Chelsea Gallerista

High lunge for Paris - 5 down, 6 to go! Read my complete Spot Challenge chronicle After knocking off the two galleries in London, the next logical stop was Paris, a couple of hours away by Eurostar, the undersea train that goes through the "Chunnel." My one-way Eurostar fare from London to Paris was $US160, purchased in advance using the RailEurope.com site. Now a lot of travel bloggers tell you to avoid this site like the plague - it's the default portal for anyone booking over the web who happens to have their butt on America, and apparently "charges more." They suggest you use the local sites - although you're subject to the whim of exchange rate conversions and deciphering foreign language sites ("just use your intuition," said one blogger blithely). Well, the French woman sitting beside me in the Eurostar waiting lounge was amazed, telling me her ticket cost something like 150 Euro - Vs my 106, so I felt for once in my life I ma

5 down, 11 to go in the Spot Challenge! Thanks to the extraordinarily cool security guards at the Britannia St Gagosian Gallery for taking this attempt at a tripod inversion (hmmm ... I should have fixated on a spot. But which one?) Read my complete Spot Challenge chronicle From the chic, sunny sidewalk of Rodeo Drive to the icy, sleet-whipped streets of London: many have said, why on earth did you backtrack, from New York to LA to London? Why not keep flying in one direction: New York, LA, Hong Kong (as many Spot Challengers have done)?  Simple: since the Beverly Hills show closed in 3 days, and the London show in the coming week, getting those two out of the way first would save me a mad scramble through Europe. The Spot Challenge is thus threefold:  do it on a budget, do it in the dead of a particularly severe EU winter, and do it before each of the galleries closed their respective shows. The Davies St Gallery showcased the wee little spots The staff at Gagosian Lon

Fabulous Santa Monica seaside architecture Read my complete Spot Challenge chronicle I've been "flat out like a lizard drinking" since winging my way from NY to LA to London on the Damien Hirst Spot Challenge. I'm about to head to Paris on the Eurostar first thing tomorrow (and Brits roll their eyes when you call it the "Chunnel" - apparently that's the term for the car ferry). So let's do a quick catch up: 8 countries with one  Traffic Cone Bag First, I'm traveling impossibly light on this 8 country, 2 week global jaunt with just my signature  Traffic Cone Bag ,  I'll bore you with the full equipment list at end of this post (but it might have to wait til I'm paused in Rome).  That's the small one at the right, and I've got it inside the slightly bigger one, so in a pinch I have two ultralight, under-armpittable baggies. Already in the short hop from NY to LA I've managed to lose my inflatable pillow and Smar