Around Town - Sunday Afternoon Musicale

Really, this has been a weekend of music and WOW houses for me. 
Sunday afternoon I attended a small private afternoon musicale with a piano recital by Steve Hall. 
This lovely event was held at magnificent California Mediterranean home.
It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon and the hostess was so gracious to open up her exceptionally beautiful and tastefully decorated home.
Since she shared it with us, I thought that I would share it with you.
Here it is.

The recital was held in the living room, which was great because it was appropriately sized for a small group and it had rather exceptional accoutiscs.

I sat in this hallway between the living room and the library where I could admire the Second Empire furniture and the Impressionist paintings.

After the recital was finished we wandered around a bit to see more of the house.
Here is the library.

Then we went downstairs for the reception with champagne and hors d'oeuvres in the more casual entertaining areas, decorated with less formal furniture and modern art.

With our coup de champagne in hand we admired the pool and the gardens.  Everything was so green and the roses were still in full bloom.

Like all major homes it had all the accoutrement's, like his and hers gyms. 
A spa complete with hair salon set up, jacuzzi, mani-pedi set up, etc.

 And indoor lap pool, yes, with double tv's.

 A screening room, naturally...this is LA after all.

And of course a full underground garage, which I didn't see, but I did wonder where all the cars were parked.

Now, if this house appeals to you, you are in luck.

It is on the market for $50 million.

Happy Monday!

Around Town - More Capital Than Venture

Last night another event that I was excited to attend

but not because it was a gathering of venture capitalists

I just really wanted to see the venue because the party was held here

The CAA building in Century City aka The Death Star

And what do you wear to hang out with the money guys...I figured big gold and diamond jewelry the size of Texas.

Diamond Necklace with Doorknocker Pendant in 18K

Diamond Doorknocker Earrings in 18K

Diamond Dome Ring in 14K and Platinum

Ruser Diamond Ring in 18K and Platinum

The gold group

The bling rings

OK, so I looked like more Capital than Venture in all this gold

but right now I'd rather invest in gold than a start up tech business.

NY Recap - The Morgan Library & Museum

Fortunately NY wasn't all about business. I managed to fit in a little culture, fine dining, a film and some shopping.

For some reason I had never before visited the Morgan Library & Museum. Whenever I had tried in the past, it always seemed out of the way or my plans always got changed, so finally on this trip I made it to the Morgan.

I love small museums like the Frick in New York and the Jacquemart-André in Paris because they don't overwhelm like the Met and the Louvre. Also being created in private residences from private collections, these museums give you an incredible view into the architecture, interior design and lifestyle of a significant family within their historical period.



And the Morgan Library certainly did not disappoint with its elegant Italianate portico

and over the top library designed by Charles Mckim

and the juxtaposition of the open and airy steel and glass structure connecting the original building and the annex by Renzo Piano
very cool.

While the architecture alone was worth the trip, I also enjoyed viewing two of the current exhibitions

Rococo and Revolution: Eighteenth-Century French Drawings

and

William Blake's World: "A New Heaven Is Begun"

The dix-huitième drawings by Watteau, Boucher, Fragonard, Prud'hon were beautiful and I'm sorry that I will miss this week's lecture Glamour and Guillotine: Fashion, Theater and Decorative Arts in Eighteenth-Century France

The Blake works were incredible too. Does anyone else find all those floating figures in Blake to be an artistic precursor to those by later artists such as Chagall and Matisse?

The exhibit that I missed at the Morgan was A Woman's Wit: Jane Austin's Life and Legacy.

Miss Cavendish, if you have an upcoming trip to NY, it will be on display through March 14th.

Love In The Ancien Régime - Fragonard Frou Frou At The Frick

The Pursuit


Fragonard's Progress Of Love Panels At the Frick

So how did the famous Progress Of Love panels, originally commissioned for Madame du Barry's chateau in Louveciennes, end up in the Frick?

You can read about it in Howard Kissel's WSJ article

Ode to a Lost World
Jean-Honoré Fragonard's 'The Progress of Love' cycle

About a decade ago I was invited to a private dinner party at this little house. The house was in the process of being restored...I can only imagine what it had looked like with Fragonards or Bouchers hanging on the walls.

Downsizing the Holmby Hills Way

The Spelling Residence - "The Manor"

With inflation going through the roof and the monthly cost of household utilities equal to about the cost of a small car, what's a Holmby Hills heiress to do? Well downsize, of course. Which is just what Candy Spelling is doing.

Mrs. Spelling, who owns the largest house in Los Angeles a 123 room - 56,500 square foot mansion has just purchased a little 16,500 square foot pied-a-terre in Century City for a reasonable $47 million or $2,848 per square foot.

It is hard to compare the new and old. Spelling's current home has 11 bedrooms and 16 bathrooms, and then there's the one-lane bowling alley, the gift-wrapping room, a screening room and a doll museum. But what's in store for her new digs is still a question that may tantalize the curious.

I'm sure that the new pad will be magnificent with its 360 views....but personally, I'd rather have the view from the Koenig Case Study House 21.

Around Town - Lautner at the Hammer

Chemosphere 1960

If you love architecture like I do, Los Angeles is a fantastic place to live. Despite being a young city compared to Boston or New York (or Rome!) , greater Los Angeles, by which I mean Pasadena to Pacific Palisades, has a rich architectural tradition. From the Turn of the Century Castle Green by Fedrick Roehrig in Pasadena to the new BCAM at LACMA by Renzo Piano, there are numerous examples of work by some of the best architects of the last 100 or so years.

Here's a list of just some of the great architects who have created great Los Angeles buildings.

Green & Green - Gamble House

Myron Hunt - Huntington Residence

John & Donald Parkinson - Bullocks Wilshire

Alison & Alison - Royce Hall

Albert Martin - May Company

Raphael Soriano -Schulman House

Charles & Rae Eames - Eames House

Pierre Koenig - Case Study House 21

Paul Williams - LAX Theme Building

Frank Lloyd Wright - Ennis House

Rudolf Schindler - Wilson House

Oscar Neimeyer - Strick House

William Periera - Robertson Plaza

Richard Meier - Getty Center

Frank Gehry - Disney Hall

For me one of the quintessential LA architects is John Launter whose modern designs captivated the forward looking attitude of Los Angeles of the 1960's and an exhibition of his work, Between Heaven and Earth, is now at the Hammer Museum.

Enjoy