Category Archives: New Utopia

On Saturday, Oct. 14 around 11:41 a.m., the Texas Hill Country will experience the much-hyped annular solar eclipse. While the Austin area will only see roughly 80 percent coverage by the moon over the sun, San Antonio and other Central Texas towns will have around 90 percent coverage during the astronomical spectacle. Heres the inside scoop on the upcoming eclipse.

Unlike a lunar eclipse, which happens when the shadow of the Earth lines up on the moon, a solar eclipse is the rarer time when the moon blocks the sun when viewed from a specific area on Earth.

Partially: While the path of the eclipse wont be directly over Austin, it will be more than 80 percent covered above our skies, so attendees can get a glimpse of it. (Plus, solar eclipse glasses could complete your festival look and stand out from the usual suspects at the festival.)

If you want to see more coverage, yes! The best bets for seeing the eclipse near Austin will be in Kerrville, San Antonio, New Braunfels, or Utopia. Here are some parties worth checking out:

Hop on a tube at Rockin R Solar Eclipse on the River and float down the Guadalupe as you watch the moon cover the sun to create a ring of fire. Floaters will meander down the river for the duration of the eclipse. For a drier but still dynamic viewing experience, the meadows at Natural Bridge Caverns is an ideal spot to see the eclipse. Book some loungers and enjoy a brunch before visiting the caves below.

At the Solar Eclipse at the Alamo, buy commemorative solar eclipse glasses that feature the iconic roofline of the Alamo as you watch this spectacular event from the historic site.Other stellar parties in SA include the Brackenridge Park Conservancy Eclipse & Sips Viewing Party and the Rosarios Eclipse Viewing Party.

Festival goers can soak in the energy of the eclipse at Welcome Home Fest during a sound bath performed by Brother Brothers on Chapel Hill before jamming out with artists like Sir Woman and Adrianne Lenker later that night.

During Eclipse UTOPiA, camp out or snag a yurt for the weekend as musical acts take over the ranch. The Octopus Project will play during the stunning celestial event.

Grab a pair of stylish Halo Eclipse Glasses, American Astronomical Societyapproved spectacles, for safely viewing the phenomenon. Made from bamboo, these spectacles protect your eyes without compromising your style. HEB also saves the day yet again with affordable solar glasses for sale at its grocery stores. Ballin on a budget? The Austin Public Library is offering two free pairs per person.

Correct: The Hill Country will experience totality (the moment of total obscuration of the sun)during the solar eclipse in April! Mark your calendar for April 8, 2024.

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Everything You Need to Know About the Solar Eclipse in Central ... - Austin Monthly

The inaugural SXSW Sydney is set to kick off in Australia this weekend, expanding Austins famed South by Southwest festival outside North America for the first time in its history.

This new expansion of our event family is specifically dedicated to innovation and creativity in the Asia-Pacific region and takes place October 15-22, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. Gathering the worlds most inspired thinkers and creatives, SXSW Sydney will be an exploration of the best in Music, Screen, Gaming, Technology, and Innovation. Like SXSW in Austin, SXSW Sydney is a must-attend event for creators and professionals ready to discover what's next while seeking career-enhancing connections.

SXSW Sydney will feature more than 1,000 future-forward experiences including 700+ thought-provoking speakers, 300+ cutting-edge performances, 170+ thrilling game demos, and 200+ captivating screen events with five exclusive gala premieres. Dive into the latest announcements and programming overview of this historic, inaugural event!

The SXSW Sydney Conference will feature over 700 inspiring speakers across keynotes, presentations, panels, workshops, and mentor sessions.

Joining AI expert and futurist Amy Webb on the Headline Speakers lineup are newly-announced Australian screen icon and Founder of Blossom Films Nicole Kidman; rapper, singer-songwriter, producer, and humanitarian Chance The Rapper; and Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker. Hear from innovators and creatives at the top of their industries including Founder & CEO of Make Love Not Porn Cindy Gallop; AFL icon, Indigenous Defence & Infrastructure Consortium CEO Adam Goodes; Co-Founder and CTO of Slack Cal Henderson; Womens Rights Activist Manal Al Sharif; Oscar-nominated actor Naomi Watts; and many more.

The SXSW Sydney Screen Festival includes feature films, shorts, TV premieres, music videos, and XR, embracing the democratization of screen storytelling. This future-focused celebration of film includes the World Premiere of Faraway Downs, Baz Luhrmanns reimagined work of his epic Australia; documentary World Premiere of Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles; Australian Premiere of Emerald Fennell's Saltburn; Gabriel Gasparinatos's music documentary ONEFOUR: Against All Odds; Tim Barretto's Australian-made nod to 90s nostalgia Bassendream; South Koreas 2024 Oscar entry for Best International Feature Film, Concrete Utopia; Austin Smith's groundbreaking interactive film Lab Rat; and more.

A breadth of global talent are set to make their SXSW Sydney Music Festival debut with over 300 performances across 25 venues. Acts include Indonesian experimental outfit Batavia Collective; NYC buzz electronic act Fcuckers; Brisbane band Girl and Girl; 13 year old First Nations rapper Inkabee; Japan's Otoboke Beaver, and many more. Plus Australian homegrown heroes Elle Shimada, dust, The Terrys, Vv Pete, Teenage Joans, Dulcie, Andrew Gurruwiwi Band, Rum Jungle, GO-JO, Mi-Kaisha, Death by Denim, These New South Whales, Cody Jon, and Aodhan.

Celebrate the future of the gaming industry at the SXSW Sydney Games Festival with access to over 170 local and international independent games that will be playable across venues. Get a further glimpse of the future at Tech + Innovation events and the Sydney Expo.

Explore the latest programming announcements and event updates at sxswsydney.com.

2023 SXSW Sydney Schedule

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Explore Programming for the Inaugural SXSW Sydney: Oct 15-22 - sxsw.com

After five millennia, the practice of writing still serves the enduring human need to communicate messages and information from place to place and time to time. Writing systems are encoded with cultural heritages and require preservation. Quasi: Experimental Writing Systems is an exhibition (opening November 16) about invented and imaginary writing systems. Klingon, Elvish and Kryptonian are popular contemporary examples, but they represent only a fraction of a much broader landscape, writes curator Lavinia Lascarsis about the exhibition she curated at Art Centers Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography. Unlike writing systems that have evolved organically over generations of collective usage, the projects showcased in the exhibition present new configurations of signs and symbols, meticulously crafted at distinct points in time, each born with intention and purpose.

