a woman carries her child after the Oklahoma Tornado. Photo courtesy of AP

At ISA we know that after each national disaster Job Opportunities are impacted. Things slow down as people seek greater understanding of breaking news, with internet and social networks reporting on devastating events. Our hearts reach out to Oklahoma and many of us feel that no words could express our sorrow for their loss. We felt the same during Sandy and other emergency disasters on our shores.

Oklahoma is a devastating national tragedy that every parent dreads (to be cut off from their children). It’s the teachers who once again are the heroes, throwing their bodies to cover and protect the kids under their care. My concern extends to how we can do better in our domestic help field. Working in Household Help Jobs often includes care of children and infants or housekeeper-childcare services that overlap.

Among other things Nanny job descriptions require caring, teaching, guiding, and protecting children. It’s a job that needs to include greater awareness inclusive of possible national emergencies. TIP: Check with and support your local FEMA and Red Cross, and take their preparedness programs to better equip yourself. Sign up for updates. Include your volunteer work on your resume, and if you’re already on a Job, encourage Parents to become involved with FEMA programs along with other local government agencies in your area. Offer your volunteer work at Fire Departments that hold voting days. Encourage people to vote for disaster relief support.

If you’re in Los Angeles there is a way to help people working at the L.A. Mission, Goodwill, local schools, food banks and food pantries, hospitals, and other community outreach programs. If your resume does not already reflect your volunteer work, start to include some. People are greatly encouraged when we’re helping each other. A kind word and thoughtful action goes a long way.

Where we live the threat of earthquakes is real. We are required to have 72-hour emergency packs. Have you prepared yours and for the children you work with? We also need to undertake courses providing safety to ourselves and others. Fortunately, we’ve never had an earthquake that required us to use a 72-hour pack.

Zoe Saldana volunteering at the Los Angeles Mission

Learning is perhaps our greatest asset. Science Daily reported that a recent study on world climate confirmed that over 90% of all related science reports proves that climate change is caused by humans. The report stated that amazingly (a word they used), despite this known fact, a small percentage of scientists still argue their doubt. The rest worry that the public believes them. This article was referenced in the science magazine Nature. Nobody can argue a 20-foot wide Tornado was an anomalous event that will not return. Tornados in Tornado Alley were far smaller and caused greater damage. See more on world Tornadoes of 2013.

We need to always be looking forward into the future. Americans bring some of the greatest disaster relief expertise going abroad (often at their own expense) risking to volunteer assistance to others after emergency events worldwide. They put their lives on the line domestically giving the same generosity of support that we’re famous for. Early warnings was some of the reason for the low loss of life in Oklahoma. Too much heartbreak for people who lost loved ones. Situational aspects cannot truly be covered when an event of this magnitude occurs.

Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart

People and businesses came forward to spread their love and hope for Oklahoma. Acts of heroism and kindness emerged for people to be reunited. To rebound from such events will take some time and care. Operating hand-in-hand will help bring a thriving community back on its feet a year from now. Talk to one another about things you’ve learned, and how to improve our local and federal assistance programs. Small local programs can have huge net impact.

Physical and material life after disasters is not the end because our national and personal spirits are stronger. Keeping our spirit strong is most important and a lifelong endeavor. As we move into challenges of the future our prayers are with Oklahoma, and with all people everywhere who’ve endured such loss. Each of us finds our own way to pray and/or give thanks. We are one human family. We emerge better together, so Share the wealth of your love freely. We value, thank you, and appreciate your support and patronage!

Send others our TIPS and Our Best Advice. Our team loves hearing form you, and we’d love to refer you towards helping find your dream job. We have top job opportunity offers for household help in the domestic help field, if you have top expert job experience with top checkable references for job referrals.

Serving Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood Hills. Holmby Hills, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Bel Air, Benedict Canyon, Hancock Park, Laurel Canyon, Los Feliz, Marina Del Rey, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Melrose. Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Encino, Woodland Hills, Topanga Canyon, Torrance, Westwood, West Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Hollywood Hills, Pasadena, San Mareno, Rancho Santa Fe, Palos Verdes, San Diego, Laguna, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Ojai, Orange County, Ventura County, California, New York, East Coast, England, Europe, and  the greater United States…

First Lady Michelle Obama presenting ARGO at White House for Best Picture Award – Oscars 2013

Over the years we have seen many clients win Oscar awards (see our Domestic Staffing website). Some of the people we referred for job opportunities were so loved by their employers, they went on to become famous celebrities themselves. Like Chef Wolfgang Puck, who Dora referred to a client. Wolfgang had worked at a renowned restaurant (the kitchen of Ma Maison), but he wanted to work as a Personal Celebrity Chef to expand his opportunities. Wolfgang was eager to prove his talents, and urged the client to give him a try. The Client decided to give him their job opportunity, and that’s how he got hired. While working ISA job referrals Wolfgang met many famous people. They fell in love with his cooking, and followed  him to his first restaurant SPAGO (at that time located on Sunset), which quickly became a sensational celebrity hang.

TIP: Keep reinventing your talents to expand Job Opportunities and study how others created new trends. It’s a famous story that Wolfgang Puck (a Master Chef among Chefs) with brilliant business strategy transformed the restaurant and catering business, who also became famous for Oscar Awards parties. There are no limits to how far a Chef can go as current trends show franchises worth millions.

The first Oscar Awards show was held at The Roosevelt Hotel in 1929. Last night we saw another big Oscars 2013 show, (and Wolfgang still cooking up a storm), with a billion people reported to be watching. An incredible viewing increase in just 83 years (astounding confirmation how much films influence and shape our lives).

Among the noteworthy was a tribute in memorium to those who passed away. We take this opportunity to pay them homage added to our clients gallery, including Richard Zanuck (with his legendary producing skills), and actor Ernest Borgnine. Into his seventies Richard Zanuck was a first choice for studios that had challenging projects. He was Hollywood royalty with a father that was one of three principles who founded Fox Studios. Darryl Zanuck left a legacy with a career spanning the Silent Era, the Golden Age, and decline of the studio system (that fractured under the costly production of Cleopatra). Yet, big Hollywood productions and Fox both survived.

Richard Zanuck with publicity PR poster from Jaws

Richard Zanuck had his own style known as a directors producer renowned for going after and protecting quality films. He worked with some of the finest directors (many of whom are our clients) making groundbreaking pictures like Jaws with Stephen Spielberg, Ron Howard’s Cocoon, Bruce Beresford’s Driving Miss Daisy, Sidney Lumet’s The Verdict, Walter Hill’s Sting, Sam Mendes Road To Perdition, and Tim Burton Alice In Wonderland (which grossed more than 1Billion worldwide). With Burton he worked on six projects among them Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Planet of the Apes. Films that became Hollywood classics setting new highs in world film history. California is famous for transforming History in so many key industries that people continue to flock here, and remains the leading hub for the most advanced creative talent in the world. 

Ernest Borgnine

Ernest Borgnine was among the changing tide of actors who could successfully undertake roles in TV, with the lead in McHale’s Navy (originating the role of an irreverent con man as a PT boat skipper), and wonderful Films, with roles in The Dirty Dozen, The Wild Bunch, Airwolf, and From Here To Eternity among others. His McHale’s Navy role played with unerring comedic timing, while he could also play a tough guy with an unforgettable face.

An unlikely  big-screen star or a romantic lead, this beloved actor won an Oscar in 1955 for Marty that brought him a Palm D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Marty and The Lost Weekend (1945) are the only two films ever to win both grand prizes. A career lasting six decades, Mr. Borgnine’s work continued as the voice of Mermaid Man on Sponge Bob. Nominated for an Emmy at 92 for his work on ER, he died at 95 leaving a body of historical film work for generations to come.

Django Unchained official poster

This is not the first time we see people heatedly arguing about violence in films, or its influence on children and American culture. While lobbying for gun control and more laws, parents are also demanding a reduction of violence in films. A friend recently sent me a quote (which Snopes confirmed is true) that Hitler allegedly made in 1942 saying, “History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms, have prepared their own downfall by doing so.” When Stalin came to power he too quickly removed people’s right to bear arms. 

Hopefully, all Americans are concerned with documents that govern our freedoms. It appears that many in Washington don’t know our legacy of inherited undeniable rights. Get to know and revisit the United States Constitution and the United States Bill of Rights often. They are amazing guarantees of our freedom that many worldwide do not enjoy – or could sustain – due to corruption of values. I don’t usually write about political issues (not the place for it) and address movie themes because many of our clients are in the film and music industry.

