June 2009 issue of Sharp Magazine by Contempo Media Inc

JUNE 2009

CANADA’S MAGAZINE FOR MEN

DENZEL WASHINGTON

on Mid-life crises, fame and Canada

Ambushed in Afghanistan

our soldiers share their combat stories

Father’s Day Gift Guide

35 selections that won’t disappoint

kick up your style

summer wardrobe essentials

Malin

Akerman SHE’S hot and she LOVES YOU

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Eight for men

Greats

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TRUE RELIGION NEW

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JUNE 2009 letter from the editor

I’m a car guy…get over it.

MICHAEL LA FAVE Editorial and Creative Director letters@contempomedia.ca

At heart I’m a car guy. Before taking on the multi-faceted lifestyle content that makes up Sharp magazine, I was a car magazine editor and before that a full-time car tester and writer. Cars have a special place in my life with some of my fondest memories being of the places I’ve traveled in them and the people I’ve shared those adventures with. I remember the day I became a car guy. I was 12 and a detail shot of a Ferrari’s three-piece alloy wheel in a car magazine caught my eye. It was so beautiful and so incredibly complex. It was the perfect fusion of art and science and I was mesmerized. As a child I would enthusiastically wash my father’s Corvette in anticipation of popping the roof panel out and going for a ride. Years ago my wife and I took a Dodge Viper up California’s endlessly winding and achingly picturesque Highway 1 on our way from LA to Carmel for the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance… perhaps the world’s greatest classic car gathering and the only time I’ve ever felt comfortable wearing a blue blazer with white pants. The most audacious drive of my life was a three-day highspeed odyssey from Las Vegas to Aspen with a lifelong buddy and the inimitably graceful and ferociously powerful Bentley Continental convertible. On another occasion it was a Miata copiloted by a long-time colleague and friend, rocketing across the sinuous and lunar-esque landscape of the Big Island of Hawaii. As much as I like cars for the joy they bring me, I like them more for the joy they bring those I get to share them with. An exciting car puts a smile on just about anyone’s face. Granted, not everyone is a car enthusiast, but there aren’t many living, breathing souls whose heads don’t swivel when a Jaguar passes by or a Lamborghini roars up to a restaurant. And why shouldn’t we love cars? They can be heart-poundingly beautiful, they are incredibly complex engineering accomplishments and they provide us with a level of mobility and freedom that was all but impossible a century ago. There may come a day when, like the horse and the boat, the automobile becomes a purely recreational vehicle, but we’re not there yet. For the time being, the gasoline engine grows cleaner and more efficient every year, and new technologies—like hybrids and fuel-cell vehicles—promise a future of personal mobility with less pollution and dependence on foreign resources. I’m all for the car evolving if it means it’s going to stick around and that I’ll be able to hop in one whenever I want and head off for no greater purpose than a drive. Supporting Boys Night Out (BNO) has become an annual tradition for Sharp and, with over 1,000 expected attendees, this year’s event is shaping up to be the best yet. Held in Toronto’s Distillery District, BNO generates tens of thousands of dollars for prostate cancer research, something near and dear to all our, um, hearts. We’ll be sponsoring the cigar tent, so be sure to stop by. For more information, visit www.liffordwineagency.com.

editor’s selection

“I think he’s doing really good,” Denzel replies when asked about his son’s career. “He’s his own man...and he pays his own bills!” Denzel Washington, page 38

“I mean, I’ll tell you that the only guy with my own hands, with my weapon, I think I actually killed—and I say, 'I think' because you don’t stop and investigate these things.” Walking Through the Valley, page 52

“My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel.” The Great Shopping Mall in the Desert, page 68

“My dad had a gas station, and he got my brother a Datsun Z when he was 10 years old, and got me a Z when I was 14. They weren’t perfect; we had to fix everything. I just loved the car, washing it, looking at all the forms and surfaces and details.” Randy Rodriguez, page 74

“The only way you can become Prime Minister is to win a major party’s leadership convention. You must join the party, follow the party rules, kiss up to the party elite.” Politics Canadian Style, page 82

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www.ysl.com Olivier Martinez by Sam Taylor-Wood

THE BAY . SHOPPERS DRUG MART . SEARS . LONDON DRUGS

TOC

JUNE 2009

Features

Denzel Washington

Father’s Day

Malin Akerman

Afghanistan

Fighting Style

Dubai

Randy Rodriguez

The two-time Oscar winner talks fitness, family, and the art of avoiding the mid-life crisis.

This summer’s fashions are vibrant and cool. Perfect for a day of doing backflips in the sand.

A tribute to the Old Man. Three dads, three generations, and what they want for Father’s Day.

In a city as old as Britney Spears, authenticity can be hard to come by. We set out in search of the real Dubai.

10 Sharp June 2009 sharpformen.com

After her starring role in Watchmen, Malin Akerman’s memorable visage has become an increasingly common sight. We’re not complaining.

After fulfilling his lifelong dream of designing Nissan’s new 370Z, Randy Rodriguez wasn’t satisfied. So he designed an airplane.

In 2006, two Canadian soldiers left home for Afghanistan. They came home changed men. Here, they tell their stories for the first time.

TOC

JUNE 2009 Great Steaks. Delivered.

EDITORIAL

Order Today! www.ThePerfectSteak.com 24 28

With age comes perfection.

For the perfect medium rare 1” thick New York Strip, follow these simple instructions. Preheat grill on MED/HIGH. Brush grids with olive oil and proceed as directed.

The Guide 20

NOTE: Bone in cuts take slightly longer. Times may be affected by wind, outdoor temperature, and thickness or temperature of meat prior to cooking.

John McGouran publisher

11/2”

Place steak on a 45° angle on hot grids and cook for 2 minutes

flip the steak as shown and grill for another 2 minutes

MEAT THICKNESS 1”

3/4”

Rare

MED/HIGH

Rare

Medium/Rare

MED/HIGH

1 1/ 2 1 3/ 4

Medium Well

MED/HIGH MED/HIGH

2 2 1/ 4

MEDIUM

21/2

MEDIUM

Rare Medium/Rare Medium/Rare Medium Medium

36 After 2 minutes

HEAT SETTING

Well

78 Finally, flip the

Rotate the steak 45° and flip again as shown. Grill for another 2 minutes

TIME PER SIDE B C

steak for the last time and grill a final 2 minutes

TOTAL TIME D

1 1/ 2

6 minutes

1 3/ 4 2

7 minutes 8 minutes

2 1/ 4

9 minutes

2 1/ 2 3

10 minutes 12 minutes

Michael La Fave editorial and creative director Paul Koziorowski art director

At The Perfect Steak Company™, selecting, aging and grilling the finest beef is our passion. We begin the process of creating The Perfect Steak by hand selecting cuts from the finest AAA beef available.

Jeremy Freed managing editor

We age the beef up to 35 days at a consistent temperature and humidity to improve the taste and tenderness. Our master butchers hand trim each cut to our exact specifications to enhance its exceptional flavour.

Brigitte Foisy style editor Roslyn Costanzo associate style editor Theresa Quick associate style editor Peter Saltsman editorial intern

Finally, each steak is individually vacuum sealed for the ultimate in convenience and freshness. Your order is then packaged and delivered right to your door.

$500,000 on Your Wrist

Emmanuelle Vaugier

48 hours: The Hamptons

How can I drop a half a mil on a watch? Answer: The C1 Quantum Gravity.

The CSI:NY star talks about eating dog food, among other things.

Swim, eat lobster, drink. Repeat. What more can you possibly need?

Film

Economy

Food

Six new movies (and DVDs) to keep you entertained this summer.

Hollywood’s got nothing on the shady dealings of Wall Street.

Chef Anthony Walsh instructs us on the finer points of cooking game.

Style

Health

Beer

Designer Joseph Abboud breaks down the perfect summer wardrobe.

What are antioxidants and why do doctors say we need them?

The skinny on craft brewing, plus four superb premium beers.

Tequila

Watches

Everything you need to know about selecting great tequila.

Basel, Switzerland, is a watch aficionado’s dream. See what we brought back.

Leo Petaccia associate editor

Contributing writers Barry Barnett, Carol Besler Steven Bochenek, Rod Cleaver, Todd Coyne, Mike Dojc, Carson Edwards, Cliff Ford, Alex Hughes, Paul Johnston, Rick Leswick, Bob Strauss, Michael Vaughan Contributing photographers Darryl Augustine, Jimmy Hamelin, Paul Koziorowski, Shane Mahood, Mario Miotti, Richard Phibbs, Robert Watson Letters to the editor Love us, hate us, want to validate us? Write us at letters@contempomedia.ca. ADVERTISING John McGouran sales director 416-258-8538 john.mcgouran@contempomedia.ca Carlos Herranz senior account manager 416-854-3619 carlos@contempomedia.ca

Membership Applied for March 2009

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Sharp is published six times per year by Contempo Media Inc. No part of this publication may be copied or reprinted without the written consent of the publisher. Annual subscription rate: $20 Canadian. To subscribe, visit www.sharpformen.com.

Regulars 16

People & Places

Autos

Informer

We like a good party as much as the next fellow. Maybe more.

Four hot new rides from Porsche, Mercedes, Chevy and Hyundai.

Is it Iggy vs. Harper or PET II vs. Cheney the Second?

12 Sharp June 2009 sharpformen.com

Sharp welcomes pitches and submissions from writers: submissions@contempomedia.ca. We have 3-month internship opportunities in editorial and marketing. These are unpaid positions. Please send your resume to resumes@contempomedia.ca. Contempo Media Inc. 370 Queen’s Quay West, Suite 203 Toronto, ON M5V 3J3 416-591-0093 Volume 2, Issue 2, June 2009

IT SAYS ‘YOU’VE ARRIVED’ BUT WE DON’T EXPECT THAT YOU’LL STAY IN ONE PLACE TOO LONG.

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*4 years or 80,000 km, whichever comes first. See dealer for conditions and details.

Tested and ‘tuned’ at the world-renowned Nürburgring in Germany. Car and Driver 2009 10Best, 2 years running. Ward’s AutoWorld 2009 10 Best Engines. Available with Cadillac’s advanced AWD system. Standard Cadillac Owner Privileges with No Charge Scheduled Maintenance.*

ONLINE

SHARPFORMEN.COM

Sharp Woman: America Olivo

She’s studied Opera at Juilliard, fronted the band Soluna and starred in a delightfully campy movie called Bitchslap. Yes, America Olivo is many things, but conventional is not one of them. Find our interview with America, plus more pics, at Sharpformen.com.

Autos: 2009 Nissan 370Z Its body was inspired by the smooth, aggressive lines of a great white shark. Its interior looks like the cockpit of a fighter jet. Power? Yes, it’s got that. Visit Sharpformen.com, where we take the all-new 332-hp Nissan powerhouse for a spin.

Food: Pulled pork Grillmaster “Rockin’” Ronnie Shewchuk is fond of saying, “You’re not really serious about barbeque unless you’ve slept next to your cooker and used a bag of charcoal as a pillow.” Visit Sharpformen.com for Ronnie’s recipe for pulled pork from his new book Barbeque Secrets Deluxe.

The Other Superman

Hacker Boats

By day he was a mild-mannered cartoonist, but there was more to Joe Schuster than Superman. Visit Sharpformen.com for pictures, plus an interview with Craig Yoe, author of Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-Creator Joe Schuster.

Sure, there are all manner of sexy speedboats available for those with lakes at their disposal. None, however, can match the class and pedigree of a wood-bodied, inboard-engined runabout. Visit Sharpformen.com for the story of Hacker-Craft.

Contributors Tyler Quick is a celebrity trainer and fitness expert who has instructed more than 10,000 fitness sessions in his career. In his experience, the ginga—the fundamental movement in capoeira—is the most effective exercise tool he has ever come across. Tyler is the creator of Gingadeira, a choreographed workout based on capoeira movement. tylerquick.com. 14 Sharp June 2009 sharpformen.com

Contra Mestre Bola (Marinaldo DaSilva) was born in Olinda, Pernambuco, and began training with a top capoeira master in 1988 before moving to Canada and opening Capoeira Camará in Toronto in 2000, a teaching academy that has expanded to include locations in Peterborough, Montreal, Calgary, Bermuda, Russia and Brazil. capoeiracamara.com.

Robert Watson Toronto-based Robert Watson has been producing outstanding images for the North American commercial market for over 20 years. He currently divides his time between the US and Canada, shooting jewelry, food, cars and fashion. Robert began photography as a fine arts student and has lived and studied in France. See more of his work at www.robertwatsonphotography.com.

PEOPLE & PLACES visit

www.sharpformen.com

for

online

event

coverage

We like a good party as much as the next fellow. Here are a few of the places we’ve been in the last few months, and some of the people we met there.

Cocktail Lessons from Bombay Sapphire

Cognac and Cigars with Hennessy XO

“A Guy’s Guide to Cocktail and Cuisine” was the banner of the evening, as fashionable young writers, bloggers and foodies gathered at the historic 49 Nanton Ave. mansion in Rosedale. Bombay Sapphire master mixologist Merlin Griffiths and celebrity party planner Sebastien Centner were on hand to instruct the assembled crowd on the origin and makings of the Sapphire Collins, the Sapphire Martini, and several kinds of simple, yet delicious party snacks.

Tappo restaurant and wine bar was the scene of a night of music, fine food, and even finer drinks. The occasion of the party was to honour the visit of Cyrille Gautier Auriol, brand ambassador for Moët Hennessy.

While there was plenty of food and drink, the night was not just about eating and drinking. While Griffiths mixed the cocktails and chatted up the ladies, Centner demonstrated how to make a floating candle centrepiece.

M. Auriol led an intimate tasting of Hennessy XO, which he insists is “the original extra old luxury cognac.” Guests were invited to try Hennessy XO with fine chocolate and cigars, poured over large spheres of ice and, of course, straight up in a snifter. Later, Juno award-winning singer Divine Brown got the party in full swing with an unplugged set, followed by an impassioned impromptu performance by Bustle’s Shawn Hewson.

Bombay Sapphire: 1) Merlin & Sebastian 2) Ian Bergman, Charlene Lo ( Optimum PR), Andrea Hynes ( Optimum PR), Dan Pilas ( Bacardi) and Rich Andrews ( Bacardi) 3) The Bacardi team - Dan Pilas, Ian Bergman , Rich Andrews and Chris Bhowmik Hennessy: 1) L to R - Adam van Koeverden, Kelley BurnsCoady of Moet Hennessy, Steve Coady of Warner Music 2) L to R Suzanne Boyd of Zoomer magazine, Divine Brown, Ambassadeur de la Maison Hennessy Cognac Cyrille Gautier Auriol 3) Cosmopolitan TV's host of Oh So Cosmo Wilder Weir (L) and friends 4) Paul Smith and David Lester of Holt Renfrew 5) Suzanne Boyd and Raymond Perkins of Roots Canada 6) Shawn Hewson of Bustle Clothing 7) Divine Brown

16 Sharp June 2009 sharpformen.com

photos: Leib Kopman (left), Central Image Agency (right)

CONTROL POWER

The most powerful Acura ever built. The all-new 2009 Acura TL with SH-AWD.® Introducing the all-new 2009 SH-AWD Acura TL. The revolutionary Super Handling All-Wheel DriveTM system produces unparalleled control of the V-6 engine’s formidable 305 horsepower, giving you exceptional handling and unwavering conﬁdence in any condition. Using advanced sensors, the system even accelerates the outside rear wheel through tight curves, resulting in exhilarating, razor-sharp cornering. The 2009 SH-AWD Acura TL. Stirring performance plus advanced technology. Visit acura.ca for more information.

