Large-scale retrospective exhibitions at major venues generally serve to cement a leading artists place even more firmly in the canon, but they rarely change peoples minds. The recent Andy Warhol exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York or the Joan Mir show at the Grand Palais in Paris, for example, basically gave a certain amount of shading and definition to a well-known body of work, while affirming for a wider audience the artists ongoing importance. Surveys of less familiar but still well-established figures like Francis Picabia or Simon Hanta (at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, respectively) have taken pains to highlight unexpected facets of their oeuvres, so that we say, I didnt know they did that. And finally, certain monographic shows, driven by the efforts of an important critical thinkerscholar and curator Kirk Varnedoe on behalf of Gustave Caillebotte, for example, or biographer Hayden Herrera for Frida Kahlohave resulted in an artist long considered second-tier being vaulted into prominence, their work suddenly aligned with the contemporary zeitgeist.

The case of Dora Maar, however, is intriguingly different. The subject last summer of a full-scale Centre Pompidou survey that is now at Tate Modern in London (and travels this spring to the Getty Center in Los Angeles), Maar, for contemporary audiences, especially non-French ones, was until recently virtually unknown as an artist. If remembered at all, she was thought of as one of Picassos longer-lasting love interests, slotted in between Marie-Thrse Walter and Franoise Gilot, or maybe as the subject of Picassos famous 1937 series Weeping Woman, but scarcely as an important artist in her own right. Yet to see her simply as Picassos muse is to sell her seriously short.

The traveling exhibitiontitled simply Dora Maar and featuring well over four hundred works and documentsputs that error to right, offering an in-depth examination of a productive and multifaceted artist, a photographer and painter of real interest and complexity. In addition, the catalogue and various responding articles open up an expanded view of the Surrealist enterprise and of the French art world of the late 1920s through the 1940s. These texts bring into focus not just Maars considerable contributions but also those of a network of women friendsincluding Jacqueline Lamba, Nusch luard, Lee Miller, Claude Cahun, Rogi Andr, and Lise Deharmeall of whom were part of the Surrealist circle.

Maar (19071997) led a long and complex life. She was born Henriette Thodora Markovitch (Dora was a childhood nickname) in Paris to a French Catholic mother and a Croatian architect father who was quite possibly Jewishalthough Dora, a fervent Catholic from the mid-40s onward, denied it. She spent her early years in Buenos Aires, where her father went to practice. Fluent in both French and Spanish, she traveled back and forth between Paris and Buenos Aires, going to school in both places, until she returned to France permanently with her mother in 1920. In 1923 Markovitch (as she was then still known) began her art studies at the Union centrale des Arts dcoratifs, a school that prepared young women for careers in the decorative arts. There, she became involved in the citys cultural scene and met a lifelong friend, the painter Jacqueline Lamba, who was to become the second wife of Andr Breton, the acknowledged leader (and gatekeeper) of the Surrealists. Following graduation, Markovitch attended classes at the Acadmie Julian and at the atelier of painter Andr Lhote. At Lhotes studio, she got to know Henri Cartier-Bresson, then still determined to be a painter. Urged by her friend the art critic Marcel Zahar, Markovitch enrolled in the cole technique de photographie et de cinematographie. In 1927 she took the advice of Emmanuel Sougez, the photography director of the magazine LIllustration, and abandoned painting to pursue photography.

This was both a practical decision and an artistically fruitful one. Although she was to shift her focus away from photography in the later 30s to return to painting, the camera allowed Maar to fully hone her technical skills and develop the wide-ranging aesthetic that gives her work a strong claim on our attention today. Painters of any stripe had a hard time making a go of it in interwar Paris, and women faced additional obstacles. But photography, being a more multivalent enterprise in which the line between the artistic and the commercial was hazy, provided ambitious women a better chance of finding a place in the creative world and earning a living from their work. The medium scarcely challenged painting or sculpture for preeminence, and this enabled women photographers like Maar and her friends to get past the defenses of men who were artists themselves or who wrote about them. In addition, photography carried with it a strong sense of the fashionable and sexysomething that the Surrealists were especially keen to cultivate. In this exhibition, photographys relationship with Surrealism (seemingly obvious now, but not so earlier on) is clearly and thought-provokingly evident.

In the late 20s and 30s there were not the same clear-cut divisions between photographic disciplines that came later. Maar could, at roughly the same time, produce high-end fashion photographs, artful advertising pictures, flattering studio portraits, figure studies, soft-core pornography for a charm magazine, gritty street scenes, documentary shots, politically inflected images, rigorous formal compositions, and the complex, disturbing, and beautifully crafted Surrealist photomontages that are her most memorable creations. When she returned to art photography later in life, she investigated direct gestural manipulation of the negative, producing striking work that is entirely abstract.

Maar approached the craft of photography carefully and deliberately, picking up technical expertise and cultivating the sort of contacts that she would need. She met Brassa as he was starting out on his career in photography and shared a studio with him in Montparnasse. She also became friendly with Man Ray, who offered his help and advice, and with his then lover Lee Miller. She worked as the assistant to a successful fashion photographer, Harry Ossip Meerson, whose studio was on the same street as Rays. In 1931 she formed a professional partnership with Pierre Kfer, a film-set designer, and they opened a studio. At that point, she changed her professional name to Dora Maara shortening of Markovitchand for a number of years her photographs were stamped with Kfer-Dora Maar, although she likely did almost all the actual photography.

Maars fashion and advertising photography feels remarkably advanced, subordinating obvious glamour to Surrealist-inspired invention. Les annes vous guettent (The Years Lie in Wait for You), ca. 1935, probably used in an advertisement for an anti-aging cream, shows a spider in its web superimposed in white over the beautiful, pensive face of Maars close friend Nusch luard, wife of the Surrealist poet Paul luard. Nuschs face is placed above the centerline of the frame, and to the left, with the spider set directly between her eyes. The lighting (a specialty of Maars) is both soft and highly contrasted. It is a strange and compelling image, and if we were not aware that this was an advertising picture, we would see it as a successful artistic photograph in its own right.

The same might be said for Shampooing, or Femme aux cheveux avec savon (Shampoo, or Womans Hair with Soap), 1934, an elongated horizontal image, which consists of a womans head in profile, her hair whitened with soap and flying out straight in front of her. Hands push at the back of her scalp, seemingly setting the hair in motion. The image looks like a Greek or Roman bust, but an extraordinarily strange one.

Even the more straightforward fashion pictures, like a 1935 image of a model in a white satin dress, are imbued with individuality and invention. The photograph was shot from a low angle, the models body canted, her head in the corner of the frame, and her long gloved arm set at an angle to the bodys tilt. The photo features full Caravaggio-style chiaroscuro, and the models smoothly crimped blond hair and impassive face again bring to mind Classical statuary seen through a Surrealist lens. Moreover, the dress with its stiffened, vaguely fleur-de-lis bodice is odd but completely gorgeous. It is, of course, much easier to see these photographs as art when they are taken out of the context of advertisements, framed and printed on good paper, isolated and stripped of their utility and ready recognizability by both the passage of time and the removal of text.

Advertising photography at the time set its sights on the expanding womens market, promoting the idea of the modern woman as independent, adventurous, and athletic. This was largely an alluring commercial fiction. Most womenbound to the home, shop, or factorydid not enjoy that degree of liberty, but Maar and her friends actually lived such lives. And they put their exceptional autonomy to use. Even while Maar did work for hire that highlighted glamour and fashion, she was actively engaged with the political left, associating herself with the agitprop theater company Groupe Octobre, joining the anti-fascist group Contre-Attaque (founded by Georges Bataille and Breton), signing petitions, and participating in explicitly partisan exhibitions and projects. In line with her social convictions, she traveled to London and Barcelona to photograph, quite sensitively, working-class people.

Untitled (Blind street peddler, Barcelona), 1933, shows a man dressed in a white smock sitting on a chair in front of a closed, corrugated storefront gate, his head tilted slightly to the side and up. Impassive and unsmiling, he presents a kind of internal stare, cradling a rounded, cloth-wrapped object in his left arm while delicately gripping a white bowl in his right. His scuffed-up white cane is hooked over his left thigh and under his right. The subtle play of diagonalsthe angle of his head, the counterbalanced slant of his shoulders, the differing tilt of the objects he is holdingcreates an image that combines stillness with the potential for movement. More than anything, the pose evokes in the quietest of ways a Madonna and child or a piet.

Balancing the somber feeling of that photograph is the jolly picture of four laughing people at la Boquera, Barcelonas lively (and still active) food market. Caught in a geometric composition, they all apparently work at a charcuterie stand, amid a welter of hanging scales, meat on hooks, and assorted lights, chains, and wires. One of the women rubs or playfully covers one eye with her hand; another has placed a hand on her forehead. The four are clearly chummy, working hard but enjoying themselves. Maars photographs of laborers, the unemployed, and the marginalized are never sentimental or condescending, and never overtly ideological. Taken in the midst of the Depression, the pictures capture, above all, their subjects humanity. In the process Maar creates images of real compositional and tonal complexity, imbued with the same technical expertise and idiosyncratic formal sensibility that characterize her other photographic work.

Maars Surrealist photos, her best-known work, use the full range of her skillsespecially darkroom techniquescombined with the new freedom of imagination and the loosened expectation of logical causality that Surrealism allowed its practitioners. Most of the examples are collages, re-photographed to remove them from the realm of handiwork. This gives the pictures a smooth, distanced surface, drawing on photographys implied verisimilitude to convey a dreamlike uncanniness, a cognitive ambiguity.

One of Maars most affecting reshot photo-collages is Le Simulateur (The Pretender), 1935. To create it, she used one of her Barcelona street photos, which features three young boys hanging out on the street. One of thembent sharply backward, feet over head, but supported upright somehowseems to be walking up a wall. For the new photograph Maar excises this figure and places his feet on the ground in a torqued, claustrophobic stone hallway. The architectural structure is a detail from an old photographic print of the Palace of Versailles, and the mood evoked is one of barely contained hysteria. Hysteria is no longer used as a term for a specific psychiatric condition, but the Surrealists were especially fond of the conceptseeing it as a useful tool (rather like automatism or dreaming) and a portal to another state of reality. Hysteria was, for them, something to be cultivated rather than cured.

Maars single most famous Surrealist picture, Portrait dUbu (1936), is a straight photograph, but a deeply strange one. Softly lit, closely cropped, it depicts a not immediately recognizable creature (in all likelihood an armadillo or an armadillo fetus) set against a dark background. The subject is scaly, rubbery, and clawed, with a bulbous head, a long snout, and darkened partially hooded eyes (only one of which is turned to the lens). It gazes at us with indifference mingled with menace, and the image speaks of the irony-tinged cruelty that so fascinated the Surrealists. The title of the photograph is to the point. Pre Ubu, the kingly character created at the end of the nineteenth century by the playwright Alfred Jarry, was a favorite of the Surrealists (who also esteemed the Marquis de Sade). Ubu is funny, absurd, ridiculously arbitrary and impulsive, but also cowardly, cruel, grasping, and viciousa concoction of pure id.

In the mid-30s, Surrealism was well entrenched in the French cultural scene. Its combination of transgression, mystery, eroticism, and political engagement, along with a call for total personal freedom, proved irresistible to manyamong them, not surprisingly, Picasso. The Surrealists were a tightly knit group, so once he became associated with the movement, it was inevitable that he would cross paths with Maar. They first met, according to Brassa, in late 1935, and drew closer to each other in 1936. They became a couple, but their relationship was fatally damaged by Picassos affair with Franoise Gilot, whom he met in 1943 and became seriously involved with the following year. Maar and Picasso broke up completely in 1946.

But back when they originally got together, Picasso was already in his mid-fifties, more than twenty-five years older than Maar, and as renowned as any contemporary artist in France. Although he famously possessed a forceful character, Maar was a formidable and independent woman and could well hold her ownin the early part of their relationship, at least. Maar and Picasso worked closely together, she giving him technical advice and helping with photographically related prints, he inspiring her art.

Importantly, Maar documented the painting of Picassos mural Guernica, from May 11, 1937 (shortly after its beginning on May 1), to its completion on June 4. Photographing such a huge painting was a technically daunting job, made more difficult by the studios poor lighting, and required extensive darkroom work. The visual record was commissioned by Christian Zervos for his journal Cahiers dart. Maars eight pictures show a fascinating evolution, highlighting Picassos concentration on the interplay of light and dark and reinforcing the black-and-white paintings connection with photography. Not only was Picasso intimately involved with a photographer who was a darkroom expert and thus keenly aware of the emergence and control of tones, but the images of devastation that inspired the painting were black-and-white shots from newspapers and the newsreels that Picasso, a regular moviegoer, in all likelihood saw. While infused with a host of art historical references, Guernica, shown at the Spanish Pavilion of the 1937 Paris International Exposition and used to generate support for the embattled Republican government, was also intensely of its momentsomething that its photographic connection clearly reinforced.

In the summer of 1937, evidently under Picassos influence, Maar returned to painting. Her artistic production during their relationship was closely attuned to his. The lively, colorful Cubist work from the late 30s, seen to good effect in two nicely articulated pastel portraits of Picasso, is skillfully executed and well-composed, but the paintings of the war years, including various fully recognizable still lifes along with more abstracted images like La Cage (1943) and Les Quais de la Seine (1944), touch us more directly. Like Picassos works from the same period, they use a subdued and darkened palette and employ a limited set of objects and forms. They are quiet, somber works, imbued with the air of sadness and fear that pervaded occupied France.

In the immediate postwar years, Maar, although embarked on a promising painting career, withdrew from the world of exhibitions. She continued to work on her own, but the momentum was broken. Those times were difficult for Maar. She suffered a nervous breakdown in 1945, and was hospitalized and treated with electroshock therapy (by Jacques Lacan). In 1946, her old friend Nusch luard collapsed and died from a cerebral hemorrhage while they were having lunch together. Soon thereafter, her relationship with Picasso came to a definitive end. These were real blows, but Maar was, as ever, determined and resourceful. Fortified by her religious faith, she persevered. Before her split from Picasso, she hadwith his helpbought a house in the southern French town of Mnerbes, where she would spend part of the year for the rest of her life. She had many friends there, including the painter Nicolas de Stal, and maintained an active socialand, to a certain extent, professionallife in Paris and Provence for a number of years.

Maar continued painting, producing a wide range of works, from portraiture to semi-abstract landscapes to gestural works to complex geometric constructions. None of her postwar works remotely resembled Picassos. She also resumed her photographic investigations, moving away from easily read imagery to photograms and abstract manipulated prints and negatives. The late works are technically and conceptually adventurous, and in the case of some of the untitled hand-colored negatives from the 1980s, ravishingly beautiful. One particularly appealing image features a diagonal wave of color, rising from left to right, held in check by a transparent linear geometric form that picks up the swoop of the wave, but transforms its colors into bright reds, lavenders, and yellow-oranges.

Maars life and art encapsulate a most interesting set of concerns and problems. Chief among them is the place of a varied oeuvre. A wide-ranging practice is fine if you are, say, Gerhard Richter or Picassoartists not just of great material, stylistic, and formal variety, but of immense productivity. It has traditionally been a harder struggle, however, for women who have moved between mediums to convince the world that they are suitably focused and serious. Being associated, as Maar was, with a much better-known male artist (a vexed status shared with her contemporary, the brilliantly inventive Sophie Taeuber-Arp) makes that problem all the more difficult. Maars overall career amply illustrates the importance of luck, persistence, and a long-sustained presence in the art world. It also exposes the double-edged nature of fashionability (what is most au courantas certain aspects of Surrealism once wereinevitably falls quite out of favor in due time), as well as the iffy-ness of a career push offered by a romantic association with a powerful artista real plus (especially at the beginning) but one that comes at a high reputational price.

We are fortunate that the curatorstwo photography specialists from the Pompidou and one from the Gettyput this thorough and well-researched exhibition into play now. The times are ripe for a deepened appreciation of the role of photography in early to mid-twentieth-century art, particularly in relation to Surrealism, and it is now accepted that stylistic and material diversity in a larger oeuvre is not a negative. But most of all, there is a consensus, many years in the making, that women have been seriously underrepresented, that the history of modernism is not a closed book nor a zero-sum game, and that women need to be given their due. Maars well-deserved ascendance from obscurity to serious institutional acceptance does nothing to diminish the accomplishments of others, but rather gives added resonance to a period of great aesthetic, social, intellectual, and political interest, showing us in the process a very fine artist at work.

1 The ground for this retrospective was prepared by four smaller museum exhibitions that originated in Europe between 1997 and 2014. (See the Chronology section of Damarice Amao, Amanda Maddox, and Karolina Ziebinska-Lewandowska, eds, Dora Maar, Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2019, p. 191.) Previously, Maar was very much under the radar. When she died in 1997, her art was auctioned off, most of it in barely documented lots. The sale did generate a good deal of public interest, but only because it included several Picassos that Maar had owned.2 Having Jewish roots in France during the war put you at considerable risk. While Maar stayed in France with Picasso, her father returned to the safety of Buenos Aires shortly after France was occupied.3 Surrealist photographythat is, work that is Surrealist in itself rather than depicting Surrealist artoccupied a relatively small place in the movements major exhibitions, which concentrated on objects and paintings. Photography was more commonly included in publications connected to Surrealism. The current reevaluation of Surrealisms relation to photography started in earnest with Photographic Surrealism (1979) at the New Gallery (now the Museum) of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, and gathered momentum in the early 80s. Today it would be scarcely thinkable to have a broadly based Surrealist show without a sizable photographic presence.