The urge to craft a writing system is inspired by a variety of personal, social and cultural factors. A few examples from an inexhaustible list of creative impulses are encoding messages through cryptography, preserving endangered languages, she continues, methods for faster writing, writing devoid of semantic content, investigating historical symbolism and its contemporary relevance, even channeling otherworldly entities through automatic writing.

This secret vice of inventing languagesas J.R.R. Tolkien refers to itexposes us all to linguistic operations outside of our everyday experience and reveals a fascination with otherness where mythology and utopia are recurring themes.

Lascarsis notes that Quasi has personal roots in her life. Around the age of 8, as a reaction to a loud and active home, she designed an encrypted cipher based on the Greek alphabet for writing private thoughts. A decade later, she developed a mild obsession with the stories set in Tolkiens Middle Earth and the fictional languages drawn from his vast backdrop of mythic narratives. Another 10 years on, amidst a career change, my journey into typography began, revealing its intricate connection to language. This evolved into a research project that addresses typography, linguistics and fiction.

Quasi views the invention of writing systems as a speculative process and an exercise of discovery to uncover new quasi-realities within our systems of communication, she explains. Playing with language and fostering linguistic diversity contributes to an ongoing dialog about imagination and re-worlding, and their potential as rebellious processes to disrupt existing power structures and reshape our collective narrative.

The works in the exhibition are rooted in this intersection. Delivered as font design projects, art books, scrolls, drawings, sculptures and other artifacts, some works are intentionally designed to be functional writing systems, allowing potential usage by others, while some exist in a realm where functionality becomes entirely irrelevant: Calder Ruhl Hansens D16 Syllabics is an abugida (syllabary writing system where consonants have built-in vowels) drawing from Canadian Aboriginal syllabics; Coline Bessons Arrakis, inspired by Frank Herberts science fiction novel Dune, is a sand plate inscribed with a rectilinear interpretation of the Arabic Kufic script; and Sound Clouds and Syllabaries by Ilka Helmig and Johannes Bergerhausen introduces a series of drawings capturing patterns of exhaled smoke generated during vocalization of syllables. Many of the projects in Quasi remain works-in-progress, mirroring the perpetual evolution of language itselfa fluid entity that lacks a definitive version and adapts in tandem with societal shifts.

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The Daily Heller: The Art of Invented Scripts, Meaning Optional - PRINT Magazine

Andrea Branzi in 2008. Courtesy Wikimedia

Andrea Branzi, the Italian architect, designer, educator and thinker has died in Milan. Branzi trained as an architect at the Florence School of Architecture, receiving his degree in 1966. He then founded Archizoom Associati with Gilberto Corretti, Paolo Deganello, Massimo Morozzi, an experimental design group known for its groundbreaking projects including the visionary No-Stop-City, an unbuilt project presenting an urban utopia where the architectural form disappears and only the essential remains.

Branzi was also an educator who co-founded theDomus Academy post-graduate school of design in Milan in 1982. He was then the chairman of theSchool of Interior Design at thePolytechnic University of Milan until 2009. His ideas on theoretical architecture remain influential: Today, in order to create a new architecture and new urban spaces, it is necessary to begin further upstream: one has to plunge ones hands into that vast planktonic soup of products, technologies, pictures, signs, and data which make up the artificial universe in which man is completely immersed.

Branzis practice also included practical design objects, such as chairs and other furniture. His designs are part of the collections of important museums around the world, such as the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the V&A in London; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston; and MoMA, New York. He also had several exhibitions at Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi in Berlin. Branzi won the Italian Architecture Prizes lifetime achievement award in 2022.

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Andrea Branzi, visionary architect and designer, 19382023 - ArtReview

A hotel manager on 90,000 a year was a victim of sex discrimination when her bosses enforced a 33 per cent salary cut during Covid while two male managers only lost 20-25 per cent, a tribunal has ruled.

The owners of the three Utopia Leisure hotels argued that the men lost less money then Ms S Mueller because they both had two separate jobs, as hotel and spa managers.

Mr Heath, operations director for Utopia Leisure, and owners Mr and Mrs Hinchcliffe, said Mueller lost 33 per cent because she earned more than 85,000 per year.

The three had agreed the cut at the start of Covid, amid fears of job losses, with those earning 30-84,999 losing 25 per cent and those below 30,000 taking a 20 per cent hit.

Mr Perry and Mr Jurca earned more than 85,000, but the respondents took away 25 per cent for their general manager role and 20 per cent for the spa manager role, counting them as individual jobs.

The tribunal said it was an accounting detail and that Heath and the Hinchcliffes had used it to disguise a bespoke arrangement that favoured the two men over Mueller.

It added that the respondent's position that the pay cut was imposed on the male managers on the basis of their having two separate jobs was not only lacking in any logic but is not the case".

The claim for direct sex discrimination against all respondents was successful, while Mueller also won her claim for equal pay against Utopia Leisure.

The tribunal heard that Mueller was employed as a general manager at Great Fosters Hotel in Egham, which is owned by Utopia Leisure, from 15 April 2019 until her resignation on 8 January 2021.

Utopia Leisure operates five hotels under the brand Alexander Hotels and employs approximately 550 people.

According to the tribunal, in March 2020 the hospitality industry felt the full brunt of the coronavirus pandemic, subsequent restrictions and lockdowns, and Heath and Mr and Mrs Hinchcliffe discussed ways to maintain their business and retain their staff.

A pay cut was agreed upon by the three. The tribunal heard the pay cut was imposed by Utopia Leisure with a view to retaining jobs.

The tribunal also heard that, while not explicitly stated, the circumstances at the time were such that, had the pay cuts not been "imposed", it was recognised by all that the only alternative would be "job losses".

Heath explained to the panel that individuals on lower salaries were possibly "disproportionately" affected by pay reduction in respect of fundamental living needs. Those with higher incomes could afford the cuts better and therefore they lost a higher percentage, he said.

Heath informed the tribunal that he and the Hinchcliffes had reached an agreement: a 20 per cent pay cut for individuals earning less than 30,000, a 25 per cent pay cut for those on 30-84,999 and a 33 per cent pay cut for those earning 85,000 and over.

The tribunal ruled that Mueller's salary was 90,000, giving her a 33 per cent pay cut.

At the same time, the managers of two other hotels owned by the same group, Perry and Jurca, took a 25 per cent cut.

Heath said: The hotels managed by both Perry and Jurca had spas attached to them. These spas were run as separate businesses with their own internal accounts, profits and loss and balance sheet.

