I-Magazine Vol 3#6

EPICURE JESSE PARROTTI INSIDE “MANTRA” PETITENGET CASTE EYEWEAR BALI’S BREWS FOOD & NUTRITION

FASHION, ART, SURF, LIFESTYLE BALI

Vannesa Montiel

h u ’u BA R O N E O F L I F E ’ S P L E A S U R E S … PA R T Y I N G

EVERY SATURDAY | 10 PM ONWARDS.

Mash-up of the best in classics, pop, R&B & top 40 hits. cel e b r a t i ng o ur 1 0t h anni v e rs ary in 20 12 r e s er va t i o ns + 62 3 61 4 73 6576, h uu b a li.c o m, jalan p e t it e n ge t , s e min ya k , bali 8 0 36 1

CONTENTS

SYLE

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FEATURES

14

PITCH BLACK GOLD SHOPPING GUIDE

BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU

REVIEW

26

I-RECOMMENDS

28

HOMEGROWN

KAYTI

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38

BAMBOO BLONDE

THE LATEST CAMPAIGN

BY BIANKA

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MANTRA

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CASTE EYEWEAR

A 4 COURSE LOVERS DISCOURSE ANNISA

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FASHION INSIDE ONE OF OUR FAV NEW BAR/RESTAURANT HAUNTS

BY ANDREW CAMPBELL

BY ANDREW CAMPBELL

THREE KINGS

A LOOK INTO THE CHEFS OF KUDETA, HU’U BAR AND W HOTEL MARIAH

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JESSE PARROTTI

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT

THIS MONTH’S ARTIST ON PROFILE ANNISA

TAH RIQ

Cover Girl: Salvita for So Wanted Photography by Andrew Campbell Hair, Make-up & Styling Julhenry for PAC Shirt by models own Shorts by Puravida Sunnies by Cast Eyewear

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The Bali beer code. Editor’s selection

EDITOR”S NOTE

EDITOR’S NOTE EPICURE

The age-old adage says, “you are what you eat”, and as cliché as that may sound, it’s spot-fuckin-on! We, as human beings, grow; we feed, and we digest. Everything. The eye candy we feast on is what we look like; the words we devour in a book are metabolized into train of tho ughts. Morsels of ideas marinated in a tangy effervescent flow of creative juices. Taste goes beyond the tongue, taste is a multisensory entity and flavors are all around us.

This is us! A people living life through a buffet of discourses and main courses, with a mouthful of opinions, swallowing our shame, but also feeding our souls, always indulging our fancies, craving for more, quenching our thirst for knowledge and appetite for destruction, sinking our teeth into life because life is a piece of cake.

This is us! We are what we eat. We are the epicures of life.

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CREDITS

PUBLISHER

(PT MITRA MANDIRI SEMP URNA) TRAFFIC@WWMEDIA.ASIA REG. NO. 65/HK.HM/IV/BITD/2008

ADMINISTRATION MANAGER OCHA (TRAFFIC@WWMEDIA.ASIA)

CONTRIBUTORS ANDREW,ANNISA,ASHIYA,MARIAH,JULHENRY, KAYTI, TAHRIQ

ACCOUNT MANAGER RATU AYU . M (RATUAYU.M@HOTMAIL.COM) DISTRIBUTION ADHI KET UT INTERN JAYA SALES ENQUIRIES P +62 857 9295 3502 JL. DHYANA PU RA NO. 5, SEMIN YAK - BA LI P + 62 361 863 79 79 VIEWS EXPRESSED ARE NOT NECESSARILYTHOSE OFTHE EDITOR’S AND PUBLISHER’S. ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT©2008PT.MITRAMANDIRI SEMPURNA.THE PUBLISHERWILL NOT BEHELDRESPONSIBLEFORCOPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENTSONIMAGESSUPPLIEDBY ADVERTISERSAND,ORCONTRIBUTORS. WWW.WWMEDIA.ASIA

IN THE KNOW...

Mantra has officially opened... Oazia Spa Vodka rocked the island with another killer party... Kudeta is warming up for some big high season events... Potato Head has FatBoy Slim playing at their beach club venue in June...

Alex V leaves Bali for Berlin, sadly missed by all... Too much international media about Bali’s dirty beaches for anyone to ignore... Drop Cafe in Jl Petitenget is having really cool garage sales on selected Sundays (check their Facebook)... African dancing at Desa Seni... Sadly for all, La Barca and Cosy Wheels and Karma were all shut down as the Government decided to excercise laws on beach bars. Batu Belig is now dead... And, speaking of death, an extraordinary person has just tragically left us. Cade Dallas was one hell of a surfer, had probably the most successful retail shop in Bali (Somewhere), and lived life harder and faster than even most most rock stars dream of. A true one of a kind. I am sure he is finally resting peacefully “somewhere’.

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The show must go on JAV I E R B ON E T FOOD ST YLI ST

Clothes that inspire.

Nusa Dua Shop: Unit A16#2A, Bali Collection, Nusa Dua/Bali.

Legian Shop: Jl. Legian 133-B, Kuta/Bali.

Seminyak Shop: Jl. Basangkasa 10, Seminyak, Kuta/Bali.

www.moonrocks.es

contact@moonrocks.es

‘THE DAY IS COMING WHEN A SINGLE CARROT FRESHLY OBSERVED WILL SET OFFAREVOLUTION.’-PAULCEZANNE

photograph by ashiya

I-MAG-ONLINE.COM

I - RECOMMENDS

A DECADE OF ANGELS BIASA IN SANUR The fashion label known for its extraordinary simplicity, Biasa, has recently opened up in Sanur, adding another flagship shop to their already existing stores in Seminyak, Ubud, and also across the sea in Jakarta.

