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A Bed-Stuy Apartment: Well-Known Terrain
THE RENTERS Ra'id Bey and Patrice Fenton and their daughter, Haile Masani, in their apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Except for her years in college and graduate school, Patrice Fenton always lived in Brooklyn.
After receiving undergraduate and graduate degrees in education, she taught at a middle school in Fort Greene. She was living nearby in a two-bedroom rental with her son, Jair, when she met Ra'id Bey four years ago. He was a barber who worked at the salon where she got her hair cut. Originally from Trinidad, he was renting a one-bedroom in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Soon after they met, Ms. Fenton, a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, decided to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Miami. So the three of them moved there, most recently occupying a two-bedroom in a large apartment house for $925 a month.
Last December, the family, which now included a daughter, Haile Masani, came home for the holidays. Ms. Fenton, her coursework done, accepted another job at the school where she had worked, Fort Greene Preparatory Academy. While they apartment-hunted, they stayed with Ms. Fenton's parents in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
Knowing they were priced out of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, they didn't even bother hunting there. Their neighborhood would be nearby — either Crown Heights or Bedford-Stuyvesant.
They aimed for a two-bedroom rental in a new building, or at least one with a renovated interior. Their price range was "as far below $2,000 as possible," said Ms. Fenton, who is now 35. She knew a three-bedroom would be out of reach. "Storage space was important, but is not something that you come across very often, so that was one of the things we were willing to let go of," she said.
CROWN HEIGHTS A broker's fee made a two-bedroom at Ebbets Field Apartments, on the site of the old baseball park, too expensive. CreditJonah Markowitz for The New York Times
She went on the hunt without an agent, while Mr. Bey, 40, wrapped up their affairs in Miami. "I was well familiar with Brooklyn and knew what I wanted and where I wanted to be," Ms. Fenton said. Besides, she felt that the usual broker's fee, 15 percent of a year's rent, hiked the price uncomfortably.
Ms. Fenton had grown up in the Ebbets Field Apartments, a large complex opened in 1962 in Crown Heights on the former field of the Brooklyn Dodgers. A renovated two-bedroom rented for $1,900 a month, including all utilities except for air-conditioning.
Growing up, she said, "we had a good experience in that building, but the apartments were, at that point, running down."
"The quality was kind of shifting and in order for me to go back there, changes would have had to be drastic," she added. "The grounds still weren't very well kept, but the apartment was renovated and that was the draw."
Still, "the agent fee was the barrier," she said. "You couldn't get into the building without the agent."
She preferred a smaller building, however, and checked out an intriguing open house in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The four-story building had been gut renovated, and the two-bedroom model apartment on view was brand-new inside. "It was perfect," Ms. Fenton said.
BED-STUY At a place on MacDougal Street, the rooms seemed small, and the bedrooms were on opposite sides of the apartment.
"When people saw the model apartment and finishes, they were thoroughly impressed and weren't seeing anything like it in the neighborhood," said the listing agent, Claire McFeely, a saleswoman at Compass real estate.
But Ms. Fenton learned there was a broker's fee and an income requirement of 40 times the monthly rent that the family didn't meet. She told herself, "This is out of my reach, so I might as well let it go."
Another renovated two-bedroom, in a small walk-up building on MacDougal Street in Bed-Stuy, was $1,950 a month. The place was across the street from her godmother's home. "She is like an aunt to me," she said. "It's just as good as having a blood relative across the street."
But the interior was "extraordinarily small," she said, and the bedrooms were on opposite ends of the apartment, which wasn't ideal.
Every place was "missing one too many things," Ms. Fenton said. "We would have had to settle on too many of our wants to take any of them. I became disgruntled with what I was seeing."
So she contacted Ms. McFeely to ask how rigid the income requirements were on the four-story building in Bed-Stuy and whether the management company would accept her mother as a guarantor.
BED-STUY A renovated two-bedroom had always been appealing, but when the broker's fee was dropped, it looked even better.
Ms. McFeely was surprised to hear from her. At the open house "she didn't say a peep," Ms. McFeely said. The company, New Holland Residences, would indeed accept the proposed guarantor — and, moreover, had decided to pay the broker's fee rather than having tenants pay.
"That changed everything," Ms. Fenton said. She gathered her paperwork. "I started scanning away and created a PDF package to send to Claire," she said. "It took quite a bit of corresponding. Claire and I corresponded 87 times."
The couple selected a place on a lower floor. With two free months on a 16-month lease, the $2,160 monthly rent worked out to be $1,890 a month. "With the little one, I didn't want to have to walk up so many steps," Ms. Fenton said.
The family arrived in early spring; Ms. Fenton and Mr. Bey were married shortly thereafter in Harlem.
The children's bedroom, currently occupied by 2-year-old Haile, is conveniently next to the master bedroom. Jair, 11, is away for the summer with his father in Atlanta.
"In Miami, there was more space, so I could carve out a home office," Ms. Fenton said. Now, she works on the couch. She is writing her dissertation, which is on black men in the field of special education.
"There isn't a lot of space for storage, so I still have a ton of stuff I have to get rid of," Ms. Fenton said. "My husband said if it's sitting there for months, I don't need it. I'm not against getting rid of it. It's just another thing to do."
A version of this article appears in print on July 24, 2016, on page RE12 of the New York edition with the headline: Exploring Well-Known Terrain.
Making Space for Manhattan Artists That They Otherwise Couldn't Afford
Ever since the Dutch arrived in Manhattan with their tools and trinkets, and the British followed not long after with redcoats and frigates, gentrification has been a fact of life in New York City. No doubt Walt Whitman took the ferry to Brooklyn for the cheaper rent, while Andy Warhol had to build four different Factory locations to keep up.It seems life has rarely been harder for working artists in Manhattan. While galleries selling multimillion-dollar artworks still line Chelsea and the Upper East Side, the artists making them have largely decamped for other boroughs and beyond.Yet just as certainly as New York's rents will rise, artists will find ways to work in the city that feeds their creativity. Fortunately for some of them, a few culturally inclined developers are discovering clever ways to make space for these painters, sculptors and others working in the visual arts.601 StudiosHow many empty basements, neglected boiler rooms and junk-filled storage spaces are scattered across New York? The principals of Sugar Hill Capital Partners began to ask themselves that when they first toured the warren of trash-strewn rooms beneath 3621 Broadway, a 47-unit prewar building they bought in spring 2013. Among the young developers, who share a penchant for art, an idea quickly formed."It was pretty easy for us to just throw it all out, paint everything white, maybe hang a little drywall so they could put up their work, and then we turned them loose," Jay Solomon, the firm's creative director, said on Wednesday at the building.For going on three years, seven artists have occupied studios just beyond an AstroTurf-lined courtyard on West 149th Street, called 601 Studios for the property's side-street address."I spent my whole career moving north," said Fred Brathwaite, the pioneering graffiti artist and filmmaker better known as Fab 5 Freddy. "In the '80s, it was the Lower East Side, then Midtown in the '90s. Now, I'm back home, in the kind of space I never thought I'd find."Mr. Brathwaite's studio, a capacious 1,000 square feet of white cement and pipes, lies beyond a series of twisting hallways and doors. Canvases scrawled with his distinctive tags against backgrounds of mini subway cars, boomboxes and tiny Campbell soup cans line the walls. There are also large black and bedazzled portraits from a series featuring Jack Johnson, the heroic turn-of-the-century boxer, and Bumpy Johnson, the notorious Harlem gangster.Adrian Kondratowicz, perhaps best known for creating polka-dot trash bags to beautify garbage day, occupies a space down the hall. He has had a studio in Harlem for the past decade, most recently at 142nd Street and Fifth Avenue. Last year, the landlord arrived and told all of the tenants they had to get out.He is, for the first time, feeling secure in his studio. "The community is just great, in terms of mutual studio visits or just being here while the work is happening," he said.An advantage to such a rough-hewed space is that the landlord does not especially care what the tenants do to the building. Gustavo Prado, a sculptor who employs convex mirrors, among other media, in his work, has bolted a number of pieces to the large beams and pipes that run through his studio."I didn't even make that hole," he told Mr. Solomon, grinning. "It was there already."Hercules Art Studio"I just can't believe my good fortune," Jenna Westra said standing inside her TriBeCa studio, barely a year after earning an M.F.A. in photography from Hunter College. Large portraits of friends, models and strangers striking angular, almost geometric poses hung on the walls.Jenna Westra moved into a studio in TriBeCa shortly after she received her M.F.A. "I just can't believe my good fortune," she said about her place.
These days, it really does take a good fortune to afford a loft in the neighborhood where artists thrived in the 1970s and '80s. For Ms. Westra and six other recent graduates, the monthly rent is a mere $1 per square foot through the Hercules Art Studio Program's two-year residency.Their patron is Andrea Woodner, a designer, artist and philanthropist. She owns 25 Park Place, where the studios are on the third floor. Her inspiration came last year at a symposium at which everyone was talking about complicated ways to keep artists in New York City."It's simple," Ms. Woodner recalled thinking. "Just charge less rent — and I was in a position to do that."When an electrical union's lease expired at 25 Park Place, Ms. Woodner teamed with Claire Weisz, an architect friend, to create Hercules there. Their research found there were less than 100 nonprofit studio spaces in the city.To select the first group of residents, students from Columbia, Hunter and New York University were asked to apply, and then Ms. Woodner and some colleagues visited their thesis shows. Ms. Westra and six others, including two painters who got the end studios for their natural light, were chosen and moved in in March."I was in a shared space in New Jersey paying twice as much for half the space before I came here," said Ilaria Ortensi, an Italian artist who creates architectural sculptures and paintings.Already the Herculeans' ambitions for their space have grown. They plan to host exhibitions for their contemporaries' work, as well as lectures, salons and the occasional dance party."We're so lucky to be here, so we want to share it," said Ofra Lapid, an artist from Tel Aviv and makes collages heavily inspired by its Bauhaus buildings.Ms. Woodner agrees they should not be the only ones. Her ultimate goal is to demonstrate that studios can be a viable business for landlords, especially if the city and the state are willing to offer incentives like tax breaks that might offset foregone rent."There was no Plan B for these kids," Ms. Woodner said. "They were going to be artists, and they were going to be in New York. And we have to help them with that."50 West StreetBeing in proximity to other artists is not the only appeal of working in New York."I love being influenced by working-class people," Bahar Behbahani said last week inside a studio downtown. "That was never a problem in Iran, but once I came to America, I never get to do that, except with the cabdrivers."Now she does it almost every day. Since September, Ms. Behbahani has been working out of the 15th floor of 40 Rector Street in Lower Manhattan — and a construction site a block south, 50 West Street.She shares the space with three other artists, and the sales gallery for 50 West, a curvaceous 64-story condominium tower nearing completion off the Battery. Francis Greenberger, the developer, is a noted collector."We wanted art that was of the building, not just decoration," said Jennie Lamensdorf, the in-house curator at Mr. Greenberger's firm, Time Equities.While each artist is obliged to create a series of works of the new building — the ultimate in lobby art — they also have round-the-clock access to the studios, where they can work on any projects they desire.Ms. Behbahani completed an entire series of new works while in residency, called Garden Coup, now on view at the Thomas Erben Gallery. So, too, did Hugo Bastidas and Paul Anthony Smith, who both focused on making portraits of the project's construction workers."I've never had so much space to work in before," Ms. Behbahani said, wearing a pair of paint-splattered Uggs.Noa Charuvi, an Israeli artist living in Brooklyn, was the first to take up residency there, sharing the space with the tower's general contractor. Her art typically addresses the conflict in her native country, including paintings of bombed-out homes."My work is around ruins and rubble," Ms. Charuvi said. "This is a completely different subject matter, but the materials are the same, working in a construction pit."Like Ms. Behbahani — who created large paintings that overlaid the penthouse floor plans with scenes of equally luxurious Persian gardens — Ms. Charuvi had hoped to work on other projects. But she quickly found herself so consumed with scenes of mud, muck and rebar that they became almost all she has painted since, even after her residency ended."I just couldn't stop," Ms. Charuvi said.Now she does not have to. With the tower nearly finished, Ms. Charuvi has been invited back.
