I had to quit my job as a reporter for an Eastchester community newspaper called The Town Report. She told me I could get a writing job in England once I got used to using single quotes and spelling color “colour.”

She dumped me five days after the move.

Within a month I was back home with my tail between my legs, back at the same job I had just quit and hanging out at the old haunts I had already thought I said good-bye to. As the year went on, I tried to conceive a replacement adventure I could take but always talked myself out of it. I could live in Hawaii and become a surfer, for example, but I didn’t know how to surf.

In December, I couldn’t take the haze hanging over me any longer and so I made a vow to end the monotony of my daily routine and restore my passion for even the most mundane things. I’d do this by doing at least one thing each day that I had never done before.

Some of the things I did were bucket list items. I did a polar plunge in Sea Isle City, N.J., one chilly February day, and I played an old-rules baseball exhibition in Bridgeport’s minor league stadium. One day I met Joyce Randolph, Trixie from “The Honeymooners,” at Purchase College. I bought a condo and moved in.

But those kinds of life events for most people are few and far between. The real trick was forcing me to find new experiences during my daily routine.

Like many in their 20s, I grew up with the feeling I was always building up to something big or important in the future. As children, we join clubs and activities so that we can score high on tests and get into better classes so we can get into better colleges so that we can get better jobs so that we could do something awesome, but we’re not exactly sure what that something awesome is supposed to be. Then suddenly, we are in the workforce – thankfully – but the days blend together and it is like the color drained from the film and everything had gone black and white.

The antidote to this was often as simple as eating strange things for breakfast – beef jerky one morning, jambalaya another. One day I mixed Pepsi and Coke together and on another morning I reunited a donut and donut hole.

At its heart, the vow was a thumbing of the nose to the establishment and corporate rat race. I indulged my rebellious rock’n’roll side by doing things

I COULDN’T TAKE THE HAZE HANGING OVER ME ANY LONGER AND SO I MADE A VOW TO END THE MONOTONY OF MY DAILY ROUTINE AND RESTORE MY PASSION FOR EVEN THE MOST MUNDANE THINGS. I’D DO THIS BY DOING AT LEAST ONE THING EACH DAY THAT I HAD NEVER DONE BEFORE.

like going to CVS but refusing to use my CVS card, by putting the left ear bud in the right ear, by putting on aftershave before I shaved and by watering a plastic plant.

Some days my posts would be less an activity and more a cheap attempt at a laugh from the very limited audience I had gathered. One day I said I had a hot date for the first time in my life and accompanied that with a photo of a date fruit frying in a pan. Once I said I was on a roll and meant it. (I posted a photo of me standing on a roll of bread.) When I took a day to get in touch with my feminine side, I did so by taking Bayer aspirin for women.

Then there were office pranks like taping my old boss’ mouse to his desk and putting a fake trap door button behind my desk at work where only the cleaning service would see it. Other days I’d undertake questionable office behavior – like doing jumping jacks in the hallway or lying on the conference room table while no one else was around.

By the end of the blog, at 700 posts or so, some of my spicing up of my daily routine was doing more harm than good: I refused to sweep up a specific pile of dust in my living room for a full month. I hung a printout of Barry Gibbs’ hair (sans face) in my kitchen.

I put the blog to rest twice before it met its final end. Sometimes, though – usually Mondays – when I stand at the water cooler and grunt the normal pleasantries to co-workers, I get that itch to reach for a ballpoint pen or think of something bizarre and new and different. Maybe something like giving a walnut a bath. It could only be a day away.

Follow Mark on Twitter, @marklungariello.

WONDERFUL DINING

Valentino’s passion for beauty extends to cuisine

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

The blue dining room in Valentino’s London Holland Park home, a tribute to the Whistler room in the2015 Smithsonian 73 WAGMAG.COM JANUARY Institution in Washington D.C.

f

FOOD AND FASHION WOULD NOT SEEM A NATURAL PAIRING. THE NEED TO PRESENT A SVELTE FORM ON THE RUNWAY AND RED CARPET WOULD APPEAR TO PRECLUDE FIVE-STAR DINING.

The dining room of Château de Wideville, Valentino’s home outside Paris, which was once the home of Louis XIV’s mistress Louise de La Vallière. Photographs by Oberto Gili. Courtesy Assouline Publishing

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Unless, of course, your name happens to be Valentino. Then all things are possible – goddess couture, elegant homes and gardens, sleek yachts and, perhaps most important, exquisitely appointed tables laden with sensuous meals that satisfy the palate (and palette) without necessarily fattening the waist line.

They speak to what André Leon Talley, writing in the introduction to the sumptuous new “Valentino: At the Emperor’s Table” (Assouline Publishing, $150, 191 pages) calls his “unbridled passion … for surface, color and form.”

And taste, too, guided by a fresh, organic, vegetarian cuisine.

“After a certain age, one can’t eat red meat,” Valentino tells Talley as they settle in after lunch in the drawing room of Valentino’s Fifth Avenue apartment, with its plush Euro accents, sculpted Rouen lions and views of Central Park and The Frick Collection. “(Red meat is) not healthy, and my chef cooks everything now with no butter, no fat.

And desserts – including a cheesecake that is decorated with strawberries cut and mounted on the sides of the cake to create a frieze – are made with Xyla, a sugar-free sweetener.”

Whether he’s at his New York apartment; his London residence in Holland Park, with its rapturous, Orientalist ode to the Whistler room at the Smithsonian Institution; his winter chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland; his château outside Paris, once the home of Louis XIV mistress Louise de la Vallière, where riotous blooms spill over into a pretty pink and blue Mottahedeh Tobacco Leaf tea service; or aboard the sunny T.M. Blue One – all

blue, white and teak with nautical motifs, Valentino always begins his day the same way. He meditates alone in his bedroom. Then he and his chef, Jonathan, go over the meals of the day, including, Talley writes, “which silver and crystal will be used, which embroidered tablecloth will provide a background, and which silver tureen will become a centerpiece, perhaps filled with fresh dark grapes and pomegranates cut open to show the rich inside of the fruit.”

Then it’s on to a light breakfast – yogurt, tea with agave nectar and two biscuits made with kamut, a high-protein, nutrient-rich wheat grain. (Valentino – who does Pilates with trainers daily regardless of where he is – eschews traditional wheat.)

We may not all be able to live like Valentino (although the Mottahedeh Tobacco Leaf dinner service is available at Bloomingdale’s for $560 a place setting). But judging from the recipes (essentially a Mediterranean diet), we can eat like Valentino. Such engaging dishes as Tuna Mousse and Greek-style Vegetables, Eggplant Parmesan, King Crab With Fish and Kamut Pasta With Pesto are well within the culinary aspirations of the reader. Even those recipes that are more challenging – like the Frozen Chestnut Soufflé – entice the reader to don a chef’s apron and take up a whisk and spatula, or, at the very least, dive in with a spoon.

