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VIDEO: Versace's Miami Mansion to be Auctioned

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VIDEO: Versace's Miami Mansion to be Auctioned

Gianni Versace's South Beach mansion to hit the auction block, with the bidding starting at $25 million U.S. dollars.

Versace was shot and killed at age 50 on the steps of his  Mediterranean-style mansion in 1997.

Versace spent $33 million dollars renovating the 10-bedroom, 23,000-square-foot home, which features a swimming pool with a 24K gold-inlayed black marble mosiac.

Casa Casuarina, as it's called, was initially listed for $125 million, and was recently reduced to $75 million. The owner, telecom magnate Peter Loftin bought the property and converted it into a boutique hotel. He has been trying to sell the property for more than a year, which now faces bankruptcy.

It's been reported that Versace helped convert the once glum area -- where drug dealers and prostitutes worked street corners -- into some of Miami's most expensive real estate, which brought in stars like Sylvester Stallone, Madonna and the designer's sister Donatella Versace.

The auction is scheduled for Tuesday, September 17.

Gianni Versace, Casa Casuarina, Auction, Fashion,

Slideshow: Texas Biennial 2013

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Glafira Rosales Pleads Guilty in Knoedler Case, Faces Up to 99 Years

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Glafira Rosales Pleads Guilty in Knoedler Case, Faces Up to 99 Years

Glafira Rosales, the Long Island dealer who is at the center of an $80-million art fraud scandal, pleaded guilty in federal court in downtown Manhattan this morning to nine counts including wire fraud, tax evasion, and knowingly selling fake art. Rosales, who remains free on bail, is scheduled to be sentenced six months from now, in March 2014. She faces a maximum of 99 years in jail on the combined counts. According to a press release from the U.S. attorney's office, she also agreed to forfeit $33.2 million, including her home in Sands Point, New York, and to pay restitution in an amount not to exceed $81 million.

Rosales, who is petite with long, dark hair, was dressed in a dark pinstriped suit, and flanked by her attorneys. She answered quietly — at times almost inaudibly — to numerous questions from Judge Katherine Polk Failla, who sought to ensure that Rosales understood the implications of her guilty plea. Among other things, judge Failla explained to Rosales that there is no parole in the federal system and no option for early release, and added that among the possible penalties are “adverse immigration consequences” — Rosales was born and Mexico and is now a U.S. citizen — including the possibility of “denaturalization or deportation.” She also warned that once the guilty plea was accepted by the court, there would be no opportunity to withdraw it.

A hush fell over the courtroom when judge Failla requested that Rosales explain, in her own words, why she believes she is guilty of the charges alleged by the U.S. Attorney’s office. Speaking rapidly but with a shaky voice, Rosales admitted that from about 1996 until 2009 she had “falsely represented authenticity and provenance” on works sold to Knoedler Gallery and Julian Weissman Fine Art as being works by abstract expressionists including Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell. She admitted that the works were “actual fakes created by an individual residing in Queens.”

Rosales, who could be heard crying, had to be stopped several times because her remarks were not clear to the court reporter. Judge Failla asked her to speak louder and more slowly. At the end of the proceeding, after the judge left the courtroom, reporters gathered near Rosales and her attorneys. She stood with her back turned to the room, crying and dabbing her eyes. Rosales’s attorney Steven Kartagener did not speak to reporters at the plea hearing. 

With millions of dollars at stake and high-profile art names involved, the event had a bit of the air of a media circus. Cameramen stationed in front of the courthouse swarmed around the building when they realized Rosales and her attorneys were exiting through a side door (this was not deliberate but because the front security screening area was not in service). As cameras started snapping away Rosales looked down, gripped both her attorney’s arms, and walked off down the street.

Knoedler Gallery

Slideshow: Design Fund Acquisitions at the Victoria & Albert Museum

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Roche Bobois Launches Jean Cocteau Collection

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Roche Bobois Launches Jean Cocteau Collection

Jean Cocteau’s poetic artistic legacy lives on in a new collection of decorative textiles and objects designed by upscale Paris-based home furnishings brand Roche Bobois. Embroidered cushions, woven rugs, ceramics, lampshades, upholstery and throws serve as canvases for the late artist’s texts and pictorial designs, using print and embroidery to capture his original drawings and manuscripts.

“Jean Cocteau was a multi-disciplinary protean artist who embraced creativity in all its forms, and this collection shows us several of those facets. With inimitable elegance, Jean Cocteau created a body of work that is considered today to be of great importance. The Roche Bobois collection reminds us of the strength and contemporaneity of his work,” stated Pierre Bergè, who is the executor of Cocteau's estate.

Marking the 50th anniversary of Cocteau’s passing, the project was borne out of a meeting between the luxury furniture giant and the Jean Cocteau Committee to discuss re-issuing a collection of ceramics by the artist, who viewed his clay creations as artworks in their own right.

Produced between 1957 and 1963 by the Madeline-Jolly pottery workshop in Villefranche-sur-Mer, Cocteau compared the designs on the original editions to tattoos, inventing novel techniques, such as an oxide pencil, to apply his markings. For the new limited edition and numbered ceramics line, Roche Bobois sourced an Italian master potter capable of faithfully reproducing the works using traditional glazing and firing methods and authentic ingredients, going from the same colours of clay to the same quantities of engobe and enamel that Cocteau would have used. The artworks come coated with 14 coats of lacquer.

Other highlights from the collection include a range of printed and embroidered cushions decorated with eyes, wings, faces and words; rectangular pillows with a silkscreen print of Cocteau’s “The Sleeper” drawing, edged with black velvet piping, and a solid beech armchair with embroidered motifs and an antique, hand-waxed patina.

Among other odes to Cocteau due to roll out over the coming months, a restored version of Cocteau's "La Belle et la Bête"("Beauty and the Beast"), originally released in 1946, is due for release this fall, alongside “Opium,” a small-budget musical film directed by French-American actress and singer Arielle Dombasle, and co-financed by Bergè.

A number of reprints of Cocteau’s works are planned, as well as the release of previously unpublished correspondence and little-known works. Several biographies will also be published to mark the occasion. 

A cushion from the Jean Cocteau Collection by Roche Bobois

Why a 3-D Printed Gun Belongs in the Victoria and Albert Museum

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At the start of the London Design Festival, the city’s epic 10-day celebration of the functional arts, the Victoria & Albert Museum unveiled five stunning new acquisitions purchased by the Design Fund to Benefit the V&A. Chances are, however, that you’ll only be hearing about one: The Liberator (2013), the world’s first fully functioning 3-D printed gun.

The Liberator was created by Cody Wilson, who “never thought of it in terms of design,” according to the display text inside the gun’s glass case. As the founder of Texas-based civil liberties organization Defense Distributed, he painstakingly developed the blueprints for an entirely 3-D printed weapon — despite interventions from the U.S. Department of Defense, private repossession of his rented 3-D printer, and the potenial dangers unlicensed plastic gun manufacturing implies — to make a political statement, fueled by “hostility to political inequality and contempt for legal regimes,” as he announced in April.

The Liberator’s controversial development has been closely documented by gun enthusiasts, tech skeptics, and socially conscious critics (ARTINFO among them) since its inception, but there’s been little controversy on its merits of design, unlike the nearby Design Museum’s AK-47. Its 2011 acquisition was met with punchlines, but this gun is apt to be taken more seriously. Disassembled and laid across a glass display, its small parts cast whimsically-shaped shadows below to reveal the inner workings; all it took were a few tiny plastic pieces and a singular metal nail to create a lethal weapon.