The brand, founded by Susanna Perini, is all about light comfortable fabrics, original patterns, and basic colors – all ready to wear in design-driven biased cuts, versatile shapes and forms, and earthy ethnic tones. Following Biasa’s visually provocative campaign last year, we are excitedly anticipating what the creative-heads at the label come up with next. Biasa is where simplicity speaks in extraordinary volumes.

Biasa Jl. Danau Tamblingan no. 37, Sanur www.biasabali.com

It’s that time of the year again, when Bali institute KU DE TA summons angels from all over the island in the name of charity. On June 16, 2012, top class chefs, entertainers and guests from across Asia will all come together at KU DE TA, Bali to celebrate the 10th anniversary of I’m An Angel, a non-profit foundation established to empower remote and impoverished Balinese communities and greatly improve their standard of living. An All Star guest chef line up for the evening will include Ryan Clift from the award-winning Tippling Club in Singapore; Janice Wong from Singapore’s cult favorite 2am:dessertbar; Will Meyrick from Sarong and the recently launched Mama San here in Bali; Dorin Schuster from The Legian Bali and Stefan Zijta from Alila Villas Uluwatu, Bali. They will join KU DE TA’s very own chefs Philip Davenport, Ben Cross and Will Goldfarb to collectively craft a decadent 6-course menu.

Doing good never tasted so good.

KU DE TA Jl. Kayu Aya, no. 9, Seminyak www.kudeta.net

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CIRQUE DU LAIT Adding to the already festive party for your taste buds usually served at Sea Circus in Seminyak, the café slash restaurant slash ultra-hip hangout joint slash creators of sinfully salacious drinks, have recently opened their gelato bar, part of their yummy ‘Cirque du Lait’ – where dairy goodness reigns supreme.

Flavors like Bacio, Strawberry, Yoghurt, and Pistachio, among many others, are ready to be devoured in a cone or cup – offered in three sizes – to satisfy your cold creamy cravings.

Sea Circus Jl. Kayu Aya no. 22, Seminyak www.seacircus-bali.com

I - RECOMMENDS

THE CORAL TRIANGLE DAY Desa Seni, A Village Resort, is raising awareness and taking part in the massive celebration of The Coral Triangle Day (June 9) by holding a free film festival showcasing some of the most interesting documentaries and films based on the sea. Featuring films ‘Whaledreamers’, ‘The Mirror Never Lies’ and ‘Shark Sanctuary’, the event aims to spread the word about the importance of taking care of not only what happens above sea level, but also of what lies beneath.

The Coral Triangle is the underwater equivalent of the Amazon. It harbors more species than any other marine environment on the planet, including 76% of all coral types and more than 3000 species of fish. It passes through the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor L’Este. It is also one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

Desa Seni, A Village Resort Jl. Subak Sari, no. 13, Canggu www.desaseni.com

BE HAIR NOW It can be difficult to find a trust-worthy hairstylist in Bali,

and it’s not uncommon to find people flying elsewhere just to get a haircut. As superficial as it may seem, finding the words “Get haircut” on someone’s list of things to do when they travel out of Bali is as normal as brushing your teeth.

Fret not! Essensuals Hairdressing is here! A diffusion of the world famous Toni & Guy organization, Essensuals Hairdressing was launched in Bali last year by David Mercer, director of Toni & Guy and Essensuals salons and academies in Singapore and Malaysia.

The salon is situated on the second floor of the new Deus ex Machina building on Jalan Oberoi, Seminyak.

As Jim Morrison once said, “Some of the worst mistakes in my life were haircuts,” – lucky we won’t have any problems with that anymore.

Essensuals Hairdressing Bali Deus Building, 2nd Floor Jl. Oberoi, no. 3B, Seminyak

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GODFATHER OF GOOD TIMES The godfather of funk is back! This month, Sir Norman Jay gears up to do what he does best: show us a good time. He performed at President Obama’s inauguration and has received an MBE medal from the Queen of England for his services to music. He don’t need to be officially knighted to be called Sir, we all know when respect’s due and this modern-day music hero has earned it proper.

Headlining the kick-off to this year’s high season highlights on June 23, Sir Norman Jay brings the funk to Rock Bar alongside Beau Robb, Joe White, Yasmin Suteja, and Martin East. Bust out your dancing shoes and badunk-a-dunk for a boogie down by the sea.

Rock Bar AYANA Resort & Spa Bali Jl. Karang Mas Sejahtera, Jimbaran http://www.ayanaresort.com/rockbarbali

REVIEW

HOMEGROWN: THE BREW CODE Getting local produce is the new black, and it doesn’t stop at foods either. Indonesia’s got some great breweries and some are right here on the island. Skull down some homegrown brew, and while you’re at it, we’re giving you some suggestions to keep the foamy buzz afloat. Cheers!

STORM BEER Made from wheat Tastes like all the colors of the drunken rainbow.

Think various natural flavors, which differ according to brewing process and ingredients. Choose depending on how you roll – you can go light fruity ale or go all out and get a more spicy, rich tang. They’re the proverbial ice cream parlor of beer.

Pair it with the color of underwear you have on today, since they have so many types. And if you’re flying commando, order a round of each.

Drink when you’re making a mixtape and need different flavors to keep your musical juices flowing.

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REVIEW

ALBENS CIDER

BALI HAI

STARK BEER

Made from apples Tastes like Christmas in a bottle.

Think good old cider, served cold and crisp.

Pair it with festive foods, like a cinnamon bun or a nice smoked ham.

Drink when you’re not a beer kinda person but all your friends are and everyone’s holding a bottle and you feel left out and the bar doesn’t serve your preferred brand of poison.

Made from yeast Tastes like a lighter shade of beer.

Think a long-time runner in the game with an empire to match.

Pair it with french fries and a burger.