The food is only one part of the story. The settings and presentation are the other. From the clean lines of the Russian porcelain dinner service by the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory, St. Petersburg to the botanical profusion of the Chinese export black ground Famille Rose Millefleurs design, circa 1870, the dinnerware is an orgy for the eye. And it is just the beginning. Here’s Talley on a memorable lunch at Château de Wideville, Valentino’s suburban Parisian home: “The last time I was a guest at Wideville, it was on a drizzly spring day for a small lunch (Valentino) hosted to celebrate the marriage of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. Valentino’s sense of harmony and proportion was an

GOAT CHEESE FLAN 7 egg yolks 1/2 cup cornstarch 2 1/4 cups goat milk 1/2 cup plus two tablespoons heavy cream 10.6 ounces fresh goat cheese Salt, freshly ground black pepper Ground nutmeg • •

•

•

•

• Russian porcelain dinner service, St. Petersburg, reign of Nicholas I (1825-55); pair of George II silver Trencher salts, circa 1720s; Mexican silver table service, by Tanc, 20th century.

incredible poem of the juxtaposition of his great saltcellars, beautiful crystal, and white chargers, with swans from a dinner service of Empress Catherine II of Russia. The climax was the wondrous serving of a homemade peach and lychee sorbet in a green and red handblown and spun sugar bowl, created in the shape of a Venini glass bowl from Venice.”

Black Meissen swans are a particular obsession. Indeed, Meissen in all forms, including two huge 18th-century Meissen monkeys mounted as candelabra, with vermeil details, that are arranged on either side of the fireplace in the library of Wideville.

“I love them so much,” Valentino tells Talley, “sometimes when I am at Wideville I sit down in the library alone, close to a glowing fire with the monkeys, just looking at them.”

The aesthetic drive that led to Meissen monkeys was nurtured in his native Lombardy, where

the child Valentino Garavani dreamed of beauty and had his own special silverware. In 1950s Paris, he was part of a “class” that included Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld, apprenticing with Jean Dessès and Guy Laroche. In 1959, he opened his first fashion boutique in Rome and three years later had his first big show at the Pitti Palace in Florence. What helped make his career early on was his championing by three New York goddesses – hostess Babe Paley, philanthropist and fashion editor Nan Kempner and, of course, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

“It’s just me,” Valentino says. “I cannot change my love of beauty at my age. I have all these beautiful things, and I am happy because I worked hard to get them.

Sometimes I have a little doubt: I say to myself, ‘Do I deserve all this happiness and these beautiful things?’ And then I say to myself, simply: ‘Why not?’”

Preheat the oven to 300° F. Butter an 8-inch soufflé mold.

Beat the egg yolks with an electric mixer for 10 minutes. Add the cornstarch and beat until incorporated.

Warm the milk and cream in a saucepan, then slowly stir in the beaten egg yolk mixture. Cook as you would pastry cream, beating by hand over medium-low heat until the consistency is creamy.

When the mixture bubbles, whisk in the fresh goat cheese and return to a boil. Season with salt, pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg, then put through a fine strainer. Transfer to the buttered soufflé mold.

Place the mold in a roasting pan and fill the roasting pan with simmering water until it comes halfway up the side of the soufflé mold. Place in the oven and bake for an hour.

Transfer to a rack to cool slightly, 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the mold to loosen. Place a platter over the top of the mold, then invert to unmold flan onto the platter. Decorate with Tomato Petals (below) and serve immediately.

TOMATO PETALS 4 tomatoes Extra-virgin olive oil Salt •

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Preheat the oven to 175° F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cut off the stem ends of the tomatoes and make a shallow incision in the bottom of each tomato. Lower the tomatoes into boiling water; blanch for 10 seconds. Remove them to an ice-water bath to cool, and remove their skins.

Cut each tomato vertically into 4 or 6 wedges. Use a sharp knife to cut out the seeds of each tomato, keeping the outer flesh only.

Place the tomato “petals” on the prepared baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and salt lightly.

Dry in the oven, about 2 hours.

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WINE & DINE

THE MAKING OF THE WINE CONNOISSEUR STORY AND PHOTOGRAPH BY DOUG PAULDING

S

SO YOU WANT TO BE A WINE WRITER. I’ve written before that if you love wine, there is no better time to be alive than right now. There are so many good wines being produced all over the world. Knowledge and techniques have vastly improved and there are thousands of really good winemakers learning and disseminating their discoveries.

As for writing about it, there is also no better time than now, thanks to Internet access, which is about a decade and a half old. Prior to that, wine writing required an affiliation with a magazine or a newspaper. Now with so many social media outlets, anyone can write a blog, or promote himself using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google Plus, Tumblr, Instagram and Flickr, among other vehicles.

The more followers you can recruit to read and promote your writing, the more street cred you have, and street cred begets benefits. It requires some luck, some dedication, some persistence, some more luck, more dedication, a healthy dose of self-promotion and dumping any fear of rejection.

A few years ago, bloggers were not considered serious writers. Now there is even an annual wine bloggers conference that is organized and presented professionally, with producers participating from all the wine regions. It is an opportunity to improve your writing, taste wines from around the globe, network with folks from all aspects of the industry and have fun. Check it out at winebloggersconference.org. Increasing your sphere of influence is what it’s all about.

I began my wine-writing journey about 10 years ago. I had developed a love of fine wines and spirits while working in a couple of restaurants on Nantucket in the mid-’70s. Over the years, I collected some wines and learned a bit about them. Then I met Lawrence LaManna through a local men’s league softball.

LaManna is a career wine guy who has worked all aspects of the industry. He was a wine and spirits lecturer with the Sommelier Society of America (SSA).

One day he convinced me to take this 20-week SSA certification course to improve my wine knowledge. I signed up, paid my money and began the course.

The class met on 20 consecutive Thursday mornings at Harvest on Hudson restaurant in Hastings-on-Hudson. We met for almost three hours each session, learning about the process of making wine, the influence of terroir on the grapes, cooperage or barrel making and how the use of wood adds flavor and texture to the wine. Then we would learn about a region each week and taste and discuss eight to 15 bottles representative of that particular area. This was all followed up with a two-part certification exam, including a blind tasting and identification of some wines and a comprehensive written test.

When I completed the course, I had a wine business card made and handed them out to restaurateurs and others I thought might be interested. Ted Fondulas, owner of the now defunct Hemingway’s Restaurant in Killington, Vt.,

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Francesco Ricasoli in one of his vineyards in the Chianti Classico region of Tuscany, Italy.

offered me a job in beverage service. I already had a job and wasn’t looking for another, but I decided to work there sparingly when they got slammed, typically for a couple of hours on Saturday nights. On the side, Ted and his wife, Linda, reviewed foods and wines and spirits for Santé magazine, a trade magazine for anyone in the hospitality industry. I began reviewing wines for Santé.

They would send me a case of wine or occasionally a case of spirits or liqueurs. I would open and review them and would send the results back to the magazine.

I told my editors about my photography background in college. They began to send me to wine and food events in New York City, which I would write about and publish in their online magazine, santemagazine.com. I would go to the city for wine luncheons or dinners sponsored by a winery or wine consortium, and I would attend educational seminars organized by public relations companies hired to promote specific wines or regions. There are also wine cruises, regional trips and wine dinners targeting nonprofessionals to bring them into the wine world and meet winemakers and winery owners. These events are a full-throttle way to get a wine education.