Design milestones are marked by their uses of emerging technology, a fact as true for the Eames’ mid-century molding of plywood as it is for Wilson’s contemporary tinkering with rapidly prototyped plastic. Like the museum’s other new acquisitions — the mobile privacy of Studio Makkink & Bey’s sound-muffling 2003 Ear Chair; the Macguyver-like qualities of Thomas Thwaites’s ad-hoc, low-tech 2009 kitchen appliance, the Toaster Project; the plant- and animal-derived polymers of Formafantasma’s 2012 Botanica vessels series; and Gareth Neal’s 2013 computer-drawn remix of 1800s royal design, Chest of Drawers: George — the Liberator checks the museum’s self-stated collection criteria: “new, influential, innovative or experimental, and what is representative of current trends in design and society.” 


The "Liberator" on view at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Photo by Janelle Zara

Beyond its shock value and protests against its creation (ARTINFO’s included), the Liberator design is destined to become historical artifact. Of all the new objects created by 3-D printing technology — like WertelOberfell’s intensely geometric Fractal.MGX table, acquired by the V&A in 2011, or Murray Moss’s ornate reinvisioning of the bust of Lady Bellhaven’s headware, a V&A display during the 2011 edition of the LDF — the Liberator is arguably the first to separate the production method’s actual widespread potential from its super-niche fantasy. The weapon will be remembered as the turning point at which 3-D printing crossed over from sci-fi to reality, albeit a sort of terrifying sci-fi reality.

Why a 3-D Printed Gun Belongs in the Victoria and Albert Museum
'Liberator Gun' 2013 by Cody Wilson/ Defence Distributed

Brian De Palma and Emily Mortimer Team for "Thérèse Raquin" Film

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Brian De Palma and Emily Mortimer Team for "Thérèse Raquin" Film

Émile Zola’s “Thérèse Raquin” (1867) will provide the basis for a Brian De Palma film starring Emily Mortimer. Screen Daily reported last week that it will be produced by Said Ben Said of SBS Productions.

It will be a “loose adaptation… featuring both period and contemporary elements,” according to Screen’s Geoffrey Macnab, who added: “The story is about a film director and two actors shooting a movie version of Zola’s novel and finding that it reflects experiences in their own lives.”

In February, Said remarked to the French movie site CinéObs, “This is a film about cinema that is not devoid of humor or cruelty. It happens on a shoot between a director, an actor and an actress. De Palma wrote it by drawing on things that have happened to him. It is a kind of film testament.”

Zola’s fourth novel was intended as a scientific study of the “temperaments not the characters” of his protagonist and those who swirl around her: Thérèse, her lover Laurent, and her sickly husband Camille, whom the adulterous couple decide to kill, as well as Camille’s controlling mother.

The book is also the source of Charlie Stratton’s “Therese,” starring Elizabeth Olsen, Tom Felton, Jessica Lange, and Oscar Isaac, which just had its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. It’s apparently a conventional version featuring sex scenes more graphic than any written by Zola. The Hollywood Reporter’s reviewer described is a glum “proto-noir” that “grows increasingly Gothic.”

The “proto-noir” ascription derives from “Thérèse Raquin”’s probable influence on James M. Cain’s novels “The Postman Always Rings Twice” (1934) and “Double Indemnity” (1943), both about an adulterous couple that murders the woman’s husband. Although directly inspired by the 1927 Ruth Snyder case, both Cain novels echo Zola’s brutish naturalism and his feeling for sordidness. Among other movie versions, they were adapted into seminal films of the classic noir era: Billy Wilder’s 1944 “Double Indemnity” and Tay Garnett’s 1946 “Postman.”

What De Palma has in mind is impossible to say, though self-reflexivity is clearly going to be a central element: a beguiling prospect if the on-screen director proves to be the Mortimer character’s murderee. The announcement of the project sparked a flurry of speculations that it was going to be a “meta-adaptation.”

It sounds like it will be metafictional, in the same way as were the Charlie Kaufman-scripted “Adaptation” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” Technically, De Palma’s may not be a bona fide “meta-movie.”

Since the director and the actors working on the “Thérèse Raquin” film will recognize that it echoes aspects if their lives, then they are making a metafictional-movie. This was the vague experience of the film actors played by Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons in “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” and the director and stars of the film “On High in Blue Tomorrows,” in David Lynch’s “Inland Empire.”

To be a true meta-movie, however, the actress played by Mortimer and her director and co-star would have to communicate that De Palma’s movie (as opposed to their “Thérèse Raquin” project) is itself a fiction. Director Michael Winterbottom and star Steve Coogan, the meta-actor of our time, pulled this off with “A Cock and Bull Story,” based on Laurence Sterne’s metafictional novel “The Life and Adventures of Tristram Shandy” (1759-67).

SBS Productions is also readying “The Man With Kaleidoscope Eyes,” a comedy biopic of the producer-director Roger Corman, to be directed by Joe Dante, and David Mamet’s Hitchcockian thriller “Blackbird,” starring Cate Blanchett. Said also produced David Cronenberg’s “Maps to the Stars,” now in post-production. The cast includes Mia Wasikowska, Robert Pattinson, Julianne Moore, John Cusack, Carrie Fisher, and Olivia Williams.

Emily Mortimer

Brand New China's First In-House Collection: "Republican Elegance"

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Keeping the Texas Biennial Weird: 5th Edition Packs Plenty of Quirks

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California has had an art biennial, on and off and in various guises, since the 1980s. “Greater New York,” MoMA PS1’s quinquennial survey of the local talent pool, debuted in 2000. Both have become institutions in their own rights, hotly debated glimpses of the (allegedly) most compelling output from the thousands of artists among those regions’ 38 and 23 million inhabitants, respectively. The under-the-radar Texas Biennial, which has been taking an increasingly broad view of that 26-million-person state’s art scene since 2005, is now in its fifth edition, and yet in a recent panel at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston titled “Why a Texas Biennial?,” its continued existence was very earnestly called into question.

Should the open call exhibition’s submission fee be waived? Should local collectors have input? Should more established artists’ participation be solicited in what has been, since its inception, an exhibition driven by emerging artists? Is it too heavily dominated by artists from Austin, where it began? Does it disproportionately feature artists from East Texas? Should it be smaller? Bigger? Scrapped entirely?

This year’s Texas Biennial exhibition, filling every inch of available wall space (and an annex) at San Antonio’s Blue Star art center through November 9 — with related programming peppered across the state — makes a convincing case for the show’s continuation. With 69 Texas-based artists and collectives, most represented by a single work, the selection — whittled down from more than 1,000 submissions by a team of 14 curators — is necessarily uneven. Fortunately, a slew of strong works make this more than a Lone Star affair.

Every medium is represented, from performance and photography to installation and painting, but the Biennial’s strongest set of works are its videos. The standout, Abinadi Meza’s “Melencolia” (2013), features looped footage of the doomed 1986 Challenger shuttle launch, though the anticipated explosion never happens. Instead, the piece, whose title alludes to Albrecht Dürer’s famous 1514 engraving “Melancholia,” consists of a diptych showing randomized mainstream media clips of the rising rocket and the audience watching from below. The blue-hued footage and a simple, ominous score of a few notes paired with a recurring low rumble conjure and sustain an incredible level of tension and dread. The result teases our familiarity with the devastating footage, illustrating our present-day Baudrillardian situation, in which historical events only survive as their representations in mass media. At times, “Melencolia” even begins to resemble a revisionist fantasy in which Challenger launched successfully.

Another anxiety-inducing video, Austin-based duo Robert Melton and Robert Boland’s “Three-Way Call” (2012), takes a more Lynchian route. In exquisitely composed, film noir-like close-up shots, two callers urge a third to “push the button,” his eventual compliance coming in the two-minute short’s final moment. Though less ambitious and thematically potent than Meza’s contribution, Melton and Boland’s piece handily achieves the intended sense of unease.

