THE KONSORTIUM

Gifts: Kei Gee Handcrafted Jewelry

Kei Gee Jewelry is handcrafted modern jewelry by fashion designer Keisha Dean. With a concentration on sterling silver, this jewelry line emphasizes the modern elegance that is the basis for her design philosophy.

The vision of Kei Gee is to be a leading lifestyle brand that enhances women’s lives and expands their self-expression. It is Kei Gee’s Mission to offer unparalleled customer satisfaction through innovative marketing and exceptional products, while steadily increasing net worth.

The Kei Gee Principle: be beautifully different is the foundation that supports the creative vision and direction of the company. It is based on the philosophy that fashion is to be enjoyed as a unique expression of who you are. For more information visit www.keigeestyle.com and http://www.keigeejewelry.com.

Turbo Chef, Highend...Fast Cooking

One of the real joys in life is eating one’s own food and having it taste good. Roasted food tastes good, whether it is meat or vegetable. The trouble is that roasting takes time, a lot of it. With the Turbo Chef, however, it is going to take a lot less. This double oven cooks food in times that will surprise any seasoned cook; a 12lb turkey can be ready for the table in forty-two minutes. Better yet, it will do you a deep dish pizza in 6.5 minutes. To cook the same sized turkey in a regular oven would take about four hours. Air circulation is the secret behind it. Air circulates rapidly in the upper speed cooking cavity. The lower cavity will cook foods at regular speeds. Roast food is good, fast roast food is better, but the price sucks.

Price: $7,900

How To Blow Your Bonus: Metal Shutter Houses in Chelsea, NY

The Metal Shutter Houses in the West Chelsea of New York City take a look usually seen when storefronts close down for the evening and roll down metal garage-door-like shutters and makes it high end. The nine-unit condo project designed by Japan's Shigeru Ban was inspired by the metal shutters on industrial buildings. The mechanized shutters have horizontal perforated slats that allow the resident to see out when closed but block out the city's prying eyes. When the shutter rolls up it reveals a terrace which is separated from double-height living rooms by windows that can also be raised to create one large indoor/outdoor space.The units range from three-bedroom, 1,950-square-foot duplexes with terraces to four-bedroom, 2,700-square-foot duplexes with terraces and one four-bedroom duplex penthouse which has 3,319 square feet and 1,963 square feet of outdoor space including private roof deck. The units start at $3.6 million and the penthouse, shown above, is listed at $10.5 million.

Move Radio - DJ Powered Mobile Music Network

I am part of an exciting new mobile company call Move Radio and I want all of you to tell a friend, DJ or Indie Artist!

Move Radio is a new mobile music network powered by DJs from around the world. Local DJs will have the power to host their own channel .. Radio. In addition to local DJs, Move Radio will feature celebrity DJs from the world of Hip-Hop, Dance, House, Reggaeton and more. The network will be FREE to anybody with a a cell phone or WIFI enabled portable music player. Move Radio is due to launch in early 2008, so be sure to join us as founding member now. For more info check us out at www.move-radio.com. If you are a DJ and want to host your own channel, sign up at www.move-radio.com or email us at djmix@move-radio.com.

Limited Edition Black ccPhone

Oooooooh, aaaaaaaah. Let the admirers stare and envy you as you not only whip out your new iPhone to answer a call or check your email, but as you whip out your new black iPhone. It's the ccPhone, and it's not only an iPhone modified to be a cool matte black color, but it also comes with a selection of new music, videos, screen art, and even an exclusive address book program.

If you want one you're going to have to get right on it though, as the ccPhone is available in a limited edition of just 50. Preorder only and will ship on November 15th. $2000

