Monthly Archives: May 2020

Ever feel like you're hanging by a string? You're not alone. These soft and surreal illustrations by visual artist Vicki Ling take a closer look at our feelings when we're faced with the disasters and dilemmas of the modern world.

You know, things that seem to spontaneously erupt, from privacy invasions to public health issues (virus anyone?) and from climate change to personal emotional disorders. "I'm interested in surfacing that sense of tension and insecurity and raise these issues to our collection consciousness in this collection of work," Vicki tells Creative Boom. These are feelings many of us are experiencing today.

Currently based in Chicago, Vicki received her MFA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins in London in 2013. Her works have since been exhibited and published in New York City, Chicago, London, Berlin, and Shanghai, and she has worked with various clients for illustration projects.

Here, we share artworks from her Hanging by a String series and The Plastic Bloom, the latter being where Vicki proposes questions about "the reflections on consumerism and hedonism". These are delicate and beautiful drawings that articulate how many of us are feeling in the world right now. You can discover more of Vicki's work on Instagram.

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Illustrations by Vicki Ling that explore the feeling of insecurity brought on by modern catastrophes - Creative Boom

As the new Netflix coming-of-age series Never Have I Ever begins, its fifteen-year-old heroine, Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), before heading off to her first day of sophomore year in high school, kneels in front of her households shrine. Hey, gods, she says, hands folded in prayer. Its Devi V., your favorite Hindu girl in the San Fernando Valley. Whats poppin? Shes wearing a cute, casual outfit and is in a tidy middle-class bedroom. Last year pretty much sucked, she says, so this year she has some requests: she wants to be invited to a party where she has the opportunity to say, No cocaine for me, thanks ; thinner forearm hair; and, most important, a boyfriendand not some nerd from one of my A.P. classes. He should be a stone-cold hottie who can rock me all night long, she says. (This is startlingshe looks more like a kid than an adult.) He can be dumbI dont care. Thanks for considering. I love you guys.

This voiceassured, breezy, somewhat self-aware aspirational hedonism, with a keen appreciation of stone-cold hottieswill be recognizable to fans of Mindy Kaling, the Nora Ephron-loving Office alum, memoirist, and longtime proponent of the rom-com, who co-created the semi-autobiographical Never Have I Ever with her Mindy Project colleague Lang Fisher. The series, like the drinking game with which it shares a title, is about innocence and experienceand about a teen-agers plucky, nave desire for more. It asserts itself with sassy confidence right away, not just in Devis voice but in the narratives framing. You may ask yourself, Why is sports icon John McEnroe narrating this tale? John McEnroe asks, reasonably, in voice-over. One reason is evident immediately: its funny. After a brief montage of McEnroe jumping around and hoisting trophies in a terry-cloth headband (Wow, I look great there!), he presses on with Devis backstory.

Devis parents, Nalini (Poorna Jagannathan) and Mohan (Sendhil Ramamurthy), came to the U.S. in September, 2001, McEnroe tells us: Not a super chill time to be a brown person in America. They were a happy family of three; last year, while watching Devis harp solo at a school concert, Mohan had a heart attack and died. Soon after, Devis legs stopped working, and she spent three months in a wheelchair. She was cured from her paralysis by a glimpse of the school hottie, a swimmer named Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet), which inspired her to rise up and walk. (Cue the opening credits, to Robyns Dancing on My Own.) By the end of the first episode, Devi has introduced herself to Paxton and offered to have sex with him.

