Category Archives: Hedonism

In their pomp three decades ago, Happy Mondays would probably just have been emerging from bed at 7.30pm the hour at which they took the stage for this enticing evening of Madchester revivalism.

In terms of cultural standing, many might see their supporting billing on this seven-date arena jaunt as counter-intuitive: after all, the Mondays loping, drug-fuelled fusion of indie-rock and acid-house was genuinely era-defining, referenced still as the core soundtrack to the emergence of 90s dance culture in the UK. They actually headlined Wembley in April 1990, with a giant letter E onstage behind them.

The wayward Mancunians initial life-span was explosive but brief, however, as they quickly fell apart amid spiralling narcotic habits in 1993, after making only four albums. Theyve reunited in line-ups of varying completeness ever since, only ever managing one further unsuccessful album.

Here, then, their purpose was simply to dust off the crown jewels of baggy, and get the party started, which they achieved with an effortless primordial groove. Shaun Ryder, 59, once a figure of droopy-lidded menace, barked from beneath a black baseball cap, cuddly and confused by the lights, while his non-singing co-frontman Mark Bez, 57, gamely prowled the stage, waving his maracas out of time.

These days, the pairs popularity springs from their TV appearances. Hows Dancing On Ice going, B? Ryder asked his spar, who only got bumped out of Celebrity Masterchef last summer because of some undercooked flatbreads, and is due to appear on the all-skating reality show in January. You wouldnt *believe how slippy it is, Bez replied, before tripping over the monitors to huge applause, and kneeling adoringly before their female vocalist, Rowetta Satchell, as she belted out a triumphant Step On.

When James hit the stage, it was clear that this oddly sober sell-out crowd was theirs, and the response to the musical mood-shift from lairy hedonism to questing spirituality was an appreciative roar. I first saw James in December 1983, and back then youd never have believed theyd one day be arena-fillers.

Their frontman, Tim Booth, now 61, recently described early James as hopelessly indie-schmindie, yet he struck gold circa Madchester while spurning its druggy vocabulary, and with a guru-esque zeal has held together an ever-shifting personnel without intermission, recently releasing a 16th long-player. So, hes earnt that top billing.

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Happy Mondays and James, review: lairy hedonism and questing spirituality from two very different 90s bands - Telegraph.co.uk

Over the last 12 months, graphic novels have explored everything from injustice to hedonism. But perhaps unsurprisingly in a year that saw many reflect on their lives, a crop of fine memoirs dominated the shelves.

The biggest event of the year was the return of Alison Bechdel. The Secret to Superhuman Strength (Jonathan Cape) is a meditation on exercise and happiness that paints the Vermont cartoonist as a neurotic wretch, moving between sporting obsessions as relationships come and go. Karate, running, cycling, skiing and yoga all promise peace of mind, but it never lasts. Bechdels previous books have made her one of the superstars of graphic fiction, and this funny, perceptive and merciless account shows that, while her personal bests may have slipped, her talent remains undimmed.

Lauded in her native France, lodie Durands Parenthesis (Top Shelf; translated by Edward Gauvin) is finally available in English. Durands young life was shattered by a tumour that brought severe memory loss, epilepsy, pill after pill and operation after operation. She draws tense consultations, giant tumours and gouged self-portraits in a desperately affecting book about the struggle to hold on to yourself when your world is in pieces.

Sabba Khans family moved from Kashmir to east London before she was born. The artist and architectural designer puts her overlapping identities at the heart of The Roles We Play (Myriad), which explores history, culture, family ties and psychotherapy. Imaginative framing, expressive sketches and thoughtful prose combine in a fascinating debut full of acute observations (after the 2005 London bombings, her headscarf has grown louder than me), with a recommended song for every chapter.

Where Khan explains herself with scrupulous care, Shira Spectors Red Rock Baby Candy (Fantagraphics) spins a chaotic spectacle of bright collages and strange visions, her text bouncing off drum kits and reaching into bloodstains and ink spills. Vibrant illustrations sit alongside descriptions of her fathers cancer diagnosis and her attempts to conceive in an inventive debut memoir thats as deeply felt as it is stylistically playful.

The finest British graphic novel of the year was In. by Will McPhail (Sceptre), a clever and touching account of a young illustrator dealing with his mothers illness and his own ennui. This beautifully composed debut mixes nuanced observation with hipster satire, and scalpel-sharp one-liners about the things that dont matter with stumbling attempts to articulate the things that do.

It has been some time since Barry Windsor-Smith was a promising newcomer the comics veteran began his career drawing for Marvel 50 years ago but Monsters (Jonathan Cape) is likely to be his defining work. This big, bruising epic about an attempt to create a cold war supersoldier features Nazi scientists, helicopter gunfights and psychic powers. But while Windsor-Smith doesnt shirk on spectacle, hes more interested in pulling back the curtain on sordid military-industrial compromises, and showing how hate leaches from one man to another in a study of violence, redemption and parenthood.

Exploitation echoes down the centuries in historian Rebecca Halls Wake (Particular), which delves into the neglected story of female slavery and resistance. Hall combines re-creations of revolts with an account of her own research, which is held back by unhelpful archivists and myopic official histories. She uncovers vital details, such as why women played a crucial role in slave-ship mutinies they were often left unchained on deck. Aided by Hugo Martnezs stark artwork, Hall compellingly describes the terror and resilience of people who were brought across the ocean in shackles and enslaved for generations, speaking of reckonings still to come.

