lifestyle

Museums' Joint Deal Lands Robert Mapplethorpe Archive in Los Angeles

Filed under: Art

The work of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe will have a new home in Los Angeles. The J. Paul Getty Trust and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) have jointly acquired thousands of art and archival materials associated with Mapplethorpe. A release states that the vast majority of the acquisition comes in the form of a generous gift from the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation while the rest was from funds provided by The David Geffen Foundation for LACMA and the J. Paul Getty Trust. The world has been rediscovering Mapplethorpe lately in the wake of the memoir "Just Kids" by rock legend Patti Smith, who recently won a National Book Award for the book which celebrates her creative and personal relationship with Mapplethorpe.

This move makes Los Angeles the center for the study of Mapplethorpe's work. The LA Times reports that the works were appraised at more than $30 million. The archives includes a print of virtually every photograph he editioned in silver gelatin, a large number of Polaroid works and unique works, artworks by Mapplethorpe's contemporaries and personal correspondence. Among the treasures is Mapplethorpe's 1978 film Still Moving featuring Patti Smith. The archive also documents the debate surrounding the homerotic nature of some of his work with media materials covering the NEA, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, and The Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center controversies that arose shortly after the artist died in 1989. Those dramatic news events were part of what has become an ongoing discussion on the role of artistic freedom in publicly funded exhibits.

Tags: art photography, Getty museum, lacma, lifestyle, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, patti smith, RObert Mapplethorpe

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Mini Gifts can Make for a Big Christmas

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Gadgets, Luxury Cars & Autos

Mini drivers are known to love their Mini things, so the funky British brand has unleashed a bundle of holiday bounty to please. The limited edition Internet radio by German firm sonoro – a Mini-fied take on sonoro's 'elements W' radio – is a tiny box bedecked in Eclipse Gray metallic and "bonnet" stripes. The control is aluminum, the OLED display can be dimmed, and among the 18,000 stations it commands are four Mini Sounds channels: Space, United, International and Cross. It comes with a remote, an iPod dock, can receive media from a computer and, if you had more mundane uses in mind, yes, it can be an alarm clock with sleep and snooze.

The fiberglass and synthetic Mini Jet helmet with polycarbonate visor is probably not to be used when piloting your actual jet, but when you take control of your Piaggio this could save the day with more bonnet stripes and a Union Jack. When off the scooter you can don the Mini Badges Lapeer Hat with earflaps, and your other end gets to make do with Mini Countryman Boots.

Even though it can tell the difference between day and night, a chrome Mini cuckoo clock, even as cute as it is, will probably test the patience of any Mini-phile. And in the "I know you drive a Minis but I don't know anything else about you," there's a MINI Calendar by Wolfgang Block or an 8GB Mini USB stick. There's a passel of other gifts for various genders and ages in the photos below, or peep them all at www.MINI.com/shop.

Gallery: Mini for Christmas

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Tags: accessories, christmas, gifts, lifestyle, mini, sonoro

Look for the Berlin Wall to Rise in New Orleans at IPCPR

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Cigars

The cigar industry's major annual convention occurs in New Orleans next week, and there are plenty of new products being announced. From lifestyle brand Hammer + Sickle, which includes both vodka and cigars, look for the "Berlin Wall" to be introduced.

Celebrating the twenty-first anniversary of the fall of communism in Europe, the Berlin Wall cigar is rich, flavorful and medium-bodied, according to a statement by the company. It will be packaged in a handmade marble box, said to be a first for the cigar industry. The cigar will deliver "a complex and powerful interplay of wood, spice and leather flavors with an earthiness reminiscent of pre-embargo era Cuban offerings."

According to Eric Hanson, Chairman of Klin Spirits, "As a company, we would not be here without the fall of the Berlin Wall and the way it significantly transformed U.S. – Russian political and industrial relations," stated Eric P. Hanson, Chairman of Klin Spirits.

[photo and video courtesy of Cigar Reader]

Tags: berlin wall, cigar, cigars, europe, lifestyle, lifestyles, vodka, vodkas

Study Says Luxury Changes People for the Worse

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wealth

A new study found that when people are exposed to luxury they become more self-centered and less empathetic towards others.

The study was put together by Harvard professor Roy Y.J. Chua and London Business School assistant professor Xi Zou as a step towards understanding how luxury goods effect the human psyche, and as a means of explaining the harmful decisions of wealthy groups like Wall Street executives. In the study people were asked to make a series of decisions designed to pit self-interests against society-interests, and the people who thought about luxury immediately before the test made more selfish and potentially harmful decisions than those who didn't.

The results seem to suggest that businessmen who have meetings at posh resorts surrounded by opulence and luxury will make more profit-driven, self-interested decisions than those who meet in a modest conference room. What do you think, does being surrounded by luxury make a person more likely to think only about themselves?

