a beyond the ordinary magazine
FUTURE SOUNDS
4 AFRICAN MUSICIANS ON THE RISE Mark Wahlberg
“Acting explores my darker side”
BPAike rs’ raDise the best
mountain bike trails on earth
MAY 2013
JHB 41349 As seen on DStv/SuperSport
KIMI RAIKKONEN 19 Grand Prix Wins
FERNANDO ALONSO 30 Grand Prix Wins
SEBASTIAN VETTEL 3 X World Champion
EVERY FORMULA 1, MOTOR GP AND RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP RACE. WITH ALL THE WARM-UPS, THE QUALIFIERS, THE WINNERS AND EVERY BREATHTAKING MOMENT IN-BETWEEN. WE PUT YOU IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT.
UP THE PASSION supersport.com
THE WORLD OF RED BULL
May 26
world’s best bike trails
cover photography: john wellburn/red bull content pool. photography: Mattias fredriksson, universal
From Canada to Asia, the best mountain biking locations on Earth, as chosen by pros in the know
Welcome
There is no let-up in the popularity of cycling, and mountain biking in particular is booming. MTB fans are as likely to fly halfway around the globe as go for a ride in their local park: our globetrotting Bikers’ Paradise guide is your passport to the world’s best off-road cycling. Also experiencing a peak in popularity is a Hollywood actor who has overcome serious personal problems to become a worldwide box-office star. In an exclusive interview with The Red Bulletin, Mark Wahlberg talks about his beliefs, his background and the right time to tell the kids that Daddy was in jail. And still at the movies, we’ve got a rare peek behind the curtain with the people who combine science, illusion and raw physical prowess to make the likes of Wahlberg look great on screen: the stuntmen. All this and much more. We hope you enjoy the issue. the red bulletin
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Olga Kurylenko
The star of action and art-house movies on modelling myths and flying spaceships with Tom Cruise 03
THE WORLD OF RED BULL
May at a glance Bullevard
74 SKATE OR DIE
It’s tough to be young at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Yet in a place where poverty, suicide and alcoholism are permanent obstacles, skateboarding is changing lives forever
06 12 15 16 18 20 22 24
photos of the month news Sport and culture on the quick where’s your head at? Star of
The Hangover Part III Bradley Cooper kit evolution Scooters through time Hero Brooke Candy: hot in hip-hop me & my body Derek Wedge winning formula Skate science lucky numbers Unbreakable records
Features 26 Bikers’ Paradise No better biking on Earth
38 Mark Wahlberg
Exploring the dark in life and on film Star of Oblivion and To The Wonder
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A champion reborn
After thrilling the world on two wheels in MotoGP, Casey Stoner now races touring cars in Australia. We ask him why
Sounds good
Hip-hop, jazz, indie-pop and Afro-folk: introducing the new wave of African musicians about to hit the big time
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68 Life Inside A Bomb 74 Skate Or Die
How sport can save young lives
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44 Next Big Things Future sounds out of Africa 54 Casey Stoner Swapping two wheels for four 64 Katherine Sparkes
N ow a va i l a i n SAble
More Body & Mind
84 Swim the world
Pools carved in ice, 1km long, 57 storeys up, in paradise or as wild as the deep blue sea: the world’s most splendid swimming
84 travel World’s best swim spots 86 g et the gear A stuntman’s essentials 88 training Squash tips from a pro 90 n ightlife Food, drink, music & more 94 s ounds of 2013 Sibot’s new EP 96 save the date Events for the diary 97 kainrath Our cartoonist 98 mind’s eye With Kevin McCallum the red bulletin
photography: jay hanna, edge photographics, daniel gebhart de koekkoek, corbis, chris saunders
42 Olga Kurylenko
8 DANCE CREWS. 1 WINNER. WHO WILL REIGN SUPREME?
1 JUNE 2013. WALTER SISULU SQUARE. OR GO TO CHECK OUT RED BULL ON MXIT, HIT WWW.REDBULLBEATBATTLE.CO.ZA M.REDBULLBEATBATTLE.CO.ZA FOR ENTRY. SEE YOU ON THE FLOOR. WWW.REDBULLBEATBATTLE.CO.ZA
D U BAI , UAE
ALTITUDE TRAINING When British architect Tom Wright designed the helipad at the luxury Burj Al Arab hotel, he did not foresee it being used by other motor vehicles. Spanish freestyle motocross champ Dany Torres warmed up there ahead of the Dubai stop of the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour. Anyone can pop a wheelie, but Torres tricked out 321m above the Arabian Gulf: bold moves. Full 2013 tour info: www.redbullxfighters.com  Photography: Balazs Gardi/Red Bull Content Pool
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PU R MAMARC A , ARG E NTI NA
F1 goes wild
“I couldn’t go flat out. We were going through a village, after all.” It wasn’t a normal day behind the wheel for Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s Neel Jani. The Swiss-Indian driver took the 800bhp RB7 on a show run in the north-west tip of Argentina. (Also on Jani’s South American schedule: donuts on a runway before a fighter jet landed in his tyre smoke.) His drive through the village – its inhabitants prefer ‘town’, but let’s not quibble – ended on something of a high note. “A storm broke out and things got really exciting.” Neel’s logbook: www.neel-jani.com Photography: Gustavo Cherro/Red Bull Content Pool
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AL AI N , UAE
DESERT WAVE The oasis town of Al Ain, on the border between Oman and the UAE, is an hour’s drive from the sea and yet is becoming a surfing hotspot. At the Wadi Adventure Park pool, the artificial breakers created at the touch of a button can tower up to 3m high. Australian surfing ace Sally Fitzgibbons was impressed in the desert: “It’s like surfing on Mars.” Artificial surf’s real deal: www.wadiadventure.ae Photography: Trent Mitchell/Red Bull Content Pool
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Bullevard Sport and culture on the quick
Anyone for Venice? From June 1, the Venice Biennale will showcase the work of 150 artists from 37 countries. Here are four top talents of note
1. Sarah Sze Representing the USA with signature works: site-specific sculptures of everyday items.
2. Tavares Strachan For The Bahamas, his installation includes a video re-enacting a 1909 North Pole expedition.
Wood you believe it How to make something old very, very new indeed As far as Ferruccio Laviani is concerned, furniture is at its most interesting when tradition meets modernity. And ‘meets’, for the Italian designer, is two artistic eras colliding without airbags. “I feel like the rebellious son from a good home who takes his grandmother’s heirlooms to a squat and makes something new out of them,” says the 52-year-old. This approach was writ large in F* The Classics!, his recent collection for Italian furniture store Fratelli Boffi, which featured a series of pieces that reimagined venerable home furnishings in exactly the manner as the name suggests. A chest of drawers and an occasional table with what appear to be holes made by a laser beam. Tables with parts from 1753 and 2053. Most impressively of all, there is Good Vibrations, Laviani’s handmade oak cabinet (right), which gives the impression of being on pause on VHS video. “I like the idea of having an item of furniture in the home that looks like it’s suffering from interference,” he explains, “that really strikes you when you walk past it.”
Furniture for the digital age: Laviani’s wooden cabinet
www.laviani.com 3. Joana Vasconcelos Aptly for Venice, the Portuguese pavilion will be floating, says the artist, noted for her fabric work.
phototicker
EVERY SHOT ON TARGET
Have you taken a picture with a Red Bull flavour? Email it to us at: phototicker@redbulletin.com 4. Akram Zaatari The still and moving image artist is showing Letter To A Refusing Pilot on behalf of Lebanon.
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Every month we print a selection, with our favourite pic awarded a limited-edition Sigg bottle. Tough, functional and well-suited to sport, it features The Red Bulletin logo.
New York
BMX biker Edwin De La Rosa cruises through the streets of the Big Apple. Stan Evans the red bulletin
Fresh as ever
Music of 10, 20 and 30 years ago that still dazzles
2003: FOUR TET, ROUNDS A gentle electronica masterpiece, never to be surpassed as the ideal soundtrack for cocktails on a space station.
New kid on the block: Sebastian Fuchs (right) has partnered with Julius Brink
photography: ferruccio laviani, Guardian News & Media ltd., tavares Strachan, getty images, picturedesk.com, imago (2), tim lüdin/red bull content pool (2)
The Olympic champion’s choice When Jonas Reckermann retired, Germany’s beach volleyball Olympic champion Julius Brink had to find a new partner. The man he Sebastian Fuchs chose is Sebastian Fuchs, who is 26, 2.03m tall, with long arms and a jump as good, anyone’s. Former indoor volleyball player Fuchs can’t wait to begin the quest for gold at Rio 2016 with his new workmate. “Of course, it’s highly motivating to form a team with the best defensive player of the last four years,” he says. “Julius is a wonderful sportsman who gives 100 per cent in every training session, every rally. He’s an example when it comes to attitude.” They are friends as well as colleagues. “I’ve come to know Julius as a very helpful, fun-loving person. Team spirit is extremely important to him and I now get to make the most of that on a daily basis.” www.fivb.org
1993: PJ HARVEY, RID OF ME Accused of being both “bloodless” and “bloody”, this cry of rage from a 24-year-old is pure rawness on record.
IN HER SIGHTS Beitske Visser, 18, is Europe’s most talented female racing driver. Having sweated a Schumacher, she now wants a crack at Vettel the red bulletin: In 2012, you finished eighth in the ADAC Formel Masters, the a German open-wheel series, winning a race as both a rookie and the only woman on the grid. Are you setting your sights seven places higher this year? beitske visser: Absolutely. It’s realistic, too, because I’ve learned to adapt well to faster, formula-style racing cars. What comes next? The Formula One World Championship title. That’s what I want. Sebastian Vettel will have something to say about that. He’s my idol. It’d be a dream to race against him. We have followed a similar path, as he was a member of the
Red Bull Junior Team before he raced in Formula One. NASCAR star Danica Patrick is considered the world’s best female racing driver. Do you look up to her? I do, but of course I want to be better than her. You’ve already made one well-known racer squirm: Ralf Schumacher. How did that come about? At a kart race in Germany, I led for much of the race and he was in second. He knocked me off on the last lap and got a 10-second penalty. He got angry and protested. The penalty was cancelled, but it was funny to see how annoyed he was that a young lady was quicker than him. www.redbulljuniorteam.com
1983: TALKING HEADS, SPEAKING IN TONGUES The moment when art school punks dipped a toe into the mainstream lingers on and on.
Dreams of F1: Beitske Visser
WE HAVE A WINNER!
Nogaro In France, Sébastien Loeb began the FIA GT Championship with a PB in qualifying. François Flamand the red bulletin
Colombo The six captains with the trophy at the Red Bull Campus Cricket World Final in Sri Lanka. India won. Dimitri Crusz
Pretoria
Arms aplenty at South African street dance contest Red Bull Beat Battle. Mpumelelo Macu
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Bullevard
Richard Murray with second-place man Dan Hugo (left) and Nico Pfitzenmaier, third (right)
Contenders: Clinch
Could be the Clinch(er)
WAY OFF ROAD
Turns out Richard Murray, SA’s triathlon Olympian, has a dusty ace up his sleeve
Something to smile about Darlings of Joburg’s indie underground The Frown have taken a different direction with their new seventrack EP. Called Teenage Swim, this follow-up to 2011’s interestingly Eve Krakow of The Frown punctuated ä ‘-men EP does away with their signature ’80s synth-pop. At the Red Bull Studio to record one the new EP’s songs, The Frown’s singer and focal point, Eve Krakow, provides the lowdown. “It’s completely different. The new sound is a lot darker and ravey. We’ve half-jokingly called it rave-core. I’m a ’90s kid – I looove 2 Unlimited – and with this EP we wanted something that we could tour with, something dance-friendly.” There’s also a full-length album to look forward to in late 2013. www.everakow.co.za
Richard Murray may have come an impressive 17th in the triathlon at the London Olympics, but Grabouw’s Xterra was a different kettle of fish. Essentially an off-road variant of its asphalt-based cousin, Xterra South Africa is a chilly 1.5km dam swim, a very technical 27km mountain bike ride, and a tough 11km trail run. Sprint triathlon specialist Murray wasn’t supposed to win the Xterra, especially with SA’s multiple world Xterra champ Conrad ‘The Caveman’ Stoltz in he field. But win Murray did, by more than two minutes. “Surprised by my win? Without sounding cocky, both yes and no. I usually get onto the mountain bike
during my base miles training from December until the end of February, and I do the odd trail race as well. I was, however, surprised that I was not caught on the mountain bike leg until 13km into the 27km route.” It was Stoltz who finally hauled in Murray, managing to put 40 seconds into the athlete from Durbanville. Murray, however, responded on the trail run, catching and passing The Caveman with 5km to go to claim his first South African title. “I just had fun out there, even though it was one of the hardest courses I’ve ever raced. I guess I’m a wild kid at heart. I love being off road!” www.trimurray.com
photography: Jetline action Photo, mpumelelo macu, Sydelle Willow Smith
It is said that defending a title is more difficult than winning. Putting this to the test will be Reptilez, winners of the 2012 Red Bull Beat Battle. Looking at the skills on show at the 2013 qualifiers, this Joburg-based hiphop crew will be in for a tough time. One of the crews to stand out was another Jozi hip-hop outfit called Clinch. “They came to win and with their mix of hip-hop, krumping and popping, they are definite title contenders,” says B-Boy Vouks, one of the judges. The final will be held at Walter Sisulu Square in Kliptown on June 1. www.redbullbeatbattle.co.za
If you only knew
how much pacifying power the local countryside has, you could already be soaking up its energy. Mikulov
stories.czechtourism.com
Bullevard
Where’s Your Head At?
bradley cooper
He’s gone from Bradley Who-per? to major movie star – and a great actor – in four short years. Women want to be with him, men do not want to be on a stag party with him
The Artist
Cooper has excelled playing pill-poppers alongside Robert De Niro: in Limitless and, most impressively, in Silver Linings Playbook. Without Daniel Day Lewis doing his thing, Brad’s work in SLP might have won him an Oscar. Said De Niro: “He is very good and is going to get better and better.”
BC: 1975AD
Bradley Charles Cooper was born on January 5, 1975, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He bears scars from typical boyhood injuries, and for a while carried marks from mental anguish. “I was ashamed of so many things,” he told The Hollywood Reporter, of his at-times uncomfortable upbringing.
Brad Vibes
Bradley Copper is goodlooking: there, we said it. All who know him say he’s no alpha. “People think he is playing a version of himself, and that couldn’t be further from the truth,” said Hangover director Todd Phillips. “He is very vulnerable… there’s a warmth to him you would never know.”
Rue Bradley
Cooper speaks fluent French, honed during a six-month university exchange in the Aix-en-Provence, and dusted down for French media. He later studied at the Actors Studio in New York. In 2011 he became the first graduate of the drama school to be a guest on TV chat show Inside The Actors Studio.
Future Cooper
words: paul wilson. illustration: lie-ins and tigers
Warm Streak
Early TV work includes kissing, and being brushed off by, Carrie in Sex And The City, and a stint presenting the travelogue Globe Trekker, including an eyes-averted dispatch from a Croatian nudist beach. His first role of note, also on TV, was as a journalist/spy on 46 episodes of Alias.
Cured by Hangover
In 2009, the douchey groom in Wedding Crashers – that was who Bradley Cooper was then – Ed Helms from the US version of The Office and stand-up Zach Galifianakis starred in a bachelorweekend comedy called The Hangover. A world laughed; The Coop flew onto the A-list. the red bulletin
Aged 12, Cooper saw The Elephant Man – “[It] haunted me… I could not stop crying.” He played the role on stage last year, and hopes to do so again on Broadway in 2013. He is also working on a script of the sci-fi novel Hyperion, “A specific thing I fell in love with,” he said.
Eight-figure Deal
Released in May, The Hangover Part III sees Cooper leading the Wolfpack on a trilogy-ending, hair-raising, giraffe-harming adventure. The first two films took almost US$1 billion at the global box office; each of the three stars was paid US$15 million for this final hurrah.
www.facebook.com/thehangover
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KIT EVOLUTION
scoot sweet
The kid brother of the motorcycling family has aged gracefully, retaining its good looks and getting fitter with each passing decade
CLASSY CHASSIS
Rumi acquired knowledge in aluminium processing through its work making components for the aviation industry. Its die-cast aluminium scooter bodywork was years ahead of other firms using welded steel.
BRIGHT IDEA
The Formichino’s 10in wheels made it nimble. The headlight was linked to the fork via a cable that meant the bike lit bends as it was turning into them: very advanced for 1954.
THE HORSES
Two-cylinder, two-stroke engine with a double downdraft carburettor: music to the ears of scooter riders of the day. With 6.5bhp, the little terror could comfortably reach 100kph.
1954 Rumi Formichino 125 Italian manufacturer Rumi, based in Bergamo, began building scooters and motorbikes after World War II and got the country moving again. Spectacular in terms of both style and technology, the Formichino, Italian for ‘little ant’, is seen as the pinnacle of the scooter art. The company shut up shop in 1962 and its founder, Donnino Rumi, returned to his actual vocation as a sculptor and artist.
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The simple elegance of a single dial and a fuel tank on which was mounted the sole headlight www.formichino.com
the red bulletin
Bullevard
EASY RIDE
Adjustable windshield, storage under the seat: this is a bike designed to be comfortable and practical. Optional extras include heated seat and handlebars, a top case and tyrepressure monitoring.
