Daily Archives: October 18, 2023

In her brief time as a movie star, Cynthia Erivo has already made a lot of big films. Before the SAG-AFTRA strike began, she was in production on Universals two-part blockbuster Wicked, now on pause. She got her first Oscar nomination for playing Harriet Tubman in the eponymous 2019 biopic from Kasi Lemmons. She first made her name in Hollywood as a scene-stealer in major studio projects like Widows and Bad Times at the El Royale. But now that the Broadway starbest known for her Tony-winning turn in *The Color Purple*has done all that, shes increasingly turning her attention to passion projects as she develops the cachet to help get them off the ground.

Enter Drift, a poignant, stark character study that marks Erivos screen debut as a producer and one of her most impressive screen performances to date. Set and shot in Greece, its an uncompromising indie that was not made under a SAG contract, permitting Erivo to promote the project. Following a strong Sundance premiere, its launching a scrappy awards campaign via distributor Utopia. (The film will have a qualifying 2023 release before breaking wide theatrically in January 2024.) Erivo plays a Liberian refugee processing her traumatic past as she tries building her new life in Greece; the movie stays close to her perspective, demanding of its star a quiet, warts-and-all portrayal. And thats in addition to both her active producing duties and her bonus contribution of the moving original song It Would Be, which closes the film. (Erivo was also Oscar-nominated for cowriting Stand Up, Harriets original song.)

As Drift inches closer to its release, the films individualized portrait of wars impact and the scars it leaves seems to resonate more by the day, particularly amid the rapidly intensifying Israel-Gaza conflict. For Erivo, the painful timing fits for a film that she hopes speaks authentically and humanely to the refugee experienceto the micro effects of macro conflicts. In pulling out one person, you get to understand that each person you look at isnt just experiencing the same thingthey are all going through their own separate experiences and pain and loss, Erivo says on this weeks Little Gold Men (listen below). Being able to focus on one person allows us to see the whole a little bit clearer.

Vanity Fair: How are you thinking about this movie right now?

Cynthia Erivo: When you do these things, you dont know how relevant theyll be or how much of an effect theyll make. I just knew that when I was making it, I read it and it was beautiful, and I desperately wanted to give voice to those people who wouldnt necessarily even be noticed. And with everything thats happening today, right now its really important for people to take a look at those who you might not realize are going through things that we could never even imagine. The fact that theyre still standing or even making an effort to move forward every day is a freaking miracle.

Given that current resonance, in the research of this character, what did you learn about that experience that was important to you to bring forward?

The thing that I really felt was important was to make sure that we didnt lose her humanity, we didnt lose the will that she had to live, and we didnt lose her dignity. My mother was an immigrant. She came over from Nigeria and she was also a part of the Biafran War. The thing that we dont get to see when these people are portrayed on film or TV is dignity. Yes, we see their circumstance, we see what theyre going through, we see how much they need, but we lose the fact that they still are people who want to present themselves in a certain way. The wonderful thing about Jacqueline is that she still wants to present. She still wants to be as together as she possibly can with whatever little that she has.

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Cynthia Erivo's Stark New Film Is Already More Relevant Than She ... - Vanity Fair

By PABLO Y. MENDEZ Sheridan High School Student

This column is brought to readers by Sheridan High School dual-credit program students and Human Services teacher Abby Williams.

Throughout the year of 2023, there have been many great artists releasing new music for people to listen to and enjoy.

However, many of these artists lack an important factor that the bigger, more popular mainstream artists have. They lack the ability to move the needle as they call it. They lack the ability to make an impact and elevate the status of the music industry. They dont have the innate skill to push the boundaries of what music is and can be. While many of these artists have released enjoyable music filled with quality, none of them have been able to create an important moment in time.

There have been many great attempts throughout the year, with some examples being Logics album, College Park which is a Hip-Hop album filled with passion and great storytelling, or Lil Uzi Verts The Pink Tape, which is a fun, extravagant take on Rap and Rock music, or Daniel Caesars romantic ballads with beautiful melodies on an R&B album such as Never Enough.

While many of these albums are great and enjoyable, none of them were able to last in the conversation for too long. None of them made an impact strong enough to make other artists aware of the growing competition in terms of music.

However, in what many consider to be a slow year for big-name releases, an artist known as Travis Scott made his long-awaited return. After being away from the spotlight for five years after his massive 2018 release of Astroworld, an album which many consider to be a modern trap classic, Travis Scott returned with his long-awaited album Utopia.

Utopia was released on July 28, 2023. It was a massive night in the music industry. The album was the first of the year to reach 500,000 first-week sales. It broke streaming records, becoming one of the most streamed albums on all music platforms; so far it has been the only album this year to push the narrative further and move the needle.

