On your next visit to Chicago catch a Grant Park Symphony Concert, a Jazz concert or World Music concert at the Prizker Pavilion. All concerts are free!

Frank Gehry, winner of the National Medal of Art, applied his signature style to this revolutionary outdoor concert venue. The Pavilion stands 120-feet high, with a billowing headdress of brushed stainless steel ribbons that frame the stage opening and connect to an overhead trellis of crisscrossing steel pipes. The trellis supports the sound system, which spans the 4,000 fixed seats and the Great Lawn, which accommodates an additional 7,000 people. This state-of-the-art sound system, the first of its kind in the country, was designed to mimic the acoustics of an indoor concert hall by distributing enhanced sound equally over both the fixed seats and the lawn.

“How do you make everyone - not just the people in the seats, but the people sitting 400 feet away on the lawn - feel good about coming to this place to listen to music? And the answer is, you bring them into it. You make the proscenium larger; you build a trellis with a distributed sound system. You make people feel part of the experience.”-Frank Gehry

After the concert check out the interactive Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa; the the Lurie Garden designed by the team of Kathryn Gustafson, Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel; and Anish Kapoor’s hugely popular Cloud Gate sculpture on the AT&T Plaza.

I am amazed at the number of great restaurants in Chicago. One of my favorite summer spots was formerly Thyme Restaurant which later became Timo. It has in my opinion one of the best outdoor dining spots in the city. Now occupied by the newly opened Piccolo Sogno at 464 N. Halsted. Good service , an amazing patio, great prices, simple but excellent meats, fish, pastas and starters made for a wonderful experience.

Check out Cafe Bonsoiree at 2728 West Armitage for some amazing food. This neighborhood BYOB find had a $55 five course prix fixe dinner and a more exensive 7 core dinner as well. The food was outstanding and this night the food had an asian twist. The outdoor patio dining in the summer was perfect.

I just tried Perennial in Lincoln Park last night. The atmosphere was great and the food really excellent. Despite a tornado warning which forced us to head to safer ground away from the windows in he middle of dinner made it an evening I won’t soon forget.

On July 2nd I tried two NYC restaurants in Mid-town. For lunch I went to Remi at 145 West 53rd between 6th and 7th. The restaurant was bright and sleek and I enjoyed  the chicken dish I ordered. A great place before the theater. For dinner I went to Visaversa at 325 West 51st between 8th and 9th Avenue. The decor was outstanding and sleek and the pastas were wonderful. Mine with the duck ragout was really great. This is another great location for a pre-theater meal.

In this issue, an article by Scott Resch describes how more and more people are looking to accumulate experiences in their lives.

“And Robert Glaze, founder and president of the Weybridge Collection, is catering to it. Currently, he offers five properties for the art connoisseur, with ownership in the Santa Fe location allowing for the exchange of three in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and one at The Snowmass Club in Colorado. He also expects to secure residences in Umbria, Charleston, and Carmel, to name a few.

“My whole philosophy was like Under the Tuscan Sun, A Year in Provence, On Mexican Time, books like that,” he says. “You know, environments that are warm and inviting and decorated in a way that a masterpiece would be created–but is connected to what’s around it. We want to make sure the place looks like where it is, and we want to make sure those places aren’t in touristy or sterile areas.”

Those values are generating a lot of interest in The Weybridge Collection, which only officially launched the sale of fractional ownership in the 6,000 square foot Casa Las Artes a few months ago yet already has several parties considering the purchase.

But the last thing Glaze wants is for an owner’s experience to end inside the residence. That’s why the blog he started on Weybridge’s website is rife with information on regional restaurants and festivals, and it’s why he’s employed a concierge to set up special programs, such as tours of famous artists’ studios and trips to visit Georgia O’Keefe’s home and studio.

Indeed, interacting with the community and forming a cultural connection is even more important to his clients than walking into their Santa Fe bedroom and seeing a rare painting or artifact. At least that’s what Glaze anticipates hearing soon after the first key goes through the door.

“Experiential to the max” is how Glaze describes his product. “Members get individual homes with individual spaces and a chance to find balance in their lives. Because the truth is, businesses are working their employees harder and harder, and I think Americans, for the most part, are missing out. So collecting homes and collecting art– those are just nice ways to help people collect some experiences, too.”

I just returned from two amazing weeks in Aspen. I loved going to five performances of the Aspen Music Festival. Highights for me included Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, music my Leonard Bernstein, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major and Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra Chorus. I enjoyed seeing The Last Five Years a musical put on my Theatre Aspen. This year’s Anderson Ranch Art Auction was excellent. I enjoyed my 2 week ceramics class with Christa Assad and Scott Parady, two very talented artists. I loved Scott’s very organic teabowls and enjoyed trying to create similar work using things I found on my hikes for texture.

I was so fortunate to meet Julia Hansen founder and artistic director Theater Masters in Aspen. Using her connections as former President of the Drama League in New York, she has brought several theater programs to the Roaring Fork Valley including supporting new works and producing them in New York. I have joined the National Council and am really excited about getting involved.