This article appears under the title The Missing Surrealist in the February 2020 issue, pp. 4047.

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Dora Maars Surrealist Photography Eclipses Her Reputation as a Modernist Muse - ARTnews

Ever since the victory of Protestant Prussia over Catholic Austria at Kniggrtz (Sadowa) in 1866, there has been talk in conservative-Protestant and liberal circles in German territories of the ultramontanes, those people who were guided by forces beyond the Alps. My conservative grandfather also spoke like this, his meaning clear: a vom Hagen is Prussian and therefore Protestant.

I grew up in the 1970s and 80s in the Wrttemberg region in West Germany, where every old church is Protestant. The pastor came once a year to visit us for four oclock coffee and cake, and for confirmation we had to memorise Luthers 95 Theses. Only refugee families from Germanys old East, migrant workers, or a few folks from the Swabian Alb or the Black Forest were Catholic. There was no Catholic church in my town until the 1950s, and new Catholic churches were modern and ugly. Most of my classmates were Protestant, and Catholics seemed as foreign as Orthodox classmates from Greece or Muslims from Turkey.

At university at Lake Constance, I formed a close friendship with a fellow student who had attended a Jesuit boarding school in the Black Forest and enjoyed telling me about this mystical world in evenings over red wine. As a reserve officer, I was impressed by the strict discipline of the Jesuits that he described in his stories. A sign at the Konstanz Minster Square reminded us hikers that it was 2,340km to Santiago de Compostela the thought of such a journey excited us.

Yet it was during an internship in a provincial city of Gujarat that my Christian values became clear to me. To my surprise, I found that the deep sympathy I felt for the plight of the poor was not shared by the general Indian population. Only at one place were the beggars provided with alms a Catholic church. There, long queues of Hindu beggars would form each day. I must confess that I was almost shocked to discover my Christian values so abruptly.

Once I returned to Germany, I began attending church services regularly, but it was difficult to find a traditional Protestant congregation. Nonetheless, these services offered me time for reflection and transcendence, even if the sermons felt superficial and the communion wine was merely white grape juice.

Once I emigrated to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2006, I found a Lutheran congregation, which was comprised of parishioners with German ancestors as well as some who had come to Canada after the War. Unfortunately, however, the congregation was quite liberal. One evening, I attended a lecture by an Anglican priest at the local theological college. Afterwards we went to the pub, where I found myself more or less press-ganged into the local high church Anglican congregation. What a ceremonial world full of choral singing, bells and incense!

I was able to come to terms with the fact that the Queen was supreme governor of the Church of England, the mother church of the international Anglican Communion, as this particular congregation was founded in the 18th century by German immigrants. The Anglo-Catholicism maintained in that parish is a small movement within Anglicanism that has existed since the 19th century, when, under the leadership of John Keble, John Henry Newman and Edward Pusey, the Oxford Movement attempted to revive many of the Catholic beliefs and practices underlying Anglicanism.

Worship in this high-church parish familiarised me with the saints of the Western Church and Cranmers Book of Common Prayer. It also led to me to a soulmate. The evening before St Matthiass Day, a young woman named Tracy and I attended Evening Prayer and were afterwards invited home for dinner by the parish priest, who had become a friend. The following year we were married in a wedding service of more than two hours. Tracy had a doctorate in theology from St Andrews, Scotland, where she had become an Anglican, and so the secular year was for us increasingly determined by the church year and feast days in honour of the saints. We took part in retreats, and my theological interest was stirred.

After a few years my wife became gravely ill, and in 2016 she was given only six months to live. Tracy was an avid reader of National Geographic, and the December 2015 issue was devoted to the worldwide Marian apparitions and their associated pilgrimages. She was convinced that the Mother of God could also heal her. Our priest pointed out that there was a Marian shrine for Anglicans in an English village called Walsingham. The Virgin Mary had appeared there in 1061 and had asked for the replica of her birthplace (the Holy House) to be built next to the monastery. During the Reformation, both the monastery and Holy House were destroyed, but the Oxford Movement had made Walsingham a place of pilgrimage again.

Yet Tracy was too weak to make the arduous journey from Canada to England, and she died at the end of the summer of 2016. The grief threw me into turmoil for more than two years. Our friend, who had married us, was now in Oxford, where he was responsible for the Anglo-Catholic Pusey House. He invited me there, and I took the opportunity to go to Walsingham on behalf of my wife.

On the day I landed, I took the train from London to Norfolk. From there I made a pilgrimage by foot over two days on trails and along roads to the Marian shrine, where I arrived late at night. The Anglican priests celebrate the liturgy there three times a day, and a sacred spring rises directly under the shrine church, where a replica of the Holy House stands. Praying for Tracy in the midst of that holy village I felt the closeness of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a great lightness came over me. Our Lady of Walsingham ultimately healed me of the pain of my grief.

Back in Halifax, however, I became painfully aware that the devotion to Mary that can be found in Walsingham is largely an exception among Anglicans, even among Anglo-Catholics. The high church service became desolate to me, and when our congregation recommended a woman for ordination, I knew it was time to cross the Tiber to Rome.

I had discovered that a Franciscan order had been in existence in Halifax for over a dozen years, and its Franciscan sisters and friars make their home at a local parish. There I was offered a shortened Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) programme, which was led by a sister who oversaw my instruction in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

In the summer of 2019 I was received into the Catholic Church in front of the congregation. It may just be the Franciscans, but since joining the Romans, as they are termed by traditional Anglicans, such a cheerful world of devotion has opened up to me.

More than this, the rigour and significance of the seven sacraments has left a lasting impression on me. And at the same time, I feel a lightness that has its origins in my encounter with the Blessed Virgin Mary in Walsingham. She seems to be everywhere with her blessings, and nothing ever seems to happen merely by chance any more. In receiving her as a Mother, I finally found Jesus as a Brother: their love led me to take off the worldly armour I wore for so long and allow Her Son to enter my heart.

In this regard St Maximilian Kolbe used the title Immaculata for Mary. Her purifying role in Christs work of salvation is unique. Mary leads those who give themselves to Her to Jesus Christ. The Militia Immaculatae, a secular order founded by Fr Kolbe in 1917, therefore advocates that Christ be recognised again in the world, knowing that there is, as St Pius X said, no other more effective means against the evils of today than restoring the sovereignty of our Lord.

Crucifixes, rosaries and friars habits have an almost shocking effect on people in the West who consider themselves to be progressive and tolerant. To them such trappings are as irritating and alien as they once were in the German Empire over a hundred years ago. If, as a true conservative, one does not want to pay homage to the current hedonistic zeitgeist, one can but seek refuge and a new home in the Catholic Church.

So, ironically, liberalism must watch as its supposed triumph leads to a traditionalist regeneration of the Church. Many countries of the West are witnessing a small but brilliant and powerful Catholic renaissance. Devout Catholics are not like the broad masses, because they have a clear conception of man and adopt a coherent ethics based on faith in Jesus Christ. Under the banner of the Immaculata, they form a small but growing army, which survives even the greatest tests of our times and ultimately prevails against the supremacy of indifference, decadence and evil. As Mary predicted in Fatima, In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph!

This article first appeared in Die Tagespost and is printed here with permission

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Raised Lutheran, I found my way to Anglo-Catholicism before a final twist - Catholic Herald Online

When we were kids, if our parents didn't talk about what was happening to our bodies (many didn't) and our schools didn't teach about it (again, most didn't), then we were left to seek out information from either our friends or a textbook with a few clinical diagrams, and both the friends and the books seemed to evoke in equal parts disgust, fear, and confusion.

Fast-forward to parenthood in the 21st century. Our kids are managing all the same physiological and emotional byproducts of hormones that we contended with decades ago. But today they are simultaneously bombarded with images and messages that sexualize them to a degree we never experiencednor could we ever have imaginedwhen we were their age.

The new leaders of the body and sex-ed movement aren't looking to replace your voice in your child's head, though sometimes they may; rather, they just want to acknowledge what's happening under the hood. In doing so, they are able to meet our kids where they're (hormonally) at, jump-starting their education often well before we might recognize their thirst for it. But, for boys, in particular, this subgenre is more than informationalit releases conversations around puberty and sex into the zeitgeist, making it watershed.

Here are eight tips on how to talk to boys about sex:

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Raising Sons? Here Are 8 Ways To Teach Them About Sex, From A Pediatrician - mindbodygreen.com

There is such a distinct quality to 60s psychedelia. It has an instant know-it-when-you-hear-it type sound. Characterized by heavy, riff-based guitar work, distortion and fuzzy tones, the genre still endures today.

While bands like the 13th Floor Elevators, Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead expertly encapsulate the feeling, other relatively unknown bands if you consider a Spotify following of just over 91,000 unknown can have the same effect.

Enter Ultimate Spinach. Whether it be drugs, peace, love, anti-establishment or the like, bands of this era molded the original, and now ever-morphing culture of psych rock. Ultimate Spinach contributed to the mix with the release of their sophomore record, Behold and See, and over 50 years later, it still reverberates.

Ultimate Spinach was an American psychedelic rock band from Boston composed of members Ian Bruce-Douglas, Russell Levine, Richard Nese, Geoffrey Winthrop and Barbara Jean Hudson. The band formed back in 1967, right at the peak of psych rock, at the height of the Summer of Love and just two years shy of Woodstock. Impeccable timing, huh?

The record opens with the rich, vibrato-heavy voice of Hudson in Gilded Lamp of the Cosmos, eventually transitioning to that of Bruce-Douglas. It is a sensory overload as Frozen sounds cascade from your hands and Whispering fires envelope and tint everything that you see.

Behold and See only has eight tracks, but its overall message still gets across: prioritize the inner journey. This is most evident in track four, titled Mind Flowers.

Mind flowers/Pretty mind flowers/Take a trip to the center of your mind, the song opens.

As their most popular track, it boasts over 2.5 million streams on Spotify, a huge feat considering the remainder of their discography has never once surpassed the 1 million mark.

The Bosstown Sound, once a prolific and revered marketing campaign promoting psych rock bands in Boston, has since faded into the droning soundscape of psychedelias past. But a listen to Behold and See can quickly revitalize its significance.

The campaign harnessed the hallucinogenic essence of psychedelia, or acid rock, in order to drive the movement forward. While numerous bands were involved, Ultimate Spinach was at the helm.

While lacking the characteristic keyboard solos of their debut, self-titled album, the bands sound is still recognizable. As for the vital message of prioritizing the inner journey, the instructions for successfully embarking on it are quite vague.

And shouldnt you do some growing, go away/And dont come back until youve got something real to say/Because youre playing a game and baby life just aint that way, Bruce-Douglas sings in Where Youre At. So, what exactly constitutes what is real to say? And what is life, according to these standards?

Its confusing, but I will say, the explosion into the controlled chaos of drums and guitar suddenly makes it make sense, at least sonically.

Jazz Thing is also a notable track.

You come on strong, you need nobodys help/Its plain to see you just dont know yourself. Again, the band accuses listeners of lower planes of consciousness, vaguely urging exploration of what is beyond.

The song does end on a positive note, though.

You worked out all the tension inside your head/Because you found reality instead/Now theres peace within your love/At last you found what you were dreaming of.

Congratulations, youve found yourself! Although the transition from a lack of self-awareness to sudden self-awareness does not contain a step by step instruction manual, the song does emphasize what the ultimate goal is: peace and love.

While artists like this often try to take on the role of some sort of enlightened guru who has attained self-actualization, which can seem a little pretentious, there is some value embedded in the lyricism.

The 60s were a zeitgeist of the inward journey and counterculture, after all. Ultimate Spinach fed into the rapture of a significant cultural moment. And I think we have a pretty good idea of what exactly this ultimate spinach symbolizes.

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Ultimate Spinach's urging of the inner journey echoes 50 years later - Hilltop Views

Danez Smith was born into a devout Baptist household in St Paul, Minnesota. Smiths grandmother still lives there, in one of only two black households on a street that was mixed but is becoming increasingly white. Smith grew up, on this border between the blacker areas and the white middle-class enclaves of the city, as a black, queer, God-fearing child.

The future poet and spoken-word artist would listen to family members and friends telling stories on the porch, impressed by their way with words. The friends came and went but there was always one constant: church. Smith may have struggled to fit in among the congregation but Sunday morning meant worship, and more importantly a sermon. It was that rousing religious oration that opened up the world of writing and performance.

The first writing I ever loved was the Sunday sermon, Smith says when we meet in Manchester, ahead of a live performance. There are moments in a Baptist church when the pastor gets caught in the spirit I think thats what Im trying to do. I just have to get it out. Just let me get it out.

For the last decade Smith who is non-binary and uses the pronouns them/they has been letting the spirit take over. Three books of searing, brazenly queer and political poetry have made them one of the most discussed poets of their generation, and placed them at the vanguard of an African American movement that has seen spoken-word artists move from stages and backrooms to book deals and awards success.

Smiths 2014 debut, [insert] boy, marked the arrival of a new voice; their 2017 collection Dont Call Us Dead confronted issues that were raging in the US as the Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum, holding a mirror up to Americas racism and advocating urgently for change, while touching on Smiths own HIV diagnosis. It was a finalist for the National book award in the US, and at 29, Smith became the youngest ever winner of the Forward best collection prize, beating US poet laureate Tracy K Smith to take the top honour.

The poem dear white America became a viral sensation, with Smiths intense performance of it earning comparisons to Howl Allen Ginsbergs exasperated condemnation of the US in the 1950s.

i tried, white people. i tried to love you, but you spent my brothers funeral making plans for brunch, talking too loud next to his bones. you took one look at the river, plump with the body of boy after girl after sweet boi & ask why does it always have to be about race? because Jordan boomed. because Emmett whistled. because Huey P. spoke. because Martin preached. because black boys can always be too loud to live.

Dont Call Us Dead was a collection that spoke truth to white power and made Smith a literary star. But their new book Homie is different. This book does not care about white people, Smith says bluntly. Its about saying hello to the people of colour in the room, lets talk.

In person Smith is softly spoken and polite, carefully crafting each response, though still standing out in the hotel where we meet, with their basketball shoes, nose rings and Whitney Houston T-shirt a hint of the performer that lies beneath.

Maybe that was the thing with Dont Call Us Dead, it was a lot angrier with white people, Smith says. With Homie I stopped asking myself: What should I do with the white gaze? Because I realised I wasnt interested in it. I asked myself: Why am I spending so much time worried about this gaze? I think white people can learn a lot from the poems, but thats not who Im writing for.

I didnt want trauma porn. I dont think thats what I ever created but it was being used as that

That imagined reader is a specific group Smith calls Beloveds: the largely black and queer friends and acquaintances Homie addresses. Originally, the book was going to have poems named after black people killed by state-sanctioned violence, with a section about a friends suicide. The latter part stayed but Smith decided to make the titles and themes more personal. I was writing to friends, to family, to people I wanted to speak to. I had to shut off the idea that my poems are now being read by this wider audience. Im still invested in this intimate and small table: I can name the people that my poems are for.

Another reason for this more inward-looking perspective comes from Smiths struggle with writers block in the lead-up to the deadline for Homie. Theyd had bouts of it before but this was different the usual stimulants of exercise, sex or weed (Smith says they have a long-term relationship with marijuana) were useless. I was writing, but it was just all shit, says Smith, who put it down to the strain of living up to their newfound reputation. I felt a lot of pressure after Dont Call Us Dead was a thing. It meant a lot to people and it won awards, and as much as I like to say that stuff doesnt affect you, it does. Its great, its a confidence booster, but it also fucked with me for a while.

I was in my own head for a little bit, asking myself: What does it mean if my next book doesnt win the National book award or some big thing? I dont like that side of myself. I felt like I had been to the top of something. I had to come back and say: That is not at all why I started writing poems. Thats not why I still write poems.

The New Yorker said of Dont Call Us Dead that Smiths poems cant make history vanish, but they can contend against it with the force of a restorative imagination. That imagination was honed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where Smith studied before going on to form the Dark Noise Collective with other artists including Franny Choi, with whom Smith co-hosts the poetry podcast VS.

Today, Smith makes a living from book sales, touring and teaching in Minnesota, where they still live, but has struggled with the idea of making money from a book so expressly about black suffering. Youre doing the work because you want real change for your folks, but that also means capital gains for yourself. I felt I was profiting.

Dont Call Us Dead pigeonholed Smith as the person the media went to for angry black poems; an easy fix for white editors and publishers looking to tap into the zeitgeist. I want my work to be useful, says Smith. So it felt good to know a poem was good for healing and rage or whatever for my people. But it also felt really gross.

I couldnt write Dont Call Us Dead again, they add. There will always be America in the news and real black people will always be in my poems, but maybe thats why the focus of Homie is a lot more personal. I didnt want trauma porn and I worried about that. I dont think thats what I ever created but it was being used as that.

Homie is deeply moving and funny, with poems such as all the good dick lives in Brooklyn Park combining a story about a booty call with the tragic decline of a lover dying from an unnamed illness. But it is a step change from Smiths earlier work. With Homie, Smith decided to focus on the theme of friendship and what they refer to as a deep investigation of the n-word. That process starts from the very first page. A note says: This book was titled Homie because I dont want non-black people to say My Nig out loud. This book is really titled My Nig. If that doesnt hit home, the contents page will. Poems titled niggas!, shout out to my niggas in Mexico, white niggas, and an explicit quote from a Lil Wayne song make the point again. Its playful, provocative and serves as a kind of warning to those unprepared for what is about to come.

