Sharp ME

2015

MIDDLE EAST

DENIM GUIDE LO O K B E T T E R • F E E L B E T T E R • K N OW M O R E MIDDLE EAST

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S E P T E M B E R / O CTO B E R 2015

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A WORD FROM OUR PUBLISHER LOOK BETTER, FEEL BETTER, KNOW MORE Welcome to another issue of Sharp ME. We kick off this edition with an exclusive interview with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. This is a man who has come a long way since his childhood days when he landed acting roles in Hollywood films, and then later during his teens gained great admiration for starring in the popular sitcom 3rd Rock From the Sun. We also bring you interviews with Middle Eastern celebrities – the stand-up comedian Nemr and film producer Mohammed Al Turki – both who are making a name for themselves in the West.

Now that the summer is over, we capture the season’s latest trends; so we have packed these pages with suitable attires and styles that you will surely appreciate. We hope you managed to travel somewhere special this summer. We surely did and you can read about our escapade to the Spanish port-city of Valencia where we got to explore the best remnants of the city’s 2000-year-old heritage which sit alongside stunning modern architecture. While there, we delved into culinary delights, discovered the beautiful landscape and even checked into one of the best wellness centres on the planet.

We have also featured a variety of exciting topics including the art of coaching, the controversial debate of cannabis being promoted across the medical industry, the irresistible fascination of online sports and hair loss revelations.

I hope you will enjoy reading this issue.

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Sharp Middle East is published six times per year by Oryx Live, Fujairah, UAE, and by permission of Contempo Media Inc, Toronto, Canada.

No part of this publication may be copied or reprinted without the written consent of the publisher. The views expressed by the contributors are not necessarily those of the publisher, editor or staff. Sharp does not take any responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photography.

12 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

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MIDDLE EAST

CONTENTS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 | VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 5

100 JOSEPH

GORDON-LEVITT’S HIGHWIRE ACT The star of The Walk is an old man trapped in a young man’s body. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

FEATURES 106

THE ART OF COACHING A duo reveal life-changing situations from their acts of mentoring in the region.

110

FATHERHOOD Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall teaches his son the importance of proper breathing. (Hint: it helps you punch like Bruce Lee.)

112 NEMR: THE KING OF COMEDY The pioneer of Middle East stand-up comedy is taking his act globally.

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HAIR SOLUTIONS Don’t despair, there may be hope just yet.

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CONTROVERSY Cannabis in the medical industry - what’s the story?

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CONTENTS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 | VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 5

FASHION 132

THE STRIKING IRISH We trawl Dublin’s streets to demonstrate why you should by taking sartorial cues from the Emerald Isle this fall.

142

STATE OF THE ART Heed our instructions to dressing your best this season, with tailored pieces from brands like Tom Ford and Gucci.

152

THE SHARP LIST Everything you really need and should have to stand out from the crowd.

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CONTENTS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 | VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 5

PAGE

GUIDE

60

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INTELLECTUALS At 75, Margaret Atwood is perturbed – but mostly amused – by humanity’s knack for destroying itself.

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WOMEN Known for slaying monsters on FOX’s Sleepy Hollow, Lyndie Greenwood doesn’t get spooked easily. But you can try.

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HEALTH These smart drugs promise to supercharge your career. Should you take them? Chances are your workmates already have.

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MUSIC

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On their latest album, New Order show today’s EDM knob-twiddlers how to drop a proper beat.

TRAVEL BAGS This is what happens when you merge a leader in travel accessories to a car icon

36 ART

How one Spanish artist is unleashing his animal instincts to the region.

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stays where he’s comfortable: in Oscar-worthy roles.

42

CARS

Justin Leboe is the owner of Calgary’s best restaurant and our new food columnist. So why did he just take an unpaid internship?

43

THE SHARP TV GUIDE With its onslaught of sitcom remakes, streaming services and premium cable channels, today’s TV landscape can seem overwhelming. Your guide to navigating the small screen this fall.

50

MOVIES Nancy Meyers boldly goes where no rom-com queen has gone before: inside the male psyche.

Christopher Plummer, meanwhile,

Who ever said knitwear is not cool to wear. Granny will be proud.

TRAVEL Valencia’s 2,000-year old history fuses with its stunning modern side - architecture, culture and venues for total relaxation.

FOOD

TREND REPORT

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Mohammed Al Turki on his rise in Hollywood as a producer.

ACHIEVERS

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AUDI R8 This is the sports car of all sports cars and we drive it to the max.

66

VROOM... VROOM...

Answers to questions like “Is the Jaguar XE the best business sedan out there?” to “Did Porsche dominate the heck out of this year’s Le Mans?” (Spoilers: yes and yes.)

STYLE 71

FRAGRANCES Scents that will make you smelling even better.

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GET YOUR DENIM ON

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HERO OF MENSWEAR Tommy Hilfiger reflects on the 30th anniversary of his iconic brand.

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TIMEPIECES

Jeans have been reborn – this time with actual room for your wallet and cellphone. How to wear your favourite wardrobe staple right now.

STANDARDS 20

When buying a watch, it’s best to stick to the classics. But just what, exactly, makes a classic?

ONLINE

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FALL CLOTHES EVERY MAN NEEDS As the hot summer is blowing by, we at least have fall fashion to look forward to; when you can layer your denim under your leather and accessorise with basically any material in your closet — the more textures, the better.

BOOK FOR MEN FALL/ WINTER PARTY Log on to Sharpmagazine.com to get a behind-the-scenes look at our exclusive Book For Men launch party at Toronto’s Design Exchange.

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NFL INSTAGRAMS TO FOLLOW Time to do some fantasy pool research. We take a look at all the social media accounts of some of the NFL’s biggest stars, to see who was workin’ and who was shirkin’ during the off-season.

WOMEN YOU SHOULD MEET: SCI-FI EDITION We’ve met some pretty spectacular women over the years. Here’s a look back at our interviews with our favourite babes from TV’s creepiest sci-fi series.

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KNOW YOUR CAN-CON:

Hip-Hop Edition

In honour of rapper-turned-CBC host Buck 65’s new book, test your knowledge of Canadian hip hop by matching the artists below with their hit (uh, you know, relatively) singles:

C U LT U R A L E Q U AT I O N

NANCY MEYERS Nancy Meyers has a lot to say about modern manhood in this month’s The Intern. For those unfamiliar with Meyers’ work (sure, sure) here’s a breakdown of who she is. There’s more on pg. 47.

"Wicked and Weird" Buck 65

NANCY MEYERS

"Rhyme the World in 80 Days" Organized Rhyme

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22 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

FUN FACT! SHARE THIS AT PARTIES TO SOUND COOL/INSUFFERABLE

DID YOU KNOW: the word 'denim' (pg. 124) comes from the French term serge de Nimes, referring to the town where the fabric was invented. And now you know!

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There was a real buzz in the air as people recounted stories of their holiday breaks and gathered together to celebrate the agency’s fifth anniversary.

Guests relished bite-sized versions of the restaurant sumptuous menu including signature canapés, passionately crafted by the group culinary director Emiliano Bernascon; while resident DJ Ivan was spinning the decks and one of the city’s most exciting live bands, Mozaik Trio, entertained the crowds with their unique mix of oriental, Cuban and Latino sounds.

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 SHARP MIDDLE EAST 25

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26 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

When I was preparing for this, I came across a story about Atwood Oceanics, a deep-sea drilling operation.

They’re probably relatives of mine — there aren’t that many Atwoods on the planet.

I had a brief moment where I thought maybe this was one of your many side projects.

It’s not, but I did have to kick two other “Margaret Atwoods” pretending to be me off of Twitter. I think they were tribute accounts of a strange kind: they were posting things they thought I might conceivably say or do. They weren’t right about that.

Given how engaged you are on Twitter and how often you’re quoted in the media, I’m amazed that you’ve mostly avoided being at the centre of a scandal for something you’ve said. It seems to happen to every celebrity at least once.

I think some people are just too quick off the mark. They jump the gun before they’ve really investigated what the fuss is about. You saw that with the Jian Ghomeshi thing.

MARGARET ATWOOD IS READY FOR THE END OF THE WORLD

BY NATHAN WHITLOCK

I

F MARGARET ATWOOD has an unofficial motto, it’s “Can’t Stop; Won’t Stop.”

Since self-publishing her first book in 1961, she’s released more than 60 awardwinning novels, short story collections, children’s books, collections of poetry — and still had time left over to write the odd television script and opera libretto (why not?), appear at a handful of festivals and conferences every year, throw her weight behind a few dozen worthy causes (birds and the environment, especially), and tweet out to her more than 800,000 followers. At 75, an age when a lot of her writing peers have become mired in the nostalgia for a sepia-tinted past, she continues to be obsessed with telling us about the future — specifically, which cliff we’re about to go over next.

For decades now — especially in her recently completed MaddAddam sci-fi trilogy, which is currently being turned into an HBO miniseries by director Darren Aronofsky — she’s been creating dystopian visions of humanity’s fate that are as wickedly satirical as they are deadly serious. Her new novel, The Heart Goes Last, depicts a not-too-distant future in which people make ends meet by getting paid to be prisoners in for-profit jails. It’s not a particularly cheerful vision, but you get the sense that Atwood is as amused as she is concerned by the mess that humanity is constantly getting itself into. If we really do go over an apocalyptic cliff one day, it’s hard not to imagine her standing right at the edge, watching us fall, making notes toward a new book or three.

28 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

You mean, people jumping in to defend him when it first came out.

Yes, and you could see why people would.

But they quickly jumped out again.

Do you feel sympathy for writers who prefer the old-school method of shutting up between books and staying away from social media?

Absolutely. They’re not cut out for it.

They weren’t on the college debating team, they have thin skins and they’re easily wounded, and should stay away from it, no question. What writers should do primarily is write their books.

But that doesn’t mean that that’s the only thing they should ever do. That’s the “art for art’s sake” position, which is in itself a moral and philosophical stand.

In a way it’s true, but in a way it’s not true, because that’s not what human beings are like — they will put a moral in whether you want them to or not.

The Heart Goes Last began as a serialised story online. Have you reworked that material?

I absolutely had to, because when you’re writing a serial, you have to keep reminding people of what happened the last time. A lot of stories were serialised in magazines and newspapers up until the 1970s. The Internet has

taken the place of those spaces.

You see these experiments happening now — even Fifty Shades of Grey started as online fanfic.

Unlike, say, Fifty Shades of Grey, the story you came up with is not exactly a beach read.

It’s fairly dark. I realised about threequarters of the way through that I was channeling Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is funny from the point of view of people watching it, but it’s not at all funny for those who are actually in it. So I put a quote from the

KNOW YOUR MARGARET ATWOOD Atwood doesn’t always show up on lists of Books Every Man Must Read — but she should. If you’re not already familiar with her work, here’s where to dive in: The Edible Woman (1969) Her first novel, about capitalism, carnivorism and, yeah, feminism.

Survival (1972) This series of essays about Canadian literature is the seminal text on our national canon.

The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) About the US as a futuristic theocratic dictatorship. Won the GG Award.

Oryx and Crake (2004) A man has to figure out how the whole world (literally) fell apart around him.

Payback (2008) The text version of her Massey Lectures is surprisingly insightful on the subject of debt.

play at the front. I also used a quite hilarious quote that I found online in a blog post called “I Had Sex with Furniture.” He begins by saying, “I did this so you don’t have to.”

Even as you are positing possible future dystopias, you are constantly referring back to classic literature.

Anything we’re doing now we’ve already thought of about 4,000 years ago. Look at desire: the first gorgeous female robot is in The Iliad, where Hephaestus has these golden females he’s created to be his helpers.

Pygmalion and Galatea: same story. And there was a big piece in Vanity Fair recently about life-sized sex dolls you can have custom-made to be your pal.

It’s nothing new.

The new novel posits a future in which people are willing to trade their freedom for financial security.

People always have been. Having been a World War II baby, I read a lot about Hitler, and that’s what happened, that’s how he got power. He was promising full employment, a chicken in every pot, and fun vacations. Who wouldn’t like that?

So are we fated to keep making those kinds of mistakes?

I don’t think anything is fated. Let’s say it’s been a motif, and it’s something we should be aware of. And we’ve just done it again in Canada with Bill C-51.

Once you have a no oversight/can’tknow-your-accuser situation, it’s a recipe for false accusations and getting even with people. The human tendency, unfortunately, is to believe that those who are accused, are guilty. I’ve got a whole little library on the Salem witch trials, which is a case in point. Once you were accused, you were guilty.

I play this game sometimes where I try to guess which contemporary headline — about fish dying, or whales washing up on a beach or whatever — would work in the opening montage of a post-apocalyptic film, where they show all this bad news that leads up to the disaster.

A creepy thing happened to us with The Handmaid’s Tale opera, which opens with a scroll of catastrophic headlines. When we opened it in Denmark in 2000, one of the headlines was that the Twin Towers blow up.

But do you ever spot overlooked stories that we’re going to look back on and say, “Aha: that’s where it all started”?

Frequently. For instance, the advent of CRISPR, the new DNA-splicing tool.

Now that we have CRISPR — kids doing their own gene splicing in a high school lab — that will happen.

As a species, are we screwed?

We’ve made it through many a bottleneck in human history. There was a very big bottleneck that wiped out 90 per cent of the aboriginal population of South and North America with diseases to which they had no immunity, but you’ll note that it didn’t kill all of them. Similarly, there are people who seem to be naturally resistant to AIDS. So, there’s no absolute doom, apart from the fabled meteorite hitting the planet.

Some might say that’s a strange basis for optimism: that we survived the Black Death.

It was awful for people going through it: more than half the population died.

But then after it, wages went up, careers opened up for women, briefly.

Look on the bright side!

Shifting to the past, how much time do you spend thinking about your back catalogue?

I’d say none. Next question. [Laughs.]

So you never give much thought to how people are reading your earlier books?

It’s amazing that they are, actually. What really floors me is The Edible Woman, which was written in the mid-1960s — there wasn’t even pantyhose yet.

People are still reading it, and I think, “What are you getting out of it?”

You were the first author to submit a book to the Future Library, which will be printed 100 years from now. Is that an act of hope?

Writing any book is an act of hope: you hope you will finish it; you hope it will get published; you hope people will read it, you hope they will understand.

And writing a book is already a time capsule, because there’s always a gap between you writing it and somebody reading it. This is just a lot longer.

The 2115 Goodreads review of the book would note that it can be burnt for fuel.

[Laughs.] That’s one argument for paper books: at least if the lights go out you’ll be able to set them on fire.

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LYNDIE GREENWOOD ISN’T AFRAID OF (ALMOST) ANYTHING

BY BIANCA TEIXEIRA

L

YNDIE GREENWOOD doesn’t scare easily.

Since moving to Wilmington, North Carolina to shoot the supernatural FOX show Sleepy Hollow — a 21stcentury retelling of Ichabod Crane — she’s been the victim of a ghostly presence in her home. “There are curtains that open and close by themselves, footprints on my pillows, handprints on second- and third-storey windows,” Greenwood says. “But I don’t need to leave. I feel a weird sense of calm there.” Greenwood’s fearlessness isn’t only limited to supernatural beings, though. The 32-yearold Canadian spends her time between projects hiking through the alwaysempty desert trails of Utah, exploring Lehman Caves in Nevada and climbing to the top of Mammoth Mountain in California. Not bad for a city girl. “I like exploring,” she says. “I’m not afraid to get out there by myself. It’s where I’m most comfortable.”

Now, filming the third season of Sleepy Hollow, Greenwood will admit there is, actually, one thing in the world that rattles her: “The set is actually really spooky. In the dark with all the shadows, I can’t help but get a little nervous.” But then, who doesn’t get a little scared going to work?

30 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

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SMARTEN UP WILL THE NEW WAVE OF BRAIN-ENHANCING DRUGS GIVE YOU AN EDGE — OR JUST A HEADACHE?

BY ALEX NINO GHECIU

D

AVE ASPREY absolutely crushes every workday. No morning grogginess or post-lunch slowdowns. The 41-year-old Silicon Valley investor is in the zone — nailing presentations, dominating his inbox, spearheading projects — all the time.

And he gets there by downing a handful of pills each morning.

He lists them like a litany: Aniracetam, Piracetam, CILTEP, Methyl and Cobalamin. Asprey’s cocktail is a mix of nootropics — the name given to a broad class of “smart drugs” meant to optimise the max out of your brain.

They’re quickly gaining steam among the workaholic set, with everyone from college students (11 per cent in the US alone) to tech entrepreneurs popping

them to get a mental power-up.

“It’s like unlocking one of those energy boosts in a video game,” Asprey explains. “All of a sudden, you can do more and you’re faster and you’re smarter, and even better yet, you have more self control.”

Yes, this stuff is legal. Nootropics include prescription analeptics like modafinil, originally intended for narcolepsy, though some doctors give it to patients struggling with attentiveness.

You can also order natural supplements online — made of vitamins, amino acids and antioxidants — that are legitimate by law.

Here’s the claim: these drugs protect your neurons from damage, stimulate receptors and strengthen neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to

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reorganise itself. This gives you an edge in memory, attention span, motivation and learning capacity — without the jitters or crashes that come with stimulants such as Adderall. Think Bradley Cooper’s mind-enhancing drug in Limitless, but in real life.

Asprey first plunged into nootropics in the mid-’90s. After selling his first tech start-up for millions, he realised something was amiss with his noggin.

“Some days my mental performance was way off,” he says. “I couldn’t think of words or remember what happened in meetings.”

The brain fog worried Asprey enough that he spent 15 years and roughly the equivalent of a million dirhams “hacking” his own biology.

After experimenting with various supplements, he found modafinil turned his mind dramatically on.

Nowadays, he mixes and matches an ever-evolving list of ingredients, even marketing some via his company, Bulletproof. He’s become the de facto leader of the biohacking movement.

“There are people who spend an hour a day meditating, who’ve never tried these drugs,” he says. “That’s absurd.

Nootropics don’t take nearly that long and you might get some of those same benefits.”

But the science on smart drugs is still murky. While nootropics have been proven to help people suffering from dementia, there’s a lack of long-term studies on whether they’re safe for the healthy man to take. “If you’re going to experiment with these things, use at your own risk and be sure you don’t have any underlying medical conditions,” says Emily Deans, a Massachusetts psychiatrist. “But if you’re healthy, it’s probably not going to hurt.”

As with all miracle cures, nootropics do have potential, if unsurprising, side effects.

Upset stomach, insomnia, anxiousness and a slower heart rate. Deans recommends sticking to proven brainboosting solutions, like exercise, proper sleep, healthy food and strong coffee.

Still, Asprey swears he wouldn’t be as successful as he is today if it weren’t for his magic pills. What’s more, he says, the world’s best and brightest are popping them too. “I have meetings with CEOs running companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I’ll pull out a baggy of nootropics, and they’ll go, ‘Oh, you also do it?’ We’re all doing it.”

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NEWER ORDER THIRTY YEARS AFTER STARTING AN ELECTRONIC MUSIC REVOLUTION, NEW ORDER AREN’T DIGGING WHAT THE KIDS ARE DANCING TO

BY ALEX NINO GHECIU HAT IS EDM?!” asks Stephen Morris. “Can you tell me? I don’t know!”

New Order’s drummer can’t even recognise the genre he cofathered. Back in 1983, the English band wrote “Blue Monday,” the original club banger. The tune’s innovative (at the time) drum machine-and-synthesizer stomp helped plant the seeds for the Tiëstos, Aviciis and Skrillexes of today. It became the best-selling 12” single ever, the proceeds of which they used to fund Manchester’s Haçienda nightclub, ground zero for the global rave movement. But Morris isn’t exactly proud of the Molly-addled mutant monster electronic dance music has become.

“There are so many categories of what

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it is,” gripes the 57-year-old. “You’ve got techno, progressive house, minimalist – god, I can’t even remember them all! It’s too specialist, really. It’s a turnoff.”

Call them curmudgeonly, but New Order can still walk the walk. On their latest record, Music Complete, the dance icons throw the gauntlet down to today’s headphone-fondling DJs with 11 lustrous tracks of EDM – or their take on it, anyhow. They use modern programming tech, while bringing it something sorely lacking from today’s knob-twiddling party noise: a human touch. There are laser-like blips and searing synths, but also orchestral flourishes, guitar atmospherics, Morris’ muscular, mortal beats and Bernard Sumner’s vulnerable, average bloke croons. The result? Songs that actually make you feel something,

THE HIGH-BRO STUFF Three EDM artists you can listen to without shame

TYCHO

PRETTY LIGHTS

DISCLOSURE

San Francisco’s Scott Hansen writes sunny, ambient techno that could just as easily be labeled space rock. He records with a three-piece band – who play actual instruments!

Check out: “Hours”

Mixing live instrumentation with electronic sounds, this Colorado electro-soul pioneer draws on classic rock, hiphop, soul, funk and disco, all laced with thudding basslines—by real bassists!

Check out: “Yellow Bird”

This British DJ duo has been topping charts with their second album Caracal highlighting some inspiring grooves, with songs like “Holding On” featuring Gregory Porter, “Omen” with Sam Smith, and “Jaded”.

34 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

from agitation (“Restlessness”) to euphoria (“Superheated”).

Nobody marries flesh and machine quite like New Order, even today. And yet, they never planned on becoming electro gods. In a past life they were Joy Division, playing somber post-punk – until singer Ian Curtis’ infamous suicide in 1980. The band’s surviving members decided to keep trucking, but to another place: the dance floor. They eschewed the agonized guitars and doomy bass lines for synths and sequencers, forging a wistful fusion of post-punk and dance music that wound up dominating ’80s pop charts. “We made a conscious effort that we were going to do something that would take us away from Joy Division,” says Morris. “We needed New Order to be a completely different thing.”

Nowadays, though, New Order have their hands full protecting both their past and present legacies. The last decade has seen hordes of acts – from Interpol to The Killers (whose singer Brandon Flowers guests on Music Complete) – shamelessly ape the band’s brand of happy-sad dancerock. At the same time, fascination with Joy Division has grown exponentially, inspiring cinematic retellings (24 Hour Party People, Control) and fashion trends (see: that Unknown Pleasures T-shirt hipsters can’t stop wearing). And then there’s that laptop-generated frat boy racket they helped spawn. For better or worse, they’ve left a mark.

“I can see the funny side of it, I’m not a miserable son of a bitch,” Morris chuckles.

“But you have to ask: ‘what would Ian have thought of all this?’ I don’t really know.”

And he can’t really know. Nor can New Order control the newer order. All they can do is keep their own beat going – and see where it drops.

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ANIMAL

INSTINCTS IF YOU THINK YOUR LIVING ROOM IS NOT WILD ENOUGH, THESE CHAIRS COULD BE JUST WHAT YOU NEED

BY MAAN HAMZI 36 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

LEFT: MÁXIMO RIERA AT WORK IN HIS STUDIO IN CADIZ, SPAIN

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he beauty of the animal kingdom is being explored in a bizarre exhibition of chairs designed in wildlife sculptures. Organised by the art and design concept store, Cities Boutique, the event will feature the works of Spanish artist Máximo Riera at The Mine art gallery in Dubai over five days starting November 12th.

Riera’s world-renowned Animal Chairs, launched in 2011, represents a diverse range of species – from mammals to reptiles, and even

insects. The collection quickly gained prominence in the art world for its life-like depiction of striking wildlife.