If youre thinking, Yowsers, I agree. The series is itself like a socially awkward teen-age nerdcharming but maladroit, heedless, a little exhausting. (The wheelchair subplot is treated as a lightly embarrassing trauma, then abandoned.) Like many nerds, it leads with a bit of showing off: theres a montage of Devis having competed for No. 1 since elementary school with her rival, Ben Gross (Jaren Lewison). You might call them the John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors of Sherman Oaks High School, McEnroe says. Not to make this about me. Devi and her two high-achieving best friends, the theatre nerd Eleanor (Ramona Young) and the robotics whiz Fabiola (Lee Rodriguez) are known, McEnroe explains, by the lightly racist nickname the U.N., because theyre an ethnically diverse group of academically focussed, um, I cant think of a better word for dorks. Devi is also a hothead, were told. Just as McEnroe once screamed at umpires and threw tennis racquets, Devi blows up at her friends and relatives, and does things like smash her chemistry beaker when Ben gets a better grade. Shes feisty, which we like, and grieving, which we empathize with, but shes also difficult. And both she and the series itself tend to fixate on hotness in a way thats off-putting, suggesting that nerds of many ages simply cant differentiate between beauty, desire, love, and connection. Devis frequent comments on looks are meant to charm us, I thinkas when she exclaims that a visitor to the house is hot, when shed worried hed be an uggo. The visitor politely thanks her, but some of us will cringe.

And yet this beauty fixation, in the form of Paxtonhis meaningful glances, his meaningful hoisting himself out of a poolsets in motion a kind of heros journey for Devi, to the benefit of characters and viewers alike. Paxton, like many classic rom-com dreamboats, has a soul behind his penetrating stare. Hes a jock who doesnt care about school, but, as played by Barnet, he has the subtle thoughtfulness of rom-com hunks from Jake Ryan to Gilbert Blythe to Jordan Catalano to Peter Kavinsky, and, like them, hes observant and often kind. Many actual teen-agers learn the hard way that the love interest theyve been idealizing is less appealing than theyd imagined, but in rom-coms, including this one, were shown what might have happened if that fantasy had been right. Devi has a dream in the second episode in which Paxton whips off his shirt, revealing truly astonishing washboard abs; praises her oversized T-shirt and the scent of her dandruff shampoo; and wants to have sex with her. But what he does during Devis waking hours is almost as fantastical: he notices how shes feeling, asks her how she is, and begins to welcome her into his happy, easygoing world. Whoa, Devi, you came! he says, when she shows up at a cool-kid party. And brought California Brittle! This slaps. Come in!

Still, the series often falls prey to what I think of as the Bridget Jones movie problem: were shown the heroines semi-comedic blundering more than her charm, and, therefore, an idealized dreamboat falling for a blurting, insecure everywoman. (Beer me! Devi says to Paxton, at the party. Love that bread soda.) Another Netflix rom-com megahit, the stellar To All the Boys Ive Loved Before, based on the novel by Jenny Han, did much to elevate the awkward-bookworm-meets-sensitive-jock formits characters have tender, funny conversations, and, though its heroine has growing up to do, shes stubbornly principled and kind. (Boys is also brilliant at conveying the complicated relationship between romanticization and romance in a teen-age girls mind.) Never shares an aesthetic and some plot elements with Boys but often lacks its emotional acuity. For much of the ten-episode arc, the writers struggle to imagine a realistic interaction between Devi and Paxton, or to convince us of why hes increasingly drawn to her; their fledgling attraction can be butterflies-inducing but vaguely embarrassing in its unreality. Its like watching a Pride and Prejudice in which Mr. Darcy falls for Kitty or Lydia, trusting that theres an Elizabeth within.

Kaling productions, including The Mindy Project, in which she starred as a fashionable, boy-crazy ob-gyna kind of Legally Blonde, M.D.are at their best when portraying friendship between equals that turns into love. Perhaps this is because such stories, more common in real life, are also more easily observed, full of the little pleasures and interactions that add up to intimacy. Never takes care to humanize Ben, Devis rival, and to develop a grudging affection between them. A climactic sequence at a Model U.N. conference, in which the volatile nature of their friendship is reflected on a mock world stage, is particularly well done, and hilarious: Devi, incensed about a seeming betrayal, acquires nukes for her country, Equatorial Guinea, and declares war on the U.S., a.k.a. Ben. But their first truly vulnerable conversation, in which they confess their mutual loneliness after Devis mom invites Ben to dinner, is one of the series best scenes, and its bravest.