He added that it had been determined that Perry and Jurca therefore had two jobs and that the pay cuts percentage was applied to earnings from each, not added together.

Jurca's total pay of 90,000 was reported as 67,500 for the general manager function and 22,500 for his spa manager role, according to the tribunal.

Perry's overall remuneration of 91,000 was reported as 68,250 for his general manager position and 22,750 for his spa manager position. It was also highlighted that the cuts were implemented automatically via payroll, with no management scrutiny.

Both men were handed a 25 per cent cut for their general manager role and a 20 per cent salary reduction for their spa manager position.

Heath told the tribunal that he and the Hinchcliffes discussed each individual and determined what they thought was a fair percentage salary decrease to impose based on bands they had established. However, the tribunal stated that Heath made no hint that the level of cuts imposed was related to the duties or the seriousness of those duties.

Mrs Hinchcliffe told the tribunal that the level of pay cut was enforced on the basis that those who could afford it paid more.

In response to the disparity between Mueller, Perry and Jurca, Mrs Hinchcliffe told the tribunal that they had bigger jobs than Mueller.

The tribunal heard that Mueller, as general manager of Great Fosters, "duly implemented" the wage reduction to hotel staff. She was notified of the 33 per cent wage cut imposed on her in an email dated 23 March 2020.

However, the tribunal found that there was no consultation with her or any other staff over the reduction.

Mueller told the tribunal that she was petrified about the job cuts and that she had no choice but to continue working. She also said that all staff were essentially in the same position, which the tribunal found to be consistent with evidence that Utopia Leisure, Mr and Mrs Hinchcliffe and Heath experienced no pushback in relation to the proposed cuts.

Mueller asked when her wages would be reinstated and was given no precise date because of the ongoing pandemic, according to the tribunal.

The tribunal did find, however, that Mueller never "objected" to the salary drop, "nor did she do anything to alert" her employer to the fact that she felt herself to be working under "protest".

It determined that Mueller had a positive relationship with Heath and the Hinchcliffes and worked "very hard" during the Covid period. She also established new business strategies such as fully utilising the gardens of Great Fosters by putting on art exhibitions.

According to the tribunal, Mueller was aware that voicing her complaint about the income reduction would "risk" her work being terminated and she wanted to keep her position while she looked for a new role.

The tribunal recognised that she was in a "difficult personal position" because she had recently relocated for this job and her spouse was "unwell" and not working at the time. It further stated that the job market in the hospitality business was "non-existent" at the time.

Mueller eventually found another job and resigned on 9 December 2020, with her last day of work on 8 January 2021, and stated in her resignation letter that she felt herself to be working "under protest.

The tribunal ruled that the respondents were unable to demonstrate a "non-discriminatory" rationale for Mueller's treatment and her claims for direct sex discrimination were successful.

Mueller's equal pay claim against Utopia Leisure was also successful.

A remedy hearing has been set for a later date.

The tribunal ruled that imposing a 33 per cent salary cut on Mueller was a "fundamental breach of the contract of employment, noting that the pay decrease was enforced as an alternative to the respondent implementing job cuts.

It noted that Mueller believed that, should she object, her employment was likely to be terminated and she actively hid that she was working under protest because of her fear of being sacked.

The tribunal stated that it was unable to discern the logic behind Utopia Leisure's choice to apply a 25 per cent cut to the salary of the two male managers since their decision under the circumstances did not correlate with Heath's explanation of imposing bigger pay cuts on those who could afford it more.

It went on to say that the respondent's position that the pay cut was imposed on the male managers on the basis of their having two separate jobs was not only lacking in any logic but is not the case".

Employment judge Skehan ruled that Mueller demonstrated that the declared rationale behind the percentage pay cuts, which was that those who earned more bore a heavier burden, was not applied equally to her and the comparators.

They added that the respondents repeated assertions that Mueller was on a higher pay grade than Perry or Jurca was obviously not the case, and that reliance on an internal accounting paper distinction, which was hidden from Mueller and only revealed after the case management hearing, was an attempt to obfuscate and disguise the fact that a bespoke arrangement applied to the comparators.

The panel said factors such as "affordability may be tainted by stereotypic assumptions as to a woman's earnings", which may be assumed to be a second family income or somehow "less important than a man's".

The panel also noted that they did not accept the submission that had Mueller been a man she would have been subject to the same deduction and concluded that the respondents were unable to show a non-discriminatory reason for Muellers treatment.

According to Dawn Dickson, employment partner at Anderson Strathern, the case serves as a valuable reminder of the importance of conducting frequent equal pay audits to determine whether men and women in equivalent or roughly similar occupations are given the same pay.

Dickson said that, if they were not, any audit must evaluate both the broad and more precise reasons for pay inequalities and where necessary employers must address such differences or ensure that the reasons for pay differentials have a sound basis for existing.

Seeking to explain a difference in pay before the employment tribunal after the event as it appears occurred in this case will almost always result in no logical or credible explanation being advanced, with the result that the employers defence fails, she added.

Rob Smedley, employment director at Freeths, said that on first blush this appeared to be a harsh decision for the employer as it seemed they were facing dire consequences as a result of Covid and imposing pay cuts may have appeared the only way out.

However, he stressed that there was no advance notice or consultation with the employees, which will leave an employer on the back foot when it comes to defending such claims.

Smedley also noted that the case illustrated the importance of management taking a step back to carefully test the rationale behind proposed decisions before they are made, especially where issues like pay are impacted and there is a clear difference in treatment between employees.

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Female hotel manager handed a 33 per cent pay cut during Covid ... - People Management Magazine

By David E. Gehlke

Bassist Shane Embury joined the already influential U.K. grindcore act NAPALM DEATH in 1987. He missed playing on the band's "Scum" debut but has been a mainstay ever since, appearing on every NAPALM studio effort and subsequently plotting its creative direction, which, now at 16 long-players, has covered virtually every bit of ground extreme metal has to offer. A career this lengthy entails the usual peaks and valleys, and NAPALM certainly took it on the chin from the mid-1990s up until the early 2000s, thanks to their well-documented rifts with Earache Records and the declining fortunes of grindcore. Embury (and his bandmates) survived barely and can now live to tell the tales, something he has done in his biography, "Life...? And Napalm Death".

Embury's self-deprecating writing style and ability to recollect some of the more obscure details in NAPALM's career make for a fascinating read, particularly when he discusses his relationship with vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway and the routine frustrations of trying to make a living while playing vastly uncommercial music. All that, and more, was on the docket when BLABBERMOUTH.NET got Embury on the horn.

