DRESS BET TER NOW!
LO O K B E T T E R • F E E L B E T T E R • K N OW M O R E SEPT/OCT 2014
SHARPMAGAZINE.COM
JAKE
GYLLENHAAL GETS REAL THE BEST REASON TO
SPEND $300K
ON A CAR
GUNS, DOPE AND WHISKEY THE TRUE STORY OF
THE TRAILER PARK BOYS
THE FALL STYLE ISSUE P A G E S
O F
EXPERT ADVICE ON
SUITS WATCHES
BOOTS AND SO MUCH MORE
I N C L U D I N G
THE MOST
STYLISH HOCKEY
PLAYER IN THE GAME P
L
U
S
A S T RO N AU T
CHRIS HADFIELD’S
SECRETS OF THE
UNIVERSE
CONTENTS | VOL.7 | ISSUE 4 SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER2014 2014| VOL.TK TK
THE STYLE ISSUE 72
FEATURES 114
102
Klattenhoff models the colour of fall.
With the premiere of his new film Nightcrawler, we get a look at Donnie Darko’s creepy side.
GUESTPHOTO STYLE EDITOR: A CASE OF THE BLUES JOFFREY LUPUL Homeland’s Diego CAPTION
The most STYLE dapper guy in 1 the NHL shows pg.you 123how to remix a suit. Plus: we pick the most stylish watches of the season.
SECTION TITLE (PAGE #) STORY TITLE
106
THE DYNAMIC DUO
122
BENCHMARKS Key fall looks from Burberry, Gucci, Zegna and more.
JAKE GYLLENHAAL GOES DARK
94
TRAILER PARK HEROES The never-before-told true story of the Trailer Park Boys.
Boots and jeans: like sneakSerif body copy. ers and jeans, only cooler.
DIEGO KLATTENHOFF
P H O T O : M AT T D O Y L E . C O V E R P H O T O : B R I G I T T E L A C O M B E
pg.114
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CONTENTS | VOL.7 | ISSUE 4 SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER2014 2014| VOL.TK TK
GUIDE 44
WOMEN Serinda Swan is putting her stunt double out of business.
46
PHOTO CAPTION STYLE 1 pg. 123
WISDOM Essential things Chris
Hadfield learned in space. SECTION TITLE
(PAGE 48 #) STORY BOOKSTITLE
Serif The body reading copy. list everyone will be talking about this month.
52 TV
The web series comes into its own.
54
GUEST STYLE EDITOR JOFFREY LUPUL pg.72
60
TRAVEL
Things to do in Austin that somehow don’t involve SXSW.
64
CARS
How the BMW M3 became a collectible motorsport legend. Plus: The Audi hybrid you’ll get excited about.
90
SPORTS Has Twitter ruined sporting events, or perfected them?
BOOZE Coffee and vodka: a match made in heaven.
56
FOOD
PHOTO: MCKENZIE JAMES
This might be the best steak you’ve ever made.
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SHARP | MAN ABOUT TOWN
INFINITI & SHARP AT MONTREAL F1 Sharp and Infiniti chose Montreal’s Ritz-Carlton as the venue for their “Inspired by Performance” champagne gala at this year’s Formula One, where Infiniti’s Red Bull Racing F1 Show Car was on display.
STELLA ARTOIS GIFTING SHOPPE Stella Artois teamed up with GOTSTYLE to present a onestop Father’s Day gifting solution in Toronto, featuring timepieces, luggage, accessories, grooming products and— naturally—copies of Sharp: The Book for Men. 36 SHARPMAGAZINE.COM / SEPTEMBER 2014
SHARP | MAN ABOUT TOWN
FALL STYLE WITH THOMAS SABO
GREY GOOSE VX IN MUSKOKA Guests arrived by float plane at a private Muskoka lakehouse, where they enjoyed custom cocktails and an intimate dinner for the launch of Grey Goose’s new Grey Goose VX, a blend of premium vodka and cognac. 40 SHARPMAGAZINE.COM / SEPTEMBER 2014
T H O M A S S A B O / RYA N E M B E R L E Y
The Four Seasons Toronto’s Aria was the setting for the presentation of Sabo’s Fall/Winter collection. The lavish display of watches and accessories was attended by Canada’s fashion elite.
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LOOK BET TER • FEEL BET TER • KNOW MORE
A Concert Hall for Your Condo THE OD-11 ORTHO DIRECTIONAL LOUDSPEAKER
AUDIOPHILES LOVE A THROWBACK. Vinyl. Horn speakers. Tube amps. And now, the newest audio reclamation: the OD-11 directional speaker, created in Sweden in the ’70s by legendary designer Stig Carlsson to emit sound upward to the ceiling and fill a room, now fitted with a 100-watt cloud speaker capable of syncing with any device via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Developers Teenage Engineering hardly touched the design (the original ortho-directional tech makes these the best speakers for a non-dampened environment like your living room), but they did make it wireless, connected and added a cone tweeter and long-throw woofer. In with the old, in with the new. ($900) – COLEMAN MOLNAR
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GUIDE | Women
A WELCOME INTRODUCTION
Serinda Swan IS BLOODY GOOD AT WHAT SHE DOES BY BIANCA TEIXEIRA
ACTION STARS are always going on about how they do their own stunts. It adds to their actorly mystique. Plus, it makes things more intense if you know it really is Tom Cruise hanging from the Burj Khalifa, and not some disposable double. Which is maybe why a nice girl like Serinda Swan has some intense mystique. Example: her show Graceland, wherein she plays an undercover DEA agent. “As of right now, I’m the only cast member that’s actually bled from fighting scenes,” she says in a not-at-all-intimidating way. “I haven’t used my stunt double once this year. When I see that a stunt is coming up, I’m like ‘Fuck, yes!’” Tom Cruise couldn’t have put it better himself.
