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Sofie Goes Around, Los Angeles, CA (2025)

08/10/2022

The Futuro House was conceived by Matti Suuronen in 1968 as a "portable" ski chalet. It is an iconic piece of architecture.

07/03/2022

Set in a nook of a small mountain of rocks, Acido Dorado presents on the outside a long and low chopped and channeled profile with huge mirrored overhangs, hearts, flowers, and 3 colors of acid-tinged metallic gold. This 1400sq ft home is spacious with two matching master suites (each have their own private atrium) and one main room which is glass walled on three sides with a full kitchen, dining table and seating area. There is also a sunken back patio with built in seating, a fire pit and a bbq. The wrought iron gates embellished with thousands of metallic roses easily slide into pockets and disappear, opening up the entire house to catch the warm desert breezes. This is truly a spectacular house. Acido Dorado is one of two custom houses designed by Architect Robert Stone.

06/30/2022

The brief history of Palm Spring’s Hollywood connection.

Palm Springs gained its fame in the 1920s when Hollywood movie stars made it their weekend retreat of choice. Within a 2-hour drive east of the Hollywood studios in Los Angeles, the Palm Springs beckoned with reliably warm weather and cinematic desert expanses framed by the San Jacinto Mountains. Celebrities, prominent business leaders, and the famed could escape the spotlight and sip cocktails by the pool.

In 1927, actor Charlie Farrell co-starred with Janet Gaynor in a silent film called Seventh Heaven. Gaynor won Hollywood’s first Academy Award for that role. The Gaynor-Farrell on-screen romance was so contagious that they co-starred in 12 more films during the 1920s and 1930s. He would later open the Racquet Club in 1934 which was a favorite of Hollywood, the wealthy, the powerful, and the rich.

Many began to purchase second homes here, in this remote yet easily accessible desert community, where they could play, relax, and cavort in relative isolation away from the public eye. The initial influx of stars to Palm Springs started with a trickle. But by the mid-1950s, an increasing number of western movies were being filmed in the area and there were not enough hotels and homes to accommodate the stars and studio personnel.

By 1933, Palm Springs was so indelible to Hollywood that one of the film industry’s most-anticipated films, Camille starring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor, had its world premiere at the village’s Plaza Theater. Publicity spread throughout the country. Taylor was a frequent visitor and, like Cary Grant, often found time to go horseback riding with the city’s riding club, The Desert Riders. As for Garbo, she continued to visit throughout her life.

As time progressed, more and more Hollywood and music stars flocked to the desert to purchase their hideaway homes. Those stars included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Lucille Ball, Liberace, Zsa Zsa Gabor, George Hamilton, Bob Hope, Kirk Douglas, Cary Grant, and Jack Benny. Over time the Hollywood – Palm Springs connection grew.

06/21/2022

Known as the park namesake, the Joshua tree, Yucca brevifolia, is a member of the Agave family. Until recently, it was considered a giant member of the Lily family. However, modern DNA studies led to the division of that formerly huge family into 40 distinct plant families. Because of these studies, Joshua trees now have the more accurate Agave family designation.

Don’t confuse the Joshua tree with the Mojave yucca, Yucca schidigera. This close relative can be distinguished by its longer, wider leaves and fibrous threads curling along leaf margins. The Joshua tree provides a good indicator that you are in the Mojave Desert, but you may also find it growing next to a saguaro cactus in the Sonoran Desert in western Arizona or mixed with pines in the San Bernardino Mountains.

Years ago, the Joshua tree was recognized by native people for its useful properties: tough leaves were worked into baskets and sandals, and flower buds and raw or roasted seeds.

By the mid-19th century, Mormon immigrants had made their way across the Colorado River. Legend has it that these pioneers named the tree after the biblical figure, Joshua, seeing the limbs of the tree as outstretched in supplication, guiding the travelers westward. However, this tale is not substantiated in the historical record. Some evidence suggests that the biblical figure Joshua, and the Joshua trees, represented the Mormon conquest of the desert. Instead of the branches resembling outstretched arms in prayer, perhaps the tree's sharp, blade-like leaves brought to mind the arrayed forces of Joshua's army.

Concurrent with Mormon settlers, ranchers and miners arrived in the high desert with high hopes of raising cattle and digging for gold. These homesteaders used the Joshua tree’s limbs and trunks for fencing and corrals. Miners found a source of fuel for the steam engines used in processing ore.