GREAT BODY
BMW combines die-cast aluminium bodywork with steel. The 15in rear wheel is held in place by a swinging arm, while ABS disc brakes function as reliable anchors.
POWER UP
photography: kurt keinrath
Two-cylinder, four-stroke, eight-valve, automatic gearbox, electronic fuel injection, catalytic converter: the BMW’s quiet engine generates 60bhp and accelerates to 175kph.
2013 BMW C 600 Sport Maxi-scooters combine the motorway capabilities of a motorbike with protection from the elements and the practical components of a scooter. They are seen mostly in cities and suburbs, but also have the potential to be opened up on winding country roads. The BMW C 600 Sport is almost 10 times more powerful, weighs over twice as much and is about one-and-a-half times bigger than the Formichino.
the red bulletin
A comprehensive set of gauges and digital readouts controlled by an onboard computer www.bmw.com
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Bullevard
taking the rap
Brooke candy
A rising star of hip-hop hops across the Atlantic into the hip world of catwalk fashion
Born July 20, 1989, Oxnard, California, USA She says “A really strong, feminist chick.” They say “A post-apocalyptic Li’l Kim.” (‘They’ are Vice magazine.) Twitter followers 19,166 and rising American idol Julianne Moore, whom Candy hearts. Distinguishing features Tattoo of sofa on right arm.
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Whether with thigh-length pink braids, live gecko jewellery or unfiltered frankness, outspoken SoCal rapper Brooke Candy likes to leave an impression. The 23-year-old first appeared last year in the video for synth-pop artist Grimes’ hit Genesis, looking every bit the futuristic warrior she professes to be. She’s since opened for Azealia Banks, recorded with UK singer-songwriter Charli XCX and released three singles of her own, including Das Me, the video for which has been viewed over a million times on YouTube and features a lot of gold lamé. Now the provocative performer is dipping her toe into the world of fashion, tackling snake issues and planning to take over the planet. the red bulletin: People think Brooke Candy is a stage name, but is it really your birth name? brooke candy: People make that assumption every day, but I can prove it’s my name. I’ll show you my birth certificate. How did you get started? When I was a teenager, I discovered I could rap. This guy I was seeing encouraged me to try it, and when I realised I was good I started taking it seriously. I don’t really remember any of the raps I wrote back
then, though. A lot of stuff about getting money – something I still find important. Female rap has never been higher on the agenda. How do you feel about being grouped with other performers such as Azealia Banks? For some reason, everyone is ready to hear girls rapping right now, but there have been all these amazing girls rapping for the last decade-and-a-half. It’s good for me, I guess. I’m still coming up, but I got a lot of attention when I released Das Me. Women in the music industry still have it way harder. You would never ask ASAP Rocky how he likes being compared to Kendrick Lamar and Chief Keef, but just because I’m a chick I get compared to these other girls in the industry. It’s bullsh–t. What was the idea behind the living accessories – geckos and a snake as a hat – you’ve worn in videos? I just relate to freaky creatures. I’m a reptile whisperer. I have a pet corn snake, but he is stubborn. What can you tell us about Red Bull Catwalk Studio in London next month? It’s an amazing project. I’m writing an original track for designer Alex Mattsson, to showcase his latest collection to at London Fashion Week. I’m really happy to be working with him: his stuff is sick and I love working in London. I got the chance to meet him before we set this up, and I bought one of his sick hats. Why have you got a tattoo of a sofa on your arm? I got it when I was really lazy, and it reminds me every day to not be a lazy ass b–tch. The future is world domination. Red Bull Catwalk Studio: www.redbull.co.uk/catwalkstudio the red bulletin
Words: Ruth Morgan. photography: Vincent Urbani
On trend: Brooke Candy has written a track for London Fashion Week
JHB 41349 As seen on DStv/SuperSport
THE PROTEAS 1ST TEAM TO BE RANKED No1 I N A L L 3 F O R M AT S OF THE GAME, S I M U L T A N E O U S LY ( T E S T, O D I & T 2 0 )
WATCH THE WORLD’S GREATEST TEAMS BATTLE IT OUT IN THE INDIAN AND AUSTRALIAN TOURS TO SA PLUS THE ASHES SERIES, IPL AND CHAMPIONS LEAGUE T20; WITH FIRST-CLASS COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS. WHEN EVERY BALL COUNTS, WE MAKE SURE YOU’RE IN THE PERFECT POSITION.
UP THE THRILLS supersport.com
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Me and my body
derek wedge
The Ice Cross Downhill World Champion, 30, on muscle, hustle and homemade safety equipment www.redbullcrashedice.com
DREAD ALERT
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My hair is my trademark. I’ve been letting it grow for 15 years and have had dreads for the last 10. Sadly, they’re not very practical for ice cross downhill. I had to cut a hole in the back of my compulsory race helmet to accommodate them.
SICK TRICKS
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Aged four, I was hit by a car and broke my right leg. After that it grew slower than my left leg, and it played a part in the herniated disc I suffered two years ago. My back still isn’t right – I feel queasy doing jumps on the ice. I have to work hard to keep my back strong.
1 THIGH STAKES
2 SLIGHT ADVANTAGE I weigh 69kg and took over from 100kg monster Kyle Croxall as Ice Cross Downhill World Champion: size isn’t everything in our sport. Croxall hustles opponents; I rely on speed, thanks to strong leg muscles and a relatively light upper body.
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LIFE MAP
5
So far, I’ve walked away from the Ice Cross Downhill World Championship just with cuts and bruises, but I have other, longer-lasting physical mementoes. The scars on my elbow and knee are from skating. The tattoo by my hip shows my mother’s initials.
the red bulletin
Credit: words: arkadiusz piatek. photography: Thomas Stöckli
Hurtling down an ice track on skates at 60kph means that heavy crashes are inevitable. Even if you don’t fall, pain is guaranteed. Your thighs burn from the strain for minutes after every race.
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HArd & FAST
Top performers and winning ways from around the globe From scrum to saddle: Corné Krige is a much-changed figure on a mountain bike
man mountain vs mountain
photography: ishotimages, getty images, heiko wilhelm, nffu.org, cudby s./Ktm images. Illustration: dietmar kainrath
Take one powerhouse rugby physique and add a mountain bike. Former Springbok captain Corné Krige explains how he’s adapted to his new sport It’s been quite a while since Corné Krige played his last game of professional rugby, but the desire to push his physical limits remains. Mountain biking has become Krige’s passion since he retired at the end of the 2004-05 season, and if you ride a mountain bike it’s only a matter of time before you find yourself tempted by the lure of the Absa Cape Epic. Krige completed the brutal eight-day stage race for the first time this year, finishing in a respectable 190th position overall. His race partner was former Bok loose forward Tiaan Strauss, who also took part in 2008. Training for the race has transformed Krige’s body shape from bruising hulk to slender cyclist. His muscle definition remains as impressive as ever, but his appearance is a far cry from his much bulkier days in the Springbok camp. “At the start of the international rugby season, my fighting weight was always around 101kg,” said a hungry-looking Krige at the end of the Cape Epic’s final stage. “It was a battle to keep my weight up. There was an obsession back then about weight. A couple of coaches wanted me to weigh 100kg, otherwise I couldn’t play for the Springboks. At one weigh-in I had two 1kg weights in my pocket to hit the right weight.” The now-88kg Epic finisher confesses to eating more today than in his rugby pomp. “You have to continuously eat because your body is burning between 4,000 and 7,000 calories in one morning of training,” he explains. “For an 80-minute rugby match you can go balls to the wall without thinking about nutrition.” But when it comes to having the balls to conquer the Absa Cape Epic, Krige, like all finishers, weighs in at the top.
Hawaiian surfer Carissa Moore emerged victorious at Bells Beach to secure two wins in a row in Australia (the other was at Margaret River) and take the lead on the ASP World Championship Tour.
A week after finishing second in the bouldering event at the Military Winter Games, Kilian Fischhuber of Austria registered a Climbing World Cup win in Millau, France.
At a Saber World Cup event in Antalya, Turkey, Ukrainian fencer Olga Kharlan (second from left) won after narrowly beating American Olympic champion Mariel Zagunis.
A Hollywood-scripted victory for Marvin Musquin at the Indianapolis 250 Supercross: the French motocross racer overtook every other rider to go from dead last to first place.
www.cape-epic.com the red bulletin
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Flipping marvellous: “The kickflip is my favourite trick,” says pro skateboarder Torey Pudwill
Bullevard
winning formula
the kicker
photography: Atiba Jefferson/Red Bull Content Pool. Illustration: Mandy Fischer
A skater and a scientist reveal the secrets of the kickflip, skateboarding’s classic trick
PHYSICS ACTIVITY “If you want to take off on a skateboard, you have to use its leverage,” says Dr Martin Apolin, physicist, sports scientist and lecturer at the University of Vienna. “The board tips up over its rear axle if you shift your weight onto the back foot (fig. 1 and 2). “As the leverage at the front is much longer, the board’s centre of gravity, CoG, located roughly in the middle, rises much more rapidly. Even if the tail, the rear end of the board, touches the ground, that doesn’t prevent this movement occurring. Due to inertia, the board flips up and takes off, a bit like if you were to hit down on the prongs of a fork. The board now rotates anti-clockwise around the depth axis. But how do you get it to rotate around the longitudinal axis too? “The angular momentum, L, of an isolated system, eg the skateboard, is constant. Or to put it another way, the board cannot begin to rotate around the longitudinal axis by itself. It needs to be set in rotational motion by torque, M – that is to say, a force that works independently of the body’s centre of gravity. Thus M = ∆L/∆t. Our skater does this by bringing his front foot over the outer corner of the nose (the front end of the board). This makes the board spin around its depth axis and around its longitudinal axis (fig. 2 to 5). “Now skater and board fly through the air in isolation until the board has spun once around its longitudinal axis. During this stage of flight, the skater makes use of inertia once again. The skater and board’s horizontal speed is preserved during the free flight because air resistance is negligible. At the end of the trick (just after fig. 4) the skater touches the board with his rear foot, stops it – thus again producing torque – and gets back on. “To put that into numbers, the board’s longitudinal rotation lasts about 0.2 seconds (from fig. 2 to just after fig. 4), meaning it has to rotate at some 5rps or 300rpm! While doing so, the board also turns up to 90 degrees around the depth axis, in a clockwise direction. At the moment the skater ‘gets back on’ the board, at the highest point in its trajectory, we can calculate the change in height using h = (g/2)t² = 0.2m. A vertical ‘kick speed’ of v = √ 2gh = 2m/s is therefore required. If you kick off more slowly, the board will need to rotate more quickly. The challenge is to quickly co-ordinate two rapid partial movements.” PHYSICAL ACTIVITY “An average skater has to practise the kickflip for about a year before mastering it,” says US pro skateboarder Torey Pudwill (left). “The best way to train first is on grass. You can land the trick safely there, then gradually build in confidence.” Put “pudwill kickflip” into YouTube to see the man in action: www.youtube.com
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Bullevard
LUCKY NUMBERS
the unbreakables Some records are there to be broken. Others, meanwhile, are there to be forever puzzled over and admired from afar. Like, very afar
2,857
Michael Phelps
Wilt Chamberlain
The best ice-hockey-player of all-time is, fittingly, a Canadian: Wayne ‘The Great One’ Gretzky, who broke 61 NHL records in his career (1979-1999). Some of those marks have been bettered, but the 2,857 season points he scored in his career – 894 goals and 1,963 assists – will never be topped. The leading active player, Jaromir Jagr, has 1,653 points.
An Olympic gold medal is the peak of many careers in sport. Exceptional athletes like Larisa Latynina (gymnastics), Mark Spitz (swimming) and Carl Lewis (track and field) scooped nine of them. US swimming star Michael Phelps brought his career to a close after the 2012 Olympics with 18 golds. He amassed a total of 71 medals at Olympics, World Championships and Pan Pacific Championships. Jack Burke
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“He looked like a Rolls-Royce in a field of Volkswagens,” said racetrack manager Chick Lang, of the fastest flat racehorse in history. Thoroughbred stallion Secretariat romped home 31 lengths ahead of the rest of the field at the 1973 Belmont Stakes in 2m 24s, winning the US Triple Crown in the process. No other horse has ever run the 1.5-mile course in less than 2m 26s.
Georgia Tech annihilate Cumberland
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Andy Bowen and Jack Burke met in a New Orleans boxing ring on April 6, 1893. There still wasn’t a winner after seven hours and 19 minutes, there being no fixed number of rounds in a bout at the time. When the gong sounded for round 111, the two human punchbags, at this point boxing with broken knuckles, remained in their corners. At 4.43am the judge called no contest: after all that, it was a draw.
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On March 2, 1962, basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors against the New York Knicks. Only Kobe Bryant of the LA Lakers has ever scored more than 75 points in an NBA game: 81, against the Toronto Raptors in January 2006. Of the 22 instances of a player scoring 65 points or more, Chamberlain did it 15 times.
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Secretariat
Wayne Gretzky
Cumberland College took to the field against Georgia Tech in Atlanta on October 7, 1916. Cumberland had discontinued its American football programme, but not fulfilling the fixture would have resulted in a then-huge fine of US$3,000. A hastily assembled team conceded 32 touchdowns and lost 222-0. It could have been worse: it was 126-0 at half-time. the red bulletin
words: ulrich corazza. photography: getty images (3), picturedesk.com (3)
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Mountain-bike heaven: pick your favourite venue and ride until the sun goes down
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the wo r l d ’ s b e st bike trails
Breathtaking views, great journeys, uninterrupted mountain biking. Where should you go if time and money are no o b j e ct ? H e r e a r e e i g h t d r e a m d e st i n a t i o n s for that ultimate adventure on two wheels
Photography: ale di lullo
Words: Werner Jessner
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Wilde rn e ss trail frase r rive r cA Na da
BRITI SH COLUM BIA is th e mountai n bi ke r’s greate st natural playground
local guide Darren Berrecloth Freeriding legend
getting there British Columbia is the mountain biker’s greatest natural playground. Your starting point is Williams Lake, a seven-hour drive north-east of Vancouver. The Fraser River stretches for almost 1,400km, from the Rocky Mountains to Vancouver. The locations Berrecloth refers to can only be reached by boat. costs River trips start at C$125. Accommodation A tent by the river. when to go July to September. off yer bike Salmon fishing and then a barbecue with eagles, bighorn sheep and bears for company. www.jetboatadventures.com
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photography: John Gibson/Red Bull Content Pool, Mattias Fredriksson (2), Credit: Crispin Cannon/Red Bull Content Pool (2), Ian Hylands/Red Bull Content Pool (2)
“My bike and I travel the world, always on the lookout for the perfect location. The mighty Fraser River, Western Canada’s lifeline, is practically in my front yard and provides perfect conditions. The ground is hard enough to shape crazy lines, but still soft enough for good grip.”
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Th e c las sic wh i stle r ca na da
“Whistler has history in the MTB world. It was the first place where a ski resort became a full-on bike resort in the summer. That means the trails there have grown and evolved to a greater extent, too. Because of Whistler’s reputation, people from all over make the move to town. There are always people here keen to ride, which is another big reason why Whistler has one of the best riding environments.”
local guide Brandon Semenuk 2012 Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour champion
People move to wh i stle r for th e mountai n bi ki ng
getting there Just under two hours by car from Vancouver. accommodation From hotels to apartments, Whistler is ideal for every budget and every group size. costs Day passes start at C$56. when to go June to September. off yer bike There is no off yer bike. In summer, everything here revolves around mountain biking. You can have a good time people-watching as you sit and have a beer and eat burgers downtown. bike.whistlerblackcomb.com
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non-stop gri p big wate r usa
local guide Darren Berrecloth Freeriding legend
“I sought out this destination for [new mountain biking film] Where the Trail Ends for three weeks. The bentonite terrain is navigable every which way and when it comes to scenery, Utah is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Even though I grew up by the water, I’m discovering the magic of the desert more and more.”
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getting there Flight to Las Vegas or Salt Lake City, then a threeto four-hour drive. Big Water is a designated recreational area, so biking here is not just allowed, it’s encouraged. accommodation Big Water is a small town with just over 400 inhabitants. There are a few rooms for the few tourists. costs Free to ride. when to go Pretty much all year round. off yer bike The Grand Canyon may be unbikeable even for the most experienced freerider, but it’s still worth making a detour for (at about 320km south). www.bigwatertown.org
photography: Scott Markewitz/Red Bull Content Pool, Ian Hylands/Red Bull Content Pool
Utah i s one of th e most beauti ful plac e s on Earth
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HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS Mustang n e pa l
“Sick downhills, flowing single trails and sleek cross-country routes against the breathtaking backdrop of the Himalayas. My favourite trail leads to what used to be the royal city in Mustang, Lo Manthang, which UNESCO has described as unique.”