Drink while watching the game on a big screen TV, shouting at the top of your lungs for the player to get that fucking ball in already.

Made from wheat Tastes like tangy, earthy spice, without the hangover.

Think newcomer in the beer scene, doing it proper; they are the first to brew wheat; all made with 100% natural ingredients and processes, which means a hangover isn’t something to look out for later. Stark makes two kinds of beers: Wheat and Dark Wheat, both distinctive in taste.

Pair it with spicy, chunky foods; like a hearty beef burrito with extra chipotle salsa and jalapenos on the side.

Drink when you have an early flight the next day but still want to party the night before.

‘YOU CAN’T BE A REAL COUNTRY UNLESS YOU HAVE A BEER AND AN AIRLINE. IT HELPS IF YOU HAVE SOME KIND OF A FOOTBALL TEAM, OR SOME NUCLEAR WEAPONS, BUT AT THE VERY LEAST YOU NEED A BEER.’ - THE BOOK OF ZAPPA

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F E AT U R E

BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS

in Nusa Tenggara Timur in favor of supporting the local farmers by purchasing maize and beans. A child with a full stomach will feel better, and do better at school.

Earlier this year, WFP Indonesia Country Director, Coco Ushiyama made a statement to mark World Nutrition Day, “Proper nutrition is at the heart of all progress, contributing to the development of healthier, stronger and brighter citizens. It has an integral role in poverty reduction and sustainable economic development achievements. “

WORDS BY: KAYTI

FOOD FUCKS YOU UP. Food is the ultimate weapon in a war on nutrition and intuition and you have to be a braver soul than most to wrangle yourself from its control.

Nutrition is good – it is the fuel that lights our fires. But food, or the stuff that we label as food, that stuff is not real fuel; it is a firecracker of combustibles that sets in motion a raft of really nasty reactions your body must fight to digest, break down, and dispose of. A lot of food is shit. It starts as shit and becomes shit. Processed chemicals, protein particles wrapped up in fats, deep fried and sprinkled with boosters, energizers and taste maximizers.

IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT CHOICE Nutrition, though, is not available to everyone. Getting enough to eat remains a priority for those who do not have the recourse to pursue choice, or nutrition, they just have to eat. What they eat becomes a problem when they are unable to create varied diets from their crops and livestock, when their land suffers desertification and its results arrive over water disputes, when they are corralled in camps instead of wandering their lands. Without crops and with only random food drops, famine affects entire communities of displaced people and they are eating what they can, when they can.

925 million people globally do not have enough to eat, and to help you get your head around what that looks like, one in seven people will go to sleep tonight very, very, hungry. Indonesia, while well on the way to achieving its status label as a lower-middle income country, remains undernourished through much of its Eastern provinces, starting right here in Bali. Food price hikes are the foundation of much of the problem, although availability to good nutrition is also compromised through the provision of hybrid strain rice and easy to unpack instant noodles that deliver salty satisfaction in a warm cup of nothing much good for you.

In recognition of the magnitude of the problem, the Indonesian Government has launched initiatives, and organizations like World Health Organization and the WFP, the World Food Program, are working in remote regions to address the problem.

The solution lies in reclaiming the right to farming lands and the right to plant indigenous, non-chemically modified and treated crops.

The WFP recently phased out their provision of energy biscuits to school children

Hungry people are not dying to be thin; they are dying because they are thin.

Conversely in America, over 50% of teenage girls and just under a third of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting, and taking laxatives that they attribute to pressure from their peers; and for a stunning 47% of high school students, it was the idealized images of men and women portrayed by the media that drove them to limit their food intake. Criticism for being overweight in America is more than unusual; it is an insidious commentary on status, intelligence, and ability to succeed, and along with it comes a poisonous Pandora’s Box of insinuations, guilt, self blame, blatant temptation and punishing reward.

Mentally, eating disorders can do more to harm you than depression or schizophrenia, and 20% of people with anorexia will die from complications caused by their malnourishment.

So, no body is perfect, and while the contrasting evidence points at food, as opposed to nutrition, as the culprit for these two extremes, the case in food’s defense is based on the argument that it is not what something is, but what is done with it.

THE POLITICS OF STARVATION George Orwell wrote an essay at the end of World War Two arguing against Britain being urged to send food to the starving of Germany when Britain itself was suffering a lack of nutrition, something that only ended in the late 1950’s when rationing was finally ended.

In places like Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya, food aid ends up sold in shops and the traditional livestock of goats have long since starved to death forcing the once nomadic tribes to wait in one place for food. But as Dan Hind, of Al Jazeera, points out, it is not food that will solve this problem; “Like conflicts, famines are not inevitable and they do not happen in isolation from the rest of the world. A drought is a natural event. Mass starvation is not. It is political, insofar as it is the consequence of human decision-making.”

Somalia is a case in point where, although drought has affected much of the region, the Somalis suffer most due to the longstanding political conflict in which, according to Andrew Harding of the BBC, “America and other powers are deeply involved.” He goes on to urge that any reporting on ‘famine’ must provide not just “adequate coverage of the famine in Somalia” but “the pattern of action and inac-

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F E AT U R E

“....‘Shamefullyindulgent’,‘guilty pleasure’,and‘sinfullydelicious’are justthreetagstothemerchandising ofmanufacturedfoodproductsthat actuallygoallouttotemptyouinto wicked abandon.”

tion that made it possible”, including the dynamics of foreign intervention.

