STATUS Magazine feat. Elijah Wood by STATUS Magazine

is breathing new life Oct ob e r 2012

CALLAN MCAULIFFE

64 BEE EYES 12 STATUS MESSAGE 14 MASTHEAD

STATUSPHERE

VISION BOARD

34 ALL THAT GLITTERS

Hide under a lace veil in the pale moonlight. By Adrianna Favero

17 THREADS 22 SETTING 23 BRICK & MORTAR 24 SCREEN 25 INK 26 BEATS

40 MY FAIR LADY

gadgets

SWAG

27 TECH PACK: DEPTH OF PERCEPTION

Picture the sound of thunder.

BEAUTY

28 FACE PAINT: PURPLE RAIN Bathe in it.

29 ABOUT FACE: BRIGHT EYES See clearly fiercely.

29 BEAUTY BITE: PIPINO

FASHION

Pony up in this season’s mane attractions. By David Sheldrick

46 MASSIVE ATTACK

What’s good? Salute the soldier in a hood. By Patrick Diokno

SHOPPING GUIDE 53 SWAG: PARTY FOR FOUR Satchels

54 DEAL MAKER

Tweed Blazers

55 PRETTY LITTLE MISSY Lace dresses

55 FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING Statement rings

56 EYE BELIEVE

Printed trousers

57 SHOE CASUALTY Loafers

STREET STYLE

58 ATLAS SHRUGGED

30 GO SEE

59 POP THAT COLOR

Weather the style storm.

32 STYLE ID: GET SNEAKY

Jazz up your favorite pair.

Backpacks

Polo Shirts

60 FOOT-O-Booth Sneakers

61 FIT FIRST Denim Pants

61 STOMP THE YARD Boots

71 GERALD DING FEATURES mUSE

62 YOUNG MILLY ON AIR

Milly Simmonds changes personalities when she poses. By Giano D. Dionisio

mAESTRO

63 WAKEN BEACON

The Potterific trio of Two Door Cinema Club weave enchanting rock rhythms without waving wands, charming young hearts everywhere into a dance trance. By Reena Mesias

64 ONCE IN A BLUE CROON

The shoegazing mofos of Bee Eyes influence innocent ladies into getting high off musical fumes and sonic hallucinations. By Rita Faire

mASTERMIND

68 KING OF THE DAME

As creative and marital partner to en vogue punk Vivienne Westwood, Andreas Kronthaler knows a thing or two about music-meets-fashion-meets-art revolutions. By Kristine Dabbay

69 TOUCHDOWN N° 1

Producer Gregory Bernard isn’t afraid of what’s Wrong, because what’s right in front of him makes the future look strong. By Kristine Dabbay

70 IRON MAIDEN

Juyoung Lee, designer of Korean menswear line Resurrection, takes style to symphonic rhapsody for handsome folks in leather coats. By Reena Mesias

65 FOR THE SAKE OF POSTERITY

71 FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD

66 SPACE CADETS

72 HIGH SOCIETY

67 HISTORICAL REALMS,

73 GRAVITATIONAL COOL

Simple tips for staying timeless from Smashing Pumpkins’s Billy Corgan: cherish the old, embrace the new, and keep evolving. By Liza Constantino

Before exploring life in other planets, we’ll content ourselves with lively bands from other continents. Helsinki’s Satellite Stories beam us onboard. By Reena Mesias

HYSTERICAL LANDSLIDES

Here to revive cosmic trips and relive “Ageless Beauty,” Stars lead the way to The North in their latest album. By Kristine Dabbay

PSYOP creative director Gerald Ding reimagines and reanimates worlds of feverish energy into thrashing 3D landscapes. By Rita Faire

For the Young Hollywood revival, sizzling young actor Callan McAuliffe combines Gable’s good looks, Bogart’s gumption, and Olivier’s cool. By Viva Gonzalez

The creative space-designing duo, We Came in Peace, orbits around a sphere of opulent tapestries, gilded mirrors, and out-of-this-world shebang. By Boo Umaly

is breathing new life Oct ob e r 2012

82 GOTYE

70 JUYOUNG LEE

73 RISKS & FERIL

Blots of ink, designer brands, and overgrown fauna come crashing together through Daryl Feril’s pen and tablet. By Daniella Rodriguez

HEAVY HITTER

74 AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

No new movement would be complete without its luminaries. Unbridled passion, an eclectic worldview, and years of adventurous experience make Elijah Wood our chosen ringbearer for this modern renaissance. Leave the cloak and dagger, skip the bong water, and shoot life straight up. By Giano D. Dionisio

82 THE BLOW-UP

You don’t have to cut Gotye off. Thanks to the unforgettable 2012 phenomenon that was “Somebody That I Used to Know,” everybody’s familiar with the talented singer now. With a single ubiquitous record, he shook, flipped, and reinvented notions of music and its industry for this new era of discerning listeners. By Nante Santamaria

84 THE CRADLE WILL ROCK

Gather ‘round people and listen to Sean Lennon. Together

ANDREAS KRONTHALER

with his mother, he formed a coalition. Named Artists Against Fracking, he wishes New York City will listen. So the country’s sons and daughters won’t drink contaminated water and inhale methane. By Kristine Dabbay

86 ART IN THE PARTY

With her latest album, Theatre Is Evil, Amanda Fucking Palmer further blurs lines between audience and performer, fan and idol, music and art, truth and love. Her career has spanned Dolls, Eight-Foot Brides, and Grand Theft Orchestras. 2012 notwithstanding, Amanda’s not done experimenting. By Petra Magno

EVENTS

NIGHTVISION

91 CAUTION WET PAINT 92 CARL COX 92 HIRAYA: UP JMA PUB EVENT 2012

93 HOT DAMN GREEN EGGS AND HAM 93 UNDERGROUND DESERT RAVE 94 NIGHTMARE SWAZY 94 HIPSTARSHIPS ARE MEANT TO FLY

95 CAST OF VICES YOU BETTER WORK

BLOCK PARTY: HARD CANDY

95 ADHOC: UNBOUND LEGACY

88 JON KNOX

Designer toymakers

96 DIRECTORY

Jon Knox Studio

88 GARY HAM Superham

89 HOLLY STANWAY

STATUS INVADES

A Little Stranger/Hey Cavey

98 MARIE JAMORA

The director’s collection of trinkets spans Tarantino gifts and Palahniuk dedications.

89 JOMIKE TEJIDO Robotars

89 SHEA BRITTAIN

“Elijah was very cool, fun, accommodating, and very smart,” says cover photographer Kareem Black. New York’s Soho Grand provides the backdrop to the dignified Elijah Wood, bathed in the aura of his thirties but aglow in the eternal sunshine of his illuminated past lives. We’re glad the original Hobbit “wasn’t afraid to look awkward,” according to Kareem. While people struggle to burst into this new generation; on our cover, Elijah is just trying not to blow things out of proportion.

99 DA VINCI CODE

A detailed guide to all of STATUS Magazine’s hidden easter eggs.

Frankenfactory

statusmagonline.com

Blogsphere

the pulse of hip at your fingertips

go see

we’re all models off duty. smize!

FEATURES

there’s more to what’s in print

NightVision who’s spotted partying where

Photo Diary confessional for lensmen

Digital Magazine DOWNLOADS STATUS in pixels, not free mixtapes paper and wallpapers

STATUS MESSAGE

AMANDA PALMER (86)

ELIJAH WOOD (74)

BREATHING NEW LIFE I

feel like we are experiencing new currents and cultural movements in film, art, music, and politics that lead to us to social enlightenment. Our Renaissance issue gives a nod to all inspiring superheroes who frontline the way to the rebirth of creativity. Elijah Wood is our pick for the modern day Renaissance man. With his acting career in full motion, he is able to commit to his love for acting and music with the equal intensity he does for photography and food trucks. During our photo shoot in New York with photographer Kareem Black, Elijah shares why he takes on challenging characters and how Lord of the Rings shaped his life. Amanda Palmer is an enigma that isn’t easy to categorize—let’s just say she’s a performer—a performer you can’t mess with. From fueling reBELLYon campaign, a fan protest against conventional body image, to raising a million dollars on Kickstarter to fund an album, Amanda raises our hopes for the future of music and art with her unorthodox methods. Sean Lennon is not only lending his legendary name to a good cause but is the one driving it. Sean tells us how he gathered his nearest and dearest (Joseph Gordon Levitt, Chloë Sevigny, Lady Gaga, etc.) to shed light on fracking in New York City. Gotye, on the other hand, influences us through the airwaves with his single, “Somebody That I Used to Know.” How does he deal with music after that massive hit? With or without a perfect pop formula, Gotye has surely done something right. We also got to sit down with film producer Gregory Bernard who believes the next wave of directors will be coming from Asia and PSYOP creative director Gerald Ding who turns graphic novel inspirations into TV commercials. Also check out the feature on Smashing Pumpkins in our Maestro section. I’m sure they know what creative resurgence means. This issue isn’t about taking over the world; it’s about creating a new sound, a new awareness, and a new direction for a new world order.

Editor-in-chief

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contributors statusmagonline.com editor-in-chief Rosario Herrera

@rosarioherrera

creative director Patrick L. Jamora art director Patrick Diokno

@padraick @patrickdiokno @nyaels @paolostroodles

graphic designers Nyael David

Paolo Geronimo

associate editor Kristine Dabbay

KAREEM BLACK

For his second STATUS exclusive, our trusty New York lensman snapped Elijah Wood (74) in various states of youth, from childish to confident. The two hit it off, perhaps over Sub Pop musicians or sci-fi geekery. After all, Kareem Black wanted to be an astronaut when he was younger; let’s hope the time machine Kareem’s working on pans out, and all his sleepless nights won’t go to waste.

features editor Reena Mesias fashion editor Loris Peña assistant editor Giano D. Dionisio fashion assistant Zoe Laurente editorial assistant Rita Faire

sales & marketing consultant Tina Herrera account manager Dan Buenaventura

junior account manager Kevin Jude Pueblo

@tindabs @yohitgirl @_dizzyrizzy @giodion @zoelaurente @ritadoesnttweet @tinaherrera_ @danbuenaventura @kevinpueblo tweet us!

contributing writers

Liza Constantino, Viva Gonzalez, Nante Santamaria, Petra Magno, Boo Umaly contributing artists

Ani Baez, Art Alera, Rachelle Ang, Kareem Black, Christian Chambenoit, Amy Clarke, The Cobrasnake, Fernando Colon, Danica Condez, Joyce de Dios-Ignacio, Antonio del Rosario, Amanda Elkins, Dominique Farina, Adrianna Favero, Judd Figuerres, Alexandra Greenhill, Rashi Halili, Chloe Han, Tinette Herrera, Stefani Hernandez, Adeel Khan, Seulah Kim, Shervin Lainez, Aldo Lihiang, Magic Liwanag, Shaira Luna, Jeck Manliquez, Miguel Miranda, Jeruel Pingol, Chrissy Piper, Heiko Prigge, Mara Reyes, Migs Santiago, Devin Schexnayder, David Sheldrick, JP Singson, Nick St. James, Patrick Velasco, Aleksey Volchek, Agyness Wang, Norman Wong interns

Jer Dee, Rolly Ibañez, Joel Lomotan, Victor Loong, Daniella Rodriguez, Arden Santos, Mabel Toh, Nicola Sermonia

NANTE SANTAMARIA

Our former Associate Editor believes strongly in the power of today; why wait for a new artistic renaissance if we can make the best art right now, right? Though admittedly not the nostalgic sort, Nante’s tastes glide from Stevie Wonder to Grimes with ease. Read all about his assessment of music’s current state as he dissects Gotye’s (82) megahit, “Somebody That I Used to Know.”

editorial editorial@statusmagonline.com advertising advertise@statusmagonline.com marketing marketing@statusmagonline.com general inquiries info@statusmagonline.com “We’re taking our Sharpies to Eisengard.”

What’s your STATUS? tell us.

PETRA MAGNO

Despite her feline arm ink, this cat-eyed kitty ain’t a catty lady, she just has some strong opinions—it’s something she and Amanda Palmer (86) have in common. Then again, when Petra’s not tweeting about feminine rights or slinging political witticisms, she doesn’t mind kicking it back Hobbit style. “I dig that country life, I’m tiny as fuck, and my feet are nasty,” confesses the writer.

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read our digital version statusmagonline.com/ digital-magazine like us facebook.com/statusmagazine follow us twitter.com/statusmagazine instagram: statusmagazine STATUS is published by STATUS Media Group. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.

THREADS / setting / BRICK AND MORTAR / BEATS / SCREEN / INK

OCTOBER 2012

WORLDLY DELIGHTS T

o update classic men’s shoes, BROGA VIDAR’s Autumn/Winter collection features bright fuchsia calfskin brogues, purple sheep suede sneakers, and scuffed leather with bandana scarf knots instead of shoelaces. The brand also boasts a mix of American utility, European elegance, and impeccable execution from Japanese designers Daita Kimura and Masahiro Kikutani to ensure the shoes’ international flair. brogavidar.com

LEVEL UP E

DUCATE AND ELEVATE takes you back to the 90s, but instead of baggy jeans and jackets tied around the waist; printed bomber jackets, Aztec shirts, Brooklyn “Spike Lee” caps, and cutout tees dominate the brand’s look. There’s no stopping the revival of your favorite decade if you just educate and elevate yourself. Once that’s done, free your mind and the rest will follow. educateelevate.com

CLANS & CASINO S

SAP’s collection, Sureños, pays homage to Mexican mafias in all their glory. Devoid of crusted bling, oversized silhouettes, and glitzy props, it features well-fitting, redefined classics like button-ups with printed sleeve accents, and double-breasted suits with rivets. It’s all about being the dapper papi in your notorious neighborhood. ssapnyc.com

UNDERNEATH MY CLOTHES F

eel like Dita Von Teese by wearing these retro bras from OXYGEN Intimates. Whip out those slingbacks, toss around those pin-up curls, and channel your inner Vargas girl. Take a pick from light cyan to powder pink and butter cream. You know what they say—for a girl like you, life is but a dream. oxygenfashion.com

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T H R E A D S BRANDS TO KNOW

WARN YOUR BROTHERS Y

ou are never alone with BLOOD BROTHER’s latest collection of printed tees, quilted jackets, and tapered pants. Pair those leather boots with a raglan sweatshirt and a pair of “Shadow” joggers or be decked in coated denim and a navy gray shirt. With these on, looking like a tough bro in a sea of average Joes is your greatest advantage. blood-brother.co.uk

STREET AGENDA

BOW AND ARROW

SNAP CRACKLE POP

GANGSTA’S PARADISE

ILAS sets its sights on lads who hustle on ply and four wheels with this lineup. Anchored by two-toned buttonups, Breton striped pullovers, and graphic tees, the brand continues to rely on its skatewear underpinnings that never fail to give off the signature laissez-faire attitude. Skater boys will come off as slick and smooth even as they bail off the ramp. silasuk.com

resented like an ironic band instead of a traditional fashion label, THE RODNIK BAND owes its playful, cartoony aesthetic to a unique mix of influences from fashion, music, and art—especially the Pop Art movement. Campbell’s soup can shift dress? Yellow submarine trench coat? Cheeky chic. therodnikband.com

