Vladimir Kagan's Blog

I’ve Never Met Anyone I Didn’t Like!

 

…and that’s why I avoid meeting new people!

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, April Fools Day 2011

 

I've never met anyone I didn't like!

I appear gregarious but love being a recluse -  I come across as a curmudgeon, but have trouble doing it with a straight face - I am always surprised to find an interesting person behind the bland face I’m introduced to. I kinda shy away from people my own age and drift toward the cutie-pies in the crowd… (I have a terrible affliction: I am drawn to pretty women…but not vice-versa)… Unfortunately, beyond their attractive demeanor, they are often dull, with little conversation worth remembering… At a party, the fat lady with the multiple chins doesn’t interest me… the old gentleman on a walker (who am I to cast stones?) is ignored for the nymphet with the pretty smile and décolleté…. Afflicted with this malady, I often miss the most interesting repartee…

 

This is me on the left, having an interesting conversation!

At a recent dinner party, I was seated next to an elderly couple…due to my “selective” hearing; I could only catch half of what they were saying…. For diversion, I was surreptitiously searching the table for an attractive alternative but politely stuck with my companions.  By the end of the evening, it turned out that he was an important retired Judge with much to add to a conversation, his friend was a well-traveled lady with frequent sojourns to exotic places in the world. Their stories were fascinating. Too bad I could only hear half the conversation. (A good argument for a hearing aid? Yes… but at $5,000 a pop, it’s a gadget I’m destined to loose within a week in the swimming pool!…. I would also be able to hear Erica calling me from our bedroom, where selective hearing is a much better excuse.)

  

The dinner conversation

Whenever I open myself up to strangers, it is never disappointing…. So why am I avoiding them?.... Am I shy? People think I am affable…. Am I a lousy conversationalist? I can talk all night and keep them in stitches with my foolish ranting…. Should I see a shrink? Too late…. NO, I’m just lazy! It takes too much of an effort and I’d rather sit at my computer writing this Blog than open a conversation with a casual friend. (In my previous Blog, I advised how to evade unwanted conversation: avoid eye contact or feign sleeping!) For the cocktail circuit, here’s an update: wear dark glasses – they make you look mysterious and unapproachable. Fumble in your handbag or wallet. Look beyond your protagonist and search for another party…. When all else fails, spill your cocktail and create a diversion! (be nice to your host…make certain it’s a martini or white wine…never spill champagne (too good to waste)!

to avoid an unpleasant encounter....cause a diversion

I see myself in the roles of my two favorite movie heroes: Al Pacino in a “Scent of a Woman” and Jack Nickelson in “As Good As It Gets” These are my kind of guys: misanthropic obsessive-compulsive… lovable.

 

Me, the raconteur!
 

Am I sinking into the abyss of a misanthrope killjoy? Hell NO! - I wanna be the life of the party! Please invite me to your next event and seat me with your most interesting guests (BUT first send me their curriculum vite so I’ll be prepared for some great conversation!)

  

All of my friends

 

At the next party, I promise to behave and wear my blinders so as not to drift in the direction of the Sylvan Maidens.

The new me with blinders meeting interesting guest

 

 

 

 

 

Palm Beach – The Mecca for Art Shows

 

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, March 21, 2011

 

“A fool and his money are soon parted”

 

A foole & his money,

be soone at debate:

which after with sorow,

repents him to late.

 

early proverb in the English language expressed in rhyme by Thomas Tusser in Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie, 1573:

 

Palm Beach is a haven for elegant hucksters (down here they are disguised as Art Dealers and their venues are the Art Fairs). We are blessed with three of these glamorous events every winter…. The first, in January ArtPalmbeach, followed in February with the American International Fine Art Fair and close on its heels, The Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Show. The latter show, as the title indicates was laced with expensive jewelry (not my forte, so for the ladies interested in this, I must disappoint you)….. But when it comes to the familiar subject of art, I will give you my gem’s of wisdom. 

 

Having just written about the value of art as an investment, Palm Beachers are not as foolish as they might appear in the “Shiny Sheet” (our fabled gossip paper)… Palm Beach can boast having more billionaires than any other community in the United States… and they know where to invest their money!