Trai ls with a breathtaki ng mountai n bac kdrop
photography: Blake Jorgenson/Red Bull Content Pool (2), Credit: christoph malin, richard bull, holzknecht seefeld
local guide Mads Mathiasen Tour guide
getting there Mustang lies in the shadow of Annapurna. The nearest airport is at Jomsom, and the nearest large one at Kathmandu. Here you start your journey with guides. accommodation In tea-houses run by locals. Alternatively; camping. costs The Upper Mustang permit costs US$500 and is valid for 10 days. You should budget for between US$100 and US$250 a day in Nepal. when to go Mid-April to the end of June. off yer bike Contemplate the fragility of man while standing in the shadow of Dhaulagiri and Annapurna, respectively the world’s seventh- and 10th-highest mountains. www.himalayan-trails.com
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Alpi ne vari ety Tyrol aust r i a
“Thanks to our mountains, the conditions for biking in the Tyrol are ideal. The infrastructure has not been up to scratch, but that is changing now. The Nordkette mountain range near Innsbruck, Steinach am Brenner and Serfaus combines scenery with fun riding.”
local guide Georgy Grogger Bike-park developer
getting there Fly to Innsbruck or Munich. accommodation Widely available at all price points: this is a place geared for visitors. costs Day tickets for the bike parks cost around €30. when to go Late summer, with its clear air, bright colours and well-rutted tracks. off yer bike Innsbruck has an almost Italian sense of urbane relaxedness (helped by a large population of students) to counter the cliché of men yodelling in lederhosen. www.tyrol.com
Conditions for bi ki ng i n th e Tyrol are i deal
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th e oth e r pe loton alpe d’ hue z f r a nce
local guide René Wildhaber Six-time Megavalanche winner
“Megavalanche in Alpe d’Huez is the world’s biggest downhill marathon and is open to both amateurs and professionals. About 2,000 bikers make a 2,500m descent from the summit of Pic Blanc. The quick riders manage it in 50 minutes; slow ones take half the day.”
getting there A classic mountain drive around 21 hairpin bends made famous by the Tour de France. Nearest airports are Turin and Grenoble. accommodation An apartment or hotel will form part of the package you book to take part in the race. costs The race and lift ticket costs €55. when to go Megavalanche week is July 8-14, 2013. off yer bike Tartiflette, the speciality of the French Alps, made with onion, potato and bacon under a ton of melted cheese. It could feed an army. www.megavalanche.com
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A 2, 500m de sc e nt, i n 50 m i nute s or half a day
photography: Stefan Hunziker, Lukas Maeder/Red Bull Content Pool
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hotte st peaks Turpan, Gobi de se rt CH i na
local guide Jack Ho Tour guide and organiser
Credit: photography: John Wellburn/Red Bull Content Pool, graeme murray/Red Bull Content Pool (3), Jack Ho
Mountai ns as i f made for downh i ll
“The flaming mountains of Turpan look as if they were made for downhill. They form a picturesque playground, as you can see in Where the Trail Ends. Turpan is the hottest place in China. Even the toughest mountain bikers lose their enthusiasm in summer temperatures of over 40 degrees.�
getting there Beijing, then a domestic flight to Urumqi, then a three-hour drive to Turpan. accommodation In a hotel. Budget for US$50 per night. costs Visa US$120, domestic flight about US$400, shuttle buses on site depend on the route and number of people. when to go March, April and October are when the temperatures are most bearable. off yer bike Turpan lies on the Silk Road which means the most varied of cultures have left their mark here for 2,000 years. www.wherethetrailends.com
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woodlan d paradi se Rotorua n ew z e a l a n d
Th e be st-value top- c las s trai ls
local guide Brook Macdonald World-class downhiller
“Rotorua’s got it all: endless XC trails and a great downhill course. Both are just a few minutes out of town and you can ride them all year round. Only Whistler is better – especially its downhill – but Rotorua is a lot better value.”
getting there Auckland’s international airport is four hours’ drive north. accommodation Motels, cottages and lofts attuned to bikers’ needs very close by. Alternatively, hire a mobile home in Auckland. costs Shuttle bus NZ$10. when to go January, when it’s summer and the weather is warm. off yer bike Relax in Rotorua’s thermal springs. www.riderotorua.com
More mountain bike action in The Red Bulletin tablet edition
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mark wahlberg
from
sinner to saint Words: Rüdiger Sturm Photography: Dewey Nicks/Trunk Archive
Mark Wahlberg is quiet – his gestures, his glances, his fading sentences – and the reason is obvious: lack of sleep combined with an overdose of interviews. But there’s an underlying intensity that cannot be extinguished by temporary fatigue. It’s exactly the same kind of presence the 41-year-old has on screen. He seems innocuous at first, but his authenticity creeps up on you, and it feels more real than with 99 per cent of other actors. That goes for his roles in thrillers and dramas 38
In a good place: having seen the grittier side of life, Wahlberg is now on the straight and narrow
such as Three Kings, The Departed, The Fighter and Broken City, as well as the blockbuster comedy Ted and this year’s Pain & Gain, in which he does both funny and fierce. This quiet force doesn’t stem from his Hollywood experiences, or from his days rapping as Marky Mark. It is the aura of a person who has fought much harder battles. the red bulletin: Is it fair to say that you used to be a bad boy? wahlberg: Let’s say, I was a petty criminal for a while, but I was lucky enough to be able to get clean, unlike most of my friends from that time, who are dead or in jail. Today, the only real vice I have is golf. You even served 45 days of a two-year sentence for assault. How does a jailbird become a Hollywood star? Sometimes I ask myself that question. I just had a drive and a desire to turn my life around. I was completely committed to do something positive. Not that I ever thought I would have this kind of journey. But I worked very, very hard. Coming from nothing inspires you to go out there and make something happen. Some people are complacent and content with the situation that they are in, but I had other plans. When exactly did you decide to change your life? It’s a process. Hearing the sound of the jailhouse doors closing – that was one of those moments. For me it was like, “Wow, this is not where I want to be. This is not the direction I want to go in. I have to start to get my head in the right place.” Isn’t that easier said than done? Of course, because I still lived in the same neighbourhood after I got out. I didn’t want to be in the gang anymore, but I had to see those guys every day. And if you are not with them, you are against them. It becomes that much more difficult. What happened? Were you attacked? I had quite a few confrontations and altercations, but I didn’t want to fall back into that whole thing. And now I want to inspire other kids to do the same. It’s why I created a foundation for children in difficult neighbourhoods in the Boston area where I grew up. Is this why you choose to play characters on the wrong side of the law – this year’s Broken City and Pain & Gain being just two examples? Yes, it is, because for these I am able draw on my life, and I always try to find roles that I can identify with. Here I use all of 40
my experiences in a positive way, and because of that I can convey the feelings of these characters better than through some technique or method. Whereas sometimes, when I see other actors playing such parts, I go, “This doesn’t ring true to me.” So you’re revisiting your old demons when you’re acting? Exactly. For me, acting is exploring a dark side of myself, and that’s why I like extreme characters. The whole thing is therapeutic. At the end of a day of work, I like to feel gratified by having exorcised my aggressions, my passions, my emotions – so I can say that I have tamed my demons. To what extent are your children aware of what you experienced? They are still young: nine, six, four and three. And I’m not telling them anything until I have to. I will wait until the last possible second. But you will tell them about it? I certainly don’t want to hide my past. But I don’t want it to make it seem: “Daddy went through bad stuff and he came out OK. We can do what we want, it will work itself out.” Because that’s not the case. I don’t know any other success stories of people who survived the kind of place I grew up in and the choices that I made and still have the freedom and the luxury to talk about it. Will you be more understanding if one of them wrecks your car? We’ll see. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Overall, your jail time seems to have had a pretty positive effect on you. Not with regards to my relationships with women. I was a very nice guy early on – the first time I fell in love, and when I was in jail, she denied me, she didn’t want to wait for me. I don’t want to blame her now, but my heart was broken, and I decided: I am never giving my heart to a girl any more. Everything, but not that. And I ended up hurting a lot of people along the way. It was not until I met my wife and we had our daughter that I went, “Oh my God, this is
building
t h e gr e at
wahl
Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg was born in Boston, USA, on June 5, 1971, the ninth of nine children. By the age of 14, he was freebasing cocaine. Two months before he turned 17, he attacked a man with a piece of wood, and served 45 days of a two-year jail sentence. Aged 20, he had a US number one hit single, Good Vibrations, as frontman of Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch. The eighth of those nine Wahlberg kids, Donnie Wahlberg, of New Kids On The Block, produced his younger brother’s record. In 1992, he appeared, splendidly sixpacked, in Calvin Klein underwear adverts that resonated worldwide. He parlayed that fame into acting, first with a small part in a 1993 TV film, The Substitute; his first lead role, in Fear, came in 1996. A year later, as porn star Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights, he showed his acting chops and more besides. Star turns in films as diverse as Three Kings, Planet Of The Apes and I Heart Huckabees followed. Playing a diamond-hard cop in The Departed in 2006 won him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. He has produced four TV shows for HBO, including Entourage – based on his Hollywood experiences – and Boardwalk Empire. the red bulletin
Serious side: “My faith and belief are set in stone”
happening to me for a reason.” So now I have the utmost respect for women and I teach my boys that. They shall not take the path that Daddy took. What is the most important lesson that you’re teaching your kids? To love and to serve God. From this, everything else will follow. So you are a believer? I’m a practising Catholic. I go to church every Sunday, because I have a lot to repent. You have a long way to go if you don’t want to end up in hell. I start the day by getting on my hands and knees and reading my prayer book. My faith is what has enabled me to be the father and the husband that I am. To accomplish all the things that I have set out to accomplish, personally and professionally. What do you say when other people don’t take your faith seriously? Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion. I’m not going to change mine. I am a pretty open-minded guy, but my faith and belief are set in stone, even though I don’t try to beat people over the head with it. A lot of Christians were willing to die for their religion. Would you be able to? I would hope so. But you never know. Remember what Jesus said to Peter: “Before the cock crows, you’ll betray the red bulletin
me three times.” And he did, even though he was one of his most beloved apostles. Are there other situations in life when your faith comes in handy? Dealing with loss, dealing with heartache. My sister passed away the same day my first daughter was born. My dad passed away – those are difficult things to deal with, but because of my belief in heaven I wanted to celebrate the life and the experiences that I had with him. So my faith helps me to realise what’s important. Do you think your dad is alive in some other form of existence? Oh my God: I see him so much in my younger son. Even the way he moves
“hearing the jail doors close was a lifechanging moment”
around, the way he talks. He is grumpy. My son’s got this old man thing going on. It’s incredible. He has all my dad’s mannerisms. My wife sees it, too. As a devout Christian, you must be familiar with ‘turning the other cheek’. What does a former gang member and current action star make of this? It is hard to put into practice, but I try to as much as possible. But it’s hard, because there is a part of me who is like, “You do something to me, I’m going to mess you up and then maybe you can forgive me.” When was the last time somebody had to forgive you? That would be my wife. My sons are obsessed with paintball guns, and they asked me whether they could shoot somebody. I said no, but I have a friend who has been in a couple of movies, where he takes real punches. He is very tough. So they went, “Can we shoot him?” I said, “You have to ask him.” So he said yes, and we started shooting at him. We were dying laughing, and we got it on video where we kept watching it. Until my wife found it. She was so upset with me. I got yelled at no end. I was in the doghouse for that for a long time. Your wife calls the shots. Have you made many sacrifices for her? I had to make some tough decisions, for sure. When I met her, I was living with five or six of my friends in an apartment, but I knew that there could be something special with her. So I decided that I was going to move out of that apartment and buy my first home. All of my friends were planning on coming with me, but when I actually bought the house, I said, “I hate to break it to you guys, but you are not coming with me.” I got rid of all of them. Don’t you miss those times? Those guys were bad influences, we were all partying too much. You’d be amazed how much you can accomplish once you stop drinking and going out at night. Sometimes I’m up at 4.30 in the morning to play basketball; at 6.30 I get the kids out of bed and get them off to school. Are they nice kids, as opposed to the young Mark? Of course – but my four-year-old always tries to punch me in the nuts. Sometimes he gets me when I’m not looking, and it really hurts. Then again, when I see him I can’t help but laugh, and that’s the best medicine. Everybody should laugh and smile a little bit more. Then make us smile right now. Just think of me filming Boogie Nights, with a huge rubber penis glued to the real one. www.brokencitymovie.com www.painandgainmovie.com
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Name Olga Kostyantynivna Kurylenko Born November 14, 1979, Berdyansk, Ukraine Languages Russian, English and French First role Carole, in a 2001 episode of adventure TV show Largo Winch. The credits misspelled her as ‘Kutylenko’. Serious role Marina, Ben Affleck’s lover in art-house drama To The Wonder (2012).
“ I can dismantle a Rohrbaugh R9 pistol in eight seconds”
Olga Kurylenko
Future Perfect The Franco-Ukrainian actress, darling of both action and art-house movies, talks modelling myths, firearms and rallying in spaceships with Tom Cruise Interview: Andreas Rottenschlager
Olga Kurylenko’s new film is the sci-fi action flick Oblivion, in which she co-stars with Tom Cruise. The former model has form in big-budget adventures: her career took off in 2008 when she played the role of agent Camille Montes in Quantum Of Solace: a no-nonsense Bond girl who goes through blood, sweat and bullets to avenge her parents’ murder.
photography: universal
the red bulletin: Can you still take a Rohrbaugh R9 pistol apart in eight seconds? olga kurylenko: The weapon I used in the Bond film? Of course I can. I spoke to my shooting trainers quite recently. They’re still amazed today how I could dismantle the thing so quickly. By the end of filming I could do it quicker than them. When did you last call Daniel Craig? I haven’t ever. He never gave me his number!