Utopia is a dark psychedelic experience infused with advanced, yet dirty industrial sounds that make the listening experience one to remember for any music fan.

Songs like Hyaena with hardcore drums and an exceptional rapping performance, songs like Fe!n with cinematic and grandiose synths, or a song like Telekinesis with psychedelic vocal inflections are all examples of what makes Utopia the album the best of the year and one of the best of the decade so far.

Travis Scotts Utopia is regarded as the best album of the year by many fans and critics alike and it has so far been an album that has most definitely moved the needle.

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Why Travis Scott's Utopia is the Album of the Year - Hamilton County Reporter

Perched on top of her fridge with a bucket hat, cowboy boots, and an acoustic guitar, Adrianne Lenker, lead singer and songwriter of Indiefolk band Big Thief, belts out a verse from the bands recent single Vampire Empire, an emotionally explosive track that details a toxic love gone bad like expired milk.

Swinging her boots, rocking back and forth to the rhythm with eyes closed, Lenker appears blind to the neurotic chaos that floods the TikTok comments. GET DOWN FROM THERE AND GET IN THE STUDIO, reads a comment with over three thousand likes. I love big thief (you have 48 hours to release this) says another amusing (but also ominous) comment. For over a year, the band has played the song live on their Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You tour, and even performed it live on Colbert, which only added more fuel to the songs flaming popularity as a TikTok sound.

Over the summer, fans overwhelmed the comments sections of each new social media post with desperate pleas for the songs release. But when the song finally got an official release on July 19 this summer, fans were upset for another reason.

In the studio version, Lenker removes the lyrics in a row from the line, I walked into your dagger for the last time in a row / It's like trying to start a fire with matches in the snow. The rhyme is now gone. She also took out the line I'm the fish and she's my gills from the chorus, a TikTok audio favorite. The lyrical changes, along with new drums and the removal of a flute melody, caused a fight among fans either defending the studio version or hating it because of changes from the beloved demo. Artists need to start understanding that their music isn't for them," says the onscreen text from a TikTok video by user @bubbledbongwater. "We pay for presales, we pay for tickets, we pay for your merch.

With modern social media giving fans the ability to easily share and discuss unreleased music, leak obsession has created a toxic relationship between artists and fans, where fans now feel entitled to receive the music they want when they want it, regardless of the artists feelings.

Although leak obsession has now spread to all corners of music social media, the phenomenon is most well known as being associated with the online hiphop community. Artists like Playboi Carti have a long history of leaked songs that have either never been released or were significantly altered before release. Over sixteen songs originally planned to appear on Cartis 2020 album Whole Lotta Red, dubbed v1 in online forums like r/playboicarti, were uploaded to the internet by leakers in the months following the release of Die Lit on May 11, 2018.

Because of the leaks, which like Vampire Empire gained a massive amount of plays through illegal streaming on sites like SoundCloud, Carti decided to scrap the entire album. When an almost completely new version of Whole Lotta Red was finally released two years later, on Christmas of 2020, fans, upset that they didnt get the original version of the album, were quick to spread negative comments and declare the album mid. It wasnt until months later when footage of Cartis electric performance of the album at Rolling Loud went viral on YouTube that fans started to see past the leaks and respect Cartis artistic vision for the album.

With leaks now posing a serious threat to the release and reception of albums, some artists like Travis Scott have started to fight back against leak culture. Before Scott released his highly anticipated album UTOPIA earlier this July, the rapper was photographed in multiple locations with his bodyguard handcuffed to a leather briefcase labeled Utopiain this case, a hard drive storing the unreleased album. On a practical level, storing the album on a hard drive instead of in the cloud helps prevent online leaks, but the handcuffed briefcase also sends a clear message to fans: Travis Scott is in control. Among other examples, Scotts UTOPIA rollout signals a growing desire among artists to take back control of their music in the age of internet leaks.

In an Instagram post accompanying the official release of Vampire Empire, Big Thief comments to their fans: The live version you may prefer exists and now another version exists. We werent gonna go into the studio and try to replicate what we played on Colbert plus theres no way it wouldve been the same, because songs are vessels for the expressions of our present selves, and not highly manicured concoctions polished to be consumed based on demand.

Fans need to understand that music is not just a commodity created for their enjoyment, but also an art and a means of selfexpression, and artists should have control over how they express themselves, whether that means changing lyrics or releasing a song at a later time.

