Weird Dubai

(NB:  I really enjoyed my visit to Dubai - I do wish I could have stayed longer.  Really!)

OK.  SO.  It's not really a criticism, it's just an observation.  Borrowing from Guusje's comment (if you don't know her, link here - she does lovely work) as of last Wednesday's Corner View when I posted my first Dubai pictures.  She said that her husband thought Dubai was "seriously weird".....and...... not really knowing WHAT to think of it to that point, I figured, well....THAT WILL DO!

I will also crib the Guardian UK's Tony Naylor here,  by saying that the relentless built culture of Dubai, of skyscrapers and malls without end could possibly drive one to "move to the woods and weave your own clothes", but in the case of Dubai, where ARE those woods?  You could not move out to the woods in Dubai because, perched on a little horn just off the bottom of the desertified Arabian peninsula, Dubai is utterly arid.  And bereft of any meaningful (to moi) horticulture.  And that IS a little weird if you are quite attached to plants.  As am I.

Dubai IS.  VERY VERY CLEAN!  And almost everything in it is so new, there is no distressing, or patina, or wear -yet? In fact many of its buildings seem hardly occupied.  And one wonders will they ever be?  Who, exactly, will be coming to live and work in them when already, 84% of Dubai's permanent (non-tourist) population is foreigners?  And many laboring in only so-so paying jobs.  Who will pay the rents for all those fancy sky-scrapers?  Kinda weird.It would be hard to describe Dubai as beautiful, because it is quite colorless.And when you have no color, all you are left with is form and that shall we say, has not been terribly harmoniously organized in terms of "Skyline, Dubai".  It is a serious hodgepodge of styles, good, bad -both distinctively so, and yes indifferent.  I do definitely give them points for trying.But so why, especially weird?  Well "weird" might be a way of saying, DISCONCERTING.  In that it's hard to get to know Dubai, for what is historically and organically Dubai, because Dubai is a place that references.........

so many other places......Blur your eyes, and if the buildings were arranged in a strange perspective, or if the one on the left were taller)..........might you think you were in NYC, on a hazy bright day?

Or hold a cold can of coke against your head, put on some sunglasses, and pour a watering can over your head AND.........(with signage like this) - imagine yourself on a sunny-ish street in London???????

Consume a hallucinogenic and try: the subways of New York?  (Truly hallucinatory!  They have NEVER been so clean!!!!!  Or so empty.)

Here's an ice cream favorite from your local mall.....at a mall - in - DUBAI.

And those old familiar Flakes, their glimmering crinkling wrappers gleaming out at you from that dimly lit neighborhood post office/corner shop in provincial England....Could you ever dream they'd be swathing some golden-glowed temple to retailing in some equally golden glowing remote stretch of a strange and distant land?  

And....... YES!, Harvey Nicks!.......but no, not THAT one down the road (in the rain) from Harrods, but THIS ONE crowning the Mall of the Emirates........... so FAMILIAR, YET so STRANGE.

I must say, this is something I seem to be experiencing quite alot of lately......When it is 97 degrees outside in the last week of October and an entire built environment conspires AGAINST a human being ever having to expose oneself in any possible way to the EXTERNAL and anti-autumnal meteorological vicissitudes,

Who IS IT?  WHOOOO? would be investing in what I would imagine to be really QUITE - QUITE - expensive and showy FOUL WEATHER gear in order to (Hopefully! - as opposed to: swanning around the house in the air conditioning?  Til these items go out of fashion again?) ..In ORDER TO: hop a plane with many giant suitcases to tiptoe for only a soupcon of a season (let's be realistic) from limo to vestibule through somebody ELSE'S blowy shivery northern latitudes......before whisking themselves back home again, leopard print boots barely broken in................

To return to their Swarovski encrusted foosball game.....(perhaps to match the Swarovski encrusted rec-room, er romper room?  What do you call it at your house?)..... its canny little football men bearing UNCANNY yet UNmistakeable resemblances to Oscar (winning) figurines and Hermes perfume bottles?  (Do you have one of these at home?  Do you think you would you like to?)  

WHOEVER that person is, they're not like anyone that I actually know.  Which makes them weird to me.

On the other hand.......At the other end of the spectrum (I mean, at the other end of the Mall, where the Carrefour S.A. is.....)  there might be less weird people shopping for EIGHT VARIETIES OF FRESH MANGOES!!!!!!  

