Daily Archives: March 23, 2021

With a 60-year career behind him, German painterMarkus Lpertz is one of the most influential artists of postwar Germany.

In recent years, he has had major retrospectives at Munichs Haus der Kunst (2019) and the Hirshhorn Museum and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. (2017).

The eccentric paintera literal Bohemian born in Liberec in 1941 in the present-day Czech Republichas been working for four years in studios in Germany and Italy on the works that he is preparing to show atMichael Werner Gallery in London. The works combine Southern and Northern European painting traditions, from Renaissance paintings to Greek statuary, and revolve around the theme of Arcadia, a pastoral utopia that is at once ancient and contemporary.

We caught up with Lpertz at his studio in Mrkisch Wilmersdorf, Germany, where he told us about taking inspiration from Old Masters, his love of jazz music, and how much he loves a good bottle of wine.

Markus Lpertz Studio. Courtesy Michael Werner Gallery, New York, London, and Mrkisch Wilmersdorf.

What are the most indispensable items in your studio and why?

Foremost are my painting tools, a table where I hold my drawings, crayons, brushes, and paints, and a chair so I can step back and look at the work in progress from a distance. Then, natural daylight with northern exposurejust the essentials you need to get to work.

I often work on several canvases simultaneously. Our times stymie imagination with media overload, so I dont have a cell phonenever had. There is no outside distraction. I work diligently all day. Inspiration comes through the work and process itself, so you can find me in the studio early in the morning throughout the day, working like an artist in a classic 19th- or 20th-century studio. My job as painter is to reveal the world as I see it.

Is there a picture you can send of your work in progress?

This is my studio last fall preparing for the upcoming exhibition at Michael Werner Gallery in London. The show focuses on the theme of Arcadia, a classic, pastoral utopia.

Markus Lpertz Studio. Courtesy Michael Werner Gallery, New York, London, and Mrkisch Wilmersdorf.

What is the studio task on your agenda tomorrow that you are most looking forward to?

In my early work, I wasnt as concerned with populating the horizon in my paintings; that only came later when I turned to bronze. When you populate a horizon, you have a sky and the earth, so you put objects there. On Earth, you have the devil and the humans and your imagination. And in the sky, you have floating objects. Its all just a game. So I work between two studios: the painting studio and the plaster and bronze workshop. In this sense, tomorrow is a continuation of today, letting my imagination either transform the canvas, or takeshape in space.

What kind of atmosphere do you prefer when you work? Do you listen to music or podcasts, or do you prefer silence? Why?

I am a classic and actual Bohemian, a man of the humanities. The visual arts were and are always part of the performing arts, and all are important to me: poetry and literature, and music, opera, operetta, jazz.

Since 2003, I have published the magazine Frau und Hundwhich also includes some of my own writings. And I am also a jazz musician, regularly playing the piano. I have designed several sets for opera, and so music is often part of my studio practice.

Markus Lpertz Studio. Courtesy Michael Werner Gallery, New York, London, and Mrkisch Wilmersdorf.

What trait do you most admire in a work of art? What trait do you most despise?

Since the 1960s, we have seen a lot of isms, like the avant-garde. I have a theory that avant-gardism as a whole kept painting from developing further. Avant-gardism opened up painting, and that was a truly important epoch in art history. For a specific period of time that was necessary, as a liberation from politics, religion, academicism, all these things. But avant-gardism, like everything revolutionary, has become entrenched and therefore bourgeois. Today, avant-gardism has become a credo with its own rituals.

I strive to move past that and define something new and unique. For this, I often look back at Old Masters, [whom] I navigate between in order to arrive at a very specific visual language, a visual language of our time. I try to discover paintings where I think theyre hidden.

What snack food could your studio not function without?

I would never neglect a very good bottle of wine, but usually after dusk. Or a classic beer shared with friends playing skat.

Markus Lpertz Studio. Courtesy Michael Werner Gallery, New York, London, and Mrkisch Wilmersdorf.

Who are your favourite artists, curators, or other thinkers to follow on social media right now?

I dont use social media, although you could certainly consider me social.

When you feel stuck in the studio, what do you do to get un-stuck?

I travel to workshops or change the studio. Travelling south to Tuscany to observe the way the sun hits the Italian landscape changes my perspective.

What is the last exhibition you saw (virtual or otherwise) that made an impression on you?

The works in the London show include references to a recent visit to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. There is always a Vermeer, Rembrandt, Gentileschi, Fssli, or Poussin waiting to enthral me.

Markus Lpertz Studio. Courtesy Michael Werner Gallery, New York, London, and Mrkisch Wilmersdorf.

If you had to put together a mood board, what would be on it right now?

My worktable in the studio is my mood board, you can find everything there that I need to get to work. The rest is in my head.

