Winq a taste of things to come by stream

europe: see next page

aruba

brazil

argentina

lifetime deferral

1-year deferral

canada

usa

lifetime deferral

african continent

south africa

12-month deferral

6-month deferral

Argentina 1-year deferral In 2011, Argentina was the first country in Latin America to host the global blood donor day. Last year’s theme was ‘Más sangre. Más vida’ (More blood. More life).

Aruba Lifetime deferral Aruba’s MSM policy is inspired by the Dutch blood bank policy: permanent exclusion for gay men. 04

014 /

Australia 12-month deferral 1 in 30 people are eligible to donate blood. The country is in need of 27,000 donations each week. Platelet stocks (which cancer patients rely on for treatment) plummet during long weekends and holidays because they only have a five-day shelf life, according to the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. Over the next ten years Australia’s need for donated blood will more than double. Brazil 1-year deferral

Canada Lifetime deferral In 2002, Kyle Freeman told Canadian Blood Services in an anonymous e-mail that he was a gay man who had donated blood on 18 occasions between 1990 and 2002. The blood agency tracked down his identity and sued him for having lied on the blood donor questionnaire, specifically to question 19: ‘Male donors: Have you had sex with a man, even one time, since 1977?’ In 2010 ,the Ontario Superior Court ruled that Canadian Blood Services’ donor screening meth-

australia

new zealand

12-month deferral

5-year deferral

ods uphold the highest standards of safety for its recipients, and are not a violation of Mr. Freeman’s rights. Canadian Blood Services’ board of directors passed a motion in September 2011 committing the organisation to re-examine the current MSM policy, with a view to reducing lifetime exclusion to no less than five years and no longer than years. 06

Hong Kong Lifetime deferral

14th june 2012 was world blood donor day. this year’s theme: every donor is a hero . still, gay heroism is unwanted and most countries don’t allow gay men to donate. 07

text: nicole gommers

japan

12 month deferral

blood brothers 06

hong kong

singapore

lifetime deferral

Blood transfusions save lives. Every day, people are in need of blood because of illness, an accident or heavy labour. Blood safety starts with the selection of donors. In most countries blood banks ask groups of people shown to be at an increased risk of carrying bloodborne viruses (e.g. HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and syphilis) and other infections not to give blood, either permanently or for a fixed period after behaviour known to increase the risk of transmission. This includes anal and oral sex between men (even when a condom is used).

lifetime deferral

Blood banks refer to gay men as ‘MSM’ (men who have sex with men), stating nobody is excluded because of sexual orientation. Men who have sex with men as a group have been shown to be at a statistically higher risk than the general population of acquiring HIV and other sexually acquired infections.

Japan 12-month deferral In a society with a low birth rate and aging population, it is expected that demand for blood for transfusions will continue to increase in the future. Ensuring a stable supply of blood donors has become a major challenge. Gay men are welcome to donate blood here if they did not have sexual contacts with men in the past 12 months. New Zealand 5-year deferral In March 2009, New Zealand Blood

Service (NZBS) introduced a new set of behaviour-based donor deferral criteria: the ten-year deferral was reduced to five years. 09

There is no international scientific consensus on the optimal deferral period for MSM. Most countries continue to have lifetime deferrals, while many others have exclusion periods that range from 12 months to ten years.

not to recommend a change to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) policy of a lifetime deferral for men who have sex with other men. While the Red Cross is obligated by law to follow the guidelines set forth by the FDA, it also – in its own words – “strongly supports the use of rational, scientifically-based deferral periods that are applied fairly and consistently among donors who engage in similar risk activities.”

Singapore Lifetime deferral USA Lifetime deferral The American Red Cross declared in June 2010 that it was disappointed with the decision made by the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability

To avoid donations by people who engage in ‘risky (sexual) behaviour’, every donor has to fill out a questionnaire. Despite recent improvements in blood screening tests, it is still possible for an infection to be missed if the blood is donated during the ‘window period’: the period between a person acquiring an infection and the infection being detectable in the blood. The length of the window period varies for different infections: HIV can be detected in around nine days, the hepatitis B virus can be undetectable for several months. Blood is a perishable product and needs to be transferred to hospitals immediately after testing, meaning keeping it on a shelf to await the full window period is not an option.

African continent According to the World Health Organization, 43 countries in the African region report collecting 4 million units of blood, which account for 4.3% of global donations, although these countries are home to around 12% of the global population.

South Africa 6-month deferral

/ 015

blood brothers

finland

sweden

norway

lifetime deferral

12-month deferral

lifetime deferral

ireland

lifetime deferral

12-month deferral

denmark

germany

lifetime deferral

belgium

france

lifetime deferral

16 27

the netherlands

luxembourg

estonia

lifetime deferral

austria

hungary

slovenia

lifetime deferral

016 /

spain

italy

portugal

malta

gays are welcome to donate blood

lifetime deferral

gays are welcome to donate blood

lifetime deferral

greece

lifetime deferral

russia

lifetime deferral

israel

lifetime deferral

Austria Lifetime deferral

Belgium Lifetime deferral Last year, radio talkshow host Tom de Cock donated blood during his show and admitted he’d given blood several times. “I just lie at the blood bank,” he said. De Cock – who is married and monogamous – considers the Belgian blood bank policy “stupid” and “homophobic”. “Unacceptable,” stated the Belgian Red Cross. Gay interest group Çavaria agrees with the Red Cross. Denmark Lifetime deferral

Estonia Lifetime deferral Finland Lifetime deferral France Lifetime deferral In France, 1 million patients are treated each year thanks to blood donations. 10,000 blood donations are needed each day to cover patients’ needs – and yet there is still a lifetime deferral for gay men.

Israel Lifetime deferral The lifetime deferral for MSM is being discussed by a health ministry committee, which will decide whether to change the lifetime deferral. The proposed change would allow any man who has had same-sex intercourse ten or more years ago to donate blood.

24 Italy Gays are welcome to donate blood In Italy, there are no restrictions on gays who wish to donate their blood. For safety reasons, donors (heterosexuals and homosexuals) who have a new sex partner are deferred for four months, as well as donors who have more than one partner. 25 Luxembourg Lifetime deferral

Germany Lifetime deferral According to the World Health Organization, Germany is amongst ten countries that account for 65% of the global blood collection. In order of magnitude, these countries are USA, China, India, Japan, Germany, Russia, Italy, France, Korea and the UK.

Greece Lifetime deferral

Hungary Lifetime deferral

Ireland Lifetime deferral Ireland may be close to the UK, but the country has no such plans as the UK, where the lifetime ban on gay blood donation ended in 2011 and changed into a 12-month deferral. Irish health authorities have recently said they do not plan to change the law. The Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) stated that data showed a higher rate of HIV among MSM, and that while it tested all donations for HIV, a small number of infected donations could be missed because of the window period.

Malta Lifetime deferral The Netherlands Lifetime deferral Dutch blood banks exclude MSM, but several politicians want to end the lifetime deferral. Dutch blood banks are awaiting advice from the Council of Europe, which is

expected this summer. A policy change is a possibility, depending on the outcome of the Council’s advice. Dutch blood bank Sanquin opposes any changes in the MSM policy. 28 Norway Lifetime deferral 29

Portugal Lifetime deferral Russia 12-month deferral According to the WHO, Russia is amongst ten countries that account for 65% of the global blood collection. In order of magnitude, these countries are USA, China, India, Japan, Germany, Russia, Italy, France, Korea and the UK. Slovenia Lifetime deferral

32 Spain Gays are welcome to donate blood There are no restrictions for gays who wish to donate their blood. A 12-month exclusion exists for anyone who has had more than one sexual partner in the past 12 months. 33

Sweden 12-month deferral In 2010, Sweden changed the lifetime deferral to a 12-month exclusion for MSM. UK 12-month deferral In November 2011, the UK lifted the lifetime ban on gay blood donations. The permanent exclusion of MSM has changed to a 12-month fixed-period deferral from the latest sexual contact.

sources: sabto, advisory committee on the safety of blood, tissues and organs world health organization and the european blood services.

/ 017

mdna! madonna!

culture

you wanna!

it seems like 2012 is going to be a boom or bust year for madonna. sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s already carefully engineering a perfect storm of hype surrounding her comeback. her last album hard candy and the sticky & sweet tour date back as far as 2008; they were followed by a reprise of that tour in 2009, and the umpteenth hit compilation. then suddenly, lady gaga leapt wholeheartedly into the void left by madonna, who now has to summon all her powers to regain her crown from gaga as the real queen of pop. text: jaap bartelds

culture culture / 103

culture

s luck would have it, Lady Gaga’s box of tricks seems to have been exhausted. The spectacle that this attention addict sometimes makes of herself seems more aggravating than ever. All this only serves to distract from her amazing voice, although it’ll soon be Madonna who’ll be ruling the roost again in any case, so it’s immaterial. If the first tell-tale signs are anything to go by, then Madonna will be all over you in 2012. It started on 5th February with the half-time show at the Super Bowl, the annual sporting and showbiz highlight of the American TV season. Cirque du Soleil accompanied Madonna (or was it the other way round?) during an astonishing act put on to promote her first single, Give Me All Your Luvin’. M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj made cameos as wildly entertaining cheerleaders. Earlier this year, someone from Madonna’s inner circle was busted because of several songs he blabbed. Over the last few years, a string of unreleased tracks and demos have seen the light of day (as well as some seriously creepy photos) on internet blogs, which it seems is mostly down to a Spanish fan with stalking tendencies who was supplied with the tracks via The Leak. Among the digital contraband was the new single: a track produced by Martin Solveig.

Another track that has been officially released is Masterpiece, a wonderfully sung ballad composed by William Orbit, where Madonna seems to want to emulate the success of Ray of Light, which is now already 14 years old. Masterpiece was lifted from the soundtrack to W.E.: a stylish drama about the affair between Wallis Simpson and Britain’s King Edward VIII. The film is reminiscent of Tom Ford’s A Simple Man and was reasonably received by the critics.

ON THE COVER OF A MAGAZINE It all started when I was clearing out a pile of old glossy magazines. Out popped my very first self-purchased copy of The Face from 1990. On the cover was Madonna, sporting her most fierce pose ever. Her lips were smeared scarlet red, and the left side of her mouth displayed a playful sneer. Her semi-gloved hands were crossed in front of a hooded sweater.

Both tracks feature together with 12 other songs on MDNA – as the album Madonna herself released on The Graham Norton Show is called. Later this year, the opening of the Olympic Games is lined up, as is the launch of a fragrance by the name of Truth or Dare, an update of daughter Lola’s tweenster clothing line Material Girl and – as if that wasn’t enough – there’s also the opening of a branch of Madonna’s Hard Candy fitness centre in Moscow. It’s enough to wear even Lady Gaga out!

Ten minutes later, a pile of mags from the Ray of Light period was stacked on top, within which serene, earthy Virgin Marys were battling for pole position with spiritual yogis. Before I realised it, I was sitting amid some 30 magazines depicting Madonna through the centuries (the 20th and 21st, that is). A subsequent search on eBay revealed that I’d only amassed the tip of the Madge iceberg. The more I clicked on the hundreds of Madonna covers on

offer, the greedier I got... gimme gimme gimme... I’m assembling my own iceberg, darn it! Harper’s Bazaar! Vanity Fair! Rolling Stone! Smash Hits! Even more of The Face! My collection of magazines with Madonna on the cover has now spiralled to some 450 copies, from high-end glossies like Vogue (all of them!) to bog-standard British tabloid rags (all the best ones!). I have got a copy of just about every title that matters, and I have even got three extra copies of some of

the rarer editions. But it’s still not enough; it’s now time for me to track down the more obscure offerings, like covers from Hungary or Japan for instance. And I’m still forever on the lookout for that elusive British Tatler from March 1986, where Madonna is enveloped in a white robe with a black crucifix across her forehead. But even if it did turn up on eBay, it would set the buyer back at least $300. And that’s too silly even for me.Well, for now anyway…

culture

madonna is continuing her quest to expand beyond her designation as the queen of pop with her second filmmaking effort, w.e. considerably more polished and ambitious than her low-budget debut filth and wisdom, the film is rolling out into theatres in early 2012 after screening at film festivals in venice, toronto and london last year.

explores the real-life story of Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American who became the Duchess of Windsor when she married the former King Edward VIII in 1937. Wally Winthrop, a modern-day, fictional mirror of Simpson, is searching for her own fairy-tale romance at the same time.

Of all the stories to tell, why this one? “Wallis Simpson was such an intriguing historical figure. The choice that Edward VIII made to give up the throne for his woman posed a lot of questions in my brain. Did he do it for love? Was it the greatest romance of the 20th century? As I investigated and did research on her, I realised that she had been treated very unfairly in the history books and she didn’t actually turn out to be any of the things that were first presented to me. So that made me think about the whole idea of the cult of celebrity, and our obsession with famous people, and how unfairly we usually treat them, because we don’t allow them to become human beings. We paint them as either black or white and there is no nuance or subtlety. The idea of duality doesn’t exist. So all of those things factored into my attraction to the story.”