Blabbermouth: You've been open about why you wanted to write a book. But how did you feel when it was finished?

Shane: "I was satisfied, for sure. Of course, then you think of the things you forgot. Primarily, it's up to this point in my life, I'd say it does what it needs to do, but I'm satisfied. It's also a strange feeling of, 'Will people like it? How are they going to feel?' I called my close friends and they liked it. The response has been pretty good. That's nice, of course. That was it, I suppose. It's intriguing to see where it goes from here because it's different than an album, which is what I'm used to being involved in. It seems to be a thing that, because it depends on what people think, it keeps rolling on. It's a small reason I wanted to do it. I wanted to be able to chat about it with younger generations. It's a journey of what I did and the industry's ups and downs. I came from a quite small village. I was a homebody before I joined NAPALM. The guys became my family. I can't believe the world and the adventures I've had. Then you get older and a family man and it becomes a balancing technique. You have to make the two lives co-exist without disrupting them."

Blabbermouth: Did you keep a journal, or were these all events you recollected?

Shane: "It's all in my memory. God knows my memory, considering the party lifestyle when we all lived together. In the early '90s in Birmingham, a different band played every day and we were all out drinking, but I seem to remember a lot. Of course, I found old videos from our shows. Our fanbase and die-hard fans were able to plug in some holes, like, 'What happened on this particular day?' 'Oh, you played this show.' Sometimes, I wonder if I was always preparing to do a book."

Blabbermouth: How much inspiration for the book was derived from the number of times people told you NAPALM was nothing but "noise"?

Shane: "People say we sound like that onstage and sometimes I can roll with that, but there are a lot of deeper undercurrents. And that's why I loved NAPALM before I joined. I was a fan. There wasn't much of that style around. I'm not trying to sound pompous, but when you bring in grindcore, indie, alternative, and noise, bring them together, there are multitudes of things going on to make the music. Sometimes, it's a symphony of chaos. I want to promote that more with the next record and try different things. We've returned to [founding NAPALM member] Nick Bullen's original vision in some ways. When you're younger, you don't possess the words to reinforce that it's not noise. It's something else. People get such a reaction from it."

Blabbermouth: The one time NAPALM did something at least somewhat targeted was when you came to Tampa to record "Harmony Corruption" with Scott Burns. There are a lot of opinions of that record. Where does it sit with you?

Shane: "When we were younger, me, Mitch [Harris, guitar] and Jesse [Pintado, guitar], we'd go out and drink and debate albums. As you get older, you brush that off. People are entitled to their opinions, but it's interesting that 'Unfit Earth' is a song that Barney cringes about. Micky [Harris, drums] wrote that on his famous two-stringer, which I always talk about. He wrote that during the period of 'Mentally Murdered'. Nobody would have noticed if 'Harmony' had been recorded in the sound of 'Mentally'. There were changes. Barney came in. We were in Florida. It's what we wanted to do. A lot of it was because we loved Florida death metal. Digby [Pearson, Earache Records owner] wanted us to go; Micky wanted to go. I was like, 'Well, yeah. I want to go. I want to see OBITUARY. I want to hang out with DEICIDE. I want to record a record.' I don't look at 'Harmony' for what it sounds like. I look at it for the memory and the great fun I had. The old school didn't like it so much, but we attracted a bunch of new fans. What's fortunate is that you can go to album 16 and go, 'There have been steps that have been made, rightly or wrongly, and we've survived. Now we can look back on it.' To me, it's fine."

Blabbermouth: You talk about it being an experience. I always think of the band pictures you took in the Florida sun and how Mick had some real issues tracking drums.

Shane: "It's hard not to remember. That was a different time because 'Altars Of Madness' [MORBID ANGEL] came blasting forth. At the time, I didn't think much about it. I thought, 'Altars Of Madness' rules. That's it. I had the advance tape that I blasted in the back of the van. Micky always said, 'You're listening to that album again?' I would respond, 'Of course I am!' I recognized there were different styles of music. You could see why John Zorn was Micky's hero. Micky was a free-style tornado guy. [MORBID ANGEL drummer Pete] Sandoval was very precise. It was the beginning of a different age. There was that. Then, there was general nervousness in the studio, which still happens. On the last album, Danny [Herrera, drums] and I tried to keep things spontaneous because of nerves. You remember things like that. Me, Mitch and Jesse were hanging out and watching MORBID ANGEL rehearse more than we spent in the studio when making 'Harmony'. But I remember all of that. Overall, it's probably one of NAPALM's most important albums. Simple as that."

Blabbermouth: Some of the most interesting portions of the book are when you talk about the strife within the band during the mid-'90s. Did you think NAPALM would survive?

Shane: "There were definitely times when we all thought we wouldn't get through it. This house where I'm at now is where we all four lived at one point. Now it's me and Danny. That got us through, that camaraderie, I suppose. Barn was always moving around. He was in London for a while. Different things were going on. We did 'Utopia Banished' because Jesse, Mitch and I were getting into different stuff, different bands and beats, and the nu-metal thing came in and we were slightly unaware. I remember returning from the first South American tour, where we played to six thousand people in Chile, then went to Hamburg and played the smaller clubs. The scenes were changing. Fast-forward 20 years, it's different. It's tilted back the other way. Somehow, we managed to ride the storm. It was very tough. We were younger and immature; it was hard to communicate. 'Fear, Emptiness, Despair' was difficult to make. Barney was trying to process how he perceived us changing. I think me and Mitch would go, 'We have this crushingly heavy riff and it's for four seconds and that's it. Why don't we use more of it?' We were listening to HELMET, which had more to do with the beats than anything else. We tend to openly go, 'We like the SMASHING PUMPKINS.' The natural reaction was, 'What's happening with NAPALM?' I won't say I love the SMASHING PUMPKINS, but I love the drummer [Jimmy Chamberlin]. He's fucking awesome. Why don't we throw some of those beats in there? It was a confusing time. Danny was nervous. Barn was nervous. Then the Columbia [Records] thing happened, but everyone else was supportive. It was a difficult time. The only way I can make sense of it is that it would have been easy to make another 'Utopia', but we weren't in that mind frame. That was the deal."

Blabbermouth: You mentioned in the book that you sympathized with Digby on how hard it is to run a record label, given your experience. Has your view toward him softened?