Social media algorithms, like TikTok, promote negativity to drive engagement, which creates consistently hatefilled comment sections. Growing tensions between artists and their fans are just one unfortunate side effect of this wider issue that is perpetuated by profitseeking tech companies. Hopefully, in the future before they start an argument in the comments, fans will consider: Is this worth it? If they can learn to navigate social media, and understand that unreleased music is art in progress, then maybe artists and fans can have a less toxic relationship than the lovers in Vampire Empire."

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Vampire Empire and the Toxicity of Leak Culture - 34th Street Magazine

Melissa Joseph in her studio. Photography by Mary Kang. All images courtesy of the artist and Margot Samel.

For New York-based artist Melissa Joseph, everything changed when she discovered how much she could do with a bag of wool and a felting needle. It never stops giving answers and creating new questions, she says of needle felting, a process often used in craft but rarely given space in the fine art world.

Trained as a textile designer and a painter, Joseph creates felted tableaux, usually drawn from her childhood growing up in a blended Indian-American household in rural Pennsylvania, that evoke the blurriness and warmth of memories. In her new solo exhibition Irish Exit at Margot Samel gallery, Joseph explores how quiet moments are defined by both the people and furniture that surround us. We spoke in the weeks leading up to the opening.

Take us back to the beginning. What are your earliest memories of creating?

Besides scribbling, my earliest memories of creating were as a small child foraging through my moms craft materials in the basement. I still remember the first time I smelled hot glue.

Love me some hot glue. How does felting enable you to articulate your vision in a way other media doesnt?

I feel a mystical connection to felt. It allows me to create paintings and bas relief sculptures at the same time, something Ive never achieved with any other material. The closest I got in the past was through encaustic. I can push to its absolute limits while inventing my own language and techniques. I believe that is my contribution as an artistI push form.

You describe your felting practice as being in conversation with painting. What do you mean by that?

People will look at my work and think it's a paintingthen they get up close and realize it's not. But, to me, its not NOT a painting. I am using textiles but through a painters languagemaking painterly marks, referencing art-historical works, and thinking like a painter. It asks people to think harder about what a painting is. Thats what I want to do.

Ive heard you describe yourself asbeing made not of two halves, but two wholes, in regard to your mixed Indian and Irish heritage. How do you think about the act of self-definition?

I give credit to Jassa Ahluwalia, a British-Indian actor and writer, for this paradigm-shifting language. The truth is there was a lot of tension on both sides of the family about my parents union, and I think its important to vocalize that. In my work, I dont want to fabricate scenes that never happened, at least so far, so I am not making these images with both sides of my family coexisting in a fictional utopia.

You use a multitude of materials in your workceramic, felt, paper, and found objects. How does your material process connect to memory?

I used to use archival family photos and slides for reference, but that practice is shifting. More often I am using photos I take myself nowquiet moments regarding the human condition. I have always collected heavy metal rusted things. I grew up in a rural factory town, so I think found objects, which carry traces of the hands theyve passed through, appeal to my material memory. I also dissociate often, and these old, heavy objects are grounding.

Lets speak about a specific work in your upcoming exhibition. Walk us through the process of creating What Chair?, a needle-felted composition of a girl lying on the ground with a chair on top of her body.

This exhibition, like all, began with my personal photo archive and a lengthy selection process.As I started to choose images, I noticed the theme of furniture kept coming up. When I notice a trend, it is my cue to stop and reflect on its meaning.

Furniture, even when its not in use, exists in relation to people. Theyre contact zonesplaces where we come together to rest, to gather. I realized furniture is a way to talk about edges or boundaries. In this work, my niece has taken the chair, fully understanding its purpose, and decided to use it for something else. She's refusing to accept preconceived notions of "chairness per se. She's still using it as a boundary, but she's setting the terms. It's such a beautiful metaphor for how I wish systems and structures could be challenged in a non-violent way.

Your niece comes up quite a lot in your work.

I think I make all my work for her. I wish her a life free of the shame, self-consciousness, racism/colorism,and misogyny that I internalized at her age. These works are intended to encourage that freedom.

Irish Exit is on viewfrom October 19 through November 22, 2023 at Margot Samel Gallery in New York.

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Artist Melissa Joseph Uses an Unsung MediumFeltto Explore ... - Cultured Magazine

Customizable Bathroom Fittings With Re-Purposed and Crystal Glass Materials

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In addition to contributing to the functionality of the space, bathroom fittings underlie the overall aesthetics of a chosen design style. Within their technical features as well as the possible materials, finishes, and styles, fittings play a role in both the visual appeal of a space, while also focusing on comfort and user experience. This is part of Dornbracht's continuous re-imagination of bathrooms as living spaces, in which the brand seeks to create innovative solutions based on proportion, precision, progressiveness, performance, and personality.