Critics have not been overwhelmingly kind. At its world premiere in Venice, it was met with negative-to-mixed reviews, though appearances at less formal festivals like Toronto and London found relatively kinder words. Some – including Madonna herself – have questioned whether some critics are

Compared to your previous film, this is such a different monster. It’s bigger in every possible way. What sort of experience did you take from making that film into making this? “Filth and Wisdom was a good way to learn about filmmaking. To learn about cameras, angles, lenses and how to work with actors.

text: peter knegt

W.E.

culture

judging W.E. or the filmmaker as a person. Either way, it is a story of female empowerment that fits quite snugly into Madonna’s near 30-year career as an iconic entertainer.

this film that they are reviewing the actual movie or simply reviewing you? How do you treat the way people respond to your work when you’re trying to do something that’s different from what you’re best known for? “I pay attention to reviews, and I know when people are reviewing my work, and when they’re letting me, the person, the human being, get in the way. It’s then that I don’t really give it much credence because at the end of the day I made the film to be judged as a film, not for people to compare it to me. And I understand that that’s gonna happen. I knew that going into this that people were going to sometimes get their opinion of me mixed up and muddled in with my work. So I appreciate it when people review my film and really stick to the film.”

One film experience can only help the next one.” Andrea Riseborough as Wallis Simpson was definitely the standout among the actors. It must have been so much work preparing her for that role. “Just getting her accent right was tough. The way she speaks is so odd. She had this, you know, what they call a transcontinental accent. It’s the way the movie stars in Hollywood spoke – Americans trying to sound like they’re English. And it happens a lot to Americans that move to England, you start to sort of speak half and half, which is a little bit bizarre. Plus she had a little bit of a Southern accent, so getting that balance right, that was a challenge.” I found the film was really a story about empowerment and controlling your own destiny. It seems like that’s something you’ve always been interested in in your career. “It’s more knowing that you’re in charge of your destiny and that you don’t have to live your life according to other people’s plans or expectations. That’s always been a big message in my work. The freedom to express yourself and be who you are and not limit yourself. That’s a big message in the film. That you’re in charge of your destiny. You don’t have to live the life that everyone else expects you to.” Speaking of expectations, do you think that when people watch

Has this experience given you any perspective on the oftendiscussed issue that there are so few women directing films? Why do you think that is? “I think directing is perceived as a man’s job and every once in a while I would say to myself, this is a man’s job, because you know, there is no time for grooming. So it’s not a terribly feminine feeling to show up on the set making a film. On the other hand, my being a woman I think really came in handy when it came to nurturing the actors and you know spending time with the girls and dressing them and stuff like that. And the boys. I loved dressing everybody, I loved putting the finishing touches on everyone, from the kerchief in the pocket of Edward’s suit to the cufflinks, jewellery and final pin in the hair. Everything. I loved doing all that stuff. I don’t want to categorise people, but I don’t know how many men would be interested in that part of the job.” Some, but certainly not all. “Some. A small group, yes.” A small, fabulous group. “Exactly.” What’s next for you, and how do you want your filmmaking career to evolve? “I’d like to make more films. But next, I’m going to release my record. Writing music was a nice change because I’ve been working on this movie for three years. Song writing is a much more visceral exercise than making films. Different. I love them both. But when you’re a filmmaker, you really live in your head, and its nice to play the guitar and you know, move around.”

“ it’s then that i don’t really give it much credence because at the end of the day i made the film to be judged as a film, not for people to compare it to me. and i understand that that’s gonna happen” culture

ing to Anton Hysen, the reason why gay players all over the world are still refusing to tell the world who they really are.

the ugly face of the beautiful game could christiano ronaldo possibly fancy boys? would his career end there and then? george prior discovers what is, and isn’t, being done to tackle homophobia in football. text: george prior

Until earlier this year, Justin Fashanu was the only professional footballer in history who has ever flung open the closet doors and, to quote that time-honoured Gloria Gaynor lyric, shouted out “I am what I am.” But in March, 20- year-old Swedish rising football star, Anton Hysen, announced he is gay in an interview with the country’s Offside magazine. Hysen, who plays for 4th tier side Utsiktens BK, told the publication it was “fucked up” that no other Swedish player had yet confirmed their homosexuality. “I am a footballer. And gay. If I perform as a footballer, then I do not think it matters if I like girls or boys,” he said. He added that the announcement could affect his career, but pointed out that other players had to deal with issues like racism from coaches, managers and fans. The footballer, the son of former Liverpool and Fiorentina star Glenn Hysen, said he hoped his decision to come out would lead the way for others to do the same “if they felt it was right.” Homophobia is, accord042 /

you can die in a war but not be cheered on Being gay, it appears, remains the last taboo in the so-called ‘Beautiful Game’ of football. Racist and sexist banter on the pitch and the terraces, in the dressing room and the commentary box is universally condemned. FIFA, football’s international governing body, issued fans with fines of up to E17,000 in 2008 after England striker, Emile Heskey, was the target of racist chanting at a match in Zagreb, Croatia. Similarly, Spanish club Atletico Madrid was handed a two-match home ban by UEFA, the European football authority, after supporters abused members of the Marseille squad during a Champions League match. More recently, high-profile British commentators Richard Keys and Andy Gray were forced to leave their £ 1.7 million-a-year jobs with British broadcaster Sky, after making off-air derogatory remarks about female referee Sian Massey. But while prejudice on the basis of race or gender may be being tackled with fines, bans and sackings, abuse regarding one’s sexuality remains commonplace in football. Homosexuality is now the taunt of choice. Football is one of the last bastions of an overtly laddish culture where gay bashing is seemingly tolerated. Even historically ultra masculine and conservative professions such as the armed forces and investment banking are, according to Stonewall – a British-based gay rights group, significantly better at addressing the issue of homophobia. “We’re happy to send openly gay people to fight in Afghanistan, but we don’t send openly gay professional footballers on to the pitch,” says the organisation’s chief executive, Ben Summerskill. Warsaw-based football fan Alojzy Babinski says: “Homophobia is rife at every football match I’ve ever been to anywhere in the world. It is particularly bad in Poland and sometimes I fear for my safety when I’m at the home ground. I know I’m not the only one who has suffered a broken rib or two thanks to rowdy, homophobic fans. And this is why some fans have asked for separate seating at the European Championships in 2012.” Teczowa Trybuna 2012, meaning Rainbow Stand 2012, is the organisation which has made that request to organisers, claiming that they could face harassment and violence if seated with the main crowd. “During trips to matches of our beloved clubs … we unfortunately are often faced with unpleasantness, harassment and violence from the ‘real’ fans. We dream of being able to relax in the stands – we can’t imagine not being at the Euro 2012 matches, which will be held in our country,” a spokesman says.

just casual hate vs. a real beating Chair of the UK’s Gay Football Supporters’ Network (GFSN), Chris Basiurski, echoes the view that it is a widespread problem: “If you asked the FA (the Football Association, the English game’s governing body), they would say that there have only been one or two reported incidents of homophobia in football this season, but this does not mean to say that it doesn’t exist. “Incidents of homophobia are generally split into two types: abusive homophobia and so-called ‘casual’ homophobia. The distinction is the difference between hate-driven abuse compared with the use of gay terms to insult, which may be meant in a more light-hearted or ignorant rather than a hateful way.

image: anp

“we’re happy to send openly gay people to fight in afghanistan, but we don’t send openly gay professional footballers on to the pitch” / 043

“In football, people grab onto whatever perceived advantage they can to gain the upper hand over an opposition, so anything can be used as a weapon. We have to ensure that it is not allowed to use sexuality in this way. Examples of abusive homophobia tend to be high profile in the professional game, whereas the ‘casual homophobia’ is more prevalent, equally harmful, and much more difficult to report and tackle,” he explains. Cristiano Ronaldo, Ashley Cole, Graeme Le Saux and Sol Campbell are just a few of the prominent international players who have been victims of abusive homophobic slurs from hateful fans. And they’re not even gay. In 2006, Arsenal supporters taunted Cole about his sexuality and chanted “Ashley Cole is a rent boy”; some even printed fake £20 notes and replaced the image of the queen with an image of Cole in drag. Two years later, Sol Campbell was targeted in a spate of anti-gay rhetoric when Tottenham Hotspur fans recited: “Sol, Sol, wherever you may be/ You’re on the verge of lunacy/And we don’t give a fuck if you’re hanging from a tree/You’re a Judas cunt with HIV.” It was followed with a chant of “He’s big, he’s black. He takes it up his crack.” But it’s not just testosterone and alcohol-fuelled rants on the terraces where homophobia is prevalent. In his autobiography, former England

and Chelsea defender, Graeme Le Saux described how anti-gay slurs almost wrecked his career. He said how he dreaded going to work and by the time he arrived for training he felt sick with nerves. “I was like a bullied kid on his way to school to face his tormentors,” he writes. For more than 12 years, Le Saux endured the harassment of everyone from team-mates including Robbie Fowler who infamously bent over in front of him and made obscene gestures during a match, to a stadium full of charged of fans yelling lewd comments.

christiano ronaldo and david beckham photographed modelling for emporio armani. looks like a fashion image form this magazine. but then it would be gay – now it obviously is not.

This anti-gay feeling reaches beyond the dressing room to the higher echelons of football. Just last November, Vlatko Markovic, the president of the Croatian Football Federation, caused controversy by saying there is no place for gay people in the squad. “While I’m president, there will be no homosexuals in the national team,” he said. 044 /

UEFA immediately condemned Markovic’s statement and tells Mate it is “against any form of discrimination. We are all equal with a football at our feet.” Likewise, FIFA says: “Discrimination of any kind against a country, private person or group of people on account of ethnic origin, gender, language, religion, politics or any other reason, is strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion.” Although a step in the right direction, the world’s two most important football bodies fail to specifically mention sexuality-based prejudice when we asked about. However, the FA’s Matt Phillips told this magazine that the organisation “aims to confront aggressive issues such as homophobia, making it an inclusive, family-friendly game.” So, if football’s leading authorities are opposed to any form of discrimination, why are there so few openly gay players, whilst there are plenty of examples of out gay and lesbian professionals in other sports?

think about the money! Czech tennis star Martina Navratilova, UK rugby player Gareth Thomas, cricketer Steven Davies, former basketball hero John Amaechi, and Australian Rugby League icon, Ian Roberts, amongst others, have all played in traditionally male-dominated sports, and all say they have received an overwhelmingly positive reaction to their sexuality from supporters and colleagues. “Football is still very much in the dark ages,” says British PR guru Max Clifford, who represents some of sport’s most influential stars, including two premiership football players, who he has advised to stay in the closet: “I didn’t agree with telling them to keep their sexuality secret, but asked whether coming out would damage their career, and their chance of getting big sponsorship deals, I had to be honest and say ‘yes, it would.’ That’s the reality at the moment. In 2000 I said that I thought in ten years’ time homophobia would be a thing of the past in football, but sadly that’s not been the case.” Research by the International Gay and Lesbian Association (ILGA) confirms the standpoint. “Our studies demonstrate that anti-gay abuse is a problem faced by many on the terraces and on the pitches at every level of the game. Fans feel threatened and players feel unable to come out as gay,” says the ILGA’s Taylor Peasgood. GFSN’s Chris Basiurski believes that it’s not just the loss of sponsorship dollars that keeps footballers in the closet. He reckons that taunting by fans and players plus tabloid intrusion are other key reasons: “The recent examples of Graeme Le Saux, Ashley Cole and Sol Campbell have served as a deterrent. Any player coming out would be vulnerable to abuse from teammates, opponents and the crowd, until the footballing community moves to make football more tolerant. I can fully understand why a professional player, who owes his first duty to his teammates and his club, chooses not to jeopardise what is often a very short career by coming out. To do so would attract a new pressure as well as intense media interest.” One person who did take the risk, and who paid the ultimate price for standing up for his convictions, was Justin Fashanu – the first millionpound, black player. Fashanu publicly came out in 1990, and more than

“ i have long urged the football authorities to make an mtv-style video against homophobia […] with a joyful music track by a leading contemporary singer like tinie tempah” two decades on, he remains the only professional English footballer to do so. He eventually committed suicide in 1998 following years of adverse publicity about his sexuality. Alan Duffy from The Justin Campaign, which was founded to highlight the ongoing problem of homophobia in grassroots and professional football, says little has changed since Fashanu’s death. “Unfortunately, overall, things have hardly moved at all since he died in 1998,” he says. “The footballing authorities have done little to create a comfortable, welcoming environment for footballers who want to come out. Without any support from the authorities, players obviously feel it would be a difficult thing to do. Then there is the inherent traditional macho culture within the sport, both in the dressing room and on the terraces.”

n=1

use anti-gay insults. Money talks. The threat of financial losses and the denial of the right to play would be a strong deterrent to homophobia. Severe punishment is justified in cases of serious homophobia but the real solution is public education to change hearts and minds. I have long urged the football authorities to make an MTV-style video against homophobia, with big-name stars like David Beckham. I’d like to see the video have a strong, joyful music track by a leading contemporary singer like Tinie Tempah.” Taylor Peasgood from ILGA concurs: “Simply not enough is being done to prevent homophobia in football. We see countless examples in every continent, in every country and at every level – from the amateur games to the highest net worth matches – that it is a very real issue. If there was a proper willingness to clamp down it could be done as we have seen with racism.” For their part, FIFA told Mate that “in addition to hosting events such as the FIFA Conference on Racism in Football and establishing an Anti-Discrimination Day every year, FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter has on several occasions stressed that we must take our efforts to a higher level and lead the fight against discrimination in football. In 2010, the FIFA Anti-Discrimination Day was held on 2 and 3rd July, coinciding with the four 2010 FIFA World Cup quarter-final matches, so as to make a clear statement to the billions around the world about FIFA’s united stand against racism and all forms of discrimination.” Football fan John Callaghan thinks actions speak louder than words when addressing this issue. “It’s all just hot air. UEFA and FIFA are saying all the right, politically correct things but they’re not addressing the very real problem of homophobia. Gay supporters like me feel continually intimidated at matches and I’m sure the gay players – and there must be quite a few across the world – must feel the same. For example: in my opinion it was a disgrace that FIFA decided to select Qatar, a country known for its antigay laws, to host the World Cup in 2022. For all their talk of being inclusive, they couldn’t, in fact, be less inclusive by choosing this Middle Eastern country with a dubious human rights record.”

