Music- Annabel Steele

When it comes to music, the 2010s are split down the middle. Firstly, its been the age of electronic music. Of course, we had the synth-heavy 80s and the disco-loving naughties, but the past decade has put DJs and producers at the forefront of the music scene, creating and championing an unprecedented style of electronic music. And because of this, its all about collaborating; you dont just look out for the new Calvin Harris release, but you also want to know whos featured. The intricacies of production have become much more appreciated because of this: producers are no longer behind the scenes, but musicians in their own right. Artists like Flume, Skrillex and Martin Garrix have proved that you can create chart-topping electronic songs where production is the main focus: lyrics arent necessary anymore. This idea, which before 2010 only really existed in the minds of classical composers, is changing the way we think about music for the better, I think.

But theres also a new genre which puts lyrics above anything else: grime. The main criticism of grime music is that every beat and every backing track sounds the same; but thats sort of the point. The lyrics, and the way theyre delivered, take the place of instruments. You dont look for melody in a grime track, you look for rhythm. The better the writer, the better the artist. Wordplay is the priority: playing with the relationship between the vocals and the beat, and treating the instrumental as an accessory to the lyrics. Grime artists have cultivated an entire culture out of their music, and collaboration is important here, too. Different artists have established their own style of writing and delivery, but collaboration in grime is the process of figuring out whose styles would complement each other.

All in all, its been a decade to remember and, more importantly, one which I think will play a huge role in defining the trajectory of music from here.

Fashion- Annabel Steele

The past decade in fashion has been the most diverse ever. The difference between high end and high street is more noticeable than ever, and more recent concerns over the sustainability of the fashion industry have shaken up attitudes towards how we should dress. But there are a few ideas and trends which I think will come to define what weve been putting on our backs for the past 10 years.

First of all: fashion trainers. If youd told my 2010 self that Id be sporting Nikes on a night out in 10 years, I would have laughed in your face. But now, I find myself double-taking at someones footwear if it isnt something that could technically be worn to the gym. I was so against this trend when it first made an appearance, but the moment I realised it was here to stay was also the first moment that fashion became a genuinely important part of my life: the first time I watched the Chanel Haute Couture SS14 show. After watching Cara Delevingne skip down a rotating staircase to Sbastien Tellier accompanied by a live orchestra, in a tweed mini dress, glittered eyes and a pair of stunning white Chanel trainers well, I was hardly going to be against the shoes after that religious experience.

Next up: colour! If Ive said it once, Ive said it a thousand times: thank you, young Donna Sheridan. Funky patterned trousers, animal print shirts, bright knit jumpers: festival wear, but all year round. To Anna Wintours smug delight, were not afraid of colour anymore. But we dont just owe it to Donna. The progress weve made towards LGBTQ+ equality, and the integral part fashion has to play in that movement, has also brought colour back into our lives. Pride is called Pride for a reason, and the movement isnt just about who you fancy its about having the freedom to cultivate your own identity, and fashion is central to that process.

And on a similar note, I also hope the 2010s will be defined by a genuine encouragement to wear whatever you want. Androgyny, drag, body positivity we are moving, slowly but surely, towards a more inclusive and accepting society, and that has been reflected in fashion choices across the board.

Food- Sophia Rink

Culinary journalisms upward trend over the past decade owes its widespread cultural foothold in large part to the adjacent rise and eventual stabilization of social media and its associated practices. While foodie culture in general has certainly seen its fair share of new gastronomic trends craft beer, deconstructed plating techniques, everything rainbow, and ridiculous dessert portion sizes to name a few the solidification of social media as a form of personal journalism has played an understated but incredibly important role in the way that food is reported in the media, discussed, and even consumed. Presentation is no longer solely about showcasing food to one who has ordered it but about how Instagrammable it is. Food is used as a marker of digital social status and culture. Trendy eateries have always been salivated over by the masses, but with how second-nature photo sharing has become over the last decade, its now become an ingrained reflex to photograph a meal to prove its worth the sight of the consumable is nearly as important as the act of consumption. By situating the photograph and the sharing of the visual experience as the first order of business, eating is made into a secondary motivation for purchasing food. Sites like Pinterest and homespun culinary blogs have furthered this push towards visual consumption while they have made food and culinary experimentation more accessible and more desirable, they absolutely impart a sense of aesthetic ambition. For example, meal prepping does make ones life easier on busy days, but do the instructions which suggest arranging brightly-coloured vegetables to form a rainbow in the Tupperware mean that modern cooking is successful only if it is visually appealing? The answer is no, but with social media in mind its worth thinking about what you eat and why youre eating it.

Film- Milo Farragher-Hanks

For me, the moment that best surmises the past decade in cinema is Ethan Hawkes tormented Reverend protesting Well, somebody has to do something in Paul Schraders First Reformed. Its a sentiment perfect for an era that has sometimes felt like a crisis point for the medium, a time in which all has been in flux much has been done for good and ill. Once accepted wisdom about what kind of films people see, where and how they see them, and even what cinema is has been called into doubt. In some welcome, overdue ways, it has been a time of broadening. Movements like #OscarsSoWhite and #TimesUp have given voice to long-silenced accounts of systemic inequality in the industry, and helped to challenge conceptions of whose story is worth telling. All this has been significant and valuable. Yet in other, broader ways it has felt like a period of narrowing. Slowly but surely, a complex confluence of factors have concentrated the attention of the entertainment press and audiences near-exclusively on a single type of film: CGI-heavy, mega-budget spectacles based on existing properties. The films that dominate the popular imagination are budgeted such that they must appeal to all possible tastes, often making the world of cinema feel utterly bereft of risk and surprise. Of course, that is not the case. This is the decade that gave us We Need To Talk About Kevin, Moonrise Kingdom, Inside Llewyn Davis, Under The Skin, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Handmaiden, Moonlight, Phantom Thread, Leave No Trace and so many more aesthetically and narratively bold, stirring films. But the continual existence of the conditions that allow such films to be made and find an audience does not feel like a guarantee. As a medium stands on the precipice between widening and closing, only one thing is sure somebody has to do something.

Podcasts- Euan Notley

Perhaps the most surprising development of the 2010s has been the rise of the podcast. The golden age of radio as longform entertainment came to an end in the 1950s with the mass marketing of the television. Now suddenly, the podcast has resurrected the audio format. While television still reigns supreme, the rate with which podcasts have entered our popular culture is astounding.

The rise of the podcast can be summed up by the story of the biggest podcast of all. Journalistic radio show This American Life had been having success releasing their episodes as podcasts and decided to create something specifically tailored to the medium. The result was Serial, a real-life murder mystery told over twelve episodes. By the time the first season was wrapping up it was the most popular podcast of all time and the first to get people binge-listening. Ten years ago, podcasts were either a hobby for amateurs or somewhere for traditional radio shows to put their back catalogue. Now theyre big business.

Today it feels like everyone has a podcast. They provide an easy way for the up-and-coming broadcaster to produce their own content or existing stars to try something more laid back. True crime still looms large; the BBCs recent hit The Missing Cryptoqueen about a cryptocurrency scam was straight out of the Serial mould. Interviews are also a major trend, with people like David Tennant and Alec Baldwin sitting down with celebrity friends for freeform conversations.

Roosevelts fireside chats recognised that the power of radio was it brought you into peoples homes. The podcast brings you right into the listeners ears. It is the perfect form for the age of the smartphone and solitary consumption of media. The podcast shows no sign of dying off in the 2020s, but the 2010s shall be remembered as its coming-of-age.

Books- Alice Hobbs

Trends that have defined the last 10 years in books can only begin with the Twilight Saga, the trilogy which premiered across 2008-10. The ramifications of this trilogy panned out for years after as seen in the obsessive relationship genre which was transformed in E.L James Fifty Shades of Grey (2011). This narrative of Twilight/ Fifty Shades of Grey was commodified in the many spin off novels seen in both adult and young-adult literature. This trend was replaced by the girl trend which was seen in 2012 with Gillian Flynns Gone Girl which also took the publishing world by storm. These consumer fads have therefore largely defined the last 10 years in books. However, more important trends have also taken hold. Novels in the last decade have also challenged the white hegemony of the literary world with writers such as Marlon James winning the Man Booker Prize in 2015 with A Brief History of Seven Killings. This diversity was further seen in the success of Colson Whiteheads The Underground Railroad and Zadie Smiths Swing Time in 2016 which both gained critical acclaim, Whitehead won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for his novel. Standout books in 2017-2018 were defined by quirky protagonists, and largely female authors. This was seen in the huge success of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. Unlike the other trend-setters Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey and Gone Girl Eleanor Oliphant has not been replicated for sales and instead its quirky and unique aesthetic has remained stand-alone. Sally Rooneys Normal People which won Waterstones Book of the Year was also a triumph and featured this quirky dynamic. 2019 has so far been defined by the publication of new novels by big names such as Margaret Atwoods The Testaments and David Nichols Sweet Sorrow. The last decade in books has been an unusual one. Fads have dominated the market but within these chart-toppers we have been some genuinely beautiful books which will by all means become classics of the future.

TV- Marianna Panteli

We are still in the new Golden Age of TV. TVs return to the top podium may have begun in the Noughties but it has persevered throughout this decade too. This is despite the major shift in how we are watching it. A medium that was once set to a public schedule and watched as a family, now provides us so much more choice in where and when we watch and who we watch with. Streaming platforms such as Netflix are redefining what TV is for better or for worse.In the midst of all these technological advances the TV programs that these many platforms have given us continue to surprise, shock and delight.

Dark and moody dramas lured us in with their sinister charm. True Detective, Hannibal and Fargo raised the expectations of what we expect. Not only were the narratives of these dramas captivating but the cinematography rivalled anything that you could find at Cannes. TV, to my outrage, has always been seen as Films slightly low rent cousin. However, the dramas of the past decade have put this assumption to shame and showed the potential of TV as a true art.

We have also seen shows struggle under the weight of their own popularity. When Black Mirror first aired in 2011 it quickly gained a cult following. In the years to follow it became a global phenomenon. With people protesting Trumps election and Brexit waving placards bearing the scribe I dont like this episode of Black Mirror. But inevitably it has begun to lose its grip on the zeitgeist as new shows enter the arena. We entered the decade anxious about all this new technology about. We leave the decade with a tangible sense of fear about the climate crisis. The TV we are drawn to is reflective of this.

As with other arts industries the TV industry has had reckonings about past abuse and continuing inequalities. The ramifications of which are too vast to do justice here. However, as we enter a new decade it is not just the content on our screens that is changing, but the way the industries themselves operate.

Photography- Noa Lee

A decade fraught in human turmoil has demonstratively captured the very essence of photography, connection. We all can recall the photo of a little Syrian boy Omran Daqneesh whose bloodied, dusty face became a symbol of civilian suffering during the siege of Aleppo. As the photograph flooded the media, many hearts reached out to a distant place in a genuine moment of human connection. It is not a good camera that makes the shot, but the human story behind it.

Another defining moment is the Crying Girl on the Border. Photographer John Moore snapshotted Honduran toddler Yanela Sanchez crying as she and her mother are taken into custody by US border officials in McAllen, Texas on the 12thof June. Capturing the journey of immigrant families whom rafted across the Rio Grande from Mexico to seek asylum but then detained by US authorities, this single photo instigated public outcry on the Trump Administrations zero tolerance policy at the border under which immigrants caught entering the US could be criminally prosecuted. The fear of separation between a mother and daughter caught worldwide attention as it was published, and the policy was reversed on the 20th of June. Not too technical, nor artful, photography of the decade seems to echo a deeper intuitive kinship with the audience.

Iconic and intense, White House photographer Pete Souza captures the former President Barack Obama and members of his national security team monitoring the Navy SEALs raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. The photograph luminates the anxiety-filled air. Not particularly visually grandiose, the single shot is a significant moment in American history as it encapsulates the end of a chapter of terror for many anguished families. In a sentence, photos of the decades are ingrained in human stories of tragedy, love, anxiety, fear and hope.

Theatre- Marianna Panteli

As one of the oldest art forms in existence it might seem strange to ask how theatre has changed over the last decade. How can you define this decade of theatre? For it is a mere blink of the eye in the lifespan of theatre. However, theatre has continued to roll and adapt with the times.

A big innovation in theatre came at the end of the Noughties and continued to grow in success throughout this decade. NT Live is broadening the reach of British theatre across the world by bringing it to our cinema screens. As we say goodbye to this decade, NT Live celebrates its 10thanniversary and is now broadcasting to 2,500 venues across 65 territories, with 700 in the UK alone. Nothing can quite capture the feeling of being in the theatre itself, however NT Lives initiative is making theatre more accessible to more people. As a medium that can sometimes seem out of reach, with most major productions being in the major cities, NT Live goes some way in democratising the medium. This is technology and theatre working hand in hand in an outstanding way.

Lin-Manuel Mirandas Hamilton: An American Musical took the stage and then the world and then possibly the universe by storm. This 2015 sung-and-rapped musical looks at the life of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. I dont think I need to say much more we know so much about Hamilton.However, what is remarkable about this musical is how it has sunk into our everyday lives. It is now being parodied at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and also thoughtfully and hilariously picked apart for its gender politics in Katharine Ryans Glitter Room. This the mark of a show that has embedded itself in our culture and then started to change it.

To round up my piece, I could not help but mention Fleabag. In 2013, it started its humble beginnings at the Edinburgh Fringe where Waller-Bridge received a three-star review in the Guardian for her one-woman monologue. In the following years, it has had an Off-Broadway run, become a cultural phenomenon, and finally found itself as the star of the West End as the decade draws to a close.

Fine Art- Olivia Hendren

The art world has changed significantly in the past decade. Protest art has become more prominent in the world of fine art, and street art is finally being praised for its significance. Banksys recent shredding canvas surprised buyers at the anticipated Christies auction, raising questions about how we assign value to an artists work. Fine art also used to be seen as its own category and style, however in recent years, the definition of what makes a work fine art has shifted.

The rise of Instagram and other social media platforms has made selling art easier for individual artists, and smaller buyers. CJ Hendry, an artist with a well-known Instagram following, has built her career though the platform. CJ started her art career by selling hyper realistic pen drawings from her parents garage in Sydney Australia but has since moved to New York City and has sold her paintings to many celebrities and collectors including Kanye West.

This past decade has blended the arts with politics, conservationism, and activism. Challenging the norms and exclusive nature of the art world will allow artists to start conversations that might have been previously ignored. Artists now truly question the very nature of who is and is not included in the art world.

Read more here:

Defining a Decade in Arts and Culture - The Saint

Apple TV Plus just gave official renewals to four of the shows that launched with the new streaming service last week, but the second season of The Morning Show has already been well underway for quite some time: The Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon-starrer was a two-season order right out of the gate. Now, it looks like Season 2 could premiere sometime around the 2020 election but does that mean real-life politics will impact the new season?

We have the shape of it. Weve broken the first three episodes, Ehrin told Variety about the second season on the red carpet at the New York City premiere, earlier this fall. Were writing the show now; well film it this summer; and well be on next November. (Sources close to the show, however, tell Variety that no premiere date for Season 2 has been set at this time.)

Since The Morning Show features a titular morning news show within-the-show, if the second season does in fact launch during the same month as the next presidential election, it would seem like a ripe time for political storylines. However, Ehrin noted that its actually impossible to bring current political events into the show, given the timeline of writing, shooting, editing the season before it gets to streaming.

You cant do current politics, she explained, so my idea is that if you deal with politics, you deal with political themes. I call it current adjacent, where youre not historically aging yourself by dealing with a specific thing, but you can take the zeitgeist of what is happening in the world and do something with those themes.

Dont count on any Trump-like character showing up on screen, though. Asked specifically if President Trump will have an tangential influence on the show, Ehrin responded, Only in the sense that the president has an influence on all of us. Writers are absorbers of reality and interpreters, so in that sense. But its not like hes a part of the storytelling at all.

The first season of The Morning Show is heavily influenced by the #MeToo movement that has swept the entertainment and news businesses over the past two years. In real life, powerhouse figures such as Charlie Rose and Les Moonves from CBS and Matt Lauer from NBC were ousted after allegations of sexual misconduct, but although Steve Carells character Mitch is a beloved morning news anchor fired amidst similar allegations who even has a privacy button under his desk in the show the team behind the show says its story is not directly ripped from the headlines.

I dont write to the news. Its not that kind of a show, Ehrin reiterated on the red carpet.

In fact, Ehrin said she never went back to tweak the scripts when new stories unfolded off-screen in the news in the first season. And she has no plans to do that in the second, as the writers are already hard at work on the second season and have their storylines intact.

When Ehrin was brought the premise of the show, all she knew was that Aniston and Witherspoon were attached, and that the series would be influenced by journalist Brian Stelters 2013 book Top Of The Morning, which explores the behind-the-scenes dynamics of morning news shows.

News is a little bit of a double edged sword right now, Ehrin said. I think that it can mean bad things to people and good things to people, and I hope that this will be a new vision of the real humanity of it, as opposed to the politics of it, so Im hoping it will educate, but also uplift a little bit.

Ehrin also hopes that through that education, shes showing multi-dimensional female characters to her female viewers. My feeling, which I tried to put into it, is that women, especially in business who are ambitious, are very complex. Its not like youre just this one thing, she said. I really want female viewers to be able to spend time with complicated, grounded people that they relate to and see themselves in.

See the article here:

The Morning Show Boss on How Real-Life Politics Will Influence Season 2 - Variety

Technological developmentsfrom smart devices to humanoid roboticsare driving a new era of autonomous and connected devices that have the potential to transform our personal and professional lives in unimaginable ways. Skilled engineers are needed to spur this movement in the age of disruption, and graduates and professionals must enhance their skillsets and knowledge in the field.

In capturing the 21st century zeitgeist, Northeastern Universitys College of Engineeringknown for multidisciplinary research and educationhas become recognized as a global leader in the Internet of Things (IoT), as well as robotics research, and offers a host of academic programs in the field to prepare future generations of engineers for an ever-evolving world.

Northeastern has leading expertise in every single field related to the IoT, said the universitys Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Matteo Rinaldi. There are experts in micromechanical systems, wireless networks, Big Data, imaging, signal processing, and of course, security. This combination of expertise is quite unique, and that creates the critical mass needed to solve complex problems.

Student conducts wireless networking research at the Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things lab at Northeastern University.

The Colleges Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering offer MS and PhD programs with flexible electives and several concentrations, as well as a wide range of research opportunities, working alongside accomplished faculty to allow students to focus in the area of most interest to them.

The college has carved itself a reputation in robotics, with a portfolio of high-profile research projects, cutting-edge laboratory facilities and new degree programs that address fast-changing industry and societal challenges.

The university is home to the Institute for Experiential Robotics, led by Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Taskin Padir, and focuses on creating artificial intelligence (AI) that learns from human experiences to build robots that operate seamlessly with people at work and at home. There are a wide range of potential applications for experiential robotics.

For example, Padir is leading a US$2.5 million National Science Foundation grant to develop robots that can transform the US seafood processing industry, while Professor Hanumant Singh, of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, develops autonomous car technology, drones and unmanned vehicles to explore the Arctic to collect and interpret data for a sustainable society.

Northeastern also has a new 12,000 square foot lab at the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex, which is dedicated to robot fabrication, testing and prototyping. It has cutting-edge robot systems, including collaborative manipulator arms, drones, human support robots and field robots.

With its state-of-the-art facilities and research prowess, prospective students keen on pursuing their graduate studies in robotics will find Northeasterns MS in Robotics program ideal.

The MS in Robotics is interdisciplinaryit includes mechanical engineering, computer science and electrical engineering, explained Professor Singh. Our coursework is geared so that our students have the basic foundational knowledge in each of those three areas. The idea is to expose them to a broad, strong theoretical framework across multiple fields, and let them, if they choose, specialize in a particular area.

Northeastern offers programs in high-growth IoT fields, such as its MS in Cyber-Physical Systems with a concentration in the IoT. This multidisciplinary program is designed to meet the demand for a new kind of specialist, one who can engineer and develop new interactive services; acquire, fuse, and process the data collected from sensors, actuators, controllers, and other devices; and develop architecture to interconnect these elements as part of larger, more diverse systems.

Careers in this rapidly evolving area are expected to encompass various industry sectors ranging from energy to healthcare, transportation to infrastructure, and even manufacturing. Students can pursue the program in Boston as well as at Northeasterns Silicon Valley campus. Students applying for Spring 2020 admission at the Silicon Valley campus are eligible for a 25 percent tuition scholarship.

Meanwhile, the MS in Information Systems is a flexible program that puts software at the forefront of the engineering paradigm to address the socio-technical needs of contemporary society. Students will be prepared to go beyond simple programming to become a leader in information technology, delivering systems that are safe, secure and help solve the worlds grand challenges. There are also concentrations and electives relevant to smart contracts, intelligent systems, as well as a blockchain specialization. The program is available in Boston, Seattle and Silicon Valleythree of the most innovative hubs in the US.

Those interested in advancing their telecom and networking knowledge, or expanding to business or marketing, may consider the MS in Telecommunication Networks. It takes a multidisciplinary approach, combining engineering, computer science, and business.

Security in the age of the internet is of course important. Northeasterns PhD in Cybersecurity program combines a strong technical foundation with a security policy and social sciences perspective. It prepares graduates to advance the state-of-the-art security in systems networks and the internet in industry, academia and government.

Stellar programs aside, Northeastern also offers a stimulating learning environment to complement their academic experience. The Northeastern Robotics Club is award-winning and the college has a new NU IoT Connect student organization, a common platform for all things IoT. The organization regularly conducts workshops, works on real-world projects and organizes meet-ups with IoT-related companies.

Experiential learning is the heart of a Northeastern education. Unique to the university is the opportunity for graduate students to participate in its world-renowned cooperative education program to gain professional experience while employed in their field of interest as part of the academic program. MS in Telecommunications student Nishita Sikka did her co-op at Volvo Group North American headquarters, gaining invaluable experience in automation, web development, and network infrastructure.

If youre interest is piqued, reap the rewards that only Northeastern can offer by applying to the engineering graduate program today.

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Dive into the world of big data engineering at Northeastern University

Northeastern University: Igniting innovation with graduate engineering degrees

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Northeastern University: Engineering for an autonomous and connected world - Study International News

Chef Angie Mar, who has received rave reviews for her New York chophouse Beatrice Inn, has been called a "badass" by the press. While some women have no problem with the word and use it in an entirely complimentary context, many others dislike its bro-culture connotation. Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images hide caption

Chef Angie Mar, who has received rave reviews for her New York chophouse Beatrice Inn, has been called a "badass" by the press. While some women have no problem with the word and use it in an entirely complimentary context, many others dislike its bro-culture connotation.

