Daily Archives: January 3, 2022

If water was the main thing that happened to a bagel that makes it great, there are about five bagel stores around my store here they would make as good of a bagel as we make, says Utopia Bagel shop co-owner Scott Spellman on the myth that New York City water is what gives its bagels the reputation as the best in the country.

Its what you do with the water. Its how much water you put in, its how much, when you proof, [when] you let in the air, Spellman says. Those are the things that are not talked enough about... Its those techniques that make our bagels what they are. The wildly popular Queens, NY shop is famous for its fresh bagels with soft, airy dough and a crisp crust. Spellman attributes his shops notoriety to two things: Having skilled workers make bagels by hand, and keeping everything from the ingredients, to the kettle, to the oven, to the baking techniques the same as they were 40 years ago when the shop first opened.

Another element that Spellman believes is absolutely necessary to making a good bagel is hand-rolling the dough, versus having a machine create the round shape. A machine, he explains, pumps the dough over and over again, tightening it up. Its the rolling that really keeps it soft. And rollers are a dying breed...Its not like theres a school for bagel rollers, he says standing over one of his employees, Henry, who has perfected the art of bagel rolling during his 27 years at the bakery.

[For] any craft, making it by hand is special. It takes an individual to be at the top of his game to make it good, Spellman says. The one problem youre going to have with my bagel, is once you eat it, youre just not going to want any other bagel.

Watch the full video to see more of what goes into Utopia Bagels process.

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The Secrets Behind One of New York's Best Bagels - Eater

It is often taken for granted, but occasionally worth stating that as a sport, football is virtually perfect at least within the white lines. It was a game that was fortunate enough to almost stumble upon the optimum laws and layout very early. Theres a sufficient balance between freedom and order, between creativity and destruction. The preciousness of a goal has ensured it has the right amount of scoring to strike the perfect balance between satisfying reward for performance and exhilarating risk of surprises.

All of this, which is founded on the joyous liberation of just kicking a football, has made the sport by far the most popular in the world. It is that very popularity, however, that has created a multitude of problems off the pitch that now impinge on its perfection on it. Too much of the games immense wealth goes to too few places, greatly eroding competitive balance, and threatening the future of many clubs and even competitions. This is what led to the existential threat of the Super League.

Rather than dwell on such negatives, though, the start of a new year should offer an opportunity to look to something more hopeful; to something utopian. What would need to be done for the structure of football to be as perfect as the playing of it? If we could start the sport from scratch, what would we do? What would a football utopia actually look like?

To answer this question, The Independent asked a number of figures from within and around the game. They included those willing to publicly comment, such as historian David Goldblatt, director of Fair Game, Dons Trust board member Niall Couper, and football finance academic Dr Rob Wilson, as well as a series of sources speaking off the record including agents, club staff and football administrators.

The discussions kept coming back to the same core question: who, and what, is football actually for? Thats quite an easy one to answer. It is firstly the simple playing of the game, in meaningful competition, as a representation of a community. Thats it. That is what arguably human historys most popular cultural pursuit is founded on, and what it has spread from. Once you ensure that principle is preserved and protected, so many other problems from the competitiveness of leagues to the structure of competitions and problematic owners take care of themselves.

The problem is that hasnt been the case. A largely unregulated game has generally left clubs to fend for themselves in a wider embrace of unfettered capitalism, the driving forces of which are directly contrary to sporting ideals and the concept of clubs as social institutions. This paradox is the central tension in football, that has led to a financial stretch with huge gaps emerging, and a lot of uncompetitive clubs, games and trophies.

As former FA chief executive Mark Palios has argued to The Independent, the goal of business is to kill competition indefinitely; the goal of sport is to revive competition every year. The two can never meet. So, as a transformative first step, clubs must be protected as products of their local community.

They should only be owned and run by those whose sole motivation is the health of the football club. There should be no parallel motives. That means supporter trusts or fan groups. It also precludes venture capitalists, billionaires, wealth funds, nation states or anyone looking for financial growth or political capital out of the game. At a stroke, that would eliminate all of the problematic discussions that come with these owner profiles, while ensuring there are no moral concerns about just supporting your club.