Modern Living in Williamsburg
Sugar Hill Capital Partners announces that 385 Union, Williamsburg's newest luxury rental apartment building, has been fully repositioned in the marketplace and totally leased within 60 days. The six-story building experienced phenomenal activity as it was transformed to meet market demand for luxurious, modern living in one of Brooklyn's most dynamic neighborhoods.The 47-unit building has been reimagined inside and out by Sugar Hill Capital Partners subsidiary New Amsterdam Design Association (NADA) and Design High, with tailor-made features such as in-unit washer dryers, floor-to-ceiling windows, and private outdoor spaces. There is a communal workspace where residents can work and create in a studio-like environment.The building, 385 Union was originally conceived and built as a condominium and was later turned into a rental. When Sugar Hill acquired it from its lender in June 2015, the building had fallen into disrepair. The company immediately began repairs and improvements to the windows, flooring, and electric. Residents can also enjoy a host of refreshed amenity spaces including covered parking, bike storage, gym, communal workspace, lounge, landscaped roof. The building also offers a secure package room, cold storage, online resident portal, video intercom, virtual doorman, and free wifi in amenity spaces."385 Union has been transformed to reflect the surrounding vibrant community of Williamsburg. Renters recognize the value in these beautiful living spaces, with the plentiful amenities that you don't often find in non-doorman rental buildings – and that's contributing to the enormous success here," said Jeremy Salzberg, Partner at Sugar Hill Capital Partners.New interior features include white oak flooring, and in-unit Bosch washer/dryers. The gracious kitchens offer stainless steel Bosch and Frigidaire appliances as well as European contemporary cabinetry. Select units also offer private outdoor space.In keeping with the artistic and creative vibe of the neighborhood, Sugar Hill hired the innovative local artist Boy Kong to paint a mural on the exterior of the building. The work, called "A Ceremony," is loosely based on the lines of a map and reflects the artist's interest in abstract painting. Kong has also painted 10 pieces for the inside of the building.One of the more unique features is the energy-efficient communal roof deck, designed with an innovative "green roof" system by VegetalID. The green energy initiative is managed by Fort Tryon Energy Management, a Sugar Hill affiliate company, in an ongoing commitment to conservation.The building was represented by Katie Sobel, Vice President of New Development at MNS Realty, the exclusive listing and marketing agent for the project.Set in the heart of Williamsburg, 385 Union is located just one block from the Lorimer L Train and the Metropolitan G Train, offering a quick commute to Manhattan. Residents are just steps from exciting nightlife as well as shopping and dining hotspots including Sweatshop, The Blind Barber, Parlor Coffee, Caracas, and Okonomi.
The Upside of (Way) Uptown
Reasonable prices, river views and Dr. Ruth Westheimer—such are the charms of Washington Heights.
A longtime resident of the area, the famously diminutive sex therapist is something of a local celebrity, said DJK Residential broker Zachary Elias, who moved to the neighborhood with his wife and young daughter in April.
And while the good doctor isn't necessarily known for her real estate advice, current trends make her decades-ago decision to plant roots uptown look rather prescient.
As New York housing prices continue to soar, Manhattan's northernmost reaches have emerged as one of the island's last economical redoubts, drawing the space-hungry and budget-conscious. And one particularly well-trod migratory path is that recently taken by Mr. Elias and his family—the trek from the Upper West Side to, well, call it the Upper Upper West Side.
"I was born and raised on the Upper West Side," Mr. Elias told the Observer. "I lived on 86th Street and West End my entire life."
In fact, when he and his wife moved in together, they purchased a unit in the very building where he grew up. With the birth of their daughter, though, the couple needed to expand beyond the confines of their 700-square-foot one-bedroom, and so they sallied forth into the Hunger Games that is the Gotham real estate market.
"My wife sort of wanted the suburbs, but I couldn't commit to that," Mr. Elias said. "We looked at Brooklyn for a minute, too, but I couldn't do that, either."
Instead, the couple decided to stay close to home, buying a 1,400-square-foot two-bedroom in Hudson Heights, a small pocket of Washington Heights just above the George Washington Bridge. Since settling in this spring, Mr. Elias said he's come to realize they aren't alone.
"When my dad came up to look at the apartment he couldn't believe how many strollers and dogs there were," he recalled. "Every apartment in our building has kids. It used to be that everyone [in the neighborhood] was a Jewish grandmother. And as they are sort of naturally vacating these apartments, the young families are all moving in."
This influx of young families has led to booming demand for area two-bedrooms, Mr. Elias said, estimating that prices for such units have gone up around 20 percent since he closed on his apartment last November.
Even so, the Upper Upper West Side is still a bargain by Manhattan standards. According to numbers from appraiser Miller Samuel, in the second quarter of 2015 prices in Inwood, Washington Heights, and Hamilton and Morningside Heights were, respectively, $526, $611, and $655 per square foot. By way of comparison, the Upper West Side clocked in at $1,281 per square foot with Manhattan overall coming in at $1,340.
Lisbeth Cassaday and her husband recently moved from a 450-square-foot one-bedroom at 106th Street and Manhattan Avenue to a 1,050-square-foot one-bedroom with den at 139th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard.
The couple didn't immediately turn their eyes uptown upon finding themselves priced out of their old neighborhood, but, after a search that carried them all across the city ("I saw so many apartments it was ridiculous," Ms. Cassaday said), they ultimately settled a few subway stops north of their former abode.
"We'd always explored up here and we'd always really liked it," she said, citing the area's "neighborhoody" feel as key to its appeal.
"I love all the mom-and-pop shops," she said. "There isn't a Starbucks or a Duane Reade on every corner."
Then again, there's perhaps something to be said for—if not Starbucks and Duane Reade specifically—at least the notion of high retail density in general.
"It's still very spotty up there," said Bond New York agent Carole Cusani who this spring tried, unsuccessfully, to convince several clients interested in the Upper West Side to take a look farther uptown. "Some areas have more street life and amenities, but some still don't."
Another issue Ms. Cusani has run into when trying to interest buyers in the area? The hills! So many hills!
Most of Manhattan was smoothed over in the course of its development, but the topography at the top of the island has been left largely untouched. That makes for some of the city's most spectacular scenery—winding avenues and high schist cliffs and dramatic river views—but, Ms. Cusani noted, some steep climbs to the subway, as well.
"In some cases you're near the A [train] or the 1 or the 2, but in other cases it's a hike," she said. "Or you happen to be in an area where it's really hilly, and you have to take flights of steps to get from one station to another. In terms of the topography up there, it is hilly."
That's probably not going to change. On the question of the area's amenities, though, there are signs of improvement, suggested Marla Siegel, director of property administration and associate general counsel at New Holland Residences, which manages several buildings in the area including 561 West 144th and 1616 Amsterdam Avenue in Hamilton Heights.
"Just last week I was up on Broadway between 140th and 150th and I went past at least four or five new bars and restaurants that did not exist a year ago," she said.
And while Upper West Siders once had a monopoly on beloved grocery spots like Zabar's and Fairway, new entrants and expansions have somewhat diminished that neighborhood's bragging rights, said Corcoran broker Linda Feder.
"It used to be a food mecca over there," she said. "You'd move to the Upper West Side and people would say, 'My God, you're going to be near Fairway!' Well, now there's a Fairway at 125th, so the one on 74th—who cares?"
Whole Foods broke ground this spring on a store at 100 West 125th, which, though not exactly central to the area, adds another near-ish option for UUWS residents. And, if Mr. Elias and his wife have any say in the matter, Trader Joe's will eventually make its way up to Hudson Heights; the couple recently joined a Facebook group aimed at bringing a store to their neighborhood, he said.
And even if the shopping is a bit sparser, there's perhaps something to be said for putting a little distance between yourself and the city's sturm und drang.
Feder's client Edith Pattou began her Manhattan apartment search with her sights on the Upper West Side. An author of young adult fiction, Ms. Pattou and her husband, a professor at Ohio State University, were looking for a pied-à-terre to use during the portions of the year they spend in the city.
As part-time New Yorkers "we wanted to be in the heart of things, the hustle and bustle of the city," Ms. Pattou said. "I have three very close friends who live on the Upper West Side, and I got to know [the neighborhood] through them. I love all the shops and the restaurants."
After being outbid on an apartment near Lincoln Center, though, the couple decided to look farther uptown. While Ms. Pattou said she was initially resistant to the idea, she's since come to see the advantages of a more tranquil setting.
"The reason I wanted to be in New York was to be where all the action was, but as we looked farther north and saw you could get more for your money, we began to appreciate that feeling of being a little bit away from it all," she said. "You have access to the hustle and bustle of the city, but you can also get away from it at the end of the day."
It also doesn't hurt that the couple's daughter, a grad student at Fordham, lives in Inwood.
Of course, even in the relatively placid precincts of the Upper Upper West, Manhattan house hunting remains something of a bloodsport. Ms. Pattou and her husband made a bid for an apartment in Hamilton Heights at Riverside and 152nd but lost out to another buyer who'd beaten them to it.
"We were amazed," she said. "You really have to act fast. I do think the market in New York is always challenging, and I do think people are discovering these further north neighborhoods."
"If you have something that is nice and priced reasonably well—not even that well—it is going to go into a bidding war," said Jeffrey Hannon, an agent with Mirador Real Estate.
Mr. Hannon noted an influx of landlords and management companies investing in the area. "A lot of buildings are changing hands and [owners] are just putting a ton of money in these buildings to get higher prices," he said.
Recent examples include Tahl Propp Equities' condo conversion 710 Riverside Drive and Arlington Capital's Hamilton Park at 479 West 152nd Street.
"I tell my buyers to give me a budget of what they absolutely cannot go over, and then we'll start looking $40,000 below that and always bid at asking or over," Mr. Hannon said. "You are dealing these days with a lot of cash buyers who are coming in and offering $15,000, $20,000 above asking, so you have to really be prepared."
New Holland Residences Taps Technology To Stand Out In Crowded NYC Apartment Market
New Holland Residences (NHR), a property management company, today announced WegoWise, a building efficiency software provider, slashed NHR properties' energy costs by 15 percent and water consumption by up to 40 percent with actionable data and analytics. WegoWise is a critical component of a broader technology initiative to distinguish NHR as a leader in the crowded NYC apartment market."Integrating the latest technology at our properties has given us a real competitive edge in the New York apartment market," said Juan Herrera, Director of Field Operations at NHR. "Previously, we had to dedicate exorbitant staff time to manually enter utility data into spreadsheets. With WegoWise, we painlessly identified inefficient buildings and installed retrofits, decreasing our operating expenses and boosting tenant comfort.""We've implemented technology in many other management functions to take the New Holland brand to the next level. For example, we also have a software that automatically calls our staff when we receive emails regarding emergencies," add Herrera.Using WegoWise software, NHR automatically collected utility bills from its portfolio of 20 multifamily buildings across New York and identified the buildings that would benefit the most from energy and water upgrades. NHR then performed simple yet effective retrofits on the worst-performing buildings, ranging from installing energy management systems to reducing window gaps to upgrading water fixtures. Resultant savings delivered payback in less than a year. Moreover, the increase in operational efficiency enhanced NHR's cash flow and asset value."The multifamily market is growing quickly and property owners are adopting technology to break out of the pack," said Andrew Chen, CEO of WegoWise. "Our software is designed to deliver meaningful benefits for first-in-class property management companies. For New Holland Residences, WegoWise fit right into an ambitious plan to boost productivity and efficiency as a means to differentiate themselves in the New York apartment market."WegoWise also helped NHR report on carbon emissions reductions for the New York Carbon Challenge (NYCC). NYCC is collaboration between the City and the New York State Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) that aims at reducing building-based emissions in New York by 30 percent in the next 10 years. Seventeen of the largest residential property management firms in New York are participating in the challenge. WegoWise streamlined the integration of NHR's utility data with EPA Portfolio Manager to more easily verify that emissions reductions met NYCC goals.
Joe Cool: Competing Craft Coffee Shops are Pouring into the City