Are there any words or phrases you really wish people would stop using to describe women chefs (or really, women, period)?

Charlotte Druckman put this question to more than 100 female chefs and food writers for her book Women on Food, a compendium that corrals a range of voices from marquee names such as Nigella Lawson and Rachael Ray, to the pioneering 92-year-old writer Betty Fussell, who still gets into the van at her retirement home in Santa Barbara, Calif., to buy raw cream and nectarines at the farmers market.

A mix of essays, Q&As and short riffs, it is packed with writing that is combative, funny, skeptical, angry, occasionally sanctimonious and altogether riveting. Creditably, it spotlights undersung icons such as the Alabama midwife Georgia Gilmore, who cooked tirelessly for civil rights marchers, and the Upstate New Yorker Cheryl Rogowski, who in 2004 became the first farmer to be chosen for a MacArthur Genius Grant.

The essays exhibit a command of themes that runs the gamut from Osayi Endolyn's withering account of how dining out solo as a black woman comes with a free side of white savior complex, to Soleil Ho's deep dive into how Pac-Man pioneered the role of food in video games, to Sadie Stein's (far too) respectful critique of the lack of sensuousness in M.F.K. Fisher's writing. Of the Q&As, the sparkler is the one with Fussell, whose answers are as unpasteurized as the cream she buys at the farmers market. When Druckman asks, "How do you think food writing can be a feminist act?" Fussell shoots back, "I don't think it should be. That's easy. Food breaks through the stupid categories we put on things. I hate the word feminism."

Despite this clarion contrapuntal note, Women and Food is a robustly feminist polemic. Druckman, a writer and sharp observer of the culinary landscape, compiled it in the wake of the #MeToo movement and parked it at the hustling turnstile where food smacks up against money, gender, race, sexuality, class and history. It asks the central question: Why, for all their unarguably brilliant achievements, are women chefs and food writers still well below the salt? Why, for instance, do we hear incessantly about the European culinary aristocracy of Ren Redzepi, Ferran Adri and Massimo Bottura but almost nothing about Carme Ruscalleda, the Catalan chef who has more Michelin stars than most other chefs in the world?

The answer returns us, somewhat elliptically, to the earlier question Druckman put to her contributors: "Are there any words or phrases you really wish people would stop using to describe women chefs (or really, women, period)?"

The list of words turned out to be quite long. Many rejected gender qualifiers like "women" or "female," preferring to be regarded as chefs or writers, tout court. Unsurprisingly, chick, bitchy and babe got the thumbs down. So did perky, boss, feisty, ballbuster, strong, tough and lion. Maternal markers nurturing, caring, matriarchal and the whole grandmother-pastel frosting-cupcake-nostalgia boilerplate made some gag.

Others flagged physical appraisers like tiny, trim, gorgeous, sexy, former model, attractive an objection pursued with prosecutorial vigor by Mari Uyehara in her essay on how fashion has hijacked the food world. Uyehara takes to task the food magazine Cherry Bombe, which touts itself as feminist to the bone, but which she admonishes for its narrow coverage of "young, hip, photogenic" chefs and putting "the serum-nourished Martha Stewart and Nigella Lawson" on its cover at the cost of lesser-known and not as modelesque women.

But the word that emerged as a lightning rod of scorn is one that may surprise readers, given that it is so frequently and proudly slung around by one and all as the ne plus ultra of praise: badass.

Over the past decade or so, badass has become part of the glut of cliches that plagues the world of food, up there with the insufferable "awesome" and "amazing." It started out as proud black resistance slang, was enthusiastically annexed by everyone else, and now sits at the apex of a trend that inverts a negative word into a ravishingly positive one (wicked, mean, bad, sick, crazy, killa are its siblings).

President Barack Obama made headlines for saying with regard to the U.S. women's national soccer team that "playing like a girl means you're a badass." The Daily Kos exulted that badass Tubman would soon be on the $20 bill. Angie Mar is a badass, proclaimed both The New York Times and The New Yorker, of the chef and co-owner of Beatrice Inn in the West Village, while The Village Voice congratulated her for bringing "badass attitude" to the historic chophouse.

Overuse has leached badass of its badassery. "It's like interesting: so bland as to be almost meaningless," says Eater Features Editor Rebecca Flint Marx. "It's a token word that only conveys pandering."

But the deeper reason why so many women in the food world dislike it is the connotations it has acquired. Though its slangy, demotic roots give it a tang of modernism, to many women it embodies the stultifying conventions of maleness that dominate restaurant kitchens.

It's not as if every female chef and writer is hostile to badass. Several use it in the book (and the media as the Angie Mar example shows) in an entirely complimentary context. But for an overwhelmingly large number, it is befouled by the heavy, telltale, locker room odor of what is disparagingly known as "bro-culture."

Charlotte Druckman, author of Women on Food Melanie Dunea hide caption

"Badass is a detonated way to describe a kind of cultural male whiteness an aggressive, swaggering one," Druckman told NPR. "And then it gets put onto women, as what feels like a tarnished 'badge of honor,' or backhanded compliment. Calling a woman chef or otherwise 'badass' is a way to signify that she's cool or relevant because she's acting like a man (specifically, an aggressive, swaggering one); that she is only of interest or worth consideration because she's going against whatever 'type' it is she'd otherwise be categorized as because she's a woman. She can't possibly be taken seriously or even close to equal unless she's aping male behavior. It exalts that bullying, bullish culture at the same time as it puts down the culture of anyone who doesn't follow that model, female, white or otherwise."

New York restaurateur Ning Kang points out that the expectation woven into words like badass is that one needs to strut masculine personality traits to succeed. "Some women certainly are all of those things by nature, and that's a part of their personalities and it's great," she says. "But some women are soft and gentle and shy, and I don't think that should be a reflection of our work style. We are able to succeed with our intelligence, attention to details, sensitivity to people's feelings, and more."

This feeling about women not having to kowtow to a male ideal of strength is explored by author Tamar Adler, who experienced a workaday epiphany of sorts while working at Chez Panisse in Berkeley. When she arrived, she thought of the burns on her forearms from earlier kitchen stints as the stigmata of badassery. "After a couple of months, one of the chefs, a woman, told me she had taught herself simply never to get burned and never to get cut," she writes. "Like, the badges of hard work and hot ovens were a bit tawdry to her. The real class was in being so good that they didn't touch you. She never lifted a heavy compost bin or a whole lamb or half pig alone, but calmly asked for help. She was never exhausted, never burned, never depleted, angry, dirty. She took care of herself and took care of the kitchen. I liked that."

For many female chefs, the baleful comedy surrounding the extravagant use of badass is that while it is showered on "tough" female chefs and those who storm the supposedly male bastions of kitchen craft butchery, grilling, burgers, sushi, wood, fire, pizza the prejudices against allowing women into these very spaces are still almost intact. Many chefs complained about how they were gender-directed to pastry, dessert, grain bowls, gluten-free, vegan, salad, brownies, farmers market food, granola, and that old staple, comfort food.

On another note, Druckman points out that badass is also a classic example of "misappropriating" a word. "It came out of black culture, and in that context, I think it's a great word," she says. "Seeing that word adopted to apply to a large, generic population that I think of (I know, it's probably reductive), collectively, as representative of 'white hard-partying, blustering frat boy culture' is as far from resistance as you can get."

Her contributors evidently shared her view because to her surprise badass popped up in response to another question she asked: What about words or phrases used to describe male chefs (or men, at all) that you'd like to ban? A close second was the term "bad boy."

"I wish terms like tough, badass, hardcore were meant to describe strength," says Therese Nelson, who runs the Black Culinary History blog. "What they really do is assign a kind of toxic masculinity to men in ways that perpetuate it in insane ways. I think strength is a virtue that men and women need, but there is a way in which we talk about male strength that diminishes women while also marginalizing men, as though all they can be are these one-dimensional caricatures as opposed to fully formed people. The whole narrative is bad for everyone."

One of the most trenchant lines in the book comes from writer Jordana Rothman: "If you are granting wishes, mine is to never have to read another story about a bro discovering noodles." It's a brilliant aperu of the hugely popular exotic-travel-food-show trope long cornered by men. Indeed, the two male chefs who come in for a few swipes as the pin-ups du jour of bro culture contemptuously referred to as "the brotastic kitchen culture," "#brozone" and "all of that bro shit" are the late Anthony Bourdain and Momofuku grandee David Chang.

"I don't think it's personal or I hope it's not," says Druckman. I see them as bookends of a long-lasting movement, of bro culture as the zeitgeist in food. Bourdain started it, in terms of bringing it into mainstream culture and making it a point of pop-cultural fascination with Kitchen Confidential, and Chang represents its apotheosis I think Momofuku culture came to be synonymous with bro culture, and that permeated his magazine Lucky Peach, too. As soon as Bourdain and Chang became emblematic of that culture, they became ubiquitous; they permeated all media. That's why they get the bro-bashing. They became signifiers."

She adds, "Bourdain ended up apologizing for his role in perpetuating and celebrating bro culture. I think Chang has also been receptive to the criticism lobbed at him and continues to try to adjust his brand and choices accordingly. But those labels or ideas get attached to people, and become bigger than they are. I think we'll always associate them with bro-ness on some level."

While editing Women on Food, Druckman grew to detest badass so much that she even wrote its obituary but had to leave it out of the book for want of space. "Yes, I wrote an obituary for a word, the word 'badass,' " she says. "And I'd do it again. When I wrote that obit, my goal was to bury it, with a wink. And I had way too much fun doing it."

Nina Martyris is a journalist based in Knoxville, Tenn.

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'Badass': The One Word Many Female Chefs Hate To Be Called : The Salt - NPR

It seemed like a very good idea at the time. A period of research leave in Barcelona would allow me to put everything I knew about nationalism to the test. I would see up close how competing nationalist visions corrode harmony and peaceful coexistence among culturally diverse groups. I would understand how the principle of national self-determination could inspire a people to seek their own independent state. But also grasp how the idea of national unity threatened diversity. More specifically, I could find out how the mood in Barcelona, once a bastion of multiculturalism and conviviality, had turned to such anger and how Spains exceptionalism in not having a far-right political party was coming to an end. So I accepted the offer of a visiting professorship in Barcelona without much hesitation.

Alas, the reality on the ground was more complex than I expected. True, the usual factors were all in place. The 2008 financial crash and the recession that followed had been more acutely felt in wealthier regions such as Catalonia, which became even more reluctant to share its tax revenues with the poorer parts of the country.

And heightened separatist sentiment had been used by politicians on both sides to further their own agendas. For Artur Mas, from 2010 to 2015 president of the government of Catalonia,it was an opportunity to prop up his declining electoral fortunes by breaking with the traditional, middle-of-the-road approach of his predecessor, Jordi Pujol, and to embrace separatism. For Mariano Rajoy, prime minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, and his centre-right Partido Popular (Peoples party), this in turn provided a means to clamp down on separatism (via an earlier supreme court decision in 2010), further crushing Catalonias hopes for more self-rule.

But, as I learned, neither events nor facile arguments about Spain being the latest victim of a global far-right populist zeitgeist are enough to explain the conundrums of current Catalan and Spanish politics. Or the results of this weeks general election, which saw the far-right Vox become the third largest party inparliament.

For one thing, Spain has not been that much of an exception when it comes to far-right ideas being represented in parliament. Few international pundits take note of the fact, but Vox, which rose to prominence in the 2018 Andalusian regional elections, was established by a splinter group of the centre-right Peoples party, hence was already very much part of mainstream politics in Spain. Similarly, Voxs latest gains cannot be explained as evidence of an unprecedented surge in xenophobic feeling. Spanish people remain much more tolerant towards immigrants than most of their European counterparts.

Key to Voxs increasing appeal is the Catalan crisis (if we leave aside one-off factors such as the governments exhumation of Francos body). During the election campaign Vox promised a crackdown on the Catalan secession movement, characterising the protests in Barcelona as evidence of a permanent coup. But here, too, the reality is much more nuanced than any morally charged black-and-white narrative of separatists versus unionists would have us believe.

What unites the demonstrators and strikers is anger at what they perceive to be a corrupt political elite

To begin with, the unrest triggered by the supreme courts sentencing last month of Catalonias separatist leaders can only be partially explained with reference to demands for national self-determination. Because independence means different things to different people. The latest barometer from the Catalan Centre for Opinion Studies shows that only 34.5% of the population believes that Catalonia should be an independent state while 24.5% believe it should be a state within a federal Spain, as opposed to 27% who prefer the continuation of the status quo a fact confirmed in the general elections with 43% of the voters rooting for independentist parties as opposed to 40% who opted for non-independentist parties.

Perhaps more importantly, for a significant number of Catalans, the demonstrations are not about Catalonias future status at all.

The protesters have little sympathy for secessionist leaders such as Quim Torra or Carles Puigdemont as the dismal performance of their Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia) at the ballot box also revealed. What unites the participants of demonstrations and strikes is anger at, and a certain disdain for, what they perceive to be a corrupt political elite. In that respect, they are more a continuation of the anti-austerity indignados, who occupied the Puerta del Sol Square in Madrid back in 2011, than anything else.

This doesnt mean that the current crisis is artificial or indeed temporary. On the contrary, the latest wave of protests, mobilised by the Defence Committees of the Republic (CDR) and/or the Tsunami Democrtic, was much more organised and aggressive than before, sending shockwaves through the rest of Spain and around the world. What is more, the protesters werent only the left behind, the somewheres and the back rows the darlings of the dominant media narrative about such incidents but included the well-off, the anywheres and front rows. Many were white-collar workers or university students, part-time protesters dividing their time between work or university and the street demonstrations. This is corroborated by survey data that show that support for secession is highest among those who have a household net income of 2,000-3,000 per month, followed by those who make more than 3,000 (averages for Catalonia). In other words, Catalan separatism is a middle- or upper-middle class phenomenon, not a balloon of discontent that times pinprick will burst.

No one is more aware of this than Santiago Abascal, the leader of Vox, who insistently played the economy card in the run-up to the elections. The economic crisis will find us without national unity and without legal security, said Abascal in a televised debate on 4 November. He finished by quoting Ramiro Ledesma Ramos, one of the ideologues of the fascist Falangist movement: Only the rich can afford not to have a country.

Of course, Abascals ideal country, a muscular centralised Spain, is not the country most Catalans want, preferring an independent Catalonia or an autonomous region within Spain with more control of its fiscal powers. And neither seems willing to accept the others fantasy, as the election results, which divided evenly between left and right, showed.

The danger Spain faces in the aftermath of the general election is that the holders of one fantasy try to usurp the other. There were already signs of it before the elections when the Madrid branches of the Peoples party and Ciudadanos (Citizens) declared that they might support Voxs initiative to outlaw independentist parties. Whether they actually choose to follow this harsher path rather than engaging in a dialogue with the separatists the policy the newly forged left coalition between PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers party) and Podemos will follow remains to be seen.

The one certain thing is there will be much less room for manoeuvre in a country locked into a situation where Catalan and Spanish nationalisms feed off each other.

In the meantime, the academic who comes to Barcelona to see nationalism in action faces ever more ambiguity and complexity. Ive already learned the most important lesson though as I walk the tightrope between competing Catalan, Basque and Castilian nationalisms: simplistic solutions and conventional wisdom give you the wrong answers.

Umut zkrml is a visiting professor at IBEI (Institut Barcelona dEstudis Internacionals) and CIDOB (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs)

The rest is here:

The Catalan crisis is key to the rise of the Spanish far right - The Guardian

As the band announce a huge set of reunion shows in 2020, were taking a look back at the 1993 performance from Rage Against The Machine of their iconic song Killing In The Name on Channel 4s The Word. Its a cherishable moment where irreverent British TV meets the startling power of Americas Gen-X saviours.

Around the same time Rage Against The Machine were quickly becoming one of Americas hottest talents. Channeling their heavy rock style, mixed with the beginnings of nu-metal their self-titled debut album would reach triple platinum just a few short years after their first ever gig. We look back at this exciting time for the band when they performed on UK TV for the first time and blow away a generation. They were lucky to have landed on The Word.

The Word was a seminal moment in youth culture during the 90s. A Channel 4 exploit, designed to capture the rising viewership of Generation X, The Word acted as a conductor not only for bored teens desperate to have their brains filled with ultimately irreverent po-mo guff but also as the proving ground for the growing musical landscape that surrounded it. From Nirvana to Oasis, The Word hosted some of the musics zeitgeist moments.

Designed to engage with a new and emerging youth movement who, though jaded by MTV, still refused to believe anything that didnt come through the small screen. The show was hosted by radio personality and all-round shit-smirker Terry Christian and only really got moving when it was moved from a 6 pm slot to a new late-night slot on Friday nights. It allowed the show to truly flourish and their guests to do pretty much whatever they wanted. They had big plans.

The magazine format of the show allowed for interviews, live music, features and even game shows. The new flexible late-night format meant that guests could do just about anything to be controversial. There was also an Ill do anything to be on television section called The Hopefuls in which people ate worms, bathed in maggots, licked the sweat off fat people, intimately kissed old people, and did generally repulsive things in order to get featured on the programme. It also allowed bands like Rage Against The Machine let loose and express themselves they best they could.

The footage of this 93 episode begins as Mark Lamaar, a much-beloved host of the show, introduces Rage with a warning to the audience at home. Well, sort of. What he actually does, with a glistening head of hair, is put his middle finger to the screen and tell the viewers to swivel if theyre easily offended. All the while sitting across from the eccentric championship winning boxer, Chris Eubank. You cant beat 90s television.

The 1993 performance is notable, not just for its hindsight hilarity, nor because it remains one of the few times that RATM were allowed to perform the song on TV. But because the crowd, a young and hopeful lot, were bouncing and moshing like youd expect to see at one of their actual gigs. They turn the studio into a sweating, heaving crucible of bubbling energy.

It builds the track to new heights, helped along by some awesome editing, until the crescendo moment of that now-iconic line, fuck you, I wont do what you tell me! with which Zach De La Roche disappears into the audience. The intensity of the performance is then heightened further as its delivered from the belly of the crowd with De La Rocha now sharing the mic with a multitude of empowered rockstars.

Its an incredible watch, not only to simply enjoy but to see a band at the beginning of their journey, a journey that continues today.

See the article here:

Rage Against The Machine perform 'Killing in the Name' on Channel 4's 'The Word', 1993 - Far Out Magazine

Your debut LP catapults you into the limelight, your shows are starting to bring in big crowds and youre gaining more and more column inches. The major label lay it on thick, heap you with praise and give you a massive advance to make your second record. On paper, everything is rosy, but then comes the calm, the expectation and almost too much time to think.

Here, we look at four difficult second albums that should have never seen the light of day and the psychology behind their creation.

In 2001, The Strokes released This Is It. Its fair to say it was a masterpiece featuring a number of garage rock barnburners including; 'New York City Cops', 'Last Nite' and 'Hard To Explain'. It was hailed a desert island indie disco classic the world over. The album spearheaded a musical movement, which originated in NYC and featured; Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol and LCD Soundsystem.

After global success and critical acclaim, the band went back into the studio to record their follow up. What they offered up,Room on Fire, should have been called Is This Really It? Some bands strive to deviate from the formula that brought them initial success, due to the fear of being typecast. The Strokes had different ideas.

Room on Fire, with the exception of 'Reptillia' (which is a beautifully crafted pop song which showcases some of the bands best musicianship) was a poor mans replica of their debut LP. A collection of B-sides, scooped up off the cutting room floor and bereft of any attempt to develop their sound or their songs. It was like they had given birth to an identical twin, two years apart. An underwhelming example of a band trying to milk the same formula but getting well and truly found out.

The debut album by MGMT (pictured above), Oracular Spectacular, was released in January 2008 and delivered an artillery of beautiful, groove-driven, indie bombs in the form of 'Electric Feel', 'Time To Pretend' and 'Kids'. It was pop music for people who like psychedelic rock and sound-tracked the summer alongside a number of standout festival slots, which saw the band receive universal adoration.

When it was time to go back to the drawing board, the band - unlike The Strokes - were not willing to play ball in terms of a variation on a theme. Instead, they created Congratulations, a nine track LP which saw them switch their Midas touch for creating infectious indie classics to their love of inaccessible psych rock.

Of the nine tracks there are no clear singles, and if ever a song summed up a record, its the 12-minute 'Siberian Breaks'. Its so far removed from the likes of 'Electric Feel', it leaves you pondering what its all about? Congratulations is a case study in trying to go too far the other way. Letting your heart rule your head and ultimately, hitting the self-destruct button.

Neither Fish Nor Flesh was the follow-up to the internationally successful debut, Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby,released in 1987. As a record, it smacks of reckless abandon. From pretentious spoken word interludes via tales of Marvin Gaye teaching him to write the albums lead single in a lucid dream, to his anything-goes approach to instrumentation - from kazoos and cowbells to ukuleles and harps. The neo-soul hits from Terence Trent D'Arby'sdebut LP and solid song structures of 'Wishing Well' and 'Sign Your Name' were replaced by a bloated, ego-driven drivel which was well and truly panned by the press.

It took London rock-cum-rave three piece Klaxons just over three years to follow up their Mercury Award-winning debut LP, Myths Of The Near Future. By the time they had released Surfing The Void in 2010, everything and everyone had calmed down a bit. Sometimes a band produces an album which is a great collection of songs, but its very much the zeitgeist of the time. The bands debut LP falls very much into this bracket.

If you give it a listen back today, youll find hits such as 'Golden Skans' and a cover of Graces 'Its Not Over Yet' - which had dance tents at festivals across the country in raptures in 2008 have not aged well. As with MGMT, the nu-rave trio tried to reinvent the wheel with their follow-up, reaching into the darkest recesses of their psychedelic record collections. Unfortunately, Polydor pushed back and made the band re-record large chunks of the album, citing that it was too experimental. What the band were final left with was a mediocre middle of the road album full of fillers.

Words by Sam Kershaw

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The psychology behind the difficult second album - Skiddle.com

A monumental decade of social and political upheaval, the 1960s saw the Civil Rights Movement, The Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassinations of both Martin Luther King and President JFK. As a time of such intense unrest it also gave way to some of the best music ever written.

These are the 25 best 60s songs to stick it to the man.

