Estate of Grace

My friend and I recently produced Estate of Grace, a short video about a Greek Orthodox group home for children in New York State. It's a beautiful place that does its best to help children in need. If you are interested in learning about alternatives to foster care, seeing a grand estate once owned by New York Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert, meeting some exception people and just appreciating the human spirit, please take a look at this site.

View of the Hudson River from the grounds of Saint Basil Academy in Garrison, NY

The Best Culture Watching - Hulu & Netflix

Cold days and long nights entice me to hibernate. So what to do in my little Chelsea cave? Well, cook and watch some great TV shows from around the world. Hulu & Netflix are my new travel/culture buddies. Offering an incredible amount of television series and movies from across the globe, these video streaming sites give me a chance to see what's popular in other countries, visually visit new places, learn some key phrases in other languages, get a taste of the law in faraway lands, and just appreciate what other cultures find entertaining. I've watched some great Korean soap operas, Bollywood movies, Thai trilogies, Vietnamese action films and more.

Right now I'm obsessed with Spiral (aka, Engrenages in France) - a French police series that is very entertaining and well, very French. I've picked up some new words like "flic" - slang for the police or po-po. I've noticed that the characters like to "tsk" quite a bit, but not in a condescending way. And well, the cast is phenomenal.  Gregory Fitoussi definitely stands out in the series and he is bound to become a household name here once the new PBS series "Mr. Selfridge" takes off. So, check out Spiral on Hulu and Netflix!

Another Great Cashmere Collection from Kapra Hiska!

You must think I'm being paid by Kapra Hiska due to all the posts I've written on them. Well, I am not but I do believe in supporting small businesses with great products, and Kapra Hiska is definitely one of them. So, without further ado, here pictures from Kapra Hiska's latest line. Enjoy and get a tissue to catch your drool as you marvel at the refined luxury of this colorful collection!