The right to bear arms is not an easy discussion, but there is none more complex historically with presenting a struggling tortured mind than issues of enslavement of one man to another. Men and Women have died for the right to have both. There are ‘bad guys’ who exist, who don’t just go away on their own, as films show us with some of the greatest characters Hollywood ever brought to story telling. But there is only one Lincoln. Daniel Day Lewis brought him to life for all of us. Although Lincoln remained a dearly beloved President he was beyond reach as a heroic figure overseeing a civil war. Rather than merely characterizing him as President Lincoln, the film industry agreed that only Daniel Day Lewis could bring forth the incredible man behind a title. Winning Best Actor was that statement.

Life Of Pi movie poster

Oscars 2013 Best Picture nominations put forward challenging plot lines of human grit and passion to overcome. With laugh loud humor as Silver Lining provides, or remarkable human wisdom as the young carry, presented in Beasts Of The Southern Wild.

Showing how technology changed (after Avatar) is the marvelous Life of Pi that Ang Lee directed (won Best Director). A breathtaking cinematic film that prompted my question what was the first movie made. To technically answer we turn to Edward Muybridge and his groundbreaking photos called Horses In Motion (1878), which he created using four cameras. The images were assembled as running frames showing all four hoofs of a horse are galloping off the ground. That became the first ‘moving pictures’.

Life of Pi book cover

Ten years later came a home movie created by inventor Louis Le Prince in France, showing his family walking around in his garden called Roundhay Garden Scene (1888).

Next came a camera test (from two men working for Thomas Edison) called Monkeyshines 1 & 2, created at Edison’s lab in New Jersey around 1889 or 1890. Why is this film history important is because new technology transformed how we ‘see’.

We take symbolic images (in this case photos) that are ordered into ensembles as frames (today using bits of digitized data), and weave them together to create another frame that comes next, and so on. 

poster image from Silver Lignings Playbook

Unfortunately, most people don’t care about film history (but I find it fascinating) and we’re generally not taught in schools how movies impact history. We passively/actively ‘record’ all that we see and feel (whether we’re aware of it or not) and regardless of what we each have as immediate access to memory (at any given ‘frame’). We’re sensitized to be triggered emotionally based on our experiences.

These experiences (in the imagination or in reality) can become entrained as trance-states. Silver Linings Playbook is a great example of trance state patterns), and how we can break them without using medication. Reliance on drugs is clearly not a good thing so curb your enthusiasm.

Wayang theater usually lasts all night long

How manipulatable are we? Reminds me of when I lived in Bali and first saw a brilliant performance of  shadow puppets [theater] art known as Wayang. I’m always amazed how quickly people forget they’re merely watching pictures moving on a wall or a movie screen (computer monitor, iPad, smart phone, etc) which was traditionally taught (and known) as shadows moving on the wall that we react to. Instead of staying conscious we become hypnotized to associatively feel ‘in the movie’ as if it’s real. But it’s an illusion, and when we begin to totally believe in its story (and live by it), that’s called a delusion. A famous teaching by Plato.

In Victor Hugo’s Les Misrables plot line, a story of love, despair, and revolution that changed the world (tuff to argue this is delusion), the challenges of such despair is disparagingly real and still current worldwide. 

Les Misrables poster banner

About a week ago I had to reach out to a women who was literally whimpering during a movie, because she was so identified with what was on the screen. She thanked me for bringing her out of her trance, and almost immediately fell right back into it.

The movie was Django Unchained, (Django (character) - a name used famously in Spaghetti Westerns (and in the tradition of Sam Peckinpah films) – that deal with conflicts of values and ideals, with the corruption and brutality of human violence in human society. Characters who are often loners or losers, who know of the great hypocrisy, yet somehow find a desire to do something honorable, but are forced into compromise to survive in a world of nihilistic brutality.

Beasts Of The Southern Wild poster – UK

Interestingly, we see that while in the past people loved these movies, an ever growing fear of violence is seeking to shut them out. It’s important that director Quentin Terrentino remained undeterred by folks who criticize his efforts to wake them up (as I understood from him during an interview was his intention and interest to expand the cowboy mythos). You can choose not to watch a movie. Without judging its violence (there are films worse then this made in Hollywood in its past), Django Unchained had an important message.

Regardless of creative license in their story telling, I found it important that the Best Picture nominated films had this illuminating key as a central theme running through them (illusion/delusion). Each one of them worthy of their nominations. Among my favorites was Beasts Of The Southern Wild. Although filmgoers believe the movie Lincoln occurred as it was filmed (and debated by historians as somewhat misleading), it doesn’t change the fact that this picture was brilliantly delivered by Stephen Spielberg, or that Daniel Day Lewis remains one of the greatest actors of any generation. It became an instant American film classic.

Dame Shirley Bassey singing her golden Goldfinger tribute to Bond

The first public movie made for commercial viewing (for profit), was by the Lumiere brothers in 1895 (30 seats out of 100 were sold thereby proving its success.) Shown at a basement salon at the Grand Cafe in Paris (a hot city for artists to test their wares) in order to sell their Kinetoscope machine. This was a wood box you peeked into and saw moving pictures (the first “peep show” for commercial viewing). see it HERE.

Then a film was made in Berlin by another two brothers (Max and Emil Sklandanowsky) who invented Bioksop, a complicated technology using two parallel film strips. The Lumier brothers method was easier to use so they’re credited as the first motion picture tech (which I’m sure the Germans disagree with). Differing national pride stories are quickly claimed with most inventions.   

A delusion theme can be inspirational (Alice In Wonderland), or crushing (Lord of The Rings), each Surreal, and crucially important in very different ways ( a bit of a Mad Hatter in every one of us). We could say that James Bond was delusional with lessons to learn using an ever growing grouping of deadly toys (with each side having a seemingly endless arsenal to choose from), or as the film story mantra in Hollywood goes (and director William Friedkin loves to say), “there is good and bad in everyone”. 

Ben Afleck accepting the Oscar for ARGO as Best Picture

We’re now a planetary city of a planetary population who’s center is resonant with a human family everywhere. The technology is only as good as those who can see beyond it.

TIP: All Event Planning today relies heavily on technology. Yet, there is the expertise that still remains within people, not machines. If an ice cream machine breaks down earlier in the day you need to turn on a dime and create another dessert with a flourish finish. Your hands are invaluable. Don’t become too reliant on machines. 

One of the key themes of ARGO showed Hollywood takes its movie planning worldwide (as any of the best clandestine ops could be planned for “what if” scenarios) – because it has the courage of people crazy enough to fight for freedom (on behalf of all people everywhere), and able to turn on a dime to be creative beyond limits of circumstance. We dare to dare ourselves.

first Oscars Awards in then famous Blossom Room at the Roosevelt Hotel 1929

TIP: Save all critical judgements that are not intended as positive input at their core. All Event Planning (including dress rehearsals) must allow for spontaneous decisions. Remain openly agile to pivot as needed. I watched my mother (Dora) go through life in faith that there is a higher power, and we are reminded of it ongoingly. Miracles exist (I’ve witnessed many with humbled gratitude). Yet, she’s always worked very hard to help people (and never relying on faith alone), as we continue to refer people to fantastic opportunities and dream jobs. People helping people is real. Don’t just do your job, go beyond it to increase value and the quality of others lives. Yours will also be increased by it.

Barbra Streisand accepting Best Actress Oscar for movie Funny Girl

Last night’s stepped up glamour + diva entertainment included surprise guests of Barbara Streisand and Shirley Bassy, each gorgeous and singing classics loved everywhere. Streisand singing Memories and Bassey delivering Goldfinger, showed that the seasoned ladies are never too old, who can still teach the younger gens a thing or two. And not to forget fashion, seeing Barbra Streisand looking so marvelous, brought a memory of her (then) daring outfit she wore for her Oscar win (for Funny Girl). 

First Lady Michelle Obama (another big surprise), looked naturally relaxed and fashion stunning as she presented Best Picture award to ARGO, via live telecast from the White House, to standing ovations in Hollywood. Many passionate rounds of standing applause throughout the evening as we’ve not seen for some time. Congratulations to all the nominees who are all winners! 