 

Erica and me, tootling about the Art shows in our (jury-rigged) tandem electric scooter

These shows offer rarefied works of art… The first ArtPalmbeach had an emphasis on contemporary featuring Renoirs, Frank Stella, Thomas Hart Benton, Degas, Picasso, Dufy, Josef Albert…Following current trends, there was a heavy concentration on photography, (which we learned in our financial seminars, is a splendid growth investment). There was also a good representation of Art Glass, Ceramics, and sculpture….The last two shows were more all-inclusive… in addition to the jewelry, the exhibits included oriental rugs, rare textiles, antique objets and furniture, all of the finest quality, and for the first time this year, three prestigious dealers of Mid-century furniture: Barry Friedman, who showed an important stainless steel chair by Ron Arad and several poetic pieces by the woodworker-sculptor, Wendell Castle…. Todd Merrill had two of my early 50’s chairs: an iconic Rocking Chair and a rare Wing Chair. (Both sold at full value… For Todd, who is a friend, I signed the Rocking Chair… which instantly increased its value by $3,000!) Included in his show were several Paul Evan’s sculpted metal cabinets and a gem of a carved wood buffet by Michael Coffee…. Garry Rubenstein, an antique dealer from Miami had an eclectic mix of antiques, Art Deco and contemporary, which included two of my dining chairs…. All-in -all, I was well represented amongst the prestigious art.

 Ron Arad's egg chair at the Barry Friedman Gallery

          

H.R.H. Barry Friedman ensconced in a Wendell Castle Chair-Table • two silver-gilded Castle chairs • a charcoal, pastel, watercolor, gold leaf and tulle on paper painting by Ian Ingram in the Garry Friedman Gallery exhibit

                   
          Todd Merrill's exhibit featured my Rocking-Recliner Chair with foot stool and a rare Wing Chair

                               

Here I am testing my Rocker-Recliner at the show -  NOW and THEN (ca. 1955)

                 

                                 

Garry Rubenstein is my kind of guy....More is More!!! He exhibited a melange of goodies from this heavily carved and gilded console table, to an abstract bronze sculpture, two Vladimir Kagan dining chairs, an exquisite mid-century modern silver coffee and tea set, a pair of really cool 50's wing chairs... and from the ceiling, a collection of chrystal chandeliers.... This was a real Souk for the wealthy. Garry Rubenstein Gallery Miami and Palm Beach

 

There was no dearth of fine investment art, which I, in my exuberance for the oddities, have ignored in this review. However, I talked to many of the dealers, who love this venue and return year after year from as far off as Paris, London, Munich, Barcelona and Los Angeles, New York, New Jersey and Miami.

    

This is the art that I stopped to admire: an elegant mobile silver candelabra • a mesmerizing 3-D painting by English born Patrick Hughes • a well assembled and focused gallery of modern art (stupidly their name escapes me)

Nature as the Artist... A 50 million year old fossil Giant Gar or a perfectly intact fossil-ed Alligator skeleton
 
     

If photography excites you, how about these Hyperphotos by French photographer Jean-Francois Rauzier

My son Illya (who is an artist) accompanied me to the opening of the Show. He knew all about William Louis Carrigan (1868 - 1939) a best kept secret New England artist, who painted enchanting scenes in muted tones of a blizzard or early morning haze...I loved his work, but it may not be the stuff of a modern collection.

What do these shows have in common with a Moroccan Bazaar?... There is something for everybody! I’m a sucker for nautical toys and found superb ship models, highly polished telescopes, sextants and binnacles. Erica found rare needlepoint and fragments of exquisite textiles….(We were restrained and bought none of it.) Nor could we find room in our apartment for the medieval armor, bejeweled swords and helmets, (quality fit for any museum collection). If your interest is fishing, there was a twelve-foot Hammer Head Shark, ostensibly hung to highlight the need for aquatic preservation… but it sold like a trophy Moose Head of Teddy Roosevelt days.

         

              This is where I go bonkers: Medieval Armor, Ship's Models, binoculars and binnacles

 

I am always intrigued by the craftsmanship and detailing of these gilded Objets

 

But if you are a gambler and don't want to bet on Art, there are these antique Slot Machines!...