I began to get some invitations for press trips to wine and spirit destinations, often in other countries. Press trips are organized to promote a winery, distillery or a region and the resultant stories written by the participating journalists can considerably increase consumers’ knowledge and the producer’s or region’s profile.

When I paid my fee for my sommelier course, I felt like that money was gone forever. I never imagined that a little knowledge, some writing ability, some photography skills and a decent palate can go a long way in the wine industry. And inside every door are several other doors to explore. I have traveled on press trips to France and Italy many times. I’ve also been to Spain, Chile, Israel, the Dominican Republic, Kentucky, Texas and Washington state. And I never get tired of it. The different regional consortia want to educate you and want to show you what the area offers, not just in wine, but also in food, culture, music and art. I have made many friends both locally and from far away. And I check my email regularly for the next invitation. Sometimes they are beyond my imagination.

Write me at Doug@dougpaulding.com.

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WHETTING THE APPETITE

OUR COOKING REALTOR GETS THE NEW YEAR OFF TO A GOOD START WITH A ZESTY FISH DISH:

Swordfish oreganata RECIPE BY JACKIE RUBY

4 pieces of swordfish 2 tablespoons butter ½ cup breadcrumbs 1 cup dry white wine 1 lemon (zest one half & reserve other half for juice) 1 tablespoon chopped parsley 2 teaspoons oregano ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg ½ teaspoon white pepper ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon paprika

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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a flat bowl, mix nutmeg, white pepper, salt, oregano, cayenne pepper, paprika and lemon zest thoroughly. Toss in the breadcrumbs and mix all ingredients.

Take ½ cup white wine and put it in another flat bowl.

Place the swordfish in the wine for 5 minutes, then turn it over to coat the other side.

Pat the fish to remove the excess liquid and place the swordfish in the breadcrumb mixture, coating only one side.

Place the fish breaded side up in a pan, adding the remaining wine and the butter to the bottom.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Then put the broiler on and cook fish an additional 3 minutes until the breadcrumbs are crusty.

Add the chopped parsley and squeeze the juice of ½ lemon over the fish.

Serve with sautéed broccoli rabe and roasted potatoes.

Email Jackie at jaquelineruby@hotmail.com.

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203-966-6767

www.eagerbeavertreeservice.com Doug Paulding | Dpupatree@aol.com

WHEELS

CHARGED UP

AND RARIN’ TO GO

BY LEIF SKODNICK PHOTOGRAPHS BY BOB ROZYCKI

SEVERAL SO-CALLED “CARS OF THE FUTURE” — THE TUCKER 48, THE DELOREAN DMC-12, THE EDSEL — HAUNT THE MEMORY OF THE AMERICAN AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY. Each, in some way, had advancements in technology ahead of its time, from the Tucker 48’s steering headlights to the Edsel’s push-button automatic transmission, to the gull-wing doors on the DeLorean. Each was, to put it mildly, a bust to some degree.

But the electric Tesla Model S, produced by Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tesla Motors, is no Edsel. It may not have gull-wing doors, but to get in a Tesla’s driver’s seat is to go back to the future of driving, in a car that marries technology in ways that Henry Ford and Nikola Tesla, for whom the company is named, couldn’t have imagined.

WAG met up with Will Nicholas, the northeast regional sales manager for Tesla Motors, at the Tesla Motors store at The Westchester in White Plains, which was Tesla’s first store on the East Coast, having opened in 2012.

“Here in the tristate area, we already have over 1,000 owners,” Nicholas says. Currently, the company markets the Model S sedan, with the Model X coming out in 2015. “We’re looking at expanding our model selection. We’re hoping to put out a Model 3 in 2017.”

Each Model S, which is custom built after a customer orders a car from a Tesla storefront, can get between 250 and 400 miles per charge, depending on conditions, highway or city traffic, and whether or not certain features are used.

“We want to compare ourselves to the leaders in the market, and I think in the luxury performance space you have BMW, Audi, Mercedes,” Nicholas says. “I think this car is very comparable in all categories – performance, appointments and from a safety perspective.”

Striking in external appearance with the smooth, rounded lines of comparable modern luxury sedans, the first secret of the Tesla Model S is not the battery capacity, the range or how much it will save you in the gas you don’t have to buy but the door handles.

When you approach the vehicle with the car-shaped

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key fob in your pocket, the sleek stainless-steel handles extend from inside the door.

The car has ample trunk space, with nearly 60 cubic feet in the back, and when you open the hood expecting to see an engine, you find more storage space – which actually is an added safety feature.

“It provides the most amount of crash structure of any sedan,” Nicholas says. “If you were to get into a frontend collision, this car is the safest because the aluminum crash structure will crumple like an accordion.”

To refer to the car as merely being safe would be an understatement, considering in 2013 the Model S received the highest safety rating ever awarded based on independent testing from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, earning five stars in every subcategory.

There’s a stigma about performance tied to both safe cars and electric cars, and the Model S destroys that stigma as soon as you take the wheel.

When Nicholas pulled out onto the highway, the Model S smoothly – and powerfully – accelerated with 416 horsepower to highway speed when he put his foot on the gas.

Because there is no engine or transmission, there is no vibration when the car is turned on or hesitation while the car shifts through gears – it just goes.

“When I take my foot off the accelerator, we’re going to slow down quite a bit, and I’m not putting my foot on the brake at all,” Nicholas says. On the instrument panel, the car showed energy being returned to the battery through what is called “regenerative braking.”

“An electric motor can push or receive energy almost instantly,” Nicholas says. Regenerative braking turns the motor into a generator that charges the battery, and since the driver can use regenerative braking to slow the car, it also saves wear and tear on the car’s brakes.

Nikola Tesla

“WE CRAVE FOR NEW SENSATIONS BUT SOON BECOME INDIFFERENT TO THEM. THE WONDERS OF YESTERDAY ARE TODAY COMMON OCCURRENCES.” — Nikola Tesla, “My Inventions” Leif Skodnick behind the wheel.

Inside the cabin, a large touch screen controls everything – from the driving features to the seat warmers to the stereo – and the car can update through a 3G connection, so unlike other cars, where new features mean buying a new car, with a Tesla, new features mean downloading and installing an update.

There are no oil changes, just a once-a-year safety check-up at a Tesla service center. Nor will you ever have to go to a gas station again. A Tesla owner can plug the car in to charge at home, most often through a 220 volt outlet of the kind used to power an electric dryer. And Tesla’s network of superchargers, which can recharge a Model S battery in as little as 20 minutes, is free.

Led by PayPal founder Elon Musk, Tesla Motors’ simple focus starts at the top, Nicholas told WAG. “Elon didn’t just want Tesla to make the best electric car,” Nicholas says. “He wanted to make the best car. Period.”

The Tesla Model S has sleek lines, as would be expected of a luxury sedan, but also features advanced electronics, including the ability to display navigational information on the instrument panel.