Slavery shadows Dash Shaws Discipline (New York Review of Books), a startling, panel-free work that follows a Quaker family ruptured by the American civil war. Brother Charles abandons pacifism to fight for the Union, while his sister Fanny deals with schisms at home in a book whose powerful images spring out of white space. The seasons change as war takes its toll, and earnest letters adapted from real correspondence beat with tension beneath their matter-of-fact surface.

There was hedonism too this year, in the return of Brecht Evens, whose The City of Belgium (Drawn and Quarterly) explores a bacchanalian nightscape. Three characters, their lives on the edge of change, dance their way through lurid bars and dark passageways in a swirl of tall tales and lush inking. Evens is a master of crowd scenes and colour, and his psychedelic symphony bleeds into a pensive, washed-out dawn that suggests that even the wildest trips must end sometime.

Simon Hanselmann drew a webcomic every day for the first nine months of the pandemic. The collected Crisis Zone (Fantagraphics) sees his longstanding cast of witches and anthropomorphic animals cram themselves into a house, bicker, shoot pornography and take drugs. They are hit by Covid and become the subjects of a reality TV show in a provocative and funny descent into social-media notoriety and violence.

For something more wholesome, settle down with Esthers Notebooks (Pushkin; translated by Sam Taylor), in which cartoonist Riad Sattouf lays out a series of strips based on his friends daughters Paris schooldays. Theyre not exactly escapist racism and the spectre of terrorism intrude on the playground frighteningly early but these three funny, insightful volumes, packed with phone envy, classroom politics and friendship, are a comic treat.

Browse all the featured books and save up to 15% at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

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Best comics and graphic novels of 2021 - The Guardian

ICSCs Here, We Go event in Las Vegas

The eve of ICSCs conference in Las Vegas is traditionally a last bastion of hedonism for real estate bros. Music, liquor and cigar smoke flow through the Wynn hotels European Pool, where retail giants like Winick Realty Group host cabanas and where bathing suit tops are famously optional.

Meridian Capital at Wynn Resort

This year, things are different. The Wynns pools were quiet and mostly empty on a picturesque, 70-degree Sunday. New York-based debt brokerage, investment, and retail leasing firm Meridian Capital Group was the lone group to rent a cabana.

It was exciting to come here and get back to normal, said James Famularo, the firms president of retail leasing, puffing on a cigar and relaxing poolside in sunglasses. As normal as possible, but its not going to be normal.

In past years, ICSCs annual event, known as RECon, has been held in May and regularly attracted around 30,000 retail landlords, brokers, retailers and other commercial real estate players. It became known as a mecca for schmoozers and dealmakers.

James Famularo of Meridian Capital Group

ICSC emerged from a Covid hiatus this year with a new conference, branded Here, We Go, this week at the Las Vegas Convention Center, a winter holdover until the May event returns. Vaccinations are mandatory and about 9,000 attendees registered, according to an ICSC staffer.

The event comes after the organization laid off the majority of its employees, including 18 of its 22 event staffers, three months into the pandemic. Even prior to last year, the nonprofit had struggled with declining membership and longstanding internal strife, according to interviews last year with more than a dozen former staffers and current members.

Expectations going in were mixed.

At the beginning, I thought this was a forced event from a trade organization that was suffering because they havent had events, said David Birnbrey, chairman of the Shopping Center Group, which hosted a cocktail reception Sunday night. [But] it was necessary for people to get back together quickly, and I think ICSC was very proactive.

Some prior hosts, like Vornado Realty Trust, skipped the parties and hosted private dinners, according to sources. Vornado declined to comment.

ICSCs Here, We Go event in Las Vegas

The event itself lacked many of the usual big names in New York real estate. Major brokerages who were present included JLL, Newmark and Avison Young. CoStar, the real estate data behemoth, had one of the largest booths.

Members of the Ghermezian family which owns Triple Five, the Canadian-based conglomerate behind the Mall of America, the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and an upcoming project in Miami were in attendance. Houston-based Hines was also present, with a small booth. Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. reserved an office on the second floor of the conference center.

Some companies brought a smaller staff than they did to past May events, anticipating sparser attendance and fewer high-level decision makers. Others brought up concerns over Covid, especially as the Omicron variant begins to spread through the country.

I dont know that its gonna come back 100 percent in 2022, said Michael Mason of Newmarks Chicago office, who noted that in person meetings and shows like ICSC are critical for dealmaking.

I think May will be a lot more attended, no question, said Shlomo Chopp, a managing partner with Case Equity Partners.

The allure for some is not just the trade show, but the glitz of Vegas.

If you share a drink with somebody and youre at the craps table with them, you can call them and theyll answer your call, Famularo said. You get to know somebody on a different level.

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Fear and loathing at ICSCs resurrected Vegas conference - The Real Deal

In Cratylus, the Greek philosopher Plato talks about the reasoning behind the name of Himeros, the Greek God of desire: The name himeros (longing) was given to the stream (rhous) which most draws the soul; for because it flows with a rush (hiemenos) and with a desire for things and thus draws the soul on through the impulse of its flowing, all this power gives it the name of himeros.

Silhouetted against an ethereal background of sultry pink and yellow, flowing with the melody and rhythm of Peaches the title track from his sophomore mini-album Peaches EXOs Kai paints quite the same picture. Since his debut with the boyband in 2011, one thing about Kai has always been clear: his work goes beyond the labels of just singing or dancing he is a performer. To engage with him, even on a superficial level, is to open your senses to his fluvial language, which begins with music and expands outwards, crafting a heady medley of dance, expressions something he excels at and physical descriptions. His is a seductive art, a mastery of the right words, said at the right time in the right tone, all meant to leave one gasping for breath and under his spell.