Boutique coffee shops are taking over the city, espresso by espresso, unseating Starbucks as the king of coffee corners. New Yorkers' desire for high-end, artisanal coffee continues unabated as shops like Stumptown and Blue Bottle open new spots in nooks and crannies and even atriums.
Curated coffee is also becoming a must have in new residential, retail and office projects, with developers wooing small batch coffee baristas rather than the de facto Dunkin Donuts.
Developer Jeremy Salzberg, a partner in Sugar Hill Capital Partners, was creating a new residential rental in Harlem at 3610 Broadway between West 148th and 149th Streets. The rental agents — Karen Cantor and Andrew Ding — suggested adding a coffee shop and The Chipped Cup was born.
"We helped a lot with the build out of The Chipped Cup," said Salzberg. "More than we would have than if it was a typical chain tenant."
Since The Chipped Cup opened in the building in July 2012, other outlets in other Sugar Hill's projects have been introduced. There's Double Dutch Espresso, which opened in Jan. 2014 in Sugar Hill's rental at 118th St. and Frederick Douglass Blvd. And a Filtered coffee house is being developed at Sugar Hills' apartment building at 1616 Amsterdam Ave.
Related Companies recently signed a lease with Think Coffee for a 1,000-square-foot spot at the Robert A.M. Stern-designed Abington House, a new luxury rental tower at 500 W. 30th St.
Ben Joseph, senior vice president of Related, says because the High Line building has drawn a "very sophisticated, cutting edge tenant population," they wanted to provide retail stores that complemented their lifestyles.
Think Coffee, with seven outlets in the city, was founded at 248 Mercer St. near NYU and takes a socially responsible stance, with compostable cups and coffee sourced from farms where they try to make an environmental and social impact.
"One thing everyone loves is coffee, and good coffee, but we wanted a custom coffee experience from a smaller operator," Joseph explained. "People appreciate a more bespoke experience of any sort, and most drink coffee every day, so this better coffee experience resonates with our clients."
At MiMa, a mammoth residential rental project on W. 42nd St. at 10th Ave., Related has installed two independent coffee spots: the Swedish-inspired espresso bar, Fika, at 566 10th Ave., and the West Village's beloved Kava Coffee to 470 W. 42nd St.
To attract tech tenants to the Midtown office building at 530 Fifth Ave., Jamestown added a tiny counter so a barista from Kaffe 1668 could sell coffee in its newly renovated lobby and lounge, thus offering a hipper amenity for the office tenants. Kaffe 1668, which sources its own coffee, has two other locations in Manhattan, both on Greenwich Street.
Coffee is becoming just as segmented as the beer market, said Louis Puopolo, co-head of operations for Douglas Elliman Commercial. "If they were left to sell just juice, they would probably be struggling, but they have all expanded their offerings and menu items. Like anything that emerges, some will fail."
"We had this cycle when Starbucks first came in," recalled Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of retail at Douglas Elliman. "But some fell flat on their faces."
Yet Starbucks is adapting to the numerous upstarts with new menu offerings, such as its Flat White, and it's also adapting its once-rigorous store model to the specific locale and foot traffic. A large outlet in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, attracts Mommy and Me meetings — plenty of room for strollers — and a similarly large one has just opened at 875 Third Ave. in Midtown.
"There is lots of seating and people like to be able to sit and talk," said Starbucks' broker, David Firestein, managing partner at SCG Retail.
Mark Tergesen, senior managing director of retail leasing at ABS Partners Real Estate, noted that Keurig once created a pop-up shop at their building at 915 Broadway. Now, Tergesen says, 20 percent of his renderings for vacant retail spaces depict a coffee shop.
"It's relatively endless since you will not walk more than a block for a cup of coffee, but if you prefer one brand, you might walk the extra block," Tergesen observed.
Firestein thinks bespoke coffee has become a trend but is unsure if all the new brands will make it in the Big Apple.
"Will they last? It will be difficult: New York rents are high and it's tough to survive," Firestein observed. "Some of them will but I don't think all of them."
When Australian native Nicholas Stone approached RKF's Jonathan Krieger about an authentic Melbourne coffee experience, Krieger was intrigued. "Coffee to them is a culture thing; it's more about the energy, atmosphere and the connection between the employees and the customer," he explained.
Krieger, a managing director of RKF, and now partner and chief development officer of Bluestone Lane, had the retail experience and previously worked with Soul Cycle, Flex Mussels and other retailers. He was in.
Their first location, dubbed Bluestone Lane Collective, at 55 Greenwich Ave. at Perry St., opened in 2013 and included outdoor tables and an indoor courtyard. It quickly became a neighborhood fixture and gathering place for the community, akin to an English pub.
Bluestone Lane now has five Manhattan locations — including one at the Grace Building near Bryant Park — and two more on the way. One will be at the Church of the Heavenly Rest at 1084 Fifth Ave. and E. 90th St., one block from the Guggenheim Museum.
The other will be in Brooklyn's Dumbo Heights, where Etsy and WeWork are the anchor tenants and were involved in the decision, along with developers Aby Rosen's RFR Holdings and Jared Kushner's Kushner Cos., to choose Bluestone Lane as the coffee provider.
Restoring a Park Slope Wreck
A building at the heart of Park Slope, Brooklyn, that had fallen into disrepair in recent years is being restored and converted into spacious condominium apartments.The building at 187 Seventh Avenue, at Second Street, which once housed a quirky watering hole called the Landmark Pub, will soon have four three-bedroom condos — one on each floor — along with an elevator, lobbies and retail space.While the five-story building, which had become dilapidated and lost most of its roof years ago, could have been razed by the developers, Sugar Hill Capital Partners, they chose to restore it, a project that cost about $6 million."We really appreciated the architecture of Park Slope and didn't want to knock down this building to build some glass tower or structure that stands out," said Jeremy Salzberg, a partner at Sugar Hill, an investment and asset management firm that owns and operates several other Park Slope buildings. "We wanted to restore it and bring back the original beauty of the building."The building's former owner, Dorothy Nash, operated the Landmark Pub until the late 1990s and moved out at some point, though she remained in the neighborhood. The building was threatened with foreclosure when Sugar Hill worked out a deal to buy it for $4.2 million in early 2013.Condos in the building, called 2ND7TH, will be completed in the fall and went on the market this month, with prices starting at $3.198 million. A penthouse with a private roof deck is priced at $3.5 million. New Amsterdam Design Associates, a subsidiary of Sugar Hill, is restoring the building, which was gutted down to the facade, Mr. Salzberg said. The restoration entails cleaning and replacing the light-colored brick and metal parapet, as well as rehabilitating distinctive architectural elements like a four-story turret, said Ignacio Alonso, the chief architect at New Amsterdam."All of the materials that we found in the building, we tried to reuse them for something else," Mr. Alonso said, such as a custom-made bench fashioned from reclaimed wood beams that will be in the main lobby. The lobby will also have polished concrete floors with inlaid coco mat and a striking pendant light.Mr. Alonso said a duplicate of the 1920s building sits at the other end of the block, with others in Harlem. "Back then, during a construction boom, architects didn't have the technology to do, say, 60 different projects, so they would develop one or two models a year and copy those," he said.One artistic liberty the architects are taking with the facade is to install floor-to-ceiling glass windows in the turret and bay windows. The turret will have louvers to keep interior temperatures comfortable."When they did the building in the early 1900s, they couldn't do big pieces of glass, because they didn't have the technology," Mr. Alonso said.The three-bedroom condos are being created with flexible layouts, meaning bedrooms can be added or removed easily, he said. Many of the rooms have 10-foot ceilings and European wide oak plank floors, and the living room has a gas fireplace flanked by travertine slabs.Custom-designed kitchens have marble surfaces, lacquer cabinetry from Spain and Miele and Sub-Zero appliances, along with hidden pantries. The master bathrooms include glass-enclosed showers and free-standing bathtubs.Amenities for all residents include a roof deck with Manhattan views, a summer kitchen and cabanas; a virtual doorman; and private and common storage in the basement.The building will have one commercial space on the ground floor, with no tenant as yet. When the building served as the home of the Landmark Pub in the 1980s and '90s, neighbors said the space was often cluttered with funky art, and broken doll heads were often strewn on the tables.But in more recent years, the structure, which sits across from an elementary school, had crumbled into a blighted public safety hazard, said Craig R. Hammerman, the district manager for Brooklyn Community Board 6."The building had been a large reflection of the character of the past owners, and there's an element of that that resonates with many of our long-term residents," he said. "So there's a touch of nostalgia, a touch of whimsy, and there's some architectural significance all whirled into one."
Highbrow in Harlem: Upscale Retail, Restaurants and Rents in the Neighborhood
This past October, Esquire magazine held a star-studded soiree for its selection for America's best new restaurant.
The crowd included heavyweights from the media, PR and culinary universes who traveled from the city's farthest corners. The room was crammed. Libations were free-flowing. Trays of hors d'oeuvres inched slowly through the crowd when they weren't devoured as they left the kitchen.
Esquire's party was held at The Cecil, a new eatery and jazz club, which it bestowed with the highest honor. The restaurant is situated in a budding neighborhood where glistening condos are being constructed steps away, and a Whole Foods is rising nearby. In Harlem.
Harlem, the historic, broad stretch of northern Manhattan once riddled with crime, has steadily welcomed a host of new retailers into the neighborhood, including coffee shops, art galleries, bistros and brasseries. Many of the newer establishments (Whole Foods, slated to move into a space at 100 West 125th Street near Lenox Avenue, among them) are catering to a well-heeled clientele with an expendable income reflecting the success of a number of private-public initiatives to revitalize the area. And more stores are looking to come.
"Trader Joe's is looking to rival Whole Foods [in Harlem]," said Faith Hope Consolo, the chairwoman of Douglas Elliman's retail leasing, marketing and sales division. "And Macy's and Lord & Taylor also are eyeing satellite locations to complement their world-famous flagships Downtown."
Jacob Morris, the director of the Harlem Historical Society, noted: "The retail scene in Harlem has really been transformed and will continue to become more closely aligned with mainstream retail in the United States. Landlords are looking for more triple-A retail tenants … if you're a landlord and you sign a triple-A tenant, you're going to get your rent."
As a result, old standbys have been grappling with astronomical rent increases. When Fanta Pathe Gamby, originally from Mali, first opened Fanta Hair Braiding on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard in 1995, the rent on her storefront was $700 a month. Now, it's $5,000.
Mr. Morris said the demarcation point in the transformation of Harlem retail was the precipitous drop in crime under the Giuliani administration. During his tenure, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani also began removing street vendors from 125th Street (a New York Times article from the period noted that there were more than 1,000 vendors over five blocks), which was certainly controversial but ultimately laid the foundation for the mainstreaming of retail in this long underserved neighborhood.
125th Street
In 2000, Harlem USA, a 285,000-square-foot, four-story retail and entertainment complex, opened on 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, paving the way for significant investment along the corridor.
"Harlem USA gave a big-box opportunity that allowed for some of the larger retailers … to come in where there was not a sufficient footprint prior to [that development]," said Lloyd Williams, a fifth-generation Harlem resident and the president and chief executive officer of The Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce. The organization's scope spans from 96th to 168th Streets, from the Hudson River to the Harlem River. "Prior to that," he said, "there was no modernized commercial space that had been upgraded in the previous 60 years."
There was an acute need for more retail in Harlem then, and there remains a great demand now. According to Mr. Williams, the last census showed that there were approximately 683,000 people living in Harlem (in what was almost surely a low-ball estimate), greater than the population of San Antonio, Texas. If Harlem was its own city, Mr. Williams said, it would be the nation's 26th largest. There are 17 institutions of higher learning located between 96th and 168th Streets, river to river. Of the 48 museums and historical sites in New York City, 14 of them are in this area.
Since Harlem USA opened its doors at the turn of the millennium, Harlem's main artery has begun to resemble an outdoor shopping mall, with national and multinational brands including the Gap, American Apparel, Old Navy and Starbucks dotting the landscape. The Burlington Coat Factory has plans to move into a 70,000-square-foot space on the strip. Today, rents are often well north of $150 per square foot. The National Urban League will relocate its headquarters to a complex on the street that will cost an estimated $225 million to build, a project that will also include New York State's first museum dedicated to the Civil Rights movement.