Hollywood holds a beacon for billions of people from all walks of life about freedom, more than any other industry, and we’re very proud to be part of it. Thank you for the job opportunities you give us, we’re grateful to help you.

Send others our TIPS and Our Best Advice. Our team loves hearing form you, and we’d love to refer you towards helping find your dream job. We have top job opportunity offers for household help in the domestic help field, if you have top expert job experience with top checkable references for job referrals.

Body Shop Chocomania

Our Best Advice shares great TIPS as suggestions on various topics. With decades of our renowned expertise ISA makes job referrals for those who have top excellent checkable references and expert experience in the domestic help field, with clients offering a variety of job opportunities working in household help luxury estates jobs.

TIP: romantic chocolate is still the goddess of sweet tributes, and classic for Valentines Day. As a holiday preceded by the Grammy Awards some of our VIP clients attend, we know that celebration and endorsement  gift giving is a standard part of both, and often delivered as specialty treats. Do check ingredients for toxic additives as studies continue to emerge warning of dangers in our food and drinks. Consider too that what we put on our skin (including hair products) is transdermal and absorbed into our blood stream (and groundwater and oceans..). For a Valentines Day Chocolate Appreciation theme try adding a romantic body butter like Chocomania to your range of gifts (I’ve not checked ingredients and we don’t get paid for endorsements, but Bodyshop was at the very beginning of spearheading new values in retail trends), or make your own from scratch, including soaps and other luscious things. Your homemade signature is always a classic touch.

Petrossian caviar gift box

For those who love food luxury caviar is another celebration classic. Be creative using it because it has unending pairing possibilities. An Omega3 rich source, it can be served with vanilla bean chocolate chip ice-cream, and a “red” salad. Salty and Sweet with Fat (for fuel) are traditional food combos, ideal for nutrition, protein, and energy delight with your romance. Contrary to myth that it’s bad for you we do need salt, which also  brightens sweet flavors.

At Petrossian WeHo restaurant, Chef Giselle Wellman is fired up cooking with (and without) caviar. They’re always friendly and ready to help with a variety of gifts and price range to choose from. An elegant gift with two crystal vodka flutes, blue-inlay mother-of-pearl spoons, plus the caviar of your choice, comes all wrapped in their signature blue box. Add your endearments with an IOU massage card. As a starter, watermelon squares with drizzled balsamic is perfect anytime for any event. If you don’t know caviar, try their terrific and well priced introductory classes with your lover (or give it as a gift), and you’ll soon be wild about it too.

Justin Timberlake and JZ at Grammys 2013

Always classic, write a love song delivered in neo-vintage glam. Justin Timberlake is pairing with Tom Ford to create his special signature clothing line because there is always time for a Suit & Tie. He’s back with wonderful new retro glam that stands out from the rest, as we watched a sizzling-smooth Justin and JZ duo performe to a wildly cheering crowd (and a sold out performance in L.A. for Justin right after the awards). Smart of them to remind everyone how traditional elegant glamour brings back hot romance. At ISA we’ve had glamorous clients right from the beginning, over the years of Hollywood’s Golden Age (and we know that romance has never gone out of style). Beginning with ladies and gents with impeccable groomed manners. Do keep up with etiquette, makes life so much lovelier.

David Bowie glam “red”

Everyone loves a great love fantasy as only David Bowie delivers with his elegant wife Iman. Lovers married 20+ years in an industry tuff for relationships, it was St. Laurent who famously declared: ‘my perfect woman is Iman’ (who’s beyond glam class).

I just played Bowie’s vintage Let me Sleep Beside You to inspire my mood. Bowie is a crooner poet, so here are  some of the remixed lyrics to launch yours. Remember these are copyrighted, so give credit to the artists if you decide to share them.

… ‘Baby, baby, brush the dust of youth from your shoulder… Let your hair hang down, wear the dress your mother wore .. Let me sleep beside you.. Lock away your childhood and throw away the key.. We shall drink the oldest wine and velvet skies will linger.. Child, you’re a woman now, your heart and soul are free .. I will hold a lighted lamp and we shall walk together… I will give you dreams and I’ll tell you things you’ll like to hear.. Let your hair hang down, wear the dress your mother wore..  let me sleep beside you .. let me sleep beside you..

Nina Simone at the piano – who also inspired retro hair at this year’s ever classic Grammy Awards

Can’t wait for Bowie’s new album. For those who don’t have a Valentine here’s a universal TIP: be your own.  Must listening is the track from legendary Nina Simone, the ultimate in bringing her kaleidoscopic voice telling us ‘You Know How I Feel’ (my lyrics version remix here).

Set your passionate heart to an open Valentine call.

.. Birds flying high you know how I feel .. Sun in the sky you know how I feel .. Breeze driftin’ on by you know how I feel .. It’s a new dawn.. It’s a new day .. It’s a new life .. For me .. And I’m feeling good … Dragonfly out in the sun you know what I mean, don’t you know .. Butterflies all havin’ fun you know what I mean .. Stars when you shine you know how I feel .. . Scent of the pine you know how I feel … Oh freedom is mine .. And I know how I feel …

It does not get better than Simone and Bowie! Add them for your lover’s playlist. 

chocolate-tea infusions from the Tea Room

So back to chocolate (always room for chocolate afterglow) if you crave more TIPS: add an original organic tea-chocolate experience from The TeaRoom. According to their choco-alchemists it’s a premium drink unlike any beverage or other chocolate drink on the market. It can be used in a variety of ways for a hot or cold experience, including added to smoothies, or whatever else your chocolate loving heart imagines. There’s a menu of suggestions with every tin (check out their other award winning gift selections).

Image: Foodies In Love, by artist Vivienne Flesher for The Los Angeles Times

A bit more love is always great. Giving thanks for our food is an international appreciation ritual. The drawing by Vivienne Flesher, captured it perfectly for Kimberly Nichols’ amusing story in The LA Times: ‘they met through an online dating service, but the sparks didn’t fly until their passion for food of all varieties became a shared pastime.’ Our local paper has some great TIPS so check them out weekly.

As to exploring foods and loving a well mannered experience, today fast foods (fast everything), is the same as saying chaos rules. You will get exactly that. Don’t fall for it, only  fools believe our precious lives are disposable. Savor yours, and share farm-to-table food and drink alchemy concoctions served all over town. Don’t forget to gift some volunteer work Valentines (or buy a couple of strangers some chile pepper red drinks). At Rivera we had some amazing things (and I’m still not sure what they were!) 

photo courtesy: Renaud Marion “Air Drive” series

And if you still want more (there’s always room for more love), you can add a commissioned art work for your lover that expresses how fast you want to fly into their arms. See Renaud Marion’s new series “Air Drive”, which commemorates our love with fantasy hover cars. This ‘flying vintage’ (Space I say), harkens back to my love for SciFi. The flying car was a symbol of our eternal optimism that new adventures of discovery await at every turn. We’re a green-jet-fusion red-heartbeat away from flying cars carrying your Valentine Gifts to your love.

Call us to help you find a Chef dedicated to creating your most memorably custom Valentines Day Meal (or any event), an intimate dinner perfectly prepared especially for you. We have “best of the best” private Chefs ready to cook a delicious dining experience full of tempting tastes and exciting flavors. Beginning with whatever you fancy with your creative imagination, that ends with whatever satisfies your personal sweet tooth. Life is an aphrodisiac, so get high naturally on Love!

And we also want you to know, that we appreciate you. Have a great Valentines Day!

Yves St. Laurent smoking suit 1966

Humans are spiritual beings who are also intensely social creatures. We passionately enjoy special Events. Conscious spontaneous choreography is required, much more than just planning. At ISA we refer Top Chefs for the best jobs our VIP clients give us among other Best Job Opportunities. Job descriptions that require top expert household help. Expert Chefs who love to serve fabulous healthy food and drinks, who also make great nutritious foods for children. They’re also able to invent a solution to unexpected challenges (like sudden extra dinner guests with pets and an entourage). 

TIP: Breathing (taking a deep breath such as Ujjayi breath), is your first step. People still “trend image” and some are solely reliant on fashion to sell themselves. One image is the ‘cool’ character, a slippery trend that shifts spontaneously. We all know that something that was cool yesterday is suddenly uncool today. Like smoking, a growing trend, (I’m a former smoker who quite in my twenties so this is not intended to be preaching), with second-hand smoke adversely affecting children. Or mindlessly consuming questionable foods like GMO that children are also exposed to daily in their schools. These are facts of harmful impact (do the research online and you’ll quickly see for yourself). Forget promoting an image that promotes unhealthy living, there’s nothing cool about it (our survival is at stake). Know that your behavior affects them, and that children have different needs unique to their growth. 