What’s your most vivid childhood memory of Berdyansk? I would swim in the sea until I was blue in the face. I used to spend whole days on the beach when I was a child. My mother couldn’t get me out of the water. A modelling scout discovered you when you were 13 and you moved to Paris alone when you were 16. What did your mother give you for the journey? She said, “Be happy. You’re going to see Paris. That’s your reward, even if your
Olga Kurylenko was born in Berdyansk in southern Ukraine, a grey, industrial city on the Sea of Azov, in 1979. Her parents divorced when she was three, and she grew up with her mother and Space time: Kurylenko with Tom Cruise in Oblivion grandmother in an apartment they career goes wrong.” She could never have shared with several adult relatives. She afforded to send me on such a trip. There’s learned to play piano and took ballet a Russian saying: “See Paris and die.” I’ve classes. These were the final years of always been fascinated by the city. a collapsing Soviet Union. Two years later you were on the cover of Vogue. What do you think of find-aYou grew up in very modest model TV shows? circumstances. How did that affect you? If I had a daughter, I wouldn’t let her take When you’re living on the breadline, you part in them. I don’t think competition learn at some point to deal with it. You is good for children’s minds, when you realise how little you need to survive. constantly have to wonder what will happen I think it’s harder to come from a rich if you lose. I just started working. I would home and then become poor. I can afford take my daughter to one side and explain a comfortable lifestyle now. But I don’t need to her how the business really works. any more than I was used to in the past. the red bulletin
In Oblivion, Tom Cruise plays one of the last men standing on a destroyed planet Earth – a human version of the Pixar robot Wall-E. Alongside him appears Kurylenko, playing a mysterious woman who emerges from a crashed spaceship. The film, set 60 years from now, is a blizzard of special effects hiding an interplanetary conspiracy. What will life be like in 2073? I hope that our planet will still be here. Maybe we won’t drive cars any more, but fly through the air on bubbleships [the futuristic spacecraft featured in Oblivion] instead. That would stop us getting stuck in traffic jams in the morning. What is Tom Cruise like? Tom is the consummate professional. He doesn’t just come onto set and act. He discusses every single scene, right down to the finest details. We sat down at a table before we started filming and ploughed our way through the script. Both of us had the opportunity to make suggestions regarding our characters or to improve the dialogue. Tom is very conscientious about his work and he expects the same commitment from the people he’s working with. What was the greatest challenge on the set? We had this bubbleship prototype. The cockpit was suspended on a crane. It could be rotated to simulate the nosedives you see in the film. It felt as if you were sitting in a washing machine on the spin cycle. It took me a month of training to finally stop feeling sick! Oblivion is out now: www.oblivionmovie.com
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NEW WAVE
Photography: Chris Saunders
Making waves: The Brother Moves On have created a significant blip on the musical radar
The chilled-out sounds of African House and the influence it’s had on international music tastes was just the first salvo. The great continent has
another wave of talented musicians ready to make a global impact. Here are
a few Africans who will be occupying your headphones in the future‌ Words: Lloyd Gedye
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Baloji If he hadn’t fallen out with his record label, the Congolese musician might never have come up with his brilliant new album
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or Skip & Die is a gimmick. They will kill these bands that they love in two years.” It was this Western attitude to African music that left Baloji spending two years to find a label to release Kinshasa Succursale. “Which is why I made the video for Karibu Ya Bintou – to attract labels,” he says. It was two years well spent. The album
“ Every tribe in the Congo has its own rhythm, so there was so much to channel into the album. I tried to make it sound like it was played live” is a masterstroke – a beautiful journey through the sounds and rhythms of Kinshasa. “Every tribe in Congo has its own rhythm, so there was so much to channel into the album. I tried to make it sound like the opposite of the first album, something that was played live. We went to all the music schools and gigs and asked people to show up at the studio the next day,
thinking that if we asked six guitar players, we’d have one, but everybody came. That created a special vibe, because the musicians felt the pressure of the guys in the control room who were going, ‘I can do better, just give it to me.’” Making Kinshasa Succursale in the DRC has transformed Baloji’s career. Changing the whole band line-up was risky, but it worked – especially with his choice of band leader, Dizzy Mandjeku. This famous Congolese guitarist played with Congolese jazz legend Franco for more than a decade and also played in Tabu Ley Rochereau’s Afrisa. “He doesn’t like hip-hop, but the fact that we can find a place to understand each other musically is the most amazing experience.” While touring, Baloji is working on a new EP that will feature collaborations with some of Africa’s brightest young stars: South Africans Petite Noir, Spoek Mathambo and Okmalumkoolkat, as well as Ghanaians M.anifest, Mensa, Wanlov the Kubolor and Kenyan outfit Just a Band. www.baloji.com
Baloji (centre) taking part in Damon Albarn’s Africa Express tour
Photography: Alexander Popelier, Getty images
Go onto YouTube and search for Baloji’s Karibu Ya Bintou video. It’s spellbinding. The hip-hop track opens with a spoken word intro and a bizarre baptism ceremony, then explodes into a rollicking ride through the streets of Kinshasa, driven by the explosive back-track rhythm by iconic Congolese group, Konono No 1. The video culminates in a surreal, brutal wrestling tournament, as Baloji repeatedly spits “Kinshasa, get more”. As the DRC-born musician explains, the video only came about as a result of his dispute with his record label, EMI. His latest album Kinshasa Succursale, eventually released on Crammed Discs in 2011, was recorded in Kinshasa, using Congolese musicians to rework songs originally released on debut album 2008’s Hotel Impala. “The label hated my album,” he says. “I had a deal with EMI and it was all ready and then they heard it and said ‘no way are we releasing that’. They said the only people who would care were like 20 Congolese guys in Brussels and Paris,” he says. “They were almost right, but not completely. African music is still ghettoised, it’s still a gimmick to them.” Attitudes are changing, he acknowledges, but there’s clearly frustrations: “Look at bands that can speak to a European audience – like the BLK JKS with their rock attitude, or Petite Noir with a Joy Division sound. If it was more typical of South Africa, it would be more difficult. Stuff like Die Antwoord
From Democratic Republic of Congo The hard-to-describe description African hip-hop underscored by the pulsating rhythms of reinvented, guitarbased 1960s and ’70s Congolese pop Essential Google song search Karibu Ya Bintou Hotel Impala Discography Hotel Impala (Hostile Records, 2008) Kinshasa Succursale (Crammed Discs, 2011)
From South Africa The hard-to-describe description Performance art-meetsmusic-meets-dance. It’s funk, jazz, post-folk, post-everything. It’s drums, snares, guitars and synth music Essential Google song search Good Times Ya’khalimbazo Discography The Golden Wake EP (Independent, 2012) ETA EP (Independent, 2012)
The Brother Moves On
Photography: Chris Saunders, Liam Lynch
Band or performance art collective? Whatever you call them, these South Africans are creating a stir with their challenging live shows
Last year was a big year for The Brother Moves On – particularly impressive seeing they hadn’t even released a proper album yet. Instead, the significant blip on the radar was from mesmerising live shows and a magnificent EP named The Golden Wake. This was followed by another record called ETA containing two stand-out singles – Good Times and Ya’khalimbazo. The band – if you could call them that – has existed for between three and four years, though even this is disputed. Its members see themselves as a performance art collective and their name pays tribute to the changing personnel. For the last 18 months, they’ve mainly consisted of guitarist Raytheon Moorvan, drummer Simphiwe Tshabalala, bassist Ayanda Zalekile, guitarist Zelizwe Mthembu, Nkululeko Mthembu, Kyle de Boer and frontman Siyabonga Mthembu. And with record labels throwing cash at them to sign, the guys are holed up in Jo’burg, recording the rest of their debut album. It’s a tricky juncture of their fledgling careers to manage. Says Mthembu: “People say, ‘You should sign with these guys.’ Why we should sign with people who have never been to one of our shows. They will just rip us apart and move us away from what we want to do. It’s better for us to learn how to do these things.” The band’s music draws on the work of South African
Politics and dance: The Brother Moves On at Oppikoppi
artists such as Busi Mhlongo and Philip Tabane, as well as local jazz, and the rich traditions of indigenous Maskandi and Mbaqanga music forms. Their compositions are a bold psychedelic reimagining
“ Our show is not there to make people uncomfortable. It’s there to say that we are all in discomfort”
of this music – full-on funk machine meets African folk. Their acclaimed single Good Times is about a miner who goes to the tavern, gets drunk, has a good time and gets mugged on the way home. On their website, they talk about the song as a “cathartic exercise in the wake of Marikana”. As the Marikana Commission continues in South Africa, attempting to uncover what went wrong when 34 miners were slain
by police last year, their song is a pertinent pop moment in the South African body politic. The second single from ETA is Ya’khalimbazo – “an ode to the self-defence unit that used to police Caleni ‘Kalambazo’ section in Tembisa”. Both are examples of the band’s strengths – taking political subject matter and being able to make you dance, but also expand your consciousness. In Black Diamond Butterfly, De Boer recites lyrics about the white worm of history as a cocoon for the black diamond butterfly. Audience members have recoiled in their seats. “Our show is not there to make people uncomfortable,” says Mthembu. “It’s there to say we are all in discomfort, so let’s get comfortable together. By the end, people have let go – sometimes they even hop on stage. When you get the big eyes and gaping mouths, you are doing something right.” www.thebrothermoveson.com
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Sinkane
Stepping out from behind the drum kit, Ahmed Gallab is making attention-grabbing music with free-jazz and kraut-rock influences
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around the house, seeking out hardcore punk rock instead. “I wanted something fresh that I could relate to,” he says. “Now, as an adult, I feel more connected to Sudanese music than any other kind. Then, it was so familiar that I didn’t take it seriously. I was always drawn to drums, though. I would make a drum kit out of tin cookie cans and play them with spoons as a kid.” The discovery of punk at the age of 13 “was an
“ I was an angry kid and playing drums in a hardcore band was the greatest release. It was amazing therapy” incredible discovery”, reflects Gallab. “I was an angry kid and playing the drums in a hardcore band was the greatest release. It was amazing therapy.” As it turned out, the drums were also the key to future success. And while he would go on to drum for some of the world’s most esteemed
musicians, a solo career was always what Gallab worked towards. By 2007, he was ready, signing to Emergency Umbrella Records, releasing two albums in as many years. Color Voice was the first, in 2008: “I wanted to make a record with elements of the spiritual jazz era (Impulse! Records circa ’70s mainly) and Brian Eno’s Discreet Music – I guess it came out as ‘Post Rock’. In high school I enjoyed bands like Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, so those influences come through.” In 2009 came the self-titled Sinkane, and listening to it now, it’s a clearly a bridge between what was before and his new work. “I wanted to play more with free-jazz and kraut-rock influences. I recorded Sinkane in three days. I didn’t think too much, but let the songs write themselves.” Sinkane has just toured the USA and hits Europe in April. So any chance of seeing Sinkane in Africa? “Tell the promoters that we’re ready,” he says. www.sinkane.com
Ahmed Gallab performs as Sinkane at 130 Hope Street, Brooklyn
Photography: Rick Rodney, getty images
Having paid his dues sitting behind the drums for indie darlings Caribou, Of Montreal, Born Ruffians and Eleanor Friedberger, Ahmed Gallab is now taking centre stage himself. His Sinkane moniker, though, is not a new for the Sudanese-born Gallab. In 2008, he debuted with album Color Voice on Emergency Umbrella Records, but it is only since Gallab released Mars, his bold, psychedelic third record, on the DFA label in late 2012, that he started to get some major attention. Combining West African desert-blues guitar and bold percussion with kraut-rock rhythms and free-jazz horns, Mars is a global psychedelic indie pop record that worms its way under your skin. Whether it’s the psych-funk of Running, the rolling desertblues groove of Jeeper Creeper or the bombastic inter-galactic funk of Making Time, Mars is a tour de force. And there’s a fascinating back story too. Born to academic and journalist parents who were anti-government, a five-yearold Gallab and his family fled to America, to escape the burgeoning political violence of the late ’80s. “Both my parents were freedom fighters and my father just had a soapbox,” Sinkane says. “Both of them are professors now. I would spend summers in Sudan until I started university,” he says. “We never really settled.” However in Ohio, where he lived during his high school and university years, Gallab rebelled against the Sudanese music his parents played
From Sudan The hard-to-describe description Psychedelic indie pop, incorporating anything from funk and desertblues to free-jazz Essential Google song search Jeeper Creeper Making Time Discography Color Voice (Emergency Umbrella Records, 2008) Sinkane (Emergency Umbrella Records, 2009) Mars (DFA, 2012)
From South Africa The hard-to-describe description More than just sensitive Afro-folk, you’ll also hear some slow ’90s indie and African blues, all supporting cerebral lyrics and intricate guitar work Essential Google song search Abraham Christopher Discography Abraham, EP (JustMusic, 2012) Brave Confusion (JustMusic, 2013)
Nakhane Touré
Photography: chris saunders, Hazel Mphande
There’s no label that can be pinned on the South African singer/songwriter, who makes “frighteningly personal” music
A magical voice, they say, has the ability to suspend time. Born in Alice, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, Nakhane Touré has that kind of special voice. While he may have found its initial calling in the choral music scene – his mother’s family were all singers – there’s a quality to this 25-year-old’s voice that deserves a solo outing. It’s a special instrument that’s floats somewhere between Jeff Buckley and Thom Yorke. “I would get up on stage and dance and sing,” he pauses, remembering. “I was just a cute little kid,” he chuckles to himself. “It’s funny when I see those people now, they expect to me to still do that… I mean I’m not nine any more, I have an ego now.” Around Touré’s house it’ll mostly be Motown through the speakers, especially Marvin Gaye, though Brenda Fassie has a special place in the young man’s heart. “It’s very interesting being a black person in South Africa right now,” says Touré. “I was thinking of calling my album ‘brave confusion’. I don’t think there is anyone more confident and more confused than the black youth.” For Touré, it means there’s now a particular relevance to be seen as an “African artist”. “It never used to be,” he says. “It is now, especially in South Africa, everything is political. Like taking the name of Ali Farka Touré. I feel like I’ve helped people pigeonhole me. It’s easy to call me an
Touré’s voice and style represent a new shift in South African music
afro-folk star, I think I have complicated things for myself, but that’s not a bad thing.” Touré is sitting in the Sting Music Studio, recording his debut album. He’s listening to the basic tracks of what, based on his live
“ Taking the name of Ali Farka Touré, I feel that I’ve helped people pigeonhole me. It’s
easy to call me an afro-folk star” performances, is a muchanticipated record. “My work is about sexuality more than anything else. There is nothing sexier than music. The thing is, my songs are so frighteningly personal,” he cringes. “I don’t want to make a singer/songwriter album, or a folk album, I don’t think I make folk music,” he adds. Trying to pigeonhole Touré is difficult. The diverse influences that he draws on
complicate matters. A rambling musical conversation with Touré can take in The Smiths, Fela Kuti, Kraftwerk, Radiohead, Patti Smith, Madala Kunene, Jeff Buckley and Kate Bush in a matter of minutes. Touré’s latest crush is Busi Mhlongo. “I have been listening to Urban Zulu non-stop for the past two months,” he declares. “When I first heard it, I was struck by how much punk there is in it,” he beams. “It’s quite diva, it’s like I am Busi Mhlongo and there is nothing you can do about it. Vocally, she is unbelievable. I used to think Marvin Gaye was my favourite singer, then the other day I was thinking maybe he’s been dethroned. “It goes back to black heroes,” he says. “A lot of black youth were conditioned to believe that our music was not that good. Africa doesn’t need to sell itself to Europe or America,” he declares. www.justmusic.co.za/artists/ nakhane-toure
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BRAVE NEW WORLD Why does a world champion change sports at the peak of his powers? At Casey Stoner’s first Supercars race after his successes on two wheels, The Red Bulletin finds out
photography: Mark Horsburgh
Words: Josh Rakic
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photography: Getty images (2), Mark Horsburgh
Clockwise from above: Stoner is surrounded by fans at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide; (l-r) Jamie Whincup, Casey Stoner and Mark Webber in the pitlane during the Top Gear Festival in Sydney, Australia; the reluctant celebrity poses by his Holden Commodore during the launch of the Dunlop Development V8 Supercar Series in Adelaide
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ead lowered, a low-slung cap worn as a sort of protective visor, it’s obvious Casey Stoner is uncomfortable. He’s trying to nudge his way through a heaving crowd desperate to get a piece of the two-time MotoGP world champion. Politely smiling and waving for photographs, putting his signature to paraphernalia along the way, he struggles through the noise on the most pressing of adventures – that of the prerace bathroom search. There’s a sense of anxiety around the self-described introvert, because while Stoner, at 27, has a dozen years of Grand Prix motorcycle racing behind him, fame and fortune remain uneasy companions. Today, in Adelaide, on the second of two race days at the Clipsal 500, he has no chance of avoiding the limelight. Stoner is the star attraction on the weekend of his eagerly awaited V8
Supercars debut, driving for the Triple Eight Race Engineering team in the Dunlop Development V8 Supercar Series. Stoner’s defection to the second tier of Australian touring cars from the highest level of two-wheeled racing with the Honda factory team, is as exciting for local fans as it is disappointing for MotoGP. It is no coincidence, and testament to Stoner’s standing in his home country, that Australian broadcasters are in Adelaide to show a race from this series live for the first time. When Stoner’s decision was announced, it was a puzzle. Why pick a little-known Australian series instead of the World Rally Championship, NASCAR or IndyCar? “I’m not looking to go out and beat the world again. I’m looking to race where I can enjoy life and settle, and not drag the family around the globe,” says Stoner. In 57
“i’m not a hero. I’m just a bloke who likes his family, fishing, racing and winning”
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photography: Getty iamges (2), Daniel Kalisz, Mark Horsburgh
Clockwise from left: getting mentally and physically prepared for a race; Stoner picks up speed during race two of the Dunlop Development V8 Supercars Series; taking the wheel; these boots are made for racing
the team truck, away from the hustle, his baby daughter Alessandra a bundle of smiles on his knee. “V8 Supercars is something I’ve enjoyed watching for many years and I’ve always had an interest in racing in this championship.” Stoner says that, well into his teenage years, he largely kept to himself and, other than the company of wife Adriana, spent most of his eight years in MotoGP in relative isolation. It’s not that he is anti-social, it’s more to do with the fact that he finds solace in his home life. “Some people want to be famous and be well-known and go to all the parties and be seen in all the magazines, but that’s not us,” Stoner says. “It never has been. I’ve loved motorbikes and cars since I was a kid and just happened to be pretty good at it. It’s never been about the money for me. I’m not a hero, just a bloke who likes fishing, bikes, a few beers with his mates, his family and racing. And winning,” he says, with a grin. He’s not pretending to be an I’m-notfamous superstar. One thing Stoner is not is false. At home, wearing simple blue jeans and plaid shirt, with the trademark short-back-and-sides that’s served him well since he broke into MotoGP in 2006, Stoner is everything he claims to be and nothing more. He doesn’t easily adapt to change, nor pretend to. On his move from Ducati to Honda, after the 2010 MotoGP season, he took with him as many key 59
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Clockwise from above: Casey takes time out With fellow Australian champion Jamie Whincup; round one at the Clipsal 500; on goes the helmet and he’s ready to race
Stoner’s car and motorcycle race number, arrived at Honda after working for Ferrari and Renault in F1, at the same time as Stoner. Along with superbike rider Chaz Davies and Alpinestars athlete support manager Chris Hillard, he forms Stoner’s group of close friends. The three are in Adelaide to offer their support. “If you are one of the few let in to that circle, it’s something that must be treated carefully and respectfully,” Edwards says. “In private, away from the limelight, Casey has a great sense of humour and is a very warm and generous person. It’s a shame that 99 per cent of people will never see this side of him.” Stoner’s only special request is an insistence on lactose-free meals, but he does it to prevent a serious allergic reaction that would sap his strength. Where possible, he eats what’s served to everyone else in the Triple Eight garage. He prefers not to stand out, but rather be an equal part of the team. He persistently refers to “us” rather than “me” when speaking about his racing. He knows what he likes and, more specifically, he knows what he doesn’t like – being a hero. “Many people misunderstand Casey and especially his attitude towards the media and fans,” Edwards says, “but I know he is genuinely grateful for the people who support him. He’s just very shy and he honestly doesn’t like all the attention. With the media, he
photography: Mark Horsburgh (2), Daniel Kalisz
staff as possible, to stay surrounded by people who had earned his trust over several years. Those who know him well viewed his move to V8 Supercars with some trepidation, knowing that from a work standpoint at least, he would be well out of his comfort zone. “He’s very careful who he lets in to an incredibly small circle of trust,” says Honda Racing communications manager, Rhys Edwards. Edwards, who has the number 27 tattooed on his left wrist, in honour of
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“It’s a shame that 99 per cent of people don’t see what Casey is really like”
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Power ranger: Stoner has been following V8 supercars as long as he has motorbikes
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photography: Mark Horsburgh (2)
understands it’s part of his job, but that doesn’t mean he has to like it.” On race weekends, Casey Stoner, Superstar, shows up for high-paying corporate partners and fans. Around those he knows and works with, Regular Casey Stoner laughs loudly and talks openly, taking as much interest in the people he’s talking to as they do in him. Begin a conversation on Australian sport, one of his favourite subjects, and, as can be the case in his press conferences, he’s quick to give no-holds-barred opinions. In the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s race, Stoner is being chauffeured in a golf buggy from the garage to a press conference. (In Saturday’s race, Stoner made up 16 positions, from starting 30th to finishing 14th, in his second-ever race on four wheels. On Friday, starting 12th, a burst tyre ended his race after only a few laps.) Talk turns to the plight of the Socceroos, Australia’s football team. As the national team’s problems are being solved, an Italian fan spots Stoner and gives chase. Lugging a large bag and a camera, the fan charges after the golf buggy. From the back of the buggy, Stoner’s media man calls out to explain they can’t stop, that Stoner is already running seriously late for a press conference – which is true – but the fan pushes on regardless. With the hot Adelaide sun beating down, it seems only a matter of time before the tifoso calls it quits. He doesn’t. He’s covered half the track, overcome grass and dirt and at least two securityenforced zones he had no place entering. The media man alerts Stoner. “Really? That’s commitment,” Stoner says, with genuine astonishment. “I’ll pay that. Stop the cart.” The driver halts and Stoner welcomes the fan with a friendly arm over the shoulder. “All I want is a photo, please,” he squeezes out in between deep breaths. “Casey, you are my favourite – my hero. I love the way you race.” This kind of thing happens many times over the weekend. The Italian marathon man didn’t have memorabilia to be signed and then sold on eBay. “A genuine fan, the type I can appreciate,” Stoner says. “He didn’t expect anything or demand anything. He tried his best, was polite and showed he was a genuine bike fan. I get that. It’s all the fans who put three replica bikes in front of you and just expect you to sign them without saying so much as ‘hi’ or ‘thank you’ who get to me.” There’s a sense that, after years of worldwide travel, being back on his the red bulletin
“fans who want bikes signed with no ‘Hi’ or ‘thanks’: they get to me” home soil is making Stoner happy. He didn’t come back to Australia for the money, knocking back a $15 millionplus offer to remain in MotoGP, and leaving the peak of one sport for the mid-range of another. “If I could live anywhere in the world, anywhere at all, it would be Australia,” he says with utter certainty, with his wife Adriana in total agreement. “I love it here and always have. And if I never had to go back overseas, I probably wouldn’t. Expect for the US. We love visiting America. But
The Spec V8 Supercars Cars with 5-litre, 600hp V8 engines that push the speedo needle to 300kph, are found at the start line of the Dunlop Development V8 Supercars series, Australia’s second-tier touring car championship. In 2013, there are seven race weekends, each with two races. Of the 30 drivers competing this year, 14 drive a Ford Falcon, and 16, including Casey Stoner, drive a Holden Commodore – souped-up versions of cars that are touchstones of Australian motoring.