"I've often said that retailers travel in packs," Ms. Consolo said. "You just need one willing to pioneer a neighborhood or market, and then the others will follow. Demand already is high in Harlem, and Whole Foods will attract even more and better retailers."
Not surprisingly, this sea change has coincided with a drop in crime in the greater area. Off of 125th Street, the Tropical Grill at 2145 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. has been serving Dominican food for the past decade. Maritza Mendoza, who has worked at the eatery for the past 10 years, says the neighborhood "has changed a lot" and is "much better" than in years prior.
"There's more business. It's safe," Ms. Mendoza added. "It's busier. The violence is lower."
South Harlem
While 125th Street still serves as the symbolic heart of Harlem, South Harlem (124th to 110th Streets, from Morningside Avenue to Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd.) has undergone its own renaissance, evolving into a dining hub with an eclectic mix of restaurants. The blossoming of restaurants could be attributed to changing demographics and the wealth of local residents; according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income for one of South Harlem's zip codes, 10026, was $42,058 in current dollars from 2008 to 2012, up from $22,491 in 1999.
"We have more [and] better restaurants, which have attracted more and more affluent buyers," said Ms. Consolo. "That is drawing more services and eventually [will draw more] retail."
In its first few years, getting a table at Red Rooster Harlem at 310 Lenox Avenue, where President Barack Obama headlined a DNC fundraiser in 2011, was a contact sport. Lido, an Italian bistro on Frederick Douglass Boulevard, brought quality cavatappi and spinach tortellini to the neighborhood; down the block, Zoma set the bar for upscale Ethiopian food in a city where the cuisine has struggled to find its footing (when it comes to Ethiopian food, Washington, D.C. this is not). And The Cecil, located at West 118th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue in South Harlem, has received heaps of praise not just from Esquire but from food writers citywide.
All this and more, on a stretch that in memory had been blighted by abandoned and foreclosed properties and populated by prostitutes.
Ms. Consolo also debunked a common misconception about real estate: that food, rather than roofs, drives change.
"The general rule of thumb is that retail follows rooftops—but the truth is that retail follows food, which follows rooftops. Right now, we're seeing an influx of restaurants, cafes and more, followed by much-needed services," Ms. Consolo said.
According to Jeremy Salzberg, a partner at Sugar Hill Capital Partners, which has worked extensively in Northern Manhattan, a corner property on the rezoned Frederick Douglass Boulevard south of 125th Street would likely rent for $90 per square foot, while a mid-block space would likely rent for closer to $70 per square foot. The 2003 rezoning led to 800 new housing units in the area. It also propelled the Aloft Hotel to open at the end of 2010, Harlem's first new hotel in over 50 years.
Hamilton Heights
Further north and west in Hamilton Heights, which spans from 125th to 153rd Streets and eastward from the Hudson River to St. Nicholas Park, rent is roughly between $55 and $65 per square foot, according to Mr. Salzberg. With City College (at 160 Convent Avenue) and Columbia University in the greater vicinity and large housing stock, Hamilton Heights has the bones that are ripe for retail, Mr. Salzberg said.
This sub-Harlem district is now a patchwork of old neighborhood storefronts and pioneering establishments, including the coffee shop The Chipped Cup at 3610 Broadway, watering hole Harlem Public at 3612 Broadway and physical and spiritual haven Asali Yoga at 601 West 149th Street.
"This neighborhood, especially near Riverside Drive, was lacking a good quality vinyasa yoga studio," said Erica Robinson, director of Asali Yoga. "We hope we can fill that void."
Mr. Salzberg says these establishments take into account the neighborhood composition and keep prices reasonable.
"These places aren't necessarily that expensive," said Mr. Salzberg. "They're priced for the area. If you get a cappuccino or a cup of coffee, it's priced for the area."
And in keeping with Harlem's long history as a center for African-American artists, a surge of galleries have also recently joined the community—even if the artists and gallery owners are not exclusively African-American.
In September, Avi Gitler opened his permanent exhibition space, Gitler &_____, at 3629 Broadway between West 149th and West 150th Streets in what was formerly a beauty supply shop. Mr. Gitler resisted joining Bushwick's arts scene in favor of a storefront in Harlem.
"There was a lot of pressure on me, I felt, to open in Bushwick given what's happening [with the arts scene there] … and the artists I show," said Mr. Gitler, who when he spoke with Commercial Observer was planning a gallery opening for later that evening. "Definitely Bushwick felt like the logical move."
However, Mr. Gitler said that you "can't compare the architecture and I would say, the sense of community you have here in Harlem, to Bushwick." He described his gallery as "more Manhattan and less Brooklyn."
Gitler &_____ is not the only gallery in town. Mr. Gitler said he knows of two other spaces that have opened in the greater neighborhood in the past month, including the Butcher's Daughter at 318 West 142nd Street, which relocated from Detroit. He expects more to move in given the number of artists that call the community home.
Harlem's Future
For some, the changes that have transpired are too drastic, directly impacting longtime residents who helped cultivate the neighborhood's identity.
"[The rising cost of rent] is a problem that will transform Harlem and make it so that African-Americans, African immigrants and Latinos won't be able to afford having businesses on 125th Street," said Michael Henry Adams, a historian and author of Harlem: Lost and Found.
For Ms. Gamby of Fanta Hair Braiding whose rent went up to more than seven times what it was in 1995, business used to be consistent, "but now, [there is] a lot of competition—and it's not good."
Mr. Adams noted that on 125th Street, commercial rents are comparable to those on Broadway between 72nd and 96th Streets in a community where, according to the last census, the median household income was only $36,000.
"I love Bed Bath & Beyond," Mr. Adams said. "I love Whole Foods. No one doesn't want to have nice facilities and services in their community. But the reality is, finally Harlem is becoming the place that we've always dreamed it could be, but the nightmare is that we're being pushed out in order to make that happen."
Not every property in Harlem has become unattainable for more moderate retailers. On Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard in Central Harlem, retail rents are decidedly more reasonable, hovering between $35 and $40 dollars per square foot. Mr. Salzberg said that while the trend is that retailers and businesses are moving further north, "we see it happening faster closer to Broadway than we do in Central Harlem."
But Ms. Consolo thinks the time to invest in this historic neighborhood, with culture, green space, top academic institutions, theaters and accessible transportation, is now.
"Get in now, or literally pay the price later," she said. "Prices are rising and quickly. A deal not made today will cost more in just a few months."
Where Audubon Found Repose, Sprayed-On Specimens Alight
Among the beloved prints in John James Audubon's "The Birds of North America" is plate No. 411, a Tundra Swan, Cygnus columbianus.
The regal white bird paddles along on its huge, black, webbed feet, each tiny feather rippling with the water. Yellow lilies float before it, the swan's graceful neck looped like a needle, with what looks like a smile crossing its beak. Copies of the print hang in classrooms and living rooms across the world, a symbol of taste and an environmental conscience.
Another smiling swan has appeared in a very different setting, alighting not on paper but on a roll-down gate about six blocks from Mr. Audubon's final resting place in the Trinity Cemetery in Upper Manhattan. What a strange bird it is, all spray-painted poise and fluorescent pink skies. From its long beak juts a fearsome tooth.
The mural has about as much in common with an Audubon watercolor as Angry Birds does with duck hunting.
Even so, these works, separated by 176 years, share an important bond. The uptown swan is part of a new collaboration between the National Audubon Society, a local gallerist and his landlord to bring 314 murals of North American avifauna to the neighborhood where the nomadic naturalist lived out his final years.
In the next few months, provided there are enough roll-down gates, barren walls and willing property owners, this spray-painted menagerie will help the Audubon Society's campaign to raise awareness of birds that are threatened by climate change while turning the West 140s and 150s into a painted aviary.
"Whoever said Audubon was just watercolors?" Mark Jannot, the organization's vice president for content, said last week, standing at 149th Street and Broadway.
While the ambitions are global, the message is already echoing locally.
Stefen Reed, 35 and a lifelong resident of the neighborhood, recalled when most people associated the Audubon name only with a drug market at Audubon Terrace. "Now they know the truth," he said. "The art is fresh, and so's the message."
A few feet away, Taylor McKimens, a Brooklyn artist, was at work on "Rusty Blackbird," the fifth bird in the series, while Avi Gitler, the owner of Gitler & _____ gallery, watched. The mastermind of the project, Mr. Gitler not only looks like Mr. Audubon after a long expedition, all bearded and rangy, but also shares a past with him. A native of Washington Heights, Mr. Gitler spent much of the past decade traveling the world after graduating from college, seeking out artists for a growing collection. When he decided to return home and open a shop, he settled on Upper Manhattan, since the area was all but devoid of any serious galleries.
Mr. Gitler wanted to undertake a mural project to draw attention to the neighborhood, and his gallery, of course, and quickly won over Alex Friedman, his landlord, an art collector and, more central to the mission, the founder of a real estate firm called Sugar Hill Capital Partners. Mr. Friedman volunteered dozens of storefronts from his uptown apartment portfolio.
"It helps enliven the community," Mr. Friedman said, "especially at night and in the early morning, when the hustle and bustle of the city is gone."
Looking for a theme to unify the works, Mr. Gitler hit upon the idea of birds, a homage to Audubon, whose presence in the neighborhood these days is largely limited to street signs, though it was once much more.
Following the success of his book and hoping to revisit some of the wilderness of his travels, Mr. Audubon left behind downtown's fashionable precincts and settled in the largely empty expanses of Washington Heights. There, he built a two-story house, Minniesland, that stood near the banks of the Hudson River at 156th Street until 1931. One of the founders of the nation's first ornithology group, George Bird Grinnell, lived nearby and was tutored by Mr. Audubon's widow, Lucy. In honor of his heroes, he named the Audubon Society after them.
Mr. Gitler wanted to tap into this spirit, but it was an artist he recruited for the project, Tom Sanford, who gave it purpose. He introduced Mr. Gitler to one of his neighbors, Mark Jannot of the Audubon Society. Mr. Jannot suggested they focus on the 314 North American birds whose habitats or migratory patterns are directly threatened by climate change, as shown in a September Audubon report.
"Now, we didn't just have an art project, we had a mission," Mr. Gitler said.
Audubon's website will feature a picture of each installation with text about each bird and the artist, as well as a place for artists and landlords hoping to get involved to sign up. There is also talk of an app, with an audio tour for those visiting the murals in person.
The first five paintings have been applied to Sugar Hill's building at 3621 Broadway, though Mr. Friedman has offered other buildings, and is approaching other landlords.
Some artists have received small honorariums while others have volunteered their time. There may be more money in the future.
For now, neighborhood residents can enjoy the bald eagle with a kaleidoscopic background by the Australian artist Peter Daverington; the neon tundra swan by a 20-year-old street art prodigy from Orlando, Boy Kong; and the rusty blackbird by Mr. McKimens. All of the works were painted on roll-down gates.
Two other contributions, a mallard by Graham Preston and a cerulean warbler, which is depicted sitting on Mr. Audubon's shoulder, by Mr. Sanford, grace a pair of windows near the entrance to 3621 Broadway.
"They're so beautiful, and you know how you can tell?" asked Sharon McKoy, who has spent all 52 years of her life in the building. "Because no one's graffitied over them."
The NYC Carbon Challenge for Multifamily Buildings
Current Participants
NEW YORK LE RÉVEIL: Harlem Ghetto De BoBos
The advantages of affordable rents and a hipster lifestyle are drawing New York City denizens to Harlem and Brooklyn's doors. According to prestigious French magazine L'Express, who recently interviewed our very own Alex Friedman, these iconic areas are offering a modern habitat for city dwellers to thrive. Francophones can hop over to L'Express for the full article; we have also included a translated excerpt below:"It's very simple," says Alex Friedman, founder and director of the investment company Sugar Hill Capital. "Currently, the real estate market on the Upper West Side below West 96th Street where Harlem begins is becoming less and less affordable for young people. Add to this the fact that Harlem is an area well served by public transport and it is very alive; there are restaurants, art galleries and even bike stores! We essentially rent to students, artists and young graduates; 60% to 70% remain in place once their careers begin. In their eyes, Harlem combines the advantages of competitive prices and a vibrant nightlife. They can enjoy jazz at the Shrine or Lenox Lounge, performances at the legendary Apollo Theater, dinner or a bite at Chez Lucienne or at small 'greasy spoons' that serve soul food; night owls are spoiled by variety. Especially since almost each month, new and trendy spots are opening. . . . So, little by little, people migrate north."