Ancient Buddhist Statue

TIP: Share and keep sharing Information. Like the fact that autism is spreading among other disorders primarily in the west, in the English speaking countries. ADD and HDAD or OCD are rapidly increasing. I ran across a neurologist doctor, who wrote a book (about healing the gut via a GAPS Diet) showing this can be cured or greatly improved. See more about GAP here, and listen to Dr. Mercola’s interview with Dr. Natasha Campbell-Mcbride. I’m not promoting their beliefs or diets (thought they seem quite worth trying), this is in the interest of exploring possibilities that might be of help. People make new resolutions and perhaps this is relevant for yours.

There’s a new love story circulating. As a TED video posted by an artist showed, younger gens are reaching out across borders and religious beliefs in hopes of finding peace. All it took was one person not waiting on his government. Practice Love, you can’t stop it.

Many of our clients are on vacation taking yachting breaks and due to confidentiality we don’t name them. Bringing quality time to everything they do requires a staff that does too. Some of those jobs require traveling with the Employer. If it’s not best of the best, immediately introduce something to improve the moment. It’s not one day at a time, it’s moment by moment (and beyond). Don’t wait to creatively push things to be at their very best, and always have your humor ready. Appreciate our oceans wherever you go and do keep your carbon footprint in view. Natives will appreciate it, and so will you.

Coco Chanel – photo: creative commons

There is also nostalgia about nostalgia, as people feverishly rush to commemorate ephemeral sartorial days, from casual to formal (suggested or required) for a huge range of events. We love Chanel, who took women out of dresses by putting them into men’s clothing (cross gender was not a term back then cause people were just free without making a big deal out of it constantly), forever ending imprisonment of female side-saddel (among other sexy freeing things).

She forged her own vision and laid her own path against others who opposed and criticized. Her message was clear: don’t live vicariously and be your own original freedom. There has been a growing trend to become ‘ugly deliberately’. Create your beauty-full world, rather than blame memories you’re clinging to. As the brilliant acting coach Stella Adler taught, get over it. It’s a new year.

Fantisek Kupka – Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington

Anything goes in 2013; we remember artists who’ve bravely insisted on new directions. Raise a toast to them as our forerunners. They created the world we live in today, often with great personal sacrifice and unimaginable travail. None of this would have been possible without them. If you’re in New York or passing through on your way back from vacation, go see MOMA exhibit on abstraction to enjoy art that transformed the world, and our Spirit with it. See the Holocaust Museum in Washington, and then see The Scream by Munch (a lifetime opportunity). Take your friends, children, with you. Human suffering has been with us since the beginning. One of the best books I ever read was I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. This may seem low for a New Year event, but it’s about being grateful, not forgetting the past.

Yves St. Laurent portrait

It was a young St. Laurent who originally made the smoking suit popular for women everywhere, by introducing his own original everyday style (inspired upon Channel’s). I share passion with Yves St. Laurent and his conversation with Art, who inspired me significantly in my youth.

Our celebrity clients know it’s important to explore roles and reinvent ourselves (often). Best of the best Staffing is always done with expert unsurpassed quality, as ISA is famous for. Original Art is not derivative. It’s not about copying randomly, as we’re seeing increasingly fill our museums. Original means a new vision. Fashion, including your jeans and t-shirts, are costumes. We come famously naked so let’s not argue, (just smile).

Another highly inspirational place to visit would be going to the American Visionary Art Museum. Explore and appreciate remarkable self-taught artists, and perhaps also volunteer your time there. Founder/Director Rebecca Alban Hoffberger, is another visionary with a great art philosophy to study.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013!

Send others our TIPS and Our Best Advice. Our team loves hearing form you and we’d love to help you find your dream job. We have top job offers for household help in the domestic help field, if you have top expert job experience with top checkable references for job referrals.

Serving Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood Hills. Holmby Hills, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Bel Air, Benedict Canyon, Hancock Park, Laurel Canyon, Los Feliz, Marina Del Rey, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Melrose. Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Encino, Woodland Hills, Topanga Canyon, Torrance, Westwood, West Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Hollywood Hills, Pasadena, San Mareno, Rancho Santa Fe, Palos Verdes, San Diego, Laguna, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Ojai, Orange County, Ventura County, California, New York, East Coast, England, Europe, and  the greater United States…

Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr on New Years Eve in the movie An Affair To Remember

Like bow-ties and tuxedos, New Years Eve celebrations are best enjoyed with love, glimmer, glamour, and champaign. ISA VIP clients have always set top trends for bringing in fabulous New Years (anywhere, any year). Their songs, fashions, films, and lifestyles, passionately classical yet iconically diverse, and hotly memorialized.

But we cannot drift, or our years blur together in a flash. I’m in ‘stay at home’ with my husband (as we have been for decades) on New Years Eve and Day. Just the two of us quietly appreciating with gratitude (as others might be too) the year gone before. 

Hatshepsut

Many of our clients are VIP high profile. I’m blogging to address their fantastic job offers and opportunities for top expert skilled staff. TIPS to share that both clients and job applicants might find useful. Our Best Advice, is related to our expert services. I know that others try to imitate ISAstaffing. We enjoy sharing our TIPS with everyone. 

Children have that clarity. They also love sharing their best advice!  The brilliant French Chef Vatel comes to view (Vatel wonderfully played by Gerard Depardieu if you love period films), and he wore black daily before white took over kitchen uniforms. Disclosure is that we have clients working at Disney (at all the studios), but this is not a plug (and nobody asks us to). I reference this film because it shows important TIPS every Chef, Event Planner, Organizer, Personal Assistant, Estate Manager, Butler, Valet, Party Staff, and other support staff, should know. 

The story goes that Vatel was responsible for an extravagant banquet for 2,000 people hosted in honor of Louis XIV by Louis, the great Condé in April 1671 at the Château de Chantilly. According to a letter by Madame de Sévigné, “Vatel was so distraught about the lateness of the seafood delivery, and about other mishaps, that he committed suicide by running himself through with a sword. His body was discovered when someone came to tell him of the arrival of the fish.” But Vital had a secret that bears up under all conditions, with his undying passion for learning he taught himself something daily with great appreciation and sensitivity.

The King of Sprezzatura remains our iconic client Cary Grant, in one of the great love stories, An Affair To Remember; sealed with a kiss on New Years Eve. A romantic story reminding that love can come with great anguish (and great fashion) and still triumph. I had the opportunity to meet Cary Grant (even enjoyed a lovely flirtation he initiated) at the private funeral gathering held at Rosalind Russell’s house. I can personally say that not only was Mr. Grant the embodiment of original style and vision (even more pronounced live), he was also a great work of Art. But when he spoke to you, it was as if you’d known him all your life. Laughter came easy and quick.

Rita Levi-Montalcini – biologist and Nobel Prize winner died at 103 today 12-30-12

Which brings me to mention another iconic original who lived until 103 years young in 2012: biologist Rita Levi-Montalcini. She conducted research in defiance of fascist persecution, and emerged from that madness to win a Nobel Prize for assisting to unlock the mystery of the cell. Ms. Levi-Montalcini passed at her home in Italy much revered, inspired, and passing her burning curiosity to younger gens. Female scientists who won’t stop – despite the chronic obstructions against women (as we see tragically continuing worldwide). Her groundbreaking research in face of Nazi invasion (and she was Jewish) that gave her the name “Lady of the Cells”. She said “At 100, I have a mind that is superior – thanks to experience – than when I was 20.” She had to overcome her father’s objections that women should not study, or obtain a degree. Earthlings can be immensely blocky about women (including against those they love). Our homage toast with deep thanks and respect in memory to you Rita.

Sinatra’s indelible ‘ring a ding ding’

We proudly continue our renowned expertise tradition of dedicated staffing for clients with luxury estate household help. Estate Managers and Personal Assistants are busy overseeing parties with the best Top Chefs, preparing exclusive private events held all over the world. They’ve planned a memorable launch of 2013 parties into the wee hours for two days long as all night feasts and breakfasts galore. From beginning to end everything must be perfect. Mishaps might happen and that means best of the best expertise that quickly rises to troubleshoot [always] seamlessly.

