Rest Magazine

Seeing Things

The Artwork of
Sanja Sophie Bulatovic

Sanja Sophie Bulatovic lives in the heart of Europe, in Lugano, Switzerland’s third largest city in the canton of Ticino.  Ticino has a Byzantine history as well as a Roman one, so it represents a conflux of Adriatic, Alpine, and Mediterranean colure and customs, with most residents speaking Italian as their first language and worshiping the Roman Catholic way, despite belonging to a nation filled with ardent Protestants. FULL ARTICLE

Green Global Nomad

Luxury Hotels and the paradigm
of Eco-Tourism.

Hotels are rolling out the Green Carpet to attract eco-conscious guests. But this is more than changing the light bulbs. Green hotels are leading the way in conservation efforts while managing to keep their luxury status intact. It used to be the hotel itself was enough. Take a five-star reputation, throw in a uniquely scenic view or location, add some first-class service and you had the makings of a destination that would cater to all your needs and cares — a locus of civilization providing much needed serenity and isolation from the outside world. FULL ARTICLE

A San Francisco Treat

San Francisco is the most exotic and cosmopolitan city in the United States, a stew of ethnic, cultural and social enclaves, all mixed with colorful, often incongruous, historical landmarks and breathtaking views. Pulitzer-prize-winning columnist Herb Caen liked to call “Baghdad by the Bay” for its rich architectural history and legacy as a cultural center of the American Pacific coast. And virtually every street here has its own story. Even the street cars are exotic. FULL ARTICLE

Best Table in the House

What I like to do is take one fabulous meal and roll it around over in my mind for a while before I lay one word down in my journal. It takes time to enjoy what comes over the palate and turn it into a qualified opinion I can communicate to readers. I weigh the mix of experience, ambiance, the feel of the location and the service. Sometimes I’ll mull over a meal for weeks before I can comfortably say the establishment has all the unique qualities that make it a “Best Table” topic. Before you go off thinking I’m some kind of snoot… some of my “Best Table” candidates have no tables at all, like that terrific stand-up joint on Hollywood Boulevard that serves up the best burritos you can get in gringo-land. FULL ARTICLE

Aspen's Mysterious Mountain

These days acquiring the old-school, long-playing vinyl of Alan Hovhaness ’ sonic knockout “Mysterious Mountain” takes big-bucks – much like nabbing a Honus Wagner baseball card, a copy of Fantastic Four iss ue #55, or a golf jac ket be longing to part -time Aspen resident Jack Nicklaus. Dedicated audiophiles can now find the momentous symphony on CD, including the “Living Stereo” adaptation released by RCA with the venerable Fritz Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony. To hear this symphony is to understand, as Hovhaness himself noted, “the mysterious feeling that one has in the mountains — not for any special mountain, but for the whole idea of mountains, a universal mountain… any mountain that one loves.” FULL ARTICLE

Bottled Poetry

Renoir’s painting “Luncheon of the Boating Party” portrays the light-hearted mood of the French motto liberté, égalité, fraternité among young Parisians at the Maison Fournaise in 1881. With the Seine River as backdrop, friends gather around a table adorned with crystal, wine and a seasonal feast. The work, permanently displayed as part of the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., depicts celebres of the era, including impressionist painter Gustave Caillebotte, actress Jeanne Samary and milliner Aline Charigot, the most vividly portrayed of the group, the only one not flirting with someone and the woman who would later become Renoir’s wife. FULL ARTICLE