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There is still time to catch some yoga and some sun!
Whilst the days may be getting a bit shorter there are plenty of places a short flight or train journey away that will let you keep some of that energy as we move towards Autumn.
Check out this round up of European beauties!
10 - 17th September 2016 - Ashtanga Yoga Week with Claire Hatchell and Dave Glover
Come and join us for a week of yoga, exploring the traditions and lineage of Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga, with plenty of free time to relax and unwind in peaceful surroundings and recharge with delicious food (& wine!) with like minded folk.
1 - 8th October - Luxury Yoga Holiday in Chania with Yoga Escapes
e've planned a wonderful luxury yoga retreat in Crete Greece at a 5* hotel on the beach, with daily yoga by the sea, delicious meals, seaview rooms, spa treatments, boat trips, and a very relaxed atmosphere. We'll go into gorgeous Chania town most evenings for some wonderful meals, you can eat and drink what you like, we don't get up terribly early for yoga, and everything is optional – a true holiday in a relaxing place with amazing yoga
22nd - 26th September - Yoga and Surfing in Sicily with North London Yoga
If you love Yoga and you love the beach, then this is the retreat for you! It will take place in the chilled out setting of Floripa Surfhouse, which is right by the gorgeous beach of Santa Maria del Focallo, one of the most impressive beaches in the whole of Sicily. Sicilians are famed for their love of the good life and their super relaxed approach to life – you won't catch anyone rushing here! This makes it the ideal location to just kick back and take some time out.

