We were thrilled to have the talents of Luna Photo on hand to capture all of the bright and bold colors and happy faces!

From Vanessa of Alchemy Fine Events… For Jessica and Iyla’s wedding, we were inspired by their passion for art and design, as well as their heritage and the history behind the Bel Air Bay Club for this Old Hollywood-inspired glamorous wedding.

More from Vanessa…. With so much natural beauty already present, we wanted to keep it simple with one magnificent statement piece – a custom designed chuppah covered in blooming bougainvillea. Krista Jon executed our vision perfectly by covering the front of the chuppah entirely in vibrant fuschia blooms and draping the top with a piece of beautiful vintage crocheted lace.

Wire Cloches

From the Bride… We wanted our wedding to represent our backgrounds and our common ground growing up in Southern California. We envisioned an old California glam look, mixed with an exotic flair to represent our Mexican, Persian and Jewish heritage. When we discovered the Bel Air Bay Club, an old California Beach Club which had been built in the 1920s, we knew immediately that this venue had the history, Old California Spanish architecture, and beautiful ocean setting that we had envisioned. We drew on the elegance of the Old Hollywood art deco era with vintage crystal decanters, gilded gold accents and chandeliers, some lace touches, mirrored boxes, and many candles as part of the decor.

Outdoor Reception Lounge Vignette with our Malorie Sofa, Eldon and Kate Chairs and Lance Coffee Table.

Indoor Lounge Vignette with our Rosette Sofa, Fleur Side Table and Siegfried Steamer Trunk.

Want more?! Head over to Krista Jon’s blog for even more pictures and details from this beautiful wedding!

Thank you to all the fabulous vendors we worked with!

Wedding Photography: Luna Photo / Wedding Venue: Bel-Air Bay Club in Palisades, California / Wedding Planning + Design: Alchemy Fine Events / Floral Design: Krista Jon / Wedding Cake: Vanilla Bake Shop / Invitations &  Wedding Stationery: Alchemy Fine Events / Calligraphy + Spanish Tiles: Laura Hooper Calligraphy / Lighting: AV Event Design / Linens: La Tavola Fine Linen Rental / Vintage Rentals:Archive Vintage Rentals / Wedding Dress: Lea-Ann Belter Bridal / Bride’s Shoes: Badgley Mischka/ Bridesmaids’ Dress: Amsale / Hair + Makeup: Fiore Beauty / Groomsmen’s Yarmulkes, Bowties + Pocket Squares: Custom Designed / Flower Girls’ Tutus: Custom Designed

My second experience happened while in Italy a couple of weeks ago. The small town of Praiano to be exact.   Praiano is situated between the towns of Positano and Amalfi.  After we had settled in to our Villa for the week, we found out that the Giro D’ Italia Bike Race would be coming through Praiano.  I want to reiterate I am not a fan of Bike Racing, I know very little about it, what the rules are (except no doping), how one wins a big Bike Race like this.  But the spectacle of it is fun and exciting to watch.

I would like to say to you all that whether it’s a bike race or some other event, there are very few places that have the ambiance and beauty of the Amalfi Coast of Italy.  Watching paint dry on the Amalfi Coast would be a beautiful and pleasant experience.

The 2013 Giro d’Italia is the 96th edition of the race. It started in Naples and will finish in Brescia.  If you would like to know more about the Race Click Here

There is a small group of us on this trip and we have all agreed to stay in town and watch the race.  So we settled on a location, a nice little cafe right on the main road.  Although we couldn’t be sure what time the riders would be entering our town, it was decided someone would go early to hold a couple of tables at the edge of the patio overlooking the road.  Well as it turned out, this was an all day affair.  Tables were held beginning at 7 a.m.  We American’s always seem to think we must be first and early to an event, in fact the town hadn’t even awakened until 10 a.m..  So hours of Coffee, Cappuccino’s, Croissant’s and Snacks (of course thats not so bad).  As mid day drew closer, the crowds were getting restless with anticipation.  The Race Organizers did a good job of chumming the waters of anticipation by having several souvenir van’s driving through every few minutes selling the Race Souvenirs, it was a lot of fun to see all the excitement build.