Hind continues to note climate change is bringing more, and more intense, droughts to East Africa and hopes that by referencing external influences, the connection can be made between the results of lifestyle choices and the depletion of resources worldwide. He mentions, too, that images of starving children do little to help the situation; in fact, he believes these images leave “us free to blame the victims of our own appetite for cheap energy. “ It seems that Chumbawumba, the British band who so boldly proclaimed in the wake of LiveAid pictures of starving children sell records were correct. The thirty million pounds raised for “Africa” by LiveAid certainly put much needed food on plates and the efforts of the organizers created an aid movement that has allowed for celebrity involvement where politicians fear to tread, Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp with Farm Aid, and Sean Penn in Haiti are but three of the many “Celebrities as Aid workers” who get out and amongst it. LiveAid sadly, also designated “Africa”, a richly diverse country to a one name generic that encompassed all that was wrong with the world: HIV-AIDS, corruption, disease, and political instability, as if it existed nowhere else.

THE BEAUTY MYTH Written some twenty years ago by Naomi Wolf, “The Beauty Myth” set out to enlighten a whole generation to the manipulations of the media, photographers, fashion designers, and the film and television industry, who had replaced the old oppressive ‘female’ virtues of chastity, domesticity, passivity and motherhood, that had been refreshingly remodeled by the social revolution and birth control, by creating an even more powerful tool by which to repress the growing emancipation of the female. While Wolf’s howl was loud, the portrayal of women in the media is no less damaging today than it was then. It may have even gotten worse as the popular media regularly eats its young in headlines that demand we see “Stars without their makeup”, “Stars with cellulite”, and shockingly, “Stars eating” or “Off the Rails”.

“Who cares?!” We are all supposed to shout deafeningly but where’s all the noise?

We’re too frightened to make noise. There’s less of “we will not stand for it”, more a case of “we will not stand UP for it”. Women and men can no longer stand up for their rights to be a healthy human. As The Fat Nutritionist tells it: “In truth, there are healthy and unhealthy people of every shape and size, and everyone has the right to eat as they choose, move as they choose (or not), and everyone has the right to exist within their body without anyone waging war on them.” She continues that no one can be shamed into good health and that stigmatizing people is counterproductive to fostering good health, and she is right. Shame is the ammunition of food; shame, guilt and sin.

“Shamefully indulgent”, “guilty pleasure”, and “sinfully delicious” are just three tags to the merchandising of manufactured food products that actually go all out to tempt you into wicked abandon.

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FOOD WILL TEAR US APART. Food sublimates our desires for sexual intimacy, comfort and relationships and offers us the eternal nurture of satisfying appetites that have become craven and addicted to the immediate rush of energy provided by processed sugars, creamy icing and softly seductive chocolate. …But why?

Because in ancient times we celebrated times of plenty, because life was lean and our efforts at toil brought food to the table, not cakes and muffins and candy but real food. And because we deserve good nutrition and we deserve to celebrate life’s victories over hardship and our personal challenges with enjoyable rewards.

Yet we have now become victims of plenty, victims of too much, and we punish ourselves with our gluttony and excess in ways that are cruel and barbaric.

We have become victims to the modern lifestyle that no longer allows a family to enjoy a home cooked meal with delight; no, we are convinced that family should be celebrated under the neon of fast food emporiums, flaunting our ‘plenty’, even as we drift into a poverty of nutrition, pushed and shoved into creating even more money to eat up highly calorific, loaded with carbs and deficient of the goodness food. The ‘food’ we are led to believe exists amongst the molecules of saturated fats, strands of processed proteins and C5H8NNaO4.

HELP IS ON ITS WAY. I don’t care what anyone says, Jamie Oliver is a hero. Single handedly, sort of, he has demanded we pay attention to the disconnect that exists between our food and our image of ourselves as a highly evolved life form and showed us that we are what we eat.

Alongside him are the food revolutionaries on both sides of the battle to save us from malnutrition that are turning the tables on the fast food industry and forcing us to relearn what good ‘taste’ actually means.

I don’t think for a moment that the big food corporations will ever back down or that the chemical companies will apologize for stripping rice of its value, and while I still won’t eat a Big Mac, even if it’s marketed as ‘slow cooked’, and I don’t want Nigella to go fat free on me either; but I do want to see a future where food is secure, where our crops are safe, where the developing world is supported to farm, and not be farmed to become dependent on formula and colored milk, and the taste buds of generations to come salivate at the popping of a peapod, and not microwaved corn drenched in flavored corn syrup.

I want a future that doesn’t bully me into believing I will be happy, fulfilled and successful if only I were a few kilos lighter. I want my daughters, and everyone else’s children, to be happy for who they are, not what they look like; to be rewarded with love, not food; to be told that health is not about shape, but fitness; that beauty is about inner peace and happiness, not external packaging; and I want to go to the gym to build up strength and tone without being intimidated by women who look like bicycle parts.

PRODUCTS

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PRODUCTS

PITCH BLACK GOLD Opposite Page (from top to bottom) Electric Arcolux Sunglass in Cocoa Why Not Mens Necklace Vannesa Montiel Grande Necklace Vannesa Montiel Grande Earring This Page (from top to bottom) Vannesa Montiel Grande Necklace Vannesa Montiel Grande Ring Electric Bunsen Sunglass in Vagabond Green

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LOOKBOOK

BAMBOO BLONDE

IMAGES BY BIANKA STYLING HAIR & MAKE UP BY JULHENRY FOR PAC ALL CLOTHING FROM BAMBOO BLONDE MODEL: CLAUDIA FOR SO WANTED

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LOOKBOOK

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F E AT U R E

A 4-COURSE LOVER’S DISCOURSE

From lover number four (long-standing; platonic): ‘They could make a film based on our relationship, but they already did and named it Lost in Translation and you know, Scarlett Johansson’s lips aren’t nearly as beautiful as yours but you are a condescending human being, like her character in the film, which, to me is both alluring and sickening. You intellectually condemn people just because they don’t know who Robert Mugabe is, that’s inhumane. But I suppose that’s why you’re so lonely, you’re supremely picky of who deserves to be graced with your presence. I think you’re inhumane to yourself, mostly.’

