Peacock Fall 2013 by The Peacock Magazine

PEACOCK AUP STUDENT MEDIA 31 Avenue Bosquet, Paris 75007

Vol u m e 3 . 1 W I N T E R 2 0 13 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Angela Waters CREAT IVE DIRECTOR Rieko Whitfield MANAGING EDITOR Luka Ivicevic CHIEF OF PHOTOGRAPHY William Graves COPY EDITORS Chloe Elder Clare Haugh Sven van Mourik SENIOR EDITOR Vyomika Jairam STAFF WRIT ERS Anne-Myriam Adrien Josh Cotterill Eleonora Rossi Francesca Cretella Carolyn Jones CONT RIBUT ING WRIT ERS Scarlet George Cassandra Lazareff Emma Ramadan Chandler Spaid CONT RIBUT ING PHOTOGRAPHERS Francesco Filomeno Rachel Thonthat SPECIAL T HANKS TO Michelle Bogosian • ASM EXECUT IVE BOARD EXECUT IVE DIRECTOR Lola Mattison ARCHIVIST Isabelle Bernstein T REASURER Michal Ondrasik MARKERT ING & ADVERT ISING Eloisa Puentes Jake Stoddart Anne-Sophie Bach

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PEACOCK WINT ER 2013

LET T ER FROM T HE EDIT OR

Modern stories from the Hausmannian museum

CLOSE ENCOUNT ERS WIT H FAME

Ordinary people make contact with the extraordinary

SADOMASOCHISM FOR BEGINNERS

KEEPING AMERICA SAFE Gun culture for dummies

PEEPHOLES OF T HE GREAT WALL Firewalls just make it hotter

Eight steps to an adventurous love life

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T HE OLD MEN AND T HE SEINE

A rural sport for the urban man, grab your jock strap

DRIVING DAVID LYNCH PAGE 62 22

NICE DAY FOR A WHIT E WEDDING Parisian tourists go bridal

T HE CATCH AND RELEASE PROGRAM Collegiate lovers

WIDOW AND MIST RESS

T HE 7 SINS OF PARIS

T HE BIG LUK AWSKI

DEADLY HACKING

MAN OF T HE NIGHT

DRIVING DAVID LY NCH

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On lace and lost love

Mapping out Sin City

Travels and perils of our favorite documentarian

When the machines are turned against us

A film odyssey of European architecture

Talking cars and coffee with the cult director.

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR P H OT O BY W I L L I A M G RAVE S / M O D E L: DAKOTA PAR R ISH

The Parisian experience has been reamed, steamed and dry-cleaned to death. Artists have sucked out its inspiration. Pilgrims have worn down its cobblestone streets and joggers have run its grand boulevards. We aren’t drinking the Kool-Aid, but we will take a glass or two of Cliquot, preferably the vintage. Between Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Flaubert and Baudelaire there is no more to say about Paris. Ernest already drank martinis at the Ritz; F. Scott compared his manhood to that of the Greek statues in the Louvre; “Gus” Flaubert was acquitted of charges of immorality, and dear Charles slept his way through every respectable - and unrespectable Parisian whorehouse.

But the Peacock is not intimidated. When it comes to squeezing out a few fresh sentences, offering up a selection of new snapshots from inside the museum that Haussmann built, we’re the best in the West, or at least the 7 th arrondissement. Yes, we know the jazz age is dead, leaving behind a few nostalgic memories for disk jockeys to slash and sample on Wednesdays at Silencio. The waiters over at La Fée Verte may still be setting fire to absinthe, but it’s not brewed from the same wormwood that made Van Gogh cut off his ear. Yet Paris still had a lot of stories to tell and, swimming in the Seine River, there’s a species of fish that has Parisans by the balls. While some say

that French women are man-eaters, Anne-Myriam Adrien cast her line to discover there’s more than empty wine bottles and dead lovers floating in the Seine. Back on land, Peacock writers discovered that it’s hard to find a starving artist running through the streets. Instead, they spotted veteran filmmaker David Lynch. “It’s always a good day when you can catch a fish,” the celebrated director of Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks told us. Clare Haugh swapped war stories with Joe Lukawski, one of Paris’ up and coming documentarians, while Eleonora Rossi sat down to hear Paris director Luke Shepard detail his Nightvision odyssey.

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Cassandra Lazareff was swept off her feet and dropped in the middle of one of the city’s fastest growing export industries: phony-wedding photos. All of the Asian girls and boys are doing it and we know why. Well, maybe. When it comes to the tourist-filled days and light-polluted nights of Paris, there’s no sight, smell or sin that the Peacock doesn’t know about. And just wait until you see what this bird found out about the sexual practices of the natives.

ANGELA WATERS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH FAME

I sat on the deck and cried, but as I was already wet from the pool, no one could see my tears. “I’ll be faster than him one day,” I promised myself, “and then we’ll see who is kicked out of the pool.” He may be a national hero and the most decorated Olympian in history, but he has a dark secret: Michael Phelps hates children.

As my 11-year-old self sat on the cold pool deck, watching my thighs turn an icy shade of lavender, I had a lot of time to think about what I’d done wrong. We had all been swimming laps as a warm up when Phelps decided he would honor us with his presence. Of course, we were all excited about it. We were in the same lane as Michael Phelps

himself! What else does an 11-year-old competitive swimmer do when swimming with Michael Phelps? He touches him, of course. I was directly behind Phelps, and we were rather crowded in the lane. All I had to do was reach my hand out a bit farther and I could touch his foot; so I did.

I guess I wasn’t the only one, because apparently Phelps had had enough foot fondles for one day and immediately stopped to turn and yell at me to get out of the pool. I was so terrified that all I could utter in response was “Okay…” I dipped my head underwater and sculled to the side of the pool in tears. CHANDLER SPAID

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I was in violation of the first rule of fashion week: “Thou shalt not eat,” walking into the St. Michel Monoprix to get some groceries. As I approached the produce section, I saw a skeletal figure draped in black gesticulating at the cashier, teetering on stilt-like wedges, with an oversized floppy hat and circular sunglasses, tinted like a diplomats car. She chanted the words “Bébé, bébé, enfant, enfant,” slowly and indignantly. Her male companion’s face was painted with a mixture of

embarrassment and discomfort, like an 8-year-old boy wearing his Easter suit. After giggling to myself a little, a liberty any Parisian takes before deciding to help tourists, I politely offered my expertise. “Excuse me, I think what you are looking for is over there,” as I directed the pair towards the section with diapers, baby wipes and other assorted baby needs. It was only after I had purchased my assorted carbs and fats that I realized who the damsel in distress was. “Happy Fashion Week Rachel Zoe, and Bébé.” ANGELA WATERS

Bar Pitti is a trendy West Village restaurant, notorious for serving wine to girls like us: underage and ripe for the picking, donning short dresses and fake IDs. There we were laughing and admiring all the beautiful people. Across the room, we noticed one person in particular who happened to be the one and only, not to mention incredibly good-looking, Matt Dillon. The bottles kept popping and the clocks kept ticking until the restaurant was empty except for my table… and his. We knew, because we were turning around every few minutes to embarrassingly stare at him. Finally, his entourage stands up and puts on their coats to leave. As they pass by our table he devastates us with a casual, “bye ladies.”