Famously written during a 39.5 fever, Neil Young penned the lyrics for Down By The River, Cinnamon Girl and Cowgirl In The Sand amidst hallucinations. However, nothing matches the grand heights of this 9 minute epic.

Crazy Horse are locked in, the guitars are howling, Young is yearning and the lead work is iconic.

Over the years, Joan Baez became known for her essential take on the folk classic We Shall Overcomeand it later became a key song of protest for the Civil Rights Movement.

Baez became renowned for her rendition of the tune after performing it at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and it still gives us chills to this day.

Fuzzed out riffs and a clinking piano set the tone for Iggy Stooges dark rupturing barks and sexual masochism. The classically trained John Cale handled production adding the single note piano and sleigh bells.

Always one for pushing boundaries, Iggy turned the pop trope of puppy love into an exposing reflection of animal instinct and sexual humiliation, eventuating in one of the best all time 60s songs.

When Woodstock inevitably descended into madness and disarray before the first act even hit the stage Richie Havens had a weight on his shoulders. The road was blocked for miles and no other artists were yet to arrive at the festival.

After three encores Havens started improvising and the first thing that came to his head wasFreedom, one of the most impassioned black rights songs of all time and the epitome of the counterculture movement.

Released in August 1968, a few months after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King,Say It Loud: Im Black & Im Proudis the ultimate Civil Rights protest song.

A lot has changed in half a century, yet the need to defend ethnicity against derision continues, hence the challenging, exhilarating, and resonating opulence of James Browns finest work.

Janis Joplins raw emotion tearing itself her soul in Piece Of My Heartis one of the most honest expressions of humanity ever recorded.

With Big Brother and the Holding Company riding the crest of the fuzz revolution, their live album, Cheap Thrills, is Joplin at her passionate best.

The final track from The Doors 1967 debut was the psychedelic overhaul the decade was scrambling towards and inevitably opened the flood gates to a diluvian downpour of fractals and kaleidoscopic sound.

The poetic acuity of Jim Morrison and the breathing, heaving flow of the band elevated The Doors to music royalty and hinted at their sonic schizophrenia to come.

The melancholy extravagance of Nicos voice makesThese Daysmore than just one of your your casual coffeehouse 60s songs. The later addition of the strings from Tom Wilson elevate the emotional intensity of Nicos already serene voice to a potent token of 1960s remembrance.

Recorded a mere 6 weeks before his death and released posthumously, (Sittin On) The Dock Of The Bay reflects on Reddings life as a black man seeking opportunity and stardom in San Francisco then Georgia.

The solo was a lucky accident and Otis Redding had supposedly planned to finish the lyrics before his fateful plane crash in 67.

Written by Lee Hazelwood, These Boots Are Made For Walkintook pop to places it had only previously been fantasised about. Boots were hot in the 60s with DylansBoots Of Spanish Leatherbeing one of his most highly acclaimed works.

Nonetheless, Nancy Sinatras empowered sexuality and poised vocals made this one of the most undercover political 60s songs.

The eternal recurrence of Bob DylansThe Times They Are A Changinmakes it, thematically, one of the strongest songs ever written.

Change is inevitable and it seems Dylans voice will ring as clear and true in 2964 as it did a thousand years before.

Famed for its extended live forms, Dazed and Confusedis as experimental as Led Zeppelin gets. With Page bowing his guitar, Plant teeming with lust and Bonham being Bonham; its quintessential Zeppelin and a screaming, distorted classic in every sense.

Written to detest President Nixons elitist favouritism allowing certain demographics to avoid being drafted to the Vietnam War, John Fogerty created a masterpiece.

Its one of those rare songs that opposes war but empathises with troops and a hallmark of Fogertys lyrical acuity. This is CCR at their absolute finest.

Swiping inspiration from Baudelaire, Mick Jaggers lyricism in Sympathy For The Devilis daring to say the least. It not only sympathises with satan but presents him as as well spoken man of the world.

Perhaps even more daring is Keith Richards desire to put it all to samba but it all just works like butter on toast.

Another anti-Vietnam protest to make the cut,The Fiddle and the Drumis from Joni Mitchells sophomore 1969 albumClouds.

Written from an outsiders perspective it delicately tandems themes of USAs plentiful opportunity while demonising the countrys warmongering government.

Heroinwas a landmark in its lyrical honesty and avant absurdism. Lou Reed was at his cliff edged romantic best. Matching the manic all time high of heroin, this hauntingly beautiful piece owes its uniqueness to Moe Tuckers jiggling percussion and John Cales freakish viola.

Unlike its anti-Vietnam brethren of the decade, Everyday Peopleis a plea for equality and an everlasting example of Jake Slys genius.

The eternal statement is just as relevant today as it was 60 years ago and Sly & Family Stones performance at Woodstock was one of the defining moments of the decade, according to Carlos Santana.

The now iconic anti-war anthem is not the only song written in disgust of Americas involvement with Vietnam in the 60s.

Its not only a perfectly written and emotionally charged protest song but a testament to the power of musical objection. Sometimes all you need is a guitar and a voice.

Shied by the deification of his hero, Jimi Hendrix put everything into his iteration of Dylans All Along The Watchtower. As a result itbecame a favourite on pirate radio stations in Vietnam, receiving heavy airplay and becoming a symbol of hope for the troops.

You cant stick it to the man much more than that.

Covering the poignant Billie Holiday number, Nina Simone injected her own unique sadness and urgency into Strange Fruit.

Perhaps the most haunting song of all time, the poem was writing by Jewish writer Abel Meeropol and, upon its many iterations, became an urgent plea to stop the black lynchings in the South.

Another resplendent jewel in the crown of protest music, Buffalo SpringfieldsFor What Its Worthis up there with the most lyrically poignant songs ever penned.

A progenitor for Neil Youngs later success,Buffalo Springfield are just as iconic as this unquestionable masterpiece.

Somehow the people werent hearing the message so Aretha Franklin had to spell it out.

An epochal reflection of racial and gender discrimination, Aretha used her supernatural hit making abilities to turn Otis Reddings original into the undying feminist anthem that it is today.

Appearing like the Man In Back himself, Johnny Cash sounds powerful and larger than life at Folsom Prison. The crowd cheers replete with desperate honour.

As the song progresses Cashs breath deepens as he seems a man as afraid of confinement as any of the inmates, marking the birth of the most famous live album of all time.

The archetypal expression of Lennon-McCartney dualism, A Day In The Lifeis The Beatles most succinct and impactful mosaic.

With John as a morbid philosopher and Paul playing the acidhead business man, this song essentially bridged pop and avant garde and is a zeitgeist moments of the 60s.

Arguably the greatest protest song of all time, this is Bob Dylan at his most eloquent. With a knack for summarising hugely complex philosophical and political concepts into one succinct line, Bob Dylan hits the nail squarely on the head with Blowin In The Wind.

Dylans omnipotence and linguistic strength have loaded him with a barrage of 60s songs that proudly stand the test of time and have deified the artist in the eyes of the world.

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The 25 Best '60s Songs to stick it to the man - Happy Mag

It took two and-a-half hours, every day of Bombshells shoot, for Charlize Theron to transform into Megyn Kelly; but deciding to take on the role in the first place took much longer. I loved this script so much, and I didnt want to fuck the movie up, she says. The project came to her Denver and Delilah company for her to produce, and she was concerned she might exert her influence unduly and claim the role over an actor that deserved it more. I was trying to talk myself out it. I tend to second-guess myself. I didnt want to stand in the way of this story.

There was an ideological distance, too, giving her pause. Kellys views are far removed from Therons own. Even after Kellys tenure at the conservative Fox News, during the period she was on NBC, she caused controversy by defending blackface, and succeeded in offending gay people, fat people and Jane Fondathe latter with questions about plastic surgery, sparking a running feud. She also committed a segment of her news magazine show Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly to Alex Jones, the supplement salesman and hawker of poisonous Sandy Hook conspiracy theories.

For Theron, though, the story Bombshell was telling ultimately won out. I had to realize that, even through all this stuff, this was a person that did something really incredible, and I couldnt throw the baby out with the bathwater. It took a while, and its a really scary thing as an actor, because I know that my capability lives and breathes in removing myself from these preconceived notions. She was part of a moment in history that will always be remembered. It doesnt negate other things for me, but I had to remove that from the conversation of what this was.

By comparison, her time spent in the makeup chair was a breeze, especially considering the uncannily accurate end result. It should have taken four hours plus to pull off, but the production couldnt spare that kind of time, especially since the makeup team was also engaged in transforming Nicole Kidman into Gretchen Carlson, John Lithgow into Roger Ailes, and a sweeping ensemble into frighteningly realistic versions of the Fox News players circa 2016.

Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly (left) and Kelly herself.

Hilary Bronwyn Gale SMPSP / Gregory Pace/Shutterstock

Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson (left) and Carlson herself.

Hilary Bronwyn Gale SMPSP / Matt Baron/Shutterstock

John Lithgow as Roger Ailes (left) and Ailes himself.

Hilary Bronwyn Gale SMPSP / Mediapunch/Shutterstock

Malcolm McDowell as Rupert Murdoch (left) and Murdoch himself.

Hilary Bronwyn Gale SMPSP / Mary Altaffer/AP/Shutterstock

Kellys eyes were the hardest part. They were also the key. As much as actors recoil at even the suggestion of concealing their eyes with contact lensesand there would be contact lensesthere was no way for Theron to become Kelly without adjusting the shape of her eyelids. Whenever we applied everything but the eyelids, says Theron, it never, ever felt right. I looked like a young Glenn Close. It was bizarre.

In the end, Kazu Hiro, the Oscar-winning makeup designer behind Gary Oldmans transformation into Winston Churchill, crafted eight facial prosthetics that would completely transform Therons appearance. There was very little left to do after the fact. Some color correction on skin tone. A touch of digital softening around the edges of the prosthetics. You cant do that if you need to do it a lot, Theron notes. Its impossible, because the face becomes so soft that you can tell immediately. The quality of Kazus work was just so phenomenal.

When Charlize Theron looked in the mirror after Hiro had done his job, the face she saw staring back at her was Megyn Kellys.

It is a choking evening in Los Angeles. As wildfires in the hills blanket the city in smoke, 400 people are gathered inside a vintage movie house on Wilshire Blvd. to screen Bombshell. Many more cant even make it through the door. While the movie tells its fast-paced, incendiary narrative about the sexual harassment allegations levelled against the former Fox News chief Roger Ailes, its principal cast, Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie, are collected backstage ahead of their Q&A. Theres a buzz of anticipation in the air. In a small, Lynchian holding room behind the screen, fitted with a red velvet curtain and checkerboard flooring, Kidman flinches at the harshness of the halogen strip light in the ceiling. She has Robbie switch it off as she locates a smaller, warmer, desktop lamp. Thats better, she says. Now were at home.

Its a take-charge moment that is appropriately reflective of her role in Bombshell. In the Jay Roach film, based on a script by Charles Randolph, Kidman plays Gretchen Carlson, the Fox News anchor who ignited the touch-paper on a litany of sexual harassment allegations that would lead to the explosive ousting of Ailes from the Fox newsroom.

Carlson was not the first to allege wrongdoing by Ailesearlier, isolated stories had been swept awaybut her profile helped ensure that her breaking of ranks became the catalyst for a movement that would, in less than a month, send two men marching from the building.

As more than a dozen women joined the public chorus against Ailes, star anchor Bill OReilly defended his boss for being a target as a famous, powerful or wealthy person. Still more women accused OReilly of a range of inappropriate behavior, including sexual harassment. OReilly denies the allegations against him, though investigations by The New York Times uncovered a total of six settlements with his accusers.

Kidmans turn as Carlson is only one part of an ensemble film that is led by Therons dramatic transformation into Kelly, whose career at Fox News was ascending when Carlsons allegations broke. Kelly made her own allegation against Ailes less than two weeks later; Ailes limped on for two more days before resigning.

When he finally did, 21st Century Fox Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch issued a statement that made no mention of the allegations against him, and instead praised Ailes for his remarkable contribution to our company and our country. Ailes went on to advise Donald Trumps presidential campaignas well as Murdoch and 21st Century Foxbefore his death in May 2017. According to end cards on Bombshell, the remuneration paid to the women at the center of these accusations against Ailes and OReilly stands at $50m. The mens own settlement packages with Fox totaled $65m.

Bombshell also follows Margot Robbie, who plays Kayla, a fictional new hire at Fox News that catches Ailes eye. Her story is based on countless hours of research by Randolph and reflects an amalgam of several Ailes accusers. The movie, Robbie says, is a political thriller, but its not so much about politics. Its ultimately about people, coming together to take down a very powerful person who is abusing that power. Thats a very satisfying thing to watch.

Lithgow delivers a terrifying turn as Ailes, and the films cast is rounded out by Jennifer Morrison, Alice Eve, Kate McKinnon, Allison Janney, Connie Britton and many more recognizable names. We didnt have to convince a lot of people, notes Theron. The material and the subject really spoke to them. It was really easy; people wanted to do it. Ive never had that kind of good will. You felt like, Shit, lets figure this out.

When Charlize says, Babe, youve got to be in this; show up or Ill kill you, you go, OK, Im there, Kidman laughs.

I have read a Charles Randolph script before, says Robbie, who had a scene-stealing cameo in Adam McKays The Big Short, which Randolph wrote. When I got this, I knew it would be good. He and Jay research every aspect of the subject, but at the same time, they are still purely focused on human interaction and behavior. I started reading the script as an actor, knowing I was probably going to do it because it would be a fantastic role. But I finished the script wanting to do it just as a person. As a human being living right now, I had to do this, because it was important.

So much of what were doing now is about joining forces and working together, Kidman says. If we do that as women, were so much stronger. Standing there, talking to all these crazy-talented actresses, it was like, Lets mark the moment in history, because thats what this is.

The downfall of Ailes occurred more than a year before the explosive allegations in The Times and The New Yorker against Harvey Weinstein in October 2017, which kickstarted the Times Up and #MeToo movements. And though Theron hadnt necessarily been looking to tell stories about sexual harassment, it was ground she had walked before. In 2005, she starred in Niki Caros North Country, which tracked a sexual harassment lawsuit in a mining community in 1988. These issues have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, she says. But I was nave in thinking that struggle wasnt there anymore. I figured, after those landmark cases, that people in power were taking more responsibility. That there was a law behind it. It was legislated. I think that is the thing we still all have to reconcile with, because its very much there, and if anything, you could argue its the same, or worse.

Randolphs untitled draft (he had toyed with the title The End of the Leg Man) came to Theron through Annapurna, who were initially onboard to finance and release Bombshell. For all of us at Denver and Delilah, it was a no-brainer that we wanted to make the film, she says. But even the act of bringing Theron aboard to produce felt like something impossible a decade earlier, the cast agrees. The streaming services voracious appetite for content has brought forth more stories about women, and their success, they say, on streaming and in cinema, is more undeniable than ever. People cant hide behind misinformation, Theron insists. The facts are out there. We know that 2017 was a way more lucrative year for female stories than it was for male stories. Being a part of that time right now in telling stories, its fucking great.

All three of Bombshells principal cast now produce as well as act, helping to deliver award-winning film and television, like I, Tonya (Robbie) and Big Little Lies (Kidman). When I started, those were called vanity deals, Theron notes. It was a crazy concept. I get my name on a movie, I get the check, and I dont do anything? Yes, because youre an actor and you have no other abilities. Thats definitely changed now. People like Margot Robbie can step in and start actually producing, because a lot of that groundwork has been laid. When I was starting out, that wasnt possible.

How great is that? Kidman smiles. When Margot produced I, Tonya, she didnt know anything other than, Oh, I can do that. It wasnt even a part of the conversation when I was starting out. There was no possibility of it. So, to have the strength to come out of the gate like that You just go, Yes! Take the baton and run! Its so exciting, because thats what youre passing it on for. You go, And pass it on to the next! Create your destinies, take some power back, have some control, and by God, lets see what you can do.

Therons name, as well as the subject matter, were the magnets that attracted the ensemble, but there were still roadblocks to come on Bombshells path to the screen. Though it had come to Denver and Delilah as a project ready to shoot at Annapurna, the ground shook two months out from production. We were asked to bring in a financial partner to alleviate some of the budget for them, Theron recalls. She went to Aaron Gilbert and BRON Studios, who she says told her, Well come in. We really like this. And then, with two weeks until cameras rolled, Annapurna fell out completely. Aaron was willing to pick everything up within 24 hours, adds Theron.

By that point, Theron had committed to playing Kelly. Roach was aboard, and it was her conversations with him that tipped her over the edge of playing the part. That was the first moment where, because of what he was saying about how he saw the project, it excited me as an actor. I knew, for Jay I would go there. They had begun talking while Theron was developing the project and bringing him on as Bombshells director was kismet, Theron says. I felt safe with him. I felt like I got excited about making this movie.

When she made Tully with Jason Reitman, she had heard the complaints of some critics about a male director helming a film about a mothers bond with her night nanny. Everybody was like, Its quintessentially a womans story, why would you make it with a guy? she recalls. Its hard to explain to people how Jason feels about that topic. To me, it proves something that I want the world not to forget: men are just as invested in wanting a safe world for us. We need to get rid of the few bad apples, but in general, I feel like men dont want this for their daughters, or for their wives. Theres an empathy there.

Shes committed, she says, to providing more opportunities to female directors. But as a producer, sometimes you have to trust that little voice inside, and something inside me said that Jay was the person to make this film with. I knew that we would, behind the camera, have more female producers, and our head of departments would be more female. The overall balance was definitely more female than it was male.

Randolphs script simply resonated when she read it. To me, as a woman, that is already really touching, because I want to believe men are interested in this stuff, just as much as we are. This concept that only women would want to tell these stories is really disproved by Charles taking this on, which wasnt an easy task. The amount of research that he had to put into this was phenomenal. I really believe that you cant isolate this in trying to find the answers; in trying to actually create the change that we all need and want. So, it started with Charles, which I had no power over, and Im just grateful that he had the balls to do it. No pun intended.

I think its an important film for men, notes Robbie. This is not a female movie; its for men and women. The most important thing, perhaps, is that men for a moment might be in that office with Kayla and might understand a slice of what it feels like to be sexually harassed at work, if they havent experienced it in their own lives.

That the first major motion picture dealing with the fallout from high-profile cases of sexual harassment in the media would come to tell the story of the women at Fox News is also significant. The cast is aware that people will bring to the theater their own baggagein many cases, those ideological disagreements with the stances Kelly, Carlson and others have taken in their careers in conservative media. And theyre aware of the journey the film has to travel for that baggage to be divorced from what the women say happened to them when they worked in the Fox newsroom. If it doesnt do that, then whats the point of the film? Kidman asks, rhetorically. Because this really is a bipartisan issue. It has to be. Hopefully the movie makes that clear.

This crime doesnt discriminate, insists Robbie. There are very powerful people abusing that power on every side.

Bombshells uncanny valley-skirting illusionthe actor playing Bill OReilly is so convincing it feels as though it might be OReilly himself (it isnt)is made ever more convincing when its cast is cut against real footage from the Fox News archive. This includes Megyn Kellys run-in with Donald Trump at a Republican primary debate, after which the future President told CNN, There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. Theres footage, too, of misogynist comments made by Gretchen Carlsons fellow Fox & Friends anchors, with Kidman spliced effortlessly onto the sofa. A supercut on YouTube of the original footage captures the regularity of such comments when Carlson served on the show.

Theron hasnt met Kellyout of choice, though I am assuming that she would even want to speak to me, Theron laughsand neither has Kidman met Carlson. In the latter case, thats because Carlson signed a $20m settlement agreement with Fox News, which came with a non-disclosure agreement barring her from speaking about her time at the channel. These agreements are common when accusations of workplace malfeasance are mediateda condition of many employment contractsand the financial payments that come with them are often the subject of disparaging comments against accusers. But they also serve to silence victims from sharing their experiences publicly. At the start of this month, Carlson told AP she wanted to be released from her gag order. It would be nice to be able to tell my full story, she said.

Research for the film involved speaking to people who were at Fox News as the allegations were breaking. I felt like I had access to a lot of sourcesthat we cant talk aboutwhich told me we were on the right path, Theron says. We realized we had a lot of stuff wrong initially, based on the editorial pieces that were written as more information was coming in. It was important because the narrative changed. Things became a lot clearer to us. There was a lot out there that, I think, people wanted the narrative to be. And you would believe it, until you heard women say, Thats not who did it; this is what happened

It did mean those conversations included Ailes victims. Roach mentioned the breaking of NDAs in an earlier Q&A, Theron says, and there was panic. Everybody got this email, like, Dont do that, its dangerous ground. Then, two weeks later, the NBC NDA story was breaking, and everybody, including Megyn Kelly, was saying, Were going to have to remove these gag orders on women if we want to get to the bottom of these stories. Gretchen, she keeps fighting. It is so in the zeitgeist right now, and its what people are talking about.

These things happen in waves in our culture, Kidman notes. The waves rise, and you start getting stories and films made on the subject. I worked for almost two decades for UN Women, which was all about eradicating violence against women. When we started, you would talk and youd only sort of be heard; not really. But suddenly, theres this tide and people are willing to listen and to change.

It was part of Roger Ailes toolkit to isolate women, says Robbie. To pit them against each other. I think that, ultimately, what took him down was the women unifying.

When Kelly finally came forward, the die was cast. Bombshell deals with the journey it took to get her there. She was in negotiation for a lot of money, and she was a superstar there, Theron reflects. On top of that, there was a moral dilemma she had, because she liked [Ailes]. There wasnt a part of her that felt like she could not be truthful about that. That makes for a very conflicting story, and one that people are not necessarily ready to hear. We want to believe that theyre villains, and the fact that she was de-villainizing him in the way she talked about him, I think, was so important to getting to the real crux of what this is all about. Because until we fully understand it, we wont be able to resolve it.

For Kidman, tapping into why Carlson took her first steps to right this wrong required understanding her life. She started with footage of her on-air appearances, and there was a lot of it. But equally, shes got to have had her shield up, Kidman says. And when you try to break it down behind that shield, what is this persona that says, Bring it on, Im going to fight them all?

Her answer was to find a common ground with Carlson through family. Carlson said, of watching her kids as their mother was being dragged in the press for the allegations she had made, They got it. Both my son and my daughter have become more courageous in their lives, and the impact that me coming forward has [had] on them has probably been the most important thing Ive done in my life so far.

You cant portray a woman who has done this as a mother if the children arent there, Kidman says. She would have been so frightened for their future, for how this would have affected them. You cant define this woman without that.

