Alberto Says It Best

Alberto when he was a young man, with his father

From the blog RADIO DEL TANGO:

In the beginning God used water and dirt to create life. Since then,
fathers and sons have continued the eternal ritual of growing up and
multiplying.

It is true that the seed needs the fertile ground to sprout, but the
tree that results from that union, only grows and becomes strong
because it knows that it is its destiny to give shade to the land
where it germinated.

The paternal figure is alarmingly absent from the ethos of the tango,
perhaps because of the circumstances of the period were it began its
genesis without a father.

Not so, in other musical expressions from diverse regions around the country.

Astor Piazzolla, raised in New York, brought the figure of the father
to the tango in a very poignant way when he wrote his masterpiece
Adios Nonino, in memory of his father who passed away in Argentina
while Astor was working in North America.

I pay tribute to my own deceased father and to my boy who's now a man
and a dad, and my girl who's now a woman.
To all the dads in the reach of our embrace, happy day and I hope you
at least enjoy the music...

Go to this link:
http://radiodeltango.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/my-old-man-was-a-good-guy


Happy Father's Day Alberto!

PS The Vamp here...That marvelous voice of the DJ is Alberto

Visual Vamp Shops Copy Cats And More

We all know what Sunday is. If you live in New Orleans pick up this cute T-shirt for your daddy from Fleurty Girl on Magazine or Oak Street.

Or give him a card telling him you ordered one these great copy cat high end designer lamps from HERE

The gold gun lamp is a copy cat version of a gold plated one that sells for $1756. This one sells for $129. It's very gangsta chic, and even though I am not a gun lover, I love this lamp.





I have loved these black rabbit Mooi lamps ever since I saw them at Biba Italia in New York two years ago. They retail for around $500. You can get these cute copy cats for only $99. each!

Mooi copy cat black rabbit lamps

And who doesn't love the Bourgie lamp? Ranging in price from 300 something to 900 something each, this copy cat is only $129.!

Bourgie lamp copy cat

All of these darling copy cats come directly from China from a reliable source HERE.

Of course if you can afford the real thing, have it at!
And last but not least, I got this adorable pillow for my guest room HERE, because we are having company this summer. My sister is coming in July for my birthday, and my dear friend Michael Pelkey is coming in August!

"Do come back pillow" at casa Visual Vamp

Raggly

"Raggly Flag" by Thornton Dial

Today is Flag Day.

When I was in school we had to write a composition entitled "What Does The Flag Mean To You". It was a lesson in civics and history.

When you are a child you don't really think about the meaning of flags. You might learn to identify flags of different countries, maybe a first visual association with a world larger than your own.

In the 1970's I was fond of the saying "Let your freak flag fly".

Flags get all wrapped up in politics, self identification, emotion and pride for sure. Who doesn't get a lump in their throat when the national anthem is played and the colors are trouped out?

So I give you an image today of a painting by Thornton Dial called "Raggly Flag". Thornton Dial is an excellent example the American dream. He is an artist, self taught, who started painting later in life. Today he is considered one of the most important artists of the 21st century. I love his work.

People all over the world reinvent themselves during their lifetimes. Ditto for self made women and men. But somehow this idea of having the freedom to be anything you want at anytime in your life rings truest and perhaps the loudest when people think of the USA.

So today I salute my flag, and let my freak fly, grateful and proud.

I encourage you to check out Thornton Dial. If you live in Indianapolis the museum of art there is doing an important exhibit of a life time of his incredible work. Read more HERE.

Get this book on Thornton Dial HERE

This is a new Thornton Dial book HERE

And if you are one of those blessed art collectors you can buy this work of art HERE. If I had the money I would buy Thornton Dial for love and for the investment.

For sale: Thornton Dial oil on paper - 30 x 44

Summer Rental

Summer Rental in Nags Head

It's the first unofficial week/weekend of Summer! How many of you have a Summer rental?
In New York it is very common to rent a place by the beach (Hamptons or Jersey Shore) for the Summer. The wife and kids go for most of the Summer, and the husband commutes there on weekends.

Cottage Row in Nags Head via

Singles may take a share in a house, and alternate weekends. Or sometimes a family might rent a beach house for a week or two of Summer vacation.