Must Love Dogs We Dig Your Dog

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Donna Beretta

For 10 consecutive years, Donna Beretta, sales vice president, has been the number one producing sales agent in the William Raveis Westport Office, representing clients throughout lower Fairfield County. William Raveis has honored Donna for being a Top Ten Producer company-wide every year since 2003. A graduate of Brown University, Donna spent 12 years in institutional sales on Wall Street before moving to Westport, her home for 18 years. A charter member of William Raveis’ Chairman’s Elite Club, Donna has closed more than $250 million in real estate transactions since 2002. She is pleased to answer any and all real estate valuation and market questions.

Top property: 19 Woods End Lane, Weston, 10,000 square feet, $1.999 million

www.MustLoveDogsKatonah.com WAGMAG.COM

JANUARY 2015

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WHAT’S NEW

WHEN

Kristen Alex MET

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

C

AN FRIENDS BECOME LOVERS (AND PERHAPS ONE DAY SPOUSES), TOO? It’s a question that’s been posed by writers ranging from Jane Austen (“Emma,” “Sense and Sensibility”) to Nora Ephron (“When Harry Met Sally”). And now it’s being taken up by a new docuseries that Bravo calls “a social experiment of the heart.”

In “Friends to Lovers?,” which bows Jan. 12 at 10 p.m. for eight episodes, five pairs of besties set out to see if their BFFs should be friends with more than benefits. Among the couples are Kristen Ruby, who has her own public relations company, the Ruby Media Group, and Alex Goldman, whose business is New York City-based Five Senses Catering. Friends for eight years, they heard about the series and decided it would be a great way to take their relationship to the next step.

When Kristen first met Alex, at a W Hotel in Manhattan, they were still in college. He was a bred-to-the bone New York City guy. She was a confirmed suburbanite from Waccabuc. (Her mother is WAG columnist Jackie Ruby, who appears in the series along with Alex’s dad and brother.)

Says he: “I was taken by her charm and beauty, and my intention was to date her.”

Says she: “Alex was one of the few people from New York City who would come to visit me in Westchester.”

Still, they fell into what Alex calls “the friends’ zone.” “We were like siblings, finishing each other’s sentences,” Alex says. “When I met her mother, it was like I was part of the family.”

Kristen and Alex would fight, yell and scream but at the end of the day, they were there for each other – to borrow a thought from another pals-to-lovers show, “Friends.”

But the timing was never right. If she was free, he was in a relationship and vice versa. Then there was the career stuff, mostly hers.

“My focus was on building my company,” she says. Very often when she’d be working late on a Saturday night it would be Alex who would get her to stop and savor the moment.

Such is the intensity of their relationship – and their strong New York personalities, Alex says – that they are able to forget the cameras are rolling.

“It’s as if no one’s there but us,” Alex says.

The show is an opportunity for the pair not only to explore that “usness” but to see sides of themselves they never considered before. This has been a revelation, particularly for workaholic Kristen: “I’m finally able to say ‘yes’ to what life has to offer, and for that I’m grateful.”

For more, visit bravotv.com.

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Alex Goldman and Kristen Ruby are besties who decide to take their relationship in a romantic direction in the new Bravo docu-series “Friends to Lovers?”.

Photograph courtesy Bravo Media.

BÉLA FLECK

A LIFE IN THE THEATRE

MIDORI

DECODA

PAUL TAYLOR DANCE COMPANY

JANUARY Opera at the Cinema: Barber of Seville Recorded live, screened in spectacular HD January 11 • 2pm

Cameron Carpenter, organ

Stereotype-smashing virtuoso January 24 • 8pm

Harlan Jacobson’s Talk Cinema Smart films for smart people January 27 • 7pm

The Knights with Béla Fleck

An evening of bold musical explorations January 31 • 8pm

FEBRUARY David Mamet’s A Life in the Theatre

Loving & laugh-filled backstage drama February 3 • 8pm

Midori, violin

Impress your Valentine!

February 14 • 8pm

Decoda

Chamber music’s finest young talents February 15 • 3pm

Harlan Jacobson’s Talk Cinema Smart films for smart people February 24 • 7pm

Paul Taylor Dance Company

TICKETS

Pioneers of modern American dance February 28 • 8pm

914.251.6200

WWW.ARTSCENTER.ORG or in person at the box office 735 Anderson Hill Road Purchase, NY Box office hours: Tues-Fri noon to 6pm

ORGANIST CAMERON CARPENTER | Photo © Heiko Laschitzki Major sponsorship of The Performing Arts Center’s 2014-15 Season is provided by The Vivian and Seymour Milstein Endowed Fund The Performing Arts Center’s programs are also made possible by ArtsWestchester with support from Westchester County Government The Orchestra and Chamber Music Series are made possible in part by support from the Tanaka Memorial Foundation Special thanks to our corporate sponsors, Steinway & Sons and TD Bank, and media sponsor WNYC

PET OF THE MONTH

SWEET ALICE ALICE IS AN ADORABLE 4-YEAR-OLD COCKER SPANIEL mix who was recently rescued from a high-kill shelter. She is a spunky, happy and energetic dog who would enjoy an active family.

She loves playing and running around the yard and would make a great jogging/hiking buddy.

While Alice is a great people dog – other dogs, not so much. She’d be better off with an owner looking to become a pet parent, with whom she can demonstrate her smarts, her sweetness and her loyalty.

To meet Alice, visit the SPCA of Westchester at 590 N. State Road in Briarcliff Manor. Please note: The SPCA does not accept deposits, make appointments or reserve animals for adoption even if it has spoken about a particular dog or cat with you. It’s always first-come, first-served among applicants, pending approval. The SPCA is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Mondays through Saturdays and 1 to 4 p.m.

Sundays. To learn more, call 914-941-2896 or visit spca914.org.

Roll over, Beethoven

CHESTER MAXWELL II — a 13-pound, 3-year-old Mini King Cavalier Spaniel — poses fetchingly in front of his keyboard.

“He loves music,” says owner Carol Greenberg. “He’s a musical dog.”

Perhaps he helps his human mom unwind after a long day at her high-powered job. Carol is president and CEO of Concept: CARE Inc., a licensed health-care organization established in 1995 that provides home care and staffing services to clients throughout Westchester County and the Bronx.

Only one question remains: Can Chester play “Misty” for her?

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PHOTOGRAPHER: JOHN RIZZO INTERNATIONAL EVENTS WEDDINGS PHOTO TOURS TO AFRICA & ASIA PRIVATE INSTRUCTION Rizzo in Tanzania: Maasai beadwork represents beauty, strength, tradition, marital status and their deep love and devotion for their cattle.

White beads, worn by this pregnant mother, represent purity and health, symbolizing the color of cow’s milk that provides sustained nourishment.