©️Vegetation Specialist Jane Rodgers

06/21/2022

The Desert House - the timeless masterpiece Designed by Ken Kellogg & John Vugrin is available for rent from $16k a night

06/21/2022

Where Two Deserts Meet 🌵

Two distinct desert ecosystems, the Mojave and the Colorado, come together in Joshua Tree National Park. A fascinating variety of plants and animals make their homes in a land sculpted by strong winds and occasional torrents of rain. Dark night skies, a rich cultural history, and surreal geologic features add to the wonder of this vast wilderness in southern California. Come explore for yourself.

06/17/2022

Designed by owner and filmmaker Chris Hanley, with Gehry collaborator Tomas Osinski, in a roundabout way it exists thanks to Andy Warhol. Before he was producing films like Buffalo ’66, Spring Breakers, The Virgin Suicides and American Psycho (famous narcissist Patrick Bateman would have a field day with those reflective surfaces), Hanley and his wife Roberta were fixtures in the New York arts scene. Hanley’s Intergalactic Studios was frequented by artists including The Ramones and Afrika Bambaataa (“Planet Rock,” recorded at Intergalactic, pioneered digital sampling and paved the way for hip hop and electro rock).

Warhol would also visit their studios. “[He] always made comments about how ‘land is the best art,’ and ‘having land and not ruining it was the best art,’” says Hanley. Warhol’s words planted a seed. When Hanley and Roberta moved out west, they found a 90-acre reserve bordering federal land, replete with mountains, valleys, and foothills to explore. They purchased it as an art collaboration with Warhol superstar Jane Holzer, aka “Baby Jane Holzer.” “In late 2005, when I found the Joshua Tree land, I called Jane and said, ‘We have to get this,’” says Hanley. “It's the best art we ever bought.”

In 2010, the couple took over sole ownership and first added the OMD pre-fab that now serves as a guest room. “It's not a trailer but more of an office structure you find on the backlot of a film studio, but converted to a 720 square-foot home,” says Hanley.

The idea for the floating rectangle skyscraper came from Hanley’s childhood. He took frequent trips into Manhattan with his mother, who danced with Metropolitan Opera Corps de Ballet. “I had this idea of the monolithic skyscrapers on Avenue of Americas and Fifth Avenue,” he says. “When I drew the horizontal rectangle with skyscraper glass at Invisible House, it was influenced by the NYC reflective monoliths of my childhood.”

Invisible House was fully completed in 2020—with environmental sustainability incorporated into the design, and special care not to harm the bird and wildlife population with its reflective surfaces.

Text ©️Vanita Vanita Salisbury for Thrillist.

06/17/2022

Watching them come and go
The Templars and the Saracens
They're traveling the holy land
Opening telegrams
Torture comes and torture goes
Knights who'd give you anything
They bear the cross of Coeur de Leon
Salvation for the mirror blind
But if you pray all your sins are hooked upon the sky
Pray and the heathen lie will disappear
Prayers they hide the saddest view
(Believing the strangest things, loving the alien)
And your prayers they break the sky in two
(Believing the strangest things, loving the alien)
Thinking of a different time
Palestine a modern problem
Bounty and your wealth in land
Terror in a best-laid plan
Watching them come and go
Tomorrows and the yesterdays
Christians and the unbelievers
Hanging by the cross and nail
But if you pray all your sins are hooked upon the sky
Pray and the heathen lie will disappear
Prayers they hide the saddest view
(Believing the strangest things, loving the alien)
And your prayers they break the sky in two
(Believing the strangest things, loving the alien)
You pray til the break of dawn
(Believing the strangest things, loving the alien)
And you'll believe you're loving the alien
(Believing the strangest things, loving the alien)
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: David Bowie
Loving the Alien lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

06/17/2022

Midcentury minimalism - desert edition

Best Villas for rent

06/17/2022

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06/17/2022

Can Sastre Ibiza, is one of the purest examples of an Agroturismo boutique hotel you will find on the island. Breath-takingly designed and a thoughtfully crafted restored finca, which is set in an idyllic and lush garden close to Santa Gertrudis – a jewel in the crown of the island’s hospitality that is steeped in history – and a reflection of how a place to stay can make you feel like you are visiting paradise. Surrounded by beautiful orange trees and rustic olive trees, vibrant bougainvillea, tropical palms, and fertile farmland its setting could not be more perfect.

06/12/2022

Movie nights ✨✨

Sofie Goes Around

08/10/2022

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