The Texas Biennial isn’t all doom and gloom, though. Witness Houston artist Seth Mittag’s “Hurricane Allen” (2012), a stop-motion video of a weather report that plays on a tiny sculpture of a vintage, faux-wood paneled television. After two Claymation newscasters report on an incoming hurricane and disastrous tornado, they cut to a mock bank ad starring a dancing man in a chicken suit whose promises of affordable mortgages seem targeted at Spanish-speaking viewers. Couched in satire and nostalgia, the video installation slyly alludes to the effects of global warming, the housing market crisis, and the tenuous place occupied by recent immigrants in the Texan economy. Mittag’s contribution is one of surprisingly few works in this year’s Biennial exhibition with any kind of political edge.

Among the show’s more strictly formal experiments, none is quite so strange and memorable as McKinney-based Cassandra Emswiler’s “Views of the Lake” (2012), an installation of her trademark photo-printed tiles displayed on custom-made, brightly painted wooden shelves. Each square tile features white, geometric forms and a curious, seemingly abstract pattern that, on closer inspection, turns out to be made up of mirrored and refracted photographs of a lake. By collapsing domestic materials and landscape photography manipulated to the point of abstraction, Emswiler notches one of the Biennial’s most original presentations.

Several other artists make promising appearances that will leave visitors wanting more. Chief among them are San Antonio artist Kelly O’Connor, whose pair of collage-filled glass vitrines evoke early Fred Tomaselli, and Dallas-based duo Rachel Crist and Daedalus Hoffman’s “Spitting Image” (2013), a video of a grotesque, Kate Gilmore-esque performance in which Crist chomps and spits her way through large quantities of chewing tobacco until she nearly vomits. Last but not least, Romania-born, Conroe-based artist Adela Andea’s installation of neon foam and LEDs in Blue Star’s rear passageway is undeniably fun.

Finally, what sets the Texas Biennial apart from similar geographically determined endeavors in California and New York, or the big dances at the Whitney, the Giardini, and elsewhere, is not a recurring aesthetic, political stance, or institutional affiliation, but, as participants in the MFAH panel concluded, a certain “scrappiness,” both formal and organizational. From its reliance on a state-spanning network of alternative and artist-run spaces, to participants who are recontextualizing found footage and images, and reimagining overlooked materials, it offers a much-needed platform for a vibrant and vast community of artists.

For a state that prides itself on bigness, Texas’s biennial remains relevant precisely because it has resisted the urge to go big, a common quandary handily illustrated by looking to any of the more formalized and staid semi-annual survey shows now found in every corner of the globe. The Texas Biennial may still have its share of kinks to straighten out, as some of the panelists in Houston suggested, but those quirks are also a evidence of its dynamism.

To see works from the 2013 Texas Biennial exhibition at Blue Star, click the slideshow.

The 2013 Texas Biennial exhibition continues at Blue Star Contemporary through November 9.

Keeping the Texas Biennial Weird: 5th Edition Packs Plenty of Quirks
Texas Biennial 2013

Hermès Exhibits Martine Fougeron in New York

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The Gallery at Hermès’ last exhibition of the year, titled Martine Fougeron: Teen Tribe, opens September 19 at its Madison Avenue flagship.

With French artists and transformation as its theme, Teen Tribe is a series of 23 color photographs of Fougeron’s two sons, beginning when they were aged 13 and 14 in 2005, and their friends as they grew up in both New York, where Fougeron is based, and France, where she was born.

“The work explores adolescence as a liminal state, between childhood and adulthood, between the feminine and the masculine and between innocence and a burgeoning self-identity. The focus is on the adolescents’ heightened states of minds,” said Fougeron in a statement.

Twice a year, the Parisian label hosts photography exhibitions under the patronage of the Hermès Foundation, which was established in April 2008 to develop and nurture relationships with contemporary artists by exhibiting their work and supporting their newest creations.

Earlier this year, the Gallery at Hermès exhibited Charles Fréger: Wilder Mann, which similarly explored the idea of metamorphosis, albeit through mythological and primitive rituals. Both Fréger’s and Fougeron’s series are also linked in their exploration of the theme of tribes, namely man’s desire to be both a unique individual and part of a larger group.

The exhibition is presented by the Hermès Foundation as part of the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)’s Crossing the Line Festival 2013. Curated by Cory Jacobs and located on the fourth floor of Hermès at 691 Madison Avenue, Martine Fougeron: Teen Tribe will be open to the public from September 20, 2013 through November 8, 2013.

For a slideshow of some of the photographs on exhibition, click here.

Hermès Exhibits Martine Fougeron in New York
Martine Fougeron's "Sleepover Party"

VIDEO: Versace's Former Miami Mansion Sells for $41.5 Million at Auction

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VIDEO: Versace's Former Miami Mansion Sells for $41.5 Million at Auction

One of America’s landmark homes, the Miami Beach mansion that once belonged to Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace, was sold at an auction for $41.5 million to a business group that includes the owners of the Jordache jeans brand.

The 1930s-era Mediterranean-style estate, which has 10 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and a pool inlaid with 24-karat gold, was auctioned off as part of a bankruptcy proceeding by its current owner, telecom magnate Peter Loftin.

Bidding opened at $25.5 million and the winning offer was made by the current mortgage holders of the property, VM South Beach, a company affiliated with New York's Nakash family, which controls Jordache Enterprises.

The group beat out two other bidders, including billionaire Donald Trump and a Florida developer who owns the Palm Beach Polo and Country Club.

Potential buyers participated in a poolside auction at the three-story mansion on Miami's Ocean Drive. The property is now known as Casa Casuarina.

The Nakash family jointly owns a hotel next door to the mansion with the Gindi family, who founded the Century 21 department store chain. They plan to consolidate the properties to create a hotel that will possibly carry Versace’s name.

Joe Nakash told reporters he planned to ask Versace’s family for permission to name the new property the Versace Hotel Villa.

"Everything will stay as is," he said. "It's history, every day you see how many people take a picture of this place."

Bidders were required to sign a confidentiality agreement and meet financial requirements that included a $3 million deposit and proof of funds to pay at least $40 million. The sale was a cash transaction.

The 23,000-square-foot (2,137-square-metre) mansion, replete with hand-painted frescoes, Italian marble and a gold-and-marble toilet, has been the subject of a long legal battle.

In 1997, Versace  was gunned down at the mansion's entrance gate by serial killer Andrew Cunanan.. Three years later, Versace family sold the property to Loftin, who is now facing bankruptcy and who had been trying to sell the house for more than a year.

The property was initially listed on the market with an asking price of $125 million. The price was later lowered to $75 million before it wound up in bankruptcy proceedings.

In recent years, the mansion had been used as a private club and a boutique hotel.

Versace bought the property in 1992 for $2.9 million. He then purchased a hotel next door and spent $33 million on renovations to add another wing.

Inside, he decorated with an over-the-top style that included paintings of Grecian, nymph-like characters playing lyres under palm trees. The snake-haired Medusa head, Versace’s logo, can be seen throughout the house.

When Versace owned the property, he helped usher in a renaissance of Miami's South Beach. His presence attracted models, jet-setters and celebrities including Sylvester Stallone and Madonna, who also bought homes in Miami.

The former Versace mansion was originally built by Standard Oil heir Alden Freeman. It was modeled after the Alcazar de Colon palace built in the Dominican Republic in 1510 by the son of Christopher Columbus

Gianni Versace, Miami Mansion, auction, Casa Casuarina

"Enough Said" Finds Depth Despite Stereotypes

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"Enough Said" Finds Depth Despite Stereotypes

Two small screen titans, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the late James Gandolfini, team for a rueful — at times acerbic — comedy of mature love and love in “Enough Said,” writer-director Nicole Holofcener’s strongest movie since “Lovely & Amazing.”