Of course, we got a glimpse of it on his solo debut last year. Aptly titled Kai (), the mini-album came riddled with one addictive track after another, all painting a picture of Kais multifaceted enigma, at the center of which was a demand to pay attention only to him. He reduced our world to a singular point him on the title track Mmmh, consumed our memories on Amnesia (Cant remember anything before you, he said), and embodied desire itself on Nothing On Me (I want nothing on me but you, he sang).

On Peaches, he expands the world hes created and adds maturity, a streak of danger and just a hint of vulnerability. Just like Kai (), Peaches comes bolstered by a steady R&B background. Its the little touches he adds, however the choppy progression on Vanilla, the soaring chorus on Come In, the hedonistic picture he paints on Domino that make it a work of genius.

If last years Mmmh was an aggressive, forward, titillating call to the dark side, Peaches wraps those cruel intentions in sweet whispers and almost deceptive appreciation. Reveling in being the bad guy, Kai constantly treads the line between love and lust. The possibility of getting your heart broken always looms on the horizon, but his words in your ear placate you enough to accept the outcome. When coupled with the phantasmagorical visuals of the music video where the simplicity of the song becomes entangled with Kais smooth, slick moves and dreamy sets you get the feeling that youre Eve trying to resist the call of the apple on the tree. Or well, the peach, in this case.

The best track on the project, however, is the refrained, choppy, yet intense Vanilla. The years have not been kind to the flavour or the term being termed vanilla with respect to anything, more often than not, is akin to an insult. If there was anyone, however, who could infuse it with charisma and magnetism, its Kais crooning of Vanilla, vanilla, is what Im craving set to choppy bongo beats and languid chord progressions.

As he says, Your soft touch feels good, I keep calling out your name, I savor this sweet moment, one is reminded of the words of Philostratus The Elder: Desire (himeros), the companion of love (eros), so suffuses the eyes that it seems clearly to drip from them.

Kai switches it up immediately after in Domino, hereby dubbed as the sister-track to Reason, from his solo debut. Domino comes in strong right off the gate, booming with bass and sweeping us off our feet with his surprising low-tone. Just like Reason from his 2020 release, Domino paints a picture of excess and hedonism, at the center of which is Kai, beckoning us to get a taste, because once is all it takes for us to collapse like dominoes.

Another surprise on the mini-album is the atmospheric Come In, talking about taking the feeling of love by the horn and boldly proclaiming what you feel. What starts as a groovy, hip-hop based track expands in an atmospheric pre-chorus, before segueing into a refrained, yet heady chorus layered with breathy ad-libs. Pure heroine, we say, and he agrees: I tend to get tird of sweet flavors quickly, Yet somehow, you always feel new.

Kai. Credit: SM Entertainment

The only time the project seems to stumble is on the penultimate track, To Be Honest. On a tracklist filled with little delights, whether through sonic arrangements or Kais own vocal abilities, To Be Honest is comparatively plain, resembling a track one would experiment with while finding their footing rather than one from a fully-evolved musician such as Kai.

Wrapping up this roller-coaster ride in comforting lo-fi is the soft, vulnerable Blue, which feels like ironic, yet honest homecoming. After the bravado and dangerous allure of Domino and Vanilla, Blue becomes a breath of fresh air. As if shedding a skin, Kai takes a moment to be honest about his desires: I want to sink like small dust, I want to stop in time for a moment, Exhaling sighs is hard enough, This darker silence is bad enough. For a performer whose duality is one of K-pops most alluring concepts, dare we say, Blue seems closer to Kim Jong-in than it does to Kai, as if reminding us that underneath the tough exterior is a man willing to be honest with himself in the softer moments.

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Kai Peaches review: desire comes alive on the singers sophomore release - NME

On October 22, 1958, British European Airways Flight 142 was nearing the end of its trip from London Airport to Naples when an Italian F86 jet fighter, diving at 400 mph, struck the cockpit, killing all 31 people on board. The remains of the Vickers Viscount were scattered near the village of Nettuno, south of Rome. The fighter pilot, though seriously injured, survived.

One of the victims was Terry OGrady, a 22-year-old steward (as flight attendants were then called), who was planning to train as a pilot. His brother Rory OGrady, only eight at the time, has written an unusual and enjoyable book (The Flight of The Arctic Fox, Conrad Press, 11.99) about the lives and connections of all on board. The aircraft was named after Sir Leopold McLintock, a Victorian polar explorer known as the Arctic Fox.

The idea of a book arose when the relations of the dead met at the dedication of a memorial on the 60th anniversary of the disaster. This gathering was the initiative of Terry Bannon, son of the planes radio officer, who had worked with the Italian authorities to trace as many relatives as possible.

The late 1950s was an era now hard to recover. The memory of the Second World War remained vivid for all those who had lived through it. Both pilots on BEA Flight 142 were war veterans, as was the radio officer Jimmy Bannon. In fact, he had been in the crew of the next to last RAF plane to escape Singapore in February 1942 and had taken the controls when the pilot was killed by Japanese ground fire. Back in Britain, Bannon had served as a Lancaster tail gunner, possibly the most perilous position in any bomber. More recently, he had flown in another Viscount with the Royal Family and Nikita Khrushchev on his state visit.

Yet Britain and Western Europe had largely recovered from the Second World War, while growing prosperity and technological advances made travel safer, more convenient and attractive. Rome, which had been starving in 1945, was now the home of la Dolce Vita, and a vibrant easy-going hedonism rather different from what was available in London.

Among the passengers was a quartet on a mission that might have provided the plot for an Ealing comedy. Jane Buckingham, a glamorous English model, was on her way to Rome to confront her lover, a wealthy Indian prince, over reports that he had taken up with the Hollywood star Eva Bartok. Accompanying her were three of Fleet Streets finest, with hopes of a juicy scoop.