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PHOTO: LIZ ROSA; HAIR AND MAKEUP: ANDRÉA TILLER
>
GUIDE | Wisdom
Chris Hadfield IS RELENTLESSLY POSITIVE BY GREG HUDSON
>
OFFHAND, your average guy can probably name three or four astronauts. That’s not including Han Solo or crew members of the USS Enterprise. But you can bet that Chris Hadfield’s name is on that list. After commanding the International Space Station last year (and singing David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” from space), there are very few Canadians who haven’t heard of Hadfield. For a sparkling moment, Hadfield made all things space cool again, and he did it without Han Solo’s swagger or Buzz Aldrin’s machismo. He did it humbly. Talking to him, you feel that genuine humility. He’s not self-deprecating or falsely modest. He has the honest humility of someone who knows their achievements, and the exact amount of work that went into reaching them; who knows the balance of fortune and effort and responsibility. Hadfield continues his mission of simultaneously uniting humanity and getting us excited about space with a new book, You Are Here (Random House Canada, $30), a collection of his photographs of the planet from the space station.
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once said to myself, “If I don’t get to walk on the moon, I’m a failure.” It was never my definition of personal success, it was just a long-term possible destination. But, no matter what happens, I’m dragging or pushing in a direction that naturally suits and interests me. Every step I take, every choice I’m making, moves my life in a direction that I like better. And I celebrate the fact that, hey, you know, someday I want to walk on the moon but this week I learned how a wing works. I learned how an airplane actually leaves the ground. Or I learned orbital mechanics. Every single week I’d go, “I’m not walking on the moon yet, but I did some stuff that’s really cool.” I got to live at the bottom of the ocean for a while, and I got to intercept Soviet bombers off the coast of Canada, and yesterday I flew with the Snowbirds over Parliament Hill. All of those things were part and parcel of having that long-term goal in mind. You have to celebrate and love what is actually happening and admit to yourself that your endgame might never happen. I still haven’t walked on the moon, and I probably won’t. So, by definition, I’m a failure. But I’ve really liked everything I’ve done. And I really like what I’m doing now. And I still might walk on the moon. When you do see something as beautiful as the view of planet earth from the station, does that put a damper on a sunset here at home? Not at all. I mean, just because you’ve eaten truffles, doesn’t mean you hate all the rest of the food in your life. It’s just, “Hey, I really like CONTINUED ON P.48
PHOTO: NASA
A MAN W O RT H LIST E NING T O:
Maybe this is overly pessimistic, but after reaching a major goal, life can seem a little meaningless. Is that how you’re feeling now? I think it’s all about visualizing an end game. What is your own particular personal measure of success? What is your definition of having achieved what you’re trying to achieve? I think it’s really important because my goal in life was not to command the International Space Station. I decided to be an astronaut when I was nine years old. It was a deliberate decision; I was about to turn 10 and that’s when they walked on the moon. It was the summer of ’69. I decided that night, “I want to do that, that’s the coolest thing ever. How do I do that?” I set that that goal, recognizing that there’s no way that’s ever going to happen. I realized that the only way that it for sure was not going to happen was to not try. The other side of that was that the only thing I could really modify was myself. I can’t really modify the world space program or world politics or events or shuttle explosions. So I gave myself this distant, unachievable goal and said, “Okay, if everything goes perfectly, that’s going to happen.” Things aren’t going to go perfectly, but if every little tumbler in life just clicks into place at just the right moment, then eventually I will walk on the moon. That’s my definition of perfection, but life is what’s really going to happen. Now, let’s do something that moves everything in that direction. It gave me an idea of what to do next. Your life is nothing but next decisions, right? Do you want water or do you want Diet Pepsi? The real key to that is, I never
GUIDE | Wisdom CHRIS HADFIELD, CONTINUED FROM P.46
what I’m eating right now, and I like truffles.” You could either view it as limiting or as enriching. If for some reason you hadn’t been able to achieve your goal, would you have been discouraged? It doesn’t sound like it. No. I was a downhill ski instructor and I loved that. I’d happily be a downhill ski instructor for the rest of my life. That’s a great job. I was also a farmer, working for my dad. I was an engineer, I was a fighter pilot, I flew CF-18s. That was really interesting work. And then I was a test pilot, and I loved being a test pilot because it’s engineering… And badass. And a complex mental challenge. And managing risk and danger, and having a purpose to it. I tested a hydrogen-burning engine on the wing-tip of an F-18 that would hopefully allow hypersonic flight. It’s interesting work that accomplishes something. And the only other job I would have wanted to do was get hired as an astronaut, and luckily I did. But I would have been very interested to continue what I was doing. The real key is to not to measure your life by the few high points. Because otherwise everything else looks like a low point. And the key is not to define yourself as a success or a failure or by things you can’t control that might happen in
the future. Otherwise, you’re just setting yourself up for disaster. Imagine the Olympians that went to Sochi this year had said, “If I don’t win a gold then none of this was worth it.” I think some of them did. I know, but then you are guaranteeing yourself a horrific psychological problem. I’m an anti-bucket-list guy. I don’t like bucket lists. That means that for almost your entire life you’re carrying around visual evidence of your own failure. Why do you do that to yourself? Every morning, you can say, “God, look at this, it’s a gorgeous day today. The sun is shining in my bedroom, and I had Cheerios for breakfast, and I love Cheerios.” I’m not some sort of idiot. You can deliberately choose to have a full bucket every night before you go to bed. Is there a difference between what you’re describing and dumb optimism like, “Everything will work out no matter what”? Yeah, visualizing success to me is a waste of time. Really? I visualize failure all the time. Because things are going to go wrong. I want to walk on the moon, but I’m sure not going to walk on the moon if all I think about is wishing it. I want to walk on the moon, so what’s liable to stop me from doing that and let’s start working on those things.
THE SHARP CULTURAL EQUATION
GORDON LIGHTFOOT
TONY ROBBINS
CAPTAIN PICARD
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CHRIS HADFIELD
THREE BOOKS THAT EVERYONE WILL BE (RIGHTLY) TALKING ABOUT THIS MONTH
THE ROAD NARROWS AS YOU GO
Lee Henderson Really, if you read one smart, dark, nostalgic tour through the life of a comic-strip artist in the 1980s, this is the one. Henderson’s last novel, The Man Game, brought early Vancouver to life through characters that danced and fought off the page. His new book has that same care and power. (Penguin)
THE BONE CLOCKS
David Mitchell You’ve been promising your literary friend that you’d read Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas for years, but since seeing the movie version, you’ve lost heart. A) That’s a mistake. And B) it doesn’t really matter because his newest book might be better. A complex, wildly ambitious, timespanning, feast of a novel about spiritual warfare between two mystical factions. (Random House)
There have been astronauts for 50 years and yet the things people are the most curious about seem to be the most benign. Does that surprise you? No. It’s new to the human experience and, up until now, it’s been really hard to share, and to separate a science fiction movie from the reality of what we’ve been doing. Now, it’s almost as if we’ve let everyone in. We have the technology, the ability to communicate in real-time. When they look up and they see the space station go over, it’s not just some little beeping sputnik. They’re in that thing. And that is going around our planet, and it changes their global image.
