Aleksandra’s Posterous

``I've learned over the years what it takes to run Casa Casuarina,'' says Loftin, 51, who bought the property in 2000 for $19 million. ``It takes a creative genius. I'm stepping aside. Barton is going to run the whole place. Nobody does it like Barton.''

Weiss will have a 10-year lease, with a 10-year renewable option. He'll rebrand it -- The Villa by Barton G. -- and begin booking events and suites immediately. ``It's a special building that needs to be managed correctly,'' says Weiss, 53. He says he'll open the restaurant by February. It will be his third -- he owns Barton G. on West Avenue in Miami Beach, and operates Prelude by Barton G. at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami.

Versace paid $2.9 million for the Amsterdam Palace apartment building in '92 and converted it into an opulent residence. He died on the front steps in July '97, gunned down by Andrew Cunanan.

Loftin, a telecom entrepreneur, purchased the palazzo three years later and lived there for four years. He then marketed the property as a private club and fancy hotel. ``An oasis for the privileged few,'' says casacasuarina.com, which has several photos of the mansion. Loftin even offered public tours -- for $65 per person, including a complimentary mimosa. And he opened his own restaurant, Loftin's.

Barton G.Weiss did work at Casa Casuarina before -- he had a catering contract for special events from '03 to '07.

``This is completely different,'' Weiss says. ``Now, I'm running the entire experience. It's me, bringing my whimsical theming to an iconic property -- the Barton G. touch.''

via Miami Herald

Plans call for waitresses dressed in the famously skimpy bunny uniforms to serve drinks in the Sagamore's cocktail lounge and on the beach behind the 93-room hotel.

But the administrator of the Sagamore's tardy $32 million mortgage hasn't endorsed the deal between the racy brand and a hotel best known for its prized collection of contemporary art, owner Marty Taplin said.

He sees the Playboy venture as the key to returning profits to the Sagamore, which missed its last three mortgage payments thanks to a brutal travel market and the loss of a high-profile restaurant operator two years ago.

``It's an icon,'' Taplin said of the Playboy bunny logo. ``I thought it was a great opportunity.''

Should Playboy check into the Sagamore, the venture would test both brands.

The Sagamore, 1671 Collins Ave., markets itself as ``The Art Hotel,'' its walls boasting contemporary works from Miami's art scene. The Sagamore's website calls the hotel an alternative ``for those seeking a more enlightened stay on South Beach.''

For its part, Playboy wants to move away from the nude centerfolds in its money-losing magazine and become a lifestyle brand, with plans for a string of casinos, clubs and restaurants at hotels around the world.

The Sagamore would be Playboy's only venue without gambling, competing in a place known for pricey hotel rooms and a chic party scene.

Playboy once operated a string of hotels and nightclubs around the world, including the Playboy Plaza hotel in Miami Beach where the Castle Beach condo complex now stands, and a lounge on Biscayne Boulevard near 79th Street. But the last Playboy club closed in the 1980s, leaving the company to rely on content for most of its revenue.

That changed in 2006, when it struck a licensing deal with the Palms Casino in Vegas, where bunnies now serve drinks and deal cards. 

The drop in the Sagamore restaurant income combined with a tough travel market pushed the Sagamore into monthly losses. The Sagamore's ownership group subsidized the losses until recently, saying in a statement it stopped making loan payments as a condition for reworking its securitized debt. Added Taplin: ``The knee-jerk reaction is to think of the old image.''

via Miami Herald

The art market roared back to life during its annual trip to Miami Beach, with galleries reporting double-digit sales growth at Art Basel's winter show.

Bouncing back from last year's weak showing, nearly 75 percent of galleries at Art Basel Miami Beach said sales revenue grew at least 15 percent over 2008, according to a Miami Herald survey. More than a third reported a sales hike of more than 30 percent at the country's largest contemporary art show.

``Everybody's happy this year,'' Rachel Adler, owner of Adler & Conkright Fine Art in New York, said Sunday from her space across from two German galleries in the Miami Beach Convention Center. ``The people who buy art are not unemployed. They seem to be a little bit more secure.''

via miamiherald.com

Richard Wilhelm's 1950 introduction to the Chinese oracle book The I Ching or Book of Changes:

...every event in the visible world is the effect of an "image," that is, of an idea in the unseen world. Accordingly, everything that happens on earth is only a reproduction, as it were, of an event in a world beyond our sense perception; as regards its occurrence in time, it is later than the suprasensible event. The holy men and sages, who are in contact with those higher spheres, have access to these ideas through direct intuition and are therefore able to intervene decisively in events in the world. Thus man is linked with heaven, the suprasensible world of ideas, and with earth, the material world of visible things, to form with these a trinity of primal powers.

The days of endless stone crabs and free-flowing champagne are over.

UBS, the beleaguered Swiss banking giant, remains the main sponsor of Art Basel Miami Beach this year -- but with a lower profile.

Hit by steep losses from the financial crisis and a tarnished image after its private bankers helped wealthy Americans dodge taxes by hiding money in secret offshore accounts, UBS is lowering the flash quotient at this year's Dec. 3-6 art extravaganza.

``Given both what's going on in the economic conditions worldwide and UBS' cost-cutting, we scaled back some of our hospitality events,'' said Karina Byrne, executive director of UBS corporate communications in New York.

ts. Instead of hosting showy events every night of the fair, the bank this year plans to entertain small groups of clients at private dinners at Miami-area restaurants.

``We have tried to be mindful of any and all cost efficiencies throughout our planning process, while still maintaining offerings that our clients have grown to expect and that are in line with the atmosphere of the fair,'' Byrne said. ``Art Basel Miami Beach and many of our other key sponsorships are multiyear agreements, and we remain committed to our existing sponsorship partners.''

via Miami Herald

Photography by Maurizio Cattelan

Nathalie Blanchard has been on leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, for the last year.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Saturday she was diagnosed with major depression and was receiving monthly sick-leave benefits from insurance giant Manulife.

But the payments dried up this fall and when she said her insurance agent described several pictures Blanchard posted on Facebook, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday.

Blanchard said Manulife told her it's evidence she is no longer depressed. She's fighting to get her benefits reinstated and says her lawyer is exploring what the next step should be. Blanchard told the CBC that on her doctor's advice, she tried to have fun, including nights out at her local bar with friends and short getaways to sun destinations, as a way to forget her problems."

via AP