Tidings of Comfort and Joy

Four-time World Champion Alpine Ski Racer, Bode Miller at the upper eastside apartment of Tracy Stern sporting the “Bode Bang” a partnership between Miller and the Swiss watchmaker, Hublot, December 2009As the holidays approach a few tidings beheld the uptown set.  A dinner organized by Tamsin Lonsdale, Founder of The Supper Club, Inc. where she introduced the “Bode Bang” a limited edition timepiece designed in collaboration with Alpine Ski Champion, Bode Miller, and Jean-Claude Biver, CEO of Hublot.  The sandblasted black ceramic timepiece is in an edition of 250.  A portion of the watch’s royalties will go to the Turtle Ridge Foundation, a charity established in 2005 by Bode Miller and his family to share his success with those less fortunate www.turtleridgefoundation.org 

Tamsin Lonsdale, Founder of the Supper Club, Inc introducing the “Bode Bang” and other limited edition timepieces by legendary watchmaker, Hublot, Geneve, December 2009British Artist, Richard Woods, at the opening of “Port Sunlight” at Lever House, December, 2009 Park Avenue, New York.Park Avenue came to holiday life with “Port Sunlight” an installation by British artist Richard Woods. The work was commissioned by the Lever House Art Collection in collaboration with Perry Rubinstein Gallery and opened in early December at the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-designed high-rise.   The artist decorated the outdoor benches and planters and wrapped 40 structural columns and two printed aluminum floor pieces in the lobby in colorful block-printed fiberboard designs reminiscent of late 19th century William Morris patterns and mock Tudor designs.  The artist said the commission held emotional resonance for him.  Port Sunlight was the name of a model village designed by Lever Brothers in the late 19th century who commissioned Lever House in the mid-20th century.  Port Sunlight’s mock-Tudor houses, art gallery and its collection of William Morris textile designs were early influences on Woods who grew up in nearby Cheshire, England.   www.leverhousecollection.com

Alberto ‘Tico’ Mugrabi and Perry Rubinstein at the opening of “Port Sunlight” at Lever House, Park Avenue, New York, December 2009Lever House Publicist, Sara Fitzmaurice at the opening of “Port Sunlight,” New York, December 2009Geoffrey Biddle with his Aunt Flora Biddle at her Upper Eastside Apartment, New York, 2009Celebrating the joy of married life, “Sydney and Flora,” is a photographic portrait survey by Geoffrey Biddle commissioned by his Aunt Flora in 1998 to mark the 80th birthday of her husband, Sydney Biddle.  Published in 2009 by Turtle Point Press, the book is made up of combined portraits of the couple that Geoffrey describes as “outer attachments and inner dialogues.”  “Sydney and Flora” is published by Turtle Point Press with a foreword by Susanna Moore and text by Geoffrey Biddle and is available at www.amazon.com  

Turtle Point Press Publisher, Jonathan Rabinowitz with New York Times Correspondent, Diane Cardwell at the book party for “Flora and Sydney,” New York City, 2009 (“Sydney and Flora” stacked in the foreground)