Woman In Gold, Gold, and More Gold

What an amazing painting featured in the movie, Woman In Gold.

The painting is called the Portrait of Adele Block-Bauer I and was commissioned by her adoring husband. 

That face! And surrounded by everything in gold yet you can still clearly make out her stunning dress. 

I’ve never seen anything like this: the vividness and the majesty of it. 

Honestly, I think there is a resemblance to my beautiful mother, Gerda Blumenthal who was also from Germany. 

The interesting history on this is that it was stolen by the Nazis from the Jewish owners in the Holocaust, but was finally returned to their family in America that succeeded in suing Austria for it back.

This is truly one of the greats! 😉

(Credit Photo: Gustav Klimt [Public domain])

Check Out Those Rims

Wow, this was some car that I saw in Florida. 

Pimp my ride! LOL

Check out those awesome gold rims with this blue “oldies” car. 

This was definitely a standout even down there where there are plenty of Bentleys and Lamborghinis driving around. 

The owner of the car gave me a big thumbs up when I tool this photo. 

Hope you enjoy and Shabbat Shalom!

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Searching For Gold

This guy had some getup on in Fort Lauderdale on the toasty beach. 

He’s in the ocean dressed in a full wetsuit with a mask over his face, a hat on his head, and the headphones over his ears. 

He had a metal detector and wand looking for lost gold in the water right off the beach. 

But didn’t see him find a dime the whole time we were there. 

I can’t believe these guys can actually find enough jewelry on the beach to make this worth while. 

Back and forth with the wand…searching, searching.  😉

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Retro Cool Digital Watch

Wow, I love this retro digital Computron watch from Bulova. 

I remember when the first digital LED watches with the red numbers like this first came out in the 1970s. 

They were quite expensive then!

Part of the computer revolution. LOL

I remember my uncle had something like this and I thought how cool it was–no moving hands to read.

Also, has a little of that sci-fi Battlestar Galactica red (moving) light effect from the cybernetic enemy, Cylon visors. 

What’s old is what’s new.  😉

Nothing Is Something AND Something Is Nothing

So the world financial markets continue to go haywire. 

The Uber glorified taxi service and app (with an almost half billion dollar operating loss) is now valued at–get this–over $50,000,000,000!

And commodities–you know the precious materials that REAL things are made off (gold, silver, copper, aluminum, oil, gas, coal, wheat, cotton, corn, soybeans, cotton, cocoa, coffee, sugar, beef, and more) hit a 13 year low. 

When the nothings of this world like a basic cab service become invaluable and the real things that power our homes, technology, transportation, and manufacturing become valueless–then we know a day of painful financial reckoning is coming. 

The markets can stand on their head for only so long before the blood rushes in and people become dizzy and see spots.

A reversion to the mean is the one something here that is inevitable, along with a pretty decent recession to boot. 😉

(Source Photos: Andy Blumenthal)

Strange Leggings

Took this photo in the mall of this very strange looking pair of leggings. 

Sort of an ancient Egyptian style complete with princess, gold, and a cast of phony “G-ds”–sun, falcon, tiger, and more.  

Not sure who would actually wear these, but all the power to them. 

They are made so you “Walk like An Egyptian“–Go Bangles!

Can you hear me sing it?  😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Ushering In 2014

As we usher in 2014, I thought this amazing Fendi Jewel Watch for women was a great timekeeping way to capture the moment.

I took this photo in the Bellagio Hotel in Vegas.

There was a huge advertisement hanging by the lobby, and it immediately caught my eye.

I like the different colored stones for each hour around the dial, as well as the overall white diamond ring around the face.

I found it at their website for $3,000 and it is an absolutely gorgeous timepiece when you first see it.

But it’s interesting to me that while it catches my eye, the more I look it, I find that I start to tire of it, and it is not one of those truly timeless jewelry pieces.

Maybe an important lesson for the New Year is that we need to look closely and carefully to avoid expensive buyers remorse, because not everything that glitters is gold–in fact, this watch is stainless. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Government Shutdown – Starbucks

So today is Day #2 of the Federal Government Shutdown.

This is a picture from the local Starbucks that is typically billowing at lunch time–as you can see it’s basically a morgue.

Unfortunately, hard-working Federal employees, contractors, and local business are feeling the impact!

Even from those that are still working, there is word of “survivor’s guilt”–like with a plane crash or other calamity, when those who survive the catastrophe question why they were so fortunate when the others weren’t so lucky and perished.

With both the budget shutdown and the impending debt ceiling showdown–we are facing the perfect storm, with real negotiation and compromise yet to emerge.

With this all, our significant national problems aren’t going away–to the contrary, Iran and North Korea are still global nuclear threats, Syria still has chemical weapons, the economy remains on shaky ground (in the paper today, the once high-flying pharmaceutical company Merck is planning to lay off 20%!), the national debt continues to spiral out of control (albeit at a “slower pace”), cybersecurity remains a major national security risk (although Cyber Command continues to stand up its new headquarters and firepower), and so much more.

Bubble stocks rose again yesterday after an almost 20% one-year return. Not only that, but the safety of gold took a beating again after an almost 40% one-year decline (full disclosure, I am a recent investor in the latter). One has to wonder how long it will take for sanity to prevail once again.

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Genuine Artificial Gold

When I was a youngster going to summer camp, a great guy, “The Chief” lifeguard, used to tempt the kids to behave by offering them a prize of some “genuine artificial gold.”

Here are some thought provoking sayings from a cybersecurity class I took recently (you decide whether these are true for your organization):

– Organizational Power: “He who controls the budget, billets, and IT controls the organization.”

– Micromanagement: “There is no greater enabler of micromanagement than information technology [and a crappy manager].”

– Getting to a Decision: “A non-decision is a decision.”

– Managing Performance: “An organization is not well-suited to collecting data about itself.”

– Mission and Personal Focus: “If you try to be everything to everybody, you end up being nothing to nobody.”

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)