John Rizzo Photography 10 Cedar St., Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522 (914) 231-9513 studio (646) 221-6186 worldwide mobile www.jrizzophoto.com www.johnrizzophoto.com

JAN. 9

WHEN & WHERE

THROUGH JAN. 25 Spend “Some Enchanted Evening” with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s award-winning “South Pacific” at the Westchester Broadway Theatre, 1 Broadway Plaza, Elmsford; 914-5922222, BroadwayTheatre.com.

THROUGH FEB. 1

“Antarctica: Photographs by Diane Tuft” — Photographs that capture Antarctica’s raw, untouched splendor with colors, textures and compositions that verge on the surreal. Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Drive, Greenwich; 203-869-0376, brucemuseum.org.

THROUGH FEB 14

“Black, White & Red All Over” — Paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture by Paul Bloch, Caio Fonseca, Madeleine Keesing, Raymond Saá, and Donald Sultan. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Heather Gaudio Fine Art, 21 South Ave., New Canaan; 203-801-9590, heathergaudiofineart.com.

Jacob Burns Film Center presents its new series, — “We Got Game - Sports on Film,” an array of new works and discussions on all things sports. The opening night film is “Althea,” about Althea Gibson, the first African-American to win Wimbledon. 7:30 p.m., Jacob Burns Film Center Theater, 364 Manville Road, Pleasantville; 914-7475555, burnsfilmcenter.org.

JAN. 10 - 11

JAN. 17

Westchester Spring Home Show — Resources in home improvement, landscaping and design services. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.6 p.m. Sunday. Pace University, 861 Bedford Road, Pleasantville; 888560-3976, westchesterhomeshow. com.

JAN. 10

Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes — The “other” Jersey boys are back with a great night of hits, including “It’s Been a Long Time,” “I Don’t Want to Go Home” and “Love on the Wrong Side of Town” 8 p.m., Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 East Ridge Road, Ridgefield; 203-438-5795, ridgefieldplayhouse.org.

JAN. 1

JAN. 10

A brand new shiny year awaits us. It was the beloved Walt Disney who said, “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”

We here at WAG wish all our readers health, happiness and big dreams for the New Year!

The Bruce Springsteen cover band Tramps Like Us deliver shows designed to capture the spirit and energy of The Boss. 8 p.m.,The Emelin Theatre, 153 Library Lane, Mamaroneck; 914-698-0098, emelin.org.

JAN. 1 - 6

Kate Canty Creche Collection — A selection of créches from more than 30 countries, donated from one of the largest and finest private collections in the country. The College of New Rochelle, Castle Gallery and Parlor, 29 Castle Place, New Rochelle; 914654-5423, castlegallery.cnr.edu/958/ kate-canty-creche-collection.

JAN. 9

The Madeline Peyroux Trio — Dubbed “the 21st century Billie Holiday,” acclaimed jazz vocalist/songwriter Madeleine Peyroux returns to the Tarrytown Music Hall. 8 p.m., Tarrytown Music Hall, 13 Main St., Tarrytown; 877840-0457, tarrytownmusichall.org.

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JAN. 15 THROUGH FEB. 25

Turn Back The Cap: 1980s featuring Jessie’s Girl with special guest Howard Jones — The ’80s tribute band performs, with special guest Howard Jones offering his hits “What Is Love?,” “Things Can Only Get Better,” and “Everlasting Love.” The Capitol Theatre, 149 Westchester Ave., Port Chester, 877-987-6487, thecapitoltheatre.com.

JAN. 11

Themselves — This quartet and step dancer group performs Irish music on harp, violin and guitar, along with a dramatist-percussionist-singer. Enjoy lively historic to contemporary music and dance, as well as poems, songs and stories by James Joyce. 2 p.m., Westport Library, 20 Jessup Road, Westport; 203-291-4800, westportlibrary.org.

JAN. 12 As part of its Yoga Training Academy classes, Wainwright House begins a 200-hour, two-week Yoga Immersion Retreat. See the website for additional yoga classes and details, Wainwright House, 260 Stuyvesant Ave, Rye; 914967-6080, wainwright.org.

“The Met: Live In HD: ‘The Merry Widow’” — Renée Fleming stars as a beguiling femme fatale who captivates all Paris in Franz Lehár’s operetta. 6 p.m., Quick Center for the Arts, 1073 N. Benson Road, Fairfield; 203254-4010, fairfield.edu/lifeatfairfield/ artsminds/quickcenterforthearts.

For other venues, visit metoperafamily.org

JAN. 18 Jazz great Houston Person and his Quartet will perform for the 27th Annual Winter Jazz Concert at 7:30 p.m., Schoolhouse Theater, 3 Owens Road, Croton Falls; 914-277-8477, schoolhousetheater.org.

JAN. 19 His dream still lives... today is the federal holiday that celebrates the life and accomplishments of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who led the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and ’60s.

JAN. 24

Mummenschanz has toured the globe for more than four decades creating a playful experience through the use of shadow, light and manipulation of objects. 8 p.m., Quick Center for the Arts, 1073 N. Benson Road, Fairfield; 203-254-4010, fairfield.edu/ lifeatfairfield/artsminds/quickcenterforthearts.

Psychic-Medium Kim Russo — The star of Lifetime shows “The Haunting of” and “Psychic Intervention” makes afterlife connections for her audience members, giving them a firsthand glimpse into the world beyond. 7:30 p.m., Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 East Ridge Road, Ridgefield; 203-4385795, ridgefieldplayhouse.org.

JAN. 25

Toy and Train Show — The largest of its kind in the Northeast features new and antique toys, trains, train parts, layouts, appraisals, cars, books, test tracks and toy soldiers. 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Westchester County Center, 198 Central Ave., White Plains; 914-9954050, countycenter.biz.

JAN. 28

The Alan Parsons Live Project will be performing greatest hits, including “Sirius,” “Eye in the Sky,” “Time” and more. 8 p.m., Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 East Ridge Road, Ridgefield; 203438-5795, ridgefieldplayhouse.org.

JAN. 29

JAN. 20

“Overcoat Film Series: The French Connection” — Directed by William Friedkin, “The French Connection” stars Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider as a pair of New York City cops investigating a drug smuggling operation. 2 p.m., Westport Library, 20 Jessup Road, Westport; 203-2914800, westportlibrary.org.

JAN. 23

The B-52’s — The super group brings its hits “Love Shack,” “ Rock Lobster” and “Roam” to Westchester. 8 p.m., The Capitol Theatre, 149 Westchester Ave., Port Chester; 877-987-6487, thecapitoltheatre.com.

“Awake: The Life of Yogananda” — This film celebrates Hindu swami Paramahansa Yogananda, who brought his yoga and meditation teachings to the West in the 1920s, introducing millions to the practice. 3, 5 and 7 p.m., Jacob Burns Film Center Theater, 364 Manville Road, Pleasantville; 914-7475555, burnsfilmcenter.org.

The Machine Performs Pink Floyd — America’s premier Pink Floyd show, has forged a 20-year reputation with its music and “Interstellar Light and Multimedia Show.” 8 p.m., Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 East Ridge Road, Ridgefield; 203-438-5795, ridgefieldplayhouse.org.

JAN. 31

GREAT GIRLS NIGHT O UT!