Via psfk

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Tags: lifestyle, luxury, psychology, spending, spending habits, SpendingHabits, study, wealth

Orbita Lifestyle Watch Winders Coming Soon

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

US based Orbita keeps giving you new ways to wind your watches. After many months of development the new Lifestyle watch winder cabinets will be coming soon. The idea is a cabinet that have modules in it that can be customized to your needs. You can insert up to six winder for automatic watches, or mix and match a bit with modules of three or six patented Orbita ROTORWIND modules. Then you can have a drawer options for accessories. The Lifestyle cabinets come in a few sizes. Each is made with a lovely Brazilian Rosewood veneer, and lined with carbon fiber panels. The interior drawers are lined with suede, and the doors of the cabinet are lockable for security. The larger units have the ability to be enhanced with biometric (finger print) scanners for added security. Also, you can insert Orbita Sempre manually wound watch winders (that have a little claw that goes over watch crowns) in the large Lifestyle units. Overall the new Lifestyle series from Orbita should further enhance your ability to add convenient winding for your mechanical watches no matter what your lifestyle is, or space requirements are. Look for them soon from Orbita.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: cabinet, lifestyle, Orbita, watch winder, WatchWinder

Owning Farmland is the New Status Symbol?

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Although owning land has always been something of a status symbol, traditionally most of the very wealthy who own acreages don't use them as a permanent address but instead as a getaway spot. For many having money means living a fast-paced jet-setting lifestyle in the city, where spending money and enjoying luxurious amenities like spa treatments and VIP experiences is most convenient. But that trend is reversing, it seems, with many of today's wealthy leaning more and more towards a slower, more comfortable, "back the roots" kind of life. Many are still traveling the world and paying big bucks for daily extravagances, but they're basing their lives out of a calmer and more natural environment. They're buying acreages of farmland and building their homes there, and besides enjoying the serenity and quietness it brings many are actually growing some of their own food and working towards more sustainable and old-fashioned lifestyles. Believe it or not, farmland is becoming the new status symbol!

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Tags: farm, farm land, farming, FarmLand, lifestyle, lifestyles, locavore

Zoomies NYC

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Pets

We have seen bakeries for dogs that rival their human counterparts, but Zoomies is a store that has really gone to the dogs. It is a lifestyle boutique for canines. They stock a wide range of luxury products, from dog collars to dog beds, and offer gourmet dog treats, all in an environment that is relaxing for owners, in addition to being fun for the dogs. And if you want your pet's chew toys to match your accessories, try picking up some Jimmy Chew Shoes or a Chewy Vuitton Handbag while you're there.

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Tags: dog, dogs, lifestyle, new york, nyc, pet, pets, store, zoomies

Mint Lifestyle

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Services

Mint Lifestyle is an exclusive, members-only luxury concierge service based in Los Angeles, though they have clients and connections all over the world. With a membership limited to 250 - and so exclusive that it has been likened to a virtual country club - clients get the best service possible from a highly-trained staff. Unlike other concierge services, which tend to deal primarily with the minor details of daily life, their services include, but are not limited to, arranging luxury travel, event planning, finding staff, coordinating the purchase of rare or luxury vehicles and even securing real estate within days. Need a private jet for a quick trip or a suite at the hottest new luxury hotel? No problem. Of course, they can also arrange the more mundane tasks, if necessary, but the majority of their clients already have people to pick up their dry cleaning. The most attentive service money can buy is only $20,000 per year.

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Tags: concierge, contry club, lifestyle, los angeles, mint, mint lifestyle, personal concierge, services

Home For Sale: Vegetarians Only

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

Mumbai is one of the most desirable cities to live in in India, with a forward-thinking population and a booming economy. As in most places, desirability also makes it expensive and family-sized apartments can sell for more than £250,000, even in the suburbs. It turns out that price is not the only barrier to finding housing. Housing associations are being set up all over the city that exclude non-vegetarians from buying flats - even if they make a higher offer than a vegetarian bidding on the same property.

Since apartments are allowed to enforce Catholic-only or Hindu-only building, judges have not sided with the omnivores when they have taken housing associations to court on discrimination charges. A supporter of the associations said he felt "vegetarians should be given the right to admit who they want."

And to think: some people in the US complain about how their housing association picks out the exact color of pots they can use in the front yard and determines the appropriate style of front door knocker. At least they're not (yet) making lifestyle choices for the families who live there. It does beg the question about what the strictest housing associations would have their residents do for the privilege of living there. Stepford wives, anyone?

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Tags: discrimination, housing, housing associations, india, lifestyle, meat, mumbai, real estate, vegetarians

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