Damn, that Sting has bite ...

Or at the very least his Upper West Side NYC apt does ... it's currently on the market at Halstead if you're so inclined to drop a few million ... if anything, it may get you an introduction to the famous artist - at the very least, a note closer to where he and Trudi practice endless hours of [yoga]?

Those windows make for quite some voyeuristic dwellers ...

Hot Stats:

Price: $19,000,000.00
Maint.: $9,437.00
Financing: 50%
Listing Type: Cooperative
Type: Duplex

Address:

88 CENTRAL PARK WEST 2/3S
Cross Streets: 68/69 Sts

The real birth of cool

Smalls Jazz Club

home to the world's deepest base - smoothest rye and pluckiest of strings.

James Dean's NYC Pad

Until 1953 James Dean was often difficult to locate: He rented a dozen hotel rooms in midtown, none of them for more than a few weeks at a time. His flighty behavior was an attempt at remaining elusive, as his private life was often unconventional and messy. At last however, he settled into a cheap fifth-floor walk-up at 19 West 68th Street, a tiny room with only enough space for a daybed, a built-in desk and a hot plate; there was no kitchen, and the common bath was down the hallway. Guests invariably found his room cluttered with empty bottles of liquor, left-over cartons of food, unsleaved records and dog-eared books.

When the Hollywood icon chose to leave his apartment for an afternoon, he was often seen drinking a beer at Louie's Tavern in Sheridan Square, over a cheap plate of spaghetti at Jerry's Bar and Restaurant on Fifty-fourth Street or lapping up chicken soup at Riker's on Fifty-seventh.

BARNEYS NYC WINDOWS

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[Barneys Window Mania]



[Warhol Inspired 2006 Windows]


[NY MAGAZINE: Fabiola Baracasa interviews Simon Doonan - Barneys Holiday Windows]


Simon Doonan's quarterly creations for the windows of Barneys in New York City are nothing short of spectacular. Whether they are inspired by the art, the artist or the magic of fashion, Doonan's flare for decorative chaos always seems whimsically purposeful.


[Menagerie of Warhol Inspired Windows]



Doonan, "the window man," regards pomp as a limiting quality and always veers towards the odd and the eccentric while piecing together each visual vignette. His most helpful character trait throughout all of this creative mania? In various interviews, Doonan laughs at the truth that his family has long been "inspired" by mental instability and illness. The genius behind the windows claims Doonan? Well, like the rest of us, it's all thanks to a colorful family.



[Warhol '80's]


[Liza '80's]


[Cabinet of Curiosities]


[Warhol '60's]

An Ode to our Economic Crises

While the rest of the country hurriedly consolidates (what's left of their) assets, sells homes, refinances mortgages and streamlines their daily spending, a very select few have the luxury of ignoring the economic crises (or perhaps benefiting from it). While I hadn't initially imagined straying from the blog's central theme (impressively famous, creative and inspiring homes and interiors), the current state of the nation begs for a bit of finger pointing. Please excuse this act of spontenaity.

Thanks to the golden parachutes available to the CFOs, CEOs and senior executives at failed investment institutions, making new investments on multi million dollar homes is hardly worth yawning about. The former head of Lehman's mortgage banking group, Kurt Locher, paid $5.25 million for a five-bedroom apartment at 500 West End Avenue. Meanwhile, his former apartment at 1165 Park is still on the market for $2.495 million. The property is apparently one of the grandest homes on the market on the Upper West Side, boasting a maid's room, living room, library, windowed, eat-in chef's kitchen, formal dining room and multi-million dollar address. Locher's mortgage? A paltry 3.224 million.

Mortgage crisis, what mortgage crisis?

Yawn, yawn, scoff, scoff.