We respond with a confused and pitchy, “bye?” He smiles his beautiful smile and walks out. It was pouring rain. As he stands under the awning, my friend comes up with the idea to bum a cigarette from him - again, pretty underage girls in short dresses. I asked him for a cigarette and we proceeded to introduce each other. Emboldened by our sparkling conversation, we asked him to come dancing with us. His friends chuckled at our pathetically obvious attempt to make Matt Dillon get seduced by 17 year-olds. As soon as the words “where are you going?” slipped out of Matt’s perfect lips, his friends dragged him away in to the car. He waved goodbye to us, but we’re still waiting around for a dance. FRANCESCA CRETELLA

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ILLUSTRATIONS BY RIEKO WHITFIELD

SADOMASOCHISM

5. 8

Keep it simple; master the basics before integrating complex apparatus.

Advance to choking.

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Decide who is the sadist and who is the masochist.

Talk about your feelings.

FOR BEGINNERS! Is your sex life boring? Are you constantly comparing your intercourse to HBO? Try some sadism and masochism in 8 steps â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Be the envy of your book club! BY ANGELA WATERS, PHOTOS BY WILLIAM GRAVES

PERESTROIKA

GLASNOST

Pick a safety word.

Apologize.

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Try a light spanking.

7 minutes of missionary. Lights out.

THE PEOPLE’S DAILY BUILDING PROTRUDES FROM THE BEIJING SKYLINE.

PEEPHOLES OF THE GREAT WALL T HE GREAT WALL MAY HAVE SAVED T HE CHINESE F ROM T HE HUNS, BUT IT S F IREWALL ISN'T DOING MUCH TO SAVE T HE PEOPLE FROM T HE SALACIOUS AND WEST ERN WORLD WIDE WEB. BY JOSH COT T ERILL

IT SEEMS T HE PEOPLE’S DAILY IS GOING T O RISE UP, SO T HERE’S HOPE FOR T HE CHINESE DREAM.

The Great Firewall of China leaks like a sponge. That is the verdict of Global Communications major Maya Lorton, who has spent the last three months studying at the New York University Campus in Shanghai. Lorton, along with the billions of other Internet users in China, log on to discover that the Chinese authorities have cut access to popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Still, those seeking contact with the outside world have innumerable ways to access forbidden sites by purchasing software that provides the user with a leg up over the wall. “China’s censorship of the Internet can make me really frustrated,” Lorton said. “I do feel a bit cut off, isolated from certain things I used to do for fun,” the AUP senior added. “It also is a bit liberating because I’m not constantly accessing Facebook on my phone.” Jumping the firewall involves the use of anonymous proxy servers, virtual private networks and easily available software that allows netizins to navigate the web without the interference of Chinese censors. “We all have to purchase VPNs, which filter our IP addresses” Lorton said. “Our personal locaters are then sent to a computer in Hong Kong, so the authorities on the mainland don’t know what we’re doing.” Lorton reckons the Chinese Communist Party is having a hard time enforcing political censorship on the web. Although most of the major social networking sites are blocked, Twitter’s Chinese equivalent, Weibo, has skyrocketed in popularity and now boasts over 500 million users, with around 100 million messages posted

each day. “The government wants to make Western based web sites harder to access, and it’s been successful,” Lorton explains. “But it’s having a hard time keeping up with Weibo and the amount of public expression that social media grants the Chinese public.” Indeed, the government has launched a barrage of bizarre Internet campaigns to curtail offensive material. This includes blocking searchers from finding Shanghai’s famous “penis-shaped skyscraper,” headquarters of the People’s Daily Newspaper and the chief organ of the state-run media giant. Weibo searches for the “People’s Daily Building” are greeted with a message that reads: “According to relevant laws, regulations and policies, search results cannot be displayed.” At the same time, Weibo provides a platform for China’s 600 million Internet users to voice their opinion. The site’s sentinels practice selfcensorship, and users are constantly seeking new and creative ways to avoid them. Code words are frequently employed to reference sensitive topics. Cursing is also popular: the rough translation of “grass mud horse,” for instance, is “fu3K your mother.” Although Communist Party censors were quick to catch onto the humorous, albeit politically incorrect, comparison, Weibo users continue to dodge the word-watchers with clever word play. “Of course the national mouthpiece is imposing,” one Weibo user said about the concrete phallus. Quipped another, “It seems the People’s Daily is going to rise up, so

there’s hope for the Chinese dream.” Chinese contributors to the Hug China blog charge that the “people’s” paper “chronically misleads the people with false reports.” For others on the net, the People’s Daily has been lovingly rechristened the Raping People’s Daily. “As long as China is booming, censorship is not a problem,” said Professor Albert Wu, history and politics lecturer at The American University of Paris. “Most of China is rural, and political issues are very regional. Either way, China will eventually become more liberal and these things on the internet will not cause revolution.” Freedom House, a Washington-based think tank that tracks global trends in political liberty, last year ranked China’s Internet access as the third most restricted in the world, behind Cuba and Iran. The Chinese state run news agency, Xinhua, cultivates relentless campaigns in support of state measures. Earlier this year, in yet another antipornography campaign, the agency stated that officials were to monitor shops selling audio, visual and computerized products that spread pornographic thought. “Eradicate the spread of pornography,” Xinhau advocated. Punishment against individuals who produce or distribute any material that the government says “violates public morality,” or “harms the physical and mental health of youth and the young,” usually arrives in the form of a fine or a warning, but the penalties can be extreme. Chinese leaders have practiced censorship for centuries. The Internet arrived in 1994. Three years later, the

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government passed laws that required offenders to pay fines equivalent to a year’s salary. Then, in 2005, when Internet restrictions were further tightened, the founder of China’s biggest pornography web site was sentenced to life in prison. The Chinese government does not openly discuss the reasoning for censorship, or that such policy is even being practiced. However, trends in the various degrees of censorship have corresponded with politically sensitive events such as the 2008 Olympic Games and the 60 th anniversary of the founding of modern China. Analysts have even predicted politically sensitive events, which often occur whilst censorship is high, preventing public discussion. Susan Perry, a professor at AUP, and an expert on Internet censorship in China, argues that it has given birth to something positively unique. “The internet has become a barometer for politicians, government officials, and law makers to gauge public opinion and read just national or local censorship and freedom on China’s internet. The user crossover between virtual and physical worlds and high user expectations for due process will lead to an increasingly proactive relationship.” With an array of accessible holes and obvious defaults, the Great Firewall of China is a temperamental terror. More preaching than a practice, maybe, but the controversies and fascinating results praise its significance; with censorship itself creating a relationship between citizen and state that defies political categorization.

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KEEPING AMERICA SAFE PHOTOS AND STORY BY WILLIAM GRAVES

“GIVE ME LIBERTY, OR GIVE ME DEATH!” THEY SAID. “WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?” THEY SAID. “ONLY TWENTY-SIX MASS-KILLINGS SO FAR THIS YEAR, THE LAST FOUR OF WHICH HAPPENED WITHIN FOUR DAYS OF EACH OTHER,” WE SAID. BUT WHO’S COUNTING? IT CERTAINLY ISN’T THE DEAD, WHO LOST THEIR VOICE AND VOTE THANKS TO A BULLET IN THE HEAD.