The series is fairly successful at showing us familial love, too, and at evoking grief, including in scenes with Devis therapist (Niecy Nash). Devis late father keeps appearing to her in visions, like a benevolent version of Hamlets father: hes a handsome, warmhearted, tomato-growing, Vespa-riding mensch, and a McEnroe enthusiast. (Hes a firecracker! he says to Devi, watching tennis on TV. Look at him standing up to that umpire.) Never does so much well, and the actors are so good, that its painful when it goes awry. The greatness of the coming-of-age rom-com is its ability to show us how realistic people, even nerdy ones, might better understand and connect to one another if they werent so awkward and scared all the time. A study of hotness, by hotheads, is less satisfying. In the seasons lovely final scene, Devi asserts herself with vulnerability and confidence, moving beyond her baser instincts, and experiences the happiness that can result. If theres a second season, well see if the series can do that, too.

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Never Have I Ever, Reviewed - The New Yorker

Simon Delaney has told how he squirmed watching Bachelors Walk with his 13-year-old son because of the colourful language and the hedonism depicted on the show.

The 49-year old Dubliner tunes in every Monday night as RTE airs re-runs of the hit cult series.

It centres around Barry (Keith McErlean), who is looking for a get-rich-quick scheme; film critic Raymond (Don Wycherley), and Michael played by Delaney, a would-be barrister, who share a house in Bachelors Walk in Dublin.

Simon said: It was brilliant watching it back, such good fun, but my eldest son watched it and he said, Dad youre smoking a lot. I had a fag in every scene. Its gas, watching it with him.

Obviously the language is a bit fruity but what can you do? I keep saying, Im just acting son, thats not really me saying that.

Set in a Dublin of almost two decades ago, the dad-of-four said he could barely control himself watching the re-runs.

He said: It was 19 years ago and I couldnt help wetting myself laughing and remembering the day we shot this scene and that scene.

With a whole new younger audience Simons character Michael is getting a resurgence in popularity.

He added: Jesus, its such a trip down memory lane, but were getting great comments on Twitter and people are loving the soundtrack.

People loved seeing Dublin back in the day, seeing people having a fag indoors, going to the internet cafe to go online. Its like the 1940s but its only 19 years ago, this is 2001.

It was a different world, Celtic Tiger Dublin.

You would look around Dublin then, all there was were cranes, things were getting built and built. Its like an historical document at this stage.

The actor and TV star had his fill of cigarettes over the years and now vapes.

Commenting on the prodigious smoking he said: Yeah, they were the real McCoy but now I vape, Ive been vaping for years.

It was a poignant era too as it was then Simon met his future wife Lisa the mother of his four kids.

He added: I remember every scene, every actor. I remember first dating my wife and her coming to first visit the set and first meeting the lads.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but they were very happy days.

From presenting Ireland AM at the weekends to his Simply Simon food brand and more recently a stint on Emmerdale, he is a grafter.

Simon said: If you throw enough mud at the wall eventually some of it will stick.

Joking over his lockdown essential worker status he admitted he counts his lucky stars the show is still on air.

He added: Thanks be to Christ Ireland AM is still on. Were deemed essential, Ive been called a lot of things in my life but not essential.

Cooking up a storm every Saturday is going down a treat with the viewers:

Simon said: My book went great and people are giving me loads of feedback now on my cooking slot on Ireland AM.

People are sending me pictures of themselves cooking. I'm just trying to keep it simple for people one pot wonders, family dishes. Thats my interest, thats who Im cooking for every day at home. I cook for a family of six every day at home.

Im loving doing the cooking and there are lots of things coming up.

Im launching a new Simply Simon exciting venture at the end of the month.

