Today's Jewelry

Small seconds are in this year for Girard-Perregaux. New for 2011 will be this "Petite Seconde" model in the brand's 1966 watch collection. Though I must admit the dial, with its classic feel and Breguet style numbers looks like something from well before 1966. The case on the other hand still feels about right with the purported era. As a formal watch does with a simple dial and Arabic numerals, this watch is hard to beat. Love the blued steel hands and the very tiny touch of red for the number "60" in the subsidiary seconds dial. You used to see watches like this from a long time ago with a red colored "12." People used to guess why it was red, but I am thinking that it was just for style. As such, the dial has white, black, blue, and red making for a good sophisticated look. Oh, and the dial is gonna look extra good because it is done in enamel. Fancy! But really not "1966." 

The case is still 40mm wide in 18k white or rose gold, and has a sapphire crystal over the front and back. Inside the relatively thin case is an in-house made Girard-Perregaux GP03300-50 automatic movement. The movement is finely decorated and has a gold rotor. Look for this timepiece sometime next year. 

Estate of the Day

Today's home on 1.9 acres in New York's Southampton Village began life as a gatehouse to The Dolphins, one of the biggest estates in the area. Newsday's Real LI reported that the house was expanded into a summer home when the land was subdivided about 40 years ago and is now a comfortable year-round home with easy access to the ocean and to the Meadow Club. Curbed Hamptons says that the home's owner was once the chief executive of Deutsche Bank, but is "now chairman of a German telecommunications company." The 2,900-square-foot "cottage" has five bedrooms and the Architectural Review Board has also approved plans for a 10,000-square-foot house, pool and tennis court. It is listed for $10.4 million with Saunders & Associates. For more photos' please click on the link below.
http://www.luxist.com/photos/seven-maples/

Singer of the Week

Karen Clark Sheard, the our-time Grammy Award winning American gospel singer, songwriter, daughter of Gospel Legend Dr. Mattie Moss Clark, member of the pioneering, best-selling female Gospel-group of all time, The Clark Sisters,^[2] and mother of contemporary gospel singer and actress Kierra "Kiki" Sheard. . Sheard’s multi-octave vocal range and dizzying vocal gymnastics with and without the legendary Clark Sisters have inspired a host of today’s brightest pop divas such as Beyonce, Mariah Carey, and Faith Evans among others.Sheard rose to fame as a solo artist in the mid-90s with her groundbreaking classic debut, Finally Karen and has become one of the most respected musically inclined vocalists of her era.

During the hiatus of the Clark Sisters, Sheard recorded her critically acclaimed and much anticipated solo album Finally Karen, which spawned her hit, "Balm in Gilead" (a re-recording of a song she originally recorded as part of The Clark Sisters back in the 1980s for their Heart & Soul album) the R&B-flavored "Just For Me" and "Nothing Without You" - a contemporary duet with R&B diva Faith Evans. Finally Karen became one of the most successful gospel albums of 1998 earning Sheard a Grammy nomination and earning her a Soul Train Lady of Soul Award for "Best Female Vocalist".

After her debut album success and much touring, Sheard was hospitalized in 2001 after one of her blood vessels burst during a minor surgery, resulting in doctors giving her a 2% chance of survival. Her testimony inspired the title name for her long-awaited sophomore project, Second Chance released in 2002, featuring a "Secret Place" - which is now considered a classic amongst fans. Sheard recorded two more live albums, including The Heavens Are Telling and It's Not Over (which featured some studio recordings), before releasing All in One, Sheard's first all-studio-recorded album in 13 years. The album debuted at #3 on the U.S. Billboard Gospel Chartand #98 on Billboard's Top 200 albums chart, while its first single "Prayed Up" has so far peaked at #10 on the U.S. Billboard Gospel Songs chart.

The "Queen of Soul", Aretha Franklin, chose Sheard to play her in her upcoming biopic, believing that only Sheard herself could play the role better than any other artist in her time.

Preacher of the Week

Bishop Eddie Long, the senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, a megachurch in unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, near Lithonia. When Long started as pastor for New Birth in 1987, there were 300 church members. Since his installation, membership has grown to 25,000.

Long was honored in 2005 at the Trumpet Awards for his leadership, dedication and service around the world.

In 2006, Long was chosen by the family of Martin Luther King, Jr. to host and officiate the funeral for Mrs. Coretta Scott King, wife of the late civil rights pioneer. The event was attended by four Presidents (George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter).

Long was a prominent supporter of George W. Bush's faith-based initiatives. His ministry received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Administration of Children & Families. Rev. Timothy McDonald suggested a link between Long's anti-gay activity and the grant saying "If you look at the black pastors who have come out with the faith-based money, they're the same ones who have come out with campaigns on the gay marriage issue."

Long features on rapper Ludacris' album Release Therapy where he delivers a speech about God and faith on the track "Freedom of Preach."