Shane: "It has, for sure. I had a small experience running a record label. It was difficult dealing with a band that I perceived to be punk rock and down to earth who turned on me because of a simple mistake. I forgot one small thing on the cover. It was like, 'You must destroy these CDs.' It is difficult. It is tough. I think whatever people think of Dig, he was there. He did help and did push NAPALM. I was part of his help in the early days I remember doing mailers for him and all kinds of stuff. It can be difficult. In any relationship, it's how you perceive stuff. It's very easy to go, 'Blah blah this.' We had a manager come in with his perspective, but I don't think he had the band's best interest in the end. I'm forever terribly in the middle of it, going, 'What's going on here? Can't we get on?' I've seen Dig a few times recently and we get on fine. Our Glastonbury appearance [in 2017] came through Earache. They got us that. A few more interesting festivals have come through Earache because they keep promoting the early stuff. My memory is reasonably intact on most of that stuff. When I think back on the early days, it's going back to Dig's flat and mailing MORBID ANGEL test pressers. I can't imagine the stress of it on that scale. I was more scared when I did it, like, 'I can't do this.' The bands can be a total pain in the ass. I know I'm a pain in the ass. You have to work out a compromise."

Blabbermouth: You talk a lot about your relationship with Barney. Are you so different to the point that it's why you've been able to co-exist for so long?

Shane: "People say we're different, and it works that way. I think Barney is ultra-cautious. I tend to jump into the fire, like, 'Come on, mate.' Whether it's good or bad it's mostly good. I don't think we're totally different, but some people say we're closer than we know. We're evolving. Sometimes, I yearn for the Barn of the past. He's there. I have to edge it out of him sometimes, but he has the responsibility of being NAPALM's frontman. It is a responsibility, but I come from a slightly different angle. Of course, our message is clear. I'm single-mindedly into the music. That's where the yin and the yang come in. We do things in a strange way. I compose and he goes and does his thing. I barely know what's going on until the album is final. I'll go, 'That's a little strange.' But as time goes on, I usually get it. When you get older, you have to bring yourself back down to earth and let these things happen."

Blabbermouth: While on the subject, do you have any demos of Phil Vane singing on "Inside The Torn Apart" when he replaced Barney in 1997?

Shane: "Strangely enough, I've been uncovering all kinds of cassettes. I may have something."

Blabbermouth: Phil was a great vocalist in his own right coming from EXTREME NOISE TERROR, but as you mentioned in the book, his downfall may have stemmed from you trying to shoehorn him into NAPALM.

Shane: "It was immaturity and lack of communication on my part. Depending on the perspective, he'd say he left, but I think a simple sit-down would have changed things [with Barney]. That's where we were at that point. Feelings got amplified because of that. Phil and Barney traded places. [Laughs] The record would have turned out the way it did anyway, but we could have auditioned more people. Barney probably would have been on the album anyway. When I broke the news to Phil, it was hard. Then, it was equally hard to ask Barn back into the band! Barney came in and said, 'The album is heavy.' I said, 'Of course. What else are we going to do?' That was that. There was a fallout from all those things. Trust is battered a little bit. It's like when I'm in the dugout with my wife sometimes."

Blabbermouth: What's next for you, particularly with NAPALM?

Shane: "We have a London show with CULT OF LUNA next month. There are some shows in Spain and France. We go to Japan in December, which will be fun. I'm going to hit the road in England with VENOMOUS CONCEPT. Dave Witte [MUNICIPAL WASTE] will be playing with us. That will be a lot of fun. I'm hoping around April to get some studio time to start working on the next NAPALM. I have multitudes of ideas. It's going to be fast, but there will be some whacko stuff."

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NAPALM DEATH's SHANE EMBURY Talks New Book And Life In ... - BLABBERMOUTH.NET

Summary

In almost 50 years of flying as British Airways, the UK flag carrier has only changed the external color scheme on the exterior of its fleet three times. Simple Flying looks at each of the liveries used by the airline over that time and speculates whether the carrier might be due for another update.

In 1974, the British government decided to merge several of the airlines operating in the United Kingdom - British European Airways (BEA) and British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), plus other smaller domestic carriers such as Northeast and Cambrian Airways. The resulting single airline became known simply as British Airways.

2024 will mark the 50th anniversary of that merger. In the almost half decade since coming into existence, British Airways' fleet (and those of subsidiaries, partners, and franchisees) has only had four external color schemes applied fleetwide.

The liveries predominantly used by the airline over that time are best known as the 'Negus' scheme, the 'Landor' scheme, and the 'World Tails/Project Utopia' schemes. Most recently, the 'Chatham Dockyard' scheme is currently used by the carrier.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

In this article, Simple Flying briefly looks at each color scheme - its key features, choice of colors, and background. Lastly, it will discuss the likeliness of whether the airline will be introducing a new color scheme any time soon and what that might look like.

After its formation, the fleet of the newly-founded British Airways (BA) initially retained their individual liveries, although having their respective titles replaced with the new airline's name.

Photo: Steve Fitzgerald | Wikimedia Commons

However, around the time BA came to be, the airline's management instructed London-based design firm Negus and Negus to develop a new design that would encapsulate the company as Britain's new flag carrier.

The new livery created by the design firm featured an all-white upper fuselage paired with a navy blue lower half. The tail design featured a stylized quarter of the Union Flag (the official name of the national flag of the United Kingdom), retaining its blue and vibrant red colors.

Possibly the most iconic element of the new livery was incorporating the Speedbird logo, previously seen on BOAC aircraft in the lead-up to the merger. The new design was widely acclaimed by the travel industry and the public alike.

At the time of its unveiling, British Airways described it as "a modern and fresh design based on the British national colors of red, white and blue. It features a streamlined evolution of the BOAC and BEA insignia through a quartered Union Flag with a red tip on the tailfin and the Speedbird symbol on the nose."

In 1980, there would be a slight change to the titling when the 'airways' suffix was dropped entirely, and the 'British' element of the name became larger and more prominent. The fleet quickly adopted this change, cementing the airline in the public's eye as 'Britain's airline.'

What would become a regular feature of BA color schemes over the decades, the carrier's seven-strong Concorde fleet would display a slightly modified version of the Negus livery. Instead of the navy blue lower fuselage, the Concordes would sport a narrow navy window line while retaining the same titles and tail design of other types in the fleet.

In 1984, just as the UK government began preparing the airline for privatization, there would be experimentation with a silver-colored fuselage top. This scheme only featured on a couple of aircraft and was not widely adopted.

However, it was an early sign of what would come later that year as preparations were made to sell the airline into public ownership.