Riera’s reveals that his intention behind his creation is to create awareness on nature in the urban world. “By exposing people to these creatures in a realistic fashion, we increase our familiarity with them, thus developing our empathy and connection with the animal kingdom,” he says.

“This collection is homage to these animals and the whole animal

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 SHARP MIDDLE EAST 37

kingdom which inhabits our planet, as aan beauty of attempt to reflect and capture the bea nature in each living thing. Each ccreation whilst retains the animal’s natural vitality vita accurate in its being totally biological accur explains. appearance,” Riera explai created three exclusive The artist has create pieces for the region to be unveiled at the will be available for sale at exhibition, and w Boutique after the exhibition. Each Cities Boutiqu consists of an internal steel frame and chair consi is made of polyurethane, with a leather seat.

Riera designs his chairs by reproducing his sketches as three-dimensional digital hi images. These were then utilised to produce the sculptures with mechanised sculpting tools to replicate the pieces. They were then assembled, sanded and painted by hand, adding uniqueness to the design.

Early pieces in the collection were black in colour, but Riera’s recent 2015 additions to the collection feature more detail and colour focusing on natural tones to result in a more realistic approach. Among the pieces in the collection are representations of the octopus, beetle, blue whale, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, walrus, elephant and toad.

Riera says he chose the chair as his focus because it is a common object that is important to our daily lives. His goal was to inject the chair with a sense of vitality; to “make it more present and create a stronger link between the spectator, the piece and the surrounding space.”

Riera has been a practicing artist for over 38 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

THIS COLLECTION IS HOMAGE TO THE WHOLE ANIMAL KINGDOM AS AN ATTEMPT TO REFLECT AND CAPTURE THE BEAUTY OF NATURE IN EACH LIVING THING.

30 years. Whilst predominantly working in photography, painting and sculpture, he has also published a collection of poetry. Inspired by his travel and experiences through Europe and the Caribbean islands, his vibrant use of colour and evocative attention to detail have been an inspiration which convey the meaning of his creations.

His work demonstrates a predominant influence from abstract expressionism and the pop art movements. Even though his artistic career was relegated to a secondary role due to his professional life in the medical industry, Riera still organised several exhibitions and events for his work, with proceeds going to charity. Born in Asturias, Northern Spain, Máximo has now retired to his studio in Cadiz, where he paints and sculpts each day.

“It is always a privilege to be able to show your art and creations to an audience. And it makes it more special to have a location like Dubai, one of the most influential cities in the world,” concludes Riera.

THE PROUD PRODUCER He’s young, dynamic and one of Hollywood’s most ambitious film producers. As a 29-year-old Saudi national, Mohammed Al Turki has beaten the odds and carved a name for himself in the highly competitive filmmaking industry. And at such a young age, he’s conquering his starry-eyed dreams of making it big – not just anywhere – but in good ‘ole Tinseltown. Today, he’s brushing shoulders with the crème-de-la-crème of Hollywood’s finest celebrities, some of who have played a part in his movies. We catch up with him to find out about his successful journey.

BY AH MAD DAABAS

40 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

What made you move to Hollywood?

It was an important move. After the success of my first movie, it was crucial for me to be based there. I am working on American films; and since the industry is based there, I consider it a strategic move.

How is it working on a blockbuster-type movie set?

It depends on which director I’m shooting with and the talent pool I’m involved in.

It is very demanding hours of work and quite nerve-wrecking; but all together it’s extremely exciting. You have to maintain your cool all the way, regardless of what challenges you encounter and how stressful the process may be.

Needless to say, the best part is the end product which is always rewarding, watching the whole film after it’s edited with sound. Once the movie makes the big screen and is so openly welcomed by the public and critics, you can’t be any prouder at that moment.

We’ve seen you become more acquainted with Hollywood’s A-list celebrities. How does it feel to be in the media spotlight?

Being surrounded by a lot of talented celebrities is part of my daily life. I work with those people. However, some people from the Middle East may have mixed perceptions of what I do. Perhaps they think I’m having fun because I’m out and about.

It’s all key networking. You have to be around these people. You have to entertain them; they are your clients after all. More importantly, some have become personal friends - which comes hand in hand with the job – and this makes it more entertaining.

But being closely observed, especially from people in the Middle East, can sometimes be misinterpreted into what one may dub as “controversial”. There are always sceptics out there so it’s best not to give them any attention.

WE SEE ANOTHER FORM OF FILMMAKING EMERGING IN THE INDUSTRY – A NEW ERA OF CINEMA. BRIGHT NEW FILMMAKERS FROM VARIOUS PARTS OF THE MIDDLE EAST, WITH DIFFERENT STORIES TO TELL AND THEIR MESSAGES ARE MAKING WAVES. their messages are making waves across the social sphere. I believe the industry is developing in the right direction and so there is a lot to look forward to.

Any plans on working on an Arabic movie?

Of course, that’s something I would like to do. My aim is to shed a positive light with what’s happening in the Middle East and introduce the West to authentic stories about our culture. However, I still don’t feel I’m ready for that move. I want to be well anchored in Hollywood first before I take that next step.

What was it like working with some of Hollywood’s most eminent directors and actors?

It’s a very humbling experience. I find that despite how successful they have become in their careers, these big stars remain very down-to-earth. They are very keen to share their knowledge and life lessons. I learned a lot through my experience with Richard Gere. I look at him as my mentor in the film industry. Since working on Arbitrage, we talk on a weekly basis, and he has helped me in lot of cases in making decisions. He contacted me directly to produce his new movie, Time Out of Mind. I respect him a lot. Working with other big actors is really nice. It’s just the fact that you’re able to experience it and I think there is a lot to it you get to know and learn.

What is the secret behind your success?

What’s your view on the Middle East film industry?

The industry in the region is basically split into two parts. You have the wellestablished Egyptian cinema on one hand, which has been rolling out movies to the masses in the Middle East since the 1920s.

At the same time, their target market has been primarily focused on audience in the Arab world.

Meanwhile, we see another form of filmmaking emerging in the industry – a new era of cinema. We see the advent of bright new filmmakers from various parts of the Middle East, with different stories to tell and new ways of tackling their subject matters. Over the past 15 years, these budding filmmakers are gaining prominence on the scene and

In Hollywood, it is very important to build a solid network. People don’t realise that I have collaborated with the exact same team on the movies I’ve produced. The actors and directors may change, but I’ve been working with the same producers all along.

And I’ve built a great working relationship with them. The idea is not to go around chasing after new ventures when you know the formula you have is already working successfully. It’s like any business model: when something works for you, stick to it.

Who is your ultimate mentor?

I don’t really have an ultimate mentor, yet I’m quite fortunate to have achieved my goal of ending up in Hollywood. It was always my dream. I would have to say that my main mentor in life is my

father – I learned a lot of lessons from him.

He is always been more than a father to me, and more of my best friend. I’m very lucky having someone like him being my friend although sometimes I talk to him about stuff related to Hollywood which he doesn’t connect with. However, he has always been supportive about my projects and never hesitates to give me advice in that sense.

Tell us more about our latest productions: Desert Dancer, 99 Homes and the soon-to-be launched Metamorphosis: Junior Year.

Time Out of Mind is directed by Oren Moverman, who has had award-winning movies like The Messenger (2009), which was nominated for the Oscars in 2009. He’s an acclaimed film director. I found out about the movie from Richard Gere who called me and suggested it would be a good project to work on. So I read the script and it instantly grabbed my attention. It’s about the homeless community in New York, and I saw it more as a global issue which anyone can relate to – a day in the life of a homeless person.

The film 99 Homes was my second collaboration with director Ramin Bahrani, who is a good friend. So that came about more naturally I would say.

In the case of Desert Dancer, director Richard Raymond approached me with the script and I didn’t know him prior to that.

We didn’t really have any mutual friends.

When he told me about the story, I felt a strong connection. It reminded me of Billy Elliot, the musical; in fact, the person who was involved with the movie is the same producer.

So what’s next in the pipeline for you?

Any exciting ventures we should know about?

I’m concentrating on developing my company onto a wider platform. My ambition is it will grow to offer more than just independent films. I am hoping to work with studios and producing films with bigger budgets, movies that will be entertaining to the public.

On another note, I am extending my collaborations within the realms of the fashion industry. And of course, directing is something that I will be pursuing.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 SHARP MIDDLE EAST 41

Justin Leboe is the chef/owner at Model Milk, Calgary’s best (there, we said it: best) restaurant, and the recently opened Pigeonhole.

STAGE FRIGHT WHY OUR NEW FOOD COLUMNIST HATES INSTAGRAM, LOVES CHANTERELLES, AND THINKS THE MARK OF A GOOD CHEF IS HOW MUCH HE’S SWEAT IN SOMEONE ELSE’S KITCHEN

BY JUSTIN LEBOE

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AST FALL I WENT TO Copenhagen to stage in one of Europe’s most respected restaurants, Relæ. I was 41, almost twice as old as the other stages, and an established chef back home. I had a successful restaurant, and I was about to open another, a wine bar called Pigeonhole. And I was standing in an unfamiliar kitchen beside a couple of 20-year-olds, about to break my back washing two kilos of Polish mushrooms.

The task was simple: with the tip of a small turning knife, clean any debris, twigs, tree needles or sand from the chanterelles, then plunge them in a clean bowl of water, agitate, remove and, using

the knife, clean or remove anything that hadn’t come off. Turns out those forests in Poland are home to all the missing sand from the shrinking Sahara Desert.

Twelve kilos and nine hours later, my back was killing me. My knees were throbbing. I longed for Ibuprofen. I wanted to stick that turning knife in my eyes. What was I doing here?

I was hunched over that pot of mushrooms for some much-needed reinvigoration — to see if I still had the same drive, the same passion, the same curiosity I had when I was starting out. I needed those things if I was going to open a new place. A chef

42 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

works for 20 or 30 years honing their craft, pursuing some elusive notion of perfection. A stage — a French tradition of chefs working for free in other kitchens to gain knowledge and skills — is an opportunity to scratch around in their ever-expanding world and unearth as much as they can. The idea is to gain confidence by being tested in the unfamiliar. After all, running a successful kitchen is about far more than just artfully arranging food on a plate. No amount of Instagramming, or reputation, will make something taste better if it sucks to begin with.

My first stage was over 20 years ago.

I was a kid who’d never been to New York City. I’d never eaten at a restaurant like Daniel Boulud’s Daniel or Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry, let alone worked in a kitchen of that calibre.

I ended up staging at both in quick succession. It was tough. Halfway in, my long-time girlfriend moved out. Despite the hours, the stress, the exceptionally tedious lengths that were taken to refine and finesse an ingredient, I finished it.

These stages helped form how I look at kitchens, food and cooks — and my life as a whole. The truth is, there is no magic secret to great food. It all comes down to product, discipline, knowhow and extremely hard work. For all of these experiences, I never received a cent. I lived off savings, woke up for 5 a.m. start times, spent hours repeating the same task, and rewarded myself with bottle after bottle of Ibuprofen. Sometimes, numbly, I’d question my life choices.

This industry is filled with chefs looking for a shortcut. I couldn’t open a restaurant if I wasn’t dedicated to putting in the work to make it perfect.

I’m unwilling to use the smoke and mirrors of social media, or PR dollars to prop up my reputation. So I did what I’ve always done. I got myself into a famous kitchen as a stage, I put my head down and went to work on those mushrooms.

At the end of my stage in Copenhagen, I dined at the restaurant.

That chanterelle dessert? It was worth all the self-doubt.

THE RESURRECTION WILL BE TELEVISED DOES TV’S GOLDEN AGE END WHERE ITS OBSESSION WITH THE REMAKE-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX BEGINS?

BY ALEX NINO GHECIU OACH HAYDEN FOX IS coming out of retirement. Mulder and Scully are once again searching for The Truth. The Tanners are back for more synth-backed family bonding. Everywhere you look, everything old is new again. Or at least it is on television in 2015, where long-dead shows are being resuscitated en masse.

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This fall alone, we’re seeing revamps of Coach, Heroes and The Muppets, as well as big-to-small screen adaptations of Rush Hour, Minority Report and Uncle Buck. And there’s much more on the way, from Netflix’s Fuller House to FOX’s The X-Files miniseries. It’s all well and good, if memory lane is your trip.

But this is supposed to be the creatively

43 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

fertile Golden Age of TV. What’s with all the rehashed ideas?

We expect this sort of pop cultural grave robbery from the film industry.

Hollywood has no shame pouring billions of dollars into Big Nostalgia, knowing full well they’re guaranteed every cent back 10 times over. (Jurassic World was made for AED 420 million

and became the first-ever film to gross over AED 1.4 million in one weekend.)

But we trust TV today to act as the tasteful counterbalance to schlocky cinema. We’re told again and again, from actors to directors, that TV is where it’s at, thanks to the last decade-plus of dark, cable antiheroes (from Tony Soprano to Walter White) and novellike serialisation. We’ve come to count on the tube (and yes, the laptop) for compelling, original storytelling. More True Detective, less Kindergarten Cop: The Series (which, by the way, is actually happening).

Ironically, the TV landscape’s abundance of quality content may be the reason network suits have begun chasing ghosts. Over 400 original shows are being produced for cable, broadcast or streaming networks this year — a 50 percent increase since 2007, and a 1,000 per cent explosion since 1999.

There’s too much TV and too few eyeballs.

That means low ratings and lower ad revenues are the new norm. Nowadays, says media analysis firm REDEF, most shows aren’t picked up for a second season, and have ghastly debuts — Lifetime’s much-hyped UnReal premiered to a paltry 815,000 viewers in the US earlier this year, despite near unanimous critical love. Surely, there are exceptions, like FOX’s Empire, which opened stateside to a rare 9.8 million, or Gotham, which had last year’s strongest Canadian debut with 3.4 million. But compare that to, say, 1997, when 41 million Americans would tune in just for an episode — any episode — of Home Improvement.

It’s been a while since that many folks chortled along to the same laugh track.

In our fragmented cultureverse, where there are a million specialty channels and never-ending streaming playlists to choose from, water cooler banter is hard to come by. Make a Seinfeld reference though, and people will almost always see what you did there. Nineties tropes carry enormous cultural currency in this divided age; they give a generation of withdrawn Millennials something to recall fondly and rally around. They carry huge financial currency, too — 18-to-34year-olds now make up the majority of the Canadian workforce (36.8 per cent), meaning they’re the new demographic

advertisers are eager to target. Kermit’s creepy felt smile is a totem that connects this generation to an imagined greater whole — and makes them twice as likely to reach for their wallets.

So, TV execs, like film and music and junk food execs, are trying to find pay dirt by marketing directly to our shrinking shared memories. In this age, even the faintest whiff of a pop culture revival is enough to send media outlets into a slavering mania. Coach was the top trending hashtag on Twitter moments after NBC announced the 13 new episodes; Full House has been inspiring BuzzFeed quizzes (“Which Tanner sister are you?”) since Netflix confirmed the reboot. None of this guarantees ratings, but if a pre-existing property can blow the wheels off the Internet, it has a big head start. That’s why TV’s under the déjà voodoo spell.

44 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

But don’t mourn the small screen just yet. If there’s one thing the history of bad programming has taught us, it’s that remakes have horrible luck on TV. In recent years, viewers have yawned at new incarnations of Charlie’s Angels, Knight Rider, Melrose Place and The Bionic Woman. Sure, a show might pique curiosity on premiere night, create some buzz on Facebook, but unlike a movie, it requires its audience to come back for 22 consecutive episodes. Chances are the cultural behemoths of yesteryear, once seen through nostalgia-free lenses, won’t evoke the same warm, fuzzy feelings you allowed yourself to think they did. And that’s okay. They entertained us when they were relevant, giving us cultural in-jokes, and then they ended, like everything must. You will enjoy new shows. It’s just a matter of knowing when it’s time — in the words of Uncle Joey — to cut it out.

THEY HAVE RISEN! A primer on the deluge of TV rehashes coming your way

Coach (NBC)

Heroes Reborn (NBC)

Uncle Buck (ABC)

Craig T. Nelson reprises his role as coach Hayden Fox, getting back in the game to assist his son, who is, coincidentally, a college football coach.

A revival of the superhero drama from the mid-aughts, back when shows about superheroes were new and exciting. Now? Not so much.

A reboot of the 1989 John Candy film about a lovably wayward uncle, but with an allblack cast led by Mike Epps. Subversive!

Fuller House (Netflix)

The X-Files (FOX)

Twin Peaks (Showtime)

Twenty years after Full House, Kimmy Gibbler and Stephanie Tanner move in with a recently widowed D.J. Tanner to help raise her fatherless kids. This family can’t catch any breaks.

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson reprise their roles as Mulder and Scully — TV’s most chaste couple — in a sixepisode reboot full of little green men.

David Lynch returns to direct this continuation of the early ’90s cult detective drama about owls that are not what they seem.

Your Twitter bio says: ‘Possibly that actor from that one thing that you think is way underrated.’ What might that thing be?

Oh, everybody’s got an opinion on what they think was way underrated. There’s this thing that happens now, where you put out a movie or TV show, and for whatever reason, it doesn’t, you know, work. [Laughs.] People don’t see it. And then, three years later, all of a sudden, you get a whole bunch of people telling you, ‘Oh my, I love that show!’ In this world where everything must be judged within the first week, it’s nice to know you can put these things out and eventually they find their home, so to speak.

What about Life in Pieces? Will it be one of those things?

I hope not. I hope it’s a big, fat hit right out of the gate. Look, you never know.

You always hope everything you do is going to resonate in some way with someone. Life in Pieces resonated with me when I read it. I thought it was a really funny, engaging type of show that, on network television, not many people have seen. Each segment is a short story, and together they tell a larger story. That fragmentation was incredibly appealing.

Because, look, I didn’t necessarily want to do a family comedy on a network. I’d just come off Fargo, which definitely pushed boundaries and did some fascinating, different stuff. So, for me, this was really about the method in which we’re going to tell these stories.

And that method is very liberating.

RUN, COLIN, RUN! HOLLYWOOD NEPOTISM TAKE WATCH, COLIN HANKS HAS EARNED HIS THESPIAN STRIPES AS A TV JOURNEYMAN

BY ALEX NINO GHECIU

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OLIN HANKS HASN’T FELT HIMSELF LATELY. The 37-yearold tells me he’s been sick as a dog for several days. But maybe there’s more to it than that.

After all, the past half-decade has seen Hanks undergo a metamorphosis: from the token, teen movie Mr. Nice Guy to an Emmy-nominated TV actor who plays roles as complex as a toddler-

snatching serial killer (Dexter) and a morally conflicted cop (Fargo). So his next gig might raise some eyebrows — he plays a neurotic, young dad on a CBS family comedy, Life in Pieces. Then again, such small screen left turns are fast becoming Hanks’ calling card. They bowl us over, gain our respect and make us totally forget he’s Tom Hanks’ son.

Your dad, obviously, is Tom Hanks. When you started acting, was it daunting knowing you’d inevitably be compared to him?

Aw, man. If I can be totally honest, I’ve been answering this question for almost 15 years now. I’m over it. It wasn’t daunting starting out just because I didn’t care. It wasn’t an issue for me.

As I’ve gotten older and the more

Don’t Watch That, Watch This THE GOOD Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris (NBC) What it’s about: Doogie Howser himself hosts a one-hour variety show, offering a mix of comedy, music and game show elements.

Why you should watch it: Variety shows are coming back, and NPH (despite a spotty Oscars performance) is the singing, dancing, wisecracking emcee this operation needs.

THE BAD Minority Report (FOX) What it’s about: Set a decade after Steven Spielberg’s film, this unnecessary adaptation sees one of the precogs (Stark Sands) covertly use his ability to prevent crimes.

Why you should avoid it: This incarnation manages to lose all ties with the Philip K. Dick story, reducing it to a predictable, crime-of-the-week procedural.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 SHARP MIDDLE EAST 45

And I think you’re a terrific actor in your own right! I’ve noticed you’ve been shifting from movie to TV roles lately. Why’s that?

Has not being a massive name hurt you in the past?

Oh yeah. You get an audition for a film, you read for it five times and you get to know the director. And they’re fighting for you, but the studio won’t green light the movie with you in it at that budget.

It’s just how it works. There was a period where I lost out on big movies because I wasn’t big enough of a name.

But if you sit there and focus on the ones that didn’t go well, it’ll drive you crazy.

So you’ve got to constantly go forward and hope you find something.

When Stephen Colbert starts his version of The Late Show this month, he’ll be the latest in the ongoing game of musical desk chairs that is late night hosts. But the music is the key — every Dave has his Paul, and, thanks in large part to Jimmy Fallon somehow scoring The Roots as his house band, the musical sidekick game has been seriously upped in recent years. Colbert chose Jon Batiste, a Julliard-educated Louisiana jazzman known for his interactive performances (and for his role on HBO’s Treme, if you’re among the seven people who watched David Simon’s follow-up to The Wire). His musical credentials are legit. But funny? Remains to be seen. Which got us thinking: just who is the best band leader bantering stage left right now, and why? Here, we ranked them based on musical ability and comedic chops: FUNNY

• Reggie Watts ts The Late Late te Show with James Corden en • Fred Armison Late Night Show with Seth Meyers • Questlove (The Roots) • The Tonight Jimmy Vivino Show with Conan Jimmy Fallon • Jon Batiste The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

MUSICAL

GLORIFIED LAUGH-TRACK

Well, it’s not necessarily that I’m moving towards TV roles — movie roles are moving in the opposite direction. They seem to only make 10 movies, and they only allow six people to make them. But that aside, I think TV is where all the storytelling is. If you look at all the really engaging stories, directors and actors from the independent movie scene in the ’90s, really, all those movies don’t get made anymore. And a majority of those people are coming to TV. But, instead of a beginning, middle and end needing to occur within two hours, you’re able to watch a story unfold over ten hours, from the comfort of your living room. And because people are pushing the medium, it’s not just A-B-C stories told over 22 minutes. It really gets me excited as an actor because they’ll take chances and cast people who might not necessarily be huge, gigantic, world-renowned stars.

A GUIDE TO BANDLEADERS

SIDEKICK

and more it’s followed me around, it’s become a constant. It’s not anything I’m embarrassed of. It’s not anything I’m running away from. It just is what it is. But I don’t look at it the same way everybody else does. To me, he’s just my dad.

• Cleto Escobedo Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Don’t Watch That, Watch This THE GOOD Angel From Hell (CBS)

THE BAD Supergirl (CBS)

What it’s about: Jane Lynch (Glee) plays a sketchy guardian angel who torments and guides Maggie Lawson (Psych).

Why you should watch it: Lynch finally gets to shed the Sue Sylvester tracksuit and flex her comedic muscles as the most gloriously debauched TV anti-hero this side of Hank Moody.

What it’s about: Superman’s klutzy cousin, Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist), tries to get a grip on the big bad city while figuring out her powers. Not a girl, not yet a Superwoman.

Why you should avoid it: Network suits who think women want to see Supergirl as a cliché-ridden rom-com clearly haven’t checked Katherine Heigl’s net worth lately.

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BUY A TV BECAUSE YOU’RE AN ADULT, AND YOU SHOULD HAVE ONE HEY USED TO CALL TV “THE SMALL SCREEN.” Disparagingly. Forget that. TVs these days are anything but small — not in screen size, not in resolution, not in extra features. You know what has a small screen? Your laptop. Cord-cutter or not, Game of Thrones wasn’t filmed for a computer monitor. It’s time to grow up and invest in a real TV. We suggest one of these.