So, 13 years after one of the most-celebrated footballers, who happened to be gay, broke into a dusty, disused garage in east London and hanged himself, the lonely number of one is the sum total of how many pro players have come out. What is being done to address the matter? “We campaign against any form of discrimination including homophobia, and our disciplinary body can impose sanctions when cases are reported and evidence is provided,” a UEFA spokesman tells Mate. The organisation did not however specifically name any anti-gay programmes it runs, only mentioning the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) campaign which it supports financially. Arguably more proactive is England’s FA. “We host a Tackling Homophobia Working Group the openly gay-hating fashion house d&g tends to portray football players as sexy as it gets. napoli which features key stakeholders such as gay-friendly qatar fans are not amused: they scribbled sono gay (“they are all gays”) and doppia lota (slang for “double Stonewall, the Gay Football Supporters NetWhen asked by Mate about taking football’s shit”) on this poster. work, the Professional Footballers Association ultimate prize to Qatar, a FIFA spokeswoman and Kick It Out amongst others, so the FA are at their Zürich headquarters dismissed speaking and working with the right people on tackling homophobia concerns that the country is homophobic, despite laws punishing in football. The FA also has a long-term strategy for homophobia in homosexuality and gay sex with a five year prison sentence. Blatter football. And we also launched the online film Kick It Out last year, to further angered gay rights campaigners when, probed on the issue of kick homophobia out of the game, which was distributed via YouTube,” gay fans visiting Qatar, he said: “I would say they should refrain from explains spokesman, Matt Phillips. any sexual activities.” Former NBA star, John Amaechi, told us he But for influential gay rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, these measwas “enraged by the comments and filed an official complaint to FIFA.” ures do not go far enough: “The paper policies are now rather good A very public slip of the tongue by football’s most powerful official, but these formal policies need to be translated into stronger and more combined with recent attacks on gay football fans and the ongoing visible initiatives to make the beautiful game welcoming to lesbian, verbal abuse endured by players, seem to illustrate there is still much gay, bisexual and transgender people,” he told a football ‘equality and progress to be made on and off the pitch. Time will tell whether football diversity’ conference in March. “They should impose big fines and really will kick homophobia into history. But for the moment it remains match suspensions on players, managers and other football staff who the Beautiful Game’s ugliest stain.

/ 045

112 mind the bollocks. check yourself.

IND H E B R E T S N SEA MO E H T E V A E L W! BURN FAT NO

C6.95 (+Losing ALL yo

100% fat free | FALL

2011

YOUR BEST

BODY EVER ing [In six exhaust months]

PROTEIN S! PROBLEM YS TO

QUICK WA GE TURBOCHAR ES L C YOUR MUS

BUILD A BEACH BODY in just 4 days. It can be done! 120 /

body+mind

ur Friends)

GREAT SEX ED GUARANTE Ways to

Sure-fire Feed His Desire

ROCK HARD

! S AB Building

Himalayas on your belly

LESS? FIT ORWORTH test Take the MH

LIVING ON BLUEBERRerIES No more be for you.Ever!

a six-pack in

six months entire city populations descend on health clubs once a week in search of a better body. but having an hour’s jog on a saturday morning isn’t really going far enough. everyone knows it but nobody says it out loud. merijn henfling on the other hand really did take things to the limit for six months to discover whether extreme exercise and diet combined would render the right results. text: merijn henfling | images: marc deurloo | illustration: edwin hanssen (g.o.e.t.)

Here I am after having been a good boy... It’s December 2010 and I’m stepping off the scales at the health club. My weight and fat percentage have just been measured, and I don’t like the results one bit: there’s not a gram of extra muscle now than there was last year, but there are an extra three kilos of additional fat. I now have a fat percentage of 15. I’ve just spent a year doing weights, exercising intensively about three times per week, but the effect is nothing, zilch, nada. Okay, so my fitness level has remained the same, but just one thing echoes through my mind: I’ve got fatter. I complete my usual round of exercises, feeling pretty demotivated. I start to doubt the purpose of having a health club membership. I didn’t do those exercises to get in perfect shape, but to have a more toned and muscular body. Is exercising of any use at all? Shall I just pack it in and buy a deep fat fryer? Or at least eat three boxes of chocolates? If I’m to believe Men’s Health, any man can easily attain a six-pack within six weeks, but after 52, mine still hasn’t materialised. Carrying on like this is just no good. As it’s December and good

intentions are readily conceived, I come to the conclusion that I have to take a different approach. I decide that my challenge will be to attain a six-pack in six months, and I’m not going to go it alone. I will look for a personal coach who not only wants to supervise me during my training sessions, but who also wants to take a look at my diet, because I have a feeling that I’m doing something wrong in that respect too. I will eat healthier foods and train in a better manner in order to burn off fat and build muscle. As a safety measure, I agree with Mate to have my picture taken in my swimming briefs every month. Friends and family find my idea hilarious and ridiculous respectively. “But you’re fine just as you are, everyone tells me. It’s meant in the nicest way, I guess. But I don’t think I’m fine – my baby fat irritates me. In order to shed fat, I need a dieting method, and a lot of these are either naff or unhealthy, so a friend points me in the direction of Ralph Moorman, an Amsterdam fitness coach and nutrition specialist

who has come up with a new method of losing weight: the Hormone Factor. It’s all about bringing about a balance to the hormones. In the first instance my reaction is one of rejection, as I’m wondering whether this is safe. I mean, does it involve taking hormones for instance? The method turns out to have nothing to do with downing pink pills or taking hormones. On the contrary: I’m told to start cooking for myself and in particular to get eating fresh food. Moorman’s view is that excess weight is down to a disrupted hormonal balance. Health Club Jordaan, in the heart of Amsterdam is the first health club offering the Hormone Factor as a method in combination with personal training. I’ll be following the programme for six months.

supermarket safari The 35-year-old Ralph Moorman, a handsome personal trainer who doubles as a model, has a lot of celebrities as clients. His cast-iron biceps, huge torso, and taught rear end stand out at our very first meeting. Straight away, I have no trouble picturing myself enjoying weekly training sessions with this chap. Unfortunately, it soon becomes evident that he only does the initial introductory chat, and can only be approached from that point on by e-mail for advice – the real personal training is left to one of his 60 trainers, who have all been taught the basics of the Hormone Factor. Moorman is a particularly positive soul, and stimulating as only a fitness coach knows how to be. He reacts with enthusiasm when I reveal my plans, and his e-mails always close with sentences such as “it’s going brilliantly!!!” and “this is truly fantastic!! Yes!!” body+mind / 121

We meet up in the raw food café of Health Club Jordaan, somewhere that habitually smells of freshly mown grass. If I seriously stick to the programme, he assures me I will have a six-pack at the end of it. Now that’s my kind of talk. For a correct hormonal balance, the key factor is vigorous and supervised exercise two to three times a week, plus the right nutrition: that means not eating less, but eating properly. In the introductory talk the focus is very much on my current diet. When I tell Moorman what I have to eat and drink every day, he starts to shake his head. I eat cereal and yoghurt for breakfast, then have a cappuccino, eat lots of bread with cheese for lunch, and then in the evening usually have steamed dinners, ready-made salads, or just bread. It’s convenient. I reneged a bit on cooking my own meals through either being too busy or not bothered enough. Oh, and late at night I usually eat some yoghurt or crackers with cheese. “That’s not good at all,” Moorman says, looking at me as if he’s just discovered a tumour. Cereal grains, a healthy slice of bread, and salad meals? I think my diet is pretty balanced overall. I’m not a real drinker either – in restaurants I drink a couple

january

122 /

body+mind

of wines or a few vodkas when I’m out at night, but that’s it really. What the hell is so wrong for this nutrition guy to be giving me the forbidding shake of the head? First mistake: I hardly eat any fresh, self-prepared food. Man was not designed to eat a ready-made meal with added salt, sugar and chemicals claims

“ that’s not good at all,” moorman says, looking at me as if he’s just discovered a tumour on me Moorman. These days, people eat products that the human body is totally unequipped to deal with. Don’t go in for factory feed, says the coach, but venture back to the cuisine of our greatgrandparents. Cereals, steamed meals, pre-packed salads: I’m told to ditch ‘em all! I have to start eating fibre-rich foods, such as vegetables, legumes, fruit, seeds and nuts. Second mistake: I eat far too much bread. Gluten

is present in bread, pastry and pasta products. Moorman claims that many people are glutenintolerant without even realising it, which can impair the absorption of nutrients. Anyway, bread turns out to be a calorific bomb. Rice cakes are better. Third mistake: I eat and drink too many dairy products. I always thought that a bowl of yoghurt was healthy, but Moorman’s method states that milk products can be detrimental to bowel function, and he claims that many people suffer from lactointolerance. Milk is meant for young calves, not for people, so that needs to be stopped – the fear of a calcium deficiency is unfounded. So, it’s time to stop eating cheese and yoghurt, and to quit drinking cappuccino. I’m given two books that tell me exactly where I’m going wrong. But before I can go home to ponder my harmful eating pattern, we head out on a supermarket safari: on a survival trip to the local food store. Moorman leads the way. Once we’re in, I notice that a sizeable chunk of foodstuffs is out of bounds to me now. I need to focus on food derived straight from the source, such as vegetables, fruit, seeds, tubers, nuts, eggs, meat and fish; in other

february

words, food that has found its way to the shelves without undue processing. The food I need to omit is the processed stuff: tinned food, processed meat slices, ready-made meals, herbal and spice blends, cheeses and so on ad infinitum. These items no longer suit my menu, as they contain chemical additives, sugar, trans-fat, starch, and wheat and milk products. Moorman also points out that I need to start buying organic food. The quality is better, it is pesticidefree, and there are no growth hormones or antibiotic residues in the meat, as these substances are prohibited within organic farming. I realise it’s going to be a costly exercise. Just before we leave the shop, we pass by my favourite nut-sprinkled cereal (which I thought was quite healthy) but Moorman is quite adamant: it’s bad stuff, too many additives, steer clear. What I am permitted is a breakfast of porridge. Not with milk mind you, but made up with water. What an earth have I let myself in for, I think when cycling back home.

let’s get to it It’s late December when I embark on my new lifestyle, which couldn’t have come at a worse time.

march

I struggle as best I can to get through the Christmas holidays, and have a virtually booze-devoid New Year’s Eve. It’s the dullest start to the year, but no pain, no gain and all that, I keep reminding myself... My breakfast is indeed porridge made with warm water, decorated with a few unroasted nuts and sweetened with blueberries. Initially I think it tastes disgusting and friends deem my new breakfast

friends deem my new breakfast ‘too wartime’ and ask me if i’m also required to eat bulbs too ‘too wartime’ and ask me if I’m also required to eat bulbs. But in time, I get to appreciate it; even throwing in a few extra berries and nuts to improve the taste, and somehow growing to like it. I stop eating bread altogether, and have lunch with rice cakes and thick slices of chicken breast, roast beef, avocado, salmon, shrimps or egg (hark the checkout ker-chinging!). After a while, I switched to salads for lunch. In between I ‘snack’ with bits of

chicken breast or roast beef, and in the evening I cook for myself again, using lots of vegetables and meat, and a little rice or potatoes, without sauces or fatty additives of any kind; it’s not too bad. I try not to have a munch in the evening, and I’m doing okay (although I can’t resist the unroasted nuts when I get hungry after a few hours. I decide that a natural nut mix is to be my new snack, and I feast on dark chocolate, which Moorman likes to call ‘sensible sinning’. The eating side of things is going pretty well considering; the difficult times are dinners with friends or trips out to restaurants. At those times, I have to try very hard to stop myself from ordering that gorgeous white chocolate cake, or having nibbles of Stilton from the cheese board. I’ve thrown my good intentions overboard on a couple of occasions – after a drunken night on the town (oops, lots of alcohol), I want to know if I still enjoy food from Burger King (yep, very much so). But, because I’m quite dedicated, I pretty much stick within the Moorman confines. The downside to this diet is, as expected, that it’s pretty costly. Healthy eating is simply more expensive than eating poor food, and the larger

april

body+mind / 123

portions of meat, chicken and fish plus the organic requirements on top do add up. Attaining a correct hormonal balance isn’t meant for poor people I think to myself after viewing my shopping bill at the supermarket checkout.