Among Dornbrachts series, the MEM collection includes a complete selection of minimalist bathroom fittings for washstands, showers, and tubs. In collaboration with ethical design brand Nature Squared and Italian craft manufacturer Glass Design, the collections original design has been enriched with versatile new features for customizing bathrooms. These features are created through the combination of high-quality materials with sustainable craftsmanship and the incorporation of futuristic artistic crystal glass.

Capturing the clarity and natural simplicity of water, the MEM collection creates a simple style for bathroom design. Designed by Sieger Design, its minimalist aesthetic resembles an arc-shaped line that mimics the organic flow of water, ending in a wide rectangular spout. Both unobtrusive and visible at the same time, the series invisibly integrates a jet regulator and minimalist handles.

By reducing design to the essentials, the collections aesthetics infuse bathroom architecture with clarity, simplicity and balance. In addition to its purist approach, it also embraces design freedom in the bathroom. Under the concept of sampling, the collection enables the customization of fittings that can be adapted to the specific needs of each space.

Nature Squared combines traditional craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology, breathing new life into waste materials like eggshells and seashells, and transforming them into artistic inlays. In this process, seashells are meticulously cracked by hand and then skillfully inlaid onto a carrier, resulting in a unique texture for bathroom detailing.

Through the exploration of material innovation and artisanal skills, this collaboration integrates MEM finishes into sustainable solutions. It seamlessly creates handles with various structures and finishes that can be easily combined; with seven materials and five finishes, there are over 30 possibilities for washstand, shower, or bath design. Combined with Dornbracht finishes like Chrome, Brushed Chrome, Platinum, Brushed Dark Platinum, and Brushed Durabrass (23kt Gold), these fittings can add a unique touch to bathrooms.

Within the possible material combinations the collaboration offers, MEM faucets in Platinum finishes are customized with mother-of-pearl handles, accompanied by light wood, concrete, rippled, glass, and terrazzo textures. Additionally, MEM in Brushed Dark Platinum can also be combined with textured mother-of-pearl handles in shades of blue, together with light mint tones and pattern tiles.

Among the various material combinations, MEM faucets with Platinum finishes can be customized with mother-of-pearl handles. This can be paired with light wood, concrete, rippled glass, and terrazzo textures. Also, faucets in Brushed Dark Platinum can be adapted with textured mother-of-pearl handles in shades of blue, complemented by light mint tones and patterned tiles.

Known for its craftsmanship in making and designing washbasins and fixtures, Glass Design boasts a long tradition of glass and crystal production. Adding crystal glass to the range of material possibilities, two minimalist artistic handle designs were created in collaboration with the manufacturer and incorporated into the MEM collection. Through a harmonious blend of timeless design and traditional craftsmanship, these handles bring new shapes and colors into the collection.

Meticulously hand-crafted in Vinci, Glamorous Clivia features intricate linear grooves that infuse the washing area with brilliance and clarity. Likewise, Glamorous ICE draws inspiration from the subtle elegance of ice pillars, with its handles glinting in the light to create a distinctive bathroom ambiance.

For the first time, Dornbracht has harnessed the power of AI to create a meticulously detailed and fantastic visual world, which was the source of inspiration for /imagine, the brand's new lead bathroom architecture. Following the collections clean, organic form, the MEM collection in the new finish Champagne (22kt Gold) can now be seen in a new architectural setting.

By delving into new perspectives on the bathroom as a living space, /imagine embodies an architectonic utopia a visionary space where creativity has limitless freedom. Amidst these surreal surroundings, the MEM bathroom collection seamlessly integrates with a natural landscape, while providing a space for rituals of self-care. Rituals initiate and shape transitions, and bathrooms are known for marking transitions from night to day, and vice-versa. Consequently, this visualization of bathroom architecture is designed to create spaces that enhance the experience of these transitions.

For more information on customizing bathrooms with MEM collection, visit the product catalog.

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Customizable Bathroom Fittings With Re-Purposed and Crystal ... - ArchDaily

Iain Smith hops through a patch of thigh-high heather, the barrel of a shotgun resting idly on his forearm. If it looks green and mossy, dont step on it, he says. The only way forward is green moss. Is there another way? I ask. He shushes me and points to the hill up ahead.

Smith and I are on a grouse hunt. The British way of describing this is walked-up shooting, a practice that has been common in the UK since the 16th century, where birds are flushed out as a group crosses a moor. The event has been organised by Scottish country-house hotel Gleneagles, of which Smith is head shooting coach, and includes 10 humans, four guns and eight dogs. So far two birds have been shot: one by the hotels marketing director an event that seems to surprise everyone and another by its director of leisure, a man whose wife has banned feathers in the house and who likes to roast his catch wrapped in bacon.