Washington stole our thunder of bringing in 2013 with high hopes by arguing a ‘fiscal cliff’. Nobody buys into that alarmist drama. Another original, Frank Sinatra was also a favorite of ISA staffing (see Frank give Cary the honorary Oscars he so deserved). There’s nothing like The Rat Pack banter to remind us of another time, another life, that many still long for. 

Which brings me to nostalgic remembrance of the iconic Ravi Shankar, who spent his life expanding people’s hearts and consciousness through his joyous music. Shankar worked tirelessly for world peace pairing up with famous musicians, and most famously with George Harrison and the Beatles – who brought India’s wisdom teachings to the west in the 1960′s that merged with rock & roll.

And although many believe Rock started in the sixties we need to go earlier. It originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s through early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, jump blues, country, jazz,and gospel music. Although some elements of Rock was also heard in country records of the 1930s, and recorded blues records from the 1920s, it’s little known that Rock & Roll did not get that name until the 1950s.

Alexander Dumas 1855

Send others Our Best Advice news, including that George Harrison and Ravi Shankar were brought to (then) President Gerald Ford in the White House – (another one of our passed clients). Shankar’s remarkable gifts of being a ‘musician’s musician’ was as a genius 16-octave scale composer. Ravi quietly passed this month to the Cosmic Hall of Fame. All of these remarkable people have brought us enlightenment. For those who don’t know his music take a moment to enjoy Ravi Shankar’s I Am Missing You, – played at a rare live performance with George Harrison. 

Which brings me to Alexander Dumas, a wondrous talent of eclectic noble chivalric capacities including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers among other literary accolades. Most of you know his work although you might not know his name. You might wish to avail yourself of Dumas contribution to History. Chivalric men and women who are the guardians of life.

Happy New Year 2013 from all of us at ISA!

We share our Gratitude with Love and mixed Sorrow with people who may not be able to celebrate because of personal tragedy. We know that all of us can do better in bringing about a higher humanity, a better humankind. From our TIPS to you we love you all, and wish you a Peaceful Loving Interstellar filled with Blessings of a New Year 2013!

Our Best Advice and Our team loves hearing form you. We have great job offers in household help in the domestic help field, if you have top job experience with top checkable references.

Serving Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood Hills. Holmby Hills, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Bel Air, Benedict Canyon, Hancock Park, Laurel Canyon, Los Feliz, Marina Del Rey, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Melrose. Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Encino, Woodland Hills, Topanga Canyon, Torrance, Westwood, West Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Hollywood Hills, Pasadena, San Mareno, Rancho Santa Fe, Palos Verdes, San Diego, Laguna, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Ojai, Orange County, Ventura County, California, New York, East Coast, England, Europe, and  the greater United States…

Spock and Muddswomen - photo: Star Trek Core (bleu enhanced)

Even some of our past clients didn’t eat traditional Holiday Meals, and Chefs we refer must create fun, fabulously delicious & festive foods that folks feel fantastic eating, no matter what they prefer. Yes, say that fast! Because that’s how fast at ISA we staff top best chefs to the top best jobs as our clients request, and we’re famous for staffing. We love staffing, so let us help you with your custom tailored needs.

I’m big on Star Trek variety (anything related to art goes on the dining table and costumes), without limit to menus or a theme (whatever that means off-planet anyway). As the infamous Borg say ‘resistance is futile’. On the other hand – I’m reminded of the line by Koros about humans: where did your race get this ridiculous predilection for resistance, you examine any object; you question everything! (or something like that). True, humans are not very cooperative, but we do know how to have fun while getting into trouble.

Call it the Cosmic Momma in me, but just as there are trillions (upon trillions) of planets we live with (ha! and you were worried about over-population here..) there’s at least one for each of us to explore (and maybe move to, this century is not over yet). Even if you don’t believe that’s a viable experience – pretend otherwise.

Earth with visiting starships - photo: Star Trek Core

Imagine starships of all varieties heading to Earth for a fabulous holiday event. We’re surrounded by people who have philosophical differences and dietary restrictions or preferences other than ours, while we’re dealing in epic fusion food (as if you haven’t tasted it – a meal you swooned over that put stars in your eyes). Then there’s the hard-core group who feel we must preserve tradition, and insist it’s got to be how they ate on their planet (if they could recall exactly what that was), and that depriving them of their right to eat a traditional meal is a cry to battle (which their ancestors never ate to begin with) – but might genuinely start battle fatigue. It’s usually what stops some people from sharing the bowl in the center of the table (or imagining sharing at all), or maybe they’re tired and just want to get on with it and go home. We want everyone to be happy, with satisfied after-meal lip smacking glow experience that our clients love.

So here are a few things quick to prepare you can add to any last minute event menu. No matter which planet they’re from these TIPS will delight, and if someone like Sylvia gives you the line: “You like to think of yourselves as complex creatures, but you’re flawed. One gains admittance to your minds through many levels. You have too many to keep track of yourselves. There are unguarded entrances to any human mind.“..  just keep serving up that food and drink!

HOLIDAY EVENTS TASTES

Raw Onion & Veggie Starter or Condiment

I love raw onions with meals because you get its many health benefits. But we don’t want that ‘after onion’ smell or taste (lest we offend some extraterrestrial friends). Some argue this recipe is not 100% raw but that’s debatable (the sun cooks our food in open fields if we leave it out long enough, otherwise called dehydration).

1. Slice up some red onion, put it into a colander, quickly pour some boiling water over it. Seals so fast that it doesn’t cook but sears it (from outgassing in your tummy). Add apple cider vinegar or lemon to olive or sesame oil (as you prefer), with a quarter jalapeño finely diced (remove seeds first) if you like heat with your crispy onion. Pour into a bowl and serve. You can add sliced red radish or other raw veggies like julienne jicama, capers or caviar, and raw olives and raw pickled garlic (whatever suits your fancy).

Raw Tuna or Salmon with Avocado on Tarot Chips

2.  Use very fresh sushi grade fish sliced and chopped into small 1/2 inch cubes in a bowl. Squeeze lemon and season with fresh ground white pepper and sea salt. In a separate bowl, slice avocado and chop small also in cubes. Add  minced shallots or green onion sliced fine. Squeeze lemon juice flavored with Cayenne pepper (optional) and pinch of Turmeric (optional) with good quality seal salt (adjust accordingly to taste). Combine the fish with avocado mixture (to look like guacamole) and adjust flavors. Add fresh dill, parsley, or cilantro, which brighten flavors.

Japanese taro root

Have fresh tarot root sliced in rounds already fanned out on a sushi plate or bread board (4 large tarot root rounds per person), or if you’re not attached to raw, you could use baked tarot root chips (make your own or try Terra). People love roots, and have cherished these vegetables as life extending foods. Scoop fish-avocado mixture onto the tarot rounds and drizzle fresh balsamic over it (optional). These yummy rounds are wonderful made with just spiced lemon juice if you don’t care for balsamic. Arrange chives over plate crosswise, and serve with a good brand of bubbly or non-alcohol drink.

Honey, Cinnamon & Nutmeg Yogurt served with Pomegranate Seeds

Choose the freshest unflavored organic yogurt of your choice (or make your own). Add 1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or to taste), freshly fine ground nutmeg and ground cinnamon, with organic honey (or Agave) of your choice. Gently mix together to create a nice texture to taste. The mixture will turn caramel color and look like pudding. Put into refrigerator and let sit and marinade. To serve, spoon some yogurt into small parfait glasses (or engraved turkish tea-size glasses) and layer alternating with scoop of pomegranate seeds. Top with a sprinkle of seeds and a thin cinnamon stick as garnish. Or scoop yogurt onto small square plates and add generous portion of pomegranate seeds alongside overlapping the yogurt. This can be a surprise starter amuse bouche, or served at the end of a meal with a selection of fresh raw cheese – and mini freshly made ginger cookies (or those of your choice).

Homemade Mustard Oregon Style

spicy stout Oregon mustard

I found this recipe at The Taste Of Oregon blog, which is adapted from a Saveur recipe that you might enjoy (and try both to compare). I love mustard, and could not resist adding it to our Holiday TIPS although we don’t usually think of it as a condiment for holiday events. People tend to forget how flavorful mustard is, and this recipe you can adapt to any meal including adding some dried sweet cranberries into it. People love getting homemade mustard as gifts. Have fun adding a microbrew of your choice, and write letting us know what you used.