toxin alert The second part of attaining a good hormonal balance is training. Now I’ve been training in a quite dedicated manner for the past five years, but haven’t been witnessing any progress recently. And why not? Well, it turns out I haven’t been challenging my body enough. I’ve been doing the same programme for a year, without any real changes. I maintain my anatomical status quo, but fail to work on building up extra muscle tissue. Those people who are training without the aid of a personal coach, should change their schedule every two months, as muscles are lazy things and go idle when stimulated in the same manner for too long. The Moorman training programme is especially geared towards short intensive strength training. Every training session features 15 minutes of cardio, but you mainly do weights: anything to build

may

124 /

body+mind

up more muscle. The more muscles you have the more energy your body will use up when idle. The focus is on the large muscle groups that have a naturally high degree of muscle tissue: the legs, back and chest. Of course there are abs exercises, but don’t expect a six-pack from doing a hundred crunches per day. You will only get a washboard tummy if the fat percentage all over your body

attaining a correct hormonal balance isn’t meant for poor people i think to myself after viewing my shopping bill at the supermarket checkout is reduced. Therefore those looking for a tight stomach are better off training their legs. Personal coaching is part of the Hormonal Balance programme. I train intensively for an hour twice a week. Initially, I receive ‘personal’ coaching in a group configuration, together with two other followers of the programme. The first time I arrive

at the health club for the workout, I receive a couple of funny looks from my fellow group members: two ladies with a considerable surplus of weight. They mock me when I tell them I’m doing the Hormonal Factor. “You?? Is there any fat on you that needs shedding then?,” asks one of the ladies, which gives me an instant guilt complex. Over the course of three months I train with Marco (an Italian) and Eduard (a Dutch guy): two tough guys who enjoy pushing me to the limit, more than I think I can handle. Just when I think I really can’t give any more, they demand extra exercises, and amazingly enough, I manage to complete them, which then makes me quite fanatical. My fellow group members are primarily middle-aged women, with the odd guy appearing now and then. We talk about whether we like the programme, and what we find the hardest aspect. Not being able to drink coffee is way up on everyone’s list of impossible asks. I soon revert back to drinking the stuff too; even falling back into my cappuccino habit – well, you have to have some fun in life. Training within a group configuration is fine and the other members are nice enough too – apart from one guy who insists on panting orgasmically after every little

june

exertion. I do notice however that I am being slowed down somewhat by the group. Halfway through the programme, it’s decided that I switch to a one-on-one-training, the real personal training. It’s like a breath of fresh air: one hour’s full-on training, and a different schedule each time with a coach who knows me well and can grasp what works for me. My new personal trainer is Rachel de la Vante, a feisty dame in her mid-30s, who has nearly two decades of coaching athletes under her belt. Our first training session immediately kicks off with a minor conflict, when she enquires why I drink my water from a plastic bottle. That habit is actually a Moorman no-no. In his book he claims that glass is better, as plastic can leach toxins. Yeah well, I felt that was going just a little too far when I read it. Rachel does drink her water from a glass vessel, and views that as a serious option for me too. I am not going backwards and forwards to the health club with a glass bottle, because if I throw down my sports bag, there’ll be glass shards everywhere. But later on it turns out that we get along quite well, and I notice that Rachel is enthused by my dedicated attitude, and more to the point: my progress. I only train twice a week, but I’m already able to lift heavier weights after a short timeframe. The further I progress, the more Rachel piles on the pressure. Sometimes an extra weight gets slipped on unnoticed. It’s now all about building up muscle,

and so I have to push myself to the limit. I could never have imagined beforehand just how agreeable personal training is. For some people, a personal trainer is the only thing that actually gets them to the health club, but I don’t have that problem. For me, a trainer helps to lure me out of my comfort zone, so I can surprise myself. I don’t know where Rachel is getting my exercises from,

she enquires why i drink my water from a plastic bottle. that habit is actually a moorman no-no. in his book he claims that glass is better, as plastic can leach toxins but with every training comes a new set of things to do. It does mean my muscles often ache, which is a good sign though, because it means muscles are being created.

eureka And after six months, it’s time to hop onto the scales and see what my fat percentage is now. So, what’s happened then? Well, in six months, I have lost three kilos, but I’ve lost a lot more fat. Due to exercise and healthier eating, I have actually burnt

off fat and built up muscle. My fat percentage has dropped from 15 to 8%, and yes, when I tighten up my abdominal muscles you can see the beginnings of a six-pack. My shirts fit around my body a lot more appealingly, and I’m looking forward to a trip to the beach for the first time in ages. Am I happy? Well if I’m honest, not entirely. Naturally I’m happier with my body than I was six months ago, but the weird thing is, once you get a bit fanatical about exercising and improving your body, you want more exercise and an even better bod. There are always boys at the health club with a taughter body, and all of them feel they’re not quite as they’d like to be. I fear that this is the fate of the fanatical fitness freak. Some gents go off the rails and seek out the anabolic steroids. That’s never something I’d get into, but I will continue with my food and exercise regime, in a somewhat watered down manner. I will continue to train with a personal coach, as it’s well worth the E45 an hour to me, and I still willingly digest my daily water-based porridge breakfast. All right, I’ll admit to slacking off a bit on the food side of things. I still don’t eat bread, cheese, yoghurt or sweets, and I am disciplined with alcohol. But I did have a kebab the other day, and I enjoyed my first cheesecake with a cappuccino. Don’t tell anyone...

the hormonal balance diet: 9 rules for healthy eating

Do not starve yourself. Severe calorie limitation is detrimental to the hormonal balance. People who starve themselves eventually end up fatter than when they started. That’s why you need to keep eating sufficiently and not feed yourself like a pet hamster. Eat as nature intended. Our body is attuned to natural foods from the prehistoric age. Mankind was then a huntergatherer, and ate nuts, fruit, vegetables, roots, tubers, meat, poultry, eggs and fish; all unprocessed and without additives. While our genes are the same as they were back then, our diet has changed beyond recognition in the past 200 years. We eat highly processed factory feed, with an overabundance of sugar, salt and E-numbers. You really don’t have to live like a caveman in the wild, but you can find enough food in the supermarket that equates to that what we ate in the early period of mankind. Eat as much

pure, organic produce as you can: fresh veg, meat and fish, eggs and nuts. Careful with carbohydrates. Carbohydrates (starch and sugars) are a key source of energy for your body, but most people ingest too many. Don’t ditch all the carbs from the menu, but stop eating sweets and sugar-laden fruits such as bananas, nectarines and peaches. Potatoes, rice and vegetables are the good carbohydrates. Eat sufficient protein. Protein-rich food doesn’t just lessen the feeling of hunger; the amino acids in protein are major building blocks for the production of hormones. Protein is found in meat, poultry, eggs and fish. Eat sufficient fat. Many people think that fat makes you fat, plus that it’s bad for your heart and vascular system. But it’s wrong to generalise like that. Fat is an essential nutrient: it’s necessary for the production of key hormones

such as testosterone, oestrogen, hydrocortisone and adrenaline. Go in particular for omega-3 and omega-9 fatty acids, which can be sourced from fish, game, olive oil, avocado and nuts. Eat restricted amounts of saturated fats (meat, dairy butter, eggs) and avoid trans-fats (margarine, biscuits, peanut butter, junk food, pizza, ready-made meals) and oxidised fats (roasted nuts, crisps in sunflower oil). Eat meat, poultry and fish. Vegetarians will be hindered in trying to follow the Hormone Factor diet, as the hormonal balance will not be ideal without meat. Meat, poultry and fish contain many valuable elements. Eat mainly chicken, steak and fish fillet, pork is not advisable due to its poor digestive qualities. Refrain from eating wheat products. One striking feature of the hormonal balance diet is the absence of wheat, which means no bread,

pastry or pasta products. Wheat contains gluten, a protein to which many people have developed intolerance, and that can affect the function of the intestines. The alternative for bread is rice cakes, and instead of wheat-derived pasta, a gluten-free alternative is available from health food shops. Avoid poor food products. Stop eating sugar (a fattener), milk products (as many people are allergic), E-numbers (chemical), alcohol (bad for the liver, the hormone regulator), light products (aspartame disrupts your body), liquorice (too salty). ‘Sensible sinning’ is okay now and then. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy as they say, and nothing is more human than to sin on the odd occasion; ‘sensible sinning’ as Moorman calls it. That means, doing the ‘wrong thing’ but in a healthy manner, such as eating healthy chocolate with a cocoa content of more than 70%.

body+mind / 125

Olivier Martinez

www.ysl-lhomme.com

129 cities and scents.

THE NEW FALL COLLECTION IN SELECTED STORES AND AT BJORNBORG.COM

CITIES AND SCENTS text: coen wulms | illustrations: jose luis garcia with thanks to darren lock and eric butter

he MoMA in New York is currently showing an olfactory work by Norwegian artist Sissel Tolaas. Entitled City Smell Research, its aim was to create a scent for a number of Berlin districts that was specifically representative of that neighbourhood: a sultry or floral fragrance, or perhaps an excessively cool oneâ&#x20AC;Ś This in turn inspired us at Mate to match 20 iconic fragrances to four metropolises. There are a few characteristic districts in each of these cities that we have allocated their own individual scent. We explore why the latest Gaultier would seem especially suited to San Telmo in Buenos Aires, for instance, and what would constitute the optimum location for Viktor & Rolfâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Spicebomb? more scents matched to urban districts: the american bond no 9 pinpoints various sectors or locations in new york as a marker for the creation of a new fragrance, and have realised 34 different scents so far in this fashion.

fashion+design / 129

sydney SYDNEY CBD (Central Business District) Stunning skyscrapers and head offices of just about every prominent banking group, interspersed with lush pockets of green such as Hyde Park, are characteristic of the City; the heart of Australia’s financial sector. The area is populated by sexy, sharp-suited businessmen, who flit between the office buildings, Royal Botanic Gardens, designer stores, museums and the Opera House. That requires a scent which can hold its own in the boardroom, like Bulgari Man, which is as chic as it is discrete.

NEWTOWN Newton is to Sydney what Christiania is to Copenhagen. More or less that is, because Newtown hasn’t quite attained the status aparte enjoyed by the aforementioned areas. Either way, that doesn’t detract from the fact that this neighbourhood is a breeding ground for fine arts, and the focal point of the alternative scene that encompasses punks, as well as both original old school and neo hippies, which equals yoga studio – adjacent to veggie restaurant – next to lesbo bar. That reeks of the offbeat, and therefore of Cannabis by the elegant Italian perfume house Il Profumo.

130 /

fashion+design

POTTS POINT / KINGS CROSS Turn right at Woolloomooloo and you’ll find yourself in a district of Sydney that not only boasts the most gorgeous Art Deco structures in the whole of Australia, but in an area where the arrival of gays signalled an upheaval of this sedate Methodist district, resulting in the materialisation of upscale bars, wonderful restaurants and nightclubs that are as exclusive as they are select, therefore befitting a sensual, slightly arrogant fragrance: Moschino Forever, with notes of aniseed, vetivert and sandalwood.

BONDI BEACH Home to surfer dudes and the Sculptures on the Beach art exhibition in November. All year round, though, you can witness exhibitions of a different kind, where perfect sculptures of Australian flesh are on permanent display, in ever-varying guises. All that hedonism and joi de vivre is screaming for a scent that celebrates the blending of beauteous brawn and sun-baked beaches to the max: Davidoff’s Cool Water from 1988, which is brimming with citrus, amber and musk.

DOUBLE BAY It’s the administrative centre of Sydney, which would put one in mind of the pristine, the wealthy and a reasonably large denomination of older inhabitants. But oddly enough, this district is also the most fashionable and expensive shopping section of the city. Double Bay is extremely sportsminded - as is the whole of Australia - and for years has been represented in the National Rugby League by the Sydney Roosters. Athletic and gorgeous: that combination leads us to Ian Roberts, and also to the brand new Allure Homme Sport Eau Extrême by Chanel.

new york

FINANCIAL DISTRICT Businessmen in pinstriped attire are two a penny in this district that houses some of the major financial institutions of New York, such as the Federal Reserve Bank and the New York Stock Exchange. Men at Play but then live.. and slightly different. It’s also become the makeshift home to an opposing force: the Occupy movement that Mayor Bloomberg just can’t seem to shift, much to his chagrin. In this ambience, where new money dictates the mores, a scent is needed with something of a PowerPoint punch to it, such as Armani Code for Men.

MEATPACKING DISTRICT At the time of 1900, Gansevoort market was the epicentre of the meat trade. A different kind of meat trade in the 1990s saw a strong emergence of (transsexual) prostitution and drugs. It was also the heyday of the Mineshaft – the legendary sleaze pit where Calvin K. was alleged to have been a regular. The late 1990s saw a string of trendy boutiques, the Gansevoort hotel and the nightclubs take over. Take the European feel of this area, add a dose of testosterone – gay life is still blooming here – toss it in the blender and the outcome is Potion by Dsquared2.

WILLIAMSBURG Galleries, second-hand shops and the breeding ground for a better class of US indie rock. To sum it up, this area, which is just over the Brooklyn Bridge, is bursting with youth and slightly leftfield initiatives. Incidentally, this area of Williamsburg was established under the name of Boswijck in 1638 by the imperial Dutch West India Company. Dutch, headstrong... that rather sums up Viktor & Rolf: Holland’s hope in dark fashion days. Spice Bomb is their latest creation: the bottle may be shaped like a hand grenade, but the scent is far from lethal, and reassuringly middle-of-the-road.