We are now about 5 hours into the wait.  From our vantage point we could see clear to Positano and were steadfastly watching the roads along the cliffs looking for any sign of a bike race, then we spotted it.  Bicycles.  They are coming, they are coming, they are coming,  people were getting very excited.

Police, Ambulance’s, Sponsor’s Cars and Team Pace Cars came buzzing through town, just enough to really ramp up the excitement.  As I positioned myself to get photos of the riders as they descended on our little town even I was getting excited.  There was talk that the riders would hit town between 12:32 and 12:39.  Thats a pretty short window of time, and sure enough at 12:35 the lead group came racing through.  It was exciting.  Then about 4 minutes behind them was the Peloton (this is a large group of riders that are not leading, but have much to do with the positioning the team to win, as I understand it).

About 3 minutes later it was over.  Yes, you read that right, 5+ hours of waiting for what amounted to about a 6-8 minutes experience.  And it was fantastic.  The excitement in the air from all the people was amazing, children clapping, yelling their support for their team. Adults jumping up and down.  Happy People everywhere you looked.  I may not know much about this sport, but I know enough about the effect it has on people, and that is a good thing to see.  I may just have to learn a little more about this sport.

Giro D’Italia Photos

Happy Travels

Gateway Grassroots has secured an open lot, two large trucks, and the blood, sweat, and tears of volunteers seeking to serve their brothers and sisters. GGI invites you in this initiative to gather and ship desperately needed items for the victims of Monday’s devastating EF5 tornado.

We will be staging the effort, time and location TBD, once structures are up in Moore to receive aid. Non-perishable items may be dropped off for donation. Non-perishables will not be accepted.

Items most requested:  Bottled water – Gatorade – Wipes – Diapers – Baby formula – Hand towels – Individually wrapped snacks – Work gloves

No clothing, please.

If you would like to make an immediate donation, per Dana Loesch:

Salvation Army: Text STORM to 80888 to donate $10 to the recovery and relief efforts

Red Cross: Text REDCROSS to 90999 for Redcross to give $10

ONLINE DONATIONS:

Mercury One is taking online donations and sending trucks

Moore Recovers

Also, if you care to join us and help collect and load items, and you happen to have a hand-truck or dolly, please bring it. It would be tremendously helpful.

Posted by Jen

Here are some pics of the newly announced Xbox One , its’ controller and Kinect Sensor. Enjoy.

Roots808

Benat Intxausti (Movistar) won a three-man sprint ahead of Tanel Kangert (Astana) and Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida). The threesome went clear of the maglia rosa group in the final kilometres with Intxausti winning Movistar’s second consecutive stage and third overall.

Once the remnants of the day’s 22-man break had been swept up 19km from the finish on the last climb of the day, Carlos Betancur (Ag2r La Mondiale) was the first to launch an attack. As he swept over the summit and down the technical descent he was swiftly followed by Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi). While they initially gapped the leading group, one by one riders fought their way back with race leader Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) leading the charge, leaving a group of 14 to contest the finish.

Lampre’s Niemiec and Michele Scarponi, who’d gotten back into the leading group, were looking to profit from the misfortune of fourth-placed Mauro Santambrogio (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia), at this point over two minutes back having been dropped on the climb. On the flat run-in to the line, riders successively pinged off the front of the leading group only to be chased down and brought back into the fold until the winning trio went clear with just over a kilometre remaining, along with Robert Gesink (Blanco), whose luck immediately ran out with a mechanical. The threesome started playing cat-and-mouse but, with the leading riders quickly bearing down on them, the Pole Niemiec launched his attack from way out only to be easily overhauled by the Basque rider.

Overall race leader Nibali finished safely in the chasing group some 14 seconds back to retain the maglia rosa with only five days of racing left.

VeloVoices rider of the day

It’s got to be stage winner 27-year old Movie-starlet Benat Intxausti, who today recorded the most important victory of his career which he dedicated to late teammate Xavier Tondo, who died in front of him in a domestic accident almost two years ago.