The food stuff is getting bigger and bigger thank God, I had a food truck a few years ago outside Kildare Village so its exciting, the same brand.

Simon is urging the public to get involved with his Keepy Up Challenge for Variety Charity the childrens charity hes an ambassador for.

He said: Im the lucky patron of the Variety Charity in Ireland. Last week I launched this campaign on social media called Heads up for Variety.

You have to do five keep uppies or headers and you video yourself and put it out online and text Headsup 50300 and you donate 4.

So loads of the Irish sports stars have done it, Ken Doherty and Niall Quinn, we just want to spread the word, #headsupchallenge.

From an ITV soap to an upcoming Netflix series, Simon admits hes constantly on the go.

He said: Im in an episode in a Netflix series coming up called Young Wallander.

Its based on the Wallander detective series that they did with Kenneth Branagh so theyve remade that.

I did one episode of that which was shot over in Lithuania before Christmas, so a few bits and pieces in the pipeline. I always try to stay busy.

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Simon Delaney squirming while re-watching Bachelors Walk with his 13-year-old son - Dublin Live

OpinionCommentIts after the sun sets, however, that the city perhaps feels most strange

Monday, 11th May 2020, 10:17 am

Its a hot bank holiday weekend in Berlin and the streets of Neuklln are bustling with activity. Along the banks of the canal, Berliners sit in pairs or in small groups, drinking beers from a local Spti (convenience shop), soaking up the sunshine. The canal itself is full of life, as people float around in brightly coloured rubber dinghies, the sound of techno music coming from boomboxes. Long queues form outside the much-beloved ice cream parlours and cyclists casually weave around them. It feels as though the world is opening up again, a friend says.

Germany has begun to ease its partial lockdown, after Chancellor Angela Merkel said the first phase of the pandemic is behind us. Shops in the city have reopened, along with hairdressers, and members of two households can meet in public again. Soon, restaurants, cafes, open air swimming pools and beauty parlours will also be able to reopen.

i's opinion newsletter: talking points from today

i's opinion newsletter: talking points from today

Berlin, much loved for its rebellious energy, feels like its partially reawakening from hibernation. For a brief moment, sitting by the water, I almost forget we are living through a pandemic.

But such moments are fleeting as social distancing measures remain firmly in place. The contact ban means people must stay 1.5 metres apart and there is still unease over a possible second wave of coronavirus infections.

As I walk to the U-bahn along busy Kottbusser Damm, I pass long lines of people queuing outside supermarkets wearing face masks. Face coverings are mandatory in shops and on public transport, and have become a constant reminder of our new normal. Over the past few weeks Ive seen them everywhere, worn by riot police on 1 May, when protests typically take place in Kreuzberg, as well as by shop window mannequins.

Almost everyone on my train carriage home has covered their face; some have clinical white masks, others wear colourful patterned ones, or have pulled scarves up to their noses. A single bare-faced man looks out of place, alone in breaking the rules. Earlier this week, I forgot mine [its plain black in colour, in true Berlin style] when I walked to my local bakery and was barred from entering.

All is not quite what it seems outdoors, either. Up close, it's clear the reason queues for ice cream are long is because people are standing on floor markings to stay far apart.

Its after the sun sets, however, that the city perhaps feels most strange. Berlins infamous techno clubs like Berghain, Sisyphos and About Blank, normally open all-hours all-weekend, remain shuttered. Even when restaurants and cafes open again later this month, they must close by 10pm. Berlin, known for its hedonism, normally has a palpable sense of freedom in the air. But the typically 24-hour city now has a curfew of sorts. At sunset, the night would normally just be beginning, but with nowhere to go people presumably head home.

The next day, as temperatures reach 22 degrees, I cycle to Schlachtensee, a lake in the West of the city, grateful we can do typical Berlin activities like cycling and lake trips.

Berliners are creative people and will find different ways to live and connect with each other safely in the coming months.