5TH AVENUE America’s absolute retail heaven, with end-to-end exclusive designer stores. The perfect complement to this design eldorado has to be Gucci’s Guilty Intense with its lavender and patchouli notes. The avenue and the nearby street of Millionaire’s Row are often used for parades and processions, including the Gay Pride march.

UPPER EAST & UPPER WEST The Roosevelts, the Rockefellers, and the Kennedy clan... Once upon a time, Upper East was home to America’s most illustrious and intriguing families. In addition to being a political power plant, the area is also a centre for the arts, due to the Guggenheim being situated there. Central Park is the green strip dissecting this district and the Upper West area, which is none too shabby either, Money, provenance, and a sense of show: that’s synonymous with the Swiss house of Chopard (1860), known for its ostentatious jewellery, but also as the creator of the understated Noble Cedar.

fashion+design / 131

Come to Antwerp and get united in style!

worldOutgames Antwerp 2013: July 31 - August 11 Antwerp Pride: August 8 - 11

CITY OF ANTWERP

www.visitantwerpen.be +32 3 232 01 03

buenos aires RECOLETA This is where the affluent settled after the outbreak of yellow fever in the southern sections of Buenos Aires in the 19th century. The sudden influx of wealth resulted in the erection of some fine villas in French architectural style, as well as the realisation of a number of elegant parks. One permanent resident is Evita Peron, who lies buried here, and whose grave continues to attract crowds of people, even after 60 years. Terre d’Hermes by Hermes is well suited to the subtle sophistication of this district.

PALERMO As you may have surmised, there is a link with the Sicilian capital, as the patron saint of this district is Santo Benedetto di Palermo. By far the largest neighbourhood and the most popular by a long shot, too. The place is teaming with restaurants, shops and boutique hotels. One of the most appealing areas is Viejo, which exudes an alternative bohemian atmosphere and little arts and crafts shops; its green heart is Park where cruising is still very much common practice. Unbridled lust, culture and a strong sense of Italy? There can only be one answer: Dolce & Gabbana The One Gentleman.

132 /

fashion+design

SAN TELMO San Telmo is a predominantly cultural neighbourhood, which happens to be the cradle of tango, as well as a hotspot for antique shops and galleries. The area’s artistic flavour dates back to the 1960s, when artists and intellectuals moved into this neighbourhood. The elegant structures in classic French architectural style have since been restored to their former glory and are now inhabited by boutiques and clubs. The market on Plaza Dorrega attracts a large number of gays on a Sunday, who then slowly make their way over to Pride café. The area is home to the oldest Argentinian tango bars such as La Casa Blanca. Tango is suppressed passion, which is exactly how Jean Paul Gaultier describes Kokorico, his new fragrance for men.

PUERTO MADERO The skyline of Puerto Madero is littered with futuristic tall waterfront structures. In the midst of all the skyscrapers and architectural ingenuity is an ecological park where cruising is still avidly pursued (the internet clearly hasn’t taken off here). This much architectural prowess demands a modern urban scent in a slick bottle: Hugo Just Different with wood, amber and patchouli.

LA BOCA Thank goodness! There’s still a somewhat frayed edge to Buenos Aires, and it’s La Boca by the harbour. It’s an impoverished blue-collar neighbourhood made up of colourful corrugated iron and wooden dwellings. There’s not a hotel in sight, and those tourists that do come here observe it from their coach window. Authentic tango, authentic Argentinian-Italian cuisine, and the most gorgeous descendants from Genoa are all to be found in this location. Port surroundings and sizzling seamen? Well hello sailor, you must be wearing Diesel Only the Brave Tattoo!

london CAMDEN & NOTTING HILL Notting Hill has become truly yuppified, and Camden is now the hippest London neighbourhood. In the 1970s, it was home to hippies, then the punks descended, followed by the club scene. The open nature it has had since the 1970s hasn’t changed over the years, and it’s still a mecca for vintage clothing, which you’ll find in abundance at Camden Lock Market, along with ‘soon to be trendy’ gear. And in Portobello Road in Notting Hill, you can find just about anything, from antiques to clothes to music. New, pleasantly retro and selectively available... sounds rather like Costume National Homme.

REGENT’S PARK & MARYLEBONE The best place to have a heart attack in London’s streets apparently is Marylebone: that is unless you’re on the NHS. This district has for centuries been the location for physicians and their wealthy patients, and there are medical consultants with their own private practice everywhere. Nearby Regent’s Park is one of the most attractive parks in London. Green and gorgeous sums up Sisley’s Eau d’Ikar, which is bursting with natural ingredients such as orange, sandalwood and vetivert. A noticeable but not overpowering fragrance.

WEST END & SOHO The West End is the centre of London nightlife, and is littered with pubs, clubs, cafés and restaurants, as well as cinemas and theatres showing an endless number of musicals. Soho used to be buzzing, but that has now quietened down to something of a gentle hum. A district that stimulates the senses should be accompanied by a scent that does the same, like Bang Bang by Marc Jacobs: full of invigorating pepper, and delivered in a bottle that is every bit as glam as well, let’s say, the costumes in Mamma Mia.

KENSINGTON Like its neighbouring districts Knightsbridge and Chelsea, Kensington was once a verdant village far enough away from the polluted and putrid environs of London Town. As time has progressed, these districts are now considered part of central London, but the beau monde have never left, including certain members of the British Royal Family. It just so happens that Queen Victoria in her day declared the house of Creed, which boasts a 250-year pedigree, a supplier by Royal Appointment. Their new fragrance for men, Royal Oud, is a blend of wood and leather. By the way, William and Harry are apparently more enamoured of that other English perfume house, Floris.

CANARY WHARF The most modern of all London’s districts, and often likened to Manhattan. Canary Wharf has a genuine Sex and the City feel to it. It’s an area that was developed fairly recently from the old working docks of London, after Margaret Thatcher initiated its inception, as recently as 1981. Because of the Olympic organising committee, which is housed there, we would link Canary Wharf to Eau de Lacoste Rouge: the latest fragrance by the tennis legend who designed the polo shirt. René Lacoste in other words, and so therefore sorry guys - not Fred Perry.

fashion+design / 133

www.cartier.com

The Far Country 140 /

fashion+design

t-shirt: dior homme | gloves: roberto cavalli | trousers: roberto cavalli | suspenders and belt: emporio armani | hat: pedro garcia

fashion+design / 141

trousers, jacket and belt: emporio armani | shirt: roberto cavalli

142 /

fashion+design

trousers: dolce & gabbana | shirt, vest & belt: roberto cavalli | hat: pedro garcia

fashion+design / 143

shirt and jacket: dsquared2 | bow tie: dolce & gabbana | overall: pepe | bag: pedro garcia

144 /

fashion+design

fashion+design / 145

146 /

fashion+design

suit and shirt: bikkembergs sport couture | belt and boots: roberto cavalli | rings: thomas sabo | tie: dsquared2 | hat: stetson

fashion+design / 147

trousers: d&g | tanktop: g-star raw | scarf: burberry | boots: dolce & gabbana | bracelet: louis vuitton

148 /

fashion+design

fashion+design / 149

shirt and belt: roberto cavalli | trousers: dolce & gabbana | vest: diesel | necklace: from stylist

150 /

fashion+design

t-shirt: dior homme | trousers: d&g | boots and belt: dolce and gabbana | sunglasses: louis vuitton | gloves: roberto cavalli

fashion+design / 151

photography: brigitte vincken @ blackpepper | fashion director: nick foss@ hoo | styling: pedro dias | hair and make-up: elena piveta @ greenapple, italy | models: marlon and arthur @ fashion, milan | with many thanks to: stefano cigada, alessando agioni, laura & paolo (www.poderefolli.it), albergo villas. giuseppe, noceto, agriturismo la collina del sole (sig. enzo)

See the price. See the ﬂight. See you soon.

49 destinations from Europe to Berlin, one-way

from

* Please check the respective fares and conditions on lufthansa.com

Book now and ﬂy from 3 June

lufthansa.com

€

andy round enjoys life in the fast lane with the world’s most innovative eco-cars. text: andy round

MEAN & GREEN

f course it’s wrong to judge a book by its cover, but don’t you look at eco-friendly cars sometimes and your heart sinks? You know that under that boxy bonnet and Hollywood A-list driver worthiness, there beats a green heart of eco-gold, but don’t you yearn for a little fun while you’re saving the planet? Race-car builder Ronn Maxwell did. So he decided to set up the Ronn Motor Company to design an astonishing hybrid fuel creation called the Scorpion. Maxwell wasn’t interested in the shapeless reliability of staid wallflower motoring – he wanted a centrefold of a super car with curves that would look like an automotive collaboration between Marilyn Monroe and Kelly Brook at a Rubens convention.

Mr Maxwell achieved his aim. The Scorpion is the hour-glass-shaped poster girl of the green car business with a hydrogen fuel injection system that cut carbon emissions by 90%. It achieves 0-60 in 3.5 seconds, has a top speed of 209mph and an mpg of 40mpg. Your typical Lamborghini gets 14mpg. “I never understood why hybrid cars had to look like boxes,” says Maxwell. “When I was scorpion. a boy I loved Ferrari and Lamborghini and in my 45-year automotive career I’ve been blessed to have worked on the world’s best super cars. So when it came to the Scorpion I wanted no straight lines, only curves.” Mr Maxwell is not alone in his dream. There are plenty of other car designers out there setting their sat-nav for eco revolution. Here are a few of our favourites.

fashion+design / 177

Allivision Eco-design competitions tend to bring out the mad, bad and dangerous-to-know element in every designer. And the Allivision is no exception. Created by the unbelievably talented car artist Michal Vlcek for a contest organised by Allivictus in the Czech Republic and Auto Design & Styling magazine (stay with us), the concept is as mad as a box of frogs, but as well intentioned as a vegan eco-warrior. It would be propelled by solar energy, photosynthesis and – wait for it – the power of plant passengers.

Twizy The Renault Twizy is 2.3 metres long, 1.23 metres wide and is on sale now – in Europe at least – for just E6,990. But you have to factor in the leasing of the rechargeable battery that starts from E45 per month for an annual 7,500km. Still, the company says the running costs are 15% lower than those of a three-wheeled scooter and the car can accommodate two people, erm, in tandem. Renault is also keen to stress that the Twizy ‘delivers all the fundamentals associated with a car’. In case you’ve forgotten what a car is, that’s ‘four wheels, a steering wheel, pedals, plus a body’. Anyway, forget the details, just look at the potential for inner-city dodgems.

env If you thought General Motors was just about sedans and station wagons, cast your eye over the small but perfectly formed ENV (Electric Networked Vehicle). It can park itself and return to the driver when

178 /

fashion+design

summoned from a smartphone. Cool, eh? Two seats, one pod, no parking problems. At present the ENV is available in three flavours – the Xia (Laugh), Jiao (Pride) and Maio (Magic) – and has been promoted by the company from Shanghai to Vegas. No word yet on when it will be parking itself in mainstream production.

MEAN & GREEN

fun-vii The greatest thing about car shows? It’s a wonderful opportunity for car makers to show off.We’ve no idea how close to reality Toyota’s electric Fun-Vii actually is, but when the concept debuted at the Tokyo Motor Show, all you could hear was the sound of jaws dropping. It’s just like one giant touch-sensitive screen saver, inside and out. Just download the exterior ‘skin’ you prefer and customise the interior according to your mood. Apparently the car’s exterior can display video as well. And you thought customising your Facebook profile was clever.

navigation assistant.

peugeot bb1.

Good old Peugeot. Always guaranteed to come up with an eco-concept or two. And we love the bubbly all-electric BB1 and the HX1, but if we were to pick a favourite it’s going to be the 100% electric EX1. That two-seater roadster is cooler than an ice-cream in Lady Gaga’s freezer.

hx1

elph Give a designer a laptop and 3D imaging software and suddenly the future looks very bright indeed. Elph is the online creation of Rizki Tarisa from Indonesia and he says the hydrogenpowered pod was conceived as ‘an all-

terrain commuting personal vehicle’. With room for just one driver, displays are touch screen (obviously), safety is paramount (goes without saying) and the wheels are continuous tracks. Yep: continuous tracks.We’ve no idea how it would cope with the potholes of London, Paris or Rome, but it would look sweet on our driveway.

hx1.

fashion+design / 179

iCar According to Apple board member Mickey Drexler, Steve Jobs had dreamed of designing an iCar before his death. At Fast Company’s Innovation Uncensored conference, Drexler remembered how the iGuru behind iPhone and iPad once said:“Who is designing cars in America? The car industry is a tragedy.” Self-styled ‘sketch mechanic’ John Buksasa could turn that tragedy into an eco-friendly triumph. His electric iCar is the darling of every design blog from Tuvie to Trendhunter. More Batmobile than smart car, we’ve no idea how it works. But it looks amazing.

Toyota NS4 Forget the Prius, your family Toyota of the future is probably going to be the NS4 or FCV-R. Both were showcased this year and both are set for launch in 2015. Of the two we prefer the NS4. This plug-in hybrid is all about trapezoid grilles, floating lower spoiler styling and über-slick touch-screen connectivity.“Connected vehicles are the third fastest growing technological device behind smartphones and tablets,” says the car maker. So Toyota has created a human-machine interface with a swipe screen for car controls, entertainment and navigation. Apparently it will even learn driver habits… Hopefully only the good ones.

the splinter The most eco-friendly material in the world? Wood.When you run out, just grow some more. Design student Joe Harman has taken this to heart by building the first super car from wood veneers. It’s still not finished yet (Google the video for the latest progress) but the electric car has provided ‘an opportunity to push the boundaries of the material’ (the wheels alone are built from 300 separate pieces). Harman’s biggest concern? Fire. And termites.