subset: commoncrawl


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Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities
Like all schools we are required to publish details of how we support pupils with special educational needs and/or a disability to compliment the Wiltshire LA Local Offer. Below are details of our school SEND information and the Local SEND Offer for Wiltshire.
Wiltshire Local Offer
To find more information about Wiltshire Local Offer please click here.
Lyneham Primary School
For Lyneham Primary School's SEND information report click here.
SEND Parent Pocket Guide
To view our SEND Parent Pocket Guide please click here.
Emotional Literacy Parent Pocket Guide
To view our Emotional Literacy Parent Pocket Guide please click here.


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As any fan knows, there is very little press on Adam Storke. Even in the articles churned out by hyperactive sci-fi mags during Prey's heydey, he was never paid much singular attention. So, with the generous help of some members of the OoS Mailing List, we've been able to compile some fan-submitted reviews, plus a few articles you've never seen! Enjoy!
Sally is kind enough to provide us with some Grade-A commentary on Prey, which has branched out to include some of Adam's other work! You'll love this lady's way of tellin' it like it is...
Prey 1--Existence
Prey 2--Discovery
Prey 3--Pursuit
Prey 4--Origins
Prey 5--Revelations
Prey 6--Infiltration
Prey 7--Transformations
Prey 8--Veil
Prey 9--Collaboration
A Gathering of Old Men
Escape From Terror
....and I'm still working on compiling more articles. If you have any reviews of Adam's work, personal or in the media, feel free to Send them along!


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Calpendo Activity Recorders (CAR) are a solution that tracks the actual usage of any instrument that is connected to a PC.
The Calpendo Activity Recorders (CAR) are a Windows native program that runs on Windows XP through to Windows 10. It keeps track of users and the programs they are running (if desired) and sends the information to Calpendo so that Calpendo can know who is using the instrument and for how long. Additionally, Calpendo can use the CAR data to compare the actual usage against the booked usage and report on the difference.
The Benefits of the Calpendo Activity Recorders:
Monitor exactly who is using your instruments and machines, when they are using them and for how long.
Create a comparison report to highlight the differences between booked usage and actual usage.
Set up alerts to remind users if they are using more than their allotted time.
Billing can be set to calculate from the actual time used, the booked time or a combination of the two.
Configuration ensures that all instruments and machines can only be accessed by authorised users.
CAR can be utilised either as part of a full Calpendo, or as a stand alone system.
Now let's get a little more technical:
Regardless of the means of identifying the user for a particular PC or instrument (either Windows login or LDAP/Active Directory), once CAR knows who the user is, that information is then sent to Calpendo to be authorised to use the PC or instrument. If authorisation is denied, then the user will be told.
Further, if CAR is configured to watch particular processes on the PC, then when the user is unauthorised, should any of those configured processes be found to be running, CAR will kill or close them, or warn the user about their use.
Calpendo will also be notified with regular pings about which of the configured processes are running and there's a final notification sent to Calpendo when a user logs out.
Calpendo can work out who was using an instrument connected to a PC, and for how long. If the regular pings stop coming, then it means Calpendo can notice the lack of messages and send a warning that the PC is potentially down. If the PC does die for some reason, then Calpendo will still have all the data from those regular pings so that it knows who was using the instrument and for how long, up to the time when the PC died.


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On Neil Cavuto's Your World , Andrea Lafferty cited misleading information on condoms derived from Bush administration propaganda site
Echoing a popular theme of supporters of abstinence-only sex education, Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the far-right Christian pressure group Traditional Values Coalition (TVC), falsely claimed that condom failure rates are "at best" 15 percent.
Discussing youth condom use on the June 1 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, Lafferty stated: "We know these kids cannot pick up their towels. How are they going to know how to put on a condom correctly, when adults have at best a 15 percent failure rate?" Cavuto did not correct Lafferty or ask her to qualify her statement.
Lafferty's misleading figure apparently comes from the website of 4parents.gov, a "new national public education campaign" sponsored by the Bush administration's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). TVC has promoted the creation of 4parents.gov on its own website, characterizing the information it provides as "Abstinence Aids for Parents."
The 4parents.gov website cited a study in Contraceptive Technology: Eighteenth Revised Edition, but the site misrepresented the report. The study determined that among "typical" users of condoms -- including those who used them improperly or failed to use them consistently -- 15 percent of women experienced an unintended pregnancy during the first year of use. Among those who used condoms "consistently and correctly," the failure rate was 2 percent. By comparison, the study found that 85 percent of women relying on no method of contraception experienced pregnancy within one year.
Moreover, a July 20, 2001, National Institutes of Health (NIH) report determined that condom slippage or breakage, the two main sources of failure in condom use, occurred in only 1.6 percent to 3.6 percent of users, depending on user proficiency. The report concluded that condoms are an effective barrier against HIV, unintended pregnancies and gonorrhea in men.
On March 31, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) sent a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt protesting numerous biased statements, medically incorrect terms and questionable statistics contained on the 4parents.gov website. SIECUS noted that only one non-governmental group collaborated with the HHS on the creation of 4parents.gov, the National Physicians Center for Family Resources (NPC). According to SIECUS, NPC is closely linked to many right-wing Christian groups, such as James Dobson's Focus on the Family, the Alabama Family Alliance and conservative radio host Dr. Laura Schlessinger. NPC is also an ardent supporter of abstinence-only education in public schools. "By creating the website with only one organization," SIECUS stated in its letter, "and one that has questionable credentials in this area -- HHS has dangerously narrowed the information included on 4parents.gov and in turn, shortchanged the very parents the site is meant to serve."


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Do you often feel overrun by your feelings? Do you wish you could free yourself from the shackles of toxic emotional patterns? In this powerful lecture with Lauren Mackler, world-renowned coach, CNN commentator, and best-selling author of Solemate: Master the Art of Aloneness & Transform Your Life, you'll learn about the origins of chronic, toxic emotions, as well as practical tools to stop their diminishing effect on your day-to-day life. Whether your emotional "addiction" is to anger, depression, fear, resentment, anxiety, unworthiness, frustration, insecurity, jealousy, or some other emotional pattern, you'll leave this interactive lecture with greater understanding of your own emotional patterns, and how to transform toxic emotional habits to ones that create a more joyful inner and outer environment. In Cambridge, MA
Back to All Events
Earlier Event: June 10Interpersonal and Emotional Intelligence
Later Event: August 12Living Fearlessly


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Immortal's beginnings can be traced to the death metal band Old Funeral, formed in 1988, in which both Abbath and Demonaz were members. The band's frontman Abbath also formed the band Amputation in 1989, releasing two demos before deciding to form Immortal. [1] This new band consisted of band members from both Amputation and Old Funeral. Though remaining members of Old Funeral attempted to keep the band alive, they dissolved prior Immortal's first demo releases.
Immortal's early full-length releases were of a traditional black metal style, but their acclaimed album At the Heart of Winter saw the band begin to experiment with a complex fusion of black metal and German thrash metal. The resulting sound was a style which characterized Immortal's later works. Immortal has been influential to many modern metal artists. The band has arguably maintained the most occult-mysticism image and way of life traditionally credited to black metal. Conversely, unlike many black metal bands, Immortal does not espouse Satanism.
.: Norvège / Actif / Formé en 1990 / Black Metal :.
.: Membres :.
Abbath ( Olve Eikemo ) : Chant, Guitare
Apollyon ( Ole Jørgen Moe ) : Basse
Horgh ( Reidar Horghagen ) : Batterie


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19 Nov / Dairy-Free Pumpkin Pie & More!
We have great news! This blog has been re-created as The Metaphysical Menu. You can catch all of the amazing recipes here. We can't wait to see you there! Xo
Happy early Thanksgiving!
Hope you're all prepared (as I am not) for the upcoming holidays. We're spending this year with the boyfriend's fam, which means, I'll be bringing along my own food. One of my specialties is my wheat-free, dairy-free and low sugar pumpkin pie. I found the recipe in Natural Health magazine a million years ago and have revised it to meet my needs. Hope you'll enjoy!
Also – the Boston Globe did a big story on the increase in food allergies and the need to create products to fill this ever growing niche – duh! Check out the story here. LOVE that the mainstream media is catching on.
Have a wheat-free, dairy-free, low sugar T-giving recipe? Please share!
Pumpkin Pie – WF, DF, LS Style
1 15 oz. can organic pumpkin
1 container of silken tofu
1 c maple syrup
1 free range egg
1 T cinnamon
1 t numeg
1/2 t salt
Who has time to make a pie crust? Not me! So, I typically visit New Seasons and grab a spelt pie crust, but for those of you that want to make one on your own (and without spelt), try this recipe from Pamela's Products:
1.5 c Pamela's baking & pancake mix (the BEST mix – I use it in everything from cookies to muffins and pancakes)
2 t sugar substitute (dry would work best)
4 T non-dairy butter
1/3 c ice water
Combine baking mix and sugar into a bowl, cut butter through flour mix. Add ice water and mix dough until it balls together. Roll out on wax paper and should be thin, about 1/8 of an inch. Place in pie dish and bake with pie.
(For pumpkin pie, you'll have leftover dough.)
Bake on 350 until center of pumpkin pie is set – roughly 35 minutes.
***Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Cooking Class 11/20****
Date: Tuesday, November 20th
Time: 6-7pm
Cost: $20
Where: Escape Body Therapy, 120 NE 117th Avenue, Vancouver
Questions? Contact Andrea: email@example.com
Post a comment if you attend and let me know how it is. I hope to make it to one of their GF classes in the near future. Stay tuned for more information on future classes.


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What's up, I'm Cameron McMurtrey! I'm 18 years old, a high school senior, and a photographer in Springfield, MO.
My Mission:
To create, collaberate, and inspire through my work.
My Work:
You can find my work on my website cameronmcmurtrey.com I have done several senior picture shoots, fashion work for a blog, and lots of urban photography throughout my hometown and NYC. My goal is to branch out and do more commercial work in different fields such as product photography, fashion, and travel.
Who I'd Like to Collaberate With:
Fellow creatives, If you have a project/product that you want pictures of, I'm your guy!
Website, Instagram, Contact Me
Thanks for reading, please give me feedback!