WORDS BY: ANNISA

‘You right slut. Have fun.’

An email from my publisher. Her audacious brevity is a reply to my previous email: ‘Cannot get on Skype now. Have date. Not with that one, different guy. Don’t wait up.’

As un-professional as my email to her was, my publisher is a constant supporter of my emotional – and, thus, physical – polyandry.

From lover number five: ‘I understand. You’re a child of the galactic massive. I love your energy and I cannot harness it for my own self, your state of transcendent spirituality cannot be held – it’s neither yours nor mine. You’re a vessel made of carbon and stardust and you’re golden, and Universal love is manifest through your solar plexus from the cosmos. I dig it, sister.’

I could join a circus company, with these adept juggling skills of mine. I’ve always wanted to get a job that requires me to travel. Rubber balls and human hearts are different, though – with one, you squeeze and it bursts; and it’s a proper vermillion mess. Rubber balls bounce back and cost six dollars by the dozen at the local shop.

From lover number six (short-lived, experimental): ‘My ex-boyfriend was such an asshole. I’m off the dick forever.’

From an ex-partner: ‘I hate you, you selfish bitch.’

From my publisher: ‘You right slut. Have fun.’

The amuse bouche is just being served at our table. He looks delicious, he held his breath and the door for me, he gives me butterflies. They all do, for a while. I think perhaps all I’m doing is chasing butterflies.

Before I consciously accepted the fact that I could not be a monogamous woman, girlfriend, partner, I did many a psychoanalysis of myself and turned to Jung for intellectual solace from my gnawing guilt and to The Tibetan Book of the Dead for spiritual explanation – perhaps I was King Henry VIII in a past life? Maybe I could join that “daddy issues” club everyone is talking about?

I have since then realised that the Bernfield Factor is not a factor, neither is the excuse of broken-hearted melancholy so often promoted in sweet surrender by Sade. It is what it is; there is no complex explanation behind my tendencies. It’s those damn butterflies.

Like all misunderstood, frowned-upon, socially unaccepted forms of behaviour – commonly conducted by boutique serial killers, politicians, high-end prostitutes, religious polygamists, cult leaders, drug dealers, etc – there is a code of conduct, which I’ve formulated for myself: 1. No expectations, only intentions.

2. No philandering with philanderers. I’m not down wit’ OPP, yo.

3. Choose well with whom to get involved and the roles they play in the grand scheme of things. Possess the observation and meticulous heed of an art curator and the illation and astute logical reasoning of Sherlock Holmes. Proceed to woo sensibly and tread carefully.

4. Stay detached.

5. And the most fundamental one: always be honest about the situation, to everyone involved, including myself.

From my mother: ‘You are one lost soul, but you’ll find it one day, you crazy woman. Just wait.’

In an online essay I chanced upon called “The Rationalization Behind Cheating”, there is a paragraph that really stuck with me:

My father: ‘My darling girl, I pray to God I had nothing to do with this development of your emotional blueprint.’

From lover number one: ‘Please share your life with me, please meet my family, please open your heart and let me in, please hold my hand, please say after all this, it’ll only be me in the end. Please. Please. Please me.’

From lover number two: ‘You’re convenient. So want to grab a burger?’

“This illusionary problem serves as another mask for the cheater. This mask (or framework) covers up the negativity associated with selfish need fulfilment.

Cheaters typically act as they do because they require a high degree of personal want that operates outside the confines of the relationship. These are often sexual compulsions, low self-esteem, and perpetual loneliness.”

Can’t really relate with sexual compulsions or low self-esteem, but that other one, oh yes. Perpetual loneliness – a malaise I must endure as a result of my love-style.

Oh, what a vicious perpetual cycle that I pedal. It’s Tour de France without the scenery.

From lover number three: ‘I am afraid of love. This works perfectly, [overly intellectual conversation on socio-politics, current global affairs, and / or art history ensues].’

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F E AT U R E

“...Loveisaverb.

Onecannotbein lovebyproxy.The actionsthatprecipitatelovehave nothingtodowith love.”

But I am not cold-hearted and devoid of emotions, not at all! I am not structured and / or methodical in jumping off the ledge into a sea of love; I do not calculate the angle of projection, the approximate duration of being airborne in free-fall, the distance from point of convergence, the width / length ratio of the eventual splash that awaits beneath. I just dive in. I wear my heart on my sleeve and that sleeve is worn and torn but also always being reborn and re-sewn with ease and speed as if I had Grimm’s shoemaker and elves on constant standby hidden in one of my drawers. This is why I dive in, this is my scuba diving gear: the knowledge that my heart can regenerate so easily, which, according to lover number four, is mainly because said organ was never really touched in the first place. Now, that statement touched me.

Touchée. He studied psychology. I study his face.

Me: ‘Picasso said, “Art is a lie that makes us realise the truth”…very much like love.’

Lover number indefinite: ‘Love is not a lie; it’s a dialogue…very much like art.’

Me: ‘I make art but all my art is hanging in other people’s homes. I have had many houses but I’m looking for a home. I want to unpack the art I’ve created for myself.

I want a place to finally hang them.’

Lover number indefinite: ‘Picasso was an artist, not a lover. You are a lover who happens to be an artist. Love is a dialogue; you perform two-way monologues.

Until you participate in this exchange of emotional narrative with me, it isn’t really love. So with that, I say freely, I love you. Or not really. It’s up to you.’

My dinner date.

The third course is being served – spiced black pudding with corn and pork belly rillet and quail eggs in a pond of sweet Massaman sauce and kaffir lime bubbles, easily the best culinary experience I have ever had in my entire life, and here I am sharing it with lover number indefinite whom so far proves to be an appropriate side dish to my buffet of self-scrutinty.