T

THE WAY WE WERE In Praise of Channel Surfing The first thing you do on vacation is turn on the TV. You scroll through the channels, to take stock of the available programming, to bask in the wondrous inanity of basic hotel cable. Like so many others of your generation, you don’t have cable at home. But here’s the thing: there’s beauty in watching TV the old-fashioned way. Not for any one particular reality show or sports channel or cooking demonstration, but for the sheer passivity of it all — flopping down on the couch and slouching into whatever’s on. Simpsons rerun?

Sounds good. Last three innings of a Pirates-Dodgers game? Sure.

The African Queen’s on Turner Classic Movies in 10 minutes?

Again? Sign yourself the fuck up.

If anything, turning on an episode of No Reservations on Netflix requires an extra, embarrassing layer of agency. Streaming makes your viewing habits into real, actionable choices. You have to scroll through the options, you have to click, you have to commit to joining Bourdain’s culinary tour of Port-au-Prince. We all make enough choices in the course of our busy lives. Sometimes it’s just nice to let the world come to you, one commercial-strewn half-hour at a time.

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Don’t Watch That, Watch This THE GOOD Benders (IFC)

THE BAD Rush Hour (CBS)

What it’s about: A Denis Leary-produced comedy about a dysfunctional group of bros who bond over their shared obsession with their amateur hockey league.

Why you should watch it: There just aren’t enough off-colour comedies about hockey on TV. This one makes Goon’s chirps sound like they came from a dead bird.

What it’s about: A poor man’s Jackie Chan (Jon Foo) is forced to work with a poor man’s Chris Tucker (Justin Hires) in a cheap attempt to recapture the magic of a decade-old film trilogy.

Why you should avoid it: Not since Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise’s marriage has chemistry looked this strained.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 SHARP MIDDLE EAST 47

When we talk about that “Golden Age,” we’re mostly talking about dramas. Do you think it’s also true of comedies right now?

Well, I don’t want to sound selfcongratulatory, but I think there’ve been some great comedies in the last 10 years. The Office and Parks and Rec were pretty revolutionary. I will suspend judgment of my own show, but I think people are really excited by shows like Silicon Valley, Veep and, hopefully, Brooklyn Nine-Nine. So, to a certain extent, this is a good era for television comedies.

They just sometimes get left out of the conversation.

A SHOWRUNNER YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO: DAN GOOR IS THE CAPTAIN OF COMEDY

BY PETER SALTSMAN

F

ITHERE’S ONE RETURNING show we’re excited about this fall, it’s Brooklyn NineNine. The Andy Samberg cop comedy won a Golden Globe in its first season — and it’s somehow been exponentially better since then.

You can thank its co-creator and showrunner Dan Goor (who’s also written for perennially praised shows like Parks and Recreation, Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Daily Show). So we asked him to share some advice on how to laugh at the socalled Golden Age of TV.

It’s an apples and oranges situation.

There are a lot of articles about people’s favourite apples and someone might go, “there are also really good oranges!” But, there are more articles about television — and about content in general — now than there ever have been, in history. There are more articles about comedy shows, now, whether they’re good or better now, or worse now, than there ever were.

There are a billion articles about every single aspect of every single show. There are reviews that come out 30 seconds after shows end.

How does a show like Brooklyn Nine-Nine grow in its third season?

Does that affect your approach? Do you find it strange that as a writer you get asked to do interviews? That never used to happen.

Like Parks and Rec and The Office, part of the perception that Brooklyn Nine-Nine is growing is the fact that it’s actually growing. The writers are figuring out the characters and the actors are too. The audience is getting to like the characters more themselves.

We’ve done 45 episodes, and that’s 45 A stories, 45 B stories, and probably 25 C stories. We’ve just put the characters in different situations and we’ve heard them say a lot of different things and so we’ve gotten to know them a lot better.

I’m very happy to do them! But yeah, it’s interesting. We’ll do panels and people are often very interested — in a way that surprises me — in what the writers’ room is like, or what the producers intend to do with the show. It’s very current. I feel like 20 years ago, at these very same panels, people would just be curious as to what the actors’ experiences were like, or what the funniest thing they did was. I think there’s much more of an awareness of the machine or of the sausage-maker, in addition to just the sausage. In terms of

Don’t Watch That, Watch This THE GOOD The Muppets (ABC)

THE BAD Grandfathered (FOX)

What it’s about: A mockumentary series about the off-stage lives of everyone’s favourite Hensonian foam people. Like 30 Rock, but with real puppets instead of characters that were puppet-ish.

Why you should watch it: Self-aware cutaway gags and answers to important questions like ‘Who is Fozzie Bear doing?’

What it’s about: Eternal bachelor John Stamos has his mature playboy lifestyle upended when he discovers he’s not only a father, but a grandfather.

Why you should avoid it: The jokes here are unbearable, even by Uncle Jesse’s standards. Have mercy!

48 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

how does it influence us?

We try as hard as possible to not read reviews or not take them seriously, just to buckle down and make the best show that we can make. It’s definitely healthier and more creatively fulfilling to just try as hard as possible to block out what the viewers are saying.

What about the way viewers consume TV?

Primarily, we are a network television show. Most eyeballs that see us are once a week. To a certain extent that’s still the primary audience we’re reaching for. Now, we’re aware that people have been watching on Netflix, and we love that, and we want to make a show that feels like you could watch 10 of them in a row. All writers are under pressure not to repeat themselves, and we’re under even more pressure knowing that someone is going to watch the entire season in a weekend.

But, with a network show you also can’t make things too serialised because that creates a barrier-to-entry. So, on a show that’s designed for online consumption, serialisation can be advantageous because you really just want people to binge. You want people to sit there and keep watching.

You want big cliffhangers. But the network model, historically, has been not to serialise stuff too much. I feel like that’s changing a bit. Last Man on Earth, which was a great show, was much more serialised and had big cliffhangers. Parks and Rec was really serialized. So, we’re probably more serialized than if the Internet didn’t exist, and less serialised than if we were just an Internet show.

shouldn’t be any blood, unless there’s way too much blood. Greg Daniels, who ran The Office and cocreated Parks and Rec, was so good at re-enforcing the importance of having real stakes in a story and reestablishing those stakes as early as possible in the story, so the audience knows what a clear victory or a clear loss looks like. And I find that time and time again the problem with a script that doesn’t work is that the stakes haven’t been established.

Have you ever been given any great piece of advice about working in TV?

Conan always gave a funny piece of advice about blood: in comedy there

What do you think makes a really good TV show?

Good TV shows involve cops. But also, a good comedy should be really funny.

It should have great characters, who are grounded, with whom you want to spend time. A great show has a cast that has fantastic chemistry. There should be some heart, as well — it’s not just a cold machine delivering amazing jokes. I would prefer if it were a warm-blooded — now I’m getting into some stupid metaphor, but you know what I mean.

THE PROBLEM WITH PREMIUM These days, high-end cable shows look a lot like low-end cable shows.

Or the other way around. Turns out there’s a formula — and it’s a pretty easy one to fake

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It used to be so easy to write shows off as bad. They just, well, didn’t look good. The production values seemed off, shot on low-rent sound stages instead of out in the real world. They used, god forbid, three cameras instead of one. They were full of unknown actors or, worse, TV stars.

This wasn’t even that long ago. We’re still talking after the start of the recent TV boom, when cable networks like HBO started pumping out critical hit after critical hit. Then, sometime after Tony Soprano went to the bathroom and Walter White started cooking up in that RV, things changed. Mad Men begat Pan Am. Damages begat The Good Wife begat Ray Donovan. True Detective and Castle aren’t even that far apart on the spectrum, if you really think about it.

Here’s the formula for a so-called “premium” TV show right now: celebrated and/or recovering movie star + dark, anti-heroic premise + serialized narrative arcs + gritty, sun-drenched (and/or shade-saturated) filmic techniques. Could be almost anything on TV right now. So how do you know if something is going to be good, or just sort-of good, or not good at all? Watch everything. And if you’re not willing to put in that kind of time, then just watch everything with Rob Lowe.

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Don’t Watch That, Watch This THE GOOD The Bastard Executioner (FX)

THE BAD Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW)

What it’s about: Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter follows up with this Late Middle Ages drama about a warrior (Lee Jones) who’s forced to pick up a bloody sword.

Why you should watch it: Sutter brought Shakespearian gravitas to biker gangs, so we’re confident he’ll do the same for this story about a man swinging a huge axe.

What it’s about: A mentally unstable woman (Rachel Bloom) moves across the country to chase a guy she dated in her teens.

Why you should avoid it: We can’t decide what’s worse: the misogynistic premise, the hour-long format or the fact that it’s a musical.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 SHARP MIDDLE EAST 49

CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER IS A REAL NATIONAL TREASURE AND HE CAN TEACH YOU A FEW THINGS ABOUT GETTING BETTER AS YOU GET OLDER

BY BIANCA TEIXEIRA

T

HERE IS A PECULIAR gravitas in Christopher Plummer’s voice; deep and mellow and a little bit lyrical. Maybe it’s always been there. But somehow, at 85, it feels more sincere, more worn, hard earned. Now, in the twilight of his inimitable career, Plummer is finally taking what he so rightly deserves.

There was an Oscar in 2012 for Beginners, a testament to the string of meatier roles he’s picked up in the last few years: Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station, film reprisals of his stage work in Barrymore and The Tempest, and now an aging Nazi hunter with early-stage dementia in Atom Egoyan’s Remember. It’s a nuanced role, brave and intelligent and challenging. It’s what makes Plummer a legend: he’s still learning, still showing new sides of himself. And he’s not even close to finished. A man could learn a thing of two from a guy like that.

Is there still something that you’re looking for in your career?

Employment, how about that? [Laughs.] Yes, tons of stuff I want to do before I croak. I’m still going strong, thank you very much. I’m a working stiff.

And what I do, what I try to do with all my films, is take parts that are not the same, to be as different as I possibly can be in each role. So far, I think I’ve managed to succeed pretty well.

Has there been one character that’s resonated and stayed with you more than others?

That’s so difficult. I mean, there are two or three perhaps, and most of them come from the theatre because the theatre, as far as a great role is concerned, has more finality to it than film. Film stops. The characters that are written in a play have a middle, beginning and an end. I try, when I make a movie, to make it like a play, to find that middle and end and beginning. Fully rounded characters like Henry V or King Lear or John Barrymore, all those parts have had a huge impact on me.

Your career has spanned six decades. How have you and your work evolved over that time?

Well, I think that you never stop learning. This is the wonderful thing about this particular art.

And it has nothing to do with how old you are.

That keeps you going. And also, particularly with theatre, it’s a great help for your memory — it’s a great exercise. We have that available to us to keep the mind alive.

Is there anything you wish you had done in your career, or something that you wish you hadn’t done at all?

No, I don’t have regrets about my career at all. I’ve been extremely fortunate. You know, there are a couple of things, of course, that you go, “Oh my, I could have played that,” but somebody else got them and that’s fine, that’s part of the game. But no, no regrets. Absolutely not.

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Nancy Meyers and Robert De Niro on the set of The Intern

HEY! WHAT’S NANCY MEYERS DOING HERE? TEACHING YOU HOW TO BE A MAN, THAT’S WHAT

BY PETER SALTSMAN

Y

OU’VE SEEN A NANCY Meyers joint at some point.

Whether you were dragged to a theatre against your will, or whether you stayed up late sobbing, alone, in your pajamas, you are familiar with her work. She wrote both Father of the Bride movies, pegged Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton together in Something’s Gotta Give, hooked up Jack Black and Kate Winslet in The Holiday and masterminded the ultimate middle-aged love triangle of Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin in It’s Complicated.

But Nancy Meyers doesn’t just make romantic comedies.

She builds on the celebrated tradition of Billy Wilder and Nora Ephron by subverting it, lightly, in her richly detailed, Pottery Barn catalogue worlds. Her movies are about people who just shouldn’t be together, or people older than you’re used to

seeing onscreen or, in the case of her latest, The Intern, people who (spoiler alert, but also thank god) don’t get together at all.

In The Intern, Robert De Niro plays a retired company man who, at 70 years old, goes back to work as an intern at a fashion startup run by the always-delightful Anne Hathaway.

De Niro’s character is as old-school as it gets, a man who carries a 40-year-old leather briefcase and doesn’t even own a pair of jeans, let alone a hoodie he’d wear to work. He’s a stand-in for the kind of masculinity we don’t see much anymore. Through De Niro, Meyers isn’t just asking what happened to men, but what happened to the great men of the movies — what happens when Raging Bull is 70, and there’s no one to pick up the gloves?

“I think the slacker boy movies have had an effect on it,” she says, referring to R-rated bro-fests like The The World of Hangover films, Horrible Nancy Meyers Bosses, and most Judd one does > No Apatow movies. “People say I romantic write fantasy, but those comedies — or slacker guys getting all those “relationship movies,” as she’d have you call wonderful girls…to me that’s them — better than just as big a fantasy.”

Nancy Meyers. If you’re She’s not wrong. And maybe not well acquainted it’s telling that Meyers and with the genre, well, Apatow both trade in a similar you should be. We comedic formula: long, loose asked Meyers for some good places to start. scripts, aspirational interiors, Consider this your an emphasis on heart and rom-com internship. emotional truth above all else.

They’re movies about people.

BROADCAST NEWS Which brings us to Meyers’ “I just love Jim other pet peeve, one we Brooks’s movies.” happen to share: “Rom-coms get a bad rap,” she says. “There ANYTHING BY BILLY WILDER was a period when there was “To me, he’s a legend. no substance in them and the He’s a movie god. characters weren’t great. But He’s the greatest. His that’s changing.” movies are the ones I The rom-com, according to go to time and again.”

Meyers, was replaced by the SAMSON bromance, and, we’d add, the RAPHAELSON AND comic book movie. But after a ERNST LUBITSCH summer of dulling our brains MOVIES one CGI space-mutant fight “If I ever see them on scene at a time, it’s incredibly there’s no chance I’m refreshing to watch a movie going to turn them off.” that’s just people, talking to IT HAPPENED each other, often about their ONE NIGHT real, non-superhuman feelings.

“At its heart it’s a And being funny in the process. romantic comedy.

Just like Meyers has always And I think it won done. Just like movies were the first Oscar.” always meant to do.

SILVER LININGS “I read something that PLAYBOOK argued women can be funny in “It’s a newer one, but movies with women, and men it fits the mould. Real can be funny in movies with characters. Real heart. men, but can’t we now see And funny.” them being funny together in a movie? Wouldn’t that be refreshing?” What a concept.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 SHARP MIDDLE EAST 51

ROAD TO...

VALENCIA On the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula is the autonomous community of Valencia, a place that shelters remnants of ancient history alongside a buzzing modern Mediterranean lifestyle. The capital of this region, Valencia, is the third largest city in Spain after Madrid and Barcelona.

Dating back to the year 138 BC, the city today is a bustling hub of trade. It boasts the fifth busiest container port in Europe and is one of the most dynamic cities on the continent in hosting international fairs and festivals. But its rich offerings in arts, culture and architectural wonders, as well as its mesmerising landscapes and leisurely diverse activities, draw travellers from across the globe. Last year, Valencia attracted over 4 million visitors.

Thanks to its fine sand and clean water, the vastness of the sea and the closeness of the coastal mountains make the Valencian coast uniquely attractive. There are outstanding beaches and dunes at Canet d’En Berenguer, where the coastline becomes leisurely and residential. A short hop to the north of the Valencian capital, small towns like La Pobla de Farnals, Alboraya and El Puig have recently emerged as charming tourist destinations.

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TRAVEL

HERITAGE

The Romans, who founded Valencia 2000 years ago, established a forum on the site currently occupied by La Plaza de la Almoina. A few centuries later the region was subject to various influences – from Germanic invaders, particularly the Visigoths, to the Byzantines. In 714, the Arabs and Berbers had conquered the region with their reign lasting half a century.

The period under Arab rule left a deep impression, visible in the form of many recipes, influences in the arts and sciences, and innovative methods, such as in the field of irrigation. A remnant from that period can still be found in the form of the Water Court, the oldest legal institution in Europe which is dedicated to monitoring the proper use of water for irrigation.

Today, it has been declared a World Heritage Site.

The period covering the 14th to the 16th centuries saw Valencia live through its golden age. A highly representative era in terms of economics, politics and culture, the city became the commercial centre of Europe. It became the birthplace of the silk trade, the city’s most important industry during that period.

The 16th-century saw the construction of the Silk Exchange Market, or Lonja de la Seda, considered the jewel of Gothic architecture both for its architectural beauty and for its commercial relevance at the time. Its name comes from the trade that was carried out in its interior, as Valencia was the industrial reference in the silk weaving and maritime trade. Other examples of architecture from this period include the Cathedral of Valencia, a cross-shaped construction with Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque doors and whose interior houses the Chapel of the Santo CĂĄliz. Since 1916, this small chapel has carefully safeguarded one of the most revered and prized relics within the Catholic Church: the Holy Grail. Before being brought to the cathedral in 1424 by Alfonso the Magnanimous, this venerated artefact had travelled a long route, over the course of several centuries, marking out what has become an interesting pilgrimage route.

CULTURE Valencia and its wide culture form a tandem that has led to the creation of more than 35 museums in which to enjoy both art and other characteristics. The Museum of Fine Arts, the largest art gallery in Spain after the Prado in Madrid, houses an important collection of Gothic altarpieces as well as a hall dedicated to the 19th century Spanish painter, Joaquín Sorolla.

The Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, on the other hand, exhibits permanent collections and temporary exhibitions of contemporary art, while the National Ceramics Museum comprises an extensive representation of Spanish and international ceramics. In the Valencia History Museum, which is housed in a former water storage facility, the city’s past and present can be observed in a time machine.

In order to obtain an initial contact with the city’s most important festivities, a visit to the Fallas Museum will unveil representations of the papier-mâché monuments that figure so prominently throughout the celebrations.

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ARCHITECTURE

TRAVEL

Valencia is one of the Spanish cities with the greatest collection of modernist works. Various architectural gems have survived from this period, including the Central Market, with its metal structure and glass panels. It is the largest indoor market in Europe, covering some 8,000 square meters and containing more than 1,200 stalls selling products ranging from seafood to meats and fruit.

The Colon Market is another attractive building.

Renovated in 2003, it has now become a leisure and cultural space. Nearby, the train station is also a true architectural masterpiece with its ceramic roof.

The City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia is a unique complex devoted to scientific and cultural dissemination made up of various elements. These include: the Hemisfèric showcasing an IMAX cinema and digital projections, a science museum, and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, a stunning opera house.

Also within this futuristically designed complex is the Oceanográfico, the largest aquarium in Europe sheltering over 500 marine species that make up a huge family of more than 45,000 examples, including dolphins, beluga whales, sharks and sea lions.

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NATURE Valencia is renowned for its greenery and park life. The Cabecera Park, the largest in Europe, crowns the old Turia riverbed to the west of the city.

Here you’ll find the start of the Turia Gardens, a large, traffic-free green space measuring some 10 kilometres in length that enables visitors to cross the city on foot or bike almost to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. This area is teeming with life and culture, containing everything from football and rugby pitches to athletics tracks and museums.

The city has an extensive network bicycle routes that enable visitors to discover Valencia on two wheels. More than 15 bridges from different periods and styles cross from one side of the city.

South of the city lies the Albufera Natural Park, a beautiful landscape of rice fields that surround one of the largest lakes in Europe. Migrating birds can be observed in winter from one of the albuferencs, small boats used by the inhabitants of the small fishing village El Palmar to fish the different species found in the lake. Within this area is a Mediterranean forest and this extends to El Saler Beach, whose majestic dunes are protected by a European directive.

Valencia has 19 kilometres of beaches that are popular escapes and bring to life a charismatic Mediterranean lifestyle. The Marina Real Juan Carlos I has an inner harbour with capacity for over 800 boats.

Located next to the Las Arenas and Malvarrosa beaches, the marina boasts a promenade with numerous restaurants, bars and facilities for outdoor sports.

A great way to view the city is by taking a pleasant sail along the Mediterranean on the various pleasure boats that are moored up next to the Veles y Vents building. This space next to the sea is ideal for enjoying spectacular surroundings with various activities to choose from over the course of the year.

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CUISINE

TRAVEL

The city has more than 2,000 bars, cafes and restaurants offering a variety of cuisine that seamlessly fuses traditional food and modern cuisine. Valencia is the birthplace of paella (from the Arabic word ‘baqaya’ meaning leftovers), and its restaurants are the best places to try it. Valencia has five restaurants that have been awarded Michelin Stars, such as Riff, La Sucursal, Ricard Camarena, Vertical and El Poblet. Also worthy of highlight is the Barraca de Toni Montoliu, right in the Valencian huerta (green belt) just 15 minutes from Valencia, where you can enjoy a unique experience tasting the local gastronomy.

RICE ROOTS Rice was introduced to Valencia by the Arabs in the 12th century with great success due to profitability made from rice sales. Around 30 percent of the rice produced in Spain comes from the province of Valencia. The Albufera Nature Reserve and the town of Sueca are dedicated to rice cultivation; the region is popular for its restaurants specialising in many kinds of rice dishes. The Museo del Arroz (Rice Museum), located in an old rice mill, offers the discerning traveller an interesting perspective on the subject.

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HEAVENLY

Unplug, unwind and recharge at one of the world’s greatest natural remedy clinics

I

f you find yourself anywhere near Valencia and feel, like so many of us do, that you could do with taking some time out to restore your mental and physical wellbeing, you’ll be wanting to pay a visit to the SHA Wellness Clinic. Banish your smartphone, your tablet, your diary and your daily worries to the bottom of your bag, for a few days of restoration and rehabilitation in one of the most stunning facilities of its kind to be found anywhere in the world – it’s the perfect setting for recharging your natural batteries.

Located in Albir Beach, near the picturesque town of Villa de Altea, SHA sits on a beautiful mountainside overlooking the Mediterranean Sea in part of the Sierra Helada Natural Park, one of Spain’s

foremost ornithological reserves. The mild microclimate of the area guarantees fantastic temperatures all year around, the area recognised by the World Health Organization as having one of the world’s best climates – in itself an important factor for the maintenance of optimum health.

SHA’s entire existence is focused on improving the health of its patrons and helping them achieve a longer lifespan, by fusing together the best in natural therapies from the Far East and the most advanced techniques to be found in the West. Clean living, weight loss, relaxation and restoration of our own internal harmony – the things many of us need in our hectic lives – they’re all here for the taking in modern, five-star luxury, where ancient oriental techniques and cutting

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THE SHA BUILDING WAS DESIGNED BY THE PRESTIGIOUS URUGUAYAN ARCHITECT, CARLOS GILARDI, AND THE AWARDWINNING EUROPEAN DESIGNER, ELVIRA BLANCO MONTENEGRO

edge technology come together to improve the quality of life for all who step through the lobby.

SHA was born from the personal experiences of Alfredo Bataller (Parietti), who over a course of 30 years underwent different treatments with medicine as a remedy for different digestive pathologies that he had suffered since youth. Nothing he tried actually worked. In 2000, his condition became serious and an examination gave a worrying diagnosis.