The congregation of New Birth may be considered part of the Bapticostal movement. Long says that he has experienced speaking in tongues.

Long was born in Huntersville, North Carolina, to Floyd and Hattie Long and graduated from North Mecklenburg High School in 1972. Long is the husband of Vanessa Griffin Long and the father of four children, Eric, Edward, Jared and Taylor.

Long married Dabara S. Houston in 1981 and were divorced after a brief marriage. The couple's son Edward Long is New Birth's youth director for junior and senior high ministries.

Today's Jewelry

Next year will see Girard-Perregaux releasing this new version of their acclaimed Cat's Eye watch collection for women. On the trend of simplicity, this upcoming model has a more simple in-house made Girard-Perregaux Caliber GP3300 automatic mechanical movement with the time, date, and subsidiary seconds dial. For the most part this watch is simply another flavor in a long standing collection. The oval-shaped case is the "cat's eye" and it is 35.40mm wide in 18k pink or white gold. The bezel is lined with 62 diamonds, with more diamonds used on the dial for hour markers. The dials are very lovely mother-of-pearl plates in either 'dark' or natural. The watch strap is alligator. While this is an aging woman's watch collection, the pieces are classic, and always feel good. 

Estate of the Day

ctress Michele Greene had made quite the second career for herself after her days on "L.A. Law" and other shows. She's also an author who writes young adult books. She's leaving Los Angeles to write her next book and has put her home in the Hollywood Dell on the market for $1.05 million. The Spanish-style house was built in 1923 and was redone in 2004. The LA Times reports that the house was once home to director King Vidor and, later, actress Helen Hayes. Vintage details includes coved ceilings, arches, large windows with original glass and a Batchelder tile fireplace. The four-bedroom home has two patios and a roof deck. The listing is here. For more photos' please click on the link below.
http://www.luxist.com/photos/michele-greene-in-hollywood-dell/

Today's Jewelry

Chanel, oh Chanel, what influence you have had on the luxury women's watch market. Not only did you make the color white, the tone of the town, but you also opened up doors to legions of brands looking to benefit from the market of lady's (and men) who could not afford Chanel prices. At first people had little choice but to fawn over 'ye old J12,' but now that ceramic is becoming more affordable to the mainstream, most anyone can have a sexy white ceramic watch. 

While the Chanel J12 (and a few others) still set the bar in terms of quality and designs, there is a huge market of white ceramic watches out there for today's woman. One here is the Rougois White Ceramic Ladies' Chronograph. Just a nice simple 40mm wide (wears a bit small) watch in white ceramic with steel accents on the case. With a price online of $239.95, you get a handsome amount for your money. 

Dial is easy to read though I would have preferred the hands to be a touch longer, and with a bit more contrast. Elements are applied, and there is some lume on the dial as well. Inside the watch is a Swiss Made ISA quartz movement with a 30 minute chronograph, subsidiary seconds dial, day of the week, and the date.

Over the dial is a sapphire crystal and the ceramic bracelet is nicely tapered for a more elegant look. While the watch does not totally standout as different from its competitors, it does have a nice selection of parts, a chic look, and certainly satisfies in terms of price when it comes to getting a white ceramic woman's watch.

Estate of the Day

Tetonia, Idaho takes its name from being the gateway to the Teton Mountains. Today's home is an expansive ranch that showcases some of the landscape of this picturesque area. The ranch consists of 938 acres which borders national forest and it has a hangar and airstrip. The ranch also has an equestrian facility with an indoor arena and stables. It has recently been a home for breeding beautiful Lusitano horses.

The main home is a 10,000 sq. ft. home with five bedrooms and Western log cabin luxe styling. It's positioned on a hill for great views. The listing says that 760 acres are in a conservation easement and approximately 178 acres are available for development potential. This ranch is listed at $14.5 million. For more photos' please click on the link below. 
http://www.luxist.com/photos/tetonia-idaho/

Today's Jewelry

ne of my favorite "check me out and stare at me" complications is still the TriRetrograde movement module by Milus. Utterly pointless, the complication is nevertheless great to watch. It takes the seconds indicator and divides it up into three 20 seconds retrograde dials. Even after is release a few years ago, the Milus Tirion "still has it." Next on the list of variants of the collection is this DLC black model with a lot of carbon fiber.

The case itself is 45mm wide in steel covered with hard DLC, but the strap, dial, and bezel are carbon fiber. There is really a lot going on in this watch, but it is still quite fun - and sporty as well. I was impressed with the collection since I first saw them. Not only is the look very enduringly good, but the quality is impressive as well. While I haven't seen this specific model yet, it should satisft those who have a 'need' for the black look with all the carbon fiber. Movement is an adapted Swiss ETA movement with a special Milus module over it.