 

 

….I can’t wait till next year’s reappearance of the Barnum and Bailey Circus and of course the Art Shows…. Next time I’ll come with cash to invest!

 

 

 

 

 

Assisted Living in Palm Beach

 

Copyright Vladimir Kagan  March 20, 2011

 

Have you ever lived in a Condo full of retired people? It is a comedic experience…. Ours is the closest you can get to an assisted living complex:

• Five doormen
• Six valets
• One garage attendant
• Six maintenance men
• Two porters
• Three pool attendants
• Three in administration
• 130 grousing tenant owners
• One president of the Board
• Nine very officious Board Members
• Plus the usual two to three dozen attendees at the monthly Board Meeting keeping the home fires burning
• At each meeting an additional sub-committee is formed
• This is the background info you need about Condo living!

 

My advice:

• Never move into a Condo consisting of 90% retirees with nothing to do
• Check out the president and HIS wife before moving
• Avoid one with a grievance committee… they love hearing grievances and dishing out punishments. (The poor building manager becomes The Lord High Executioner and enforcer)
• Stay off all committees if you’re looking for a tranquil retirement
• Avoid house parties, book clubs, social get-togethers… they are nothing but lonely heart clubs
• Avoid eye contact… it draws you into conversations
• Whilst sitting at the pool or in your cabana, if you can’t avoid contact, feign sleeping 

 Tenants airing their grievances                           President astutely keeping all the balls in the air  

     A Sub-committee meeting            Hapless tenant pleading for mercy from the Grievance Committee                                

 
A Book club attendee                                               The manager as Lord High Executioner

Geriatric Steeple Chase in the lobby              Happy Weight Watcher learning that he has lost 1/4 lb.

 

And now the good news:

• If you are hobbling around on a walker, the valet parking is pure luxury… two valets opening each door and retrieving your walker and groceries
• If it’s more than you can carry; they’ll deliver it to your door
• There are no steps in the building and you can creep around on your walker, cruise on your electric tricycle or skedaddle on your wheelchair without any encumbrance
• Your car is only a phone call away; ready and waiting by the time you come down in the elevator
• The abundant staff is always cheerful and available for any of your needs
• A well equipped gym is there for the physically fit
• For the dozen or so fitness freaks, (average age mid 70.s) there are exercise classes three times a week…I am usually the only male courageous enough to join in with these super-performers
• For the wishful thinkers, there is a Weight Watchers consultant ready to relieve the gullible of their money but seldom of their weight
• There’s a card room complete with a library for the less active
• Two swimming pools heated to 89% melt away any arthritic pain… you want more? There’s also a hot tub with a Jacuzzi.
• The pool staff keeps you wrapped in heated towels and in their spare time sweep up every fallen leaf
• The gardeners cut every blossom and flower in the way of their meticulous grooming and the leaf-blowers keep you alert with the earsplitting racket of their heinous contraptions
• Mail gets delivered and picked up daily and if its UPS or FedEx you want, they’re there in a jiffy.
• We’re one block away from Publix, the only grocery store on the island.
• The best French bakery outside of Paris is a half block away.
• Don’t want the kids under foot 24/7? There is the Palm Beach Hotel down the street.
• A drycleaner around the corner
• A hairdresser and barber in the building
• The Catholic Church is on the corner; two Synagogues are at your disposal one block away in opposite directions (to separate the orthodox from the reform) and the lovely Bethesda by the Sea Episcopal Church is only a short drive south.
• No need to wear a watch, the church bells ring every quarter on the hour to keep you tuned in.
• For the golfers and tennis players, there is the Breakers two minutes to the south
• So is the local post office
• Sprinkles for ice cream cones and smoothies, is a cool place for the grandchildren if you want them out of your hair.
• Eateries galore are just around the corner.
• If you’re looking for friends, all you have to do is smile.
• And yes, if you want to bitch… there is always the grievance committee!

 

So why am I complaining?