TO RISE AGAIN AT A DECENT HOUR
Joshua Ferris A dentist suffering from a crisis of faith about his involvement with a spiritual movement based on doubt. Like his first novel, Then We Came to the End, this is poignant, funny, perfectly timed and, most especially, true. Plus, he might just be the first American to win the Booker. (Little, Brown and Company)
There’s sort of the understanding that we are all part of the same planet… Yeah. I flew in space three times and, of course, this last time was the longest so it gave me more time to think about it. Along that vein, the first part of this is tripe but the second half maybe isn’t. When you first get up there, you see what’s familiar to you, and you see what you want to see. What you typically see is places you’ve been. You grab other astronauts and say, “Hey, that’s where I’m from” or “Hey, that’s Moose Jaw right there, that’s where I learned to fly. Look, look!” And that goes on for a couple days and then CONTINUED ON P.50
GUIDE | Culture
HIGH MAINTENANCE
Kill Your Television AND JUST WATCH WEB SHOWS BY COLEMAN MOLNAR NEXT TIME ON LONNY
SOMETIME BEFORE BARACK OBAMA SAT BETWEEN TWO FERNS with Zach Galifianakis and after the most famous comedian in the world started driving around getting coffee with his famous (and very funny) friends, the time of the web series officially arrived. Frankly it’s been a long time coming. For most of their existence, web series were either consolation prizes or try-outs for creative folk who weren’t quite ready for cable. And while an element of that still exists, more and more they’re being viewed as a new art form altogether. Not quite television, but far more weighty than a typical YouTube clip. And as with all things online, there are the good, the bad and the corporately sponsored. Here are a few you should pay attention to.
HIGH MAINTENANCE
Maybe the most impressive web series out there, each episode is crafted—like the best episodes of Louie—like an immaculate short story. Ben Sinclair stars as a lovable and reliable pot dealer (the title is a pun, you see) in this web series co-created by Sinclair and his wife, Katja Blichfeld. The first season of artfully shot vignettes, compelling characters, well-timed laughs and emotional insights was so successful that Vimeo will be offering another six episodes on Vimeo On Demand—which means it’s no longer free. They start you off on the freebies and then charge you once you’re hooked. Typical drug dealers.
VIMEO.COM/HIGHMAINTENANCE
SEX FACTOR
consumable in the time it takes to reheat last night’s dinner.
MAKER.TV
SEX FACTOR
NEXT TIME ON LONNY The first run of Next Time on Lonny ended in 2011, but they’re back with Ben Stiller lending his significant weight to the project as executive
producer. A mock-reality show where the look forward at the next (and next next) episode begins one or two minutes in, Lonny is everything that makes the Internet awesome: non-linear, random as hell and
The premise of this adult web series is spelled out in the title. This is reality TV on Viagra. Sixteen amateur contestants, half men, half women, compete for our, ahem, affection in front of four pro judges—just like X Factor!— with the whole shebang (zing!) fittingly aired on porn’s preferred medium, the World Wild Web. To the victor: a cool mil and a scene with the hostess, porn star Belle Knox. And people still think people go into porn as a last resort. No, that’s reality television.
SXFACTOR.COM
TOMMY WISEAU IS BACK
The worst director in history has a TV show Is there any better living embodiment of the American Dream than Tommy Wiseau? Immigrant of indeterminate origin, who changes his name (possibly) and becomes a famous film director/lives his dream. Now, if you’re familiar with Wiseau’s oeuvre—specifically The Room, a cult classic thought by many to be the worst movie ever made—you know that he’s also an indictment of the American Dream. Or maybe not. Thanks to the success/failure of the romance/drama/meme generator The Room (a book about which is currently being developed for the screen by James Franco), Wiseau is back with a new sitcom/train wreck web series. In The Neighbors, which was filmed in 2004, Wiseau plays himself…or an underwear salesman…or something, who…uh…. Anyway, there will be awkward laughter, confused accents and the ’80s-Jackie-Chan-esque dialogue that makes Wiseau’s work so loveable/detestable. Must be seen to be comprehended. Or not. – CM
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GUIDE | Food
How to Cook Meat Like a Chef LESSON 1: FLANK STEAK WITH HOMEMADE BBQ SAUCE
“RARELY IS A STEAK DONE WELL,” says chef Anthony Rose, the comfort food master behind Rose and Sons, Fat Pasha and the perennially popular Big Crow barbecue joint in Toronto. In his considerable experience, a gentle massage, a rest following the grill and the right accompaniments are key. He also opts for flank steak, a tougher cut with flavour for days.
BBQ SEASONING INGREDIENTS • 1 tsp garlic powder • 1 tsp onion powder • 1 tsp cayenne powder • 1 tsp chili powder • 2 tsp mustard powder • 1 tsp cumin • 1 tbsp sugar • 1 tbsp salt • 2 tsp paprika
GUACAMOLE
INGREDIENTS • 1 avocado • 1 tbsp red onion finely diced • 1 tsp jalapeños finely diced • 1 tbsp cilantro finely chopped • Salt to taste
THE STEAK INGREDIENTS • 1lb flank steak (around ¾ inch thick) • one lime, cut diagonally • mezcal INSTRUCTIONS Get the grill hot, and we mean hot Season steak with a healthy amount of salt, pepper, and the bbq seasoning Grill for 6 minutes on both sides Rest for 3 minutes Grill up the lime while the steak rests Slice against the grain; never follow the lines Plate it, drizzle with some mezcal, and splatter with sauce Drop guacamole on top Throw the lime on the side Eat it
INSTRUCTIONS Mix all above until well blended
INSTRUCTIONS Mix it all together
INGREDIENTS • 4 ancho chillies seeded • 4 cloves garlic crushed • ½ red onion sliced • ¼ cup brown sugar • ¼ cup molasses • ¼ cup maple syrup • ¼ cup mustard powder • ¼ cup ketchup • 1 tbsp cumin • 1 cup water • 1 cup cider vinegar INSTRUCTIONS Combine all ingredients except vinegar in a pot and simmer until the anchos are soft and sexy Blend the sauce until smooth Mix in the cider vinegar and let it sit out at room temperature
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PHOTO: NICOLE BREANNE HUDSON
BBQ SAUCE
GUIDE | The Traveling Man wicked Bloody Mary with the “blood” made in house, mixed with sake and topped with homemade pickles. HOPFIELDSAUSTIN.COM 3110 GUADALUPE ST.
