Art & Culture Colorado Denver Fashion & Style Podcasts Travel: Art & Culture Colorado Denver Fashion & Style Podcasts
by maribeth
Comments Off on Denver Art Museum Salutes Yves Saint Laurent and More
Denver Art Museum Salutes Yves Saint Laurent and More
One of Many Engaging Displays at the YSL Show in Denver
“Rien n’est plus beau qu’un corps nu.
Le plus beau vêtement qui puisse habiller une femme ce sont les bras de l’homme qu’elle aime.
Mais pour celles qui n’ont pas eu la chance de trouver ce bonheur je suis là.”
—Yves Saint Laurent
I’d loosely translate the above as follows:
Nothing is more beautiful than a naked body.
The most beautiful clothing that can dress a woman are the arms of the man she loves.
But for those who don’t have the fortune to find this happiness, I am there.
One of Many YSL Ball Gowns on View at the Denver Art Museum
Wow! That’s how I feel about the above and that was my reaction after visiting Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective at the Denver Art Museum (DAM) recently. Wow, wow, wow. What a gorgeous show. Men, please keep reading and listen to the below podcast. Even those of you that might not have an interest in fashion will surely be dazzled by this extraordinary exhibition.Yves Saint Laurent, one of the most legendary fashion designers, opened his first couture house in Paris in the early 1960s at a time when the world would experience great change, especially for women.
From a historical perspective, the YSL retrospective is fascinating. It’s a dynamic show that examines the many external events that influenced this man’s forty years of creativity through a variety of media including photography and videos.
But let’s get back to the women. This man loved women. So much so, in fact, that he primarily worked on live models so that he could take in their gestures, their movements, their élégance. “He really had a goal of making women feel loved and empowered from what they were wearing,” says Tara Moberly, from the press department of the DAM, in our below interview. Indeed and this show-stopping exhibition offers a stunning look at Yves Saint Laurent’s work throughout his illustrious career. From the wall of colors that showcase the couturier’s vast collection of swatches to the black on black display of his famous tuxedos to the grand finale of ball gowns, this exhibition provides a feast for the eyes at every turn.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Art & Culture French Life Hotels & Lodging Music & Dance Paris Podcasts Restaurants: Art & Culture French Life Hotels & Lodging Music & Dance Paris Podcasts Restaurants
by maribeth
Comments Off on Terrance Galenter from Paris Through Expatriate Eyes: An American Bon Vivant
Terrance Galenter from Paris Through Expatriate Eyes: An American Bon Vivant
Terrance (Seated in Blue Sweater) and His Cohorts at the Famous Café de Flore
Ahhhhh. April in Paris. It truly is a delightful time for visiting the City of Light. And as Terrance Galenter, emphasizes in my below Travel Fun interview, the month of May is even better.
Terrance, an American that started Paris through Expatriate Eyes ten years ago in California, has been operating from the French capital for the past fours years. He’s your point person in Paree for everything from tours to lodging, restaurant and reading recommendations. “It’s a very small town for a big town,” Terrance says about Paris. And if you make contact with him before or during your Paris stay, he’s sure to make this fabulous city a smaller, more comfortable place for you.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Art & Culture Colorado Mountain Living Skiing & Snowboarding Telluride: Art & Culture Colorado Mountain Living Skiing & Snowboarding Telluride
by maribeth
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Solilochairliftquist: Chairlift Reverie
Check out this short, must-see video and definitely view it in full screen mode. This little gem will transport you directly onto Lifts 7 & 9, locals’ favorites, here in Telluride. Whether you’re alone or accompanied by someone you know or even a complete stranger, there’s no place like the chairlift for awesome daydreaming. It doesn’t get any better than this, especially in T-ride.
Thank you to Faverman Films for this delightful creation.
Art & Culture Beauty Fashion & Style Food & Wine Paris Writing & Books: Art & Culture Beauty Fashion & Style Food & Wine Paris Writing & Books
by maribeth
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Drooling Over Pastry Paris
“Pastry Paris: In Paris, Everything Looks Like Dessert”
“The fine arts are five in number, namely: painting, sculpture, poetry, music, and architecture, the principal branch of the latter being pastry.”
—Antonin Carême (1783-1833)
The above quote surely served as inspiration for Susan Hochbaum in the creation of her darling book, “Pastry Paris: In Paris, Everything Looks Like Dessert” (The Little Bookroom). A luscious treat, enticing enough to devour in one sitting, “Pastry Paris” takes my vote for the best gift-y book of the season. Lovers of Paris, pastry, history and beauty will savor it like a best-loved dessert.
Art & Culture Colorado Denver Hotels & Lodging Music & Dance Restaurants: Art & Culture Colorado Denver Hotels & Lodging Music & Dance Restaurants
by maribeth
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DCPA, The Lion King, Kevin Taylor and Other Roars About Denver’s Downtown and LoDo
The Lion King
With Halloween behind us, we can focus more on the real holiday season, the nearly two-month period that begins right about now. (You all must know that it has been moved up!) For me, one of the nicest things to do during this festive period is to go out on the town for dinner and a show, a not-too-easy feat from Telluride but certainly closer than New York.
The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) makes such a night out worth the effort since they consistently offer a tremendous lineup of shows and performances, all concentrated within a twelve-acre, four-block complex in the heart of downtown Denver. Did you know that DCPA is the second largest arts complex in the country? Their ten performance spaces beautifully accommodate Broadway touring productions, a major symphony and opera, dance and ballet, chorales and a variety of theater groups. They can seat 10,000 people within their theaters, splendid showplaces of varying sizes connected by an eighty-foot-tall glass roof.