There was a bittersweet tinge to Carlsons story that Kidman also needed to show. As she stacks her dishwasher and checks her phone, the question for Carlson becomes, What now? Says Kidman, of how she imagined the immediate aftermath for Gretchen Carlson: Theres not really much going on, and the future isnt bright. Thats frightening, and its sad and real. But she survived. Indeed, Carlsons activism in support of victims of sexual harassment, regardless of any other views she may hold, has never ceased, and she has published books and documentaries in support of victims. She became the chairwoman of the Miss America pageantshe herself is a former winnerand spearheaded a contentious abolition of the pageants swimsuit competition.

Kidman thought of her own kids as she read the scene in which Robbies Kayla is called into Ailes office. Kayla is excited, with lofty ambitions toward becoming an on-screen anchor, only to have Ailes demand her loyalty through euphemistic, and increasingly more direct, sexual advances. You go, I dont ever want this to happen to my daughter, Kidman says. I dont want it to happen to my wife, to my sister, to me. I dont want this to happen. That response definitely comes through Kaylas character.

It is one of the movies most uncompromising, uncomfortable scenes, as the realization slowly dawns on Kayla that she is being asked to give something she should never have to sacrifice. As the rest of the film maintains a heady pace, and at times a surprisingly upbeat tone, this sequence descends like an icy silence, stopping the audience dead in its tracks.

In some cases, sexual harassment happens in a gray area, notes Robbie. Indeed, the movie details Carlsons struggle, with her legal team, to class much of the inappropriate behavior she had witnessed as evidence of legally challengeable sexual harassment. Someone may not immediately feel like Kayla in that situation. He didnt touch me. What do I call this thing that just happened to me? Someone as smart as Roger Ailes could manipulate the position of power to force a victim to start rationalizing, to start explaining, to start excusing. Thats, I think, the reason it goes on as long as it does in some cases.

Robbie says that the character, a conservative Christian who believes deeply in the values espoused by the network, comes from Randolphs own upbringing. His family watched Fox News religiously, and the lines about them having the logo burned into their TV screens come from that, she says. He very much understood Kayla, and I could talk to him about her a lot. I also had to wrap my head around this young, millennial, but extremely conservative point of view. Twitter was a great source for that, because there are a number of young, Christian conservative women who are very vocal on social media. It was fascinating, and it was frightening.

As with Theron, the issue of sexual harassment has never been far away for Robbie, she says. This story takes place at Fox News, but its a backdrop for something that happens in so many places, in so many industries, all over the world. Ive had these conversations all my life, about things like this happening to women, and I know Ive had those conversations even more in the past two years since the #MeToo movement started. So, theres a lot of research that has gone into the film, but also, I guess, interactions in my life, where I can absolutely understand.

She hopes the movie will continue a conversation that gets louder by the day. That conversation, she says, has helped us start defining, and pointing to situations and saying, That was not OK. Something like this is a powerful thing.

And just being believed, adds Kidman. Not being made to question, Was this my fault? No, theres protocol, and the protocol is, dont abuse your position of power, youre not allowed to touch someone physically, or sabotage them because they wouldnt do something that you wanted sexually or emotionally. Those things are not OK.

Everybody has a different impression of the world Bombshell leaves to pick up the pieces at the end of its story. Carlsons settlement agreement impelled 21st Century Fox to issue a statement of apology, expressing regret for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve. Yet, as Ailes and OReillys settlements outpaced that of their accusers by $15m, Fox News itself continues make profits in the billions annually. How impactful can any of these settlement figures have been on making real, systemic change when they would barely dent a balance sheet?

The question mark was important for Theron, who says they were many arguments about how to wrap up the movies narrative. People are brave enough to tell these stories if they feel, at the end, victorious; that there has been a moment of victory, she says. But its not that easy with this story. I really fought very hardalong with Jay and Charlesto have an ending that felt authentic to how things are today. Yes, what these women did was heroic. But at the same time, they didnt change everything overnight. That systemic problem is there and its going to take years for us to undo that power struggle. But that doesnt mean its impossible.

Another end card on the movie notes that the women that accused Ailes were among the first to bring down a such a powerful public figure, but they have not been the lasta statement that seems especially self-reflective for a movie industry that has dealt with its own rotting bushel of bad apples. Kidman sees the optimism of that card, just as she sees the optimism of Carlsons response to her legal team when they tell her, You will be muzzled, Gretchen. She replies: Maybe.

Maybe shell be muzzled, repeats Kidman. Nothings changed, but at the same time things are changing. Women arent as muzzled as they once were.

A responsible company, says Theron, would want to be transparent. Any therapist will tell you silence is the most dangerous thing. Here we are, legally implementing it on women. Im so impressed by women coming forward who are openly breaking their NDAs and saying, Come after me, I have nothing. One woman was literally like, I dont even have a TV. This is how much Ive lost. Its heartbreaking to even fathom that women have to get pushed that far.

But, adds Robbie, Women always find a way. It may take a while, but we find a way.

Theres hope in that, Kidman says. The fires are still being fought.

Continued here:

Why Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman & Margot Robbie Fought For Bombshell As The Women Of Fox News Battle NDAs - Deadline

Apple TV Plus just gave official renewals to four of the shows that launched with the new streaming service last week, but the second season of The Morning Show has already been well underway for quite some time: The Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon-starrer was a two-season order right out of the gate. Now, it looks like Season 2 could premiere sometime around the 2020 election but does that mean real-life politics will impact the new season?

We have the shape of it. Weve broken the first three episodes, showrunner Kerry Ehrin told Variety about the second season on the red carpet at the New York City premiere, earlier this fall. Were writing the show now; well film it this summer; and well be on next November. (Sources close to the show, however, tell Variety that no premiere date for Season 2 has been set at this time.)

Since The Morning Show features a titular morning news show within-the-show, if the second season does in fact launch during the same month as the next presidential election, it would seem like a ripe time for political storylines. However, Ehrin noted that its actually impossible to bring current political events into the show, given the timeline of writing, shooting, editing the season before it gets to streaming.

You cant do current politics, she explained, so my idea is that if you deal with politics, you deal with political themes. I call it current adjacent, where youre not historically aging yourself by dealing with a specific thing, but you can take the zeitgeist of what is happening in the world and do something with those themes.

Dont count on any Trump-like character showing up on screen, though. Asked specifically if President Trump will have a tangential influence on the show, Ehrin responded, Only in the sense that the president has an influence on all of us. Writers are absorbers of reality and interpreters, so in that sense. But its not like hes a part of the storytelling at all.

The first season of The Morning Show is heavily influenced by the #MeToo movement that has swept the entertainment and news businesses over the past two years. In real life, powerhouse figures such as Charlie Rose and Les Moonves from CBS and Matt Lauer from NBC were ousted after allegations of sexual misconduct, but although Steve Carells character Mitch is a beloved morning news anchor fired amidst similar allegations who even has a privacy button under his desk in the show the team behind the show says its story is not directly ripped from the headlines.

I dont write to the news. Its not that kind of a show, Ehrin reiterated.

In fact, Ehrin said she never went back to tweak the scripts when new stories unfolded off-screen in the news in the first season. And she has no plans to do that in the second, as the writers are already hard at work on the second season and have their storylines intact.

When Ehrin was brought the premise of the show, all she knew was that Aniston and Witherspoon were attached, and that the series would be influenced by journalist Brian Stelters 2013 book Top Of The Morning, which explores the behind-the-scenes dynamics of morning news shows.

News is a little bit of a double edged sword right now, Ehrin said. I think that it can mean bad things to people and good things to people, and I hope that this will be a new vision of the real humanity of it, as opposed to the politics of it, so Im hoping it will educate, but also uplift a little bit.

Ehrin also hopes that through that education, shes showing multi-dimensional female characters to her female viewers. My feeling, which I tried to put into it, is that women, especially in business who are ambitious, are very complex. Its not like youre just this one thing, she said. I really want female viewers to be able to spend time with complicated, grounded people that they relate to and see themselves in. Courtesy Variety

Originally posted here:

The Morning Show boss on how real-life politics will influence Season 2 - The News International

What does it mean, in the beer world, to be called one of the best breweries of the decade? The 2010s have been a period of such rapid change; of such tumultuous growth and then turmoil, that the beginning of the decade hardly seems connected at all in some respects to where we are today. When the 2010s began, craft gose in the U.S. wasnt a thing. Sour styles in general were still on the niche side of the equation. IPA implied a bone dry, massively bitter style, a far cry from todays saccharine juice bombs. And your average brewery was still aspiring, more or less, to grow as fast as possible into a regional powerhouse.

Suffice to say, things have changed, and changed quite a bit. So how, then, can we choose the breweries that best represented the spirit of the decade? How can we suss out those ones that made major contributions to the field, rolled with the punches, innovated and improved the scene around them? Because its those breweries who truly deserve the title most.

To this end, Paste writers and editors sat down to discuss various nominees for inclusion, and settled on the basic criteria below as the driving force behind our selections:

How strong is the brewerys beer game today, and how strong has it been throughout the decade? To truly be an assessment of the best breweries of the entire decade, we have to attempt to weight contribution made at the beginning of the 2010s the same as we would contributions made toward the end of the decade.

How consistent was the brewery during the decade?

In what areas did the brewery innovate during the decade? What kind of role did they place in the emergence of new styles, or the evolution of old ones?

How important was the brewery to its local beer community, or to the larger craft beer sphere? What X factors might come into play with this particular brewery that increases or decreases our esteem for them?

Ultimately, we decided that in order to qualify for this list, a brewery had to (in almost every case) have been around for at least half the decade, in order to truly make its impact. And if a brewery was founded in 2015, it had to make that much more impact in a shorter period, in order to truly distinguish itself.

And so, with that in mind, allow us to present Pastes 50 best breweries of the 2010s, a direct follow-up to a piece we first published 10 years ago, which ranked the best breweries of 2000-2009. But first: a whole bunch of honorable mentions. Obviously, there are even more breweries we wish we could include, and Im certain there are likely some we forgot, but a tip of the cap to all of the breweries below.

Honorable mentions: American Solera, Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co., Avery Brewing Co., Bale Breaker Brewing Co., Bissell Brothers Brewing Co., Boneyard Beer Co., Boulevard Brewing Co., Brew Gentlemen, Brooklyn Brewery, Casey Brewing and Blending, Epic Brewing Co., Fieldwork Brewing Co., Hi-Wire Brewing, Jackie Os Pub & Brewery, Lawsons Finest Liquids, The Lost Abbey, Metropolitan Brewing, Monkish Brewing Co., New Belgium Brewing Co., New Glarus Brewing Co., Night Shift Brewing, Odell Brewing Co., Parish Brewing Co., Prison City Pub & Brewrey, Proof Brewing Co., Sixpoint Brewery, Stone Brewing Co., Surly Brewing Co., Threes Brewing, Upslope Brewing Co., The Veil Brewing Co., Victory Brewing Co.

50. Ballast Point Brewing Co. (Constellation Brands) Original location: San Diego, CA On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Sculpin IPA, Grunion Pale Ale, Victory at Sea

Did any American craft brewery have more of a violently up-and-down decade than Ballast Point? They entered the decade as one of San Diegos most beloved IPA producers, with a flagship in the form of Sculpin IPA that was one of the industrys most purely sought-after examples of the style, and an array of other well-regarded beers such as the Victory at Sea imperial porter. The brewerys fame then exponentially increased after the first release of Grapefruit Sculpin in 2014, kicking off the industrys brief obsession with fruited IPAs, some of the characteristics of which eventually merged into the profiles of modern hazy/juicy IPAs. Its easy to look back right now and scoff at this particular moment in craft beer industry history, but Grapefruit Sculpin was ultimately a very important, catalyzing event that occurred at the same time as earlier examples of NE-IPA were beginning to emerge. The beer might not have ultimately retained its staying power in many craft circles, but the thought process that produced it was arguably ahead of its time, presaging many aspects of current IPA, for better or worse. We will freely admit it: When we tried Grapefruit Sculpin for the first time in 2014, we were in love as much as anyone.

Of course, it wasnt all sunshine. The companys 2015 sale to Constellation Brands, for the gaudy total of $1 billion, seems all but assured to go down in history as the single most overvalued acquisition of the craft beer boom erathe ultimate example of investment into the field by a company that seemed certain that growth wasnt about to stall anytime soon. Only four years later, it seems impossible to think that signs of the segments slowdown wouldnt have been more apparent at the time, but you know what they say about the clarity of hindsight. In the years that have followed, multiple Ballast Point taproom locations have closed and the company has contracted, even as it introduced a ceaseless wave of new Sculpin variants, to less and less effect. These are no doubt hard times for Ballast Point, but at the same time, it would be wrong to not recognize the company as among the best breweries of the decade, considering the way its influence is still being felt.

49. Rhinegeist Brewery Original location: Cincinnati, OH On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Cheetah Lager, Dad Holiday Ale, Calf

It has become very difficultalmost impossible, reallyto turn breweries founded in the 2010s into the sort of regional/national powerhouses that were built much more easily in the generations that came before. The crowded marketplace, slowing growth rate and successful push to instill preference for small and local in many consumers has limited the possibilities for breweries to expand past a certain size, which made the seemingly unstoppable trajectory of Cincinnatis Rhinegeist that much more impressive. Here is a brewery that really captured the attention of average Midwestern craft beer drinkers in the 2010s, and they rode that wave all the way from a 2013 opening, well past the 100,000 barrel mark.

At its core, Rhinegeist has a lot of things going for it. They have a fabulous brewery in a gorgeous, expansive setting in one of Cincys most popular neighborhoods, complete with a lovely roof deck. They have a solid stable of core beers (their lager Cheetah was just outside the top 10 of our last blind tasting), less on the flashy side and more of the dependable, people-pleasing variety. And they have an almost unprecedented level of local support, which only the likes of Wisconsins New Glarus Brewing Co. can really match. By the time we do this post again in another 10 years, they could well be one of the biggest craft breweries in the country.

48. Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project Original location: Denver, CO On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Von Pilsner, Vielle, Nightmare on Brett

Crooked Stave is one of those breweries that might not get a lot of play in the modern hype cycle, when wild ales of all description can be found on seemingly every street corner, but considering these guys first started selling beer in 2010, they really were quite far ahead of most of their competitionfounded the same year as contemporaries Jester King, in fact. The complications of contract brewing arguably slowed down the brewery from reaching the size that it might have, but it would be a mistake to overlook the lasting effect their saisons and sours had on Colorados Front Range beer scene, a decade later.

If anything, the Crooked Stave lineup might be better balanced today than ever, with a solid array of IPAs, an underrated pilsner (top 10, the last time we blind tasted pilsners ), and dependable workhorses like the Surette saison, fruited petite sours or the decadently barrel-aged Nightmare on Brett, which has come in a few delicious variations over the years. Its a brewery whose best beerslike the wonderfully balanced Vielle saisonsometimes escape conversation, but we havent forgotten them.

47. Deschutes Brewery Original location: Bend, OR On 2009 list?: Yes Our favorite beers: Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Obsidian Stout, The Dissident

Hanging onto a top 10 spot within the Brewers Association production rankings for craft breweries is Deschutes, another major regional player whose 2010s experience mirrors what was experienced by so many of their peersseemingly boundless growth, followed by a pullback and subsequent struggles. For Deschutes, that resulted in job cuts and the postponement of construction of an East Coast brewing facility in 2019, but the brewery seems confident that theres light at the end of this particular tunnel.

In terms of a portfolio, there are certainly few national breweries who have had such a well-rounded slate of beers for such a long time as Deschutes. Several are among the consistent answers youd receive when looking for stylistic benchmarks, whether its Black Butte as an archetypal robust porter, or Mirror Ponda beer we wrote an essay of admiration about last year, in factas a classic American pale ale. Their IPA game has gone through more evolution during this period, understandably, with a varying degree of success, but who doesnt appreciate a pint of Fresh Squeezed IPA? So too are many of the brewerys yearly releases still beloved, whether its Jubelale (one of the only essential American Christmas ales) or The Abyss, one of the earliest buzz-worthy imperial stouts. In fact, the company even released a particularly eye-catching whiskey version of Black Butte in 2019, opening up an exciting new avenue of exploration.

46. SweetWater Brewing Co. Original location: Atlanta, GA On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: SweetWater IPA, 420 Pale Ale, The Pit and the Pendulum

The Southeasts largest craft brewery seems to have weathered the industrys slowdown better than most, rolling with the punches even as it has continuously modernized in the face of changing consumer tastes. Although there have been some sad losses along the way (we still miss Exodus Porter as a year-rounder), SweetWaters growth into a regional powerhouse never undermined the quality of core offerings like SweetWater IPA and 420. And with their placement into all Delta flights nationwide, the brewery was exposed to a bigger audience than ever.

On the innovation side, SweetWater constructed its sour and wood-focused Woodlands facility this decade, transforming a brewery primarily known for pale ale and IPA into one equally well-liked for brettanomyces beers and a variety of increasingly ambitious wild ales. It was an evolution of the brands most basic ethos that seemed to happen in an organic, unforced way, and has produced some excellent beers, such as the peachy Pit and the Pendulum. So too has SweetWater more recently managed to tap into the growing national fervor for cannabis with its very successful series of 420 Strain beers, led by G13 IPA, which have explored the conjunction between dank flavors and IPA in a way much more literal than what can be done with hops alone. All of these factors have helped keep SweetWater more relevant in national beer geek conversations than many of their similarly sized competitors.

45. Great Notion Brewing Co. Original location: Portland, OR On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Ripe, Space Invader, Double Stack

In order to truly be one of the best and most relevant breweries of the decade, you really need to have existed for at least the majority of the decade but of course, theres always an exception to the rule. In creating this list, we originally planned to require that the breweries on it exist by at least 2015, but upon realizing that would exclude Great Notion (they opened in 2016) we reconsidered. After all, when you win the largest blind tasting weve ever conducted, as Great Notion did when Ripe reigned #1 out of 324 IPAs, youve earned some of the most elite esteem were able to convey. After all, is there any plaudit more genuinely impressive than finishing #1 when you completely remove preconceptions and hype from the equation?

All the more important, because Great Notion most certainly possesses a lot of hype status within its Portland, OR beer community, which has been rocked by a turbulent wave of closures of older breweries in 2019just look at this piece from Jeff Alworth, which makes the devastation clear. Its not hard to see some of the similaritiesthe breweries to close have been of the older variety, making safer beer styles than the likes of Great Notion, which focuses with particular intensity on hazy IPA, fruited and big stouts, with the occasional lager for balance. This makes them a very modern brewery indeed, which begs the obvious question of whether changing tastes could one day lead to a reversal of fortunes. At the end of the day, though, even though they havent been around long, Great Notion is executing several of these modern stylesand especially hazy IPAas well as any other brewery in the world today. We would like to assume that quality will be applicable toward whatever style happens to be hot by the time 2030 rolls around.

44. Funky Buddha Brewery (Constellation Brands) Original location: Oakland Park, FL On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Maple Bacon Coffee Porter, Last Snow, Floridian Hefeweizen

When we call 2010 a decade in which beer gimmicks tended to run amok, we usually dont mean it as a compliment. Funky Buddha, however, is one of the few breweries that has ever managed to take a gimmick-heavy portfolio and make something transcendent from it. For years, weve been referring to these guys as the masters of flavored beer, and its honestly been the brewerys biggest contribution over the last decade to the overall scene. Theyre not without the inevitable misfires, but no brewery does kooky flavor concepts more deftly than these guys.

Take, for instance, the now classic Maple Bacon Coffee Porter (or the barrel-aged version, Morning Wood), a concept that could go so wrong in the hands of so many other breweries, but which Funky Buddha handles with immaculate balance. Is it smoky? A touch. Roasty? Just enough. Rich? Certainly, without being cloying. Its the best case example for what maple bacon coffee porter could reasonably be expected to be, and the fact that they regularly pull off these kinds of combinations is remarkable. Not to be lost, of course, is a solid complement of core beers, especially the year-round hefeweizen Floridian, which finished at #5 in one of our wheat beer blind tastings. But when we think of Funky Buddha, we think of fearless experimentation and improbable successes, as with this years cocktail-inspired Manhattan Double Rye Ale. You can always count on them to push the envelope.

43. Tired Hands Brewing Co. Original location: Ardmore, PA On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: HopHands, SaisonHands, Various milkshakes

Milkshake IPA is a beer style were unlikely to ever list among our favorites, but if the entire beer industry handled the style with the skill and creativity of the progenitors at Tired Hands, thats a sentiment wed probably reconsider. Although the Pennsylvania stalwarts have brewed a wide variety of styles (including some lovely saisons) right from the start, its difficult to separate them from their most famous creation, and if theres a beer style that sums up the zeitgeist of the 2010s more than milkshake IPA, we havent seen it. The thought to use lactose in a style where it was practically a foreign substance was a clever one, allowing the Tired Hands brewers to boost the creamy texture and subtle sweetness of their IPAs in a way that worked beautifully with an array of fresh fruit purees. In comparison with the imitation that followed from so many other breweries, Tired Hands milkshake IPAs always seem to strike the ideal balance between fruity vivaciousness and at least a modicum of balance, avoiding the tooth-stripping sweetness that bogged down so many others in our increasingly saccharine beer world. It will never be a style for everyone, but Tired Hands has always illustrated what something like milkshake IPA looks like at its best. Sadly, theyre a brewery weve had a chance to sample at Paste far less than some of the others on this list, but hopefully that will one day change.

42. Wicked Weed (AB-InBev) Original location: Asheville, NC On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Golden Angel, Pernicious IPA, Milk & Cookies

We have never been shy at Paste about expressing our disdain for Anheuser-Busch InBev, or trying to codify why formerly craft breweries selling out to the worlds biggest beer conglomerate is a bad thing for the rest of the industry. At the same time, we also believe in recognizing beer quality in as objective a way as possibleits why we conduct blind tastings, where brands owned by AB-InBev have routinely placed near the very top in certain styles. In short, we believe in giving credit where credit it due, and it would be a lie to argue that Wicked Weed belongs outside of the best breweries of the 2010s. Their contributions to American wild ales alone put them in some pretty exclusive company, regardless of current ownership.