Jane Buckingham was a fascinating character, redolent of smart but sleazy 1950s West End society. She had been born Eugnie Moore to a North London tailor and his wife, who abandoned the family early. Aged 17, she had a baby by a French student, but luckily for her future career the child was adopted. Good looking, intelligent and funny, Eugnie began to be noticed in postwar London. A model agency suggested she change her name, and her career was launched. She modelled luxury clothing in smart magazines and became the face of Schweppes tonic water and various washing powders. She habituated night clubs like the Stork and the Embassy, initially as a hostess, increasingly as the guest of the rich men she met there.

Jane was looking for emotional as well as financial security, and she thought she had found both when in 1954 she married Reginald Kawaja, a wealthy young Lebanese who whisked her off to Canada and then to St Kitts in the Caribbean. She bore him a baby daughter, Yasmin, but found that she was trapped in an old-fashioned extended Lebanese family controlled by her dictatorial father-in-law.

She slipped back to London, leaving her husband and daughter in St Kitts, apparently for good. At a weekend house party, she met Prince Shiv of Palitana, an immensely wealthy Indian playboy (the couple are pictured above). They began an affair which lasted more than a year, and which she may have taken more seriously than he did. She was busy with modelling jobs for Christian Dior and was not always by his side.

Then the gossip columns began to report that the Prince was involved with the much-married Hungarian actress Eva Bartok, who refused to deny that they were engaged. She had just divorced the German star Curd Jrgens, who was infertile and objected to Eva having a daughter he knew could not be his. (Bartok later claimed Frank Sinatra had fathered the baby, Deana Jrgens, during a brief affair).

Its not surprising that Jane Buckingham sensed danger. She needed to speak to Shiv, but he had motored down to Rome to see his father, the 26th Maharaja of Politana. At this point, a slightly shady freelance journalist called Lee Benson approached Jane with the idea of confronting Shiv on the street in Rome. In addition to Benson, there would be a lead reporter, Paddy Roberts of The Sketch, and a photographer, Brian Fogaty. Paddy Watson, an up-and-coming young female feature writer for The Sketch, would write the story while the veteran Fogaty would aim for dramatic photographs of the passionate reunion or, more likely, the angry confrontation. Jane probably wouldnt get her man back, but she would be well paid by The Sketch and would gain useful publicity. Sadly, of course, the sting never came off.

Rory OGrady has done more than pay tribute to the individual victims of an air crash. He has revived their memories and placed their life stories in the context of their times, and of the worlds in which they moved. Some, of course, were ordinary people leading uneventful lives, but even here he has laboured imaginatively to bring them alive. Others were quite exceptional people.

OGrady excels in writing about women, such as Lady Jenny Weir, wife of the Scottish industrialist Sir Cecil Weir, who, among many other services he had rendered his country, had in 1942 convened all the pharmaceutical companies to cooperate in exploiting the invention of penicillin. In October 1958 he was on a business trip to Canada and Lady Jenny was planning a brief holiday on Capri with her friend Frances Miller.

There is much to learn and enjoy in this remarkable book.

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Gone to earth: the last flight of the Arctic Fox - TheArticle

TS Eliot wrote way back in 1936 that we moderns are distracted from distraction by distraction. Now Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg claims I am here to build something for the long term. Anything else is a distraction. Politics has always involved deception and distraction.

The greatest threat to the state, Aristotle said, is not faction but distraction. If politics is a distraction, so is business. The Trumps of the world believe lies are now the new truth. Zuckerberg wants us to believe that fiction is now a new reality. He has laid out his grand vision for the Metaverse and wants to teleport us across the world in hologram form. As Bart Schouw, chief evangelist at Software AG, explains, Metaverse is a convergence of physical, augmented, and virtual reality in a shared online space ~ or the universe of data.

If we are to believe the tech gurus, a virtual world will eclipse real world. We are being assured that we will be more present in the metaverse, and presumably less present in the everyday world. Experience tells us that with omnipresent technology, one is not present anywhere, neither at home, nor in the workplace.

Capitalism is a mass weapon of distraction. It is not only the reigning ideology of our times; it has hardened into a dogmatic and monolithic creed that brooks no criticism. English cultural theorist Mark Fisher is right when he says, it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. After the collapse of the Berlin Wall,

The Economist wrote rather pompously that capitalisms health will now determine the future of civilisation. It further wrote, on planet earth at least, it matters. For Elon Musk and other billionaires, it matters even more in the galactic world. We have ruined our Earth and are now planning for galactic civilisation.

Species on our planet are getting extinct. Musk and others are now pretending to spread life to the barren cosmos. The internet revolution promised to lift every boat. Americans are what Thomas Friedman claims apostles of the fast world and high priests of high tech. Friedman wanted us to follow Americas lead, with website in every pot, a Pepsi in every lip

In reality, digital life has tipped the balance in favour of John Stuart Mills lower pleasures. Facebook often shares unreliable information. Instagram has become a fictionalised escape from reality via beautiful photography. Siva Vaidhyanathan in his book, Anti-Social Media: How Facebook Disconnects Use and Undermines Democracy, writes: Social media, and Facebook in particular, do not foster conversation. They favor declaration.

Zuckerbergs promise is no different. He told his employees last June that his overarching goal is to help bring the metaverse to life. He wants us to be inundated by our own illusions and to live a digital version of life and to see and think what he thinks and sees. An age of contrivance is upon us.