Summer is just around the corner, but this year it will be different. Europes most hedonistic capital has a unique energy in the warmer months, full of tourists, techno-lovers, and those here just for summer. Most years, street festivals like Christopher Street Day (CSD), Berlins world-renowned pride celebration, bring hundreds of thousands of people together to sing, dance, kiss and celebrate our freedom to live as we choose in this open-minded city.

Such personal freedoms are not given away easily here. This is particularly apparent in the thorny subject of a possible coronavirus app, which could help track the virus using mobile phone data, but that has so far met resistance in a country with memories of spying during the Nazi era, as well as by the Stasi secret police in the former communist East.

Without it for now, we must adapt to this next phase of the pandemic. Berliners are creative people and will find different ways to live and connect with each other safely in the coming months.

I plan to try new activities this summer; Ive bought a second-hand bike and am learning to cycle here for the first time. Im also on a mission to be able to slackline, which means to walk across a slack rope between two trees. Perhaps, like so many others, Ill even get a rubber dinghy and a boombox so I can float down the canal in Neuklln, playing some techno as I go.

Abby Young-Powell is a journalist living in Berlin

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Life in Berlin as coronavirus lockdown is eased: 'It feels like reawakening from hibernation' - inews

The paint-by-numbers approach to schooling doesn't work for everyone. While, in theory, it makes sense that all Year 7s should learn how volcanoes work, it also doesn't at all: forcing each and every child to follow the same syllabus leads to huge gaps in real-world learning. For instance: How to be a good listener, or why intersectionality matters, or how to be mindful and live in the moment.

It's in our twenties once we've been released into the world that we really start to Learn Things. Out in the wild, we fill those educational gaps with lessons learned from hard, nasty reality. Since we released a new episode of the VENT Documentary series, "School's Out, What Now", this week, we asked VICE writers to detail some lessons they learned during their twenties that they could never have learned at school.

It's tempting to spend your school and university years saying yes to as many opportunities offered your way as is reasonably safe and possible. You will never have that much guilt-free leisure time again, so why not indulge in the widest range of fun? That's how I approached uni which meant I didn't spend much time distinguishing between the things I liked and the stuff that wasn't really me. But after I graduated, the fact I had less disposable time meant I could finally learn the joy of leaning into the people and things that I actually really like (mainly karaoke), and the even greater pleasure of saying no when the opportunity just isn't quite right. Dipo Faloyin

LISTEN: "School's Out, What Now" a podcast about UK education from the VENT Documentaries series, produced by VICE UK and the young people of Brent.

Your twenties can be a time of super hard work and massive hedonism, with very little in between. Everything's career driven, and then you get fucked up to decompress. While Im glad I spent some time partying, I wish I'd spent more time doing other cool things. When I was a teenager I played a lot of music, and thought I was going to be a rock star. Obviously that didnt happen, and so I slowly fell out of the habit because why bother if youre not going to end up with a brief stay in the Top 100 and a drug addiction?

"What's the point of playing music just for fun?" is a question that should answer itself, and yet it's one that is implicitly posed by absolutely everything about our mercenary culture. On the other hand, you're constantly bombarded with tiresome marketing about self-improvement, colonising your spare time with the need to consume ever more culture. What this can lead to is forgetting how to put any effort into doing things just for yourself, just for the sake of it. And I do mean effort, because while it's completely legit to spend ages on the Sims every so often, if you can manage it, its good to be a more active participant in your own leisure time. Simon Childs

Throughout my teens and early twenties, I reacted immediately and viscerally to any issue right in front of me. Had a bad day at work? I would walk out. Had a problem in my relationship? I would assume the worst. Had an argument with my family? I would say things I didn't mean in the heat of the moment.