Coast-to-Coast Real Estate Round-Up

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Gisele Bundchen has lowered the price on her penthouse apartment, bedroom shown above, from $10.9 million to $9.2 million. The listing is here.
--Another supermodel Natalia Vodianova and her husband Justin Portman have marked down their fabulous penthouse from $11 million to $9.9 million. It was our estate of the day back in June.
--News anchor Kaity Tong and her husband, Patrick Callahan, have been living at the Gramercy Park Hotel after their Chelsea apartment was invaded by mold that may have come from a construction site next door.
--Real-estate marketing icon Louise Sunshine has listed her two-bedroom West Palm Beach condo at Trump Plaza for $1.399 million.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Vera Wang has paid $23.1 million to the estate of her late father Cheng Ching Wang for his duplex at 740 Park.
--Jerry Moss, co-founder of A&M Records, has paid $9,472,597.13 for an eighth-floor Plaza apartment.
--Two co-ops at The Ritz Tower at 465 Park Avenue that belong to late oil man Warren Alpert have sold for relatively small amounts. A two-bedroom apartment went for $1.4 million, city records show, and a fourth-floor studio/storage space sold for $175,000. Before his death he gave $100 million to Brown University's medical school.
--Celebrity photo retoucher Pascal Dangin paid $5.8 million this month for a townhouse at 281 West Fourth Street, in the West Village brownstone dreamland near West 11th Street.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Yves Saint Laurent and his business partner, Pierre Berge, have listed their estate in France's Normandy region again for less money and less acreage. The property, now about 52 acres, is for sale at €12.5 million, or about $17.8 million. The entire 67-acre Deauville estate was first listed more than two years ago for €20 million, then withdrawn last year. In 2005, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were rumored to be purchasing the home.
--Photographer and painter Richard Prince paid $9.7 million last month for a 1.9-acre property of his neighbor Diane Fuhrmann in Wainscott, N.Y., bringing his property to about 3.2 acres.The new land has a five-bedroom house.
--Screenwriter Peter Griffiths sold his Los Angeles house last month for close to its $29.5 million asking price.

From Berg Properties Celebrity Big Time Listings:
--Lori Loughlin has sold her Cape Cod-style house in the Hollywood Hills for $2.4 million.
--Radio host Tom Joyner and his fitness-guru wife Donna Richardson Joyner have sold their house in Beverly Hills, Calif. for its $5,600,000 asking price. It was our estate of the day back in August.
--It's time for another round of guess who owns this celebrity house.
--Public records reveal that the official price Paris Hilton got for her Los Angeles home was $3,865,000.
--Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have gone to contract to sell their Nashville house, which had been on the market for $2.45 million. It was our estate of the day back in September.
--Charlize Theron is latest buyer in the new Broadway Hollywood building in Hollywood paying at least $2 million for her unit.
--Professional skateboarder Eric Koston has paid $2,075,000 for a single-family house in Los Feliz.

From the Real Estalker:
--Mike and Irina Medavoy have listed their home in Beverly Hills, CA for $23.5 million.Indulge your eyes at the estate website here.
--Tony Danza has listed his five-bedroom Sherman Oaks home for $6.15 million. It is our estate of the day later today.
--Rumor has it that Shaquille O'Neal may have sold his home in Star Island, Miami which was listed at $32 million. The scuttlebutt is that baseball player Alex Rodriguez may be the new owner.
--Fashion designer Jennifer Nicholson has listed her charming four-bedroom home in Santa Monica for $7,995,000. The listing is here.
--Actress Katherine Heigl has purchased a home in Los Feliz for $2.55 million.
--Avril Lavigne's long-ago-vacated home is on the market for $6.2 million. The lavish property website is here.--Dan Akyroyd and Donna Dixon's Hollywood Hills home which has previously been owned by Mama Cass and Ringo Starr is now listed at $4.2 million. The listing is here.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Matthew McConaughey is ready to move out of his Airstream trailer in Malibu and into a real home. He has found a four-bedroom home for around $10 million in Malibu that sits on over an acre.
--David Draiman, lead singer of the band Disturbed, has put his fantastic Northridge castle, complete with turrets, gargoyles, dragons and griffins, on the market for $2.849 million. The listing is here and is listed as status "pending" so it may already be sold.--David Barenholtz, co-owner of the Beverly Hills-based tea emporium Le Palais des Thés and Culver City-based David Gallery, and his partner, Jeffery Allyn, have purchased the home of the late screenwriter and producer Bernard Gordon for nearly its $2.3-million asking price.
--Dan Dugan, a production manager of the TV series "Girlfriends" and "The Game," and his wife, Jessie, have purchased a getaway on Maui for $1 million.