E AT
BARLEY SWINE
1
Austin
TEXAS’ YEAR-ROUND FESTIVAL OF THE WEIRD AND WONDERFUL IN THE FAMILY OF AMERICAN CITIES, think of Austin as the cool uncle. Sure, it’s part of the Texas family, but it doesn’t really fit in. It’s a city that wears its weirdness on its sleeve (and notably on its denizens’ graphic t-shirts). But, it’s an oddness we can get behind. The city has great food and music year round—not just during their two exponentially expanding festivals: the spring hipster spectacle that is South By Southwest and the Austin City Limits Music Festival, headlined in October by Pearl Jam, Eminem and Outkast, among others. But if you’re not keen to wade into the sea of straw hats, beards and day-drinking youth so plentiful during those fiestas, there’s plenty to do when the kids are away.
D R I NK
LA CONDESA (1)
The best thing about eating Mexican is drinking Mexican. La Condesa, a modern Mexican restaurant right across from the Moody Theater (home of Austin City Limits and a reliable venue for whatever big-name acts come to town), has enough tequila and mezcal to put most of Austin down for a siesta. Choose from their list of over 100 tequilas (definitely try the Patrón Gran Burdeos) and pair one with
the fresh, citrusy Acapulco Ceviche or an order of the Huarache de Panza de Puerco (seared pork belly, blue cheese and apple-brown butter purée on a corn tortilla). If you’re not familiar with mezcal, start with the Fidencio Clasico, which is clean and approachable. If you’re a more seasoned drinker of Mexico’s smoky agave liquor, order Los Nahuales Reposado for its robust, spicy-sweet palate. LACONDESA.COM 400A W. 2ND ST.
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HOPFIELDS (2) Come for the beer; stay for the beer. Hopfields’ tap list features around 40 international crafts from breweries like the local 512, San Diego’s Ballast Point, Deschutes from Portland and Belgium’s De Brabandere. Pairing craft brews with French comfort food may not be obvious, but that’s exactly what they’re doing, and it works. The menu inspiration comes from the owner’s ancestors in northern France and includes classic recipes like moules frites and ratatouille. They also do a
2
Chef Bryce Gilmore got his start slinging pork belly sliders from a 1980s camping trailer. Now, he’s hitting on the trend of artistically balanced, locally sourced, made-for-sharing dishes from his 34-seat restaurant, Barley Swine. The menu is eclectic and cosmopolitan (a recent tasting menu included musk melon with sea urchin and antelope leg with eggplant and shishito peppers) but there’s a Southern simplicity in dishes like corn muffins with country ham and creamer peas that keeps it rooted firmly in place. BARLEYSWINE.COM 2024 S. LAMAR BLVD.
JOHN MUELLER MEAT CO.
In the Austin BBQ game there are two major contenders— both heavyweights in a state that takes its meat as seriously as its football. John Mueller is the third generation of pit men in his family and he sells
GUIDE | The Traveling Man
3 his fare in the self-proclaimed biggest backyard BBQ in Austin, working the pits himself from Thursday through Sunday. Pork shoulder, prime rib, turkey, sausage and pork ribs are on the menu, but the must-try item is the beef ribs. Mueller has mastered the difficult practice of barbecuing these—peppery black on the outside and dark, succulent red in the middle. JOHNMUELLERMEATCO.COM 2500 E. 6TH ST.
FRANKLIN BBQ (3)
Aaron Franklin’s brisket is epic—and that’s not a term we use lightly. Just ask anyone in the 200-person lineup at 9:30 a.m., two hours before opening. An alumnus of John Mueller’s, Franklin and his wife Stacy use all oak in their wood-fired smoker and nurture a crisp, peppery bark, in true Texas fashion. The result is one of the juiciest, tastiest meats to ever touch your palate. FRANKLINBARBEQUE.COM 900 E. 11TH ST.
CONTIGO (5)
Despite Austin’s LeftCoast-leaning politics and preponderance of hip coffee shops and galleries, Contigo will remind you that you are indeed still in Texas. Owner and GM Ben Edgerton’s family also owns Contigo Ranch, an exclusive hunting acreage near Corpus Christi. His idea was to bring the ranch to Austin, with wholesome, unfussy fare (which they
5 STAG – PROVISIONS FOR MEN (4)
4 describe as “fresh, quality barfood”), accompanied by a cold beer, and enjoyed outside whenever possible (and, in Austin, that’s often). The combination of leather, wood, open air, charcuterie and beer drawn from antler-handled taps (try the local Hops and Grain or Austin Beerworks) creates that unmistakably country comfort that is Texan hospitality. 2027 ANCHOR LN. CONTIGOTEXAS.COM/AUSTIN
STAY
HOTEL SAN JOSÉ
Liz Lambert is Austin’s golden hotelier, responsible for a handful of popular boutique hotels in West Texas, and her Hotel San José is a 1930s motor court turned 40-room, bungalow-style garden oasis. It’s ideally situated a couple of blocks from downtown along South Congress Ave., where handmade furniture, granite pathways, Malin + Goetz
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grooming products and a general rock-meets-western feel are perfectly curated. Book one of the Grand Suites for their secluded, rear-garden placement and patio. SANJOSEHOTEL.COM 1316 SOUTH CONGRESS AVE.
SH OP
SERVICE MENSWEAR
The owner of Service Menswear, Kirk Haines, is serious about clothing. Serious enough that he prewashes all washable wears he sells, so his customers know exactly how their purchase will look and fit after a run through the machine. He’s been dressing Austin’s gents for over two decades in brands like GANT Rugger, Alexander Olch and Canadian favourite Naked & Famous—the unifying characteristic is quality. Small space, great selection. SERVICEMENSWEAR.COM 1400 SOUTH CONGRESS AVE.