Markus Lpertz: Recent Paintings is on view at Michael Werner Gallery, London, April 13 through May 15.

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Studio Visit: German Artist Markus Lpertz Is Painting Pictures of Arcadia and Drinking the Best Wine He Can Find - artnet News

The number of devices connected to the global network exceeded the number of people on the Earth more than 13 years ago somewhere between 2008 and 2009. In that period, the Internet of Things (IoT) was born. In 2020, it reached more than 20 billion connected objects. The growth rate is huge, and the network load is even bigger. Experts predict the number of applications connected to IoT triple or even quadruple by 2025. Terrestrial communication technologies cannot support all the needs of the IoT sector, and satellite technologies can play a key role here. And that is mostly thanks to the growing popularity and availability of satellite pictures. The market now offers numerous online platforms that provide free high resolution satellite imagery to be used for different purposes.

Satellite networks can provide global coverage and connect things into the IoT ecosystem even in remote areas, where it is hard or even impossible to deliver the terrestrial connection. They also have a permanent resilience level that is needed to provide stable and bankable connections within the world.

Satellites can give a real kick for IoT development, especially in such big industries as agriculture, mining, forestry, environment monitoring, public infrastructure management, or logistics. Here we will focus on some of them.

Examples of IoT Smart Applications

The applications of the Internet of Things technologies are very diverse. Their capacity can be applied to a lot of industries that require reliable data analysis for making fast and far-reaching decisions.

Smart Farming

Farmers all over the world are looking for a way to improve their productivity to be ready to produce more food for the growing population. Using modern digital tools, satellite images, historical and the latest weather data, etc. they can define their problem areas, growth points, and come to precision farming with its higher level of yields and profit.

Smart Mining

Mining is developing where natural resources are located. It can be some of the most remote parts of the Earth where there are no connections with the outer world except satellite services. Using satellite-based solutions in mining operations means communication maintenance, location monitoring, and potential threats prediction for the involved staff.

Smart Logistics

Today transportation assets become more connected to IoT. Logistic companies track their trucks, ships, and airplanes, and that is not the only application of satellite technologies for this industry. They can also be used to gather big volumes of data, analyze and share it with interested parties. This will provide new ideas for increasing operating efficiency and security at all stages of the delivery process.

Smart Cities

Smart cities are not a utopia anymore, especially with satellite-based solutions. They allow for being more efficient and organized. For example, city traffic monitoring can be the solution to the traffic jams problem or show the roads condition. Spreading of global internet connection will help to gather more information about problem areas, react to accidents, or tackle other urban challenges.

Satellite IoT Services

There are 2 types of connectivity services that the satellite industry offers to meet IoT market demands.

Sat-IoT Backhaul Service

The satellite IoT Gateway Backhaul works similarly to the GSM or WiFi Backhaul services. It develops as a new application of the SATCOM satellite system. With low-cost localized gateways, it can connect thousands of close-by IoT-devices with ultra-low-cost radio transmitters that work through terrestrial radio transmission standards. The ability to connect these gateways means the new branch of satellite application within the industry.

Direct to Satellite Service

Combining reliability and latency of satellite networks with low cost and low power makes the direct to satellite service play the core role in monitoring and data analysis for a wide range of industries. Logistics, tracking, insurance, remote assets monitoring, mining, energy, agricultural sectors, public infrastructure, governmental and public security sectors will take advantage of the direct satellite-IoT connectivity.

Overall, we live in the moment of fast IoT development, and using satellite networks can be and will probably be a valuable resource for the productivity growth of the big industries.

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Satellites in IoT Applications: Valuable Resource to Big Industries - Programming Insider

Since the 2021 edition ofTomorrowland Winterwas frozen by the icy bite of COVID-19, theiconic festival brand is going virtual.

In lieu of the the snowy festival utopia, which debuted in 2019, Tomorrowland is hosting a one-of-a-kind streaming event live fromAlpe dHuez, ascenic ski resort situated in the Central French Western Alps. On Thursday, March 25th, they will air a series of live performances from the resort, which they transformed "into a stunning concert venue for a magical winter wonderland."

Tomorrowland Winter organizers have tapped an all-French lineup for the festivities, recruiting dance music superstars Martin Solveig and Kungs, who will perform a collaborative DJ set for the first time ever. Joining them at a skyscraping elevation of 6,889 feet for the 2.5-hour show will be French compatriots Ofenbachand Klingande.

"The COVID-19 pandemic made us realize how precious small things are," Solveig said. "Were on top of the world here at Alpe dHuez and feel very lucky to be part of this."

"Im working on a lot of new music at the moment," added Kungs, who said he's debuting a new song during the stream and planning to release an album sometime after summer 2021. "The vibe of the album Im working on is really happy and positive."