Back in Los Angeles after the Manhattan shenanigans of her 2010 “Please Give,” Holofcener posits Nina (Lous-Dreyfus) as a masseuse who makes house calls and Albert (Gandolfini) as a TV archivist in something like the Museum of Broadcasting. Both are divorced, both have college-age daughters poised to leave the nest for schools in New Yawk, and both (naturally, given their professions) are possessed with the gift of sitcom banter.

Physically, Nina and Albert make an interesting pair. She’s a sad little figure, schlepping her massage table from one client to the next, as he peers out warily from behind his bulk. She’s hyper expressive. He’s twinkly and deadpan. She’s too nosy, he’s a bit of a slob. Their gender stereotypes are further reinforced by her insecurity and his tendency towards over confidence. Having made a mess of the subject in her weakest film, “Friends with Money,” Holofcener seemingly has little interest in the real issues of money and status that would plague her protagonists. Their cartoon chemistry and their respective neediness is crucial in that “Enough Said” makes a serious (albeit funny) statement about the ways in which projected appearance trumps subjective experience. (There’s a sense in which the entire movie is a gloss on the famous scene in “Lovely & Amazing” in which Emily Mortimer’s aspiring actress stands naked before her lover asking him to critique her physical flaws until, amply cued, he finally validates her specific body issue.)

“Enough Said” is cute but restrained, despite the plethora of age jokes. The twist, embodied in the person of Holofcener’s axiom Catherine Keener (less a character than a textual effect), is not exactly Shakespearean, but it does give the movie its most uneasy humor as well as some unexpected depth. So too, the recent death of James Gandolfini, which burnishes Holofocener’s bittersweet fable with unavoidable intimations of mortality. Mutatis mutandis, you watch it in something of the way that a 1955 teenager would have taken in “Rebel Without a Cause.”

Read more J. Hoberman at Movie Journal.

James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus in Nicole Holofcener's "Enough Said"

VIDEO: 'The Fame: Adele' Comic Book Released

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VIDEO: 'The Fame: Adele' Comic Book Released

A new comic book chronicles the life of British songstress Adele, who took the world by storm with hits like "Rolling in the Deep" and "Someone Like You."

Titled "The Fame: Adele," the book provides a colorful insight to the life and career of the 25-year-old singer, who was born Adele Laurie Blue Adkins to a teenage single mom in 1988 in Tottenham, England.

In her youth, the comic shows, she was a fan of the Spice Girls, and she was active early on social media.

Some of the highlights of Adele's career: the 2012 Grammy Awards, where she scooped up six accolades for her second studio album "21", that include hits such as "Rolling in the Deep" and "Someone Like You."

The 23-page, all-color publication hit stores Wednesday.

"The Fame" Adele comic

VIDEO: Israel Museum Showcases Botticelli Fresco

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VIDEO: Israel Museum Showcases Botticelli Fresco

This 15th-century fresco, "The Annunciation of San Martino alla Scala", was painted in 1481 by Italian Renaissance painter, Sandro Botticelli.

The Israel Museum displays this masterpiece on loan from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. The painting, which is drawing more crowds during the Jewish holidays in September, will be on display for four months.

Israel Museum Botticelli Fresco

World’s Best Gay and Lesbian Hotspots

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From clubs to restaurants to performance series, BLOUIN ARTINFO's global team reveals where queer culture-vultures party it up on the nightly

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Sydney: The Gay Bar
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Since it was officially launched at the beginning of August in the heart of Sydney's Oxford Street drag, The Gay Bar has become one of the city's hottest queer nightspots, a three-floor high camp, high design wonderland, that includes a bar and restaurant by renowned chef Mark Proudfoot (formerly of Guillaume at Bennelong). The tricked out decor changes on each floor and ranges from Palace of Versailles to a cross between an '80s socialite loft pad and Dame Edna's lounge room. Entertainment-wise, The Gay Bar has every base covered with a tempting program of events ranging from Showtune Sundays to Tranny Bingo to super-hot weekend night dance parties, perfect after fueling up with a Drag Sunday Roast and a Shlong Island Ice Tea. Truth in naming: The Gay is here, it's queer, and cheekily camp. —Nicholas Forrest

231 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst

 

Cover image: Courtesy of The Gay Bar

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New York City: Atlas Social Club
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When it comes to the queer side of New York’s art scene things are either fabulous or funky. So while the latter is perfectly at home partying in Brooklyn, save for mixing with the former at few notable Tuesday affairs — Frankie Sharp’s Westgay at Westway and Susanne Bartsch’s On Top at the Standard’s Le Bain — the scenesters are more often found at the roving parties of master promoter Josh Wood, best known internationally for organizing major galas for amfAR and GLAAD. And his handsome high-end crowd is sure to flock to his newest venture, Atlas Social Club, a brand-new full-time gay bar in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan’s most recent mecca for all things gay. Wood teamed up with partners including Benjamin Maisani, an East Village nightlife veteran (Eastern Bloc, Bedlam), maybe best known as Mr. Anderson Cooper, to create a retro men’s lounge filled with vintage sports memorabilia, oversized leather furniture, and just the right amount downtown attitude (at least compared to the rest of HK's many gay bars.) With a grand opening September 20, DJ Sammy Jo kicks things off on a raucous note with a weekly Friday party and guests should expect only the prettiest boys and a random sampling of Maisani and Wood’s famous friends. Just don’t look for the ladies, who’ll can be spotted downtown at The Dalloway, fashion model Kim Stolz’s chic two-floor bar, which manages to balance film premiere parties with beer bong nights as only lesbians can. —Benjamin Solomon

753 Ninth Ave, Hell's Kitchen
212-262-8527

 

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Whoopi, Wood, and Maisani, plus scenes from the opening night of the bar
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Montreal: Notre Dame des Quilles
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This out-of-the-way Rosemont-Petite Patrie local is for birds of a particular feather. Mile Enders seek it out as an alternative to the Plateau’s über-hipness and the Village’s muscle-bound cruising scene, and for out-of-towners, there's the chance to discover the emerging Mile-Ex neighborhood and intermingle with a mix of queers and straights. Run by queers for queers, this kitschy, appropriately retro bar is all no-fuss diner décor — think sea-foam green walls and linoleum floors — serving booze, late-night food, and perhaps most importantly, free duckpin bowling on two manually operated lanes until 3am. Recently named one of Montreal’s best queer bars by local alt-weekly Cult MTL, expect nineties DJ dance parties and a regular Sunday night karaoke party with a songbook that includes campy Quebecois pop. Be sure to order the popular Le Grease Truck, a sandwich as body-unconscious nouveau gay as you can get: fish and shrimp croquettes, bacon, a drizzle of coleslaw with a hint of maple syrup, and a house tartar sauce with a hint of lime and cilantro. —Rea McNamara

32 Beaubien East (near St-Laurent)
514-507-1313

 

Credit: 
Courtesy of Notre Dame des Quilles
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São Paulo: Lions Nightclub
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Courtesy of Lions
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Located on the first floor of a commercial building in Brigadeiro Luis Antônio Avenue, and decked out in a Baroque-like style (think taxidermy) — plus a beautiful view to the city center and Sé’s Cathedra — Lions is one of São Paulo's trendiest clubs and the best place to meet a sophisticated gay crowd. Just check the schedule for the right night: E.D.M. Ultralions nights attract queers plus the nightlife celebrities and fashion people who love 'em, but other nights such as the Groovelicious hip-hop parties are mostly straight. —Nathalia Nhan