Trim: 10.75"

PEOPLE & PLACES Safety: .5"

visit

www.sharpformen.com

for

online

event

coverage

We like a good party as much as the next fellow. Here are a few of the places we’ve been in the last few months, and some of the people we met there.

LG Innovators' Ball

Style Rules at Holt Renfrew

The LG Innovators' Ball took over the Ontario Science Centre for a night of mysterious food and fun. Themed “Femme Fatale: An Evening of Intrigue,” the party raised money to sponsor visits to the Science Centre for children and families who might otherwise not be able to afford the experience.

CFL superstar and Toronto Argonauts CEO Michael “Pinball” Clemons was in top form at Holt Renfrew’s inaugural Style Rules Speaker Series. The multiple record-holding player and coach spoke at length on the importance of living life purposefully and the search for that elusive “sweet spot” in all things. With anecdotes from his football years and lessons learned from his noteworthy charitable work, Clemons drew laughs, much applause, and a few misty eyes from the gathered crowd.

The event was hosted by Canada AM’s Seamus O’Regan, who was assisted by Ben Mulroney and Jessica Brownstein, the honorary co-chairs of the event. Dinner was served by one of Canada’s most intriguing chefs, Susur Lee, after which MTV’s Dan Levy and Jessie Cruickshank hosted the AfterParty, held in the museum’s Science of Spying exhibit.

In the unenviable position of following Clemons’ dynamic speech was Marty Grundy, Managing Director of Ermenegildo Zegna Canada, who spoke about the importance of being well-dressed.

Innovators' Ball: 1) Mark Mulroney and fiancée 2) The Rat Pack North 3) Kim Newport-Mimran and Joe Mimran 4) Dan Levy and friends 5) Jessica Brownstein and Ben Mulroney 6) Seamus O'Regan 7) Mark Cohon 8) Tie Domi 9) Amoryn Engel Holt Renfrew: 1) Michael Pinball Clemons 2) Stylist Roz Griffith Hall and Derick Chetty, Toronto Star 3) Gary Scholl and Julianne Smedley 4) Guests mix at Holt Renfrew's Speaker Series event 5) Marty Grundy, Managing Director, Zegna Lanita Layton, Vice

Safety: .5"

18 Sharp June 2009 sharpformen.com

photos: Paul koziorowski (left), Biserka Livaja (right)

WANT TWO THINGS IN ONE THING?

INTRODUCING LIVE WIRE. Body wash wash. Moisturizer Moisturizer. Striped together together. It’s two products in one awesome product. BODY WASH MOISTURIZER

women • music • film • travel • food • drink • tech • grooming • watches • sex • style • home • health • books

My investments didn't get hit in the market apocalypse because I was in cash, so I've decided to drop $450,000 on a watch instead of gambling it away. What should I buy? The tourbillon is not only the trickiest and most expensive of all watch movements to make, but increasingly the oddest-looking, with specialists competing to create the most eccentric versions. Concord tops the weirdness chart this year with the C1 Quantum Gravity, resembling something between the Brooklyn Bridge and the space station on . The Quantum, produced in partnership with Swiss tourbillon impresario BNB, is an evolution of the C1 Gravity launched last year, in which the tourbillon cage is extended outside the case and inclined in the vertical position. On the Quantum, three elements protrude from the case—the tourbillon cage on one side, and a separate small seconds indicator and winding crown on the other. A vertical cylinder of glow-in-the-dark green gel rises and drops between the dial plate and the crystal to indicate power reserve. A bridge-like system of carbon fibre cables holds the tourbillon axle in place. The case is titanium. Priced at between $400,000 and $450,000 for each of 10. Carol Besler

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LOOK BETTER FEEL BETTER KNOW MORE

Emmanuelle Vaugier When she’s not solving murders on CSI:NY as sexy-smart Detective Jennifer Angell, or driving Charlie Sheen crazy as Mia on Two and a Half Men, Emmanuelle Vaugier can be found, more likely than not, working on something else. The Vancouver-born actress admits that she’s been busy with one project or another, without a break, for well over a year now. Among her recent films is Blonde and Blonder, starring Vaugier alongside Denise Richards and Pamela Anderson, a sort of slapstick hot-chicks-as-spies kind of thing. It works if you don’t think too hard about it, which, we imagine, is kind of the point. There’s also the upcoming Dolan’s Cadillac, a thriller adapted from a Stephen King story, with Christian Slater and Wes Bentley. Among the things you may not know about Emmanuelle Vaugier: she has a pair of toy poodles whom she buys sweaters for and flies from one film set to the next. How much is too much when it comes to poodles? “I cook for my dogs,” she admits. “So, some people would definitely say that that’s taking it too far. I usually cook ground beef or ground chicken or turkey with squash and a variety of different vegetables, depending on what’s available. It looks darn good.” For the record, yes, she has tried it, and, yes, it is delicious.

For more pictures of Emmanuelle Vaugier, and our extended interview, visit Sharpformen.com.

22 Sharp June 2009 sharpformen.com

Photo: Beiron Andersson

LOOK BETTER FEEL BETTER KNOW MORE

The Hamptons Whether fleeing the oppressive summer heat or the wrath of shareholders, the Hamptons is where New York’s elite go to get away. Just two-and-a-half hours from Manhattan, this collection of hamlets on the eastern end of Long Island is where beach house meets penthouse. PETER SALTSMAN

Saturday 9:00am Rent a car Because it’s summer, and because you’re on vacation, you’d be well-suited to rent a convertible on your way in. And, no, not a Sebring. Pick up a BMW 650Ci or a Porsche Boxster from Action Car Rental at LaGuardia and cruise the Long Island Expressway, stopping to look at the beachfront mansions as you go. After all, you’re not a New Yorker—there’s no earthly reason you can’t drive your own car. Action Car Rental, LaGuardia Airport (718) 505-6969 www.nycexoticcarrentals.com

11:30am Check-In: The Baker House 1650 The Baker House 1650 in East Hampton is the architectural embodiment of the Hamptons, a perfect combination of Old World charm and New World luxury. Also, it’s Condé Nast Johansens’ 2009 “Most Excellent Inn of the Americas.”

1:30pm Hit the Town: East Hampton Southampton boasts more designer shops, but East Hampton’s Main Street has more than enough charm to compensate. Browse for beach reading at BookHampton (41 Main St.) or pick up a pair of seersucker trousers at the Polo Country Store (31-33 Main St.).

8:00pm Dinner: Bobby Van’s, Bridgehampton Some people (we’re talking to you, Billy Joel) swear by The Palm for steak in the Hamptons, but the better choice is Bobby Van’s. A rare case, this steakhouse began in Bridgehampton and later opened another location in Manhattan because, well, it’s just that good. 2393 Montauk Hwy., Bridgehampton (631) 537-0590 www.bobbyvans.com

181 Main St., East Hampton

11:00pm Music

(631) 324-4081 www.bakerhouse1650.com

The Stephen Talkhouse is a venue for great local bands, which, if you’re lucky, sometimes jam with vacationing New York musicians like Paul Simon.

12:00pm Lunch: The Lobster Roll Nicknamed “Lunch” by the locals because of its distinctive rooftop sign, you can start your Hamptons experience sitting by the ocean eating their famous (and eponymous) lobster roll, a hot dog bun stuffed with lobster salad. It’s better than it sounds, because the lobster is fresh, but more so because eating a sandwich by the sea is one of life’s simplest pleasures. 1980 Montauk Hwy., Amagansett (631) 267-3740 www.lobsterroll.com

161 Main St., Amagansett (631) 267-3117 www.stephentalkhouse.com

Sunday 10:30am Buy more food: Loaves and Fishes, Sagaponack After breakfast at the hotel, head to Loaves and Fishes, a gourmet takeaway and cookware shop. Proceed as follows: 1) Buy picnic, 2) Take picnic to beach (see 11am), 3) Eat picnic, 4) Relax. 50 Sagg Main St., Sagaponack (631) 537-0555 www.landfcookshop.com

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11:00am The Beach You can check out Mecox Beach while you’re in Bridgehampton, or head back to East Hampton to swim at the infamous Main Beach. Either way, there will be society girls cavorting with investment bankers in the surf. Make some new friends.

2:30pm Art: The Drawing Room The Hamptons has a thriving local art scene, and The Drawing Room is one of the hippest galleries in South Fork. 16R Newton Ln., East Hampton (631) 324-5016 www.drawingroom-gallery.com

5:00pm Drinks: East Hampton Point Overlooking the marina at Three Mile Harbor, East Hampton Point is a local favourite for pre-dinner drinks. Sit out on the deck and, if the mood strikes, stay and watch the sunset over the Long Island shoreline. 295 Three Mile Harbor Rd., East Hampton (631) 329-2800 www.easthamptonpoint.com

9:00pm Dinner: Nick and Toni’s With three dining rooms encircling a giant wood-burning oven, this East Hampton eatery serves Mediterranean-inspired dishes that feature local fish and produce. This is the place to go for a quintessentially memorable Hamptons meal (and not just because you’ll be seated next to Lindsay Lohan). 136 N. Main St., East Hampton (631) 324-3550 www.nickandtonis.com

Want to stay longer? Visit Sharpformen.com for more things to do in the Hamptons.

film

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Old-time gangsters, dead Nazis and a hijacked subway train… it must be

SHARP’S SUMMER BLOCKBUSTER PREVIEW What? It’s not like you were going to spend your summer nights at the local art house taking in sepia-tinted tales of unrequited love in colonial Rangoon. Get your ass to the movies. That’s where things will be getting blown up in all kinds of mind-bogglingly cool ways, all summer long. You’re a man. You love that.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (Directed by Tony Scott, with Denzel Washington and John Travolta) The gist: Based on the celebrated 1974 thriller of the same name, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 follows a gang of hijackers, led by a ruthless, neck-tattooed thug named Ryder (Travolta) as they take a Manhattan subway train hostage in hopes of extorting millions of dollars. An eccentric public transit officer named Walter Garbe (Washington) is tasked with the duty of taking Ryder down.

Public

Enemies (Directed by Michael Mann, with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale)

Inglorious Basterds (Directed

The gist: Public Enemies centres on the manhunt for America’s most infamous bank robber, John Dillinger (Depp), and his brutal band of criminal accomplices (including the likes of “Pretty Boy” Floyd and “Baby Face” Nelson). Bale stars as steadfast FBI agent Melvin Purvis, who’s chosen by J. Edgar Hoover to bag Dillinger.

The gist: Tarantino’s ninth œuvre revolves around “The Basterds,” an oddball posse of Jewish-American soldiers who, following the orders of their vengeful 1st Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Pitt), decide to give the Nazis a taste of their own medicine in World War II France. Raine’s idea is—in classic Tarantino style—to hunt down and kill as many of Hitler’s finest as they can in the most gruesome ways imaginable.

by Quentin Tarantino, with Brad Pitt, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson)

Why it’s worth it: Director Tony Scott has one of the cleanest action movie resumes in all of Hollywood (Crimson Tide, Man on Fire, Déjà vu). Conveniently, the ever-bankable Denzel Washington also starred in all of those. We like those odds. And Denzel’s a cool guy (see page 38).

Why it’s worth it: Everything Michael Mann puts out is worth it. With the notable exception of Miami Vice, that is. But nobody’s perfect. Seen through Michael Mann’s high-tech, high-definition cinematography, the Great Depression will never have looked more depressing, plus Depp and Bale together onscreen is just too good to pass up.

When: June 12

When: July 1

When: August 21

For All Mankind: Special Edition (DVD) Here we have the re-mastered version of the 1989 original documentary about the first lunar landing in ’69. It follows the epic story of Apollo 11 and its crew, one of whom provides some of the most compelling commentary you’ll ever hear on a DVD. That man is astronaut Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon. Other special features include a collection of NASA sound bites and liftoff footage, as well as a gallery of moon paintings by astronaut Alan L. Bean. Probably the best doc ever made about the American space program.

Gran Torino (Blu-ray) In this Oscar-nominated drama, Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a cranky Korean War veteran who struggles to get used to the ever-changing world around him, as well as his new South Asian immigrant neighbours. One of them is a Hmong teenager named Thao who makes the foolish decision to steal Kowalski’s most prized possession: a 1972 Ford Gran Torino. Instead of goading the kid into making his day, Walt befriends him and the two learn more about each other than either could have ever imagined.

Eastbound & Down: The Complete First Season (DVD) Kenny Powers (Danny McBride from Tropic Thunder) is a washed-up former Major League Baseball star who's left with no choice but to return to his hometown to teach gym at his old middle school. But Kenny’s not finished yet. As he plans to make his comeback to the big leagues, Kenny moves in with his brother’s family and discovers a new talent—the uncanny ability to piss off everyone he meets. Gut-busting comedy from one of our favourite funnymenturned-executive producer, Will Ferrell.

26 Sharp June 2009 sharpformen.com

Why it’s worth it: It makes sense that Tarantino’s dialogue-happy style should meld well with an old-fashioned, brutally violent Word War II epic. Just imagine all the perfectly timed lines preceding all the perfectly filmed dismemberments. We smell an instant classic brewing here.

boys will be boys. Lifford Wine Agency, in partnership with Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation and Prostate Cancer Canada, is pleased to host the third annual Boys’ Night Out event. Proceeds will benefit prostate cancer research at PMH. It’s a celebration of guy’s stuff cleverly disguised as a sophisticated wine tasting. Hot cars, boats, golf, fine wine, steaks, live entertainment, oysters, motorcycles, music, cigars, celebs, bbq, auctions, and much, much more – this is the stuff of Boys’ Night Out!

Fermenting Cellar, Distillery District Thursday, July 9th, 7 pm to 10 pm Tickets are $100 To order or for more details, visit www.liffordboysnightout.com call 416 440 4101 or email wineevents@liffordwine.com.