Since its genesis in 2012, Wicked Weed has done a remarkable job of evangelizing the novel flavor avenues that the average consumer can explore via wild and sour ales. They may be the brewery that had the single highest degree of influence in converting wide swaths of non-sour drinkers into people with a passion for wild ales in the last 8 years or so, whether it was done via more approachable fruited sours like Medora or the over-the-top decadence of the entire Angel series. At the same time, they also took a novel approach to more desserty sours in the form of beers like Silencio, and crafted one of the better flagship IPAs in the game with Pernicious. Suffice to say, it wasnt a GABF medal winner for nothing. Although Wicked Weeds esteem in its native Asheville is understandably lower these days than it once was, when viewing the decade as a whole, they loom large as one of the most important players. Certainly, of all the AB-InBev acquisitions, this was the one that stung the most.

41. Founders Brewing Co. (Mahou San Miguel) Original location: Grand Rapids, MI On 2009 list?: Yes Our favorite beers: Founders Breakfast Stout, Porter, Mosaic Promise

The relationship between beer geeks and Founders has become more complicated in the last few years, especially in the light of the (now settled) racial discrimination lawsuit brought against the company by a former employee. That unpleasant ordeal arguably knocks them down a little bit on this sort of list, but we also dont want to overlook the contributions made by Founders to the industry in terms of their beer. Few breweries had such a hand in shaping multiple styles, as they exist today.

Not to gloss over the brewerys all-time classics (Founders Porter, Breakfast Stout), but barrel-aged beers were one of the arenas in which Founders helped change the game. Kentucky Breakfast Stout is, along with Goose Islands Bourbon County Brand Stout, one of the two most important barrel-aged beers of all time, and was instrumental in starting the American barrel-aging renaissance. In the last few years, KBS production has ramped up, ending the artificial scarcity once created by its limited release. Predictably, beer geeks have responded by claiming that the product is now lesser than it was, but in our eyes its the rest of the industry that has continued to evolve, rather than KBS itself being somehow diminished.

Also not to be overlooked: All Day IPA, a beer that both presaged the bloom of session IPA and low-calorie IPA all at once, as well as providing a template for how craft breweries could use economies of scale to sell in larger packaging, such as 15-packs of cans.

40. Jacks Abby Original location: Framingham, MA On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: House Lager, Post Shift Pilsner, Copper Legend

Sure, in our current craft beer scene, the lager is life and crispy boi crowds have steadily pushed for the establishment of a thriving undercurrent of lager, helles and pilsner in the majority of brewery lineups, but this was by no means the truth at the beginning of the decade, when breweries like Jacks Abby (and Chicagos Metropolitan) were just getting started. These guys faced a completely different beer market, so often hungry for bitter-as-hell IPA and bruising imperial stouts, and the thought of trying to market any style of lager frightened away the vast majority of craft brewers at the time. Many were the instances when I begged for pilsner from _____ brewery, only to be told that craft breweries cant make lager profitable, thanks to the longer turnaround on tank time. The likes of Jacks Abby? They showed exactly what was possible within the humble world of lager.

And truly, Jacks Abby did it with a passion and verve that was infectious. They never allowed the traditional concepts of lager styles to hold them back from making whatever kind of beers they wanted to make. You still want American hops? Theyve got an IPL to suit that desire. Prefer imperial stout? Theyll come up with a big, black, bruising lager that will make you question what you thought you knew about yeast. Whether creating perfect versions of classic styles like rauchbier or maibock within their ongoing kellerbier series, or venturing off the beaten path with cranberry Berliner lager or the like, Jacks Abby has never been short of fearless. Their tireless larger advocacy has helped increase the diversity of the average brewery lineup, and theres few accomplishments better than that.

39. Westbrook Brewing Co. Original location: Mt. Pleasant, SC On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Westbrook Gose, One Claw, Mexican Cake

Truly, in the craft beer world, it can pay to get in on a trend early and become one of the most visible progenitors for an emerging style. Its always a gamble, of coursean investment of time and resources into an emerging style that just as likely as not will end up going nowhere. But in certain instances, it turns out like it did for Westbrook and gose.

Gose, of course, had been around in Germany for centuries before a South Carolinabrewery helped popularize it in the U.S., but combined with the influx of kettle sours that arrived in the middle of this decade, gose perfectly matched the climate of the moment. And indeed, Westbrooks gose ultimately went a long way in setting the mold as to what made American goses different from their Continental forebearsthey were more pronouncedly tart, with a burst of lemon juice-like acidity, a whiff of coriander and a healthy degree of salinity. As in so many other American styles that came before, we took a European beer style and upped its intensity and assertiveness. Truly, when it comes to craft beer, this is the American way. But to circle back: Westbrook Gose was a smash, and for many it was the first beer labeled gose they ever sampled; impressive for a style that is now completely ubiquitous only a handful of years later.

There is more to Westbrook as well, of course. Theyre a well-balanced brewery, trading in hops (all of the excellent Claw variants), lagers (try the schwarzbier, if you can) and sought-after stouts (Mexican Cake, another major trendsetter) in equal measure. Certainly, theyve done their part in promoting South Carolina/Charlestons brewery community.

38. Bells Brewery Original location: Kalamazoo, MI On 2009 list?: Yes Our favorite beers: Two Hearted Ale, Black Note, Arabicadabra

Bells feels like the sort of brewery where sheer consistency is both an asset and a criticism lobbed against them by a certain segment of the beer geek blogosphere. To be certain: Bells has been a little bit less adventurous and out there over the years compared to local Michigan competitors such as Founders, but they also had the benefit of lots of great recipes that quite frankly needed little tweaking to begin with. Is there a more generally beloved IPA in the U.S. than Two Hearted, even in 2019? Even in an era when drinkers are constantly chasing sweet, juicy, hazy sugar bombs, the dry, floral and lightly citrusy Two Hearted retains an absolutely rabid fanbase, and deservedly so. Cracking open a Two Hearted after not having one for a long time is one of the Midwests great beer pleasures.

At the same time, its not as if Bells didnt find time to innovate this decade. They did well when it came to themed releases, such as their much-loved series of planet beers themed after the composed works of Gustav Holst, or their more recent series inspired by the poems of Walt Whitman. And they even managed to keep growing, despite the slowdown of the market and the difficulties inherent in selling older beer styles such as amber ale, once the brewerys flagship. All in all, Bells just feels like one of those breweries that is built to last forever.

37. Dogfish Head (Boston Beer Co.) Original location: Milton, DE On 2009 list?: Yes Our favorite beers: 90 Minute IPA, World Wide Stout, Raison DExtra

Dogfish Head might very well be the opposite of how we described Bells above. Where a brewery like Bells could be said to have stayed the course and maintained its excellence in this decade, Dogfish Headwas constantly evolving and changing. They proved particularly adept in the 2010s in identifying emerging trends and pouncing on them, while exploring new avenues for the company at the same time. As ever, they know their way around an ingredient gimmick or a marketing gimmick, doing it better than almost anyone else in the business.

As the decade began, Dogfish Headwas still the company built around 60 Minute IPA and venerable brands like Indian Brown Ale. As time went on, though, Dogfish Head ran up against many of the same challenges as other major, regional breweries, but consistently displayed more ingenuity than most in evolving with the times. In particular, the 2016 development of session sour SeaQuench Ale put a shot of vitality into the companys lineup and quickly became its de facto secondary flagship. It also clearly put thoughts of health and wellness into the brewerys braintrust, and has powered its reinvention into what Sam Calagione now refers to as the number-one active, lifestyle-oriented craft beer brand, on the back of low-calories IPAs like Slightly Mighty and SuperEIGHT, a beer based around the concept of superfoods. And if those beers arent your cup of tea? We can happily report that the likes of 90 Minute IPA are as good as ever, and arguably even more relevant in an IPA market that has swung so far in the direction of hazy.

36. Sante Adairius Rustic Ales Original location: Capitola, CA On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Family Whistle, Bright Sea Blonde, Loves Armor

Some breweries focus on making approachable beer. Others focus on challenging or intense beer. Sante Adairius, on the other hand, seems to focus on beautiful beer. As they put it in their own words, we focus our attention on producing well-constructed beers with an eye toward simplicity and character. Theres an earnestness in that phrasing that really sums up Sante Adairius as a brewerythey are absolutely world class in their Belgian beers and farmhouse ales, but theyre not the kind of brewery that would ever revel in the praise directed their way. Their beers are like immaculate, but non-flashy, works of art, as exemplified by the clarity and precision in something like Sante Adairius Bright Sea Blonde. When I first tasted it in 2017, I was immediately taken aback by how perfectly balanced it was, for something so seemingly simple as Belgian-style blonde ale. When talking about this brewery, one quickly comes to realize that youre almost always being under-sold.

A yearly staple of the Firestone WalkerInvitational, a love for Sante Adairius almost feels like something of a beer geek secret handshake among those who are passionate about saisons and wild ales. Many are the conversations Ive had with other beer writers about Sante Adairius, particularly at that California festival, and never are they held in anything but the highest esteem.

35. WeldWerks Brewing Co. Original location: Greeley, CO On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Hefeweizen, Juicy Bits, Medianoche

WeldWerks is the rare occasion when I have actually felt like Ive followed the rise of a hyped brewery from almost the very beginningnot because Ive ever physically set foot in the Greeley, CO taproom (I havent), but because I first sampled their beer at GABF less than a year after the brewerys opening, and lets just say the lines were a lot shorter back then. But from the very beginning, I walked away from the WeldWerks booth feeling like this was an uncommonly delicious brewery, whether they were dealing with humble styles (a killer, medal-winning hefeweizen) or completely over-the-top stouts.

The rest is essentially historyas the hazy IPA revolution arrived in the back half of the decade, WeldWerks was one of the first major players in Colorado to attract critical acclaim for their hop-forward lineup, especially the flagship Juicy Bits, which is every bit as juicy as the name would suggest. That attention likewise led to even more hype for the brewerys barrel-aged stout releases, especially those in the Medianoche line, which we appreciate for their focus on barrel-derived flavors over more ostentatious pastry stout elements. Today, one might criticize the brewery for prioritizing hazy IPA and imperial stouts a bit too strongly, but when theyre taking home the #1 spot in Pastes milkshake IPA blind tasting, you can hardly blame them too much. When youre really, really good at something, you earn a certain degree of leeway. WeldWerks is still one of the younger breweries on this list, but theyve absolutely earned their acclaim as one of Colorados top brewers.

34. Revolution Brewing Co. Original location: Chicago, IL On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Straight Jacket Barleywine, Rev Pils, Eugene

If I was present for almost all of the ascendency of WeldWerks in the entry previous, I was here for every bit of the rise of Revolution over the course of the last decade, as they became the largest brewery in Illinois not named Goose Island. Living in Illinois, I visited the original Revolution brewpub as often as possible, watching as a handful of late 2000s upstarts (especially the compatriots at Half Acre) built the modern Chicago craft beer scene around them. Its now easy to forget that compared with early adopters such as San Diego or Portland, the craft beer movement was a little slow in arriving in Chicago. But when it came, it came in force.

From the beginning, Revolution excelled in classic styles. Their Eugene porter became the citys most dependable, session-strength dark beer. From day one, Anti-Hero IPA was one of the citys best overall (and now most balanced) hoppy beers. But Revolution also grew and morphed, albeit subtly, to fit the mold of changing tastes. They never abandoned the mold of Anti-Hero, now retro in its own way, but instead continuously expanded the Hero lineup until it had something for almost any taste. At the same time, they launched an expansive barrel-aging program that went on to challenge and eventually dethrone Goose Island for the title of the citys barrel-aged beer kingpin. The results were confirmed by Pastes own blind tastings, where Revolutions Straight Jacket barleywine crushed the competition en route to a #1 showing. They may have started as a brewpub getting press for bacon fat popcorn, but Revolution used its running start to become one of the most dependably great breweries in the midwest.

33. Other Half Brewing Co. Original location: Brooklyn, NY On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: All Green Everything, Broccoli Special Reserve, Double Mosaic Dream

This is another case where ranking is a little bit more difficult on account of the fact that weve sampled comparatively fewer of Other Halfs beers than most of the other breweries on this list. In putting them here, were taking into consideration both the beers weve had a chance to sample, and the effect theyve had in generating enthusiasm for the New York City beer scene.

Because make no mistake, the craft beer scene of NYC was considered oddly underwhelming, not all that long ago. Both New York and L.A. resisted the 2000s boom on some level, establishing far fewer breweries than much smaller cities that embraced the ethos of craft beer in a more enthusiastic way. The New York scene was anchored by a handful of stalwarts such as Brooklyn Brewery and Sixpoint, but it wasnt until the early 2010s that a younger generation began to emerge who would shape the future. And among those breweries, none were capable of generating excitement quite like Other Half.

Today, they are rightly considered one of the East Coasts finest producers of hazy IPA, with a singular focus on the style that is perhaps slightly limiting, but common in this day and age. Theres no denying that they make immaculate hazies, if thats what youre in the market for, but the brewerys greatest accomplishment is likely the way it pushed so many of the other NYC brewers to up their games in the process.

32. pFriem Family Brewers Original location: Hood River, OR On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Pilsner, Helles Lager, Oud Bruin

pFriem, like a few of the other breweries on this list who consistently performed far above average in Paste blind tastings, feels like the kind of brewery that is maybe a bit too easy to take for granted. Since establishing themselves in 2012, their beer has spread far throughout the Pacific Northwest, with entries like IPA and Pilsner becoming staples throughout the region. This of course leads on some level to beer geeks lowering their esteem for the average pFriem year-rounder: The old maxim of anything widely available must be inferior to something limited. But put pFriems beer into a blind tasting setting, and thats where it truly shines. Divorced from hype, its easy to see that this was one of the best and most consistent breweries of the decade.

Their dominance is especially impressive within lager beer styles, where they regularly cleaned up in our blind tastings. You dont finish at #2 in a blind tasting of 102 non-pilsner lagers, and then #6 in a blind tasting of 134 pilsners by accident. The only way you repeat those kinds of numbers is with technical mastery, and pFriem has it in spades. We also appreciate their interest in brewing classy versions of classic Belgian styles that have fallen out of vogue in the modern hype cycle, such as oud bruin, kriek or Belgian Christmas ales, giving the brewery a versatility that many of their peers now tend to lack. In general, there are few breweries where were more confident that every release will be well above average for the style.

31. Live Oak Brewing Co. Original location: De Valle, TX On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Hefeweizen, Pilz, Oaktoberfest

Theres not a lot of call for simplicity or subtlety in the craft beer world these days. Nor has Texas always been a market where traditional craft beer styles have received quite as much admiration as they perhaps deserved. In short, Live Oak Brewing Co. was pretty much always fighting an uphill battle since they slapped caps on their first bottles more than 20 years ago. They sought to bring truly balanced, authentic German beer styles into a scene that was mostly filled with cheap, mass-produced imitation, and along the way they played a major part in educating southwestern craft beer drinkers on what theyd been missing out on for decades. You want influential beers? Look no further than Live Oak Hefe, or Pilz. God only knows how many others in their own mold theyve inspired over the years.

Live Oak is, more than anything, an uncompromising brewery. They dont tweak their releases to suit changing styles and preferencesthey do what theyre good at, what they have a passion for, and they rarely deviate from the classics. German lagers, German ales, executed with a deference to history and technical acumen that rivals anyone else in the gamethats the Live Oak way. Although finding an outstanding, authentic pilsner isnt such a difficult task in the craft beer world these days, it might very well be without the guiding light of breweries like Live Oak. The last decade has shown the fruits of their labor in how eagerly their passions have been adopted by so many other breweries and drinkers, and in the end, thats the greatest victory Live Oak could ask for. That, and a #1 finish in Pastes blind hefeweizen tasting.

30. Perennial Artisan Ales Original location: St. Louis, MO On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Abraxas, Vermillion, Maman

Without a doubt, this was a great decade for the St. Louis beer scene. The 2010s began with only a handful of reliable, workhorse breweries (Schlafly, etc.) calling the city home, and quickly grew to encompass a wide array out outstanding brewers, from Perennial and Side Project to Urban Chestnut, Civil Life, 4 Hands, Narrow Gauge and 2nd Shift. They quickly turned the city from a beer scene associated with foreign-owned Anheuser-Busch and the legacy of the Busch family into one teeming with promising young breweries making beers in a bevy of different styles.

Of that class of this decade, Perennial just might be the most balanced and consistent of the bunch. Theres almost no style that Perennial isnt willing to tackle, even if our favorite selections from these guys over the years have often fallen into the realms of imperial stout, Belgian ales and barrel-aged saisons. That isnt to say they dont know their way around IPA, or even lager styles as wellPerennial is one of those breweries you can expect to do most everything well. With that said, they rightfully are well respected in the beer community for now-classic beers like the Abraxas imperial stout, which made a heavy impression in the wave of Mexican hot chocolate stouts that followed throughout the 2010s, along with barrel-aged bruisers like Maman, which are among the most purely flavorful in their class. Perennial is just one of those breweries were always happy to see submit something for a blind tasting, as the result invariably elevates the field.

29. Creature Comforts Brewing Co. Original location: Athens, GA On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Tropicalia, Tritonia /w Cucumber & Lime, Duende

Another influencer, this time on the Georgia beer scene (which Paste knows pretty well, being based in Atlanta), Creature Comforts attained it brewery status very quickly after opening and has pretty much never let up, always finding new ways to put themselves into the national conversation despite limited distribution. The Athens location ultimately served the brewery very well, making sought-after beers like the flagship Tropicalia IPA that much more difficult for Atlanta residents to attain, and driving visitors to make the trip to bring some home with them, much as a Chicagoan might drive across the Wisconsin border to score some culty brews from New Glarus. And that is ultimately how a rabid fandom is built.

Hoppy styles were Creature Comforts earliest strength, with the mildly juicy and super approachable Tropicalia leading the way, and ultimately leading to the development of killer DIPAs like Duende and Cosmik Debris. Over time, though, the brewery ventured out in new directions to supplement their IPA game, beginning a series of dynamite wild ale releases and eventually finding a great appreciation for lager as well. Visiting Creature Comforts today, a drinker is likely to find a bevy of great IPAs, along with a few intriguing mixed fermentation beers, some way above average kettle sours, a few cool, pils-adjacent beers, and (if youre lucky) a grandiose imperial stout. As I so often observed while living in Athens, GA in 2018/2019, if they just added an outstanding, standard-strength, year-round dark beer to the portfolio, it would essentially be the perfect lineup. Not that were complaining, mind you.

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The 50 Best American Breweries of the 2010s - Paste Magazine

What if two iconic figures in the civil rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X had a chance to sit down together to discuss their differing philosophies, beloved families and uncertain futures?

That is the fascinating premise of Renegade Theaters production of Jeff Stetsons one-act play, The Meeting, directed by Daniel Oyinloye. Thought provoking, intelligent and witty, the performance, while decidedly political, also afforded the actors a chance to open a window into the anguished souls of these two visionaries.

In real life, King and Malcolm X met just once. On March 26, 1964, on Capitol Hill, both were attending a Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act. A photographer snapped a now-tragic picture of the two both later victims of assassination who would never meet again. Set in a Harlem hotel room on Valentines Day 1965, the play opens with a discussion between Malcolm X (Julian Williams) and his bodyguard Rashad (Gabriel Mayfield) as they wait for King (Carl Crawford) to arrive.Rashad gives his boss militant arguments on why he shouldnt be meeting with King at all. Though he is only onstage for a brief time, Mayfield effectively provides both comic moments and the angry face of the charged atmosphere of Malcolm Xs by any means necessary movement.When Dr. King arrives, the two men warily greet each other with Still the dreamer and Still the revolutionary. The battle lines are drawn, contrasting Kings peaceful non-violence, the only road to freedom approach to the movement and the racial powder keg that Malcolm X once wrote could erupt in an uncontrollable explosion.For some of the conversation, Williams is a little more low-key than might be expected as the firebrand activist, yet, on the whole, he carries his own, even with the gravitas and understated power that Crawford brings to his role as Dr. King. Though Malcolm X was actually three years older than Dr. King, Williams looks (and is) considerably younger than Crawford. Williams is believable, however, in showing how tired and conflicted Malcolm X was at this time (just a week before he would be assassinated).While giving a few glimpses into the lofty oratory that King was famous for, here he is more of a listener, who still finds the right moments to challenge his philosophical foil. Crawford captures the essence of a man who is ready to die for his beliefs and tragically did not make it to the mountaintop as he predicted. The two mens solid performances breathe life into what could have been hollow portrayals from a history book and instead reveal their shared pain, passion and fatalism.Over 50 years later, the central tragedy brought to the forefront by this play is that the grand future that both men envisioned of a time when all people would be equal has not come to pass.Kings line echoing through the theater as the lights dimmed left the audience with the evenings central message. Just imagine what we could have accomplished if we joined hands in the same direction.If You GoWhat: The Meeting one-act play and post-show discussion (Act II)Where: Zeitgeist TeatroWhen: Oct. 18-20 and 24-26. Evenings at 7:30 and matinee (Oct. 20) at 2 p.m.Tickets: $20 for adults, $16 for students and seniors at 218-336-1412 or zeitgeistarts.com

Sheryl Jensen is a former teacher, magazine editor and director. She reviews theater for the News Tribune.

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Theater review: A provocative clash of wills in Renegade's 'The Meeting' - Duluth News Tribune

It began as these things often do on Twitter. Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted a picture Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong on Oct. 4. What started as a pro-democracy tweet by an executive most NBA fans couldnt pick out of a lineup quickly turned into a firestorm at the intersection of sports and politics. In doing so, the fans have provided the current generation of superstars a battleground for protest in which theres real cash at stake and the ramifications will affect all future political speech coming from the sports world.

Activism is nothing new in sports, but the current generation of superstars have avenues to express themselves that were inaccessible to those before them. But that trend has been coupled with a rapid monetization of players public personas. There is no better example of this than LeBron Jamess recent attempt to trademark Taco Tuesday. Combined with the NBAs rise globally, it was only a matter of time before politics and finance came into conflict.

Which brings us back, of course, to Daryl Morey. Within days, the Rockets joined Winnie the Pooh and Tiananmen Square among the casualties of the Great Firewall of China; China Central Television and Tencent Holdings Limited stopped airing Rockets games, and the Chinese government asked the NBA to fire Morey. When the league refused, every Chinese sponsor terminated their deals, and the TV ban extended to all games. While that ban has now ended, the Rockets remain off the air.

As for the NBA ecosystem, the responses have been mixed. Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr and star player Stephen Curry gave noncommittal statements, despite being on the forefront of the leagues political zeitgeist. Rockets star James Harden even apologized for Moreys comments. But the most inexplicable comments came from the greatest current NBA player, James, who criticized Morey as uneducated on the issue and for being selfish by risking league interests.