• I’m a cantankerous old codger who loves to be left alone
• A New Yorker who, after forty-five years of living in one apartment, knows only five tenants (none by name)… and that is how I like it
• In Palm Beach, we’re living in my Mother’s old apartment and she, at age 86, used to complain that the people were all too old…. I’ve turned into the same old scrooge 
• Admittedly the doldrums are relieved at vacation time, when we are deluged with beautiful young people and their screaming offspring. Having said this, I can’t wait for vacation to be over and the place returns to its humdrum self

 

Me, as the Curmudgeon! 

 

 

What Should We Do with Our Money Now

 

© Copyright Vladimir Kagan, March 11, 2011

 Part two on the financial crisis

Forty guests at the Coudert Institute meeting receiving an earful of advice

Day two of our financial Seminar at the Coudert Institute was filled with cool information for those that still have money to invest (and Palm Beach has its share). The four Panelists gave us their diverse experience in staying above the fray in managing our assets.

 

In the “olden days” it was ideas that turned into wealth… today its money that begets money…

 

Fredrick Alger is a money manager and was the Chairman and chief Marketing Strategist at the firm that bears his name.

He said our fiscal troubles started in 1941 when most countries adopted the Bretton-Woods system, which set the exchange value for all currencies in terms of gold. However, many countries simply pegged the value of their currency to the dollar, thus making the dollar the defacto world currency. Gold was set at $35 per ounce.

The year 1970 was the crucial turning point. Under the Nixon administration, the costs of the Vietnam War increased and domestic spending accelerated inflation. The U.S. was running a balance of payments deficit and a trade deficit, the first in the 20th century. Because of foreign arbitrage of the U.S. dollar, it caused governmental gold coverage of the paper dollar to decline from 55% to 22%. Ever since the dollar has lost value. Back then, a dollar could buy 4 French Francs - 5 Swiss….. Today we get 70¢ (cents) against the Euro and 90¢ against the Swiss.

•            The Euro has doubled since its inception in 1999

•             Our basic commodities such as food and grain have doubled in the last eighteen months.

•            Metals and textile doubled since 2009.

•            Meanwhile China’s consumption of these products is up 20%

•            We are paying 3-½% interest on our borrowed money – our debt stands at 15.5 Trillion today –               in the next five years it will go to 20 Trillion… some say more.

•            Interest payments will equal 50% of our Federal revenues.

•             Our Debt to Revenue ratio has fallen behind Greece and Iceland (did I hear that correctly?)

•            As deficits go up, it increases the Dollar Bubble… When it pops, it will be our children who must               pay.

•            We should not wait for our children to solve the problem… it is ours now.

Need I go on with statistics???? You, my savvy readers, probably already know them… for me, they were revelations.

 

The cure is simple: Cut military spending by 50%, BUT nobody wants to cut the Military; Not Congress, not the Generals, nor the purveyors of the hardware…. So let’s cut foreign aid, services and any other spending that won’t affect you or me. (Of course, no one wants to talk about raising taxes… you just can’t get elected on that platform…v.k.)

Back to where we should put our money, Mr. Alger pointed out that the Art Market is one of the only winners in this crisis. Paintings bought twenty, thirty years ago have increased 50 times their original purchase price when they resurfaced at auctions today…. Are you ready too buy contemporary ART? Other good investment opportunities: foreign currency, gold, silver, other metals, commodities.

   
Dog with Bird is a no-no - Ingre's Nude is passe  -  exchange for a Rauschenberg... it's money in the bank

......He left us with this tidbit: “Economics evolve – they do not recycle.”

 

Our next speaker was Robert Wiedemer the co-author of America’s Bubble Economy and Aftershock.

Regardless of opinion to the contrary… stimulus did help stem off disaster and is helping the recovery…. Mr. Wiedemer treated us to more statistics:

•            A hundred years ago this country’s work force was 90% Farming… today it is 3%

•            Demand for resources by Emerging Nations, not China alone has driven the bubble.

•            Foreign exchange rates, (not skills) export jobs.

•            Firing people does not solve productivity; it’s by increasing technology.

•            Invest in Technology: Apple, not too long ago was selling at $3 today it’s up to $360…. This               kind of inflated valuation is spearheading an eventual Stock Market bubble.