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economy

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Banks Gone Wild In movieland it's not unusual for banks to be portrayed as profiting from weapons sales between bloodthirsty customers—a missile system here, an anti-missile system there, maybe an assassination or two—but not a sub-prime loan in sight. The truth is that their real-world behaviour is much, much worse. MICHAEL VAUGHAN

Yes, we’ve come to expect the worst from our bankers. Unfortunately, outside the cinema dreamworld, bankers are even worse than any criminals Hollywood can dream up. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, they’ve trashed the world economy, incinerated the retirement savings of hundreds of millions of people and then stuck their greasy paws into your pocket for billions—no, wait—trillions of taxpayer dollars to cover up their thievery. The banking system—particularly the American banking system—is rotten to the core in ways even a trashy Hollywood screenwriter can’t imagine. Do bankers apologize? Do bankers serve time in jail? Maybe in films. In reality, Merrill Lynch employees ran off with $3.6 billion in bonuses as the firm went down the toilet. The Bank of America, which is still addicted to bonuses, has so far received $45 billion in government bailout money— the first $25 billion of which apparently was granted on the basis of a Sunday evening phone call. Northern Trust of Chicago landed $1.5 billion in government money, canned 450 workers and then immediately flew executives and clients to California for a few days of golf at the Riviera Country Club. Now the US banks’ game is to borrow money from the Fed at an effective interest rate of zero and lend it to tapped-out credit card holders at up to 30 percent. Stephen Harper has been singing the praises of the Canadian Big Banks while making available up to $125 billion in taxpayers’ money to purchase “secure” bank mortgages. It’s certainly a milder kind of bailout than the US situation, and it’s helped the Big Banks make money in this recession. Shareholders haven’t done so well: if you owned Royal Bank stock before it tanked, you lost half your investment. Since the recent improvement, you’re only down about a third. A positive side effect of the stock market carnage has been the resulting shareholder

revolt at the banks’ annual meetings over CEO salaries. As they watch their net worth collapse, shareholders have started to question if it is really necessary to pay the hired help a cool $10 million a year. In a most un-Canadian way, shareholders have forced pay cuts on CEOs who have been used to paying themselves whatever they wanted with the approval of pussy-cat boards composed mainly of their friends. In the face of the inevitable, the cagey bankers quickly announced their pay cuts as voluntary. Gordon Nixon, Royal Bank’s chief executive officer suddenly announced he was voluntarily turning down nearly $5 million in 2008 compensation. He made $10.9 million in fiscal 2007. On the heels of that, Bank of Montreal’s CEO, William Downe, also “volunteered” to give up $4.1 million in 2008. Richard Waugh, Scotiabank’s CEO, got in on the act and dropped his pay for 2008 to $7.5 million, down from $10.1 million the year before. Ed Clark, Toronto-Dominion Bank CEO, appeased the angry shareholders differently; he announced he would donate $3 million

in bonus payments to charity—that would take him down to $8 million for the year after pocketing $13.5 million in 2007, But now the genie’s out of the bottle. Long-suffering shareholders have realized it’s not necessary, or even advisable, to pay a million a month to guys who are running a conservative, highly regulated (and now government-supported) financial institution. Warren Buffet has said, if a business is properly structured and conservatively run, he could hire “a ham sandwich” to be CEO. I’m happy that our Canadian bankers haven’t turned out to be nearly as crooked as their American and British counterparts, and didn’t load up their balance sheets with toxic assets to gamble shareholders’ capital in hopes of even greater bonuses. We must give credit to restrictive Canadian banking regulations and the Chrétien government’s rejection of proposed bank mega-mergers. The Canadian banking system has been spared the meltdown seen elsewhere through the fastidious efforts of generations of federal civil servants—and nothing could make a worse movie than that.

The International For Hollywood’s take on the lengths that bankers will go to rip us all off, check this out. The International stars Clive Owen as a disgruntled Interpol agent who teams up with a tenacious (and hot) New York City assistant DA played by Naomi Watts. Their aim is to take down an international bank, which makes a killing (literally) by supplementing its usual investments with profits from arms trafficking and contracts with nasty third-world dictators. Doesn’t sound quite so far-fetched any more, does it?

28 Sharp June 2009 sharpformen.com

CLIVE OWEN

N AO M I WAT T S

international THE

– Kelly Jane Torrance, The Washington Times

Own It Now On BLU-RAY , DVD and PSP tm

For Violence, Coarse Language

food

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Got Game? The sophisticated man’s guide to cooking game meats. SHORT LOIN SIRLOIN

CHUCK

Bison (B. bison bison) Bonus tip: Choice cuts: Rib-eye, short ribs, cheeks Dry-age your Prep: 1. Rub “For barbeque season, it would be the rib-eye. steaks at home

RIB

FLANK BRISKET SHANK HIP

SHORT FLANK

HAM

SHOULDER

RIBS / BACON

SHOULDER NECK

SHANK

the marinade. I would use apple cider, not the alcohol but just fresh apple cider, then I always use some pilsner. Fennel seeds, coriander seeds, thyme, rosemary, bay, little drop of olive oil, and marinate the shoulder in there for at least 24 hours.” 2. Braise “Sear it, then add a little bit of carrots, then celery, and then some good pork stock. Fresh apple cider. Fresh pilsner. Covered. Long and low, so it’s sort of like a pot roast. And three-quarters of the way through you take the cover off so the exposed part starts to caramelize.” 3. Pull “Yank it out, let it cool to handling temperature, and then you can literally pull it off the bone in big chunks.”

outside round)

Prep: 1. Marinate “Start with a day or two in a non-acidic marinade, just olive oil,

FLANK

HIND

According to Mr. Walsh, dryaging steaks at home is as easy as leaving them uncovered in the fridge for two or three days, on a plate or rack, and flipping them once a day. This will allow the steak to lose some internal moisture, and will intensify its flavour. “That’s where you really build up the character of the meat,” he says, “what the animal’s been eating.” It may develop a bit of a crust, he says, but have no fear: that’s where the flavour lives.

Caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus) Choice cuts: The hind (faux filet, fricandeaux, inside round,

SADDLE LOIN

We always do it with a maple-black pepper rub first; it’s a combination of maple, salt, aromatic herbs and spices, and dried mushrooms, rubbed in vigorously a good half-hour prior to cooking.” 2. Temper “The key element here is grilling something that has tempered—sat at least half an hour at room temperature. Really important.” 3. Fire “I don’t care what everybody says, if you’re going to barbecue, the best thing is hardwood.”

Wild Boar (Sus scrofa scrofa) Choice cuts: Bone-in shoulder Prep: 1. Marinate “This is where you can use some acid in

SHOULDER BUTT LOIN

RUMP

Wild meats are not only leaner than their farm-raised counterparts, they are far more flavourful, and just as versatile. We enlisted the help of Anthony Walsh, preeminent chef at Toronto’s Canoe, to help us navigate the finer points of Canadian wild-meat cuisine.

orange peel, lemon peel—just the peel, no juice—lightly crushed juniper berries, white peppercorns, thyme, bay, rosemary, salt and pepper.” 2. Sear “You just quickly sear it on all sides after it’s been seasoned, lay it on top of some roasted vegetables and finish it in the oven.” 3. Cook (gently) “Caribou is something you do not want to take past medium, because the sexiness in it is the flavour of the moisture, which is the blood in the meat itself.” For more great cooking tips and recipes visit ThePerfectSteak.com.

RIBS

THE GreatGRILL Steaks. PERFECT Delivered.

STEAK Order Today! www.ThePerfectSteak.com For the perfect medium rare one-inch thick With age comes perfection. New York Strip, follow these simple At The Perfect Steak Company™, selecting, instructions. aging and grilling the finest beef is our After 2 minutes flip the steak as shown and grill for another 2 minutes

na hot k for

Rotate the steak 45° and flip again as shown. Grill for another 2 minutes

HEAT SETTING 3/4”

Rare

MED/HIGH

Medium/Rare

MED/HIGH

Medium Well

MED/HIGH MED/HIGH

Finally, flip the steak for the last

passion. We begin the process of creating The Perfect Steak by hand selecting cuts from the finest AAA beef available.

time and grill a Preheat grill on MED/HIGH. We age the beef upBrush to 35 days atgrids a final 2 minutes consistent temperature and humidity to improve the taste tenderness. Our with olive oil and proceed asanddirected.

11/2 13/4

MEDIUM

2 21/4 21/2

MEDIUM

TIME PER SIDE B C

TOTAL TIME D

1 1/2

6 minutes

1 3/4 2

7 minutes 8 minutes

2 1/4

9 minutes

2 1/2 3

10 minutes 12 minutes

master butchers hand trim each cut to our exact specifications to enhance its exceptional flavour. Finally, each steak is individually vacuum sealed for the ultimate in convenience and

Your order is then packaged and 30 Sharp June 2009 freshness. sharpformen.com delivered right to your door.

Place steak on a 45° angle on hot grids and cook for two minutes.

After two minutes, flip the steak as shown and grill for another two minutes.

Rotate the steak 45° and flip again as shown. Grill for another two minutes.

Finally, flip the steak for the last time and grill a final two minutes.

“Exploring a social phenomenon known as...the barbecue.” Rob Liking, PhD.

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The all new Imperial™ XL features two totally independent cooking ovens with precise heat control, innovative Dual Tube™ technology, tons of storage space, plus the capacity to prepare an entire meal for two or twenty-two. Broil King® makes this grill the ultimate in flexibility and versatility....and I like that.” Log on to broilkingbbq.com today to learn more about our fantastic line of quality barbecues and watch Rob Liking’s adventures online.

style

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The Anatomy of a Perfect Summer Wardrobe Summer in Canada is a truly marvelous time of year, when we shed our bulky coats and parkas and let our pasty skin taste the sun. It’s a time for barbeques, drinking on patios and letting the stress of the long winter months melt away. The perfect summer wardrobe reflects this change in mood, and allows you to stay cool, comfortable and, of course, stylish.

For some advice on summer essentials, the Sharp style team sought the expertise of Joseph Abboud, the design talent behind the slick new men’s line Black Brown 1826, available at The Bay. Here are six warm weather staples to keep you looking sharp through the summer months. ROSLYN COSTANZO The Panama Hat: A longtime favourite of Hollywood honchos, Central American sugar barons and other sorts of tropical kingpins, no piece of headwear is as classically “summer” as the Panama hat. Except maybe those baseball caps that hold beer cans. But definitely get one of these instead. Biltmore Excello, $110. Aviators: Channel your inner Maverick with a pair of aviator sunglasses. This classic style from DSquared2 comes in a variety of shapes to suit all faces. To protect your eyes, remember to invest in a pair of sunglasses that are UV coated like these. $290, available at Holt Renfrew. The summer scarf: Add instant panache to an otherwise ordinary ensemble with a colourful lightweight scarf like this one from Etro. Wear it draped loosely around your neck atop a jacket or blazer for a look that is casual, refined and very summer. $295, available at Holt Renfrew. The classic polo: Another garment that scores big points in terms of versatility is the short-sleeved polo shirt. Good for a round of golf, some patio cocktails or a casual brunch, you can’t really go wrong with this collared classic. Grab a few in bright colours, or nautical stripes, to kick your wardrobe up a notch this summer. Polo $75, Nautica*.

The unstructured jacket: The beauty of the unstructured jacket; that is, one that’s not lined with stiff canvas, is in its versatility. A soft jacket in a neutral colour (like the seersucker version shown here) pairs just as well with denim as it does with dressy trousers. Invest in this staple and guarantee that your outfits, no matter how haphazard the pairing, will always look well put-together. $225, Black Brown 1826, available at The Bay.

Linen pants: Nothing says summer like a pair of comfortable and charmingly worked-in linen pants. Long valued for its cooling capabilities, the natural fibre is perfect for Canada’s humid summer months. $165, Relaxz, available at Gotstyle. Boat shoes: With the exception of those strappy

*For a list of Nautica retailers, visit Sharpformen.com.

32 Sharp June 2009 sharpformen.com

Jesus sandals (and, no, please don’t), summer footwear doesn’t get more classic than this. These boat shoes from Paul Smith have a flash of colour down the side but are subdued enough to pair with everything from jeans to drawstring linen pants. $355, available at Davids.

photo: paul koziorowski, styling: serge kerbel

health

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What’s the deal with Antioxidants? Since Denham Harmon, M.D., Ph.D first proposed the Free Radical Theory of aging in 1956, there have been numerous research studies to try and help us understand the influence of antioxidants on the prevention of many diseases, including cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and many others. As research findings from various studies have trickled down to the media, many consumers have embraced the idea that taking antioxidant supplements, like vitamin C and vitamin E, can help slow the aging process and reduce their risk of developing numerous degenerative diseases. James Meschino, D.C., M.S., N.D.

What Are Free Radicals and How Do They Harm Us? A free radical is an unstable molecule that is missing an electron. Its sole mission is to strip an electron away from a neighbouring molecule, which, in turn, changes that molecule into a free radical. This newly formed free radical must now steal an electron from its nearest molecular neighbour, and so on and on. It is this aggressive chain reaction that causes extensive body tissue damage, accelerates aging, and contributes to heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s, dementia, cataracts, macular degeneration of the eye, weakening of the immune system and cancerous DNA mutations. Where do free radicals come from? Cigarette smoke, including second-hand smoke, is loaded with free radicals. Not only can it attack the DNA of lung cells and create lung cancer, cigarette smoking is associated with approximately 30% of all cancer cases. Cancer expert Dr. Bruce Ames also reveals that, during normal metabolism, oxygen can be transformed into free radicals. He estimates that each cell in the body endures 10,000 free radical hits per day from this phenomenon alone. Other known free radical sources are alcohol, heterocyclic amines— from charred barbeque or blackened meats and fish, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH)—in smoked meats and fish, pesticides, nitrosamines—in foods containing nitrate and nitrite salts, UVB and UVA rays, X-rays, air pollution and occupational free radicals—carbon tetrachloride, asbestos, vinyl chloride and heavy metals—mercury, cadmium and lead. So, there is no escaping some free radical damage during your lifetime, but the trick is to minimize your exposure to free radicals as much as possible.

such as vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin A, beta-carotene and other carotenoids (e.g., lycopene, lutein zeaxanthin), flavonoids, bioflavonoids, isoflavones and many other plant-based phytonutrients that provide antioxidant protection. As Bruce Ames points out, individuals who consume at least five daily servings of any combination of fruits and vegetables have cancer rates that are 50% lower than those who consume less than this amount. Evidence also strongly supports that various antioxidant supplements can inhibit cancer, as well decrease the incidence of many other degenerative conditions. How to Protect Yourself from Free Radical Damage Obviously you should reduce your exposure to the avoidable sources of free radicals listed above. Oxygen, however, is a double-edged sword. Even though we need it for energy, about 2-5% of oxygen in your cells is converted into free radicals, which can do extensive damage to your body over your lifetime. The same way that oxygen in the air causes the flesh of an apple to turn brown and rot (visible evidence of free radical damage), oxygen in our cells also causes us to decay. Notice how squeezing lemon juice on the flesh of the apple slows down the rotting effect? This is because the vitamin C in lemon juice can quench free radicals (including oxygen free radicals), decreasing their damaging effects. In addition to the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables every day, take an antioxidant-enriched, high potency multi-vitamin and mineral supplement that contains the following antioxidant dosages:

Vitamin C – 1,000 mg Vitamin E Succinate – 400 IU Selenium – 100–200 mcg Vitamin A – 2,500 IU Beta-carotene – 10,000–20,000 IU Lutein – 6 mg Lycopene – 6 mg Bioflavonoids – 50 mg

Higher doses may be required for nutritional management of certain health conditions. To gain a better understanding of what supplement ingredients and dosages are most suitable in your case, take the free online Natural Health Test at www.naturalhealthtest.com.

What Do Antioxidants Do? Antioxidants are the only molecules that can neutralize free radicals in the body. Although the body makes several antioxidant enzymes, we require additional antioxidant protection from dietary antioxidants Eat Your Berries Berries (blueberries, blackberries acai berries, etc.), as well as bright yellow and orange fruits and vegetables are particularly rich sources of various antioxidants. Green tea contains catechin antioxidants, which have also been linked to a reduction in various types of cancer—making green tea a much healthier alternative to coffee. Black tea also contains antioxidants, but with much lower concentrations than green tea. Supplementing your five fruit and vegetable servings with 2-3 cups of green tea per day, in addition to the high potency multiple vitamin, should keep the free radicals at bay.

sharpformen.com Sharp June 2009 33

drink

Beer Chic Forget what you think you know about beer. Of the wealth of varieties that exist, there are really only two types to consider: Good beer, the kind that demands the pleasure of only the most practiced of palates because it’s simply too excellent to settle for the rest, and the rest.