The truth is that we have three stage wins, were second in the team time trial and had a day in the pink jersey. As a team, we couldn’t ask for more. Even I am in the top ten and I hope to maintain and even improve my standing.
Benat Intxausti

In our birthday tribute to Intxausti we said that the final year of his three-year contract with Movistar would be make or break for him and, having already donned the maglia rosa on stage seven, it was great to see him take an individual maiden victory in a Grand Tour. He also leapfrogged Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r) into ninth place.

Opinion & analysis

The stage after a rest day can sometimes produce unexpected results. Cast your minds back to the race defining stage 17 in last year’s Vuelta a Espana when Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) attacked on a relatively benign stage to take control of the leader’s jersey. Today, no one looked as if they were going to challenge the race lead. Instead it was all about preserving small advantages and profiting, where possible, from the misfortunes of a few. However, if anyone is thinking of challenging the status quo, they are rapidly running out of road.

There was merely a shuffling of the pack today with the hot pink boys from Lampre-Merida moving up the leaderboard ahead of Glowstick Mauro Santambrogio, who dropped to sixth. Intxausti moved up one place into ninth and, further down, Estonian Tanel Kangert (Astana) and Robert Kiserlovski (RadioShack-Leopard) traded places while Samuel Sanchez‘s attacking riding saw him move up two places into 15th.

In the battle for the maglia rossa, Cadel Evans (BMC) is now only six points behind birthday boy Mark Cavendish (OPQS). It would be so cruel if Cavendish were to lose it once again by the odd point. Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox) picked up sufficient points today to consolidate his lead in the mountains competition while Carlos Betancur still leads the best young rider competition by five seconds from Rafael Majka (Saxo-Tinkoff).

Stage 16 result

1. Benat Intxausti (Movistar) 5:52:48

2. Tanel Kangert (Astana) same time

3. Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) s/t

4. Ramunas Navardauskas (Garmin-Sharp) +0:14

5. Cadel Evans (BMC) s/t

General classification

1. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) 67:55:36

2. Cadel Evans (BMC) +1:26

3. Rigoberto Uran (Sky) +2:46

4. Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida) +3:53

5. Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) +4:13

6. Mauro Santambrogio (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) +4:57

7. Carlos Betancur (Ag2r La Mondiale) +5:15

8. Rafal Majka (Saxo-Tinkoff) +5:20

9. Benat Intxausti (Movistar) +5:47

10. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r La Mondiale) +7:34

Link: Official website

Perilous desert: Insecurity in the Sahara published by Carnegie Endowment cites ‘increasing inroads by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) & allies in terrorism & trafficking across the Sahara/Sahel, including Libya, Mali, Mauritania, & the Polisario-run refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria.’ MEOnline

*New book published by Carnegie warns of Al-Qaeda presence in Polisario-run camps in Algeria.*

Middle East Online (Washington DC, May 21, 2013) – ‘The geopolitical significance of the Sahara is becoming painfully clear,” according to a new book, Perilous Desert: Insecurity in the Sahara, published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and edited by North Africa experts Frederic Wehrey and Anouar Boukhars. The book, to be formally launched later this week at an all-day conference of experts, cites increasing inroads by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its allies in terrorism and trafficking across the Sahara/Sahel region, including Libya, Mali, Mauritania, and the Polisario-run refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria, which the book says represent “a tinderbox waiting to explode.”

According to Perilous Desert, “While the world’s attention was fixed on the momentous events in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya after the outbreak of the Arab Awakening, the desert states to the south were undergoing their own transformations with major global implications.” Although “long overlooked by policymakers and scholars,” the “states of the Sahara suffer from a ‘perfect storm’ of afflictions—weak governance, rampant corruption, endemic poverty, ethnic and societal cleavages, and inaccessible terrain—that give room for transnational crime and Islamist militant groups to proliferate and flourish.”

The recent “series of high-profile events,” including the murder of a US Ambassador in Libya, French intervention following the al-Qaeda-backed conquest of N. Mali, and the hostage seizure and shootout at the Algerian gas facility, “point to a new front in the struggle against al-Qaeda—what some have called ‘an arc of instability’ stretching from Western Sahara to Somalia and north into the Sinai.”