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Answered By: Chris Clouser Last Updated: Dec 10, 2014 Views: 33
Answered By: Chris Clouser
Last Updated: Dec 10, 2014 Views: 33
Unfortunately, we don't, yet, have a function that will automatically populate an ILLIAD request from a database page. However, you can save yourself a lot of typing by copying and pasting into the ILLIAD form. Have your database open on one window and then open another browser window and log in to ILLIAD and open the appropriate request form. You can switch back and forth with the buttons at the bottom of the screen. When you find a citation that you would like to request, highlight a field (e.g. journal title) with the mouse. You can use the "Edit" menu at the top and select "Copy". Then switch to the ILLIAD form, click in the appropriate field of the form, and use the "Edit" menu again, this time selecting "Paste". This will copy the contents of the field from the database to the ILLIAD form. There are some keyboard shortcuts that make the processes even faster. After you highlight the text you want to copy, hold down the "CTRL" button and type a 'c'. CTRL c is the keyboard equivalent of "Copy". CTRL v is the keyboard equivalent of "Paste". Work back and forth between the two windows and fill in the form. With a ltitle practice it takes very little time to transfer the information. In all cases, you want to be sure to check the PILOT catalog to be sure that IUP doesn't own or have electronic access to a journal before you fill out the ILLIAD form. We are not allowed to request materials that we already own through Interlibrary Loan. If you request material that is available, your ILLIAD request will be rejected.
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Presence Security for the Business Traveler
Brian Hinderberger
If you find yourself on a plane or a train more than you do your desk Presence Security could be just what you need to help keep an eye on things that are important to you. Our award-winning Presence App is free with great features that allow you to convert your spare devices into mobile web security cameras, use for ultra private video conferencing, geofencing your hotel room, and much more.
Presence Security helps you monitor and control sensors back at your office or home from anywhere around the world with your iOS or Android device. People Power helps you maintain your active mobile lifestyle, giving you the ability set rules and conditions for your security sensors in your home or office so you can customize notifications and switch on your other connected devices like lights or smart plugs.
Bring along your old phone and up-cycle it to a security camera. All you need is your hotel room's free WiFi channel and within minutes, you can set up an in-room motion detector that alerts, records a video or snaps a photo of someone entering your room when you are away. Just like this story of an airline flight attendant who caught a housekeeper going through his things.
The free version of Presence is great and Presence Pro Video is even better. A business traveler can upgrade to enjoy the benefits starting under $2! This premium version of Presence available as an in-app purchase on iOS only. It increases your encrypted cloud video storage by 100x, allows you to capture longer and better quality videos with less time between recordings and gives you RTMPS video security with priority customer support.
When your work trip is over and you arrive home there's no need to worry about deactivating your home's security. Our Geofencing enabled Presence App recognizes your location and allows you to flip your low-powered wireless sensors back to 'Home Mode.'


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Recent article in Coeval Magazine: http://www.coeval-magazine.com/art/susan-metzger
Catalog Available
Choreographing a Collection: The Dr. Beatrice H. Barrett Collection of Art
"…As such it is a bridge to the most recent works collected by Barrett which function less like portraits than like x-rays revealing the tranquil interior realms inhabited by her ageless spirit. Among these are the luminous land and seascape paintings of Susan Metzger. Somewhat reminiscent of the works of Caspar David Friedrich in their ability to evoke a sense of the sublime, mysterious 'other', Metzger's Near the Edge and Ocean of Aspens provide Barrett a glimpse of her "soul home".
Martha's Vineyard Times
"…The work is at once accessible and mysterious. At first glance, the viewer sees a luscious overall impression of a natural place. The paintings, though, are not impressionistic, nor are they figurative. They do not depict a specific image or object. These works entice the viewer much the same way as would a look at any actual landscape. Reality is complex as it reveals layer after layer of experience and meaning…Susan Metzger's landscapes attract viewers by the distance and tranquility they evoke. The confluence of colors, watery and atmospheric, bring "About Perfection" and "From the Pond" into fluid abstraction. Metzger's work is mostly about wide open outdoor space. The artist creates a sense of natural vastness even in her smaller works, and she manages to distill a landscape without losing the connection to it."
Vineyard Gazette - Diane Nichols
"…The spare, ethereal paintings of Susan Metzger are a beautiful counterpoint to the complex patterns of the mosaic pieces. Ms. Metzger's new work "COAST" occupies one room of the gallery. The blue, translucent atmosphere that these remarkable paintings evoke as they relate to each other makes the room a contemplative environment. These paintings, too, are the result of a painstaking process. Her Renaissance technique lends the paintings a sense of profound authority. They make one think that Giorgione has painted Outer Space…These paintings at once distill the essence of the Vineyard sea and air and also make a generalized statement. "When the local becomes the universal to the extent that everybody who looks at it "gets it", she says, "that is a transforming experience." This explains how fine works of art that everybody who looks at it "gets it", she says, "that is a transforming experience." This explains how fine works of art refer to something greater than themselves, how the local is transcended. The recurring horizon line of the "coast" paintings provides a thread of commonality. Everyone understands immediately what that reference is. It goes beyond religion, race and geography. In one sense this is not the local landscape; it is cosmic. Clouds, space, water and air are the subjects of these minimal landscapes, far more involved than color field painting. They work through reduction and simplification yet without sacrificing complexity…"
Boston Globe - Christine Temin
"…Susan Metzger's paintings are landscapes pared to the point where they're identifiable only by horizon lines separating sky and sea…. Metzger's paintings gain their power, though, from their simplicity…"
Art New England Review of Cambridge Art Association National Juried Prize Show
"…Susan Metzger's lovely and diminutive landscape painting Ocean of Aspens is timeless, but the sense of nostalgic reverie for a lost world seems completely contemporary."
Portland Press Herald – Maine Sunday Telegram – Philip Isaacson (CMCA Biennial 2008)
"…I also point out the immaculate stillness in Susan Metzger's painting "What to Count On". It offers a landscape distilled into discreet ideals of space and form.
High Water Catalog
"Susan's ethereal seascapes are seductive, enticing viewers to look at them and experience them as they would nature, layer by layer. She uses bands of color to create wide-open spaces with translucent atmospheres creating a sense of mystery and natural vastness. The result is a body of work that transforms the beauty of the sublime into a transcendental space. A few of the paintings are only identifiable as seascapes by the softly painted horizon lines, or bursts of white brushstrokes that separate sky from sea. The complexity of her technique in building each piece by slowly applying layers of color, combined with the simplicity of the imagery gives the work present and power."


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So, have you ever felt the pressure to get something done, or to check something off your list, but felt totally uninspired to do it and let procrastination suck the life out of you? Yeah, me too. In fact, I started going down that familiar path today, but was luckily interrupted by a phone call from a friend that lasted well over an hour and took my mind out of forcing myself to write this blog and into talking and laughing and connecting. Afterward, not only did I feel inspired with tons of new thoughts and energies buzzing through my brain, but I felt excited to sit down and jam out this post because the lesson is applicable to so many of us. When we force our way through life, we get tired and burned out, but when we tap into the source of never-ending energy within us, life flows effortlessly and easily. And this applies to everything from our closest relationships to writing weekly blog posts. The rules never change. Hold on too tightly, and the sand falls out. Open your hand and let it sit, and it can remain indefinitely.
But, the key is recognizing this, because as we all probably know, it's easier said than done when we're up against a deadline or when our partner is drifting further and further away or when we don't know whether we should quit the job or stay. I get it. I LOVE making lists and checking items off. I love certainty and am terrified by change. I find it so satisfying in the part of my brain that likes things orderly and organized – the part that feels safer when things are under control. But when our lists and expectations and goals become more harmful than helpful, it's worth stepping back and taking a look at how our forcefulness is actually the cause of our discomfort, NOT the thing we think needs changes or fixing or completing.
Recently, I had a wonderful experience I'd like the share that demonstrates this beautifully. I've often heard from spiritual teachers that when we align with the universe and our intuition, projects, experiences and relationships all flow effortlessly, almost like divine inspiration flowing THROUGH them. And while I've certainly experienced many moments of peace and clarity, I'd never really had that deep knowing about something that made it feel like I was floating on clouds. I've always been the push-through-it type where it takes me 3 days to painfully hack out a blog post filled with more edits, typos and rewritten sentences than not and by the end of it I feel mentally and emotionally drained. It was the same for programs I'd put out, coaching follow ups or big ideas that flowed through my brain. I loved them, but I equally hated them because they felt hard and overwhelming and stressful. But recently, I've been leaning into the idea of divine inspiration and letting the work flow through me instead of wrangling it out, and I finally came to a personal understanding of this with a small e-recipe book I co-authored.
One of my favorite teachers talks about how meditation allows the brain to slow down and turn off long enough that we are no longer blocking our internal guidance. Up until the past few months, I'd always used meditation in a very physically-focused way as a tool for calming down my nervous system and squelching stress. But, lately, I started focusing my attention on it's more spiritual attributes. Namely, as a way to connect to my inner guidance system and source. So, one day, after a nice, but not out of the normal, meditation, I got an Instagram notification from a friend whose recipe I'd cooked and photographed that said, "You always make them look so pretty." Not thinking anything of it, I laughingly wrote back, "you cook em, I'll make em look pretty!" and then, right then and there it was as if I was handed an idea that felt so natural and logical, it was hardly a big deal, but I knew deep in my soul that it was inspired. I shot her a text and said, "Hey, what if we actually do that and create a book together. You cook, I shoot?" To which she replied, "Let's do it." And the Simple Summer E-Recipe Book you've been hearing me talk about for weeks now was born. But not only was the idea born, the entire project flowed so seamlessly it felt as if I knew all along how to put together and craft an e-book. Then the emails began flowing in and the each and every picture turned out perfectly with one or two shots. The recipes were delicious and easily perfected in less than a week and every phone and brainstorming session was smooth like butter! THIS is what we mean when we talk of divine guidance and inspiration. THIS is what it feels like when the energy of the universe is flowing through you and into your creations, experiences and relationships. THIS is what alignment feels like and what it means to let go and let god – or the universe – or Buddha – or source, or whatever you call it.
When we take time to meditate, to slow down, to enjoy our life, to connect and live calmly, we are then open and receptive to these energies. Had I not taken the time to meditate and slow down my restless mind, and instead, pushed through my day without stopping until my head hit the pillow, I would never have seen that path unfolding right before my eyes, nor had the good sense to take it! In fact, I probably would have written it off as a silly passion and convinced myself I didn't have time for it. And how much I would have missed! From that idea sprang forth four others, including an actual cookbook and new podcast. This is what it means to sync up with the universe, let go of the control and let divine guidance have its way with you.
Sure we can push and grind and manipulate our world so that we reach our goals and make ourselves heard, but we can also relax into them and get the same, if not better, results. Having done it both ways, I can tell you that this is one the best things I've ever created because of how it felt while I was doing it. There was no stress, no angst, no overwhelm – only joy, excitement and fun along the way and when it was done, I looked at it and smiled grateful for the adventure it took me on during those weeks.
If you're the kind of person who is used to #nodaysoff and #hustling and #workgrind, I urge you in this moment to consider whether or not that mentality is actually serving you? Are you feeling burned out, uninspired and busy? If so, take some time to replenish and sit your ass down for a meditation. If you can't possibly bare the idea of that (we'll have to chat about that another time), then do something, anything, to unplug.
Go on a walk outside, chat with a dear friend, get a massage, go on a long drive, watch a sunset, even have a glass of wine. Keep unplugging for as long as you need until you feel so inspired to do something you couldn't possibly ignore it and when that happens, notice the ease with which you get it done. This is how we find our joy and inspiration my friends. It's not through hard effort, it's not through control and it's certainly not through grinding it out. Sure you can get things done that way, but they will probably be half of your genius at best and leave you feeling exhausted and in need of a vacation. Whereas divine inspiration actually bolsters our energy and fills us with delight.
Have you ever had an experience with divine guidance? Do you live in flow with the universe? If so, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.
Until next time,