You can tune into the virtual Tomorrowland Winter event on Thursday, March 25th at 16:00 CET (11AM ET, 8AM PT), exclusively on Tomorrowland's website.

Facebook: facebook.com/TomorrowlandWinterTwitter: twitter.com/tmlwinterInstagram: instagram.com/tomorrowlandwinter

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Martin Solveig and Kungs are Streaming a DJ Set Atop the French Alps for Tomorrowland Winter - EDM.com

Home to 649 people, Shoshoni is one of the many small towns in Wyoming where the school district is the biggest employer.

Kathryn Palmer for The Hechinger Report

This story was originally publishedbyThe Wyoming Tribune EagleandThe Hechinger Reportand is republished here by permission.

Annie Good and her co-teacher have made their fifth grade classroom a homey space for their 33 students. The room is on the south wing of the sprawling K-12 education complex in Shoshoni, Wyoming,a town of 649 people.

The $49 million school building, up the road from the abandoned storefronts downtown, can make visitors look twice, said Christopher Konija, Shoshonis police chief, who is also town clerk and treasurer.

Its like looking at two different worlds, he said. To me, the school what it looks like and what it represents shows the potential for Shoshoni.

The state-built, modern building is just one brick-and-mortar example of how Wyoming has poured its mineral wealth into its school system ever since the state Supreme Court heard a series of cases starting in 1980 challenging the equity and adequacy of school funding in Wyoming.In 1995, the court found that legislators were indeed responsible for budgeting enough money to fund aqualityeducation for all Wyoming children. And though such findings are not uncommon nationally, the result in Wyoming has been to make it the biggest spender per student in the Mountain West and one of the biggest in the United States.

Wyomings per-pupil expenditure in 2017 was $18,221, compared with the national average of around $13,000.

Wyomings per-pupil expenditure in 2017 was $18,221, compared with the national average of around $13,000, according toEducation Weeks Quality Counts 2020report, which adjusts the numbers for regional cost differences. The report gave the state an A in spending and an A-minus in equity for an overall grade of A-minus (achieved by only one other state, New Jersey). WyomingsNational Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores, too, are consistently higher than the national average and on par with Northeastern education strongholds like New Jersey.

But as the states once-booming coal, oil and gas industries erode, maintaining those funding levels would mean raising taxes in one of the countrysmost conservative, tax-averse states.

For years, fossil fuel money has paid for competitive teacher salaries, drawing educators to Wyomings constellation of small schools. Its part of the reason why Good, the fifth grade teacher at Shoshoni, moved to Wyomingsix years ago with her husband and two young daughters. Shed been living and teaching in Arizona, which spends less than half of what Wyoming does per student. She wanted better teaching conditions and pay for herself (her monthly salary nearly doubled when she moved) and a better education for her girls.Wyoming prides itself on being a red state, it just doesnt realize which red it is, said Richard Seder, an education policy consultant who has worked for the state. Using Wyomings unmatched mineral wealth to offer every student access to the same high-dollar education was the socialist utopia to have everything and never have to pay for it.

Students work in Shoshonis updated welding lab, which it upgraded last year with the help of a $122,000 grant from the state.

Kathryn Palmer for The Hechinger Report

According to data from the Wyoming Department of Education, as of the 2019-20 school year, about 53% of the revenue in Fremont County School District 24, which consists of only the Shoshoni school, came from local taxes; 43% came from the state. TheConocoPhillips Lost Cabin natural gas plant30 miles away in Lysite pads the district with more local revenue than many others have. (The adjacent Fremont County School District 25 got 78% of its revenue fromthe state in the last school year.) During the years Shoshoni was constructing the new school building, the state paid more than half of the districts budget, which is a relatively modest $9 million.

Figures like that are not uncommon in the nations least-populated state, which typically serves around 94,000 K-12 students total, or roughly the same student population as Denver. Over the past 20 years, Wyoming, which is the nations single largest producer of coal, has used approximately $2.5 billion from federal coal-lease bonuses and federal mineral royalties to build more than 70 new schools, like the one in Shoshoni, and improve hundreds more.

Essentially what Wyoming did was export the cost of its education system to people outside of Wyoming, Seder said. Tying school funding to mineral wealth meant local taxpayers did not think about the amount spent on education in their state in terms of their own pocketbooks.

... the predictable bust cycles [in the fossil fuel market] have brought the chickens home to roost.

Unfortunately, the predictable bust cycles [in the fossil fuel market] have brought the chickens home to roost, he said.

Since 2008, which was the peak of production in the Powder River Basin in northeast Wyoming and southeast Montana, where more than40% of the nations coalis produced, a drop in market demand has driven a steep decline in Wyomings primary revenue stream. When including volatile oil and gas revenues, mineral extraction has accounted for anywhere from 50% to almost 70% of Wyomings general fund over the years.