Beach cottage in Nags Head

Rental houses can be funky. When I rented in the Hamptons I would load up the car with Limoges china, silver plate flatware, stacks of sheets for make-do slip covers and curtains, new lampshades, art work, and good beach towels and nice sheets for the beds.

How would you makeover this Summer rental? via

When I finally bought a little house, it was decorated all in white. It was a cottage and so cute.
Now we don't do a Summer rental. Summer mornings in New Orleans are like being at the beach. You can feel the sea air from the Gulf, and the river and humidity keep things feeling tropical.

Nags Head street

The morning light is gentle, and the air is soft. It's the perfect time to enjoy our newly refurbished patio and yard, and take a cup of coffee and book and sit outside and pretend I'm at the beach.

The beach house I once owned in the Springs in East Hampton

Like all of you I love "beach" books for the Summer. You know, the kind that used to be called "light reading", a good story so breezy you can finish the book in two or three sittings.

Visual Vamp back in the day at her beach house in East Hampton

I recommend Mary Kay Andrews "Summer Rental". I read another of her books last Summer called "The Fixer Upper", and just loved it.

"Summer Rental" has all the necessary elements for a good beach read: Woman loses her job, but is locked into a Summer rental with her best girlfriends. Each one has a story to tell. There's sexy romance, and a bit of thriller. And as with the "Fixer Upper" the house and its decor is a central character too.

The beach location in the book is Nags Head, that still has 7 of the original 13 beach cottages built 100 years ago (it's called Cottage Row). I love how people at the beach call these big old sprawling houses "cottages".

I love an old fashion beach house - sea breezes only, screens on the doors and windows, cracks in the floor to sweep sand into, funky yet charming. Nowadays beach houses are so fancy that you hardly feel like you get away from your formal life. What do you think? Funky or fancy?

Buy it HERE

And a prayer of thanks on this Memorial Day to everyone past and present who serves for us in the armed forces.

Ding Dong! Here's Your Flower Delivery

Hello everyone!
Here's a virtual flower delivery for you to wish you a Happy Easter.

All flowers and photos by Valorie Hart the Visual Vamp

I arranged the flowers in the photos for a recent photo shoot for a certain house you may recognize.

Silver ice bucket with white hydrangea

I have shopped fabulous wholesale flower markets all over the world: New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Madrid, Paris, Amsterdam...


But really the "super market" flower shops have changed how everyone can get great flowers very close to wholesale choices and prices.

When I had my event design business in New York, I would visually shop the great displays on the sidewalks of the Korean markets, and say "I could do a high end event using these flowers".



For this shoot I shopped a favorite we all use: Whole Foods. Usually tried and true, there was a glitch. Their flower delivery was out of whack because the delivery truck had an accident enroute. I said a silent prayer for the driver, and then considered the limited choices.



I do not like over the top florals in the home. I like flowers to be natural and simple. And I like to style them this way for photo shoots. The home should be the focus, not the flowers. Lots of stylists like to show off, but really, it's not about the stylist ha ha. I can make towering fabulous arrangements using every flower you can think of. It takes more effort to show restraint.

Perfect orange French tulips in a Newcomb pottery style vase

Simple bouquet of apricot color roses
Studded Lucite tray by Nicole Cohen of Sketch42

Two simple tulips let the furnishings be the star

I hope you are making pretty flower arrangements for your home for Easter and everyday.
Alberto and I send our very best wishes to all of you.

Belles of Ireland

photo by Steven Meisel

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Green beer! The wearin' of the green: Green socks, green bras, green beads and boas (here in NOLA).

And look at the lovely belles of Ireland. Their big beautiful skirts look just like the flowers called Bells of Ireland.

The flower called Bells of Ireland

via Ali Eli Flowers HERE

Your Tango Shoes Under My Bench

Pink monogram plate: V & A
Caroline gave me these for my birthday HERE

When Alberto and I met, it was through the tango. I was a new dancer, and he was quite a few steps ahead of me. We met in July and we were a couple by October. I left my home in New York to move in with Alberto in California. I left behind an apartment, a beach house, a design business, and many, many friends.

I was sick at the time, wrung out and damaged. The tango gave me solace and strength, and Alberto gave me back my life.

To this day we are part of an urban myth in the tango world, the fancy New York woman getting the prize of the Argentine tango man. Many said it would not stand the test of time, that I would have my little tango fling, and get back to New York and my "real" life.