Ever repeatedly run into a brick wall until your body was a bloody pulp? I did once. A few years later, when I was nine years old, I tried arguing with a creationist that the world was more than six thousand years old. The former experience was both more rewarding and exciting. As a consequence, I have

never dared question a fanatical follower of the Second Amendment in the American Bible: The Right to Bear Arms. Let’s blame it on childhood trauma, of which there is a lot in the following few lines; although where mine is merely that of middle-class nightmare, theirs is a tragedy inflicted by the tyranny

of conviction. It is often said that fanatics are of the Christian Republican variety, which is odd considering the awkwardness of trying to imagine Jesus wandering around the holy land with an AK-47 assault rifle, or any weapon for that matter. It would, however, make for a stunning film. Perhaps it could

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be given the title The White Knight Rises, purely as an inside joke with the National Rifle Association. This is not because they’d realize that Jesus was not as white as the title or their parents’ life lessons suggested, or white enough to be invited to the Caucasians only proms in Georgia, but because they

recently tried to ban films after The Dark Knight Rises theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado. Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA, condems the films American Psycho and Natural Born Killers for “portraying life as a joke and murder as a way of life.” It is odd, then, to see the NRA’s official journal American Rifleman publish an official list of the ten “coolest gun movies,” featuring the classic 1972 film The Godfather where murder is a large part of life, and the 2009 comedy Zombieland where life is quite the joke. What is not so surprising is the 1984 war film Red Dawn, where what seems to be a poorly regulated militia of high-school kids shoot a film about a poorly regulated militia of high-school kids. They run around Sovietoccupied America, shooting and killing as many communists as they can in the wake of an invasion. If these three films were combined they would make a monumental film, the ultimate gun-nerd wet dream fantasy. There are no heroes without monsters, and this new genre would be composed of communist zombie gangsters, or as Ted Nugent calls them, Democrats. Maybe if Oliver Stone lives long enough to make the film Obama, and takes our advice, LaPierre may finally forgive him for Natural Born Killers. Moreover, LaPierre gave this speech during the aftermath of the Sandy Hook killings last Christmas, which took the lives of twenty first-grade students, six school personnel, the gunman and his mother. Keeping this in mind, it is unfair to accuse him of attempting to ban movies. In fact, it now seems facetious to joke about such a subject. As always, the highest level of hypocrisy we reach is that we fail to mention ourselves. Blame is too easy a trap to fall into, and by now it is not only unoriginal to mock the NRA; it is also banal. In regards to gun control as a whole, media attention has

declined sharply from over twenty four thousand news stories containing the phrase “gun control” at the time of Sandy Hook to only two thousand in November. It is old news, regardless of the fact that gun related deaths has not shown a decline of this kind in any way, shape or form. If there is a defense for facetiousness in such circumstances, Lord Byron worded it most beautifully two centuries ago “If I laugh at any mortal thing ‘Tis that I may not weep.’” This thought arises from coming to terms with the notion that the most dangerous enemy of truth is conviction. Whether the conviction is the liberal blaming NRA culture, or the NRA blaming liberal culture for mass shootings. Conviction is a more dangerous enemy to truth than the lie; conviction is a lie in truth’s clothing. Even if one conviction were to eradicate the other, a conviction would remain. We can statistically prove that higher gun ownership makes countries less safe, as stated by a recent US study in the American Journal of Medicine. This, however, does not in anyway mean that the next person walking out of a gun store has any intention to light up the first passing car with their new Uzi. Laughter sure beats running into a brick wall repeatedly, as the direction of many arguments surrounding gun control take. Laughter can save lives too, but only if it trivializes its subject in such a way as to not glamourize violent action to the point of desirability. Dramatized violent action as a means to laughter as an end is not so dangerous, unless from it real violent action becomes a means to laughter as an end. We must not forget that the complexity of the issue is beyond words, whether they are the words of the media or those of the Second Amendment. If we forget this simple fact, we run into the danger of convictions;

we run into the terrorism of ideology. How can we be sensible when such dangers roam the corridors of the Capitol freely? Was the diluted universal background check legislation that was proposed in Senate earlier this year too much to ask? It failed to reach the sixty-vote threshold by six votes. It isn’t absolute madness to assume that at some point in the future more than six deaths will occur as a result of this. If we cannot ask for background checks, then compulsory firearms training and tests seem out of the question. It is astonishing that the military won’t allow people to handle weapons without training and tests. How can a militia be well-regulated if it doesn’t even regulate itself? Wouldn’t this help people on both sides of the argument? The raising of a militia against tyrannical government or communist zombie gangsters is hardly going to be very efficient when you are just as likely to be killed by your neighbor’s sheer incompetence to control their firearm. “Give me liberty, or give me driving tests!” Said no one ever. When a stranger puts forward an idea, there is a natural disposition to oppose it. Like race, religion and gender, this too needs to be cast aside. A death is a death, whether black or white, male or female, Christian or Muslim, Republican or Democrat. Legislation is of utter indifference to this fact. We abolished slavery, to become slaves to another ideology, in which tens of thousands of people are killed every year. As individuals we all value liberty over death, but first we need to get mad, and we need to get mad not out of conviction, but out of a lack of conviction. A madness that screams “what the hell is going on” to all those screaming, “Give me liberty and give me death!” long into the American night. A madness that screams “let there be light!” And there will be light, so long as we scream together.

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T H E M e N T HE

O L D AN D SEINE BY ANNE-MYRIAM ADRIEN

MEN WHO GO FISHING IN THE SEINE RIVER STAND A CHANCE OF HAVING THEIR TESTICLES CHOMPED OFF. WOMEN, AND THIS IS NO FISH STORY, NEED NOT WORRY.

Turns out that a fellow casting his line in the Seine last September sent Paris police a photograph of an ugly one-foot monster fish with a sharp set of teeth. Ichthyologists, who identified the beast as a pacu fish, a.k.a. the “ball cutter,” said the fish has a history of biting off human scrotums in places like Papa New Guinea. A cousin of the piranha, the pacu’s mouth is perfectly accommodated to comfortably hold a testicle, or maybe two. Although the Parisian fisherman allegedly left the river with his crotch intact, city officials took pains to point out that the pacu are mostly vegetarian and only go for meat when they’re especially hungry. The burgers of Paris hope that packs of pacu swimming in the Seine don’t deter anyone from dropping a hook in the river. After a day with a group of local fishermen, it can be reported that the pastime is good fun, people love it and the fish are biting. Paris fishermen agree that whoever said “a bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at the office” was on to something. Walk across the Seine from Bir Hakeim to Quai de la Tournelle and you’ll see a mix of mostly men in their mid30s with their lines in the water. Unfortunately, they don’t wear the pin-covered khaki vests and floppy felt hats. They fish in blue jeans, plain t-shirts and light

jackets. Some fish alone while others await their prey in groups. “The point is not to catch the fish,” says Bertrand Louis, a 42-year-old financial consultant. He’s gazing down into the murky brown water of the Seine. “I just do it to relax,” he adds. “I started a few months ago and didn’t care if I caught anything. Now I make a little game with myself to see how much I can catch in an hour. I always throw them back.” It’s illegal to eat fish caught in most areas of the Seine, but there are a few spots where dinner can be found. The city’s main waterway is filled with over thirty species of tasty fish, including pike, catfish, perch, trout and salmon. The problem is that these species swim in water percolating with high concentrations of sediment and bacteria. They also ingest the spillover that flows from the city’s inadequate sewage treatment facilities, a sort of gravy that’s seasoned with elevated levels of zinc, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, corium, DDT and pesticides. In other words, eat a Parisian fish and you might end up with gastrointestinal discomfort. The Seine’s pollution peaked between the 1970s and 1980s. Still, recent efforts to clean up the mess have left the Seine less salty and infected than most people might think. The Seine looks gross. The river mushrooms with everything from discarded wine bottles to

large green trash containers. It’s reassuring to know that it’s not as bad as it looks. “One time I found an old tennis shoe,” Louis says, spitting a piece of gum into the water. “Another time, I found a t-shirt that originally must have been white.” But Louis remains undeterred. “I’m still waiting for the day that I’ll find something valuable,” he says through a chuckle. “No luck so far.” Government engineers after World War One lined the 776-kilometer river with dams to control flooding. Pollution followed. It flowed in many forms: plastic bottles, airplane fuel, fertilizer residue and a smorgasbord of toxins found in many household cleaners. By 1995, the majority of the river-dwelling fish were wiped out, including the Atlantic salmon. Only five resilient fish species, such as carp and eel, had the strength to survive the murderous waters. The Seine was so soiled that the annual “Paris à la Nage,” the popular race to swim across Paris, was cancelled for sixty years. A spokesperson from the Prefecture de Police of Paris says the river remains too polluted for swimming, but he expressed hope that the waterway will be clean enough for the race to return by 2016. In the 1980s, former French President Jacques Chirac made it his mission to clean up the