I couldn’t be happier to be home. It’s been so long since we’ve had our family and friends living so close by.” Stoner is a laconic Australian who, if not for his notoriety, wouldn’t look out of place behind the counter of a tackle shop with a straw hat. Away from racing, he drives a Holden Commodore – the Australian everyman’s classic, which happens to be the regular version of his ride in V8 Supercars. He won five BMWs while in MotoGP – two of which he gave away – yet he’s more excited talking about Holdens and Subaru compacts. Like his fellow red-blooded Aussies, Stoner isn’t immune to the allure of brute power and the roaring noise of a V8 engine. He has followed V8 Supercars for as long as he has motorbikes. With his move to race cars, his bucket list is all but completed before his 28th birthday. Returning to his hotel after Saturday’s efforts, Stoner points out the garden where he proposed, “clumsily” he says, to Adriana. He is a man content. In that frame of mind, and given his previous achievements, then you’d say it’s sooner rather than later that the champion of two wheels will be tasting success on four. www.v8supercars.com.au
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katherine sparkes
Bright Spark Swimming with sharks, 20,000 football shirts and baked buildings in Thailand: the MD who takes pleasure in business success Words: Ruth Morgan Portrait: Shamil Tanna
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n an unseasonably cold spring Tuesday in Bristol, Katherine Sparkes is sitting in a café staring out at swimmers braving the icy waters of an outdoor pool, worrying about her front crawl. In September, she’ll be taking to chilly Californian waters to swim from Alcatraz to San Francisco, battling strong currents and avoiding sharks, and she’s a bit rusty. “When I kick my legs I somehow manage to go backwards,” she says. “I’ve got a long way to go. When I see any sort of water now, I feel like I should be practising.” This year, she’ll also be taking part in a nighttime rollerblading marathon in Paris, a 260km bike ride in Italy and climbing a mountain in Brazil, for what will be a total of 13 challenges in aid of her charity, the Flamingo Foundation. She runs it alongside her innovative company Flamingo, which specialises in corporate social responsibility, and which Sparkes founded when she was just 22. If anyone can take on these varied new skills, she can. “I’ve become a jack of all trades,” she says. “One minute I’m in a corporate meeting with CEOs, the next I’m up a ladder grouting tiles in a centre for the elderly, or sleeping in a hammock in Kenya.” Sparkes ably fits into these disparate worlds. Today she is dressed smartly, makeup applied, patent beige heels in place, looking every bit the company director, but she’s the first to admit she prefers khakis and kids in Kenya. “I’m far happier in the middle of nowhere, 64
wearing combats and rolling around with the local children, with my hair all over the place,” she says. Thanks to the success of her business, Sparkes often shows her non-corporate side. Now 32, she’s travelled to Africa to help build schools and to Thailand to construct children’s playhouses from
“I always knew that I wanted to do something that helped people” baked mud. She has also run numerous successful projects, collecting everything from suits for homeless UK jobseekers and bras to use as currency, helping widowed women in Africa start their own businesses, to unwanted musical instruments for needy children around the world. Sparkes and her Flamingo team match businesses up with these
sorts of sustainable charity projects, which they often come up with, and then run. “Corporate social responsibility is about giving back to the community in which you operate,” Sparkes says. “We help all sorts of companies do that. We make sure our work is sustainable, with a long-term impact. Until 10 years ago, no one in the UK had heard of the term CSR, including me. I was just doing something that had always made sense to me: if a company does something good, they get the rewards as much as the people they help. They get great, cost-effective press coverage, awards, a better profile – young people are more likely to work for socially responsible companies. Everyone benefits.” It’s a neat model that works. Sparkes’ business has grown year-onyear since she founded it, bringing her a long way from the basement of the shared flat where she started out. At 22, she was a journalism graduate dipping her toe into the world of PR in London, with no experience of running a company. “I always knew I wanted to do something that helped people,” she says. “When I realised there was something in this idea I just started it. People have this idea that entrepreneurship is really difficult to get into, but that’s a myth. I didn’t have any money, I didn’t have a five-year business plan. All I had was a second-hand computer.” It helped that Sparkes had childhood experience of making something from nothing. As a girl, she collected aluminium cans for charity appeals, and organised the red bulletin
Age 32 Born Bristol, UK Top 10 Named one of JCI’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World 2012 Top tip Become a trustee for a charity: “People think you can’t do this until you’re old, but charities love having young, dynamic people on the board. It will give a great overview of how a business is run.”
Helping hand: Sparkes’ philanthropy reaches worldwide, including (left) Build-A-SchoolIn-A-Month in Kenya
“I’ve always cut out the red tape. We don’t have long, ineffective meetings: we crack on” in these pubs, including donations from famous people and MPs, so the chain got great publicity, then we distributed these to townships in South Africa in time for the World Cup. We then took 10 pub managers from the company out to Cape Town to meet the kids they’d helped. It was brilliant. They’d never experienced anything like it. We encourage this handson approach; we don’t want companies just to hand us an oversized cheque.”
From top: Shade Aid, through which unwanted sunglasses are given new homes in developing countries; the Little Learners project, encouraging disadvantaged youngsters to be excited by reading
various collections and fundraisers at school. “I guess that kind of evolved into what I’m doing now,” she says. “I struggled with the idea that you spend most of your life working, as I wanted to be able to do something good with most of my time. The solution was to find a job that would allow me to do that.” Sparkes’ first client was the owner of a large pub group where she had worked part-time. After eventually persuading him to employ her, he was sold on her business model, and is still a client today. “We did a fantastic project with the pub group for the last World Cup,” she says. “They wanted to promote their showing the football on TV, but that’s not interesting to the press. Instead, we came up with Project Fair Play, which asked people to donate unwanted football shirts to kids in Africa. We got 20,000 shirts collected 66
In good company Katherine Sparkes was recognised one of Junior Chamber International’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World in 2012, alongside other young achievers including: Bobby Kensah, UK After a tough upbringing, Kensah devotes his time to tackling youth issues including knife crime, bullying and gang involvement. He also established the Phase One Network to help disadvantaged young people find work. Tendai Concilia Wenyika, Zimbabwe Social activist Wenyika is the founder of both the Zimbabwe Young Women’s Network and the Zimbabwe Entrepreneurs Youth Association, inspiring young people to become community activists and fight for their voices to be heard. Aisling Neary, Ireland Nurse Neary uses her medical skill around the world, reaching the remote and underprivileged. She also raised the money to build the first school in an impoverished Ghanaian village.
www.flamingo-creative.co.uk www.jci.cc the red bulletin
Additional photography: Flamingo Creative (3)
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any of Sparkes’ clients have received awards for their involvement in CSR, and last year, she herself was honoured, when she was recognised by Junior Chamber International, a voluntary organisation for young people effecting positive change. “With past members including Al Gore and John F Kennedy, an award from JCI is a highprofile accolade. They named Sparkes one of their Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World for her work in CSR and community action. “It was a huge award to get,” she says. “I never thought I’d be chosen. It was really exciting going out to Taipei for the awards ceremony, and it was inspiring to spend time with the other winners and share ideas. A great experience.” Sparkes may now have an international award, an office in Bristol, five members of staff and up to 20 freelancers working for her at any one time, but, 10 years on, her general business philosophy hasn’t changed. “I still don’t have a business plan,” she laughs. “Any plan I make is redundant the following week. I think a lot of it is about gut instinct and being quick to adapt and evolve. We can shrink and grow as needed, and I’ve always cut out the red tape. We don’t mess about with long, ineffective meetings: we crack on. It’s about having an impact, planting a seed with these companies that will hopefully grow.” With her business thriving, Sparkes is no longer a jack of all trades, but a master of one. All she needs to do now is nail that front crawl.
life inside a bomb If Eric makes a mistake, he’ll be dead before he knows it – and that’s a good part of his job
Words: Ron Mueller Photography: Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek
Eric Eric lives in a country in northern Europe. He’s married, has a natural pool in his garden and a mid-range car with a child seat in the back for his two-year-old daughter. Eric and his family are monitored by his country’s secret services. It’s the full package: they are watched, and their telephone, email and internet activity checked. He knows that he is under surveillance and his wife recently found out too. “The guys keep an eye out for us,” he said, as she spoke to him, somewhat rattled, about the inconspicuous men who had become all too conspicuous on a recent shopping trip. Eric’s wife knows what her husband does for a living, but his friends, the guys he plays football with twice a week, the neighbours and most of his family members don’t. Eric’s sister thinks that he’s got some administrative job with the army that is so boring it’s not worth talking about. In actual fact, Eric has been little more than a tiny mistake away from death “about 30 or 40 times” in the course of his career. “We only rarely work with more leeway than a couple of millimetres or one wrong decision,” he says. 68
red or blue?
In James Bond films, there’s always a red wire and a blue wire. But there are a couple more colours than that in the real life of a bomb disposal expert. One false move means death. Guaranteed.
Lights out!
It’s not all about high-tech equipment
How do you defuse a bomb that’s been fitted with motion detectors and light sensors? You just have to move slowly enough, and be able to work without light, for hours at a time.
Training camp for those defusing bombs by hand, where you’re taught “to think and feel like a bomb maker”
There are about 1,000 experts around the world who can defuse bombs and mines in war zones and conflict areas such as Afghanistan, Iraq and parts of Africa, and the unexploded bombs that turn up years or even decades after a war is over when a vegetable patch is being laid or a basement dug up. Usually, these mines or remnants of war undergo a controlled explosion or, as they say in the business, are ‘defused conventionally’, that’s to say the bomb disposal expert is at safe cover, wearing a 40-kilo protective suit and protective helmet, using a remote-controlled robot with an extremely precise grappler and X-ray eyes. There are situations when 70
a controlled explosion can’t be carried out and which are beyond the robots’ capabilities. For example, when a bomb has to remain intact because it could hold clues that would give the perpetrator away. Or because a bomb contains chemical, biological or nuclear materials such as poison gas, killer viruses or radioactivity, which an explosion would release. Or when bombs are in inaccessible locations, such as on a high point above a village in Afghanistan, or on the winding staircase of a town hall in a small European town. Or when kidnappers attach explosives to their hostages, with ‘necklace bombs’ being the most common form. When such
cases arise, the services of manual bomb disposal experts are required. Eric is one of about 70 active worldwide. Their working uniform is a T-shirt and their bare hands. No protective suit and helmet required, because there’s no protection available that would do a job if the bombs they’re elbow-deep in go off. All of the above is true, except Eric isn’t called Eric and he doesn’t live in a northern European country. Eric must remain anonymous: bomb disposal experts are triple-A targets for terrorists. Not only can they defuse the bombs made by terrorists, they could also be blackmailed into making bombs for terrorists, bombs that would be impossible for bomb disposal experts to defuse. Bomb disposal experts can make bombs, which they call ‘deadly bombs’. Terrorists know that. And terrorists read The Red Bulletin too. Hence Eric, hence northern Europe. A Game of Chess A bomb disposal expert needs to know more than how to deactivate bombs, or how to make them. “You have to learn to think and feel like a bomb maker,” says Eric. He compares bomb disposal to chess. Your opponent has an arsenal of weapons available, which you are familiar with and whose functions you understand. He the red bulletin
might have built in a time fuse, or rigged a mobile phone to go off when it receives a call or a text message. A bomb can react to vibrations, or be set off by light or sound sensors or a motion detector. “You always start with the worst-case scenario,” says Eric. “You have to assume that anything that could happen, might happen. And then begin to eliminate all the possibilities one by one.” How do you go about defusing, say, a bomb with a motion detector in it? “Wrong first question,” says Eric. “The correct first question to ask would be, ‘Can we even get to the bomb? Or is there a motion detector or an infrared sensor or something else like that in our way?’” And how do you outwit a motion detector? “You have to move so slowly that it doesn’t register. If necessary, you crawl across the floor from the door to the place where the bomb is for an hour, millimetre by millimetre.” And what if the motion detector is lurking inside the bomb? “We need to find that out before we open up the bomb, then move our hands so slowly that the motion detector doesn’t react before we’ve managed to switch it off.”
Manual bomb disposal experts work with their bare hands. No protective suit and helmet – there’s no protection that would work if the bomb went off Practice scenario: a hostage trapped in a locker fitted with a bomb
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If the tips of your fingers were to tremble just a little bit, would you be dead? “Yes.” A sneeze? “Not a good idea. But you can learn to repress it.” How do you evade a light sensor? “By working in the dark.” You can defuse a bomb in the dark? “You can learn to. The human eye is amazingly powerful.” How long does it take to defuse a bomb? “On average you’re in the death zone for between four and six hours.” Does every bomb maker have a unique style? “Yes. Every bomb contains something of the personality of the person who made it. And you can see pretty quickly who has taught him to make bombs.” Who makes the best bombs? “At the moment, Hezbollah.” 71
Don’t move!
What do you do when the detonator on a bomb (left) is attached to a motion detector (top left)? You evade the detector by moving in super slow motion. If you sneeze, tremble or scratch your nose, you’re dead.
Two dead The main difference between defusing bombs and playing a game of chess is that at least there is agreement about the rules of the game in chess. No player can invent and deploy a new figure in the middle of the game, for example. The duel between the bomb maker and the bomb disposal expert does away with rules. What would happen if, say, a bomb was triggered by an as-yet-unknown sensor that, let’s say, reacted to the bomb disposal expert’s own body heat? “That’s been the case for ages,” says Eric. But what if there was some sort of new development in Afghanistan, or in Pakistan? “Unlikely that our guys wouldn’t know about it. They’ve got the market under quite good surveillance.” But what if…? “Then two of us are dead the first time the thing’s used. And our checklist before we defuse our next bomb will be longer.” 72
Is the job really as cynical as that answer sounds? “We’re talking facts here. Emotions are no-go.” Eric has the hands of a pianist: slender, almost delicate and neatly manicured. He can keep them still for minutes on end without them trembling even slightly, like they’re made of stone. “You have to keep your tools in good order,” he explains. Living Manual bomb disposal is a secure job, in a way. On average there are 500 bomb attacks with serious terrorist background worldwide every month, with estimates of unreported cases ranging from 5,000 to 50,000. Current situations in Iraq and Afghanistan defy all estimates. Terrorist activity is booming, bombs are cheap and relatively easy to make, and the internet is awash with instructions. “Even if there were 10 times more of us, we’d still all have plenty to keep us busy,” says Eric. As the most experienced manual bomb disposal expert in his country, he is responsible for training new staff.