With a mix of new and vintage menswear, accessories and gifts like knives, art and taxidermy, this boutique is eccentric, stylish and a little bit country, without going full cowboy—you can buy your ten-gallon hat elsewhere. STAGAUSTIN.COM 1423 SOUTH CONGRESS AVE.
L I V E M U SI C
HOTEL VEGAS
The East Austin arts and entertainment district is a hotbed for blossoming artists. Twenty years from now you’ll be telling your teenaged kids about the time you saw such-and-such band at Hotel Vegas. “That was before they became mainstream,” you’ll say, and while they’ll still think you’re lame, you’ll know what being a father is all about. Show up early, shoot a game of pool, dance if you’re so inclined and then take in the warm Texas night air on the patio. TEXASHOTELVEGAS.COM 1502 E. 6TH ST.
09.14
LOOK BET TER • FEEL BET TER • KNOW MORE
The Insider’s Supercar NERDING OUT ON MCLAREN’S NEWEST $300,000 MARVEL BY MATT BUBBERS
WHO THE HELL IS MCLAREN? And how come their new 650S sports car costs as much as a Ferrari? Ferrari, at least, everybody has heard of. Glad you asked. McLaren, first, is a Formula One racing outfit. They exist to win races. Their words. And they follow through. Since arriving in the sport in 1966, they’ve won more Grands Prix than any other Formula One team. Take that, Ferrari. Then, in 1994, the team branched out into road-going cars with the McLaren F1, the first million-dollar supercar. It reigned, unchallenged, as king of the supercars for 10 years. Now, McLaren is making road-going machines again. First, the highly lauded 12C, then the 900+ horsepower P1 hybrid. CONTINUED ON P.66
SPECS ENGINE: 3.8-LITRE TWIN-TURBO V8 POWER: 641 HP GEARBOX: 7-SPEED DUAL CLUTCH PRICE: $287,000
MCLAREN 650S
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CARS MCLAREN, CONTINUED FROM P.64
The company’s pace is relentless. Always pushing, tweaking, improving its products—just as it does in Formula One. At the pinnacle of motorsport, if you’re not moving forward, you’re standing still. The rate at which McLaren is rolling out updates to its existing cars—pushing software and parts upgrades out to current customers like upgrades to your smartphone’s OS—is astonishing. Buy a McLaren, and your car will get better with age, as constant improvement continues. That brings us to the latest fruit of all that labour: the 650S. Effectively replacing the 12C, it takes all of the updates and lessons learned from that car and turns everything up several notches: new styling, new aerodynamics, new engine parts, new suspension. We’ve driven more than our fair share of $300,000-ish sports cars. But this one, the 650S, is the sharpest, most focused, most playful of them all. Initially, the 650S’s twinturbo, 650-horsepower V8 and ultra-light chassis will scare you. It feels like a fighter jet, and you aren’t a pilot. Except, after a couple of minutes, you begin to trust it. Trust yourself. And suddenly you’re Tom Cruise in Top Gun threading the needle and locking onto some Russian MIGs with the pedal down, driving towards, but effortlessly skirting, the danger zone. Just let the grin on your face as you step out of the cockpit speak for itself. Which, ephemeral as it may be, is what this car is all about. It doesn’t have namebrand recognition among the masses of, say, an Enzo or Gallardo. What it offers instead is instant credibility among petrolheads and a driving experience unlike any other. This is a supercar for supercar connoisseurs.
The subtle man’s hybrid
hybrids, the all-electrics showed up. These cars— like the Tesla Model S—ditched gas engines altogether in favour of bigger electric motors fed by massive battery packs. To charge em, you just plug em in. While this meant zero trips to the gas station ever, it also limited how far you could travel between charges. The A3 is a new sort of hybrid, combining the best of both technologies: you can plug it in and you can fill it up. It’ll do up to 50 kilometres of driving on electrons alone. Or, if the need arises—cottages, inlaws, Pink Floyd announces a tour date in the next province—you can get there on a combination of gas and electricity, the gas engine charging the batteries as you motor along. With its electric plug hidden neatly behind the front Audi emblem, the ENGINE: new e-tron is as subtle as 1.4-LITRE TURBO; it is practical. Plus, it has 75 KW ELECTRIC a spacious hatchback and POWER: the tight-as-a-drum driv204 HP ing feel you’d expect from GEARBOX: a German-engineered 6-SPEED DUALluxury car. It might just be CLUTCH the world’s most practical PRICE: car you’ll actually want. $46,000 (EST.)
AUDI’S A3 E-TRON SPORTBACK PROVIDES HYBRID EFFICIENCY WITHOUT SMUGNESS BY MATT BUBBERS
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CONGRATULATIONS, you’ve chosen a wonderful time to be in the market for a new car. In fact, it’s probably the best time since 1900. Not since then has there been such variety, innovation and rapid change in the market. At the turn of the last century, you could have your choice of powertrain: coal, electric or gasoline. (Yes, electric cars once shared the road with horses.) Gasolinepowered automobiles eventually won out and dominated the market for the last 100-odd years. But, now, again, there are alternatives. And the Audi A3 e-tron might just be the best one yet. If you were in the market for a hybrid, that used to mean a Toyota Prius—a car that looked different, and proudly projected its eco-friendly image for all to see. Hybrids use a small electric motor and battery pack in combination with a gas engine, and for a long time, as a rule, they weren’t fun to drive. Just as we were getting a handle on
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SPECS
09.14
LOOK BET TER • FEEL BET TER • KNOW MORE
Chalk Stripes
JOFFREY LUPUL presents: HOW TO REMIX A SUIT
JOFFREY LUPUL KNOWS his way around a suit. Over the last few seasons, the Maple Leafs alternate captain has emerged as one of the most stylish men in the NHL, with an eye for fashion that’s nearly as uncanny as his knack for finding the back of the net. That’s why we’ve asked the 30-year-old sharpshooter to guest edit this special section. Rather than just wearing a suit to work, it’s all about making your suit work for you. And nobody does that better than Lupul. —YANG-YI GOH
DOUBLE-BREASTED WOOL SUIT ($1,495) BY BOSS; COTTON SWEATSHIRT ($155) BY J.LINDEBERG; SUEDE SNEAKERS ($675) BY LOUIS VUITTON; STAINLESS STEEL REBEL AT HEART WATCH ($275) BY THOMAS SABO. 72 SHARPMAGAZINE.COM / SEPTEMBER 2014
“When I travel, I pack as light as possible. This is a great way to take the suit you wore to work and turn it into something casual and cool. In fact, 90 per cent of people won’t believe it’s the same suit at all. Throw on a sweater and add some sneakers and business turns casual, comfortable and pretty damn cool.”