It might be too far to call players hypocritical, as some have, for being vehemently anti-Trump James famously called the president U bum in a 2017 tweet and yet remaining silent about China. After all, one can sense players discomfort when asked about a foreign protest movement theyre likely uninformed about. But it delegitimizes future NBA activism most of it being positive if players submit to such a clear attack on the league.

As for James, Fox Newss Laura Ingraham was wrong to say he should just shut up and dribble last February. But that wouldve been preferable to Jamess comments, who condemned Morey, while those in Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and across China face draconian human rights violations daily speak louder than LeBron ever could.

Its futile to ask billion-dollar corporations to worry about anything other than their bottom lines, even the NBA. But the players face a responsibility today that they will often face again, and appeasement can only defer it. Maybe its unfair to make this comparison, but since James was willing to monetize shut up and dribble into a documentary of that name about the history of sports activism, its one hes welcomed. Muhammad Ali gave up the prime of his career to protest the draft. Colin Kaepernick lost his career protesting police brutality. Tommie Smith and John Carlos were expelled from the 1968 Olympics for protesting racial injustice. To James, it seems Space Jam 2 was more important. But to the rest of the league, we can only ask: What are you willing to lose?

Read more:

Daryl Morey, Hong Kong, and the Limits of Sports Activism - The UCSD Guardian Online

Joaquin Phoenix in Joker (all images courtesy Warner Bros.)

The vicious circle of duty-bound readers and conversation-chasing editors which has attended the avalanche-like rollout of Todd Phillipss Joker is symptomatic of a culture starved for zeitgeist cinema. The thinkpiece-industrial complex has already descended on this skimpy, mostly just fine movie and picked its bones clean; only for a public so surfeited with superheroes that Christopher Nolan seems like the vanguard of thematic and aesthetic ambition would Joker be received as a challenging, appointment-viewing surfacing of toxic white male misery. I cant believe we signed over a whole season of The Discourse to a filmmaker who still thinks theres something inherently hilarious about little people.

Joker is an origin myth, a grim and pseudo-religious And that little boy grew up to be story like Batman Begins, showing how one of lifes shat-upon becomes a supervillain and a galvanizing figure for a mass movement of antisocial violence. It wants to be and the industry, critics, and fans, in ways alternately breathless and begrudging, have taken it seriously as a reckoning with the extremes of abjection, with the psychic trauma and social rejection that could lead someone to a nihilistic howl of laughter. But its far too derivative, far too wedded to its juvenile mythology, and finally far too tentative to deserve discussion on such terms.

That abjection at least takes an ideal form in Joaquin Phoenix as sad clown Arthur Fleck. Arthur who, like John Wayne Gacy, paints his mouth with sharp north-pointing corners has a medical condition that causes him to break out into uncontrollable laughter when upset. Phoenix lost an unhealthy amount of weight for the role; his ribs all but poke through a loose-skinned torso, which he holds at unnatural angles so that he seems permanently contorted, a full-body rictus. He looks even more down and out than the films circa-1981 Gotham City, where black garbage bags pile up on the sidewalk as a sanitation strike drags on.

Arthur lives with his invalid mother (Frances Conroy), who writes plaintive and unanswered letters to her onetime employer, the condescending kajillionaire Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen); his fantasy father figure is late-night talk show host Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro, superb as a smugly anodyne monoculture avatar). Arthurs obsession with Murray and the transformative promise of fame shouts out to De Niros own stanning of Jerry Lewis in The King of Comedy, while his diary-of-a-madman journaling (in a childish scrawl: I just hope my death makes more cents than my life) and subsequent vigilantism echo De Niro in Taxi Driver. In these Martin Scorsese films, the pathology of De Niros characters merged with the pathology of New York City, and the world. Joker tries to merge the pathology of Phoenix with the pathology of the earlier films.

Phillips began his career by making a scuzzy G.G. Allin documentary and founding the New York Underground Film Festival before graduating to frat pack comedies. Here he gestures to seriousness with a constant dirgeful cello score by Hildur Gunadttir, but emits major dirtbag vibes when imagining the depravity of Jokers milieu. He utilizes un-PC standup routines at the nightclubs Arthur visits, and invokes frequent trolling music cues (Send in the Clowns for its literalness, Frank Sinatras Thats Life for the triumphant tone, Rock and Roll Part 2 by imprisoned child molester Gary Glitter), which complement the fart-trombone irony of the clown prince of crime himself.

This is all pretty weak tea, but Joker largely entertains moment-to-moment, thanks to a star who captures the characters mesmerizing pulp energy. With his stumbling-in-a-fog voice, Phoenix seems to speak, like he moves, through enormous, invisible resistance. Its disturbing when he catches a gust of verbal eloquence or physical momentum. (Hes also a great physical comedian who can bring himself up short in a snap.) In a cheap suit and clown makeup, dancing erratically down one of the Bronxs step streets, he seems borne along on a swift current of destructive impulses.

Those Bronx step stairs are in Highbridge, just west of Grand Concourse, the boulevard of dreams modeled after the Champs-lyse and the pride of an area that was a prosperous Jewish and Italian suburb in the first half of the 20th century, before every white family save apparently the Flecks fled the citys death spiral. The film makes heavy use of prewar apartment buildings way uptown, abandoned Brooklyn subway stations with their cracked and stained mosaic tile, and rundown Deco exteriors in Newark and Jersey City. Despite the Se7en-esque color grading, Phillilps has a feel for architecture which suggests aspiration, decrepitude, and millions of hidden lives, and harmonizes with Arthurs grand delusions.

But there are elements of the character that are beyond even Phoenixs abilities to sell. During Arthurs climactic appearance on Murray Franklins couch, which is meant to synchronize his torment with the roiling anger of a city left to rot by contemptuous elites, Phoenix resorts to trying on different swishy voices in an effort to inject some organic disturbance into his summing up of the movies thesis. Pre-release, the fear was that Jokers portrait of a pathetic, lonely man who finds his voice in violence might goad copycat lashings-out. In fact, the film channels Arthurs rage toward a series of One-Percenters, like Wayne and Franklin, who are personally mean to him. In Arthurs relationship with his mother if not with his neighbor crush, an incredibly perfunctory role for Zazie Beetz Joker at least attempts to acknowledge that a beta male like Arthur might transfer his self-hatred onto women. At any rate, its closer to being authentically fucked up about gender than it is about race, with which it barely engages.

Gotham is a mirror for received notions about urban America, and Joker, with its graffiti and news reports about super rats overrunning the sidewalks, evokes the lurid high-water mark of the white flight era, when tall tales of wanton lawlessness rebranded New York as Fear City for skittish out-of-towners. Implicit in most coverage of crime in New York in the 70s and 80s was the idea that the urban population was a problem that had to be controlled. Arthurs first kill comes in response to subway harassment, in an obvious echo of Bernard Goetz opening fire on four young black would-be muggers on a 2 train in 1984. Here, though, the menace comes in the form of three slick-haired banker douchebros. Arthur, as an anonymous clown-painted avenger, becomes a figure of notoriety. His rampage, like Goetzs, is splashed across the covers of Gotham tabloids, which are as alarmist and crime-obsessed as New Yorks. He then becomes the totem of a clown-masked Occupy-esque protest movement.

The idea that the random murder of upper-middle-class white men on public transit in 1980s NYC would galvanize a populist movement against white elites is ahistorical and flatly ludicrous. I dont want or need a serious consideration of white grievance from a movie about the clown who fights Batman, but given the position Joker has assumed in our national conversation, its disingenuous and pandering for Phillips to root through a grab bag of resentments and pick out only the least problematic, like hes trying to find the last candy in the bag that isnt licorice. The rebellion Joker inspires appears, behind the clown masks, to skew white and male. This is flammable material, but late in Joker, it takes the form of a subway car packed with rowdy dudes in near-identical pop culture costumes, headed downtown to commit wanton property damage. All I could think was that the entire rusting machinery of mainstream American cinema was churning and churning to get us invested in a movie about SantaCon.

Joker is in theaters now.

Continue reading here:

Joker Is a Thinly Veiled (and Thin) Take on '80s NYC - Hyperallergic

Arlene Schloss reading to a crowd as a part of Performance A-Z, 1982. Image courtesy Storefront for Art and Architecture.

For art and architectural venues, growth is a commonly accepted measure of success. As the story usually goes, an upstart museum or gallery begins life small and then, with enough reputation and investment capital, gets a larger and larger space; with expansion and higher ticket sales comes the ability to support ever-larger shows that reach a broader public. But for New York CitysStorefront for Art and Architecture, however, a small, irregularly-shaped 868-square-foot space provides a physical constraint that has long been a key part of its ability to showcase relevant, vital exhibitions.

In an extended interview with Kyong Park, Storefront founder and director between 1982 and 1998, we take a look at the origins of The Storefront for Art and Architecture.

Located just north of Manhattans Little Italy and Chinatown neighborhoods, Storefront is a small, wedge-shaped exhibition space located across the street from a wedge-shaped park. Since its beginnings, it has always been a storefront with street frontage at ground level. With this key distinction embedded in the name itself, Storefronts mission has been kept consistent and has allowed it to represent an international and local community with a curatorial reach much larger the gallerys modest size. Like retail storefronts in the e-commerce age, which serve both to display products and physically represent the massive behind-the-scenes machinations that power global consumption patterns, Storefront is better seen as a physical manifestation of a much larger dispersed community of architects and artists both in New York and the world more generally. For a scene with no real local place to convene outside of school events and public lectures, Storefront represents an independent living room for the community to come and hang out in real life, in one place. Today when discourse increasingly is carried out online and via decentralized platforms, the existence of such a dedicated exhibition space is even more crucial for concentrated acts of community intervention and response.

The history of Storefront stretches back almost 40 years to 1982, when it was founded by Kyong Park at 51 Prince Street, across the street from where the McNally Jackson bookstore is today. Organized with artists Arlene Schloss and R. L. Seltman, its introduction to the community included 26 consecutive evening performances every day from local artists as part of a show called Performance A-Z. Artist Shirin Neshat joined in 1983 as co-director, contributing to many exhibitions throughout the next ten years (catch her massive exhibition at the Broad in Los Angeles, I Will Greet the Sun Again from October 2019 to February 2020.)

The early years in the 1980s saw many solo exhibitions of then-rising, now-famous architects and artists such as Neil Denari, James Wines SITE, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, Lebbeus Woods, and Dan Graham. But the exhibits that really gave Storefront its identity were the community-focused exhibitions which addressed problems currently in the zeitgeist, such as anexpos on homelessness, ashow on queer space, apublic housing exhibitthat doubled as a movement to save Adam Purples Garden of Eden on the Lower East Side from demolition.

These early efforts also showcased proposals of Eric Owen Moss, Alison Smithson, Morphosis, Zvi Hecker, Lebbeus Woods, Neil Denari, and Diller + Scofidio. This focus carries through the more recent era. In the wake of Occupy Wall Street, for example, Storefront organized a series of events, including a public call for ideas to meet and discuss how to move forward following the Great Recession of 2008 and the resulting global realization that capitalism is inherently unable to create a better world.

Today theyre often hosting panel discussions, tours, book launches, talks, original exhibitions, events, and more. To see a full schedule of upcoming events, make sure to check theirwebsitefor more information. Since Park's tenure, Storefront has been led by a number of leading architectural curators and thinkers, namely Sarah Herda, Joseph Grima, and most recently Eva Franch i Gilabert. Jos Esparza Chong Cuyis the current direct of Storefront, sinceEva Franch left to lead the AA in 2018.

I first visited Storefront for Art and Architecture for the first time in 2014. At the time, Marc Fornes / THEVERYMANY and Jana Winderen had an installation in the gallery called Situation Room. It was a perfect introduction to what I feel Storefront promotes spatially, because from the outside you could see pink Fornes metaballs poking out of the open facade panels and upon entering it became an experiential exploration of the neon pink form and ambient soundscapes surrounding you. As sensually striking as it was, it lacked the political and contextual discourse that some of the early shows had such as Homelessness at Home in 1985 or Adams House in Paradise in 1984. Despite this, it did demonstrate to me the power of an exhibition space that refuses to be a typical blank white box- something thats been consistent at Storefront even before the current home was renovated by Steven Holl and Vito Acconci in 1993. I wondered if being a foil to the ubiquitous empty white space was how it was conceived from the beginning, and if you could talk about the origins of Storefront and the types of shows you wanted to put on that you felt were absent from the art and architecture discourse at the time.

Well, you know, it was 1982, almost 40 years ago. The world changes a lot in half a century. Performance A-Z was actually organized by my partner, Robert L. Seltman, an artist who I started Storefront with. It was really he who actually conceived of it and organized the performances. I knew some other people in the show myself, but it was his brainchild.

The reason why I want to mention that it was a different time is because I think that may have just as much to do with the making of Storefront as anything that I have done.

New York at that time was really coming out of rock bottom. Almost all American cities underwent economic decline and depopulation. New York was not immune to it. It almost went bankrupt in 1974. Really nobody wanted to be there unless they had to. Its a bit of an exaggeration, but It was also a place where people would escape to from other places, drawing eccentric people that didn't really fit anywhere in the country.

I say country because at that time New York was really national. It didn't draw many people from outside of the US as it does now. It was a reversal of Kurt Russells Escape From New York, where instead of escaping from a maximum security prison, people who needed a fresh start or to leave their home town would move to New York. It was a kind of collection of chaos and anarchy. There were all these vacant storefronts on the lower part of Manhattan that were comparable to loft spaces today because they were large spaces that artists could turn into a studio.

The first Storefront opened at 51 Prince Street. It was about 350 square feet. I paid 250 dollars a month for it back then and by the early to mid-2000s, a while after we had moved to the current spot on Kenmare, it was already up to five or six thousand dollars a month being rented to a Tibetan boutique store. A lot of artists moved into these spaces, obviously living there illegally, and some of them started turning them into shops and self-run galleries here and there; in Little Italy there were several of them.

There was a sense of community there, and so, with some friends like Robert L. Seltman and Arlene Schloss, we decided to introduce the gallery to the city through a series of 26 performances by different artists. Certainly, at that time, neither myself nor the people in this community paid any mind to becoming wealthy and famous as many do today. It was more about making art, being part of our community, having a place to meet. It was a social-cultural space as much as, you know, an aesthetic-cultural space.

After surviving for two years, we became a legitimate 501(c)(3) and then started getting money from New York State Council of the Arts. Soon, people beyond our local area south of 14th Street started to pay attention and it became more serious: with a broader audience, Storefront became more legitimate and started to build a more solid, successful programming history.

It started very naturally from the socioeconomic conditions of New York City at the time and more than anything else I must say that I had no idea about what I would do when I came to New York at the end of the summer of 79. I had no intention to open a gallery. It wasn't something that I had in mind explicitly to do, so I credit the city itself, the community, and the culture as the true founders of Storefront.

What was the architecture scene like this around the time? Rem Koolhaass Delirious New York came out in 1977, describing New York in the '70s as an anarchic, unscripted place without any prescriptive theory. This might have been true to a visitor, but the reality is that people had been there for a long time producing culture, imagining futures, writing about the city, etc.

Well, I didn't really hang out with architects; I hung around with artists. At the beginning of Storefront, architecture in New York was very provincial. Not even national-provincial, just New York City, by itself.

At the time, people basically made theoretical stuff: paper architecture, drawing architecture, imaginary architecture, mainly headed by the New York Five: John Hejduk, Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves, Charles Gwathmey, and Richard Meier. They ran the show and some of them had institutions- Hejduk led Cooper Union, Eisenman at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, and so on. Their work was highly recognized throughout the country and probably beyond, but its prevalence showed that there was not a lot of work for young people, so for those like me, there was more of a drift toward art.

I wanted to hear about your conception of the first shows like the Gowanus Canal and Adams House in Paradise. I was wondering how the early curation direction was conceived and if it was a part of any 10-20 year plan for Storefront.

I have always had a very political radical interest. The shows you mentioned were projects that I initiated from Storefront. I have to give a great deal of credit to Glenn Weiss for Adam's House in Paradise. He was spearheading that project as well as Homeless at Home. Also, he was quite involved in that as well and other projects like DMZ, Project Atlas, Before Whitney, and After Tilted Arc. For these, we set up the concept and then invited people to propose an alternative critical discourse about re-examining status quos or current conditions. We wanted to attack the mainstream.

The solo exhibitions by artists and architects were to promote the cross-disciplinary relationship between art and architecture. We constructed a community where artists found interest in architecture and architects found interested in art. This has always been a reflection of myself, actually. I think that kind of crossover really was the key ingredient to pulling together a community that was unique and very committed.

[Eventually], The solo exhibitions switched from artists to architects, with almost half of them not from New York, or the United States, really. I think that Storefront had an interesting dialogue between something small and something large. We were quite small but we had large ambitions. We recognized that we didn't have to be big in order to do big thingsI remember some newspaper articles saying "Small Storefront Puts Museums to Shame" or something like thatWe challenged that notion of scale, almost ridiculing some of the big institutions for being very small-minded. I like this antagonistic role that I play.

Thats interesting to see that a stance on growth was always integral to how you saw Storefront. As you know, many institutions are built on a model of expansion where you acquire more work, see an increase in foot traffic and subsequently in ticket sales, which in turn then allows larger exhibitions, and so on. Infinite growth.

Thats the modern/American culture. The growth-forever model was criticized in the 70s by the Club of Rome reports which suggested in its place a more sustainable economic model rather than an annual growth in GDP. That idea of growth you speak of is a very modern, American belief where you build, grow, buy assets, and become a multinational conglomerate, continuing to buy more subsidiary companies and so on.

Did you pay attention to the Oslo Architecture Triennale this year?

No, I dont follow architecture very much.

The curation was about degrowth, promoting alternate models that push back against the idea that the continuous growth intrinsic to capitalism is a good thing, and that eternal growth is natural. The curators said the same thing, that GDP is a really poor measure of progress because it only measures a few myopic statistics.

[GDP is] a political tool just as much as an economic indicator. There are a lot of challenges regarding the legitimacy/accuracy of GDP as a statistical measurement, just as much as there are around SAT or the No Child Left Behind policies. Its not surprising to hear that about the Oslo Triennale. Architects have been enjoying one of the greatest building booms in the history of human civilization, nobodys really complaining about it. That may be coming to an end sooner than we think because we simply cant make billionaires anymore. Its not sustainable.

Storefronts existence all this time, to me, represents a challenge to the dogma around growth. It has always been small and has successfully stayed small; I wanted to hear how this was maintained. Did you havea plan for expansion once it moved?

No. I know we didn't have any plans except for the annual goals to go out and to get funding for the next year. During my time, I kept it small. Financially, its now much more substantial than it was during my time. Since I left, it became much more organized with a lot more funding. I dont know what the annual budget now is, but mine was, at its largest, maybe $250,000 a year. There was really no ambition to make it into a museum of any type or to make it larger. I felt that we were doing well enough and within our means. Maybe they could expand today but things are much more expensive now.

Just down the street is the New Museum, which moved to its SANAA building in the mid-2000s and is now slated to have an addition designed by OMA New York. For a while now, it has been oriented towards growth, accepting large donations, and building up an increasing collection. Its workers just unionized to increase previously unlivable wages that had driven up turnover. Since it was founded not too long before Storefront, just down the street on Bowery, it makes me wonder if you ever tracked yourself in relation to its continuous expansion and acquisitions.

Small is good. I didnt really pay much attention to the New Museum. It was already quite big in my time. It was a space in the corner of Broadway and Houston which was not a small space.

Its not just about size, its about the ambition of people in relation to power. The ultimate aim for people with fame is power, thats why people go to New York. Just as much as the growth-forever economic model, people are driven by fame and fortune which makes a nice recipe for bigness.

There was a great article in The Guardian that came out earlier this year by their architecture critic Oliver Wainwright about the state of real estate investment and speculation in NYC embodied in the super-tall pencil skyscrapers.

I mean they gotta put money somewhere right. Cash in the bank doesnt do as well, as Thomas Piketty told us in Capital in the 21st Century. I think they just dont have enough places to put the money. Their price tag is not because of the market or the construction costs or fees. Theyre inflated in order to put money away.

I heard someone say once that the art market is one of the last safe spaces for money laundering.

I would turn and go the opposite direction, it was one of the first money laundering tools and has proven to be a very dependable one historically.

Thats my concern once architecture reaches a certain scale. It is inevitably tied in obligation to foreign investments. And in growth, more generally, comes a concession to those forces that require more capital to reinvest, more financial obligation if you dont want to stay small. You stepped down from directing Storefront in 1997 and went to Detroit. Could you talk about why you decided to leave?

That was a year or so after Giuliani became the mayor and when the city started to become what it is today: gentrified, Americanized. In the early 1990s, things started to change and chain stores moved in. I remember the first one was Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Before this, like I was saying before, New York was a bunch of misfits that didnt belong anywhere else. And then with gentrification you started to get outside Americans coming in to find jobs. Gentrification really used art and culture as an appetizer to convince people to come back to the city, after white flight and suburbanization in the 1950s. I really didnt want to be a part of that. I started Storefront as an independent voice but now the city was beginning to use its presence as part of its political economy; we were only useful to them for the economic and political purposes that attracted outside investment to reterritorialize the inner city. I didnt like it. So in the mid-1990s, I started to go to Detroit because I was doing projects like Detroit is Everywhere and working with Cranbrook Academy of Art. I started meeting very interesting people, totally disconnected from society, extreme urban pioneers. They were off the grid, not just infrastructure, but socially and culturally. They were just on their own. I got very interested in their work and I felt that maybe I could be more useful in Detroit than I would be in New York. Even though I had started Storefront, I had come to realize that as independent as it could be, it could no longer be as experimental as it once was. I saw in Detroit a place to be experimental again.

I think that explains the reason why I started, what I did, and why I left. I think the problem is larger now than I ever imagined. Its the whole world. The way I think about the future is not very optimistic. I think were about to enter a historical moment where our comfort, our expectations, and ideas no longer matter because we are not trying to determine our future anymore. History is the ultimate determinant and we cant do anything about it, its become more of a destiny.

In the face of all this, what do you think the role of small scale art curation would be? Can we only react?

I think we have to start small again, to challenge big agendas, big companies, big institutions, including politicians. We have to find small groups of people that create challenges to authority.

Continued here:

Size Matters: A Conversation on Storefront for Art and Architecture's History with Founder Kyong Park - Archinect

Susie Orbach said it best back in 1978: Fat is a feminist issue. Fat is also a queer issue, and a racialized issue, and an issue of classbecause fatness is inseparable from all other intersections of identity.