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t’s hard to out-cool JUPE BY JACKIE’s bowties. The brand knows how to show your quirks with little red flowers dotting a purple base and red and white stripes that dress up your usual suit. If you’re ditching the sea of black ties, shoot straight for this red and navy lot. jupe-by-jackie.tumblr.com

ove in a hopeless place comes in BITCHING AND JUNKFOOD’s Autumn/Winter 2012 collection that’s post-Good Girl Gone Bad RiRi. Roam the streets in a blue “Desire” velvet crop top, “Destiny” fringed leggings, and platform sneakers; dark eyes and messy hair are all that’s left to be part of the gang. bitchingandjunkfood.com

THREADS

UP IN THE AIR M

ARIA BERMAN plays dress up from dusk ‘til dawn with her draped and airy collection. Keeping things minimal, she draws attention by adding fine details to peplum pants and sheer tops. With a mix of sleek tailoring and feminine silhouettes, the designer creates a collection that flaunts a girl’s best assets. mariaberman.com

FRONT PAGE Y

our daily dose of NEWSPAPER BOY CLOTHING just arrived. Its latest collection of printed button-downs may be what you need to get through the whole week. May it be casual Fridays or a chill weekend by the beach, these floral and leaf-printed tops with rope details should be booked in your schedule. facebook.com/NewspaperBoyClothing

X-MEN B

eing a mutant ain’t so bad when you shapeshift into MOI MULTIPLE threads. Its latest collection tells a story of mutation with textures as its lead characters. Fur, leather, and metallic fabrics take the spotlight in this play where dresses and suits function as costumes and the city sidewalks form the stage. moimultiple.com

SHE’S A LADY TOO MUCH INFORMATION P

ENSHOPPE’s latest collection gives you a lot of options. From colored jeans and knitted cardigans to checkered tops and accessories, you can never have enough. Plus, the price you pay makes everything so worth it. You can go with “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,” but we advise that you cop ‘em all. penshoppe.com

ou can be sexy without showing too much skin when garbed with S.I.C. COUTURE’s floral laced dresses in delicate silhouettes. Floor-sweeping or short and sweet, these feminine frocks are carefully designed and selected with utmost attention, keeping in mind that a girl should always be two things: classy and fabulous. siccouture.com

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T H R E A D S BRANDS TO KNOW

COVER STORY N

ew Zealand-based menswear imprint SLY GUILD rolls out a new range of headwear by offering bucket hats in camo print and 5-panel caps in florals, heather greys, and understated colors. If you ain’t got nothing on top, cover it up. slyguild.com

SECURITY MEASURE C

anvas and leather got every reason to stay together as New York’s STANLEY & SONS solidify their eternal connection with a collection of casual bags. You can never go wrong flaunting weathered rucksacks, totes, and satchels as they can all put your trendy ones to shame. Before you end up hitting a snag, trust the timeless ones. apronandbag.com

NORTH WIND W

rap yourself with the cool forests of the North through tailored separates and mirror print dresses from THE ETERNAL’s Fall/Winter collection. Nature meets urban with leather-paneled pieces bursting with crimson, burgundy, forest greens, deep lake blues, and cool stone greys akin to pebbled riverbanks. theeternalcollection.com

PET WEAVES F

ind your spirit animal and show it off with YARNZ. The brand’s signature printed scarves are back for another season. With prints ranging from leopards and zebras to swans and peacocks, picking out a new scarf is as fun as adopting a pet. Pair these cashmere goodies with a matching tote bag and you’re all set for the concrete jungle. yarnz.com

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SUMMER SONIC P

ERRET SCHAAD’s latest collection evokes the beauty of an idyllic summer day with soft neutrals, dusty brick tones, and the slight blush of peach sorbet and pistachio pastels on structural and airy pieces. Splashes of blue add freshness to this line; you’ll be dreaming of the tropics all year long. perretschaad.com

THREADS

TIME BANDITS I

n touch with Native American roots, THE 2BANDITS tribe welcomes newcomers with a crescent pendant finish for the “Leah” necklace in antique brass. Initiation involves the geometric “Bandit” bib in gold. Closing rites come with the winged “Concho Wing” open collar. Until then, keep on stacking. the2bandits.com

WRIST PUMP

IN COLD BLOOD

orget hand-me-down watches when the need for architectural design arises. VOID’s brushed stainless steel casing, minimalist straps, and digital or analog displays complement well-pressed threads with sleeves folded up twice so the wrist becomes a focal point. voidwatches.com

FIELD REPORTER L

et CATERINA GATTA’s Fall/Winter 2012 collection take you down to strawberry fields. Black and white striped blouses, printed high-waisted shorts, and graphic peplum dresses plant the seed for your style to grow up a notch. With kaleidoscopic frocks on, you’ll be the girl who marks her way across the universe. caterinagatta.it

he perfect outfit formula is in EST BY ES’s latest collection that includes boxy coats, sheer skirts, and flowy dresses. For understated power, cool off with shades of blue, yellow, white, and cream, then offset this flavor with a menacing grin. Perpetual winter is upon us, Ice Queen. estbyes.com

THE DOTTED LINE W

ILLIAM RICHARD GREEN plays with basic menswear staples by throwing a few dots and lines on to shirts, jackets, and shorts. Grounding the collection in black, white, and grey, his pieces come together as a carefully crafted collection that screams dead current. williamrichardgreen.com

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S E T T I N G PLACES TO GO

SUITE

COAST GUARD

hrow yourself into a French Riviera retreat and let HOTEL SEZZ SAINT-TROPEZ do the de-stressing for you. Modernizing classic Mediterranean sensibilities, each room is furnished with crisp sheets and decked with wood accents that come with individual foliage backdrops. Meanwhile, the hotel’s outdoor café transforms into a romantic hub when the sun settles, and the beauty of minimalist decorative statements blend with classic Saint-Tropez structures.

hotelsezz-sainttropez.com

CORKAGE

GRUB

CINDER TALES W

ith the aim to provide warmth and comfort through wood-fired recipes, wooden fittings, and an inviting ambiance, STELLA offers a series of delectable dishes that take cues from West Coast, Mediterranean, and South American cuisines. All offerings are sourced from local organic farmers that ensure fine harvests for ingredients in panini-

FEVER PITCH

pressed sandwiches, pasta bowls, and wood-fired pizzas with aromas that waft through the bistro’s mad mod interior. Also available are a wide selection of spirits and house-blend beverages that complete your orbit around international modern cuisine.

facebook.com/stella.rocketroom

he dark wood interiors and red-tint lighting of BESO CUCINA VINOTEKA may be good for intimate dates, but stick around after dinner and you’ll see the restaurant transform into a night life getaway complete with live world music and an overflow of fine Spanish wines and original house mixes. Wine-o-phobes can ease their taste buds into vinophilia by experiencing the restaurant’s signature sangrias like the full-bodied Beso Sangria built on a foundation of strong red wine, Bacardi Gold, and apple-cranberry juice.

facebook.com/pages/BESO-Cucina-Vinoteka

PLATE

BURNING SENSATION

fusion of comfort food and equally comfy surroundings, STELLA bistro will treat you from light snacks to heavy steaks. Be sure to sip a spirit for a keepsake. Bonifacio High Street Central 1634 Fort Bonifacio Philippines

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THE STELLA SALAD Butter lettuce paired with crispy bacon, sundried tomato bits, candied rosemary pistachios, and buttermilk chive-ranch dressing

STRAIGHT UP PEPPERONI A classic pepperoni pizza cooked carefully over a wood fire and topped with local micro greens

BUTCHER’S BEST An assortment of homemade garlic-fennel sausage, doublesmoked bacon, pepperoni, red onions with fennel dust, and fresh Rizal dairy mozzarella

WOOD-FIRED CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE à LA MODE A skillet-baked chocolate chip cookie topped with vanilla mantecado ice cream

Words by Rita Faire and Rolly Ibañez Stella photos by Patrick Diokno, Beso Cucina Vinoteka photos by Rita Faire, Hotel Sezz Saint-Tropez photos courtesy of DesignHotels™ (for bookings: designhotels.com)

B R I C K A N D M O R T A R STORES TO SHOP

WORKWARE HERITAGE CLOTHING COMPANY, HONG KONG 2/F No.13, Lee Garden Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong workwareheritageclothing.com Dime to drop: HK$120-HK$25000 (P650-P130,000) Don’t leave without: 3 Days Union pocket tee, graphic tee, and overalls

ituated right at the heart of Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay district, Workware & Son’s in-house label dubbed WORKWARE HERITAGE CLOTHING COMPANY is a go-to retail destination for carefully selected vintage clothing. Little details like Navajo scarves, posters, and framed photos are scattered around the store, so you’ll get nostalgic while scouting for a great buy. Wooden interiors and yellow lights fill up the space. With proper illumination, vintage trunks, ladders, cupboards, and white walls, the store feels like your hidden attic minus the bug bites. Pieces such as utilitarian gear and premium jeans occupy tables, while denim jackets, military uniforms, and graphic tees hang on racks and grid walls. If you’re on the lookout for some rare Levi’s from the 40s, Japanese reproduction clothing, vintage sneakers, or backpacks, Workware Heritage Clothing Company is definitely in no short supply.

CHIEF SHOP, MANILA 1403 Apolinario St. Cor. Gen. Estrella St., Bangkal, Makati City chiefclothing.com Dime to drop: P500-P3,000 Don’t leave without: Chief outerwear

Words by Loris Peña and Rolly Ibañez

on’t be fooled by the home-y storefront, CHIEF SHOP is definitely not for the grumpy and domesticated. But do bring your brothers, your bros, and maybe some girlies, because the store is very much open to all young folks. Step inside and the first thing you’ll see to your right is a locker area. Beside it are racks of clothes, vintage trunks, an old cooler, a badminton rack, and VHS tapes. Just when you start thinking of your high school glory days, eye the button-downs, jackets, chambray tops, tanks, and shorts. Vintage snapbacks, Casio watches, and accessories like the camo pouch are also available. There’s a dressing room in the middle if you want to check out your steez before purchasing the goods. You’ll also find a nice sitting area where you can just chill and listen to old school hip-hop while you talk to the owner about film, art, and his inspiration for the brand. Other than that, the showroom is by appointment only. Give a ring before you drop by and don’t forget to bring a buddy, chief!

L-ATITUDE

a La L-ATITUDE–if this online store could sing, it would totally sound like that–like music to your ears. You’d be gleeful to know that designers from Hong Kong, Istanbul, Milan, and New York have a home here—from Thakoon dresses, Nude is Rude jumpsuits,

Niin rings, and Loeffler Randall sandals to little trinket souvenirs from different places. There’s no need to book a trip to look like a stylish jetsetter. Now, take this ticket and be fly.

shoplatitude.com

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S C R E E N SCENES TO SEE REMOTE CONTROL

TICKET V/H/S A group of misfits breaks into a brokendown house to steal a rare VHS tape. Things take a turn for the worse when they discover a dead body and a collection of macabre found footage.

FUN SIZE Gossip Girl producer Josh Schwartz makes his feature film debut with a comedy about Wren (Victoria Justice), a teenager whose plans of attending a huge Halloween bash are dashed when her little brother wanders off on his own. NOBODY WALKS Ry Russo-Young and Girls creator Lena Durham tell the story of a relationship budding between a young film student (Olivia Thirlby) and the happily married sound engineer (John Krasinski) who helps her make the final cut of her independent film. AMOUR Director Michael Haneke helms Isabelle Huppert and Jean-Louis Trintignant in a film about two retired music teachers in the twilight years of their relationship.

UN PLAN PARFAIT Heartbreaker’s Pascal Chaumeil directs this romantic comedy about a woman (Diane Kruger) trying to outsmart her family’s curse of having every first marriage end in divorce by getting hitched to an absolute stranger before tying the knot with her boyfriend.

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HANNIBAL (NBC) The Thomas Harris classic resurrects as Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller and 30 Days of Night’s David Slade take us back to forensic psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter’s life way before meeting Clarice Starling. The series focuses on the relationship between Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen) and FBI criminal profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy).

EMILY OWENS, M.D. (CW) Mamie Gummer exits the South American jungles of ABC’s Off the Map for the shivery rockies of Denver Memorial in Emily Owens. M.D. It follows the titular character that is interning for a big shot hospital where mean girls are in Plastics, jocks are in Ortho, and geeks like her are just trying to get by without stimulating their overactive sweat glands.

THE NEW NORMAL (NBC) This new series by Glee’s Ryan Murphy follows Goldie Clemmons (Georgia King), a single mom trying to get away from her overzealous grandmother (Ellen Barkin). Goldie and her daughter move to California, where she pursues a law degree. Before that, she needs to earn an easy buck as a surrogate for gay couple Bryan (Andrew Rannells) and David (Justin Bartha).

PL AYBACK SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE (1990) Sort of a lifechanging film for me. Basically, it was one of the first American independent films.

by MARIE JAMORA (director) @mariejamora THE ICE STORM (1997) It’s one of my major influences— in terms of tone— for my film, Ang Nawawala. I love the feeling of heaviness in this film.

HAPPY TOGETHER (1997) Now that’s a love story!

FIGHT CLUB (1999) Super cliché, but it’s Fincher, man!

KICKING AND SCREAMING (1995) It’s not the most beautiful-looking film, but I’ve seen it so many times and I’ve memorized the dialogue.

Marie Jamora photo by Patrick Diokno Words by Rita Faire

FRANKENWEENIE Director Tim Burton goes back to his roots and retackles his 1984 short film about a young boy, Victor, who brings his pet Sparky back to life.

i n k BOOKS TO READ BOOKMARK

HOT OFF THE PRESS IN THE PLEASURE GROOVE: LOVE, DEATH & DURAN DURAN By John Taylor Duran Duran bassist and co-founder, John Taylor, writes an autobiographical account of his 30-year career. Co-written with journalist Tom Sykes, the book is about an unassuming boy from Birmingham finding his way to rock & roll stardom. Follow how quickly Taylor discovers the highs of fame and the sacrifices that come with it, including bouts of humor and wisdom gained from his crazy life on the road.

THIS BOOK IS FULL OF SPIDERS: SERIOUSLY, DUDE, DON’T TOUCH IT By David Wong The cult favorite, John Dies at the End, has itself a sequel. Cracked.com editor-in-chief David Wong reunites us with his mid-Western protagonists, David and John, as they find themselves in the middle of a zombie apocalypse caused by society’s obsession with the living dead. One catch: there are no zombies to kill, only overactive imaginations to quell. This novel will keep you wondering who the real monsters are.

THE HOTTEST STATE By Ethan Hawke

Before James Franco, the good-looking intellectual Renaissance men of the world were repped by Generation X’s Ethan Hawke. Though his first novel is a brooding look at the inner workings of young love, tell-tale signs of coming of age can be found in The Hottest State. 1. Naïveté. Most coming of age stories spring from an author who wants to tell the story of how he found himself. It was no surprise that this book’s hero, William Harding, has Ethan Hawke written all over him. They both hail from the roughin’ ranges of Texas, and both starred in their first movie around the age of 20. Both were raised by single moms and both moved to New York where they discovered culture and the arts.

Words by Rita Faire and Daniella Rodriguez

2. Daddy issues. What kind of coming of age novel would this be if there wasn’t

FOOTNOTES

BUILDING STORIES By Chris Ware

a juicy parental dispute somewhere in the mix? William’s dad left their family when Will was eight years old. Ever since, he’s tried to fill that void with other kinds of relationships.

Void of a definite beginning and end, Eisner Award-winning cartoonist Chris Ware’s latest offering follows the stories of three groups of inhabitants living in a Chicago apartment building. One is a woman in her thirties who has yet to find a partner to settle down with, the other is a couple that can’t seem to stand each other anymore, and last is the building’s elderly landlady who has lived on her own for years.