For Smith, it is important that Europeans include themselves in those conversations about race and language: not being a white American does not absolve European readers from the burden of racism. At readings in the UK and Europe, Smith often addresses the elephant in the room directly. I think that sometimes folks forget that, just because America seems to be the most proud of what it does to its black, brown and indigenous folks, Europe invented that shit and spread it, says Smith.

There was always this idea that Britain was done with racism but Meghan Markle left because you guys were racist

The poet has been coming to the UK for a decade, since being invited by Manchesters Contact theatre, which has always been on the cutting edge of queer culture. Over that time Smith has observed the hypocritical standards of the race debate in Britain. There was always this idea that racism was a thing that Britain was done with and had been for a long time, they say. But Meghan Markle is Canadian now. She convinced a whole prince to leave because you guys were racist. They tried to send all the Jamaicans back too. Look. You are still up to it. So its just to pull back from that moment and say: Hey, I might not be talking about your particular situation but you can find yourself a seat at the table.

Many of the column inches dedicated to Smith have concerned performance and identity: either their own or their works exploration of it. But Smith says they are fundamentally a formalist, who loves to geek out over sonnet crowns and voltas. In her New York Times review of Homie, critic Parul Sehgal identified a new form invented by Smith in the poem how many of us have them, called the dozen, whereby each stanza grows by one line until the final one, comprising 12 lines. Id like to invent or order up new adjectives to describe the startling originality and ambition of Smiths work, she wrote.

Does the general focus on Smiths identity rather than the work grate? That is the story of the black writer throughout time, says Smith. I think that is true but its not particular to me. Some reviewers, Smith argues, are so blinded by identity that they dont realise they are being marvelled by craft. They are connecting to the work, but they are having a different journey to someone who can understand the authors point of view.

With a more forgiving eye, there are ways in which all of us come at the work with whatever references we have because that is just what we know, Smith says. So there are people I have been compared to more canonical folks who I dont even know. I might have read a poem or two in school but I dont really bang heavies with whoever that might be. But there are ways in which other influences come to you. You might be a student of Whitman because one of your favourites really liked Whitman.

For Smith, the bigger crime is that too few reviewers are aware of many of the established poets who have been influences people such as Patricia Smith, Lucille Clifton and Amaud Jamaul Johnson. If your understanding of black radical art starts and ends with Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez, then you dont really know a lot of the archive. I think a lot of folks only know the canon, but there are so many canons to pull from, Smith says. All writers deserve that type of deep reading and seeing.

Danez Smith

lately has been a long timesays the girl from Pakistan, Lahore to be specificat the bus stop when the white manask her where shes from & thensays oh, you from Lahore?its pretty bad over there lately.

lately has been a long timeshe says & we look at each other & the look saysyes, i too wish dude would stopasking us about where we frombut on the other side of our side eyesis maybe a hand where hands do no gooda look to say, yes, i know lately has beena long time for your people too& im sorry the world is so good at makingus feel like we have to fight for spaceto fight for our lives

solidarity is a word, a lot of people say itim not sure what it means in the fleshi know i love & have cried for my friendstheir browns a different brown than mineive danced their dances when taught& tasted how their mothers miracle the ricedifferent than mine. i know sometimesi cant see beyond my own pain, past black& white, how bullets love any flesh.i know its foolish to compare.what advice do the drowned have for the burned?what gossip is there between the hanged & the buried?

& i want to reach across our great distancethat is sometimes an ocean & sometimes centimeters& say, look. your people, my people, all that has happenedto us & still make love under rusted moons, still pullchildren from the mothers & name themstill teach them to dance & your pain is not mine& is no less & is mine & i pray to my god your godblesses you with mercy & i have tasted your food & understandhow it is a good home & i dont know your languagebut i understand your songs & i cried when they camefor your uncles & when you buried your niecei wanted the world to burn in the childs brief memory& still, still, still, still, still, still, still, still, still& i have stood by you in the soft shawl of morningwaiting & breathing & waiting

From Homie, published by Chatto on 20 February.

More here:

Danez Smith: White people can learn from it, but thats not who Im writing for - The Guardian

For the past two weeks, the controversial and overhyped novel American Dirt topped The New York Times Best Sellers list, no doubt aided by the Oprah bump. On Jan. 21, Oprah Winfrey tweeted her choice for her book club's March read:

From the first sentence, I was IN. Like so many of us, I've read newspaper articles and watched television news stories and seen movies about the plight of families looking for a better life, but this story changed the way I see what it means to be a migrant in a whole new way.

I was opened, I was shook up, it woke me up, and I feel that everybody who reads this book is actually going to be immersed in the experience of what it means to be a migrant on the run for freedom. So I want you to read. Come read with us, and then join the conversation with Jeanine Cummins on Apple TV+ coming this March.

Within moments, the backlash that had been growing since December 2019, primarily on Latin@ social media and articulated by prominent Latin@ authors, hit the mainstream with justifiable indignation. At the heart of the responses are multi-layered arguments intersecting on questions of representation, especially when those being represented number among those made vulnerable by underrepresentation.

Author Jeanine Cummins intends for her novel to be a means for portraying the humanity of migrants by focusing on a created character in a fictionalized genre. In her author's note at the end of her almost 400-page tome she writes:

I hoped to present one of those unique personal stories a work of fiction as a way to honor the hundreds of thousands of stories we may never get to hear. And in doing so I hope to create a pause where the reader may begin to individuate.

Cummins' tale centers on Lydia, a bookstore owner in Acapulco married to a journalist, Sebastin. A woman of moderate means, who is also fluent in English, she flees her home with her young son Luca in the aftermath of the assassination of 16 members of her family at the hands of a drug cartel. Ostensibly, the hit appears related to the publication of her husband's expos naming the kingpin and crafting a psychological profile that describes Javier Crespo Fuentes as simultaneously not flashy or charismatic, enlightened yet merciless and delusional, "a thug who fancies himself a poet."

The thread that runs throughout the narrative is the non-innocent relationship between Lydia and Javier, a flirtation that matures into friendship and to an intimacy she had "seldom experienced outside of family." Later it is revealed that the suicide of Javier's beloved daughter Marta, who was studying in Barcelona, triggered the retaliation. Sebastin's article found its way into Marta's hands and the truth about her father was more than she could handle. Apparently besides having a wife (la reina de mi corazn) and a mistress (la reina de mis pantalones), Javier's true loves were his daughter and the bookseller (la reina de mi alma) he just met.

From my perspective, American Dirt is as much about Mxico and immigration as Mario Puzo's The Godfather is about Italian American culture and family. In some ways the plots bear a striking resemblance in that organized crime networks drive the storylines. Both authors attempt to generate sympathy for men who are ruthless yet oddly vulnerable. Both books center on an immigrant to the U.S. and depend on stereotypes. The fact that they share a character named Luca is probably a coincidence. In The Godfather, Luca is a brutal enforcer for the don, Vito Corleone.

Cummins seeks to challenge traditional stereotypes of migrants. I guess it could be said that this very atypical migrant accomplishes that goal while feeding into every other cultural and national stereotype available regarding Mxico in particular. Lydia and her story do not represent the complex, multinational, global, socioeconomic mess that is migration in all of its lived realities. Real people are struggling to survive on the threshold and in the shadows of a nation whose current administration lives out xenophobia and exclusion in rhetoric, enforcement, practice and policy. Their faces and stories are not reflected in these fabricated tribulations more suitable for a romance novel trading in what some critics have called trauma porn.

The violence that drives folks from home disproportionately impacts poor people and is more often than not intricately and historically connected to domestic and foreign policies generated by the U.S. Those fleeing threats of death from cartels are targeted arbitrarily or victimized and not because of casual romantic flirtations. Women running with children rarely have the benefit of available cash and fluent English. The trail of migrants and asylum-seekers travels to and through Latin America from across the globe. Curiously absent from this novel and from many popular portrayals of migrations are the faces and stories of the increasing flow ofblack migrants from Africaand the Caribbean, as well as the new majority from Central America.

In the summer of 2001, I visited a facility in El Paso, Texas, housing men and women detained for crossing or attempting to cross the border without proper documentation. These migrants and refugees were set off from the rest of the population, namely those incarcerated for criminal activity, by the color of their prison-issued clothing. Further sequestered in their company was a group of young Asian men, probably minors in their teens. Officials did not know what language they spoke and had no translators who did. They were captured, so the story went, by showing up and handing their coveted identification cards over to border patrol agents, expecting entry to the U.S. The problem was that these alleged official IDs were library cards procured, no doubt at great expense, from their coyotes, who had exploited their linguistic limitations.

My point here is to counter the claim of Cummins, which comes across as both ignorant and arrogant, that she began researching and writing this book four years ago, long before talk of walls and migrant invasions "entered the national zeitgeist." Thanks to cable television, syndicated radio, print publishers and the internet, we have been fed a steady diet of anti-immigrant and anti-Latin@ rants throughout the 21st century by the likes of such media darlings as Lou Dobbs, the newly knighted Rush Limbaugh, academics like Samuel Huntington and politicians like President Donald Trump. The first decade witnessed immigration battlegrounds like Hazelton, Pennsylvania; Farmingville, New York; and Postville, Iowa. Throughout this timeframe (and long before), Latin@ writers have responded: journalists, social scientists, scholars, authors of fiction, memoirs, plays, music and yes, even theologians and biblical scholars!

While Cummins acknowledges some of these Latin@ authors, many who themselves are immigrants, she still feels compelled to function as a bridge between a world she does not come from and "regular people like me." Her misrepresentation of that world cannot be reduced to a matter of skin color, wishing "someone slightly browner" than herself would emerge to fulfill this task. In fact, many across the pigment scale that complicates latinidad have committed their works to that task she even names some as her sources but somehow, she really doesn't listen perhaps because "regular people" need something more entertaining to move their hearts.

Oprah's endorsement plays right into this marketing hunch. Why does it take a fictional plight of a fictional atypical migrant set against the backdrop of unresolved sexual tension to shake up "regular people"? Why are the countless stories, faces, tears, separations, detainments, deportations and well over 9,000 actual deaths in the Sonoran Desert since 1994, communicated in real time by contemporary media, not enough to move "regular people" to feel? If the image of a father face down in a river with his little daughter's arm wrapped about him, or the countless videos of crying children in cages, or the litany of deceased children Darlyn Cristabel Cordova-Valle (age 10), Jakelin Caal Maquin (age 7), Felipe Gmez Alonzo (age 8), Wilmer Josu Ramrez Vsquez (age 2) Juan de Len Gutirrez (age 16), Carlos Hernandez Vasquez (age 16), Mariee Jurez (age 20 months) doesn't wake up "regular people," what the hell will? The imaginary life of English-competent Luca?

Or is it that "regular people" need suffering migrants that actually look and sound like them you know "regular" English-speaking, lighter skin, educated, preferably heterosexual, middle class or higher, in order to care enough to be opened?

Years ago in my book Theologizing en Espanglish, I coined the term ortho-proxy to explain the concept of "right representation." To "stand in" for another requires permission of sorts and an obligation to not confuse solidarity with sanction to usurp another's agency. Ortho-proxy does not assume voicelessness; rather it recognizes and responds to obstacles that might hinder or actively impede someone from speaking out or up. The responsibility to represent takes ethical care to avoid misrepresentation.

Fortunately, Latin@ authors have represented. A prominent pool of 141 writers sent a letter to Oprah requesting that she remove her imprimatur from the book, because "we believe that a novel blundering so badly in its depiction of marginalized, oppressed people should not be lifted up." This was not a call for censorship or silencing; rather it was a challenge to an influential colleague, and through other venues, to publishers and marketers, to place the work in perspective, a perspective that was clearly limited because those being represented were underrepresented in the publishing industry at every level. Ordinary Latin@s have also represented. Across social media platforms, readers posted critiques and recommendations of other books, mostly by authors who are immigrants and/or from underrepresented communities, books that didn't make Oprah's Book Club or The New York Times Best Seller list or the Kindles of "regular people."

All of these efforts elicited aresponse from the president and publisherof Flatiron Books, who was "surprised by the anger that has emerged from members of the Latinx and publishing communities." The letter acknowledged insensitivity and overreach on the part of the press in its publicity and promotion events, yet it could not resist framing the legitimate critiques in terms that appease white citizen fragility:

We are saddened that a work of fiction that was well-intentioned has led to such vitriolic rancor. While there are valid criticisms around our promotion of this book that is no excuse for the fact that in some cases there have been threats of physical violence.

For that reason, they canceled the book tour out of a concern for safety, yet they failed to substantiate the existence of any threats. The aggrieved were now misrepresented once again, this time as the potential perpetrators of imaginary violence because they dared to speak out.

Early in American Dirt Javier opines, in the context of a conversation about a book club, "sometimes the experience of reading can be corrupted by too many opinions." In light of the subsequent controversy surrounding this book, this somewhat innocuous observation seems to be more of a portent of things to come. Sometimes, however, the experience of writing can be corrupted by "well-intentioned" misrepresentation that results in erasure. From this experience a movement of politico-literary action, leadership and resistance has arisen under the hashtag #DignidadLiteraria, advocating for change in the publishing industry and questioning who gets to "host" the conversation and on what terms.

[Carmen M. Nanko-Fernndez is professor of Hispanic theology and ministry, and director of the Hispanic Theology and Ministry Program at Catholic Theological Union (CTU) in Chicago. The author ofTheologizing en Espanglish(Orbis), she is currently completingEl Santo?: Baseball and the Canonization of Roberto Clemente(Mercer University Press).]

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Good intentions, right representation and writing latinidad - National Catholic Reporter

There is a tradition in Shakespeare lore that Elizabeth I, upon seeing a performance of Henry IV, Part I, so enjoyed the comical John Falstaff that she requested another play be written in which Sir John would fall in love. But a request from the queen means Kindly have it done in fourteen days. This may or may not be true, but it would explain the thin plot of The Merry Wives of Windsor in which the bumptious Falstaff does indeed fall in love with the money of the husbands of the Merry Wives.

Sometimes you just have to let a thing be what it is. The Merry Wives is, at best, a rom-com in which the greedy would-be swain is humiliated, goes in for a second try, is humiliated worse, is found out, and eventually repents. There are plenty of laughs along the way with the requisite feel-good comeuppance.

In that regard, Folgers production (the last at this location while a two-year renovation gets underway) satisfies what you come for. A tip-top cast does their job with sparkling timing and well-placed buffoonery. Where things get a little far out is in the concept.

Director Aaron Posner has an earnest and well-intentioned theory behind setting Merry Wives in 1972. Something about the Womens Lib movement, the social energy of the times, the general zeitgeist, I suppose. He even imagines that the play tells a little uncomfortable truth in its exposure of mortals flagrant flaws. I must have missed that part in my puzzlement over Tony Ciseks 1959-era House Beautiful inspired set (loved the Mondrian color-changing windows, whatever the point), the late 60s slogans, and the mish-mash of costumes and styles ranging from early 60s to mid 70s. And while its true that in 1972 many folks were still too stoned to know what year it was, a bit more clarity in setting and purpose would have been welcome here.

Nevertheless, we would still have the fabulous Brian Mani making a rollicking, lusty Falstaff with or without the psychedelic tie-dye shirt encompassing his enormous belly - a feature that is almost a character in its own right, so prominently does it figure. Sir John dreams big, and his armor-plated ego persuades him that he can court two married women with the same love letter, thus winning their affections and access to their husbands funds.

Mistress Ford (Ami Brabson) and Mistress Page (Regina Aquino) play him for the big fish he is with complications authored by the suspicious husband, Ford (in a splendid performance by understudy Ryan Sellers). Fearing cuckolding more than death, poor Mr. Ford disguises himself as Brook, a hopeless suitor of the virtuous Mrs. Ford and pays Falstaff to try to seduce her in order to find out if she can, in fact, be led astray.

Meanwhile, three hopeful swains vie for the hand of their lovely daughter, Anne Page (Linda Bard). The aptly named Abraham Slender (Brian Reisman) woos in an outfit that, even by Sixties standards, should be burned. The sympathetic Fenton (Dante Robert Rossi, who also plays Nym) seems a likelier choice, but still has to contend with the fieriest, funniest Frenchman, he of the hot blood and ready sword, Dr. Caius. Cody Nickell is a treasure in this role and makes all that time and place confusion irrelevant, so wickedly funny is his every appearance.

As an assistant to Dr. Caius, Mistress Quickly (played by the inimitable Kate Eastwood Norris) is one perfectly groomed nurse right out of a 1964 yearbook, topped off with an every-hair-in-place blonde flip. Shes also warm, and droll, and burdened with other peoples messages which put her in the line of fire. Sir Hugh Evans (Todd Scofield) unwisely asks her to support Slenders love suit, a proposition which presages an invitation to duel from the choleric Dr. Caius. Be not alarmed. This is a comedy, so no one dies.

There are a few moments when servants or messengers run in and out with urgent news and cant seem to resist acting out Every. Single. Word. complete with hand gestures and full body exclamations. Its not necessary. We get the gist.