But rarely do we hear conversations about fat liberation, even in todays feminist spaces. Instead, most folks are intent on positioning body positivity as our savior from the diet industrial complexerasing, in the process, the revolutionary power of the long-standing feminist movement to fight fatphobia.

Fat liberations roots are in the 1960s, when the emergent Fat Acceptance Movement aimed to celebrate fat bodies and remove stigma from fatness in a long-term and meaningful way.

It is no coincidence that fat acceptance organizing, second-wave feminist organizing and queer organizing came into the social justice mainstream around the same time, because fatphobia impacts fat people from every identity group. You can be fat and black, fat and heterosexual, fat and differently abled, fat and trans.

In fact, unpacking the work of The Fat Underground makes it clear that fat acceptance came out of queer and feminist organizing.

The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, or NAAFA, was founded by Bill Fabrey and Llewelyn Louderback in 1969; both men were tired of their wives being ostracized because of their weight. Louderback had already made strides into fat liberation through the publication of an article in 1968 which encouraged people to take a stand against weight loss, and later continued to make inroads with his 1970 book Fat Power: Whatever You Weigh is Right. Although much of NAAFAs activism was tepid at best, they did hold a Fat -In, or a sit-in meant to combat fatphobia, in which fat people gathered in Central Park, ate ice cream and burned pictures of Twiggy. NAAFA attempted to address fatphobia in schools, places of business and in media.

But by the early 1970s, Judy Freespirit and Sarah Fishman, two of the more political members of NAAFA, grew weary of the mild mannered-ness, especially as they were involved in the more rage-filled activism seen in concurrent feminist and lesbian organizing. Their radical, empowered, intellectual fringe group provided respite, but it had a lofty goal: to upend the medical industry by calling attention to its fatphobia. To do this, the women spoke at conferences and rallies, got involved with local feminist organizations and disseminated information about fatphobia to the public.

Working in tandem with these newly minted ideals, The Fat Underground unequivocally meant business. By pouring through medical journals, the members found statistics and studies which proved the rampant fatphobia in medicine. When singer Cass Elliot died, they took to the stage at the 1974 Los Angeles Womens Day March and pointed a finger at the medical community for essentially murdering Elliot via fatphobia.

Following this incident, The Fat Underground saw an increase in membershipbut soon after, members, both old and new, dropped out for various reasons. By 1983, the organization had disbanded.

Although their organizing efforts were seemingly cut short due to circumstance, The Fat Undergrounds research, organizing and revelatory politics more than paved the way for present day fat liberation activism. An archived video shows viewers the kinds of radical and progressive conversations that were being had by the group, which provided the foundation for todays Health At Every Size movement along with language and ideas to combat fatphobia in the medical industry.

In the 1980s and 1990s, fat liberation slowly became a more relevant part of the academy and the legal world. Lawsuits that made workplace discrimination illegal on the basis of weight were fought and won. In 1994, activist Marilyn Wann published the foundational zine Fat!So? Since then, multiple books, both for academic purposes and for-pleasure, have been published, allowing fat liberation to become part of the cultural zeitgeist and the fabric of academia through the fields of Womens Studies, African American studies, Psychology, Literature, History, Sociology, Queer Studies and American Studies.

Yet today, fat liberation has become entwined with body positivitymostly as a result of lazy organizing, the prioritization of bodies that benefit from thin privilege and individual feminists resistant to challenging their own discomfort. As Evette Dionne suggests, body positivity was initially one factor of fat liberation. But today, it has eclipsed the initial radicality of the movement and erased the very people it is meant to help.

It isnt the body positivity is wrong, or not feministit is radical, after all, to love yourself in a world that benefits from your self-hatred, particularly if youre a woman or femme, and especially if you occupy various other marginalized identities. But much like any other political movement, fat liberation began as a push back against the oppression of a marginalized group. It was a movement that gained traction because of fat people, predominantly women, organizing and mobilizing against fatphobia.

Fat people were at the center of the theory, actions and radicalism of early fat liberation. Today, however, the faces of body positivity, or #bopo, that we see on social media are too often thin, conventionally attractive, white women. By and large, body positivity has lost the edge and radical politicization that fat liberation possesses.

Activist Jes Baker speaks to this when she discusses what she calls Lisa Frank BoPo; a feel good, stay hydrated, thank your body, and do your sun salutations sort of thing. Bakers call for progress urges activists to get more political and angry. Id like to take it even further.

While turning the heat up on our respective politics will be useful for both individuals and the world at large, its Lisa Frank-ly not enough. What we need to actually engage with is fat liberationan intersectional mode of thought which challenges and subverts the various ways fatphobia manifests in both day to day life and big picture oppression.

Fat liberation stems from queer unrest and rebellion. Its message differs from body positivity; it is more radical, more political, maintains fatness at the center of its narrative and goals and focuses on the ways fat people are mistreated by the system.

This does not mean there is no room for those #bopo champions: Engaging in fat liberation is the same as engaging in any political movement; if youre not directly impacted by the oppression youre combatting, you just have to stay in your lane and be keyed in enough to know when its appropriate to step up and when to step back.

Make it your business to be a resource. Educate yourself so you can take on the emotional labor of confronting fatphobia in day to day life. If your politics arent radical, revisit the cornerstones on which they are built. Investigate whether or not they rest on pillars of white supremacy, capitalism, classism, sexism, fatphobia, transphobia, homophobia or ableism.

In honor of The Fat Underground, let this be a call to action for all of us to do better in our fight for every body.

On the next page: Fat Liberation Resource Guide!

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The Feminist History of Fat Liberation - Ms. Magazine

On a balmy night in September, Maurice Mitchell, the new national director of the Working Families Party, introduced a leading presidential contender to thousands of her delirious supporters. Repeat after me: People power! People power! Mitchell shouted to crowd thronging Washington Square Park. In the past few months, the Working Families Party had a deliberative process that included state chapters, members and supporters. I couldnt be prouder to say this morning we announced our support for (U.S.) Sen. Elizabeth Warren for the Democratic nomination!

Mitchell stepped back from the podium, his lips closed with satisfaction, as the crowd began to roar. For Warren, who entered the race as an underdog to household names like former Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the rally was an affirmation of her place in the top tier of the presidential field.

For the WFP, it was something like an apotheosis: a once-fledgling political party, launched at a nadir for progressive politics, had arrived on the national stage, backing a lefty candidate who may go all the way. Mitchells blue and white WFP sticker, pasted over his heart, was visible for everyone to see.

But all was not well, because nothing is ever so simple with the most prominent and powerful third party in New Yorks history. The WFPs decision to endorse Warren had enraged backers of Sanders, who was the partys choice in 2016, when the self-described socialist launched an insurgent campaign against Hillary Clinton that captivated millions. Jacobin, a magazine that serves as the house organ for socialists and their preferred candidates, declared the WFP had written itself out of history. Leftists canceled their monthly donations to the party. WFP staffers were harassed online, enduring threats that were racist and sexist in nature.

Anger festered among Sanders supporters as the WFP refused to say how exactly Warren won the internal vote. Half of the votes came from just 56 delegates on the national committee, while the other half were drawn from an estimated 10,000 dues-paying members and progressive activists. Some of the delegates lead large community organizations that belong to the party, like New York Communities for Change. These leaders largely preferred Warren.

The fallout threatened to destabilize coalitions the WFP has forged and maintained over its 21-year existence. For all its boasts of increasing its national power the WFP now organizes in 18 states, including Wisconsin, Colorado and Connecticut, plus Washington, D.C. it is chiefly a New York force.

In the past year and a half, the WFP has played a pivotal role in flipping the New York state Senate to Democratic control and nearly elected a democratic socialist, Tiffany Cabn, as Queens district attorney. The policy victories in Albany have been significant: new voting laws, drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants, stronger rent regulations and a far-reaching plan to combat climate change.

The WFP has effectively moved New York politics to the left and given a real voice to progressives, said Karthik Ganapathy, a progressive consultant who has worked for Sanders and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. They gave progressives an alternative vehicle to make their voices heard outside of the traditional Democratic Party machine that runs New York.

Yet the WFP inhabits a precarious moment. Its mortal enemy, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is alleged to be behind an ongoing effort to end fusion voting in New York, which could severely undercut the party. Many powerful labor unions, once its lucrative backbone, left the party last year under pressure from the governor. And the leftist movements they helped build have arguably overtaken the party. Groups like the Democratic Socialists of America and Justice Democrats with their lodestar, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez represent a new vanguard of the left: more radical, unapologetic and disdainful of the Democratic Party.

Occupy Wall Street and Bernie Sanders dramatically reshaped the landscape of New York and national politics. When Ocasio-Cortez won, you saw the apex of that reconfiguration. Bob Master, a WFP founder

The WFP, in many ways, could become a victim of its own success. Before the lefts ascent over the past few years, they were the uber-progressives. The governor views them as enough of a player to try to end them. If a state commission set up to allow the public financing of political campaigns manages to kill fusion voting, the lifeblood of New Yorks third parties, the WFP would hobble on having already won the war.

Occupy Wall Street and Bernie Sanders dramatically reshaped the landscape of New York and national politics. When Ocasio-Cortez won, you saw the apex of that reconfiguration, said Bob Master, a prominent labor leader and a founder of the WFP. All of a sudden, you have a new set of actors who are independent of institutional foundations. And these actors are doing things that even a couple of years ago seemed unimaginable.

The leftward movement of New York politics represents exactly what the WFP sought to accomplish when it was founded in 1998. At the time, Rudy Giuliani was in his second term as mayor of New York City. George Pataki, another Republican, was the governor of New York, and Republicans had an ironclad grip on the state Senate. Conservative Republicans had taken control of Congress and passed a welfare reform bill that slashed benefits and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton, who had declared the era of big government is over.

The WFP, a brainchild of Dan Cantor, Joel Rogers and labor leaders such as Master, had its origins in something called the New Party, a third party founded in the early 1990s to be a home for progressive Democrats and organized labor frustrated with the Democrats rightward drift. The New Party had national ambitions: to bring fusion voting to every state in America, so left-leaning third parties could cross-endorse Democrats and by threatening to withhold that endorsement drive them left.

Through legal challenges (most states bar fusion voting), the New Party hoped to eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court and have laws preventing fusion voting ruled unconstitutional, but it lost at the Supreme Court in 1997, effectively killing the party.

In 1998, to gain party status in New York, the WFP needed to secure 50,000 votes in a gubernatorial election. Their only option was to back the Democratic candidate, Peter Vallone Sr., a conservative Democrat who, as speaker of the New York City Council, had worked closely with Giuliani. It would be the first of several seemingly contradictory alliances the WFP would forge to protect its livelihood.

Labor didnt really have as much clout in the Democratic Party at the time as it should have had, said Sal Albanese, a former Democratic member of the City Council who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 1997, 2013 and 2017. Along with Master, Albanese pushed for the idea of a third party that would center the concerns of private and public sector labor unions, building around an agenda of raising wages for workers and combating government spending cutbacks. The party would also include influential community organizations committed to liberal causes, like ACORN. We put a ground operation together, urging people to vote on the WFP line, Albanese said.

On election night, Vallone lost to Pataki and it appeared the WFP would not garner 50,000 votes. Master stood up to give a concession speech at a Lower East Side pizzeria. In the audience was a young political operative named Bill de Blasio, who would hitch his political fortunes to the WFP in the coming years.

The votes continued to roll in late into the night and the WFP narrowly cleared the threshold, securing its place on the ballot for the first time. As a political party, it would have a ballot line to lend to Democrats and gain the ability to spend much more aggressively on its endorsed candidates.

The victory had even greater symbolic value. For decades, New York had been home to important progressive third parties, fueled largely by organized labor. In the 1930s, the American Labor Party was New York Citys social justice conscience, battling with Tammany Hall to help elect Fiorello La Guardia as mayor. At its peak, the party enjoyed a neighborhood presence to rival the Democrats, with thriving political clubs across the city.

The collapse of the American Labor Party during the anti-Communist 1940s and 1950s gave way to another WFP predecessor: the Liberal Party. Founded by labor leaders to be an anti-Communist alternative for the left, the Liberal Party was influential in the 1960s and 1970s, helping to elect important figures like New York City Mayor John Lindsay. It also controversially contributed to some conservative Republican victories including Ronald Reagan for president and Alfonse DAmato for U.S. Senate in 1980 by endorsing its own candidates for those offices instead of the Democratic nominees.

By the 1990s, the Liberal Party had cemented its move rightward, backing Giuliani for mayor and morphing into a corruption-plagued patronage mill. Its transformation created an opening for the WFP.

You cant have a fight between the left and Democrats with Republicans in control, said Bill Lipton, the WFPs New York state director and one of its longest-tenured staffers. We formed this institution to challenge that.

The party changed New York by electing more Democrats who cared about raising the minimum wage, beefing up tenant protections and creating a fairer criminal justice system. The effort began in earnest in 2001, when the WFP successfully backed a small number of New York City Council members in Democratic primaries, including James Sanders Jr. in Queens. It was not a major player in that years mayoral race billionaire Michael Bloomberg would pull off the upset over Mark Green and de Blasio himself was elected to the City Council. But the groundwork was being laid for a legislative takeover.

Unlike other third parties, the WFP would mostly influence elections by supporting progressive-minded Democrats in primaries. In the general election, winning candidates appeared on the ballot line for a handful of extra votes.

(They say) you cant have a fight between the left and Democrats with Republicans in control. We formed this institution to challenge that. Bill Lipton, WFP state director

Each cycle, more WFP-friendly Democrats joined the City Council. There was the future speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito, and the future state attorney general, Letitia James, who were elected in the next couple elections. James was unique for the circumstances of her win: one of the rare candidates to triumph exclusively on the WFP line in a one-of-a-kind special election to replace a slain City Council member.

In 2009, the wave crested much higher: the WFP-backed insurgents Jumaane Williams, Jimmy Van Bramer and Daniel Dromm won Democratic primaries and arrived in the City Council, along with Brad Lander, another close ally, and Deborah Rose. De Blasio, a top-priority candidate for the WFP, was the new public advocate. John Liu, another the WFP-endorsed Democrat, was elected city comptroller, becoming New Yorks first Asian American elected citywide.

Beyond the five boroughs, the victories were piling up. In 2004, the WFP threw its full weight behind Democrat David Soares, who unseated the more conservative Albany County district attorney in a primary. Soares ran on reforming New Yorks draconian Rockefeller drug laws, which brought steep, mandatory prison sentences for people convicted of drug crimes. Not long after Soares win, state lawmakersvoted to significantly soften the laws.

The dramatic Soares victory mattered for another reason, one that hangs over the WFP today as the state Public Campaign Financing Commission threatens to tie the end of fusion voting to creating a system of publicly financed campaigns. Until now, the party has been allowed to spend virtually unlimited amounts of cash on favored candidates, in full coordination with the candidates campaigns. A 2006 state Supreme Court case upheld the WFPs lavish spending on behalf of Soares, striking down limitations the state Board of Elections had placed on party expenditures during primaries. The WFPs cash reserves, fed at that time by unions, could be put to full use.

Meanwhile, the WFP would make the sort of alliances it hopes history will forget. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, now the state Senate majority leader, was not a WFP candidate when she first ran for the Senate in 2004, losing by just 18 votes. The WFP endorsed her Republican opponent, Nicholas Spano. Spano was more labor-friendly than the typical Republican; when Stewart-Cousins ran again in 2006, the WFP stayed neutral, rather than back her outright.

Though the WFP would work enthusiastically to retake control of the state Senate in 2008, playing decisive roles in electing Democrats on Long Island and in the North Country, the liberal third party would triangulate too. Labor unions needing favors from the Republican-controlled state Senate would back the GOP over Democrats, and the WFP, loathe to alienate its labor allies, would do the same in certain cases.

They were supportive of Joe Bruno when he was the Republican (state Senate) majority leader for many years, said a labor leader who worked with the WFP at the time and requested anonymity to speak frankly. They refused to support Democratic candidates in marginal districts.

By the 10-year anniversary of its founding, the formula for the WFPs success was quite clear: unite influential labor unions with party activists, undergirding it all with a highly effective canvassing operation. This for-profit operation would have a formal name, Data and Field Services, and endorsed candidates would pay for its services. In 2009, one of City & States predecessor publications, City Hall, published an investigative series about the WFPs relationship with Data and Field Services, prompting federal and local investigations. After the 2009 cycle, Randy Mastro, a Republican attorney, filed a lawsuit alleging the WFP was circumventing campaign finance laws by offering its services to endorsed candidates at illegally reduced rates. The U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York launched a probe as well, though no charges were filed.

Enough damage was done. In 2011, the WFP reached a settlement with Mastro, paying $100,000 to cover his legal fees and agreeing to shut down Data and Field Services. Its prized outside canvassing arm was no more.

The WFP, through necessity and savvy, has reinvented itself several times over, morphing internally as its faade has remained largely unchanged from its founding days. In the 2000s, it was the party of organized labor, with a for-profit canvassing arm attached.

In 2010, Andrew Cuomo was elected governor, forever altering the partys trajectory. In New York City politics, all would be well. The 2013 cycle was triumphant: de Blasio was elected mayor, James became public advocate and the City Council chose Mark-Viverito as its speaker.

The City Council, more conservative in the Bloomberg years, went into full progressive bloom. A new law guaranteeing paid sick days to city workers, a long-standing priority for the WFP, was passed within weeks of de Blasio taking office, after Bloomberg and his allies had bottled it up for a decade.

There were wrinkles, however, that hinted at trouble ahead. De Blasios victory in the Democratic mayoral primary was not a product of the WFPs foresight, because the partys labor affiliates could not agree on a candidate to endorse, forcing the party to remain neutral. Those close to Mark-Viverito credited 1199SEIU, the all-powerful health care workers union, with twisting arms on the City Council to elect her, not the WFP.

And then there was Cuomo. The governor, a centrist in the New Democrat mold, called for capping property tax increases, expanding charter schools and accepted bipartisan rule that would keep Republicans in power.

The states heavyweight unions, such as 1199SEIU, warmed to Cuomo or at least learned to properly fear him.

The WFP 2.0. was born in 2014, when progressive activists backed Fordham University law professor Zephyr Teachouts primary campaign against Cuomo. The partys labor union affiliates sided with Cuomo, while the partys grassroots members argued for Teachout. In the end, to guarantee 50,000 votes in the general election, the WFP endorsed Cuomo.

A deal was struck with the help of de Blasio, who enjoyed a closer relationship with Cuomo at the time: The WFP would endorse Cuomo if the governor agreed to back a host of liberal priorities, including raising the minimum wage and campaigning for Democratic state Senate candidates. In the end, Republicans kept control of the Senate that fall, riding a national wave. Cuomo hardly helped the Democrats at all. He resented having to bargain with WFP at all, which he dismissed as a fringe party.

Cuomos office did not return requests for comment about his history with WFP.

I understand their need to be transactional for survivals sake, but that also calls into question the foundation of their validity. state Sen. John Liu, former WFP candidate

The Teachout dilemma, for the first time, would also throw the WFPs transactional nature into the public eye. That fall as part of a deal that ultimately fell apart to reunite state Senate Democrats with a breakaway faction of Democrats, the Independent Democratic Conference the WFPwithdrew its support from two Democrats running against IDC members.

I have been turned off by how transactional they have been not just in my case but in many other instances as well, said Liu, one of the candidates who lost the WFPs backing in 2014 and lost the primary. I understand their need to be transactional for survivals sake, but that also calls into question the foundation of their validity.

In 2018, the WFP finally spurned Cuomo during the Democratic gubernatorial primary and selected Cynthia Nixon as its nominee, even though the WFP eventually switched back to Cuomo after he won the Democratic nomination. Under pressure from Cuomo, labor unions began abandoning the WFP. The unions had been a consistent source of cash and ground troops. Without them, the WFP would have to hunt for new sources of revenue.

What is the WFP? On one hand, thats an easy question to answer: a progressive political party that, these days, only cross-endorses Democrats. But the WFP doesnt organize political clubs, like the old American Labor Party, and doesnt encourage too many of its supporters to register as members of the party, lest they sacrifice clout in Democratic primaries. Some major unions have remained in the party, including the New York State Nurses Association and New York State United Teachers.

Their power today derives from how they serve as a nerve center for the professional left. The WFP itself cant deploy 100 people to knock on doors, but member organizations like Make the Road New York, Citizen Action of New York and New York Communities for Change can.

Activist energy no longer exclusively resides within the WFP. Even though its rank-and-file membership may outnumber the Democratic Socialists of Americas, the more than 5,500 members of the democratic socialist organizations New York City branch are far more willing to volunteer for favored candidates.

Grassroots organizations, including the Indivisible chapters, True Blue NY and No IDC NY, arose to furiously challenge the Republican Partys grip on the state Senate. They set their sights on the eight Independent Democratic Conference members who had formed a power-sharing agreement with the GOP, confronting them at raucous town halls and alerting formerly apolitical neighbors to their existence.

Though the WFP had been a critic of the IDC and Cuomo, it was the new grassroots organizations that initially led the effort to oust the IDC. Activists involved credit the WFP with lending direction to the anti-IDC movement, which was led by people unfamiliar with the labyrinthine nature of New York politics. They would host meetings with various grassroots leaders very early on, said Susan Kang, a founder of No IDC NY. Most of us who jumped in early were new to state politics. We didnt have the institutional knowledge. We didnt know who the key people to speak to were.

The WFP pulled lists of registered Democrats so the freshly formed organizations could start calling voters long before the primary. On behalf of the IDC challengers, the party paid for staff, digital ad campaigns and rebranded the IDC members as Trump Democrats.

The WFP evolved, in essence, into thepro bono political consultant of a movement that could exist independent of the party.

There was one notable missed opportunity: A 28-year-old former Bernie Sanders organizer was running against the Queens Democratic Party boss, Joseph Crowley.

In 2018, the WFP 2.0. hit a new peak. Six out of the eight anti-IDC candidates won their races. Left-wing novice Julia Salazar, aided by the WFP and DSA, unseated Democratic state Sen. Martin Malav Dilan, who was perceived by some as too close to the real estate industry. Though the insurgents they supported for governor and lieutenant governor, Cynthia Nixon and Jumaane Williams, were unsuccessful, their campaigns won plaudits from the grassroots left, the very people the WFP now relied on most, and Williams came surprisingly close to upsetting Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul.