3. Flighty girls. Like most would-be men in these kinds of stories, William came to his own by finding love with a girl who doesn’t love him. Sarah seemed perfect to William’s glazed eyes in every way possible, but when it came down to it, the relationship was doomed from the start.

Talk about a royal flush! Diana, Princess of Wales referred to Duran Duran as her band of choice. The band paid tribute to their favorite princess by playing at her funeral in 1997.

David Wong is a lie! The Cracked.com editor-in-chief’s real name is Jason Pargin. He developed this pseudonym in order to keep his real life and online persona (on the Pointless Waste of Time forum) separate.

If Building Stories seems familiar, that’s because you may have come across it before. It started out as a monthly strip in Nest magazine, and eventually found its way to The New Yorker, and New York Times magazine.

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B E A T S MUSIC TO HEAR PL AYLIS T

SHE’S ONLY SIXTEEN Andrew Panopio (guitar) facebook.com/ shesonlysixteen

THESE UNITED STATES Jesse Elliot (vocals/guitar) theseunitedstates.net

“Look Out For Detox” Kendrick Lamar Really amps me up to hear somebody rhyming like this.

“Hell Broke Luce” Tom Waits Across the board, from the music to the delivery.

“Free Press and Curl” Shabazz Palaces I love the rhyme and the simple beat.

“Spaceboy” The Smashing Pumpkins I could sympathize with Billy Corgan.

“Under the Bridge” Red Hot Chili Peppers I cried to this song for no other reason than its beauty.

“Autumn Shade II” The Vines One of those songs you melt with. I shape a lot of personal songs to this.

“I Cut Like a Buffalo” The Dead Weather If I were a rap artist, I’d totally feature with them.

“So Long You Pretty Thing” Spiritualized A plea for salvation. Absolutely transcendent.

“Simple Song” The Shins It’s the pleasure of the first day of spring, world coming alive again…

“Drummer Down” Hiss Golden Messenger Earthy, organic folk/soul asking the big questions.

“You Can Listen You Can Talk” Carsick Cars They could’ve opened for Sonic Youth and be just as good.

ON THE RISE

SECRET GARDEN

t’s normal for musicians to come up with distinct band names for instant recognition, but for Francis Yu, the name ARCHASTER is a love affair he established

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after stumbling upon it in a textbook. This synthesis between a name derived from a starfish and the serenity it brings contributes to the primary elements of the

artist’s music. More than anything else, Archaster’s songs radiate melancholy. “No matter how hard I’ve tried to come up with a more upbeat song, when I start singing, it automatically shifts the mood to a lonely one,” Francis says. But an ethereal vibe doesn’t imply gloom all the time. Francis visualizes the world he creates as a bedtime dream in the “afternoon, in a garden of willows where there’s a gazebo and a guy inside it either reading his favorite novel or reciting poetry by Percy Bysshe Shelle, John Keats, or George Gordon,” he shares. It’s simple. It’s quiet. It’s what we need in this noisy world. And the world will keep listening to Francis who is currently finishing songs for another solo EP under UK-based label Dufflecoat Records.

myspace.com/archaster

MUSIC NEWS

Amy Winehouse has inspired fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier, Lana Del Rey, and Adele, so why don’t we all celebrate her legacy? The first annual Amy Winehouse Inspiration Awards and Gala, which will honor work that inspired greatness in others, will be held at the Waldorf Astoria on October 11, 2012 in New York. Rap legend Nas will be honored together with Tony Bennett, who donated a portion of the proceeds from his “Body & Soul” track to the foundation. Now this is how you keep someone’s memory alive.

We just can’t get enough of festivals, especially when the lineup includes previous STATUS Maestros and Heavy Hitters like The xx, Grimes, Best Coast, Los Campesinos!, Toro Y Moi, and more. Shall we book our tickets to San Francisco’s Treasure Island Music Festival on October 13-14? Why, yes! It’s gonna be the coolest musical family reunion and greatest treasure hunt for more artists to feature. Stretch that family tree.

They’ve already performed alongside Tiësto, Skrillex, Justice, and David Guetta at the Ultra Music Festival earlier this year. But this month, Kraftwerk’s stepping it up by playing a string of 3D concerts at Alte Kongresshalle in Munich. They will also be part of a 3D video installation at the Kunstbau.

Words by Reena Mesias and Rolly Ibañez Archaster photo by Jeck Manliquez, Aesop Rock photo by Chrissy Piper, Andrew Panopio photo by Patrick Velasco

AESOP ROCK aesoprock.com

“Chamber” Ka Lots of dim imagery about life in Brownsville. Big fan.

TEC H PACK

depth of perception These gadgets may look clean-cut and straight to the point, but their features make them more elaborate than meets the eye.

CLEARAUDIO CONCEPT MC TURNTABLE • Made with polished shaft of tempered steel and a resonance-optimized body • Features friction-free tonearm with magnetic bearing • Flexible setting adjustments include tracking and antiscating force SRP: P106,070

AIAIAI TMA-1 FOOL’S GOLD EDITION • Professional-grade earphones made in collaboration with Brooklyn-based record label Fool’s Gold • Includes an angled stereo plug and cable lock to ensure that the device is not disturbed even in motion • Has built-in microphone and new colorways not found in standard versions SRP: P11,520

POLAROID INSTANT DIGITAL CAMERA Z2300

OT DJ SLIMS • Wireless over-ear headphones with 30-foot range connection to paired devices • Features eight to nine hours of battery life when fully charged • On-device controls allow for settings manipulation without adjusting paired devices • Comes with a built-in microphone and a tough rubber coat extension

• 10-megapixel digital camera with a ZINK Technology integrated printer that allows for pictures to come out in 2 × 3-inch full-color prints • Produces smudge-proof, water-resistant, and tear-resistant photo prints • Comes with rechargeable lithium-ion battery • Features a 3.0-inch bright color LCD screen

SRP: P2,960

SRP: P6,770

DOWNLOADS DJRUN by Bucket Labs

SPY VS SPY by Robots and Pencils Inc

PARTLY CLOUDY by Raureif

Fitness-oriented app that matches the tempo of your movement and automatically chooses songs to match the beat

This modern revival of the classic Atari game by First Star Software, Inc. allows players to experience both updated retina graphics and 8-bit retro interface

A design-driven weather app that displays daily statistics in dynamic infographics

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FAC E PA IN T Benefit Hervana P1,204

E.L.F. Liquid Eyeliner in Plum P98

Urban Decay De-Slick Mattifying Powder P1,376 Urban Decay Sparkling Lickable Body Powder in Marshmallow P1,247

CoverGirl LashBlast Fusion Water Resistant Mascara P354

Nars Larger Than Life Long-Wear Eyeliner in Bourbon Street P989

PURPLE RAIN

Make Up For Ever Aqua Liner in Iridescent Electric Purple P1,109

Smother your eyes in purples and plums that won’t leave you feeling blue.

Maybelline Eyestudio® Color Tattoo 24HR Eyeshadow in Pomegranate Punk P300

Benefit Girl Meets Pearl P1,290

Penshoppe Mirage Aqualiner Pencil in Royale P149

Shiseido Makeup Luminizing Satin Eye Color Trio in VI 308 P1,720

Vera Wang Princess Eau de Toilette P2,580

BY TERRY Light-Expert Perfecting Foundation Brush P3,352

Mac Lipstick in Rebel P623

Yves Saint Laurent Mineralized Skinfinish in Semi-Precious Pearl P1,376

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Shiseido Makeup Shimmering Cream Eye Color in VI 305 P1,587

Model photo by Fernando Colon

Tom Ford Private Blend Lip Color in Bruised Plum P1,935

AB O U T FACE

SWEET DREAMS

Cream Puff

Lift, moisturize, and smooth the eye area with KINERASE RESTRUCTURE FIRMING EYE CREAM. It targets critical elastin protein cells and encourages collagen production to reduce wrinkles. P2,420

Sleep well and KIEHL’S MIDNIGHT RECOVERY EYE will take care of the rest. The botanical extracts and essential oils found in this light cream restore and hydrate dry eyes. P1,500

bright eyes Double Duty

CHANEL ULTRA CORRECTION LIFT TOTAL EYE LIFT doubles as an eye treatment and makeup base. Feel rejuvenated and weightless as this cream lifts and cushions tired eyes. P5,230

Wake those tired eyes up before you go-go so you’ll look good hitting solo.

caffeine fix

MAC FAST RESPONSE EYE CREAM perks you up like a morning coffee cup and removes unwanted dark circles. P1,900

20/20 vision

MURAD RENEWING EYE CREAM defies time. Massage it onto your brow bone and under your eyes, wait for the Eye Brightening Complex to take effect. You’ll feel younger in no time. P3,500

Expert Advice

Place a wet towel in a plastic bag and freeze for 15 minutes. Apply onto eyes to soothe puffiness.

HYDRO PUMP

Model photo by Fernando Colon Words by Daniella Rodriguez and Zoe Laurente

b ea u t y b i t e

Apply BOBBI BROWN HYDRATING EYE CREAM first thing in the morning. The long-lasting cream with avocado oil, aloe vera, and witch hazel extracts is quickly absorbed by the skin, keeping your eyes moisturized throughout the day. P2,200

pipino

IPINO, a boudoir-looking beauty hub, gives off the same delicate accommodation you get when you’re in your best girl friend’s apartment. Its crystal chandeliers and black and white zigzag floor patterns prove that the salon offers nothing short of a designer experience. Find yourself sitting pretty on Fendi chairs with backlit, sandblasted mirrors as you get your tresses made.

Aside from A-list hairstyles and glamorous arches, Pipino also carries jewelry from Pamela Love and Manon von Gerkan. A new do looks best when paired with precious stones. 3 Centre Market Place New York, NY, 10013 Tel. 212.871.5533 pipino.com

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GO S E E The autumn wind is picking up. Time to slip into clothes people can’t forecast. Photographed by JP Singson and Danica Condez

Batik Print Trousers

Weave Cap

Lace Dress

Fur Trim

Grommeted Vest Floral Shorts

Cargo Jacket

Lamé Pants

Maxi Dress

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High-Waisted Jeans

Pastel Suit Ombré Tote Kiltie Brogues

Graphic Pullover

Man Skirt Pleated Dress

Gold Shorts

Velvet Heels

Printed Necktie

Top Hat Padded Shoulders

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S T YLE I D

GET SNEAKY

Sneakers aren’t just for the sporty. This season, wear your comfiest footwear everywhere and pair them with everything. By JP Singson Model and Singer Danny Van Der Hoeven loves his Converse.

Rick Owens sneakers are definitely a favorite.

He pairs Lanvin trainers with a graphic pullover for a covetable look.

Mix up your vixen outfit with comfy Nike kicks. Designer Luuk Varkevisser dons Tie-dye pants with white high-tops.

jponfashionspeed.com

Blogger Terence Sambo of One Nigerian Boy jazzes up his old Chucks!

Susan Wang looks cute wearing her Jeremy Scott for Adidas sneakers.

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all that glitters She dances under the moon in sparkling dresses, printed jumpsuits, and white frocks. She claps to the beat of the drums. These are the days she will never forget. These are the times she comes alive. Photographed by Adrianna Favero Styled by Devin Schexnayder

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top by Creatures of Comfort

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top by Noon by Noor skirt by Tt Collection ring by Bing Bang earrings by Bing Bang

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top by Creatures of Comfort skirt by Zara necklace by Bing Bang gloves by LaCrasia cuffs by Lisa Freede

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jumper by Noon by Noor earrings by Betty Carré ring by Betty Carré cuff by Betty Carré belt by H&M shoes, stylist’s own

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Makeup Dominique Farina Hair Stefani Hernandez Model Milena of Major beaded dress by Haute Hippie bracelet by Maiden-Art

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On Ausra dress by Issa On Samantha dress by Ekaterina Kukhareva

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MY FAIR LADY

Take a trip down to the old stable for an afternoon with your lovely steed. Balance crochet and tweed through the grassy field while decked in floor-sweeping frocks. Jump, gallop, and canter away to your heart’s delight. Photographed by David Sheldrick Styled by Alexandra Greenhill

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dress by Hugo Boss jacket by Hugo Boss

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dress by Ekaterina Kukhareva shoes, stylist’s own

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On Samantha skirt by Hugo Boss jacket by Hugo Boss white shirt by H&M shoes, stylist’s own On Ausra dress by Ekaterina Kukhareva shoes, stylist’s own

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Hair and Makeup Chloe Han and Seulah Kim Model Samantha Hicks and Ausra Valusyte Special thanks Lisa Dixon, Mandy Childs, Aston Gypsy Cobs dress by Ekaterina Kukhareva

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M A S S I V E A T T A C K After the smoke, there’s no telling of any signs of survival. Point and stunt in hues of blue, green, and black. With digitized camo vest, paint-splattered pants, and textured trousers, there’s nothing else to do but command and conquer. Photographed by Patrick Diokno Styled by Loris Peña

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jacket by Rajo Laurel shorts by Nixon Marquez boots, stylist’s own

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blazer by Mike Lavarez top by Rajo Laurel camo pants by M Barretto

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top by Mike Lavarez vest by Mike Lavarez pants by Ulysses King boots, stylist’s own

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digitized camo vest by M Barretto

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Grooming Tinette Herrera Model Nathan Lane blazer by Ulysses King collared shirt by Ulysses King pants by Rajo Laurel

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T w eed B la z er S

DEAL MAKER Tweed out the winners.

Massimo Dutti [P12,500]

Miss Selfridge [P3,995]

Zara [P6,590]

o re N anette L e p 0 12 2 Fall /w inter

Massimo Dutti [P14,500] Mango [P5,950]

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L a c e D ress E S / S tatement r i n g s

PRETTY LITTLE MISSY Look lady-lovely in these lacy lovelies.

Sinéquanone [P8,950]

Dorothy Perkins [P3,345]

J ill S t uart 2 0 12 Fall /WI N T E R Dorothy Perkins [P3,345]

Forever 21 [P1,175]

Warehouse [P4,195]

FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING One bling to rule them all.

Aldo [P1,095]

Accessorize [P750]

Call It Spring [P455]

Accessorize [P750]

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P R I N T E D T R OU S E R S

EYE BELIEVE

The proof is in the pants.

Zara [P3,990]

Topshop [P2,095]

Forever 21 [P1,275]

J ill S t uart 2 0 12 Fall /w inter Sinéquanone [P6,950]

Zara [P2,590]

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LOAFERS

SHOE CASUALTY Strolling with the homies.

Aldo [P4,295]

Forever 21 [P1,305]

Forever 21 [P1,135]

Aldo [P4,295]

Call It Spring [P2,695]

Massimo Dutti [P7,950]

Honor 2 0 12 Fall /w inter

Zara [P2,590]

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BAC K PAC K s

ATLAS SHRUGGED Carry the world on your shoulders.

Herschel [P4,890]

Topman [P2,245]

DC [P2,290]

Topman [P1,895]

Herschel [P4,990]

Oxygen [P1,299]

g eneral idea0 1 2 R2 FA L L / WI N T E

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PO L O sh i rts

POP THAT COLOR Work from blue collar to white collar.

Oxygen [P729]

Celio [P1,895]

Penshoppe [P599]

Topman [P1,595]

ig er T o mmy H ilf 2 0 1 2 R FA L L / WI N T E

Celio [P1,895]

Lacoste [P3,748]

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sneakers

FOOT-O-BOOTH Take a dirty photo with these sneakers.