With privatization planned for late 1987 to stem the airline's losses (which were becoming too much of a burden for the UK government to endure), the airline began transforming to make it more attractive to private and institutional investors.

This major rebranding exercise included the adoption of the marketing slogan 'The world's favorite airline' along with a complete refresh of the livery. Designed by the famous design house Landor Associates, an updated scheme was unveiled in December 1984.

The new design bore some resemblance to the previous Negus scheme, although the white upper fuselage was replaced with a Pearl Grey color, while the navy lower fuselage color was replaced with Midnight Blue.

Also featured in the new scheme was a Brilliant Red 'speedwing' along the lower fuselage, which replaced the outdated speedbird logo. The tail, modified to feature a midnight blue upper half, also saw a coat of arms emblem added (which displayed the airline's new motto, 'To Fly, To Serve') in silver.

Lastly, a change that marked a reversal for the company: the titles reverted to the full 'British Airways' once more, although this time capitalized using a different, sharper, and more modern font.

BA's Concorde fleet again would display a slightly modified version of the livery. Instead of the navy blue lower fuselage, the Concordes would sport an all-white fuselage with the speedwing in red while retaining the same titles and tail design of the rest of the fleet.

In 1996, some 12 years after the Landor scheme was introduced, several members of the BA fleet began appearing with a lighter blue belly color but without the speedwing. And while the tail remained in the Landor scheme, the fuselage color reverted from pearl grey to white.

This interim design appeared on many of the carrier's Boeing 737s, 747s, 767s, and Airbus A320s. Since the scheme started appearing fleetwide, many took this as a sign that another livery refresh was on the horizon.

With fleet members appearing in this hybrid scheme over 1996/97, the reason was finally unveiled to the world on June 10, 1997. However, the rollout of the airline's new corporate identity was to prove anything but successful and was ultimately short-lived.

The new design revealed a lighter blue lower fuselage color (as seen on the hybrid aircraft) along with new titles (in a softer typeface) below the window line.

The speedwing had gone, replaced by a new three-dimensional 'speedmarque' design in red and blue, in a nod to the former speedbird logo of the Negus scheme. The BA coat of arms was also dropped.

Photo: Robert Sarosiek | Shutterstock

The signature element of the new livery was for aircraft to feature a range of new tail designs, each designed by notable artists from across the globe.

The rebranding by design agency Newell & Sorrell aimed to present a new livery but also an entirely new BA as a world airline. The concept was formulated to reflect that 60% of BA's customers originated outside the UK.

Photo: Konstantin von Wedelstaedt | Wikimedia Commons

Named the 'World Images' livery, new designs started appearing on everything from baggage tags to company vehicles and stationery. Fifteen designs were unveiled initially, with the aim of adding 12 new ones each year until the millennium in 2000.

However, the overall project ('Project Utopia') was rejected by many, with BA being accused of ditching its 'Britishness' and turning its back on its homeland.

Indeed, British former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher took particular exception to the designs so much that she covered the tail of a model BA aircraft with a handkerchief at the 1997 Conservative Party conference as a public display of her dissatisfaction.

With the majority of the British public against the design and even the then Prime Minister showing her objections, BA was forced to admit that its rebranding had been a corporate disaster.

In 1999, BA conceded defeat and revealed that in light of negative criticism, it planned to paint half of the BA fleet in the British-designed 'Chatham Dockyard' scheme - one of the bespoke World Images designs.

As more and more of the fleet appeared in this very British livery, the World Tails began to be phased out. With the eclectic mix of tail designs quickly disappearing, the entire Project Utopia was eventually abandoned in 2001.

One good thing from the whole 'World Images' debacle was that the 'Chatham Dockyard' tail design was adopted and subsequently became the standard BA livery we know and recognize today. The livery takes its name from the Historic Naval Dockyard in Chatham in southeast England.

Photo:Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

Based on the original flag used by Admiral Nelson in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, the Chatham Dockyard tail design was created for BA by the Admiral's Original Flag Loft Factory in Chatham, which had made flags for more than 400 years. The factory has since closed.

The tail design bears a red, white, and blue interpretation of the Union Flag. It could be said that the design is a modern take on the Negus livery of the 1970s and 1980s and brings BA livery designs full circle in many ways.

With the flag tail design, the fleet retains the mid-blue belly color and the British Airways titles below the window line. BA's Concordes (before their retirement in 2003) featured the same tail design but with an all-white fuselage.

In 2019, the airline celebrated its centenary year (tracing back through its predecessors) and re-introduced the BA coat of arms in pale silver alongside the fuselage titles.

While the Negus design lasted around a decade before being replaced by the Landor scheme, which survived thirteen years, then ignoring the World Tails fiasco, the Chatham Dockyard scheme has been flying around for an impressive 26 years!

Given that airlines tend to update or change their liveries entirely on average around every 20 years, and given how long both Negus and Landor lasted, it would be fair to assume that BA might be considering an update soon.

Photo: Tom Boon | Simple Flying

With Iberia, Level, Vueling, and Aer Lingus (all sister airlines in the International Airlines Group) sporting similar schemes to each other, albeit in different colors, might BA also be tempted to adopt a similar all-white fuselage with a colored swoop down the tail and encompassing the rear fuselage paired with colored engine cowlings?

Although the carrier might opt for something else entirely, that prospect would seem unlikely given the commonality shared by the rest of the IAG airlines.

However, with Chatham Dockyard possibly nearing the end of its natural lifecycle, it wouldn't be ridiculous to imagine that there are people in an office around London Heathrow Airport discussing where the BA livery goes from here. After all, the BA cabin crew uniforms were relaunched earlier this year, so is the livery next?

Photo: Thiago B Trevisan | Shutterstock

With airline liveries constantly evolving and the current BA livery aging fast, only time will tell if an all-new BA design will be appearing at an airport near you sometime soon.

What was your favorite British Airways livery over the past 50 years? Tell us which one you prefer and why in the comments.

See more here:

A Step-by-Step Guide To British Airways' 49-Year Livery Evolution - Simple Flying

The use of Klingon as shorthand for nerd has become such a well-worn device in pop culture and entertainment that the website TV Tropes has a page dedicated to making fun of it. This stereotype is not without merit: Klingonists are a notoriously academic bunch and tend to identify more closely with the study of the language than with Star Trek, its source material.

In the context of fandom, the mention of most any constructed language called a conlang, for short may summon similar imagery of monastic fans, poring over their Elvish or Dothraki texts and exchanging inscrutable phrases to affirm their shared commitment to the same book or film franchise.