Estate of the Day

Today's home is a truly unique twist on antebellum Greek Revival style in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Harvey Washington Walter, who made a fortune building the Mississippi Central Railroad, asked the town's architect, Spires Boling, to create something different from other grand mansions in the area. The center of the house is classic Greek Revival but Boling added massive medieval Gothic towers with castellated battlements to each end of the house. The home, constructed in 1859, was among the last great mansions built before the Civil War. During the Civil War, general and future president Ulysses S. Grant moved his wife Julia into the home. The mansion later became a hospital for victims of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878. The home was later restored and reflects the styles of its original era. 

The home on 15 acres includes the huge columned brick main house as well as two architecturally significant 1830s guest "cottages." In between there is a botanical park designed in 1903 by a famed landscape architect. It has hundred year old trees & hills, a pond, waterfalls and paths. This home is listed at $15 million with Dorian Bennett Sothebys.

Estate of the Day

Today's home in Coral Gables, Florida encompasses almost two acres and has a prime peninsula-like spot which offers approximately 900 linear feet of waterfront overlooking Biscayne Bay. The five-bedroom home is in the gated community of Gables Estates. The home was built in 1991 and has a Mediterranean style with multiple levels positioned to offer the best views. It includes a state-of-the-art media/theater room with a 103-inch plasma television, a wine cellar, a library with fireplace and patios for both daily living and entertaining. The grounds include both lush green lawns and a private sandy beach with a bricked path completely surrounding the estate. It also has protected dockage and a pool with a water bar and waterfalls. This home is listed at $23 million. 

Winner of 2010 Billionaire Society Music Awards

Winner of the 2010 Billionaire Society Music Awards, "Pastor Shirley Caesar", and her Award-Winning Song "Favor". Click on the link to listen to the song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pLeNo44Cx8

Winner of 2010 Billionaire Society Actress Awards

Winner of the 2010 Billionaire Society Actress Awards "Jada Pinkett Smith".
Here is a clip of her, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEaclacbgMc

Winner of the 2010 Billionaire Society Actors Awards

Winner of the 2010 Billionaire Society Actors Awards is "Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson".
Here is a few clips of him, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZkbP3Fcg5k

Today's Actress

Alfre Woodard, the American actress. Woodard is an Academy Award Nominee, and 4 time Emmy Winner.

Woodard's television credits include Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, Puss in Boots, L.A. Law, and Homicide: Life on the Street. Woodard has won four Primetime Emmy Awards for her television performances in Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, the television movie Miss Evers' Boys, andThe Practice. In 2003, Woodard, took part in the HBO film Unchained Memories WPA slave narratives. She has also received Emmy nominations for Words by Heart, St. Elsewhere,Unnatural Causes, a second for St. Elsewhere, A Mother's Courage: The Mary Thomas Story, The Piano Lesson, Gulliver's Travels, Homicide: Life on the Street, and The Water Is Wide. From 2005 to 2006, Woodard starred in the ABC series Desperate Housewives, and received another Emmy nomination for her role as Betty Applewhite. Woodard has appeared on stage in such plays as Map of the World, Drowning Crow, Me & Bessie, and The Winter's Tale. She starred in Tyler Perry's latest film The Family That Preys.

In 2009, she appeared in American Violet, where she plays the mother of a 24-year-old African American woman who is wrongfully swept up in a drug raid.

She stars in the third season of the Vampire Television series True Blood.

She is currently starring as Lt. Tanya Rice in Memphis Beat.

Woodard lives in Santa Monica, California, with her husband, writer Roderick Spencer, and their two children, Mavis and Duncan. Woodard follows Christian Science. She is a founder and board member of Artists for a New South Africa and is also active in the Democratic Party. In February 2009, she joined a group of American film directors and actors on a cultural trip to Iran at the invitation of the "House of Cinema" forum in Tehran. Her daughter, Mavis, served as Miss Golden Globe for the 2010 Golden Globe Awards.

Today's Actor

Hill Harper, the Americanfilm, television and stage actor, and author. An alumnus of Harvard Law School, his portrayal ofDr. Sheldon Hawkes on the CBS drama television series CSI: NY has earned him the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series for three consecutive years (2008–2010).
arper broke into both film and television in 1993, doing recurring work on the Fox series Married...with Children and making his film debut in the short Confessions of a Dog. He had his first substantial role in a feature in Spike Lee's Get on the Bus (1996), which cast him as a UCLA film student riding a bus to the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. He went on to further demonstrate his versatility in such films as Lee'sHe Got Game (1998) and Christopher Scott Cherot's Hav Plenty (1998), the latter of which featured him as an egotistical pop-soul singer. His profile subsequently rose on both the mainstream and independent film circuits, thanks to roles in films ranging from Beloved (film) (1998) to the independent romantic comedy Loving Jezebel (1999) to The Skulls (2000), an entry into the teen thriller genre. Harper did some of his most acclaimed work in Jordan Walker Pearlman's The Visit (2000), an independent drama in which he starred as a prisoner dying of AIDS who tries to put his life back together. His best-known role to date is that of coroner-turned-crime-scene-investigator Sheldon Hawkes on the American TV show CSI: NY, the third spin-off from the very successful CSI: Crime Scene Investigation franchise. He portrayed Leshem in the Syfy original movie Stonehenge Apocalypse.