Faced with this situation, following a friend’s recommendation to visit a naturopath (today, member of SHA’s team), with great knowledge about the curative power of ingesting the right foods, he found in a few weeks the solution to his illness.

After Bataller’s full recovery, some relatives and friends decided to follow the same 58 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

treatment, giving them surprising results and positive changes in their lives.

Having experienced the body’s own healing power through these natural therapies and a healthy diet, Bataller looked deeper into the origins of this knowledge, leading him to get in touch with the world’s leader of this matter, Michio Kushi. Amazed by the effectiveness of eastern natural remedies and therapies, he was compelled to share them with the world, in order to not only alleviate the symptoms of many illnesses but also solving the deep origins of the health problems we face. He built a unique facility to realise a personal dream: the SHA Wellness Clinic.

The SHA building was designed by the prestigious Uruguayan architect, Carlos Gilardi, and the award-winning European designer, Elvira Blanco Montenegro.

Five independent structures are interconnected by bridges and between them contain 93 suites.

The resort includes large swimming pools and waterfalls, with many relaxation areas such as the Zen, Mediterranean and Tropical gardens. All the suites are modern in their designs and include a lounge, dressing room, air-conditioning, safe, and the very latest in-room technology. Each also has a substantial terrace for enjoying spectacular views of the Mediterranean Sea and the Sierra Helada.

Prepare to become a convert of a special diet if you do decide to spend time at SHA – it’s a pivotal part of what the clinic is all about and the chefs based here will amaze you with what’s possible in preparing dishes that benefit your health rather than your local take-away’s balance sheets. They’ll even pay you a visit to teach you how it’s done and cook up something special if your suite contains its own kitchenette – all using the finest ingredients sourced from around the Mediterranean.

A few days at SHA represents a sizable financial investment so spend your time here wisely. But, unlike many resorts in this part of the Costa Blanca, it actually is an investment, for guests leave with more energy, a renewed vigour and vitality that actively encourages a change in the way they live their lives. It’s money well spent and, after a few days here, you’ll understand why the SHA trophy cabinet is groaning under the weight of countless international awards and why it’s favoured by A-list celebrities from all over the world.

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LOOK BETTER FEEL BETTER KNOW MORE

CARS 60 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

AUDI INGOLSTADT’S SUPERCAR IS EVEN SUPER-ER THAN EVER WORDS BY LIAM NILSSON PHOTOS BY TOBIAS SAGMESTER

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uch like the Audi R8 itself, a decade goes by in the blink of an eye, especially when you’re busy trundling across the globe testing some of the greatest automotive offerings of our age. Inevitably, some new or refreshed cars are not so great, but ten years ago when I drove the first R8 in Las Vegas it blew me away, and now that I’ve had a crack at the latest iterations of the most superlative Audi, all that has changed is that my appreciation or the car is perhaps that much richer for having watched the model grow up. Not that the setting was all that grown up – we put the R8 through the paces amid the carnivalesque atmosphere of Faro Portugal.

Matt the accelerator in the 602bhp V10 Plus iteration of the car, and you’ll feel the years melt from your face. No wait, that’s just the pure accelerative force of the car pulling at your slackening skin, loosened by years of living.

Ever wonder how Clarkson earned his jowls? It’s the effect of too many super cars, I’m sure of it.

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Anyone familiar with the previous iteration of the R8 you’ll notice the improved transmission right away— a lightning fast dual-clutch DSG tranny has replaced the distinctly unlovable R-tronic robotised manual gearbox, and that’s reason to celebrate.

Someday, somewhere, an R-tronic apologist will cry crocodile tears into his or her tea over this soon to be vanquished bit of technology, but for now we can skip the instant nostalgia and simply agree that two clutches are always better than one. There’s a reason that the mighty ZF 8HP is a staple in so many excellent cars. Not here though, this 7-speed box is an Ingolstadt original, and it’s quite good. Or, for the OGs among us, the 6-speed manual represents another appealing option.

Take a walk around the car and you’ll notice— this made-over beauty differs subtly from the old model.

The finish is matte in a few more places, while the signature headlight squint is LED bedazzled, as are the taillights, so that there’s something a tad more au currant in its Clint Eastwood impression. (Note to Hollywood: we’re going to need some fresh tough guys sooner than later). The grille is reworked as well, and the car now features rounded exhaust tips.

Contrasting all those matte sections, Audi has increased the colour palette, offering more tonal combinations than ever— at least I think that’s what this means: “Audi offers the R8 in the two solid colours Ibis White and Brilliant Red, in four metallic shades and with five pearl effect / crystal effect coatings. For the R8 V10 plus a matt effect colour is available as an exclusive feature. The side blades on the Coupé come in eight colours.” The V10 Plus is further differentiated with ultra-light CFRP body panels to help offset the 62 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

AUDI OFFERS THE R8 IN THE TWO SOLID COLOURS IBIS WHITE AND BRILLIANT RED, IN FOUR METALLIC SHADES AND WITH FIVE PEARL EFFECT / CRYSTAL EFFECT COATINGS. FOR THE R8 V10 PLUS A MATT EFFECT COLOUR IS AVAILABLE AS AN EXCLUSIVE FEATURE. THE SIDE BLADES ON THE COUPÉ COME IN EIGHT COLOURS

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hefty power plant.

There are more colours, but fewer entries in the R8 line-up, which now includes two versions of the coupe´ that look quite similar— the V8 or V10. The range-topping R8 V10 Plus is the quickest Audi ever built, keeping up with the Italians while gripping the road with the added peace of mind afforded by Audi’s four-wheel drive quattro chassis. What that means is that, while the R8 V10 Plus does the 0-100kph dash in 3.1 seconds, thundering up to its 318kph top speed, you feel like all that power is working for you, and never against. This is a supercar that will suffer fools as well as fiends, and that’s clearly a compliment.

At a commute-from-Sharjah crawl, the R8 retains the easy feel of a good daily driver, steering and braking without any of the compromises that plague many super cars at super low speeds. The ride is, necessarily, on the harder side – but the trade off in handling is so rewarding that I 64 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

almost took a perverse pleasure in the bumps.

The S-tronic upshifts smoothly here too, so you don’t have to jerk your way through those brief moments when traffic flows.

Normal mode helps the R8 remember its manners around town, but flick on Sport mode and the throttle becomes a merciless hair trigger, releasing the R8s considerable thrust as the transmission reaches low for torque, dipping down as many as four gears (not all dual-clutch jobs can manage this feet) in a blip to find its happy place.

If you’re in a traffic and pedestrian free zone, you can give launch control a shot— the S tronic hovers at 4500 rpm before dropping into first and shooting down the road. According to the R8 owner’s manual, this feature could attract a few onlookers, which in Dubai, is half the point.

The R8 is incredibly nimble to match its speedy capability. Push into a turn and it holds on like George Clooney’s wife during their courtship, hanging in well past what seems plausible. Unless you’re a certified track captain, this is the kind of car that will help you find your limits, and not the other way around.

Inside, not that much has changed – splinters of chrome are now more abundant, there’s more leather on the dash, but the overall layout is classic R8. Sit back in the premium cross-stitched leather seats and you’re in the power position, figuratively and literally. You have the standard nav at your fingertips, along with Audi’s MMI infotainment system. In higher trim levels you get to alternate between listening

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NORMAL MODE HELPS THE R8 REMEMBER ITS MANNERS AROUND TOWN, BUT FLICK ON SPORT MODE AND THE THROTTLE BECOMES A MERCILESS HAIR TRIGGER, RELEASING THE R8S CONSIDERABLE THRUST AS THE TRANSMISSION REACHES LOW FOR TORQUE, DIPPING DOWN AS MANY AS FOUR GEARS IN A BLIP TO FIND ITS HAPPY PLACE

to the bangin’ B&O system comprised of 12 loudspeakers, 10 amplifier channels combining for 465 watts of euphonic sound, or the techno-howl of the R8’s exhaust note.

Another highlight for me was a midnight run around a closed course in this amazing car – the neon sky echoing off the cars reflective surface seemed to dance as I circuited the tarmac. It felt like I was channelling the spirit of Le Mans, albeit in a car you can drive everyday, possibly for twenty four hours if need be. Also unlike the actual Le Mans cars, this one isn’t a tweaky maintenance hog. That means ownership of the R8 should be relatively hassle free compared to the more rarefied stuff, but then, owners of the more rarefied stuff have been known to ship their supercars all over the globe anyway. In any event, this is a car that we can all love, even if we can’t all afford to own one – if you’re a journalist for instance.

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WHERE HEROES ARE BORN LE MANS ISN’T JUST ANOTHER CAR RACE. IT’S A 24-HOUR PROVING GROUND FOR THE ALL-TIME AUTOMOTIVE GREATS

BY MATT BUBBERS

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HE TOWN OF LE MANS in northern France is overrun by people. And cars. Huge crowds clog the main streets to watch professional drivers parade through the city. Fans climb up the sides of buildings, beer in hand, to get a better look.

We’re all here, on an otherwise quiet weekend in June, to watch the 83rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans,

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which might be the most famous — and most prestigious — race in all of motorsports, matched only by the likes of the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500.

Those who follow racing know that heroes are born at places like Le Mans. This is where drivers get truly tested, where the trophies are biggest and the competition is at its most fierce.

Derek Bell and Jacky Ickx win in France, June 1975

THIS YEAR AT LE MANS, the cars are faster than ever, and more complex: futuristic prototypes powered by oil and electricity and kept running with supercomputers and tireless mechanics.

It’s no longer an endurance race. It’s a 24-hour sprint to the finish.

Porsche takes the lead early. The team — three cars, nine drivers — wants to claim its first overall win in 17 years.

No one is more excited about this than Jacky Ickx, who won Le Mans four times at the wheel of a Porsche between 1976 and 1982.

Ickx is now 70 and every bit as rakish as all the old photos suggest. He’s got a sweater tied over his shoulders, below a full head of windswept grey hair.

Walking into Porsche’s VIP tent at Le Mans, he’s immediately surrounded. He glad-hands and smiles and indulges. He struts around the paddock like he owns this place — and, for fans of a certain age, he does. In total he’s won Le Mans six times, a record that stood until Tom Kristensen won his seventh in 2005.

But Ickx, unlike Kristensen, has gone from being one of the greats to an honest-to-god hero of motorsport. It’s an impossible — and impossibly small — list to pin down, but it’s easy to agree on at least a handful of names: Fangio, Clark, Stewart, Senna. They are masters, all of them.

Why is Kristensen not given the same sort of adoration, held up in the same high regard? Why do some stars shine so much brighter than their peers in the

The Porsche team celebrates their 2015 Le Mans victory

The Le Mans-winning Porsche 919, by the numbers Drivers: 3 (Nico Hülkenberg, Earl Bamber, Nick Tandy) Spectators: 263,500 Laps completed: 395 Electric power: >400 hp V4 gas engine: >500 hp Total power output: >900 hp Chassis: Like an F1 car with a roof Cost: Undisclosed millions

world’s most dangerous professional sport? What makes a racing hero?

Luckily, a 24-hour race provides ample opportunity to ponder these questions — and to get five minutes of a hero’s time to ask them. Ickx points to Jim Clark as a model of all Le Mans stands for. “He had the most sportif image as a racer, and as a man, in a time when racing was not a business.”

But surely, greatness is more than just image. “It’s the level of competition,” he says. “You must face the best.”

It’s difficult to get athletes to be eloquent about their own sport. Ever watch an interview with any member of the Leafs? Sometimes it’s better to ask someone who was on the sidelines.

At another race, months ago, I ran into Neil Trundle, the man who was Ayrton Senna’s chief mechanic for the ’88/’89 Formula One season. Trundle had a seat, front row centre, to maybe the biggest hero in all of motor racing.

Trundle got to see how a hero worked.

“Ayrton was a very special person. He was very confident. Very pushy. Selfish?

Yes, but then he needed it. Schumacher too. Phenomenal driver. Won more championships than anyone else. But again, very selfish guy. He always needed to be No. 1 in the team.”

The point is that what separates Le Mans and places like it — and what makes it possible for a great, selfish, confident maniac to become a hero — is that each time it’s fantastically different. As racing changes, so too do its heroes. They each write their own legend: Senna in the rain at Monaco, Ickx charging from last place to win at Le Mans, Fangio who wrestled with monstrous pre-war cars and lived — until he didn’t.

Heroes are why these races are worth going to — why hundreds of thousands of people turn up every year to watch.

Maybe they’ll witness a hero being born.

All three Porsches survived the night.

With the sun high in the sky, No. 19, piloted by a band of rookies, charged towards the finish line. They survived to claim Porsche’s first win in 17 years. Ickx is back in Porsche’s VIP tent to join in the speeches and celebrations. The team beat the dominant Audi squad. It was a flawless win, a masterful drive.

Did we see any heroes born? Probably not. But, we’ll be back again next year.

Because that faint hope of finding one is what motorsport is all about.

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THE PLUG-INS ARE COMING (AND THAT’S A GOOD THING)

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Why Mercedes is joining the electric bandwagon with its GLE 500e Tesla is a great luxury car-maker, but it doesn’t exactly offer you a lot of options. It has one model for now — a sedan.

And if you want to drive a long distance across the Arabian Peninsula, where Tesla’s free Supercharger network is laughably small compared to that of Europe and America.

Mercedes-Benz, on the other hand, offers options. At last count there are 22 models, everything from coupés to sedans to SUVs to wagons to armoured stretched limos.

Mercedes recently announced that by 2017, 10 of them will be available with plug-in electric hybrid power. These models offer silent Tesla-style electric power (albeit for a more limited range), and a gas engine for covering long distances.

We drove the first Mercedes plug-in, the GLE 500e SUV. And, well, it’s great — maybe the ultimate family hauler. It’ll go 30 kilometres using only electric power, which makes the driving experience ultra-smooth and eerily quiet. (A full charge takes as little as two hours.) Once that runs out, you’ve got a 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 to go the distance.

Is it quick? Yes: 0-100 km/h comes up in 5.3 seconds. Far more impressive though is the fuel economy, rated (using the European test) at 3.7 L/100 km.

If this is anything to go by, the rest of Benz’s plug-in line-up can’t arrive soon enough.

>

Business Casual Consider the 2017 Jaguar XE your signing bonus

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T’S A QUESTION AS OLD AS the corporate credit card; a quandary faced by every young manager at one time or another; a problem with no right answer but many wrong ones: now that I’m the boss (well, sort of ), what’s the right car for my new status?

You’re looking for a compact luxury sedan, the traditional entrée into the world of high-end automobiles. The Germans comfortably dominate this market; heck, they invented it. BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz have been refining their offerings in this niche for many decades. They all offer superb engineering, the latest tech and a polished driving experience. But picking one car from this bunch can be tough: too many choices, no real standouts.

That is, until now. Jaguar is launching a compact luxury sedan: say hello to the XE. It is perhaps the most beautiful car in its class (although none are likely to turn heads). Under the hood, there’s a frugal four-cylinder diesel. Accountants will go for this one. Eco-conscious shoppers, too. It’s ideal for long, long commutes.

The supercharged V6, however, is the Jaguar XE for us. The one that’ll make your cubicle-trapped colleagues jealous. Now this sounds good. All-wheel drive is the only thing preventing you from leaving two black lines as you peel out of the company lot on Thursday. Which, for the sake of your job, is probably for the best.

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SPECS ENGINE: 2.0-LITRE TURBO-DIESEL I4; 3.0-LITRE SUPERCHARGED V6 POWER: 177 HP; 335 HP GEARBOX: 8-SPEED AUTO PRICE: TBD

THE FAST ONE Or, if climate change doesn’t really scare you, there’s the AMG version: the GLE 63 S. It’s powered purely by dinosaur bones, no electricity required.

Available as boxy SUV or strange SUVcoupé-like-thing, its 577-horsepower twin-turbo V8 burns rubber as well as it burns gasoline. Like we said, Mercedes has nothing if not options.

THE LITTLE RED CONVERTIBLE Women have the little black dress. Men have the big black tux. Those in need of an escape? We give you the Little Red Convertible. We’ve picked one for every occasion 1969 Alfa Romeo Spider pider

80k

Mazda MX-5 GT Not the most powerful or the most expensive, but the little Mazda puts so many other sports cars to shame. The MX-5 will open your eyes, and remind you how much fun driving can be.

AED 113,000

As seen in The Graduate. ate.

Drive like Dustin – when en the car actually runs.

AED 80,000 (USED)

Porsche Boxster S Sitting low, the engine mounted behind you, the Boxster can make something ething as mundane as the daily commute feel like a minor escape. Imagine what it can do on the Dubai-Abu Dhabi highway.

AED 160,000 000

Alfa Romeo 4C Spider Italian. Impractical. Th The 4C iin a city it would ould be torture, but out on the open road, top down, it’s as close as you can get to a modern successor to Dustin’s old Spider. One for the purists.

AED 210,000

Audi R8 Spyder (2015) The quintessential everyday sports car. All-wheel drive lets you escape to anywhere year-round. And a V8 engine lets you do so very, very quickly.

AED 410,000

Aston Martin olante DB9 Volante A Allows you to play out your Man of Mystery fantasises. A 12-cylinder engine, timelesss design desig mated to a glorious 12 cylinder engine drive an Aston.” Escapism on plus the right to say, “II driv wheels. AED 590,000

McLaren 650S Spider Your first first supercar. Rare. Refined.

Refined.

Built by a Formula 1 team. If your idea of escape involves an empty racetrack, this will be your weapon of choice.

AED 865,000

Lamborghini borghini Veneno Roadster

15M

A collectible. Only nine e in the world. 750 horsepower.

The Ultimate Little Red Convertible, is, well, not so little. ble is AED 15 million

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LOOK BETTER FEEL BETTER KNOW MORE

STYLE

TRENDS

S K C I K RT

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OU CAN HAVE shoes. And then you can have shoes that stand for something. That have some history. Like, for example, these Lacoste Turbo 2s. Drawing on the brand’s tennis heritage, they were originally designed to wear on the court, but have been updated with leather uppers, suede details and, of course, the signature croc logo to take them off the court and turn them into seriously street-worthy kicks. LACOSTE, AED 550

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PHOTO: MATHEW GUIDO. STYLING: MARK JOHN TRIPP.

g ron t s is me a g hoe s s ’ oste c a L

UNCOMMON SCENTS This fall, fragrances harnessing nature are the obvious choice for distinguished gentlemen

BY AHMAD DAABAS

NE’EMAH POUR

BY HOMME

Up and coming master perfumer, Kuwaitborn Mohammed Ne’emah, launched this fragrance two years ago. A decidedly woody fragrance, Pour Homme opens with tangy top notes of lemon and orange, followed by a peppery middle, ending up with a masculine, woody base.

EAU PLURIELLE

BY DIPTYQUE Another woody aromatic, Diptyque’s Eau Plurielle can be used on the skin or your linen – a multi-use, fine fragrance.

Featuring citruses, woody notes and white musk for staying power, rose comes through as green and fresh, similar to the smell of crushed tea-rose petals – quite an unusual note but an attractive one nonetheless.

COLONIA CLUB

BY ACQUA DI PARMA New for 2015, this woody, aromatic fragrance is a classic Italian cologne. Top notes are bergamot, lemon, petitgrain, mandarin orange, mint and neroli, while middle notes are geranium, lavender and galbanum, giving way to a base of ambergris, musk and Haitian vetiver.

FLEUR DE PORTOFINO

BY TOM FORD PRIVATE BLEND The bottle is a dazzling Mediterranean blue, perfectly encapsulating this vibrant fragrance.

Its top note is a concoction of crisp, citrus essences while at its heart is an accord constructed around white acacia blossom. The drydown is structured around a delectable honey, exclusively made from the nectar of the acacia flower.

DRY WOOD

BY RAMÓN MONEGAL As the name suggests, Dry Wood is a pure nature scent, combining sandalwood and cedar with a texture of cashmere in a mist of amber molecules that create a forthright and sociable attitude. A deeply complex fragrance that’s anything but dry.

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PREP SCHOOL

BY JOANNE JIN

Tommy Hilfiger has learned a thing or two in his 30 years in the business

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OMMY HILFIGER, the brand, turns 30 this year — which is more than half the lifetime of its founder and namesake, Tommy Hilfiger. In that time, Hilfiger has created a global empire tagged in iconic red, white and blue, propagating a line of preppy all-American staples to runways and showrooms and offices and classrooms around the world. In fact, for a while there in the ’90s, it was almost too omnipresent. But the truth is, he’s still doing good work today — and he’s doing it all without any formal training in fashion design or business. All of which to say: if you care about your clothes, best to listen to this man’s advice.

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IT’S ALL BEEN DONE “Every successful designer is a redesigner. The pant is already invented.

A shirt, a skirt, a sweater, it was already invented. If you look at any fashion brands, there are very few new inventions. There are redesigns, from vintage or the classics, whether we’re talking about a pair of jeans or a gown.”

FRESH TAKES “I grew up wearing preppy clothes, but in my later years I thought they were boring. So I decided to redesign all of the classic, preppy clothing from my closet

and reinvent a new image and attitude around these clothes. At the time, I made everything relaxed, colourful, oversized, washed, with all sorts of detail and a bit of a sense of humour. Up until that point nothing like that existed. There were button-down shirts and chino pants, but they were normal. I didn’t want normal.

I wanted to make them hip and cool and fun and edgy.”

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT “I collect shirts. I have probably every shirt known to man. I’m a bit of a shirt fanatic. I’m always comparing our shirt

to everyone else’s and always trying to build a better one. They’re addictive.

The fit, the fabric, the color, everything about the shirt is perfect. That’s what I’ve been doing for 30 years — making our shirts perfect. ”

DRESS LIKE A MAN “Men shouldn’t be overly fashion conscious, but I think they should at least be aware of how they present themselves. One thing that bothers me is that a lot of men wear a T-shirt under a suit or a sports jacket, and that’s so ’80s.

It makes them look lazy.”

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CLASSIC ROCKS The enduring appeal of— excuse us—timeless design BY: ARIEL ADAMS PHOTOGRAPHY BY: ADRIAN ARMSTRONG WHAT IS A CLASSIC WATCH? It’s a big question. A classic watch looked good yesterday, looks good today and will look good tomorrow.

A classic watch illustrates the best practices of watchmaking, from design to mechanics. A classic watch is equally stylish on the wrist of almost any man, and in almost any situation, formal, professional or, heck, even casual. A classic watch isn’t conservative — it’s the most forward-thinking investment you can make in a timepiece. It should be your first major purchase, your longest-lasting standby, your go-to. It should be dependable, and in putting it on, should evoke that manliest of feelings: a sense of responsibility, commitment, patience. It should, in short, be one of these.

1

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3

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1. RAYMOND WEIL Two-tone watches in steel and gold present a unique blend of both class and humility — the gold is luxurious, the steel implies that you have a strong sense of self-worth. Raymond Weil offers gold-plated elements on this Freelancer model, which makes for a handsome, yet slightly less conservative, statement. AED 6,000

2. TUDOR Sometimes a classic watch isn’t for everyday wear. The Tudor Glamour is a black tie watch. Curved lunes add a decorative flair to what can sometimes be overly minimalistic designs, at least for some people’s tastes. AED 9,500

3. CHOPARD In the heart of Swiss watchmaking country, Chopard operates their venerable L.U.C production facility where the brand’s most elite timepieces are produced and handfinished. Broadly sized, this model in gold expresses classic style with the addition of some complicates for those who love mechanics as much as looking good. AED 81,000

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4. CARTIER The famed Cartier Tortue collection is quite literally named after its tortoise-style case, which combines a tonneau shape with distinct lugs.