Concerning Fine Beer “Beer has a much wider range of flavour than wine does,” says Garrett Oliver, brewmaster of the multi award-winning Brooklyn Brewery in Brooklyn, New York, "but you wouldn't know it if you stuck with the plain stuff." Oliver is one of the many internationally acclaimed craft brewers who understand that beer is evolving. No longer the blue-collar swill of days past, craft brewing has become an art form in itself. “We only use 100% fresh barley, wheat and other natural ingredients, which give the beers fuller, richer flavours,” says Oliver. Low-end massmarket brands use high proportions of what Garrett and his industry peers call “adjuncts”— corn and rice being the most common. “These are nothing but fillers, cheap sources of starch that leave beer with less flavour, aroma and colour.” Even world-class chefs are hopping (so to speak) on the fine beer bandwagon. “We make beer exclusively for chef Thomas Keller at The French Laundry,” he says of the renowned Michelin-starred restaurant in Napa, California. “So,” says Oliver, “if you’d pay a few bucks more for Barolo instead of cheap wine, then why not pay pennies more for real beer?” If you think about it, the guy’s got a point.

Fresh Is Always Best If you want to try the freshest pint of your life, go to your nearest brewpub. Why? Because

Alexander Keith’s Premium White (White Ale, Canada) This is strikingly similar to Hoegaarden, if but a smidgen drier and a dash spicier. Brewed in traditional “witbier” fashion (which involves fusing either coriander or orange peel with raw wheat). Keith’s take on the original Belgian recipe is perfect when paired with some summer barbeque fare, like beer can chicken.

brewpub brewers have total control over their product, from the second the ingredients arrive to the second the beer touches your lips. That, and the beer at these places is always kept frigid and free of oxygen—a major beer spoiler—resulting in the best damn tasting brew you’ll ever sip. This great country is teeming with these, though we hear B.C. has the best. Next time you’re there, pop into Spinnaker’s Gastro Brewpub in Victoria for an authentically Belgian fruit beer, or Hugo’s Brewhouse, for a signature Ginseng Cream Ale.

The Scrupulous Art of Beer Tasting Your gustatory appreciation of a finely crafted brew should begin with the pour, which should slide gently down the side of your glass. Too fast, and you’ll get too much head, a good thing in some settings, but not here. Next, take a moment to note its appearance under a soft light source. Finer lagers, for instance, should take on a golden hue, while darker ales and stouts can range from deep brown to crimson. Third, give it a whiff. “Malty,” “hoppy,” “floral” or “chocolaty” are all fine. “Skunky” is not (the beer is probably stale). Fourth, take a sip. Think about how sweet or bitter it is, and how it feels on your palate. Now, finish it. Notice the lingering flavours that differ from those during your sip? If not, try again. They’re bound to be there, and we’ve got all day.

Grolsch (Lager, Netherlands) When it comes to lager, no one touches the Dutch. Grolsch is bolder and more bitter than its neighbour, Heineken, and with its notes of fresh citrus and piney hops, it’s much tastier if you ask us. Most novices remain enamoured of their famous swingtop bottle, but everyone knows it should be quaffed in a tall, frosty pint.

34 Sharp June 2009 sharpformen.com

Innis and Gunn OakAged Beer (Strong Ale, Scotland) Seven years ago, a Scottish brewer named Dougal Sharp accidentally discovered that aging beer in bourbon casks yields delectable results. Sharp and his crew have since won seven trophies for their delicious accident (that tastes smoky, just like a fine whisky).

Pilsner Urquell (Pilsner, Czech Republic) The name Pilsner Urquell literally means “pilsner from the original source.” Since 1842, countless Pilsner brewers have tried to perfect Josef Groll’s original blend of sweet malts and brisk, bitter hops. Try a bottle and you’ll see why no one has ever come close.

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Tequila 101 It was likely on a spring break when you and tequila first met. And we’ll bet it didn’t end well. Such was the tequila experience of many a generation of Canadian men—the shot, the lime to stop you from gagging, the grimace, then…well, it’s anybody’s guess. Like you, however, Mexico’s national liquor has grown up since those hazy days of yore. Nowadays, tequila is as refined and drinkable as anything coming out of the Scottish Highlands. Let’s get you acquainted with la tequila fina. 1. Your tequila’s age. This “anejo,” for instance, has spent at least one year (but no more than three) in an American oak cask, thus imparting it with a beautiful, golden tint and a rich, woody smoothness. “Reposados” are only aged for a maximum of one year, in the same casks, and taste slightly less complex than anejos. “Silvers” or “blancos” are typically un-aged and pack more bite than their elders. “Oros” are essentially tequila blancos mixed with artificial colours and flavours to make them look and taste more like anejos. Don’t be fooled: gold doesn’t always mean good.

Don’t shoot!

1 2

Unlike the tequila you’ll find in your average frozen margarita, these are made for sipping neat (or on the rocks), as you would a single malt scotch or a fine cognac. Milagro Select Barrel Reserve Anejo—Milagro’s finest is made from 100% estate-owned, hand-picked blue agave, harvested from the highlands of Jalisco, the plant’s native land. Each triple-distilled batch has been aged for three years in French oak, giving it a slight tinge of vanilla before settling warmly on the palate. This is as balanced as any tequila gets.

4 5

2. The brand name. Some distilleries will make a bunch of tequilas, but they’re sometimes only as different as their labels. It’s worth trying a few brands to find one you like.

3. “100% de agave” is a good sign. This means the tequila is made from 100% blue agave, rather than 51% agave and 49% sugar, like some cheaper counterparts. Not only does this make it taste better, it also makes it go down much smoother. “Forget those cheap tequilas you slammed in college,” says Daniel Schneeweiss, Milagro Tequila’s co-founder. “Most of them have been mixed with sucrose, fructose and other additives that can weaken the natural flavours. Those are the ones that gave you those memorable hangovers.”

4. This reveals the distillery’s identification code, which usually starts with “NOM,” proving that it’s 100% agave. Four digits will follow, like “1234,” indicating the distillery’s number (assigned by the government). It’ll end with the letters “CRT” (“Tequila Regulatory Council”), your proof that it was made in Mexico, under official government standards.

5. You can tell how many times your tequila’s been distilled by its alcohol percentage. This one’s gone through the process at least twice (which can take up to six hours), as have most with labels that read “40%” or more.

6. This reveals two things: where your tequila’s been made and who made it. In Mexico, tequila, unlike its cousin “mezcal,” can only be made in five regions in the southwestern state of Jalisco, or in neighbouring Guanajuato.

Olmeca Tezon Anejo—An elegant, noticeably richer take on an anejo, Olmeca’s version is laid to slumber for 18-20 months in Wild Turkey bourbon casks. This gives the tequila a pale golden colour, as well as a velvety, butterscotch-like taste, making it sweeter than most anejos. Herradura Reposado— Aged for 11 months (one month short of anejo status) in American oak barrels, this reposado deserves top shelf billing. There’s a mélange of delicious flavours to take in here, like caramel, oak, earth and dried fruit. You may feel a sharp tingle on the tongue, but not so much that you can’t savour the agave. Gran Patron Platinum— While most silver tequila is destined for mixing, this rare bird is delightful served over ice. The initial taste is agave-strong and a tad spicy, with sweet undertones of orange, before it finishes smooth and clear. Probably one of the best silvers you’ll ever buy.

sharpformen.com Sharp June 2009 35

watches

Wrist, pocket and desk candy Roughly 100,000 discerning buyers, collectors and adoring fans of horology descend on the massive Basel watch fair in Switzerland every April, all with basically the same question in mind: “Let’s see whatchya got.” The pressure is on, even during a recession, for brands to introduce the rarest complications, wildest inventions and most elaborate new ways of telling time. Once they have your attention with the couture pieces, the watch companies will then show you the latest and greatest from their

regular, ready-to-wear collections, something that’s generally done in the private viewing rooms, by appointment only. To give you a taste of both the buzz and the backbenchers at the 2009 Basel fair, we present three show pieces that demonstrate the prowess of their creators and two solid, new introductions from regular collections that stand out as particularly wearable and attainable, without being over the top. Carol Besler

Harry Winston, Opus 9 Nine years ago, Harry Winston set out to prove it could be as serious about watchmaking as it is about diamonds, and in the process, kickstarted a new trend in watchmaking. The one-of-a-kind movements in each of the brand’s Opus series were created in collaboration with some of Switzerland’s independent watchmaker savants, most of whom previously toiled in obscurity for top Swiss brand names. With the Opus series, Harry Winston brought some of these freelance watchmakers into the spotlight, presenting them at the Basel fair and, in some cases, launching their careers. The Opus 9 is the ninth in the series, created by watchmaker Jean-Marc Wiederrecht and designer Eric Giroud. The automatic movement drives a chain system that moves diamonds and garnets across a linear scale on the dial. $180,000 for each of 100 pieces.

Jaquet Droz, Machine a Ecrire le Temps Jaquet Droz is probably the most eccentric of the traditional, century-old Swiss watchmakers. Now a high-end line with complicated movements and unique mineral dials, the brand’s original claim to fame in watchmaking history is its mastery of the automaton, a kind of clockworks designed to drive a muppet-like robot that writes the time. The brand pays tribute to its past with a modern variation of the automaton, the Machine a Ecrire le Temps, which strips the concept down to reveal the machinery behind the performance. It is housed in a box of liquid crystal glass which can be switched from opaque—hiding the mechanism—to transparent, revealing the works: 1,200 components, including 84 ball bearings, 50 cams and nine belts, all of which take 20 seconds to write the time. Priced at $341,000 for each of 28 pieces.

36 Sharp June 2009 sharpformen.com

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Ulysse Nardin, Chairman Watchmakers insist the mobile phone will never replace the wristwatch, but at least one luxury brand has decided if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em—and possibly show ’em how it’s done. Even though it’s still in prototype stage, there is already a waiting list for the gold Ulysse Nardin Chairman, the world’s first hybrid smart phone. The phone’s battery is partly powered by the watchmaker’s gold rotor, visible through a window on the back as a watch movement might be seen through a caseback. A functional winding crown can also boost the battery, while faux chronograph pushers adjust the volume. In addition to all the standard smart-phone functions, the Chairman has a fingerprint recognition feature and a screen that shows analog time in the image of a UN watch dial. Solid gold, steel/gold and steel versions start at $12,000 and go up to $50,000 for full gold set with diamonds. Each style will be made in a numbered limited edition of 1,846, commemorating the year Ulysse Nardin was founded. To get on the list, visit www.unchairman.com.

Carl F. Bucherer, Patravi EvoTec DayDate Carl F. Bucherer’s Patravi EvoTec DayDate is more than a great-looking watch, it’s a readable watch. This is good news for anyone tired of squinting to read tiny indicators on a busy watch dial. The Patravi’s distinguishing feature is the large, off-centre date window, a unique function of the brand’s new in-house movement, the CFB A1000. The seconds subdial at 6 o’clock is also oversized, and simulates the shape of the large TV screen dial. $15,500.

TAG Heuer, Monaco 24 The enduringly cool TAG Heuer Monaco collection stands in perpetual commemoration of Steve McQueen’s famous wardrobe choice for his 1970 film Le Mans. The Monaco Chronograph Caliber 12 was inspired by McQueen’s flat-12 (12 cylinder) Porsche 917k, with blue and white instrument panels. The watch features an antireflective, double-sided treated sapphire crystal glass on the front and caseback. $5,200.

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SECOND ACT

DENZEL’S

After three decades of making movies, two Oscars, 29 years of marriage and four kids, Denzel Washington is ready for a change. He’s directing. He’s producing. He’s learning how to sail. Just don’t call it a mid-life crisis.

By Cliff Ford Photos by Cliff Watts

In a company town built on illusion, artificiality and manufactured glitz and glam, Denzel Washington is a Hollywood anomaly. An aberration of sorts in a CGI-dominated, blockbuster-driven place where hype, narcissism and shameless self-promotion are the orders of the day, Washington is not only a talented actordirector, but a well-grounded family man, and an almost shockingly sincere individual. As unusual as these things are among the Hollywood elite, Mt. Vernon’s favourite son wears them like a badge of honour. Simply put, Denzel Washington is not your typical leading man. “With Denzel, what you see is what you get,” Queen Latifah, long-time friend and his The Bone Collector costar, suggests. “He’s the sweetest and most down-toearth man I’ve ever met. Beyond that, he is probably one of the most talented actors I’ve ever worked with, and I’ve worked with some pretty big ones. Even better, he doesn’t mind sharing his wisdom and experience with his fellow actors…Denzel is definitely one of a kind.” After generating huge box office revenues for practically every major studio with films like Crimson Tide, Philadelphia and Training Day, and (in all likelihood) this month’s remake of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, Denzel Washington is about as successful as anyone has ever been in Hollywood. There’s also the $25 million per picture. And the set of Oscars. Those don’t hurt either. “I just got lucky with two good roles, that’s all. A long time ago, I learned that all I can do is what I can do. You put it up there on the screen, work hard for the people, and what happens, happens. That’s what I’m doing it for, that’s why we’re here. That’s why I make movies, for the public, and I try to make the best movie that I can make. You just keep an even keel and continue to try and make good pictures, that’s the thing for me.”