In 2019, Wyoming produced 277 million short tons of coal, according to theWyoming State Geological Survey, compared with 466 million short tons in 2008. Reduced energy demands during the COVID-19 pandemic have driven down coal, oil and gas consumption even more. In March 2020, Wyoming had 21 active oil and gas rigs in the state.Now it has five.

In a state where half of the land is managed by the federal government, President Joe Bidens recently announced moratorium on newoil and gas leases on federal lands 92% of natural gas and 51% of oilin Wyoming is produced on federal lands could make things even tighter for schools, said Jillian Balow, the state schools superintendent. Balow joined education chiefs in North Dakota, Montana, Alaska and Utah last month toask Biden for an exemption.

This is a lockdown of an industry that our students in Wyoming really depend on, Balow recently toldFox News Dana Perinoin response to the temporary ban. The Wyoming Department of Education estimated that oil and gas produced in Wyoming contributes $740 million to public education per year and that federal royalties paid to the state on oil and gas contribute $150 million per year to K-12 funding.

Eli Bebout, the recently retired former president of the Wyoming State Senate and a 1964 graduate of Shoshoni High School, said it was time to find a new solution for school funding, because coal is not coming back, and oil and gas are not looking good either.

A view of the road through the Wind River Canyon in Fremont County, Wyoming. The state reimburses school districts for 100% of transportation costs, which allows buses to regularly transport students long distances through Wyomings wide-open spaces.

Kathryn Palmer for The Hechinger Report

Back when Bebout was in school, traveling for a ballgame was often a reminder of the wealth disparities dotting Wyomings vast terrain of oil fields and coal mines.

Wed go to some of those school districts that had a lot of oil production, and there was a clear imbalance in what they were able to provide for their students, he said. It wasnt just athletics. It was in the band, it was in all kinds of extracurricular activities and in the schools themselves. Classes were larger in those days, too, he remembered.

During his tenure of more than 25 years in the Legislature, Bebout, a Republican, consistently questioned school funding levels, suggesting money does not necessarily enhance performance.

There was a balance that needed to be obtained, he said. But instead of finding a balance between the low side and the high side, we all went to the high side.

State Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, who chairs the Senate Education Committee now, shares a similar perspective. He said Wyoming spends too much in the way of administrators, some of the activities and busing students. He also thinks too much is spent on school facilities.

Scott said he sees taxes as a necessary evil and prefers to look first for ways to trim the states education budget. Were in the process of seeing how far we can get that way, he said. After weve done that, then will be the time to look at increasing taxes to pay for what we want in education.

Bruce Thoren, superintendent of Fremont County School District 24, knows what he wants in education. He wants the plentiful resources he has now, the ones that fuel his small districts93% graduation rate. He wants the social worker who teaches lessons about conflict resolution and growth mindset to all 383 students at Shoshoni. He wants the sometimes-expensive interventions needed to help special education students. And he wants those buses, which travel through winding mountain passes and fat slices of desert to allow kids to compete in basketball games, attend FFA conventions or just get to school. In wide-open Wyoming, buses represent academic opportunity.

Fremont County School District 24 Superintendent Bruce Thoren, who says having a nice school building is a source of pride for the whole community, not least the students.

Kathryn Palmer for The Hechinger Report

Without that opportunity to do whats in the best interest of the kid and whats best going to meet their needs at that time, instead of turning into a productive member of society, they may just be a drain on society, said Thoren, who greeted nearly every student by name on a mid-morning stroll down the freshly painted blue and white corridors of the school he considers a second home.

Sitting in his office overlooking the school parking lot, where the Big Horn Rams basketball team had just begun spilling off a bus after a four-hour ride, Thoren said he supports raising a tax to preserve the current school funding system and to keep Wyomings small communities like Shoshoni alive.

Until recently, Shoshoni students attended school in a 1930s-era building that had weathered the wear-and-tear of many generations walking through its doors. The building was eventually demolished and the state built thenew135,724-square-foot school in 2016. A school building as nice as the one the town has now is more than just a place to hold class, Thoren said. Its a matter of pride for the whole community, and for students not least of all. You dont see any trash in the parking lot when you pull up now, he said. That level of pride wasnt there at the old school.

Historic photographs of the original 1930s-era Shoshoni School building hang on the wall in Shoshoni Town Hall. The building underwent several renovations before it was demolished. The state of Wyoming spent $49 million to build a modern school, which opened in 2016, up the road from the old one.

Kathryn Palmer for The Hechinger Report

A wide range of scholarship has explored whether more money for schools directly improves student academic outcomes, but the results are inconclusive, said David Thompson, a professor of education at Kansas State University. Measuring the value of intangible benefits, like students sense of pride in their school buildings, is even more difficult.

Experts do, however, accept the notion that countries that make higher investments in education have greater levels of social stability and economic productivity than those that dont, Thompson said.

