At first it sounds like a tuning fork has been struck, the ring-like tone pulses throughout the vast outdoor space. When it really gets going it becomes more like ear-piercing feedback causing people to stop in their tracks, hold their ears and turn their heads around trying to locate its source.
The true source of the noise is the wind. It whips across the Nevada desert and enters the brand spanking new CityCenter project on the Las Vegas strip. Where the wind becomes the sound is the tricky part. Even among the employees of the complex's stunning 47-story Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas where I stayed there is debate. Some believe the sound emits from an overpass and underground tunnel that leads to the below-grade entrance of the Mandarin and to an underground parking garage. Others point to the awe-inspiring leaning towers of the Veer condominium project. My money’s on the space between the Veer towers (pictured) and where it connects to the futurist metal-cube and angular Crystals luxury shopping mall.
Whatever the source, it’s hard to not think that it is a serious design flaw for the $11 billion, 76-acre luxury, retail, entertainment and residential complex that boast no fewer than eight world-architects.
The complex itself is an architectural and engineering marvel that I will write more about. But for now I’m trying to find out the source of the design flaw. I accidentally recorded the sound on my iphone and as soon as I can figure out how to convert it to a file that could be placed on the Internet, I will. But for now imagine what it would be like to purchase a $1 million condo in this complex and having to listen to the sound of an amplification system going wild with no way of controlling it.
In the rarefied world of the bond traders on Wall Street they were the outsiders, oddballs even.
It included an incredibly smart and gifted man with one working eye and an undiagnosed case of Asperger syndrome who didn’t like to deal with people. In fact, you could say he didn’t like people at all. He gave up a career as a neurologist in order to spend untold hours each day sitting alone in an office staring cockeyed into a computer screen following the financial markets.
The group also included two men in their early thirties with no real ambition or direction who teamed up with a man who was a derivative trader but quit because he feared that the world was headed to a path of self destruction and he wanted to be prepared.
Then there was a former bond trader who had an amazing ability to outlandishly insult the “Masters of the Universe” at anytime or anyplace when he felt the person was either: wrong, a liar, or corrupt. He not only couldn’t help himself but he enjoyed it. He along with two other persons, with their own quirks who understood how “The Street” operated and wanted no part of it, joined forces.
None of these people knew one another or even knew of each others existence. But in addition to being outsiders, they had a few other things in common: They all started hedge funds. They all saw the insanity and breakdown of the home mortgage market and how the subsequent repackaging of these worthless pieces of paper into new investment "instruments" was taking down the financial markets around the world. And they bet against it and won.
Their stories are told by Michael Lewis in the book, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. With Friday’s announcement by the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission that it has filed a civil fraud suit against Goldman Sachs, I couldn’t think of a better time to recommend the book.
The book combined a character-driven narrative with analysis of how the bond market nearly took down the world’s economy. It’s funny and sad. But for me it mostly induced anger at how innocent Americans were conned into buying mortgages they could never pay off, how the Wall Street investment banks bundled these mortgages into bonds and repackaged them again into collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), and how the risk of these investment vehicles was hidden from those who bought them.
It would have been one hell of a tale, except that it’s all true.
I’ve exchanged a few emails with my friends in Poland during the past few days and they are experiencing a sadness that runs deep and familiar for a people who have experienced an insurmountable amount of suffering during the 20th Century. The past suffering was the result of occupation—first Germany and then Russia. Their country was destroyed during World War II following the German occupation, but it was the people, sleeping in tents, in many cases with nothing but hand tools and renderings of the original buildings, who rebuilt their cities to come as close as possible to the buildings that were destroyed—an attempt to keep their culture and heritage.
Then along came the Soviets with their own brutal form of Socialist oppression, shutting off Poland from the world and imposing their will on a people still struggling from the aftermath of World War II.
My relationship with Poland is that I was the first U.S. journalist to attend Amberif, the trade show for the Amber trade. I visited the fair twice. It is held in the port city of Gdańsk, one of the cities destroyed and rebuilt after World War II. It is also home of the Polish Solidarity movement, which eventually led to the overthrow of the Soviet occupation.
I was there to cover an event for a jewelry trade magazine. What I got was so much more. I was welcomed with open arms by the trade fair organizers and the artists and craftsmen who turn this unusual material into objects of beauty and works of art. I was exposed to the history and culture of this northern Polish city on the Baltic Sea. But mostly I learned about the struggles of the people, many of whom lived through much of the country’s sad history. I also saw a rebirth and optimism as the city and country has, again, opened itself to the world. One of worst acts of the Soviet regime was a massacre of nearly 22,000 of the Polish “intelligentsia,” including doctors, lawyers, scientists and military leaders. It was an attack that the Russians denied for years, blaming it on the Germans, but the Polish people and their leaders spent years trying to shed a light on this story. Commonly known as the Katyn Massacre, it wasn’t until the early 1990s that the Russians admitted their guilt, more than 50 years after the event took place.