Springfield [P4,250]

Pony [P2,995]

H.E. by Mango [P4,950]

Keds [3,995]

Sperry Top-Sider [P2,995]

Skechers [P3,195]

Skechers [P3,495]

Penshoppe [P999]

Pony [P2,995]

Vans [P3,498]

Creative Recreation [P3,998]

Vans [P3,798]

y-3 R 2012 FA L L / WI N T E

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D E N I M p ants / B OO T S

FIT FIRST Everyone deserves a great pair.

Folded & Hung [P1,199]

H.E. by Mango [P3,950]

Penshoppe [P1,099]

H.E. by Mango [P3,950]

ig er T o mmy H ilf 2 0 1 2 R FA L L / WI N T E

Oxygen [P1,299]

Penshoppe [P1,099]

STOMP THE YARD

Command the troops in leather boots. Call It Spring [P5,995]

Boxfresh [P6,990]

Call It Spring [P5,995]

Boxfresh [P6,990]

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M U S E

Working nonstop from New York to London, Barcelona, and Paris, UK-bred MILLY SIMMONDS has been racking up the blue chips with Fashion Week lineups, Vogue Italia, and a Burberry campaign before turning 21. With strawberry-specked cheeks and delicate doe eyes, it’s all about her ability to adapt in these ever-changing times. By Giano D. Dionisio Photos courtesy of Union Models

f her versatility were measured in hairstyles, Milly Simmonds would snatch top marks. She’s been brown, black, blonde, green, and pixie. She can rock a mohawk for Tush, luscious curls for the catwalk, and a bob for the cover of Vogue Turkey. No matter how many times she reinvents herself, Milly packs talent in the millions.

WILD HEARTS I was brought up in the countryside and had a lot of freedom. We had endless fields to run about in. I think that has made me quite open-minded and spontaneous… My sister and I loved dressing up in my mum’s clothes and raiding her makeup bag. Maybe that’s where my love of clothes came from.

STROKES & FOLKS My favourite part of my job is getting into character, which changes all the time depending on the concept. Once you’re all dressed and ready to start shooting, it just comes naturally and characters just

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develop from there—androgynous, sexy, moody—I think it’s just a matter of feeling the vibe on set and working with the team to help create the vision they are looking for.

LEARNING EXPERIENCE Modeling has definitely made me a stronger person and I feel more independent, confident, and outgoing. I now like to explore different styles and looks and I now take care of myself more—going to the gym, skin care, etc. It’s also taught me to work with lots of different personalities and characters and to pack my suitcase in three minutes; you never know what is coming next!

ON TO THE NEXT ONE My mum is an interior designer, so I’d love to get into that after modeling. I love cooking, horse-riding, and traveling, too, of course… I was lucky enough to be shooting in Rio when the Carnival was on. Exploring the city and experiencing the Carnival was amazing.

unionmodels.com

M A E S T R O

BEACON I

always point it out—how Kevin Baird (bass/vocals), Alex Trimble (vocals/ rhythm guitar/beats/synths), and Sam Halliday (lead guitar/vocals) of Two Door Cinema Club could be adult versions of Neville Longbottom, Ron Weasley, and Harry Potter respectively. “People have mentioned this before,” Sam laughs. “It’d be cool if [our music were a spell and] it made everyone incredible, considerate dancers,” Sam answers. Considerate? Maybe. Incredible? Not quite. Everyone? Obviously. The world is watching and listening. Settle down as Two Door Cinema Club history will be made and good times will be had. For sure, you will want in. At the moment of the interview, they’re in an economy hotel room in London, rehearsing new songs from their sophomore album, Beacon, a funk-bangin’ return to form accompanied by deeper, heartfelt lyrics and even guest vocals by London singer Valentina. But it has also retained the same harmonic legacy distinct in Tourist History. The trio’s proudly poppish sensibility and jangly, catchy guitars

TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB’s production muscle has been stretched to the max with Beacon. It sounds like a pony making love with glitters during spring and having unicorn babies pooping gold. It’s the sort of luminescence and lightness that takes you higher and higher. By Reena Mesias

are still as solid and relentless as they were. “We had a four-day holiday last week. That is the only time off we have had this year, I suppose,” Sam says. “Being in LA recording was, at times, like a holiday as we had some weekends off.” Even before the release of Beacon, Two Door Cinema Club were already busy making sure our playlists come in a brighter, bolder shade. “I guess there was a bit of a challenge making Beacon in the fact that we didn’t take any time off,” narrates Sam. “We went straight from touring to living together and writing the record.” For them, there is no time for wasting time, and it’s true; they proved how something good can work out of the rush. Sam adds, “It had been a while since we had had the chance to be creative as musicians.” No one, though, will believe that Two Door Cinema Club are not creative. Last July 19 (July 20 at 3AM on my side of the world), the entire Two Door Fans Club is online, waiting for the first release of the first single, “Sleep Alone.” A few weeks later, the band came out with the music video, which was as trippy as the waken baken. The video features a dream sequence where Alex is being chased by a

train—kind of like a scene ripped off from The Adventures of Tintin. But while the video and the song are inspired by Alex’s troubled, drug-induced dreams, Sam says, “I hate talking about dreams… I am sorry!” He would rather take photos on tour, swim, play football, or read The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises. With a new incarnation of Two Door Cinema Club, Sam and the rest of the guys can clearly tell what we want: we don’t wanna be alone. We just want their music to accompany us. Sure, Beacon may not be a disparity from Tourist History, but what it does is intensify the band’s brand. It will be the signal fire that will spark and be the reason behind the Club making their mark. “I think we have progressed loads, musically,” Sam says. “It is easier now to listen to different types of music. I think our tastes are always broadening.” Whatever it is they serve—Beacon and the next album (hopefully to come out next year)—do eat it up. It’s good for you.

twodoorcinemaclub.com

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maestro

Wait Until the Quiet Comes for you to keel over FLYING LOTUS’s latest album. The experimental multi-genre music producer is bound to generate a loud statement with a powerhouse list of collaborators including Erykah Badu and Thom Yorke.

ONCE IN A BLUE CROON We’re sorry for waking up BEE EYES frontman Julius Valledor from his dream of dolphins getting haircuts, but we just had to pick the band’s brain to see how a real BI works. Turns out, that didn’t do much anyway ‘coz his dreams become more vivid when he’s awake. By Rita Faire Photographed by Patrick Diokno

laying on the Filipino colloquialism BI—aka bad influence—lo-fi garage-pop band, Bee Eyes, don’t just plaster their manifesto in tracks of slow-gestating bass undertones and introspective vocals distorted in intimate whispering lullabies. Together, Diego Abad (bass), Ralph Mendoza (drums), Idris Vicuña (guitar/vocals), and Julius Valledor (vocals/ guitar) make up a ragtag posse of rebels. “We’re the guys your Mom don’t want you hanging around with because she’s a close-minded aunt who thinks every guy with a tattoo and smokes marijuana is bad. But when you listen to our music, it’s not bad at all,” says Julius. “We write about love and all this other girl-magnetizing stuff.” So what do you say, ma? Give ‘em a chance? There’s more to a bad boy than his tattoos, and as Julius tells, there’s more to Bee Eyes than lo-fi crooning. Delve deeper into their music and you’ll feel the sun kiss your ears. Here’s music that bathes you in yellow like an old film-reel. How does a Bee Eyes song happen from conception to execution? Julius Valledor: Our songs are like babies, and they literally take that long to develop from conception to birth. Sometimes a song will already be written by either me or Idris, then

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we’ll teach it to the whole band, or there will just be a riff and we’ll write to that, or we’ll just jam and create something organically on the spot. We’ll practice it for a long time until we like the arrangement. The hardest part is recording. We have a lot of material written that we play live but haven’t gotten around to recording yet because we are still in the process of learning how to do it on our own. Will your upcoming material still be the same lo-fi crooning that we know and love? Ralph Mendoza: I don’t mean to brag, but it’s going to make you feel like a baby being rocked by the fireplace. JV: Don’t expect, and be surprised! We’ve got a lot of things coming and I’m not just talking about the music. We’ve got videos, merchandise, and all types of other fun stuff in the works. It probably won’t all be lo-fi but it will definitely have that spirit because we do everything ourselves. It seems like lo-fi crooning has stuck to your music. How do you feel about the label? JV: I don’t even know what lo-fi crooning is! [Laughs] It sounds like something new, and something new is always good to be described as. We don’t really care how people label us as long as they can relate to it.

We won’t be lo-fi forever. We’re only lo-fi now because that’s just how it sounds when you record in your bedroom. Do you guys have any crazy rituals or idiosyncrasies when you write/record/perform your songs? Diego Abad: We’re pretty normal. When we jam or record songs we usually just smoke up and eat. And when we go on stage we just drink til we’re sufficiently buzzed. Some of the guys like to smoke up, too, before a set; but I can’t. Makes me nervous. What job do you think each of you would have landed if you weren’t into music? JV: We all have jobs even if we have music. But if I wasn’t pursuing my passion for music, I would probably be more focused on writing and making films, which is what I went to school for. Idris, I think, would be doing the same thing. Ralph and Diego would be writers because they already are. But then again, I think, without music we’d be totally different people. Idris would be a spy. Diego would be a UFC fighter. And Ralph would be in the PBA. I would be the pyrotechnician hired to demolish buildings.

bee-eyes.com

TAME IMPALA’s Kevin Parker wrote and composed almost everything for the band’s forthcoming album; so naming it Lonerism is just apt. Building off the success of Innerspeaker, the recording process took place in different places in the world. Expect more synths, drum machines, and samples in this excursion.

You’re not going to lose consciousness when you get struck with MATT AND KIM’s Lightning. While there’s a minimal treatment to the forthcoming album’s production, the mix of drums and tambourines can still electrocute you to bliss.

Resist no more. MUSE will let you abide to their 2nd Law. Trying to make the lineup as diverse as possible, vocalist Matt Bellamy admits that U2 and Hans Zimmer were the top influencers behind the LP.

MAESTRO

FOR THE SAKE OF

POSTERITY

SMASHING PUMPKINS appeared in a time when the world was a little less complicated, when music video channels played actual music (with actual instruments!), and when older siblings and friends were primary sources of listening fare. From 1992—when they hit mainstream success—to 1996—when they released their “somewhat surprising hit,” “1979”—and to 2000 when the initial lineup broke up, the band has gone through hell and back to tell us that the future will be different. By Liza Constantino Photographed by Magic Liwanag

ack when the sheer amount of albums wasn’t so dizzying, and we didn’t care much for reviews, it was easier to think of music as degustation—to relish it for its novelty and lyrical chutzpah, for the flood of synaesthesia it seems to cause in its admirers. That was the time of Nirvana, Alice and Chains, Placebo, and Tool; it was the time of artful, carefully constructed music that could never be set apart from their respective artist and vice-versa. Perhaps it’s tempting to consign them to that decade. So much so that today, when we see the re-emergence of artists like Fiona Apple, Soundgarden, or No Doubt, we think of the whole phenomenon as a “comeback,” a mere rehash of the sound they represented before. But any close listener might pick up more than meets the senses. In Smashing Pumpkins’s recent visit to Manila to promote their latest album, Oceania, Billy Corgan (vocals/ guitar), Jeff Schroeder (rhythm guitar), Mike Byrne (drums), and Nicole Fiorentino (bass guitar) make the distinction between artists making a comeback and those whose primary concern is creative evolution. “You kind of have two bands,” Billy says. “There are those bands that are essentially coming back only to make money—playing their old albums—and maybe, at the back of their minds, there might be a future. I’m not in that business, obviously. And I condemn anybody who’s in that business that doesn’t admit that they’re in that business. They’re just out there to just have one more run for the thrill.”

A bit harsh? Maybe. Not if you consider things from the perspective of the most discerning artists for whom compromise is simply impossible. Take, for instance, Fiona Apple, who refused to shorten the 90-word title of When the Pawn…, her 1999 album. A self-confessed recluse, she hasn’t succumbed to the pressure of celebrityhood. She’s only released three other albums since 1996, and her fourth (The Idler Wheel…) is fueled by more mature raw emotions. At 23 words, its title is shorter, but it certainly doesn’t scrimp on intensity. Fiona is an apt example of the metamorphosing artist Billy extols when he says, “There’s tons and tons of bands out there and people believe in them, and if they can get back to that place where they’re making great music for this time— they have to make music for 2012.” Certainly, the lot of difficult, finicky artists remain markedly abundant,

but what’s less mentioned is that, as these artists’ styles evolve, so do their audiences. As Billy shares, “I talk to old fans a lot. I have some of the most difficult but most intelligent fans of the world. Sometimes, they come and they want to relive their experience in ‘96, in ‘92, in ‘98. What they forget is, the 16- and the 20-year-olds now, this is their time. Oceania is their album—for their time. Now, if they connect, then good. If they don’t, they don’t. But this is their time. So don’t try to always come and steal that away from the next generation. Because that’s why we’re here. We love our fans— the fans that have been with us in the tradition of what it means to be a fan. But without the young fans, there is no future for Smashing Pumpkins.”

smashingpumpkins.com

“...without the young fans, there is no future for Smashing Pumpkins.”

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maestro

“ If a song doesn’t have a mood that connects to us somehow, how could it connect to anyone else?” Whatever Halcyon denotes, there’s an assurance that it brings tranquility and serenity for ELLIE GOULDING. The British songstress has turned to the beauty of our humble planet, harnessing the fluidity of its oceans to create her sophomore album. Hope we get some dubstep action from boyfriend Skrillex, too.

space cadets

“I don’t want to be in Helsinki art scene,” sings Esa Mankinen of SATELLITE STORIES. Helsinki isn’t the only cool place in Finland. Some treasures you can find buried deep or 329 miles away. Drummer and “ladies man” Olli-Pekka Ervasti boasts, “Have you ever heard about a party indie band from Oulu before? There isn’t too many of those out there!” Our radar detector beeps.

Hodgy Beats and Left Brain of MELLOWHYPE are mad and banking on their latest album, Numbers. Don’t judge the album cover of an inverted cross. Listen to their chants that will convert you to their religion.

By Reena Mesias Photo courtesy of XYZ Berlin

t’s all about heavy metal in Finland: Battlelore, Children of Bodom, Am I Blood, Korpiklaani, The 69 Eyes, Apocalyptica—you can tell by their names that they’re going to sound depressive and angsty/ emoish to slice your ears in pieces. In these dark moments, there can be light… say, in the form of university students Esa Mankinen (vocals/guitar), Marko Heikkinen (guitar), Jyri Pesonen (bass), and Olli-Pekka Ervasti (drums), who are ready to paint the town in a violent burst of color through their band, Satellite Stories. “We’ve been calling our music ‘party indie’ since our goal is to have fun, make people smile, dance, and feel better, too,” says Olli. Mixing electronic luster and staccato rhythms with melodic guitar pop a la Two Door Cinema Club, Satellite Stories emit hues of positivity in a soundscape that lacks it; it doesn’t even matter if they come up with Finnish lyrics we will never understand. “Lots of gigs out there these days are about looking cool and people standing rigid,” Olli explains. “Our musical direction is basically to write really good danceable earworms with a positive mood. I think we succeeded.”