According to Washington, keeping his good fortunes and the industry accolades in perspective has been key in helping him remain grounded over the course of his three decades-plus career. “I’ve been really lucky, this business has been really good to me,” admits the 54-year-old father of four. “I’m able to do the kind of movies that I want to do, I’ve been acknowledged for my work in many ways and it’s a good living, so I can’t complain. But, part of the reason I get up every morning and go to work is so my family can eat. For me, acting is just about making a living, and it’s not my whole life. My children and my family, now that’s the miracle of life. I get up every morning, God willing, for them.” Although his children—John David (24), Katia (21), and twins Malcolm and Olivia (19)—are now mostly grown, it wasn’t all that long ago when Washington would spend weekdays on the set of The Manchurian Candidate or Man on Fire then hop on a plane Friday night to spend the weekend with his kids. “I always figured that just in case the acting thing didn’t pan out, at least I was going to have 10 million frequent flyer miles,” he offers jokingly. “Honestly, it’s always been important to me to get home and spend as much time with them as I could. Luckily, there’s been times when I was afforded the luxury of being able to fly privately, so I’d go, go, go. But even before I could fly privately, I’d find a way to get home. One of the reasons that I chose so many of the films that I’ve done was to be able to stay home more.” “My kids grew up on my favourite saying,” he continues, “‘Do what you have to do, so you can do what you want to do.’ Look, we live in a fast food society. Everybody wants it right now. We teach our kids that everything happens fast. You just rush through your work, put down four lines on a piece of paper, and then you’re a millionaire. What are the other steps? sharpformen.com Sharp June 2009 39

SECOND ACT

DENZEL’S

My children would say, ‘Dad, can I go out?’ And, I would tell them, ‘Do your homework because do what you have to do before you do what you want to do.’ I think you need to teach that lesson early on. It’s too late to tell that to your child when he’s 19.” His oldest offspring, John David, took Dad’s advice to heart and turned an athletic scholarship into a professional football career, signing with the St. Louis Rams in 2006 as a running back. It’s a personal best that still has his father beaming with pride. “I think he’s doing really good,” Denzel replies when asked about his son’s career. “He’s his own man. Hey, he’s 24, going on 25, and he pays his own bills!” Much like his attitude towards his profession, Washington has always tried to be the best parent he can be. “It’s our responsibility, as adults and parents, to create an environment for young people to succeed. Success doesn’t happen in a vacuum. We have to care about young people, mentor them and bring them in. We can’t just simply say to them, ‘It’s up to you to figure it out.’ Kids don’t excel in a vacuum. Someone has to be there to make a sacrifice.” Having hit the big 5-0 four years ago, Washington confesses he has yet to experience a midlife crisis—he thinks. “I don’t know? Maybe I’ve had it already, what does it entail? What happens during that? Have you had one? If so, I’ll tell you if I’ve had one. Aging and all that stuff doesn’t bother me. When you turn one, you’ve already lived a year. So I’m learning to sail. I’m living and enjoying it. I’m embracing it. I’ve got no choice. Even if you get 50 more years, you’re not going to like the last 20 of them.” Physically, Washington says he certainly doesn’t feel his age. Of course, like most of us, he has to work at staying in shape. “Getting fit is a lifestyle,” he proposes. “If anything, turning 50 made me realize that this is not the dress rehearsal. You know? Although I was already sort of in that mindset before then, it really hit home that to enjoy every day, to try to lead and live a good and healthy life, you have to work hard and try to keep things simple.” Pressed for details about his fitness regimen, Washington says staying in good shape isn’t nearly as complicated as most people think. “All you have to do is to make sure not to eat the wrong things and don’t get caught up in all that health food. There’s no such thing as health food. Basically, it’s just as they say, ‘Just a little butter.’ So, just use a little butter, watch what you eat and go to the gym.” While he makes his home in Los Angeles, Washington has visited Toronto several times, and was there at length while shooting his 2002 film John Q. While north of the border, Washington and his family took a day-trip down to Niagara Falls. “Instead of staying in the city when we all had a day off, I decided we should take a trip to the Falls,” Washington recalls. “Anyway, I think by then we had seen everything in the city…which was a lot. It’s a great town.” Once in Niagara Falls, Washington and his family did what anyone else would do: they took a boat ride. “When we got there, everyone was cool. I mean, they're not coming to the Falls to look for me. We stood in line like everyone else. People were talking and stuff. They were saying, ‘What are you doing here?’ I said, ‘We’re going on the boat to go to the Falls.’” As one might expect in a town famous for its wax museums, however, some fans were less genial. “It got a little crazy,” he recalls. “This one guy ran past and jumped and yelled, ‘Take the picture!’ They ambushed us as we were getting out of the elevator. But I know how to walk on the other side of the street. That’s why I wear [baseball] caps all the time [laughs]”. After a lengthy, two-year absence from the silver screen, this month Washington appears alongside John Travolta and James Gandolfini in director Tony Scott’s remake of the 1974 thriller The Taking Of Pelham 40 Sharp June 2009 sharpformen.com

1 2 3—portraying a transit cop trying to outsmart a gang of hijackers who have seized a subway car. Tackling a remake of a classic like Pelham 1 2 3 didn’t concern Washington, since it gave him the chance to team up with filmmaker Tony Scott for a fourth time (Crimson Tide, Man On Fire, Déja Vú). “I really enjoyed making the film,” Washington says of his first movie since 2007’s American Gangster. “It’s easier [with Scott] the fourth time, and I had a lot of fun. I’m older and wiser, and I appreciate what it is he’s doing because I now know how hard it is to do, having directed two films myself (Antwone Fisher and The Great Debaters). Tony knows what he’s doing, and when he calls me up and says, ‘Hey, I’ve got this idea, and this is what I want to do,’ I listen. I really like Tony, and I’d really like to do another movie with him.” Washington will get his wish next year, when he and Tony Scott join forces again in the just-announced Unstoppable. In this film, somewhat familiarly, Washington will play an engineer trying to stop a runaway train filled with toxic chemicals. Out of all the roles in the fortysomething films he’s made, however, he swears not a single character comes anywhere close to the real Denzel Washington. “I used to say that the guy from Training Day was most like me, just to see people’s reactions,” he jokingly admits. “But, there’s no one role. There just isn’t. I just portray those people. I’m not those people. They affect you, they become a part of you, but I can’t say that I’m closest to one of them. I’d like to think that I’m doing something different, so I’m not necessarily trying to bring just me to each of them.” With daughter Katia attending Yale and the twins just shy of their 20th birthday, Washington is now able to spend more time away from home to make as many films as he pleases (wife Pauletta frequently travels with him). With eight films in various stages of production, Denzel is making up for any cinematic lost time by filling his proverbial career plate to the brim. Foremost on the agenda is pursuing his newfound passion for directing. “I’m enjoying what I’m doing,” he says, “I have a new life now behind the camera. And it’s really like I’m starting over.” Like many men mid-career, after attaining success at his chosen profession, Washington was left yearning for a new challenge. “The plateau for me was probably a little over 10 years ago, in terms of how I felt about what I was doing. You know, the work, and all of that. I started looking for other things to do, and it’s just getting out there now.” For inspiration and instruction, Washington is lucky to count some of Hollywood’s most respected directors as friends and colleagues. “I have been very fortunate to work with some great filmmakers,” he admits. “I went back and looked at a lot of their work, and suddenly things clicked. It all made sense. Things I may have learned from Spike [Lee], from Ed Zwick, Jonathan Demme or Ridley Scott. I hadn’t been able to apply all of that [as an actor], but now as a filmmaker, I can apply it all. All of that was in the store, but now I’m getting the chance to use it.” Surprisingly, Washington says directing his second film (The Great Debaters) sparked a renewed sense of passion towards the craft of acting, and, today, he says he loves stepping in front of the cameras as much as did in the early ’80s, when he was a series regular on the medical TV drama St. Elsewhere. “Believe it or not, directing has given me this new energy about the business and my abilities,” he acknowledges. “I really feel this new enthusiasm, because I think I now know how to maneuver my way through the nonsense to make the movies I want. I want to surprise audiences with every role I do. And I want to keep them guessing because that will keep me on my toes.”

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5 1

Father’s Day Gift Guide

It has been said, more than a few times, that every man eventually becomes his father. We uphold this to be mostly true. To greater or lesser degrees, and for better or worse, the men we come from are the men we will eventually be. Wisdom, along with folly, is passed down through the generations, each man making his own stamp on fatherhood in his own way. There’s always room for improvement, of course—no man is perfect—but regardless, the bond between father and son remains one of the most important in nature. As someone far wiser than ourselves once said, “Every successful man is not a successful father, but every successful father is a successful man.”

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photos: Paul Koziorrowski, Styling: serge kerbel

8 7

//The New Dad

He’s young, energetic, and maybe a little naïve to the ways of the world. This dad has answered some big questions about what he wants to do with his life, found someone he loves to spend his days and nights with, and fatherhood was the next logical step. And while his reckless, youthful days are mostly behind him, it doesn’t mean he’s not allowed to still feel cool, dress adventurously and have some fun every now and then.

1. Sambuca Ramazzotti, 750 ml, $21 2. Salvatore Ferragamo crocodile wallet, $650 at Harry Rosen 3. The Fred Perry Shirt, $115 4. Graffiti Kings by Jack Stewart, Abrams, $33 5. YSL La Nuit de l’Homme, 100 ml, $88 at Holt Renfrew

6. 7. 8. 9.

TX Pilot Fly-back Chronograph, $695 Flip Mino HD camera, $250 Revo Headwall sunglasses, $309 Lancôme Men Age Force anti-aging cream, 50 ml, $85 10. Lancôme Men Ultimate Cleansing Gel, 100 ml, $27 1 1. Burberry City Bag, $950 at Harry Rosen sharpformen.com Sharp June 2009 43

1 3

//The Mid-Life Crisis Dad

At a certain age, a man begins to wonder about the choices heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s made in his life. Perhaps he regrets not being more adventurous at times, taking more risks, seeing more of the world when he had the chance. Then he remembers why he made the choices he did: for his family and his kids, the most important things in his life. Now that the kids are a little older, however, and his work a little more lucrative, the time is right to do those things heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s never done. Like buying a watch that costs as much as a new car, or learning the electric guitar. Why not? Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s earned it.

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6 5

11 7

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Krups Dolce Gusto espresso machine, $250 Ermenegildo Zegna Couture tie, $225 Concord C1 Worldtimer, $26,500 DSquared2 sunglasses, $435 at Holt Renfrew Join a band, without the hassles of actually joining a band: The League of Rock, $980 for a 10-week session, LeagueOfRock.com (Epiphone SG courtesy of Long & McQuade) 6. Glenfiddich 15, 750 ml, $63

7. Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-Creator Joe Schuster, by Craig Yoe, Abrams, $33 8. Decléor Men Essentials Skin Energizer fluid, 50 ml, $68 at Harry Rosen 9. Decléor Men Essentials Eye Contour Energizer, 15 ml, $56 at Harry Rosen 10. Burberry gold cuff links, $270 at Harry Rosen 11. Tivoli Audio Music System, $1,000 from Tivoli/Lenbrook Canada 12. Prada belt, $420 at Harry Rosen

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5 3

//The Boomer Dad

Sure he’s got a bit more time on his hands these days, but “retirement” is not in his vocabulary. This dad is all about enjoying the fruits of his labours, both familial and material. Whether he’s fixing up his vintage Porsche, whittling down his handicap, or uploading his old Guess Who albums onto his iPod, this dad remains tech-savvy and engaged with the world. Sure, he may have hit his stride in the ’70s, but his peak has yet to come.

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8 9

6 11

1. 2. 3. 4.

Sanyo R227 Internet Radio, $219 Autoart 1/18 Porsche 917L, $130 TomTom ONE XL 340s portable navigation system, $319 Gillette Fusion Chrome razor by The Art of Shaving, $145 at Holt Renfrew 5. Cabinology: A Handbook to Your Private Hideaway by Dale Mulfinger, Taunton, $32 at Chapters Indigo

6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Longines Master Collection Retrograde watch, $5,600 Nivea for Men Cool Kick Energizing Gel Moisturizer, 50 ml, $10 Grey Goose Vodka, 750 ml, $46 Clarins Men Line-Control Balm, 50 ml, $60 Kiehlâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Facial Fuel SPF 15 sunscreen, 75 ml, $35 Callaway FTiQ driver, $550 Dunning Performance Woven Button Down, $125

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Hometown Hottie What’s not to like about Malin Akerman? Nothing, as it turns out. Absolutely nothing.

By Bob Strauss Photos by Steve Shaw

It’s early morning, so we can be forgiven for thinking we’re still dreaming. Surely this cannot be. Not only is Malin Akerman remarkably, outrageously, near-blindingly hot, she’s funny, too. And not in the way that makes you laugh because you’ll do anything for a woman who’s this gorgeous. In the real way. The way that women tend to be who can’t sail through life on looks alone. Which Malin can, obviously. And get this, she’s nice. In the way people say Canadians are nice, which we all know isn’t strictly true. And yet, there she is, looking radiant, making us laugh, offering to split the tab and share her avocado and cheddar omelet with us. It hardly seems fair, really. It’s the morning after Malin Akerman’s birthday, and rather than having us drive across town to meet her, the actress (27 Dresses, Watchmen, this summer’s The Proposal and Couples Retreat with Vince Vaughn later this year) has insisted on driving herself halfway across LA to meet us for breakfast. She showed up right on time at Le Pain Quotidien on Melrose, a place that reflects her own easy blend of European sophistication, straightforward simplicity and Hollywood cool. At the risk of sounding a little too enthusiastic, at the end of an hour talking to Malin Akerman about her celebrity life and the movies she’s made, it felt almost like getting together with an old friend. We should be so lucky, of course, but don’t tell our old friends we said so. The main point is this: gorgeous stars normally aren’t this, well, normal. “I thank Canada,” laughs the Stockholm-born Akerman, who moved with her parents to Toronto at the age of two and spent her youth there but for a four-year stint in Niagara-on-the-Lake. “Seriously, growing up in Canada and all of my friends that I made there, I wouldn’t exchange that for anything in the world. They’re the

coolest, most polite and yet wickedly funny people—but just so easygoing, and they’ve also got the right values and their heads in the right space.” So, how was it, then, for her and fellow Canuck Ryan Reynolds to play Alaskan ex-lovers in The Proposal—opposite a Sandra Bullock cast as a decidedly non-stereotypical bitch-on-wheels Canadian corporate climber? “We laughed about that on set,” Akerman reports. “How often does that kind of random casting happen? But Sandra did a good job. . . Well, it’s a tough one because she’s a bit of a tough cookie, she’s a boss. But who’s to say Canadian women can’t be strong women, and they’re not always polite.” As for her own, admittedly small role in the movie—she did it as a favour to director Anne Fletcher, who gave Malin a big break with 27 Dresses—Akerman says her Canadian experience was good grounding for playing an American girl-next-door. “Gertrude is a really nice, smalltown girl—I guess living in Niagara-on-the-Lake helped me understand what her life would be like—and she just never wants to leave that small town. That was the difference between her and Ryan’s character, who still share a lot of love.” Though comic, The Proposal obviously doesn’t call for the rude zaniness that put Akerman on the map in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and The Heartbreak Kid. Couples Retreat, in which she and Vaughn play a married pair supporting friends during a getaway they don’t realize includes therapy for them as well, should be nuttier. Akerman says bring it on. “I was improvising with Vince and Jon Favreau, who’ve known sharpformen.com Sharp June 2009 49

Hometown Hottie each other so long they can really go off,” she recalls. “Trying to keep up is, basically, your goal in the scenes. Any time I get to work with people like Vince or Ben Stiller, I’m super nervous. But it’s like when I used to run track and field, our coach would say, ‘Don’t you dare run with someone who’s slower than you, always pick someone faster because then you have to up your performance.’