Is that seriously WEIRD?  OR just SERIOUSLY FABULOUS?  And could this be reason enough to switch from "Weird Dubai" to a little more of : "F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S!  DUBAI!"?

But then, back to seriously WEIRD?  Because how CAN IT BE?  That the orange juice comes ALL THE WAY FROM FLORIDA?????  AND the GRAPES and the jars of GRAPE LEAVES for dolmas, come ALL THE WAY FROM CALIFORNIA?  

Now W-A-I-T a minute!  Are there NOT any grapes in Jordan?  Or Iran?  (I won't mention Israel for obvious reasons.) Turkey?  Or Georgia?  Greece, Azerbaijan, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Slovenia?  Hungary?  Aren't ALL of these places so very much closer to Dubai than.......California?!

(How not GREEN and NOT locavore is that?  And if any of you saw the Sundance Channel documentary about water crises and the idea of "exporting water via produce and bottled product" from one region to another, never to return.....why, as a thirsty, garden-mad, Californian taxpayer subsidizing those grape growers and underwriting their water supply......I might have to feel more than JUST WEIRD about all this.)

OK getting off my soapbox to observe.......just "Sara" and not.....Sara Lee?  That is weird to me.  Because I've ALWAYS known her as Sara Lee.

And maybe not so weird...... FOOTBALL FLIP-FLOPS.......we'll just take a weird break and say, "FUN!" this time...........

Because what is TRULY WEIRDEST OF ALL in Dubai.  Is

SKI Dubai.  Also found in:  THE MALL OF THE EMIRATES.

I'll say it again.  Desert.  Unpaved parking lots?  Yes.  JUST SAND.  97 F degrees outside?

And inside....let it snow let it snow let it SNOW?!!!!!!

SO FINALLY.  But RESPECTFULLY.  Cause.  I'm JUST ASKING.............

At which age, and at which point is it in a good Muslim's life/conversation with Allah, that one comes to the question about changing out of your burka or gender-appropriate white robe, and into your rented ski gear for a couple of hours???????

And how MANY conversations do you have to have, before Allah says: "It's JUST FINE!"  (I'm just asking!)  Cause this is a popular place.

And SNOW.  MUST be.  THAT.  GOOD!

(and should I know that already, since I grew up in Michigan?)  Maybe Dubai is NOT so weird!

Gehry in Brentwood, Speaks Volumes and... Miner Runs

Everybody have a good weekend?  How 'bout this to start the week?

How cool????  I have never wanted to live in Brentwood until today!  Photo: Lawrence K. Ho for the Los Angeles Times. This is called the "Schnabel House" but is now owned, and the pool was added, among other things, in a "gentle update" by the current owner, Broadway producer Jon Platt.

All I can add is, "nice life!"  For more on the house link: here.


And if you haven't heard about the Chilean miner who ran the New York marathon, you should read this.  It will put a great big smile on your face. 

It's The Weekend - So What's It Gonna Be???????

Dining?

Or DIY?  Whatever it is, hope it's a good one!  Have a Great Weekend!

Nice to Go Away, But.........

It's nice to come home.  Which might be why I'm posting these pictures now.

Earlier, probably in the summer, Ally at (the witty and stylish) From the Right Bank (here) asked her readers to post a single room that perfectly defined their personalities or decorating styles.  It sounded like a fun challenge to me, but utterly impossible.

WHICH me?   I could never settle for just one style OR just one "me".

But this is certainly a collection of a kind of me, and has come very close for a very long time.  The picture above is all too familiarly me because for nine years in NY, I lived in a house with a living room almost that narrow and a single front window quite that big.  (Ceilings that high -yes!)  And once, little blue armless hmmmm, shall we call them divans? too.  On the other hand, if ONLY! those colors, if only that rug!  Those I did not have.

The picture below is of one of my all-time favorite homes, featured twice already in the World of Interiors, in (only) slightly different incarnations.  I never stop L-O-V-I-N-G it.  

The top pictures are a more summery, somewhat updated version of orientalism in decorating.  They are from the brand new November '10 British Homes and Gardens.  Can I draw your attention in Picture 2 of the log slice coffee table with enameled frog green wrought iron legs?  Oh my!  I'm liking it all lots!  