Hello, stimulus! And in I dive. I will do this over and over and over until I find that one (hopefully, fit) body of water in which I can still breathe sans diving gear. And I, in return as well, will be His breath of fresh air. And I will then finally hang my art on my own walls.

I have been called a feminist and it makes me cringe to be put in a labelled box.

I thought Germaine Greer was a foolish pseudo-feminist when I first read The Female Eunuch at the age of 15. This was because reading her book did not result in me feeling more empowered as a woman, it merely made me feel more powerful than a man, which, I later philosophised, defeats the whole objective of female liberation, since the benchmark of power still sits on a man’s lap. I didn’t want to be more powerful than a man; I just wanted to be powerful. Period.

The book’s ideology frustrated me so much that I then created a series of illustrations depicting full-frontal angles of masturbating women and titled the series “Eunuch” – wiser years later, I realised that my naïve and impulsive course of artistic reaction was more a form of applause rather than aspersion towards the book, and that made me feel sheepish and silly, as silly as Germaine Greer.

In this day and age, where everything is instant and upgradeable, where knowledge and information reign supreme, where gender roles are no longer tightly monitored nor applicable, my perception of such a sacred emotion has become quite jaded and over-simplified, perhaps. But how much simpler can love be, really? You feel a stir in your gut, your spine tingles, your brain releases chemicals, you smile, you savour, you love, you dive in, you drown, you cry, you die, you resuscitate yourself; you survive.

Love is a verb. One cannot be in love by proxy. The actions that precipitate love have nothing to do with love. I’m sorry, Mr. Neil Young, but it is not love that breaks your heart, it’s logistics. Love in its purest, elemental, intangible form is just plain lovely.

Poor little love, having the weight of the world and the weight of the word burdened on its innocent four-lettered limbs to carry, when all it is really is but a small seedling that perpetuates the unknown. Why do people fear the seed when it is the spawn that is the parasite? And why fear the spawn when the development of it relies entirely on the tending and mending of it, of which both the planter and harvester have complete control?

In truth, I am just your run-of-the-mill romantic at heart. I dream of white picket fences and a garden of lilies, cooking dinner for the kids, waxing lyrical about the state of the world with my significant other while Chopin or Joni Mitchell plays in the background, debating colour swatches for the nursery. I picture cradling my teen-aged daughter after her very first heartbreak as she melts into her pool of tears and into my arms. I imagine whispering good night into the same ears every night and waking up to the same face every morning. I visualise us slow dancing to The Beatles’ “Long, Long, Long” in the living room after the children have all grown up and moved out.

Okay. It’s not as simple as I make it out to be. But focusing on the butterflies simplifies it, for now. The way to a girl’s heart is through the butterflies in her belly.

There are only Here and Now and a plate of foie gras and a beautifully constructed human being by my side, and no butterfly net, for now.

I have my mouth full. I tell lover number indefinite of this vision of perfection that I have and he raises his wine glass in a toast of agreement.

‘I love you, too, lover number indefinite.’

Enough. For now.

Lover number indefinite: ‘I am falling in love with you, and I can say this light-heartedly and fearlessly because I have a shield of impermeable armour protecting me from love, and that armour is you.’

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THREE KINGS

WORDS BY: MARIAH

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PHILIP MIMBIMI

maica, Las Vegas, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Thailand, and Singapore.

He explains how, in order to learn different cooking styles and techniques, one has to be immersed in the culture. The Hot and Sour Risotto at Hu’u is a direct reflection of this – the perfect hint of Thai flavor in an Italian medium.

HU’U BAR

Mimbimi also describes the sundry roles a chef has to play, “You have to wear many different hats. You have to be a drill sergeant, a coach, a dictator, and a psychologist. [You have to] See what people want to eat, what mood your sous-chef is in, if a new junior chef needs to be inspired and motivated. Especially when you go up to a table; as hard as it may be, you have to maintain a fantastic image and be an ambassador even when things are hectic behind the scenes.” Mimbimi does this well; he looks polished in front of the scenes, flawlessly serving both food philosophy and the aura of transcendent competency.

Last week, on a day off from working as the executive chef at Hu’u Bar, Philip Mimbimi made a sandwich. As he describes this sandwich to me at 8:30pm on a Thursday night, after a long day in a hot kitchen and with a longer night ahead, and flashes the first hint of vulnerability in an otherwise impeccable exterior, I become certain he loves to cook. He doesn’t just love the industry and all that comes with it: the hectic lifestyle, the blood, sweat, and tears, the ongoing war of man versus metal, fire, and raw meat; Philip Mimbimi loves to make food.

When Mimbimi is not at Hu’u delivering the goods – “Lately I’ve been making a lot of sandwiches, for no reason. When I’m not at work, that’s all I do. Like the other day, I made one; like, focaccia bread with salami, Boursin cheese, tomato, mustard, and fried duck noodles…” He goes on to continue describing the sandwich, with an ever-so-slight hint of restrained emotion. No, he’s not a sandwich fanatic, just a fantastic foodie.

Chef Mimbimi has worked stints in far-flung locales such as Ja-

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BENJAMIN CROSS

hope to cook meat, vegetables, and seafood. Food can get a little bit too abstract. We’re bringing it back to the roots.”

Speaking of back to the roots, Ku De Ta does nightly specials, and has recently seen a surge in the demand for Indonesian food. “I’ve gotten a chance to use ginger flowers and nutmeg fruit, which I had never even seen before,” Chef Cross gets intimate with his philosophy of food. “Working as a chef is a combination of art and craft, and sometimes guessing what people want. First and foremost, you have this desire and basic human need, and then you have to create something that people might not go for originally. There are all these different aspects to get people to experience something; menu, presentation, to deliver something unexpected yet completely satisfying and uplifting.” That must be the extra amazingness for which Ku De Ta’s cuisine is known for and, in turn, talked about.