277, Brigadeiro Luis Antônio Avenue, Bela Vista
1st Floor
+55 11 3104 7157

 

Credit: 
Courtesy of Lions
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Toronto: The Steady Café & Bar
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Courtesy of The Steady
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Opened this July, The Steady is Hogtown’s freshest Queer West hotspot, the affectionate nickname for the Church Street gay village’s northern creep first along Queen Street West and now even farther from the lake due to Parkdale’s condo developments and baby-stroller brunch brigades. Painted in the warmer climes-transporting pastels of South Beach, with a corresponding Miami-inspired menu for vegans and carnivores, this café/resto by day and queer hotspot by night’s vegan offerings are earning praises — such as a faux chorizo taco salad dish with avocado, tofu, black beans, pico, and daiya cheese — along with the decadent salted key lime pie doused with a dark chocolate sauce, and The UnSteady, an original cocktail with rye, grapefruit, tangerine juice, lemon, and cranberries. The nightlife options have so far ranged from a dinner-and-a-movie night to the Blood, Sweat, and Queers monthly dance party by local DJ John Caffery, a member of the Canadian punk-house queercore band Kids on TV—Rea McNamara

1051 Bloor Street West
416-727-4825

Credit: 
Courtesy of The Steady
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Singapore: Taboo
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Courtesy of Taboo
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Don't be fooled by the name, despite gay sex between men still being illegal in Singapore, there's nothing forbidden about Taboo — fabulous and camp, on the other hand, there's plenty of that. Set up by businessman Addie Low more than 15 years ago in the heart of Tanjong Pagar, the undisputed pink district of Singapore, his outfit has grown to be a mainstay in the gay club circuit and welcomes both men and women, though gay men form most of the tight-shirted clientele. Watch out for monthly BodWatch events, where hunks showcase their wares, as well as drag performances. If you tired of jostling on the dance floor to Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, head to the second story bar area to watch the action below. —Adeline Chia

65 Neil Road, Tanjong Pagar
+65 6225 6256

 

 

Credit: 
Courtesy of Taboo
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Milan: Blanco
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Courtesy of Blanco
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Italy isn't known for its gay scenes — most of the dedicated bars are rather dire — so instead join a more creative, mixed set at Blanco, a bar that transports the laid-back yet glamorous style of its sister location in the Balearic Islands to the very central Porta Venezia neighborhood of Milan, along with added urban touches like laser-cut floral panels. Art directors, stylists, and designers all come here to call the day off and turn the gossip on thanks to its classy yet vibrant atmosphere fueled by green tea vodka gimlets. Keep a lookout for when Greta La Medica is on the decks. Stylist, model, and recognized local gay icon, she'll transport you to Studio 54 and back with a playfully nostalgic selection of tunes. —Sara Schifano

Via Morgagni 2
Angolo Piazzale Lavater
+39 2 29 405 284

 

Credit: 
Courtesy of Blanco
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Berlin: The Liberate
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Courtesy of The Liberate
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With Berlin being arguably one of the most gay friendly cities on the planet, its gay-exclusive joints are more or less confined to the dark room variety. The Liberate’s gilded banquettes, excellent service, and signature cocktails such as the Lib Gold — champagne, Tanqueray, and St. Germain — have made it popular of late among the cocktail-toting upper cut of Berlin’s startup and creative scene. Standbys like RosesMöbel Olfe, and the weekly Pork party still reign for those looking for a grittier atmosphere or rather higher gay to straight ratio. But, the Liberate still finds itself on the former side of that equation in comparison to neighbor, Pauly Saal, and is can’t-miss for those who prefer Hendricks to Becks regardless of post-nightcap persuasion. —Alexander Forbes

Kleine Präsidentenstrasse 4, Mitte
+49 30 886 7777 8

 

 

 

Credit: 
Courtesy of The Liberate
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Los Angeles: St. Felix
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Courtesy of St. Felix
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Located on the Santa Monica strip running through the heart of Boystown in West Hollywood, with a funky-chic atmosphere, reminiscent of NYC's East Village, St. Felix feels less a gay bar than a post-gay anything-goes neighborhood joint with a gastro-pub menu that's served past midnight. While the food transcends the usual bar fare — Cubano tacos, Kobe beef sliders, skewers, fries and dip — the libation list is the reason enough to stop by. If premium cocktails like the Chocolate Roux (three olive chocolate vodka, white chocolate liqueur, butterscotch, banana and chocolate swirls, plus chocolate shavings), or the Desperado (crushed red bell pepper, fresh mint, and orange bitters shaken with Coralejo tequila), sound a little too exotic, or rich, there’s always Grandma Dolores’ red sangria served in Mason jars or a Colt 45 in a 40-ounce bottle. Pricey, but a great mix of local guys and rockers stopping in from the Troubadour a few doors down, St. Felix is a gas, whether you're gay, straight, or whatever. —Jordan Riefe

8945 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood
310-275-4428

 

 

Credit: 
Courtesy of St. Felix
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Hong Kong: Volume H.E.A.T
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Courtesy of Volume H.E.A.T.
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In the quaint Noho district amidst the antiques and ink paintings north of Hollywood Road, this classy little bar and restaurant is where Hong Kong's small but intense gay nightlife scene typically begins the night, especially on Friday when the first drink before 8pm is free. (Benefits everyone loves; the venue is gay-owned and operated, with it's own in-house dance music label, but the crowd is mixed.) Men will have no trouble meeting other men here, but queer women might want to plan their visit for when social group Les Peche holds court. The best part about the bar is the old staircase just outside where you can escape the music and have a real conversation with whomever you just met. A Southeast Asia-inspired menu (try the Hanoi fish cakes) keeps everyone fueled up for when crowds migrate to sister venue Volume: BEAT (62 Jervois Street, Sheung Wan), a higher octane party venue not too far away. —Zoe Li

83-85 Hollywood Rd, Central District
+852 2857 7683

Credit: 
Courtesy of Volume H.E.A.T.
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Moscow: Shop & Bar Denis Simachev
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Courtesy of Shop & Bar Denis Simachev
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Because of the recent slew of homophobic demonstrations and legislation in the country, Russia’s LGBT-community has been divided into roughly two parts: some insist on maintaining a very distinct queer-identity, easily identifiable by the outsiders, and on keeping themselves to themselves in more ghettoized (critics might say, claustrophobic) environments, while others choose to shun all the external attributes of this identity and socialize freely both within and outside of the LGBT-community. Shop & Bar Denis Simachev is definitely the place to find the the latter here: hip gays, lesbians, and bisexuals drawn to its liberal, inviting atmosphere.

