Sé San Diego

1047 Fifth Avenue, San Diego 619-515-3000

 

Staying at San Diego’s uber-chic destination hotel, Sé is more like being ensconced in a luxurious art installation from which the world is suddenly magical, sensual and nurturing. The 184-room, 23-story haven now incarnated in the historical Jessop & Son’s Jewelry building, is remarkably inviting not just because of the genuine hospitality that goes beyond the clichés, but also because the hotel is designed for a tactile and highly visual experience.

 

The impression is immediate when you enter through a custom-made 9,000 pound bronze pivot door into a lobby covered with Shanghai pavers on the floor and a multi-tier silk draped chandelier that’s in imperceptible but constant motion overhead. Almost instantly, you are greeted with sparkling, cucumber-infused refreshments and encouraged to take a load off while, across the sprawling lobby, an associate checks you in from behind one of two custom-made Asian inspired bureaus upholstered in pelts of stingrays. Already your eyes feast upon artist, Ken Gangbar’s ceramic “Finn Wave” wall installation that employs hundreds of ceramic fins across an entire wall to create a fluid, wave-like motion against a floating staircase and simply begs to be touched. Don’t hold back. Se is worthy of being perceived as a museum but here you are expected to touch, to feel everything.

 

All guestrooms continue the emphasis on style, art and luxury, and are kissed with a color palate of chocolate and silver with hints of jade and blue. But we strongly recommend the 1,000-square feet Luxe Suites where thoughtful and elegant touches like the solitary orchid against a window overlooking the city, a table lamp that modulates light by activity and a handsomely equipped not-so-mini bar make the abode hard to leave. The suites are also replete with indispensable balconies featuring steel and glass Nana Walls that open an entire wall of the suite onto a panoramic view of the city and, in our case, the rooftop oasis, Sirén.

 

The pool deck and UberLounge pronounced “see-ren” is the ultimate beach bungalow featuring beautiful people, a 22-seat bar with teak slated bar stools from Peru, eight private cabanas, oversized beds and European chaise lounges. The zero-edge custom pool with underwater surround sound takes a backseat on weekend nights when a trendy crowd sips martinis and sake, shares from the tapas-style menu and celebrates old and new friendships as a DJ spins the grooves and Gregory Colbert’s intoxicating images from nature are projected on a wall.

 

-- Ghalib Dhalla

 

 

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AA Signs On

 

In case it’s not already enough that flying Business Class on American Airlines comes with amenities that can spoil you for all future travel, the popular airline that boasts an incredibly user-friendly website and coveted mileage program now unveils high-speed Gogo In-flight Internet.

 

Staying connected no longer means staying on the ground. The revolutionary Wi-Fi in-flight internet experience that’s being rolled out on more than 300 domestic aircraft, takes customer service to a new level, enabling clients to stay connected to work, home and entertainment in the sky. Once the aircraft has reached 10,000 feet, you can turn on your Wi-Fi enabled devices such as laptops, smart phones and handheld PDAs and access the Gogo browser where you can check emails and surf the web. That’s if you can manage to tear yourself away from the endless variety of film and TV programming on your dedicated entertainment device.

 

Gogo service ranges from $7.95 to $12.95 based on length of flight and device. www.gogoinflight.com

 

 

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SPOTLIGHT Lisa See

 

“I’m a research fanatic…I absolutely love it,” confesses best-selling author, Lisa See as we discuss her latest novel, Shanghai Girls which climbed up to the Number 1 spot on The Los Angeles Times bestseller list. To anyone that has experienced See’s work, this will come as no surprise since her novels are stunningly authoritative and inform even as they entertain.

 

The critically acclaimed yet refreshingly down-to-earth author was born in Paris and brought up in Los Angeles where she spent a lot of time with her father’s family in Chinatown. But to read Lisa See is like channeling an ancient, wise seer that has lived to tell of the struggles and passions of the Chinese people. It is no wonder The Organization of Chinese American Women named her the 2001 National Woman of the Year and she was the recipient of the Chinese American Museum’s History Makers Award in Fall 2003. See, stunning in person, is an old soul and knows her stuff.

 

But this doesn’t mean she doesn’t encounter the proverbial wall every once in a while or is beyond being surprised by her characters. “When I do get stuck, and I do a lot of times, I try not to panic and let it go and then let the subconscious work it out…In The Interior, I thought I knew who the killer was and what the conspiracy was and I was writing towards that. And then one day, I was writing and it turned out to be somebody else and I was completely surprised by the story. So I had to go back to page one and make sure it fits.”

 

Like her previous bestselling novels, including Peony in Love and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, her latest, Shanghai Girls, also takes us deep into the Chinese culture but this time, focusing on 1937’s Shanghai and the first Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles. It’s a spellbinding and at times, impressively dark novel about two sisters, Pearl and May, who escape to Los Angeles to find a new life and encounter the prejudices and seductions of a new land (and Hollywood) while trying to remain loyal to each other and their “paper” families.

 

Lisa’s own family member has become a loyal cast member in her novels. “There’s one character that has appeared in every single book I’ve written – My grandmother. In Gold Mountain, she’s my actual grandmother, in the mysteries, she’s the neighborhood committee director, in Snow flower and the Secret Fan, she’s was the matchmaker and in Peony in Love, she’s the grandmother. And in this new book, she’s the mother in law. It’s a way for me to spend time with her.”

 

A happening launch party for See at author Amy Tan’s pad in New York brought out the crème de la crème but unlike some dreary soirees where authors feel compelled to read endlessly from their books, See played the consummate hostess, meeting old and new friends – what she considers today as one of the main perks of her success.

 

-- Ghalib Dhalla.