It is with profound sorrow that Polish president Lech Kaczynski, his wife, Maria, and 88 others, again among Poland's best and brightest, were killed on a plane to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre, not far from the site. Many on board were leaders of the struggle to bring the truth of Katyn to the world. The first time the intelligentsia was killed through a savage act of war and occupation. This time, it was a bad decision. One friend wrote:
All the people who were killed the day before yesterday were politically involved in revealing the truth about the tragedy in Katyn that happened 70 years ago… On the plane, there were also the families of those who were killed in Katyn in 1940. There was also the over 90-year old Polish president Kaczorowski - who during the communist times was the emigrant president of Poland in London (because Poland had the second, unofficial government during Soviet Union, since we never agreed to be completely dependent on Russians). Imagine - so many years he survived, with Russians chasing after him, and now, when the work of his life was about to be successful, he was killed.
Another wrote: Some tell that we are sad nation. Katyn was one of the reasons and now it takes more victims. It is so sad and symbolic. Most people in the plane were fighting for years for memory of this massacre - and it became death fight. But the world knows now.
In less than an hour the Philadelphia Phillies will open the 2010 baseball season against the Washington Nationals in the nation’s capital. President Barack Obama will throw the first pitch for the sellout crowd on a beautiful spring day. Roy Halladay the newly acquired ace will get starting honors for the 2009 National League champs.
Roy Halladay
Opening Day means a lot of things. Most importantly it means the true beginning of spring, even though the weather doesn’t always comply. It’s also the beginning of another epic story that will last for 162 games during the season and, if lucky, playoffs and World Series games. It’s a story that will have twists and turns and sub plots, with almost all of it unfolding on the field on a daily basis. Baseball remains one of the things that unite us a nation. In honor of this day I present to you the world’s greatest baseball song every written, “A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request,” by the late, great Steve Goodman.
It was just before noon on a Wednesday and we had just purchased wild sockeye salmon and crabmeat from John Fish Market; broccoli, mushrooms, bananas and red peppers at Iovine Brothers Produce; and a free range chicken at Godshall's Poultry. Now we are having an early lunch at the counter of Sang Kee Peking Duck. I’m enjoying roasted pork and duck with Bok Choy over white rice while Maria is eating sesame chicken. We did all of this under one roof.
Sang Kee Peking Duck
If Philadelphia has a gastronomic heart and soul it would have to be the Reading Terminal Market. It is one of the oldest and largest public markets in the U.S., not to mention one of the finest. There are more than 80 merchants that sell everything having to do with food. They share the space with vendors who sell books, crafts, plants and flowers. The butchers are skilled, the produce is always colorfully arranged, the pastry and candy shops are visually stunning and the restaurants represent a variety that is rare.
The counter at DiNic's
Maria and I have been shopping in this vast market since the 1980s, before we knew each other, when there was talk of closing the 118-year-old market as part of the construction of a new convention center. Instead, the city’s leaders listened to its constituents and embarked on a plan not only to save the market but to renovate it. The results have been better than anyone could have imagined. The aging and neglected structure was replaced with new HVAC systems. The light colored interior is highlighted by the reds, greens and blue colors marking the food stands. Plenty of attractive light fixtures hang down from the market’s high ceilings. The floor plan provides plenty of access for shoppers and the layout makes it easy to find your way around. Outside of its busiest times, such as a major convention, the place is designed well enough to handle the crowds.
A woman enjoying an ice cream at Bassett's
As market veterans, we chose our time to shop carefully, before the noontime rush. We were able to see our regular vendors and chat with them while it was still calm. As we ate, the terminal began filling up with hungry people for lunch. Locals, conventioneers and tourists wait in line at the sandwich shops, such as DiNic's for its famous pork sandwich and Carmen's Famous Italian Hoagies and Cheesesteaks for its Italian Hoagie with Prosciutto. They all mingle comfortably at tables set up throughout the market. Locals with their shopping lists in tow walk with purpose while out-of-towners stroll at a leisurely pace and stop to examine nearly every stand. They all mix well with the hungry lunchtime crowd. The sound of friendly conversation fills the space.
The counter of the Dutch Eating Place
Below is the first part of a video I took while walking through the market:
A story I wrote on automated jewelry design appears in the March issue of JCK magazine, the leading trade magazine for the jewelry industry. In the article I interview university instructors and artists skilled in using and teaching Computer-Aided Design/Computer-Aided Manufacturing software for jewelry design.