Harper is the author of three books: Letters to a Young Brother, published in 2006, Letters to a Young Sister: DeFINE Your Destiny, published in 2008 and The Conversation, published in 2009.

In January 2008, he participated in "Yes We Can", a music video supporting Barack Obama, produced by Will.I.Am. Harper is a member of the Obama for America National Finance Committee.

As of October 2009, Hill has made several contributions to political candidates, exclusively to Democrats.

In the Fall of 2008, Harper was initiated as a brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity with his line brothers Dr. Naim Akbar of Florida State University and former NFL player LeMarcus Newman.

Harper endorsed the 10,000 Bookbags back to school backpack campaign to help local disadvantaged children with Urban Change Ministries founder Pastor Jay Cameron of the Life Center and R&B singer Ginuwine.

Harper stated that he is a fiscal conservative when he appeared on the Hannity Show on September 10, 2009.

Estate of the Day

Apparently Sheryl Crow was tired of waiting around for her Tennessee farm to sell. Crow, who listed her home back in May for $7.5 million, has now agreed to have Cross Creek Farm put up for auction. This "solar farm" and equestrian property of approximately 150 acres includes a 10,264 square-foot home. The property also features a 14-stall barn, indoor riding area and large pond.

The three story home has five bedrooms, a theatre room, with added spaces wired for a music studio incorporating additional living space, and a private in-law apartment or nanny quarters, as well as a three-bedroom guest house. In recent years auctions have become a popular way to speed up the selling process. Bid now at SherylCrowAuction.com until 6:00 P.M CST on Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010. A video tour of the property is after the jump. 

Estate of the Day

Last month when I wrote about the Kluge winery's financial woes I had to wonder about the fate of Albemarle, Patricia Kluge's lavish home in Charlottesville, Virginia. The home first hit the market for $100 million last year but was reduced to $48 million back in February. Now, that number has been sliced neatly in half. Business Insider led me back to the listing and the new magic number of $24 million.

The estate is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and James Monroe's Ash Lawn-Highland. On the grounds there are three ponds, a pool as well as a pool house, log cabin, a greenhouse and several staff cottages. The main house was completed in 1985 and spans over 25,000 square feet with 45 rooms. The home was designed by architect David Easton and his team and includes a theater, library, recreation room with spa and sauna, a card room and an Islamic gallery featuring an antique Syrian fountain. Should you have some leftover cash after buying the home you can turn the front grounds into an 18-hole golf course. Arnold Palmer has already designed it. The home's antiques, art and furniture were sold off at Sotheby's earlier this year in a two-day buying bonanza that brought in $15.2 million. A sale of Patricia Kluge's jewelry brought in around $5 million

Today's Actress

Cicely Tyson, the  American actress. A successful stage actress, Tyson is also known for appearances in the film Sounder and the television specials The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and Roots.
Tyson was born and raised in Harlem, New York, the daughter of Theodosia, a domestic, and William Tyson, a pushcart operator. Her parents were immigrants from the island of Nevis of theFederation of Saint Kitts and Nevis in the West Indies; her father arrived in New York City at the age of 21 and was processed at Ellis Island on August 4, 1919. Tyson married legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis on 26 November 1981; the ceremony was conducted by Atlanta mayor Andrew Young at the home of actor Bill Cosby. Tyson and Davis divorced in 1988. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. On May 17, 2009, Tyson received an honorary degree from Morehouse College, an all-male college.

In 1972, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the critically acclaimed Sounder. In 1974, she won two Emmy Awards for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Other acclaimed television roles included Roots, King, in which she portrayed Coretta Scott King, The Marva Collins Story, When No One Would Listen and Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All for which she received her third Emmy Award. In her 1994-1995 television series Sweet Justice, Tyson portrayed a feisty, unorthodox Southern attorney named Carrie Grace Battle, a character she shaped by consulting with and shadowing the legendary Washington, D.C. civil rights and criminal defense lawyer Dovey Johnson Roundtree. In 2005, Tyson co-starred in the moviesBecause of Winn-Dixie and Diary of a Mad Black Woman. The same year she was honored by Oprah Winfrey at her Legends Ball.

The Cicely Tyson School of Performing and Fine Arts, a magnet school in East Orange, New Jersey, was renamed in her honor. She plays an active part in supporting the school, which serves one of New Jersey's most underprivileged African-American communities.