Congrats, Alex for being drafted by the Cardinals. Hope they trade you to the Giants one day.

IMy  niece and nephew are moving on!

Kennedy in the SEUSSICAL.

Not great.

Both will be sleeping well tonight.

A Memorial Day weekend feast.

A beautiful start to the weekend.

Hawaiian House of Horrors from henry james on Vimeo.

#100 Dad’s 70th Video

Coming Soon.

Brittany is graduating college this year and this cat refuses to walk toward the light.

#19: Read ten new books.

In anticipation of his 40th anniversary tour, I read Petty.

#13 Try 10 New L.A. Restaurants

Been done. Oysters at the former Rat Pack hot spot Dominicks, now Verlaine.

A great wine and food event at the Warner Brothers Back Lot. However….. Too many wine pairings resulted in me raising my auction paddle. I guess we’re going to the Gobi desert in Mongolia and staying in a yurt. I’ll have to pick up a Genghis Kahn biography soon.

#79: Garage Sale.

5 hours. $1190. Broke our record.

Cheers to the start of the California Wine Masters weekend.

#13: Try 10 New LA Restaurants

Citizen in Beverly Hills. The Tai Snapper was a hit.

New Office from henry james on Vimeo.

Brunch, bowling and a pasta dinner made for a fine Mother’s Day.

Hollywood Cup Polo Tournament. Good Times. Yeah, I shaved my head, too.

$47: See 10 New Movies in the Theater

Guardians of The Galaxy 2. The first was my favorite Marvel movie. This one was a worthy sequel.

Woke up extra early to feed the beast. Lost 4.4lbs on the fast. Down to 178. Will try hard to get under 175 by months end.

#97: Weigh 175

We’re following my brother George’s lead and trying this fast mimicking diet for five days. I’ve made it to 4:30pm on day one without gnawing my arm off.  Hoping to make it to Saturday.

#13: Try 10 New LA Restaurants

Beauty and Essex for a late Bday dinner.

It’s benign! Both tumor spots are clear. Full body scan clear. Lymph nodes clear. Bank account drained. Worth it.

My back invited me to the annual, how dare you bend over to dry your legs party. Apparently sticking needles in my hand is the Eastern road to recovery. 

Amazed he doesn’t hate me yet.

In a cruel twist of fate, Hemingway must spend the day at the vets for a surgery to remove another tumor.

#13: Try 10 New LA Restaurants

L & E Oyster Bar. Excellent. 12 Varieties of raw oysters every night. Always straight from the farm.

Oysters and branzino at The Edmon.

Fashion is fleeting. After more than six years, we have decided to let Basically Me, as well as all private production, die a quiet death. Since launching the line, we have witnessed a tremendous change in the industry. Luxury brands have gotten more expensive and everyone else is in a race to the bottom. So many multi multi million dollar brands have gone under in the last few years, so we think now is the time to bow out. The effort and money it would take to keep Basically Me alive is not worth the headache as the passion is gone.  It was a great six years. We’ve learned a ton, traveled a lot, and provided a respectable income for the production team. That last part is what we’re saddest about. Remarkably, all five of those team members were more grateful and appreciative than upset about losing a job. Fortunately for them, their unique talents are in high demand and they will likely be employed within a week.  As for us, we will reboot LA Fashion Insider, Inc. and  concentrate on building the buying company with a four person team. Once we establish 50% growth, Sonia and I will explore our next passion. I will forever credit the success of Basically Me for affording us the life changing safari in the Serengeti.  On to the next chapter.

IMG_5500 from henry james on Vimeo.

A boutique experience at a private residence.

Correcting last year’s mistake. Dog food is now being made at home.

#38: Watch a Sunset

I fell in love with Havana.  At first, I was a little nervous. After leaving the airport we drove through revolution square and you could feel the repression. But once we got into Havana, the island began to open up.  Despite being poor and oppressed, the Cuban people were warm and welcoming.  After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US turned the screws and the city began to decay.  There’s a beauty in the colorful ruins, but also a sadness that this once jewel of the Caribbean resembles Syria in places. But it’s beginning to change. Once Raul Castro took power in 2008, he began to loosen the screws. Artists and Musicians and Chefs are beginning to make money and in turn are restoring the Spanish style masterpieces into boutique hotels and restaurants.  You can feel these mini revolutions bubbling to the surface, giving the people hope for a better future. I can’t wait to go back to the place Hemingway called home for nearly two decades.

There are no book stores in Cuba. Unless you want a book celebrating Fidel or Che, you’re not going to find anything. Even so, my mission when I landed was to find the book, Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway wrote while living in Cuba. And I wanted the first and only edition published in Cuba. I put out the feelers when we landed and on the last day hit the lottery. A young Cuban met me at the hotel and produced a handful of Hemingway books, one of which was exactly what I was looking for. It was a literal drug transaction. The best souvenir to date.

Habana Nights from henry james on Vimeo.

salsa? from henry james on Vimeo.

Art is resistance. It’s alive and growing stronger in Cuba.

#21: Salsa

Thank God there is no real footage, but we took Salsa lessons with the local Habana Salsa Company.

We walked down this street and found this seemingly abandoned movie theater where we were invited to take in an intimate performance with the country’s top dance troupe. At times it was incredibly intense and mesmerizing to watch.

IMG_5209 2 from henry james on Vimeo.

IMG_5288 2 from henry james on Vimeo.

La Guardia is the most sought after restaurant in the city. Put it in LA or New York and it’s a six month wait list. Great food, but it’s the space the puts this one on top.

These are special experiences. We were invited into the home of Cuban Jazz star, Yasek Manzano for a private show in the equivalent of a broom closet.  He was a student of Wyton Marsalis at Julliard.  Another pinch yourself moment,

Yasek from henry james on Vimeo.

la taverna from henry james on Vimeo.