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Satellite Stories are the rainbow, the silver lining, and everything else in the prism that livens up your sucky day. From the basement to the bright lights, you’ll bounce to their music even if your dancing skills are similar to an epileptic seizure. Just because their beat is lighthearted, doesn’t mean their music is a bunch of bull. “If a song doesn’t have a mood that connects to us somehow, how could it connect to anyone else?” asks Olli. “I think the most personal song of the album is ‘Mt. Foreverest,’ which is the only song Esa wrote the lyrics to alone. Usually, we do pretty much everything—from composing to lyrics—together. The other three of us have no clue what this song is about.” The foursome will always come together for one thing: brotherhood. While they are/ were a part of many other side projects—Esa has his own bass music-related club and “DJ thing” in Oulu. Jyri has an acoustic folk project in the style of the Tallest Man on Earth and another club music side project with his brother. Marko and Olli had another band, a Britpop project in the mood of Blur and Oasis, in a tiny countryside called Taivalkoski—

Olli says, “We’ve been making music for such a long time on our own so the band is some kind of a “super-band” to us in a way.” They have also already given each other Satellite names (Weather-Satellite, TV-Satellite, Search and Rescue-Satellite, NavigationSatellite). “That was an inside joke in the early days of the band, not much anything else,” he laughs. Right on the cusp of being more recognizable and exposed on the airwaves, the band recently released their debut album, Phrases to Break the Ice. “Now, it seems like we’re gonna have to take a break from studies so that we can concentrate on the band,” Olli says. “We’re all totally okay with that.” He bursts out laughing, then immediately follows up by saying studies are “really important” and they’re pretty sure they’ll “make time for it.” But right now, they have set their priorities straight, and that is to scratch our boogie itch. Like satellites, these kids are about to launch their career. Like stories, their music is bound to spread like wildfire.

satellitestories.com

Natasha Khan pays homage to Patti Smith and all the “raw and honest women” for her third album, The Haunted Man. It only got better when photographer Ryan McGinley infused his signature nudes into BAT FOR LASHES’s cover.

The boy who knew too much comes full circle. MIKA is on the quest to figure out The Origin of Love. Albeit the songs are less layered and come with a simplistic pop treatment, there’s no way the album is predictable. Consider the Pharrell collaboration for that matter.

MAESTRO

HISTORICAL REALMS, HYSTERICAL LANDSLIDES Drenched in this decade’s insouciance, you must think you’re too modern for boy-girl ballads. And then you hear STARS for the first time in a long time. You rewind the violin sweeps in “Your Ex-Lover is Dead” and you tremble at the nuanced narrative of “Elevator Love Letter.” You learn Stars have a new album called The North. You listen. You weep a little. It’s ’99 all over again, but it’s also 2012. It’s twice as apocalyptic this time. O my Stars, we’re scarred for life. By Kristine Dabbay Photographed by Norman Wong

“the secret to longevity is making music you love to make.”

n a recent STATUS party, the crowd drowned in a carnival of masks, fur, and warble until pop hits from the early 2000s played and got everyone clasped in a nostalgic huddle. I, for one, was a teen during those years—the same time I got into Stars’ music. Years later, I’m still into them. Yes, we’re just like old friends. I ask the band’s guitarist, Evan Cranley, how it was like to be 16 years old. “I played a lot of trombone everyday for hours and dreamed of making a career in music. I smoked a lot of weed, listened to way too much reggae—your basic teenage hippie dream,” he reveals. Since then, Evan kept making music until he met Stars’s Torquil Campbell (vocals), Amy Millan (guitars/vocals), Chris Seligman (keys), and Pat McGee (drums). He chirrups, “I’ve been in the industry for 20 years now. Wow! I suspect when I retire from the music industry is when I’ll celebrate with a huge party!” Tracing the band’s progression from Nightsongs (2001) to The Five Ghosts (2010), things are looking up. Evan relates, “I think The North is Stars’s best record. Because we’re still here. Because it sounds great. Because it’s hopeful, thoughtful, and honest.” He adds, “The North isn’t just a place; it’s a direction.”

Everything regained new perspective when Amy and Evan started their family last year. “That has been the biggest change and influence in my life,” Evan says. “It affects everything I do now from the way I make records to the way I sleep.” For instance, “Balancing music and family— there were stressful moments. You want to be a great father. But at the same time, [you need] to put in the hours at the studio. Looking back at that now, I think I put both love and fear into this record— everything I had.” Tracks from the album attest to this feat. “Take the weakest thing in you and beat the bastards with it,” advises the band in “Hold On When You Get Love and Let Go When You Give It,” a soaring ode to “the love you make being equal to the love you take.” Then there’s “The Theory of Relativity” that sounds like the lovechild of New Order and Cocteau Twins. It’s danceable and dreamy at the same time. Both factor in to the band’s accessibility that’s marked by harmonic instrumentation, hushed vocals, and intertwined lyrical drama. Amy reveals to Aural States, “People are interesting. Every person has a story that could break your heart.” It could be meeting your ex from a friend of a friend. It could be love born out of your postmodern predilections. It could be every thunderous moment that’ll crack you to the point of vulnerability. Lucky you, the Stars have aligned to supply a soundtrack. Evan is honored to be of service. He dreams of recording in Prague or Barcelona with an orchestra or symphony. He says, “We all love classical music. That would be a beautiful marriage.” Similar to classics, Stars are vying for timelessness just like their intergalactic counterparts. Evan shares, “The secret to longevity is making music you love to make. I know that sounds simple. But it’s true.”

youarestars.com

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M A S T E R M I N D

KING OF THE DAME Husband and creative partner to Dame Vivienne Westwood, Andreas Kronthaler, believes in fashion as a means to envision a brave new world of environmental sustainability. Today’s Adam and Eve come in the name of Andreas and Vivienne. Witness their history as STATUS probes into their inner life. By Kristine Dabbay Photographed by Heiko Prigge

Photographed by Christian Chambenoit

way from his Alpine house in his homeland, Austria, Andreas is in London, married to Vivienne Westwood. Here, he is bequeathed with the heritage of punk and pirates, of pins and rips and bondage trousers. Word is, he changes his underwear per outfit and is possibly bisexual. Vivienne doesn’t mind; she’d rather cook while he washes the dishes. Andreas was 25 when he met Vivienne, She was 50. The head designer shares, “I met Vivienne in Vienna where she was teaching, and she invited me to come to London. I stayed and never went back. We are opposites in many ways but there is a deep attraction. I just like how she sees the world.” Having erected an empire that started from a boutique at King’s Road, Vivienne and Andreas continue the brand’s crusade against conformity. Like any royal who’s next in line, Andreas upholds the brand’s call for sustainable change, climaterelated or otherwise. As his statement shirts shout, if you want to weather the future, “get a life!” Hi Andreas! What inspires you? Inspiration can be triggered by anything. It is the silhouette of a garment that I am really interested in as it’s through altering the volumes and weights of a garment and creating contrasts that one can achieve something. How is it like sharing a life with Vivienne Westwood? Everyday is still exciting and a surprise for me. It’s incredible how she’s able to

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come up with something that’s amazing everyday. Vivienne has an original mind that keeps ticking away. When working on the collections, our ideas merge into one design. We don’t split the process up into parts of “You do this” and “I’ll do that.” We work on our Gold label together, but Vivienne mostly looks after the knitwear and I look after the menswear myself. You said, “Wearing good clothes, I always think, makes the day better.” What do you wear to lift you up? When in doubt, dress up… you never know, you might run into your next sweetheart and you should look the best you can. First impressions last forever. What’s the soundtrack of your style? Mahler, because of his centenary. I think his music is fabulous. What constitutes true style? The best style is if you look good. You can dress effortlessly or put a lot of effort into looking dressy, but everybody will notice when you look good. “Nobody can avoid tradition—but you should not confuse it with conservatism.” That said, how do you see Vivienne Westwood in the future? This is mostly to do with Vivienne and her vision—she does not fit into any stereotype. You must re-interpret tradition. Otherwise, it is stale, dead, and boring. Sometimes, something small or a flash of something can change it.

It’s interesting that Vivienne was some sort of punk messiah. There were many things to rebel about. This generation, however, is said to have too much freedom. Do you agree? I don’t think the subculture has disappeared. There are still street influences. But the test of real culture is that it sets people thinking and we can make the world better if that happens. Punk did not make people think; it just added to the

complacency. The interest in culture itself has somehow lost its relevance with today’s generation, and we are in dreadful danger from the destruction of the environment— and the financial crisis is just a symptom of this. This has to change. You should read Vivienne’s Manifesto Active Resistance to Propaganda.

activeresistance.co.uk

mastermind

There are many things to discover in a hotel room full of strangers. For one, Wrong producer GREGORY BERNARD—who has worked with savants like Karl Lagerfeld, Olympia Le-Tan, and Quentin Dupieux—recently enjoyed his first arrival at Manila. Second, no matter how much luggage he’s strapped from one continent to another, he doesn’t “believe in having preconceived ideas about other countries.” From oriental tea to call-center cash and flooded crossings, Gregory gets gregarious about Asia’s fast rise. By Kristine Dabbay Photographed by Nick St. James

global. The French travel like expats. I think it’s gonna take them a little time to go over the old colonialist way of stepping in a country.

fter tapping communication mines in Africa and scouting Bangkok’s stylish youth dressed in platform shoes, Gregory Bernard decided to check out the telecom industry in Manila. While sinking in drizzle, cultural haziness, and a bowl of noodle soup for brunch, Gregory shares, “I was really impressed by Manila. There’s really sort of a ghetto vibe like New York in the 90s. People are not showing off at all and are being really laid-back. The rich kids and simple kids are mixing. I don’t know the city yet, but the feeling I got from it was something really modern and cool.” Hailing from Paris, the producer stayed at Mandarin

Oriental, smack in Manila’s Central Business District. Surprised by the juxtaposition of slums and high-rises, he shares, “Going to a country, you gotta participate in what’s happening, you create value, and just receive what can be received.” While chatting about the Philippines’s independent film festival, Cinemalaya, he touches on his favorite topics like films, friends, and being a global Frenchman. If you want to roll like he does, consider the following options. Grid the globe. Diaspora—having people everywhere in the world—I think it’s the new way of being

“I think most of the best artists and directors are going to come from Asia in the decades to come because they’re open to the world.”

Bend it like Rubber. The fact that the movie, Rubber, was a low-budget film gave Quentin [Dupieux] and I new ideas to direct it. We make money outside of filmmaking. He’s a very famous DJ. I make my movies from engineering and telecommunications. We’re not dependent on what the market wants. It’s a win-win situation. Work it like Karl. I worked with Karl on Lagerfeld Confidential. He’s a nice guy. He gave me the opportunity to create a first film that was international because he’s known everywhere. When we released that movie in 2007, there were no movies about fashion. It kind of paved the path to hype September Issue and another film on Yves Saint Laurent, L’amour Fou. Do Wrong and make it big. After Rubber, we did Wrong. We’re shooting another one in October called Reality. After that, maybe we’ll go to the goonies/gremlins project; I wanna make it bigger. We shot the first one for one million

dollars, second for 2.2, now we’re at 2.5 and 2.7. Now we wanna go with a bigger budget and do something mainstream. Spot your sphere of influence. I saw Quentin’s very first film called Nonfilm. Sébastien Tellier was starring in it; he wasn’t the big star that he is now. Quentin’s like a very discreet godfather for me because he helped launch all these guys (Tellier, Kavinsky). I wanted to produce Quentin because he has a vision. Be Spike-studded. My friend Olympia Le-Tan meets Spike Jonze. She shows him her work. He loves it. She gives him a present—like a clutch—and they’re crazy about it. He’s like, “Oh, how can I get back to you?” and she’s like, “Okay, make a movie!” He came to Paris, they wrote the movie in the office in 2-3 days. Adapt to the Asian arena. I think most of the best artists and directors are going to come from Asia in the decades to come because they’re open to the world. If you see that generation that’s 20-30 right now in Asia, they’re really super interesting people. They’re not gonna try to copy anything.

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mastermind

IRON MAIDEN Korean menswear designer JUYOUNG LEE of Resurrection used to be a cellist for 20 years. How is she doing in fashion? Put it this way: if a Resurrection ensemble were translated into a song, its sound would be as moving and fully-orchestrated as it looks. By Reena Mesias

e got to catch up with Juyoung Lee, head designer of Korean menswear label Resurrection, after she got back from Berlin and prepped for New York Fashion Week, Seoul Fashion Week, and Singapore Fashion Week. “It’s hectic,” she laughs. We’re not so sure how frenzied it can be for every international designer backstage, but we’re confident that in all of these shows, Juyoung is comforted by her preshow ritual. “I need to put my red lipstick perfectly,” Juyoung reveals. And she’s backed by a collection that utilizes darkness in the form of crosses, deep blacks, and layers. Simply put, when a Resurrection man steps onto the catwalk, people part like the Red Sea and speak to each

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other in tongues of fire. He’s hardly the easy-breezy, preppy boy you’d see walking around Korea; rather, he is garbed with masculine shapes paired with flowy feminine fabrics and skirts brimming with punk panache. Juyoung explains that the Resurrection man is “Someone who has confidence in himself and enjoys the culture and the arts. I’m also sure he’s very edgy.” These qualities are all in her Fall/Winter 2012 collection. She adds, “The inspiration was from military uniforms… It’s my favorite and I loved it!” Armed with anarchy, not policy, Juyoung is driven by music. “I can’t live without it… I listen to Nine Inch Nails, my favorite band—and I love industrial rock.” Though we haven’t seen Trent Reznor wearing Resurrection yet, it’s likely going to happen. She admits that music gets her going

when she’s executing designs. Naturally, artists like Lady Gaga, Marilyn Manson, Lenny Kravitz, and Will.I.Am are drawn to her clothes. “Will.I.Am and I are planning to do a clothing line called I.Am by Resurrection, and we’re still in the process of making the right designs for it,” she shares. “We have known each other for about four years and he loves my designs and always gives me huge support. It’s a great opportunity for me to show my designs to the foreign market with his help, and I’m really trying to do my best.” Resurrection is succeeding independently but Juyoung prefers to collaborate so she can share her expertise and learn from the fashion elite. “I really want to make fashion films with such great visual directors like Nick Knight or Ruth Hogben or even David

LaChapelle. It’s my dream.” As former womenswear designer Juyoung submerges deep in her reveries, ladies can only dream of having Juyoung design something for them again. Chances are, she will not. But hey, sexuality is fluid; and as long as man and woman can freely wear what they want—skirts for men and suits for women included—this reincarnation of a dark age in style can unravel at its own risk.

resurrectionbyjuyoung.com

mastermind

far from the madding crowd

Starting out as an animator, PSYOP creative director, GERALD DING, may have moved on to bigger things, but his mom still doesn’t have a clue about what he does for a living. “I was trying to explain what animation really is, and my mom said, ‘So you draw on the computer?’ I’m like, ‘Yes.’” Don’t worry, Gerald, we get you. By Rita Faire Photographed by Nick St. James

dvertising has changed so much since the era of Mad Men. Gone are the days when being an ad man was equivalent to puffs of smoke and glasses of brandy. Gerald Ding leads this change by bringing in a new crop of production hustlers who have thrown out their ties, walked the streets of Bowery and Pitt in casual button-downs and worn-out sneakers, and posted their wares, not to desperate housewives and repressed gents, but to a screaming youth floating on their wireless cloud. You can’t make it in the business if you don’t adapt to the market the way Gerald does. After all, he’s the art director behind Kid Cudi, Bethany Cosentino, and Rostam Batmanglij’s video for Converse. Gerald’s works live on high-octane adrenaline, from the musical peaks of today’s freshest artists to the thrills of revved up animation as seen in his graphic novel-inspired, 3D-hybrid commercial for Pepsi

in celebration of the 2012 Summer Olympics. Putting a mirror up to his market, Gerald reveals that today’s advertising arena is all about embracing music, adaptation, and the right brain. Everybody has this mental image of what you do at your job. What’s something unexpected about what you do? While people have different kindS of ideas, they think that it’s like, “Oh, everyone else is doing it for you! You’re at the top!” But, say we have a big team of 40 people (compositors, animators, modelers, designers, effect people)… it’s not that they’re working for me, it’s actually me working for all of them… I have to be fully invested in every single person on our team. Storytelling has become a big part of modern commercial work, have you ever thought of making the transition into short films?