80 East Ridge, Ridgefield, CT • (203) 438-5795 • www.ridgefieldplayhouse.org

ZUMBA AT THE PLAYHOUSE

KIM RUSSO

Wed, January 21 @ 6:30PM

Sat, January 24 @ 7:30PM

Underwritten by the gym

Psychic-Medium to the Stars and Star of Lifetime Movie Network's Hit Show The Haunting Of and Psychic Intervention.

Great Zumba wear in the lobby, make-up applications with Adam Broderick Salon & Spa, gluten-free cupcakes, organic wine and much more!

EMERGING ARTIST SERIES

PALM BAY INTERNATIONAL WORLD BEAT SERIES

Zap Mama ‘Eclectic Flash

Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion

Blending R&B, Hip-hop & Jazz with Tribal Vocals!

Free wine tasting with Palm Bay International before the show!

Join us in the lobby at 6:45pm - every ticket holder gets a free glass of wine or beer. Come meet friends, have fun and hear great music with this fok-rock duo!

Fri, January 9 @ 8PM

Golden Dragon Acrobats presents “Cirque Ziva” Wed, March 4 @ 6:30PM

Presented by American Family Theater The newest show from producer and world-renowned impresario Danny Chang.

CLARK CONSTRUCTION COMEDY SERIES

Paula Poundstone

Sat, February 28 @ 8PM One of Comedy Central’s 100 Greatest Stand-ups of all time! From NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me and more!

Whitney Cummings

Fri, May 15 @ 8PM

From E!’s Chelsea Lately and has appeared on Comedy Central Roasts!

NORTHEAST BUILDERS OF RIDGEFIELD COUNTRY SERIES #

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Fri, January 16 @ 8PM

Country Music Superstar with hits “Just Another Day in Paradise,” “In a Real Love,” “Carlene” and more!

Lonestar

Sat, February 21 @ 8PM

With original lead singer Richie McDonald, and their Number #1 hits “Amazed,” “I’m Already There,” “No News,” “Come Crying to Me” and more!

Wynonna and Friends: Stories & Song

Fri, March 6 @ 8PM

Hear the stories that inspired her to record the songs, create the tours and make recording history while inspiring countless friends along the way.

Thurs, January 22 @ 7:30PM

ROCK SERIES

Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes

Sat, January 10 @ 8PM

The Jersey Boys are back with a great night of hits including “Its Been a Long Time”, “I Don’t Want to Go Home”, and “Love on the Wrong Side of Town”.

Felix Cavaliere’s Rascals

Fri, January 30 @ 8PM

With hits “Good Lovin',” “Groovin',” “A Girl Like You,” “A Beautiful Morning,” and “People Got to Be Free” – don’t miss a night with this 60s legend!

Herman's Hermits Starring Peter Noone Thurs, February 5 @ 8PM

With hits "I'm Henry VIII, I am", "Mrs. Brown You've got a Lovely Daughter", "There's a Kind of Hush", and "I'm into Something Good".

Edgar Winter and Rick Derringer Fri, February 6 @ 8PM

Legendary rockers return to the Playhouse! Edgar Winter is well-known for his selling record, “Frankenstein”, and hits “Free Ride” & “Tobacco Road”. Rick Derringer, as a member of the The McCoys had the hit "Hang On Sloopy".

The Musical Box

Performs Genesis Foxtrot Sun, February 8 @ 8PM

A reproduction of the original concert, note-for-note, to give people an illusion of being at the actual Genesis show!

David Cook

Wed, February 11 @ 8PM Season 7 American Idol Winner with hits “Light On”, “Time of My Life” and “Come Back to Me”!

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LIGHT UP THE NIGHT

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Helping children and families throughout the New York metro area was the rallying call that raised more than $140,000 during ANDRUS’ Light Up the Night gala. More than 160 guests gathered at Westchester Country Club to raise funds and celebrate remarkable community members. The funds will benefit the nonprofit’s array of programs and expand its sensory therapy work.

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Photographs by Roberta Bouer and Genna M. Woods.

1. Lori Henry, Jon Dorf and Susan Guma 2. Kerron Norman and Bradley and Barbara Baran 3. Victor Alvarez, Demo DiMartile, Genevieve Piturro and Hector Vargas 4. William M. Mooney III, Michael Spano and Bryan R. Murphy 5. Siobhan Masterson 6. MaryAnne and Steven A. Ecklond 7. Tyrone Hodge and Janet DiFiore 8. Andrew Malcolm and Dan Bena

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NEIMAN MARCUS IS COOKIN’ It was quite the day as Neiman Marcus Westchester hosted a fashion event along with a trunk show by jewelry darling Eddie Borgo and a book signing by the luxe retailer’s own Kevin Garvin. Borgo, looking Alan Cumming-stylish in black with a matching fedora, told WAG his jewelry is all about semiprecious stones, geometric shapes and mixing metals, which is very in right now. “It’s the technique of fine jewelry,” he says, without necessarily the price points as his pieces range from $350 to $1,500. Upstairs, Garvin, in a chef’s apron, autographed copies of “Neiman Marcus Cooks” (Rizzoli, $45, 306 pages) near Mariposa, the revamped NM restaurant.

Actually, Garvin was positioned in front of the Chanel boutique. “Perhaps I should’ve dressed better,” he said, joking. Kevin, a chef’s apron is always fashionable.

— Georgette Gouveia Photographs by Georgette Gouveia.

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9. Aziz Sidiqi and Eddie Borgo 10. Kevin Garvin

ARTSWESTCHESTER OPENING ArtsWestchester recently held an opening reception for its new exhibit entitled “Drawing Line into Form: Works on Paper by Sculptors from the BNY Mellon Collection” at its gallery in White Plains. The new exhibit is part of the organization’s latest initiatives to develop 50 new arts and business partnerships in recognition of its 50th anniversary next year

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Photographs by Leslye Smith.

11. Brian Lang, Jean Marie Connolly, Janet T. Langsam, Froma Benerofe and Jacqueline Walker 12. Andrea Stewart-Cousins 13. Tom Roach and Edwin J. McCormack 14. Joseph and Ellen Oates and Barry Shenkman

All identifications are from left unless otherwise noted.

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The Arc of Westchester Foundation hosted its annual food and wine event, A Matter of Taste, at the Westchester Country Club in Rye. Nearly 400 attendees dined on foods from nearly 30 restaurants, sipped an array of prestigious wines and beers and participated in live and silent auctions. More than $260,000 was raised in support of the programs and services the foundation provides for people of all ages with developmental disabilities.

1. John P. Bona, Robert Miss and Ric Swierat 2. Joan and Howard Rothman 3. Bernard Krooks and Larry McNaughton 4. Jon Ferguson, Keith Ferguson and Bill Healey 5. Caitlin Marron, Peter Herrero and Caroline Hay 6. Cory Whittier, Agatha Patterson and Gia Doran 7. Dan and Fran Higgins 8. Lynda Wirth, Elaine Masket and Michael Wirth 9. Beth Beck and Janet DeVito

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CELEBS AT THE BURNS “The Daily Show” host and first-time filmmaker Jon Stewart appeared at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville for the opening night of the annual “Global Watch: Crisis, Culture & Human Rights” film, festival with a screening of his film, “Rosewater.”