It is the Monday of the fourth week of a four-week training programme for two prospective manual bomb disposal experts. At 7.15pm, a blue coolbox is on the ground in front of a door in an abandoned wing of a barracks building. The floorboards are worn and paint is peeling off the walls. The furniture, with its waves of crumbling veneer, looks like something out of a 1970s primary school. The windows are covered with cardboard. There are naked light bulbs, although they’re not that easy to make out right now as it’s pitch black in the room. Practice scenario: someone being held hostage in a judge’s office in a court building. A digital stopwatch is mounted on the coolbox, counting down the seconds from three hours and 30 minutes. You can just make out the digital display in the glimmer of a thermal imaging camera. Inside the coolbox is a practice bomb made by Eric. “They’ll work on it for three hours now,” Eric says under his breath. He observes every hand movement made the red bulletin
by his two pupils, who are lying flat on their stomachs on the floor in front of the coolbox with filter masks over their heads. We’ll call them Jan and Axel. Jan has black, curly hair and BASE-jumps in his spare time. Axel is in rimless spectacles and has close-cropped hair. What made you decide to do this job? Jan: “The challenge of having to work at a level that doesn’t allow for mistakes appeals to me. Perfectionism is a sort of cerebral extreme sport. I’m fascinated by concentrating fully for hours at a time.” Axel: “For me, it’s a means to an end. It’s just a special way of taking responsibility, of helping others.” What do your families say? Jan: “My wife knows. That’s enough. She trusts me in what I do. Otherwise I wouldn’t do it. That would be irresponsible towards her.” Axel: “I have no need to talk about what I do for a living in my private life.” How do you deal with the anonymity of the job? After all, it means no recognition for putting your life at risk for others. And not being able to confide in anyone. Jan: “We know what we’re doing within the group. That’s enough.” Axel: “The essence and function of being a soldier is to consciously act into the threat.” And the risk factor? Jan: “It’s like BASE-jumping. The challenge is to be so good that only a minimal risk remains.” Axel: “If there wasn’t an element of risk, more people would do the job.”
“You have to move so slowly that the detonator doesn’t register, crawling across the floor for an hour, millimetre by millimetre” Sleeping Eric explains that they always work in teams of two. “The job would be too complex for one person to do alone, and the second person acts as a supervisor the whole time. You can’t make a single hand movement without telling the other man first; before you make it, he has also thought it through and given his approval. The second man is the only safety margin in our work.” The tools of a bomb disposal expert’s trade are of two sorts: high-tech equipment produced by a handful of specialist firms that comes with a five-figure price tag,
The 70 manual bomb disposal experts around the world belong to different armies, but they are connected. Information is shared, including on deployments that have not turned out well
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and everyday tools like soldering irons, tweezers, scalpels, voltmeters and duct tape in different colours. After almost two and a half hours, Jan and Axel sever the final wire, take off their masks and blink in the light Eric has just switched on. A couple of minutes’ break, and then on to a critical assessment. Lots of it was very good, says Eric, but it wasn’t all perfect. He’ll only go into detail regarding the trial when the three men are alone together later. It is just before 10pm when Eric informs Jan and Axel that they’ll be spending that night in the barracks, they won’t be sleeping and that the next bomb will await them early next morning: “Go and get yourselves a coffee and text home.” It’s not easy training to be a manual bomb disposal expert. “The most important thing,” Eric says, “is the ability to think clearly when stressed. Which is why manual bomb disposal experts are put in stressful situations in training. Sleep deprivation is one of them.” Eric trained in the UK. “The British are the best,” he says. “The most experienced. Historically, that comes from the troubles in Northern Ireland. “Learning by doing,” says Eric, with a slight hint of sarcasm. “They have a 30-year training regime to fall back on.” Eric won’t say much about his training, just that it was, “very tough, very good. You’re amazed at the strain you can bear, the capabilities you have within yourself. The training turned me into another person.” British bomb disposal experts stand out for their combination of surgical precision and sporting ambition. “The Brits still dismantle a bomb the Americans would have long since exploded.” Manual bomb disposal experts are connected at the international level. They know each other. That doesn’t just mean an exchange of thoroughly lifeprolonging experiences, but sometimes also email attachments like the ones that come in just after 11pm. They show the consequences of a failed attempt to manually defuse a bomb in South America, where a hostage had a necklace bomb placed around their neck. The kidnappers’ ransom demands were not met; instead, attempts were made to defuse the necklace bomb. The hostage and both bomb disposal experts died in the process. The pictures flickering on the laptop screen aren’t pretty. They are jarring even for an experienced bomb disposal expert like Eric. Jan and Axel look on silently over his shoulder. They’ve texted home. The place smells of coffee. They weren’t going to get any sleep tonight anyway. 73
There are few places as tough to be young as America’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. But in a place where poverty, suicide and alcoholism are constant companions, skateboarding is changing the old ways, offering hope and saving lives
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Jake Roubideaux, 14, carves up the Wounded Knee 4-Directions skatepark
e or die Words: Andreas Tzortzis Photography: Jay Hanna
The skatepark has given rise to a culture and support network for kids and young adults (like Joe Mesteth, above) facing the harsh realities of reservation life
E lijah Battese watches Bobby ollie a bike set up at the other end of the pool, getting 20 or 30cm off that lip, and landing it cleanly. The other kids go oooh. “I think I can jump that,” he says in a preteen mumble, grey-blue eyes fixed on the bike. Between him and it is a 2.5m drop into a bowl that flattens out and then rounds up again to the lip. The pool is smooth, and the concrete looks polished. It has two bowls and continues on for a flat stretch over to where the old tennis courts used to be. That’s where the skaters used to hang out, back when the skaters were just a couple of freaks who didn’t play football or basketball. Now between the basketball courts and the unruly grass and dirt divots of the powwow grounds stands this alien creation, which looks as weird here in South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation as it does natural in Venice Beach or New York. It is covered with kids on beat-up second-hand or donated skateboards, skating and bailing, carving up the bowl like it’s 1970s LA in the middle of a drought. There’s nothing smooth about their style, and most of their tricks end in a tumble. But they’re skating. And if they’re skating, then they’re not at home in fractured households; they’re not driving around the reservation in beaten-up cars necking smuggled-in booze; and they’re not standing at the edge, wondering if anyone would miss them if they were gone.
There is nothing simple about the place where Eli and his friends are growing up. There’s little tying it to the fashionable cool of a sport now firmly in the mainstream – nothing but the singular obsession to land a trick, the clack of the boards, and the whir of polyurethane wheels on concrete. And so with that noise all around him, Eli gathers himself, puts his back foot onto the board at the edge of the bowl and drops in, his waist-length braid whipping out behind.
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he story of how the Wounded Knee 4-Directions skatepark was built in Pine Ridge began just before Eli and his friends were born 12 years ago. But the story of why is far older, its roots entwined in broken treaties, mistreatment, and a spiralling sense of sadness and self-loathing that haunts the Pine Ridge reservation. A litany of depressing statistics tells the modern story of the Native Americans who originally inhabited this country. And the Pine Ridge Reservation, home of the Oglala Lakota Sioux, has been the powder keg for more than a century. From the broken Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, to the massacre at Wounded Knee, to the militant American Indian Movement of the 1970s, Pine Ridge has been the flashpoint of the American government’s failed policies toward its indigenous population. Life expectancy for a man on the Pine 77
When Leroy Janis (left) started skating on the reservation more than a decade ago, he was one of the outcasts. Today, he serves as a mentor to kids like Jaydin Thomas Peters (right), who flock to the park
Ridge Reservation, roughly the size of the state of Connecticut, is 47. Unemployment affects up to 90 per cent of the population, with most living on about US$3,000 a year. Alcoholism persists despite a ban on alcohol, disintegrating family structures and eroding tribal spirit. A poor diet means that close to half the population suffers from diabetes. Old cars rot on unruly front lawns, houses hold multiple large families, and new buildings, save for the gleaming hospital, are scarce. Among nine districts, Pine Ridge is the centre of the tribal council, its main street boasting two stop lights. There’s a Subway, a Pizza Hut and a Shell petrol station. Then there’s the most shocking statistic: a suicide rate among the youth that is 150 per cent higher than the national average. Over a 45-day period in 2009, the Oglala Lakota Sioux Public Safety Department reported 90 suicides or suicide attempts. Tiny DeCory’s phone, the one she keeps in her pocket as a sort of onewoman suicide hotline, was ringing off the hook during that time. It still does, in fact: teens overdosing on pills, others calling up and simply saying, “I want to kill myself,” prompting her to hop in her car and speed over. “There are a lot of factors that contribute,” says DeCory, a longtime youth advocate and unofficial auntie to countless reservation kids. “You’ve got single mothers with their kids and there’s no income. Economics has taken its toll, 78
and it’s going to get worse. We know about the kids who go on Facebook and say ‘eff my life’, and I know which ones, because it’s constant.” There is enough there to make anyone despondent, and DeCory, whose reputation for straight talk and action is well known on the reservation, has a cloudy vision of the future. But amid the panicked phone calls and sad messages, she’s noticed something else lately: Facebook updates of smiling kids and skateboards; cellphone videos posted of tricks pulled off successfully; shots of the smooth grey contours of the skatepark – the birth of a genuine alternative? “We have rodeo and we have powwows and we have our basketball players. But we finally have a new culture,” she says. “And it’s skateboarding.”
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he white SUV pulls into the dirt parking lot next to the skatepark mid-morning on a sunny spring Saturday. The back is covered in a growing collection of skate-brand stickers, including one for Wounded Knee Skateboards. Walt Pourier and Jim Murphy step out, and their arrival causes a small stir – high fives and half-hugs among the dozen or
“I got some problems going on right now. But I feel free when I’m on a skateboard”
so kids at the park. They’re well acquainted with their benefactors. The pair take in the scene in front of them, one that a year before seemed impossible. “Murf and I get in the car and we drive out of here and we think, ‘Man, we’re doing it!’ ” says Pourier, his voice trembling. “It’s emotional, but it’s such a happiness too.” Born and raised here, Pourier is all too familiar with the challenges faced by the skateboarders. Now living in Denver, where he has a successful graphic design business, he returns frequently. “A lot of my family is still here, a lot of friends, and we come back often for ceremonies and family reunions, and, unfortunately, for a lot of funerals,” he says. Skateboarding was nonexistent on Pine Ridge in Pourier’s day. Basketball, football and track were the measure of status – they still are. But Pourier, a bundle of giddy energy with feathered hair and highlights straight out of a John Hughes film, showed an oddball streak even back then. Enamoured of the sport after he came across it in California, he’d lay down plywood and try tricks. He says he once hit 90kph on the highway. “I don’t skate anymore,” says Pourier, now 47, the beginning of a grin spreading across his face. “I usually fall. And I make strange noises when I fall.” Equal parts clown and eloquent advocate for the youth, Pourier saw skateboarding as a way to connect young people to the ancient traditions and culture of the Oglala Lakota Sioux, traditions that would give them the sense that they’re part of something bigger. “Kids nowadays might not pay attention to the story of the white buffalo,” he says. “So we put it on a skate deck.” The decks come courtesy of Murphy, or Murf, as he’s known to pretty much everyone. A former skater on the legendary Tony Alva’s team, his vert style faded when street skating came into vogue in the mid 1990s, but his love for the sport, which gave his 13-year-old self focus when his father left the family, never did. Working full-time as a stained-glass restorer, Murf and his good friend, the late New York skateboard advocate Andy Kessler, started a company. As a joke, they decided to pay homage to their failing bodies and call it Wounded Knee. “We laughed, and then I said if we’re gonna call it Wounded Knee, we should talk about what happened in South Dakota,” he says. Schoolbooks used to refer to it as a battle, between the Sioux and the remnants of the 7th Calvary, who were the red bulletin
Clockwise from top left: Elijah Battese (middle) and Jaydin Peters (right); Will Peters; Elijah, Taylor Gunhammer, and Leroy Janis bomb a hill; park fans
From the early 1800s, the tribes of the Great Sioux Nation presided over the Great Plains of North America. The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty confined the largest group, the Lakota Sioux, to an area in what is now south-west South Dakota, forcibly transforming a warrior culture into a farming society. The Pine Ridge Reservation was formally established in 1889. A year later, 300 Sioux were massacred by the 7th Cavalry at Wounded Knee Creek. In 1973, Wounded Knee was once again the scene of a standoff with the US government, when members of the activist American Indian Movement occupied the site, protesting for better treatment. The 71-day armed confrontation raised awareness of the plight of Native Americans and led to changes in reservation life, including a cultural revival. While the tribal council maintains jurisdiction over the reservation, including its public safety and fire departments, the state and federal governments are still involved. Of an estimated 2.5 million Native Americans, 40,000 live at Pine Ridge today, the majority of them below the poverty line. In 1980, the longest-running court battle in US history came to an end when the Supreme Court awarded US$106 million to the Sioux, determining that seven million acres of land were unjustly taken by the government. But the tribes have refused the money, seeking the land’s return.
guarding the reservation in the winter of 1890, but Wounded Knee was a massacre, one prophesied by the Sioux chief Sitting Bull. Three hundred Sioux, including women and children, were gunned down, their bodies left to freeze for a few days before they were dumped in a mass grave. Wounded Knee Skateboards feature designs inspired by Native American culture and come with an information sheet detailing the massacre and its ramifications. “We always fantasised about going out to Pine Ridge and, in honour of those who died at Wounded Knee, building skateparks,” he says. “But it seemed far-fetched.” In 2007, Murf was involved in an exhibit the Smithsonian put on about Native American skateboarders. Through it, he got in touch with Pourier. Pourier’s connections got things going, and Grindline, a skatepark manufacturer, offered to build one for a reduced price. Pourier and Murf secured a US$10,000 grant from the Tony Hawk Foundation, which focuses on building public skateparks in low-income communities, which was matched by two of the foundation’s board members. Jeff Ament, Pearl Jam’s bassist,
“It’s not about building skateparks, it’s about changing mindsets” Walt Pourier
a former skater who grew up near a reservation in Montana, also chipped in. Construction began in September 2011. The park opened a few weeks later, on October 16, to a big ceremony, during which Pourier was given a tribal flag, an honour typically reserved for elders. Murf was given a woven ceremonial blanket. The kids were given an outlet and a support network. “This skatepark gives them more of a reason to live. It’s something to look forward to, it occupies their minds,” says Murf. “You can deal with all of these emotions you’re feeling, or why you’re depressed or why you’re angry. You can work it out on a skatepark, and you’ve got a family of skaters to support you.” Most of the kids at the park come early and stay late. The Saturday Pourier and Murf visit is no exception. Reservation dogs trot around, sniffing the air for the first hints of the barbecue that’s getting started. The dirt parking lot is riven with gullies and bumps carved out by the rough weather. Old Pontiacs with headlights missing, Fords with plastic in the windows, some newer imports, pull in slowly. Among the skaters criss-crossing the park, one stands out. Under a mane of dyed pale-orange hair pulled back in a ponytail, the right side of Joe “Crazy J” Mesteth’s face is covered in a design of silver and blue paint. “He’s a bit opposite of the norm on this reservation,” says Pourier. “I think the skating is keeping him alive. He’s living the idea that skateboarding saves lives.” Crazy J’s biography follows a typical thread. He was raised by his grandparents, as his parents struggled with alcoholism. Though he worked for the tribal president at one point, he says he’s also had to sell drugs in the last year to make ends meet. “The problems here probably don’t compare to the problems out there,” says Mesteth in a quiet voice. “If I was living out there in the white world I could probably hustle around for rent money. Here, you either got the last name, or you’re selling drugs to get money.” But Crazy J isn’t some thug hustler. His home at the moment is a gold and blue Chevy Suburban, because he has to get away from a family caught up in some alcohol-fuelled feud. He’s parked it next to the skatepark, his sanctuary. “Whenever I’m on a skateboard, I feel free,” he says. “I got some problems going on right now, but down here, I feel free.” Earbuds in, he skates the bowl with coiled concentration, his knees bent, absorbing the curves of the concrete as he carves around. When he’s not skating, the red bulletin
Additional photography: Corbis (1), wownded knee
The Sioux
From left: Gunhammer, Jaydin, Jake, Janis, and Elijah break from their afternoon skate session
The ancient belief is the undercurrent to the pair’s fervent commitment to skateboarding and its impact here. They plan three more parks for Pine Ridge. “We can’t wait another week, we can’t wait another two weeks,” says Pourier. “We’ve buried too many kids here, and it’s something no one should have to go through. It’s not about building skateparks, it’s about changing mindsets.”