3,937Record number of pheasants shot in one day on a single shoot

Game shooting, which contributes an estimated 2bn to the UK economy, provokes polarised debate. On 12 August, thousands of grouse shooters start their 121day season. Partridge season begins in September; four weeks later is pheasant shooting, with around 50mn non-native birds released into the British countryside over this time. Conservationists argue that creating an optimal environment for these birds including the burning of moorland heather and grass (muirburn) to encourage new growth for them to eat is cause for environmental concern. Gamekeepers tell us their work is crucial for maintaining healthy moors.

British shooting is not like that of any other country. The UK is much greedier than most, with some estates offering the chance to shoot hundreds of birds in one day. No licence to kill game birds is required in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland the exception is the Isle of Man and the kill rate has no official upper limit: unlike most events in Europe, game-bird totals are not officially recorded. This passion goes back to shootings zenith 100 years ago, when success was measured by the size of a hunts bag: a party led by George V holds the record for killing 3,937 pheasants in one day.

Calls for better legislation are, however, mounting. In Scotland, a new bill that aims to manage practices such as muirburn and the setting of legal predator traps is being scrutinised by parliament. A 2020 poll showed that seven out of 10 Scots oppose grouse shooting for sport. Everything is teetering on an edge, says Peter Clark, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC)s director for Scotland. He compares the new licensing proposals to the government using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Walked-up shooting is really just a glorified hike, with no paths and unruly heather. But the challenging terrain and cinematic vistas are all part of the charm. Abercairny, the estate that hosts our party, is a place for peering over glens, thinking pure thoughts and making mincemeat of small mountains. It is also a little humbling. Watch out for your neighbour they can disappear, Josh Burton, Abercairnys head gamekeeper, tells us at the beginning of the day. Too often, distracted game hunters can fall into a bog.

You might ask how anyone ever shoots anything? With difficulty. At one point a grouse settles atop a hill directly in front of us. Smith and I approach cautiously, shotguns at the ready. This is your one opportunity, he whispers, almost saucily. The bird is within range for a brief second before gunshots ring out to our left (Colin Farndon, Gleneagles director of leisure, of course). One of Burtons dogs collects it for him. Thats the end of that one, says Smith. Never mind. Farndon manages to shoot two birds with three cartridges. Dont forget that, he jokes at lunch while feeding a dog a slice of smoked salmon. Even with the right tutoring, it can take several years to become a competent shooter. Repeat clients at Gleneagles go out up to four days a season.

When not running shoots, gamekeepers like Burton can contribute to crucial conservation management: feeding other species of birds throughout winter months, planting cover crops that provide other animals with food and shelter, and maintaining woodlands and hedgerows. If the sport were to end, the countryside wouldnt look like a utopia of Caledonian forest something from Braveheart, says Clark. Up to 74,000 people could be out of a job.

As a meat eater, it would be hypocritical of me to voice too many qualms about walked-up grouse shooting. Livestock is the single biggest cause of global deforestation, accounting for 14.5 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions When practised sustainably, game shooting presents a less damaging way to consume meat. The trouble is that nobody can agree on the most sustainable way of doing it.

The most controversial debate lies with driven grouse shooting. This is killing on a mass scale, with shooters concealed in grouse butts as swaths of birds are flushed out before their eyes. That land is being managed to maximise one output red grouse at the expense of everything else, says Jeff Knott, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birdss director of policy.

121days is the length of the UK grouse-shooting season

Driven red grouse shooting is unique to the British Isles, making it a popular sport for tourists who race to the uplands in their tweed and galoshes. The best estates reportedly charge up to 100,000 for a driven shoot with 10 guns; Abercairny charges from 2,500 for up to eight. Most visitors to Abercairny around 70 per cent opt for walked-up shooting. Landowners host private shoots, but the way to make money is to commercialise their land. The bigger the bag, the bigger the impetus to ensure there is enough game for the taking. That requires generating more nutritious patches of heather which means aggressive muirburn that can release huge quantities of carbon into the atmosphere and setting predator traps so effective that they snare an estimated 1.7 million collateral animals every year, including dogs, badgers and cats.

But for every potential danger there is rebuttal from an invested party. Gamekeepers claim that controlled muirburn decreases the risk of wildfires by reducing the fuel load that could ignite. The patchwork of different heathers can also provide fodder for various birds.

Grouse butts for driven shooting peek out of the heather at Abercairny; Im told they are seldom used. At Gleneagles, the emphasis is on the people and the day rather than the shooting, a move to a more experiential take on the sport that began seven years ago. Guests can send their catch to a game dealer to have it prepared to eat at home. Recently a client sent 11 plucked and clingfilmed partridges to London.