JBFC President Janet Maslin interviewed him after the screening.

On another occasion, Academy Award-winning actress Anjelica Huston appeared for an evening of film clips and discussion about her new memoir, “Watch Me.” Photographs by Lynda Shenkman Curtis.

10. Anjelica Huston 11. Janet Maslin, Jon Stewart and Edie Demas

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X-PRESS-ING THEMSELVES Kids X-Press Inc. honored four guests with the Dream Big award at its annual “Touch the Sky” reception recently at 42 The Restaurant in White Plains. Kids X-Press is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting literacy by encouraging children of all abilities and all ethnic, social and economic backgrounds to express themselves.

1. Gina Cappelli, Gabrielle Edwards, Kaitlyn Luckett and Jean Marie Connolly 2. Yuval Marcus and Marsha Gordon 3. Lauren Stevens and Nivia Viera 4. Kurt Kannemeyer and Elizabeth Bracken-Thompson

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MAKING AN IMPACT Impact100 Westchester held its second annual Meet & Mingle recently at the Pepe Infiniti showroom in White Plains. Alisa Kesten of Volunteer New York! gave a talk about volunteerism.

Impact100 Westchester’s mission is to engage women in philanthropy and provide grants for charitable initiatives in Westchester County.

5. Alicia Ifshin, Susan Mack, Leslie Blum, and Susan Levy 6. Nancy Sturzin, Susan Newman, Sharon Douglas, Eileen Weinstein, Donna Seife and Anita Borkenstein 7. Rachel Dugoff, Jill Greenspan, Lisa Goldberg and Andrea Weiss 8. Stacy Rubin, Anna Perris, Victoria Drozdov and Michelle Beinhacker 9. Beth Greene and Sharon Douglas 10. Ilene Dulman and Kathy FInkelstein 11. Catarina Dolstein and Judy Starer

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FELIZ ANIVERSARIO More than 500 distinguished guests were on hand recently to celebrate El Centro Hispano’s 40th anniversary gala at the Crowne Plaza White Plains.

12. Amy Paulin, Barbara Finkelstein, Cynthia Knox, Michael B. Kaplowitz, Isabel Becerra, Isabel E. Villar and Jean Istwany 12

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HAPPY 50TH, ARTSWESTCHESTER ArtsWestchester kicked off its 50th anniversary celebration at its annual gala at 900 King St. in Rye Brook. The evening of dinner and dancing paid homage to its early years. CBS 2 reporter Tony Aiello served as the evening’s emcee. The organization honored Robert Wiener, Chairman of MAXX Properties, and Westchester Medical Center’s Healing Arts Program for their longtime commitment to the arts in Westchester.

Photographs by Leslye Smith.

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1. Robert and Sherry Wiener 2. Renee Garrick and Bob Roth 3. Kara Bennorth 4. Barbara Elliot, Gail Roman and Helen Gates 5. Bonnie Bell Curran and Jayne and Michael Kaplowitz 6. Tom Abinanti, Kevin Plunkett, Janet Langsam, Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Terence Murphy

ONE NIGHT, FOUR SEASONS The 50th anniversary of The Kennedy Center’s Four Seasons Ball was a lavish celebration held recently at Rolling Hills Country Club in Wilton. Some 300 guests paid tribute to philanthropist Dorothy Bannow Larson and raised more than $119,000 for The Center’s residential services for people with disabilities. Attendees dined, danced to the band Big City Swing and enjoyed the newly renovated clubhouse.

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Photographs by Stuart Walls/Woodstock Studio.

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7. Sandy and Kevin Walsh and Anne and Peter Foley 8. Maureen Hanley-Bellitto and Robert and Barbara Scinto 9. Pam Brennan, Martin D. and Elaine Schwartz and Cindi Bigelow 10. Dorothy Bannow Larson and Armando Goncalves

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A HOME RUN FOR CHARITY Bloomingdale’s in White Plains went to bat for the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation, donating 10 percent of sales during a special event to the foundation, which provides prevention and intervention programs for youngsters at risk for domestic violence. Guests enjoyed hors d’oeuvres, refreshments, DJ Theo Philip and sweet treats by Prestat.

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11. Arif Boysan and Joe and Ali Torre 12. Nick Crean

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WILL DANCE FOR FOOD Alumni of The Business Council of Westchester’s Rising Stars program came together at the White Plains Performing Arts Center recently for “Dancing with the Rising Stars.” The friendly competition benefited two food charities – The Westchester Coalition for the Hungry and Homeless and The Food Bank for Westchester.

1. John Zanzarella and Amanda Ready 2. Diane and John Durante 3. Michelle LaFond and Marvin Vasquez 4. Antoinette Klatzky and Won Choe 5. Jim Giangrande 6. Tony Justic 7. Jerry McKinstry, Maria Bronzi, Marsha Gordon, John Zanzarella, Amanda Ready, Jamie Johnson, Jim Giangrande and Kurt Kannemeyer

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THE NEXT LEVEL Level 3 Communications celebrated the expansion of its network and extensive product suite in the Hudson Valley, The Bronx and Connecticut and its acquisition of TW Telecom at a reception held recently at the Captain Lawrence Brewing Company’s tasting room in Elmsford.

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Photographs by Buzz Creators Inc. 8. Jeff Fiori, Shelley Moyers, Valerie Simmons, Carl Bonitz and Darryl Caprio 9. Chris Sikora and Jim Coleman 10. Marc Miller and Isaac Rosner 11. Sam Downey, Luis Rivera, Rob Caluori and Satish Tatini 10

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MAKING MUSIC FOR PARKINSON’S Local residents and musicians raised nearly $35,000 at the 12th annual “Music for Parkinson’s Research” (MPR) concert Nov. 9 at the Congregation Emanu-El of Westchester in Rye. More than 150 guests attended the afternoon of chamber music to benefit the research programs of the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation (PDF).

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12. John Stine, Robert Mencher, Alan Weiner and David Eger JANUARY 2015

JUSTICE FOR ALL The Pace Women’s Justice Center (PWJC) honored Congresswoman Nita Lowey and Robi Schlaff, director of the Westchester County Office for Women, for their support of PWJC and for their devotion to fighting violence against women at its annual “Making a Difference” benefit dinner at Abigail Kirsch at Tappan Hill in Tarrytown. The benefit dinner was PWJC’s largest, with nearly 400 supporters raising more than $155,000.

The proceeds will help PWJC continue to provide free legal services to victims of domestic violence and elder abuse.

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Photographs by Margaret Fox Photography.