So, any football utopia would involve a German recognition that clubs have a cultural value beyond just winning and accumulating wealth if not necessarily a direct German-style 50+1 system, despite many of its obvious strengths. This, accompanied by the right regulations such as transparent accounting and incentivised standards on issues like fan engagement, would secure clubs in their community. No one would be able to spend more than they earn. Core parts of identity like the name, badge and location would be protected. A club could only ever be as big as its fanbase, or how big that fanbase can organically grow.

Nation states would be precluded from owning football clubs in a ideal world

(AFP/Getty)

An obvious problem with this is what has actually happened in Germany, and how Bayern Munich have dwarfed everyone else. An obvious response is that a remedy is what starting from scratch allows. Examples could be taken from American sport without needing to necessarily go as far as a draft. Instead, the immense wealth that football earns could keep going back into the game, and be redistributed fairly.

The lowest-ranked clubs could receive the greater share of the broadcasting deals. Sponsorships could be shared, so no club ever earns too much. Ethically questionable sponsors, such as gambling or cryptocurrency firms, could be prohibited. More money could also be put into womens teams, academies, infrastructure as well as community schemes such as local education and civic society involvement. This is all possible when the owners are singularly concerned with the health of the clubs, rather than just making more money. You wouldnt get external forces looking to push Super Leagues because they wouldnt be involved.

It also eliminates the need for more complicated structural regulations like salary caps, because there is just a greater financial parity. There could beconstant checks that anchor everyone towards a competitive centre. The wider game would perpetuallyseereplenishing reinvestment. It would also encourage the development of academy players, further fostering local connections. Ticket prices could be lower.

Couper, who is well versed in all of this from his experiences in reviving AFC Wimbledon, explains the benefits. All of these different elements come together to make football more sustainable in the long term, while using the wealth at the top to make sure that every corner has the opportunity for a well-run community football club.

Clubs could still seek to grow as teams, which is what it should be about, rather than constantly seeking to grow big as businesses.Empire-building managers like Jurgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola or Sir Alex Ferguson could still try to do that, but wouldnt have to be as concerned by outside forces.

Some modern fans might well complain that would similarly preclude the construction of the current super-squads, like Lionel Messis Paris Saint-Germain, that bring a new scale of glamour and popularity. There is a fundamental misunderstanding there, though. Football is not more popular because of these modern teams. Football has always been immensely popular anyway. The history of the sport emphatically proves this. The popularity of the sport has instead led to these super squads, but only because theres no regulation on where the immense wealth from that mass popularity goes. It accumulates in certain areas, creating a virtuous cycle for a decreasing pool of clubs. They buy better players, so enjoy more success, so become more commercially attractive, so they buy better players and on and on. That is something that is eroding the product of football, rather than enhancing it.

The glamour of super-squads like PSGs is not needed to make football more popular

(Getty)

Preserving clubs as community institutions smashes this. It spreads the wealth, and the stars. The talent would just be more evenly distributed, making more clubs more interesting. And this is ultimately much better for the sport.

Consider the Euro 2020 match between Croatia and Spain, or the last Champions League round-of-16 tie between Porto and Juventus, which were both among the best games of 2021. The drama and stakes mattered much more than the identity of the players on the pitch, all of whom also became more interesting because they were involved in such a contest.

Consider most of football history, pretty much up until the last decade. Dinamo Tbilisi or Dynamo Kyiv may not be teams most fans are bothered to watch anymore, but that wasnt the case in 1981 or 1999, respectively. Since both clubs were able to keep talented groups together that bit longer, they sent a spark through Europe. Kyiv, in particular, were almost unmissable when they had Andriy Shevchenko and Sergiy Rebrov together. It added a colour and vitality to the Champions League way beyond the same cast of current clubs.

This can be the case across the game, and the continent maybe even the world. If clubs are solely fan-owned enterprises, and federations like Uefa also introduced centralised redistribution models as well as regulations on homegrown players, it would hugely increase competitive balance in the sport. This was a point strongly emphasised by almost everyone consulted. Competitive balance is key, Dr Wilson says. Getting it right benefits everyone in the pyramid.