There’s a French old-world, pre-war charm to the Tortue, which allows even new models to feel like a reminder of another age.

AED 65,000

5

5. TISSOT

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Because of their oftenuncomplicated design, high quality watches in this genre can be more accessible. Tissot adds a masculine sense of purpose to an extremely versatile classic dress watch in black and steel with a Swiss quartz movement. AED 1,000

6. GUESS This watch goes back to basics: a mostly minimalized dress watch with a classic silver dial, matched to a thin steel case and high-gloss brown leather strap. This is how a simple watch can become an indispensable fashion accessory. AED 320

7. MONTBLANC This is a modern approach to classic design. The steel band suggests a bit more style and edginess than such a design would otherwise evoke on a leather strap. The strong hands suggest purpose and importance.

AED 9,000 7

Wool coat (AED 3,500), suit (AED 2,900), cotton shirt (AED 570), silk tie ($185), pocket square (AED 150), leather belt (AED 450), leather shoes (AED 1,850) and leather bag (AED 6,100) by BOSS. Styling by Joanne Jin.

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THE ESSENTIAL COLLECTION

JO MALONE

IF YOU WANT TO BE COOL, YOU GOT TO SPORT THE LATEST TRENDS

Every season there is a scent that you need to follow, for this season its the New Jo Malone Mimosa & Cardamom Cologne. Mists of honeyed, golden mimosa oat above the spiciness of freshly crushed cardamom, Creamy tonka and smooth sandalwood woven under powdery heliotrope and Damask rose picked at dawn.

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SANTONI

The boots this season is a combination of a derbies and a boots.

For this season, Santoni brings the iconic double buckle and apply it to derby shoes as well as the composed yet transgressive boots and thedressy slip-ons, while metallic piping generate reflections on the fringes of the dandy brogue.

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PAL ZILERI

Sweaters are a major part of each season, and our must have is coming from PAL ZILERI, with colors that fit the season, which is Autumnal, discreet, with forays into the unexpected. This collection is innovative take on sartorial standards, with contemporary sensibilities, proportions and techniques executed by the hands of Italian craftsmen.

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VALENTINO

The Backpack, From Valentino’s latest collection, Valentino Garavani backpack in canvas camouflage with multi Camubutterfly embroidery detail, Ruthenium-finish studs, is by far the perfect item to have this fall, to make sure you’re on the right way and following the latest trends.

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DSQUARED

A slip on is always in-need especially on a weekend when you’re running errands, and what if its a colourful one like the one we selected from Dsquared, comes in Canvas Logo detail Multicolor Pattern Elasticized gores Rubber sole not made of fur Canvas Woven

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SANDRO

A Jacket is always in need during the Fall Season, and the must have comes from Sandro Fall Winter collection. In its Olive Green color that can be matched with any outfit, Sandro Fall winter draw the inspiration from the streets, and for this collection the designer wanted to further affirm the brand’s urban anchoring.

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OWN THE T NIGHT There’s only so much you can get done when you’re asleep. Why not use that time to be more handsome?

HE MORNING GETS all the glory when it comes to grooming. The shaving, the moisturising, the fragrance selection and application. The sleepy-eyecrust removal. But you have a washroom routine before bed, too. Men should use that time to help their skin look healthier and younger. Getting a good night’s sleep is essential, but you can make that downtime even more effective with these.

YOU DON’T ALWAYS GET THE SLEEP YOU SHOULD. THESE EYE CREAMS ARE THE SECRET WEAPON AGAINST THE RAVAGES OF LAST NIGHT:

AINHOA EYE SOOTHER CREAM AED 150

D.R. Harris Crystal Eye gel AED 55

BODY FUEL ALL-IN-ONE ENERGIZING WASH Valuing simplicity and efficacy, men seek products that maximise benefits and reduce their time in the shower, without compromising on quality. In fact, 78 percent of men agree that they prefer a routine that is as simple as possible. Introducing Kiehl’s new wash – a sulfate-free, silicone-free and paraben-free formula that effectively cleanses hair and body in a foaming lather, providing a head-to-toe solution that is designed to leave men feeling energised.

UNCLE PETER’S MAN DOUBLE DUTY SOLDIER SCRUB

PROFILE LIFT ANTI-GRAVITY MOISTURIZER

It starts with a good face wash, and before you go to bed is the best time to exfoliate to get rid of the oil, dirt and dead skin you build up throughout the day. Packed with natural ingredients, this tough scrub will leave you smelling fresh (a bonus before bed) and get rid of the day’s nastiness with its mixture of brown rice, cane sugar, hempseed oil and jojoba oil. AED 70

If Rob Lowe’s eternally youthful skin wasn’t enough to convince you that his new line of skin care products are legit, then at least trust that the cocktail of natural ingredients in this anti-aging cream will help you look younger right now.

The man obviously takes care of his skin – only makes sense to have him help take care of yours, too.

AED 150

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NICKEL EYE CONTOUR LIFT AED 90

THE TRAVEL

BUG Here’s how to travel in style, thanks to a car legend

T

he travel design company, TUMI, and the popular car icon, MINI, have joined hands to create an exclusive licensed line of travel bags and accessories customised to complement the look and feel of this automotive brand.

This bold new collection of seven travel and two accessory silhouettes merges vibrant colour accents with TUMI’s signature texture and technical innovation.

Designed in America for Global Citizens who favour the road less travelled, MINI by TUMI utilise the colours and prints signature to MINI: black-volcanic orange racing stripes and black-deep blue Union Jack flag; the lining of every bag is embossed with the car’s distinguished grill pattern.

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This season, knitwear has unquestionably dominated the runways. It’s everywhere you look and that old classic, the Turtleneck, appears to have made a triumphant return to the fore. The key when it comes to styling is to layer things up with the right shirt and a complementing coat. There are plenty of diverse examples to choose from, like shading squares and fun prints. There’s some shrewd styling going on, too, that adds just the right amount of visual bulk.

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TREND REPORT

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TREND REPORT

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For Fall and Winter there is a splendid scope of packs, including exquisite specialist bags, clutch backpacks and cross body packs.

Among all the staggering outlines, there is an overwhelmingly boyish vibe that grabs attention and a great deal of fun to be had when choosing the most striking examples. We think this pack pattern effectively portrays young men with incredible vitality and character.

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Wherever you look in the collections presented for this season, you can’t help but notice the king of all clothes: the coat.

Nothing on the runways comes close to grabbing as much attention and, whether single- or double-breasted, we consider it the most relevant item of the season, in whatever fabric and structure it comes in. Layer it up or just throw it on your shoulders, and you’re ready to go.

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TREND REPORT

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TREND REPORT

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Something different for the Fall and Winter season, embroidery for men is making its presence felt in the form of accessories that bring a touch of flair to other items in your wardrobe, adding an undeniable element of luxury.

Embroidery is all about handcrafting, which makes these items more desirable – an important element to take into consideration while shopping for the upcoming season if you prefer to be up to date and on trend.

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DENIM ON TOP The always-classic jean jacket easily works on its own, but is also a great layering piece for when the temperature drops – throw it on under a blazer or winter jacket and you’ve got yourself the perfect base layer.

Now that’s really suave.

Cotton denim jacket (AED 670) by Fidelity; wool-nylon blend double-breasted coat (AED 1,950) by Michael Kors; T-shirt (AED 170) by adidas.

THE SHARP GUIDE TO

DENIM

BY MATTHEW BIEHL • PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATHEW GUIDO • STYLING BY MARK JOHN TRIPP 92 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

JEANS: you wear them with everything.

Now it’s time to wear them with everything else.

Welcome to the definitive guide to your born-again wardrobe staple THERE’S A REASON JEANS HAVE NEVER REALLY FALLEN OUT OF FAVOUR.

FANCY PANTS More of a chino guy? Then consider the trouser cut jean. They trade in the traditional five pockets and do away with contrast stitching and any embellishment. You can even crease them if you want.

(Though they’re still denim, so we don’t recommend it.)

Cotton denim pants (AED 1,600) and linen shirt (AED 550) by John Varvatos; cotton shirt (AED 775) by Paige; leather sneakers (AED 850) by Tiger of Sweden; sterling silver and bead bracelet (AED 750) and leather and metal bracelet (AED 950) by Thomas Sabo.

They’re rugged. They’re versatile. They’re a working man’s pant and, dammit, they just plain work. Your closet isn’t just full of them — it’s built on them. You might have a pair for every day of the week. You might just have one pair, worn and creased and threadbare, a single seasonless, trendless cut and finish that goes with everything because, well, you make it go with everything.

And that’s exactly what’s new again in the world of denim — we’re back to basics, skinny jeans be damned. So yes, they’re jeans, we know you know what you’re doing.

But consider this a reeducation. A renewal of vows. Get into it.

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THE SHARP GUIDE TO DENIM

DOUBLE DENIM It’s time to finally, fully, completely embrace the Canadian Tuxedo.

Pairing a rugged denim work shirt or soft chambray shirt with your favourite pair of jeans is both undeniably patriotic and undeniably stylish. Just keep the colour and wash different between each piece.

Wool cardigan (AED 1,750) by Ami; cotton chambray shirt (AED 450) by Fidelity; cotton denim pants (AED 780) by Paige; leather boots (AED 500) by Timberland; leather and stainless steel bracelet (AED 110) and stainless steel bracelet (AED 150) by Vitaly.

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Pick a Pair From dark to light, roughed up to crisp and clean, here’s some of the best denim in stores this fall:

DIESEL (AED 900)

NUDIE JEANS (AED 650)

DIOR HOMME (AED 2,200)

J.CREW (AED 350)

34 HERITAGE (AED 550)

G-STAR (AED 970)

7 FOR ALL MANKIND (AED 800)

H&M (AED 170)

CUFF ’EM Summer may be over and bare ankles socked up, but that doesn’t mean you should stop cuffing your denim. Come on. Show off your boots a little.

JOE FRESH (AED 70)

Cotton turtleneck (AED 700) by Michael Kors; cotton denim pants (AED 450) by BOSS; leather shoes (AED 550) by Ecco.

CLUB MONACO (AED 750)

S ELVEDGE S HORTC UT Raw selvedge is the king of denim country. The rich indigo colour is unparalleled, the character of the weave makes it indestructible, and it’ll mould to fit you like a second skin – once you break them in. The one downside? How long, and sometimes uncomfortable, that damn break-in process is. Some brands have taken note and found ways to make it all a little more bearable. Naked & Famous and 7 For All Mankind have added a bit of stretch to some of their selvedge, while Nudie Jeans has gone and done all the work for you with their broken-in selvedge, inspired by the well-worn jeans customers sent in for repairs.

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R O O M T O MOV E Skinny has had a stranglehold on men’s fashion for the past few years – bad news for those who find it a little suffocating. Luckily, a spate of new athletic cut jeans – like Levi’s 541 Athletic Fit and Silver Jeans’ collaboration with José Bautista – strike an elegant balance of being relaxed without being shapeless, giving room at the waist and quads before tapering in.

On the Hunt Buying jeans used to be as easy as stopping at The Gap on your lunch break. With the rise of specialty denim comes the rise of specialty denim stores. Here are some of the best across the country:

BUZZ JEANS This Montreal shop focuses on premium labels like Nudie Jeans, 7 For All Mankind and Naked & Famous. It also has one of the best online stores in the group. B U Z Z J E A N S . C O M

DUTIL. This jeans-only store, stocks everything from classic Levi’s, to the socially conscious Kings of Indigo and the always cool rag & bone.

DUTILDENIM.COM

NIGHT OUT You can – and should – wear jeans at night, too. For going out on the town, try a pair that’s both dressy (dark wash, tailored fit) with a bit of fading and distressing (just no tears or crazy metal details…ever). Pair with some tailored pieces up top – a vest, button-up and a tie are a good start.

Button-up shirt (AED 650), wool vest (AED 550) and wool tie (AED 270) by 18 Waits; cotton-polyester denim pants (AED 980) by Denham; leather and metal belt (AED 300) by Brave; Cape Cod Watch (AED 14,500) by Hermès.

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RCHMND Halifax’s RCHMND has a tightly edited offering, with brands like A.P.C. and Acne, giving the store a very distinct, modern aesthetic. RCHMNDSHOP.COM

RCHMND / MEGHAN TANSEY WHITTON; BLUE BUTTON / KIARASH SADIGH

BLUE BUTTON SHOP Purveyors of the very best in Japanese clothing, Toronto’s Blue Button offers some of the country’s hardest-to-find brands like Sugar Cane, or Slow and Japan Blue. B L U E B U T T O N S H O P. C O M

ALL DRESSED UP A dark, uniform wash is still king whenever you want to pair your jeans with a dress shirt and blazer. Keep the jeans as fitted as the tailoring up top so you look polished and pulled together.

RCHMND / MEGHAN TANSEY WHITTON; BLUE BUTTON / KIARASH SADIGH

Wool blazer (AED 17,000), button-up shirt (AED 1,700) and cotton handkerchief (AED 400)

by Hermès; cotton denim pants (AED 630) by Michael Kors; leather braided belt (AED 550)

by Anderson’s.

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THE SHARP GUIDE TO DENIM

WEEKEND WEAR You get to relax on the weekend, so let your jeans do the same. Light washes are fine – the softer and more comfortable the better – just make sure they’re cut well and fit properly, so you don’t risk looking like AC Slater.

Jacket (AED 375) by Nautica; cotton crewneck sweater (AED 300) by adidas; denim pants (AED 650) by Fidelity; stainless steel glasses (AED 770) by ÖGA.

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Let Him Be Frank With You

WHAT INSPIRED AN UPDATE OF J.CREW'S DENIM LINE, AND WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHANGES? Denim is such an American staple. I feel like if I wear a pair of jeans, I wear a piece of American history. We thought this was just a great opportunity to really go out and make a bigger deal of it than we ever have.

We tweaked our different fits – they’re a little slimmer, so that’s the modern aspect of it, but the whole overall look is still rooted in American history and has a classic feel.

Though we’re using only Japanese denim now, which is very exciting.

WHY ONLY JAPANESE DENIM? Japanese denim is the best in the world. The mills work with superior materials and dyes, the yarn spinning, the narrow looms – they’re very meticulous and particular in how things are done.

WHAT MAKES FOR A GOOD, MODERN PAIR OF JEANS? To me, it boils down to the fit, wash, fabric and the proportions. Also, when you try it on it just needs to feel comfortable. I love J.Crew’s classic jean. Our fit is a little tapered, the rise is a little lower and it’s a very user-friendly. And they fit amazing. I always like when I wear a pair of jeans and it changes your posture. It’s very important that there are no bells and whistles.

You want proof that denim should be taken seriously? Just look at J.Crew. Actually, it’s always a good idea to look at J.Crew, but this season especially as they completely overhaul their men’s line for fall. We spoke to Frank Muytjens, Head of Men’s Design, who walked us through the changes, what makes the perfect pair of jeans and his undying love for all things classic Americana, especially denim.

YOU’VE ALSO UPDATED THE WALLACE & BARNES DENIM LINE. HOW DOES THAT DIFFER FROM THE MAIN LINE? We always look at military-inspired influences and army surplus stores and we always love that the details on those garments are all functional. Wallace & Barnes is our homage to those items. It’s a little bit more rustic. We use nicer fabrics, nicer washes, things done by hand and it’s a little bit scarce. You do have a feeling like they’re something special.

HOW BIG OF A ROLE DOES DENIM PLAY IN YOUR WARDROBE? I always like my jeans classic. I wear them unwashed, raw, so I break them in myself.

That whole process of breaking in a pair of jeans: earning the whiskers and earning the fading. They mould around your body and they become almost like your fingerprint.

That always fascinates me. I love wearing a whole denim look, like a denim shirt with a denim jean. I roll the cuff so you can see a bit of ankle, which I think is becoming one of J.Crew’s signatures as well. I have so many chambray shirts I can’t even put them in my closet anymore and I still feel like I need more.

I like to wear a denim uniform but I also like to wear a beautiful cashmere navy sweater or a sport coat with a pair of sneakers or old, scuffed up military boots. You really can’t go wrong.

TAK E CARE First rule of washing good denim: don’t wash it too much.

Jeans – whether in raw selvedge or stretchy pre-washed denim – are meant to be roughed up. The more wear and tear, the more character, the better. But they’re pants. They’ll get dirty, and they’ll need some buffing up. Here are a few tips.

FREE ZE THEM That’ll help kill bacteria and odour without losing the colour and character you’ve painstakingly given them.

SPOT CLEAN Use a cloth and lukewarm water to dab at spills and stains.

Avoid soap as it could mess with the colour.

And don’t scrub, which can make the stain set in deeper.

GO GENTLE If a full wash is unavoidable (and, quite honestly, we recommend one at some point in the life of your jeans), then just make sure to take it easy. Use a gentle cycle in cold water, and only a little detergent. And whatever you do, don’t put them in the dryer.

Grooming: Aniya Nandy for Arbonne International / Plutino Group Photo Assistant: Peter Andrew

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jG L

BY PETER SALTSMAN • PHOTO BY KAI Z FENG

KING OF POP CULTURE

He’s an old-school movie star. A writer. A director. And the man behind an online production company that’s changing the way we consume media. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the future — and he’s loving every minute of it

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IT’S A DANGEROUS RHETORICAL proposition to equate a child actor’s current celebrity status and cultural relevancy with the character they played on a decades-old television show. How would that distinctly magazine-profile logic be applied to, say, Miley Cyrus or Jonathan Taylor Thomas or Ron Howard? How tenuous would be the lessons learned? Or worse, what would those lessons say about us?

And yet, in the case of Joseph

Gordon-Levitt, the comparison not only seems true, but almost inevitable, as though the only way to make sense of him — as an actor, as an intellect, as a man — is to consider his 15-year-old self.

That’s when he starred in 3rd Rock From the Sun, the high-concept NBC sitcom about a group of extraterrestrial explorers who come to Earth to study our mysterious homo sapien ways.

Gordon-Levitt played Tommy, an old man (alien) trapped in the body of a (human) teenager. This is how he was introduced to tens of millions of viewers, as a deeper, ironic thing tucked insidiously inside another seemingly innocent thing. It goes without saying that Gordon-Levitt nailed the role, because, really, it was the role he was born to play. He was, and is, and has always been somewhat out of time — an old soul in a young man’s body, a star outside his generation, a living, breathing nostalgia trip in and of himself.

Think about the man as he is today.

He’s known for his boyish good looks (he’s 34) and easygoing smile, his lackadaisical California coolness, that special unnerving feeling certain celebrities can channel that makes them feel both totally approachable and totally otherworldly — there’s a bit of Rat Pack in him, a bit of guys like Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant or George Clooney. They’re there in the way he talks, with a deep, ancient voice, and the way he moves, fluid and

confident, and the way he understands the intricacies of the profession and its strenuous demands, from performing to the arduous task of sitting at home on a hot Los Angeles afternoon making work calls.

WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO SAY ABOUT Gordon-Levitt’s childhood? He grew up in Hollywood, the son of two journalists-turned-lefty political types who introduced him to acting long before his 10th birthday. And the rest of it? We watched it unfold, through various hairstyles and adolescent voice changes, for six seasons on a hit TV show. We saw him evolve from fringe-character cuteness to leading role handsomeness. We saw him dodge interview questions and, at least in front of the late show cameras, act refreshingly his age. (“When I was younger, I pretty violently hated that part of my job,” he says, speaking of his early interactions with the press — and if you don’t believe him, search out early appearances on Conan or Jon Stewart, where he isn’t just uncomfortable, but downright pugnacious.) And we saw him quitting acting to study literature at Columbia, then quitting college for acting again — by no means the more familiar path for child actors (that would be powering through, flaming out, becoming a punchline), but definitely the more successful.

LEFT TO RIGHT: ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD (1994); 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN (1996-2001); 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU (1999); BRICK (2005); THE LOOKOUT (2007); (500) DAYS OF SUMMER (2009); INCEPTION (2010); 50/50 (2011); THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012); LOOPER (2012); DON JON (2013)

What he did then, in his early 20s, is the surprising part. Or maybe not so surprising, considering we’re talking about Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who has gone to great pains to avoid falling into any particular kind of Hollywood mould.

Either way, it involves the Internet.

Perhaps more than any other celebrity right now — more than Ashton Kutcher and his Silicon Valley investment streak,

more than Will Ferrell and his Funny or Die! empire — Joseph Gordon-Levitt understands the power of the Internet.

“I guess I’m an optimist,” he says.

“There are plenty of possible pitfalls.

But the Internet has the power to bring the human race together in a way it’s never come together before. I find that beautiful. But it’s up to us to decide how to use it.”

To that end, Gordon-Levitt is the co-founder, along with his late brother Dan, of hitRECord, a television show, production company and online community of artists that encourages collaborative creation. Members can upload a story they’ve written, or are in the process of writing, only to have an illustrator somewhere else — maybe even in another country — pick it up and SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 SHARP MIDDLE EAST 103

illustrate it. Or vise versa. Or a whole group of people might contribute to a short screenplay, and then film it, and then score it, and then have produced a completed movie. Or Joe himself might star in it with one of his famous friends, like the videos he’s done with Parks and Recreation’s Ben Schwartz or Zooey Deschanel. And they do it all for real — they show at film festivals, record actual vinyl albums, produce a legitimate TV show, and if any money is made, it’s distributed accordingly.

“HitRECord started as a symbol, a mantra I’d repeat to myself through my early 20s,” he says. That was the period when he returned to acting, and when he was finding it hard to get the kind of work he wanted. “My whole life, other people had been rolling the camera, but I wanted to be the one pushing the record button. So I started making little videos, and I found it enormously fulfilling.”

The idea snowballed. GordonLevitt started putting those videos up on a website he and Dan built, and a community began forming around them — a community that wanted to participate in the creative activity, not just consume it. He opened up the platform to allow that to happen, brought in a few new partners, started figuring out how to make these things real, moneymaking ventures, which culminated last year in an Emmy

It can be a way for people to come together and understand each other, and make each other laugh and make each other sing. It doesn’t have to be so transactional. We don’t have to use technology to do the same things we always did nomination for the televised version, “A New Kind of Variety Show,” according to its tagline.

“I really think the media can be something that doesn’t just create isolated couch-potato behaviour,” he says. “It can be a way for people to come together and understand each other, and make each other laugh and make each other sing. It doesn’t have to be so transactional. We don’t have to use technology to do the same things we always did.”

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At hitRECord, Gordon-Levitt makes a point of doing things differently. And he does so by attempting to straddle two very different roles. On the one hand, there’s his persona as creative facilitator and fun-loving television host, an endlessly youthful and exuberant figure who’s both tech-savvy and creatively confident. And then, in the online forums he hosts weekly and the written treatises he posts to his Facebook page, there’s the strong, down-to-earth

businessman, a company co-founder and, possibly, Silicon Valley-style visionary. The unifying factor: both parts of him want to make cool stuff. At the end of the day, it’s all about the work.