Al-Qaeda’s North Africa affiliate “has found an attractive base of supporters and recruits among the region’s disenchanted,” from Mali, Libya, Niger, Mauritania, and Algeria, including frustrated fighters and disaffected youth in the refugee camps controlled by the Polisario Front near Tindouf.

Perilous Desert provides an “in-depth analysis of the factors shaping the Sahara” — with chapters on Libya, Mali and Algeria, Mauritania, organized crime in the Sahel, and the Western Sahara conflict — all of which contribute to increased instability and insecurity that “raises urgent concerns for the broader Sahara and the West.”

In a chapter on the Western Sahara, Carnegie scholar Anouar Boukhars writes that the unresolved W. Sahara conflict has “negatively impacted trans-Saharan security. The undergoverned areas abutting the Western Sahara, especially northern Mauritania and the Polisario-administered camps in southwest Algeria, are becoming major hubs for drug trafficking, the smuggling of contraband, and the circulation of weapons.”

Boukhars notes that, “There is growing evidence to suggest dangerous connections between criminal organizations, AQIM, and the Sahrawi refugees in Tindouf,” and that “in February 2013, the Malian foreign minister confirmed the presence of Sahrawi combatants from the Tindouf camps among the groups that fled the French-led intervention, which was launched to counter an advance of insurgents from northern Mali toward the capital.”

Boukhars adds: “a study conducted by Altadis (a European tobacco company) revealed that ‘Sahrawis are involved in a vast network of smuggling … using various routes, passing through the Western Sahara to Algeria via Tifariti and Bir Lahlou, oases controlled by the Polisario Front.’” While “this illegal activity has existed for decades,” the “problem today, however, is that these illicit activities occur in the context of the expansion of AQIM, growing interdependence of organized criminal networks and state officials, and rising social and ethnic conflict.”

In late February the Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies, IUCTS, issued another study, which reported that al-Qaeda was establishing a new hub for jihadi recruits and a potential launching pad for terrorist attacks much closer to US and European shores in an “Arc of Instability” stretching across Africa’s Sahara/Sahel region. Among other recommendations, the IUCTS report called for long-term solutions to reduce potential criminal, terrorist recruiting in Polisario-run refugee camps in Algeria.

UN Security Council, on which Morocco sits, warned that an ‘arc of instability’ in the Sahara/Sahel could create “a breeding ground for extremists & launch pad for international terrorist attacks.” UN 

On May 13, the UN Security Council convened a special session, where delegates expressed deep concern about the “arc of instability” stretching across Africa’s Sahara and Sahel, where armed groups are perpetrating increasing violence and exploiting the region’s porous borders, illegal arms and drug trafficking, and difficult socioeconomic situations to spread the “growing scourge” of lawlessness.

“Terrorism thrives where borders are weakest,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. “If left unchecked,” the Security Council delegates warned, “it could transform the continent into a breeding ground for extremists and a launch pad for larger-scale terrorist attacks around the world.”

This marks the first news update from EA Sports on the new UFC game to be released since Dana White took the stage at the EA Sports E3 2012 keynote address. EA Sports will use their new EA Sports Ignite, which will “blur the line between real and virtual,” and will utilize the Xbox One’s exclusive updates for enhanced game play.

UFC and MMA gaming fans around the world are excited for this news, but it seems like only yesterday when EA Sports told off Dana White and explained ‘You’re not a real sport. We wouldn’t touch this thing. We want nothing to do with this.’ according to MMA Junkie. The two sides patched things up and are working hard on the new game. EA Sports stated in their address, the four titles will be released within the next 12 months and of course this includes EA Sports UFC.

For more updates and information as it comes available visit the game’s official Facebook page and twitter account. Information will also be posted on the official game page on EA Sports’ website.

UFC 160 is just around the corner and look for ITOMMA’s preview articles this week!

Justin Soderberg covers UFC for Inside the Octagon. Follow him on Twitter, ”Like” him on Facebook and add him to your network on Google.