There would just be more mobility in the game. The big clubs could stay strong, but everyone from Preston North End right down to Northampton Town could harbour realistic ambitions of gradually rising up through the divisions and experiencing success, let alone the sports adrift middle class such as Everton and Aston Villa. This is what was meant by meaningful competition. Everyone would be afforded the opportunity to hope, in the way football should really be about.

From that, other structural problems would start to evaporate. The Champions League group stages would cease to be so predictable. There would be much more vitality and variety, which are the lifeblood of competitive sport.

Champions League upsets like Portos victory over Juventus will become more common if wealth is distributed more evenly between clubs

(Getty)

The compensation for economic modesty is a more diverse football culture, Goldblatt argues. There is already an example of this in Swedish football. Through their own adaptation of German-style ownership rules, it is one of the few domestic leagues with proper competitive balance and internal mobility.

This would of course require another utopian ideal: that federations are themselves solely interested in safeguarding the sport, and collaboration to serve the wider game, rather than being in competition with each other. Again, the sport being treated as a sport, rather than an endless quest to create more money, conditions this.

The calendar would be streamlined, easing the stress on players. More of them could play more games at their top level, without being pushed to physical limits. More consideration could be given to environmental concerns.

This isnt to preclude modern innovations, either. It now seems clear that the nature of a lot of international qualification, especially in Europe, is a relic from a previous age. This could be honed and improved, potentially allowing more Nations League-style competitions and in short more interesting international breaks. This would perhaps permit a more symmetrical 32-team European Championship, too, since qualification wouldnt have to be so large.

Again, club regulations on homegrown players would similarly be to the benefit of national teams as well as national leagues, revitalising both.

The continental federations would also bring in proper ethical judgements on hosting major competitions. This could apply for everything from human rights concerns to a countrys ability to spend on sporting infrastructure without costing societal infrastructure. Through this, it would no longer be a case of Fifa, say, looking to use whatever country it requires to serve the World Cup as has been the case with South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014.

It would instead be football as a force for good in the way it professes to be. The game could really use the huge leverage it has. Countries would have to greatly improve records to even be involved. Sportswashing could be made impossible.

The response to this utopia will no doubt be that its impossible to implement, of course. That isnt the point. The point is about having a vision to strive towards. Footballs current reality is something that certainly shouldnt be taken as a given. The beauty of the game deserves a better sport around it.

Read more here:

What would a football utopia look like? - The Independent

Frank Stanfield| For the Daily Commercial

LEESBURG City commissioners on Monday will vote on annexing a 1,088-acre parcel for the proposed 3,000-home Bella Vista at Whispering Hills development off U.S. 27and a 149-acre Dewey Robbins Road plot planned for 481 homes.

Lake County commissioners met with their city counterparts Thursday in hopes the city might consider requiring some natural buffers between the new homes in Whispering Hills and their rural neighbors, and lowering the housing density for the Hodges Reserve tract on Dewey Robbins.

The joint workshop at the community building in Venetian Gardenssometimes turned into a heated discussion with major philosophical differences.

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Residents who now enjoy pastures, lakes and wildlife said they felt invaded this summer when they learned of the $1.6 billion Whispering Hills plans that include a golf course, equestrian center, hotel and commercial properties. It is a joint venture with Ayana Holding, based in Dubai, and Marsan Real Estate Group in Orlando.

We have received a lot of public comment, said County Commissioner Leslie Campione.

The area is on the east side of U.S. 27, north of Power Line Road and west of Number 2 Road.

The area is now in a county rural protection area, which calls for vegetation boundaries between developments.

Tim McClendon, the countys planning and zoning director, also pitched what he calls rural conservation subdivisions, basically squeezing houses closer together to create more green space.

City Manager Al Minner called the idea of having fewer people per acre a rural utopia.

He said to accomplish such a thing would require thinking outside the box, and necessitate cities subsidizing the projects with utilities.

Campione said the conservation subdivisions have the same density, just arranged differently.

But the topic hit a nerve.

We didnt go out and seek growth, Minner said. Growth comes to us. It is the citys job to manage growth and if annexed, to provide services.

We are not going to stop growing, he said.

City Commissioner Dan Robuck III said reduced density is nice idea, but impractical.