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1. Janet DiFiore and Carla Glassman 2. Nita Lowey 3. Noam Bramson 4. Amy Paulin, Ingrid Richards, Robi Schlaff and Jane Aoyama-Martin 5. Renee Motola, Rhonda Shaw Hurwitz and Audrey Rogers 6. Sarah Reingold and David Yassky

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GARDEN PARTY The Garden Conservancy commemorated its 25th anniversary with a festive gathering at the Metropolitan Club New York. More than 260 guests from 19 states were greeted by co-chairs Susan Burke, Suzanne Rheinstein and Deborah Royce at the Garden Conservancy’s first black-tie event, which raised more than $670,000 for the organization’s nationwide garden preservation and educational programs.

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7. Deborah Royce, Susan Burke and Suzanne Rheinstein 8. Anne Cabot and Gerry and Sue Seitz 9. Marco Polo Stufano and Martha Stewart 10. Pierre and Jenny du Pont

‘COMMUNITY MATTERS’ AT THE BURNS

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The Westchester Community Foundation (WCF) recently partnered with the Jacob Burns Film Center to present the documentary film “Every Three Seconds.” The “Community Matters” event also included a discussion of local related issues, a panel discussion with local experts and a reception.

11: Mary Grace Henry and Catherine Marsh 12. Alisa Kesten and Missy Palmisciano 13. Judy Exton 14. Edie Demas

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SALUTING LEADERS Some 700 business leaders from the tristate area were on their feet at the Westchester County Association’s annual Fall Leadership Dinner at the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown recently as John D. Bassett III delivered a speech that was at once folksy and Churchillian on the nature of leadership. Bassett, crediting with saving his Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co. from being outsourced, is the subject of The New York Times best-seller “Factory Man” by Beth Macy. New WCA President Marissa Brett was among those on hand as the WCA presented leadership awards to Dr. Steven M. Safyer, president and CEO of Montefiore Health System; William V. Cuddy Jr., executive vice president in CBRE’s Westchester/Fairfield office; Dr. Laura Forese, president of the New YorkPresbyterian Healthcare System; and Robert A. Glazer, CEO of ENT and Allergy Associates.

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1. William Mooney Jr. and Marissa Brett 2. John Bassett III 3. Laura Forese 4. Jon Schandler and Steven Safyer 5. Susan Fox 6. Robert Weisz, Jennifer Lofaro and John Ritacco 7. Paula Mandell and Stan Freimuth 8. Robert Glazer 9. Robert Caruso, William Cuddy Jr., Brian Carcaterra and Tiffany Phipps 10. Michael Niedzwiecki, Daniel Houlihan and William Hecht

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PAYING IT FORWARD Westchester County Business Journal held its first “Beyond the Bottom Line” CPA award ceremony Nov. 17 at Manhattanville College in Purchase. More than 150 gathered to reflect on the accomplishments of five regional CPAs. The event was preceded by a cocktail hour followed by introductory remarks from Dean Anthony Davidson and People’s United Bank Senior Vice President Joe McCoy. The evening’s winners were: Anson J. Augustine, Michael S. Hymes, Anthony J. Justic, Kevin J. Keane and Frank Pellegrino.

Photographs by Bill Fallon.

1 1. James Giangrande and Joseph A. Fazio 2. Anthony Justic and Vincent Mutarelli 3. Don A. Kiamie, Carolyn Christesen and Frank Pellegrino 4. Jean Mann, Joe McCoy and Anthony Davidson 5. Kevin Keane, Michael Hymes, Robert Derbabian, Frank Pellegrino and Anthony Justic 6. Denise Cain and Gwendolyn Horn 7. David Paikin, Mike Tardella, Steve Trow, Ileana Rivera and Marcela Cordero 8. Namia Sultana 9. Stephanie Pierce and Jeffrey Neeck 10. George Whitehead and Peter Larkin 2

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WHAT ARE YOU MOST PASSIONATE ABOUT?* WIT WONDERS:

Steve Almeida

Ricardo Alonso

Vincent DeLucia

Malvina Dimeas

Jacquelyn Grubbs

Vanessa Henry

Carolyn Mandelker

Roland N. Nicol Sr.

Monica Ortiz

Heather Palmer

Pasquale Pippo

Stephen White

“I’M MOST PASSIONATE ABOUT MAKING RELATIONSHIPS, HAVING A WONDERFUL TIME AND MEETING GOOD PEOPLE.” – Steve Almeida, corporate account executive, Con Edison, Milford resident

“THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN LIFE IS FAMILY AND CULINARY ARTS, BECAUSE I LOVE TO COOK.” – Ricardo Alonso, corporate and community relations manager, The College of Westchester, Jersey City, N.J., resident

“MY FAMILY. THEY MEAN EVERYTHING TO ME.” – Vincent DeLucia, executive vice president and president, Hudson Valley market, Sterling National Bank, New City resident

“MY CHILDREN, AND I KIND OF INCLUDE THE DOG IN THAT.” – Malvina Dimeas, tax manager, CohnReznick, Millwood resident

“I’D SAY FASHION AND MAKEUP. WE LIVE IN THE CITY AND YOU WALK DOWN THE STREET AND IT’S A FASHION SHOW.” – Jacquelyn Grubbs, makeup artist, New York City resident

“I WOULD SAY FAMILY AND PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY THE PEOPLE CLOSEST TO ME.” – Vanessa Henry, nurse, Long Island resident

“CHOCOLATE. PERIOD.” – Carolyn Mandelker,

president of Harrison Edwards PR, Katonah resident

“HELPING PEOPLE GET OUT OF THEIR OWN WAY. PEOPLE TOO OFTEN GET CAUGHT UP IN THE NEGATIVE AND DON’T LEARN FROM IT. YOU HAVE TO KEEP IT MOVING. AS I LIKE TO SAY, ‘YOU NEVER COULD’VE MADE IT WITHOUT YOU.’” – Roland N. Nicol Sr., vice president, business development, Dominican Sisters Family Health Service, Elmont resident

“RAISING MY DAUGHTER. RAISING A 6-YEAR-OLD IS HARD. I TRY MY BEST TO GUIDE HER, BUT IT’S DEFINITELY DIFFERENT FROM WHEN I WAS GROWING UP. EVEN AT THAT AGE, IT’S ALL ABOUT THE HAIR AND THE LIP GLOSS. I TELL HER THAT IF YOU’RE NOT PRETTY ON THE INSIDE, IT DOESN’T MATTER.” – Monica Ortiz,

“MY FOUR-MONTH-OLD SON. I’M A NEW MOM, SO I’M PRETTY PASSIONATE ABOUT THAT. OTHER THAN THAT, ART. I LIKE THAT IT’S A VISUAL CONVERSATION.” – Heather Palmer,

assistant director of graduate recruitment, Mercy College, Greenwich resident

“I’M MOST PASSIONATE ABOUT MY WORK ETHIC.” – Pasquale Pippo,

tax manager, CohnReznick, Peekskill resident

“LOVE, FITNESS, BEHAVIOR AND FAMILY.” – Stephen White,

marketing associate, ENT and Allergy Associates LLP, Bronx resident

finance manager, Westchester County Association, Kew Gardens resident

*Asked at Bloomingdale’s White Plains and the Westchester County Association’s Fall Leadership Dinner 2014.

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JANUARY 2015