But the linguistic arena of modern fandom includes outright gibberish, too: Theres the gobbledygook spoken by the Minions in the Despicable Me series, the mix-and-match nonsense of the Sims known as Simlish, and the sped-up burble of phonetic syllables in Nintendos Animal Crossing called Animalese. Technically, none of these on-screen inventions qualify as true constructed languages, but fan phonologies persist. See: a voice actress speaking Simlish as different celebrities on TikTok; an open-source English to Minionese translator.

Should these experiments be dismissed as failed conlangs, which for lack of any real linguistic refinement cant hope to make themselves useful? Or are we entering fandoms Dadaist era: utter nonsense, served up in the name of something real?

Conlangs are said to have begun with Hildegard von Bingen, a Christian mystic in 11th-century Germany, who invented her own language as a way to commune with the divine. In the centuries since, the ambitions of the most popular conlangs have been similarly metaphysical: L.L. Zamenhof created Esperanto because he dreamed of a common language that could promote world peace; Sonja Lang created the minimalist Toki Pona in an attempt to understand the meaning of life in 120 words.

For fans of media properties, however, speaking an unknown language tends not to be about better understanding the world we live in, but about escaping it altogether. In a video essay that traced the evolution of constructed languages in gaming, Jenna Stoeber, a writer and content creator, explained that constructed languages were more about making certain characters and settings appear foreign, while still empowering the player to understand what theyre saying.

I reached out to Ms. Stoeber, since she flits regularly among fandoms at Comic Cons and PAX West panels to discuss her work, and asked her why fans tended to be drawn to speak certain constructed languages over others.

The world that that language is spoken in is this whole universe, Ms. Stoeber explained. By speaking that language, youre making yourself a participant in that universe.

If, like interviewees who dress for the job they want, fans who speak constructed languages are talking for the world they wish to inhabit, then its conceivable to imagine such escapist desires settling on the controlled reality of the Sims or the whimsical utopia of Animal Crossing. And lofty as these aspirations may seem for the fans bopping along to Katy Perrys Lass Frooby Noop or perfecting their K.K. Slider covers, they make for great conversation.

Mae Belen, a voice actor from Vancouver, British Columbia, feels certain that shes talked to someone in Animalese before.

A lot of people dont realize it comes with a lot of understanding when you pay attention to the inflections, Ms. Belen said, rather than what the person is saying.

Ms. Belen, 28, has played Animal Crossing since it was on the Gamecube console in the early 2000s, and she grew up mimicking the voices in the game; only now, she has a rapt online audience of 1.3 million on TikTok. When we spoke, she recounted the times she had been recognized by strangers on the street who wanted to exchange notes in Animalese.

After the conversation, she said, we would say something like: I was saying this. What were you saying? Oh my gosh, I was saying the same thing!

To a lay person, this anecdote may seem beyond belief. And lets not mince words no human can actually match the speed of the characters in the game, who are speaking with digitally accelerated phonemes of orthographic text which, if slowed down, sound like the voices of Twin Peaks characters from inside the Black Lodge.

Samara Bradley, too, prefers not to get caught up in the details. An avid fan of the Sims since she was 5 years old, Ms. Bradley, now 27, performs popular songs on TikTok that feature alternating lyrics the first line in English, the second in Simlish.

I just try to base it off of what I think the Sim language sounds like to me, Ms. Bradley said when we spoke. What did the language sound like to her? English, but goofier.

For both Ms. Bradley and Ms. Belen, perfection isnt the point. They just love getting audiences to suspend their disbelief in the way these games have allowed them to do.

Thats a skill I didnt realize was a skill, Ms. Belen observed of her talent, which she attributed to having experimented with gibberish as a child in order to mimic fluency in other languages. But it is something to make it more cohesive and believable.

Logan Kearsley, a linguist whose blog covers the best-known conlangs of various books, television shows and film series, remained skeptical of just how far the collective belief in a nonexistent language could be taken.

If you want to use a conlang to attract a community of speakers, it must be figure-out-able, he wrote to me in an email. And that means there must be consistent rules behind the scenes to allow you to construct consistent utterances for the fans to then analyze and figure out. Without that you essentially get Simlish.

While he acknowledged that languages like Simlish and Animalese could be used to convey emotion, he stopped short of calling them conlangs and said that they couldnt be used to convey precise linguistic propositions.

And yet, as the success of Ms. Belens efforts affirms, humans have an uncanny ability to pluck sense from a bramble of nonsensical sounds. The kiki/bouba effect, for example, shows that people can nearly unanimously categorize a pair of shapes, words or abstract concepts as either the spiky kiki or blobby bouba; Jean Berko Gleasons Wug Test finds that children reliably apply common morphemes to nonsensical creatures (they begin by pluralizing the birdlike wug).

The most significant metric of success for Simlish, Animalese, Minionese and their ilk may not be in how much they can be made sense of, though. It may simply be a question of our own tolerance for nonsense.

By this measure, its tens across the board: Take, for example, the explosive #GentleMinions meme, which led droves of teenage boys to step out in their junior-prom best to see Despicable Me 3: The Rise of Gru and its Minionese-speaking henchmen in theaters. Look at how PinkyDolls Ice Cream So Good drone captivated the internet with what many have described as the dialogue of an NPC, or nonplayer character, in a video game the meaningless, made mesmerizing.

Modern fans certainly dont seem to need to understand whats going on in order to care. If anything, the motto lately is: the less we get, the better.

For Ms. Bradley, nonsense has yielded something tangible, too: What began as a pandemic-era hobby has blossomed into a reliable means for the Los Angeles-based musician to promote her music. Observing Ms. Bradleys nearly 400,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram, I had to marvel. Maybe the real conlang was the friends she had made along the way.

Most of the people who do listen to my music are from that, she said, referring to her Simlish videos. And I get people saying, I came for the Simlish, but I stayed for the music.

Audio produced by Jack DIsidoro.

Continue reading here:

How Constructed Languages Help People Find Community - The New York Times

Royal Caribbean unveils plans for its latest Oasis-class vessel, Utopia of the Seas. The ship will sail year-round on short cruises departing from Port Canaveral, Fla., beginning in the summer of 2024. This is a departure from Royal Caribbean's former approach of introducing newer ships with 7-night cruises while reserving shorter weekend getaways for older vessels.