A house built on one acre is a $500,000 home, he said.

What the area needs is affordable housing for nurses and firefighters, including multi-family homes. This is hard to find now, with homes selling for $300,000, he said.

We cant force people to build what they dont want.

County Commissioner Josh Blake agreed. Property owners have rights, he said.

Existing residents do not have a right to a perpetual view, he said.

The Whispering Hills and Hodges Reserve annexations are up to Leesburg, he said.

Campione said she hopes the city and county can engage in some future, collaborative master planning, including traffic.

She said there will be too much traffic on Dewey Robbins Road.

As for Whispering Hills, the developer has agreed to make several changes, including limiting traffic to the two-lane Number 2 Road to 41 homes, not hundreds.

Ive never seen a developer do that, Robuck said.

Access will now be limited to two points on U.S. 27. Before, County Road 48 would be an access point.

Its not perfect, said Karen West told the Daily Commercial of the Whispering Hills plans after the meeting, but she said it is much better now. She lives in the Water Wood subdivision in Yalaha.

Mayor John Christian said it would be unfair to ask the developers to wait three or four months to make changes now.

The city does a good job managing growth, he said, and growth is crucial for the city. Lake Square Mall needs business, the south end of the city contains rundown motels and other businesses, and the city needs more schools.

Leesburg hasnt had a new school in years. Parents are sending their children to private schools.

Mondays meeting is set for 5:30 p.m.at the community center at Venetian Gardens.

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Leesburg considers annexing land for proposed Whispering Hills development off U.S. 27 - Daily Commercial

Skiing poorly on Buttermilk, celebrity-spotting, party-hunting and altitude sickness are time-honored elements of a classic New Years Eve visit to Aspen for the international jet set.

Andy Warhol checked all those boxes and of course had some fun, too during his visits to Aspen to ring in three New Years during the 1980s. Warhols local history went back to the 1950s for art exhibitions and visits with his Carbondale-based patrons and friends John and Kimiko Powers. These glitzier holiday trips put Warhol on snow with his boyfriend Jon Gould, an athlete more prone to mountain snowsports than the artist, and at A-list gatherings here with everybody from John Denver and Jack Nicholson to Elizabeth Paepcke and John Oates, Barbi Benton and Buzz Aldrin, Bob Rafelson and Baby Jane Holzer, Cornelia Guest and Tab Hunter and Jimmy Buffett. His camera and journal in tow, Warhol documented the scene and the scenery.

As the Aspen Art Museum celebrates its monumental career survey Andy Warhol: Lifetimes, here a are some high points from the artist New Years Eves in Aspen.

Warhol and artist Christopher Makos ventured to Buttermilk Ski Area for a Powder Pandas lesson with instructor Gary Bonn.

We did about two hours of zig-zagging and going up on the handrail and you just sort of sit on the thing and go up the whole hill, and it was really fun, he wrote in his journal on Dec. 30. It was easy, all the two-year-olds skiing with me, and if you start when youre two you can really go with the waves and relax and become a good skier, but I was so tense. I fell three times.

Warhol also had an altitude problem during this stay, and popped into Aspen Valley Hospital to check if hed broken his wrist in his many falls on Panda Peak (he hadnt).

He also soaked up the local enthusiasm for fresh powder the best snow they ever had, he reported and enjoyed seeing people outside of his New York element: Met all these people who were surprised seeing me and I didnt recognize them in their ski clothes, he wrote.

Warhol rang in 1983 at Jimmy Buffetts all country-western party, though the journal doesnt specify whether the bash was at Buffetts legendary Old Snowmass home or off-site somewhere else. The guest list included that included Jack Nicholson (Jacks got a big fat belly now, Warhol wrote) with Anjelica Huston, Barry Diller and Diana Ross.

He also noted he was invited to but apparently didnt attend Sonny Bonos wedding at the Aspen Chapel and went out with TV actress Cathy Lee Crosby and a group to Aspens era-defining disco Andres.

It was like trying to get into Studio 54, he wrote.

On New Years Day, a group including Makos, Gould and Denver-based photographer Mark Sink went snowmobiling in the Maroon Creek Valley from T-Lazy-7 ranch.