So you all know that this is generally not a decorating blog.  But sometimes I just can't help myself.

Going away, being in exotic strange places, I'm looking at my home with refreshed eyes, and it is looking really good to me.  If not soooo exotic.  But (don't you think?) if I had a house like these, I'd still have a little of my journeys with me.  And in the fullness of time .........  I perhaps would not have to leave home for the exotic.......At  ALL.

At all.

Light Life

Hi everybody.  Yes I am back home.  It's hot in L.A. and the light is very beautiful.  As some of you already know I don't like to ANNOUNCE that my house is going to be empty for some time.   (Did you know that your very specific location i.e., HOME ADDRESS is announced when you post from some computers, phones and cameras?)   So I do tend to sneak away when that time comes.  (On the other hand someone very determined could probably also figure out when I post that I am NOT at home.  WTF?  So........)  

We did have quite the excellent adventure.  Mr. Paradis had meetings in some remoter corners of the world (well to us Americans!) and I tagged along.  So we stopped in the UK to see MUM the first weekend, continued then to Dubai and Chennai.  Since my birthday is coming up we spent last weekend in Singapore.  YES! SINGAPORE!  (I've been watching too much Anthony Bourdain and Top Chef.)  And came home again via Manila and Honolulu.  Literally.  Right around the world in 12 days.  (YIKES!  Don't ask how discombobulating that was!)  I have to work on my pictures yet this weekend, i.e., I-phone pics again, because we were a little challenged in the adequate-electrical-outlets department in certain surprising places.  So next week for that.

And by the way, Kevin - you were a little too right.....but HOW did you know?  (So busted.)

You with the CIA?

Corner View - Famous

This place is famous for this.

This.

And this.

Where was I last week?

More Corner Views here:  jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, caitlin, joyce, ani, kim, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t., jeannette, outi, ritva, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, denise, cabrizette, bohemia girl, isabelle, amber, a girl in the yellow shoes, janis, kari, jgy, skymring, elizabeth, allison, lise, cate, otli, ida, lisa, dorte, kimmie, nicola, vanessa, britta, april, b, kyndale, samantha, kristina, goldensunfamily, sophie, mcgillicutty, aimee, sunnymama, britta, juanita, inna, daan, myrtille, cris, ibb, jodi, gillian, travelingmama

athena, pienduzz, kelleyn, demara, mus, ninja, guusje, di, sammi, theresa, cherry b, victoria, lisa, liza, juliette, mulot, lucy, leonor, elizabeth, helene, shokoofeh, cole, jenna, podane, grey-lemon, line, nihal, inner toddler, puna, lucylaine, adrienne, lynn, skywriting, eliane, the wanderer´s daughter, carole, anna, dorit, kenza, sherry, conny, susan, l´atelier, elis, kamana, anne, rosamaría, marinik, elisabelle, victoria, malo, the yellow door paperie, tikjewit, juniper, ocean girl, emily, marcie, annabel, andrea, valerie, karin, michelle, merel, pia, soisses, angie, adèle, latisha, mlle paradis, 24 ruel, cacahuete, wander chow, debra, linnea and emily, barbara, emily, maryline, tally, therese, nadine, matilda, don, cheryl, flowtops, susanna, katy, suzana, castor

Tibet Style - Yann and Hippolyte Romain, Flammarion

Since I seem to be in a book moment.  Since it's time to start bundling up in style, and because words mostly fail me in this instance.  I will let the brother of the photographer speak:

"2005,.....11,500 feet (3,500 m) towards Jumbum, Labrang and Xiahe.........

a world of nomads, holy men, desperados......

the region is intersected by a winding road....on the outskirts (of tiny villages) donkeys and dogs roam freely...the wind gusts constantly, blowing up clumps of snow in winter, or sand and dust in summer....

the overwhelming first impression for a traveler in these lands is still the space - a great emptiness where the elements dominate.....

lying on the Mongolian border 1,243 miles ( 2,000 km) north of Lhasa.

This is northern Tibert, the Tibet of noble brigands, and this book is dedicated to its nomadic beauty which is paraded defiantly, like an anthem to freedom." - Hippolyte Romain

Every page of this book is a revelation.

And the stunning beauty and originality of dress is hard to fathom, particularly when we are

considering these photos represent "the present day".

Who knows what changes the past 5 years have brought since these photos were taken?   Find it here.