I am a big fan of cinema and I also like working in commercials. I feel like, most of the time, I’m kinda in a playground of thirty seconds— sometimes in ten —so every frame is so valuable to me. It sounds impossible but we’re so meticulous and so specific. [We have to keep thinking of what] kind of feeling we’re trying to convey or what reaction we’re trying to get or what kind of story we’re trying to tell. In such a small amount of time, I feel I could tell so much more. So I’m working on stuff like that, and eventually, to do a short or a feature would be really great. If there was one film you wish you’d directed, what film would that be? Fallen Angel… There is this perfect shot where Takeshi Kaneshiro is riding a scooter and Michelle Reis is at his back. At the end of all the craziness, they are driving through this tunnel. He’s got this cigarette in his mouth… I don’t smoke, but I just noticed the ash was so big—and just as they were leaving the tunnel—he blows a puff of smoke and the camera pans up and it goes into the sky. It was perfectly shot. What’s your forecast for upcoming art movements? What’s coming back? I don’t know! I guess all those trends are gonna keep recycling and reinventing themselves. I think people are stepping away from a really glossy and polished finish. People are embracing imperfections and embracing natural flaws. I think that’s a great thing.

psyop.tv

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mastermind

HIGH

SOCIETY

“

’d go so far as to say it was my favorite film experience so far,” says Callan McAuliffe about The Great Gatsby. The film marks the comeback of Baz Luhrmann—a fellow Aussie and the visionary director behind Moulin Rouge, Romeo + Juliet, and Strictly Ballroom. The barely legal (Callan’s only 17) import admits that joining the acting industry is the most ambitious thing he’s done. A fixture on the small screen back in his homeland, he has starred in TV shows such as Packed to the Rafters, Cloudstreet, and Comedy Inc. before flying out for his first US audition and successfully scoring the lead in the Rob Reiner film Flipped. Although his entry into the movie biz seems effortless enough, Callan reveals, “It’s certainly not as easy as it looks from the outside.” Preparing for the role of the young Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio as the adult) looks to be his biggest

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challenge to date. “I am more of a spontaneous actor—it leaves me open to work with the director’s vision of the overall movie and my scenes within that. However, to be prepared to go in whatever direction works best for the film and the role. I did watch quite a few of Leo’s movies when he played someone my age. I also spent time in the edit suite to see what Leo did with the adult role of Jay Gatsby.” Comparisons to Leo are to be expected, but as Callan tells Collider, “No, I honestly don’t think I look like him at all, but to each his own. Baz can have that opinion, and I’m glad that he does. He’s a very talented man, so I’m going to trust his instincts. But I can’t see him in me at all.” He can breathe new life to classics and his impish grin and accent from down under will definitely hold your attention better than your Literature teacher could. “For me, it isn’t hard as I am given the

Scoring a role in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby is only the beginning for CALLAN MCAULIFFE. The revival of Young Hollywood is here, and he’s leading the charge. By Viva Gonzalez Photographed by Amanda Elkins Styled by Adeel Khan

script, the outline, and the directions,” explains Callan. “We’ve seen The Great Gatsby before, so I can imagine the most important thing was making it worth a second film. We wouldn’t want to make the same thing again, else there’d be no point in making it,” he adds. Callan may already be getting there, but let’s keep it real: he’s pretty young, so we forgive him as he ‘fesses up to us about his love for The Teletubbies. He even casts Hollywood royalty Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Ellen Page (his crush) as part of its hypothetical live action adaptation. In the future though, he wants to work with Peter Jackson. “I’m a huge fan of him,” Callan says. “I also love Tim Burton’s artistic style, and would love to be in one of his films.” Tim Burton’s The Teletubbies, anyone?

Production Assistant Ani Baez Grooming Amy Clarke

“I am more of a spontaneous actor—it leaves me open to work with the director’s vision...”

mastermind

Gra v itational C ool Creative duo Andrew Stevens and Kim Swift of WE CAME IN PEACE are famed for abducting the guests of bigwig clients for a one-night-only journey into branded universes. Look behind the veil of their wild imaginings. By Boo Umaly

hen we were kids, sitting inside a cardboard box could transport us to any place on Earth with the sheer power of our imagination. Most of us grew up and out of our childhood’s four brown walls, but not Kim Swift and Andrew Stevens, who are now paid to turn empty event spaces into environments of our wildest dreams. “The creative process thrives on a childlike curiosity,” says Kim. “It’s

that human love of discovery and surprise that we like to tickle in our audiences.” Champagne flute chandeliers, a band stage made entirely of orange traffic cones, a hippie crash pad complete with a working fridge (essential for the munchies) inside a 1989 Ford Econoline (the Scooby Doo van!)—these are just some of the where-the-hellam-I installations churned out

by We Came in Peace. But they’re not just about redecorating rooms for a rager. The creative studio, which came to life in 2009, is a jackof-all-trades in the congested events industry, combining elements from advertising, graphic design, interior design, and event planning. Andrew says, “There was so much crossover between these worlds

that we just carved out a place for ourselves… The real world experience we craft has to have enough substance to communicate ideas in a direct human way.” Andrew and Kim definitely came with more than just peace. And in their world, imagination never sleeps.

wecameinpeace.org

RISKS & FERIL Freelance graphic designer/ illustrator DARYL FERIL doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty once in a while. The Bacolod native says, “I’ve always felt there’s a bit more emotion in my art when I’m using pencil rather than tablet.” Now ain’t that a beautiful mess? By Daniella Rodriguez

cardigan over a white cotton shirt, shorts, and a pair of sandals: an outfit that isn’t at all remarkable. Given the choice, Daryl would wear this everyday for the rest of his life. He admits he doesn’t stand out from the crowd. His art, though, tells a different story. It was at a bargain bookstore—with that Autumn Whitehurst cover photo on Computer Arts magazine—years ago when Daryl told himself, “I want to do this.”

Although Daryl’s preferred medium is traditional pen and ink, most of his four years at college were spent in front of a computer. It was his post-graduation trip to Singapore that led Daryl back to his sketchpad. He says, “I immersed myself [in] bookshops, galleries, and did some research on mixed media artists. That’s when I decided to go back to my first love—traditional art—and tried to mix it with digital media.”

No matter what medium he chooses, it’s really the heart that counts, and Daryl’s got a lot of it. He’s graduated from creating his own female superheroes with a classmate (back in elementary), to doing his first traditional and digital project, Brands in Full Bloom. Recently featured on Behance, Daryl is just warming up. Never mind a few bumps and scrapes along the road. “I like the idea of not having a [CTRL+Z] to erase or redo, it’ll let you

make errors turn into something unexpectedly great,”

behance.net/dtferil

“I like th e i dea of not h avin g a [C TRL+Z] to erase or redo...”

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AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT In this age of ennui, e-babies and the iPod populace have replaced medieval knights and epic odysseys. Us jaded young halflings need to slough the quarter-life crises, get off the La-Z-Boy, hunt for treasures and pleasures, and rekindle that passion for adventure. Who can illuminate this path towards a post-new age? The ultimate quest seeker, ELIJAH WOOD, of course. By Giano D. Dionisio Photographed by Kareem Black Styled by Valissa Yoe Location Soho Grand Hotel

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DARK AGES Nowadays, people don’t have time for adventure unless it involves Finn and Jake. Elijah Wood, on the other hand, still regularly goes on algebraic acid trips with his furry best mutt friend. Ever since swimming around with Flipper, the young man has been navigating the zeitgeist through acting gigs, musical obsessions, artistic collaborations, and a healthy appetite for variety—in a way, embodying this young generation’s restless raring for life rife with exploration and expression. After all, the actor has an exhaustive list of quirky experiences including rolling through sunflower fields with pop culture junkies, probing Jim Carrey’s memories, and getting tortured by man-eating wolves before being decapitated with a saw. Besides voicing the main character in Disney’s new animated Tron: Uprising TV series, Elijah recently flew to Spain for Grand Piano—”I’m going to have to learn how to play certain sections of songs on the piano quite proficiently, so I feel like there are some roles that lend themselves to a certain amount of preparation more than others.”—and is looking forward to the release of Pawn Shop Chronicles—”It’s more of a comedy in a Raising Arizona/Pulp Fiction kind of way. I play a very twisted character who abducts women… The film is a series of stories that all take place in a Southern town and the connective tissue is this pawn shop. Items, people, and stories kind of get siphoned through this one place. It’s very good, very dark, and very funny. It’s awesome,” Elijah reveals.

IMPRESSIONISM His bold thespic choices— from off-kilter indie projects like Green Street to animated features like 9 and Happy Feet, a political drama (Bobby), and a coming-of-age story complete with a Debbie Harry sexual fantasy (All I Want)—garnered him the top spot in MillerMcCune magazine’s 2009 survey of critics’ all-time favorite actors.

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“I think I try and look for characters that are not like myself,” says Elijah. “I suppose I’m most attracted to roles that are further away from my comfort zone.” Landing his most famous role, Frodo Baggins, took extra effort. After learning some dialogue from the novel, Elijah filmed himself in a “cheesy” (according to Peter Jackson) Hobbit costume in a nearby forest, then sent that video to the casting director. Actually doing the role justice was exacting and equally exhilarating. Besides dialect coaches and prosthetic feet, The Lord of the Rings was an unparalleled adventure for our young protagonist. “There will never be an experience like that again, y’know? It was the most extraordinary experience of my life,” he exclaims. “It kind of transcends the idea of a role, specifically, or looking at it specifically from an acting perspective, ‘coz it was allencompassing. I lived in New Zealand for 16 months. I made some of the best friends in my life,” a shout out to the fellowship (they have matching tattoos!), “I traveled there when I was 18. By the end of the last film, I was 22, so it was a huge growth experience for me and a significant move forward in my life,” he says. So much so that Elijah seems to have taken that merrymaking, storytelling, lifeloving Hobbit mentality with him everywhere. Some say his eyes stay so sparkly blue because he never lost that sense of wonder.

MACHINE AGE Elijah Wood proves fearless in the face of the unfamiliar. Besides being the first guest on Yo Gabba Gabba! to do a Dancey Dance—for its pilot episode, no less—he was also the first celebrity guest on Jack Osbourne’s UK reality series, Adrenaline Junkie. In the episode, Jack and Elijah brave rabid white-water rapids, then Tyrolean traverse across the Victoria Falls (the world’s largest) for yet another firsttime-in-the-history-of-the-world experience. However, Elijah’s most significant foray into television remains to be FX’s darkly

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“ The Lord of the Rings ... was the most extraordinary experience of my life.”

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“I think I try and look for characters that are not like myself.”

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hilarious, Wilfred. “I was interested in television as a storytelling medium,” explains Elijah. Soon, he started going through scripts. Luckily, “Wilfred was the last one that I read. And I just fell in love with it, y’know?” He says, “I was interested in comedy. It was something I hadn’t done. It was a new challenge. Wilfred was so completely different from anything that I’d read or anything that I’d seen on television. It was so bizarre and dark and kind of oddly cerebral. And very funny… I was thrilled by it, by the opportunity to work on it, and to work on something so unique.” In its two seasons alone, the show has seen Elijah’s character, Ryan, having a pot of spaghetti dumped on him, taking a crap in his neighbor’s boot, and getting canine jizz-blasted. His vigor for all things fresh has led the leading man to a path of passion-pursuing fancy. First on the list of Elijah’s multiple ventures into geekdom is his thing for film. Not just the moving picture kind, which his annual attendance at Butt-Numb-AThon should attest to, but the shooting-from-the-hip variety as well. Elijah excitedly tells the story of his personal favorite photo, a grainy 1996 black and white shot of the Statue of Liberty peeking through a vignette of underexposed highrises in the dusk, taken on his old school pre-digital Canon (“It may have been a Minolta,” he ponders). “We can use apps like Hipstamatic that can emulate film, and so I tend to shoot with that now, more than anything, which is kind of a bummer,” laments Elijah. “It’s kinda made me a little bit lazy,

so I’m trying to stop myself from shooting so much with my iPhone… I had rolls and rolls of film constantly, so I’d love to get back to that place,” particularly the Lomo boom of the early 00s. “I never really kept a journal, so I think it’s been my way of documenting my life,” he shrugs. It’s a valiant endeavor, seeing as he’s avoided paparazzi prying throughout his career. Elijah’s personal life—besides a blind item rumor about his obsession with Nicki Minaj and her merchandise—stays private. He openly discusses his love for cuisine, video games, yesteryears, travel, discourse, and the state of new media; self-reflection, though, sends the usually articulate gentleman into stutters. As the interview wraps, he goes back to his two favorite topics, “Anytime I get to talk about food or music, I’m excited.” “I think I’m just always looking for something that moves me,” he offers. “And something different and challenging and unique. It can be a number of things that make me fall in love with a project or instill me with that sense of passion to wanna be a part of something,” Elijah says. “If anything, I’m just looking for something that feels good.”

FUTURISM His love for music culminated in the establishment of Simian Records seven years ago, though it’s currently “in a state of flux.” He mentions, “It’s still something I wanna be involved in. I wanna put out records; I’d really love to get into doing reissues as well. And compilations! So much of the music that I buy and listen to

and so many of the labels that I love are predominantly reissue labels… I love digging back, so I’d love to be a part of that process as well.” More recently, he’s been DJing at backyard gigs, production wrap parties, and other events you probably weren’t invited to. Before you hipsters and music snobs roll your eyes, consider that Elijah plays vinyl-only sets (he’s currently obsessed with 45s), and his eclectic taste ranks obscure Turkish DIY records he got off eBay as must-play tracks. Not to knock his jetset agenda, but Elijah is grateful for his short break in New York, where our shoot takes place. After a delicious brunch at Soho Grand, Elijah starts

revealing his foodie nature. The California resident bursts into gastronomic gusto over comparing his two most common locales’ culinary scenes, from Momofuku pork buns in New York to Sushi Zo and La Curacao in Los Angeles. “It’s my favorite burger in the world,” he says of Cabo fixture Henry Public’s grass-fed beef offering while also praising the East Village’s Veselka in the same breath as Fairfax Avenue hotspot, Animal. On a roll, he implores us to try The Breslin, Spider Pig, The Tasting Kitchen, Jolina, and several other haunts between NY and LA. Elijah continues to outdo himself by spitting trivia about Austin’s booming food truck culture. A common thread in his eager rave: these places are an amalgam of

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experimentation, tradition, and modernity. Currently, Elijah is swirling amber liquid in his glass. “Little Draper action,” he mumbles. He looks up from his drink and continues to talk about where he stands, three decades into his personal history; “I’m 31 now, and I feel like I’ve gone through periods of time where I’ve cleaned out my closet and tried to pare things down… Every time, I’m, like, ‘I’ve done this before, but I still have so much shit I need to get rid of.’” He’s talking about his fashion sense, though his chuckle suggests a bigger metaphor at play. “I really liked ties. I still like ties, but I wear them less now,” he confesses. For the shoot, he’s dignified and dapper in his favorite brand, Band of Outsiders. His suits—velvet Dior or otherwise—frame his shoulders precisely, and his shoe game consists of worn-out boots, Italian hand-crafted wingtips, and everyday brogues. “My personal style has gotten

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simpler, more focused, and more dependent on fit. The older I got, the more aware of fit I became, and what works for me and what doesn’t,” drawing inspiration mostly from the slim lines of the 50s. It may have taken him different rites of passage to get here, but it’s been a worthwhile adventure. “I’ve learned a lot about the things that don’t work when I turned 30,” he laughs. “My 29th year was significant in terms of self-reflection and recognizing some things that had always been a part of me that I didn’t realize ‘til then. I had to sort of figure them out,” he pauses often to contemplate. He speaks of the transition between his twenties and thirties as an inexplicable tipping point, and finally concludes, “I can be complicated but also incredibly simple.” Exasperated, he catches himself, “That’s a contradiction.” But we gladly leave it at that anyway. It’s a good resolution: Stay complicated, stay simple, contradict yourself.

twitter.com/woodelijah

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“I can be complicated but also incredibly simple.”