Something strange happened, Warhol wrote of the experience. I though Jon was trying to kill me. We were on a snowmobile and he pushed me over a cliff. I thought he did it on purpose. But somehow there were trees there and I fell off into a deep snow. We rode to the house, that was fun, but I didnt realize till I get back how scary going off the cliff was.

Sink, in an interview this fall, explained that he had sprayed snow in Goulds face on the joyride, which caused Gould to veer off-course. The good-time spirit of the incident is captured in Sinks photos of Warhol giddily smiling as he dug out from the crash.

It should be no surprise that Warhol sought out Elizabeth Paepcke, the co-founder of the Aspen Skiing Co. and progenitor of Aspen as a utopia, wife to the late Walter Paepcke. He went to her West End home (since demolished, it sat on the property above Hallam Lake where the Lewis family compound was recently completed).

Met the Dowager of Aspen, the Grand Dame, Warhol write on Dec. 31 with un-ironic appreciation.

Warhol noted with glee her nickname (Pussy), her immaculate house and her indomitable spirit.

Shes 82 and shes very beautiful, Warhol wrote, she looks like Katharine Hepburn. An immaculate house and she runs up and down the stairs to get ginseng tea, shes spry.

atravers@aspentimes.com

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Andy Warhol's Aspen New Year's Eves | AspenTimes.com - The Aspen Times

Riverdale Season 6 is far from over. In November, the CWs Archie Comics adaptation kicked off its five-episode Rivervale event set in an alternate universe. After five weeks of shocking deaths, confusing twists, and even a cameo from Sabrina Spellman, the event concluded with Riverdales 100th episode on Dec. 14. Riverdale Season 6 is now on its winter hiatus, but the teen drama will return in spring 2022. Heres everything to know about the mid-season return.

The Rivervale event aired on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET. However, fans shouldnt get too attached to that time slot. According to the CWs mid-season schedule, Riverdale Season 6 will pick up on March 6 at 8 p.m. Instead of Tuesday nights, the show will air weekly on Sunday nights at its new time.

And as for how many more episodes fans can expect from the season, the answer isnt quite clear yet. A report from Decider in December seemed to indicate the cast is still filming season 6. If thats the case, the season might finish airing sometime in the summer. For reference, previous Riverdale seasons have included anywhere from 13 to 22 episodes.

It looks like most of the cast will remain the same heading into the second half of season 6. That includes KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Cole Sprouse, Madelaine Petsch, Vanessa Morgan, Casey Cott, Mdchen Amick, Charles Melton, Drew Ray Tanner, and Erinn Westbrook. However, the CW did bring on one new face.

As Deadline reported, Yous Chris OShea has joined the Riverdale cast in a recurring role for the rest of the season. Hell play Percival Pickens, the towns newest baddie. Percival is described as charming but manipulative, powerful, and increasingly dangerous. Hell clash with Riverdales residents, especially Archie.

A descendent of one of Riverdales founding fathers, General Pickens, Percival wants to turn Riverdale into a utopia, a dark agenda he pursues quietly but ruthlessly, the character description reads.

The first half of Riverdale Season 6 brings its characters to a much darker and more dangerous version of Riverdale called Rivervale. No one is safe in this alternate reality, and supernatural occurrences are common.

When Riverdale returns with season 6 episode 6, the story picks up where season 5 left off. The disgraced and exiled Hiram Lodge (Mark Conseulos) plants a bomb in Archies (Apa) room, where he and Betty (Reinhart) are hooking up. Although they survive the blast, the incident will have lasting effects.

Showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa hasnt shared too much about what to expect from the rest of the season. However, he did have an ominous message for fans via Variety:

Death is definitely coming to Riverdale, and it is definitely permanent.

Riverdale Seasons 1 through 5 are now streaming on Netflix. Meanwhile, fans can catch up on the Rivervale event via The CWs website and app.

RELATED: Riverdale Cast Teases 100th Episode: Nothings Off the Table, Everyones a Savage

Read more from the original source:

Riverdale' Season 6 Mid-Season Return: Release Date, New Cast, and What to Expect - Showbiz Cheat Sheet