Though Moscow-based fashion designer Denis Simachev didn't set out to specifically gear his club towards the gay crowd — instead he just masterminded one of the trendiest watering holes in the city now, one notorious for its merciless face-control, so arrive presentable, or lucky — it's since become a hay hotspot largely thanks to parties thrown by DJ Vitaly Kozak and the ever beautiful and sophisticated Moscow professionals, students, freelancers, and other members of the creative class that follow him. Fridays and Saturdays, expect to find the place packed to the brim, strong cocktails on offer hand, and pretty young things dancing on the tables. —Anastasia Barysheva

Stoleshnikov 12/2
+7495 629 80 85

Credit: 
Courtesy of Shop & Bar Denis Simachev
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Paris: Le Tango–La Boite à Frissons
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Courtesy of Le Tango
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While gay clubs in Paris come and go, Le Tango-La Boite à Frissons (“The Thrills Box”) has incredibly outlived passing trends and crisis, remaining ever as popular and plugged in since moving to the Haut-Marais 15 years ago. Lately, French hipsters love its old-fashioned look and international mixed clientele, the creaking wooden dance floor packed with gay men, lesbians, drags, trans, and straights, of all ages. Come early on Friday and Saturday evenings, for the Ballroom, and you will take part in the Tango class (couple dancing only). Then, at 12:30am, everyone in the same line for The Madison dance. If you're shy or not eager enough, you can just grab a drink at the bar and sit at the cosy tables around, waiting for the disco-pop music to start (anything expect techno, until 5am). Fridays also feature regular themed parties, such as a singles night or famous transvestite shows. Ignore the off-putting front door and square design of the website; this tiny unpretentious popular club, with its red decor and mirrored disco ball, is among the best actual gay spot in the French capital. —Céline Piettre

13, rue Au Maire, Le Marais
+33 1 42 72 17 78

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Courtesy of Le Tango
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New Delhi: Peppers
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Scenes from gay Delhi
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Peppers used to be Pegs n Pints, a little hole-in-the-wall club in Delhi’s diplomatic neighborhood, which never saw as much action all week as it did its Tuesday gay nights. Even now, renamed Peppers, the bar continues the tradition. Expect lots of the Top 40 hits meets Bollywood music and many gay men gyrating on the floor. (Straight people sometimes come as well, so if you're a single lady, don't assume every guy is gay.) Until very recently, homosexuality was illegal in India, so the underground atmosphere of Peppers might harken back to a different age: the décor is inoffensive but not fantastic, the drinks are reasonably priced, and the only reason to go seems to be to mingle with other gay and lesbian people across the city as well as expats. Once there, it might be easier to cadge an invite to one of Delhi’s fabled house parties, and the real place for people of all sorts to mingle. —Meenakshi Madhavan

Forte Grande, Chanakya Lane
Akbar Bhavan Annexe, Chanakyapuri
+91 11 2687 8320

 

 

 

Credit: 
Courtesy of Askshaydavis and India Kangaroo via Flickr
Caption: 
Scenes from gay Delhi
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Mexico City: Guilt
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Courtesy of GUILT
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It is with no small amount of irony that Mexico City's hottest LGBT night out happens at a place called Guilt, a Saturday night Electro-Pop extravaganza situated in the affluent Polanco, in the midst of the boutique shops and restaurants that make Presidente Masaryk Avenue the city's most expensive shopping district. It has a strict hipster chic dress code followed religiously by its beautiful attendees and its success mirrors that of its older brother, Envy, another must in Mexico's gay nightlife. Recently remodeled, the club now showcases futuristic murals by artist Manuel Larrea Graham, giving the parties a decadent feel, like of something out of a Philip K. Dick story, and music ranges from necessary chart pop hits to wildly popular moments of Mexican eighties nostalgia that keeps the dance floor packed (and we mean packed). Arrive early before the queue gets out of control, or better yet, make a reservation; the bar is difficult to reach so ordering a bottle is probably your most comfortable option. Doors open at 11pm. —Aline Cerdan

Anatole France 120, Col. Polanco Chapultepec
+52 55 1378 0992

Credit: 
Courtesy of GUILT
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Seoul: Pulse
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Courtesy of Pulse
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Seoul’s gay night life is largely divided between two downtown districts: dignified local gentlemen can converse over cocktails at one of the hundred-odd bars dotting Jongno, the city’s oldest gay enclave, while younger Dorian Gray types and out-of-towners can club-hop all night along Itaewon’s far-from-subtly-named “Homo Hill.”

Though located a slight distance away from the drama and noise of the latter, Pulse continues to thrive as one of the iconic stopovers in Itaewon for the party-going crowd. It attracts mostly young Koreans in their early 20s but also those new to town and the occasional batch of curious females checking out the good-looking men that won’t try to make awkward passes at them (entrance fees are double for women however). Make sure you go there well past 2am On Fridays or Saturdays after enjoying a drink or two at Always Homme or getting your dancing feet warmed up at Queen. Unlike most of the cozier bars and clubs dotting the neighborhood, Pulse is a spacious underground venue, though it almost always gets crowded into the wee hours of the morning as the techno, electro-house, and K-pop jams pump strong and the extensive offerings at the bar keep flowing. Equipped with wall-to-wall lasers, stripper poles, and glowing bar tops, its upscale appeal makes it a popular option for private launching parties and celebrity-spotting is quite common during regular weekends as well. —Hyo-won Lee

127-3 Itaewon, Yongsan-gu
+82 2 2792 6662

Credit: 
Courtesy of Pulse
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Tokyo: Shinjuku Ni-Chome
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Arty Farty and scenes from Shinjuku Ni-Chome
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Unlike the mega-sized gay clubs that one finds in major Western cities, Tokyo’s gay scene, centered on Shinjuku Ni-chome (or just Ni-chome for short), is sprawling, profuse, and meticulously segmented: over 300 bars, clubs, watering holes, sex clubs, bookstores, and video stores stacked up over an area not much larger than three or four blocks. The panoply of brightly-lit small square signage each represent a bar. Most of these establishments are intimate, bordering on claustrophobic, where an invariably affable mama-san caters to regulars who tend to identify closely with a particular “scene” — and for the most part, gaijins who don't speak Japanese fluently won't be un-welcome per se, as much as way out of their element.

For out-of-town visitors in search of a more cosmopolitan, diverse crowd and space to relax, try the Southwestern décor-inspired Arty Farty (2F, No. 33 Kyutei Building, Shinjuku 2-11-7), where the typical gay house hits help you get your groove on (somewhat dampened, however, by an inexplicable government ordinance banning dancing that was passed in August 2012), and then drop into The Annex (1F, Futami Building, Shinjuku 2-14-11), its less frenetic sister venue down the street that boasts a mezzanine floor, exposed brick walls paired with chandeliers and even a fountain in the middle of the dance floor. Those in search of a party-friendly and foreigners-welcome lesbian scene should head for Adezakura (2-15-11 Shinjuku), hard to miss with its double red doors which welcome women only until 2am (men are admitted up until closing time at 7am). In warmer weather, though, just strolling the narrow alleyways and streets of this densely packed neighborhood ought to ensure that you stumble upon more than a few interesting spots — and possibly encounters. Darryl Jingwen Wee

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Arty Farty and scenes from Shinjuku Ni-Chome
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London: Polari
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Courtesy of Polari
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London has a reputation for being a great city for partying (see: Soho, Shoreditch) but it’s also known for its fantastic literary scene. Writer Paul Burston’s Polari has capitalized on both, marrying a LGBT literary salon with DJs and live entertainment. The monthly event takes place in the picturesque Southbank Centre and features both established and emerging writers in queer fiction, poetry, and performance. Previous guests include Marco Mancassola, author of “Erotic Lives of The Superheroes,” James Wharton, UK’s best-known gay solider, who read excerpts from his autobiography “Out in the Army,” acclaimed playwright and novelist Deborah Levy, and singer-songwriter and comedian Clare Summerskill. Next up on September 28 and October 22; £5 entry. —Samantha Tse

Credit: 
Courtesy of Polari
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Beijing: Destination
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Courtesy of Destination
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As Beijing’s most popular gay club, every weekend night Destination draws nearly 800 people — mostly men — into the four-story, neon-lit venue with famous foreign DJs spinning classic dance grooves, house, and other types of electronic music. The first floor space has a lot of twists and turns, including a bouncing dance floor and noisy bars. For those who want to have calm conversations, the second floor has a set of quieter bars and comfortable grey sofas. The bar’s signature cocktail is Blue Destination (RMB 50), a mixture of gin, vodka, tequila, rum, Triple sec, lime juice, Sprite, soda water, and Blue Curacao (think a Long Island Iced Tea, if not stronger). On the floors above the bars, there are cultural and community spaces, and a café. —Belle Zhao

7 Gongti West Road, Chaoyang District
+86 10 6552 8180

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Courtesy of Destination
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American Jewelry Design Council Exhibits Conceptual Jewelry Design

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Jewelry as a non-commercial art form will take center stage at the American Jewelry Design Council (AJDC)’s exhibition, Variations on a Theme: 25 Years of Design from the AJDC, starting September 21.