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The Blow-up Since the beginning, GOTYE has been an obsessive multi-instrumentalist and, as he would say, “tinkerer.” But until his opus “Somebody That I Used to Know” took the world by one ravaging hurricane, he didn’t know what hit he’d made. By Nante Santamaria

t is as difficult as in the comics to find out where Wally is these days. Like the beloved illustrated character, Wally De Backer aka Gotye has pleasantly disappeared in a mélange of figures, colors, and sounds. In the music video for his notoriously catchy single,

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“Somebody That I Used to Know,” his body is painted all over so that he blends into a wall. With the countless covers made of this mythical earworm, the 2011 single has become a specter among referential pop culture moments on the tube and on YouTube. Now known as that guy whose song cannot be cut off from people’s ears, Gotye continues to zoom past one airport to another—“up to next year,” he says—still delivering that one track. Having been bought 8.87 million times, it has become one of the bestselling singles of all time. It is so difficult to track him down that, in the recent months, he became the victim of a death hoax through a strategically placed story on CNN iReport. It is unfortunate, and his party slides away from further comment aside from that immediate declaration of assurance that Wally is alive and well. On the other hand, it is also an indicator of the

level that Gotye’s status has reached. It is a mean joke but one shot at record-breaking legends like Michael Jackson or at infamously recognized talents like Justin Bieber, whose “Baby” is now engraved into mass consciousness. These hoaxes are aimed at perennial targets whose loss would incite hysteria—fans of all ages left in shock of disbelief. “There’s no formula; otherwise, everybody would be able to do it,” Gotye—derived from Gauthier, the French equivalent of his Dutch first name Wouter—says of the craze around “Somebody.” It is almost cosmic as much as it is a combination of skill, production value, and unpredictable human response. “You know, you can definitely make a song that sounds like a hit, but it doesn’t mean that it’ll actually sound appealing,” he starts off. Gotye meant it to be a hit. “Somebody” is the lead single in his third album, Making Mirrors.

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With no other songwriter but himself, Gotye penned one of the most effectively digging earworms ever. What did he do right? On the other hand, what else—something he may not be directly responsible for—went right? For the controllable part, there’s the hook—that vaguely defined pop music end-all. Lady GaGa farts pop hooks and can dump loads of them in a single track. Frank Ocean had been tapping a mine for Bieber and others before he released his own mixtape last year. In his case, Gotye says, “I think bands like Depeche Mode [are] very crafty arrangers of multiple hooks that flow against each other and over the top of each other, and I definitely hear an influence of that in the way that I write.” But what does it all mean? For starters, there are appealing riffs and phrases, melodic or rhythmic. But who judges this appeal? Researchers have been able to pinpoint musical structures and their effects on people, but when a hit is out on the radio and on the internet, the science gets caught up in imprecision caused by many other factors. Sure, “Somebody” starts off with a hypnotic marimba hook onto which a guitar rides and then drums with the same rhythm, but that is how pop songs are structured. Could it be his choice of instruments? Sure, there’s a repetition of

“There’s no formula; otherwise, everybody would be able to do it.”

certain lyrics or a repetition of the same melody with different lyrics, but these words are far too complicated to remember compared to, say, Bieber’s “Baby.” Could it be our collective comfort in a heartbreak song? Sure, Gotye sampled Luis Bonfá’s “Seville,” a danceable Brazilian groove that easily lends to muscle memory as much as to the ears, but this is no alien technique to hip-hop. Could it be an evolving audience that now appreciates more complexity? About all these and those mysterious layers of 7-to-10seconder catchy moments, Gotye simply says, “I compose really intuitively. When you listen to a lot of music that is very densely packed with handovers and turnarounds and multiple hooks, if you appreciate that quality… then I guess you naturally will gravitate towards constructing hooks, sometimes, that way.” Recently, we’ve all been subject to the Adele Effect—a combination of solid vocals, classic piano, and an indulgent wave of sympathy. But through all those bouts of wailing karaoke, psychologist Martin Guhn’s 2007 study has something to point out: it’s all about the surprises in volume, timbre, and harmonic pattern. Everything fits into place on “Somebody.” Gotye barely hums two stanzas, then he erupts into a rousing chorus, but when he gets back to

“I compose really intuitively.” the usual verses, he introduces a new syncopation in the bridge, all succeeded with punctuations of vocal harmonies over the layered acoustic and electronic sludge. “But I don’t know,” he continues to mull over his process. “I think it starts somewhere in the middle, between aspects that are very comfortable and familiar to people—and hence appealing—but also inherently unique and appealing because of their idiosyncrasy. It’s always a combination of those things.” It’s like American Idol; everybody sings a cover, makes them slightly different, then the audience decides. When the performance is done, the judges say what’s good, what sucks, and what they can do. Gotye had a discerning “judge” by the name of François Tétaz, the same guy behind the innovative indie pop of Architecture in Helsinki and the recently emerged Kiwi wonky pop diva Kimbra. That explains the sophisticated collaboration as Gotye himself is a multi-instrumentalist with a producer’s ear. Tétaz puts Kimbra into the female part of “Somebody” and their equally strong vocals made magic. “She was the first one who was able to give voice to that,” Gotye says. The rest is a pleasant avalanche. Ashton Kutcher tweets

an endorsement to his 11 million Twitter followers; a five-member YouTube band called Walk Off the Earth performs the song using one guitar, gets over a hundred million hits, and lands an Ellen guesting; a hundred DJs remix it and the tracks consistently crawl to Hype Machine’s Popular list. Before we all knew it, the song is on Glee, American Idol, and parodied in SNL. From the high bastions of cool down to the pits of kitsch, a song from last year became the hit of the year. The expectation becomes tough, and there’s the chance of being just another Billy Ray Cyrus. “I’m not sure I necessarily want to create another song that’s as big as this one. It’s like, I would be genuinely happy with half of the success that this song has received, half of the attention,” Gotye admits. For now, all he has is thanks, as in his “Somebodies: A YouTube Orchestra” upload—a testimonial for a good music virus turned epidemic. The rest of his work, like the recently pushed single “Save Me,” stands with his credible musicianship, but as with any original mind—someone who knows the pop formula and saw it work—it isn’t a virtue to repeat.

gotye.com

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THE CRADLE WILL ROCK “I’m fixing a hole where the rain gets in and stops my mind from wandering where it will go… And it really doesn’t matter if I’m wrong I’m right, where I belong I’m right ,where I belong.” – “Fixing a Hole” by The Beatles Bearing notes from the underground, founders Yoko Ono and SEAN LENNON, together with Sir Paul McCartney, Mark Ruffalo, Chloë Sevigny, Jeff Koons, Alec Baldwin, and a hundred other names, form Artists Against Fracking. It’s an outcry against hydraulic fracturing, a new method of drilling at depths of 2000 ft and beyond, utilizing pressurized explosions to break rock formations in order to release oil and natural gas, including methane which can leak into an area’s ground water reservoirs. In this STATUS exclusive, Sean flings the gates wide open to his New York estate and gets to the bottom of the city’s deepest wells. No blood has been shed; but if fracking continues, there will be water contamination, gas leaks, and a citizenry doggedly hounded by subterranean trade secrets. By Kristine Dabbay

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rank Ocean sings, “Too many bottles of this wine we can’t pronounce… Too many joy rides in daddy’s Jaguar.” Super rich kid, Sean Lennon, veers away from this social stereotype heard in Ocean’s song and embraces the richness of oceans and land deposits instead. In his recent oped for The New York Times, he recalls childhood experiences of milking cows with his parents and drinking water from a well. These idyllic states are now undermined by fracking and it’s up to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to waive or proceed. In Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Sean sings “Don’t frack my mother!” in the tune of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They are a-Changin’” while Yoko Ono carries a globe and shouts “Don’t frack me!” Sean tells me, “I asked Jimmy Fallon if he would let my mom and I go on the show and do a piece about fracking. He said yes because he cares a lot about the wilderness in New York. After that, I thought, we should start a coalition and have a website. I called everyone I knew and asked them to call everyone they knew.” The coalition went from five to 120 within days. Kim Gordon, Anne Hathaway, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lady Gaga, Hugh Jackman, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt all became a part of it. “What we’re asking for is a new consciousness—a recognition that the planet is finite. We need to look to renewable systems. Obviously, that’s the key solution. As people, we are all in a society that’s unsustainable. I’m trying to help move our culture towards a society that integrates what is possible for a long term existence of human civilization,” Sean says. In between Sean’s activism, he is finishing a GOASTT record with girlfriend,

Charlotte Kemp Muhl. It may be a tough balancing act but Sean retorts, “I’m not pretending to be a scientist, I’m not pretending to be a natural activist… I’m simply a musician who’s trying to do what I can to call people’s attention to an issue.” So what’s the big deal? Why should people outside New York even bother? Since fracking contaminates water, Sean explains, “Water sources, especially in countries like America where it doesn’t rain enough, should be federally protected like endangered species or national forests.” He adds, “We can’t afford to salinate our water like they do in Iran. In Iran, they have seven times the carbon imprint of an average New Yorker because every time they brush their teeth or take a shower, they’re using salinated salt water.” Consequently, Sean was compelled to act when he found out fracking can literally seep into his home and drinking cup. It’s personal, hence it’s universal. In fact, Sean prizes privacy so much that he can only sympathize with friend, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, whose GQ profile includes insensitive bits about family. Sean rambles on, “I wish at times, journalism was more about revealing objectivity than personality. Journalism was supposed to have a totem of ethics and reveal the truth to the world regardless of federal, corporate, or personal agenda. Despite the birth of the internet, it seems to be moving more and more into opinion and editorial. Dedication to objectivity is at the heart of what I consider to be journalism.” In the eye of the media since he was a little boy, Sean remains wary of the press. He spills, “The natural gas companies’

arguments for fracking is being made for them by a company called Hill & Knowlton, a PR firm that 60 years ago masterminded the campaign saying doctors recommended smoking.” The issue remains debatable and supporters like NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg believes, “We can frack safely if we frack sensibly.” Bloomberg wrote about this in The Washington Post; but interestingly, chemicals used for fracking remain to be in the dark. Sean argues, “As soon as you create a debate about a topic like global warming, then all the scientific facts can sort of be brushed off because it’s a debate, therefore it’s undecided. Clearly, global warming is happening yet people create a debate about it simply to say it’s debatable and then the story is no longer about stopping global warming, the story becomes about who’s right. That’s basically a PR trick.” Despite the tension, the Lennons stay unshaken. Yoko told Associated Press that “Eventually, logic will overcome everything… logic and love.” Critics argue that Sean and Yoko are seeing the world through rose-colored glasses. Written in Marcellus Drilling News, “What they really want is the hippie dream of an alternative energy nirvana—windmills and solar panels. You may say they are dreamers but surely they are not the only ones. Thousands have joined and more people are expected to take heed. Naturally, comparisons have been drawn between Artists Against Fracking and John and Yoko’s protest against Vietnam war. I ask Sean if the coalition is an extension of his parents’s vision. He answers, “I would say that my life is certainly an extension of my parents’s vision, but I don’t think it would be accurate to say that my mother’s vision is an extension of my father’s because she had her own Yoko-verse going on before they even met. If you look at their lives, the direction of his life changed by meeting her. I think she influenced him a lot especially in terms of peace activism. I think ‘Give Peace A Chance’ was a direct result of having met each other.” Only in due time will people know what fracking can do to the world as a whole, but as long as it leaks into kith and kin, the public shall rise in defense. “I would say that what I do comes from my family heritage, for sure. I would never apologize for that. I think it’s something natural and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he says. For the meantime, Sean is working with Yoko’s first release under his own record label, Chimera. It’s anticipated to come early next year, coinciding with Yoko’s 80th birthday on February. Our conversation trails off because Sean has to run to his studio. “Take care,” he mutters. In my head, I keep hearing: “Please don’t frack my mother because I ain’t got no other.”

artistsagainstfracking.com

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ARt IN THE PARTY By Petra Magno

ou wouldn’t think it. With multiple studio albums and bands plus a slew of singles and collaborations, Amanda’s musical net is cast far and wide. She crafted it all by her lonesome self, however, preferring to spend time in her youth piecing music together on a piano. “I didn’t have a songwriting teacher… [just] my record albums and the act of listening to my Walkman and poring over lyrics and covering songs I loved on the piano,” she says, admitting she used to be “anxious and weird” about performing. As a former living statue herself, Amanda can go from wild

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abandon to perfect immobility. She busked as a white-painted newlywed in England, Scotland, and the Land Down Under, but more than the art of keeping still, Amanda also honed the talent of taking her art directly to the audience. With the release of Theatre is Evil, STATUS shows you ten ways to gaze upon Amanda’s face. Consider this as foretelling.

DOLL

Half of The Dresden Dolls, to be exact. Amanda met Brian Viglione on Halloween twelve years ago. With Brian on drums and Amanda on piano and all-

around spectacle, the two formed the only Brechtian cult cabaretpunk act in whiteface worth following. As the millennium broke open, everybody was humming “Coin-Operated Boy.” Art troupe, The Dirty Business Brigade, was occasionally deployed among their audiences, dressed as marionettes and living statues. The Dolls’ live performances approached the heights of theatre, proving that Amanda started flexing her partythrowing muscles this early.

THE RESURRECTED

Who Killed Amanda Palmer? That solo album downed three birds with one stone: she made a fan for life out of Ben Folds, who produced the album and performed on it; she established a phoenix-like resurrection; and she made a Twin Peaks reference worth dying for.

AMANDA PALMER

Her husband, Neil Gaiman, once told Amanda in Wired that what she does is “one

giant interconnected piece of performance art called Amanda Palmer.” Whether she’s tweeting love mentions to him, getting painted by fans, or letting a misguided chiropractor experiment on her with Chinese glass cups—“I still have a massive scar on my arm. Dick.” –Amanda is full-force herself. “‘Don’t let anybody tell you what to do’ would probably sum up my personal blueprint,” she says.

PARTNER IN RHYME

Arm in costumed arm, husband and wife set out to take over the world, literally. There is a long and gleaming history of couples devoted to art. Yet from Godard and Karina to Andy and Edie, one partner has always had the upper hand in creation: one muse and one musician. Neil and Amanda are a force to be reckoned with precisely because they play off one another’s discrete skills. They toured the West Coast in October and November 2011, setting up an

photos by Shervin Lainez

Somewhere between The Dresden Dolls and digital entrepreneurship, AMANDA FUCKING PALMER busted the boundaries between art and music, performer and audience. She releases a new album and discusses the quibble on the album title—Theater is Evil or Theatre is Evil?—“It was wonderful,” she says, “to have the power to be able to [change the spelling] and not argue with a fucking record label.”