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Seine. His pet project vastly improved the river. Chirac’s administration constructed a water purification plant, established strict pollution regulations and made an effort to remove trash from the water. Thanks to Chirac’s clean water SWAT team, the river is as clean today as it was 150 years ago. Indeed, the Seine nowadays can boast more than thirty species of fish, including Atlantic salmon. This is a big deal because scientists say the salmon is a natural bio-indicator of clean water. Although it might take another 150 years for the Seine’s water to look as splendid as the Eiffel Tower at night, Christian Chollet, president of the 500-member Union des Pecheurs de Paris et de la Seine, says fishing the river is now cool. Chollet says his group is one of the rare French federations that has seen an increase in membership. But don’t try it without a fishing license, which run from a 10-euro day pass to a 300-euro certificate that allows yearround access to the Seine and other French rivers. “I’ve seen a lot more young people out here,” says Karl Simone, a 65-year-old veteran of fishing in the City of Light. “I like to see what other treasures I can catch, like delivery bikes.” Buried treasure? In the Seine? Just keep your pants on and keep one eye peeled for that pacu fish.

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COUPLES PL AY ING CINDERELL A AND PRINCE CHARMING FOR T HEIR PRE-WEDDING PHOT O ALBUMS.

NICE DAY FOR A WHITE WEDDING COSTUMED AS CINDERELLA AND PRINCE CHARMING, YOUNG CHINESE COUPLES ARE DIFFICULT TO MISS IN PARIS, ESPECIALLY WANDERING AROUND THE SEINE’S BRIDGES OR IN FRONT OF ANY OF THE NUMEROUS PARISIAN MONUMENTS. EXPECT TO FIND ASIAN WOMEN DRESSED IN FULL WESTERN WEDDING REGALIA AND ASIAN MEN LOOKING DAPPER IN THEIR FINERY, PARTICIPATING IN THIS LATEST CONTACT SPORT: PRE-WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY. BY CASSANDRA LAZAREFF PHOTOS COURTESY OF BRIAN WRIGHT

“Asian couples travel to Paris for the sole purpose of collecting a portfolio of staged, idyllic romantic photographs with a European backdrop,” said French Grey photographer, Brian Wright, who specializes in prewedding photography. Seeing the bride in her wedding dress before the big day is not taboo for the Chinese, it is mandatory. The wedding pictures are taken at least a year before the ceremony and are pragmatic and efficient in nature. The pictures are taken to showcase the couple at the wedding ceremony. Pre-wedding photography is embedded in cultural Chinese history,

cementing the engagement and sharing the joy with loved ones. The fairytale photos, postwedding, have a prominent place in the marital home of the young couple and are a key reminder for the proud family. With globalization and the expansion of Internet users in China, there has been an increase in demand for photos of exotic locations. Chinese couples search for extravagant locations. Though Westerners might see Beijing’s Forbidden City as exotic, for the Chinese, any place with the Eiffel Tower in the background is ideal. It is impossible to overestimate

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the importance of the “wow” factor that the couple is tasked to create with the pre-wedding album. A typical pre-wedding photography package starts at €5,000 and will include flights, accommodation, the photographer(s), assistant(s), make-up artist(s), stylist(s), and five consecutive days of laborious photo shoots that can take up to 10 hours per day. In China, there are entire streets dedicated to wedding retail, as well as an annual wedding exhibition selling everything from the reception caterer to the pre-wedding photography package. And they

mean business. “The package approach can be too intense and rigid,” Wright says, remembering a client who had endured the ‘package’ experience of being tormented and overworked by photographers. “I’ve been on pre-wedding photography shoots, where I have noticed 5 different package groups around Paris in the same day, all surrounded by an entourage of helpers.” “Particularly for the Asian clients, quantity is something that is valued,” said Wright. “They seem more interested in the number of photos, the volume and the variety of locations in proportion to time and cost rather than the quality of the photos themselves.” He underlined that with European clients it is easier to focus on the desired emotion of the shoot, whereas with the Chinese more care is dedicated to the physical poses. Conventionally, Asian cultures are not as openly

romantic or expressive and will consequentially be quite stiff for the shoots, which is one challenge to overcome. Parisian locations can also be a challenge for pre-wedding photography, since not every venue will be available. For example, the Opera House and all churches in Paris are immediately no-go’s, because of

no regulations. Between the monuments and the dress, the couples are aiming to imitate Western culture – a serious affair for the Asian community that has created a thriving industry. Wright also noted that the trend has expanded to include couples from Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.

ASIAN COUPLES TRAVEL TO PARIS FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF COLLECTING A PORTFOLIO OF STAGED, IDYLLIC ROMANTIC PHOTOGRAPHS WITH A EUROPEAN BACKDROP. the infamy that the photography packages have gotten in Paris, infringing upon the separation of government and religion. The paramount location for every Asian couple is unmistakably the Eiffel Tower, which has

The dress is not as significant in the Chinese ceremony as in the Western culture of “Say Yes to the Dress,” where, for some, the dress is more important than the groom. Most brides will borrow or rent the glorified white

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wedding dress for the shoot and will return home to marry in traditional costume, which is typically red, the traditional color of good luck and prosperity. The proliferation of Asian demand for Western scenery has sparked the recent construction of a ‘fake Paris,’ among other imitation cities, in the depths of Mainland China, Tianducheng. The Chinese Paris has ironically become a popular place for prewedding photo shoots. The town, however, has become a ghost town with a 2,000 population inhabiting the property development intended for a capacity of 10,000. People may not be able to afford living in the Haussmanninspired property, but the architecture provides a cost effective alternative Parisian backdrop. While locations may differ, the idea remains the same: marking the marriage with a set of perfect photos before the ceremony, even if it is closer to home.