According to a recent CLIA report, younger generations are the future of cruising, with 88% of millennials and 86% of Gen X travelers who have cruised before saying they plan to cruise again. Of those, 73% of travelers are sailing with family members representing at least two generations.

Utopia of the Seas will be the first Oasis-class ship to begin these back-to-back, shorter sailings. This break from tradition is a strategic maneuver aimed at enticing novice cruisers searching for a more condensed first cruise experience. The change in strategy is expected to cater to the needs of busy individuals, including millennials, who want a premium and relaxing, yet time-efficient getaway.

Catering to the needs of this time-poor demographic is more important to vacation providers than ever. Shorter sailings on the most technologically advanced ships answer this cohort's needs, offering what they want for multigenerational family time, from fine dining to Broadway-style shows and a beach experience.

This model allows passengers to enjoy Royal Caribbeans private island, CocoCay, and sail on a brand-new ship without committing to a longer vacation.

Utopia of the Seas offers many enhancements to bring a new dimension to cruising. At double capacity, the newest Royal Caribbean ship holds 5668 guests and offers features including exclusive suites and more dining options.

Cabin concepts onboard the Utopia of the Seas include the Solarium Suites. These state-of-the-art suites will deliver a floor-to-ceiling, 280-degree view from above the front of the ship. Cruisers wake up to a wall of sea-to-sky views, allowing them to feel theyre part of the ocean.

The Caribbean remains the top destination in the world for passengers looking for sun, sand, and adventure. Passengers can enjoy the city or a beach with three- and four-night cruises out of Port Canaveral.

More than 20 million passengers sailed the Caribbean Islandsincluding the Bahamas and Bermuda between 2019 and 2022, topping the Mediterraneans cruise numbers of 6 million passengers.

Cruisers can experience Chill Islands calm waters or thrill rides at CocoCay, as well as the vibes of Cape Canaveral. They can even make trips inland to the theme parks in Orlando.

Enhanced onboard entertainment is designed to be exciting and engaging, giving vacationers the opportunity to experience a unique vacation.

The new Pesky Parrot bar has incorporated the Caribbean vibe into the Utopia of the Seas. The well-known tiki bar has been converted into a state-of-the-art neon bar that replaces the Bionic bar.

This exotic bar promises to put passengers in a Caribbean state of mind while they sample tropical and fruit-based cocktails made with rum, tequila, and gin.

The Utopia of the Seas also features a food truck on the pool deck. This allows passengers to integrate pool time into lunchtime without missing any action. In authentic street truck style, the vehicle serves up quick bites right from the trucks window.

This outdoor concept provides a fresh eatery allowing passengers to eat in the sunshine. Diners can refuel quickly without missing a minute of the sun or fun and enjoy nonstop pool days.

Passengers can also experience dining on a train while never leaving the ship. Diners enjoy fine food in a nostalgic, first-of-its-kind dining car setting that combines multiple courses, technology, different destinations, and storylines. This encounter melds cuisine and visual elements, transporting passengers to another world.

This beach ship getaway packs double the island time with visits to Nassau in The Bahamas, and Royal Caribbean's Perfect Day at CocoCay, named the Best Private Island for three years. Meals, snacks, and drinks packages are available at sea and on land at CocoCay, making it even easier to switch off while on vacation.

Vacationers are looking to make every moment count by celebrating and recharging with their friends and family, and Utopia of the Seas makes all that possible in more ways than one, says Michael Bayley, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean International.

Sarah Christie of the Magically Cruising podcast says, If you want beaches, the thrills of CocoCay plus the premium quality that Royal Caribbean has become synonymous with, then Royal Caribbean has done it again and given us something bigger and better to look forward to.

All Royal Caribbean Cruises include beach days. But the promise of RCCs' private island on a short break with the choice of beach, plus being on the newest ship, is attractive to a new generation of cruisers who want to relax but still have fun.

This itinerary model also offers families evenings onboard with fine dining, family activities, and days spent on the shore, making this a family vacation that checks all the boxes.

This article was produced by Cruising For All and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.

Donna Vallance is a Craft, Travel, Hair and lifestyle creator at Likelovedo as well as Cruising For All. Donna draws and designs her own craft files which readers can download for crafts such as scrapbooking, plus empowers and teaches people with curly hair how to get the most of their curls and have hair that looks amazing. She also shares her travels from around the world.

More here:

Royal Caribbean Wows Cruisers With Short Beach Cruise Vacations - Wealth Of Geeks

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For the past 10 years, wallpaper and interiors brand Graham and Brown has been getting us excited at the beginning of every Autumn by announcing its wallpaper design and colour of the year. And this one might be one of our favourite ones yet.

The brand is known for its organic, botanical and floral wallpaper ideas. But this years New Eden wallpaper and especially the mural design feel different, somehow very real as they immerse you in their soothing and calming air, fitting right in with the wallpaper trend of bringing the outside in.

(Image credit: Graham and Brown)

The newly announced design is based on a trend called Utopia which Graham and Brown have been developing for next year.

Our Utopia trend embodies the need to create a calm and welcoming space for yourself and others, says Maryanne Catwright, head of design at Graham and Brown.

This is the basis on which the New Eden wallpaper and mural have been built. The brand aims to provide its customers with a nature-inspired refuge, a paradise of calm. But the company also wanted the design to be welcoming to your guests, referencing the Japanese art of Omotenashi, which combines the concepts of hospitality and mindfulness. Its quite fascinating, actually.

(Image credit: Graham and Brown)

The Japanese influence can also be detected in the actual illustrations seen on the wallpaper. Whether its on the smaller, blooming trees surrounded by deep, emerald green of the wallpaper, or on the mural, where large-scale trees tower over rolling hills, circled by birds and even a peacock makes an appearance.

New Eden has been heavily influenced by our 2024 trend Utopia, the blurring of boundaries between inside and out. The design really builds, growing up from the floor and the hilly landscape offering intrigue wherever the eyes gaze. Deep green tones create depth and the golden and rusty hues really ground the design to create a calming and welcoming home environment, James Greenwood, Graham and Browns interiors expert, further explains the design.

(Image credit: Graham and Brown)

While Graham and Brown is predominantly known for their wallpapers and bold patterns, the company also produces beautiful paints. And along with announcing its design of the year, the brand also released its colour of the year, named Viridis.

The soft, sage green paint idea pairs perfectly with the New Eden wallpaper, reflecting the same sentiment of creating a calming refuge away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, perfect for a living room colour scheme.

Welcome to paradise!

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The Graham and Brown wallpaper of the year 2024 is revealed - Ideal Home