KU DE TA

Chef Cross even has the requisite battle stories of his profession. He describes a quirky-yet-genius head chef he once worked with, “He had a phobia of ice. I’d never encountered anything like this before.

If someone threw a bit of ice at him, he’d become quite upset, and even physically sick.”

Ben Cross has been the executive chef at Ku De Ta for over four years now. He got his start at Rae’s on Watego’s in Byron Bay, Australia, and it “snowballed from there.”

Chef Cross has a healthy working relationship with his profession, and describes what inspires him: “At the moment, we’re looking at getting into wood oven dishes, to cook fire style. It’s a combination of old school with new school techniques. And not just pizza, we

Luckily, I-Magazine doesn’t have a phobia of ice, and we’ll see you at Ku De Ta soon for something refreshing and buzz-worthy, straight up on the rocks.

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IAN LOVIE

dining establishment where I-Magazine interviewed the Director of Cuisine, is all avant-garde lighting, velvet and vaulted ceilings and is inspired by the traditional Balinese kecak dance. Clearly, the creative team at the W Bali is interacting with Balinese culture in a way that does not appropriate nor crudely copies, but reflects, interprets, and expresses in a more personal fashion.

W BALI

The staff are warm and personable, even fun, and the haute donuts fresh from the oven in the reception area were giving me Proust-ian olfactory twitches.

Back to Ian. After getting his start in the UK and Italy, and then a longer stint in Melbourne, he was offered a job in Vietnam. He quickly invited all his friends over to take whatever belongings of his they wanted, to ensure he actually made the leap of faith. And he hasn’t looked back.

Chef Ian Lovie is easy to fall in love with. He is Scottish, with a gift for making whatever he’s talking about sound like a great yarn.

When I asked him what he likes to cook and eat in his free time he replied, “Burgers or pizza. And about a half dozen beers. Any chef that answers otherwise is full of it.”

From Edinburgh, he’s as “salt of the earth” as it gets. Lucky for us, he also knows how to use a pinch of it.

Favoring the bustle of Southeast Asian cities, he shrugs when asked why. But asserts he’ll never leave. He has his eye on the W Hotel in Guangzhou for a while, an up-and-coming city in Southern China, in the former Canton.

Ian Lovie was the cure for what I personally thought ailed me concerning the W Bali: unapproachable, with an intimidatingly exquisite interior, and decidedly un-Bali – I was wrong. FIRE, the

Well, all the best to you, Chef Lovie, but for now, allow me to call in to the W Bali with a brunch reservation for eight, please. Xie xie.

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man.tra |mäntra;|

noun a word or sound repeated to aid concentration in meditation.

• a Vedic hymn.

• a statement or slogan repeated frequently.

• a highly-frequented space on Jalan Petitenget where taste buds and best buds are scintillated simultaneously.

DERIVATIVES mantric |-trik| adjective ORIGIN late 18th cent.: Sanskrit, literally ‘instrument of thought,’ from man ‘think.’

The island’s current it-place where class and culinary pleasures meet and greet. A place where music fuses with muses, where fashion transcends into passion, and downtown grit is woven into tropical myth. Where spirituality marries urban originality and breeds a playground of sensorial amusement.

Mantra is a place where everybody knows your name.

Mantra Jl. Petitenget no. 77x, Seminyak

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PHOTORAPHY BY ANDREW CAMPBELL HAIR & MAKE UP BY JULHENRY FOR PAC ALL CLOTHING BY XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX MODEL: CLAUDIA FOR SO WANTED and STEPHANIE FOR I AM AGENCY 48

PORTFOLO

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PORTFOLIO: JESSE PARROTTI WORDS BY: ANNISA

Jesse Parrotti visualizes. When he speaks, his words spill out like waterfalls of metaphors, but even with the droplets of words that come out of his mouth, he illustrates an optical narrative. Jesse Parrotti sees; verbal explanations are but a secondary form of communication.

Jesse Parrotti sees things from an angle, he also draws things from an angle; his charcoal pencil posed at a parallel with the piece of paper where he scribbles his vision, his forefinger and thumb perpendicular to the pencil, his strokes angular but always flowing in their respective curves. Jesse Parrotti knows where his lines stop and where they begin.

Jesse Parrotti hails from San Francisco, California but for the past three years he has been living in Bali, perfecting his art form and, in the process, learning about life’s different folks and life’s different strokes. As he developed personally on the island, so did his artworks – morphing from his previous style of surreal psychedelia, awash with colors aplenty, to what his art is now: a realistic view of life in movement, but never without his trademark strokes. On canvas, Jesse Parrotti makes reality his own.

Jesse Parrotti works with themes and finds inspiration in many aspects of life and imagination; from exploration, experimentation and escapism to ritual occultism, the banal and beyond.

Jesse Parrotti visualizes. He is a painter. He is a designer. He is an artist. Spending the past two years studying under the mentorship of Dutch artist Noella Roos, a classically trained figurative painter, has encouraged the ebb and flows of his style – in time, things change and grow. In art, as in life.

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JESSE TAKES PENCIL TO PAPER TO ANSWER A FEW OF OUR QUESTIONS...

Say, Hawkwind, asked you to create a personal sketch for their new album cover, what would it look like?

What does Bali mean to you?

Where’s your favorite spot at your house / studio?

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What does freedom look like?