A new phase of capitalism is the rise of attention economy in which attention itself produces value. The 19th century sociologist Gabriel Tarde said how attention drives the consumer society, in which desire must be produced and reproduced. Many believe Zuckerberg has rebranded his company to distract from Facebooks scandals. Facebook claimed to deliver what is good.

Metaverse promises what is new. It is not creative destruction; it is creative distraction. Metaverse is not a revolutionary force that will empower the people. It will distract and the growing tribe of autocrats will exploit it. Before we ensnare ourselves in this web of illusions and become digital ghosts, it is time to unplug from this future nightmare. Human beings are not mere data. Metaverse cant be a brave new world; it is a technological nightmare.

The 1918 influenza pandemic led to the advent of a welfare state. European countries built modern health infrastructure and allocated higher percentage of budget on health. Covid-19 has hastened the dawn of Web 3.0 and the Metaverse. Sam Lessin, co-founder of Fin Analytics, sees the emergence of three simultaneous but fundamentally distinct trends ~ rise of Crypto which will enable us to put memory and assets on the web, experimental web via augmented and virtual reality and cultural revolution which will see us working and socialising in purely digital spaces.

Metaverse is a technology of domination. As South Korean-born philosopher Byung-Chul Han argues, every device and every technique of domination generates totems that are used for subjugation. What is worrying is that in the age of psychopolitics citizens may become what Byung-Chul Han calls homo ludens. They will be focussed more on play and less on work and will surrender meekly to the seduction of the system.

Can this new capitalist dream open a new frontier for humanity? Or is Metaverse merely a new playground for the billionaires? What happened to capitalisms El Dorado promise? Inequality has grown manifold in the world. UN chief Antnio Guterres has said in the foreword to the World Social Report 2020 that the world is confronting the harsh realities of a deeply unequal global landscape, in which economic woes, inequalities and job insecurity have led to mass protests in both developed and developing countries.

In India 40 new billionaires joined the elite club during the pandemic while 230 million more workers and villagers have been rendered jobless. The world may be imperfect. We must work to make it better. We dont need this new hedonism. The new leisure that Metaverse promises will be new enslavement. Programming tools claim to provide leisure and what some describe as a second life.

Virtual life promises a new captivating life of diversion, forgetting finitude. Metaverse wants us to live a meaningful, albeit an illusionary, life by manipulating our reality. These are empty promises. Real-lifeis where one faces up to ones finitude and the vulnerability of all one cares about.

Living well in a Metaverse will remain an illusion. In the worldview of the indigenous people, happiness can happen in a community. There is a lot to learn from the cosmovision of the first nations ~ doing more with less and pursue a paradigm of social and ecological commons which is community-centric, ecologically balanced and culturally sensitive. They are building a pluriverse where many worlds co-exist.

One cant ignore basic facts of life like pain, suffering and finitude and pretend to live well. Is Metaverse the next big idea in tech? Is it the playground of possibility and a dream of the future? Or are Metaverse and other internet tools black holes sucking up time in unproductive ways? Whether Metaverse becomes a big brother in disguise and whether we become digital prisoners or live in a digital comfort zone, time alone will tell.

(The writer is director, Institute of Social Sciences, Delhi)

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Creative Distraction - The Statesman

A brief new promo spot has dropped for the sixth of Peaky Blinders, and it features the return of Tom Hardys character Alfie. This is definitely exciting for fans because Alfie is a fan-favorite character! Its awesome to see that Hardy came back to reprise his role in the final season of the series.

The series follows the story of Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) and his notorious familys rise to power against the backdrop of working class, post-WWI Birmingham. Heres the synopsis:

Britain is a mixture of despair and hedonism in 1919 in the aftermath of the Great War. Returning soldiers, newly minted revolutions and criminal gangs are fighting for survival in a nation rocked by economic upheaval. One of the most powerful gangs of the time is the Peaky Blinders, run by returning war hero Thomas Shelby and his family. But Thomas has bigger ambitions than just running the streets. When a crate of guns goes missing, he recognizes an opportunity to advance in the world because crime may pay but legitimate business pays better. Trying to rid Britain of its crime is Inspector Chester Campbell, who arrives from Belfast to try to achieve that goal.

When Season 6 was announced, creator Steven Knight teased, "Peakyis back and with a bang. After the enforced production delay due to the Covid pandemic, we find the family in extreme jeopardy and the stakes have never been higher. We believe this will be the best series of all and are sure that our amazing fans will love it. While the TV series will be coming to an end, the story will continue in another form.

Peaky Blinders Season 6 was written by Knight, while Season 5 helmer Anthony Byrne returns to direct and Nick Goding will produce. It will likely air in early 2022 depending on how quickly production can complete filming.

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PEAKY BLINDERS Season 6 Promo Spot Features the Return of Tom Hardy's Alfie GeekTyrant - GeekTyrant

By Beln Carreo and Silvio Castellanos

ERRENTERIA, Spain (Reuters) Michelin star chef Andoni Luis Aduriz doesnt run a restaurant. Mugaritz, the eatery he founded in 1998, has outgrown that label to become a laboratory that designs astronaut food and pushes customers out of their comfort zones, as well as feeding them.

From an old Basque farmhouse in the shade of an oak tree after which the eatery is named Aritz means oak in Basque Aduriz has shaken up the restaurant world and garnered a steady stream of awards, but also criticism for his treatment of flavour.

Some people seem to think that smell and taste are the most important factor, Aduriz said at a session released on Thursday at the Reuters Next conference. We are convinced that textures are at least as important, if not more, he added.

Over a 20-course set menu, customers encounter unexpected flavours, ingredients and sensations and are invited to play with the food between their fingers, embracing what Aduriz calls the discomfort of the poetic.