As I've gotten older, it's not that I don't feel the same rage or stress or whatever, but I've learned that it really helps to pause for a moment (a few hours or, ideally, a day or two) before reacting to anything that pisses me off. Waiting to calm down enables you to see things a bit more clearly, and you're also able to communicate in a calmer way, which is more useful for everyone. I know this sounds really obvious, but it honestly took me until at least 25 to learn how and why I should pause instead of immediately freaking out. Daisy Jones

I spent most of my teenage years in tortured, secretive relationships that only left me feeling lonely and confused. It doesn't have to be that way! If being around somebody doesn't make you feel good, you don't have to put up with it. This applies to friendships and romantic relationships alike. If you leave an interaction with someone whether that's sexual, romantic or otherwise and they've somehow made you feel worse than you did before, that person is probably just not for you, and trying to convince yourself otherwise will just lead to pain further down the road.

In most cases, this is nobody's fault it's just a compatibility issue, and you will not become a Better Person by trying to change them or put up with it. There are obviously exceptions to this rule every relationship has its own peaks and troughs, and sometimes those you love can be fucking annoying but you deserve to be around people who don't make you want to stab your own eyes out. Zing Tsjeng

Just because something wasn't your thing at school or wasn't available at school, doesn't mean you will forever suck at it or it will come to define you. My school was terrible for sport it basically disappeared from the curriculum in sixth form. Anyway, in my early twenties I ended up playing football in an office I worked at just to get involved and socialise with some of the hot guys. I was obviously shit, but it was really fun, and when I moved to Peckham I managed to find a woman's team and keep it up. Ultimately, the School of Life taught me that picking up something later in life isn't a terrible idea. Ruby Lott-Lavigna

Like everyone in school with a passing interest in Green Day and two litre bottles of Strongbow, I fucking hated PE and PE fucking hated me back. As I grew up, I thought I was dreadful at all exercise, and then just never did any at all for years. For some reason that I cant remember now, in university I decided to give yoga a go, and realised that exercise alarmingly didnt actually have to make you feel bad. As Ive got older, Ive had the same realisations about exercise methods from spinning to (can't actually believe this one) running. This isnt to say that I am now one of those people who shags exercise, more just one of those people who now goes out running in the park if they have a shit day, and unfortunately tends to feel better for having done it. Lauren O'Neill

Lauren ONeill

In my twenties I learned that pubs were better than anywhere else. I loved them. The best thing about them was that there are loads of them. I spent most of my time in them, almost 24/7 it seemed. I was never at home. I played bass guitar in them and listened to live music in them, played pool and smoked weed outside them. I ate lunch and dinner in them. It's where I hung out with girlfriends, best mates and work colleagues. I kissed, slept and fought in them. I spent all my money in them and scrounged money and drinks in them. I got career breaks from being in them and my liver and brain a bit ruined by them. And I learned so well, I carried on doing it all into my thirties. Max Daly

You should buy some nice bed sheets. I know that sounds like an extravagant indulgence when you still live like a student and cannot imagine the day when you have your own place in which to put nice things; no longer beholden to a faceless landlord who thinks that a surprise 200 rent increase is "fair, given the current market conditions" But I really feel like my life improved slightly when I spent more than I should have on a high thread-count sheet and duvet set in "Blushed Dusk Grey". It didnt help redress the injustices that have fucked the London property market and made renting a box-room in Norwood akin to selling a kidney each month it was just some pillow cases. But it felt good, like something a real adult would do. Phoebe Hurst

Unfortunately, living is a practice. It requires bravery and hard work and the discipline to listen to yourself as you grow. You can read every list you want on how to be a person in the world and still know nothing about how to live. Without making mistakes and learning to suffer and survive, youll be a shell of an individual. Its only when we learn from our own lives that a "lesson" gets into our brains and bodies properly. I dont know why this is the case. It seems unfair that we cant just see our friends ruin their lives and take notes on what to avoid. Still, this is the truth. So strap in, and get ready to fuck up well. Hannah Ewens

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Nine Things You Should Have Realised By the End of Your Twenties - VICE UK