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THE CATCH AND RELEASE PROGRAM UNDERGRADUATES MAY HAVE A SPECIAL SOMEONE ON THE HOOK, BUT THEY ARE NOT IN ANY HURRY TO REEL THEM IN. BY CAROLYN JONES

LESS THAN HIGH SCHOOL COMPLETION: $22,860

ASSOCIATE’S DEGREE: $37,030

HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA OR EQUIVALENT: $29,950

BACHELOR’S DEGREE: $44,970

SOME COLLEGE: $31,990

MASTER’S DEGREE OR HIGHER: $59,230

ANNUAL EARNINGS OF YOUNG ADULTS THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS

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Marriage is no longer in the cards for the 21 st century college student. And, in ironic spite of the sexual exhibitionism on display across social media platforms, otherwise chatty collegiate lovers remain modest and tight-lipped about the innermost feelings they bring to their romantic escapades. “We’re just having fun,” said Mackenzie Thomas, a junior at the American University of Paris. “There’s no rush for anything, and there’s no commitment. We’re simply enjoying each other’s company. We’re good friends and we hook up, but I still get to hook up with other guys. It’s just easier.” Thomas , like many college students, refers to what she and her significant other have termed “hanging out” – a definition lacking in concrete social connotation. This may be the new normal —a person never needs to know where the other is at all times and there are no awkward dates. Expectations for the future are low and no one is “meeting the parents.” “Hook-up culture” dominates the relationship structure in undergraduate universities, while relationships with the intention of exclusivity, let alone marriage, are as antiquated a notion as vinyl players and landlines. Although classmates are still getting close, social pressure to give relationships an official label seems to have tapered off for most. “You know, I’ve always been the type of person who tends to be in relationships,” said AUP senior, Isabel Bernstein. “I’m just a committed person, because I’d rather have one person I can be with, than just a hook-up. Hooking-up isn’t fulfilling, and just gets old and

pointless. I need depth, I need a connection.” Bernstein is among a dying breed of girlfriends and boyfriends. When asking Isabel if she believed that her boyfriend could be a possible future husband, she doesn’t miss a beat. “Definitely. He’s different from other boyfriends I’ve had— he’s refreshing and independent. He never needs anything from me and I love that. There’s just one thing…I don’t believe in the institution of marriage. I think I’m mature enough to get married, but I feel like marriage can be an act of desperation. It’s like, I need to marry you to not lose you.” Bernstein is not alone. Educated women in relationships are staying together without tying the knot; according to Live Science, only 60 percent of college-educated women are marrying, because it is not a necessity anymore. Women are no longer financially dependent on men, with gender equality in

apartment, marry, have children. The job is the first priority, which is why marriage and children are happening later in life. With high unemployment rates, people simply do not have the independence to commit. “It’s extremely difficult to find a job,” said Shayna Hertz, a freshman at Brandeis University. “To get a job, you need experience, but how can I gain experience if no one is hiring me? I don’t even want to think about finding a job when I graduate from school. It’s mentally draining searching for a job. With that and school work, who has time for a relationship, let alone time for yourself?” A recent Georgetown University poll showed that the unemployment rate for recent college graduates was 7.9 percent, which is only half as bad as those who only hold a high school diploma. According to the University of Virginia, the national age average for a married woman in the United

IT’S MENTALLY DRAINING SEARCHING FOR A JOB. WITH THAT AND SCHOOL WORK, WHO HAS TIME FOR A RELATIONSHIPS, LET ALONE TIME FOR YOURSELF? and out of the workplace. According to the New York Daily News, in the not so distant past of 1960, the marriage rate in the United States was at 90.2 percent. So why is it that, in 2013, it has dropped to 31.1 percent? Marriage has a different meaning to generation Y—it is a status symbol, much like a job title, with a distinct process: earn a stable salary, find an

States jumped in recent years to 27. This is closer to the average age of obtaining a doctorate degree (29.5) than the age for obtaining an undergraduate degree (24), recently revealed by Brigham Young University. An undergraduate degree allows students to explore what they want to do with their lives: what they like, and what they don’t like. With pressure from the job market and an extended

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timeline for starting a family, students find it difficult to commit to a major, let alone a person. Those who are employed have completed the first step and are free to finish the process. Eve Mizerak, a recent graduate from Villanova Law School with a job at a prominent law firm, is set to marry Mike Mrozek, a Rutgers University graduate of June 2014. “I always dreamed about getting married, I just didn’t know when it would happen,” said Mizerak. “When you meet someone in college, you never really think that it’ll be serious. Now I have an amazing job, I just moved into a new apartment in Chelsea, and I just need to make Mike my husband. There’s no one else I’d want to spend the rest of my life with, and to be the father of my children.” Coming from a traditional Catholic family, marriage was always on Eve’s mind. For the religious set, marriage is still a prerequisite for starting a family. However, with countless movies and articles on the subject, becoming a single parent is no longer taboo. With the change in times and change in priorities, marriage has become less of an option for today’s young adults. The economic crisis has made young adults take on a huge responsibility—becoming financially independent. Even those who are more religious, like Mizerak, are getting married after establishing themselves financially, with a home to call their own. Maybe if the economy finds a better future, so will the institution of marriage. With less uncertainty about supporting oneself, people may find themselves saying, “I do,” before the first interview.

WIDOW & MISTRESS

POEM BY EMMA RAMADAN, PHOTOS BY RACHEL THONTHAT

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we are like a snake dragging its shredded

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F E A T U R E S

you you knew I was already writing you down

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skin

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WI LL IA M GR AVE S

THE 7 SINS OF PARIS IT ’S A GOOD T HING T HAT T HERE ARE CHURCHES ON EVERY CORNER, BECAUSE PARIS IS A VERITABLE PLEASURE PL AYGROUND. GOT A TAST E FOR LUXURY OR A HUNGER FOR SOMET HING GOOD TO EAT ? PICK A SIN AND WE’LL SHOW YOU T HE PL ACE. BY CHANDLER SPAID

ENV Y - L’ORÉ AL 14 rue Royale, 75008 The original L’Oréal headquarters on rue Royale in the Concorde is the mothership that serves as a constant reminder of how attractive other people are, and how much you need to cover your face. Claiming to be the “world leader of beauty,” L’Oréal has been covering people up since its humble beginnings in 1909. The makeup giant offers an assortment of products that can transform you into a vague representation of beauty.

PRIDE - LE BARON 6 avenue Marceau, 75008 One of the most exclusive clubs in Paris, Le Baron is a private nightclub owned by André Saraiva. Leonardo DiCaprio frequents this hangout when he is in the mood for a little bubbly or a game of mancala. If you can make it past the selective doormen, you’ll have the privilege of mixing with an elite crowd of artists and musicians that all seem to know each other, but never seem to want to dance.

GREED - PL ACE VENDÔME Place Vendôme, 75001 A symbol of elegant luxury, Place Vendôme is a chou chou square located in the first arrondissement that boasts some of Paris’ most fashionable and extravagant hotels, like the Ritz, as well as some of the biggest names in jewelry. It was once home to composer Frédéric Chopin, as well as Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Today, the square features baubles, bangles and beads of Chanel, Dior, Cartier, and De Beers. So, if you’re ready to spend what would be most people’s life savings on a hotel room or a necklace, this is the place for you. P E AC O C K

LUST - SEXODROME 23 boulevard de Clichy, 75009 For all the red-blooded Parisians, drop by the four-story sex shop, le Sexodrome. Complete with live peep shows and porn cinemas, it offers all of the tools, products, and apparel you might need to get weird. Maybe you just want to go in for a laugh (even though we all know what you’re really doing). Head down to the Sexodrome for anything your filthy mind can imagine. If for some kinky reason this monstrous love venue has left you high and dry, you’re in luck because it’s situated in Pigalle surrounded by eclectic strip clubs, sex shops, and the Moulin Rouge. WR AT H - BANKS 3 bis Place de la Bastille, 75004 It’s fair to assume that the sole purpose of Paris’ banks is to provide people with a place to throw tantrums; this is a daily occurrence. Bankers are soulless machines ready to do whatever they can to keep you from your money. Let’s say you need to pull out some cash, but due to the withdrawal limit you have to physically go into the bank. Come back later, because they’re taking a lunch break despite being open for only five hours in the day. The last thing you want to do is forget your pin, or worse, lose your card, because they won’t give you either at the bank. You must wait for it to arrive in the mail three weeks later.