FA S H I O N

IMAGES BY ANDREW CAMPBELL STYLING HAIR & MAKE UP BY JULHENRY FOR PAC SUNGLASSES BY CASTE MODELS: KRYSTEL & SALVITA FOR SO WANTED

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FA S H I O N

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wellness ZEN & Tasty Breakfast•Lunch•Tea Time

Coffee

Organic

home-made

cakes

Teas

bio

Salads

&

Juices NUTRITION

Healthy fresh &

Jl. Mertanadi, 46•Seminyak•Bali Ph•+62 (0)361 911 6979 balizengarden@gmail.com

Open from 09:00 to 17:00 Monday to Saturday

F E AT U R E

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

behind the corsets and coat tails, the chardonnay and the chivalry, lies a world where seduction and scandal were both the making and breaking of power. Secrets were the bedrock of society. These were accepted norms, communicated through a flicker in a glance, or the slow deliberate coursing of a finger round the rim of a crystal glass at a ball, and of course through beautiful and masterful language.

WORDS BY: TAH RIQ

The use of language to attain these saucy ends was remarkably delicious and there have been many times I have wondered what it would have been like to be a rich young nobleman communicating in higher circles in verse and elegant prose, taking countesses in plain view. How I would love to command the world to order through the use of timbre and intonation and dextrous vocabulary. How marvellous a seduction would be when achieved through carefully metered metaphor and sentences, ingeniously impregnated with notions of lust and embedded suggestion. Such sophisticated salaciousness, what lurid lasciviousness and decadent debauchery.

How delightful it would have been to live amongst such connoisseurs of speech.

I must have been a nobleman in a former life. My love of language as a spoken art form extends past that which I know. It is in this banter, in this subtlety, that I thrive, in this complexity and nuanced discourse of times forgotten. Yet as I delve more into stories of yesteryear, I discover more. The world as I know it, this modern and feudal world, is still built on facets of ages gone by. Cuckolds and coquettes, vested benefactors and mistresses have existed since the dawn of time. We desire that which we do not possess and we wish to possess that which we do not have. I grew up thinking infidelity could be traced to an over saturation and proliferation of flesh in mainstream culture and the media. Though if one was to learn more of the lives of Dukes and Duchesses, one would see that

Unfortunately, however, these are in some respects less artful times for language, yet I yearn from some indeterminable pith within me for someone to talk to that can voice their feelings as I do. Where is the flare and wit? Is it now a flickering candle in a darkened room all but snuffed out? Those who understand seduction understand that seduction occurs in the mind. A picture may indeed be worth 1,000 words, but a few well-chosen words can paint many pictures;

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“Ioftenchoosetoexpress myselfthroughwords.I recognisetheirauthority, theirdiscreteinfluence...”

nights are one.

Speaking of coins, I shall call both ‘heads’ and ‘tails’. There is no victory or loss in this current toss. With both being such delicious extremities, whichever lands in my palm deserves but the tenderest attention.

pictures with paint still wet to the touch, ready to stain any inquisitive fingertips. The imagination is where worlds are created and the imagination can be stirred through language. You often hear of a book lover going to see the cinematic counterpart for their favourite novella and return disappointed. The visual scope of a film may be quite lack lustre when compared to a boundless, enthused and enlivened imagination.

Good night, fair maiden, enjoy your saucy excursion that the coming night is yet to bring. Let him spend fortunes in anticipation of a glimpse of your sweet flesh. Indulge on fine wines and satiate your hungers. Line your impoverished stomach with the man’s doting and desire until you are full, but if one is feeling so generous, leave the little gap that remains for me; the one that does not tire from filling and fears not the pains of over indulgence. It is both the pocket that hungers and inspires hunger in equal measure, and such a creature exists not anywhere but in the loins of a licentious and lascivious lure that doth but appear the lady to the eyes of knaves and the naive.

If thoughts of you are all I have to live by, then may these words be our food for thought.

I often choose to express myself through words. I recognise their authority, their discrete influence. I regale my mind with rhetoric. The following is something I wrote some time ago: “I cannot take credit my lady, ‘tis not of discourse or of mine own device, but rather, the body’s yearnings of my lady in writing leaving me in a drunken fever; my words imbued with her lustful presence and possessing only my provocation.

Swoon if you must, and in doing so your bosom shall bear witness to the drunken humour of which I speak; a most delightful madness, beyond reproach, rhyme or reason; a treason to the lawful sensibilities of society’s ever watchful eyes. These words shall be the scissors to your corset, freeing your constrictions and setting the body free to be kissed naked by the open air.

Ah, what a glorious predicament, most wondrous power, that even the two faces of night and day which look upon one another in contempt like sworn enemies, unite to bring you to me. Like two sides of a coin, the earth spins fast enough so that our days and

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OAZIA SPAVODKA GRAND OPENING OAZIA SpaVodka launched their opening big time, with a high octane party to match. Their soft opening was a night to remember and their Grand Opening was a party to match, with Rio Sidik and his band filling the night with lush music, where radiant brides strolled within the beautiful venue and smiling guests filled the peaceful space.

OAZIA SpaVodka continues to dazzle audiences with their big bang shindigs, so be in the know and don’t miss their festive functions all in the name of well-being and re-toxing in a happy, healthy way.

OAZIA SpaVodka Jl. Sahadewa, Br. Anyar Canggu www.oazia.com

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SIP PLAY FLIRT MAKE YOUR ENTRANCE. WOOBAR. NEXT TO THE BEACH WHERE YOU CAN BE IN THE MIDDLE OF IT ALL. OUR LINEUP OF INTERNATIONAL DJS WILL KEEP YOU MOVING TO THE BEAT AND OUR MIXOLOGIST WILL CREATE AN ECLECTIC RANGE OF COCKTAILS JUST FOR YOU. SUNSET AT WOOBAR MONDAY - THURSDAY. JOIN US FOR SUNSET FROM 6PM - 7PM TO SAMPLE COMPLIMENTARY PIZZAS AND ENJOY HAPPY HOUR SPECIALS. OPEN DAILY FROM 10.00AM UNTIL LATE.

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