Alongside Smith, outdoor pursuits are headed-up by 29-year-old Nicholas Raby, a former gamekeeper who in Gleneagles eyes embodies the future of shooting sports. Raby grew up on an estate and spent much of his childhood running around at the landowners behest. We meet for an introductory lesson at the Gleneagles Shooting School.

For a sure-fire shot, says Raby, stand with your left leg forward and place 60 per cent of your weight on it. Keep your nose over your toes and the barrel of the gun pointed upwards. Much like scissors or a knife, waving a gun around is alarming. Instead, keep it broken when carrying it, and only shoot when the bird clay or otherwise is above the heather. As soon as the bead on the barrel touches your target, shoot. The recoil is enough to knock your fillings out.

Up to 100,000The cost of a driven grouse shoot with 10 guns

Raby has grand plans for Gleneagles, starting with a transition away from lead shot. Despite being removed from pipes, paint and petrol decades ago, the metal is the preferred choice for most British shooters. A report published by the University of Oxford estimates that up to 100,000 non-game birds die a year from poisoning after eating spent lead pellets; pellets also contaminate game birds with many times the amount of lead that would be legal had they been chickens. (Curiously, game meat does not have a legal lead limit.)

A five-year plan to voluntarily phase lead shot out was introduced in 2020, but the latest reports show that 94 per cent of pheasants sold for consumption were killed using it. Why wont people comply? Raby shrugs: Some people embrace change; a lot of people dont. In June, the hotel hosted an event for 60 landowners to explore steel alternatives; and it says it is actively working towards all shooting activities eventually becoming completely lead-free.

Resistance to change is a common problem in the shooting community. One of the reasons there is no concrete data on the large-scale effects positive or negative of game shooting is that so much of it goes unrecorded. While registration with the Poultry Register, the only formal record of releases across the UK, is a legal requirement for holdings of more than 50 birds, research suggests that it only accounts for a third to half of the number of shooting locations. Add that to an out-of-date quarry list of birds that are legal to shoot 80 per cent of birds on which are currently of conservation concern and the case against shooting starts to thicken.

There are also issues with raptor persecution the illegal shooting of protected birds of prey to prevent them from feeding on game. If there is still [raptor] persecution, the numbers are grossly exaggerated, says Peter Glenser, a criminal barrister and former chairman of BASC. Yet the RSPBs latest bird crime report says raptor killings are at a 30-year high. Three years ago, a group of hen harriers were fledged in a nest in Northumberland. Among them was Asta, whose government-funded tag later turned up on a grouse moor; her body was never recovered. That same year, nine more birds of prey were found stuffed down a well in Wiltshire, closely followed by the discovery of six shot buzzards at a gamekeepers home in Dorset. In September 2021, another gamekeeper was spotted firing shots at a protected bird of prey before driving off on a quad bike. Some weeks later, a poisoned eagle was found dead on a Sussex shooting estate.

What we see are these black holes, where birds of prey are notable by their absence, says Knott. Prosecution, however, remains low five people were charged in 2021 and punishment tends to be minimal. The quad-biking gamekeeper was fined 1,575 which in the context of a 2bn industry is equivalent to a smacked bottom. (Glenser assures me those caught will lose their jobs, licences and homes.)

80%of birds on thequarry list are currently of conservation concern

Raptor persecution is illegal; killing other predators stoats, crows and foxes is not. The choices as to which species should be protected from which predators are complicated and controversial. A crow will peck a lambs eyes out, given the chance; a stoat will run away with a grouse egg. And there are also benefits beyond protecting game birds: studies show that waders many of them endangered breed up to three times more successfully on grouse moors, enjoying both legal predator control and habitat management. Newcastle and Durham universities have even estimated that if gamekeepers stopped work, the result would be 87 per cent fewer curlew chicks. Gamekeepers, I discover, really like curlew.

Rewilding charities would prefer that natural processes were maintained: and that no muir burning or legal predator traps be allowed. If youre burning, youre killing millions of creatures and suppressing vegetation, says Alastair Driver, director of Rewilding Britain. Instead, he suggests rewetting increasing the water level under the soil and introducing small numbers of free-roaming herds of ponies or rare-breed cattle, in part to combat wildfires. Rewilded estates might have high numbers of bison, wildcats and pine marten; restoring native woodland, peatlands and heaths could capture more than 12 per cent of the UKs greenhouse gas emissions.

There is a common misconception that rewilding means giving land up to the wild. The opposite is true. What we want is investment, says naturalist Chris Packham, who hopes to see more walking, foraging, horse riding and other outdoor pursuits. If land in the UK loses its value, they cover it with sheep, which is just as bad [as driven grouse shooting]. Or they cover it with non-native conifers, which some might argue is worse.