P H O T O S : M C K E N Z I E J A M E S ; S T Y L I N G : J O E L L E L I T T F O R J U D Y I N C . ; G R O O M I N G : TA M I E L S O M B AT I F O R J U D Y I N C .
Guest Style Editor
You can knock all the fustiness out of even the staunchest boardroom-ready suits—this chalk-striped, double-breasted number, for instance—by pairing it with equally classic athletic garb, like a crewneck sweatshirt and tennis shoes.
STYLE | Trends
The backpack grows up
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BY YANG-YI GOH
SO YOU’VE GOT YOURSELF A HANDSOME NEW BIKE, perfect for cruising the streets in the crisp autumn air. Now, you need a handsome new backpack to go along with it. Dressed up in leather and laden with stylish details, the schoolyard favourite suddenly becomes far more distinguished, attractive and befitting a grown man than you could ever have imagined. It’s the best possible way to get your stuff from point A to point B without looking like you’re delivering a package.
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PHOTO: LIAM MOGAN; STYLING: SERGE KERBEL
STRAP IN
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GUIDE | The Reluctant Fanatic
O D E W W O #ALI H # #WINNING
#GOHAR
D E S S E #SOBL #TBT
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#KNOCKOUT
# O H S H* T
#REALTALK
HASHTAG SPORTS Watching the game live isn’t enough. You need to watch it live-tweeted. BY NICHOLAS HUNE-BROWN
LAST SPRING—in the midst of the basketball mania that briefly gripped a city desperate to love a team, any team, that displayed the slightest flicker of grit or heart—I went down to the Air Canada Centre to see the first Raptors playoff series in years. From the tip-off, the crowd was nuts. We screamed insults at Kevin Garnett, booed the officials whenever they called a Raptors foul, whooped every time little Kyle Lowry rumbled through the lane, a miniature version of that Raiders of the Lost Ark boulder. In the fourth quarter, with the Raptors hanging onto a slim lead, we stayed on our feet, high-fiving strangers after every bucket. It was one of the best sports crowds I’ve ever been a part of—a building humming with the kind of intensity you rarely find in notoriously buttoned-down Toronto. 90 SHARPMAGAZINE.COM / SEPTEMBER 2014
Still, standing in the midst of thousands of crazed fans with a close game unfolding beneath me, I couldn’t fight off the feeling that I was somehow missing out. How were the people on Twitter seeing the game? Was there a good joke going around? A key piece of off-court information I’d missed? In the two hours I’d been in the arena cheering myself hoarse, entire memes could have bloomed and died, new storylines concocted, developed and eventually abandoned. Seeing the game itself somehow wasn’t enough. It was a strange sensation: there I was, at the centre of the action, feeling left out. By now, the reflexive desire to reach for your smartphone has become a familiar feeling in all 21st century life, not just in the arena. With sports, though, the urge to get online feels like more than just the generic FOMO-itch of social media addiction. In a few short years, social media has changed what it means to be a fan in ways we’re only starting to appreciate.
GUIDE | The Reluctant Fanatic More and more, it feels like being online isn’t a distraction from the purity of fandom. It might be something closer to its essence. ••• It’s no secret that social media and sports are tailormade for one another. According to the Nielsen ratings, last year 50 per cent of all tweets about TV were about sporting events. Sports made up 12 of the top 20 most-tweeted TV broadcasts. While people get online to tweet about Game of Thrones or the Grammys, nothing matches the pull of a live sporting event. At a time when media is increasingly fragmented—with everybody watching different TV shows on their own time, reading the latest news on their own favourite website—sports provide the kind of big communal events on which social media thrives. During the first round of this summer’s World Cup, I went to my local café to spend the afternoon writing with the England-Uruguay game in the background. The place was quiet, filled with a few grad students pecking at their laptops and indifferent to the game. My Twitter feed, however, was an explosion of World Cup mania—insider soccer jokes and historical tidbits, smart analysis from journalists reporting from São Paolo next to groans of agony and wisecracks from idiots like me watching from home. A Twitter account run by deaf lip-readers followed the action, broadcasting the players pleas to the referees and curses at each other. Two journalists argued about whether a player who appeared to have been knocked unconscious should have continued playing. “Man they know better than to give Suarez that much room, bruh!” wrote Rihanna, after Uruguayan striker/cannibal Luis Suarez scored his second goal of the match, essentially ending England’s tournament. “With the constant disappointment and failure, watching England play football just feels like a normal day in my life,” journalist Navneet Alang tweeted. I favourited it. Watching the game with Twitter in the background was like sitting at a bar with a roomful of funny, erudite soccer fans. The standard criticism of social media is that it distracts you from the meaningful stuff of life. You’re so busy Instagramming the sunset, you don’t really see it. While eagerly checking the latest updates from your online friends, you ignore the people sitting next to you. Engagement with digital ephemera, the thinking goes, comes at the expense of the real. The thing about sports, though, is that they are, at their base, totally meaningless. Whatever meaning they have is created through fandom—the narratives we sculpt around individual players, the stupid traditions and sense of camaraderie we build with fellow hometown supporters, our personal history with a team, a connection that slowly grows over the years, accruing stray memories and dumb
jokes and agonizing experiences until, at a certain point, you realize you’re in a bizarrely intimate, long-term relationship with a collection of dudes who happen to be wearing a familiar logo on their chests. All of this happens outside the stadium. And, today, a lot of the experiences and emotions that give these silly games their weight and meaning happen in the digital realm. ••• A few days after the England game, eager to see what else this new Internet age might offer a sports fan, I downloaded a couple of those smartphone sports apps that promise to let you keep the game in your pocket. Immediately, FIFA began sending me regular “Powerade FIFA World Cup Match Alerts.” The Score texted me a dozen times a day with Blue Jays lineup information, alerting me whenever a player suffered a particularly violent sneeze or a bout of low self-confidence. Cryptic messages appeared on my screen throughout the day: “Hodgson receives FA reassurance,” my FIFA app informed me at dinner with my aunt and uncle. “G. Ramirez (in) comes off the bench to replace C,” it explained while I was making lunch. One night, my phone buzzed while my girlfriend and I were falling asleep. “Who’s texting you now?” my girlfriend asked. I stumbled over to the phone charger and peered at the screen: “Blue Jays P R. A. Dickey (groin) has Friday start pushed back to Sunday.” “It’s just an app telling me a Blue Jay player hurt his groin,” I explained. “Why the hell would anyone want that app?” she said. It was a fair question. The experience seemed to fundamentally misunderstand the pleasures of sports. If Twitter was like watching a game in a raucous bar full of passionate, witty people, the apps were like being forced to listen to a disturbed obsessive mechanically announce sporting facts every few minutes. The apps were also a reminder of the other side of this new era of sports—the age of constant fandom. When you’re watching the World Cup in a café or staying up late to catch a west coast basketball game, the barroom chatter of Twitter is a pleasure. But at a certain point, the constant stream of emotion, sports analysis and discussion can feel overwhelming. With enough people chattering, some early-round Wimbledon contest begins to feel like mustsee TV. Check online and find out someone across the continent is pitching a no-hitter into the eighth, and you scramble to tune in. It begins to feel insidious—both sports commissioners and Silicon Valley conspiring to keep you engaged and enthralled. Your smartphone or laptop is the new centre of sports fandom, the medium through which sports become consequential. I just don’t know whether that’s a good thing.