Sixteen years later I am deep into my life with Alberto. I never looked back, but always looked ahead to what we have between us, and what we continue to build upon.




Ours is not a romance of youth, but one started in middle age, and growing into our golden age.
Much comes with the territory that you never think about when you are younger. You never think you'll make it to be the age of grandparents, much less have the romance of your lifetime happening.



Alberto is a romantic. And so this morning he sweetly and shyly asked me to be his Valentine ~ again. And I accepted ~ again. He said I saved his heart, so he he is giving it to me.

Our long time friend Michael Pelkey sent this perfect Valentine

The tango is the back drop to the love affair of Alberto and me. Sharing our dance with one another is still thrilling, and touching, and magical.

Recently I have been updating our at home dance studio HERE
My friend Jack made a gift of the same green silk drapes I have in the living room. We both did out drapes at the same time two years ago, and he is changing his and passed them onto me. This prompted me to spruce things up. I painted some mirrors white, re-hung some art, re-purposed our old dining room chandelier and painted it orange, and added some seating HERE

White patent leather chair at perch.

The last piece for the studio is a bench I covered in white patent leather. I was inspired by the white patent leather chairs at perch. I saw over three years ago. I borrowed a pair for a photo shoot then, but never purchased them HERE


Wishing all of you love and Valentines, today and everyday.

The tango shoes of Alberto Paz and Valorie Hart

Welcome To The Man Mansion

In honor of Fathers Day I thought I'd show you a classic 1980's style man mansion, a mantasy realized.




It's actually the official residence of the mayor of Denver, although no mayor has lived in it, and certainly no first lady has either.


It's called Cableland, because a cable TV mogul built it, and then donated this excess of 1980's style to the city of Denver. What were they thinking when they accepted it as the mayor's residence?


It has every manerism: conversation pits, big fat furniture, a pink grand piano, flame stitch upholstery, hard edge steel, big fugly sculpture...


...uber electronics, tons of TV screens (88 to be exact), tanning beds, mauve walls, and I heard there are plenty of naughty bits lying about too, like a 12 foot fire pole in the master bedroom (I think they call it a stripper pole nowadays).


What was the bachelor home like of the guy you ended up with? I think many were in the same vein of Cableland, even if more modest with a big ugly recliner, a platform bed, and milk crate bookcases.


What would Cableland be without the big ass pool awaiting a bevy of bikini girls to frolic in?


Read what's going on with Cableland HERE
And rent it for a special party HERE
I think they should turn it into a theme park for guys.

And Happy Fathers Day!

The specs (kind of fascinating):

Construction: Summer 1986 to Fall 1987 Subcontractors: Over 50 trades involved Home & Grounds: 24,000 Square Feet Swimming Pool: 1,102 Square Feet Facilities: Guest house, pool house, staff quarters Creature Features: Squirrel condos, birdbaths TV Reception: Cable TV; closed circuit TV Sets - 88 including viewing wall with 64 TV Monitors; 61-inch TV (great room); 55-inch TV (video room) Telephone Lines - 5; Telephones -97 Bathrooms - 14; Bedrooms -4; Kitchens - 4 (including catering kitchen) Features: Custom designed furniture Upholstered fabric walls Underlighting for furniture Sunken Bar Guest office suite, kitchen and bath Terraced patios Pink Weber baby grand piano 12-foot fireman's pole Three fireplaces Tanning bed & spa equipment Underwater seascape mural Resistance exercise pool Surround sound & tactile sound systems Lite-touch lighting systems Snowmelt driveway system Laser security system Ice cream bar Project Management & Interior Design: Gerhard Interiors Limited, Rancho La Costa, CA Architecture: Lawrence Pepper, Rancho Santa Fe, CA Landscape Architecture: DHM, Inc., Denver, CO Lighting Design: Noel Allanmeyer, Carlsbad, CA

Memorial Day

Thanks to all who serve in the armed forces.

Have you ever tried to explain this holiday? Like why on a day dedicated to remembering people who died in the service of the country has become the unofficial first day of Summer, that we celebrate with shopping, or picnics and barbeque's, or going to the beach, or on camping trips.

On another subject, has anyone seen Sex And The City 2? Yes or no?