 

Bernard Picchi is managing director of Private Wealth Management at Palisade Capital Management, L.L.C. and a former Wall Street energy analyst.                  

He dove straight into that black sticky stuff called OIL…”heavy and sweet”… Mid-East Oil, Libyan Oil, shale Oil from Canada, Oil exploration here and elsewhere, friendly Oil in Brazil, less friendly Oil in Venezuela, China and India’s insatiable need for Oil. (He personally is all in favor of alternative energy but that’s not where he is investing).

•            Wind and solar amount to less than 1% of present production and when in high gear may                          produce 2%.

•            Quality matters - therefore the source matters. Saudi Oil is heavy and needs a lot of expensive               refining – Libyan oil is ‘Sweet” and ideal for gasoline…BUT what’s happening in that country                   affects gas prices as today. (Gas in Palm Beach has jumped 50 cents per gallon in a week).

•            Natural gas a nice bi-product, but hard to transport and not easily used in your car.

•            A final statistic: Third World oil demands exceed that of the developed nations!

 

Bruce Helander, a former Worth Avenue Art Dealer is founder and editor-in-chief of the Art Economist Magazine.

His presentation was a sleeper. Did you know that Modern Art has appreciated 260% since the recession? He wasn’t talking about “the bird in a dog’s mouth” pastiche or the buxom nudes reclining by a woodland pool that we all love. NO he meant the jarring stuff of 20^th century art: Andy Warhol, whom he considers the father genius of all Pop Art… Remove the comfort art from your walls and start hanging the Rothkos, and all the other stuff you can’t figure out the artist’s message. (There aint no message… it’s converting your money into his or her pocket and everyone gets richer.)

 
  
My son, Illya Kagan painting in Palm Beach - Two Nantucket scenes painted "en plein air"... Even his painting have increased in value ten fold since he started painting twenty years ago. (my advice: buy Illya's paintings... good for our family!)

 Illya Kagan, is a “plein air painter” who creates beautiful impressionistic images of Nantucket landscapes, Miami lifeguard shacks, Aspen snow scenes and St. Barths' colorful boats and quaint streets. As a living artist, He will probably never get very rich doing this, but he loves what he does… He says value is all in the eyes of the beholder… it’s basic worth is just the canvas or paper it is created on… everything else is perception. Taking this a step further, he illustrates that our money is the same thing: take a dollar bill and a hundred dollar bill… it is printed on the same paper, uses the same ink, is the same size, looks alike… but we accept the value because we have faith in the government that printed it….This is called fiduciary money. The same is true of an Illya Kagan or a Robert Rauschenberg painting or a Vladimir Kagan sofa. The value of all these things hold firm as long as the supply does not out-stip the demand. The Picasso Estate assiduously protects its value by withholding thousands of images from the open market. The same holds true of our dollar as long as the government doesn't print too much, the value is protected... if they do, we have inflation.

 
        Illya Kagan's simple reflections on the value of art... "It's all in the eye's of the beholder"
 

William Cathers moderates The Aspen Institute and works with inner-city High Schools to enlighten and motivate the students

He is a philosopher, an entertainer, a song and dance man, a teacher. He regaled us like an old-fashioned Baptist preacher, stirring up a frenzy with his Sunday sermon: “Animal Spirits’ From Fear to Confidence”

 

Cathers’ multimedia presentation examined the ideas and music born in the 1930’s depression and its impact on the “animal spirits” of the American public during this country’s darkest times…. He intertwine the life and philosophic writings of Ludwig van Beethoven, who suffered terrible depravity as a child and early in his 20s became deaf… to illustrate his struggle with life Cathers played an excerpt from Beethoven 5^th symphony… animating the music with a boxing bout!... In a flash, Cathers brought us up to speed with Lois Armstrong’s struggle to escape an impoverished youth through his music…. Count Basie, already the king of jazz, traveling through the south, entertaining in Hotels he couldn’t stay in (sleeping on the train between performances). Cathers kept our spirits dancing in the aisles and wanting more…. He is a great fan of Keynesian optimism; his message was clear:

•            In the worst of times, there is always hope.            