The exhibition, to be held at the Forbes Galleries in New York, will showcase one-of-a-kind works from over 40 AJDC members over the last quarter century.

Since its establishment in 1988, the AJDC has worked to educate and promote the awareness of jewelry as an art form. Annually since 1996, the Council asks each of its members to create a design project, interpreting a single concept or theme, such as “Water”, “Spiral”, “Ice” and “Flight.” This results in a collection of unique works, made variously of precious metals, gemstones and unexpected materials, yet joined together by a solitary concept.

“The jewelry pieces [in this exhibition] have been created over time for the sole purpose of exhibiting creativity, originality and excellence in design,” said Barbara Heinrich, president of the AJDC, in a statement.  “They are purposely non-commercial but rather inspirational in nature, created by some of the foremost American jewelry designers alive.”

Some highlights in the exhibition include a pair of earrings, titled Rainy Day in Paris, by John Water Iverson, and a ring entitled Frozen In Time, by Alan Revere. The former is reminiscent of raindrops running down a window pane, while the latter resembles a rock being held by forceps.

Click here for a preview of some of the best pieces at the exhibition, which runs through February 22, 2014.

American Jewelry Design Council Exhibits Conceptual Jewelry Design
Designs from the American Jewelry Design Council exhibit

The "Solaris" Synthesizer Emerges From Behind the Iron Curtain

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The "Solaris" Synthesizer Emerges From Behind the Iron Curtain

On of the strangest and most beguiling moments in Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Solaris” comes not in space, where most of the 1972 film takes place, but on land. About a quarter of the way into the film, there is a simple scene of a car driving down a highway. The unbroken shot, which extends for several minutes, begins to take on other dimensions, opening room for contemplation. The car crisscrossing the labyrinthian highways starts to seem otherworldly. Yet one of the most intriguing things about this moment in the film is the music, and how it completely changes the way we view the scene. What at first resembles the light noise of traffic slowly transforms and emerges as a synthesized roar, turning this boring, automotive tableau into a journey into the unknown.

The sounds you hear throughout “Solaris,” along with many other films by Tarkovsky, were created by Eduard Artemiev, an early pioneer of electronic music. The film’s soundtrack, which is based around interpretations of J.S.Bach’s Chorale Prelude in F minor, and features proto-ambient soundscapes and synthesizer experiments, was released Monday in the United States for the first time, via the label Superior Viaduct.

The history of electronic music is largely undocumented in any concise way. While groups such as the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in England, along with Louis and Bebe Barron (composers of the soundtrack to 1956’s “Forbidden Planet”), are rightly praised for their contributions to the now dominant form of music creation, there have been numerous other innovators from around the world who have made an impact over the last half-century.

Artemiev, in his work with Tarkovsky, used a rare synthesizer called the ANS, which has its own strange story. According to the writer Max Cole, who wrote what appears to be the most comprehensive history of the ANS in the English language, the synthesizer took 20 years to build and only two were ever constructed. It was a passion project for an inventor named Evgeny Murzin, who risked arrest for his electronic inventions (at the time, you could not purchase electronic components in the USSR), and named his machine after Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, a controversial musical figure around the dawn of the 20th century who developed atonal music systems based on what appears to be occult beliefs.

The ANS is also unusual in its construction. According to Cole, “the machine has 720 sine waves printed over five glass discs,” where “modulated light from these discs is then projected onto the back of the synthesizer’s interface.” Many experimental musicians behind the Iron Curtain traveled to Moscow to test out the machine, and the myth behind the ANS has grown over the years. Artemiev’s experimentations were never commercially available, and it was only in recent years that Tarkovsky’s many films were readily accessible to the public.

The soundtrack to “Solaris” is atypical of the period in which it was produced. At a time when John Barry’s jaunty scores for the James Bond films, along with the operatic bombast of Elmer Bernstein’s work, were all the rage, Artemiev’s sounds are almost anti-music. They are more about tone and environment than accenting a scene — unfamiliar noises boil to the surface and echoed sounds rumble in the distance. At one moment, the sound compliments an image; in the next frame, it appears to be in direct conflict with what’s on the screen. The relationship between sound and image creates a ghostly resonance that adds to much of the film’s mystery.

The last surviving ANS synthesizer is currently housed in the Glinka Museum of Musical Culture in Moscow, and through the work of historians, we are slowly learning about the history of the machine, and finally have access to the sounds it produced. Electronic music currently permeates modern music, from the sounds of hip-hop and EDM to most contemporary film soundtracks. But still, we know little about where these sounds came from. With Eduard Artemiev’s soundtrack to “Solaris,” a little of the mystery has been revealed.

Kris Kelvin in "Solaris"

Rolls-Royce Founder’s Father's Car Leads Bonhams' Nov Sale

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Rolls-Royce Founder’s Father's Car Leads Bonhams' Nov Sale

This may be as close as it comes to owning a piece of the founder of Rolls-Royce.

An historic 1902 Panhard Levassor 16-horsepower, four-cylinder rear-entrance Tonneau with coach work by Labourdette of Paris is estimated to fetch between £550,000 and £650,000 ($885,580 to $1.05 million) at Bonhams’ annual London to Brighton Run motorcar sale on November 1.

It is a car that once belonged to Lord Llangattock of Hendre in Monmouthshire, the father of C.S. Rolls, who founded the iconic automotive brand in 1906. Motoring experts believe that this car may be the one that Rolls based many of his earliest models. The car was acquired by an undisclosed family in 1935 and has stayed in their possession ever since, making it fresh to the market after almost 80 years, said Bonhams in a statement.

Bonhams group CEO Malcolm Barber, who sourced this car, added, “Once in a while you find a car that really excites you. This car has it all, history, looks, provenance. It still wears its C.S. Rolls brass supplier plates. Whoever buys it automatically becomes part of motoring history.”

1902 Panhard Levassor

Classic Cars in Motion at the Goodwood Revival

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Torrential rain — that good old British specialty — failed to dampen spirits at the just-wrapped Goodwood Revival race meeting. Known for its unique time capsule atmosphere, the event, with its pre-1966 theme, invites visitors to step back in time for a weekend and watch a dizzying whir of historic mechanical toys — classic motorcars, motorcycles and airplanes — in action. There’s also a fabulous vintage fashion element, with guests dressed up in looks from the 40s, 50s and 60s, from country tweeds for the gentlemen to fascinators and floral tea dresses for the ladies, and even streets of retro stores to visit in between car spotting.

Located near Chichester in West Sussex, England, the three-day event is held on a former WWII airport, later a race track, on the Goodwood Estate. The Goodwood Motor Circuit once ranked alongside Silverstone as Britain’s leading racing venue throughout its active years between 1948 and 1966, and was reopened by Lord March, the heir apparent of the 10th Duke of Richmond, in September 1998. March is president of the British Automobile Racing Club, patron of the TT Riders Association, and president of the Motor Racing Cycle Industry Association. Each festival he throws an extravagant Goodwood ball, this year set to a cowboy theme with a set to rival Dollywood.