LUCKILY, JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT is good at his job. His yearning to do good work — work that’s totally off-the-wall and totally his own — has led him down some pretty formidable paths, even within the confines of traditional Hollywood movie-making. He favours directors with a collaborative spirit and with something to say because, as he puts it, “the medium of movies belongs to the director. Whenever I’ve had the opportunity to work with a director I admire, I’ve jumped at the chance.” That list includes Rian Johnson (Looper), Christopher Nolan (Inception) and Stephen Spielberg (Lincoln). And it includes himself, with 2013’s Don Jon, a movie about love and porn addiction that he wrote, directed and starred in.

For an even clearer picture, look at Gordon-Levitt’s slated big-screen releases for the rest of 2015. First,

there’s The Walk, a Robert Zemeckisdirected 3-D blockbuster about Philippe Petit, the man who famously tight-roped between the World Trade Center’s twin towers in 1974. Then there’s Snowden, an Oliver Stonedirected biopic of the infamous whistleblower Edward Snowden. And then there’s The Night Before, an Evan Goldberg-written, Jonathan Levinedirected stoner comedy co-starring Seth Rogen and Anthony Mackie, about a group of dudes who get into trouble on the night before Christmas.

There it all is, laid out in advancesale ticket stubs: a trilogy of movies so disparate in tone, style and perceived audience it’s hard to believe they have any unifying presence. They’re a trio of movies that showcase GordonLevitt’s unique ageless quality, his unnerving blend of borderline camp big-Hollywood nostalgia (The Walk), old man seriousness (Snowden) and boyish slacker charm (The Night Before). These are the tenets of a modern movie star — the three pillars upon which fame can be not only achieved, but kindly so.

Or put another way: Joseph GordonLevitt makes being a movie star look

IN THE MOVIE THE WALK (2015) WITH CHARLOTTE LE BON OPPOSITE PAGE: GORDON-LEVITT IN SNOWDEN (2015)

so easy. Yes, it’s tru true, the man has des o ice, had almost three decades of practice, merc nce h having been in commercials since he daD was six and havingg aanchored Disney feature, Angels in the Outfield Outfield, at 13. nu But he also seems to genuinely espouse the one intangible thing audiences are looking for, and that other actors seem desperately trying to fake: “I love my job,” he says, emphasising the word love just barely, just in that way that only people telling the truth can do. He might be a quiet guy, a thinker, a serious man.

But he’s doing the work he wants to do.

And he’s having a good time doing it.

Where his contemporaries might feel compelled to spend off nights playing games with Jimmy Fallon — a curse under which he’s not immune, having helped propel Lip Sync Battle into the mainstream with his renditions of Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” and Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” — Gordon-Levitt comes by that all-business-all-fun dichotomy naturally. He’s already see-through, already known, already old and young, self-serious and self-effacing.

“I DON’T THINK THE FUTURE IS ANY ONE thing,” say Gordon-Levitt. He’s talking about the future of media, denying the idea that sites like hitRECord will be the only way people consume cultural products five or 10 or 25 years from now. And maybe he’s right about that, but only by default. He is, after all, a guy building a quiet online empire for collaboration and creation, while also pursuing an acting career that, as it stands, has him as one of the biggest stars — action, comedy, romantic or otherwise — in the world right now. So excuse us for believing that if the future of Hollywood was anything — any one thing — it might not be Joseph GordonLevitt, but it is fully in his hands. Which is a good thing, since he has that singular talent for holding many disparate things together. It’s like we said: he’s a deeper, ironic thing tucked insidiously inside a seemingly innocent thing. He’s a writer and director inside an actor, a disrupter insider a rule follower, an old soul inside a young man’s body. He’s timeless, in the truest sense of the word: reverent of the past, concerned with the future and, more than anything, just plain killing it in the here and now. Take it from him: “It’s an incredible time to be alive.”

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THE ART OF

COACHING IN A GAME OF WORD ASSOCIATION, WHAT MIGHT BE THE FIRST THING THAT SPRINGS TO MIND WHEN ‘COACH’ IS UTTERED? FOR SOME IT COULD BE A LARGE BUS, A LUXURIOUS SOFT LEATHER BAG, AN ECONOMY CLASS PLANE SEAT OR, PERHAPS, SOMEONE WHO TEACHES OTHERS A SPORT. FOR OTHERS STILL, THAT WORD WILL CONJURE IMAGES OF INVIGORATING LIFE-CHANGING PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE WORKPLACE, AT HOME OR WITHIN INTER-HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS.

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C

oaching, as a profession, is something that can bring untold benefits to individuals and companies alike. In our personal lives it can help even the most troubled souls to discover the joys of positivity, to see their worth. It has turned around the lives of countless people, many of whom have been on the verge (or in the middle) of a nervous breakdown. It has saved marriages, friendships, even lives.

In the corporate world the effects can be even more tangible – something not lost on husband and wife duo, Johan and Gonan Premfors, who really spearheaded the practice in the UAE especially, at a time when a few in the community really knew about its benefits. For the Premfors, coaching has become an intrinsic part of everyday life and they’ve turned it into an extremely lucrative business that now straddles the globe but before we look at their story, perhaps we should look at the real world benefits of coaching in the workplace.

Many companies and corporations experience unsustainable levels of staff turnover – their workforces disillusioned to the point that they don’t hang around for very long. The constant refilling of positions and the retraining that is often required for new recruits has a hugely detrimental effect on the bottom line. If they could only hang onto more staff for longer, the benefits would be incredibly far-reaching but many organisations either don’t realise there is a problem until it is too late, or they have no idea how to tackle it and turn things around. And this is where coaching in the workplace can help enormously, in more ways than one might imagine.

Coaching and mentoring aren’t really the same thing. Mentoring tends to be the enabling of an individual to gain knowledge and understanding from following in the path of someone older and more experienced, while coaching isn’t necessarily performed by someone with direct experience in the skills of the person being coached.

It is more of a general application of skills to help someone make the right choices pertinent to their personal circumstances.

In the modern workplace, with constant organisational development, fluctuations brought about by mergers and acquisitions, as well as the need to provide employees with support through a change of career or role within a company are often the catalysts that cause companies to seek coaching or mentoring – and it’s no longer the preserve of senior management.

Indeed, coaching is often closely linked with organisational change initiatives in order to help staff adapt to changes in a manner consistent with their personal values and goals – it helps everyone in the long run, providing motivation which in turn usually increases productivity, while reducing staff turnover.

Though they are still necessary, traditional employee development programmes, aren’t sufficient these days to meet the talent needs of many organisations. The most effective companies nowadays have radically shifted their focus and rewired the way their staff view themselves and engage with others, providing opportunities for them to really give their best. Happy staff, happy company – it makes brilliant business sense to have no more ‘square pegs in round holes’. w w w w w When Sharp Middle East caught up with Johan and Gonan Premfors in their hometown of Pebble Beach in northern California, their almost evangelical zeal for the benefits of coach in all aspects of life was quite contagious. For years they busied themselves in Dubai, taking this new way of corporate thinking to companies that had internationally

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recognised brand names but often a very localised and narrow view on how things get done.

The two met when they both worked for the same company in Dubai’s cutthroat banking industry and, like many couples, their work kept them from really enjoying their lives. Johan had moved to American banking giant Merrill Lynch and while he was there he was offered another high-flying bank job but, while his head was all for it, his heart seemingly was elsewhere.

“We had no money,” he says. “We were in debt, like so many other people, credit cards and all the rest, but I realised it wasn’t the only option. I realised that I could actually say no, even though I didn’t have a job, and that was a pivotal moment for me.”

The cut and thrust of the financial sector had ceased to have a hold on him and Johan ended up finding his equilibrium in entrepreneurship and a string of successful start-ups including companies in technology and telecommunications. Johan eventually suggested to his wife that she go into coaching as, she admits, it was suited to her particular skill sets. In 2004, she headed to London to complete her first training course with the Coaches Training Institute and, “after the second or third course,” she says, “my business mind started to kick in.”

The Coaches Training Institute (CTI) is a California-based organisation founded in 1992 and today it is a global empire, offering courses across Europe, America and Japan, with all courses accredited by the International Coach Federation.

CTI has worked with more than 20,000 people worldwide and the Premfors brought it to the Middle East, eventually establishing a new business culture by training like-minded individuals in the art of coaching.

Every time she went home after going through another CTI course she found she was experiencing a shift. “I was beginning to understand my own values, vivid changes were occurring,” Gonan says. And it was something that didn’t go unnoticed by her husband who admits to feeling slightly unnerved by the transitions she was going through.

Soon enough Johan threw in his lot with Gonan, who had began to forge a career away from the banking industry (which they both viewed as rather ‘soul destroying’) as a coaching trainer in Dubai. “It was a rewarding and fulfilling thing to do, for a change,” offers Johan.

“In the beginning it was hard,” admits Gonan. “Nobody in the region knew what coaching was, so I had to spend a lot of time going into organisations, sitting with their HR departments and talking about the benefits they could get from doing this. We began to educate the entire region and, after a couple of years, business really began to take off.

We never advertised, it was purely by reputation – we got results.

“We started coaching company executives and came to see that people, who might have had what looked like the perfect job, perfect life, were still not satisfied. So there was a further opportunity – to take these life skills we were promoting and applying through corporate coaching and put them in the

family units. That way the children in a family could grow up with the right outlook on life and work, avoiding many of the problems faced by adults.” w w w w w Coaching became little more than the entry point, then, and the Premfors’ business rapidly evolved.

In 2007, Gonan started a parenting methodology, which is now known as Gozamm, “taking what we have learned through coaching to families around the world.” It’s at this point in our discussion that the Premfors become really enthusiastic, as this way of improving the lot in life for people all around the world is what

GONAN (LEFT) AND JOHAN PREMFORS: DEDICATED TO COACHING, TRAINING AND HELPING INDIVIDUALS ACHIEVE A BETTER PLACE IN LIFE

has brought them the most personal satisfaction.

“With Gozamm,” says Gonan, “we create experiences, so that when people go through them, they will see the world in a completely different light.

This experience can have a profound positive impact on peoples’ lives and relationships. Every family and every company has its own unique culture and, we will never tell you what to do.

Instead, the philosophical shift you experience will help create new options and different choices can be made. Life is not determined by the past, nor some obscure moment in the future.”

The Gozamm business has its roots in making things right at home, which then in turn brings benefits to every other sphere of life, including the workplace, naturally. Its first ‘parentology’ workshop took place in Dubai in 2009 and, three years later, it was established in California – hence the move to Pebble Beach. The Premfors still own and run their Dubai-based CTI business and manage to spend a lot of time in the Gulf, despite their monumental commitments all over the world. And yet, even with this seemingly colossal workload, they say their lives have never been better nor more fulfilled.

“I got my wife back,” says Johan, “and our daughter got her parents back.”

As our lives become ever more stressed and complicated in these constantly connected times, it might all get too much at times – that feeling of desperation, that desire to unplug and run away from it all. Yet talking to these vivacious and evidently muchin-love people, even for just a couple of hours, is enough to make you realise that by applying certain criteria to your personal, family and work life, a precious balance can be achieved.

Coaching, training and helping individuals achieve a better place in life has evidently given the Premfors an extremely enviable lifestyle – the cars, the houses, the trappings of a successful modern career in a number of different businesses – yet they are passionate about giving this education away for free, too, to those most in need.

This is another chapter that’s opening right now, with the couple rolling out online programmes that will be available without charge to those who can least afford it financially but who would benefit the most. They’re that kind of people; the kind to restore your faith in humanity and, quite possibly help reboot your entire life.

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JUST BREATHE Why the simplest things in life are often the hardest — and most important

BY SHAUGHNESSY BISHOP-STALL • ILLUSTRATION BY EVAN KAMINSKY

“

Y

OUR CAN IS OPEN,” says Dr. Grimmett as he finishes his examination.

I can’t help but look down, as if I’d forgotten that I brought a drink into his office, or didn’t do up my zipper.

“The abdomen is like a cylindrical can,” he continues, as if holding one in his hands. “And the diaphragm is the lid, flattening down to keep it closed. This helps maintain stability and strength. But yours is...”

“My can is open,” I say.

He nods, smiling. I’ve known Dr. Grimmett for a very long time. He’s a good, smart guy and an awesome chiropractor. His unique understanding and careful practice of Active Release Therapy has got my family through a myriad of accidents and injuries. And the man never stops learning. Apparently these days he’s been learning about cans.

110 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

“So, what does that mean?”

“Well, when a can is open, it loses its inside rigour, it can easily collapse under pressure and then more air escapes, more energy. It makes all your core functions more difficult.”

“So what do I do?”

“You need to learn how to breathe.”

I’d planned on writing a column about learning to box again, and teaching my kid how to fight. But for that I needed to get back in shape, and when I tried, I got pounding headaches — which is why I came here. But somehow what he’s saying makes sense; the truth is, I’ve felt unable to breathe for a while now.

Over the past few months I’d broken up with my girlfriend, quit my teaching job at the university, moved across the country into my parents’ home with my son parttime, then accidentally flooded their home with an errantly flushed toilet and had to move with them into a hotel due to contamination; in those same few days the family dog died of a sudden cancer, then the cat, leaving my parents grief-stricken as well as homeless. Meanwhile, I have a deadline for a book that refuses to write itself, the guy who subletted my apartment back in Toronto hasn’t paid his rent, so I’m facing eviction there, too, and now my boy’s mum wants to move from this city of flood and family back to

“I AM LOSING THE RIGOUR INSIDE ME. I AM COLLAPSING UNDER THE PRESSURE. AND I DON’T KNOW HOW TO BREATHE.”

that one of heartbreak and burned bridges. The boxing, I think, was supposed to help with the stress. But I am losing the rigour inside me. I am collapsing under the pressure.

And I don’t know how to breathe.

“You’re not alone,” says Dr. Grimmett. “About 70 per cent of people don’t breathe properly.

We can do it at birth, but then we unlearn it. We become shallowbreathers, chest breathers. Some of that’s from sucking in your gut, or from bad posture. Posture and proper breathing are essential to a strong core. It’s where all your focused power comes from. Think of Bruce Lee; it’s what gave him that four-inch punch.”

Who hasn’t coveted that punch?

But Bruce Lee feels a long way off and maybe the doctor can sense it.

“Breathing is essential if you want to relieve stress and pain,” he says.

“I do,” I say.

“How old is your son again?”

“Zev is five.”

“He probably knows how to breathe,” says Dr. Grimmett. “You should watch him.” uring the next week I watch my boy breathe, and he watches me doing my breathing exercises and laughs at me. The exercises involve me sitting in front of a mirror with my shirt off and a red ribbon tied around my unstable core. When I breathe in, it is my bow-tied belly

D

that is supposed to expand, not my chest.

The following week, I do a version of this, shirt on, in the driver’s seat of my parents’ car, my palms pressed against the wheel, to make sure my collarbone doesn’t rise.

Zev continues to laugh, even as he squirms to get out of the parked car.

Also, a few times a day, I press my tongue firmly against the roof of my mouth and hold it there for a count of 10. This is all to train me how to do what my cackling monkey of a son can supposedly do just perfectly, as easy as breathing....

I ask Zev if he wants to come with me to the doctor who’s making me do these things. He seems a bit sceptical until I tell him about the importance of breathing for the Bruce Lee power punch. “And anyway,” I say, “the doctor thinks you’re already an expert — just by being a kid.”

“At power punching?”

“No, breathing.” Zev does a quick little hyperventilation, puffing out his chest instead of his core.

“

uh,” says Dr. Grimmett, looking down at big little Zev who is standing shirtless before him, breathing in and out. “His pop can’s a little bit open. He points to the lines on his back and shoulders. “You see this? The two sides are uneven.”

The kid’s a firecracker, but also a bit of a sloucher. His back is slightly curved... and yes, a bit lopsided.

H

“Why is that?” I say.

“Maybe he didn’t crawl enough as a baby, or roll over enough. A lot of the time that’s because they’re being helped too much by the parents.”

“Hmm...” I say, trying to compute the variables of such a slight accusation.

“Be tall!” says Dr. Grimmett. And both Zev and I straighten right up.

“You see that? How he corrects himself perfectly!”

I thought I’d done pretty well too, but Zev is beaming.

“Just do that for now,” says Dr. Grimmett. “Keep reminding him.

We’ll get him back to a stage he sort of missed: make that core nice and strong — get him thinking of being tall.”

“I am tall,” says Zev. “Yes,” says Dr. Grimmett. “But you have to remember it.”

“And daddy, too?”

“Absolutely. You two should get in the habit of reminding each other. It’ll help you breathe properly.”

“And power punch?”

“And power punch, and everything else.”

Zev turns to me quickly. “Be tall, Daddy!” he says.

“Be tall, Zevvy!” I say.

We keep reminding each other as we walk out of the building. We’re trying to breathe, our bellies out and our heads held high.

But it’s hard to do while laughing.

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00SHARP 112 SHARPMIDDLE MIDDLEEAST EASTSEPTEMBER/OCTOBER JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 2015

D N A T N A S I U F E O I D , R P A E L I DE H Y L R E UTT

Y IS D E M O C ORLD P U D N A SS THE W T S F O EER ACT ACRO N O I P ST’S REAKING A E E L DD ROUNDB I M E H T IS G H MZ I G A N H I K N TA AA

BY M

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I

t is easy to say you want to be the greatest. But it takes plenty of guts to declare it to the world. Before he had held any world boxing titles, Muhammad Ali would bluntly – and loudly – voice his ambitions: “I am the greatest.”

Then he won his first world heavyweight championship in 1964. Ali had guts – not just for taking the punches – but for rising up after every fall, to eventually beat the odds and become arguably one of the greatest boxers that ever lived.

Like Ali in his heyday, Nemr Abou Nassar – who now goes by the stage name Nemr – is determined to conquer his dreams of becoming recognised among the greatest stand-up comedians. He’s endured countless heckles, criticisms and even lifethreatening situations, but he did not let any of those get in the way of his determination to make it to the top.

Instead, he found his own way to laugh it off – with the crowd.

Nemr is credited for pioneering the stand-up comedy scene in the Middle East. He launched his career in Lebanon while still at university in 2001, doing stand-up gigs in pubs and popular hangouts. At the time, your typical stand-up comedian – as defined by Western standards – was unquestionably absent in the Middle East, although the region is no short of mediocre slapstick comics and political humourists who regularly stage theatrical performances. Yet Nemr made a conscious decision to quit his prospective family business for the pursuit of a career in stand-up comedy – his parents became really concerned. It was a bold move indeed, and it took a lot of guts to do it.

“When I first started, I would get those cigar-smoking stereotypes coming to my shows and they would

heckle continuously. They would be talking loudly and being disrespectful during my shows and you couldn’t get them to shut up. How would you shut up a guy with a gun in his car? Or to shut up a guy who’s waiting for you to shut him up so he would forcefully shut you down to look cool in front of his friends,” Nemr says.

Any artist at the start of his career is likely to face ruthless critics.

In Nemr’s case, the jeerers came in different character-types. But being quick-witted and articulate, Nemr quickly adapted and learned to transform the provocations into comic relief.

“You got to be able to turn around such aggravating situations by shutting up the hecklers and not disrespecting them. Lebanon taught me how to deal with hecklers better than anywhere else. It’s a craft,” he says.

Anyone who is close to Nemr will tell you his sense of speech is his greatest gift. Sit him among a group of friends and he would instantly be the focal point around the table.

Get him in a theatre hall packed

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“IN WAR, I EXPERIENCED PEACE. IN THE DESTRUCTION, I FOUND PURPOSE. AND IN THE END, I FOUND MYSELF.

with a thousand people and he’ll move them with his clever sense of humour and controversial insights.

And if you meet up for a one-to-one conversation with him, expect to delve into a profound philosophical dialogue on the meaning of life, the disciplines of a Japanese samurai, or perhaps, the latest video game craze.

By nature, Nemr is a conceptual maverick who speaks his mind forthrightly, projecting his inner thoughts and sharp observations unto his surrounding world.

He was the popular guy at school with a knack for making people laugh.

“The way I am on the stage is the way I’ve always been, which made the transition very easy. At the age of four, I used to tell my parents I want to be a stand-up comedian. It’s like a flame, a passion, and I had to give it my all; that way if I failed only then could I live with no regrets.

I struggled for the first couple of years but I was happy. The reason I did the things I’ve done is because I have a unique perspective with a set of principles that makes it easier for me to make decisions. I think if you define the person you want to be, life becomes easier.”

Nemr’s routine material is very much a reflection of his personality and life experiences. In his early specials, he used to talk about relationships and video games; and later he focused on travelling and the prospects of getting married. “In comedy you want to be yourself and talk about things that really matter to you. I record all my shows and I listen to them; after hundreds of performances something emerges.

This body of work of an hour-anda-half or two hours has a theme and a message so you get the maximum potential from the subject,” explains Nemr, who is currently working on his seventh stand-up special.

Nemr explains that what makes him a good comic is being able to deal with failure. “Good comics become great by often recognising what doesn’t make people laugh.

The difference between the early days and now is that back then if my joke didn’t work it used to get to me and I got stuck in my head. Whereas nowadays, I understand that some-

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times it works, other times it doesn’t and I just need to continue. You have to understand the energy in the room and learn how to read it. Once you do, you adapt.”

The secrets of maintaining his success, he says, is to stay focused at all costs. With hundreds of people in the audience, a comedian can’t afford but to stay extra sharp on stage. “Comedy is serious, and it has the confidence of purpose in it. I take the matter of a good time very seriously. You don’t drink, you don’t do drugs, so you are always aware when to draw the line and know what you’re saying and be responsible. For us, we have to push the line and be controversial because we have to define the line. You have to imagine the new crowd like your fiancé’s parents when you’re meeting them for the first time – you have to be polite to win them over.”

Nemr, who is Lebanese-American, was exposed to both cultures while growing up. He lived in San Diego, California until he was 10 years old when his family decided to move back to Lebanon at the end of a 15-year-long civil war. Living in a society like Lebanon, Nemr was exposed to a lot of harsh realities. But his shows transcend the open-ended political dramas of the Middle East, which is the genre of choice for local artists, filmmakers and television talk show hosts. Nemr’s performances revolve around universal themes that affect the subcultures of our society. His ability to smoothly blend the social stigmas that encapsulate the average person with the corrupted ways of society, add to that the absurdities of everyday life, into a whimsical scenario is sheer genius.

His shows are very much a realistic reflection of everyday life. Yet, ironically speaking, it is the sharp twists on reality which makes comedy such a good escape – and that is perhaps why Nemr’s fans have grown in the hundreds of thousands.

“To be a successful comedian is to be able to build your own world, people leaving your show have to feel the difference in their world.

Through my shows, I demonstrate the world I live in. It is a modern world, especially in Lebanon being the frontier of the world. It sounds

“MY HEAVINESS IN LIFE CAME FROM SEEING THE TRUE UGLINESS OF HUMANITY. IT DIDN’T COME FROM SOMEWHERE INSIDE ME BUT FROM SOMEWHERE AROUND ME. ludicrous to say that because we are the people who really understand intrinsically that we don’t really belong anywhere, that we belong everywhere. It is very difficult to explain this to people who haven’t lived as a collective population of the diaspora.

What defines us is our actions, so if you take that as your definition – for not religion, not language – what defines us is also our spirit, that unbelievable un-breakability. Look at how many wars we’ve been through and how many friends we have lost to war and other foolish things – like bad traffic laws and corruption. We’ve been through every single version of the worst of humanity and we’re still here. That’s what my shows are all about, taking on subjects head on.