I feel like it’s that way with comedy.” Actually, her comedic chops are one thing Akerman doesn’t credit Canada for first. She says her aerobics instructor and sometimes model mom taught her how to laugh at life, albeit with an underlying Scandinavian sense of angst. “My mother is not very serious at all and she’s always been very sarcastic, so I definitely had to keep up with her,” Malin reveals. “Also, she was very good at embarrassing me, so I had to figure out how to bring that embarrassment down to, like, a one from a level 10. So there’s been a lot of brain work as far as comedy and sarcasm 50 Sharp June 2009 sharpformen.com

and trying to keep things light.” We’re trying to imagine what this girl could ever have had to be embarrassed about. Drawing a blank. Help us out, could you? “I’ve always been kind of goofy and clumsy,” she says, owning it now. “And I knew I was a pretty girl, but if you ask any of my guy friends that I grew up with, I wasn’t the hot girl at school. I was their buddy.” While we ponder why we weren’t lucky enough to attend such a marvelous learning institution, we can only assume that teenage modeling success (she was a Ford Supermodel Search of Canada winner at 17) gave Akerman the confidence she needed to make her mark on TV (Entourage, The Comeback) and in the movies. But if it did, it was only by convincing her that just posing wasn’t her thing. “In Canada, I did a lot of catalogue work, and it’s very easygoing and friendly,” she says, causing no surprise. “But I went to Milan and that’s a tough place. It’s sort of like going to Hollywood, there’s a lot more competition. To be honest with you, I only got one job the whole summer I was in Milan because I was considered too big—and you can imagine being told you’re too big when your whole life you’ve been told that you were too skinny! I just said, y’know, it’s great to see places like this but it’s obviously not for me.” One good thing about Italy, though: she met her husband, musician Roberto Zincone, there. Level-headed as she is, Akerman says she can’t imagine surviving Hollywood without him. “This business is a huge emotional roller coaster, and he really is my rock,” she says. “I can call him no matter what time it is at night if I’m traveling abroad and he’s so open and nonjudgmental. I can cry on the phone about the stupidest things—because the emotions just get to you sometimes, spending the whole day being depressed or whatever that character requires— so he’s the thing that’s saved me from becoming crazy or having an addiction or anything.” Preferring to keep her drama on the job, Akerman’s close to realizing her stated career goal of alternating “between one comedy and one film that’s anything other than comedy” each time out. There was the eye-popping yet emotionally rich portrayal of Watchmen’s Silk Spectre earlier this year, and she’s just returned from the South African shoot of The Bang Bang Club, a tale of real-life, anti-apartheid photographers. But now it’s time to find a new dress for the Cannes Film Festival. Which she’s flying to the next day—and where she’ll undoubtedly be the only famous actress who didn’t fret for months over exactly what she’d wear on the Croisette. We need a parting remark. What does someone this unaffected tell her legions of adoring male fans? “What do I want to say to my men?” She struggles a bit. “Thank you for being men? Love you?” We’ll take it.

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Two Canadian soldiers left home for Afghanistan. They came home changed men. Here, they tell their stories for the first time.

Interview by Rick Leswick

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photo: Sgt lou penney

For one tour in 2006, during some of the heaviest fighting that Canadian soldiers have experienced in Afghanistan, Captain Trevor Norton and Corporal Mike Fusca sat inches apart in a troop carrier, escorting trucks and scanning the rocky landscape for Taliban. In that eight-wheeled, 21-ton machine called an LAV (light armoured vehicle) in the acronym-ese of the military, Norton was a Captain and Fusca was his turret gunner. Over the next seven months, Norton and Fusca would engage and kill Taliban fighters, lose friends to roadside bombs, and come close to being killed themselves. In April, 2009, just after Canada had suffered the 117th casualty of the mission in Afghanistan, the two soldiers reunited to talk about their experiences, the friends they’ve lost and the state of the mission.

F: My first night out I woke up in the morning to bombs coming in. It was surreal. I guess that’s a good way to describe it. It was intense. That was a really weird time for me. Later that afternoon we went on patrol and, like, it was the first time I was in a gunner’s turret since my course—as a late addition, I didn’t get a whole lot of training like the other guys did. We got into a firefight and it was just chaos. It was definitely not the glorious thing that a lot of guys had come to expect. Like, for me, I really wasn’t sure of what I was doing. In hindsight it was too much too fast. I don’t know if I was in a state of shock, but I know that there was a time when I was overwhelmed by the intensity of it.

On engaging the Taliban N: We were out of patrol base Wilson and we were doing an AOR [area of responsibility] all in preparation for Op Medusa. After dark we did a patrol to see the areas at night and that’s when our first big contact happened, the first big firefight that I was in. We went down what used to be called “ambush alley,” Highway 1, and we came under some serious fire. We were being engaged from both sides of the roadway and guesstimated that there’s got to be about 200 enemy that were firing at us. They Kandahar] and we get even had an anti-aircraft gun. You can see the rocketed. It gets rocketed every night and you Fusca: I was looking flashes going back and for something out of the forth and tracer fire. hear about that, but like, that's the first time we ordinary. My brother, my You can see the explocousins and my whole sions from the RPGs. I got fired on.” family all went right from remember at that point, high school to university. not being scared—not I was looking for someeven fear—but I do thing different, you know, get out there, see different things. You get a distinctly remember the adrenalin dump, uh…the adrenalin rush—you chance to see the world and, you know, do something exciting. hear it called different things. I mean, like, I’ve jumped out of planes, I’ve done all kinds of things, but nothing compares to the intensity of On arriving in Afghanistan that rush. I’ve been in fist fights in bars but nothing compares to the F: It’s hot. The biggest thing is acclimatization. I think the first time adrenalin rush, because, fuck, somebody’s trying to kill us. we were [in Kandahar] we were drinking like 15[bottles of water] a day, It’s just chaos and that’s one of the things they teach you at officer and that’s no exaggeration, just to stay hydrated. Especially when you camp, you know, you just manage chaos. So now I’ve realized this first get outside the wire, you’re wearing all of your gear. Just becoming is really chaos, no one knows who’s shooting at who. I mean, we’re adjusted to that much weight and that much heat is something. looking at muzzle flashes and we’re engaging muzzle flashes. We’re looking for the enemy through NVGs [night vision goggles] but it’s N: When we went to Kabul the change of focus was: holy fuck, it’s pitch black. The gunner’s scanning out of his thermal sight and you’re really high up here, I can’t breathe. I’m walking around the first day seeing the enemy shooting at you and you’re scanning around where getting a tour of the camp and it’s like I can hardly breathe. the muzzle flash came from and you’re trying to shoot at that. You We had been in Kabul for six months and we thought we knew see other guys shooting at things and you’re shooting at things they’re Afghanistan, but Kandahar isn’t like Kabul. You’ve got fighter [jets] shooting at. It’s absolute chaos. screaming by, so there’s a lot of noise, a lot of dust. It’s different. I We had one guy knocked unconscious from an RPG round. We remember our first night we had our first rocket attack. The first night had another guy who was hit in the face from a ricochet and he lost we’re there and we get rocketed. It gets rocketed every night and you an eye, actually. We pushed through there and we went to a safe area hear about that, but like, that’s the first time we got fired on. So that’s to order a medevac for the two guys who were wounded. I was on such the change. In Kabul, we never got rocketed and now here we are a high. I was like, “This was fucking incredible, let's go back and drive first day in Kandahar and everything’s different. Kandahar is a full-on through that again. See if we can get some more of those guys!” conflict. For me, that really brought it home; holy fuck, we’re in it I remember thinking about the rush and then thinking, that is now, yeah. not healthy to be thinking that way. I didn’t want to be thinking that On joining up Norton: I joined the reserves to become a cop in Toronto. I tried to fill up my resume as much as I could, I did phase 2 and 3 of officer training and then I got hooked. I haven’t looked back since. The thing that keeps me in there, the thing that got me hooked, was the physical and mental challenge. There’s no other job that does the same. There’s pretty well nothing else I can think of doing right now. I’m going to stay in “The first night we’re [in the infantry.

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Corporal Mike Fusca Mike Fusca, 24, is a native of Brampton, Ontario. “If I hadn’t joined the army,” he says, “I would probably be in my parent’s basement smoking dope or something.” Calm and intelligent, Fusca wants to leave the regular army to enter the global political studies program at York University. He’ll likely remain in the Canadian Forces Reserve, because, he says, “I like doing cool army stuff.” Fusca is currently stationed with his regiment in Petawawa. He makes the five-hour drive from the base near Ottawa to Toronto almost every weekend to be with friends, family and his girlfriend, Brittany. 54 Sharp June 2009 sharpformen.com

photo: paul koziorowski

way, so I made sure that I went over to help load those casualties on the chopper. His face was totally bandaged, the guy who was going to lose an eye, and there was blood pouring out of him and splattering all over us. That really brought me down to reality. I came through it unscathed but not everyone did.

angry. Everyone has their own different explosions throughout the tour. There is someone trying to kill you, and as much as we said you’re not thinking about death all of the time, you put it at the back of your mind, it’s still a real threat. That puts a lot of pressure on you. You’re sleep-deprived constantly and then you’re eating crappy food and you’re in a very hot environment away from your loved ones and all these things add up. You’re under a lot of pressure.

“He had just come back that day from

F: You sort of don’t wind down. You don’t take the time to wind down from one day to the next because you can’t afford to. If you come in at dinnertime, who knows what’s going to happen at night? You sort of switch into one state of mind, you put your game face on and you just wear your game face for the rest of the time.

leave. I spent some time talking to him, talking about his trip, just about life in general...four hours later he's dead.” F: We were moving from one of our platoon positions across Highway 1 into the patrol base and we were escorting an HLVW [transport truck] that was doing a re-supply mission. The ANP [Afghan National Police] had stopped cars beforehand and there’s a long line of vehicles, and I see this one car pull out of the line and start speeding in the oncoming traffic lane. I’m watching him and he’s not stopping and from that point I was setting my co-ax machine gun and I hear [Norton] fire a couple a shots. I let her rip on the co-ax, putting down right in front of the path of the car. So I’m shooting, and everyone’s shooting at this car that’s coming on us and I hear, you said, “Stop, stop, stop!” So I lay off the trigger and the dust clears and I’m looking through my day sight at this stopped car, a Toyota Corolla, and there’s this kid, he couldn’t have been more than eight or nine years old sitting on the driver’s lap. If it had gone any closer towards us, I would have ended up killing everyone in that vehicle. I was thinking, in hindsight, I had done the right thing because he could have very well been a suicide bomber. In that situation we’d been bombed before by suicide bombers and that guy just happened to stop at the right time. By the time his vehicle came to a complete stop, I was aiming right through the passenger part of that car. We took off back into Firebase Wilson and I got out of the LAV and I was fucking livid. It was one of those things, “Holy shit, how can you be that stupid and drive like that?” [He knows] we’re army guys, he lives in Kandahar, he obviously knows what’s going on. He should know that we’re worried about suicide bombers and why’d he go and try and play chicken? They were just being shitty drivers. N: Yeah, rules of the road over there aren’t respected at the best of times, and this guy just wanted to get a jump on the rest of the traffic. F: It becomes a thing like, we’re not psychopaths, we’re not out to waste people for no reason. It becomes, like, “Why did you put me in that situation? Where do you get off where I would have to live with that?” I’m just here to do my job, protect my buddies and accomplish the mission. We’re not just going out there for the sake of killing people. Why can’t you just stay out of the way and let us do our job? On dealing with stress N: Yeah, my nicknames were three-niner belligerent and three-niner

N: Talking about that stuff really helps relieve the pressure. We sit there and shoot the shit in a casual way, and I think for me that relieves the stress. I guess it’s gallows humour—you can joke about pretty bad situations. On the Afghan people N: I think the people of Afghanistan have had a really rough deal; that country’s been at war for 30 years, it’s impoverished, it has been destroyed, it is completely unstable. Those people have never known a way of life anything like the life we have here. We show them pictures of Canada and of the West from magazines and some of those people say, “This is lies, this does not exist.” Now you’ve got to remember these people live in huts, in mud huts. Like you feel like Jesus or Moses could walk out of one of these buildings, it’s that ancient. If you look at what Afghanistan was before, before October 2001, before the US invaded, and you look at it now it’s a whole different country. Yes, there is violence in the south. If you look at the rest of the country there is little to no Taliban influence. We’d like to see things going faster—rebuilding the infrastructure, rebuilding the government—but has there been an improvement? There definitely has. The vast majority of [Afghans] are wholly uneducated, so they’re not going to build a system that we’re going to recognize and we’re not going to force them into a system that’s based on what we have. On losing friends N: We lost six guys from our company. Guys who we knew really, really well and that hurt us. It’s absolutely terrible. I can’t remember thinking about my own mortality, but what I thought about every time I saw one of our guys killed was their families. F: You know, with me it was the same thing because when Blake was killed [Pte. Blake Williamson, killed in an ambush on Highway 1 in October of 2006], I remember I talked to him before we left KAF [Kandahar Air Field] and he was taking his girlfriend to Europe. I was taking mine to Australia and we were just talking about that together, just comparing notes about what we were going to do. N: That really hit me hard because I had a solid connection with Blake. He was in my platoon in Kabul and he was a very, very personable guy. Everyone knew him and he was very popular, so I had a real connection with the guy. It was a professional relationship, but it was also a friendship, and so when a guy like that passes away, you look

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“The next day we shot a few people at close range. You watch the guy in the distance turn into mist... It’s just a natural fact for us—it’s not a major event.” at it as, “What a loss, what a tragic loss, and now he’s gone.” He had just come back that day from leave. I spent some time talking to him, talking about his trip, just about life in general for about a half an hour and then about four hours later he’s dead. Yeah, it really, really sucks; I don’t know how to describe the sensation that comes over you but it just sucks. I went to a couple of ramp ceremonies in KAF, when I first got there. I mean, those are pretty emotional events. You’ve got the bagpipes going and you watch the coffin march to the aircraft, that really gives you time, while you’re standing at the airfield to appreciate the real tragedy. It sort of brings home the feeling that, “Yeah, these guys are really gone.” It gives it the sense of finality. On calling home F: When they call home, the guys crave hearing about the mundane things. The last thing you want to talk about from Afghanistan, is… Afghanistan. You want to know just average day-to-day stuff because it keeps guys tied down. N: You want to ask them how their day went, what their boss said to them and stuff; it takes you out of the current reality, it allows you to be somewhere else. When you start talking to people in Canada who don’t share this experience, who aren’t in this situation, they tend to get very emotional and that causes you more stress than your actual existence. I know after Operation Medusa where we lost three guys and I spoke to my mother and she asked me, “Did you know these guys?” I said, “Yes.” She asked, “Very well?” I said, “Yes,” and she started bawling and sobbing and she couldn’t talk anymore. You know, you have a stoicism about you and you’re dealing with this in your own way and having your mother cry on the phone, it really rocks your world. It really rocked mine, anyway. The next time she called, I wouldn’t talk to her about these things. On killing N: I ask people, “Are you really sure you want to know about that?” Because it may change your opinion on me. But the reaction I get is generally one like, “Wow, really?” They kind of don’t expect you to have done that thing. I mean, I’ll tell you that the only guy with my own hands, with my weapon, I think I actually killed—and I say, “I think” because you don’t stop and investigate these things—it was in that large ambush that I was talking about, five kilometres long. We were looking through our NVG, which are exceptional, but when you’re driving at night and all kinds of complex terrain and all these sewer type pipes that are open, walls, bushes, it’s very hard to see things in the dark beyond very close range. I saw muzzle flashes and it was like 15 metres off the road and I saw the outline of a person. But its very chaotic… its hard to actually tell. I had a machine gun that I was firing at muzzle flashes. I must have fired about 50 rounds at that muzzle flash and then it stopped. I think I hit the guy. To read the full interview, visit Sharpformen.com.