Chefs love to locate and experiment with the  finest fresh organic and most exotic ingredients, as our clients request based on their personal preferences. This website will turn you on to some fun possibilities. Send us some of your Holiday Event TIPS, and send others Our Best Advice. We love hearing form you. From our TIPS to yours, Happy Holidays!

Gandhi sharing his Love Wisdom

Most of our VIP clients have bodyguards and security jobs specializing in protection of the rich and famous. They come to ISA staffing because we provide best of the best household help and luxury estate staffing, for which we’re famous. High Profile people rarely feel safe with good reason, due to our history of violence.

The Sandy Hook Elementary School shared tragedy showing we’ve been plunged into a vigil required to be never ending. No words could possibly express the anguish and speechless shock as the killing of children, anywhere, everywhere. Yet the words, ‘here we go again’ is a chord struck far and wide – worldwide, as any country, in any town, could claim the same horror insanity in their/our midst. Simple words: killing, mass murder, suicide.

To quote Edgar Allan Poe: You will remember that one or two of the wise among our forefathers had ventured to doubt the propriety of the term “improvement,” as applied to the progress of our civilization.

This shared experience tore into our hearts piercing our veils, and throwing us out of the “game” (as some insanely call it) permanently. Say it again: Permanently. Never again can we return to what we refer to as ‘safe’, even as we point our concerns overseas. This can only be subjective for each of us when we nod agreements with one another, which is subject to change instantly at human whim. This is our humanity: unpredictable and totally unpredictable.

What is Wise to do about this? Is one International Day of Non-Violance going to solve this? I’m seeing a reaction among the grief that must be spoken (and why I write). I’d not intended to blog about this because it’s not the right environment, and levied my heart to reduce this vigil to words of a few paragraphs in a virtual world. But silence is unacceptable, so I blog anyway. I’m not speaking about people coming together in community of shared grief. Humans have traditionally come together over horror, and helped one another through. We bravely rebuild anew. Historical records are filled with stories as legends of witness. And this is not about out-raging in protest into the night. We must become aware of the fracture, after two world wars (and their extended madness) that each of us is carrying within.

There is no exemption. Our humanity is broken. Humans are broken. It has nothing to do with “rules” or “sin” as people argue and cry for blood endlessly to avenge or revenge, or whatever we label it including naming this dysfunction “whatever”, dismissed glibly in casual callousness of latest cultural diagnostics. There’s a pill for whatever ails you.

Yet what laws or sin can you possibly identify to tell God how to scatter stars in the Cosmos? We dare expound our tales of woe and list of demands and promises unkept, as we are still fiercely brought to our knees because there is nothing holding us up. Hate and blame are not the index of Love. Violence and anger are not arbiters of the Real. Hate only destroys the hater, but Love is its own sublime, and in my understanding the highest form of it is Divine Wisdom. I’m not preaching (never had that talent), but there is something we all need to admit, and it’s a fact that atheism is also a religion (not believing is a belief).

I’m not an atheist, and my approach to keeping myself awake is to pray-without-end daily (and not just on holidays or weekends by rote ritual). I mean to stay awake of being conscious to be conscious. I prefer praying to God under heaven under the stars as witness, witnessed bare by a Cosmos of endless divine mystery, and sometimes I sing out loud, and sometimes I whisper, or undertake to silent prayers. Spontaneously whenever and wherever I am, and that’s often (because my gratitude for our endlessly gifted blessings are never-ending). Meditation is not just for 15 minutes a day.

Mother and Child detail - Three Ages of Woman by Gustav Klimpt

So this brings me back to the word permanently. That’s the vigil. Stop. And don’t participate in the insanity. There is no going back to anything we know of the old. We are in a new frontier, an Interstellar 21st century and ‘the future’ is created by us, not laws, or medicines to curb and manage our despair that ends in suicide, or as we see infamously, in ‘eye for an eye’ blindly seeking to take others with them plunging over the abyss. This is not new (as the old saying goes). To speak of it as if we are at a new ‘killing threshold’ (yes it’s graphic language), is blatantly ignoring the Historical record: human ignorance. We have been violent for a very long time.

High Wisdom reminder: If everyone followed the Ten Commandments, all self conflict, and that with others, would immediately stop. That’s your and my vigil, and to Learn Wisdom. This is not arguable based on a monotheism versus a polytheism. That argument ends with insanity regardless of who you pray to.

The new super weapons are not just assault guns, or weapons of mass destruction, or nuclear weapons, or lasers and tasers and other energy frequency weapons we create, including a contagious viral plague that we pass to contaminate one another with ignorant energy of our emotional response: to ourselves, and each other.

No, the real ‘new weapons’ are us. Bio-enhanced, medicated, enraged, teeth bared in outraged entitlements of rights, and oppressions and suppressions, and so on. And we ‘look golden’ doing it. We even give awards for it, with trophies. Expensive trophies. It only costs you the world, and all you need do is make some socially constructed ‘cool lewd gestures’ to qualify,  salute in uber-heil to some mad person, or swear on a bible to love honor and obey, or demand to be obeyed. You get to choose, guilty or not guilty. Those are just some of the endless qualifiers. Get in line.

Children everywhere are terrorized into suicide by anxieties too dangerous but obvious to describe, and the adults are asleep at the wheel as they seek to kill one another. There is no talk of Wisdom, and that doesn’t even reside in reason or pragmatic reality. Wisdom transcends reason (or we would have reached it long ago). We’ve attempted to be ‘reasonable’ and as we see our reasonable diplomacy, and reasonable laws, and reasonable compromises, have failed us long ago. Reporters, first responders, parents, and experts alike; and we as the witnesses, are carrying on about security and ‘how to feel safe’ as if that’s not an inside job, and mischaracterize self defense against some phantom evil occurring in a vacuum (hardly), that only the psychiatric and pharmacological field, our military and the political, the religious or the godless, could have rights to exploit, capitalize, and monetize (as the catchy branding phrases say) – with “splinter groups” and corporate offshoots asking for handout donations to control it. Stop! Take a moment. Are you still able to see, or feel, envision anything original, truly new? Or are you steeped in endlessly ritualized habit.

And now we seek “innovation” from silicon valley (even that name is catchy ‘cool’). From those halls of millions of dollars of tech, and the degrees we hand out for their programming abilities, we create ever slicker labs with ever slicker instruments and bigger grants funding them. We feverishly seek behavior modification, as current neurosciences theorize is what’s at hand.

We’ve even had a Noble Prize given to someone (an economist), who took his theory and applied it to ‘Behavior Modification Economics’. So this theory now joins a “political economy”, that drives our insanity. There is no such animal (not to mention a conflict of interest). These things are just mind control abuse (inner and outer directed), and the insanity grows. – It’s all a house of cards.

We are formally pronounced dead (whether we know it or not) , and not as people, but as classified and tattooed “persons”, and we are merely behavior, and what it takes to modify and manage that behavior. Rituals of how to dress for the occasion and behave yourself, as you participate in scenarios of endlessly insane situations. Shakespeare wrote it well. And broke his pencil after writing The Tempest.

Grand Tetons Snake River photo by Ansal Adams - national archives

These killings, whether small among people we know, or big as warring of mass murdering, are all collectively our sicknesses. We can only transform ourselves out of the jaws of death. Nothing else. We’ve tried it all and failed, as this event vividly brought home to each of us (here and abroad). Transformation is all that we have. And that is not going to happen through “rules of men” and enforcement by way of force. Life and Death in the 21st century has an entirely new threshold. Wisdom is the calling. And it came through small children too innocent to protect themselves, demanding it! No adults sufficiently Wise to respond because it should have never happened. There is no excuse. We are together a River of Life.

And that is how the challenges of our humanity are collectively at hand, without exceptions, and implicitly there is no geographical divide. Taking ‘security measures’ has no meaning in this Space Age stellar frontier. I whisper and write this in invisible chalk: this is not about mental illness, guns, or laws, or medication against what ails us. This is about collective suicide, which we are all participant in together. Omens clear (and not written in fatalistic prophesy of a singular event as some claim). Nor is this is just ‘a study of contrasts’ as foolishly pronounced by some claiming to channel disembodied entities because they’re too cowardly to name it as their own philosophy. Or some other story we tell ourselves like children afraid of the dark, as we stubbornly insist that we’re not miserable and are joyous in our misery.