My mission is to bring in one room people of different races and religions and make them all laugh. What the audience is doing is much deeper than laughing at themselves but genuinely laughing together. It is a group activity that is sacred and rare.”

Many agree that comedy, like other forms of art, in the Middle East hasn’t progressed. Nemr sees this as an opportunity for creativity to flourish. As the only stand-up comedian in the region, his major performances sold out and ranked him among the highest selling artists in the region. In July 2014, Nemr’s special Uninterrupted Funny Observations (UFO) sold out to 4,000 fans; while on the same night the British band Massive Attack held a concert to 1,300 people, and George Wassouf, one of the Arab world’s

most popular singers, performed for an audience of 700.

Nemr is proud of that moment and his achievement, despite the fact that Lebanon was undergoing heighted political instability affecting the country’s tourism industry and economy. His UFO show went on to sell out in Jordan and Qatar shortly afterwards, but more importantly he made a move to Los Angeles for the next step in his career.

“I had really done all the groundbreaking industry defining moves an artist could do across the Middle East, and I’ve never been one to relish in stasis, so I came here to build on what I had done, change things.”

Lebanon has indeed taught the young artist a lot of lessons. He recalls how the country’s 34-day-war in 2006 left an indelible mark on his psyche, yet it gave a new perspective.

“I remember the morning it started.

I was undergoing emergency hernia surgery because I had pushed myself too far and ripped my lower right abdomen apart in the gym, an injury I sustained while erroneously trying to work out hatred I had been struggling with all my life. Save for adrenaline jolts when I awoke to a missile landing from a plane outside my hospital room that morning; and in the weeks shortly thereafter, the occasional missile landing outside my home in Adma destroying a bridge and a power plant. On one occasion the blast was so strong it sent my sister flying across the balcony. Besides all that, I had an excellent time.

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“I always found it strange that there was so much laughter in the house during that time. My best friend George and I would play video games as I was confined to my bed from the surgery and could barely move. It bothered me that I was completely incapacitated by the very training I had taken it upon myself to undergo so that I could be better than anything that was thrown at me.

“It wasn’t until much later that I realised the reason I was calm during the proverbial storm was I had an intrinsic understanding that I was going to be fine because I knew, and I’ve always known, that I can’t go anywhere until everywhere is different.”

After the war, Nemr quit his job and took up a full time stand up comedy career, with the mantra No Politics, No Religion, One Love. It was stamped on all his show posters and on the radio and subsequent television advertisements. “I knew that all I needed to do was create a place where people could begin their evening that was safe from all the blind bias and open to only logic and understanding and it would set the tone for the evening. Make it popular enough and it would set the tone for a Friday night, which would set the tone for the weekend, which would set the tone for the rest of the week.”

Nemr was shocked to find that his stand up comedy rapidly became the evening itself and not just the beginning of it. It actually set the tone of a generation.

“You see, in war I experienced peace.

In the destruction I found purpose.

And in the end I found myself.”

Many believe that there is a dark psychology to comedians. Robin Williams, the genius that he was, shocked the world last year when he committed suicide after suffering from depression. Other comedians had also been victims of depression and resorted to

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hard drugs during their careers. John Belushi and Chris Farley both died of drug overdose. Freddie Prinze shot himself – he liked playing Russian roulette. And Richard Pryor had accidently set himself on fire while on cocaine and rum, but he would die years later from a heart attack.

The 19th century American writer Mark Twain once wrote: “The secret source of humour itself is not joy, but sorrow. There is no humour in heaven.”

Nemr believes it’s not the dark side that defines the comedian but it’s the circumstances. “I don’t know a single great comic who came from a wealthy family who gave him or her everything.

It’s the comedians’ experiences that make them who they are and give them their perspective. I was fortunate that my only negative experience came from war not from my family or mental disorder so I have a healthy place to draw from. My heaviness in life came from seeing the true ugliness of humanity. It didn’t come from somewhere inside me but from somewhere around me.”

When faced with the prospects of

throwing everything aside to be an artist in a region where genuine artists happen to be the minority, it takes a great deal of courage to breakthrough to society. There are very few artists like Nemr who are setting a path and not taking the easy way out. “The Middle East is a hard place to survive as it’s very rare to find someone who’s ready to take risks. So when you say I want to be an artist, it doesn’t only mean you’re defining yourself, you’re defining the whole industry. I left everything and I struggled because this is what I want to do; I had lots of things to look up to, from cartoons to books to famous artists.”

Dave Chappelle, Bill Hicks, Chris Rock, Pablo Francisco and Louis CK are some of Nemr’s comic idols who he grew up following. He’s a big fan of the classics, particularly Lenny Bruce and Woody Allen. At the moment, he’s into Bill Burr, whose show I’m Sorry You Feel That Way has been popularised on Netflix.

Nemr’s recent move to the west – he’s been touring across the US – is a step up in his career. He describes it as a business expansion. “If you want to take my career as a company, I’ve reached maximum market potential in the Middle East where I sold out every biggest show in the region. I can either stay there, special after special, or expand. My goal in life demands a belief in your dream, a belief that you can do anything you want.”

In Lebanon, people dissuaded him from pursing a career in comedy.

“They told me you can’t make it from here. I always wanted to be the person who started in Lebanon and became successful in the Middle East, and then moved to America to become even more successful. My eventual goal is to make this huge show with people from all over the world watching all together and being broadcast everywhere at the same time, with everybody laughing at the same time at the same joke.” And Nemr is on a quest to fulfil that dream.

“I want to be the greatest. I won’t stop. Even if I die trying, I want to be the man who stood for something and was able to deliver a powerful message by retaining who he was.

I’m halfway there. I’m a funny guy, and I’m going to be the greatest.”

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120 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

WE GO AGAIN If you’re on the verge of despair over you thinning hair, there may be hope for you just yet. Read on…

BY MAAN HAMZ I

H

air loss is almost every man’s worst nightmare.

It’s a shocker to men’s self-esteem at any age – from those who start shedding hairs in the prime of their youth to 40-year-olds spotting signs of male pattern baldness.

Plagued with a list of endless purported remedies out there – from bizarre tribal preparations and holistic shampoos to technologically advanced surgical procedures – it can be rather overwhelming for those anxious enough to find a quick fix.

Many end up disappointed after unsuccessfully trying various products and procedures over and over again to fight their balding issues. Where genetics plays a major factor, it can be difficult to win the battle. As experts attribute hair loss to varying causes, it is crucial to identify the root of the problem before grabbing any off-the-shelf “miracle” remedy.

Lars Skjøth, the founder of the Copenhagen-based Hårklinikken group of hair restoration clinics, claims more than 90 per cent of his clients had previously tried at least two methods before ending up at his centre.

The company, which has clinics in Denmark, Norway, Germany, the US and Dubai, offers individualised hair loss therapies based on products and specialised treatments.

“We customise the treatment based on the individual’s

case or factor for hair loss. We take into consideration the person’s age, gender, family background, ethnicity, potential medication, scalp problem, illness and lifestyle.

We need to approve him or her first,” says Skjøth.

Since launching their facility in Dubai a couple of years ago, the group has seen an increasing number of patients – men and women – turning up with hair loss concerns.

“We get so many people in our clinic everyday so we had to regulate the number that we can see. Not all of them are considered to be candidates for the treatment,” explains Skjøth, who has personally treated more than 75,000 patients worldwide since he established Hårklinikken in 1992.

The majority of men living in the Middle East suffer from androgenetic hair loss, which in men is referred to as male-pattern baldness. Although this is mainly hereditary, environmental factors also play a significant role in the hair loss process.

“In many areas of the Gulf region people don’t have access to fresh spring water, so they desalinate water from the sea. The desalinated water has no minerals as in other areas. Also men’s heads are covered for most of the time and this can have an effect on their genetics.

Heat, humidity, nutrition and sleep patterns play a role in thinning or losing hair. Not to forget the amazing effect of stress on our hormone system,” explains Skjøth.

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The promising news is that most hair loss cases resulting from either mild androgenetic factors or physiological influences can be reversed with the proper treatment, of course. The cornerstone in the Hårklinikken product line is a plantbased liquid extract that contains combinations of plant proteins, amino acids, minerals and fatty acids. Such nutrients, which the body may lack, are vital to strengthening the hair.

After consultation, Hårklinikken’s patients pursue their treatments at home where the extract is applied every night and rinsed out with special shampoos and conditioners in the morning. Depending on the patient, it can take a few months for desired results to be achieved. The cost of treatment ranges between AED 100 and AED 160 a month, including consultation and products.

As a scientist of human nutrition and biochemistry, Skjøth dedicates a huge chunk of his time in the research and development aspect of his treatment process. “It’s not unusual 122 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

B E FOR E

AFTE R

What’s important is that you are going to live with your hair for the rest of your life, that’s why you better make sure that whatever is done, is done right and looks perfect for us to be able to give 80 per cent more hair,” he says.

However, he emphasises on the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle that is stress-free and well balanced. “Teeth quickly deteriorate if we ignore taking care of them; same thing happens to our hair and bodies.”

On rare occasions where patients suffer from advanced cases of androgenetic hair loss, Skjøth says hair transplantation could be recommended. “Currently, we have over 50,000 patients; and on a yearly basis we do around 300 hair transplantations. That’s less than 1 per cent of our patients. Ethically it’s not right to have someone undergo a surgery if it’s not needed,” he warns.

Hårklinikken has developed unique hair transplantation techniques using the principles of follicular unit extraction that allow for each hair follicle (up to 7,000) to be removed from the donor site, and transplanted one by one with minimally invasive instruments. The skin heals quite rapidly and results are seen after at least six months. A more specialised procedure, involves long hairs which are extracted from the donor site and placed in between existing long hairs.

This is an attractive option for clients who wish to avoid trimming of the hair.

Clients suffering from certain diseases that are causing them to experience hair loss are normally not

good candidates for treatment and are often referred to another specialist or certified dermatologist outside the realm of Hårklinikken.

“Our results are exceeding all the others existing in the market.

The main thing we do is offering a customised product. Evaluation can even be done online. People have to send in a lot of information, upload specific high quality photos, and then our specialist will evaluate if they are more likely to respond to any product.

If the cells are completely inactive, then the person won’t be a candidate.

We intervene when we see there’s hope,” explains Skjøth.

“What’s important is that you are going to live with your hair for the rest of your life, that’s why you better make sure that whatever is done, is done right and looks perfect. We have seen a lot of celebrities, more than 800 of them are being treated at our clinics.”

The group is looking to expand over the next five years across the Middle East, as well as into Canada, New Zealand and other US states.

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WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY: LUC RINALDI

TRAIL BLAZE Canada’s medical marijuana industry is about to get big.

Why one former Bay Streeter has gone all in, and predicts nothing but high times ahead 124 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

R

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 SHARP MIDDLE EAST 125

“SMELL THAT?” SCOTT WALTERS ASKS ME, GRINNING SLIGHTLY AS HE BREATHES IN THE SUBTLE but unmistakable scent of weed. We’re hardly through the front door, still shivering from the biting cold of a bright, mid-January morning, but the funk is already there, hanging in the warm air as if to say, “Yeah, this is the place.”

Walters is the co-founder of a specialised clinic in Toronto — a clinic that might just hold the key to the future of Canada’s cannabis industry — so he’s taken me on a mission to inspect Aphria, one of his suppliers. It’s a legal grow-op that looks identical to just about every other plot of land in the small agricultural town of Leamington, Ontario, the greenhouse capital of North America. For four decades, the 40-acre farm has raised mostly tomatoes and cucumbers. It still does, but anyone with a functional nose can tell that’s not all they’re growing.

Walters and I sign ourselves in before entering the office, a nondescript smattering of desks and monitors, unremarkable only until you notice the fingerprint scanners at every door, the ceiling-mounted cameras, the barbed-wire fences visible outside the window and the wide-screen TV showing a grid of closed-circuit feeds. First, Walters meets with 126 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

Aphria’s executive team, an assortment of experienced growers and business types, and talks shop. Then, we don white lab coats and hairnets for the grand tour.

We sign in a second time to get into the growing quarters, where Walters surveys the stock. Marijuana plants of all strains and sizes stretch down the length of the massive greenhouse. As we stroll between small seedlings and fully flowered shrubs, one of Aphria’s founders doles out information about ideal lighting conditions, biological control methods and proper airflow. Listening and inserting the occasional question, Walters crouches to pinch the plants and snap a few photos on his smartphone.

To enter Aphria’s vault, a stark-white labyrinth of immaculately clean humiditycontrolled labs, we sign in again — three clipboards deep now — and put on plastic blue booties. We weave through stands of shining metal trays and heavy glass

T R A I L B L A Z E R

thick-framed glasses and keeps his light, thinning hair neatly cropped. He’s slim and tall with boyishly curious blue eyes and a pair of animated, oversized hands that have a habit of grabbing whatever prop is available — coffee creamers, coasters, water bottles — to illustrate a point. He speaks and dresses modestly and, if you never asked, it would be easy to miss that he’s a Bay Street veteran turned medical marijuana mogul.

Here’s how he got there. Walters was born in Toronto in 1972. He studied computers and economics at the University of Western Ontario in the early 1990s. Over the next two decades, he founded an investment firm that raised $150 million (AED 418m)for the uranium sector, started — and then sold — a management company that took on more than $6 billion (AED 16.7bn) in assets, and worked as a derivatives trader, hedge fund manager and agribusiness consultant for a slew of other companies, including BMO Nesbitt Burns and the Dundee Corporation.

But, in time, he became increasingly disillusioned with the industry’s mercenary mindset. “I spent 20 years working with people where everything was about the next buck, the next deal,” he says. “You wouldn’t have liked me. I didn’t like me.”

So in 2012, much to the surprise of his boss at the time, Walters resigned from Stifel Nicolaus, an American investment bank, and looked for new work. After eliminating his other options — “certainly not oil and gas, nor bio-tech, nor forestry, offshore fishing isn’t working” — he settled on weed.

Walters wasn’t a stranger to the drug.

He had first bought hash off the street in downtown Toronto long ago — it turned out to be roofing tar, naturally — and had smoked a bit in high school.

In 2010, he started self medicating with weed to wean himself off the opiates he’d been using to treat chronic pain in his back and around his eyes, the side effects of years of heavy drinking and an unhealthy lifestyle. A couple of years later, he got a prescription. (On a 10-point pain scale, smoking is said to bring pain down from a five to a one.)

He knew the weed world as a patient, but he didn’t quite understand it as a business yet. His first forays flopped: a

Left: Aphria’s top-secret legal crop lies ready for picking in a Leamington, Ontario greenhouse.

doors before entering the storage room, where tens of thousands of dollars worth of dry bud is waiting to be shipped out and stuffed into the grinders, vaporisers and rolling papers of Canada’s 60,000 prescribed medical marijuana users.

Timidly, Walters pries the top off of one of the containers — the kind a high school cafeteria might use for a massive lasagna — and marvels at the half-kilo of cannabis.

His face lights up as he takes a whiff of the unfettered source.

T

HE FIRST TIME I HEARD Walters’s voice, about a week before our trip to Aphria, it was a Sunday afternoon. He’d left me a voicemail: “Hi Luc, it’s Scott Walters.

It’s about 4:20 p.m.” A pause, then a laugh. “4:20. Hilarious.”

Walters is 43 and lives with his wife of 20 years and their two children in North Toronto. He wears a pair of black

consulting gig went awry, an idea for a royalties business didn’t pan out, a play in the vaporiser market quickly fizzled.

Then he met a pair of doctors who were hoping to become medical marijuana pioneers. They knew the medicine — one had studied under a leading cannabis scientist — but lacked the logistics and financing.

Walters was their man. He helped them found the Cannabinoid Medical Clinic, a specialised practice where physicians could send patients if they were uncomfortable prescribing the drug. “It’s not a medication that has been thoroughly tested, and there are no treatment guidelines,” Dr. Danial Schecter, one of the clinic’s founders, explained to me. “Doctors understand how puffers and inhalers work, but with cannabis, how do you prescribe two puffs three times a day?”

While the doctors worked the science — prescribing medical marijuana and a synthetic cannabinoid called Nabilone, monitoring and studying patient progress, educating physicians on treatment standards — Walters worked the industry. He made visits to scope out Canada’s small selection of legally sanctioned mass producers (where the clinic’s patients would get their bud), became familiar with the quasi-legal unregistered realm and recruited the country’s top pro-pot lawyer. Slowly, he put the pieces in place to support a serious entry into an industry on the verge of exploding.

W

ALTERS ISN’T THE ONLY one in on the secret. Anyone who’s been paying attention knows that bud is about to get big, and there’s a long line of profiteers itching to get in on the action. Health Canada estimates that the country’s medical marijuana industry will be worth AED 3.5 billion per year by 2024, though others insist that it’s already bigger — particularly if you include the recreational market — and will only continue to grow. Case in point: the day that Tweed, an established marijuana grower, became the first producer to go public, it was the fourth-most traded stock on the TSX. But Canadians have been lighting up for generations, so why all the buzz now? The answer starts with Terry Parker, the country’s first legal

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T R A I L B L A Z E R

“HI LUC, IT’S SCOTT WALTERS. IT’S ABOUT 4:20 P.M.” A PAUSE, THEN A LAUGH. “4:20. HILARIOUS.” medical marijuana user. In a string of late-1990s court cases, the Toronto pot advocate convinced the court to recognise his legal right to cannabis as a means of treating his epilepsy.

The case forced the government to set up a medical marijuana program that allowed people with certain ailments to obtain a licence to buy marijuana from a government producer, grow their own plants or designate someone else, like a relative or friend, to do it for them. The system was destined to fail, though. The government didn’t have enough inspectors to enforce regulations or monitor the quality of thousands of individual growers, and multiple patients ended up designating the same people to grow their plants, spawning large-scale grow-ops that often funneled extra herb onto the black market.

To stem the abuse, Health Canada revoked its original system and implemented the revised Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations in April 2014. (A court injunction temporarily allowed existing patients to continue operating by the old regulations.) Under the new rules, patients with prescriptions for medical marijuana could purchase cannabis through a number of governmentvetted licensed producers (LPs). By and large, the quality and consistency of Canadian cannabis improved, but so did the price of entry. Patients used to growing their own weed now had to cough up thousands of dollars a year for their medicine, and anyone interested in legally producing pot would need several million dollars just to get started.

To get an LP going, you need to have the capital to build a grow-op that meets Health Canada’s stringent security standards — the sort of Big Brotherlike surveillance and triple-sign-in bureaucracy we encountered at Aphria.

Then you need the proper equipment to process the product and monitor its

quality and quantity. You need paid staff to tend to the plants, call-centre workers to deal with patients and a secure, userfriendly website to take online orders. And that’s to say nothing of the money involved in actually growing the damn stuff.

Such prohibitive costs essentially kicked cannabis activists and garage growers to the curb and replaced them with Bay Street big shots and Big Pharma barons — the only people with enough money and investor appeal to make a real go of it. Vic Neufeld, the former head of the Canadian pharmaceutical giant Jamieson Laboratories, is the CEO of Aphria; Tweed is run by Bruce Linton, a communications and tech tycoon who’s led numerous companies; and the team of scientists that comprise Bedrocan, another LP, has already struck gold with green in the Netherlands. CEO-types and past presidents run Canada’s 15 or so other upand-running LPs, too, not to mention the 1,200 other companies anxiously hoping they’ll be next to get licensed.

They want in because, while the start-up costs are exorbitant, the payoff is poised to be even more outrageous.

Cannabis in itself may not save any lives — it’s a treatment, not a cure — but its ability to wean people off opiates will.

As medical marijuana goes mainstream, it’s likely to supplant more harmful medicines like oxycodone and morphine as a go-to remedy for a laundry list of illnesses and conditions: cancer, HIV/ AIDS, Parkinson’s, ALS, anxiety, ADD and diabetes, to name just a few. Costconscious insurance companies will be on board because cannabis costs less than opiates and keeps people alive and paying premiums longer. Most patients will prefer pot for the price, too, and because it has fewer side effects — munchies notwithstanding. Estimates propose that roughly 400,000 Canadians will be using medical marijuana by 2024.

With that many people smoking around a gram of weed a day, and with a gram of

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legal weed fetching an average of AED 20 to AED 35, you’d have to be high not to realise that the budding multi-billiondollar industry is about to flower.

And that’s just dried, smokable medical marijuana. Cannabis extracts — which would allow for pot-based patches, pills, powders, oils, candies and other edibles — started making their way into British Columbia’s legal pot program after a provincial court ruling last August. The rest of the country is likely to follow suit, too, so long as a federal court case this spring goes the way everyone in the industry expects it to.

The introduction of extracts would create an entirely new market for cannabis edibles, and a slew of companies to make them. That’s good news for LPs, who would be able to save parts of the plant they previously trashed — Aphria, for one, throws away roughly 60 percent of every marijuana plant — and wholesale massive volumes of weed to companies that can turn them into everything from capsules to candy corn. In the increasingly likely event of legalisation, that market would mushroom, as would tax revenues. By then, Big Tobacco and Big Alcohol will likely have found a way to jump on the bandwagon, too (here’s looking at you, Bud Light). “As soon as we get there, then it’s gloves off,” Walters predicts. “Because the money is going to be stupid.”

H

ERE’S THE HITCH: THE Harper government hates pot, and even voting in a longhaired Liberal won’t change the fact that marijuana has historically been seized more often than studied. “No research dollars have been committed to this in the past 50 years because there’s been a war on drugs,” says one Toronto portfolio manager who has invested in a number of LPs. “You’ll get money to research the impact of wind turbines on a rare species of bats before you get money to research medical marijuana.”

In the absence of hard data and empirical evidence, Health Canada — already severely underfunded and on a government leash — is understandably hesitant to start passing the joint to anyone with a scraped knee. (And they’re probably not keen on the idea of doctors writing a 75-year-old grandmother with terminal cancer a prescription for Donkey Dick, either.)

That’s where Walters comes in. Unlike other facets of the bud business, his clinic

Right: isn’t big money. Provincial Scott Walters health plans cover the cost carefully of visits for its 1,300 patients; inspects the insurance money from product at appointments and urine tests the Aphria covers overhead and keeps plant, one of his clinic’s the lights on. “I make money major every time someone pees in a suppliers. cup,” Walters often jokes, “so I serve a lot of coffee.”

But the humour disguises a clever business plan. When a patient comes to the clinic, he fills out a series of electronic questionnaires about his medical condition and symptoms, among other things. After using medical marijuana, if he’s prescribed it, he responds to more surveys about how certain strains in particular amounts help or hinder his ailment. Anonymised and combined with other patient input, those questionnaires provide an unprecedented statistical snapshot of medical marijuana use. Walters plans to open more clinics in Toronto and in the Maritimes, where PTSD rates are disproportionately higher. With more patients receiving more relief, the data only becomes more accurate and robust.