Better-funded schools will most likely have higher test scores and graduation rates, he said. If you begin to withdraw resources, I think youll see those numbers go in an unfavorable direction.

Thompson, who co-edited the 2019 book Funding Public Schools in the United States and Indian Country, describes Wyomings constitutional mandate to fund an equitable education as one of the strongest in the nation and one he wishes other states would replicate.

But Thompson said suggesting replication to policymakers usually gets them running the other way.

Thats because in most other states, sales tax, income tax and property tax make up the three-legged stool of school revenue bases. But in Wyoming, energy production revenues have allowed it to avoid relying on taxing residents until now.

Shoshoni Mayor Joel Highsmith has lived through boom and bust in his hometown, which sits at the base of the Wind River Canyon, just off the highway tourists use to get to Yellowstone or Jackson Hole. Back when he attended the old Shoshoni High School between 1967 and 1971, the town was still years away from the uranium bust that hit in the 1980s.

There was a lot more prosperity at the time, he said. Shoshoni was filled with a lot more young people, because there was a lot of work.

Shoshoni sits at the intersection of U.S. Highway 26 and U.S. Highway 20. The now-closed Yellowstone Drug Store in Shoshoni was once a popular pit stop for milkshake-hungry tourists on the road to Yellowstone or the Grand Tetons. But steady economic decline has left the town with one place to buy food: The Fast Lane Inc. convenience store and gas station.

Kathryn Palmer for The Hechinger Report

These days, the school district is the towns biggest employer. Next in line is a mushroom farm, followed by the only place in town to buy a candy bar: The Fast Lane Inc. convenience store and gas station.

Attracting new businesses to town is one of Highsmiths primary goals as mayor. Hes been close a few times. This time last year, California-based pet supply company Laube Co. came to the area looking for a place to build a factory and warehouse. They were very, very impressed, he said, but the town didnt have a big enough facility to accommodate Laubes timeline.

Hes had interest from a few more businesses, but hes worried about which way the school funding fight will go. Owners of a new business will want good schools to send their children to, he said. And theyll want a qualified workforce.

Highsmith hopes the districts technical offerings, including a state-of-the-art welding lab, which was upgraded last year with the help of a $122,000 grant from the state, will help develop that workforce and be a selling point for some of the companies scouting his town.

Austin Sullivan, a ninth grader whos attended Shoshoni since kindergarten, has been spending several hours a week in the lab rebuilding a motorbike he daydreams about racing through the Bighorn Basin.

Its actually my dream to become a mechanic, said Austin, who started taking career and technical education courses in seventh grade.

Training future mechanics like Austin, along with young experts in other high-demand and emerging technical fields, is key to the states future, said Michelle Aldrich, state director of Wyomings career and technical education programs.

If were going to diversify Wyomings economy and our tax base, we have to attract business and industries that dont rely on the extraction industry, Aldrich said. In order to do that, were going to have to have a trained workforce.

I hope weve learned our lesson not to put all of our eggs in one basket, she said.

Students eat lunch under the high ceilings of Shoshonis cafeteria. In sparsely populated Wyoming, the majority of schools have remained open for modified in-person instruction this year despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kathryn Palmer for The Hechinger Report

Back in Shoshoni, though, there is really only one egg in the towns basket. Its the school.

The school could be the deciding factor in whether or not his plans to revitalize Shoshoni come to pass, Highsmith said. Thats why he and Konija, the town police chief, have decided that despite their general desire to keep taxes low, they support raising taxes to save their states schools.

Refusing to even talk about it, Konija said, is essentially signing the death warrant for Wyoming.

Kathryn Palmer is an education reporter for The Wyoming Tribune Eagle.This story aboutschool fundingwas produced byThe Wyoming Tribune EagleandThe Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for theHechinger newsletter.EmailHigh Country Newsat[emailprotected]or submit aletter to the editor.

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Wyoming's schools at risk as the state's extraction industries erode - High Country News

The latest issue of S.W.O.R.D. reveals another mutant powerhouse who has romantic feelings for the original leader of the X-Men.

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for S.W.O.R.D. #4 by Al Ewing, Valerio Schiti, Marte Gracia, VC's Ariana Maher, and Tom Muller, available now.

Joanna Cargill, or Frenzy, was once one of the X-Men's most vicious enemies, and her transition to joining the team as an effort at redemption has made her no less fierce. But she has had a weak spot for the X-Men's leader, Scott Summers/Cyclops, ever since the two of them experienced life as a romantic couple in an alternate reality.

And as the she and the other space-based mutant of S.W.O.R.D. deal with the King in Black crossover in S.W.O.R.D. #4, Frenzy shows that she still carries intense feelings for Scott and believes she always will, even though they have gone unrequited for years.