Never let it be said that Mr. Posner didnt want his cast to have fun. The energy crackles, and references to songs of the time were like raindrops falling on my head. The most shameless of all these side doors from the script is delivered by Ford (as Mr. Brook) wearing his very best Rolling Stones shirt and complaining that he cant get no satisfaction. I blush to report it.

Trying to relate this two hours of whimsy to an era best remembered for demonstrations, civil rights marches, sit-ins, paisley bell-bottoms and horrified parents is iffy at best; the comic potential is realized, but the connection is a strain.

Maggie Lawrence is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association. She is a retired English and drama teacher.

WANT TO GO?

What: The Merry Wives of Windsor By Wm. Shakespeare

Where: Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 E. Capitol St. SE, Washington, D. C.

Call: (202) 544-7077 or visitwww.folger.edu/theatre

Playing through March 1

Original post:

CURTAIN CALLS: 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' Feelin' Groovy - Inside NoVA

One of the most popular aspects of Netflixs incredibly popular fantasy series The Witcher is its viral hit song, Toss a Coin to Your Witcher. Sung by a troubadour named Jaskier in the shows second episode, the song has been earworming its way through the zeitgeist, expanding well beyond the reach of the show since it debuted on December 20.

Last week, after a strangely long delay, the song finally became available on Spotify and other streaming services, where it quickly drew attention for its catchy chorus and quirky lyrics all over again.

Even though its mostly a piece of lyrical nonsense based on the events of the shows second episode, Toss a Coin to Your Witcher has amassed legions of fans. In the month since it premiered, in fact, no fewer than four versions of it three different metal covers of the song, as well as the original soundtrack version have all charted in the UK. On YouTube, where all current uploads of the soundtrack are unofficial, the four most-watched versions of the song have a combined view count of more than 40 million.

If youve heard Toss a Coin to Your Witcher, youll know that its something of a many-headed hydra. The song has aspects of medieval instrumentation and classical song structure, as you might expect for a song appearing in a medieval fantasy show. But its also replete with pop movement and rhythm, and even has a dollop of musical theater stylization.

One reason for this jumble of influences is that the songs composers, Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli, wanted to reflect the fusion of genres and aesthetic influences that comprise The Witcher itself. The show is based on a popular book series that later inspired a hit fantasy video game series, so its got a distinctive, game-influenced aesthetic but its also channeling everything from the epic feel of Game of Thrones to the tongue-in-cheek musical parody Galavant.

I confess that upon first hearing Toss a Coin to Your Witcher, I really, really didnt understand the appeal. In fact, I was jarred by the songs many discordant elements. So I decided to talk it over with Charlie Harding, a musicologist and co-host of Voxs Switched on Pop podcast, to get a sense of why so many people were so infatuated with this strange tune. And through our discussion, I realized that the parts of the song I was most baffled by actually were the key to its appeal.

At a glance, Toss a Coin is trying to have its cake and eat it: that is, it wants to be both an earnest song that fits diegetically within its weird fictional universe and a catchy meta-pop song. Its presentation is deeply earnest and straightforward, with actor Joey Batey singing along to an orchestral accompaniment that gets more and more sweepingly dramatic.

But its also replete with syncopation: Its words land on the off-beats, and it uses rhythms that didnt really exist in the historical medieval culture its attempting to channel. And in keeping with the scores of video games, where big, synthesized drum sections are a common feature, it also has a percussion-heavy backing track. Its the kind of thing you might expect to hear in a fantasy game soundtrack right when the fighting gets good but that isnt exactly what you might expect to hear from a song set within that game universes story.

Not only that, but the lyrics are deliberately tongue-in-cheek, with lines like he cant be bleat (a goat-related pun) and he thrust every elf far back on the shelf, a meta-joke that completely breaks the fourth wall.

Theres something almost like [an] uncanny valley in the way that [the song] borrows so fluidly between different styles that we expect to exist in very different media, like video games, musical pop, Renaissance music, all blurred together, Harding said. He pointed out that Batey also uses a style of singing thats closer to musical theater than to a folk/troubadour sound, which further creates a sense of disconnect between the songs many different elements.

Compare all this to a song like Game of Thrones The Rains of Castamere, which keeps to a clear folk aesthetic, both lyrically and musically: Its simple, using few instruments, with a naturalistic singer and a song that feels very balladic. The official soundtrack version of Rains of Castamere was also recorded by the well-known indie rock band the National, whose gritty folk influences naturally complement Game of Thrones aesthetic. So between the band and the show itself, there was an established milieu for how to hear the song. With a more hybrid-genre show like Witcher, that milieu doesnt quite exist.

Harding explains that these discordant elements are part of Toss a Coins basic appeal. I think its drawing on people who love video game scores and anybody thats played [something] like Diablo or World of Warcraft: Kings, he told me. The backing tracks of those games are all pseudo-medieval but are also very much contemporary music. ... And that sound has become the sound of any sort of video game music.

Harding told me the popularity of Toss a Coin to Your Witcher actually illustrates a larger point about pop culture which is that what we think of as pop music is in fact much, much larger than just whats topping Billboard at any given moment.

A lot of people will say all pop music sounds the same, and that usually whats happening on the Billboard [charts] will be the dominant sound currently, that sound would be trap music, he told me. But I actually believe that what is in the popular zeitgeist at any given moment is much broader, and includes whats happening in film scores, whats happening in video game music, whats happening with musicals.

We are comfortable with very different kinds of music given the context and space in which theyre played, Harding added. By experimenting with the boundaries between various musical genres and aesthetics, he explained, Toss a Coin to Your Witcher plays with the idea that were all comfortable with radically different musical styles given different contexts.

By playing with the context of all these different musical genres, and combining them with a catchy hook, Harding said, Toss a Coin ultimately becomes something you might stream in the background of your day.

The success of Toss a Coin also owes a lot to a genre you might not expect: musical theater. In fact, Toss a Coin is perhaps best thought of as a musical theater number because like many musicals, The Witcher employs a conceit in which the time period of its setting and the style of the production itself dont need to align.

Like when you listen to Grease, Harding noted. Grease is also not 1950s music.

Every musical has its own aesthetic rules that it needs to adhere to, and then it uses allusions to other styles to evoke another period, he explained. Like Phantom of the Opera evokes a baroque quality, even though it is thoroughly a contemporary 80s musical.

Toss a Coin also predominantly uses a traditional harmonic chord progression from the world of classical music. At the songs climax, around the words a friend of humanity, the song shifts to what musicians call a perfect cadence. Thats when a cadential chord progression emphasizes its crucial dominant chord a chord built from the fifth note in a typical scale before resolving to its home chord, or tonic chord. It sounds like this:

When we hear a dominant chord played in this context, our ears naturally want that chord to resolve back to the tonic chord, which is the root chord of the key. The power of the dominant chord and our need for it to resolve creates a progression of buildup, tension, and release.

When that cadence happens in a song thats written in a minor key, like Toss a Coin to Your Witcher, the effect is one of incredibly dramatic suspense. (In fact, such chords are often called suspended chords if they dont immediately get resolved.) Toss a Coin to Your Witcher all but overemphasizes its dominant chord. The result is a sound that not only creates high drama for the listener but also recalls the idea of a more classical structure. It adds a sense of tradition and even loftiness to the whole song, in keeping with the musical theater vibe.

And most importantly, Harding told me, that extra drama gives listeners the freedom to be sentimental a freedom pop music often denies them. It has this very revelrous sort of quality to it, he said. And I think that is the magical thing that musicals still allow for. In pop music, sentimentality is so scorned. Musicals, however, allow for embracing heightened emotions: They give you permission to wave your fist in the air.

So the next time you listen to Toss a Coin to Your Witcher, and you feel like joining the heightened revelry, you can participate with full awareness of what the song gets right and how the joy you get from hitting replay is really about so much more than just a catchy hook.

Read more:

Toss a Coin to Your Witcher, explained by a songwriter - Vox.com

What exciting trends are happening in the matrimonial sector?Kara, by email

A thrilling new trend has emerged, and its as seismic as the New Look was in 40s fashion, or the emergence of Mediterranean cooking in 90s Britain: its called being a housewife.

Now you might think: Ummm, that doesnt sound THAT new to me. But all fashion trends are rehashes, and tradwife, as this one is dubbed, is housewife with a social media spin. Its like bringing back 90s style, but swapping that brown eyeliner for contouring makeup. Its just so much more zeitgeist, you see?

So a tradwife is a woman who doesnt work so as to look after their children, their husband, their home and then talk non-stop about how great this is on social media. Who knew being so traditional was also so modern? And so busy! Last week alone, there were interviews with tradwives in the Daily Mail, the Times and on the BBC, This Morning, Victoria Derbyshire and, for all I know, piped 24/7 across all channels. Im afraid that being both non-trad and a non-wife I am less plugged in than these women.

But I was especially taken with one trad wife. Her name is Alena Kate Pettitt, and in between showing TV crews how she lovingly irons her husbands shirt and shops for onions, Pettitt runs something called the Darling Academy, which is a newsletter and YouTube channel that celebrates British etiquette. Initially, I assumed this meant reviving all that mad Nancy Mitford U and non-U stuff, and, let me tell you, as an American wannabe snob, I am VERY down with that. But no, Pettitt is harnessing the best of what made Britain great, during that time when you could leave your front door open and know that you were safe, and you knew your strangers in the street.

Mmm, isnt it funny how whenever people evoke a specific time when Britain was great, the time they invariably evoke is their own childhood before they were aware of the pressures and anxieties of adulthood? And Ill be honest, every times Pettitt talks about her husband taking care of her, and that is pretty much her No 1 subject, she sounds more like shes talking about her father than her husband.

The tradwives have been keenly giving interviews about how they are the true feminists in choosing not to work, to which anyone with a modicum of knowledge about feminism would say: We gave women the choice thats the point! Bake banana bread until the sun comes up, if it makes you happy! Whether they are still the true feminists in suggesting that husbands must always come first if you want a happy marriage, as Pettitt has tweeted, feels more debatable. Also unacknowledged is that, as much as the tradwives think they are being renegade rebels by not working, their rebellion is based on their husband earning enough to support a whole household. Whoa there, little rebels!

But this isnt actually about fighting the system: this is about women fighting against their own insecurities about their lives. And because of these insecurities, they then insist they are the oppressed ones, the brave speakers of truth. In other words, its another pointless culture war to chuck on the teetering pile in between Spiked Online and Laurence Fox.

And its also about something else. Rather awkwardly for the British tradwives who like to suggest their movement is just about dressing in Cath Kidston and letting their husband choose where they are going on holiday in the US and elsewhere it is very much part of the alt-right movement. It is especially popular among white supremacists, who are extremely down with the message that white women should submit to their husband and focus on making as many white babies as possible. British tradwives insist this has nothing to do with them: Someone even said, this type of housewife was promoted by the Third Reich. And its like: Really?! I didnt even know that! Pettitt told the BBC, sitting underneath her union jack bunting, musing about how we dont even know the identity of our country right now.

Now look, clearly being a happy housewife does not mean you are a Nazi. But also, maybe its time to dial down a notch, tradwives, for your own sake? After all, if youre constantly posting videos to YouTube about how to press your husbands clothes, and talking to Phillip and Holly about how you love to flirt with your husband, how do you have time to do any tradwife-ing?

Read this article:

Tradwives: the new trend for submissive women has a dark heart and history - The Guardian

NEW YORK and CHICAGO, Jan. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Wilson Sporting Goods, the luxury travel and accessories brand, MCM Worldwide, and the National Football League (NFL) unveiled today a new collector's edition football exclusive for Super Bowl LIV in Miami, FL. This is the third product drop to emerge from the Wilson and MCM partnership, which started in 2018, and the collaboration's second limited-edition football with the NFL.

At the nexus of fashion and sport, Wilson, MCM Worldwide, and the NFL created a Limonta gold football to celebrate the 100th anniversary of professional football. Three panels of the football feature MCM's iconic Visetos design, and the main panel features the Wilson script logo and NFL's 100-year season logo. The ball is finished with sleek black laces.

"Our partnership with MCM celebrates the cultural phenomenon and energy of the sports lifestyle movement," said Amanda Lamb, Wilson's Global Marketing Director of Team Sports. "For Super Bowl LIV, we wanted to create a football that brought together the very best of Wilson, MCM, and the League. The result is a ball that is unlike anything football and fashion fans have seen before, and that celebrates the 100th anniversary of the game in style."

"We are excited to see our partnership with Wilson continue to evolve. This year we set out to create a truly unique, limited, collector's football to commemorate the NFL's 100th anniversary, and the result has exceeded expectations again," said Patrick Valeo, President of MCM Americas. "Sports and Football have created a natural platform for players to express their personal style and MCM is honored to have so many athletes representing and supporting the brand on and off the field."

The gold Wilson x MCM x NFL football debuts today at MCM's new Miami store. This limited-edition ball is also available on http://www.mcmworldwide.com. Wilson will feature this collector's edition football in its retail and experiential space within the NFL Experience at the Miami Beach Convention Center and on http://www.wilson.com. The ball retails for $349.99 (USD).

ABOUT WILSON SPORTING GOODS CO.

Chicago-based Wilson Sporting Goods Co., a subsidiary of Amer Sports, is the world's leading manufacturer of sports equipment, apparel, and accessories. As the official football of the NFL, the College Football Playoff, and more high school and youth teams than any other company, Wilson is the undisputed performance leader in football. Through its dedication to creating products that enable athletes at every level to perform at their best, Wilson has earned its place as a leader in sporting goods for over a century.

About MCM (Modern Creation Munchen)

MCM is a luxury lifestyle goods and accessories brand founded in 1976 with an attitude defined by the cultural Zeitgeist and its German heritage with a focus on functional innovation, including the use of cutting edge techniques. Today, through its association with music, art, travel and technology, MCM embodies the bold, rebellious and aspirational. Always with an eye on the disruptive, the driving force behind MCM centers on revolutionizing classic design with futuristic materials. Appealing to the 21st Century Global Nomad generation - dreamers, creatives and digital natives - MCM's millennial and Gen Z audience is genderless, ageless, empowered and unconstrained by rules and boundaries.

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MCM is currently distributed in 650 stores worldwide including Munich, Berlin, Zurich, London, Paris, New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo, Middle East and more. For further information about MCM: http://www.mcmworldwide.com.

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SOURCE Wilson Sporting Goods Co.

Continued here:

Wilson Sporting Goods, MCM Worldwide, And The NFL Team Up To Create Exclusive Collector's Edition Football For Super Bowl LIV - Yahoo Sports

Helen Frankenthaler in her East 83rd Street and Third Avenue studio, New York, April 1964 ( J. Paul Getty Trust)

As the womens march headed into its forth year this month and recent exhibitions like Abortion Is Normal seize the zeitgeist of our current political moment, a chorus of female voices seems to be setting a defiant note for 2020. A new podcast produced by the Getty gives us the chance to listen to six iconic female artists from the 20th century: Alice Neel, Lee Krasner, Betye Saar, Helen Frankenthaler, Yoko Ono, and Eva Hesse. But as the episodes of the podcast, titled Recording Artists: Radical Women, progress, we quickly recognize a common thread of struggle in the stories of these artists.

Each of the artists featured in the podcast, hosted by the historian and curator Helen Molesworth, holds a significant yet disparate role in the history of contemporary art. Though the podcast struggles with the fact that many of these women are remembered in part because of the men they dated or married a roster that includes Jackson Pollack, Robert Motherwell, Clement Greenberg, John Lennon, and Tom Doyle the narrative of individual choice found in Radical Women contributes to its relatability today. Every feminist wave has been forced to confront the myriad of social restraints, requirements, and contradictions inherent in definitions of autonomy.

Even today, it remains extremely difficult for women to tell their own stories, and Radical Women is so compelling because much of its narrative comes from rare interviews with the artists themselves. For the podcast, Molesworth delved into the archives of the Getty Research Institute to highlight and curate a series of artist conversations recorded in the 1960s and 70s with historians Cindy Nemser and Barbara Rose. These interviews reflect a time when art and the country itself were in a state of flux, caught between the new feminist wave and an art world too comfortable devaluing female artists. The podcast is part revelation for the remarkable insight it provides, and part affirmation, as these six women recount all too familiar experiences as female artists.

Alice Neel, with her curmudgeonly tone and self-effacing humor, kicks off the series by saying, My mother used to say to me, I dont know what you expect to do, youre onlya girl. The oldest of the artists covered in the series, Neel was born at the turn of the century, and is celebrated today for her unapologetically honest portraits of friends, family, neighbors, and herself. Rebellious in the face of Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, and Conceptual Art, Neel was committed to her figurative work, painting feminist subjects while utterly rejecting the idea that feminism or sex had anything to do with her painting.

I dont think the quality of being a good teacher or good artist has anything to do with sex. I think its just objective. You either are or you arent, she explains to Cindy Nemser in 1975. A common theme throughout the episodes is the hesitation these women felt at being described as female artists. Helen Frankenthaler also refuted the question of gender and the role it played in her work, mainly large-scale, colorful paintings made with her signature technique of pouring and staining. Writing to Nemser in 1970, Frankenthaler states, I am concerned primarily with Painting and not Painting by Women.

One of the more complicated and enlightening episodes seeks to reconcile Lee Krasners contributions as a first-wave Abstract Expressionist with her role as the wife and widow of Jackson Pollock. While understanding Krasner exclusively in her own right is admittedly very difficult in retrospect, the discussion around her artistic autonomy is undeniably relevant. But if you remember, my whole background is one where I dont have encouragement right from the beginning, she tells Rose.