If Twitter was like watching a game in a raucous bar full of passionate, witty people, the apps were like being forced to listen to a disturbed obsessive mechanically announce sporting facts every few minutes.
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summer camp for
SWEARING AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE
TRAILER PARK BOYS F O N TA N A BY KAITLIN BARNES HY BY MAT T PHOTOGRAP
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TRAILER PARK BOYS
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ad there been such thing as trailer parks in Shakespeare’s day you better believe he’d have set a play or two there. Everybody knows the trailer park is where shit goes down. Instead, the task fell to a group of Canadian misfits—Mike Clattenburg, creator of Trailer Park Boys, and his stars: John Paul Tremblay (Julian), Robb Wells (Ricky) and Mike Smith (Bubbles)—to create the most unintentionally profound comedy of the 21st century, a lo-fi, mockumentary-style saga about dope, guns and power struggles with Maritime accents. “It’s kinda like COPS, but from the criminal’s point of view,” Ricky says, in the pilot episode, explaining the “documentary” crew following his and Julian’s return to Sunnyvale trailer park after an 18-month prison sentence. But he’s also explaining Trailer Park Boys to the as-yet-uninitiated TV audience, whose knowledge of the mockumentary format was so new—particularly in the US—some thought it was an actual documentary about small-town Canadian life. Interest exploded in the next decade: the series is set to return for a two-season-long arc on Netflix, Trailer Park Boys is broadcast across the globe and sells out arena-sized live touring shows from London, Ontario to London, UK. So how did a show about a group of petty criminals who never leave the trailer park, shot to look intentionally shitty and made with a tiny budget, become one of the biggest, most beloved comedies in the world? MIKE CLATTENBURG (SERIES CREATOR): I was watching a lot of documentaries, including Salesman by the Maysles brothers. But it was COPS that really caught my eye and inspired me. It was true cinéma vérité. I loved how it was shot. JONATHAN TORRENS (J-ROC): When I was 15, I started working on this consumer affairs teen show called Street Cents. A young buck by the name of Mike Clattenburg was hired to work there after making a name for himself with his cable show called That Damn Cable Show. When Mike and I met, I was already a fan. MIKE CLATTENBURG: JP [John Paul Tremblay] and Robb [Wells] were my pals who owned a pizza joint called JR Capone’s in PEI. They’d come to town and we’d hang out. I found them to be natural actors and encouraged them to do some shorts with me. ROBB WELLS (RICKY): JP and I have known each other since we were teenagers, about 30 years. JT: One of the things Mike and I would do was put in proposals to government agencies for funding to make music videos. We’d always put in a black and white film component to the pitches and then never shoot any black and white. Meanwhile, we were hoarding all this black and white film stock in our fridges for this short film we wanted to make. MC: In 1998, I made a black and white film starring JP and Robb called One Last Shot. It was about two guys 96 SHARPMAGAZINE.COM / SEPTEMBER 2014
falling in love and moving to Vancouver to grow dope. It also starred John Dunsworth as a drunk pet shop owner. JOHN DUNSWORTH (JIM LAHEY): We did One Last Shot for fun, there was no pay, and I got in trouble with my union for doing it. But if I hadn’t done that, Mike wouldn’t have cast me as Jim Lahey in the trailer park and I would not have enjoyed ten years of wonderment. SARAH DUNSWORTH (JOHN DUNSWORTH’S DAUGHTER; actress, SARAH): I met Mike [Clattenburg] when he auditioned for a role in a film; I was working at the casting agency. Mike is an extremely talented actor—I remember being completely blown away by his performance. After we finished, I walked him to his car and we smoked a joint. He was driving Ricky’s shitmobile when it was still green. MIKE SMITH (BUBBLES): I’m a musician. I played in a band called Sandbox. Once the band broke up I wanted to stay in the industry and I knew Mike was making a film. I had a little recording studio set up in my house so he asked me to record the audio. That’s where I met Robb and JP. JT: Halifax has the largest black
population in Canada, and Mike and I went to school with all these characters who spoke in the kind of local and regional patois, so we spoke like what would become J-Roc around the office all the time. One fateful evening, Mike’s friend John Paul Tremblay was visiting, and we were out drinking in downtown Halifax. We went for French fries, and John Paul said, “Pass the ketchup, J-Roc,” and that’s how the nickname was born.
encouraged by the response to the short, clattenburg created feature length film. a MC: Trailer Park Boys could look cheap and handheld which was perfect as I financed the film myself. We flew to Toronto, pitched one broadcaster who wasn’t interested, and came back home. But at the last minute we decided to try and land an unscheduled pitch. I’d heard that Showcase was doing edgy, original programming and we decided to give them a ring. Luckily, Laura Michalchyshyn was working late as usual.