RELATED: Age of X: What Happened in the X-Men's Weirdest Alternate Timeline

Created by Bob Layton and Keith Pollard, Frenzy first appeared in X-Factor #4 in 1986. With invulnerable skin and immense superhuman strength, Frenzy was a dangerous threat during her years as a supervillain. She first operated as a mercenary before becoming one of the founding members of the Alliance of Evil, which served Apocalypse. After that, she was a long-standing member of the Acolytes and worked closely with Magneto while he ruled over Genosha. When Exodus disbanded the Acolytes while mutants were an endangered species following House of M Frenzy eventually became a citizen of Utopia. Her shift towards heroism and fascination with Cyclops began soon after as a result of the "Age of X" event.

"Age of X" was a 2011 crossover between various X-Men titles. It took place in an alternate reality where, following an event in which Jean Grey's Phoenix power killed thousands of people, the United States became an anti-mutant dystopia, with Sentinels and government forces hunting down any and all mutants. Even non-mutant heroes like the Avengers were mostly bigots tasked with hunting mutants. Magneto led the remaining mutants in a desperate battle for survival from in Fortress X, a citadel that served as that reality's equivalent to Utopia. Human forces tried to breach the fortress daily, but the X-Men's counterparts held them off.

RELATED: X-Men: Psylocke's Daughter Is Still Marvel's Greatest Tragedy

When Legacy (Rogue's counterpart) sees this timeline's being arrested close to the outside of the fortress she finds her camera with a photograph showing a world of white. When Legacy, Gambit and Magneto free Kitty and Charles Xavier from the fortress' brig, the rescued mutants explain that their world isn't real. The current reality had been created by Legion, Xavier's son, after a new personality took over his body when Dr. Nemesis was attempting to treat his mental illness.

At the end of the event, reality is restored to normal, though many of the mutants involved still remember their experiences in the other world. In the Age of X reality Frenzy and Basilisk (Cyclops' counterpart) were married and when they first see each other back in the real world, they instinctively kiss. Emma Frost interrupts them, after which Scott's memories return and he sheepishly apologizes.

Frenzy would later talk to Scott about her lingering feelings but he rejected her. Regardless, her experiences in the Age of X were shown to have an important influence on her and she chose not to have her memories of the timeline erased as most others did. The experience was a significant motivating factor in her decision to join the X-Men.

S.W.O.R.D. #4 shows that despite them remaining unrequited, Frenzy still has strong feelings for Cyclops. While she was battling Kid Cable (who had been possessed by Knull) he threatened to make her kill everyone she loved. Frenzy replied that "I've only ever loved one person. And if he'd felt the same, you'd be my stepson," of course referring to Cable's father, Cyclops. Unfortunately for Frenzy, Scott isunavailable, having reignited his longtime relationship with Jean Grey.

KEEP READING: X-Men: King in Black Teases Serious Trouble In a Vital Partnership

Spider-Man: Scarlet Spider Still Struggles With Being Peter Parker's Clone

Gregory Mysogland is a freelance writer living in Fairfield, Connecticut. He is a lifelong fan of comics and film, especially the superhero genre and currently works as a Freelance Comics Features Writer for CBR. He graduated from Fordham University with a major in Film and Television and minor in Journalism in 2020. He has previously reviewed comics, films, and television for Sequential Planet. In addition to his media interests Greg enjoys playing basketball, watching the New York Giants, and going to the beach.

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X-Men Reveals Which Mutant Powerhouse Is Still in Love With Cyclops - CBR - Comic Book Resources

Now, a Mumbai-based artist is trying to break down what many women in Indian marriages go through in a country which places a high premium on the institution and unfairly so on its women.

An anonymous artist who identifies herself only as SmishDesigns online has opened her first solo exhibition in Mumbai. Befittingly titled Pati, Patni, Aur Woke to channel what it means to be husband and wife in a woke era, the title is a play on the 1978 Bollywood film Pati Patni Aur Woh (the Husband, the Wife, and the Other).

This is an exhibition that delves into the many layers of marriage as an institution, and how women are disadvantaged within it, Smish told VICE over email I try and capture the many disbenefits that women are subject to within wedlock, while also covering the subtleties of this patriarchal norm that suffocates women..

Millions of women in India are expected to leave their jobs or forego their education after getting married, while many families pride themselves in allowing their daughter-in-laws to work or study after marriage.

This exhibition, in a way, is an attack on the much abused term sanctity of marriage, a term often used by the judiciary of the country to silence married women and their struggles, added Smish. At the same time, it is a celebration of women who are now starting to realise their individuality and voice outside of this institution.