•            Man’s spirit can rise above despair.

•            Out of adversity comes man’s ability to rise above the fray – survive and move ever upwards.

 

A good revival meeting in these tough times!

 

For information on the Coudert institute go to 

www.coudertinstitute.com

 

To see more Illya Kagan paintings go to www.illyakagan.com

 

 

Financial Crisis, Problems of Enforcement - part 1

 

 

The Economy is Rotten… But We’ll Survive

(for the time being!)

A report on the latest Coudert Institute seminar

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, March 8, 2011

 

By now, the economy and it’s bi-product, the deficit should be old-hat news, but it has taken the country by storm… even revolutions in the Mid-east can’t drive the issue off the headlines.

 

 The gibberish going on in Congress is Band-Aid medicine… No One wants to give up their entitlement… it’s OK if it’s the other guys benefits, but don’t take mine! There can be no real fix without increased revenue… which means taxation.

 

With its in-your-face approach to current events, last week’s session at the Coudert Institute was a shock treatment.

 

We’ve been diddled by the banks… and other big-time players!

 

This revelation came on a pleasant sunny afternoon in Dale Coudert’s garden…

 

….Laid out in plain language by Robert Monks, the author of Corpocracy and a lifelong expert on corporate governance together with Richard D. Greenfield, a banking, securities and consumer litigator.

 

•            The financial meltdown was a man-made crisis, triggered by corporate greed. It started with reckless husbanding of the sub-prime mortgages.

•            Back in 2001 banks had an investment ratio of 7 to 1…. By 2008 it had jumped to 50 to 1.

•            There was no accountability

•            Many of the Multi-national corporations are bigger than a country…Only the super 8 powers are larger. We’re talking about corporate giants like Citigroup, Exxon, Goldman Sachs.

•            They are largely unaccountable to any country’s laws. They write their own rules. Their leaders are the Emperors of today; they vote salaries to themselves that are obscene. Their Board’s are composed of like-minded corporate cronies that create a buddy system.

•            Shareholders can’t shake their control.

•            In the USA, their favorite state for incorporation is Delaware, with laws that coddle their transgressions.

•            They are not shy to incorporate in tax havens like, The Cayman Islands, Sky, Guernsey

•            These modern-day villains fall under the banner of Wall Street…. No wonder it is considered the curse of the 21^st Century.

•            No one has been punished. No one has gone to jail.

 

The Rouge's Gallery

Richards Fuld Jr. Lehman Bros.             Sanford Weill  CitiBank             E. Stanley O'Neil: Merirril Lynch

 
 Lloyd Blanfein Goldman Sachs

 

In no uncertain terms, Monks and Greenfield implicated the culpritidy of Lloyd Blanfein, Chairman of Goldman Sachs, who, at the onset of the crisis in 2007 received the largest corporate bonus ever of $67.9 Million. Aided by his old colleague Bob Rubin, recently returned to the firm after a stint as Treasury secretary under Clinton. (A recent quote in a financial paper) “The Treasury secretary who presided over the now-bursting bubble might be a logical subject for some of the discussion out there right now. But no: Robert Rubin is invisible these days, lost in the lazy media impulse to blame whoever’s in power now. Rubin along with Phil Gramm, helped kill legislation to make derivatives more transparent”

 

Sanford Weill, chairman of Citigroup, was one of the worst. His “culpritity” in the crisis that burst the bubble has his fingerprints all over it’s creation.…He spearheaded the sub-prime dilemma by blandly ignoring the risks: Mortgages going to unqualified borrowers, inflated land and real estate values. They traded these amongst themselves, bundling good loans into the bad and creating false profits and values.

 

Richard S. Fuld, Jr., the arrogant chairman of the now defunct Lehman Bros. The 4th largest investment bank in the USA…. A March 2010 report by the court-appointed examiner indicated that Lehman executives regularly used cosmetic accounting gimmicks at the end of each quarter to make its finances appear less shaky than they really were.

 

E.  Stanley O’Neal, chairman of Merrill Lynch, now a subsidiary of Bank of America, on November 2007, announced it would write-down $8.4 billion in losses associated with the national housing crisis… He got fired for this.