At one point, diners must suck out edible flowers from sculpted ceramic faces.

Aduriz is also formulating the perfect meal for passengers who will sail through space in commercial spaceships.

We are talking about people who are going to travel up into space and who will want to eat well. The gastronomy-pleasure-hedonism factor will be present, he said, as would-be astronauts savour his offering of two freeze-dried mousses.

In a future imagined by Aduriz, sustainability is crucial, as is serving healthy food. By resurrecting ancient preparation techniques such as fermentation, he aims to strike such a balance.

However, his creative team strives to escape the prescriptive elements of artificial intelligence and avoid the safe option of giving customers a familiar, comfortable experience.

Mugaritz is a non-algorithm. It does not give you what you like, it gives you what you might like After all, our mouths give us the opportunity to eat the world.

To watch the ReutersNext conference please register here https://reutersevents.com/events/next/

(Reporting by Beln Carreo, Silvio Castellanos and Ral Cadenas; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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Texture will be the flavour of the future, says maverick Spanish chef - KELO AM-FM

There is a section in Tom Fords new book, Tom Ford 002, in which the American designer discusses his lowest ebb. After an unceremonious exit from Gucci the Italian house that he helped revive, as documented in the House of Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent (as it was known back then), he hit rock bottom with alcoholism, drug use and a lack of direction after more than decade of a high-powered, highly-controlled schedule. I was always a highly functional alcoholic, he tells Bridget Foley in its introduction. But it got worse after I left Gucci; it got much worse It probably had a lot to do with the pressure I was under in my business life. I think that pressure is one reason that alcohol anddrugsconsumeso manypeople in the fashion industry the demand to be creative according to a calendar.

On May 15 2009, he got sober. A lot has happened since. He built a beauty empire, courtesy of his cosmetics and fragrances partnership with Este Lauder. He staged a triumphant return to fashion, reasserting himself as the king of elegant, nocturnal glamour and high-octane sexuality. He directed two critically-acclaimed films: A Single Man (2009) and Nocturnal Animals (2016). In 2012, he and his longtime partner, Richard, had a son, Jack. Five years later, the family relocated to Los Angeles from London, after which Ford accepted the chairmanship of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. This year marks the 15th anniversary of the namesake Tom Ford brand, launched in 2005, as well as the designers 60th birthday. It couldnt be more prescient that on resale platforms, such as TheRealReal and Vestiaire Collective, vintage Tom Ford (for Gucci and YSL) has reached record prices predominantly among those who werent even born when it was first produced.

Tom Fords first self-titled book, published in 2004, chronicled his stellar decade-long tenure and contentious exit from Gucci Group (now Kering), during which he was a force in shattering the last vestiges of fashions frothed-up eighties overstatement and introducing a sleek, highly-sexual kind of 70s hedonism as well as being instrumental in the acquisition of Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Boucheron. In fact, it pretty much cemented his place as was probably the most era-defining designer of the decade between the mid-90s and the early-00s an era that has come back into fashion in full force, courtesy of Y2K nostalgia.

Tom Ford. Photography Alexei Hay

It took him a while to persuade himself to come back to fashion, and he started first with a premium line of fragrances and then formal menswear, and finally, the kind of high-voltage eveningwear he excels at. That side of me felt great relief that the whole Gucci thing ended after ten years, he says. It was a combination of relief and feeling that Id escaped pretty much unscathed critically So I kind of felt like, Whew! I made it out. Id made it out physically, and critically, feeling proud of what Id done. But I am never doing that again! is how I felt.

Today, Tom has relaxed his tightly-wound image, which he credits to being a father. He recently lost the love of his life, Richard Buckley, who he lived with for decades. The new book explores the dichotomy between his billboard image and the reality of Tom Ford, the man and the brand. I know how to perform, he says. Im good at it, but it still took a year of pandemic Zooms for me to get over having to put my ring light behind the screen, and to realise everybody looks horrible on Zoom. Its okay; I look like hell.

We caught up with the iconic designer to talk about his self-described third act, his hopes for the future, and his evolving perspective on fashion and sex.

Hi Tom! I had a great time reading your book, and I thought it was interesting because your first book has kind of become a bit of a cult classic and can be found on the shelves of most fashion folk its almost like a logo in and of itself. What was it like revisiting publishing, and putting everything together all over again?

I'm somebody who doesn't look back and do something, and that's also the nature of fashion. When you turn your back on the runway and walk off, you think, Oh, fuck. What am I going to do now? because you can't feel it at that moment in time. You believe in what you just put on the runway, but you know that you're going to feel something completely different after, and it has to be good and relevant at that time. So I rarely look back.

Why did you want to look back now?

The reason I did it was I hadnt done a book of my own brand since I started and I was turning 60. I thought, this is a good time to look back at my work. So a lot of it I won't say I had forgotten about but it's interesting looking back, because you remember, Oh, this is where I was in my life at that time, this is what I was thinking, this was how I was feeling. So it is interesting. I mean, to say it's emotional isn't quite the right word, but it's reflective and cathartic in a way because I'm somebody who likes to kind of tie things up neatly with a bow and package it and move on. And so it was a real chapter of my life and, as I realised that I'm most likely moving into the third act, or getting close to the third act, it was great to go through, put everything together, put it in a nice, slip-covered box and move on to the next chapter.

And what is that next chapter?

God only knows. Does anyone ever know? I mean, I lived with Richard for 35 years. Did I realise he's gonna die a month ago? You never know what the next chapter is. I hope it's fashion. I feel like I still have things to say with fashion. And I hope it's also more movies and raising my son. I mean, that's the most important thing when you have a child. It becomes the chief focus of your life.