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he’s the first to slide in if a board or a piece of trash goes flying down into the bowl and whisk it away. The younger kids flock to him when he sits down, and he dispenses trick advice or helps fix their skateboards. He’s a role model, and Murf’s made him an official member of the Wounded Knee Skateboards team. “There’s so many problems that plague every one of these kids, stuff they’re not even aware of,” says Mesteth, at 25 one of the elder statesmen at the park. “I’m trying to make a mobile skate shop out of my car. I want to go out and find the kids, really utilise what I’ve got with me.” Murf estimates that for every kid out on a board, there are probably a hundred who want one and can’t afford it. Getting more boards out to those who need them has been the guiding philosophy of his company, and probably the reason he’s never turned a profit. The SUV is full of Wounded Knee decks – prizes in a mini contest Murf and Pourier have organised during their visit. As hot dogs grill on the barbecue, parents, friends and toddlers sit along a concrete ledge watching the action. The judges are lenient, and everyone gets a chance to participate. There’s no PA system, just two volunteers shouting out the names of the contestants. Murf, decked out in a Wounded Knee hoodie and his hair in a ponytail, provides the red bulletin
colour commentary over the noise of the boards.“C’mon man, you got this!” he shouts. “One more trick!” The camaraderie is striking. Whoops and shouts of encouragement greet every trick, whether it’s landed or not. “It’s amazing how, since October, everyone is just killing it out here,” says Murf. “These kids could be skating at the same level as those kids in California. You just need to build them the same level of stuff.” At the end of the contest, decks are handed out to the winners of categories like ‘best trick’ and ‘most improved’. Eli, who started skating the day the park opened six months previously, wins a deck for ‘most heart’. “I’ve lived here most of my life,” he says. “There’s been not much to do until I got this skateboard. If it wasn’t for Walt and Jim, I wouldn’t be able to be as good as I am right now. I’m pretty sure all of the others feel the same way.” Of course, to Pourier and Murf, skill level takes a backseat to empowerment. One of Pourier’s favourite sweatshirts is a black hoodie with the words “iNative: 7G, The Nations’ First Network” printed on it. “There are two parts to the prophecy of Sitting Bull. One was that it ended at Wounded Knee, with the massacre,” he says. “The second half was that it also begins at Wounded Knee, through the seventh generation, this generation of youth.”
he afternoon sun has begun its slow descent past the hills and copses of cottonwood trees that separate the skatepark from the high school, the dying rays bathing the dozen or so skaters and friends hanging out on cars and park benches. Jaydin Thomas Peters’ gold helmet catches a glint, the bright light matching the grin across his face. In a place looking for success stories, Jaydin is an obvious one. He’s won awards for native grass dancing, and he excels at school. He’s been raised by his grandparents, a stoic woman by the name of Lena and a Bob Marley-loving, Lakota language and culture teacher named Will. “The kid’s tough, he’s grown up here,” says Will Peters, peering through dark John Lennon glasses. “His mom’s in and out of the picture. He knows how it goes.” The Peters’ house is a neat and basic prefabricated one-storey building typical of the reservation. The room in the basement Jaydin shares with his brother is tidy, the beds arranged like your typical dorm room, posters of the Denver Broncos on the wall. Among his prized possessions is a little wooden box, the front of which carries a drawing of a Lakota warrior astride his horse. Inside are gifts from family members: a knife blade, the choker given to him by his mother, a bracelet of porcupine quills. “I only take them out for wakes,” he says. There’s plenty to keep Jaydin down, but if it does, he hides it well. Five years ago, when he started skateboarding, the wooden ramp built on the old tennis courts was the only place near his house to skate. But here he is at the edge of the bowl with Eli, his cousin, watching his friend Jake Roubideaux drop in and get some nice air on the other side. “See what Jake just did? And everyone was clapping?” he says. “That really gets your heart going, knowing these people are here for me.” He pauses and looks out again. “Here, we don’t consider best or worst,” he says. “There’s no ‘I’m better than you.’ Everyone’s equal.” For more info: www.strongholdsociety.org www.redbull.com/skateordie
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Flight of fantasy: what it takes to make Spider-Man fly on page 86
Contents 84 TRAVEL The world’s most amazing swimming pools 86 GET THE GEAR Stunt co-ordinator Andy Armstrong’s tools of the trade 88 TRAINING How squash champion Karim Darwish gets match-fit 90 NIGHTLIFE Whatever gets you through ’til dawn 94 THE Sounds of 2013 Electronic pioneer Sibot 96 SAVE THE DATE Events for your diary 97 KAINRATH Cartoonist’s calendar
photography: rex features
98 MIND’S EYE Columnist Kevin McCallum
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more body & mind
1. HIGHEST
MARINA BAY SANDS, SINGAPORE From the rooftop infinity pool, hotel guests watch the metropolis teem 200m down below. www.marinabaysands.com
Away days
Swim the world
Spectacular travel adventures
A kilometre long, 57 storeys up, surrounded by ice, in paradise or as wild as the deep blue sea: these are the world’s most superlative pools COOL POOLS
6. PARADISE
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ALILA UBUD, BALI Perched over the Ayung River, on a hillside terrace in an area of lush rainforest, an infinity pool its occupants hope lasts forever. alilahotels.com/ubud
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2. WILDEST
BONDI ICEBERGS, AUSTRALIA Waves break into this ocean pool, tucked in the corner of Sydney’s Bondi Beach. www.icebergs.com.au
3. LARGEST
words: ulrich corazza. photography: Corbis (3), imago, reuters, mauritius images
SAN ALFONSO DEL MAR, CHILE Plenty of room poolside at this resort: five years in the making and, at 1,013m long, 20 times the length of an Olympic pool. www.sanalfonso.cl
5. HOT AND COLD
BLUE LAGOON GRINDAVÍK, ICELAND Stay warm testing the thermal spa’s energising properties: even in winter (average temp, -2°C), the mineral-rich water’s a balmy 40°C. www.bluelagoon.com
4. THE DEPTHS
NEMO 33, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM This 34.5m-deep indoor pool has caves and viewing areas for filming and diving instruction. www.nemo33.com
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words: florian Obkircher. photography: annie collinge
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Action men: Andy Armstrong and his son, James (right), are currently working on The Amazing Spider-Man 2
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m o r e b o dy & m i n d
get the gear a pro’s essentials
How SpiderMan swings Stunt co-ordinator Andy Armstrong makes cars explode and superheroes like Spider-Man and Thor fly through the air. His is no ordinary workshop
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1. High-speed winch Whenever Spider-Man swings through the air, he is pulled by this winch, on a tiny strand of the cable on the black spool. We can pull in literally hundreds of feet of cable and it will pull at a constant speed up to 20ft/s. 2. Crash-test dummy The art of stunt designing is to make something look as dangerous as possible while keeping it repeatable and as safe as possible. We work out that fine line with plastic dummies that weigh the same as a person. 3. Ratchet It runs on compressed air or nitrogen and allows us to pull or throw the stuntman backwards and forwards a long way. You see it used in a lot of movies, if there’s an explosion and someone is blown backwards.
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4. AMSPEC stunt pads These big, soft pads are where the stunt performer or actor can land if we don’t need to see the ground. Nowadays, we use them more and more, because they can be digitally removed. 5. Action Factory fire gel It’s a water-based flameretardant that we put on exposed skin in a fire scene. It will stop flames licking across your body and causing a lot of damage. It usually dries up after 40 seconds, which sounds a lot, but if you’re on fire for 20 seconds it feels like three minutes. 6. NOMEX overalls We use the same fire-resistant overalls as racing drivers, but under our clothes, so the stunt looks as authentic as possible. When we were making Hoffa, I warned Danny DeVito, who was directing and acting, about the fire scene. But when he saw me on fire he forgot his part and shouted, “Put him out!”
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7. Toy cars With every vehicle stunt we do, we always start off placing toy cars on a map everywhere a real car is going to be in the movie. We play the scene with each stunt driver moving the car he’s going to drive in the scene. It’s literally like children playing with toys, but it makes everybody understand what the action is. 8. Fire extinguishers We have at least two fire extinguishers next to every person at the point where they are going to be set on fire and other fire extinguishers where they are going to move to. We also have people hidden with fire extinguishers between the two points. On a big film set with a lot of explosions, we’ll get through 100 fire extinguishers. 9. Apple iPad We shoot every action sequence on video and put it onto an iPad, so when I go on the film set and we do the real thing, everybody from the camera operator to costumes can see what’s going to happen. You could be 20 minutes describing it or two minutes looking at it on an iPad. For a film like The Amazing Spider-Man 2, I have 200 prerecorded scenes on my ‘bible’. 10. Hybrid device A neck-restraint system for car crashes made of carbon fibre. You wear it on your shoulders, so if you have a hard impact or get upside down, your head can’t extend too far and break your neck. In The Green Hornet, my son, James, did a very violent crash. He’s driving a pick-up truck, the back gets blown up, and it somersaults and lands on its roof. Wearing one of these, he was uninjured. Taurus World Stunt Awards, May 10, Hollywood. Details at: taurusworldstuntawards.com
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more body & mind
The winner of 22 squash tournaments trains 20 hours a week on court
Karim Darwish’s off-season training MONDAY 9am: warm-up run of 2km in 8 minutes, then 15 minutes of stretching. 9.45: on-court footwork drills: about 50 reps total of various moves. 11.30am-1pm: technique work, eg stroke drills. 6-7.30pm: practice matches with Egypt national team teammates. TUESDAY 6-8pm: national team practice; stretching; an hour’s massage. WEDNESDAY 9.30am: the ‘champion killer’, about 40 mins total: 4 x 800m (each at 2m30s-2m40s), then 5 x 400m (7075s), then 6 x 200m (30s), with 1 min break between each individual run. 12-1pm: solo on-court technical training, eg practising drop shots. 6-7.30pm: national team practice. THURSDAY 9.30am: circuit training, with 4 sets of the following: 12-15 leg presses, shoulder shrugs and bicep curls and tricep curls; 30 dead lifts; 40 sit-ups. 11am-12.30pm: technique work. FRIDAY Day off.
Training with the pros
Against The Wall
Karim darwish To be world number one takes love of your sport and devotion to it – and that includes breaking through the pain barrier
“Squash is my life,” says Karim Darwish, 31, who held the world number one spot for 11 months in 2009, the year he won his first team world championship (a second came in 2011). He works on his strength, speed and stamina in the off-season, in June and July, at home in Egypt. “I want to give 120 per cent every time I train, so I can call on that 100 per cent every time I compete. Sometimes getting out of bed in the morning hurts, but that shows I’m making progress,” he says. It’s a regular wake-up call-to-arms if, like Darwish, your training features a routine known as the champion killer. www.psaworldtour.com
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SUNDAY 9-10.30am: circuit training. 11am-12.30pm: technique and tactics. 6-8pm: national team practice.
MY TRAINING TIP
It’s all about movement “The most important thing in squash is footwork – and that starts with the correct choice of footwear. The shoes need to be extremely light, well padded and mustn’t slip. I currently wear Asics Gel Blade 3. You run about 15km over the course of a squash match, which makes it all the more important to learn to be economical in the way you move. The best way to do this is with some on-court training. Sprint from the centre of the court and back, to each of the four corners in turn, then repeat that set of four shuttle runs eight times.”
Darwish’s data checked at the Thalgau training centre, Austria
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words: ulrich corazza. photography: Tomislav Moze/Red Bull Content Pool
work out
SATURDAY 9.30am: running: 8 x 400m (68-72s each, with 1 min break between), warm-down and stretching. 11.30am-1pm: technique and tactics. 1-1.45pm: solo shot training. 6.30-8pm: national team practice.
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MAY 2013 a beyond th
e
gazine ordinary ma
FU TU re SOUN DS
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m o r e b o dy & m i n d
Nightlife Whatever gets you through ’til dawn
out now
Action
“I have a soft spot for pitiful heroes” Talib Kweli The rapper whose rhymes educate and entertain in equal measure is back with another slice of hip-hop gold Talib Kweli was an outsider from the start. When he first appeared on the scene with his socially conscious rap, in 1995, the Brooklynite stood in stark contrast to the gangsta scene with his poetic, politicised lyrics. Now the 37-year-old is one of the world’s most admired and successful rappers, seen as a hip-hop scholar, yet one who, for all his profundity, still knows how to get a party started. His new solo album reflects this split personality. The Red Bulletin: The chanting which opens the album is like a demonstration. Talib Kweli: The force behind the Arab Spring impressed me. That comes across especially in the intro and the outro. The album is like a day in one’s life. It’s about politics, relationships and my place in the music business. What are the advantages of releasing music on your own record label? There was more money [on major labels] in the 1990s. Back then I spent a lot of time in the studio creating, whereas now I have to be a businessman, too. I like the challenge, and it
Talib Kweli's new album, Prisoner of Conscious, is out now: www.talibkweli.com
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also gives me independence. Kendrick Lamar, who appears as a guest rapper on my new album, became successful first on the internet, without the support of a major record label. You studied to be an actor. If your new album was a film, who’d be the director? Wes Anderson. He’s very consistent, but surprising at the same time. In his films there are always characters who first come across as pitiful, but very quickly you find yourself rooting for them. We both have a soft spot for that kind of hero.
Dark runs The in THING: With the calendar of daylight-hours races full to capacity, nighttime runs through major cities are becoming increasingly popular. START RIGHT: In summer, post-midnight conditions can be ideal: not too hot, less distraction as the city sleeps. Allergy sufferers enjoy the fact that the pollen count is usually lower at night. WATCH OUT: Running at night requires greater concentration, because of the darkness. The biological clock also has to adjust to running late, which should be accounted for during training. Headlamps and hi-vis kit are recommended.
they said it
“ Life is something that happens when you can’t get to sleep” Fran Lebowitz, American writer
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what sup
Vanilla Garden “This drink has an ingredient, parsley, which, at first glance, you’d think has no place in a cocktail,” says barkeeper and cocktailsmith Michael Steinbacher from the Mayday Bar at Hangar-7 in Salzburg. “However, the herb combines perfectly with ginger ale and Angostura bitters.” An almost non-alcoholic drink (the bitters are 44.7 per cent proof) with a sharp taste at first, the Vanilla Garden develops an incomparably tangy flavour, with parsley and vanilla overtones.
Club of the Club
month
photography: DOROTHY HONG/Vision Music, getty images, fabrik (3), Fotostudio Eisenhut & Mayer
Gateway to another dimension Fabrik Every weekend, 3,500 clubbers turn a former factory outside Madrid into a rave village ruled by world-class DJs Scantily clad men breathe fire alongside scantily clad women dancing in giant cocktail glasses. Laser beams whoosh above the crowd as ceiling-mounted cannons fire volleys of dry ice onto the dancefloor. The huge sound system thumps out trouser-shaking bass while the DJ is enthroned on the stage, his 3,500 subjects in thrall to the beat. Fabrik is the embodiment of the superclub, a dance music palace whose literally dazzling light show gives it the impression of a gateway to another dimension. In 2003, Daniel Perellón opened Fabrik on the outskirts of Madrid, with the sole aim of creating a venue that could rival the best clubs in the world. He succeeded, and a decade on he’s still running a worldclass operation. In addition to the three floors – each of which would already count as a large club on its own – there are small restaurants,
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Ingredients
Method
4 lime wedges 10 parsley leaves 2tsp vanilla sugar 120ml ginger ale Angostura bitters Crushed ice
Muddle the lime, sugar and nine of the parsley leaves in a caipirinha glass. Add a dash of bitters, ginger ale and crushed ice. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Dip the last leaf in sugar; garnish.
an in-house boutique and several chill-out and VIP areas. Such an expanse demands an appropriately commanding master of ceremonies: on Saturdays, leading techno and progressive DJs such as Umek, Steve Bug, Ben Sims, 2manydjs and Carl Cox are at the decks. Sunday nights are for costume parties, with themes including the world of Tim Burton. When Alice in Wonderland is dancing to throbbing house beats with Edward Scissorhands, the portal to another world has been well and truly opened. Fabrik Av de la Industria 82 28970 Humanes de Madrid, Spain www.grupo-kapital.com/fabrik
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m o r e b o dy & m i n d
Nightlife
1
On the rise: Phoenix's Thomas Mars (left) and Deck D’Arcy
Dan Flavin (1933-1996)
“My wife [Mars is married to film director Sofia Coppola] gave me a Dan Flavin étude, a study, for my birthday. It’s very inspiring for the light show we’re working on. The beautiful thing is, I heard that neons are not going to live forever. Some colours, I think red and black, die faster than others. Flavin is very popular now, but his works have a short lifetime.”
2 Donald Judd (1928-1994)
“He lived in Texas and worked in furniture and architecture, and now there are manuals on the internet that tell you how to make your own pieces in his style. So you question the value of the object: he didn’t do it himself, he just made the plans. These wooden pieces can be incredibly hard to craft, but anyone can make them.”
Take 3
“Some colours die faster than others” Phoenix The Grammy-winning indie titans like their modern art as they like their songs: cool, original and provocative When Paris four-piece Phoenix conquered America in 2009 and sold two million copies of their art-pop fourth LP, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, they were as surprised as anyone. Before this breakthrough, the band had struggled for almost a decade, despite a
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promising start in the ’90s as label mates of Daft Punk and Air. “We were a bit lost in our own world and we thought no one was listening,” says frontman Thomas Mars. Now the group – Mars, bassist Deck D’Arcy and guitarist brothers Laurent Brancowitz and Christian Mazzalai – are back with fifth album Bankrupt! that repeats the winning formula found on Wolfgang. Recent fortunes have meant they’ve been able to indulge their common interest in art. “We are all into these very American artists like Dan Flavin and Edward Ruscha, the postbeatnik generation whose work is instinctive and fresh,” says Mars, of his passion for late20th-century American minimalism. “When people ask us why we called the record Bankrupt!, I’m tempted to give an Ed Ruscha answer: because it’s just there.” Here, Mars tells The Red Bulletin which post-modern US artists get his creative juices flowing. www.wearephoenix.com
3 Edward Ruscha (1937–)
“With these super-American artists, it’s all or nothing when they talk. I love that when Ed Ruscha talks, he doesn’t give anything away. People ask him why he paints, why he chose blue for that layer, and he says, ‘There is nothing to explain.’ For us, it’s comforting there’s no added cerebral element, that it’s all there; nothing else. I met him once and he’s very cool.”