So turn on symbolic lights and pray. No more darkness now. Praying together wherever you are and with whoever you are openly among the stars. Hold a hand or touch each other’s shoulder or arm and take a moment daily. You don’t have to believe, you can be strangers, you can even pronounce that you dis-believe first, and do it anyway.

Wisdom for our humanity must be taught, guided, and learned by us all. There is nothing else to bring to a new shared table. Our legendary sage Gandhi knew this, became famous fighting for civil rights for all and was killed for it (also by way of a gun), as he spoke of non-violence, as well as when it is appropriate for violence (he was a proponent of violence under certain circumstances, which he patiently explained and taught to his son), that we should take up violence as a last resort if the oppressors leave us no choice, or be perceived as cowards. But this was spoken to ‘the old round table’ he sat at. As did others who sat in, who’ve been writing and teaching for thousands of years. They are of our Wisdom Heritage calling us.

This is not the time of Gandhi. A new conscious vigil is required and a new roundtable where everyone has a seat at the table. Nothing of what applied to the old is applicable to the new. A new 21st century consciousness is not optional, it is our very life as a specie group. What are you prepared to sacrifice in order to learn new Wisdom so that you could become wiser. Your childrens’ lives, and their childrens’ lives, and the labs that will create them in the future in petrie dishes? This cannot be legislated, medicated, or made into ‘new diplomacy rules’. We have crossed a threshold to the beyond. We must first Learn to become wise about how to be Wise. Life is not a game, regardless of what insanity holds a gun or knife to your throat.

We must each find our way like a blind person who has untold capacities yet to be nourished and refined, carefully reaching out to touch one another, and learn to see what is here among us anew, what is here that we can comprehend without shifting blame to anything “out there”, what is new without repeating ‘the old words’ just to hear ourselves preach them, that we can love, that we can Wisely Love. We are one Family Of Humankind in any language, and that “aura” is God’s signature. The rainbow that everyone can see with no words required. We are a rainbow flowing as one great River of Life.

Send others Our Best Advice ! Share and review our TIPS and send us yours. If you have top references and experience working in the domestic help field, or you have a job offer requiring the best household help staffing call us or register here. This blog is brought by Our Best Advice - see more at our domestic help staffing website ISAstaffing.com

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pomegranate juicing in Istanbul's farmers market

Some brace for Cyber Monday and some of us dream of other adventures. Like using unexpected raw fruits with holiday meals that last from ThanksGiving until New Year (any excuse to celebrate), which I do spontaneously, like adding pineapple with pomegranate to the mix. ‘poms’ disappear around January, take advantage while they’re available (and also makes a great gift basket theme). Pomegranates have high sugar content so add them to other fruits~veggies for easing up on sweet juicing. Fresh is best but on the rush there are great Pom products (we don’t get paid for any endorsements and I make them freely without input).

A Vegan Raw Pineapple ripening tip reminded me of my Bali days. I’m sensitive to pineapple. To prevent unhappy tongues home-ripen the pineapple by doing the following (use more than one if making juice for a few people):

Poke holes into the stem end of the skin with a fork or grilling skewers (don’t use your good silver!), put the pineapple end in two inches of water standing in the direction of the sun for a few days. This accelerates a ripening process to loose the blue-green acid condition that turns yellow/orange and then yellow/brown (which is what you’re after). Juice the pulp, and save overnight in your refrigerator to deepen enzyme activity. Drink the juice first thing in the morn on an empty tummy (or add to your juice mixing for added antioxidant boost), a great way to get alkaline hydration. The pulp can be rubbed on your skin to help dissolve lodged oils to move out from your pores (further benefited by dry brushing your skin). You can apply the juice with some raw salt on the skin (or use the juice alone) to dissolve outer layers of dead tissue, exposing the soft layer underneath. A wonderful skin conditioner and great massage enhancer.

pineapple (also called ananas) seen at its starting stage

The story goes that European sailors (like Columbus) were first to find Indians in the Caribbean using pineapple in several remarkable applications. They brought those TIPS home for the ladies (or at least that’s how we tell it at ISA as some of Our Best Advice). Those (very) smart natives used the sweet meat to eat alone and combined with other foods, to tenderize foods (proteins are broken down by pineapple), the juice to soften skin and clean their wounds and remove body-hair (… does that mean no need to wax?), and this wonderful medicine cured an upset stomach. Pineapple bromelain is a known  digestive aid. Piña (meaning pineapple) is also the fiber turned into textile.

Several of our old school clients are owners of major fruit farming enterprises. They take juicing seriously to extend their own health and longevity protocols. Jack LaLanne and Bernard Jensen (among others) were their gurus, who advised many Hollywood actors to stay trim and fit. These clients are captains of industry leaders; successful people who express endless high energy output in continuous travel, work hard on philanthropic projects who are also equally passionate about work in multiple fields (and sitting on multiple Boards giving their time freely), without desire of any retirement. Our younger clients also undertake a Raw Foods Diet at least part of the year, if not completely. Some of them are renowned for extraordinary dedication to raw health.

My mother (who’s not into all raw) and only eats two meals daily (she skips lunch), is among those who’ll be taken holding a phone to her ear helping someone get a job, or quickly covering a client who’s frantic because their Chef became unexpectedly ill the day of an important event. She has unending energy! We provide clients with ‘best of the best’ Staffing Household Help for decades, with our famous expertise running multiple luxury homes and high profile criteria of unique estates. We love giving TIPS as part of our services. Please pass them along.

My father was big on juicing and we grew up tasting his experiments. If you don’t want to use it raw (but do),  you can grill pineapple (a great dessert base), or use it in pomegranate fusion bar drinks to boost alkaline to acid ratios. Add it into your RAW detox protocol as many Chefs love to include for our clients jobs with their ‘secret ingredients’ green drinks. Or try Pomegranate soup. A Mesopotamian dish made from pomegranate juice and seeds added with split peas, mint leaves, spices, and other fresh ingredients (as you prefer). A booster of hearty warmth for fall.

Pineapple and Pomegranates are among what I call golden fruits (worth their weight in gold they’re so good for you). One of my ‘keeping me healthy’ team members I trade TIPS with told me she tested vodkas, to see which would become alkaline and retain its alkalinity if she added her special alkaline water to the vodka. Only two survived the test (and as she put it, the rest was trash). Never argue with someone from a famous vodka producing country, just follow their lead. So if you’re looking for a bar specialty alkaline drink for vodka, add some alkaline water, with fresh pineapple pulp and some pomegranate seeds with a bit of juice, a splash of green tea to taste (optional, sweeten with a bit of agave), shake vigorously, and top with raw chocolate shavings on the foam – and voila!

For a great pineapple salsa I modify a recipe I found at  SAVEUR magazine with fresh seasonal pomegranate. Try it.

Salsa de Piña

INGREDIENTS (makes about 5 cups)

2 cups finely chopped fresh pineapple
½ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
½ cup fresh lime juice, or fresh pomegranate juice with seeds sprinkled in (will turn pineapple pink)
1 tbsp. cane sugar (or substitute other sweeteners to taste)
2 tsp. celtic sea salt or kosher salt (and adjusted to taste)
4 fresh serrano chiles, stemmed and minced
1 small red onion, minced

INSTRUCTIONS

Place all ingredients in a large holiday bowl (preferably glass to show off the colorful array), and toss until evenly combined. Let sit at room temperature to meld flavors at least 30 minutes.

Put a little added virtual sun into your winter holidays – and gift everyone Eric Whitacre Virtual Choir to play with your J’bells, or other fav playlists. Eric is amazing. Seeing his video is inspirational, lets your Spirits soar, and don’t forget to sing, sing, sing!

If you have top references and experience working in the domestic help field, or you have a job offer requiring the best household help staffing call us or register here. Send others Our Best Advice! Enjoy our TIPS and send us yours.

Serving Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood Hills. Holmby Hills, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Bel Air, Benedict Canyon, Hancock Park, Laurel Canyon, Los Feliz, Marina Del Rey, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Melrose. Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Encino, Woodland Hills, Topanga Canyon, Torrance, Westwood, West Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Hollywood Hills, Pasadena, San Mareno, Rancho Santa Fe, Palos Verdes, San Diego, Laguna, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Ojai, Orange County, Ventura County, California, New York, East Coast, England, Europe, and  the greater United States…

roquette at Library Bar - photo Matt Biancaniello

The best memories are ones we share, and some of the finest came with mania that typified our American swing era. The world instantly embraced our groove. We’ve gotten some great swing Remix from other countries triggered by nostalgia, evoking top Chefs remix(es) with farm-to-table cocktails, and bar menus dazzling our longing palates (transforming social construction). People are skipping restaurants to dine exclusively at bars as their all-in-one scene. Our Best Advice, try it and love it.