180 /

fashion+design

MEAN & GREEN

audi When Audi launched their production award with the premise:‘what would an Audi look like if the car no longer had a gearbox?’, they were overwhelmed with entries from all over the world. The award panel hand picked eight great electric automobile designs created by students and scientists. Our favourites? The seemingly floaty Audi Avatar by Edwin Conan and the cigar-shaped design by Gosia Hop.

avatar.

gosia hop.

foton Designer Gue Ke’s electric car concept is as ambitious as it is wild. Big battery pack at the back, zero emissions, low body, wide tyres and endlessly entertaining.Will it every get built? Doubtful, but don’t underestimate Mr Ke. In 2008 his talent was picked up by Peugeot as one of the winners of the French company’s Design Contest.

bmw This year three of BMW’s coolest models have been presented with the global Green Good Design Award. The i8 Concept, i3 Concept and the

MINI Rocketman Concept were all praised for their use of renewable materials, low energy consumption and reduced reliance on fossil fuels.We’ll leave the Rocketman to hairdressers, but the i8 Concept we’ll take for a spin any day.

YOUNGSTERS DON’T DO PETROL Almost three-quarters of all people between 18 and 30 think that in ten years time electric cars will be commonplace. Almost half of that group believe that the internal combustion engine has seen its best days. Nine out of ten youngsters say that they (apart from price) would favour an electric car over a petrol or diesel one. But a lot still needs to change for them to start driving electric: sufficient charging points, shorter charging times and the cars need a range of 500 miles or more. The current models of electric cars don’t appeal to the young very much: a third think the current models of electric cars are unattractive, so there is work to be done by the design teams. These results emerge from a survey of 550 young people between 18 and 30, commissioned by Siemens and conducted by Direct Research.

fashion+design / 181

Mit South African Airways von Frankfurt und München über Nacht nonstop nach Südafrika! Über das Drehkreuz Johannesburg erreichen Sie mehr Zielorte im Südlichen Afrika als mit jeder anderen Airline. Infos und Buchung: flysaa.com

237 fast track. the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best train journeys.

fast track the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best train journeys

tired of high-flying holidays that fail to inspire? bored of misery-packed airport lounges and security queues that take an eternity? andy round lets the train take the strain with ten of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best rail journeys. text: andy round

travel / 237

n a world tripping over giant carbon footprints left by long-haul flights, emissions trailing the skies from dozens of double-decker airbus 380s, and airline companies cluttering up bankruptcy courts, it’s comforting to remember that a more environmentally friendly, more traditional way of getting from a to b is still thriving in the form of trains. forget all that airport security, hassle with baggage, taxis from outside the city and worrying about whether you turn right or left onto a plane. trains offer better legroom, a more conducive holiday atmosphere, a real sense of travel adventure as well as the perfect excuse to pack a corkscrew. sold? good. now all you need to do is decide which trip to enjoy. there’s a world of choice out there – from the epic frozen tundra of siberia to the shimmering horizons of australia. see you down at the station.

Palace On Wheels, India Oh, the glory of the Raj, the majesty of Indian scenery, the fun of an occasional elephant ride, the magnificence of cultural treasures and the interior Victorian luxury of the Palace On Wheels. Leaving from Delhi to chug at an appropriately stately pace across the deserts of Rajasthan, the train stops at the Pink City of

Jaipur; the sandstone mansions in Jaisalmer; the walled city of Jodhpur; Ranthambore Tiger Sanctuary; Lake Palace Hotel before arriving in time for breakfast at the Taj Mahal and a wander around Agra’s Bharatur Bird Sanctuary. Idyllic. And prices start from just $2,350. www.palaceonwheels.com

enice-Simplon V Orient Express Originally conceived in 1864 as the first purveyor of fine rail pampering, this train was shot at during wars, stuck in snow in the 1920s and was the perfect setting for Agatha Christie’s famous novel before running into the buffers of disrepair, ruin and airline competition 30 years ago. But following a massive restoration effort, the Orient Express is the queen of train travel once again trailing that magnificent early 20th-century Pullman and Continental rail livery and luxury carriages loaded with Lalique glass and Art Deco marquetry and through Europe’s stunning scenery. It’s easy to see why it was voted the best train in 2009’s Condé Nast Traveller Readers’ Awards. Depending on where you decide to take the train you can enjoy a luxurious saunter through France, Switzerland, Austria or Italy. And in 2009 the company added five nights travel to take in Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria and Rome. Prices start from just $750 (for Venice to Rome). www.orient-express.com

238 /

travel

lacier G Express, Switzerland OK, it’s not exactly in the same league as the Palace On Wheels or Blue Train when it comes to über luxury or price, but the Swiss views from the Glacier Express are truly seven-star as you roll gently from Zermatt to St Moritz. There are oversized roof windows on the 48-seat panoramic carriage that allow you to take in the 291 bridges, the rivers Rhone and Rhine, 91 tunnels as well as rises and drops of up to 5,000 feet. The highlight is the crossing of the shockingly high Oberalp Pass with a vertigo-inducing drop of 6,700 feet. At $220 (one-way) it’s the best value train view deal in the world. www.glacierexpress.ch

Blue Train, South Africa Luxury really doesn’t get any more extreme than this. Carrying only 74 passengers in 37 suites fussed over by 27 staff with butlers on call, sous-chefs, ensuite bathrooms, televisions, telephones and some of the most dramatic scenery in the world outside your window, the Blue Train really delivers. The classic trip is from Pretoria to Cape Town that allows you – within 27 hours and for about $1,500 per person – to watch the moon rise over the Karoo, then potter through the wine region before finding yourself in the shade of Table Mountain. Alternatively you can roll from Pretoria to Durban, taking in two nights at the Zimbali Resort and its famous 18-hole golf course, or scoot up to Bakubung Game Lodge for luxury game drives. www.bluetrain.co.za

The Royal Canadian Pacific Packed with bears, moose, wolves and cougars, the Rocky Mountains put the wild in wilderness. And if you want to get up close and personal with the astonishing landscape that is home to these beasts, it would be difficult to beat a five-night Royal Canadian Pacific journey. Swooping from Calgary in a giant loop the train takes in the Canadian Rockies and

areas with evocative names such as Kicking Horse Pass, Spiral Tunnels, Crows Nest Pass and the WatertonGlacier Peach Park. It’s a luxurious way to explore the Wild (North) West as well as offering the perfect opportunity to enjoy a spot of offtrain fly-fishing or championship golf. Prices start from $7,750. www.royalcanadianpacific.com travel / 239

indian pacific As the name suggests, you get two great oceans in one epic $3,000 trip, just three days and 2,700 miles apart. The journey is as legendary as the continent it traverses. Running between Sydney and Perth encompassing the Blue Mountains, treeless Nullabor Plain, abandoned gold mine towns and koalas up eucalyptus trees, the Indian Pacific is the only way the see Australia. GSR, the company that runs the service, says the ultimate highlight of the journey is catching sight of the Australian wedge-tailed eagle. Apparently you can’t miss it, it’s got a six-foot-wide wingspan. www.gsr.com.au

Eastern & Oriental Express After the wonders of Europe, it’s time to steam through the marvels of South-East Asia and that can only mean one thing, the Eastern & Oriental Express. The favourite route is the 1,200-mile journey from Singapore to Bangkok (although there are also journeys from Bangkok to Chiang Mai or Kuala Lumpur and back). What you get for your money – from around $1,900, Singapore to Bangkok – is that classic Asian

240 /

travel

window-wonder experience of paddy fields and palm trees all packed into rich, fertile and lush countryside peppered with bustling cities, welcoming towns and cultural highlights. Relax in the Chineselacquered observation car and soak up the atmosphere of Malaysian motifs and Thai carvings inside while looking outside at the places it all came from. www.easternorientalexpress.com

New York to San Francisco In the space of three days you can journey to the heart of America – coast to coast. The precursor, a short Capitol Limited jaunt from Washington DC to Chicago – through the Potomac Valley, Harpers Ferry and the Allegheny Mountains – is all very well and good, but that merely whets the appetite for the monster 2,400-mile, two-night journey that takes you across endless Nebraska farmlands, Colorado canyons and Sierra Nevada peaks into the welcoming hills of Sacramento and the warm air of the San Francisco Bay Area. Without rail the Wild West would never have been won. Today the romantic, iconic silver California Zephyr carriages all have recliners

and private sleepers, but it still feels like an adventure. Prices start from just $190 for a seat with Amtrak. www.amtrak.com

Cuzco to Lake Titicaca It may not be as luxurious as its rivals but what the Peruvian delight of the Cuzco to Lake Titicaca railway track lacks in comfort it makes up for in adventure. When you’re paying just US$119 to travel first class – or US$17 backpacker rate if you prefer – it sounds ridiculously cheap, but all that Latin scenery around you is priceless. From the ancient city of Cuzco you climb the Andes, past the Huatanay River then across the endless plains to the lake that borders Bolivia and Peru,

Titicaca. A glass-walled observation car makes sure you miss nothing. The train leaves every 24 hours and only during daylight. If the idea of potentially sharing your seat with a llama for the day holds little appeal, book a luxury seat (with brunch) on the prestigious Hiram Bingham that saunters through the Andes from Cuzco to the ancient Inca capital of Machu Picchu and takes just three hours each way (returns cost $300). www.perurail.com

Trans-Siberian Railway The granddaddy of all super rail journeys is without a shadow of revolutionary doubt the Trans-Siberian Railway. Stretching across the vast landmass of Siberia linking the throbbing capitalist heart of the Russian universe, Moscow, with the last outpost (seemingly) of civilisation, Vladivostok on the Pacific coast, this is a monster of a journey. The trip normally takes between 19 and 21 days and barely breaks into a jog as it trots through endless miles of tundra. It’s also a bottom-shattering experience, so it’s best to book a sleeper carriage for the duration, ideally on the privately owned Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Express which offers accommodation fit for a super tsar from flatscreen TVs and power showers to under-floor heating and an evening pianist. Prices start from $8,000 for the 15-day journey with: www.eng.rzd.ru or www.gwtravel.co.uk

travel / 241

N°1 WORLDWIDE IN MEN’S SKINCARE*

NIEUW

TOTAL PERFECTOR HUIDOPTIMALISERENDE HYDRATATIE

Gladdere huid: 86%** Egalere teint: 76%** Vernauwde poriën: 68%**

Verzachtende aquatische formule met mediterraans zeealgen-extract.

** 79 mannen - 25-50 jaar oud - 2x per dag gedurende 4 weken het product gebruikt - zelf-beoordeling.

*Euromonitor 2012. Selectieve markt. Periode 2011.

INNOVATIE VOOR EEN PERFECTE HUID

with its gentrified districts, green cycle project, and wild nightlife, tel aviv is experiencing an unmistakable upturn. at the same time the city of freedom and tolerance is all too aware of its past: â&#x20AC;&#x153;honey, in israel we all come from the gas!â&#x20AC;? words and images: gideon querido van frank

MANHATTAN OF THE MIDDLE EAST 196 /

travel

s I run through the district of Florentine in the heart of Tel Aviv (I’m late once again) a cab pulls out ahead of me, and getting out of it is a friend of mine from New York, who I haven’t seen or spoken to for years. For a few seconds we stare at each other in stunned silence. A coincidence? Of course, although perhaps not entirely. Although it may seem unlikely, Tel Aviv is the current hipster Mecca of the Middle East. Florentine is hipster, and not fashionista, or worse still: hip. Just like its larger American brothers – the East Village and Meat Packing District – this little neighbourhood isn’t what you’d call quaint. To be truthful, Florentine is actually brutally ugly (most buildings in Tel Aviv were erected in a hurry and with limited funding after the founding of the state of Israel in 1948). In summertime, the stench of the rubbish is unbearable in places, and the local supermarkets and continual stream of trucks aren’t a real source of inspiration either. But the cheap rents draw in young students, artists and queens, who – often without a penny to their name – are determined to make it here. In the street, angry young men in All Stars discuss their auditions, the fall of Gaddafi and the latest hit by Lady Gaga. At the turn of the century, the famous gay Israeli director Eytan Fox produced an incredibly popular television series that was set in Florentine, and in doing so, firmly entrenched the image of this neighbourhood as a bohemian paradise forever, including trendy art galleries and the clicketyclick of Christian Louboutin heels on its streets. But fortunately Florentine hasn’t gone overboard like so many other gentrified districts around the globe: here you can eat your tofu burger seated next to an elderly Russian immigrant couple, who are discussing Yiddish theatre with a burly truck driver. Market traders and clubbing kids sit side by side: the old socialist egalitarian values of the early days of the Jewish state seem to have been revived in Florentine.

anywhere hand in hand with my partner. There’s a story that a group of teenagers once had a go at some men who were about to enter the popular gay bar Evita. It wasn’t long though before one of the drag queens stormed out and shouted: “Fuck off you lot, this is our city!” By ‘our city’ he wasn’t just referring to gays, but to anything and anyone liberated, artistic and tolerant. Amit and I are seated in a trendy French brasserie, aptly named Brasserie, on the bustling Kikar Rabin, the largest square in the city and the location where Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995. When we both order tarte aux pommes from the menu, the waitress – a definite fag hag – looks at us in astonishment. Using a tone