Messerschmitt Spitfires, P-51 Mustangs and Northrop XB-35 bombers roar up the airfield’s runways as, revving their engines, a snaking line of growling Ford GT40s, created 50 years ago, file to the racetrack. In the Goodwood paddock sit rows of historic race cars grouped into categories, opening with a series of the first Formula 1 motorcars from the 20s and 30s. They include a 1923 Aston Martin 11hp ‘Razorblade’ in aluminum, with a crude temperature gauge atop its radiator marked ‘Normal,’ ‘Cold,’ ‘Freezing,’ and ‘Boiling.’ A few rows down sits a scarlet 1953 Alpha Romeo 3000 ‘Disco Volante,’ its perfectly symmetrical engine on display, and just beyond it, an iconic 1960 white Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato, one of the finest sports cars of its time. Standing nearby is driver and owner Tom Alexander, who goes on to win his race. “This is a very fast circuit, with very fast bends; you are right on the edge of adhesion with these tyres,” he said.

Eyeing up a grass-green 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO (estimated to be worth around $30 million), this time with French racing champion Jean Alesi in the driving seat, Jonny Shears, a classic car specialist for Silverstone Auctions in England, said, “They race them, and they bend them, and they crash them; that’s what these cars are designed to do, that’s what this whole weekend is about. It’s great to see them being used and not mothballed in a museum.” With their historic tyres, he likened racing one of these cars to driving on gravel at 10o mph (160 kmh). “It’s not like driving a modern car at all, it’s an art form,” he said as a crumpled white Maserati Tipo 61 rolled by on a truck, fresh from a crash.

“People go to Goodwood to see cars running or to run their cars. These are not just museum pieces. A car is made to be used. If you just look at it, you’re missing something,” echoed Maison Veuve Clicquot’s Edouard de Nazelle, who led a convoy of classic cars from the golden age of car-making — 1955 to 1965 — to the event from Paris, including a 1965 E-type Jaguar. Nazelle drove Veuve Clicquot's grand mascot: a 1961 Bentley Continental Flying Spur painted in purple and "Clicquot Yellow." The champagne house was the official sponsor of Goodwood, adding to the "period" atmosphere with its iconic "Clicquot Yellow" branding found throughout the grounds and in the large Veuve Clicquot champagne bar located inside the race circuit.

Goodwood this year paid tribute to the 50th anniversary of legendary racing driver Jim Clark's first World Championship, as well as the 110th anniversary of the first Tour de France race, with cyclists riding period racing bikes. Among the weekend’s auction highlights, meanwhile, Bonhams sold an ex-Tazio Nuvolari 1935 Alfa Romeo Tipo, a magnificent pre-war Grand Prix racing car, for £5.9 million, or $9.4 million at average exchange rates, before the buyer’s premium.

There was a touch of British humor to the whole event, with retro-styled ladies sat gossiping as they rocked vintage prams, and vintage bicycles leaning against hedgerows. Beyond the gates, vintage buses ferried passengers to and from the grounds, where a field was transformed into a temporary car park strewn with magnificent classic cars. It was a filmic sight when, at the end of the event’s opening day on September 13, visitors returned to fetch them in the rain. With open-top sports cars and their passengers shielded by giant umbrellas, there was a mood of camaraderie in the air that united people with a common passion for the beauty and art de vivre of a bygone era.

To have a look at vintage cars, motorcycles and looks at the Goodwood Revival, click on the slideshow.

Classic Cars in Motion at the Goodwood Revival
Classic Cars in Motion at the Goodwood Revival

Art on the Wrist: Luxury Pas de Deux

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Art on the Wrist: Luxury Pas de Deux

Leaping and pirouetting, arms outstretched, two dancers move toward each other and embrace, only to come apart, tracing a wide circle. All the while, a clock ticks loudly in the midst of compositions by Marin Marais, Philip Glass, and Arvo Pärt, as if the stage were the face of a clock and the dancers the embodiment of
the passing minutes and seconds. French dancer-choreographer David Drouard created this dramatic scene for Time in Motion, a three-part contemporary ballet commissioned last year by Hermès to celebrate the luxury house’s 100 years in watchmaking.

The bold performance, which premiered in London and traveled to the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York in March, also coincided with the launch of the Dressage Chronograph, the first Hermès watch to be completed entirely in house.

Watchmakers and jewelers seem to have recently found renewed inspiration in dance, a visceral, romantic art form that, like fine jewelry, often expresses what words can’t.

Swiss watchmaker Vacheron Constantin has looked to great dance-inspired moments in art history for the newest additions
 to its Métiers d’Art collection. Marking 
the 300th year of L’Ecole de Danse de l’Opéra National de Paris, established by Louis XIV in 1713 as the school of L’Académie Royale de la Danse, Vacheron’s three new Hommage à l’Art de la Danse watches capture iconic images from French Impressionist Edgar Degas’s paintings Ballet Room at the Opera in Rue le Peletier, Ballet Rehearsal, and Two Dancers on Stage.

Dancers in training, rehearsal, and performance are reinterpreted in detail, from the fold of a tutu to the flowers in a dancer’s hair, through Vacheron’s Grand Feu
 grisaille enameling technique. Using a translucent brown enamel base to add warmth and depth to the images,
the master artisan then applies Limoges white enamel, employing delicate tools such as needles, cactus thorns, and extremely fine brushes.

Jeweler Fabergé has paired ballet with haute joaillerie
 in its collection Les Danses Fantasques. The house, a favorite of the Russian aristocracy in the late 1800s, celebrates the romance and high drama of Russian dance in four suites of jewelry, each named for a Russian ballet and featuring 
a necklace, earrings, and rings with white diamonds and colored gemstones. The Luda suite, which includes an elegant bow-shaped diamond necklace with an emerald drop, is inspired by the opera and ballet Ruslan and Ludmila. La Esmerelda, Raymonda, and Giselle, by Marius Petipa, the choreographer behind some of 
the world’s best-known ballets (including The Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, and, with Lev Ivanov, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker) provided inspiration
 for the other suites in the collection.

Van Cleef & Arpels is no stranger, either, to the power of dance. In the 1940s, Louis Arpels asked the company to transform his love of the ballet into jeweled works of art. The result was a series of ballerina clips inspired by dance world legends such as Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova and 18th-century Belgian dancer Marie Anne
de Cupis de Camargo. In the 1960s, choreographer George Balanchine became friends with Claude Arpels. Their shared interest in precious stones spurred Balanchine to create his 1967 ballet triptych “Jewels,” dedicating
each of its parts to a stone and a composer. Emeralds had music by Gabriel Fauré; Rubies, Igor Stravinsky; and Diamonds, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.


Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Ballerine Enchantée watch / Courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels

Today, Van Cleef & Arpels has found a new friend in French choreographer Benjamin Millepied, a former principal at New York City Ballet, founder of the L.A. Dance Project, and soon-to-be director of dance of the Paris Opera Ballet. Millepied looked to the jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels to inspire his new ballet Reflections, evoking the play of light on the jewels and the intrigue in their multiple facets. The ballet premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in May, marking the first part of a trilogy entitled “Gems.” Coinciding with the production, Van Cleef & Arpels unveiled three new ballerina clips in white gold and diamonds.

The highlight of Van Cleef’s presentation at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie was the Lady Arpels Ballerine Enchantée Poetic Complication, a watch with a double retrograde mechanical movement that shows the time on demand. Its design was inspired by the mechanism of a piece from the company’s watchmaking heritage: the Magicien Chinois pocket watch from 1927, with a figure indicating the hours and minutes by raising his arms. Here, the ballerina is sculpted in relief and set with diamonds, and her tutu serves to indicate the time at the push of a button. Dance, it appears, has a powerful magic of its own.

Vacheron Constantin’s "Hommage à l’Art de la Danse"
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