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“I never want

to bore anyone else by saying the same thing twice.”

“after-hours salon” where they sat across the audience in armchairs, singing songs and reading stories. Neil’s muchawarded writing hand is still present in Amanda’s art to this day, even as his other hand is busy tweeting about their love.

TECHY ROMANTIC

Busking as a bride did Amanda well when she went digital. Sans record label, Amanda assembled her band, The Grand Theft Orchestra, and took to Kickstarter to get their first album out. “I think [crowdfunding platforms] like this are the best way to put out music right now,” she wrote on the page, “No label, no rules, no fuss, no muss.” The original goal was $100,000, but in a month, she had raised over one million dollars.

CRAFTY COLLABORATOR

A brief and incomplete rundown of what Amanda offered on her Kickstarter page in exchange for various amounts of albumlaunching funds: naked pictures of the band; an exclusive art book inspired by songs from the album, created by over thirty artists including Shepard Fairey, Tao Lin, and a sevenyear old fan from Twitter; exclusive access to acoustic concert-slash-art exhibit openings in six art museums in six cities from London to Los

Angeles; custom hand-painted Crosley turntables, so you can bump the vinyl version of the album; Sharpie drawings of whatever you want to email her; the chance to eat donuts; with her backstage, as long as you provide the donuts, and an “extremely limited edition book” with Amanda’s lyrics, written by Neil Gaiman, and filled with art from Kyle Cassidy, with only 666 signed and numbered copies. Also of note is her Mailbox Invasion, dreamed up for the nostalgic, who yearn for the days of zines and Xerox machines.

PROFESSIONAL PARTY THROWER

The biggest package on the Theatre is Evil Kickstarter is a pledge of $10,000 or more. For that amount, Amanda was willing to bring the entire Grand Theft Orchestra to your doorstep with their “evil bag of makeup, glitter, military costumes, and wigs,” to “slather you in ridiculous-looking clothing” for a fully professional photo shoot with her and the band. “Then,” she writes, “we will order Thai food and drink you under the table. You provide table.” Other packages include Amanda crashing your house and serenading you with her ukulele, as well as inviting you over to sit for a portrait.

CLAIRVOYANT

Since 2012 might just be the end of the era, Amanda’s vision for the future of music is a great democratization, with “less musicians trying to aim for mega-fame and more musicians just making a living and not having to have shitty day jobs.” By hoping for “more intelligent community support [and] less reliance on magical outside support for art,” Amanda’s predictions echo the hopes of artists. Except, instead of just hoping, she’s making it happen.

GOD

Or just as powerful. Ben Folds was privileged with a first listen to Theatre is Evil, and in an exuberant outpouring on Facebook, he wrote, “She made her own planet and populated

it,” as he went on to praise how the album tore down conceptual barriers while maintaining excellent craftsmanship. He also says that you are going to shit when you hear it.

THE ENDLESS

Ten ways to look at Amanda is not at all enough. If every human being is indescribable, host to a myriad possibilities at any given time, then Amanda’s multitude of facets just makes her more human than most. “I like certain things to stay static so that I can improvise freely,” she says, “I never want to bore anyone else by saying the same thing twice.” And we are all staying tuned.

amandapalmer.net

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B L O C K P A R T Y

HARD CANDY

Smiling girls and rosy boys, come and buy these little toys; they're not coin-operated toys, although that could be a choice. Some are plastic, some elastic, but one thing's for sure: they're fan-freakin'-tastic.

Jon Knox

Jon Knox sTudio As a kid, what toys did you play with? Aside from Nintendo, I was into crafts and always liked toys that you could make things with–I even had an Easy-Bake Oven. I hated G.I. Joe and He-Man, but loved Power Rangers and Treasure Trolls. I was into toys that weren’t really gender-specific because they tended to be more colorful. I think the toys I make now are similar in that regard–I like working with my hands and want to make something that isn’t targeted towards a specific demographic. What were you doing in your teen years that you could never get away with nowadays? Wearing Oakleys with Birkenstocks while feeding my Tamagotchi. Goth music may or may not have been involved from time to time.

Gary Ham superham

What were you doing in your teen years that you could never get away with nowadays? Chasing young girls. [Laughs] But seriously, I was a super active kid. Everyday after school we were skateboarding, playing basketball, tennis, volleyball, right up until bed time. I could maybe get away with that level of activity today, but my work would definitely suffer from so much play time. What’s your favorite aspect of collector culture? It’s the hunt. When there is something you really want and it’s

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hard to come by, it is such a great feeling when you can finally add it to your collection. Who would you most like to see owning the toys you’ve designed? It’s always super flattering anytime I see someone I respect owning one of my toys, but I think the person I’d like to see playing with one of my toys would be my future kids. If they don’t like my toys, I’ll be crushed and will seek out a paternity test. [Laughs]

superham.bigcartel.com

What art era would you most like to revive? I find it really interesting when contemporary artists reference previous movements in art history. Moving forward, I want to find ways to incorporate cubism and expressionism into my sculpture and toy work. I like for my toys to look intentionally handmade, and I want to push the abstraction further to better represent the mess of ideas in my head.

jonknoxstudio.com

BLOCK PARTY

holly stanway

a little stranger, HEY cavey Describe your characters’ personalities. Melancholy, shy, and curious. I try to sculpt creatures with smiles and frowns but it never feels right. I like them blank, and let the eyes do the talking. Why do you think designer toys have such a cult following? I think designer toys capture people’s imaginations and remind them of their childhood: that excitement of opening a new toy. I think of them as toys for grown-ups.

As a kid, what toys did you play with? My favorite toys were my Game Boy, my Mega Drive, and Lego. I loved going to the woods and finding new places where I hadn’t been before. I guess that makes me a bit of a nerd who likes an adventure–which is still true now!

alittlestranger.com heycavey.com

JOMIKE TEJIDO ROBOTARS

Why do you think designer toys have such a cult following? I think it’s something psychological and personal. Since designer toys are designed with strong personalities and characters, people relate to them. It could be something they hate, love, admire, or fear–packed into a small, unintimidating figure. What’s your favorite aspect of collector culture? Designer toys are a modern canvas for expression and executing experimental concepts. It is also a mesh of my hobby and my artistic career. Plus,

I think it’s the fact that not all people “get it” that makes me like it even more. What do your Robotars characters represent? They represent modernity, community, and advocacy… and how cool it can be to involve a community of urban artists. In a bigger picture, [main Robotars character] Artie represents each Filipino’s small effort to be environmentally conscious in a subtle, non-preachy medium.

jmtejido.com/robotars

SHEA BRITTAIN

Words by Giano D. Dionisio

FRANKENFACTORY

Describe the world your characters inhabit. “Sad City.” Growing up around San Francisco and the Bay Area really influences everything I do. The buildings, people, alleys, gutters, bricks, trees, birds, culture, fashion, etc. are all imprinted on my mind. You can find everything that is gloriously beautiful and disturbingly awful in one magical place. What art era would you most like to revive? I’m a sucker for Baroque and Victorian Classicism. I don’t have

the patience for that level of detail and perfection myself, but the styles can make the darkest themes achingly beautiful in a way that really moves me. Who would you most like to see owning the toys you’ve designed? I like seeing my parents display my figures. It is nice to be able to produce art that they can identify with and understand. A lot of my paintings didn’t really connect with them.

frankenfactory.com

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NIGHTVISION CAUTION WET PAINT by The Cobrasnake

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NIGHTVISION

CARL COX by VolchekShot.Me

HIRAYA: UP JMA Pub Event 2012 by Rashi Halili

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NIGHTVISION

Hot damn green eggs and ham by The Cobrasnake

UNDERGROUND DESERT RAVE by VolchekShot.Me

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NIGHTVISION

NIGHTMARE SWAZY by The Cobrasnake

hipstarsHIPS are meant to fly by Shaira Luna

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NIGHTVISION

CAST OF VICES YOU BETTER WORK by The Cobrasnake

ADHOC: UNBOUND LEGACY by Migs Santiago and Agyness Wang

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DIRECTORY BRANDS ACCESSORIZE Greenbelt 5, Makati City ALDO Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Drive, Makati City BENEFIT Greenbelt 5, Makati City BETTY CARRÉ bettycarre.com BING BANG bingbangnyc.com BOXFRESH Bratpack, Greenbelt 5, Makati City BY TERRY byterry.com CALL IT SPRING Greenbelt 3, Makati City CELIO Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Drive, Makati City CHANEL chanel.com COVERGIRL covergirl.com CREATIVE RECREATION cr8rec.com CREATURES OF COMFORT creaturesofcomfort.us DC Bratpack, Greenbelt 5, Makati City DIOR Rustan’s Department Store, Makati City DOROTHY PERKINS SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City KUKHAREVA kukhareva.com FOLDED & HUNG Glorietta 5, Makati City FOREVER 21 SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City H.E. BY MANGO Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Drive, Makati City H&M hm.com HAUTE HIPPIE hautehippiestore.com HERSCHEL Bratpack, Greenbelt 5, Makati City HUGO BOSS hugoboss.com

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ISSA issalondon.com KEDS keds.com KIEHL’S Greenbelt 5, Makati City KINERASE Rustan’s Department Store, Makati City LACOSTE Greenbelt 5, Makati City LACRASIA lacrasiagloves.com LISA FREEDE lisafreede.com M BARRETO Tel. +639158325808 MAC Rustan’s Department Store, Makati City MAIDEN-ART maiden-art.com MAKE UP FOR EVER makeupforever.com MANGO Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Drive, Makati City MARIO BADESCU Rustan’s Department Store, Makati City MASSIMO DUTTI Greenbelt 5, Makati City MAYBELLINE Available in leading department stores MIKE LAVAREZ Tel. +639175349752 MURAD Rustan’s Department Store, Makati City NIXON MARQUEZ Tel. +639158992440 NOON BY NOOR noonbynoor.com OXYGEN SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City PENSHOPPE SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City PONY pony.com RAJO LAUREL rajolaurel.com SHISEIDO Greenbelt 5, Makati City SKECHERS skechers.com

SPERRY TOP-SIDER sperrytopsider.com SPRINGFIELD Greenbelt 3, Makati City TOM FORD Rustan’s Department Store, Makati City TOPMAN SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City TOPSHOP SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City TT COLLECTION ttcollection.com ULYSSES KING Tel. +639178374000 URBAN DECAY Beauty Bar, Greenbelt 5, Makati City VANS Vans Concept Stores, SM Department Stores, Robinsons Department Stores, Landmark Department Stores, Urban Athletics, Toby’s Sports, Olympic Village, Shoe Salon, American Rag, Sole Academy, Greyone Social VERA WANG Rustan’s Department Store, Makati City WAREHOUSE SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City YSL Rustan’s Department Store, Makati City ZARA Greenbelt 5, Makati City ARTISTS Art Alera (Photographer) arturoalera.com Ani Baez (Production Assistant) anibaez.com Kareem Black (Photographer) kareemblack.com Amy Clarke (Grooming) amyclarkemakeup.com The Cobrasnake (Photographer) thecobrasnake.com Fernando Colon (Photographer) fernandocolon.com Danica Condez (Photographer) daniboy.tumblr.com Amanda Elkins (Photographer) amandaelkinsphotography.com Dominique Farina (Makeup) makeupbydominique.com

Adrianna Favero (Photographer) adriannafavero.com Judd Figuerres (Videographer) vimeo.com/juddfiguerres Alexandra Greenhill (Stylist) alexandragreenhill.co.uk Chloe Han (Makeup and Hair) chloehanmakeup.tumblr.com Stefani Hernandez (Hair) pinterest.com/stefhair Tinette Herrera (Grooming and Hair) facebook.com/tinetteherrera Joyce de Dios-Ignacio (Makeup and Hair) joyceignacio.com Adeel Khan (Stylist) twitter.com/Adeel_K Seulah Kim (Makeup and Hair) diannekim.blogspot.com Shervin Lainez (Photographer) shervinfoto.com Aldo Lihiang (Videographer) twitter.com/Aldolihiang Magic Liwanag (Photographer) magicliwanag.com Shaira Luna (Photographer) flickr.com/photos/shairaluna Jeck Manliquez (Photographer) jeckmanliquez.com Miguel Miranda (Photographer) miguelmirandaphotography.com Jeruel Pingol (Videographer) http://ohmyjeruel.tumblr.com/ Chrissy Piper (Photographer) chrissypiper.com Heiko Prigge (Photographer) heikoprigge.com Mara Reyes (Stylist) Tel. +639272896887 David Sheldrick (Photographer) davidsheldrick.com JP Singson (Photographer) jponfashionspeed.com Nick St. James (Photographer) nickstjames.com Patrick Velasco (Photographer) putograft.com Aleksey Volchek (Photographer) volchekshot.me Norman Wong (Photographer) youlookdeath.ly Valissa Yoe (Stylist) valissayoe.com/

S TAT U S IN VA D E S

MARIE JAMORA

Filmmaker MARIE JAMORA sure knows how to make a story happen in real life. From her film school days in Columbia University, she has now released her first feature film, Ang Nawawala (What Isn’t There), and is on to writing the next act of her adventures.

mariejamora.com

FILM SCHOOL BEAR

HAPPY TOGETHER LAMP FEATURING THE IGUAZU FALLS

It was given to me by my cinematographer and one of my best friends, Kai Leong, and he knows how much I love Happy Together. Sometimes I edit my films at night, just to have that lamp open.

I just needed stuff for the apartment, I saw this and I was like, “I need a toy.” So I bought it since it was a comforting, soft thing.

1997 MTV MUSIC VIDEO AWARDS PROGRAM

It looks like Fetish but it’s actually the program from the 1997 MTV Music Video Awards, when the Eraserheads went there for “Huling El Bimbo.” This was Ely Buendia’s present to me after he got back.

SIGNED SCOTT PILGRIM ORIGINAL ART

I bought it when the film came out when the price drastically changed. I was really lucky to have seen this one because among all that was left, that one was my favorite.

GIBSON’S NEW YEAR’S HAT

That’s my favorite prop from Ang Nawawala. It was chosen by Dom Roco, he had a choice of whatever hat he wanted. He chose that one.

COIN COLLECTION IN A BON APPETIT BOX

CANON G9 CAMERA

I had been collecting it since I was a child and I was super happy that no one threw it away. And I only found it again last month, tucked away in a room.

I shot my short film New York is My Boyfriend on that and in Ang Nawawala, that’s Gibson’s camera.

LIGHTER GUN

This is my emergency lighter.

FRANNY AND ZOOEY BY J.D. SALINGER

When J.D. Salinger died, I wanted to read Franny and Zooey again but it was missing. I got a message from my film school classmate who forgot to return it. She brought the book with her as she moved. It travelled around the world so it’s special for me.

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MINI TANDUAY BOTTLE

When Quentin Tarantino was here in 2009, Quark Henares and I stalked and befriended him. Everyone was giving him Tanduay, then so when he was packing up to leave, he said, “Just take this, it can’t fit in my bag anymore.”

CHUCK PALAHNIUK AUTOGRAPHED FIGHT CLUB DVD

Chuck was promoting a book in our school… I told my friend to line up for me as I grabbed my Fight Club DVD from my apartment. This was one of the first DVDs I ever bought.