GLUT T ONY AU PIED DE CO CHON 6 rue Coquillière, 75001 Since opening in 1947, this famous brasserie has practically never closed its doors. Open 24 hours every day of the year, it’s the perfect place to pig out when you’re feeling down. It may be a bit pricey, but that’s never stopped your piggly wiggly appetite. A traditional restaurant bringing together a variety of gourmets, their specialties include French Onion Soup, Crêpes flambéed with Grand Marnier and of course, Pig’s Foot with Fries. WIN T E R 20 13

SLOT H - MÉ T RO GALLIENI Parc de Bagnolet Just outside of Paris, the metro stop in Gallieni opens up to a playground for bums. The metro leads you out to a caged off, onehoop basketball court that harbors an array of indolent vendors, standing around all day behind a shady screen of trees for fiending Parisians to come and score some herbs de Provence. The leafy oasis across the blacktop rarely encounters adult supervision, save for Fridays.

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F R AN C ESC O F ILO M EN O

THE BIG LUKAWSKI DIRECTOR. PRODUCER. STUDENT. ISREALI SPY? JUST HOW CAN THIS DUDE ABIDE? BY CLARE HAUGH

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P H OT O S C O U RT E S Y O F JOE LUK AWSK I

LUK AWSKI GIVING A T ED TALK ABOUT HIS DOCUMENTARY HIDDEN WAT ERS.

“They accused me of being an Israeli spy,” said Joe Lukawski, an American University of Paris student filmmaker, recounting a particularly harrowing experience while in Cairo at the time of the Egyptian uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak. The reporting had brought his team to a comparably small protest taking place outside a train station. The demonstrators had been kicked out of a market square where they had been selling merchandise for years. “We wanted to film them and see what they wanted. Eventually though, those protestors disappeared and these other ones showed up.” The new protestors were in fact plain-clothes police. “It all happened really quickly. Before we knew it, there were a couple hundred guys there instead of ten. And they were protesting against the journalists – us.”

Accounts of similar protests of my friends.” confirm that undercover police Some of Lukawski’s colleagues were an unofficial tactic used found themselves in more to violently quell anti-regime dangerous situations. One was demonstrations. held captive in a military prison “It was all orchestrated,” and made equal to an enemy of Lukawski said. “An actual the state. uniformed cop came and “These guys saw people being threw us in the back of his tortured and were almost van. My producer immediately tortured themselves,” Lukawski said, ‘This will be the shortest said. He was spared, as it was amount of time I ever spend in “just too risky for the military to police custody, because you’re torture a foreign national.” American. They’re going to let The graduate student at the us out.’ The officer did let us out, American University of Paris and I immediately wished that tells the stories of his work as a he hadn’t. These guys wanted to director, producer, and freelance kill us.” journalist in the Middle East and Amidst the aggressive crowd North Africa. accusing him of being an Following graduation from Israeli spy, Lukawski spotted a AUP in 2010, the Indiana native military officer who managed to returned home for a brief visit rescue him and his crew. “They and to pack his belongings. surrounded us with soldiers and Armed with little more than Kalashnikovs, put us in a cab a backpack, camera, and an and drove us away. That was the undergraduate education, he set worst day for me. But that is not off for Cairo in 2011. Lukawski the worst that happened to any spent the next five months

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documenting one of the most tumultuous revolutions of the Arab Spring. At the time, Mubarak had stepped down following almost a month of protests against his repressive rule. The Egyptian protest was a crucial part of the democratic uprisings, beginning in Tunis and spreading to Libya. When Joe landed, Egypt’s military had already stepped in to govern the country. “They were not letting anybody in or out with camera equipment – not easily, anyways.” Although persistent in his efforts, he was never able to reclaim his cameras from the authorities. The months amidst the active conflict were spent squatting and blogging from the floor of a friend’s house. “People got displaced during the revolution,” Lukawski explained. Among the nomads sleeping in a row next to him were Palestinian

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ONE OF FEZ ’S HIST ORIC WAT ER ST RUCT URES FEAT URED IN LUK AWSKI’S DOCUMENTARY.

Egyptians gathering in Tahrir square to protest the government of Hosni 48

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ON SE T DURIN G T HE F IL M IN G OF H IDDE N WAT E R S

and Egyptian filmmakers, who had also come to document the revolution. Through a series of connections, Lukawski landed a job as a cameraman for Video Cairo, a news outlet celebrated for transmitting the only shots of Tahrir Square at the height of the revolution. He began work for their satellite channel 25TV, run by a host of young journalists — more specifically, a program whose Arabic title roughly translates to “What the People Want.” In addition to his journey in Cairo, Lukawski has documented changes in women’s legal rights in Morocco, tales of the underground culture of Paris, and personal accounts of postwar Bosnia. Perhaps his most well known documentary, however, came to fruition from a serendipitous trip to Fez – a city he suggests sparked his interest in documenting the philosophy of urban life. “I started traveling super young, 16 or 17. When I went back home for my senior year of high school and it was time to start applying to college, I just wasn’t done. I wanted to keep traveling.”

In Lukawski’s words, his travels “very randomly” brought him to Fez during his undergraduate years at AUP. A lucky run-in with Professors Justin McGuinness and Waddick Doyle on his first trip inspired his undergraduate thesis on the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music. “[McGuinness] and I were just sitting there, talking about this hydraulic clock that was just up

THE OFFICER DID LET US OUT, AND I IMMEDIATELY WISHED THAT HE HADN’T. THESE GUYS WANTED TO KILL US.

the street and how interesting the old water system was, and the idea came up that I should make a film about it.” Hidden Waters (Les Eaux Cachées) took the next three

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years to fund, film, and produce. Awarded with a Fulbright scholarship in 2011, Lukawski flew back to Fez, and spent the next year creating the 52-minute documentary. The project provides viewers with a relatable and captivating outlet for understanding the cultural significance of water in the region. Lukawski’s other projects have included a documentary on an urban restoration project in Tunis, and Paris Underground, a film focusing on the vibrant cultures buried underneath the city of lights. Hidden Waters, however, seems to have stuck with him – perhaps by virtue of the amount of time it took him to make, or perhaps because of the attention it garnered from media outlets: from local radio stations to Ted Talks. He is currently working on post-production of his latest documentary, After War, which examines the reconstruction of personal identity in post-war former Yugoslavia. The project is being submitted to numerous festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival.