With my cocktails I dream of crudités served with exotic dipping sauces, or farmers market vegetables with burrata style almond cheese (concocted by Angel Ramos at Candle 79). Get this Chefs best rated vegan cookbook (consistently voted best vegan cookbook cuisine, and not just for vegetarians).

We ate raw straight from the garden long before there was a food movement. And I’m big on Traditional Foods too, folks who love healthy ‘back to the future’. Trend driving cooking is all about alkaline-acid ratios. We’re becoming ridiculously over-informed (I remember days when people simply ate!) – For you to know: The pH scale is from  0 – 14  so think of the numbers as: 0 1 2  3  4  5  6  7 healthy 8 9 10 11 12 13 14.

Peggy Lee

Now for fun, Bars are popping up with fantastic variety of seasonal foods. Some of our best Chefs have given a whole new meaning to the words boutique, happy, and cocktail hour (which is anytime, till all hours). Uncover inspired Clues for the best parties and event planning (we love pitstops for free bartender TIPS while sampling advice), and order takeout for romantic afterglow, or play bar-hop as a weekend destination fest (staying local or out of town). Or try featured drinks without alcohol and explore them as fresh savory herbs and spices with exotic fruit~veggies. That mortar+pestle elbow experience with home cooked alchemy inspired best sellers in old school days (and they’d belt out a song a cappella without buds in their ears). Lung power.

Speaking of old school, If you’re in town see Searching For Sugar Man before it disappears back to the mystery from where it came. The original soundtrack by the legendary Sixto Rodriguez is must have. Incredible find.

La Dolce Vita - Marcello Mastroianni & Anita Ekberg

In Hollywood, the Library Bar has gone famous for its curated drinks menu. Head alchemist Matt Biancaniello and his smoking team have a national following at the Roosevelt Hotel. Serving stylish  farm-to-table ‘shmoozing’ (humans love to loudly gossip at watering holes), the drinks are savory lip smacking potions leaving you wanting more in switched on delight (you will hunt for every drop).

There is no limit to nostalgia. We’re seeing “gens-whatever” get real specific when wishing they’d lived during iconic film eras. If you’re a Vespa fan with a longing for black/white passion with your cocktails, Fellini’s masterful La Dolce Vita is the perfect movie for a night at home. And check out track Evenin’ by Julie London, and add to yours Peggy Lee’s Fever smooth Remix.

Just up the street from our office is The Honor Bar at The Beverly Grill,  which features a jazz trio and eclectic bar menu that includes sushi selections with other satisfying nibbles. Try the mango-ahi sushi (wrapped in soy paper) with two dipping sauces and have it with the kale salad (tossed in peanut dressing) — or enjoy deliciously robust hamburger or a vegetarian version, topped with brimming homemade coleslaw, and seductively famous hand cut pappas. Wish they had sweet potato fries with skin lightly left on yum too. Sweet potato is a delicious alkaline food (ok, the fried part..)

Sotheby's tasty treats before an auction

Slow foodies in NY meet up on Tuesdays at Sotheby’s for chefs selections. A highlighted heirloom vegetable auction was offered as the featured event one evening. Before an auction, tastings are prepped and offered to go with regional foods as a theme to match the art. This auction house discovered that providing tasty fare fueled bidding (every free bite helps!) – Or if you’re feeling smoky for fish delivered to your door at either coast, Petrossian offers wonderful house cured North Atlantic Salmon topped with fresh dill to pair with your drinks and cheese tastings – and add some caviar to flavor both. A praiseworthy classic. They have great caviar tastings, take advantage of reduced prix fix.

We forget that homemade spirits were traditionally fermented at home. I recall my father patiently distilling his ‘secret formula’ cherry liqueur (which he magically and devotedly loved into existence from my perspective of awe), as we all waited patiently to taste his dedication at family meals. Look for places that feature unique farm-to-table cocktails from small distillers as an event in itself before theater or concert (scientific grazing adds a touch of daring), or host a tasting party and ferment your own. Distill your own spirit into happy contentment.

If you have top references and experience working in the domestic help field, or you have a job offer requiring the best household help staffing call us or register here. Write us with your best farm-to-table recommends and send others Our Best Advice! Enjoy our TIPS and send us yours.

Serving Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood Hills. Holmby Hills, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Bel Air, Benedict Canyon, Hancock Park, Laurel Canyon, Los Feliz, Marina Del Rey, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Melrose. Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Encino, Woodland Hills, Topanga Canyon, Torrance, Westwood, West Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Hollywood Hills, Pasadena, San Mareno, Rancho Santa Fe, Palos Verdes, San Diego, Laguna, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Ojai, Orange County, Ventura County, California, New York, East Coast, England, Europe, and  the greater United States…

LOVE scrabble image courtesy of CHEESESLAVE

My nephew loves scrabble (he beats everybody at 12), but he’s also fussy about food so I’m combining this post to encourage organic food for kids through Home Grown Gardens. Listen to Natural health physician and www.Mercola.com founder Dr. Joseph Mercola discuss the numerous benefits and importance of home organic gardening. For some time now we’re seeing that many of our Clients at ISA offer Job descriptions to Chef’s who are familiar with healthy diets, who also have skills with maintaining organic gardens and container grown vegetables and herbs. Benefits include food on hand for emergency preparedness and working with our youth, as FEMA also advises.

TIPS from a CHEESLAVE is fun to read how this mother advises a wide range of sustainable agriculture with a twist. She’s having her healthy cake and her child is eating it too. In this climate of “busy”  few believe they’ve got time to make their own, but Anna Marie makes it quick, delight-full and easy to follow. If what constitutes a healthy diet for you are the latest trends here’s a quick guide from Natural Health blog.

Christie Brinkley at 58 growing herself fit creatively

Having control what goes into the recipes and food you consume is key. Or as the wonderfully fit and inspired Christie Brinkley at 58 puts it about her healthy indulgence: I have a red truck and I will fill it up with every blooming plant in the nursery.” I know the feeling of irresistible gardening and my husband is passionate about it. Do it with friends and family.

Purchase organically grown starters and get your gardening going today (it’s always a good time to begin), and inspire your neighbors to do the same. A great way to ensure there is food during a power outage in your area (the notion that we’re not seeing alarming global weather changes is called denial). TIP: conserve water by understanding irrigation, don’t leave it to your gardner or landscapers. Many don’t know the best advice is that the most common cause of poor results isn’t watering too little it’s watering too frequently.

Over the years we’ve been privileged to experience Chefs bringing samples of their favorite recipes (oh how we love this!) and witnessed a huge change in cuisine to be fresh (preferably plucked just before prepping a meal). They mix home garden bounty with the best ingredients purchased from locally grown farmers and shop farmers markets within a 50 mile radius. Lingering with them for good-eats gossip and tips is one of our favorite pastimes.

TIP: Make a quick fresh pesto sauce from chopped cilantro, raw pistachio nuts, and garlic. If you don’t wish to have cheese (some people are vegan or dairy sensitive) simply flavor with EVO, fresh lemon and herbs from your garden with a bit of jalapeño for heat, then spoon over thinly sliced tomatoes or avocado tucked into butter lettuce leaves layered on a plate like an open lotus. Takes minutes to prep and the rest of your container grown tomatoes can go into sauces, raw soups, juicing, and sharing with neighbors. Or use this healthy quick summer squash recipe from the New York Times.

Enjoy our TIPS and Our Best Advice, and send us yours!

Serving Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood Hills. Holmby Hills, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Bel Air, Benedict Canyon, Hancock Park, Laurel Canyon, Los Feliz, Marina Del Rey, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Melrose. Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Encino, Woodland Hills, Topanga Canyon, Torrance, Westwood, West Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Hollywood Hills, Pasadena, San Mareno, Rancho Santa Fe, Palos Verdes, San Diego, Laguna, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Ojai, Orange County, Ventura County, California, New York, East Coast, England, Europe, and  the greater United States…