“ i’ll tell you what to do: you have the apple pie, and you have the chocolate cake, and then you share the two” I’ve previously only heard used by Jewish mothers when they’ve been gravely disappointed, she turns to us and says: “Why are you both having the same? I’ll tell you what to do: you have the apple pie and you have the chocolate cake and then you share them. Life is too short and the menu too extensive to both just have apple pie.” And so, without awaiting our reply, she was off towards the kitchen. Amit: “That is… err... the remarkable aspect of people here, they live and let live whilst at the same time, constantly interfering. Because everyone

curious man looks over the wall of the religious beach – a stretch of sand very close to the gay beach.

image: hh

No apple pie for you This feeling of equality and unadulterated freedom is indicative of the entire city, and can be felt from the moment you land at Ben Gurion Airport. The motto in Tel Aviv is to live and let live. A few years ago Amit Zimmerman (28) moved from Amsterdam back to his birthplace Tel Aviv: “Due to the eclectic demographics of this country, people’s eyebrows aren’t raised easily. Everybody can do what they like really. For instance, there’s this orthodox Jew who’s been spotted in Tel Aviv lately, who rollerskates through the whole city in the full black hat and long curls. Tourists stand there gawping and scrambling for their cameras, while Israelis barely notice.” Tel Aviv is a remarkably safe city too. “Contrary to Amsterdam, I’ve never been sworn at because of my sexual orientation, and I can walk travel / 197

has to serve in the army, a huge equalisation has evolved within our society, which makes people get involved with one another. In a concerned, but not intolerant manner, an Israeli will tell you what you need to do very directly and without dressing it up in any way.” We take a walk over to Neve Tzedek, to the south west of Tel Aviv, a district that is really the antithesis of Florentine in every sense. The bougainvillea-draped buildings are full of faded splendour, and the narrow streets reminiscent of Cannes and Nice. You can’t help but notice the abundance of exclusive clothing stores and boutique hotels. In the vicinity of the prestigious Suzanne Dellal center for Dance and Theatre, the students give you the once over in a cheekily flirty manner. This oldest district of Tel Aviv was constructed in 1887 (Tel Aviv was founded until around 22 years later) when wealthy Jewish families left the nearby harbour city of Jaffa en masse and had luxury art nouveau houses built along the narrow streets. For a long time it was considered to be a small-scale Vienna, but by the second half of the 20th century, when

donna martin party.

dreck party.

“ our movement is successful because we are not only committed people, but young and sexy too” donna martin party.

big boy party.

PARTy HARDY While ‘Dreck’ mainly lures in the hip-alternative crowd, ‘Beef Jerky’ – which is also held on a Wednesday night – attracts a kinkier and slightly older set. Students and 30-somethings head for the insanely popular ‘Lima Lima’, which 198 /

travel

is one of those parties that is a talking point for the entire week after. Thursday night’s ‘Cheesecake’ is more rock & roll, with a mature audience, and a nice mixture of gay and straight clubbers. A night out in Tel Aviv isn’t complete without a visit

to ‘Donna Martin’ on a Thursday, which is rowdy and lots of fun. Whereas the Sabbath is declared on Friday nights by rabbis in Jerusalem, in Tel Aviv it is left to the sexy ‘Big Boys’: a weekly dance and pop party. Evita is open seven nights a week.

Tel Aviv started to evolve as a busy, modern city, crowded with apartment blocks, people fled the old Neve Tzedek area, and the district became quite run down. Plans to flatten the neighbourhood were curtailed by local residents who managed to get a lot of the properties onto a listed building register. After a large amount of funding with American money, Neve Tzedek has been restored to its former glory, and is now viewed as one of trendiest and most expensive districts in the city. In the Dallal patisserie, all of the cakes are made according to original Eastern European Jewish recipes with a sickly-sweet nod towards Miami, and naturally the entire staff is gay. When we place our order, we are notified that we will be brought something else, because: “That’s much more delicious” (Israelis, by the way, are obsessed with good, fresh and copious amounts of food. And because the population comes from every corner of the globe, you get the very best of every type of cuisine, and I find myself sampling one culinary highlight after another). Neve Tzedek borders HaTachana, the old train station – a wonderfully restored area that is more or less a carbon copy of Neve Tzedek. It’s nice, but a little bit sedate for my

modern-orthodox guy.

mid-town.

hurray for hilton beach!

liking. It’s high time I headed for the beach.

pink bike boy at dizengoff avenue.

in a tongue-in-cheek manner, at other times it’s deadly serious.

Dynasty every day “The Hilton Beach, I presume?” says the cab driver with a wink, when I ask him to take me to the beach. Normally I might have been somewhat taken aback, but in Israel I can laugh at the sheer audacity of it all. And he is of course spot on, because although the entire west side of Tel Aviv is one long stretch of beach, you need to head north for the most fun of the bunch, namely the gay beach, aptly called Hilton Beach. This oasis on the Mediterranean is always immensely crowded, not just at the weekend, but also on weekdays. And it’s very Israeli: the muscle queens in their designer speedos lie alongside nonchalant lads in scuffed jeans. But because it’s reasonably sheltered due to its location, Hilton Beach has a particularly laid-back feel. The Hilton Hotel, which towers above the sands like some trophy of hedonism and luxury, has been a kind of gay monument for decades (the adjacent Independence Park was a legendary cruising area in a conservative past), but don’t expect to see faded glory: it’s like Dynasty every day here – sometimes

And yet the liberal nature of the city leaves a little to be desired, claims Yoav Elani, the owner of Sexy World, the only gay sex shop in the city. Reclining on Hilton Beach, he adds: “Right now, our rights are being looked after, but we had to arrive here from a very different place, and we’re still not where we should be by a long shot.” It wasn’t all that long ago that he feared for the continuation of his shop, due to petitions from local residents. He joined forces with female politician Yael Dayan in taking his case to a court, and the judge ruled in Yoav’s favour. “In the 1990s, the country went through an incredible change, Transsexual, Dana International, was selected to officially represent Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest, which was a big deal over here, especially as the song won. For many gays, this not only signified a huge amount of recognition, but the victory gave them that last little nudge to be able to legally stand up for their rights. What followed was a series of court cases, which were won by gays, and resulted

in an increasing number of rights across the board. There was the case of the El Al air steward who was challenging for his boyfriend to receive the same rights as the partners of his heterosexual colleagues. The judge agreed and levied a massive fine on El Al for discrimination. Since then, the conditions of the airline or state do not make any distinctions. A woman went to court because she wanted to adopt children with her girlfriend. The judge agreed and ever since then, adoption by same-sex couples is permitted in Israel.” There are openly gay parliament members, of which the most unusual is one of the greens, Nitzan Horowitz, who is charismatic, but feared by his adversaries because of his particularly tenacious nature. From the 1990s, there have been an increasing number of popular actors and singers who have emerged from the closet, and the country now has the gay infrastructure of the Western world, with gay and lesbian film festivals, gay-straight alliances in schools and universities, and the popular Gay Pride in Tel Aviv (financed by the municipality), which have radically altered the mentality of many heterosexuals. Despite the searing heat (the desert is only a few travel / 199

hours’ drive from where we are) and the insane and relentless traffic, Tel Aviv is a very green city. Parks and shrub borders have always been popular here, but the latest manifestation of the fashionable green city policy is a cycle project modelled on the European approach. Throughout the city there are designer bike racks full of bicycles that, after swiping your credit card you can use to traverse the entire capital via brand new bicycle paths. Yoav and I grab a bike and head off the busy Ben Yehuda Street and alternative shopping roads such as Bograshow and the hippyish Shenkin. When we pass an old synagogue, he says: “We still can’t get married you know, not like in Holland or Spain. Commitment ceremonies led by liberal rabbis are very popular right now, but there is no constitutional recognition.”

Sexy campaigning in 2011 We arrive at the hectic Rothschild Avenue; by day a stately avenue with museums, but after sunset, it’s the epicentre of nightlife, as the bars, clubs and outdoor cafes are all located there. All of them are packed out, and are constantly innovating and transforming. Most of the action takes place outside. I spot a drag queen clad in justifiable pop-art colours sighing as he makes his way through the adrenalised crowd. There are clubbing kids handing out leaflets while whizzing around on roller skates, and Florentine hipsters slurp miso soup in an open-air sushi bar, which is open daily until five in the morning. In stark contrast, there are a few tents scattered around the end of the avenue – the remainders of last summer’s demonstration. In July, a fervent political female marched on the upscale Rothschild Avenue, livid about the high tax and rental rates in Israel, and pitched a tent there. Boosted by communication on Facebook and Twitter, her protest campaign evolved into a huge tent camp, attracting thousands of young demonstrators on a daily basis. At the weekends, there were large-scale marches along Rothschild, where up to 350,000 people amassed at any one time. Now there are only a few tents left, and one of them is inhabited by Oren, a 22 year old philosophy student clad in a bright, pink

soldier calling home. “i’m okay mum...”

even ziona’s brutal, selfeffacing humour evaporates when a barman unexpectedly jumps up on stage and announces that the soldier gilad shalit has been freed Blondie T-shirt: “For the average Israeli, life - especially in Tel Aviv - is ridiculously expensive. The house values and rents are crazy, and there is no social policy to help out first-time tenants or buyers. This country should perhaps be a little bit less capitalistic.” But Oren and his compatriots certainly don’t want to be compared to pushy anti-globalists.

AND THOU SHALT LOVE

ori lachmi (left) and omer zonenshein.

200 /

travel

Chaim Elbaum (orthodox and gay) is the creator of And Thou Shalt Love, a film that deals with the impossible love between two men within an orthodox world. It was his graduation project for a religious film academy in Tel Aviv. Wasn’t it a problem to create a film about gays at such a school? Chaim: “Not at all. The school actually granted me an award for the best graduation pro-

“Our movement is successful because we are not only committed people, but young and sexy too. We engage in protests, but we also create music and art at the same time. This is the protest of the Facebook generation.” The campaigners have even managed to get the boorish Netanyahu on board after a couple of months, and the first promises for change have already been made. The beau monde can let out a sigh of relief too, as the nightlife on Rothschild has once again returned to its revelling ways.

The freeing of Gilad Shalit We head into a side street and towards Evita, which oddly enough is the only gay bar in the city, so it’s always jam-packed and the place, bar none, to bump into people. Each night of the week has

ject. Many Jewish orthodox friends of mine really like it. Ten years ago, something like that would have been unthinkable. In those days nobody talked about homosexuality, as if it didn’t exist. Now there is an ongoing dialogue and I’m noticing the changes taking place. I try to convince people that openness and freedom, which are so characteristic of Tel Aviv, are key pillars within Judaism.”

gordon beach.

evita (party) flyer boy.

orthodox area.

a different theme. Sunday nights are famous. It’s when a troupe of extremely talented clubbing kids perform hilarious jigs to Song Festival classics, while Saturday is Glitter Night, and on Mondays, it’s drag queen Ziona (a combination of ‘Zionist’ and ‘whore’) and her sisters who take centre-stage. We enter just as her show’s starting. She beckons a handsome boy from the audience to get up on stage, and when he cheekily answers “Guess?” to her question of where he’s from, she snaps mercilessly: “Honey, in Israel we all come from the gas!” When she detects my shocked reaction, she explains: “We have the right to make these kinda jokes... Or we wouldn’t survive.” But even Ziona’s brutal self-effacing humour evaporates when a barman unexpectedly jumps up on stage and announces that the soldier Gilad Shalit has been freed. After months of negotiations, the Netanyahu government managed to exchange the young man for 1,027 Palestinian terrorists incarcerated in Israeli jails. There is an overwhelming outburst of euphoria following the news, with many people starting to cry. A huge party gets underway on the streets. The young soldier, who was kidnapped years ago by Hamas, had become a symbol of both Israel’s vulnerability and hope. Israelis party like there’s no tomorrow – any day could be the last. Tel Aviv seems like a hub of freedom, far away from Palestinian territory and areas where rockets frequently explode, but everyone in the city has a handful of friends or relatives who were killed in combat or an attack.

Who runs the world? We hop into a cab with a group of Israelis, off to a party called ‘Dreck’ (which is Yiddish for ‘muck’).

army volunteer.

hipsters in dreck.

In a dilapidated building on Dizengoff Avenue, we take the lift to the fourth floor, push open a rusty door, and find ourselves in a warehouse where gay hipsters are dancing wildly to M.I.A. and Beyoncé. The announcement of the release of Gilad has created an exhilarating and pleasantly sweltering atmosphere. Dutch Israeli Imri Kalmann, who is in his twenties, is the organiser of these weekly parties. Imri: “I hear that in Amsterdam most parties are mainly held at the weekends, and then usually about once a month. That’s unthinkable in Tel Aviv. Here, you can pick from any one of the many busy weekly gay parties. Dreck is held every Wednes-

the netanyahu government managed to exchange the young man for 1,027 palestinian terrorists incarcerated in israeli jails day night, and every week we have a new theme with accompanying posters and promo videos on YouTube.” I look over and see an Ethiopian boy with retro Afro hairdo kissing a boy with a yarmulke, while Run the World is played to loud cheers. At seven in the morning we call it a day and take the beach route home. We pass the location that once housed the club, Dolphinarium, and where in 2001, a whole line of cueing teenagers was blown up by a suicide bomber. Further along we come to a monument with the names of the dead inscribed, with the words in Hebrew: “We shall not stop dancing.”