Yoko Ono struggles with a similar story as both an artist associated with Fluxus and the avant-garde, as well as the wife and widow of John Lennon. Twelve years old when the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Onocreated event scores like Grapefruit and performance pieces that were deeply inspired by both feminism and her pacifist ideology. In Cut Piece, first staged in 1964,Ono invited audience members to cut and keep a piece of her best suit with a pair of scissors as she sat perfectly still onstage,referencing her memories of war and refugees as well as the complicated dynamics of power and gender. At the preview for her solo exhibition at MoMA in 2015, I remember Ono telling a room full of young art writers to continue working even when it seems like no one will ever notice.

At 93, Betye Saar has become an icon, with a recent exhibition at MoMAand an ongoing show at LACMA, and yet her episode begins with a confession. It took a long time, even for me to say, I am an artist, she tells Nemser in 1975. An overlooked figure in many art history textbooks, the episode focusing on Saar highlights the role of Black artists during the Civil Rights movement and the Los Angeles community they created during the 1970s. Working with found objects and assemblage, Saar collected items imbued with racist imagery and mixed them together with personal snapshots and mystical talismans to create charged readymades.

The final episode in the series focuses on Eva Hesse, whose exciting artistic career was cut short by a tragic brain tumor at the age of 34. The episode uses an interview she gave with Nemser in 1970 just a few months before her death. With her work on endless rotation in the Chelsea galleries today, this was perhaps my favorite episode, as it frames Hesses quiet, thoughtful musings against her bold, almost affronting sculptures. All I wanted was to find my own scene, Hesse tells Nemser, my own world, my own inner peace or inner turmoil; but I wanted it to be mine.

In her conclusion to the podcast series,Molesworth states that the problem with being a female artist is that it both doesnt matter and it means everything at the same time, and that sentiment can be traced throughout the entire series. There is something unprecedented about hearing these women tell their own stories and something deeply saddening about the stories themselves. Perhaps, taking advice from the artists, the work they created and continue to create is a better way to understand the world as they experienced it, as it both personified and defied their era and expectations around their gender. As Eve Hesse states, the way to beat discrimination in art is by art. Excellence has no sex.

Recording Artists: Radical Women is available on the Getty website and other streaming services.

Read the original here:

A Podcast on Radical Women Unearths Rare Interviews With Alice Neel, Betye Saar, and More - Hyperallergic

In a multi-storey car park in the centre of Brighton, Peter Willcocks on hand in a hi-vis jacket in case any motorists needed assistance had two short words in response to the councils plan to create a car-free zone by 2023.

Its crap, he said. This is a seaside town, it relies on visitors. If they ban cars, people wont come. It will really damage the towns economy. The car park was always busy, he added, although he personally hadnt driven a car for 25 years, preferring to use the excellent buses.

Traffic in Brighton was a big problem, said Victor Ribadulla, who drives his pizza trailer to the station forecourt every morning. There was no other way for him to run his business, he said: Of course I worry about pollution. But there are just so many things to worry about. Maybe the ban is a good idea who knows?

Brighton and Hove council hopes to give Ribadulla an answer by commissioning a major study on the impact of a car-free city centre. Last week, Labour, Green and Conservative councillors unanimously backed the measure proposed by their youngest colleague, 24-year-old Amy Heley.

It is the latest in a wave of initiatives over the past year by councils around the UK to cut congestion and air pollution, and to reclaim urban areas for pedestrians and cyclists. The trend has led some transport analysts to argue that the 2020s could herald an end to the supremacy of the motor car in the minds of the public and planners.

This month, Birmingham announced proposals to ban motorists from driving through the centre an extraordinary move from a conurbation which gave the world the phrase spaghetti junction to describe its complicated interchange of roads and flyovers and the ancient city of York said it planned to ban private vehicles within its medieval walls within three years.

Earlier initiatives from Bristol, Edinburgh and Manchester, among other places, include designating certain days as car-free, banning diesel vehicles, blocking off zones to traffic for certain hours of the day and imposing charges. There is no consensus we are in a time of experiments as we redefine what is important to our lives in cities and towns, said Peter Jones, professor of transport and sustainable development at University College London.

At a micro-level, a change in public mood is also evident. Last year, Walton Street in Oxford, a rat run for city drivers, was closed for repairs. Now, after some residents reported improvements in air quality, safety and noise, the council is consulting on whether to make the closure permanent. Hammersmith Bridge in west London was closed to vehicles indefinitely last April after critical faults were discovered. Instead of spending funds estimated at up to 120m on repairing the problems, some locals are campaigning for a pedestrian and cyclist-friendly garden bridge.

Many councils considering curbs on traffic are seeking ways to fulfil pledges to become carbon neutral against a backdrop of rising anxiety about the climate crisis and demands for action on individual, local, national and global levels.

There arent a huge amount of things a local authority can actually do but transport policy is one of the few areas where they have discretion, said Tim Schwanen, director of the transport studies unit at Oxford Universitys school of geography and the environment.

And, in terms of air quality hotspots, this kind of intervention really does have an effect. From a carbon point of view, its largely symbolic rather than making a material difference. But it may be a first step in helping to shift opinion.

The new trend was the beginning of a wider realisation of the folly of allowing free rein to the motor car in cities and towns, according to Christian Wolmar, a writer and broadcaster specialising in transport. At the beginning of the last century, cars were fairly marginal but by the 1920s they became dominant. Transport policy for the next 50 years was entirely oriented towards the facilitation of the movement of cars. Cycling was wiped out and pedestrians were mown down in their hundreds. Obstructing the highway became a criminal offence. Planners designed town centres around the car, incorporating ring roads and urban motorways, he said.

There was a turning point in the 1970s, when the newly formed Greater London council killed off a proposal for a motorway ring road inside London. We started to see bus lanes, traffic wardens, 20mph zones and the congestion charge in London. Now there is a zeitgeist around climate change and healthier living. Were winning some battles and losing others. But the war is still going on, Wolmar said.

The battles may be helped by a generational shift in attitudes. There are studies which show that millennials and Generation Z have shifted away from car use and car ownership, to the extent that some dont bother getting a driving licence, said Schwanen. Heley, the Green party Brighton councillor, said her peer group did not rely on cars: We cant afford them.

Some say that future generations will find it incomprehensible that individuals were once permitted to drive private cars into urban centres at will, just as todays young people are horrified that their parents could once smoke cigarettes on planes and in cinemas and restaurants.

But the issues are combustible, according to Schwanen: I often tell local politicians: if you want to kill your career, reduce parking. Transport is politically charged and while we are seeing an acceleration in plans and proposals, it will be even more interesting to see what actually gets implemented.

Developing such plans in a fast-changing society is challenging. Should private hire vehicles such as Uber be exempt? What about the growing number of delivery vehicles, bringing groceries and other goods to our front doors? Are electric cars permissible? Do car-free zones simply displace traffic elsewhere?

London pioneered the trend in the UK with the introduction of the congestion charge in 2003 and the ultra-low emission zone last year. Without doubt, were still leading the way in the UK, but its great to see this becoming a national conversation, said Will Norman, the capitals walking and cycling commissioner. For too long, London has been an outlier on this, but now other cities are stepping up. Central government now needs to catch up with what local authorities are doing.

In Brighton, Heley is delighted at the move towards a car-free city centre. Air pollution here is similar to central London. The seafront is like a motorway. And yet lots of young families move to Brighton because they want cleaner air beside the sea. I was sitting in meetings thinking, were talking about becoming net zero by 2030 but how are we actually going to achieve it unless we start doing things. I saw what other cities were doing and I thought, what are we waiting for?

Brighton, a city with a strong radical, green image, and the countrys only Green MP, should be at the forefront, but is actually behind a lot of UK cities its quite embarrassing. There would be a just transition to car-free, Heley added: Its not about shaming or punishing people. Measures such as park-and-ride schemes, cheaper bus fares and charging points for electric cars were needed alongside a ban.

Schwanen warned against a kickback if driving became woven into wider cultural wars such as those over veganism and flight-shaming. But Wolmar said that the British public was capable of big shifts in social attitudes look at smoking and gay marriage.

Everyone who works in transport policy knows what needs to be done. But you need the zeitgeist to change. And now it is changing.

Birmingham

The UKs largest council announced plans this month to ban private vehicles from driving through the city centre. Motorists would still be able to drive into the city, but would be prevented from crossing the city in a move to tackle air pollution and prioritise cycling, walking and public transport. Other measures include introducing car-sharing and 20mph limit in the city centre. The council has said that road transport accounts for a third of CO2 emissions in Birmingham.

York

The historic city aims to ban all non-essential private car journeys inside its medieval walls within three years to cut carbon emissions. Disabled drivers would be exempt. Many streets around the minster, above, are already pedestrianised. The city, which attracts almost 7 million tourists each year, aims to become carbon neutral by 2030.

Edinburgh

The Scottish capital is in the midst of an 18-month trial during which city centre streets are closed to traffic for several hours on the first Sunday of every month. It was the first UK city to join the Open Streets initiative to combat air pollution and reclaim city centres for pedestrians and cyclists.

Bristol

The city will become the first in the UK to ban privately owned diesel cars from its streets next year. It will prohibit such vehicles from entering a central zone from 7am until 3pm, or incur a fine. Taxis and emergency services will be exempt, and commercial vehicles will have to pay to enter the area.

Oxford

The city and county councils have proposed the UKs first zero emission zone in the city centre. Drivers of diesel and petrol vehicles will be charged 10 a day to enter the zone, increasing to 20 in December 2024. The penalty for not paying the charge will be 120. People living inside the zone will pay a discounted rate of 10%.

Glasgow

The city council has proposed limiting private vehicle access to George Square. Under the plans to be debated this week, two sides of the famous city centre plaza would be pedestrianised, and the other two restricted to public transport and cyclists.

Manchester

Mayor Andy Burnham and cycling and walking commissioner Chris Boardman have launched a five-year plan to increase daily walking trips by a third and double and double again cycling journeys by 2025. This isnt just about switching from cars to bikes and cutting harmful emissions its also about what we want our towns and cities to look like, and how we look after our public spaces, Burnham said last week.

Portsmouth

Plans have been unveiled for the UKs first car-free community. Planning permission has been sought for a new neighbourhood of 4,000 homes on the eastern side of Portsmouth harbour, with streets dedicated to pedestrians and cyclists, and vehicles confined to a vast underground car park. Portsmouth city council, which is backing the development, said it could be a beacon for the whole of Portsmouth and the rest of the country.

Cardiff

The city is planning to charge non-residents 2 to drive into the centre as part of 2bn transport vision to reduce congestion and improve air quality. Other measures include new tram/train routes, new park-and-ride sites, cheaper bus fares, more walking and cycling routes and an electric bike pilot scheme.

London

The capital pioneered the congestion charge in 2003 and it is now one of the largest in the world. In 2019 it introduced the 24-hour ultra-low emission zone, which will expand to cover all of Greater London next year. More than 27km of roads were closed on its annual car-free day last year. Mayor Sadiq Khan has said he wants 80% of all journeys in the capital to be made by walking, cycling or public transport by 2041, compared with 63% now.

Original post:

Brighton, Bristol, York ... city centres signal the end of the road for cars - The Guardian

American Dirt is already shaping up to be one of the books of 2020. By setting out to humanise the plight of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border, author Jeanine Cummins has opened up a dialogue that has the potential to shape how people will vote in what promises to be a brutal Presidential election.

Timing is everything. American Dirt is Jeanine Cummins fourth novel and it has struck a chord like nothing she has ever written before.

In 2013, when I decided to write a book about migrants, I didnt expect people to care so deeply, Jeanine explains. That was way before the issue was in the national zeitgeist. But even since its become a hot button issue, the conversation tends to be incredibly superficial in the U.S. I didnt know if a novel about migrants would resonate so its tremendously gratifying to see the response. Resonate is putting it mildly. American Dirt has been greeted with international acclaim, including rave reviews from literary giants like Stephen King and Don Winslow. Lauded as a Grapes Of Wrath for the modern age, the gripping novel follows a middle-class Mexican woman and her son, who find themselves on the migrant trail to the US border, after surviving a massacre carried out by a local drug cartel.

Cummins begins the book with a letter to the reader. In 2017, a migrant died every twenty-one hours along the United States-Mexico border. That number does not include the many migrants who simply disappear each year. It is a shocking revelation. But, she adds, statistics cannot conjure individual human beings.

By telling the compelling story of mother-and-son protagonists Lydia and Luca, Cummins aims to humanise the migrant crisis for middle American readers. These characters happen to be Mexican and Central American, but the whole point of the book is that they could be anyone, she tells me. They could be from Syria or California or Australia. We could all find ourselves in Lydias shoes in these uncertain times.

Cummins observes that the conversation about immigration has been marked by a singular lack of humanity. Even in 2013, before Trump and the resurgence of casual racism, I had this sense of growing unease about how Latino people, and specifically Latino migrants, were being portrayed in the media and popular culture, she explains. "On the right, theres this insane caricature of the violent mob, like the narcos we see on Netflix scary people who are coming here to deal drugs, rape our women and steal our healthcare. Then, on the left, theres this equally simplistic and unrealistic characterisation of migrants as these impoverished, illiterate, rural people who need us to save them, because we have this saviour complex on the left. In neither narrative are we recognising that theyre actually just people. I felt there was an opening there to speak to the hearts of people, and remind them that migrants are just like them, she continues. They love their kids too.

The inspiration for the book came, in part at least, from personal experience. Jeanines husband, an Irish immigrant, lived undocumented in the US for years before they married. She is well aware that his experience was incredibly different to, and more privileged than, what people from Honduras or Guatemala, riding La Bestia (a treacherous migrant train journey) have to endure. But still...

He endured a decade of this terrifying situation of living as an undocumented person, she says. But he was a white undocumented person, a native English speaker, and he had all the privilege of being a member of arguably the most beloved immigrant group in this country. People here could not love the Irish more, which is kind of crazy when you look back a couple of generations, and see how reviled they were. This is all so short-sighted. Wre going to hate someone else next. It just happens to be the migrants at the southern border now.

It took five years for Cummins to research American Dirt. She travelled extensively on both sides of the US-Mexico border, visiting shelters for migrants, orphanages and desayunadores (breakfast soup kitchens).

I endeavoured to meet migrants, to understand the real conditions that theyre facing, Cummins says. But I was also there to meet the people who have given their lives to serving migrants and protecting vulnerable people on the borderlands.

Cummins engagement with the plight of migrants also stems from a lifelong interest in the universal nature of trauma. Her first book, A Rip In Heaven, told the story of her own familys tragedy. In 1991, a group of men raped her two cousins and beat her brother, before throwing them off a bridge into the Mississippi River. Her brother was the only survivor.

I wrote that book because I felt so angry that the story of my familys grief had been stolen by these men, she explains. They were convicted of their crimes and they were on death row and then, suddenly, everybody wanted to do a documentary on them, and give them a platform to proclaim their innocence. My cousins had been demoted to a footnote in that story.

There are so many violent, macho stories about narcos out there, she continues. Im interested in taking the story away from violent men and giving it to the women and children, and in telling the tale of what it feels like to be living in that trauma. Thats the unusual thing about this book. Thats why people are paying attention.

In an era in which identity politics are at the forefront of public discourse, however, Cummins decision to tell the story of the migrant trail has sparked criticism. In an authors note at the end of the novel, she remarks that she wished someone slightly browner would have written it.

I had, and still have, a lot of fear about being the person to tell this story, she tells me. Theres been plenty of debate about whether it was my right to do so. I identify as a Latina person, and Spanish was my first language. But my identity is something I have struggled with my entire life: Im not brown enough. And now, because of this book, Im being called to account for myself in ways that are impossible to do. I cannot change who I am. I am a person of Latino heritage, but Im also white. In some ways, I feel like Im marginalised from both ends.

Cummins agrees that there is a danger of fiction becoming horribly circumscribed by what one is allowed to write.

So many writers right now are afraid, she argues. This cancel culture thing is pervasive right now. If someone decides youre stepping out of your lane, the attack is coming. The tenor of that conversation is so vicious that people dont even want to risk it, because youre really sticking your neck out.

I understand where this movement comes from, and the need to be fiercely protective of representation, she continues. But when we chase white writers away from engaging with these topics, were just letting them off the hook. I deeply believe that every person in this country has a moral obligation to engage with these stories.

So, if I have a voice, and I can use that voice to try to spark a conversation in this country, that may open up a deeper dialogue in the middle-class populace, why not be a bridge in that way?

With American Dirt being published at the start of an election year, that conversation is likely to be timely.

Ive often said that the reason we cant get any traction when we talk about immigration in this country is because the language is so problematic, she notes. As soon as you open your mouth and choose your label, its like sticking a flag in the ground: migrants, aliens, undocumented, illegal. So, through the great magic of fiction, were stripping the labels off, and getting down to the intimate level of humanity.

Its a great moment for me as a writer, to know that, in an election year, book clubs will be sitting down to look at this book together, she smiles. A group of women, sitting around a dining room table in Kansas, who have probably never had this conversation before, can begin without having to choose a label. Its my tremendous hope that this story might render empathy in some readers who havent thought deeply about this before especially in an election year.

Because then we can then take that empathy to the ballot box.

American Dirt is out now.