Walked-up shooting and rewilding efforts can coexist, says Packham, but driven grouse moors generate an artificial ecology. Is there any surprise? he says to the evidence that waders many of them endangered breed up to three times more successfully on grouse moors. [Game keepers] have killed all the predators. Wed rather see a functional ecosystem that includes the predators that should be living there.

The predators that would belong here are wolves, which disappeared in the UK around the 18th century. Their absence has helped to give rise to an astonishing number of deer, which are damaging new woodlands and reducing the number of small mammals by overgrazing. Deer stalking is one answer venison is a hugely underrated meat but professional culling is the most effective form of control. Thats conservation, unfortunately, says Packham grimly.

87%How many fewer curlew chicks there would be if gamekeepers stopped work

Recently, writer George Monbiot resurfaced his idea of reintroducing wolves to help with the deer problem; Packham says the UKs tiny landowning fraternity around 25,000 landowners control half of England would never agree to it. But landowners and their communities might have something to learn from listening to rewilders. The grouse community often promotes jobs that go with it but it could be even better, says Driver. On grouse moors, jobs come out at about two jobs per 1,000 hectares. Rewilding sites come out at five jobs per 1,000 hectares. There is an appetite to experience the countryside that goes beyond grouse shooting and with it new traditions could be made.

Another of Packhams gripes is pheasants (which unlike red grouse are not endemic to the United Kingdom, though its believed they have been here since the 11th century). At the height of shooting season, pheasants and other non-native game birds most imported from France, a particular worry in the context of bird flu are equal to half the biomass of all Britains wild birds. Pheasants are greedy for insects, seeds and berries, eating up to one pound of grain per day. And despite the miles of woodland planted to house them, many live in cramped conditions before the shooting season begins. Abercairny buys its pheasants locally and releases them immediately at seven weeks old, but their effect on the ecosystem is a concern. Nigel Hand, a trustee of Amphibian and Reptile Groups of the UK has warned that adders could be extinct within a decade in most of the UK, in part thanks to pheasants feasting on them.

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I didnt end up killing anything at Abercairny. As Raby predicted, we spent more time talking than shooting. I did try the grouse special at Gleneagles The Strathearn restaurant though: a tiny bird roasted with morels and parsnip pure. Meals such as this are a superficial pleasure of game shooting; the argument tends to focus on the conservation benefits and the 30mn the sport brings to remote communities annually.

For every plus there is a negative, with the worst problems lying at the extreme, driven end of the sport the end that has the most to lose. Weve now got this situation where youre pro or youre anti: thats extremely unproductive, says Packham. Heels have been dug in. If protesters are the unstoppable force, shooting is the immovable object. The stalemate remains unbroken.

Rosanna Dodds travelled as a guest of Gleneagles. Rooms start from 575 for two people sharing, including breakfast. Walked-up Game Days start from 1,500 (gleneagles.com)

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The grouse, the gamekeepers and the ethics of the shoot - Financial Times

In this edition of Bought & Sold, Kavus Torabi checks in with Guitarist to discuss his life in gear the acoustic and electric guitars that have meant the most to him and the ones that got away.

As guitarist for Gong and The Utopia Strong, Torabi needs a lot of sounds. But, as he confesses, he doesnt stray too far from the marital bed when it comes to guitars. When you find one you like, you hold it close

What was the first serious guitar you bought with your own money

I was in a metal band [when I was a teenager] and I had this Kramer Focus, which was a one-pickup, slopey headstock thing with a Floyd Rose and a locking nut but I never really liked it; I never really felt a connection with it. But it was my metal guitar because the bass player of the band didnt like the idea of me playing a Westone Spectrum before that! So he bought this guitar for me and wanted me to pay him back, though I never really responded to it.

When that band was over, I suppose I was moving away from metal and I loved the idea of having a 335 or something like that I was really into hollowbodies. I found another Westone a Westone Rainbow which is a beautiful kind of birdseye maple guitar like a 335, although the horns are slightly pointier. Its a really beautiful guitar and it was secondhand in this music shop but I had no way of affording it because I was on the dole.

So with the aid of a friend of mine, who was working for the Princes Trust, I said I was going to need one of these guitars because I was going to start a new life as a guitar teacher. I put in the proposal and I got the funding for it. And so I got this beautiful Westone Rainbow, which I still have, and played that for about the next 10 years.

What was the last guitar that you bought (or acquired) and why?