The exhibit brims with scathing, ironic references to the grim reality of Indian brides. In one image, a woman decked up in traditional Indian wedding attire also wears a black eye as she writes UTOPIA across a mirror with her red lipsticka colour thats important in most Hindu weddings, and which is often the colour of the brides wedding dress. This art piece references the fact that India recorded a 10-year high of domestic violence complaints by married women during the COVID pandemic, exemplifying how the deep-rooted issue has only gotten worse for women stuck at home with abusive husbands.

Another artwork shows a woman next to a TV, microwave, and pressure cooker with the title Bride with dowry! Exclusive Sale in India. This is also a cheekily devastating reference to the illegal and archaic, but commonly practised dowry system, where the family of the bride gives gifts or money to the groom and his family, often under deep pressure and in the face of poverty. The inspiration for amplifying this issue came after an incident in February, where a woman died by suicide in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, after her husband and in-laws physically assaulted her and demanded dowry. This, heartbreakingly, is just one of many such incidents, often lumped together as dowry deaths.

For this exhibition, Smish drew inspiration from anecdotes of friends and family, bearing witness to a culture where the onus and blame of marital mistakes tends to be shouldered by the wife. Ive grown up seeing excessively bad marriages around me in which women were expected to compromise and be flexible to adjust to their situations, no matter how bad their conditions were, she said.

Much of Smishs work is closely connected to her political opinions, with her art serving as a platform to express solidarity with some of Indias biggest protest movements, including the ones against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, and the ongoing farmers protests. But the backlash and trolling that artists opposing the powers that be often face has also created a fearful online environment. This also explains Smishs decision to remain anonymous, a question those admiring her art have repeatedly asked her about. The current climate makes every creator nervous, whether an artist, comedian, or filmmaker, she said. I do get anxious when I create art now, but somehow I keep doing it. When I did start it [her account on Instagram], I was a budding art student and I would often post my photography or work on it, but no personal pictures. After 2019, I started to post a lot of protest art on it, and realised that I was more comfortable with it being anonymous as it gave me a lot of freedom to express myself wholly and unwaveringly.

For Smish, the line between social, personal and political issues is really thinas yet again illustrated in her new series. All three of these things played a factor in my decision to address this topic. Women have no bodily autonomy when in wedlock because the judiciary of India doesn't recognise marital rape as a crime, so here personal becomes political. Even in cases of dowry and domestic abuse, Indian women rarely find solace in the laws that continually fail to protect them. I wouldnt say its the entire institution of marriage I have a problem with but how profusely the society, law and social structures mandate a womans agency within it.

For Smish, this series also serves to confront the very institution of marriage itself. I view the institution of marriage from a very cynical standpoint because it's a system designed to suppress a woman's agency and bodily autonomy, pan India. Unless there are laws working in favour of women and supporting them within wedlock, unless the society doesn't mandate a woman's choices to practise her agency, I see no point in subscribing to such an institution personally.

The rest is here:

This Artist Captures the Not-So-Happy Endings of Indian Marriages - VICE

When she was a child, Nadia Lim and her lizard caused a car crash.

I was the kid who was entertained for hours catching little frogs. That was my idea of fun, she recalls.

I had pet lizards that I would catch during school lunchtime. Then Id sneak them back in the car on the way home. Until one escaped and ran all over the car and caused an accident.

When Lim was six, the family moved to Kuala Lumpur for six years, where the chance to get out and into nature was limited (we had snakes in our garden, in the long grass. If you found one, you had to call the local snake control guy, and hed come and chop its head off. It was quite horrific). But from a young age, she was interested in how things grow.

READ MORE:* Nadia Lim's rooster is living it up at her idyllic farmhouse near Queenstown* Nadia Lim gives fans a peek into her semi-underground glasshouse * Nadia Lim launches lockdown cooking show* Nadia Lim and husband have gone 'back to the land' in rural South Island

She remembers helping her grandmother in her garden, back in New Zealand, weeding and learning in equal measure.

These days Lim, the woman with her name on more than 10 cookbooks, one picture book and a magazine, the co-founder of My Food Bag, the winner of MasterChef, the host of New Zealands favourite lockdown cooking show, and as of next week, Lifes newest columnist, is still happiest getting her hands dirty, chasing chickens and pruning pea shoots on her farm, just outside Arrowtown.

The family - Lim and husband Carlos Bagrie have two sons, Bodhi, 4, and River, 2 - upped sticks for the country just months before Covid-19 hit, finding their special slice of paradise after years of searching for the right property.

MATT QUEREE/Stuff

The joy of being forced to slow down was a treasured time for the 35-year-old as both a mum and a cook.

We feel so lucky and so grateful for the timing of our move, she says, a year on from the country being put into Level 4 for the first time. And we are so lucky to have all the space that we do.