 

 

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Purdah 2.0: Body Matters

 

 

The word “purdah” translates to “curtain” or “veil,” and it refers to the Hindu and Muslim traditions of segregating males from females, so as to avoid pre-marital sex. Purdah 2.0: Body Matters, the second trans-cultural exhibition on art, gender, and sexuality, presented by New York non-profit Engendered, symbolically lifted the “purdah” from the human form and exposed the body for each artist to use as his/her own muse.

 

The eclectic exhibition, comprised of sculptures, paintings, photographs, and objects by artists representing India, Pakistan, Iran, China, Morocco, and the United States, was held at Soho’s Halvai Gallery for three weeks from late June to early July and was curated in two parts by Amina Begum Ahmed and Priyanka Mathew. Prominent artists included Yasmina Alaoui and Marco Guerra, Fareeda Batool, Amita Bhatt, Khalil Chishtee, Pritika Chowdhry, Ayesha Durrani, Dong Ming Guang, Shailja Gupta, Sunil Gupta, Raghava KK, Abir Karmarkar, Srinivas Kuruganti, Marcus Leatherdale, Ariane Loper-Huici, Amir Parsa, Anwar Saeed, Salman Toor, and Noelle Williams.

 

A complete catalogue, with artist biographies and pictures of the artwork, is available online - http://www.engendered.org/purdah_catalogue_2009.pdf

 

- Jitin Hingorani

 

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First Fiction: Snowflake

by Robert Martinez

 

Their arguing interrupts my dream of pirates and pulls me back to the uncompromising vinyl back seat of our car. I’m cold and I need to pee. My two year-old baby brother is wrapped up in his blanket, asleep on the floor between the front and back seat. The aroma of baby powder is prominent.

“Stop, just stop. I’m done. I just can’t do it anymore,” my mother cries.

“If you try to leave me I’ll kill you. And the kids,” he responds.

I stop breathing. My heart races. My stomach hurts. I choke back the urge to throw up. My need to pee is now all but gone. I look at my brother, still asleep. He’s the lucky one.

“Oh, sure and what? Put another hole in the roof of the car?” she mocks.

“Do you want me to pull the car over right now?”

She laughs, “You can’t even hold a job or support your family.”

“Is that why you had to go out and fuck someone else?”

“At least he listens to me. And he has a job!”

“Go to hell!”

I scan the roof as she starts to cry. I hate it when she cries. Finally I find it. A hole about the size of a dime. It is near the rear window on the passenger side. I can feel the cold air pushing through it; resist the urge to reach up and plug my finger into it.

I cough, moan, stretch out, sit up. They look back and fall silent. Her eyes are puffy, her makeup streams down her cheeks. He clenches his jaw so hard I’m afraid his teeth might explode. Their faces are scary in the ghostly light.

Outside, nothing is familiar. The safety of daylight has surrendered to nightfall, an abyss whose appetite is so great that it devours all light. Beyond the beams of light there is no sanctuary, only the void, blackness. Peering out my window, I wonder, what kind of creature must lurk in this nocturnal world?

“Where are we?” I ask

“Somewhere in Arizona,” he answers, his eyes meeting mine in the rearview mirror.

“Are we almost to California yet?”

“Not even close.” He glances at her, then back at me.

“But, you said that when I woke up we’d be there.”

“I know, I didn’t account for the snow,” he says, not taking his eyes off the road.

“How much longer?” She mumbles something that I can’t make out. Her arms are folded and she’s looking out the passenger window.

“You’re always so sarcastic,” he turns back to her, bitter. “I’m sick of it...sick of you.” Silence. We drive on and on.

“Do you want a divorce? Is that what you really want?” he asks. Still no answer. Her head, with eyes closed, is resting, like a rag doll, against the window.

“Fine, then we can split up the kids. You take Parker and I take Max.” She looks at him and then returns her gaze to the darkness,

“You never loved Parker because you can’t deal with his asthma. You never wanted another kid after Max. Admit it.”

I look at the inhaler resting on the seat, then at my sleeping brother.

I wonder if he wants to push her out the door. Because I do. Why does she keep saying these things to him? Does she want him to kill us?

No words are spoken as I press my hand against my window. Cold. As frightened as I am of the darkness and all that it harbors, I would rather be out there with my brother, than in the car. Maybe the creature out there isn’t so bad after all and I can pee.

I reach into my right front pants pocket and touch the clear plastic sack that contains a handful dimes that my grandmother gave me before our trip. I repeat her phone number 1-505-753-5555, 1-505-753-5555 over and over. It occurs to me she hasn’t ever made this trip. If she had, she would realize there are no phone booths; none that I can see.

We drive deeper into the darkness.

Out of sheer exhaustion I lie down, my eyes drawn back to the hole. I must stay awake so nothing bad will happen. Without warning a snowflake manages to glide through the hole. It drifts back and forth, ultimately coming to rest in my hand, and then in an instant, it’s a droplet of water. I look at the hole, hold up my hand, waiting for more snowflakes to fall through. None do.

 

 

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CARTIER INTERNATIONAL POLO Celebrated 25 years at the Guards Polo Club at Windsor Great Park on Sunday 26th July. This event has established itself as one of the most glamorous and prestigious sporting days of the British social season and is now the largest spectator polo event in the world, with over 30 000 attendees.

 

 

 

 

MERCEDES BENZ FASHION WEEK (SWIM), MIAMI L*Space by Monica Wise, known for creating luxurious swimwear with sexy silhouettes and flattering fits, was this season's "Mercedes-Benz Presents" designer on July 17th at 10:00 PM, at The Raleigh Hotel. She was joined by a prestigious list of designers including Monique Lhuillier, Badgley Mischka, Yigal Azrouël, Red Carter and CHADO Ralph Rucci.