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The only effect is that I neutralized the threat against us. You think about that at the end of the day and, well, I’m fairly certain I killed somebody. I don’t know for sure but at the end of the day you’re not really killing someone, you’re neutralizing a threat to your team. It didn’t even register as a large event, to tell you the truth. The next day we shot a few people at close range. You watch the guy in the distance turn into mist. You see the explosion and, you know what, well, we got that guy. But, again, we’re in a war here and that is the enemy and we’re neutralizing a threat. You’re not thinking about it as, “I’m going to kill somebody today.” That is a threat to us and tomorrow when we go over that ground, if we don’t shoot him today, he’ll be shooting at us and he may kill one of our guys. Maybe that’s a rationalization, but it happens so quickly. It’s just a natural fact for us—it’s not a major event. F: There are a few guys that I know I’ve killed. Being a LAV gunner and having the high-powered optics makes you more effective as a gunner. I can think of at least six. There are other times when I saw muzzle flashes so I put a few rounds down on it. I’ve known guys who feel guilt, but for me, in the end I knew that I was doing the right thing. We were sitting at [mentions a grid location]and we’d just killed that guy, he was crawling across and it was like, “Oh, man, this is fucked, this shit just got real.” I said something to that effect and [Norton] said, “Yeah, we’re going to be okay.” Then I said, “Yeah, okay, cool.” That affected me so much, because from that point on I knew that I’d be okay. On PTSD F: At the time, I was worrying about the long-term effects because, holy shit, I just killed someone. Is this going to end fucking me up in the long term? And Trevor said, “No, you’re going to be fine.” I said, oh, okay. And that’s all I needed. I know that that’s what officers are supposed to do, but right then and there that was exactly what I needed to hear. I think a lot of guys suppress shit. I really made a concerted effort on that tour to deal with it as soon as it came on and not deny any feelings. I think that mentality helped. If you know that that kind of shit effects people and you just step up and face it rather than try to be a hard man, then that helps out in the long run. N: I was actually very concerned about PTSD after the first couple of contacts we had. I was thinking, “Is this going to affect me?” The more you go through it, and the more you see injured Canadians, that bothers me. Seeing dead Canadians, that really bothers me. That is troubling stuff, and while I don’t think that I have any serious emotional issues, if anything was to bother me in the future, it would be that. Killing the Taliban, it doesn’t bother me. If you look at human history, people have been killing each other for a hell of a long time. From the origins of organized warfare, I’m sure that people have been traumatized, but the majority, at the end of the day, are all right.

Captain trevor norton Trevor Norton, 32, is a native of East Toronto. A former high school football offensive tackle, he worked as a bouncer at some of his hometownâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more colourful clubs, where he saw his share of bar fights. After graduating from the University of Toronto with a degree in political science, he joined the regular army, becoming an officer with the 3rd battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment. Now back home, Norton works at the Land Forces Central Area HQ. photo: paul koziorowski

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FIGHTING STYLE photography by ROBERT WATSON fashion direction by Brigitte Foisy Hair and makeup by Elena Pacienza

Summer weekends are the time for doing the things you like to do most, whether thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s browsing for organic produce at your local farmersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; market or getting into fights on the beach. Kick up your summer wardrobe with these cool styles, modeled by Tyler Quick and Contra Mestre Bola, experts in the Brazilian art of capoeira.

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Previous page: On Tyler: Not Your Fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s suit jacket ($450) and pants ($225); Kinetex graphic tee ($75), available at Gotstyle. Nice Collective scarf ($160), from Jacflash. D&G sunglasses ($189), at Holt Renfrew. On Bola: Benjamin Bixby vest ($445) and tie ($130), Rag & Bone shirt ($295), and Taverniti jeans ($240), available at Holt Renfrew. Grevi hat ($85), at Jacflash.

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On Tyler: L.B.M. jacket ($750), Fred Perry shirt ($95), Lacoste polo ($95) and Facconable shorts ($150). On Bola: Burberry jacket ($475), Dolce & Gabbana shorts ($495), Paul & Shark tie ($90) and polo ($275). Everything available at Harry Rosen.

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On Bola: Anorak ($298), by Nice Collective at Jacflash. Recyclable Tie-Ups belt ($110) from Gotstyle, and Facconable shorts ($150). Concord C1 Chronograph in 18K rose gold ($34,500). On Tyler: Nice Collective graphic tee ($85) and Farhi scarf ($85), from Jacflash. Haight & Ashbury vest ($95) and Taverniti jeans ($285), both from Gotstyle. Geox loafers ($180) and Panerai Luminor Marina Titanium ($9,100).

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On Bola: Operations shirt ($215) and pants ($225), available at Jacflash. Vince cardigan ($210), at Holt Renfrew and Goorin Brothers hat ($55), at Harry Rosen. On Tyler: Operations jacket ($690) and shorts ($345), at Jacflash. Facconable shirt ($225), from Harry Rosen. Pocket square ($65) and DSquared2 sunglasses ($290), available at Holt Renfrew.

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sharpformen.com Sharp June 2009 65

On Bola: Hickey merino sweater ($325) and gingham shirt ($245). Nice Collective pants ($275). All available at Jacflash. On Tyler: Farhi cardigan ($245) and Bustle shorts ($165), at Jacflash. Shirt by Ultra ($275) and Ted Baker tie ($95), available at Gotstyle.

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The Great Shopping mall

in the Desert

In search of history in Dubai, the Gulf's sudden metropolis.

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By Jeremy Freed Photos by Jeremy Freed and Lisa Mallin

It has been said about Los Angeles that if Martians were to fly over the place, seeing the landscape for the first time they would conclude that cars were the dominant form of life. Dubai, like LA, is a sprawling metropolis in the desert, an amorphous and postmodern city of steel and glass, divided by palm tree-lined freeways, sloping down towards a glittering sea. Extra-terrestrial visitors to Dubai could be forgiven for coming to a similar conclusion, with one notable difference. Instead of cars, it would be cranes. Approaching the city from the air, I feel like a space invader myself. Down below the landscape is a parched, seemingly endless expanse of khaki-coloured scrubland and sand dunes, marked here and there by ribbons of road and strings of high-tension power lines. After leaving a cold and muddy April in Toronto and spending 12 hours ensconced in the supple leather and pale wood veneer of Emirates business class, watching American TV on my 17-inch entertainment system, it feels like a different planet. When the outskirts of the city come into view, they look as if they could have been transplanted from Scottsdale or Reno. Subdivisions divided by serpentine cul-de-sacs, soccer fields, tennis courts and swimming pools. Then the cranes appear. They tower over half-finished apartment buildings and loom across long, flat warehouses the size of multiple football fields. They are sparse at first, but as the city draws nearer they increase in frequency until they stud the landscape like a forest of massive, lopsided, skeletal trees. Back in 2006, Dubai was reported to have some 30,000 construction cranes, a full 24% of the world’s supply. This, in a city-state of just over a million people, is nothing short of amazing. Indeed, as the skyline comes into view, I feel the air go out of my lungs. In the yellow-orange haze of the setting desert sun, high-rises spill across the horizon without warning like a sudden Manhattan in the desert. Towering above them all is the spire of the Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest freestanding structure. Nearly a kilometre high, and looking like it came straight out of a utopian sci-fi future, it dwarfs everything around it, its point piercing the sky, reaching towards the blazing desert sun. At the base of the Burj is the newly unveiled Dubai Fountain, the largest mechanized fountain in the world. Twenty-five percent larger than the one at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, with more than 20,000 gallons of water, 6,000 lights, scores of projectors, and jets shooting almost 500 feet into the air. This is one wonder among many. There’s Ski Dubai, the world’s largest indoor ski hill, in the Mall of the Emirates, one of more than 50 shopping malls in Dubai. There are the Palm Islands, the largest man made islands in the world, so large they can be seen from space. There’s the Burj Al Arab, billed as the world’s most luxurious hotel, where rooms start at $3,000 a night, one among more than 40 other 5-star hotels at last count. Among these things, the world’s biggest fountain seems like less of an anomaly. However, in a place where most fresh water comes from the ocean, via desalination plants, and summer temperatures reach 45 degrees Celsius, it is a curious choice, and a telling one. It is, realized in water and electricity, a potent symbol of what this place is and will be. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, Dubai’s ruling monarch and the man responsible in large part for the city-state’s explosive growth over the last couple of decades, was recently asked by an American journalist why everything in his kingdom had to be the biggest, the tallest, the most luxurious. His quick, enthusiastic response was, “Why not?” One asks a lot of questions in Dubai, but the answers are not always terribly revealing. At least, not in the way you expect them to be. Dubai, one quickly learns, is a place that exists because it can. To put it another way, Dubai is a city that exists because it can right now. As Rashid bin Saeed al Maktoum, Sheikh Mohammed’s father, the man who first envisioned Dubai as an enormous internasharpformen.com Sharp June 2009 69

The Great Shopping mall

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tional commerce hub, famously said, “My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel.” What this implies is the understanding that the oil won’t flow forever. That boom towns will come and go, but cities change and endure. In this sense, Dubai, which has very little oil of its own, is envisioned as an anchor for the whole region. Considering the breakneck pace of development here, however, and the rumours of economic catastrophe swirling around even the most deeply rooted international cities, you wonder if the old sheikh’s words might someday end up coming true after all. Sujan, the baby-faced, perpetually smiling Sri Lankan tour guide who meets us at the airport, puts the place in perspective more matterof-factly, “You get superlative things here, yeah?” After arriving in the massive, mostly empty terminal, now six months old, complete with

fixtures. Slender blonde Russian women drink in pairs alongside tables of red-faced Brits and South Africans. It could be an expensive bar almost anywhere in the world, save for the spectacular views of the Burj outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, and the fact that all the bartenders are Indian. It’s not a bad place, and as the night moves towards morning it becomes increasingly crowded with yet more men with open shirts and more women with short dresses and high shoes. Beers here cost about $12, cocktails close to $20, and while that’s a little expensive, even for Dubai, it’s not hurting business. In the elevator on the way back down, a group of fashionable young Arab men are talking about the price of iPhones. They are speaking Arabic, but the word for iPhone is the same, and they use English when they’re talking about currency. Outside, the valets are still running madly amid the steady stream of Lamborghinis and Range Rovers. The valets, like most people

giant fake palm trees, Rolex wall clocks and the largest indoor waterfall I’ve ever seen, Sujan is giving us the lay of the land. More than 37 million passengers passed through this airport last year, we’re told, but true to form, this is just the beginning. A new concourse under construction nearby will boost the airport’s capacity to 160 million in a few years, making it the largest and busiest in the world. On the short drive from the airport to our hotel, Sujan points out the window at a tall, white bunker of a building next to the highway. “This is the oldest building in Dubai,” he says. “It was built in 1979.” He knows this is a bit ridiculous, and strictly speaking, it’s not really true, but driving into the city along Sheikh Zayed Road, flanked by one 60-storey skyscraper after another, you get the point. This has all happened very recently. We arrive at our hotel at dusk, a giant, luxurious 63-storey building called The Address, between the Burj Dubai and the enormous new 1,200-store Dubai Mall. The hotel has only been open for a few months, and it’s surrounded by construction sites in different states of completion, including another, larger The Address hotel right next door, attached to the Dubai Mall. It’s not clear why building another hotel of the same name right there is necessary, or even really a good idea, but bringing this sort of outside logic to Dubai tends to be an exercise in confusion. You quickly learn to accept these things, or at least acknowledge them as reality, and move on. By nightfall the circular drive outside the hotel is jammed with traffic. Expensive German sedans and Italian sports cars compete for curb space with the Toyota Landcruisers and Range Rovers that are ubiquitous here. Expat men with open shirts and expensive-looking women in short dresses and impossibly high heels emerge from the cars and enter the hotel. On the 63rd floor of The Address is a bar called Neos, and that’s where they’re all going. Because of the Islamic alcohol laws in Dubai, bars can only operate out of hotels, ostensibly to serve the foreigners staying there. This one, we are told, is one of the most popular bars in the city. Neos is a large, glittering expanse of dark marble and crystal light

one meets in Dubai, aren’t from here. They’re Indian, Sri Lankan, Ugandan, Pakistani and Philippino, here to work for a few years and send money home to their families. In fact, out of a million-and-ahalf residents of Dubai, about 80% are foreigners. This means that, while you hear a lot about the Emiratis, and see giant billboard-sized pictures of their sheikhs plastered alongside the freeways, you could easily spend a long time in Dubai without actually meeting one. It’s one of many things that makes this place different from most other places one might go on vacation. Spend a week in Cancun or Paris and by the time you head back home you’ll likely have formed an opinion of the local people. Granted, it would likely be based on the people who served you your drinks and carried your bags, but it would be an impression nonetheless. Here, that’s not the case. One’s knowledge of the Emiratis comes from seeing their creations, their philosophies and values realized in metal, glass and concrete. It is, in some ways, like deciphering an extinct civilization. You marvel at it, at the accomplishment of creating all this from nothing, and wonder about the people who dreamed it up. Who were they? This is, of course, not an extinct civilization. Indeed, with its ultracosmopolitan population, space-age architecture, and pumped-up capitalism, Dubai often feels like the most modern place in the world. Not like the past, but the future. As one might expect in a city that’s as old as Britney Spears, any sense of authenticity is in short supply. Because everything is so new, it all tends to feel the same. A new hotel or shopping mall in Dubai is not significantly different from a new hotel or shopping mall anywhere else. When I look out my hotel room window over the expanse of construction sites below, I have the sense that “this could be nowhere but Dubai,” but that’s a rare feeling, and even that view will soon disappear, replaced by still more high rises, shopping malls and water features. Most of the time, Dubai feels like it could be any expensive, modern first-world city. And as far as I can tell, that’s kind of the point. Tourism, however, is vital to the economy here, and when the Brits sharpformen.com Sharp June 2009 71

The Great Shopping mall

in the Desert

and Russians who support the tourism industry depart their staid, grey-skied existences back home, they want some sense of exoticism, of adventure. As a result, most visitors to Dubai, as we were, are treated to some variation of the “Desert Safari and Dune Dinner,” which is about as authentic a Dubai experience as you can hope for. We’re picked up from the hotel in a convoy of white four-wheeldrive Toyotas, and driven a short distance out of town. Our driver’s name is Muhammad and he tells us he is from Burma. He’s lived in Dubai all his life, was born here in fact, but because it’s prohibitively difficult for foreigners to become citizens of the UAE, he will likely remain Burmese, as will his children. Muhammad points out the Dubai International City, a huge Disneyworld-like complex of lowrise apartments that, when completed, will house 60,000 people in foreign-themed districts like England, France and Morocco. On the other side of the highway is a neighbourhood of large Emirati villas, built on land given to citizens by the government. They’re squat, square buildings, seemingly dropped in the sand in no apparent order. A short distance down the road is the Dragon Mart, a giant shopping mall filled with wholesale merchants from China. We’re taken to a fenced-off area of sand dunes, and, still in our convoy, are driven across them at top speed, sliding over their crests and plunging down again. Muhammad turns on a Bollywood radio station and resumes whipping the truck across the dunes, spraying sand everywhere around us as we hang on for dear life. After about half an hour of this, we cross a road and park alongside a big square enclosure with turrets on the corners and a gate flanked by torches. This, we are told, is the “Bedouin Camp.” In the sand in front of the compound, a man in a yellow robe has three sad-looking camels saddled and chained together, their mouths covered by crocheted muzzles, presumably to keep them from biting us, spitting at us, or both. The man in the robe invites tourists to climb on their backs, and the camels grunt and wheeze as he leads them 10