I had some amazing meals while there. I loved Lu Lu Wilson’s and Elevation. I also tried Crave downvalley near El Jebel. The salmon was great. I highly recommend this new find. I went to Wild Fig for the third time. My whole fish entree ($31) was not great. I think there are many better choices for dining in Aspen. Pine Creek Cookhouse for lunch and their hiker’s buffet was great as usual. I would also recommend the food at Anderson Ranch. The cafe is open to the public and the food with many vegetarian dishes is really excellent.

The weather was magnificent. I can’t wait to go back in September to see the Aspen leaves.

Santa Fe Restaurants

I have been attempting to try new restaurants on every trip I make to Santa Fe. In June I thoroughly enjoyed 315 which is a great restaurant on Old Santa Fe Trail. The service was great and I loved the food and the small outdoor garden. I tried Aqua Santa which was recommended to me and was just written up in Travel and Leisure but I was very underwhelmed. The food was good but the service poor. We felt totally neglected and I could see that other diners were upset as well.

This trip I went to Geronimo’s for a wonderful meal. Nice wines, great service and an outstanding menu made for a great experience. The ambiance was also perfect. I loved the seared tuna entrée that I ate and the coconut sorbet was amazing. Last night I went to Trattoria Nostrani. It was a small intimate restaurant with a great chef Nelli Maltezos who was sous chef for Charlie Trotters in Chicago. The asparagus salad and halibut were great but I also liked tasting the seafood crepes and the scallops. I highly recommend this new find.

But my new favorite spot in Santa Fe is the Cloud Cliff Bakery and Café on 2nd Street. I met Willem Malten the owner at the Santa Fe Folk Art Market last year where I purchased a number of Peruvian textiles from the Amazon rain forest from him. I purchased more this year which was a highlight as Allie McGraw helped me with the sale. Willem is from the Netherlands and is helping raise funds for the Shipibo Konibo villages in this remote area of Peru. I loved the café with its art and textiles and like it so much that I ate there two days in a row. The blue corn blue berry pancakes were great and the salmon frittata omelet was really good. I highly recommend this spot for
breakfast and lunch.

My local favorite near Casa Las Artes is the Tesuque Village Market where you can get great food at breakfast, lunch and dinner. I love the salmon for dinner!

“I wanted to collect historic, artistic, and culturally relevant homes with the same discernment as I do when I collect fine art. That’s why I call our homes a collection, not a club. The homes themselves are large and comfortable works of art.” - by Robert H. Glaze

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Make a note that Santa Fe Folk Art Market will again happen this year from July 14-15, 2007. The two day market, held on Museum Hill, has a purpose of fostering economic and cultural sustainability for folk artists and folk art worldwide.

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I just left Canyon Ranch in Tucson after my annual weekly trip. This marks my 18th visit to this very special place. There is something very therapeutic about the desert! The Ranch offers a nurturing environment where one can go and totally de-stress, relax, exercise and get back on track. It is like taking your car in for its annual tune-up. We can all use it. I was scrubbed from top to bottom with great massages, some energy work and wonderful meals. The staff is so friendly and ready to help you with any situation. Try the new outdoor Café opened last year called the Double U which I felt had the best food of the two restaurants. I love eating outside as much as I can though the weather this time of year can be a little on the hot side. This year it was perfect. I had some great medical consultations also. They are cutting edge when it comes to prevention so I always look forward to hearing how I can improve my health. Their new affiliation with the Cleveland Clinic will be something to watch.

Former US Surgeon General Richard Carmona has left Washington and is now Vice Chairman of Canyon Ranch and is also heading the Canyon Ranch Institute where he will focus on an agenda of helping to work to bring better preventative health to underserved communities which is what he was trying to attempt to do in Washington, however without all of the politics. Watch for some wonderful new programs.

If you go to the Ranch try Thai massage, connective tissue rebalancing, the hot stone massage and healing touch. You will feel like a million dollars. Also enjoy the great gazpacho, tamales, salmon burgers, beef tenderloin, lamb chops, roasted corn salad and of course the vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce, raspberries and the chocolate chip cookies. No weight loss here this trip! I only miss having a little red wine. Make sure you try Canyon Ranch if you have never experienced it before. It has been life changing for me and has been there when I needed to make changes in my life!

Helium Report blends comprehensive directories, objective analysis, and consumer reviews. The Weybridge Collection was recently featured by Susan Kime, an experienced luxury lifestyle journalist of Helium Report. An avid world traveler, Ms. Kime has written over 100 stories for leading luxury publications. As a guest contributor to Helium Report, Susan will periodically share her insights into various resorts and fractional real estate options. In her words - “The interiors of these homes and their locales - in Tesuque, New Mexico, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico - all reflect the diverse cultures from which these residences grew. Robert H. Glaze wants to collect artistically and culturally relevant homes in the same way he collects his fine art, with a sense of legacy.”

Read the full story by Ms. Kime