DEADLY_HACKING THE STORIES OF PACEMAKER HACKING AND NEWS OF THE NSA’S TOTAL SURVEILLANCE ILLUSTRATE THE ENCROACHING POWER OF TECHNOLOGY IN EVERYDAY LIFE. PEOPLE CASUALLY UPDATE A FACEBOOK STATUS OR MAP THE WAY TO A RESTAURANT WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT HOW THE INFORMATION COULD BE USED AGAINST THEM. IDENTITY THEFT IS NO LONGER THE HORROR STORY OF THE INTERNET: THERE ARE HACKERS WHO CAN MANIPULATE TECHNOLOGY TO HURT OTHERS AND POSSIBLY EVEN TO KILL. BY SCARLET GEORGE PHOTOS BY WILLIAM GRAVES MODEL: MADDIE JUPP HAIRSTYLIST: EMILIO PASCALE

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Imagine, after much research and comparison shopping, buying the best child monitor on the market to ensure the wellbeing of your little one. It is brought home, set up and entrusted. Now imagine as a parent, walking into a child’s room, hearing profanity blasted from the same monitor after it’s been hacked. This is a true story. It happened to a family in Houston, Texas. Upon entering his daughter’s room, Marc Gilbert was confronted by a man’s voice emitting from the video monitor, calling his daughter “a little slut,” and his wife a “bitch” before Gilbert unplugged the monitor. As more of daily life is lead online, there is a wealth of data that can put people at risk. The ‘Internet of Things’ is growing, incorporating more and more devices that are wirelessly connected to the Internet. Every new piece of technology, from baby monitors to medical devices, is able to connect to the Internet. Anything connected to the Internet is potentially ‘hackable’ and stories like this prove that

there are people with motive to hack random devices. In most instances, devices like cameras are hacked by people who know the victim and have a vested interest in their target. Carlos Enrique PerezMelara is the latest addition to the FBI’s ‘Cyber’s Most Wanted’ list. He is wanted for developing and selling the malware known as Lover Spy, used by jilted exes to spy on their sweetheart’s activities. The spyware would be sent to the victim disguised as an electronic greeting card. Once opened it would install a program that collects keystrokes and other incoming and outgoing electronic communications. The program would then send back this information to the purchaser giving them the required information to remotely access their victim’s computer, email accounts, list of visited websites and keystroke logs. Perez managed to turn hundreds of jealous lovers with average computer skills into technologically sophisticated cyber stalkers. The program has been shut down, but the

technology exists. While personal devices such as computers, phones and tablets may be used to hack information, it is not the only opportunity to be hacked. The growing ‘Internet of Things’ now encompasses a network of everyday devices that could threaten people in the areas of commerce, personal privacy, and safety. There are a variety of personal and industrial gadgets that transmit data or control other devices without human intervention. These technological advances are continually making our lives easier, but the devices could also be used against us. The hacking of medical devices is a major concern for the future, as many of them are starting to be hooked up wirelessly to the Internet to allow for remote programming. In the case of a pacemaker, remote programming takes away the need for further surgery once it has been implanted. Even hospital robotic devices used during surgery are potentially vulnerable. Many of these devices are small and have

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limited memory and processing power; therefore, there is usually little room for security precautions, which make them potentially easy targets for hackers. “Any system with wireless communication can be subject to interception of data and compromised privacy, as well as interference with performance that can compromise the safety and effectiveness of the device,” FDA spokeswoman Erica Jefferson said in an interview with Reuters. Although developers are concerned with hacking when producing, there are already potentially hackable ‘things’ out there open to selective attacks. In order to find these devices, all you need is a specialized search engine like Shodan. Shodan has been purposely designed to find devices that are connected to the Internet with little or no security precautions to protect them against unauthorized access. The search engine is anything but user friendly; searches are complicated and take more time than the average Google search.

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However, there are people with the specialized knowledge to infiltrate devices. If remote hacker assassination were possible, it would be virtually impossible to determine where it came from. Remote hacker assassination has been proven possible through the hacking of medical devices, but there are other ways to go about it. At the recent DefCon computer security conferences in Las Vegas, security researcher Charlie Miller from Twitter and Chris Valasek, director of security intelligence at IOActive (a security research company) demonstrated hacking into two cars, a Toyota Prius and a Ford Escape. They disabled the breaks and distorted the steering, preventing the driver from having any control over the car. “Once any single computer in a car is compromised, safety of the vehicle goes out the window,’ Miller said in an interview with a blogger at The New York Times. “Right now, there aren’t a lot of ways for hackers to remotely attack cars: Bluetooth, wireless tire sensors, telematics units. But as cars get Internet connections, things will get easier for the attacker.” Miller and Valasek used hardware to enable them to hack the cars. They took apart the dashboard and plugged a computer in, as seen in the Youtube clip, “Digital Carjackers Show off New Attacks.” While this is not technically “remote hacking,” as long as someone with the right understanding of how the hardware works can gain access to the car, they can plant the device and take control. There have also been experiments carried out to prove that it is possible to remotely hack a vehicle. Ten researchers from the University of California, San Diego and the University of Washington wrote a paper on the experiments they carried out in order to remotely hack cars. They found that a hacker could gain access to a car through Bluetooth,

Remote Keyless Entry, RFIDs, Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems, WiFi, and Dedicated ShortRange Communications. The experiments they conducted were all done under strict laboratory conditions. While they have proved it is technically possible to wirelessly take control of a car through its electronics, there has yet to be a hacker in a real life to remotely hack a vehicle. In an email interview with Motherboard’s DJ Pangburn, Stefan Savage, one of the researchers from the University of California, San Diego, wrote that “real-time time and processing power are likely negligible excepting access control mechanisms that require brute forcing.” In other words, it is not realistic to hack a moving car. However, it could be done under the right conditions by someone with highly trained skills and the right knowledge. Not all hackers are bad; the cases of cars being hacked, while scary, are actually examples of

hackers convention in Las Vegas. “The work that Barnaby Jack and other have done to highlight some of these vulnerabilities has contributed importantly to the progress in the field,” said William Maisel, the deputy director for science at the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health. Jack’s death has left many wondering about the weaknesses of current medical devices and the possibility of an attack by a hacker and how to prevent them. The ability to protect Internet anonymity is important. Free software, like Tor, uses a network of virtual tunnels to enable secure and private Internet browsing. A variety of people use Tor, which helps make it more secure, as it hides the individual among other users on the network. The majority of people who use Tor work in the intelligence business, security business, or deal in illicit activities. While Tor is great for anonymity, it is an extreme form

ONCE ANY SINGLE COMPUTER IN A CAR IS COMPROMISED, SAFETY OF THE VEHICLE GOES OUT THE WINDOW. work produced by “white hat” hackers. White hat hackers are people who hack devices in order to explore flaws, not exploit them for gain. This enables manufacturers to detect the vulnerabilities of their product and find ways in which to prevent it from happening once their product is on the market. However, problems can arise if the hackable device is already in the hands of the general public. Barnaby Jack, who died in July this year, was a notorious white hat hacker who used his skills to show the vulnerabilities of devices such as insulin pumps. Jack died just a week before he was due to reveal how to hack pacemakers and implanted defibrillators at the Black Hat

of protection and makes for a slow browser. Plugins for Firefox and Google Chrome give the user a level of anonymity and help block cookies and other analytical tools used on websites. The plugins can also help protect against cyber bullies and hackers; however, they do not completely prevent the threat. While remote hacker assassination is not a major concern to the average person, personal vendettas are. The information that users put on the Internet can be accessed. It might sound narcissistic, but it is increasingly important for web users to become aware of the potential risk and know how to protect themselves when using technology.

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CREATURES OF THE NIGHT

MAN OF THE NIGHT AMERICAN

FILMMAKER

MATHEMATICS

AND

AFICIONADO

LUKE SHEPARD IS ON A QUEST TO

CONVINCE

EUROPEANS

TO TAKE 3 MINUTES AND 37 SECONDS

ABSORB

THE

SILENT SPLENDOUR OF THEIR NATIONAL “I

MONUMENTS. NUMBERS”

SHEPARD,

SITTING

PARISIAN

CAFÉ

SAYS IN

A THE

SHADOWS OF PARC MONCEAU. “AND I’VE ALWAYS ENJOYED PRECISION.

