Modern Portraiture.

There is a group of commissionable artists surfacing who offer Most Excellent portraiture at often reasonable fees. Amongst these artists are, (from top to bottom), Kim Scafuro, John Clark,
Elyse Hradecky, Mark Milroy, Pamela duLong Williams, June Glasson, Rory Gevis and Victoria Keddie.

The Millau Viaduct. Paris to Barcelona.

The Millau viaduct is part of the new E11 expressway connecting Paris and Barcelona and features the highest bridge piers ever constructed. The tallest is 240 meters high and the overall height will be an impressive 336 meters, making this the highest bridge in the world.

This Most Excellent structure is a large cable-stayed road-bridge that spans the valley of the River Tarn near Millau in southern France. It is slightly taller than the Eiffel Tower and only 38 m (125 ft) shorter than the Empire State Building. It was formally dedicated on 14 December 2004, inaugurated the day after and opened to traffic two days later. The bridge won the 2006 IABSE Outstanding Structure Award.

I believe frequent flier points should be awarded for successfully crossing this very impressive bridge.

Under construction in 2004.

Obama Style. Jean-Charles de Castelbajac.

The American people have said YES! Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States of America on 20 January 2009.

In the event you are looking to celebrate Obama's historic Presidential victory in true avant-garde style, how about this dress from French fashion designer, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac's Spring 2009 collection? The sporty yellow sequin dress made a splashy debut on the Paris runway in the Jean-Charles de Castelbajac show. The look was completed with a matching glove that said YES.

Besides the Obama piece, the vibrant collection featured LEGO-inspired pieces, lots of clouds and kisses.

Vote!

'Perry St.' - West Village, New York City.

I had a Most Excellent dinner this past Saturday night at Jean-George Vongerichten's beautiful West Village restaurant, 'Perry St.'.

The restaurant is housed inside one of the icy, all-glass Richard Meier structures overlooking the Hudson River in Manhattan, where the chef also happens to own an apartment on the seventh floor. From the outside, with the lights shimmering through the frosted glass, his restaurant looks quite beautiful. Inside, the room feels serene and subdued, a muted symphony of soft whites (chairs and banquettes) and tan browns (wooden tables) encased in glass. Huge arrangements of warm-colored burgundy autumn leaves soared from the top of the bar in the center of the space. This detail provided quite a foil to the slick, razor sharp contemporary interior.

Dinner at Perry Street unfolds with a kind of muted, surgical precision. Appetizers and entrées are divided on the menu into symmetrical lists of eight. Meals are served on simple white porcelain, much of which is not round but square. They’re transported to the table by serious-faced waiters dressed in white shirts and thin black ties, who pad among the tables with a kind of exaggerated quietness, like docents in the canteen of a small, modernist museum.

The food was simply wonderful, the company even better and the entire evening absolutely terrific! Special thanks and love to Drue, Heather, Matt and, of course, R.