These instructors give their opinions on how jewelers can become proficient in using CAD/CAM, how much they need to spend, and the differences in using automated systems for jewelry design as opposed to designing jewelry by hand.
The driver we hired for a day told me he has lived in Istanbul for five years. He was from Ankara, the capital city of Turkey about 280 miles away. He told me he truly enjoys living in Istanbul, with the exception of one thing: the traffic. I think this is a good a place as any to begin a story about this amazingly complex and contradictory city. It’s been said many times but it all bears repeating: Istanbul is the only city on earth that sits on two continents (Europe and Asia). Culturally, it is the crossroads of the Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Historically, it has been the capital city of the Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, the Latin Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. It is as beautiful as it is complex, with water playing a major role in its topography and its way of life—bordered by the Black Sea to the north and the Marmara Sea to the south. The Bosphorus strait splits the city in two, with the west being Europe and the east, Asia.
The Istanbul of today is a Muslim city in a Muslim country that embraces western culture and modern life. The city was chosen as joint European Capital of Culture for 2010. The historic areas of Istanbul were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985.
In short, this city of anywhere from 12.8 million to 15 million people (depending on who’s counting) is a wonderful place to visit. I was there to cover a jewelry trade show located on the outskirts of the city, an hour’s drive to Eminönü, the heart of the walled city of Constantine in the southwest area of the city. The trade fair organizers arranged a bus for a group of us—which included journalists from India, South Africa, Lebanon and Hong Kong; about 20 Greek buyers; and a smaller group of Armenian buyers—where we received a tour of the historic area with a tour guide. We visited the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Hippodrome of Constantinople, and the Grand Bazaar. The bus took us back to the hotel as the sun was setting and the walled city began a transformation. Cafés were lit and filled with people, couples strolled hand-and-hand along the ancient streets and on the Bosphorus the lights of the boats cast a warm glow as they drifted along the strait. All I wanted was to get off the bus and join the crowds.
The following day an Indian couple and I hired a driver and went to the Istiklal Caddesi shopping area and another mosque in the walled city. However, most of the day was spent in confusion and frustration as the driver who doesn’t like traffic also didn’t know where the monuments and sites we wanted to see were, and spoke almost no English. This was compounded by our lack of knowledge of what we wanted to see and our inability to speak Turkish. For example, the Indian couple were insistent on seeing the “Emperor’s Palace,” which turned out to be the Topkapi Palace. The driver and his boss insisted that it was closed on Sundays. They weren’t buying it. It turned out that it wasn’t closed. But when we finally arrived, it was after visiting hours. We spent most of the day in the car where I was mediating between the Indian couple, the driver and his boss on the phone. Occasionally, the driver would slow down, point and say, “This is very old. Want to shoot picture?”
The following is an overview of the major sites of this great city:
Hagia Sophia. If there is one building that encompasses all of the history and culture that makes Istanbul the place it is, it would have to be Hagia Sophia. The current structure is actually the third church built on the site, which was finished in the 6th Century. It is considered one of the finest examples of Byzantine architecture. For 1,000 years it was the largest cathedral ever built.
Blue Mosque. Its official name is the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, but its common originates from the 20,000 handmade blue ceramic tiles inside the building. Completed in 1616, there are more than 200 stained-glass windows that bring light and heighten the blueness of the tile.
A man sells grilled chestnuts and boiled corn at the Hippodrome of Constantinople.
Hippodrome of Constantinople. Today it is known as Sultanahmet Meydani (Sultan Ahmet Square). In the fourth Century it was the sporting and social center of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. It was a U-shaped track for horse and chariot races. Today it is a meeting place in front of the Blue Mosque and near other historical sites.
Grand Bazaar. It has to be the most famous place in Istanbul and maybe the most famous shopping center in the world. Certainly it is the most touristed. Opened in 1461, it has more than 1,200 to 4,000 stores (depending on who’s counting and how they count) attract hundreds of thousands of people who attempt to bargain with shopkeepers, who, let’s face it, are the pros.
Istiklal Caddesi. A modern pedestrian shopping district that attracts waves of locals and tourists. No bargaining here, although the prices are often better than at the Grand Bazaar. A video of the shopping district is below.
I am an award winning writer and editor with a focus on travel, luxury, architecture and design, and all things culinary. I also have a blog for the jewelry and luxury industries called the "Jewelry News Network": http://jewelrynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/
At first it sounds like a tuning fork has been struck, the ring-like tone pulses throughout the vast outdoor space. When it really gets going it becomes more like ear-piercing feedback causing people to stop in their tracks, hold their ears and turn their heads around trying to locate its source. 