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It's not a secret that I'm obsessed with Shorpy, a fantastic blog that posts high resolution scans of historical negatives and glass plates. The nice thing about Shorpy is that they don't just post your typical boring historical photographs, but they do a good job curating the images and really giving you a glimpse into what it was like back then. Most of the pictures depict the Washington D.C. area, which I enjoy because I lived there for many years. Make sure to stop by and check it out, they update daily and the pictures always come with some background or insight as to what you're looking at. Another exciting thing, is that you can order prints!! you can order reasonably priced prints from the original scans; I have one and I love it. I strongly recommend browsing through the "Sports" section.
Here are some of my favorites!


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Atlanta & Nearby Atlanta Resources
Listed here are Gluten Free Resources in and around Atlanta. These are businesses that support and/or cater to the gluten free community around Atlanta.
If you choose to use a business, we would also like to hear from you, and let us know about your experience with that business.
The businesses listed are not necessarily recommendations or endorsements, but simply a local listing that can be utilized at your own discretion.


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A lot like Thai massage modality, Tantra professional massage is from time to time misunderstood as some kind of sex service. The motives for this are that a) the term gets hijacked and b) sex is still a controversial theme even in the complementary therapies arena. Nevertheless, a genuine Tantra professional massage can be an efficient holistic remedy for physical and psychological well-being and it really is really successful bodywork to treat all types of sexual disorders and trauma.Tantra massage modality is based on a Tantric and Taoist understanding of sexual bioenergetics. The two cultures have tried to understand the energetic actuality of our sexual element and integrated it right into an all-encompassing method to health. Sexual electricity was used as an impetus for personal advancement in the Tantric culture, and as a very important aspect of traditional Chinese medicine in the Taoist culture.
Massage Tips – When and How Much
Sexual electricity is a distinct segment of human whole bioenergetics field which constitutes our sexual being. Movement of sexual energy vibrations is what creates sexual happenings. Sexual energy has its own storage centers and routes of flow, and it flows following precise universal laws. This electricity is, on the one sg escort hand, an extremely impressive favorable force that comes with an impressive healing impact. Also to consider is that, similar to any biological energy it is invariably attached to all levels – physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Quality of health of sexual energy vibrations creates total health and disorders with the flow can be an unhealthy influence on all stratus's specialist Tantric professional massage therapist is in effect a facilitator of accurate sexual energy flow. The client lies down on a massage couch and the Tantra massage therapist directs his/her sexual energy vibrations via the body, much like an acupressure professional massage would influence chi through certain points on the skin. A professional Tantric masseuse has a profound knowledge of our sexual bioenergeticsEscort girls Singaporeconstitution – this therapist understands well precisely in which place the sexual energy vibrations could be accessed, the best way to guide it throughout the routes and what are the optimal scenarios of the electricity flow to get a good outcome.
Advantages of an At Home Massage Vs A Day Spa
First thing, mainly because Tantra massage modality operates with sexual energy vibrations, it purifies and corrects the client's sexual electricity flow to produce a more harmonic sexual aspect and to do away with any distortions. Sexual trauma, upbringing, problems and limitations can have a highly traumatic influence on our wellness and has consequences on all levels. Tantric massage can successfully aid with many of these concerns, and bodyworks that tackle these factors are desperately required in human society. Even severe sexual traumas could be healed swiftly with Tantric-Taoist professional massage. There are incredibly few therapies that address these sg escortmatters by organic methods and lots of people suffer in the absence of solutions .Secondly, when we free the sexual energy vibrations to its effective flow throughout our being – which can turn into a long-term state of matters over time – we build a cascade outcome all through our full entire body. Sexual energy is actually a highly effective beneficial force and when it is given attention with enough respect and competencies (and not merely the concept of entertainment) it's going to play a large part in human physical, psychological and mental wellness. There's also a vast emotional influence of Tantric-Taoist massage technique leading to a better quality of life. Skilled Tantric massage modality has its Hot Escorts in Singaporerightful space between other treatments. The only suggestion stays that a prospective client really should judge very well and goes to a genuine therapist, avoiding sex market workers who often hijack this word to advertise their services. Rub lotion on your hands so they can glide easily across the foot. Rub with your thumbs in a circular motion from the ankles all the way down to the toes. Gently rotate her ankles to relax the muscles there.


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Here to save you from the Monday Blues, Dealzmodo has some on the web's best bargains on hot gadgets, gizmos, games, and much more for you today.
Today's Top Dealzmodo Deal
You'd be smart to pick up this smartwatch. The Moto 360 is a great timepiece with very clever brains for all your apps and email alerts. Just £165, you say? Yep, that's £35 cheaper than its RRP, and it comes with a stylish black leather strap (unlike some of its rivals, wearing the Moto 360 won't make you look like a complete goon).
More Hot Dealzmodo Deals
Buying official Apple accessories is rarely cheap, but today you can get a bargain on a Thunderbolt cable (MD861ZM/A). Amazon's knocked more than a fiver off the price, bringing it down to just £29.73.
Even More Deals
- Linx 7inch Windows 8.1 Tablet - £59.86
- Misfit Shine Fitness Tracker Grey - £49
- BELKIN Trifold iPad Air Case (Blue) - £4.97
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- Mad Catz F.R.E.Q. 4D Stereo Gaming Headset - £39.99
- HTC Desire 816 - £209.99
- B&W P3 Headphones (Recertified) - £79.95
- Dragon Age Inquisition Inc Exclusive DLC PS4 - £36.85


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SHANGHAI/ATHENS, March 28 (Reuters) - The Greek government will sell its majority stake in the port of Piraeus within weeks, the country's deputy prime minister told China's official Xinhua news agency, a flip-flop from the leftist government as it seeks funds from its creditors.
The Syriza government of Alexis Tsipras took power in January on promises to end painful austerity, saying it would halt a string of privatisations including the sale of a 67 percent stake in the Piraeus Port Authority (OLP).
China's Cosco Group was among five preferred bidders shortlisted under a privatisation scheme agreed by the previous conservative-led government as part of a 240 billion euro ($261 billion) bailout programme which Tsipras is seeking to renegotiate.
But the importance of raising capital appears to have proven more important to the debt-stricken country and the Xinhua report came as Greece submitted a new list of reforms to its EU-IMF lenders on Friday to unlock funds.
Cosco and other bidders "can make a very competitive offer," said Greek Deputy Prime Minister Yannis Dragasakis, according to Xinhua, during a visit by Greek ministers to China.
The deal would be completed in weeks after being slightly delayed by the change in Greek government, Dragasakis said, who hinted that Cosco was a forerunner, according to Xinhua.
Greece will run out of money by April 20 unless it receives fresh aid from its EU-IMF creditors, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
OLP runs Pier 1 of Piraeus Port, Greece's largest. China's Cosco already manages two of Piraeus port's cargo piers.
Greece has also launched a three-year programme that includes large projects with China, Dragasakis added. ($1 = 0.9185 euros) (Reporting by Engen Tham and Costas Pitas; Editing by David Holmes)


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Jeffrey St. Clair on Gilad Atzmon's In Loving Memory of America
Gilad Atzmon: In Loving Memory of America (Enja / Germany)
For his latest recording, the acclaimed London-based saxman (and sometime CP contributor) Gilad Atzmon turns his attention to New York in the 1950s, probably the most innovative era of America music. With a judicious mix of standards and original compositions, Atzmon recreates the mise-en-scene of an after hours jazz club. The legend being served here is the titanic Charlie Parker, but Atzmon reimagines Bird on his own terms, with spiraling and plaintive sax and clarinet solos that swirl like helixes encoded with the sounds of Harlem over the refined shadings of the Sigamos String Quartet. This is noir jazz, the insidious music that breaks out while the empire sleeps.


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I realized the other day, while deep inside a 'pinning' session, that I have a board entitled "my man style". Now, this is fitting because, technically, I am pinning things I think Drew would like (and he is indeed a man), however, in the midst of pin party 2013 I realized that the things I was pinning onto my normal "my style" board were heavily influenced by mens fashion.
I WANT TO DRESS LIKE A MAN! Every day, forever and ever (amen).
What I find humorous, is that this concept just now seems to be cropping up on many of my favorite fashion blogs with headlines like- "Steal His Style" "Wear His Wardrobe" "Borrow from the Boys", all of which are clever and wonderful, and totally on trend, but you guys... I swear I wore it before it was 'cool' (I sound like your mom don't I?) fitting the inspiration into whatever the current 'style' was.
At any rate this is not to say I don't enjoy a well fitted piece of attire, a nice dress, or a sexy pair of heels, quite the opposite, it simply means I like to style those pieces in a more 'manly' fashion. I mean, look at the icons in fashion, do they wear pretty pink things plastered in tacky designs? No! They wear clean, fresh, styles (90% of which are black, white, grey, and denim... as they should be DUH!).
I used to question my love of boy friend jeans (a subject holy unto itself) and mens button ups, thinking I had a problem of some kind. No longer! I rock those over sized beauties with pride. After all, it's not always about what you wear, it's about how you wear it.
Blazer- Cynthia Vincent
Tee Shirt- H&M
Necklace- Kristen Elspeth
Denim- J.Crew
Heels- Cole Haan