The Creeper FOR NIGHTCRAWLER , JAKE GYLLENHAAL GETS UNCOMFORTABLY INTENSE B y G r e g Hu d s o n • P h o t o by B r i g i t t e L a c o m b e
J
ake Gyllenhaal can pull off creepy, but only just barely. Call it a hazard of being handsome. There’s a limit to what our mortal minds will accept or gloss over, no matter how vivid our imaginations, how staunch our suspension of disbelief. Essential as good looks are to being a leading man, they impede our belief that anyone with such a chiseled jaw and piercing eyes could be a peeping Tom, a crazed stalker or any number of other garden-variety weirdos. There’s a reason Steve Buscemi got all those parts for so long. In Nightcrawler, Gyllenhaal’s inherently sympathetic eyes, normally so puppy-like in their shape and appeal, are unsettlingly tweaked in their intensity and sunken into gaunt cheeks. He’s thin, so hungry he can’t be trusted. In Nightcrawler, Jake Gyllenhaal plays a video journalist with an increasingly good eye for the kind of violent videos that turn into lead stories on the morning news. It’s a thrilling piece of acting, and one that succeeds due to Gyllenhaal’s remarkable physical transformation. “That’s a ridiculous question!” he laughs. I’ve just asked him about his handsomeness—if he ever wishes he were less handsome. Because then he’d have more opportunity to play less handsome (and often more creepy) men. And while he laughs, not at all unkindly, at the question, he still has a bit of trouble answering it. After a few false starts, he says, “To me, I need to believe something internally is different, something, not all of it, but something internally is different from who I am. It’s about creating certain obstacles, as opposed to opposition. You create
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opposition, and that’s creativity. If there’s some rub, you know. But, if you can create an obstacle for yourself, or there is an obstacle there, it allows you to see something from a different angle. I like to create obstacles for the character. And things come from that. You want the power of the character to precede the power of the person playing them. I wanted to fit the character, as opposed to making the character fit me.” “So, you don’t want to be less handsome,” I say, summarizing whatever it was he said. “It’s sounds like you do,” he jokes back. It’s a fair point. You do kind of wish Jake Gyllenhaal were less handsome. Not because you aren’t fond of his work—who could be un-fond of Gyllenhaal’s work: from his breakout in Donnie Darko through his Oscar nod for Brokeback Mountain, and, now, well into his intense indie phase, he consistently improves whatever he’s in. He’s likeable and legitimately good. Good enough to make you wonder how much more interesting a performer he’d be if his face was just a little less symmetrical. Nonetheless, he has not taken the straight road to action franchise leading man-dom. He has yet to play a superhero, and his work becomes more and more furious and nuanced as his perspective broadens. “There are these moments where I think what I do is so serious. I take it so seriously. I try to give it everything I can give it. And that’s coupled with thinking that it’s so absurd. Realizing that I am only making a movie. And it’s fucking awesome. This is ridiculous and extraordinary.”
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There’s no combination more reliable, smart or masculine than a pair of rugged leather boots worn with tough denim jeans Photography by McKenzie James • Styling by Joelle Litt for Judy Inc.
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Leather boots ($275) by ECCO
Wool pea coat ($1,175) by Diesel Black Gold; cotton jeans ($225) by Rogue.
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LEATHER JACKET ($1,900) BY CARLOS CAMPOS; COTTON SWEATER ($215) AND COTTON JOGGERS ($215) BY OLIVER SPENCER; CASHMERE SCARF ($545) BY ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA; LEATHER SNEAKERS ($130) BY BEN SHERMAN. 114 SHARPMAGAZINE.COM / SEPTEMBER 2014
PLAYING BLUES P H OTO G RAPHY BY
MATT DOYLE
S T YLING BY
ALVARO SALAZAR
FOR AGENT OLIVER
DOESN’T MATTER IF IT’S INDIGO, COBALT OR NAVY— SUITED UP OR DRESSED DOWN, BLUE IS THE FALL’S MOST VERSATILE COLOUR. WE ASKED THE BLACKLIST STAR DIEGO KLATTENHOFF TO DEMONSTRATE.
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Wool duffle coat ($1,495), virgin-wool cotton suit ($995), cotton shirt ($205), silk tie ($125) and leather belt ($165) by BOSS; Carrera 41 mm Twin-Time Automatic watch ($3,300) by TAG Heuer.
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The season’s most polished looks from the designers that matter now
Photography by Karl Simone • Styling by Christopher Campbell for Atelier Manag ement
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Sharp iPad Edition FEATURING
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SHARP | RANK & FILE
OUR HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC RANKING OF THINGS THAT DO AND DO NOT DESERVE YOUR ATTENTION 1
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is a sign of sartorial savvy. Plus, it makes your shoulders look bigger, bro.
5. Marathon men
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The fall is the time to finally run that marathon you’ve been training for these past few months. Because those running selfies have better not been for nothing.
6. Non-specified iDevice
2. Liam Neeson This fall, Liam Neeson will star in A Walk Among the Tombstones. Rest assured, there will be neck punching, kidnapping and Neeson’s “very specific set of skills.”
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3. Nerds take over your TV
7 1. Canadians in the NBA Time to retire that Steve Nash jersey. Andrew Wiggins, Tyler Ennis, and Nik Stauskas hit the big time this season.
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With Gotham, Agent Carter, The Flash and Constantine, along with the return of Arrow and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, we get to continue seeing the results of millions of comic-book nerds growing up and taking over pop culture.
4. Dude, where’s your tie? Once the go-to style choice of East London hipsters, now buttoning up your oxford all the way sans tie
While it is impossible to know the exact details of what the new gizmo from Apple will be, we’re willing to go against the grain and say that it is absolutely life changing and paradigm shifting, but also it could have been better.
7. Paula Deen was right (about one thing) Butter has long made bread, pasta, vegetables and nearly every other food better, and now it’s back from exile as the artisanal ingredient of the season. Don’t hold your breath, Velveeta.
8. E-cigarettes Should you ever doubt the addictive pull of nicotine or the power of marketing, just look to the rise in popularity of the e-cigarette. Because it is scientifically impossible to look cool smoking a little flashlight.