POP The latest pop sensation of the Israeli gay scene is called Idan Matalon. With an iPhone clasped in his hand, the 23 year old films himself and his friends as he walks through the streets of Tel Aviv lip-synching his songs. The many hits and YouTube videos very quickly propelled Idan to domestic stardom. “In my videos, I try to show the Tel Aviv feeling of young people here: open, unconstrained, and in love with life. Many foreigners are surprised when I tell them the videos were filmed in Israel, as they have a very different picture of the country in their minds. The Israeli Foreign Minister was so enthusiastic that he even had one of my videos placed on their website!”

idan matalon.

travel / 201

258 korea means pop.

art o f SUC CE S s

the world’s best contemporary galleries once overshadowed by stuffier and more traditional classical works, modern artists used to struggle to find space to display their work. but today there are new exhibition halls all over the world, dedicated to showcasing cutting-edge art. big frame hunter andy round enjoys a whirlwind trip around the globe’s best contemporary galleries. text: andy round | images: the cover story

pompidou Leave the Louvre with its Da Vincis, endless rooms and ancient history to Dan Brown fans. To enjoy a bird’s eye view of the cultural beauty of Paris get the metro to the Centre Pompidou. With stunning rooftop views over the city, a restaurant experience to die for, oh, and more Matisses, Warhols, Klees and Legers than you can throw an encyclopaedia of art at, this is Paris’ capital attraction. Even if you don’t go inside, there are plenty of cafés around where you can sit to savour Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano’s greatest architectural achievement, erm, as well as the occasional street mime artist… www.centrepompidou.fr

bilbao Yep, it looks like a tangle of shiny ribbon, but Frank Gehry’s iconic design is instantly recognisable and completely transformed a run-down industrial Spanish town into a centre of cultural cool. It seems incredible to think that it’s now 14 years old, but it continues to set the blueprint standard for other rundown industrial towns around the world that enviously eye Bilbao’s success. More than ten million people visited in the first decade and the numbers continue to rise as art lovers fly in to enjoy some of the best Basque and Spanish artworks in the world. www.guggenheim-bilbao.es

276 /

culture

art o f SUC CE S s

ontemporary art lovers today, eh? Don’t know they’re born. In the bad old days a couple of shabby Warhols would be hidden in the back room of some dusty municipal museum, while acres of mind-numbing Pre-Raphaelite nymphs, shepherds and long-haired women would crowd out walls and ceilings out front. But not any more. Nope. These days entire buildings are dedicated to modern art (basically anything produced after 1900) and are packed with giant pickled sharks, bright pop art and indecipherable sculptures with child-friendly play areas, irresistible shops and lots and lots of achingly cool exhibition/theatre/cinema spaces. Even the buildings housing all this stuff have become works of art in their own right. Either former chunks of industrial history have been restored to a blaze of bright brick and polished iron-

work or entirely new buildings have been created or town in which it is based, says Simon Anholt, boasting sharp and angular forms that are as cutting author of Place Branding. “It burnishes the image edge as their expensive world-famous architects. of a city to be associated with high culture,” he says over the phone from London. “It makes you a Why? Well, art and tourism go together like Monet premium brand and that’s a good thing – just look and money. At the four Tate museums across the at what is happening with the development of the UK, for example, more than seven million people Louvre and Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi.” And he visited exhibitions last year – three times the also offers a more prosaic theory. “In places like number ten years ago. Over the pond attendance at Oslo, London or Dublin, art museums make good the Museum of Modern Art in New York has soared sense. These destinations don’t have the sun of, from 1.5 million to 2.7 million in just three years. say, the Maldives and you need to have things for Modern art is big business. “Consider the example tourists to do. In London, for example, what do you of Bilboa,” says Prof David Crouch, author of Visual do after eating or shopping? You go to a gallery or Culture. “The city went from nowhere to a place in visit a museum.” There you have it. So, without the top 10 most visited European cities overnight.” further ado, here is our deeply subjective tour And supporting art also makes a powerful statearound the world’s most entertaining contempoment about the international perception of the city rary art museums.

guggenheim abu dhabi There’s a cultural awareness sweeping through the Middle East that is as welcome to the region as a cooling breeze in summer. Of course there have always been long-standing artistic traditions, but events like Art Dubai and the striking Islamic art building by IM Pei reveal a new contemporary consciousness. But perhaps the best is yet to come with the opening of the Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi within the next two years. It’s another striking Frank Gehry building, this time on Saadiyat Island, and it is expected to host cornerstone works by Cezanne, Kandinsky and Mondrian as well as the cream of contemporary Arab artists. Forget F1 and get in poll position for the Guggenheim opening. It’s likely to be dramatic. www.guggenheim.org

mq vienna How to create cultural kudos? Copy Vienna. Mozart and waltzes are all very well and good, but the MQ or museum quarter has dragged this fusty grande dame of a city into the 21st century fusing baroque architecture with internet-savvy knowingness to create nine museums, numerous urban exhibition spaces, external DJs/cinema/shows in the summer and great ice sports in winter. Dominating the chill-out square is MUMOK, a bold block of a building packed to its urban-cool rafters with the biggest collection of contemporary art in Central Europe. Go at night and works are projected on the exterior walls. www.mqw.at

culture / 277

798 art zone OK, Beijing’s tremendous 798 is not technically one museum. It’s a collection of decommissioned factory buildings housing some of the most exciting new artists in China, as well as clubs, bars and restaurants. The buildings are wonderfully Bauhaus in design and the surroundings wonderfully fashionable. True, over the years 798 has become gentrified and perhaps a little too self-conscious of its hip credentials, but that’s probably because of the astonishing prices that modern Chinese art commands these days. In April this year a triptych by Zhang Xiaogang achieved $54 million at auction. www.798art.com

moma The last time I visited NYC’s famous Museum of Modern Art, the sleet was whipping down Fifth Avenue like a Jackson Pollock painting, but even an hour before opening in out-ofseason February the queue was at least a thousand people deep. Why? Because it boasts just about every famous contemporary work in the world from Cezanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin to Dali, Warhol and Picasso. These are iconic works that genuinely defined art in the 20th century but to see them all up close and personal on the fifth floor, well, that’s something else. The other big deal is that MoMA is the grandmother of modern art galleries. Amazingly it was founded in 1929 by seriously wealthy ladies who needed somewhere to hang their Monets and Matisses. Extraordinary and essential. www.moma.org

museum of contemporary art MCA in Sydney, housed in a former maritime building overlooking the harbour and famous opera house, enjoys a reputation for contemporary art collections that is as dramatic as its location. Unsurprisingly, Australian modern art provides the backbone of exhibitions – a philosophy that’s in line with founder and artist John Power who left his inheritance to promote the country’s visual arts in 1943. An exhibition of work by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz was a recent gallery hit, but a host of new acquisitions are planned for the summer before a new wing opens in 2012. www.mca.com.au

278 /

culture

art o f SUC CE S s

the garage The Garage in Moscow is a place where Darya Zhukova likes to park multi-milliondollar contemporary art collections. The catwalk model partner of billionaire Roman Abramovich may have been mocked for her interest in art when she reopened the former bus depot as an arts centre three years ago, but collections from the Francois Pinault Foundation, joint work by Christian Louboutin and David Lynch, ‘Angel of the North’ Anthony Gormley and even Lady Gaga have proved that someone’s artistic radar is finely tuned. www.garageccc.com

museo de arte Big and bold, just like its mission, MALBA, Buenos Aires’ most famous gallery sets out to curate the best contemporary art from around Latin America. Most of the 200 works belong to Eduardo Costantini (who created the museum) and heavy hitters include Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Antonio Berni. The big deal here is enjoying the way South American artists travelled to Europe and evolved their own individual interpretation of Cubism, Expressionism, Futurism or any other 20th-century movement ending with an ‘ism’ to create their own distinctive styles. www.malba.org.ar

tate modern Dominating the River Thames is an unlikely celebration of modern art in the shape of a former power station. Rebranded, reconceptionalised and re-invented as the Tate Modern, this is the high temple of contemporary art in the UK. There are wonderful permanent collections here with all your essential Magrittes, Miros and Rothkos, but it is the 35-metre high, 152-metre long turbine hall that always impresses. It’s been a temporary home to artistic installations such as a giant sun, a mammoth horn and a huge slide, and presently contains 100 million hand-crafted porcelain ‘seeds’ by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. A London essential. www.tate.org

culture / 279

“ we don’t want the cake, we want the rights”

i do in the new american indie film i do , a british gay man is forced to marry a lesbian friend in order to stay close to his family in new york. screenwriter david w ross talks about his gay marriage movie. text: boyd van hoeij portraits: fabrizio maltese

ritish-born David W Ross is based in Los Angeles and drove some two hours east on a cold January morning to attend a 10am screening of I Do at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. The film went down very well in Palm Springs, a town with a large gay community, and Ross proves a hit during the film’s Q&A, mixing humour with an endearing maladroitness that suggests he’s not entirely comfortable in front of large crowds, which means that either he’s a really good actor or he has learnt nothing from his experience as a singer in British boy band Bad Boys Inc (of the 1994 hit More to This World). “I was writing pop songs before I wrote the screenplay,” says Ross, who’s openly gay and also starred in the 2006 Sundance hit Quinceanera. “I’ve always been writing and there I was in Hollywood, working as a commercial actor, so my writing segued into writing scenes, like little pop songs almost. I came across this story of a gay friend in San Francisco who was in a green-card marriage, I read a couple of books and just started writing.”

sham marriage

The result is I Do, a dramedy about Jack, played by Ross, a British, out-and-proud photo assistant in New York. His brother 286 /

culture

“ they shouldn’t call it gay marriage in those states where it’s legal” (Grant Bowler) marries an American but when he unexpectedly dies, he leaves behind his wife and little daughter, and Jack wants to stay close to them. When Jack’s work visa expires and isn’t renewed, he’s forced to enter a sham marriage with an

American lesbian friend. And then Jack falls in love with another man, SpanishAmerican Mano (Maurice Compte). “What interested me is that our culture is obsessed with love, marriage and finding your perfect other half,” explains the actor-screenwriter. “As a gay person, you kind of live outside that heterosexual system but you’re still bombarded with those images and those ideals. My brother in the film talks about the pressure of being straight, having to get married and have kids. I had never considered that straight

Ross: “Our special effects guy said: ‘All through this, I was thinking, Why don’t Jack and Mano just get married? They’re in New York. And this guy’s a well-educated gay man. A lot of gay people don’t realise the damage that DOMA still does. I think they shouldn’t call it ‘gay marriage’ in those states where it’s legal because it is confusing. You still don’t have the federal rights that straight married couples have.”

has-been pop star

Ross himself has been in Los Angeles for 18 years, so what about his own green card status? “I am a citizen now but it took a long time,” explains the actor who now combines a British twang with colloquial Americanisms such as throwing a couple of ‘likes’ into each sentence. “Every year, I was like: ‘I’ll just stay another year.’ I was really homesick, though there was nothing to go back to in the UK because there I was this has-been pop star. So I had to re-create who I was here and just stay away from Britain. Everything I did as a boy-band member used to be hidden on VHS cassettes but now they’re slowly putting everything on YouTube so everything’s on the net for everyone to see!” people have pressure on them just as much as we do but it’s a different kind of pressure to conform.”

“ i never considered that straight people have pressure on them just as much as we do”

baddie

The development of Ross’s first feature screenplay took more than seven years. “I was told by many people that I’d know when it was done. It was frustrating because I had a vision of what it could be and I also knew that it wasn’t there yet.” To help him, David sent his screenplay to a lawyer who’s very active in the American LGBT community and who’d assisted a lot of bi-national couples: “He said: ‘I wish the characters wouldn’t put the envelope in the mailbox because that’s when they commit a crime,’ but he knew I couldn’t take that out and he understood that. It did make me think and I tried to suggest that it was the law that was the baddie and the characters were forced into this. But in the meeting they have with immigration, for example, they do get a lot of questions wrong.”

special effects

Though an intimate drama, I Do touches on a very concrete US law, the Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman for federal purposes. This means that for issues such as immigration and the possibility to get a green card through marriage, even in places where gay marriage is legal (such as the state of New York), this remains an option only for heterosexuals. The film is timely, as the United States Supreme Court will start hearing arguments against DOMA in March, with a verdict expected in June, right after the release of I Do. The extent of damage caused by DOMA is often still unclear, even for gays. Explains

Is he worried that the film will become dated once DOMA is struck down? “It’s a weird mindfuck because of course I want the marriage laws to go through but at the same time, since my film wasn’t out yet, I was like: Please wait!” says Ross. “I don’t think it’ll be outdated, though, because it’ll still be educational in the sense that people’ll go: ‘Oh, that’s why we needed DOMA to go away.’ I’ve had so many conversations about gay marriage and each time it’s like: ‘We don’t want the cake, we want the rights.’” I Do is in US theatres and on VOD from 31st May. And it screens at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival from 14th to 24th March. www.twowordscanchangeeverything.com

culture / 287

visit the new Armanibeauty.com