Maybach's New Convertible

They might be billing it as a concept vehicle, but it looks pretty production-ready to us. And the choice to launch it at the Middle East International Auto Show? All the more suspect -- Maybach could sell every last limited-production one of these at the next OPEC meeting alone.

Witness the closest thing to a production-ready four-door luxury convertible we've seen in a while, the Maybach 62 Landaulet. The Landaulet can thank the 62 S sedan on which it's based for its 612-horsebower biturbo V12 and reclining rear seats, the latter of which are done up in white leather, contrasting the black leather adorning the chauffer's cockpit. That and the electronically-dimmed glass partition aren't all that separates the "haves" from their driver -- while the cockpit is enclosed overhead, the rear passengers enjoy a retractable soft top.

Just to give the sun something to glint off of spectacularly, Maybach also sprang for piano lacquer and gold-flecked granite (yes, granite) inserts.

Check out Daimler's full press release after the jump.

Maybach shows one of the world's most exclusive luxury cars
Majestic open-air experience with the ultimate in luxury and comfort
Folding roof for pampered rear-seat passengers
Appointments in the rear include white leather, piano lacquer and exquisite black granite

Fall Auctions In New York: So Far, So Good

So far, worries about the fall of the art market have been premature. At least that's the initial takeaway from the auction at Christie's on November 6 which started off the rollicking adventure known as the fall auction season in New York. It was thought that recent economic crises might have weakened the buying power of American art collectors. So far though it seems like the Americans are holding their own. Reuters reports that around half of the sale's buyers were American, one-quarter were European and one-quarter classified as "other." And it was business as usual with a bidding war erupting over Matisse's "L'Odalisque, Harmonie Bleue," which was expected to bring in $15 to $20 million but went for $33.6 million to an unnamed buyer.

The overall news wasn't entirely rosy though, Of 91 lots up for sale, 17 did not find buyers. And the overall sales totaled $394.9 million, which is healthily above the low end of the estimated sales, $348.6 million but still way below the $487.4 million high. Still, there always seems to be a fat wallet open when there is a Picasso around, other hot items included a few from the perennial favorite. "Seated Woman in a Turkish Costume (Jacqueline)," which was estimated to bring around $25 million went for $27.5 million. "Head of a Woman (Dora Maar)," brought in $16.2 million, which was far above the $8.5 million high estimate.

In a new book, Great Collectors of Our Time, James Stourton, the chairman of Sotheby's UK analyzes art collecting in the postwar era. While it still takes bucketloads of money, today's collector must combine his back account with a knowledge of the market, a bit of intuition and a single-minded passion that can stem from a variety of personal reasons. A collection, even one amassed for investment purposes, remains profoundly personal. The great collectors collect with their heart first and their wallet second. Which is the reason that anyone, even with a limited budget, can be a collector, just not at the fall sales in New York.

UPDATE: Uh oh, the news isn't so good from the Impressionist and modern art auction at Sotheby's in New York which Bloomberg calls "disappointing." Even paintings by some of the names that usually get snapped up in a moment like Picasso and Van Gogh didn't sell. Vincent van Gogh's yellow-and-blue `The Fields (Wheat Fields)'' which depicts the place where he later killed himself was estimated to sell for $35 million and received no bids. Paul Gauguin's Tahitian ``Te Poipoi (The Morning).'' had a high estimate of $60 million but sold for $39.2 million in a a lone telephone bid by Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau. The total sale was $269.7 million under the presale low estimate of $355.6 million. Did yesterday's Wall Street nose dive but a damper on the proceedings? It certainly looks like it didn't help.

Virgin Atlantic Offers Onboard Offsets

Virgin Atlantic has become the first airline that lets you order up your carbon offsets while you are actually in flight. The airline has partnered with myclimate to offer the offsets which are available onboard and online. The offsets will benefit projects in India and Indonesia.Virgin Atlantic has committed to only Gold Standard projects which are endorsed by 49 Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) worldwide including many environmental groups. The Gold Standard credits are independently validated and only support renewable energy or energy efficiency technologies (no tree planting or gas flaring).

Virgin Atlantic has also calculated exactly how much carbon is produced for each passenger by taking into account the different weights of equipment and seats in each class of travel. Upper Class passengers pay more than Premium economy and Economy passengers because their seats and entertainment monitors are significantly heavier.