 

The system had been rotten for years, ever since President Reagan started to strip away regulations, it left the banks and investment bankers to forage on their own. No one paid attention to the underpaid regulators, who were easily bought and brought into the banking system. The bank’s own mandated regulatory systems were ignored. It all imploded by 2007. All signs of their flagrant miss-management and cover-ups were ignored.

 

In 2009, President Obama considered these culprits too large to fail and bailed them out….. He paid bitterly for this in the 2010 elections.

 

$$$$$$$

 

The bad news was sweetened by an after dinner cabaret featuring my old friend Robert Hardwick and his trio accompanying Nancy Anderson and Patricia Cook, who sang songs with monetary themes…. A surreal ending to a heavy dose of reality.

The next morning’s session was  down-to-earth…. I’ll tell you about this in my next letter.

 

P.S. Bob Monks and Dick Greenfield are no strangers to big money…Greenfield, as a class-action lawyer has made millions while the public he battles for make pennies. Monks is old money…Both are familiar with and on a first name basis with the culprits; they went to the same prep schools and colleges; sit on the same charities and eat at the same dinner parties. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oscar Fever In The Design World

 

or

My Oscar Moment has finally come!

 

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, March 2, 2011

 

The long awaited Oscars have come and gone. Hallelujah!

 

While the Oscars had the portent for a great Sunday Night’s entertainment, we had difficulty keeping our guests till the finale. Out of thirty, only five hung-in there to the bitter end…. (And that was by locking the door)…. A testament to a dull evening… It wasn’t our food, which was varied, plentiful and gobbled up… it was the drab entertainment, the boring presenters, (how I long for the return of the comic hosts)… the over-the-top lavish sets that overwhelmed the evening’s performance…. And then there were to tediously boring, lethargic, predictable, acceptance speeches that were even duller than the advertisements!... One of the winners, oozing with platitudes… forgot his wife’s name!

 

The design world has its own Oscar moments. Last year I was honored with induction into the Designer Hall of Fame… a lavish event at the Waldorf Astoria in New York…. a happening only surpassed by Hollywood.

  Me - with some of my entourage, Maureen Beesch, Renee and Carl Landegger, and my wonderful wife, Erica at the Waldorf for the 25th celebration of The Designer Hall Of Fame

 

 Handsome son Illya with Dad

One of my fellow awardees, Ron Radziner and the glamorous Erica Kagan  


Cindy Allen, Editor of Interior Design Magazine and the host of the evening's event... welcoming me
 

...and here I am, bigger-than-life, with my pithy acceptance speech

 

 

Coming this October, THE NATIONAL DESIGN AWARDS sponsored by The Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum Smithsonian Institution…. This is the one award that has eluded me for years!!!

2011 marks my third time Nominated…. (Does that give me bragging rights? Oscar nominations carry BIG weight.) , Each time I am nominated, I have hovered in the rarefied air of the crème-de-la-crème of the design world… each year I was beaten by heavier weights…. I spent an inordinate amount of time prepping and pruning for this event…I fine-tune the previous year’s presentations, adding new fodder. I try to reinvent myself for the judges.

 

This year I am poised to win! In anticipation, I am having my tux altered to allow for a wider girth… I am shopping for the right barber to coif my hair, I am working on my acceptance speech. (October is around the corner and one must be prepared)…. I can hardly wait…. To surreptitiously bolster my chances of winning, I will post myself on FaceBook, Twitter and Linkedin to familiarize the judges with my face.

…. And for you, my good friends, I will give a snipped of my presentation (in the film industry, these are called trailers)… I hope you will bring pressure on the “Academy” to select this highly qualified and deserving candidate.

My Sculptured Contour Chair, designed in 1953, now in the Museum of Fine Arts - Boston and the V&A - London

Limited Edition Fiberglas Chairs for Ralph Pucci International - designed in 2009

Flame sculpture in charcoal Fiberglas 2010

The Dune Sofa for Barlow - Tyrie of London designed in 2007 

Custom Serpentine Sofa for private client

 

(First, in fairness, I feel obliged to check with the "Academy" so they do not feel I am influencing the judges unfairly.)