There was, however, one notable missed opportunity for the party: A 28-year-old former Bernie Sanders organizer was running for Congress against the Queens Democratic Party boss, Joseph Crowley. DSA, Our Revolution and Justice Democrats had formed a coalition that was generating buzz. The candidates visage was popping up everywhere from widely distributed campaign literature to national news outlets.

But the WFPs leadership was wary of endorsing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whom they hardly knew. Crowley may have been a moderate who supported the Iraq War, but he had close relationships with organized labor and was on track to someday become speaker of the House. In a year of warfare against Cuomo and the IDC, the WFP didnt believe picking a fight with Crowley was worth their time.

Crowley took the WFP endorsement and went down with it. As Ocasio-Cortezs celebrity grew, the WFP was stuck with Crowley on its ballot line, lacking legal options to kick him off.

This year may be remembered as another pivot point for the WFP. Again, they played grizzled political consultant and benefactor to another movement that began without them, endorsing Tiffany Cabn, a young public defender and DSA member, for Queens district attorney. When the campaign was struggling to raise cash, the WFP hired a veteran campaign manager and paid for other field organizers. The major labor unions backed the front-runner, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz. After a monthslong recount and court battle, Katz won by a mere 55 votes.

To the democratic socialists who knocked doors daily for Cabn, the WFP was the trusted elder statesman of the resurgent left. When a new public financing commission, with Cuomos tacit blessing, began to consider whether to ban fusion voting in New York, the DSA which would be entirely unimpacted released a statement in support of keeping fusion voting.

With or without fusion voting, the WFP has left a permanent mark on the political firmament. It has now existed longer than the American Labor Party, its legacy secure. You could see it as a successful extension of the strategies around since the big growth of unions in the 1930s, said Joshua Freeman, a professor of labor history at the CUNY Graduate Center.

If Warren is elected the next president, the WFP would have its first White House ally, which could yield all kinds of clout and spoils. But there are those on the left, dedicated to Sanders democratic socialism, who will long remember the day the WFP broke with them.

Its unclear what the WFP can do for a Warren campaign that has already raised a lot of money and spent heavily on building its field operation in early primary states. Even WFP-friendly activists have quietly questioned the wisdom of wading so early into a contest between two candidates beloved by the left, as well as the partys muddled defense of the decision to endorse Warren in the days after the announcement. Kang, the anti-IDC activist who helped convince the DSA to back Cynthia Nixon for governor a year ago, canceled her monthly donation to the WFP, redirecting it to the Sanders campaign instead.

In 2020, the liberal grassroots organizations of New York are plotting primary challenges to members of the Assembly deemed insufficiently progressive. Whether the WFP wants to partake in that battle, threatening its relationship with the Assembly speaker, remains to be seen.

The WFP 3.0., with its new national renown, may be its strongest iteration yet or the version that loses the zeitgeist altogether.

Correction: This article originally neglected to include Joel Rogers as a WFP co-founder.

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The WFP won. That's why it could go extinct. - City & State

Now in its third edition, Vogue Women Of The Year awards has become synonymous with glamour, excellence and remarkable success. Weve raised the bar up another notch for 2019, bringing together the most inspiring names from all over the world to tip our hats to their unparalleled talent, and the countless hours they spent perfecting their crafts. From the countrys most successful sportswomen to business leaders, designers, supermodels, Bollywood celebrities and more, meet the winners of Vogue Women Of The Year 2019.

Viral YouTube star Lilly Singh is systematically dismantling the all-white world of suits that anchored late-night television. As the NBC newcomer and first Indian-origin female host on broadcast television in America, she has opened the doors for many others who look like her, and brought some much-needed diversity to our TV screens.

In 2007, Kunal Nayyars big break came when he starred as part of an oddball cast of geeks who charmed viewers in The Big Bang Theorywhich went on to become the longest-running multi-camera series in television history. While Nayyars Raj Koothrappali was a bit of a dorky clown, his intrinsic role in the group and the ability to keep it real set him apart. In 2015, the actor even penned a book titled Yes, My Accent Is Real to talk about how he wasnt just another Apu in America. After 12 years of relentless work and phenomenal success, he announced to the world his plan to take a break from social media.

At just 25 years old, Canadian model Winnie Harlow has already changed the face of fashion. Since she was discovered by Tyra Banks on the 21st series of Americas Next Top Model in 2014competing under her real name, Chantelle Brown-Youngshes been central in the move towards a more diverse and inclusive fashion industry. Harlow may not have won the competition, but she didnt need to. Shes fronted campaigns for the likes of Diesel and MAC Cosmetics, a regular on the catwalk and fashions front rows and appeared on dozens of magazine covers, all the while raising awareness about her skin condition, vitiligo (which causes patches of pigmentation loss).

It wouldnt be an exaggeration to say that Huda Kattan is currently the beauty worlds brightest star. She has close to 40 million Instagram followers, clocked 150 million YouTube views and owns a beauty brand with an estimated value of US$1.2 billion. When Kattan started out as a beauty blogger back in 2010, white influencers were the norm, a few African-American names were in the mix, but brown women were totally missing. Kattan has gone on to popularise her own Arabian style of makeup (which resonates strongly with brown women) all over the worlda near-miraculous phenomenon, as traditionally beauty ideals are passed from West to East, not the other way around.

Our Style Icon of the Year considers style an accessory to life, not the principal driver. A believer in fashion thats believable (but not basic), Anushka Sharmas is a covetable wardrobe youd want to replicate. Shes routinely spotted in a range of athleisure staples and casual wear, and white sneakers are more likely to show up than over-the-knee patent leather boots. Sometimes we push ourselves to wear extremely uncomfortable clothes. There are clothes meant for a specific reasonthey look beautiful on screen but theyre not the most amazing clothes to wear. In my own space I want to be comfortable in what Im wearing and, most importantly, it has to reflect me, she reveals.

As a child, Alia Bhatt would dance for her grandparents every Sunday. Her game of choice with her best friend was actress-actress. Left to play, shed conjure an imaginary audience to dance and act for. At 26, this prodigiously talented actor seems to have achieved everything. Gully Boy is on its way to the Oscars, her father is directing her in Sadak 2, and her upcoming feature, Brahmastra is frantically awaited. No wonder she has been crowned our Performer Of The Year this time around.

With her brand new venture into the world of beauty, Katrina Kaif might have just cracked the code to being an unpredictable enigma and yet coming as close to her fans as a superstar can at the same time. Her makeup brand, Kay by Katrina is an unapologetic, honest ode to beauty, and has been two and a half years in the making to speak Kaifs language. I want it to portray my philosophy. It definitely does not say, Look like me. I want you to have fun with my makeup and let it enhance the favourite parts of you, she says.

Acting was not part of the game plan for Taapsee Pannu. She had an engineering degree and was preparing for the Common Admission Test (CAT) to apply to business schools. So when did she decide to actually become an actor? She says it was after she completed her debut film, a Tamil feature called Aadukalam (2011). Cut to 2019, Pannu is a well-known face in the Hindi film industry, with blockbusters like Pink and Badla to her credit. Her formula for success? Being slow but steady, and accepting your own reality.

Ananya Panday may be just one film old right now, but she has already made a lasting impression in the Hindi film industry. After a prestigious debut in Karan Johars Student Of The Year 2 (the first SOTY launched the careers of the likes of Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra) earlier this year, the 20-year-old actor is now gearing up for her upcoming feature, Pati Patni Our Woh, where she will share screen space with Kartik Aaryan and Bhumi Pednekar. Panday has been ticking off everything that sums up a stars listshe had signed on as Lakms youngest brand ambassador even before SOTY 2 released, made her runway debut at Lakm Fashion Week winter/festive 2019 for Arpita Mehta and Anushree Reddys show, and has now become a regular on best dressed lists. Today, her bag of endorsements also includes denim brand Only and Gillette Venus.

In Ranveer Singh, we have a leading man who takes his work seriously but not himself. Quixotic, intense, angsty and the class clown all rolled into onehere is a man who makes the movies more fun than they have been in a long time. Over the years, he has combined a hyperbolic goofball public persona with a versatile body of workincluding Zoya Akhtars Gully Boy, Indias official entry to the Oscars this year, and Kabir Khans upcoming 83, which will see him playing the countrys first cricket World Cup-winning captain, Kapil Dev.

Growing up as the son of Mammootty, superstar of the Malayalam film world, Dulquer Salmaan had a vantage point on fame and cinema that few do. But he didnt really want to act. He was always in awe of his father, so he felt that acting was that one thing he couldnt do. My biggest fear was Id be a humongous failure son of my dad, and that I would lose it all, he says. Today, Salmaan has some 30 acting awards to his name, and is a consistent name in listicles for the best-dressed and the influential. Clearly he was wrong.

To call Zoya Akhtar unstoppable would be an understatement. Her latest film, Gully Boy, was recently announced as Indias official entry to the Oscars for 2019, and she also produced her first web series, Made In Heaven, for Prime Video earlier this year. Considering her wide range of as a filmmakerher earlier work includes the likes of Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) and Dil Dhadakne Do (2015)its not surprising that shes considered as a fine storyteller and observer of subcultures by critics and audiences alike.

Anyone who grew up in the 90s can attest to the all-pervasive message of Benettons ad campaigns: joy, colour, celebration, acceptance, love. Taking the brands ideals of multiculturalism, diversity and inclusivity forward is its new artistic director, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, who has been designing clothes since 1968. The long-time champion of diversity believes that fashion has a responsibility, and that you can say important things with creativityfashion but with a cause.

She was the Vogue India Fashion Fund winner in 2014, the Woolmark International Prize Winner in 2018, and this year at the Vogue Women Of The Year Awards, shes Designer Of The Year. Ruchika Sachdeva has carved a space for herself in Indias fashion landscape in less than a decade since she founded her label, Bodice, in 2011, dedicated to impeccable construction, menswear tailoring traditions and Indian crafts. Her collections may look deceptively simple, but actually boast of rich, complex textures, a detailed analysis and research of handlooms, and an overarching message of thoughtful design.

An international debut in 2016 at Louis Vuitton catapulted Pooja Mors continental career shift, where part of the perks include being shot by the best photographers in business (Annie Leibovitz, Steven Meisel and the late Peter Lindbergh), a stream of global campaigns and a platform for championing causes. Almost 16 seasons, 68 runways and 76 looks later, Mor has made the worlds runways her stage.

Garima Arora has had quite the year. She became the first female Indian chef to receive a Michelin star for her restaurant Gaa in Bangkok in 2018, and was also awarded Asias Best Female Chef 2019 at the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants awards. Last month in Mumbai, the 33-year-old chef launched Food Forward India (FFI), a culinary initiative that brings together people at the forefront of the Indian food industry to re-examine, re-evaluate and reintroduce Indian cuisine to the world. The cub pharma reporter-turned-chef, who worked with Gordon Ramsay, Ren Redzepi and Gaggan Anand before opening her restaurant, is applying her journalistic curiosity and chefs laurels to be the change she wants to see.

In 2013, Heena Sidhu received a phone call that would change her lifeshe got an opportunity to compete at the World Cup in Munich, Germany. The 30-year-old pistol shooter went on to beat the then world champion with a record score of 203.8, and became the first Indian pistol shooter to win gold at the World Cup. The following year, news emerged that she has made history as the first Indian shooter to hold the World No. 1 title.

Apart from record-breaking firsts on the track, Dutee Chand is also Indias first openly lesbian athlete. The professional sprinter announced that she was in a same-sex relationship earlier this year, and earned high praise from many quarters, including talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. Just over a month ago, Chand clinched the gold medal in 100 metres at the World University Games in Naples, making her the first-ever Indian woman track and field athlete to do so, clocking 11.32 seconds. Next up on her list? My ultimate aim is to bring home the gold medal for India in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, she reveals.

From setting up the 10-acre-large arts village Kaladham in the JSW township in Vijayanagar to starting Art India, the countrys leading magazine for contemporary art, Sangita Jindal is a patron whose engagement with art goes far beyond the act of acquiring. A champion of Indian art for more than a quarter of a century, as the chairperson of JSW Foundation, the non-profit arm of JSW (a colossal steel and energy conglomerate run by husband Sajjan), Sangita proactively promotes heritage as well as contemporary art.

It could be refusing to sit on a segregated bus seat, pledging to donate half of their wealth to charity or skipping school to protest. For social entrepreneur Neera Nundy, it was a coming together of her desire to lead and prove herself. As the co-founder of Dasra (an organisation that catalyses Indias strategic philanthropy movement), she has an ambitious goal to transform a billion lives with dignity and equity. Shes a role model of leadership today, proving that it takes vision, a real understanding of ones skills and a lot of hard work to truly make a difference.

A 30-year-old with an annual turnover of over Rs 300 crores, Foodhall founder Avni Biyani has captured the zeitgeist with a food chain that brings trending, premier foods to our pantries. From a starter team of 70 people, Foodhall has now expanded to over 800 employees in the gourmet food space as Biyani gears to open her 10th store in Delhi. The stock, too, has swelled almost double-fold in the eight years since the brand launched in 2011. From introducing India to 2,000 foreign items, they now boast an international stock of over 7,000 items. Biyani is unstoppable. With an app underway, she plans to kick off her digital expansion soon too.

There were no case studies, no reference points, no guidelines when Falguni Nayar decided to sell something as tactile as makeup and skincare products online. She noticed how her friends in the States were dependent on shopping on Amazon. She noticed the paucity of a good beauty sale experience in India and combined the two to launch Nykaa in 2012. Today, her empire is worth more than 750 million dollars. She could not define the Vogue Business Person Of The Year award betterrevolutionising the beauty industry via technology, product curation and catalogue and influencing a vast majority of the country.

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Presenting the winners: Vogue Women Of The Year 2019 - VOGUE India

Embassy 35, according to its event page on Facebook, is a space for off-beat designers, musicians, and visual artists to freely collaborate and dream up a next generation venue that caters to emerging art and technology; a place where we can redefine AWEsome (sic), a place where we can play with the future.

Its a test concept for what could evolve into a larger idea, said Troy Rogers, a science-minded musician who performs as Robot Rickshaw. For now, its a work and play space and also a place where were inviting other creators to come in and do something.

Rogers and Daniel Benoit are behind the concept. The latter has worked in theater in addition to site-specific projections, including one that played across the Blacklist building during Homegrown Music Festival. The music lineup includes The Crunchy Bunch on Friday, Oct. 11, and Zeb or Zeke and the Run Away Screamings on Saturday, Oct. 12.

Embassy 35 is among a handful of local art exhibitions currently showing at local galleries/studios/spaces, ranging from Art In Conflict: An Exhibition by the Museum of Russian Art at the Tweed Museum to Swedish Folk Painting at the Nordic Center.

AICHO

202 W. Second St.

Pat Kruse and Rabbett Before Horses Strickland, both from the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, are the featured artists in Mniidoos and Wiigwaas, an exhibition that opens at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11.

The show has paintings by Strickland. His work, influenced by European Renaissance and Baroque artists, tells the story of Nanabozho. Kruse is an award-winning birchbark and quillwork artist who creates basketry and also teaches. Exhibition runs through October.

"Minnesota Black Fine Art Show" courtesy of the Duluth Art Institute

506 W. Michigan St.

Now showing in the John Steffl Gallery at the art institute: Minnesota Black Fine Art Show, a juried traveling collection of pieces by new and emerging artists of African descent, including local favorites like Carla Hamilton (mixed media), Ivy Vainio (photography) and Terresa Moses (graphic design). This is on display through Jan. 2, 2020. Its Minnesota stops include Austin, Mankato, St. Cloud and Minneapolis.

Meanwhile, the George Morrison Gallery has Jean: The Inspiration Behind the Birkenstein Arts Movement. The works by the teacher-activist range from drawings to portrait work. Claudia Faiths Family, in the Corridor Gallery, has colorful paintings of farm life.

Rachel Hayes and Eric Sall's exhibition "Affinities" is on view at the Joseph Nease Gallery. Image courtesy of Joseph Nease Gallery

23 W. First St.

Its Rachel Hayes work in the window of the Joseph Nease Gallery, a multicolored draped piece that throws stained-glass like shadows on the floor when the sun is just right. Hayes and her husband, Eric Sall, have Affinities, a two-artist show, now at the privately owned gallery at 23 W. First St. Affinities is on display through Nov. 30.

Hayes and Sall live in Tulsa, Okla., with their children. Both are described as nationally-recognized, mid-career artists, and both are big, bold and bright with their work. Salls work is abstract and textured and unpredictable; Hayes is known for her installations, fabrics and layers that create light, shadow and movement.

Chris King's work is part of "Born to Kill" at UWS. Image courtesy of Kruk Gallery

University of Wisconsin-Superior

Holden Fine Arts Center, Belknap and Catlin, Superior

Humor and art are on display during at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, with Born to Kill, an exhibition by John Sebelius and Chris King. The former is a nationally recognized artist whose reach has included Details magazine and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He was named Best Artist of 2017 by the people of Lawrence, Kan., and the Kansas City Chiefs made him featured artist for My Cause My Cleats in back-to-back years. King, meanwhile, is a Louisanna-based artist who works in painting, sculpture, performance and video. The artists will host a public workshop geared toward veterans from 2-4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, at the Kruk Gallery. The opening reception is 5-7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11. There will be a participatory comedy club as part of the installation.

Exhibition runs through Nov. 9.

The Nordic Center has a three-artist show of folk art. Image courtesy of the Nordic Center

23 N. Lake Ave.

Three regional artists known for their Scandinavian aesthetic will show off Swedish folk paintings at an exhibition that has its opening at 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11, at the Nordic Center.

Judith Kjenstad, Pieper Fleck Bloomquist and Alison Aune are described as taking traditional Swedish art motifs and using them in contemporary work.

Kjenstad is behind a mural outside Ingebretsens Nordic Marketplace in Minneapolis. Bloomquist and Aune learned the traditional style in Sweden.

Swedish Folk Painting: A Revival is open weekends through Nov. 8.

"Collective Farm Harvest" is among the pieces at the Tweed Museum of Art. Photo courtesy of the Tweed Museum of Art

University of Minnesota Duluth

1201 Ordean Ct.

Art in Conflict is a collection of 34 pieces, on loan from the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis, made between Stalins death in 1953 to the end of the Soviet era in 1991. The paintings, sculptures, etc., are a mix of political and social: So much Gorbachev, but also women at work. There is also a hammer and sickle sculpture and a touch of humor. This exhibition opens at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, and includes curator talks by Maria Zavialova and Mark Meister, director of the Museum of Russian Art. Runs through Aug. 9, 2020.

Zeitgeist Arts Building

222 E. Superior St.

Moira Villiard, among the most recognizable regional artists, has a show Rights of the Child now showing in the Zeitgeist Atrium. The paintings and posters consider the rights of children right now and the idea of doublethink holding contradictory beliefs about an issue. Villiard is behind a bunch of public art, including the crosswalks project from this past summer and the mural of Chief Buffalo at Gichi-ode' Akiing, the former Lake Place Park.

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Pop-up art show opens this week in Duluth - Duluth News Tribune

The year is 2010, and singer-songwriter Ross Golan is playing his one-man acoustic show The Wrong Man in a friends Hollywood Hills living room.

The music, which Golan had been working on sporadically since 2004, tells the story of a man wrongfully accused of murder who is convicted and sentenced to death.

I've always thought it was weird that people tend not to believe someone who says theyre innocent, and I wanted to tell a story from the perspective of somebody who has to convince the listener that hes not the one who did it, Golan tells Playbill.

Long before the Serial podcast and Netflixs Making a Murder brought the conversation around wrongful convictions into the cultural zeitgeist, Golan played the show in his friends living rooms, everywhere from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia.

Now, 15 years since Golan wrote the shows title track, the underground musical has captured the attention of a much wider audience thanks to first a concept album produced by Grammy-nominated Ricky Reed and now an Off-Broadway staging at MCC Theater. Hamilton alum Tommy Kail came on board to direct the staging, after bumping into a music industry exec in the subway who was familiar with The Wrong Man.

When I heard the music I responded to my instinct, which was to go with the music. You have to listen to those things because they dont happen often, Kail says.

It felt like essential storytelling, and used contemporary music, which I really respond to.

To round out the creative team, Kail called Travis Wall, a two-time Emmy winning choreographer, and fellow Hamilton Tony winner Alex Lacamoire, marking a reunion for the pair.

Tommy had given me a demo of the score, I listened to the whole thing through and I was on board. I loved the way the story unfolded, I couldnt wait to hear the next track, Lacamoire says.

We have such a long history together, we read each other and its a constant faith. If Tommy calls you, you say yes because it's going to be a high quality project no matter what I get to work with one of my greatest friends in the world.

The Wrong Man is a sung-through musical, packed with catchy pop ballads, high energy hip-hop numbers and folksy tracks, a reflection of Golans songwriting rsum, which features chart-topping collaborations with the likes of Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, and Selena Gomez.

It is also a dance-heavy show, with the seven ensemble members onstage for most of the 90-minute run time, using movement to communicate pivotal plot points

Wall, of So You Think You Can Dance fame, says he knew he was the right person for the job within five minutes of listening to the score.

This story is heartbreaking and passionate and a lot of it needed to be told through movement to help the audience along the journey, he tells Playbill.

[The music] is new, it's fresh, I haven't heard it before. It's something that I felt like I would have a home in, and not feel like I was coming out to New York and just getting plugged into a musical theatre piece.

Three-time Tony nominee Joshua Henry, most recently seen in Carousel on Broadway, was brought in for a reading in 2018, and has been with the show in the lead role of Duran ever since.

Ryan Vasquez, who also participated in the reading, left the company of Hamilton (he is the first and only actor to portray the roles of Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, George Washington, Hercules Mulligan/James Madison, and Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson) to join the project.

I heard the music about a year ago when Josh and I did a reading of it. Afterwards I was so in love with the score I emailed the whole creative team and said, 'Even if there's a way to sing some oohs on this, anything you need I'll be there, Vasquez says.

Then out of the blue I got the call that we were doing it at MCC. It's cool to create something that's your own, and that's uniquely yours.

Henry says he was looking for a new musical sound when he came across The Wrong Man.

I was looking for something new, I didn't want to do another revival, he says.

I remember hearing this music for the first time the melodies are incredible, the emotional journey of the story is so well constructed. It's a very current sound, he continued.

The process of working on this show was so incredible, hopefully there's a next time I mean, [Broadway] is just a couple of streets away.

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How New Musical The Wrong Man Made It to New York With Help From the Hamilton Team - Playbill.com