THAT’S

WHAT

NIGHTVISION IS ALL ABOUT.” BY

ELEONORA

ROSSI

T OP: CIT Y OF ART S AND SCIENCES, VALENCIA, SPAIN. BOT T OM: NAT IONAL T HE AT RE, BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

T OP: T REVI FOUNTAIN, ROME, ITALY. MIDDLE: AT OMIUM, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM. BOT T OM: BERLIN C AT HEDR AL, BERLIN, GERMANY.

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SHEPARD AND MILLER TAKING AN ON-SE T SELFIE.

A short distance from the park lies the world-famous Arc de Triomphe. To Shepard, the Arc is not just one of the beauties of Paris; it is also a pain in the ass. “It was by far the most difficult shot to capture,” said Shepard. “We had to cross three streets, and every time we were ready to shoot there was a green light, so we had to mark the spot with chalk and run away. Since the gendarmes wouldn’t let us shoot, not only did we have to wait for

the cars, but we also had to wait for the guards to be on the other side of the monument. By the time we finished, the sun was coming up. I never want to shoot that again!” Shepard, 23, began his journey at Paris’ Beauvais airport. “That was the worst experience,” he said of Ryanair, the pain of any thrifty traveller. “We were heading to Stockholm to start filming and we had all of our camera equipment and tripods.

We were three times overweight and almost didn’t make it on to the plane.” Swearing never to choose Ryanair again, Shepard managed to start his trip. The director enjoyed train travel; for someone covering 21 countries and 36 cities in 90 days, the train rides were a breath of fresh air. Luke found it “insane” that six months of his life were compressed in such a short video and 2400 photographs. But

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he had no regrets. Nightvision turned out to be one of Shepard’s most important projects so far. “I’ve made other videos, but they’re mainly experiments. Nightvision is definitely the most elaborate. It’s my baby,” said the director pounding his chest with his right fist. The inspiration for Nightvision (as opposed to Dayvision) lies in Shepard’s fascination for darkness combined with the

SULTAN AHMED MOSQUE, ISTANBUL, T URKEY.

solitude and calm that shroud the monuments at night. Their majesty is left for the nocturnal wanderers. The contrast created by bright, artificial lights around the buildings against the blackness of the sky illuminates the shot, paying respect to the monuments as the sole focus. Shepard intended his work to encourage absorption of the beauty of these monuments. He specifies the need for careful contemplation of them, and accompanies his images with a carefully handpicked soundtrack. “The music completely changes how you interpret the video,” Shepard said. “That’s why I spent so much time choosing it.” Although Shepard poured over different songs, he had the right one in mind from the start. “Outro” from French electronic band M83 not only captures, but amplifies the magnificence of the scenes. Shepard takes a decidedly utilitarian approach in picking a favourite city, ranking them by “filmability” rather than beauty. Some of the cities were a pain, he explained, specifying Hamburg and Bucharest. “We just couldn’t shoot in Hamburg,” Shepard said. “ It would start raining, or they would turn off the lights around the monuments. Also, the hostel was miles away from the city.” As a result, Hamburg did not make

it into the film. Athens did not make the cut either. Shepard describes the Greek capital as “one of the most beautiful places, but absolutely impossible to shoot. You can’t go anywhere at night, so I had to sneak in.” As all the scenes in Nightvision are captured in the darkness, Shepard put the necessary equipment on his shoulders and scaled the wall outside of the

Nightvision. He always noted how much more he could appreciate the beauty of the city’s many monuments at night – without tourists surrounding them. Making this appreciation an artistic reality, however, required getting a hold of more funds than he had. “Asking people to trust me with their money was uncomfortable,” said Shepard. “It was a full-time job for 30 days. I would wake up in the morning IT’S NOT HEALTHY and work for 10 to 12 hours a day, then go to TO FEEL THAT bed.” SOMETHING YOU Kickstarter.com was his method for collecting DO IS PERFECT. donations. Shepard also received financial Pantheon. backing from his university, the “It took me a few minutes to American University of Paris. climb the wall to get in, and Raul Hernandez, the former about 15 seconds to climb back owner of the student pub, the out,” he says of the brave pursuit. Amex Café, had the biggest role. “The dogs were barking at me. “He organized an event at the Overall, it was one of the most Amex for me, when I told him adrenaline-filled moments of about the project. It was heartmy life.” warming to receive so much Although Shepard does not support,” Shepard said. play favorites, Paris holds “It’s not healthy to feel that a special place in his heart. something you do is perfect,” “There’s beauty behind every said Shepard, whose persistence corner,” says the director. Always resulted in countless hours of eager to see the “beautiful sitting, measuring, and shooting parts of Paris that nobody ever with his friend and colleague, notices,” he gets around the city Henry Miller. How he feels this on a mostly-broken black scooter. tenacity was best assessed: pants. Shepard’s appreciation of “I think Henry had to throw away Paris was the source of the five pairs. They all had holes in trail of inspiration that created the back!”

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FILM SEQUENCE OF T HE BIG BEN CLO CK T OWER, LONDON, ENGL AND.

DRIVING D A VI D LYNCH INTERVIEW BY ANGELA WATERS AND WILLIAM GRAVES “Everything that you have as a child stays with you,” said David Lynch looking up over his cappuccino at the light coming in from the ferrovitrious ceiling of his favorite Montmartre print shop, Idem. “You know, your toys, your rooms, the rug, the mood, and the sounds. They sort of stay with you and it’s really beautiful.” The print shop is like a romantic relic from the industrial age, a spacious and dusty warehouse with large machinery and a family of mice scurrying between corners. The cult director has made himself a home in the heart of Paris, a long way from the sun-soaked freeways of LA, or the crispness of the northwestern wilderness, where he grew up. “One of my first toys was a really beautiful truck,” Lynch continued`, taking a drag from his cigarette, American Spirit blue. “Now I’m really interested in toy trucks.” Lynch lets his characters indulge in some of his own favorite pleasures of cigarettes and coffee (which he includes as a nonnegotiable part of his morning routine). Another reoccurring indulgence in Lynch’s work is driving, from the nights on the road in Lost Highway to Sailor’s singing “Love Me Tender” on his classic Cadillac convertible. Naturally, Mr. Lynch also enjoys a good drive.

THE CAR: I had a Packard Hawk. 1958 StudebakerPackard Hawk. And that was a beautiful car, supercharged. It was a beautiful design, but it overheated, and was not good on the streets. But on the freeway, it was really good. If I could have any kind of car, I would get a 1966 Bentley, black, that I thought was maybe one of the most beautiful cars. I’d probably look into that. THE ROAD: I really love driving, and I really love cars. But, it’s not so enjoyable in the city, because of traffic. And there are traffic problems in every city, so you don’t really get the thrill of driving. THE TUNES: Sometimes, music is really beautiful to

marry to the driving. There’s certain music that you call driving music, so I would say probably ZZ Top would be a great band to drive to. AM OR FM: In the old days, there was AM, and it’s a beautiful thing, AM radio. Out in the country, turning the dial and finding things is a certain sound, is a certain feel that’s gone now. But, whatever frequency brings in the goods, is ok. THE RIDE: I don’t really like driving fast, but I really like steering a car. And I like to go a certain speed, it feels like just being pulled forward, it’s a magical number on the dial. I don’t know what it is, but you just are being pulled forward.

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