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Night snack
Mexico Shrimp Cocktail Veracruz style On Mexico’s Caribbean coast, there is one street food dish that rules above all others
words: klaus kamolz. photography: getty images (4), corbis (2), ddpimages, imago, Fotostudio Eisenhut & Mayer
SHRIMPS, SHRIMPS, SHRIMPS Bubba, Forrest Gump’s friend, could talk endlessly of shrimp dishes. He would be in heaven in the Mexican state of Veracruz, a paradise for seafood lovers. There are tacos with shrimps, omelettes with shrimps, rice with shrimps. You can grill them, fry them, bake them or eat them raw. But the local speciality is a cocktail, served everywhere, as a matter of course, in the glassware of fine restaurants or in a plastic cup on the street.
OUT THE PINK This is not the shrimp cocktail you’re thinking of, drowning in a thick, pink mayonnaise-andketchup sauce. The Veracruz shrimp cocktail is much lighter and fresher. In brief: boil the shrimps and marinate in garlic, spring onion, chili, olive oil and lime juice. Purée tomatoes, dice avocados and chop coriander; stir together with chili sauce to make the base of the dish. Top with the shrimp, and you’re done.
Queue for crustaceans: people go loco for coctel de camarones in Mexico
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HOW IT’S MEANT TO BE The cocktail, or coctel de camarones, as you’ll find it on restaurant menus and the boards
by palapas, the Veracruz snack stalls, comes with the crisp accompaniment of salty crackers (or tacos or nachos) and, for afters, a toro or el torito, a drink made with evaporated milk, fruit (guava, mango, berries, whatever’s around) water and a generous glug of white rum. CLOSE RELATIVE A variation of the shrimp cocktail, which also contains crab and lobster, is known as vuelve a la vida, which means ‘back to life’. This is because that three-seafood cocktail is a particular favourite with those trying to cure a hangover.
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The sounds of 2013 #5
Flying solo
The acclaimed electronic innovator’s latest project sees him out on his own creatively but with the global support of Diplo’s record label: his three-track EP could go massive sibot
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Self-made: Sibot sews and glues the masks himself
Beneath that multi-eyed mask of his, Simon Ringrose, aka Sibot, must be smiling. And smiling pretty broadly. Call it what you will, but this is someone who has paid his dues, done the graft and put in the hard miles. A decadelong commitment to his craft has gotten Sibot to a point where he is finally being lauded for what he really is: one of the pioneers of South African electronica. His latest offering might only be a short, three-song EP, but Magnet Jam’s length belies its importance. It’s the signifier of a man whose time has come. The years of producing and writing for his various bands have not only honed his skills,
but also educated his audience for what could go down as a landmark piece of work. Sibot’s talents were recognised by DJ/producer/rapper Diplo during his SA tour of 2012, when the two shared a stage. So impressed was the American that he asked Sibot to release some tracks on his label. Mad Decent has a policy of releasing music as free downloads, but the deal was a no-brainer for Sibot. “Mad Decent has such a big audience and whenever they put something online, everybody hears it,” says Sibot. “That was what I was most excited about. As an artist, to have your songs in so many headphones is all you want.”
Out now: Sibot’s three-track EP, Magnet Jam
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m o r e b o dy & m i n d
Words: Steve Smith. photography: Ross garrett, Tyrone Bradley/Red Bull Content Pool
“ A few doors have opened through Diplo. I help him pick up the slack and feed him tracks” Sibot’s songs are in a lot of headphones right now. The first two tracks on the EP, Magnet Jam and No Question, are very bass driven and clearly influenced by trap, the genre that’s been stealing some of dubstep’s limelight. Both tracks wobble, squelch and glitch in all the right places – it’s modern electronic dance music with trap’s slow, hip-hop-flavoured twist. Diplo’s team originally chose to leave the third track, Tronarist, off the EP – something Sibot wasn’t happy about. “I had just written it and was really into it,” he explains. “I was really proud of writing something at 105bpm – it’s driving but still so catchy. It was a breakthrough for me. I always find 105 is the easiest tempo to write songs in. Not so much tracks, but actual song structures. The groove you get is much stronger.” Fortunately Diplo agreed with Sibot’s way of thinking and the song got the nod. It was an astute call, resulting in an EP that shows Sibot’s versatility and skill as a producer. Reviews have garnered universal praise. The acclaim Sibot is most proud of, however, comes not from the press, or even his peers, but one of his heroes: Qbert, the godfather of modern turntablism. “One of the reviews of Magnet Jam refers to Qbert’s seminal Wave Twisters album,” says Sibot. “A month later, I came across a video on YouTube of Qbert and Mr. Lif freestyling over my Magnet Jam track. It was such a trip for me because I can remember being 17 and listening to Qbert. Now he’s playing my stuff and emailing me saying he wants me to be on the new Qbert album 13 years later.” It would appear that smile of
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Sibot headlining the Red Bull Studio stage at Oppikoppi in 2012
Sibot’s is likely to hang around for a while yet. He has a new mixtape project in the offing and requests to produce are forming an orderly queue outside his office. “A few doors more have opened now through Diplo,” says Sibot. “He gets to produce some of the biggest artists in the world and now, as one of his discovered producers, I can help him pick up the slack a bit. If any big stuff comes in that he doesn’t have tracks for I can feed them to him and they are then presented as coming from his studio.” Finally, one has to ask about that cover. The long, eyeballencrusted mask has become something of a trademark for Sibot, but it doesn’t usually come with a pair of nipples. “I asked my friend Lyall Coburn to shoot the cover – that’s just him, that’s his influences,” he explains. “I got a lot of flack for it. I don’t really get it, though. I’m not sure why people have to be so prudish. It’s just a pair of boobies. It’s pretty innocent and there’s not a lot of thought behind it. We wanted a cover to grab attention and I guess that’s exactly what it does.”
Need to know The line-up Simon Ringrose – programming Discography
In With The Old (album, 2007) Throw Away (EP, 2012) Magnet Jam (EP, 2013)
The story so far Prepare for a complicated genealogy featuring much of SA electronic music royalty. It all began in 2001 when Sibot teamed up with Waddy Jones (aka Ninja from Die Antwoord), Sean Ou Tim and Mark Buchanan to form pioneering hiphopsters, Max Normal. Out of its ashes rose The Constructus Corporation, again with Jones, but also including fellow electronic wunderkind Markus Wormstorm. Sibot and Wormstorm then did their own thing, not only forming the critically acclaimed The Real Estate Agents, but two equally celebrated side projects with Spoek Mathambo: Play Doh (Sibot and Mathambo)
and Sweat-X (Wormstorm and Mathambo). In 2010, Mathambo decided to go it alone, leaving Sibot and Wormstorm with similar ambitions. Apart from a low-key solo album, In With The Old, released in 2007, this was new territory for Sibot. But a turning point, too. Since then, in his trademark multi-eyed long mask, Sibot’s live performances have become must-see events. Playing keyboards, samplers and an effects unit, the jazzy sample-based sounds of Max Normal now have evolved into the original electronica you hear on Magnet Jam. Download the EP from www.maddecent.com
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m o r e b o dy & m i n d
Samoa love taking it to SA teams. Here against the Boks at RWC 2011
Save The Date
May & June 2013 May 10-12 & 17-19
Eat. Dance. Plant
June 6-23
Close Encounters Of The 15th Kind The Encounters South African International Documentary Festival celebrates its 15th year in 2013. Venues this year are the Bioscope Independent Cinema in Fox Street, Johannesburg, V&A Waterfront Nu Metro cinemas, Cape Town, and The Fugard Theatre, District 6. One of the 2013 festival highlights promises to be Forbidden Voices, the story of bloggers Yoani Sánchez, Zeng Jinyan and Farnaz Seifi, whose courage in taking on the governments of Cuba, China and Iran has made them heroes to a new, networked generation Zeng Jinyan of modern rebels. www.encounters.co.za May 19
Bring your A-game If you’re a mountain biker and up for a challenge, the Husqvarna Classic should more than test your skills. One of the tougher single-day races on the SA calendar, the 40km route traverses some rough terrain in two KZN game reserves – Gwahumbe Game & Spa and iNsingizi Game & Spa. Riders can expect more along the lines of the much-talkedabout 60m floating bridge in last year’s race, as well as some of the best single-track in the country. It’s not all hardcore though, there are also a 18km and 10km routes, as well as two short trail runs. www.husqvarnaclassic.co.za
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June 1
Pride of The Lions The rugby schedule may be packed with Vodacom Super Rugby games at the moment, but amid all this is a very interesting and usual match-up: the MTN Lions vs Samoa at Ellis Park. Both teams have a point to prove. Being kicked out the Super Rugby tournament to make way for the Southern Kings, the Gautengers are understandably annoyed. And Samoa? Well these Southern Pacific warriors always have a point to prove. What these hard-as-nails South Pacific islanders lack in skill and experience, they make up with commitment. The game is part of the Lions Challenge, a series created to placate the Lions and keep their claws sharp. Along with Samoa, the Lions will also play the other SA Super Rugby franchises, as well as the French Barbarians and a couple of French club sides. The game kicks off at 3pm. www.lionsrugby.co.za
June 6-16
Scuba dive. Stage dive If you like to mix your scuba diving and fishing with a little rock ’n’ rolling, then the STRAB music festival is where you need to be heading. Situated 14km north of the South African border in southern Mozambique is the beautiful Ponta Malongane Bay. Known as a pristine diving location, it also hosts probably the best-kept secret music festival around these parts. What started out as the resort’s little birthday bash back in 2003, has become something of a cult event for those in the know. STRAB, so you know,
STRAB: blues, rock, jazz... and banjos
means Subterranean Rhythm And Blues and reflects the blues-rock-jazz flavour of the festival. www.strab.co.za
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photography: getty images, magyar tÁvirati iroda zrt
Platbos, near Gansbaai, is the remnants of an ancient forest, and for the third year running, the Greenpop Reforest Fest will be aiming to increase it’s size a little more. To date, over 3,000 indigenous trees have taken root since the festival began, and this is your opportunity to contribute to a rare and endangered ecosystem. There are two festivals: Family Fest (May 10-12) that focuses on fun/ educational activities; and the Friends Fest (May 17-19) that also has dance party on the Saturday. Tickets at www.facebook.com, search for Greenpop
illustration: dietmar kainrath
k a i n r at h
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I
n a small, temporary and hot room plonked in an open field on the Saronsberg Wine Estate near Tulbagh, Christoph Sauser, one of the finest mountain bikers on the planet, stood up from behind the desk at which we had been interviewing him and turned to me. “So, which do you enjoy more? Being a journalist or riding the Epic?” FOMO. (The fear of missing out.) I’d only found out what it meant six months before, but after arriving to cover the Absa Cape Epic, I knew what it felt like all too well. I was asked the same question just about every day. Do you miss riding? I did. And I didn’t. I wasn’t sure what bits I missed, but I knew that I was not in good enough shape to ride it or finish it. A year of pizza, beer and the occasional ride had seen to that. I had wanted to ride, and was asked if I would want to join Team Absa again, the celebrity-media squad I’d been part of the year before. I said yes, but then three months in London at the Olympics and Paralympics, working 18-hour days feeding the machine back home had put paid to that. And there I was in the Western Cape missing out. The fear of that haunted me each day. On Twitter, people seeing my 140-character missives from the race, told me how impressed they were that I was riding and tweeting at the same time. I put them right and then received the reply: “Sorry to hear about that. Are you injured?” Yes. That’s it. I was injured. By pizza and beer, and work. I wanted to watch the race close up for a change. I’d seen it from the daft side, on a saddle with my wise Team Absa partner Jack Stroucken, who had made sure I finished each day. I was under no illusions as to how tough the race was, but writing the word brutal and riding up something brutal can never be compared. After one of the many brutal and decidedly not nice climbs of the Absa Cape Epic this year, a rider who had huffed and puffed, and not managed to blow the door down on the grey-haired
Mind’s Eye
Beer Versus Bike Kevin McCallum weighs up two mutually exclusive passions gentleman in black kit who had scampered up the climb in front of him, said to him: “You climb like a machine. Have you done a lot of riding in your time?” You might say Stephen Roche has done a lot of riding. You’d have to do a lot of riding to be the last man to win the triple crown of the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and world championship in one year – one of only two men to have achieved the feat. And now he’s ridden the Cape Epic, the Tour de France of mountain bike races, one of just four races to have received the HC (hors catégorie – beyond classification) rating from the International Cycling Union. (The other three are the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España). Roche was shaking his head and smiling ruefully on the mornings I saw him on the start line. He’d already threatened to leave his partner, Sven Thiele of the Hot Chillee events company, the week before and let him ride with someone else. Even a triple
crown of cycling winner was worried about how he’d fare riding the Cape Epic. But, man, could he ride – especially uphill. There is genius in the way a pro rider, whether current or retired, handles a bicycle. I rode on the final stage of the Cape Rouleur, a stage race-tour of the Western Cape, and Roche ghosted into the smallest of gaps in front of me as we hammered into the Cape Town waterfront at 40kph on road bikes. The police stewarding the race called him the black shadow in the group. He had an effortless way of reading the waves of the peloton, watching how the riders in front of him ebbed and flowed in the same way a surfer does with a set. He could see gaps forming before they had formed, and moved through a tight-packed bunch of riders like they weren’t there. As we roared along into town, Roche played games, holding onto the saddle of the man in front of me, slowing him up and causing him to look down at his cranks to see if they had seized. And there was I, sitting on the wheel of Stephen Roche, the triple crown winner. I laughed. Life was wonderful. This was a story to brag about. When you ride the Epic, you ride in the wheel tracks of Roche, Christoph Sauser, Italian superstar Marco Fontana, perhaps the most charismatic rider in world mountain biking, Karl Platt, world champion, Nino Schurter, Olympic gold medallist, Jaroslav Kulhavy, and the late, great Burry Stander. So many rode in the memory of Stander this year. I think he would have been proud of the 10th Absa Cape Epic. It was a fitting tribute to him. And, so, to Sauser’s question. Which did I enjoy more? Well, I am better at one than the other. “I do get to drink more beer this time around,” I told Sauser in that sweltering room. “That sounds much, much better,” he said. It did, but the fear of missing out remains. Kevin McCallum is an award-winning sports journalist and acclaimed columnist for the Independent Newspapers group
The Red Bulletin South Africa, ISSN 2079-4282: The Red Bulletin is published by Red Bull Media House GmbH General Manager Wolfgang Winter Publisher Franz Renkin Editor-in-Chief Robert Sperl Deputy Editor-in-Chief Alexander Macheck UK & Ireland Editor Paul Wilson Contributing Editor Stefan Wagner Editor, South Africa Steve Smith Chief Sub-editor Nancy James Deputy Chief Sub-editor Joe Curran Production Editor Marion Wildmann Chief Photo Editor Fritz Schuster Deputy Photo Editors Ellen Haas, Catherine Shaw, Rudolf Übelhör Creative Director Erik Turek Art Director Kasimir Reimann Design Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Silvia Druml, Miles English, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz, Esther Straganz Staff Writers Ulrich Corazza, Werner Jessner, Ruth Morgan, Florian Obkircher, Arkadiusz Piatek, Andreas Rottenschlager Corporate Publishing Boro Petric (head), Christoph Rietner (chief-editor); Dominik Uhl (art director); Markus Kucera (photo director); Lisa Blazek (editor); Christian Graf-Simpson, Daniel Kudernatsch (app) Head of Production Michael Bergmeister Production Wolfgang Stecher (mgr), Walter Sádaba Repro Managers Clemens Ragotzky (head), Karsten Lehmann, Josef Mühlbacher Finance Siegmar Hofstetter, Simone Mihalits Marketing & Country Management Barbara Kaiser (head), Stefan Ebner, Stefan Hötschl, Elisabeth Salcher, Lukas Scharmbacher, Peter Schiffer, Julia Schweikhardt, Sara Varming. The Red Bulletin is published in Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Kuwait, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, the UK and the USA. Website www.redbulletin.com Head office: Red Bull Media House GmbH, Oberst-Lepperdinger-Strasse 11-15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700. UK office: 155-171 Tooley Street, London SE1 2JP, +44 (0) 20 3117 2100. Austrian office: Heinrich-Collin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna, +43 (1) 90221 28800. Printed by CTP Printers, Duminy Street, Parow-East, Cape Town 8000. Advertising enquiries: Andrew Gillett, +27 (0) 83 412 8008, andrew.gillett@za.redbull.com Write to us: email letters@redbulletin.com
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agazine / M
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