20070322

Dream Living Spaces

I've been thinking about the kind of spaces I'd like to have in my home andall this living in hotels these past couple years has given me some strong opinions. I'm gonna eschew pictures and try and verbally craft the looks I'm shooting for. Granted this is beyond the realm of what I'll ever be able to afford, but hey a man's gotta dream. Not specified on a room by room basis, but of course the house would be completely wired for terminals, video, and sound
  • Formal livingroom- dark woods, rich persian carpets in burgandies , black leather and chrome (think Le Corbousier, Mies van der Rohe, Breuer) , rosewood accent pieces, and some traditional japanese woodcuts, chinese style landscapes, and indian miniatures, this is where the asian antiques, masks, and textile hangings would go (hmm, sounds a lot like my parents living room)
  • Daily lounge space - a lot more pop with light colored woods, primary colors, asymmetric, and amorphous seating like a noguchi sofa, softseating, etc. a few eams pieces of bent plywood would also be pretty cool. Ideally it'd be, multileveled, and the walls and floors would have to be very bright, but I'm not against exposed brick, and the space while very open could be divided with screens or hanging textile slats. The wall art could be decals or bright poppy art ala Lichtenstein, Mondrian, Warhol, and a hanging calder couldn't hurt, but I'd probably rotate the artwork every 6 months. This space would be a good open multipurpose area with (of course) a bar/breakfast counter with chimay on tap, a nice espresso machine, a pannino press, and a small sink
  • Kitchen's gotta have an island an a lot of burners, I'm a big fan of all stainless steel appliances, but hey if everything's functional and positioned well it doesn't make a difference. It'd also be nice to have a ton of accessible storage
  • Bedroom- just a place to sleep with a decent sized closet and a big comfy bed, nothin fancy
  • Master Bathroom- doesn't need a tub, but one of those big open style showers with multiple heads would be sweet, of course a seperate room for the can is a must, oh and behind the mirror should be a flatscreen where I can pull up my morning news
  • Garden/Patio/Terrace- think roman villa, cypress and or palms(maybe potted), but home to a mix of tropical and mediterranean plants, a large eating space, and of course a hammock and a jacuzzi
  • Office/work area- bright, lots of natural light, an aeron or equally comfortable chair, plenty of physical file storage, and a lot of workspace so at least a few people could work at once
Now I just need to find a place where the designs are actually within reach, or rob a few museum collections. Till then I'll just salivate over the stuff at DWR, 2Modern, Mocoloco, elsewares, and countless other cool pricey stores. I can't wait till target starts ripping this stuff off

View from the mexico city hotel

Delayed pig year post

20070319

On the road again

Once more into the breech, yes I'm traveling for work again. This time it's a lot easier since it's on this continent I get to come back for weekends, but traveling to Mexico City is not without digestive pitfalls, and unfortunately cipro came into play as Moctezuma exacted his revenge. On the plus side I did have some amazing meals when I was down there. The biggest standouts were two different sets of duck tacos. At Izote ,a contemporary Mexican fusion restaurant in Polanco on the Mexico City equivalent of Rodeo Dr, I had these super rich duck mole tacos. The mole was sweet and heavy, and the duck was juicy and tender. The food was great, but the experience was fantastic since he restaurant had the kind of service you can only get in developing nations. Every 2 minutes or so the corn tortillas would be replaced with a new piping hot set whether I had eaten any or not. There was also someone basically just hovering outside of eyesight in case we should want anything.


The second great set of duck tacos were at a lunch place near the old tibco office in reforma area. They were duck carnitas with a healthy amount of chopped onion and cilantro. I was a little surprised with both since I don't consider duck to be traditionally Mexican food, but both meals were the kind of delicious where you can't help but thinking about it the day after.