The space - both physically and mentally - helped, at least in part, with Lim becoming New Zealands Queen of Lockdown Cooking last year. Her off-the-cuff TV show, Nadias Comfort Kitchen, filmed at home on the farm, with Bagrie behind the camera and her boys running around in the background, was watched by more than 1.2 million of us. We lapped up the idyllic country kitchen scenes, and her ideas for what we could cook when wed lost the ability to easily nip to the supermarket, deep in Level 4 drudgery.

Lim says during that lockdown, she went to the supermarket just twice - and (ironically) only to buy supplies needed for the TV show.

[During lockdown] we had all our own vegetables, and hunted meat, Carlos would go out and get rabbits, deer, goat. We had wild boar bacon and sausages already made, luckily. And we had our own honey and eggs, so we were pretty much self-sufficient.

Im inundated with the amount of produce we grow. We dont have to buy anything, except for flour, milk, oil, salt, pepper - and wine! she says.

Its clear Lim knows she is fortunate. But the joy of being forced to slow down was a treasured time for the 35-year-old as both a mum and a cook. And it allowed her to indulge one of her greatest passions in the kitchen - ingenuity.

I get an almost anxious feeling in my stomach if there is waste. And lockdown made me become even more resourceful. I would not waste a single scrap. I was going out and picking elderberries and making syrup. It was almost like this squirrelling activity, where you were stockpiling for a rainy day.

Its a feeling she thinks many of us shared, coupled with a chance to stop, and concentrate on the simple things, when what was going on in the world around us was far from straightforward.

People really, really enjoyed getting back to basics. And thats what a lot of us are missing in our crazy, busy lives right now. Im a hypocrite - I fill my days up, and I cant say I have a simple life, because I fill it up from head to toe doing all sorts of things. But lockdown really honed in on the fact that, deep down inside, everyone craves simplicity.

And hopefully people have held onto some of that. I know I still think about it.

It wasnt perfect though. Balancing working from home with two young kids was never going to be. And Lim says like many children, her eldest son struggled after the initial excitement of having the family all in one place for such a long time.

To begin with, [the kids] thrived, she says. Hanging out with mum and dad, and the novelty of it all. But at the three-week mark, [Bodhi] started to go, what is going on? How long is this going to drag on for? And he started getting quite depressed. It was really sad to see that in a little three-and-a-half-year-old. Hed just lie around, and you could see his brain thinking, what is going on?

It was a situation even us grown-ups struggled to comprehend at times. In the same boat as parents around the world, Lim and her husband explained things to their children honestly.

Weve never hidden anything from them, and that goes for life and death on the farm, too. [Bodhi] knows exactly how that works; from when he was two, and he could understand words, wed show him things, and explain that this animal is dead. Poor animal. And it was the same explaining coronavirus, we just explained how it was, and he seemed to respond well to being told the truth.

For Lim, a self-confessed introvert, the time away from the hustle and bustle of normal life was a welcome retreat. While she wasnt exactly putting her feet up - remember that making-a-TV-show-from-scratch decision - there was a comfort in the wider world slowing down.

We are quite isolated here, but I don't mind that. Ive never minded that. I could quite easily become a bit of a recluse, she says, with a bit of a laugh. It felt like we had gone back in time...which I loved, because I should have been born 100 years ago, she says.

I was very busy. But I think I was mentally and physically okay almost by default. Because there were no cars, and because there were no planes, all you could hear were the birds - day and night. And thats got to be so good for your mental health.

And for someone consumed by food, this rural life is utopia.

Lim has just finished writing best before dates on egg cartons for her chickens finest, as she starts to wander around her garden. While we speak, she talks admiringly of the 7 hectare of sunflower fields, and the golden ripples of ripening barley. Soon, she and Bagrie will be planting a sea of blue lupin, and hopefully adding more to their collection of 12 bee hives.

Later, our conversation will be interrupted by Rocky the rooster, normally the farms alarm clock, cock-a-doodling the day awake at 5.40am. Today, he just wanted to (loudly) remind Lim he still needed feeding.

[The farm] is pretty much all we think about and talk about, and it forms part of the bigger picture with what weve always been involved in with food, Lim says, reflecting on a career that started 10 years ago when she swapped her job as a dietitian to take the MasterChef crown.

Ive always been involved with whats on your plate, and Ive felt a deep responsibility to be involved with how the food gets there.

Its all constant, constant learning. I knew this already, but the best farmers are observers of nature. You have to look, every day, at how things are changing. I keep a little diary, and so does Carlos. But you take notes, and it really does teach you; you start to pick up on natures rhythm and become almost quite in tune with it.

Todays entry is going to be about her cauliflower and the current battle with white butterflies. Yesterday, she wrote about a heritage corn experiment which proved exactly where in the garden gets just enough sun to ensure a bumper crop - or at least, where to avoid.

But its the same as my cooking; its mostly self-taught, and is helped by an innate interest in it.

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Nadia Lim gets her hands dirty a year on from lockdown - Stuff.co.nz