Read more:

Jeanine Cummins on American Dirt: I had, and still have, a lot of fear about being the person to tell this story - hotpress.com

As the dust settles on Donald Trumps latest high octane game of chicken with the Islamic Republic, an eerie calm seems to have risen like fog from Soleimanis grave to take its place. But while the whole world exhales, war nerds like myself struggle like David Carradine to find the loop to loosen the belt around our throats. Thats because deep down in our wonky ill-nourished guts we know that this shit is far from over.

Unlike Trumps usual foreign policy impulses, that seem to be governed more by techno-Tourettes syndrome and penile insecurity than anything resembling a sane strategy, there is a very sick method to the madness when it comes to his dance with Iran, and thats because the clumsy footed fuck is dutifully following the same choreography as George W. Bush. The choreography of slow consistent escalation that can only end in the most devastating war the world has seen since the fall of Germanys Third Reich and the rise of Uncle Sams Fourth. Trump may be a pathologically unbalanced wild card on every issue from abortion to bathroom etiquette, but he still takes his marching orders from the same Zionist piggy bank as the neocons he won 2016 mocking.

Every step Trump has taken since entering the topographic maze of Pennsylvania Avenue has been tailor made to provoke Iran into the genre of open warfare they have masterfully avoided since their Reagan era bloodbath with Trumps Middle Eastern counterpart Saddam Hussein. The violation of the Nuclear Deal. The escalation of the Shia genocide in Yemen. The recognition of colonial Jerusalem. The build up of troops to fight our own former proxies in neighboring Iraq. The Gulf of Tonkin games in the Strait of Hormuz. And now the calculated cold blooded murder of Irans greatest strategist, the man who designed the Islamic Republics cagey Fourth Generation foreign policy which has made a fantastic fool of the nations most fearsome foes.

According to Iraqs embattled PM, Qassem Soleimani died on his way to peace talks with his Saudi adversaries that Trump himself encouraged. He was shot down in the most chickenshit cowardly ambush our government has thrown since J. Edna plied John Dillinger to the Biograph Theater with a whore in red. There is no going back from this one, kiddies. The dye is cast. The only question left worth asking now is what do we, the few proud anti-imperialists living in the belly of the beast, do about it? How do we prevent World War 3?

We certainly have the numbers on our side. Every poll from here to Sunday makes it abundantly clear that Americans are not willing to follow our fearless leader into the killing fields of Persia, not after the Iraq fiasco. So this should be easy, right? Wrong. Liberal democracy has been carefully constructed to be the most effective form of authoritarianism in the history of mankind. Thats because its a prison built out of mirages of myth and illusion, rather than the cold rebar enforced stucco of vulgar totalitarianism. Their is quite simply no need for bars once youve convinced a populace that safety and security only exists within the cozy confines of their cells.

One has to look no further than Trump himself, a man so vile to the very establishment he belongs to that a third Red Scare was needed just to keep him and his followers in line on the dogma of the New Cold War. But hes jumped through every hoop like a purebred Clintonian on Iran for the cold hard cash of men like Sheldon Adelson, men like the shadowy nameless creatures who have made the social democratic Donald, Bernie Sanders, the largest recipient of defense industry donations in 2020, even as the system hedges its bets by tossing tacks onto his campaign trail. The sad reality is that voting dont mean jack-shit when the banks own the ballots. To quote Neil Young .Were finally on our own.

So what do we do then, dearest motherfuckers? To be dangerously frank, whatever the fuck it takes. Thats how we pulled our troops from Indochina in the early Seventies. Sure, cunts like Ken Burns will have you believing it was the work of thoughtful politicians and banjo-strumming pacifists, but every successful social upheaval in history has been the beneficiary of a diversity of tactics. America didnt suddenly come to its senses on Vietnam, it was terrified that not leaving those jungles would mean losing control of the mothership.

Kids were clogging the Capitol streets with Vietcong flags and repurposed football helmets while whole platoons were turning their guns against the officer class and refusing to die for them or their stupid fucking war. Sure, the American public was gradually won over by the Quixotic non-violent street theatre of the Yippies, Woodstock and the McGovern campaign. But, as disturbing as it might sound, that public support had to be weaponized by the incendiary propaganda of the Weather Underground, Stonewall and the Days of Rage, creating a culture of near apocalyptic upheaval permeating every corner of the zeitgeist. Even then, it wasnt enough to end the slaughter. It simply forced Custer to take to the sky and blitz millions of yellow people charcoal black before starving them with near genocidal sanctions.

Judging by the statistics of the war machines own optics on the results of a hypothetical American ground invasion of Iran, Im willing to bet that this will be the likely strategy of todays blood thirsty mandarins. A devastating air war on Iranian infrastructure coupled with the kind of crippling sanctions were already seeing. The results will be genocidal. Iran wont exactly be conquered, it will simply be reduced to a garish and malleable slush of shattered dreams and mutilated viscera.

Its these kind of moral revelations, along with the fact that the Helter Skelter of the Summer of Hate broke far too many good eggs, that convinces me that the anti-imperialist movement in this country needs to do more than just tear a page from the SDS playbook, we need to write a whole new chapter. We need to take a page from the book of Soleimani and develop our own form of Fifth Generation Warfare. We need to use the theatre of the New Left without the careless body count. We need to bring the war home, but only the parts of it worth fighting. The civilian militias of Muqtada and Hezbollah. The popular occupations of enemy embassies by the rowdy youths of Bagdad. The regional drop-out autonomy of Rojava. Im not saying things wont get ugly. We must prepare ourselves for that eventuality. But we dont need to be the ones who make it ugly.

I guess it goes without saying that Ive always been a bit more Malcolm X than Martin Luther King, but lets face it, dearest motherfuckers, the war on Iran has already begun. We need to bring that war home to end it, but we need to fight it right. Its the only way well deserve to win.

More here:

It's Time to Bring the War Home Again - CounterPunch

HOW does it feel to become famous overnight? Ncuti Gatwa is a good man to ask. Last year, the Rwandan-Scottish actor stepped on to a plane in New York in relative obscurity (I had 700 followers on Instagram) and by the time his flight landed in London eight hours later, that figure had leapt up by several hundred thousand.

While Gatwa, 27, was soaring somewhere high over the Atlantic, the debut series of Sex Education had begun streaming on Netflix. His character the ebullient, flamboyant and adorable Eric Effiong was an immediate hit with viewers.

Suddenly everyone wanted to know all about Gatwa. It was pretty instant, he reflects. In the weeks following, being out on the street and getting recognised and stopped was the weirdest experience of my life.

He breaks off into a belly laugh at the memory. Buying my pain aux raisins and someone wanting a selfie was so confusing. Fame is something I still havent got my head around. It will be quite a long process of trying to get used to it.

Nowhere, it seems, is safe from the adoring masses. The strangest place I have been recognised is a urinal, he says. I was like: Why are you talking to me now?. That is the weirdest thing, but the most uncomfortable is when you are on the street and someone just grabs you.

Obviously they recognise you, but you dont know them. Being grabbed randomly out of nowhere is quite scary. I am from Fife, so if you grab me randomly out of nowhere, it might not end well for you, he jokes. That is something I have had to get used to. Most people are very nice.

When Sex Education debuted last January, it generated a huge buzz largely through word-of-mouth and went on to become one of the most-streamed Netflix shows of the year, garnering more UK viewers than cult series such as The Umbrella Academy, You and Black Mirror.

Its easy to see why. The comedy-drama deftly taps into the zeitgeist of what it means to be a Gen Z teenager or young adult today (kudos to the shows creator Laurie Nunn, it bears all hallmarks of the way that the late John Hughes spoke to a Gen X audience in the 1980s with his coming-of-age epics Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club).

The cast is led by Asa Butterfield, known for his roles in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Hugo and Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children. He plays socially awkward teen Otis Milburn, with Gillian Anderson of The X-Files and The Fall fame as his overbearing, sex therapist mother.

Otis is befriended by classmate Maeve Wiley a misfit bad-girl who, played by Emma Mackey, is whip-smart, savage and savvy and together they set up an ad-hoc sex therapy clinic giving relationship advice to their clueless peers.

Otiss best friend Eric (the delectable Gatwa) has his own gripping and powerful story arc, navigating life within the constraints of a strict, religious Ghanaian-Nigerian family, while exploring his identity as a gay, black teen.

Be it experiencing the perils of an overactive gag reflex (one memorable scene involves a banana) or an unexpected tryst with the resident school bully, the biggest joy is that Eric isnt relegated to the tired old cliche of a gay and/or black best friend straight from Central Casting.

He is a force of nature in his own right, something which has struck a chord among many viewers. I feel very honoured to play a character like Eric, who is gay, but his sexuality isnt his defining feature or used as comic relief, says Gatwa.

It is just who he is we are watching a young boy be who he is. That, I think, has had a bit of an impact in the gay community.

I get lots of messages from people who live all over the world, from places where being gay might be illegal or they might be killed and if their family knew, things would be bad for them. I get messages every day from people like that telling me how much the show and Eric has helped them.

It is important that we continue to keep telling stories from new perspectives and have proper representation on our screens, because it is educational and empowering.

Gatwa admits that the popularity of Sex Education, which has returned for a second series this month, was something he was unprepared for. Nor did the actor envisage becoming its breakout star.

No. Full stop. I didnt think it was going to take off in the way it did, he says. The show release had a good hype and I was waiting for the hype to die down. And it didnt. He laughs incredulously. It is fantastic being part of a show like this. It is something I am very, very proud of.

With time to take stock and reflect, Im curious to hear Gatwas take on why Sex Education has had such a far-reaching impact, amassing a loyal fanbase and the plaudits of TV critics alike.

I think people are drawn to the fact that it tackles issues in a way where we arent trying to preach to anyone or shame anybody, he asserts. We are just trying to show the world for what it is.

It is a show of its time as well. We are having a lot of conversations about diversity and inclusion. A couple of years ago we had the start of the #MeToo movement which was something that was very necessary.

We are challenging the way we think and interact with each other in our society. The world is having a real rethink about how we communicate and interact with each other. I think Sex Ed is a show that epitomises this moment that is happening in the world right now.

He pauses. Does that make sense? Or have I just waffled? Like much of what Gatwa says, his words provide illuminating insight. Thoughtful and articulate, he is not only an excellent spokesperson for the show, but one could argue, his generation.

Technically having been born in 1992 hes a millennial rather than Gen Z, although Gatwa makes a convincing teenager. Whats it like to rewind the clock a decade? The question prompts another guffaw of laughter. Im not going to lie. It is a weird frame of mind you have to put yourself in.

Stepping into the fictional Moordale Secondary School with its classrooms, echoing corridors and infamous toilet block the show is shot at the former University of South Wales campus at Caerleon on the outskirts of Newport definitely helps, he attests.

There are lockers around us, Ive got a backpack on and Im riding a bike, says Gatwa. You would be surprised how quickly you revert to being a kid again. All of us, the actors and crew, we become like big kids on set.

His own childhood was spent in Scotland. When he was two, Gatwas family left Rwanda as refugees, fleeing the genocide. He grew up in Oxgangs in the south-west of Edinburgh, and then, when he was 15, they moved to Dunfermline.

Arriving at a new secondary school, Gatwa found himself the target of bullies, who set up a racist social media page about him. It is a horrendous and incomprehensible scenario for any young person to experience, yet there is no lingering bitterness as he speaks.

Edinburgh is a city, so it was a little bit more multicultural, he recalls. It was easier in Edinburgh. Although growing up in Oxgangs wasnt always easy. Moving to Fife that is when it became a bit more of a problem.

Obviously, it wasnt nice. But it was one of those things I had always known, so I was almost desensitised to it. At the same time, my parents very much instilled a sense of pride within myself and about where I come from, so I was never too disheartened when I was going home.

Also, I know that Im pretty f***ing cool, says Gatwa, laughing to lighten the mood. Im pretty aware of that. I thought: You lot are going to like me eventually. When I moved to Dunfermline, it was the first time I realised how different I looked to everyone else who grew up around me.

That is where I learned about ignorance and hate. I think, for them, they had probably never seen a black person in their life. The way they behaved was something that is never excusable, but I feel like it was coming from a place of ignorance.

In the end, he did win them over, eventually becoming friends with his former bullies (the quote marks are insisted upon by Gatwa) and professes that he harbours no grudges.

Scotland will always be my home. It is where I am from and it is where I grew up. I love the warmth of Scottish people. When I think back on that time, I dont think horror and torment. It was a bit tricky but, ultimately, has made me a stronger person.

Its an admirable way to look at things. Not everyone would have his strength. When Gatwa describes himself as a Rwandan-Scotsman, the pride is palpable. Rwanda is the country that birthed me and Scotland is the country that raised me. They are both dear places in my heart.

When it came to a career, it is difficult to imagine he would have considered anything but acting. Yet, it took a little while, admits Gatwa, for the penny to drop that it could be a legitimate way to make a living.

I was a bit, um, highly spirited in school, he says, grasping for a diplomatic way to phrase his teenage jinks. My parents are both very academic and initially wanted me to follow an academic route. I thought about doing that, but it was not for me.

It got to the point where, really and truly, drama was the only subject I was turning up for. My teachers spotted that, and they saw how much I loved it. They said I should think about going to drama school, but I didnt think that was even a possibility.

I didnt really know that drama school was a thing. I certainly didnt think being a young, working-class, black Scottish person, that I could go on to be an actor and forge a successful career. The first time someone said it, I laughed.

But then they kept saying it. They told me about RSAMD [now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland] in Glasgow. I went along, auditioned and they sent me my unconditional offer really quickly. I thought: This must be for me.

I love telling stories. Im a bit of a chatterbox as you can tell. The fact I have made my job something where I can use words, that is so cool to me. I took to it like a duck to water. I thought: This is amazing. I want to do this for the rest of my life.

Gatwa cut his teeth in theatre and after studying at the Royal Conservatoire went on to win a place on the graduate scheme at Dundee Rep where he performed in the acclaimed 2013 revival of David Greigs Victoria.

He later landed roles at the Shakespeares Globe theatre in London in A Midsummer Nights Dream and 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips.

His first TV appearance was in BBC Four sitcom Bob Servant. Gatwa played a customer queueing up at the bold Bobs burger van in Broughty Ferry. It was! he enthuses, when I remind him. Thank you! No one ever brings that up. I played: Burger Man No. 2.

It was my first time in front of a camera and getting a mic put on. I had one line. But it was such a fun day. I learned so much about the etiquette of being on set.

Gatwa also had a part as a police officer in Stonemouth, the BBC Scotland adaptation of the late Iain Bankss novel, which aired in 2015. It was great show and a great book, he says. That was another good learning opportunity for me being able to shoot in Scotland in a gripping drama.

Then came Sex Education. And his public profile exploded into the stratosphere. When we talk, Gatwa is in a London hotel amid the whirlwind that is the gargantuan Netflix publicity machine.

The conveyor belt interview scenario is never a great way to make a connection with an interview subject, yet with Gatwa the conversation flows easily. While fiercely private about his life off camera, he does touch briefly on his family and being the youngest of three children.

My dad works in churches he has always worked in churches. He is now a professor of theology in Rwanda and a minister. My mum works for our incredible, amazing and wonderful NHS.

What about childhood heroes? Who did Gatwa look up to or have posters of on his bedroom wall? Well, I didnt have posters of them on my wall because that would be weird, but my mum and dad were my heroes, he says, a smile in his voice.

When you are a child of immigrants, you see your parents struggle and everything they have to go through for you. My parents always made me feel very loved and never feel bad about anything, but I saw how hard they worked.

My mum, moving here, building everything she has, raising us three kids with no money, when she didnt know the language and culture. They were definitely my heroes growing up.

For those who fell in love with his on-screen alter ego Eric, theres plenty more to come in series two. Eric is a little bit more comfortable within himself and settled, says Gatwa. Not in a particularly overt type of way, but he is more grounded. And unapologetic as well.

He is continuing his journey of self-discovery, learning about what is important to him and how he wants to walk through this world. There are a few new characters that arrive into Moordale who are causing a stir. One of them catches his eye, so we will see what happens there.

Sex Education series two is available to watch on Netflix now

Go here to see the original:

Scottish-Rwandan actor Ncuti Gatwa on his role in the hit Sex Education series - The National

The roots of New Yorks restaurants run deep in some cases, they go back centuries. But the dining scene as we know it now was born in 2004.

It was the year that French fine dining gave up the ghost: Places like La Caravelle made way for a new zeitgeist, a far more casual one where louder flavors reigned. People like April Bloomfield, who brought Michelin-worthy sensibilities to pub fare at the Spotted Pig, and David Chang, who got New Yorkers hooked on bold, cross-cultural flavors in stripped-down rooms at Momofuku, ushered in the era. Danny Meyer, who had built a culture of personable service and greenmarket dining in the 1980s and 90s, opened Shake Shack. The thoughtful burger joint launched a million elevated quick-service concepts. The new high-end, meanwhile, was redefined by the Time Warner Center, where Masa Takayamas eponymous sushi bar and Thomas Kellers Per Se would raise the limit on how much New Yorkers would spend on food.