Bella Hadid. Photo from Instagram.

It must be interesting to consider how your work has evolved since the first book.

My work has evolved, but my work is also the same. You know, you really do get to give the world your taste once and I did that at Gucci. And if you look back at what came before, there wasn't really runway shows and collections at Gucci, so I really grafted my own personality on to both Gucci and YSL, which was why I felt it was important to claim them in a sense when I left, which is why the books called Tom Ford not Tom Ford for Gucci or Tom Ford for YSL. So if you look back at my work today and my work then, there is definitely a common thread running through it all. Every designer has a look and a thing that they do and something that they believe in. And so I still believe in, and most of the things that I believed in, in terms of making men's and women's bodies look the best and what kind of clothes you need. However, you're right, the times have changed, if anything, they have become much more restrictive. And you have to consider that when you design today.

How so?

I'm older and my priorities have changed. I don't drink the way I used to and I don't live the same sort of life. And so I suppose more than sexuality today, my work would reflect a certain sensuality. And, and so yes, there are changes, but I would say everything is also in terms of what I design also the same. Hopefully, you're able to move it in a way that remains relevant, but really what happens is it becomes your look. And I think its important that you have a message and you have something to say and I think that designers that resonate and are successful have a look, the same way an artist has, you know something that they do that you can spot instantly and say Oh, yeah, that's an Ellsworth Kelly. Oh, yes, that's a Klein, or a Rothko. I'm not comparing myself to those artists. I don't mean to sound egotistical, but I think it applies to everyone who is creative if you're a singer, you have a sound, and if you're a designer, you have a look.

What's interesting now is that certainly a whole new young generation of designers are going back to what you were doing at Gucci in the 90s because they love it. That might be interesting for you to consider when thinking about your look.

Well, it's flattering, you know, I always thought anytime anyone copies, it's enormously flattering. It also makes you realise that you have hit a certain age, you know that you've become not the young designer anymore, but perhaps I don't want to say it you realise that you've been around a while. Its also nice to know that you've impacted fashion and a lot of those designers today were not even alive when I began my career as a fashion designer. So it's nice to know that they know your work.

Now, its a totally different industry to when I started my career, but all you can do is to do what looks right to you. And so even though it's a different industry, I suppose my clothes have become more casual, but that's more due to living in Los Angeles the last three years and having left London. I think, more and more, people all over the world live in a way that people live in California.

Max Motta and Mariana Braga for Tom Ford Neroli Portofino. Photography Tom Ford.

Earlier this year, you created the Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize for designers creating solutions to thin-film plastic. I find it really interesting that the Tom Ford look is so hedonistic, but that sustainability is an increasingly important part of your business how do you balance both?

They don't fight each other. They can absolutely go hand in hand. I mean, all my clothes are made to last, not made to be thrown away. They're made for you to wear in your life as long as you can maintain your size and then to be auctioned on 1stDibs or end up in a very expensive vintage store. So in that way theyre not fast fashion. Most things I make are made out of natural fibres. Most of my fabrics come from Italy, where everyone is treated very well in the factories and have tremendous advantages to the job. They're manufactured in Italy where they're done in a very ethical way. A beautiful sensual, sexy dress or beautifully cut cashmere can go hand in hand with respecting the environment because of the fact that you're really creating something that hopefully will be around for a long time. I think that the greatest luxury is knowing that you're not destroying the environment.

The world and fashion has caught up to the kind of highly-sexualised imagery that you pioneered in your previous roles. Has the way you feel about sexuality also evolved?

I would say that at this point in my career, I've shifted more to sensuality than sexuality. It is interesting that, my god, youve never seen so many erections on television, which you certainly would never have seen before. But at the same time, this is going hand in hand with a conversation about exploitation of men and women so in today's politically correct world, you have to be so careful. So I suppose and I don't think this is a good thing but a lot of designers start out already with certain restrictions in their head. It's a very tricky thing to navigate, especially when you have been a designer where that is your natural taste. I like the human body, I'm not remotely prudish about it. You know, if I'm making something, I tend to just, by my very nature, cut it in a way that a lot of people will say, Oh, that's very sexy. So it isn't that I'm saying to myself, I want to be sexy, but it's trickier to navigate that today, because you really have to be careful that you don't offend someone in some way, or its seen as exploitation, or that it's some sort of criticism of bodies that are not built in a certain way.

Ultimately, this book is about starting a second act. Whats your advice for people who are starting over again in life or work?

I think you have to listen to your intuition. I think it is a sort of subconscious accumulation of very carefully considered thought, that can come to mind quite suddenly, and you think, I'm just reacting intuitively, but I think intuition can often be something that's very considered subconsciously, perhaps. So I think the great trick is finding work that makes you happy. I think you have to look inside yourself and ask, what am I happiest doing? And when am I the happiest doing it? Life is quite short and finite. How can I spend more time doing that? It can take a lot of introspection, and a lot of thought, but I think the most important thing is that you love how you're spending your time because that's it, you just get this time. The older I get, the more I'm aware of that expression. How are you spending your time because you do spend it. You don't get it back. You have a finite amount. So are you spending it in a way that makes you happy?

Tom Ford. Photography David Bailey.

Tom Ford and Karl Lagerfeld. Getty Images / Pascal Le Segretain-Amfar

Nicholas Hoult for Tom Ford Eyewear 2010. Photography Tom Ford.

Juliet Ingleby and Lucho Jacob. Photography Tom Ford.

Justin Timberlake from 2020 Experience World Tour, 2013. Photography Tom Munro from the Trunk Archive.

Conrad Bromfeld and Pat Cleveland. Photography Tom Ford.