And tonight “The Lion King” opens at The Buell Theatre for a five-week run! This dazzling production enjoyed sell-out shows during their 2002 and 2006 engagements in Denver. Tickets are still available for this stint but as expected, they’re going fast. I hope I can take it in since I love great stories, spectacular shows and cats of all kinds.
Art & Culture Colorado Hotels & Lodging Shopping Telluride The Rockies The Southwest Travel: Art & Culture Colorado Hotels & Lodging Shopping Telluride The Rockies The Southwest Travel
by maribeth
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Touring the Southwest with My Parents
A Great Facebook Profile Picture: Dad at the Grand Canyon
Are you familiar with those digital photo frames that display a continuous stream of select images? Well, I was back east in October visiting my parents and brought one of those frames to them as a gift. We had to enlist outside help (thanks Brian) to transfer my images onto the frame (I’m so eighteenth century), but once it started to flash our faces across the screen, we all beamed. My father especially glowed since he was finally able to see himself backdropped by a parade of images from the Grand Canyon and other notable sites in the Southwest. It was like bringing him back to the South Rim of the Canyon to gaze over the vastness and grandeur of what is most certainly our country’s greatest treasure.
We embarked on our two-week Western Jamboree just about a year ago. Fall and even winter are two fantastic seasons for visiting many of our National Parks, especially the Grand Canyon. During these times the wondrous play of light combined with a lack of crowds make these sites even more enchanting. The focal point of our trip was to be the Grand Canyon, a place my father always dreamed of seeing. At the age of eighty-four, we were ready to grant him his wish.
Art & Culture DC Music & Dance Restaurants Travel: Art & Cultrue DC Music & Dance Restaurants Travel
by maribeth
Comments Off on MLK, DC’s Black Heritage, Chuck Brown, Frankie and Me
MLK, DC’s Black Heritage, Chuck Brown, Frankie and Me
Martin Luther KIng Memorial
With all the press lately about the official opening of the Martin Luther King Memorial, I thought I’d share with you a spirited night in Washington, DC spent with my oldest brother, Frank. He’s a real doer and whether it’s work or personal, he knows how to select and orchestrate all the right elements to achieve maximum results. In this case, it was about showing his younger sister a good time.
He had reserved a late Sunday afternoon and evening for us in August. Chuck Brown, the Godfather of Go-Go, a style of music that incorporates jazz, funk, R & B, hip-hop and dancehall, was to be the main attraction. Frankie had secured the tickets at DC’s renowned 9:30 Club as soon as he knew I was headed his way, about a month before the show. I hadn’t heard anything about Chuck Brown, but trusted that my brother was lining up a fun night out. He’s a big planner—much like me—and that quality along with a nice dose of serendipity laid out an evening that bobbed along beautifully on a helluva cross cultural theme.
Without any discussion whatsoever, the car pointed in the direction of the freshly-opened MLK Memorial. It was the Sunday after Hurricane Irene blew through our nation’s capitol (along with most of the eastern seaboard), so the Memorial’s official opening—slated for that weekend—had been postponed. Frank and I thought we’d check it out anyway since although not properly christened, it was open. No luck. We drove along the Potomac on the roadway bordering the monument, creeping along with the hope that we’d find a car that would pull out and leave its parking space for us. No way. You couldn’t even shoehorn a moped in between the lineup of vehicles. Not surprisingly, most of the visitors headed to or from the MLK Memorial were African-American or at least of some kind of Negro heritage. They had waited long enough for the tribute to their esteemed leader—it was time to take a look. Frank and I gave up searching for a spot. I felt somewhat disappointed but bowed out gracefully with the sentiments that it would be best for us to leave any free parking to the people for whom Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King’s I’ve Been to the Mountaintop speech meant the most.
Art & Culture Girl Talk Hotels & Lodging New England Restaurants Shopping Travel: Art & Culture Girl Talk Hotels & Lodging New England Restaurants Shopping Travel
by maribeth
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A Heartwarming Day Trip to Western Massachusetts and the Norman Rockwell Museum
Autumnal Scene in Stockbridge, Massachusetts
I was back east recently visiting my parents in upstate New York. Mom and I had on our agenda a “day out” to ourselves, one just like the old days. To us that meant planning a jaunt to a nearby destination such as the Hudson Valley region, southern Vermont or the Berkshires in western Massachusetts, all scenic and fairly rural destinations within about an hour’s drive of my parents’ house in Troy, New York. These were the places we would travel to throughout the years, especially when I was growing up. Together we would marvel at the pastoral landscapes while chitchatting the day away. Lunch, a bit of shopping and often a museum visit were all key components of a successful day trip, the perfect female bonding experience for two gals living in a house full of men. (I grew up with five brothers, a father and no sisters.)
It was during these joyous excursions that my love for unique places full of personality and charm emerged. I could hardly tolerate department stores or malls when I was a girl and still have a hard time with them today. Yes, these trips to soulful sites full of history and tradition planted the seeds for the shopping service I founded in Paris some years later and the four books I came to write on shopping and touring in Paris and the French provinces. My philosophy is and always will be about the whole shopping and touring experience—it’s not so much about what you buy, it’s about how and where you buy it and what you learn along the way. Truth is, I’m not even a big advocate of buying, but we all do, so why not have it be something special that you’ve procured in a memorable manner?
This special day to ourselves was more challenging to organize since we don’t leave my eighty-five-year-old Dad alone much any more. With a hearty, microwavable meal prepared in advance at the ready, cell phones listed in plain site and the reassurance that his Life-Alert was in working order, we said “Hasta la Vista,” knowing full well that we’d all appreciate the much-needed time away from each other.