“It’s incredibly valuable information,” says Tweed executive vice president Mark Zekulin. “If it can finally let us understand not just anecdotally why a particular strain might work for insomnia while another might work for chronic pain, you can start to form the basis for a Phase I clinical trial.” If it could successfully complete a series of clinical trials, cannabis would be eligible for a drug identification number, which would allow pharmacists to sell can’t afford their medicine, not because the medicine over the counter, give it he lost thousands on the market. He unprecedented legitimacy and boost its has the born-again air of a man looking user base significantly. for redemption for past sins — a man Walters’s data is also the only who’s found a passion grander than a substantial Canada-specific market paycheque. “I’ve created hedge funds. research on medical marijuana, and I’ve created public companies. I’ve built he’s banking on the fact that LPs will be mines. Big fucking deal,” he says. This willing to ante up to have access to it. As is different. “I built a clinic with my the industry matures, some of those LPs own hands. I did that. I helped create — and the investors behind them — will something that helps people every day. win big, others will be bought out and I’ve never been able to say something like many more will flat-out fail. But there that before.” will always be a need for stats, and, so far, Walters has a monopoly on the numbers.

If he’s poised to make millions, though, T’S 2:30 P.M. AND WALTERS AND I Walters isn’t letting on. He doesn’t talk are sitting in a cab as it pulls out of much about money, and he’s practically the Aphria compound. (We signed developed a phobia of publicly traded out, of course.) During the 40-minute stocks. If you catch him excited or up drive to Windsor International in arms, it’ll be because an LP is jacking Airport, Walters debriefs: the place up its prices and his clinic’s patients

I

was impressive, the location is perfect, they’ve got a good team, the call centre could use some work.

We’re running late, but Walters stays calm, showing me photos on his phone and sharing stories as we cruise along rural roads lined with more greenhouses. When we finally arrive at the airport, no more than a half-hour before his plane is scheduled to lift off, he promptly bolts out of the taxi and slings his messenger bag — in it, two containers of weed, a grinder, some files and a water bottle — over his shoulder.

He checks in, throws the bag into an X-ray machine and walks through a metal detector. On the other side, a security guard asks him the dreaded question: “Sir, is this your bag?” The guard opens its flap, unceremoniously confiscates Walters’s water bottle, and sends him on his way.

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MAXIMUM EXCITEMENT Why watching other people play video games might just be the next big spectator sport

BY NICHOLAS HUNE-BROWN • ILLUSTRATION BY VIVIAN LAI

T

HE GAME THAT’S either the future of professional spectator sports or a silly pastime for weedy, basement-dwelling nerds or — who knows?

— probably both, begins the same way every other commercial sport does: with dimmed lights, a thumping soundtrack, and a carefully engineered crescendo of pre-game hype that is absurd and stupid and totally enthralling.

“FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE” the crowd chanted, clapping their thundersticks in time as the clock on the big screen counted us down.

“Laaaadies and gentlemen,” the announcer rumbled over the din. “These are your World Championship Series Premier League season two finalists!”

The stage at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre exploded in light, mini-spotlights wheeling around drunkenly through the dry ice haze to indicate MAXIMUM EXCITEMENT, as two skinny gamers stepped forward to awkwardly accept the adulation of the crowd. Shin Dong Won, a Korean 23-year-old who plays under the name “Hydra,” was facing off against David Moschetto, a 20-year-old Frenchman who goes by “Lilbow.” The two

130 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

finalists smiled, pleased but bashful, shifting their weight from foot to foot — a pair of introvert birthday boys caught in the moment after the lights come on at a surprise party.

I was there for the finals of the StarCraft II World Championship Series, a tournament held before thousands of screaming fans in a darkened room that had been made over to resemble some combination of a WWE wrestling arena and the set of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Many more watched from home, where the tournament was being broadcast live around the world.

On a raised stage, two plexiglassfronted pods held the athletes — eyes forward, strapped into soundcancelling headphones, hands on mouse and keyboard. The real action happened on the three enormous screens behind them, where their armies of brightly coloured aliens and futuristic humans did battle.

I’d come because, after years of ignorance, I was curious about the world of eSports. Competitive gaming has been around for two decades, but in recent years it has exploded so far out of its niche market that it has forced the mainstream to pay attention.

According to research firm Newzoo, 205 million people watched or played eSports in 2014. Games like Defense of the Ancients and League of Legends, have blown up, with multimilliondollar championship pots and rabid fans who flock online to watch the best gamers do battle. Last year’s League of Legends championship sold out Sangram Stadium in South Korea, the same place that hosted the World Cup. Online, it drew almost 30 million viewers, more than the 2014 NBA finals.

StarCraft is the original eSport. It’s

“HOW CAN SOMETHING BE A ‘SPORT’ IF ITS GRAND CHAMPION IS A SKINNY KID WHO LOOKS LIKE HE RARELY SEES THE SUN?” a real-time strategy game in which players mine minerals, build an economy and then use that economy to destroy their opponent. It’s like chess, except the board changes after every round, you have to manually control the pieces in combat, and teenagers really love playing it.

Despite being called the “World Championship,” the tournament in Toronto was just the minor leagues compared to tournaments in South Korea, eSports’ spiritual home, where there are two TV channels devoted to professional StarCraft.

In September 2014, Amazon purchased the video game broadcasting website Twitch for almost a billion dollars. Shortly after, ESPN president John Skipper was asked about eSports. “It’s not a sport,” he said. “I’m interested in doing real sports.”

The fact that traditional sports outlets have greeted gamers with suspicion is to be expected. A new sport is like a new religion: it threatens to reveal the absurdity of the old forms. Scientology is silly, sure, but no more ridiculous than stories about talking snakes and virgin births. Likewise, a game in which people use their keyboards to build ultra-powerful alien armies is no more inherently absurd than a game in which grown men try to hit a bit of leather-wrapped cork with a stick. At a sport’s birth, it’s difficult to tell if it’s the next UFC or the next Slamball, the short-lived league that combined all the excitement of basketball with the inherent idiocy of jumping on a trampoline. History is what adds depth and gravitas to what might otherwise seem nakedly absurd. In 2015, the world of eSports has millions of fans and full-time competitors playing for prizes that

reach $5 million. It’s undoubtedly professional. Only time makes a silly “game” into something meaningful and dignified.

More than this general skepticism, however, eSport athletes seem to inspire a particular animus.

Professional gamers train 8-12 hours a day to stay sharp. At a California eSports lab sponsored by Red Bull, gamers don’t just play the game but deconstruct their technique, using eye tracking technology, following exercise regimes, and running set plays with coaches. Gamers have received athletic visas, there are eSports athletes in the collegiate system, and they competed at this year’s X Games. Despite all this, there’s a natural reluctance to call gamers “athletes.”

This April, when ESPN broadcast a Heroes of the Storm tournament on ESPN2, the move immediately confused and enraged people like ESPN radio personality Colin Cowherd, who was appalled that a video game had aired in the sacrosanct space reserved for events like obstacle-course running, hot-dog eating, and spearfishing. “Somebody lock the basement door at mom’s house and don’t let ’em out,” said Cowherd with disgust. “I will quit this network if I am ever asked to cover that. I tolerated Donkey Kong. I’ll tell you what that was the equivalent of… of me putting a gun in my mouth.”

The defensiveness of people like Cowherd — the flagrant nerd-baiting and howls of outrage — feels like the last gasp of a particular kind of sports bro traditionalism. We live in a time in which it feels like the nerds have triumphed. Even sports, that last bastion of unreconstructed manliness, can feel like it’s under

siege by Moneyball-quoting quants, stations that insist on broadcasting female soccer players and analysts who treat the epic battles between modern-day gladiators as just so much grist for the data mill. Maybe accepting eSports feels like a step too far. After all, how can something be a “sport” if its grand champion is a skinny Korean kid who looks like he rarely sees the sun?

At the StarCraft tournament, no one was worrying about this. Call it a sport or a spectacle, competitive gaming is big and — in a crowd full of maniac fans screaming themselves hoarse — it is exciting.

Onstage, two announcers (called “casters”) did rapid-fire play-byplay as Hydra tried to hold off Lilbow’s frenzied attacks. “Lilbow really piling on the pressure now!”

The Korean sat in his booth, composed, the long, slim fingers of his left hand articulating across the keyboard like the legs of a spider while his right hand controlled the mouse, zipping this way and that.

On the towering screen, Lilbow’s stalkers crawled backward, repulsed

by Hydra’s army. “Hydra has fought this back!” yelled the caster. A steady crush of tiny alien creatures advanced on Lilbow. There was a flash of gunfire, a confusion of pixels, as the volume in the arena swelled and the thundersticks boomed. “Hydra, 4-2 is able to win the championship, is able to go the distance!” yelled the caster over the screaming crowd.

Hydra smiled. He walked to the centre of the stage, pumped his fists above his head, and picked up the trophy while silver confetti exploded into the crowd — the champion of a new sport, or something close to it.

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WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAME BUT WHERE STREET STYLE IS SERIOUSLY ON POINT Dublin may be an old city, but it doesn’t feel like one. We took to the pedestrian-friendly streets of Temple Bar – an area rife with pubs and cafés – and the courtyards of the historic Collins Barracks to showcase what you really need to be wearing this fall: turtlenecks, tailored coats and ridiculously rich fabrics.

PETER ASH LEE

LUKE LANGSDALE

Shot on location in Dublin, Ireland

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SUEDE BOMBER JACKET (AED 5,000) BY A.P.C. X LOUIS W; WOOL TURTLENECK (AED 400) BY TOMMY HILFIGER. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 SHARP MIDDLE EAST 133

WOOL JACKET (AED 3,500) BY NIGEL CABOURN AUTHENTIC; COTTON T-SHIRT (AED 200) BY INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS.

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WOOL BLAZER (AED 3,300)

BY Z ZEGNA; CASHMERE SWEATER ($495) BY BOSS; WOOL PANTS (AED 800)

BY BOSS; SPEEDMASTER MOONWATCH PRO WATCH (AED 15,000) BY OMEGA.

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WOOL COAT (AED 2,000) BY J.LINDEBERG; CASHMERE TURTLENECK (AED 6,000)

BY HERMÈS; WOOL PANTS (AED 2,500) BY PAUL SMITH; LEATHER SHOES (AED 1,800) BY A.P.C.

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COTTON BLAZER (AED 12,000) AND WOOL PANTS (AED 3,000)

BY BERLUTI; COTTON BUTTON DOWN (AED 1,700) BY NIGEL CABOURN AUTHENTIC; LEATHER BELT (AED 900)

BY ANDERSON’S; LEATHER CHELSEA BOOTS (AED 1,500)

BY J.LINDEBERG.

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COTTON JACKET (AED 500) BY BEN SHERMAN; WOOL TURTLENECK (AED 800) BY BUGATTI.

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WOOL JACKET (AED 3,500) AND MOHAIR SWEATER (2,000) BY CALVIN KLEIN; WOOL-ACRYLIC BLEND PANTS (AED 170) BY H&M; COTTON SCARF (AED 335) BY SCOUT SEATTLE; LEATHER BELT (AED 900) BY ANDERSON’S; LEATHER SHOES (AED 7,000)

BY BERLUTI. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 SHARP MIDDLE EAST 139

WOOL COAT (AED 1,000) AND COTTON PANTS (AED 300) BY BANANA REPUBLIC; WOOL SWEATER (AED 650) BY BUGATTI. GROOMING: Ciara Allen Sfor Morgan The Agency using MAC products PHOTO ASSISTANT: Erika Long SPECIAL THANKS TO: Tourism Ireland 140 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

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Applied

Arts CARLYLE ROUTH

MARC ANDREW SMITH LOCATION PROVIDED

BY RAW DESIGN

Dressing well is as much an art as it is a skill — and the real artists are the designers who nail it, season after season. For the fall, we put together some foolproof looks from a few modern masters

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PAINTING: FLOWER OF LIFE FREEHAND (THANK YOU FOR BEING WHAT YOU ARE) BY KYLE TONKENS.

TOM FORD WOOL SUIT JACKET (AED 13,000), WOOL PANTS (AED 5,000), COTTON BUTTON-DOWN (AED 2,000), WOOL KNIT TIE (AED 800), LINEN POCKET SQUARE (AED 600) AND PATENT LEATHER LOAFERS (AED 6,500).

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STRELLSON

PAINTING: UNTITLED BY ANGEL CARRILLO.

VIRGIN WOOL SUIT (AED 2,300), VIRGIN WOOL-MOHAIR BLEND SWEATER (AED 400) AND COTTON BUTTONDOWN (AED 400).

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VERSACE VISCOSE BLEND TRENCH COAT (AED 12,000), COTTON BUTTON-DOWN (AED 3,000), SILK TIE (AED 550) AND COTTON PANTS (SOLD AS SUIT, AED 10,500).

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GUCCI

PAINTING: I’M NOT READY TO DANCE BY NESS LE.

CASHMERE COAT (AED 9,700), WOOL CORDUROY JACKET (AED 11,000), ALPACAWOOL BLEND TURTLENECK SWEATER (AED 2,200) AND COTTON-CANVAS BLEND PANTS (AED 2,900).

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TOMMY HILFIGER WOOL BLAZER WITH POLYESTER INSERT (AED 1,300) AND WOOL TURTLENECK SWEATER (AED 400).

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AQUASCUTUM

PAINTING: #380 11X7 FEET SANJAY B PATEL.

WOOL QUILTED JACKET (AED 3,000), MERINO WOOL V-NECK SWEATER (AED 1,300), COTTON BUTTON-DOWN (AED 900).

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TIGER OF SWEDEN WOOL-MOHAIR SUIT (AED 1,700), ACRYLICMOHAIR BLEND SWEATER (AED 700) AND LEATHER CHELSEA BOOTS (AED 1,200).

BOSS POLYESTER JACKET (AED 1,500), COTTON WHITE BUTTON-DOWN SHIRT (AED 400), DENIM BUTTON-DOWN (AED 950) AND COTTON TROUSERS (AED 600).

150 SHARP MIDDLE EAST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

PAINTING: FLOWER OF LIFE FREEHAND (SOUL MATES) BY KYLE TONKENS.

BROOKS BROTHERS WOOL JACKET (AED 1,500), COTTON BUTTON-DOWN (AED 400), COTTON PANTS (AED 350), SILK POCKET SQUARE (AED 125).

GROOMING

Jodi Urichuk for Dermalogica Canada / Kevin Murphy Hair Care / Plutino Group

PHOTO ASSISTANT

Simon Baker

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THE SHARP LIST FOR MEN YOU ARE MEANT TO STAY AHEAD OF THE GAME. THAT’S WHAT DEFINES YOU FROM THE REST OF THE CROWD. YOU ARE A HERO IN THE LIMELIGHT, BECAUSE YOU NEVER COMPROMISE ON THE LUXURIES OF LIFE - LIKE THESE PRODUCTS YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE (AND POSSIBLY OWN).

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02

AUDEZE LCD-2 The Original High Performance Planar Magnetic Headphone The LCD-2 is an original game-changing headphone, the design that catapulted Audeze into the spotlight. It’s the most forgiving of bad recordings and presents a beautiful sound with the same powerful bass as all Audeze headphones, a tonallyrich midrange and a simply beautiful treble region. It takes a real effort not to enjoy music on these headphones, especially with its bamboo and leather details.

01 ARACHNOPHOBIA

Conceived and developed by Swiss watchmaker MB&F, Arachnophobia is inspired by the giant spider sculpture Maman that Büsser which has been featured around the world.

The abdomen is outfitted with a black dome with white numerals depicting the hours and minutes; while eight, visually enticing legs join the body by ball-and-socket joints.

The legs can be rotated so that Arachnophobia can stand tall on a desk or splayed flat for wall mounting. Available in black or 18k yellow goldplated editions, this creature movement boasts a power reserve of eight days.

03 GARMIN VÍVOACTIVE

This GPS Smartwatch sports built-in sports apps that keep you active while smart notifications allow you to stay in contact with pressing work matters all so you can keep your life in balance.

The high-resolution, colour touchscreen stays readable in direct sunlight, so you can view your stats when you step out of the office for a run. The ultra-thin profile (8 mm) is comfortable to wear all day and can easily transition from office to golf course. The rechargeable battery lasts through all your activities with up to 3 weeks in watch/activity-tracking mode or up to 10 hours using GPS.

04

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GOCYCLE G2 This is lightest-in-class electric Gocycle bike developed by former McLaren Cars engineer Richard Thorpe. While an electric bespoke micro-motor powers the front wheel and pedals power the back, Gocycle’s predictive electronic gearshift ensures that you are never in the wrong gear – so you can always make a clean getaway.

The seat-post and frame geometry offers an automotive inspired adjustable driving position that can fit every rider. Gocycle’s lightweight (16kg) and packs away perfectly for transit or storage.

Designed with a low centre of gravity, the bike is agile and responsive to ride, and easy to lift and manoeuvre on board. And the absence of cables, chains, gears and sprockets make Gocycle a clean ride.

05

JABRA SPORT PULSE WIRELESS These wireless sports earbuds with in-ear heart rate monitor are purely optimised for running. Made towards US Military standards, it’s sure to withstand even the hardest workout. Boasting a perfect and secure fit, they are sweat-and-weather proof. They feature an integrated running app, music powered by Dolby, and best of all, real-time voice coaching that helps you reach your goals.

06

GOPRO HERO4 Capturing 4K Ultra HD video and liquid-smooth slow motion at up to 240 frames per second, HERO4 Black delivers higher performance than any other GoPro. This takes performance to the next level with a powerful processor that delivers super slow motion at 240 frames per second. Incredible highresolution combines with 1080p and 720p slow motion to enable stunning, immersive footage of you and your world.

07

LOUIS VUITTON TRADING DERBY No chance of horsing around with these pair of shoes. The French luxury fashion company never seems to fail our expectations.

This elegant derby in waxed calf leather is decorated with traditional-style perforations, which are updated to integrate the LV initials on the toe. This is a true wardrobe essential.

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08 YAMAHA YZF-R1 Packed with state-ofthe-art technology, a cross-plane engine, short wheelbase chassis and high-tech electronics, the R1 is ready to connect to your body and take your riding to a new level.

Developed without compromise, the R1 with its 998cc-engineis distinguished by the highly advanced, computercontrolled systems that are utilised to aide the rider. This was born for the track. But it’s what you can’t see that makes this focused superbike so special. Its central nervous system is a 6-axis Inertial Measurement Unit that constantly senses chassis motion in 3D, creating controllability over traction, slides, front wheel lift, braking and launches.

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THE SHARP LIST FOR MEN

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THE SHARP LIST FOR MEN

09

AIRWHEEL Q1 This electric self-balancing unicycle is completely hands-free to operate. With two wheels positioned next to each other, this gives the user a much greater surface area on the ground making it easier to ride. Lightweight, convenient and easily controllable, its built-in carry handle makes getting up and down steps very easy and can simply be stowed away anytime necessary. The Air Wheel Q1 can achieve around 20 kilometres on a single battery charge. High elastic silicone fascias makes the experience comfortable against the user’s legs,

10 DXO ONE This camera delivers DSLR image quality in an extremely compact size.

It features an ultra-high quality f/1.8, 32mm lens with a sensor capable of capturing high-resolution images even in very low light. Made of high-grade aluminium, it has been engineered with the iPhone and iPad in mind: it attaches via a connector, turning the beautiful iPhone display into the camera’s viewfinder.

The camera also swivels to enable creative perspectives.

A free iOS app enables control of the individual settings on the DxO ONE, including aperture, shutter speed and ISO. It also features various automatic capture modes.

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11

GRAMOVOX FLOATING RECORD Get ready to spin vinyl right out of the box. This highperformance turntable plays your records vertically through built-in, dynamic, full-range stereo speakers.

This easy-to-use, all-in-one system is hand-assembled in Chicago. It is available in walnut or maple wood and features a Hi-Fi phono pre-amp as well as built-in fullrange stereo speakers.

12 LONGCHAMP RACING BRIEFCASE A new range of accessories by this French luxury fashion house include this elegant colour-banded leather briefcase. The designs bring a breath of fresh energy into the modern man’s wardrobe with it quilted interior that is perfect for your laptop. There are two sizes to choose from: the classic worn with a shoulder strap, and a second slimmer, more urban model. They also come in beautiful black and natural leather bands or in three contrasting black and burgundy stripes.

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A ALEXANDER WANG alexanderwang.com ARMANI COLLEZIONI armani.com

N NAUTICA nautica.com O OAKLEY oakley.com

B BEN SHERMAN bensherman.com BURBERRY burberry.com

P PAUL & SHARK paulshark.it PAUL SMITH paulsmith.co.uk PRADA prada.com

C CALVIN KLEIN calvinklein.com CANALI canali.com CARTIER cartier.com CHANEL chanel.com CHOPARD chopard.com CORNELIANI corneliani.com

R RALPH LAUREN ralphlauren.com RICHARD MILLE richardmille.com ROLEX rolex.com S SAINT LAURENT ysl.com SAND sand.dk STRELLSON strellson.com

D DELACOUR delacour.ch DOLCE & GABBANA dolcegabbana.com DUNHILL dunhill.com E ECCO ecco.com F FRENCH CONNECTION frenchconnection.com G GIVENCHY givenchy.com GUCCI gucci.com

SHARP GUIDE TO

DENIM EXTRA GO DARK Black jeans have had it rough. They’ve developed a bad rap thanks to years of terrible cuts,obnoxious washes, and of course, that whole mid-aught emo thing. They deserve a second chance. Choose a pair with a straight leg and some texture in the weave – this will give the colour some depth and interest, rather than looking flat and dull.

See page 92 for more

H HAMILTON hamiltonwatch.com HERMÈS hermes.com H&M hm.com HUGO BOSS hugoboss.com J JIL SANDER jilsander.com

Cotton-cashmere blend button up (AED 1,200) by Ermenegildo Zegna; cotton denim pants (AED 600) by Triarchy; leather boots (AED 1,700) by Frye; stainless steel watch (AED 670) by Thomas Sabo.

Photo: Mathew Guido. Styling: Mark John Tripp

L LANVIN lanvin.com LOUIS VUITTON louisvuitton.com

M MISSONI missoni.com MONTBLANC montblanc.com

T TAG HEUER tagheuer.com TIGER OF SWEDEN tigerofsweden.com TISSOT tissot.ch THOMAS PINK thomaspink.com THOMAS SABO thomassabo.com TOMMY HILFIGER tommy.com U UNIQLO uniqlo.com V VACHERON CONSTANTIN vacheron-constantin.com Y YSL ysl.com Z ZEGNA zegna.com

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Our highly scientific ranking of things that do and do not deserve your attention

2. DIFF You heard it here first: that film reveryone is Oscarbuzzing about?

Get ready for some local action.

3. MORINGA 1. BLACK MASS Because playing a sociopathic, murderous mob boss is the closest Johnny Depp has come to playing a real human in a long time.

Step aside quinoa and kale, the latest craze is moringa.

Rich in proteins, vitamins and minerals, it boasts a lot of healthy benefits and surely gives you a boost.

And as herbal tea, it tastes good.

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4. KIT AND ACE As Lululemon’s spinoff gains surprising momentum, here’s hoping it’s the Frasier of technical active wear, and not the Joey.

man Joseph GordonLevitt in The Walk this month.

Where has she been hiding all this time?

6. MERCEDES SELF-DRIVING LUXURY CAR Because you would never be caught dead in a self-driving Kia.

5. CHARLOTTE LE BON

7. HAVE A LAUGH

She’s starring opposite cover

Dave Chappelle and Noah Trevor

is headlining Dubai’s inaugural 10-day Comedy Festival this October. Yes!

8. GO PRO Dump the gym, try a new sport.

Baseball, anyone?

9. POP OF COLOUR We’re as sick of that phrase as anybody else. Why not brighten those long boring office days with a jaunty pair of socks.