The pre-crash aughts also saw the rise of modern cocktail culture, fueled by PDTs Jim Meehan, Clover Clubs Julie Reiner, and Milk & Honeys Sasha Petraske, who led a movement that prompted even middle-of-the-road restaurants to hire professional bartenders. High standards for simple yet ambitious cooking at cozy neighborhood restaurants in part grew out of Gabriel Stulmans West Village spots, Andrew Tarlows Williamsburg venues, and the Franks fiefdom of unpretentious Italian go-tos. As the recession years and a desire for classic comfort faded into the background, chefs started experimenting again: At Estela, Ignacio Mattos stunned diners with visually striking small plates, hiding proteins under canopies of foliage. Danny Bowien, in turn, attracted a citywide following for his freewheeling take on Chinese fare at Mission Chinese, while Carlo Mirarchi grew a quirky pizza empire called Robertas out of a garage in Bushwick.

There was also the ascent of food television to bona fide national pastime, from the Food Network to Top Chef. It solidified restaurant personalities growing status as a new kind of counter-cultural celebrity, a reality that would, at its worst, exacerbate a longstanding culture of excess and harassment until the MeToo movement came to a head in the late teens.

New York is a town of empire builders, but when one thinks about the dining and drinking scene today, these are the restaurateurs whose influence and accomplishments are always front of mind. Once the vanguard, theyre now the establishment. For Eater New Yorks special issue, several of these players discussed what it means to find themselves in the seats of power. Their condensed answers to Eaters questions are presented below.

What do you want your legacy to be?

I think our legacy is already taking shape through the community that has grown out of these businesses. So many people who have spent time teaching, learning, and growing with us have branched out to create the next generation of hospitality Caroline Fidanza of Saltie, who is now back with us as our Culinary Director; Sarah [Sanneh] and Carolyn [Bane] of Pies n Thighs; Nick [Perkins] and Leah [Campbell] of Harts and Cervos; the Meat Hook; and Drifters Wife in Maine; and Mike [Fadem] and Marie [Tribouilloy] just celebrated three years at Ops in Bushwick, the list goes on.

My oldest son Elijah, who really grew up in Diner, is now working on the line in the kitchen there, so things are coming full circle in that respect, too.

Who do you think is shaping the next decade of dining in New York?

Im really inspired by the work that organizations like Drive Change (a paid culinary fellowship program for formerly incarcerated youth) are doing to provide learning and development opportunities to people who might not have otherwise considered a profession in this industry.

What does the next decade look like for you?

The next decade is still really open. I want to continue to grow organically and find projects that really resonate with my team. My focus will also continue to be on deepening the connections along the path from our guests to our farmers, the ingredients, and the soil.

Whats one piece of advice youd give to a NYC restaurateur whos less established than you?

Dont forget why you chose to do this work. Define your own version of success, and then take time to reflect on whats worked and what hasnt.

What do you want your legacy to be?

Using the vehicle of food to show people that were all more alike than different.

Who do you think is shaping the next decade of dining in New York?

A lot of it will be defined by real estate. Its going to go up and down and look a lot like metropolitan cities in Asia. Youll find restaurants pop up where you never thought they would be. The next decade is [also] defined by the environment, the pressing issue of our time. Lastly, it will be driven by rising costs.

What does the next decade look like for you?

No idea. Im taking things a year at a time.

Whats one piece of advice youd give to a NYC restaurateur whos less established than you?

Dont do it like everyone else. Dont become a statistic.

What do you want your legacy to be?

Being Dale DeGroffs protg came with a high degree of visibility, and I wanted to use my advantage for good. My vision was to radically transform how America drinks.

I studied my ass off, mastered my trade, and began my swim upstream. As a mentor, Im proud to say that Ive trained an entire generation of some of the very best bartenders in New York. I taught them how to properly utilize then-obscure ingredients such as gin, rye, vermouth, [and] amari. I shunned soda guns and instead utilized bottled sodas and fresh produce. I also provided them with good ice (first Kold-Draft machine in NY since 1982), fresh-squeezed juice, artisanal cherries, proper tools, and appropriate, thoughtful glassware. The word began to spread to other bartenders and bars, and the use of these ingredients proliferated across the country. To this end, not only did the craft cocktail industry boom, but an entire craft distilling industry has also seeded, grown, and flourished as well.

This is also my 16th year as the beverage director for the Citymeals on Wheels Chefs Tribute to James Beard event. The very first job I ever had was helping out at a local senior center, so this position is personal for me. I created the beverage component for them and have raised over $600,000 for them at this point.

Who do you think is shaping the next decade of dining in New York?

I think NYC landlords will play a large role here. I believe that the combination of escalating rents and minimum wage increases will dictate what establishments will look like, size-wise, and ultimately, dictate their longevity as well.

What does the next decade look like for you?

My parents have always been my closest friends and their welfare has always been a priority for me. I had begun working on a small mixology school with my husband Robert Hess back in 2015, but soon thereafter had to put it on the back burner when my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer. I lost her just a year ago, and only just lost my dad a few weeks ago, and I miss them terribly. Right now, I am taking some personal time to heal myself, reset, and reflect on both the past and future. After that, writing my mixology book and rebooting the school will be the next step because they wouldnt have it any other way.

Whats one piece of advice youd give to a NYC restaurateur whos less established than you?

Hire good, kind, thoughtful people who truly enjoy giving of themselves. You can teach anyone proper procedure, steps of service, and standards, but you cant teach them to be warm or kind. Its a quality that comes from within, and the one that speaks to everyone. Folks go out not just for a good drink or great meal; equally important is that they are also going out for the experience. Caring, thoughtful service is the very stuff that the best memories are made of, and wildly more important than any hand-crafted ice cube could ever be.

What do you want your legacy to be?

I look forward to seeing my lifes work continued by my children and my employees past, present, and future. I believe that food is central to peoples lives and that experiencing world cultures through cuisine brings joy to people and enriches life. This is what I work to bring to the Japanese food scene in New York, and I hope to inspire all who work with me to carry on my vision by continuing to cultivate Japanese culture and cuisine for people around the world to enjoy.

Who do you think is shaping the next decade of dining in New York?

New Yorkers and patrons of the restaurants in New York will continue being the most influential force in shaping the next decade of dining. New York has always played a central role in popularizing new cuisines, and will continue to be a destination city to enjoy food that is familiar or pushes the envelope. Its also up to New Yorkers to keep encouraging up-and-coming restaurateurs as well as supporting mom-and-pop neighborhood favorites. How? By choosing to dine out and to explore. Its a great city for that.

What does the next decade look like for you?

Japanese cuisine has an enormous variety of cooking styles and flavors to offer that are not yet well-known, and I hope to continue being a leader in introducing new flavors of Japan to New York.

Whats one piece of advice youd give to a NYC restaurateur whos less established than you?

As a budding restaurateur, you need a lot of patience. Find out what people need, whats missing in the food scene, and dont give up even though its hard. It helps to be inspired by others, but as you grow, remember to create your own style. Always try to improve on what came before and bring something new to the table.

What do you want your legacy to be?

Anyone conceited enough to even think of such a self-aggrandizing word as legacy in terms of himself doesnt deserve to be in the restaurant business in the first place. If Im remembered at all, Id like it to be for treating my staff well.

Who do you think is shaping the next decade of dining in New York?

I tend to think about what is shaping trends in dining, not who. I think therell be less and less meat on menus. And as a result of astronomical rents for ground floor spaces, I see a major increase of restaurants on second floors.

What does the next decade look like for you?

Over the next 10 years Id like to make life better for my staff and try to emphasize the quality of food and service at the restaurants I already have, instead of fantasizing about future projects.

Whats one piece of advice youd give to a NYC restaurateur whos less established than you?

Never take advice from someone who tells you they know what theyre doing.

What do you want your legacy to be?

First and foremost, to have created a company where employees feel they can build a career and unravel their potential, and where clients have a long-standing and special connection to our brands. And next, maybe to have a small spot in the wonderful journey and legacy of Italian cuisine in America.

Who do you think is shaping the next decade of dining in New York?

Today all senses need to be stimulated concurrently and holistically: taste in great food is one factor, but more customized service, visual appeal, soundtrack of the venue, a lighting program for the evening, and so forth. Second, with the advent of technology and smartphones, the client can instantly record and share that experience. We have to listen very carefully to our clients and all feedback mechanisms more than ever. New technology tools will continue to evolve in delivery portals, reservations, and client information data as seen with SevenRooms (a restaurant reservation app).

What does the next decade look like for you?

We will build out our core platform and proven brands on both the more elevated, luxury side and the quality casual spectrum, and in different neighborhoods and geographies. We see a greater footprint outside of New York and internationally.

Whats one piece of advice youd give to a NYC restaurateur whos less established than you?

Dreams can turn quickly into nightmares. Be sure to understand and be diligent on all the components of the business at the outset: from capital to leasing to licensing and permitting, to inspections to infrastructure, and to cost. The potential pitfalls before even cooking your first dish are everywhere.

What do you want your legacy to be?

[Its] hard to refer to myself as a legacy at the moment, but I am most proud of the impact that I was able to make in the city of Philadelphia. The economic reverberations that Starr Restaurants was able to, and is still able to create in Philadelphia is what Im most proud of. We created a ton of jobs and a real dining scene which hopefully paved the way for future generations of chefs and restaurateurs.

Who do you think is shaping the next decade of dining in New York?

There are so many creative and skilled artisans in New York bringing insanely good cocktails, pastry, dumplings, whatever their gift is to the dining scene. But truthfully, I think its the diners themselves the people who eat out in NYC [who] are the ones shaping the next decade, and if were smart, well listen to them.

What does the next decade look like for you?

The next decade is going into the hotel business, that industry is something Ive always wanted to do.

Whats one piece of advice youd give to a NYC restaurateur whos less established than you?

Dont assume your idea is great because you really believe in it. Take the idea, write all the reasons why it wont work, then a list of the reasons why it will the list with the longest reasons is the one you should listen to.

What do you want your legacy to be?

The question of legacy is a hard one, because were all invariably imperfect, so I think of it as more of a pursuit. I also think there are two legacies that one leaves behind: their personal legacy and their professional one. For me, my personal legacy is more important. There, Id like to be remembered for being generous, others-centered, and actively loving the people in my life: my wife, my family, my friends, and my community.

On the professional side, Id like to be remembered in a couple ways. First, as someone who created restaurant environments defined by gracious hospitality both for the guests, and for all the people that gave so much of themselves to those restaurants in helping create memorable experiences for those guests. And as someone who strived to create community around hospitality through things like the Welcome Conference (an annual conference for people in the hospitality industry) for my peers in the dining room and anyone in any industry that derives significant and genuine pleasure out of bringing joy to others.

Who do you think is shaping the next decade of dining in New York?

Id like to call attention to Gabe Stulman and his incredible group of partners at Happy Cooking. Ive been incredibly inspired by him over the last couple years, because he puts more intention, thoughtfulness, and attention to detail into a 30-seat restaurant than most do into a 100-seat restaurant. And from my perspective, he doesnt do it for accolades, or fanfare, or even reviews (less than half of the restaurants hes opened have even gotten reviewed). Instead, he just does it for the love of the game. The best example is perhaps his most recent restaurant, the Jones. I honestly dont know who is shaping the next decade of dining in New York City, but I hope that his example is one that more of us are inspired to follow.

What does the next decade look like for you?

Im writing my next chapter as we speak, more to come.

Whats one piece of advice youd give to a NYC restaurateur whos less established than you?

Most of the lessons that I find myself sharing are ones that I learned from my dad, Frank Guidara. Ill share two here: First, early in your career you should articulate as best you can why you fell in love with the restaurant business and chose to give your life to it in the first place. There will be moments where you need to tap back into that perspective, and you always want to have it at the ready. Second, something he always says is, adversity is a terrible thing to waste. In life, and in business, there will invariably be bumps in the road. We cant always control what comes our way, but we can control how we react. If youre able to step back and take a deep breath, sometimes your greatest challenges can end up being your greatest opportunities.

What do you want your legacy to be?

Wed like to be thought of as a company that made significant strides toward bridging the gap between whats refine[d] and whats fun, what is art and what is commerce.

Who do you think is shaping the next decade of dining in New York?

I think the single most significant person shaping the next generation of New Yorks dining scene is the exact same person its been since the very first day of hospitality. Its the customer. They are the ultimate judge and juror of what we do. It doesnt become a trend or a fad or an institution without them.

What does the next decade look like for you?

Were looking at what challenges hospitality can present to us next and what opportunities we can provide for our team. I think operating our own hotels is absolutely on that list and something were actively working on. The sum of our parts has never been stronger, so absolutely anything is possible.

Whats one piece of advice youd give to a NYC restaurateur whos less established than you?

Set reasonable goals and work unreasonably hard towards them.

What do you want your legacy to be?

Legacy is a pretty heavy concept! Im best carrying myself, my work, and my place in the world one day at a time. I believe in being a steady, dependable, and joyful individual. One not afraid to ask questions, be pushy, and blaze a trail through the tricky, sticky jungle of life. I hope that daily approach to humanity and curiosity is one that grows beyond me and continues far beyond my reach, whether through questioning the frosting on the side of a cake, steeping cereal in milk to use for wacky things, being a grownup that is adamant about making friendship bracelets for strangers, or making the aisles of the grocery feel a little more adventuresome.

Who do you think is shaping the next decade of dining in New York?

Yewande Komolafe. When we worked together over a decade ago, she was still finding her way in the world of food. Choosing every avenue of cuisine but the one that defined her palate, she now builds and shares the recipes, the flavors that are home to her, true to her. And our taste buds are listening. With unapologetic truth, individuality, Yewande and a handful of others are shaping the next decade of dining in and dining out.

What does the next decade look like for you?

See 1 🙂

Whats one piece of advice youd give to a NYC restaurateur whos less established than you?

Know yourself. Know your North Star, be incredibly flexible and nimble in between. All the fun (rollercoasters galore) happens there.

What do you want your legacy to be?

I honestly havent ever thought about my legacy, its not very important to me at the moment. In my 15 years as a business person in NYC, I have done a ridiculous amount of damage to the environment and the animal world on this planet; before considering my legacy, Id like to settle up my carbon and karmic footprint.

Who do you think is shaping the next decade of dining in New York?

I work a lot these days and keep my head down, [so] I dont pay much attention to whats going on in the NYC dining scene. Id have to say the people that are shaping the next decade are the ones that are implementing the best sustainability practices. This planet is headed for destruction; if everyone as a whole doesnt consider the way they run their businesses, there wont be much of a dining scene to shape in the future.

What does the next decade look like for you?

For me, the next decade will look similar to the last except on a much larger scope and in many more markets than NYC. We will continue to innovate in the ways of plant-based foods and to hone our sustainability practices and hopefully teach and influence others to do the same.

Whats one piece of advice youd give to a NYC restaurateur whos less established than you?

Like an artist or musician has a gift and passion for what they do, you should only enter this business if you have the same qualities. Its more of an art than a business, and you have as much chance of success as you do at becoming a successful painter. And, if you do go for it, please consider the future and try to leave your small corner better than when you arrived.

What do you want your legacy to be?

I would like my legacy to focus around my dedication to raising the platform for women in a male-dominated industry. Via my partnership in my bar, Leyenda, with three women or the many women and minorities we hire there, and my work with Speed Rack (an all-women bartending competition that highlights up-and-comers in the cocktail industry), I hope to see people of all sorts and kinds being seen more at the top of the game.

Who do you think is shaping the next decade of dining in New York?

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David Chang, Stephen Starr, Keith McNally, and More: NYCs Biggest Restaurateurs on the Future of Dining - Eater NY

John Carlos, right, and Tommie Smith, center, raise gloved fists in protest at the 1968 Summer Olympics. (AP Photo)

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Olympic athletes competing in Tokyo have been put on notice. They are there to be seen and not heard. A new list of restrictions against political speech or gestures was released on Thursday by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The move is as arrogant as it is censorious. Any athlete who may have planned to take a knee like Colin Kaepernick, or raise their fist like John Carlos or Tommie Smith in 1968, will have to think again. Make a gesture of solidarity with your oppressed brethren in your home country as 2016 Olympian Feyisa Lilesa did and you could find yourself ostracized.Ad Policy

The actual punishments for political speech are opaque but threatening, the IOC saying that such will be determined on a case by case basis. In the official statement, Olympic organizers write:

The unique nature of the Olympic Games enables athletes from all over the world to come together in peace and harmony. We believe that the example we set by competing with the worlds best while living in harmony in the Olympic Village is a uniquely positive message to send to an increasingly divided world.

This is why it is important, on both a personal and a global level, that we keep the venues, the Olympic Village and the podium neutral and free from any form of political, religious or ethnic demonstrations.

There is something particularly ironic about the fact that the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) just admitted John Carlos and Tommie Smith into its Hall of Fame last November, 51 years after they raised their fists on the medal stand in 1968. The ceremony was meant to be a celebration of reconciliation and a tacit acknowledgment by the USOPC that it was wrong to ostracize the two runners. This new ruling sends a hell of a message that the Olympic movement wants to absorb the protest into the past and criminalize it for the present and future.

I spoke to John Carlos on the phone and, as one might expect, he was livid. Heres what he told me:

This is nonsense. Theyre way out of line with this. Theyre trying to take peoples rights away and its ridiculous. They are saying that they dont want politics at the Olympics but this is a political move. The silencing of people is political. We all love the Olympics but Im not sacrificing my humanity to win a medal. Every time they go to different nation for a different Olympics, are you going to tell me that the choice of the country isnt politically motivated? I aint buying that. The athlete should be able to make a statement on that medal stand. They are not disrespecting a flag. They are using their time to do what they think is right. They are trying to save lives. No one has the right to take away whats inside you or silence what you want to say.