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paces away through the sand, turns around and walks back. Photos are taken and surprised shrieks are made as the camels abruptly drop back to the ground, apparently in an attempt to dislodge their riders. I ask Sujan what the camels’ names are. “Camelus Dromedarius,” he says with a giggle. We take pictures of each other on the sand dunes, kicking away the spent cigarette lighters and water bottles that stud the sand alongside the camel droppings. A warm breeze blows over the dunes, and with it strains of Arabic music from inside the camp. The compound is a big open space with a stage in the centre, surrounded by low tables and cushions on the ground. We are welcomed with a tiny cup of weak coffee and a date, served by a pair of boredlooking guys who may or may not be actual Bedouins. Down the line is a station where we can have our pictures taken in traditional Arab robes, dishdallas for men, and burkas for women, and there’s a woman doing henna tattoos. On the far side of the enclosure is a cash bar where you can buy cold Heinekens for a few dollars. We sit at the tables, and the evening’s entertainment begins. It consists of a man in a whirling dervish-type outfit, with strings of bright blue LED lights sewn onto his skirt. It’s quite a pretty effect when he spins, throwing the skirts up around him, but one wonders how traditional it is. He invites a pretty Russian girl to whirl with him onstage. She’s wearing a very short skirt and when she whirls we can all see her underwear. An Asian woman is invited next, and her husband accompanies her with a video camera, filming the performance from close by. The dervish is followed by a belly dancer, and the belly dancer is followed by dinner, which we are invited to cue up for next to the bar. The buffet is a selection of curries and kaftas, prepared elsewhere and transported to the Bedouin camp in aluminum trays. For those unadventurous eaters, there’s a less-than-convincing spaghetti Bolognese, and something with raisins in it labeled “colslow.” The food is simple and good, the beer is cold, and the warm desert

air is rejuvenating. As the beer cans pile up we laugh and relax, maybe for the first time since we’ve arrived. Certainly, it’s the first time since we’ve been in Dubai that we haven’t been obligated to be impressed by something new or big or expensive. Whether or not this is an authentic Bedouin experience, it’s a simple good time, and that’s a rare thing to find here. Perhaps the expectations of authenticity and simple pleasures you’d have for any other vacation destination are too much to expect of a place this new, but Dubai isn’t really that new. People have been living and doing business here for hundreds of years, and while the scale of this, along with most everything else, has changed drastically in the last few decades, it’s possible to find some old-world grit if you know where to look. On the north side of the Dubai Creek, the traditional centre of trade and life in Dubai, is the Deira district. With its narrow, dusty streets and crowded marketplaces, it is a world apart from the sterile air-conditioned sameness of new Dubai. The merchants are mostly Indian and Iranian, and have been conducting business here for much of the last century. With them, they brought some of the chaos and character of home, with a few notable differences. There’s no begging, which is strictly illegal in Dubai, almost no crime (the police, Sujan tells us, are “very clever”), and there’s very little garbage to be seen anywhere. There are separate markets (which, in Arabic are called suqs) for textiles, gold and spices, each with its own set of streets and distinct feel. In the textile market, tiny shopfronts sell brightly coloured bolts of cloth, sandals, and an abundance of different Obama watches. In the spice market, where stalls sell saffron, frankincense, zaatar and just about any other eastern spice you could want, men hurry past with hand-trucks loaded with cooking pots, and carrying sacks of rice strapped to their bicycles. The gold market is a similar jumble of small shops, except each of these has a window full of enough gold chains, bracelets and medallions to outfit Mr. T in his prime a hundred times over. Inside the shops, haggling is the norm, and arguments over prices sometimes spill out into the streets. Unless you’re into gold, saris, or cooking with large amounts of saffron, there’s not a whole lot for the average westerner to buy, but wandering between the suqs makes for a thoroughly enjoyable few hours. On the way back to the hotel, stuck in traffic on the Baniyas Road, which runs alongside the Dubai Creek, we pass by dozens of rickety-looking boats, called dhows being loaded for passage to Iran and India. Rough-looking men in baggy pants and sandals carry giant sacks of grain and bundles of cloth, staring at us as we pass by. It’s a remarkable scene, something you’d expect to find in Djibouti or Cairo, but never expect to see in this ultra-modern city, with its indoor skiing and world-class shopping malls. And, yet, there it is, staring us in the face in our air-conditioned van. For a moment I wonder what these men’s lives are like, and wonder if they’re wondering the same thing about me. I’m sure were either of us to get a look at an average day in the other’s existence, it would be unimaginable. But soon we’re moving again, back towards the hotel, and the other, newer Dubai.

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For Randy Rodriguez, designing a new Nissan Z was literally a childhood dream come true. Born and raised in British Columbia, he now calls San Diego his home, where he designs for Nissan Design America. His work on the all-new 370Z has already taken off in a big way, but heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also responsible for another design thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s literally taking flight.

Interview by Carson Edwards Photos by Steve Moretti

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RODRIGUEZ

RANDY

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Check out our road test of the new 332-hp Nissan 370Z at Sharpformen.com.

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RANDY

RODRIGUEZ

You’re quite young to be so successful…

I’m 31, which has an advantage. You don’t have the experience when you’re younger, but you don’t have these preconceptions of what you can and can’t do. I’ve done the 370Z and other products, and I feel like I still have a whole career ahead of me to do more things.

Including fatherhood…

Yes, I have my baby, a little girl. I think you live through your children. I realized that my dad sacrificed a lot for his kids, and I really respect him for that. I just sold my 280Z last month for the downpayment on a house, and a bunch of my motorcycles transformed into appliances.

And now there’s an airplane in your portfolio.

Nissan sometimes gets approached by other companies to style their products for them, and there was a company called Icon that came up with a two-seater sports aircraft. There was a design competition with a bunch of other studios. I had my baby and when this project came along, I was out of the office for a month and not really involved in work. When I came back, I asked the manager what’s going on, and he said we’re having a design selection tomorrow to narrow down sketches. I spent a couple of hours sketching that night. I had no idea about the concepts or the briefs or anything; I just had an idea of what it proportionately looked like. It turned out to be one of the four or five [selections], and then the final design. Most planes of this type look like Cessnas or things that have been around for 50 or 60 years. This thing will really define aviation for a lot of people.

You designed the 370Z from a shark, and the airplane (the Icon) is amphibious. When you design [a car], you look at things other than cars, and with this, it was the shark. The Z was very shark-inspired, and

the airplane has a lot of that. I love nature and I really love mechanical things. What’s new and cool is robotic, but very organic, with sexy, sensual organic forms, but also sharp mechanical details.

Why was doing the 370Z so special? My dad had a gas station, and he got my brother a Datsun Z when he was 10 years old, and got me a Z when I was 14. They

weren’t perfect; we had to fix everything. I just loved the car, washing it, looking at all the forms and surfaces and details.

And that first Z led to a lifelong dream to work with Nissan.

I went to school in Detroit to study industrial design. I interned with General Motors, and at Toyota in Japan for a summer. There are competitions in school and I won some of those, and it caught the attention of Nissan before I graduated, so they called my school looking for me. My family always had Nissans and Datsuns. It’s a company that I like, my family likes, and it was the company I wanted to work for. It’s surreal that I actually had a hand in doing the 370Z.

Money’s no object: what do you buy? There are so many cars I admire, usually exotic cars. Whenever I see one, I could stare at it all day long, like a Porsche Carrera,

the Lamborghini Reventon, Bugatti Veyron or Ferrari Enzo. If I could buy any production supercar, it might be the McLaren F1. Always really loved that car, and with the three seats, I could bring my wife and daughter.

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d’état

coupes

Some people pick practical cars, cars that get them from point A to point B safely and reliably. Those people don't have souls. Here’s a selection of new two-door rockets that will literally raise your pulse. Arthur Prichard

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Porsche 911 GT3

Verdict: The GT3 is the closest thing to a racecar the federal nannies will let you drive on the street. The fact that it’s also perfectly comfortable and rewarding on public roads is amazing. Porsches are the ultimate sports cars and this is the ultimate Porsche. You figure it out.

The Porsche 911 is synonymous with sophistication, sex appeal and performance. The GT3 is the ultimate 911 and it pushes the very edge of the engineering envelope to deliver the most exciting, visceral, aurally satisfying and mind-numbingly fast driving experience of any car we’ve ever driven. All those wings and vents and grills? They make it faster. At 300 kp/h on the Autobahn (top speed is over 330 according to the head engineer), the GT3 is nailed to the pavement. Should you desire to stop, there are the largest brakes in the automotive world behind the massive wheels and tires. The real thrill, however, comes from the 3.8-litre, 435-hp flat-six (derived from an actual Indy car engine) slung out behind the rear axle. At a twist of the left-side key cylinder it awakes with vibration and a roar before settling into a lumpy, throbbing idle, unhappily waiting to be unleashed. Slide your foot off the clutch with 4,000 rpm on the tach and the GT3 paints the road with rubber on its way to a 4.1 second 0-100 time. There are endless goodies for diehard gearheads to talk about: single nut centre-drive wheels like on a real racecar, optional lighter headlights and seats, an available 90 litre fuel tank for track days and computer-controlled engine mounts that make doing burnouts easier and gentler on the mechanicals. Visit Sharpformen.com Visit Sharpformen.com to read about for our To say it’s sublime would be our autobahn autobahn blast in blast the in GT3. the GT3 an insult. sharpformen.com Sharp June 2009 79

d’état

coupes

Mercedes-Benz E500

Verdict: The E500 is exactly what you’d expect from a Mercedes: comfort, safety and refined performance. The elegant new exterior lines are much more masculine than its CLK predecessor, and the retracting rear windows open up the sides as a real coupe should. This is an opulent looking car that cossets the driver, but can still quicken the pulse, especially when equipped with the E500’s 382-hp V8.

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There was a time when a Mercedes-Benz was built to be the best car in its segment, regardless of cost. Their engineers would come up with all sorts of innovative comfort, performance and safety features and then figure out the price of the car. That’s why a mid-size Benz cost more 20 years ago than it does now. This type of approach doesn’t really work in today’s incredibly competitive and price-sensitive marketplace, and for a while Mercedes couldn’t quite get a grip on how to produce the best cars in the world at a competitive price. Long story short—quality suffered. But that’s not the case anymore. Starting with the GL SUV a few years ago, Mercedes has been on a rampage of new products, each one better than the next. The new E500 coupe is so solid, so powerful, so comfortable and so well made that you have to wonder how they plan on selling any of the mega-buck CL550s at nearly twice the price. Refinement doesn’t come at the expense of an engaging driving experience. The ride is typically Germanic, in that you will always feel secure and in control, but it also offers a level of comfort that few competitors can match.

Chevrolet Camaro SS

Verdict: Want to feel young again? Cut a cheque to a Chevy dealer (if there are any left) for 37 grand and drive away in a maelstrom of blue smoke and burnt rubber in your new 426-hp Canadian-made Camaro SS. Seriously, do it now.

There are a lot of reasons to like the new Camaro. There’s the frugal, affordable and quick 300-hp V6 model. It’s eye catching. It’s fun to drive and it’s reasonably well made. It’s also built in Canada, by Canadians, and if that’s not enough, there’s the 426-hp V8 SS version for a mere $36,995. You read that right—426-hp, for well under forty grand. That’s the most bang for your buck in automotive history. Never mind that there’s a modern four-wheel independent suspension under all four corners, unlike the antiquated live-axle flopping around in the back of the Mustang. It’s also relatively light, if you compare it to the Dodge Challenger, which weighs as much as a bridge. The interior is creatively styled and has some retro elements, but tall drivers better trim their pompadours, or at least forget the sunroof. Most importantly, however, it’s fast and it sounds like the God of War beating on the head of the God of Thunder. You simply cannot buy a better sounding car than one powered by a small block Chevy. It’s a universal constant.

Hyundai Genesis 3.8T

Verdict: You can argue with the brand and joke about your first car being a Pony, but you simply can’t refute the fact that the Genesis Coupe packs serious firepower under its hood, not to mention a chassis built from the best bits a car manufacturer can find.

Yes, you read that right…a Hyundai counted among some of the most storied brands and models in automotive history. Regardless of what you might think of the brand, you simply can’t argue with a 300-hp, rear-wheel-drive, 6-speed manualequipped sports car that’s also got Brembo brakes and Recaro seats. It reads like a car junkie’s dream list. It goes pretty well, too—even the turbocharged four-cylinder version with 210-hp. If anything, the turbo-four will likely become the favourite among diehard tuning fans because of its massive untapped potential. Order the optional Track Package, dial up the boost and go humiliate some “muscle” cars. Either model offers truly stirring acceleration and taut handling, thanks to sticky tires and a track-tuned suspension. If you aren’t a real car guy then you’ll probably be a bit put off by the dark and somewhat down-market interior. And forget the back seats—they’re for amputees. The Genesis is offered in a variety of bright colours and its lines are surprisingly reserved and sophisticated. Brand snobs will turn their noses up, but they’re going to be behind you anyway, so who cares. We flew all the way to Vegas to learn how to drift the Genesis Coupe. Check it out at Sharpformen.com.

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big ideas for a richer life

Politics Canadian Style In the bout between PET II and Cheney the Second, it’s business as usual in our country’s stagnant political pond.

The attack ads are back. Some two-bit ad agency has soaked up Conservative Party (taxpayer subsidized) money to produce a pathetic spot about Michael Ignatieff ’s various addresses. It is an embarrassment to watch, and viewing it on YouTube makes it even worse. Amateur video producers, not ad agencies, have loaded the “usergenerated” site with content full of hilarious political satire and moving political inspiration that makes the Conservatives’ paid hacks look like the moneygrubbers they are. Compare the “Yes We Can” video by an Obama supporter, viewed by millions and millions, to that loser spot on Ignatieff. But attack ad garbage has worked before for the Conservatives and maybe it will work again. What a revolting development. How did we get to this point? We’ve got Iggy, who thinks he’s the second coming of Pierre Trudeau being attacked by Stephen Harper who is the second coming of Dick Cheney. We deserve a much higher level of political discourse, and frankly we deserve better leaders. The US has managed to break from the past convincingly, almost unbelievably. Why are we stuck? It’s the recruitment process. In Canada we allow party hacks, and only party hacks to choose potential prime ministers. It’s time Canada adopted a system of primaries. What do political parties actually do in Canada? They raise money and collect lots more from our taxes to buy advertising like the stuff running now—and they monopolize the leadership selection process. The only way you can become prime minister is to win a major party’s leadership convention. You must join the party, follow the party rules, kiss up to the party elite. In the United States, the insiders at the Democratic party had decided to make the former President’s wife the new presidential 82 Sharp June 2009 sharpformen.com

candidate. That would have assured the unbroken string of 20 years in power for a Bush or a Clinton would continue for at least four more. Then what happened? Democracy interfered. In the US, presidential primary elections and caucuses are the one and only way to begin the process of becoming president. The primary elections are run by state and local governments, not the political parties. If he had been running in Canada, Obama wouldn’t have had a prayer. The American primary system allows and encourages the participation of everyone. The closed Canadian party system turns the jaded few who belong to parties into the unstoppable gate keeper. Yes, they say they’re open, and they reward with votes those who have purchased the most party memberships. But that in no way is the same as open, not-partycontrolled elections. Stephen Harper became party leader at a cozy convention by winning the approval of Peter McKay, who had signed a document promising that he’d never sell out his followers to the Reform Party. Michael Ignatieff became party leader by staring down NDPer Bob Rae, of all people, at a wine-soaked dinner in a posh Yorkville condominium. There was absolutely no way for non-card-carrying Canadians to participate in either event. That’s how we choose prime ministers. Do you think an outsider like Obama would stand a chance in these kinds of fixed arrangements? No way. He had to mobilize millions of people who would never become party members to overturn a party’s pre-arranged succession. OK, Canada, here we go. PET II versus Cheney the Second. You say you didn’t choose them? You’re right. MICHAEL VAUGHAN illustration: adrian pratt

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