On a wooden platform in the middle of the village, dozens of young women gather, dressed in intricately embroidered aprons and jackets—the traditional costume of the Dong, one of the many ethnic minority groups of southwestern China. Nearby, a large group of villagers huddles around a bonfire. Everyone in Dimen, this tiny town about 400 miles northwest of Hong Kong, is preparing to celebrate the inscription of the Grand Song of the Dong onto UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list. (Read More…)
Travel
Afar
Old Ways, New Path
Published in Afar, Saturday, January 1, 2011
The New York Times Style Magazine
Style Map: San Francisco: Riding A Wave
Published in The New York Times Style Magazine, Sunday, November 21, 2010
Outer Sunset, just south of Golden Gate Park, is a quiet, atmospheric neighborhood where thick fog frequently obscures the trim pastel houses, Asian groceries and surfers cycling down to Ocean Beach. Until recently, you’d never call it cool. But a hip and quirky micro-neighborhood has emerged, its epicenter at Judah Street and 45th Avenue, with a clutch of locally owned businesses bolstering a sense of community and drawing style seekers citywide. (Read More…)
The New York Times
36 Hours in Salt Lake City
Published in The New York Times, Thursday, June 3, 2010
There’s a new party in Salt Lake City. Utah liquor laws were normalized last year for the first time since 1935, allowing patrons simply to walk into a bar and order a drink, as if they were in any other city. Add to that a budding film scene (a spillover effect from the nearby Sundance Film Festival), a fresh crop of indie galleries (Read More…)
The New York Times Style Magazine
The Place: Napa Valley
Published in The New York Times Style Magazine, Sunday, May 23, 2010
It’s been a long time since California’s most glamorous wine region felt like farm country. Today, the area buzzes with Michelin-starred restaurants, new hotels and shops, and nearly 150 tasting rooms. Some may grouse about commercialization — to say nothing of weekend traffic — but this is still America’s best answer to Provence. (Read More…)
The New York Times
Check In, Check Out: Hotel Saint Cecilia in Austin, Texas
Published in The New York Times, Sunday, May 2, 2010
THE BASICS
Despite Austin’s self-professed wackiness, the city’s hotel scene is mostly a sea of cookie-cutter chain hotels. A rare exception is the funky Hotel San José, which opened about a decade ago in a restored motel.
(Read More…)
The New York Times Style Magazine
Malibu Wines
Published in The New York Times Style Magazine, Tuesday, April 27, 2010
“If anybody said this was Malibu, you’d say they were crazy,” says Richard Hirsh, the millionaire clothier-turned-vintner standing in the vineyards of his Cielo Farms estate.
Hidden in these canyons are not only A-list movie stars like Jennifer Aniston and Mel Gibson but also more than 40 vineyards. (Read More…)
The New York Times
36 Hours in Kyoto, Japan
Published in The New York Times, Friday, April 23, 2010
Kyoto, the former imperial capital of Japan, is a vibrant mash-up, an ancient city electrified by the breathtakingly new. Cruise the futuristic food halls of a department store, gaping at the perfect fruit and glistening sea creatures, before zipping up to the traditional floor, with its kimonos and tea (Read More…)
Elle Decor
Elle Decor Goes to Tokyo
Published in Elle Decor, Thursday, April 1, 2010
Japan’s capital is a compelling study in contrasts—sprawling yet full of intimate neighborhoods; ancient yet up-to-the-minute. Here’s how to navigate its riches.
Read excerpted article here
ReadyMade
El Cosmico: Trailer Made
Published in ReadyMade, Monday, March 1, 2010
Three days before its grand opening party, El Cosmico was humming. Under the big West Texas sky, a crew of artists, musicians, and designers poured concrete floors for the hotel’s outdoor showers, raked gravel along meandering pathways, and transformed salvaged regional materials—abandoned oil drums, ranch fencing wire—into lobby furniture and shade structures.
The brainchild of Austin-based hotelier Liz Lambert, El Cosmico is a new kind of lodging: part trailer park, part creative commune—“a Trans-Pecos kibbutz (Read More…)
Travel + Leisure
North Lake Tahoe’s New Look
Published in Travel + Leisure, Tuesday, December 1, 2009
A new Ritz-Carlton and a slew of shops and restaurants are bringing a dose of fresh glamour to this renowned playground.
Surrounded by 18 ski resorts—the densest concentration of slopes anywhere in America—Lake Tahoe is a winter-sports paradise. But despite its abundance of on-mountain thrills, the region has been lacking, somewhat, in off-slope amenities—unless you count the casinos and an all-night bar scene (not to mention attendant bachelor parties) on the lake’s south side. No longer. (Read More…)