I asked Carlos how he squares being inducted into the USOPC Hall of Fame and then given this anti-political crackdown. He said:

It shows that if you stand with it, youll be accepted in time. But people have to have the courage to step up. Ive done mine. Ive been stepping up and living by the truth of that gesture for 51 years. Its time for that next generation to step up and show their moral characterIf you think all is fine, and you go to the Olympic Games with your mouth zipped, youll find youll regret it.

The brazen contradiction is of course that the Olympics are already political from top to bottom. They are political in the host country, where the head of state makes the argument that the Olympics will benefit the country economically. Government leaders also inevitably argue for national unity in support of the games, no matter how much debt is accrued, how much militarization is demanded, and how many people are displaced. The games are are political for the sponsors who use the Olympics to hawk their products, in a process one could call sin washing. Sponsors like McDonaldswhich pushes the utter opposite of an Olympic dietsell their wares and benefit from the warm glow emitted by the Olympics. The games are political for the environment, which suffers a gigantic global footprint during the course of the Games. And in this era of political athletes, there is of course something political about an edict that aims to shut them down.

I reached out to Jules Boykoff, author of four books on the Olympics, including the forthcoming NOlympians: Inside the Fight Against Capitalist Mega-Sports in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Beyond. He said:

The IOCs edict, as laundered through its Athletes Commission, brims with hypocrisy. Athlete activism emerges from overlapping systems of injustice. To deny athletes the right to express their thoughts and feelings on the political injustices that wrack the world today reeks of authoritarianism, which is political in itself. This policy is a slap in the face to the exciting zeitgeist of smart, savvy athletes who are not willing to check their brains in at the Olympic door.

One thing is certain. As long as athletes are willing to confront their fear and risk punishment to speak their truth, this issue is going nowhere.

More here:

John Carlos Responds to the New Olympics Ban on Political Protest - The Nation

If the beginning of the decade in bodies was defined by size zero, clavicles worn proudly by tanned celebrities as if Cartier necklaces, and the end was defined by a loudly proclaimed yet slippery embrace of body positivity, where are we right now on the body hatred spectrum?

Much came in between the two, of course, and little of it good. There were the eating disorders (hospital admissions for which continue to rise sharply), which sistered a worldwide obesity epidemic, and the pills that helped desperate women defecate fat. There was the speed at which it had become familiar to see an actress turn to the side on a red carpet and simply disappear. In January 2010, three diet TV shows competed for ratings: Fat Families, Generation XXL and My Big Fat Diet Show, an interactive diet-along.

Over the years these weight-loss stories moved online, regifted as empowerment. There were the gurus of weight loss, then fitness, and later clean eating; there were the plus-sized bikini models laughing on Instagram. There was Dove, with its soaps expertly marketed to cure women of their bodies. There was Lena Dunhams belly, site of a thousand think pieces, only 300 or so by me. There was the supermodel-esque actor Jameela Jamil who, in campaigning against unrealistic body ideals inspired thousands of women, but made an equal number very cross indeed.

Across the decade, one mantra of mainstream feminism was to love your body through any means necessary. Plastic surgery and injectibles became normalised overnight, with new lips as easy to buy in a lunch hour as a Boots meal deal. On Love Island, nobody ever shaved their legs all hair had been lasered off their generation the day it became pubic. The ideal body shape rebuilt itself before our eyes, from something made of bones with eyes to something made of bones with an arse the Kardashian family, their narratives about sex and fertility and cash and race written on their skin, take up a whole chapter here, size nine font, 1,000 pages.

I support a move towards proud ambivalence

So now what? So now, standing here in the classic pose, underwear-clad before a mirror, pinching the sides of our hips with fingers once disgusted, where are we? For all the journeying we appear to have done, for all the magazines that banned diet recipes but pivoted to clean eating and a dash of Botox, for all the brands, like Weight Watchers, that frantically attempted to catch up with the zeitgeist but appeared to break down somewhere near Heston Services, it feels to me as though weve not moved forward, instead, veered just a little to the side.

Because while the body positivity movement celebrates all bodies that spill over the waistband of what is currently acceptable, it fails to illuminate the reasons why so many people have such bitter and violent relationships with their bodies to begin with. By skipping those sticky conversations, ones that reach into the offal of politics and families, and the day-to-day existence of being a fat person in the world and instead leaping straight to the friendly hashtag, complete with women detailing their own blessed journeys towards inner beauty, it heaves all responsibility for feeling better about ones body on to the shoulders of the person within it.

The reasons so many people hate their bodies go deeper than a Dove ad can explain, and they are good reasons they may not be correct, they may be horrific and mean and based in decades of well-funded sexism, but they are logical, and they were taught to us young.

So the impact of enforcing body positivity on people who, under their skin, know there are rational reasons they have sex with the lights off, or fear exercising in public, or click on Instagram links to cosmetic surgeons in Turkey, or have been on diets since they were 12, can feel like two trucks crashing in their throat. Everybodys beautiful, and all bodies are perfect! said 2019, to a small murmur from those pointing out that the workplace, Tinder, fashion and health professionals disagree. The effect, then, was a feeling of isolation, and a doubling of guilt. Guilt both for living in a body that doesnt fit and for wanting to change it.

Which is why I support a move away from body positivity, and all the smile for the camera pressures that involves, and towards a new era of body neutrality. Of proud ambivalence. Here theres plenty of room, both for those who revel in their physical strength and beauty, and those who dont want their bodies to be political statements, read as branded content, or even to think about them much at all. After a draining decade in body image, Im hoping that until the messy little business of restructuring the world in order to find true equality is completed, the message of the next 10 years will be, not to love your body, but instead, find peace with it.

Email Eva at e.wiseman@observer.co.uk or follow her on Twitter @EvaWiseman

More:

Body positivity has had its day. Lets find peace with ourselves - The Guardian

The Knot, WeddingWire, and Pinterest are seeking to limit content on their websites that promotes Southern plantations as a wedding venue. Weddings should be a symbol of love and unity. Plantations represent none of those things, declared a Pinterest spokesman, calling the glamorization of these estates a disrespectful practice. Pinterest visitors who search for plantation weddings or similar terms will now be warned that some results may violate the sites policies, de facto making plantations the equivalent of pornography.

The organization behind this growing movement, Color of Change, indicts vendors for using words like breathtaking to describe plantations. Black people dont have happy memories of the antebellum period and plantations, where our ancestors were beaten and tortured, said senior campaign director Jade Magnus Ogunnaike. Its important the reality of what happened in these spaces is present, versus a romanticization of human rights abuses.

Strange are there actually any African Americans who have memories of the antebellum period, given that it ended 160 years ago? Indeed, I wonder how many black Americans even have a deceased grandparent who could have had a memory of antebellum America.

This is not to say there isnt something a bit discomforting about vendors labeling slave cabins on these properties as evoking an elaborate past, as if blacks were happy, willing participants in a fanciful world of white gentry as portrayed in Gone with the Wind. All the same, targeting Southern wedding venues for bigotry reflects yet another manifestation of a purification of our culture and history.

In its zealous desire to right previous wrongs, this goes too far in the other direction, and in the process, undermines the historical fabric of our nation. It also reflects the vulnerability of American businesses to the whims of leftist protest movements.

The underlying premise of the anti-plantation movement is that Southern plantations cannot be romanticized. Surely, we do not want to pretend these places dont have a violent, racist past. We also dont need to police their repurposing. Many of them, even their detractors must admit, are beautiful, both in reference to their natural surroundings and their architecture. Is it not appropriate to celebrate momentous occasions in beautiful places?

If such locales have tragic histories, this is all the more reason to reimagine them in ways that both recognize and overcome that past. An example of this occurred in December, when a number of black medical students posed for a photo at a former slave plantation, a site some of them called holy. Heck, why not celebrate their graduation there? Now, thats poetic justice.

We might also remember that many of the most celebrated and visited historical sites in our country are Southern manors built and worked by slaves: Mount Vernon (itself a wedding venue), Monticello (another wedding venue), and Montpelier (also a wedding venue) among them. Will we need Google to warn us that searching for such places or even worse, planning a vacation to visit them are microaggressive acts, as if we are unable to contemplate both the good and bad of such places?

Moreover, blacks, both free and slave, provided the bulk of labor that built the White House, the U.S. Capitol, and other early government buildings. All of these places, despite their histories, are objectively beautiful. Because of the tragedies that transpired therin, they powerfully communicate how far America has come.

Its also not as if Dixie estates were the only sites where acts of brutality were committed by one group of Americans against another. Violence against blacks and other disenfranchised groups have occurred across our nations landscape, many in popular and well-trod locales, North and South, East and West.

Moreover, the entire country was once the land of American Indians, and a good deal of it deceptively or violently taken from them. Catholics in the 19th century suffered violent assaults at the hands of anti-papist mobs on the streets of Boston, Philadelphia, and New York. The only way to avoid offending anyone would be to stop celebrating anything, anywhere, at any time.

This gets to the broader dilemma with our zeitgeist, which combines woke deconstructionism with a modern version of damnatio memoriae, or condemnation of memory, an ancient Roman practice whereby persons vilified by the state were erased from public memory. The modern application of this practice is also redolent of any of those ancient heresies that are uncomfortable with the complicated reality that vice and virtue, spiritual and material, co-exist within the human experience.

Simply by virtue of ones social justice warrior credentials and alleged victimhood status, these people deputize themselves the cultural police of our history, our language, and now apparently our wedding venues. Their appetites will not be satisfied until all things and persons associated with injustice, real or imagined, are expunged from public experience and memory. William F. Buckleys popularization of Eric Voegelins warning is apt: Dont immanentize the eschaton!

Protest movements that perceive victimization and microaggression under every rock also wreak havoc on our countrys economy. A Pinterest representative, for example, announced that the website is working on de-indexing Google searches for plantation wedding. In December, a coalition of Alabama activists protested a Plantation Christmas event held at the Belle Mont Mansion near Tuscumbia, Alabama, because it memorialized white supremacist celebrations of Christmas. So all the people who work at these historic plantations, regardless of their race, sex, or income, must suffer the economic consequences of what feelings their employers history might provoke.

Nor do the sins of our forefathers nullify their many acts of virtue or the great political and cultural gifts they bestowed upon future generations. Indeed, it is the Christian character of America that has allowed us to recognize and seek to rectify our past errors. How many of the great nations of human history have so actively beat their breasts over their sins, both against their own citizens and the peoples of the world? Only a country with a conscience in our case informed by the Christian beliefs of our ancestors would bother to engage in the kinds of self-criticism and atonement visible in American society.

Moreover, are the perpetrators of our historical-cultural cleansing so naive to think their children and grandchildren wont do the same thing to them, who have fostered and encouraged a paradigm of national seppuku? Whats good for the goose is good for the gander, and one would have to be a clinical narcissist to think future generations wont find us at fault for any number of things. Chronological snobbery, as C.S. Lewis called our tendency to view our own age as superior to others, is a dark chasm ending in our own destruction.

Yes, its true that some historical artifacts across Americas landscape are honored in ways that belittle or demean our fellow countrymen. Plantations used for bourgeois ceremonies with language that obscures or even glorifies the estates dark past are one example. Yet self-righteous assaults on these places and the many ways they are used will not bring restorative justice. And in the process, these attacks have unintended economic consequences on working-class Americans.

Id suggest a far better solution for prospective newlyweds, regardless of race or ethnicity, would be to get married where they should: in a church. Then they could celebrate their wedding reception at a Southern manor and have a hell of a good time. That seems far more justified than puritannical policing of plantations.

Casey Chalk is a columnist for The American Conservative, Crisis Magazine, and The New Oxford Review. He has a bachelors in history and masters in teaching from the University of Virginia, and masters in theology from Christendom College.

See the original post:

If People Can't Get Married On Plantations, They Can't Marry Anywhere - The Federalist

By Melina Paris, Arts and Culture Reporter

It was a chance encounter. A young photographer, Barrie Wentzell, tells the story of being at the BBC Studios it was October 1965 to shoot some pictures during the taping of the weekly TV show Top of the Pops. He had ventured up to the rooftop bar during a break.

Diana was sitting at a table talking to a reporter from the Melody Maker and I asked her if it was O.K. to take a few pictures of her while she was being interviewed, Wentzell said. She smiled and said that it would be fine. After she left, the reporter suggested that I send some pictures to the Melody Maker, which I did, never thinking that they would be used. The following Wednesday, I saw the paper at my local newsstand and there was my photo on the front page along with my name credited. Wow! A few days later, I got a call from Bob Houston, Melody Makers assistant editor, offering me a job as chief freelance photographer, which I gladly accepted; thanks to Lady Diana Ross!

This happy accident began Wentzells decade-long adventure with the most renowned music publication of the time. Melody Makers, a documentary film directed by Leslie Anne Coles, details how the magazine shifted the focus of its coverage from jazz to rock n roll and consequently helped define music journalism and rock photography. The multi-award winning film festival darling recently screened in Los Angeles.

Founded in 1926, Melody Maker was one of the worlds earliest music weeklies. It began as a musicians trade paper, listing gigs and services, advertising for the BBC Radio program and writing about the musicians union with a concentration on jazz.

In her film, Coles tells the story of Melody Makers steady evolution and growing influence through the lenses of Wentzells cameras with the perspective of his experiences as chief contributing photographer from 1965 to 1975. During those years Wentzell photographed The Who, The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Jethro Tull, Yes, Elton John, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and other rock gods during the era when they, like Wentzell, were just emerging. Some 50 years after Wentzells photos generated the magnetism that drew a following to Melody Maker, the magazine, the main attraction of Melody Makers, the movie, lies in the photos on display along with the tales of the discussions shared between the writers and musicians, who often stopped by the magazines office to do their interviews.

The film chronicles the rise and fall of the magazine which ushered in a style of rock n roll journalism that no longer exists. It was the mid-60s, the music landscape had and so did Melody Maker. Rock and folk music dominated. Excited fans had a desire to know the musicians they loved, like The Beatles, who inspired them. The publication began moving from stock photos to employing photographers who captured musicians in their element. With a fresh new look Melody Maker became the vanguard, approaching music and musicians as subjects for serious study rather than entertainment.

More importantly, Wentzell and the Melody Maker journalists nourished their relationships with the young rock stars, developing a trust between them. Wentzell was witness to many scenes of bad behavior. But not to spoil the relationships between musicians and writers who had total access, discretion was used. There were no makeup artists or publicists around. It was only a bunch of friends together when the writers, photographers and musicians hung out.

The film tells of the tragic day that the Rolling Stones learned that the bands founder, Brian Jones, had drowned. The Stones were in a recording studio, and a journalist was, too, gathering information for a story. But instead of reporting the scoop, the writer was cornered by Keith Richards, who made him pledge secrecy until the band had informed Brians family.

Melody Maker educated its readers, featuring heretofore unknown artists the magazine considered vital rather than covering musicians their audience already knew. This practice helped the magazine break bands and garner credibility and respect throughout the industry. Newspapers had tremendous power at the time. And Melody Maker felt it had a role to play to foster a deeper understanding of the artists and their work not simply to promote music. Coles captured this period of rock n roll history in interviews with journalists, musicians and those who worked behind the scenes. Artists in the film include Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, Eric Burdon of The Animals and members of Yes and Nazareth.

Melody Maker deputy editor Richard Williams described the magazine as a cause. Music defined who you were in the mid-60s. Coalescing around the womens movement, the environmental movement and Vietnam war protests, the youth created the zeitgeist and the belief in the power of music. The publication evolved into a bible for talent scouts and journalists. It became a cause for musicians who knew it was worth reading. In fact, writer Mick Watts wrote a profile on David Bowie when the pop star came to the office in a caftan and makeup and announced, Im gay and always have been, even when I was David Jones. The headline read, Oh You Pretty Thing, quickly becoming a part of pop mythology to which Bowie later attributed his success.

The magazine served as inspiration for a young Jann Wenners first issue of the San Franciscobased Rolling Stonepublished in November 1967. But ultimately, Wenner lacked the same vision the editorial staff of Melody Maker adhered to in standing by their ideals of discretion.

Wenners biographer Joe Hagen, a journalist who also worked at Rolling Stone in the 90s and the author of Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine wrote, Wenners vision was begged, borrowed, recycled, and stolen. From the first issue, the editorial philosophy of an underground newspaper that took rock n roll seriously, the layout and even its subscriber basewas based on a previous publication, or somebody elses original idea.

Further, as the news of the time intensified, with the Kent State massacre, riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention and escalation of the Vietnam War, rock n roll and the counterculture had a split and Wenner aligned with rock n roll.

During this time, the same shifts hit the British music culture. In Melody Makers case, an older staff who had flourished at the dawn of rock counterculture were not as into the new scene. A rival publication, New Musical Express, was ahead of the curve on the evolution into punk, covering the Ramones and Sex Pistols. Many writers didnt understand it, nor did they care to. Eventually, a fragmented music market diminished the audience of the once highly demanded magazine.

The film is a visual treat with the added pleasure of amazing rock star stories, which you may come away from yearning for more of. Ultimately, it pays tribute to a style of music coverage not often seen, where everyone, artist, journalist and reader, played an equal and satisfying part.

Melody Makers is available on video on demand: IMDb, Tubi and Amazon Prime Video.Details: http://www.melodymakersmovie.com

Read more from the original source:

Melody Makers Pays Tribute to the Bible of Rock 'n' Roll - Random Lengths