I have to say, as a caveat, I really dont need any more guitars. I have friends with lots, but Im fairly monogamous when it comes to guitars [however] this is quite interesting So Gong was playing at the Electric Ballroom last year, and after I came offstage, this guy called Alone Sage grabbed me and said, Hey, look, Im from Israel. I have a boutique company called Coils that makes pickups.

And then he said, Ive made this guitar... its the best guitar Ive ever made and Ive been looking for someone to give it to. And after I saw you play, I wanted you to have it. Give me your address and Ill send it to you when I get back to Israel. It was quite ridiculous and I was very, very flattered.

I really dont need any more guitars. I have friends with lots, but Im fairly monogamous when it comes to guitars

So we exchanged addresses, and I was in London recording with Gong when I got a message from the shipping company saying I needed to pay import tax of over a thousand pounds. So I had to get back to Alone with a copy of this receipt and say, Im so sorry, I cant pay for this guitar, I just dont have that money. And he said, Oh, this is a mistake. You shouldnt have to pay a penny for it.

And he paid the tax on this thing! So it turned up and its in this beautiful case, and its made of a lovely piece of swamp ash and it doesnt look like any other guitar Ive seen.

It sort of sounds a bit like a Les Paul and its got this lovely kind of Bigsby-style trem. Its called the Nilus, which apparently is the God of the Nile. The body looks a bit like a cross between a Les Paul and an Iceman. I feel extremely fortunate that this happened to me.

Whats the strongest case of buyers remorse youve ever had after buying a piece of gear?

Years ago, when I was playing in Mediaeval Baebes, I didnt have an acoustic and I was borrowing one. I needed one, so I went to Denmark Street. Now, I find guitar shops very intimidating even then, when I was in my late-30s. So I went to Denmark Street and didnt really know what I was looking for with an acoustic because Id never had one before.

There was this lovely-looking one and I was kind of wowed by the inlays on it. It was a busy shop and I felt intimidated being there, so I had a quick play on it and thought, Yeah, this is great. I think it was about 350 quid I dont remember what the make was. But, yeah, I thought, This is cool and its got a pickup but then I got it home and really, it wasnt a great guitar at all, you know? It didnt sound good, it didnt particularly record nicely.

However, the good thing about it was I got to take it all around the world on tour and I wasnt that worried. I didnt have that anxiety about if I opened the case and the necks snapped. It was just like: Meh! Well, you know its not that good, anyway. But, later, when I bought myself a proper acoustic I spent a couple of hours trying out loads of them until I was happy. So I learned a lesson there. But yes, I dont miss that one at all. In fact, I havent even thought about it until that question [laughs].

Have you ever sold a guitar you now intensely regret selling?

Ive never really sold guitars; Ive given them away. If people wanted to borrow them I might say, Oh, keep it, you know? But no, Ive never really sold them I mean, just for the sort of sentimentality of it, my first-ever guitar, a crappy old Satellite, might be fun to still have because it was my first-ever guitar. But I think I gave it away.

Whats your best guitar-buying tip?

Oh, God, I dont know. Because I sort of flippantly say: All guitars sound the same and go for whatever looks good. But thats not really true [laughs]. Actually, its so strange how even the same model of guitar will differ from one to another, as I found out when I bought my White Falcon I tried a couple of the new Japanese ones in the early 2000s and one of them felt like mine and the other didnt I dont think it was just down to how they were set up.

So the only tip I can think of is to really play any guitar youre thinking of buying and give yourself at least a good half-hour Its almost like trying out a pair of speakers or monitors. Certainly with my current acoustic guitar, I went into the shop with about five pieces [ready prepared] that I would be playing on it live, to see how comfortable it felt.

If forced to make a choice, would you rather have a really good guitar and a cheap amp or a cheap guitar and a top-notch amp?

Oh, a really good guitar. Because in terms of amps, particularly when touring abroad, youre always at the mercy of whatever is being provided for you. But the guitar itself, thats always your instrument. I mean, Im always happy to let people use my amp, you know, but Ive only once or twice let people use my guitar. Im not exactly at Steve Howe levels of guardedness about my guitars [laughs] but still, Id much rather have a nice guitar.

If you could only use humbuckers or single coilsfor the rest of your career, which would itbe and why?

I only got my first guitar with single coils the Jazzmaster in 2019. Prior to that I always had guitars with humbuckersand I got used to that sound. But Im impressed with how punchy the single coils are. And apart from the hum that comes from them, Ive really liked how creamy and direct they sound.

If youd asked me this question about five years ago, I would have just said, Well,humbuckers. But from this point onwards, I think Imon a journey into the world of single coils. I really, really like the sound of them.

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I sort of flippantly say: 'All guitars sound the same and go for ... - Guitar World