Jay-Z. Photography Lenny Kodaklens Santiago.

Joan Smalls at TFI SS19 Backstage. Photography Sonny Vandevelde.

Jennifer Lopez. Getty Images / Pierre Suu

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Tom Ford on entering the third act of his illustrious life and career - i-D

The common wisdom is that Goose Hollow Inn has the best Reuben in Portland. Ben Coleman

Hanukkah is out there, somewhere, hidden within the last few months of the year by the ancient designs of an unknowable lunar calendar. I have been Jewish all my life and never once known when Hanukkah is, or will be, or if it has already been. Its impossible to plan for, and this year in particular I cannot be bothered to consult the oracles or check Google or whatever. But even the celestial whims of the moon herself cant keep us from heavy traditional foods, and in the spirit of holiday hedonism I offer this ode to my favorite culinary product of the Jewish diaspora: the Reuben sandwich.

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A Reuben, to those who have never spoken to a New Yorker at length, is a glistening heap of either corned beef or pastrami, topped with sauerkraut (pickled cabbage), melted Swiss cheese, and unctuously slathered with either Russian or Thousand Island dressing. This is typically placedwith either fawning care or callow disregard depending on the quality of your delibetween slices of sturdy rye bread, which are often also fried in butter.

The debate between the two respective meats and dressings is to me the choice between Peter Gabrial Genesis and Phil Collins Genesis: the merits of either can be argued by purists, but both are capable of producing bops. Whats most important, according to local sandwich aficionado (and legendary TV writer) Bill Oakley, is balance: I dont want any one element to overwhelm the sandwich. I want the meat, I want the sauerkraut or coleslaw (depending on how you make it), and I want a lot of Thousand Island or Russian dressing, because that's the thing that they always skimp on. So I always ask for it on the side as well. I think that 90 percent of Reubens don't have enough of that in my opinion.

The signature Edelweiss Reuben is a mustard-forward Frankenstein. Ben Coleman

We have perhaps grown inured to the idea of a Reuben because it is ubiquitous on restaurant menusbut so is lobster and that doesn't make it right. Under any scrutiny the Reuben is an assault on good sense, composed of overwhelmingly intense ingredients that were supposed to get Romanian peasants through unforgiving winters at a time when half a head of cabbage was expected to feed a family of 27. Despite copious amounts of salad dressing and the presence of said cabbage, a Reuben is actually the philosophical opposite of a salad, nitrate rich and nutrient poor. It is also an extremely delicious combination of Old World flavors, which is why both greasy spoons and fancy bistros have been throwing them on hot griddles for the better part of a century.

Where, then, to satiate a Reuben fixation? The common wisdom is that Goose Hollow Inn has the best in town, and much as I might like to make waves with audacious pronouncements, I simply cant in this case. Its a damn-near perfect specimen, with generously thick curls of corned beef nestled in perfect syncopation with a pungent strata of sauerkraut, and their signature Reuben sauce evenly distributed throughout. But its the bread thats the real triumph, with an impossibly thin cracker-crisp shell encasing rich, chewy, coffee-brown rye. If I have a gripe, its that the sauerkraut is situated between layers of meat, which leads to some slip-n-sliding. But I rank structural integrity low on the hierarchy of Reuben needs. Since its an inherently sloppy sandwich, a fair amount of it is going down the side of your sleeve. A Reuben can be a date food, but only if youre trying to conform to some kind of avant-garde lifestyle blog.

For those who prefer variety over doctrine, theres Edelweiss Sausage & Delicatessen, which has the most subgenres under one roof. The signature Edelweiss Reuben is a mustard-forward Frankenstein, but they have classic corned beef and pastrami versions, as well as red cabbage and turkey variants. These are Reubens wise to the parable of Icarus, satisfyingly unambitious examples of the form, and wise as well to the parable of Fieri which is that if Guy Fieri likes it you cant go too wrong.

Fermenters Koji Beet Reuben isnt necessarily a great Reuben, but it is a darn good beet sandwich. Ben Coleman

The best vegetarian Reuben can be found at DC Vegetarian, and its completely viable as a Reuben, full stop, no vegetarian asterix. Its got the heft that indicates a filling sandwich even before tooth hits bread, and most importantly they nail the sauerkraut-dressing ratio. Im not well-versed in what counts as a good house seitan, but whats in there is smoky and robustly layered in a way that indicates Reuben-ness without lurching into the uncanny valley. An honorable mention goes to Fermenters Koji Beet Reuben, which isnt necessarily a great Reuben (the hazelnut chive cheese isnt melty and smoked beets are an imperfect substitute for beef), but it is a darn good beet sandwich, which isnt nothing.

A popular adage is that theres no such thing as bad pizza, but I am here to tell you theres such a thing as a bad Reuben. Like a bumblebee flying an antique biplane, each of the disparate elements act in tension with each other, and to forsake one is to upset the entire improbable contraption. I have had Reubens that were so overloaded and soggy they did not contain a texture recognizable as bread. Ive had dry, dense Reubens that had more in common with the inside of a baseball than you want for anything that isnt the inside of a baseball. After a month of researching this article my poops are very, very bad, with various strains of fermented cabbage probiotic warring for intestinal supremacy like the rival houses of Frank Herberts Dune.

Im not going to call anyone out, because Hanukkah isnt a festival of judgementits a festival of light, fried food, and little chocolate coins. But Id advise any restaurateur with a subpar Reuben on the menu to get their house in order, because more judgmental holidays are coming down the pipe. Im just not sure when, exactly.

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An Ode to the Reuben, the Perfect Holiday Sandwich - The Portland Mercury