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qqueenofhades · 4 years

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I really don’t want to start a discourse™, but I want you to know that I really appreciate how you write joe and Nicky in deo volente. So many of the fics I’ve read have placed yusef in the role of more sexually experienced and less devoted to god, while Nicky is depicted as an inexperienced and virginal priest/knight/monk and so forth and so on. Your narrative of joe out there rescuing people and being faithful, while Nicky looks back on his life of gambling and pleasures of the flesh ...(1/?)

Not to say that there’s anything wrong with either, obviously. I love guilty priest Nicky and repressed Nicky and p much every Nicky. But in the vast array of fics out there, it’s rare to see the opposite. Not that you’re working in a binary morally good/religious vs. not way. Your writing in the fic is really subtle and and your characterizations reveal a lot of depth. I just think it’s cool to see Nicky, average second son of a duke, drinking and gambling and feeling terribly guilty (2/?)

Guilty about the crusades and the fucking horror of crusade 1 without being excessively devout. Just an average dude. Not some paragon of virtue (btw, I’m on chapter 2 of the fic, so I don’t know how much your characterization changes moving forward. You have a lovely ability to combine your incredible knowledge of history, your beautiful writing, and these intimate details of the characters that make them fit— fit the canon and fit the history. (3/? Shit I’m sorry this had gotten way too long)

I enjoy the way you’ve really inserted us into the quotidian aspect of history. Aaaaaanyway— the discourse that I was afraid of: I think that a lot of fans of the movie that are generating fan content (tysfm to all of you beauties, btw 🙏🙏♥️) are westerners (which is a whole nother kettle of fish) and that carries a sort of ignorance about the Muslim world in the Middle Ages and this desire to simplify Europe as “Christian” “fighters for faith” etc. (4/? Fuuuuck. One(??) more)

And when we do that, we end up as characterizing the brown people as “not that”. The thing I love about this fandom is that people are definitely down on the crusades. I feel like all the fic I’ve read has been particularly negative about those wars, but the thing I love about your fic is that you don’t just say war is bad because people died and it was despicable and this pious white dude says so and this one brown person agrees. (5/6, I see the end in sight I swear it)

Instead you give us a larger cast of Muslims and Arabs and really flesh them out and give them opinions and different interpretations of faith, and I really appreciate that. The crusades were terrible, and we know this because these regular dudes who struggle with their different faiths and lives say so. And I just. I think that’s really great. Also, I fucking love yusef’s mom. I feel like more people would be accepting of the gift in this fashion and I think she’s lovely and (god damn it 6/7)

Aaaaaaaand. The bit where yusef returns and she’s already gone breaks my fucking heart. Also the moment where he’s like “I’m not sure about Abraham’s god, but my mothers god is worth my faith”?? Just really fucking great. So. Excellent fic. Excellent characters. Excellent not-being-accidentally-biased-towards-white-Christians. That is what I came here to say. Thank you so much for your amazing stories. I love them and I love history. Sorry about the rambling. idek how I wrote so much. (7/7)

Epilogue: tl;dr: you’re great.

Oh man! What a huge and thoughtful comment (which will in turn provoke a long-ass response from me, so…) I absolutely agree that no matter what fandom, I don’t do Discourse TM; I just sit in my bubble and stay in my lane and do my own thing and create content I enjoy. And I don’t even think this is that so much as just… general commentary on character and background? So obviously all of this should be read as my own personal experience and choices in writing DVLA, and that alone. I really appreciate you for saying that you love a wide range of fan creators/fanworks and you’re not placing one over another, you understand that fans have diverse ranges of backgrounds/experience with history and other cultures when they create content, and that’s not the same for everyone. So I just think that’s a great and respectful way to start things off.

First, as a professional historian who has written a literal PhD thesis on the crusades, I absolutely understand that many people (and regular fans) will not have the same privilege/education/perspective that I do, and that’s fine! They should not be expected to get multiple advanced degrees to enjoy a Netflix movie! But since I DO have that background, and since I’ve been working on the intellectual genealogy of the crusades (and the associated Christian/Muslim component, whether racially or religiously) since I was a master’s student, I have a lot of academic training and personal feelings that inform how I write these characters. Aside from my research on all this, my sister lives in an Islamic country and her boyfriend is a Muslim man; I’ve known a lot of Muslims and Middle Easterners; and especially with the current political climate of Islamophobia and the reckoning with racism whether in reality or fandom, I have been thinking about all this a lot, and my impact on such.

Basically: I love Nicky dearly, but I ADORE Joe, and as such, I’m protective of him and certainly very mindful of how I write him. Especially when the obvious default for westerners in general, fandom-related or otherwise, is to write what you are familiar with (i.e. the European Christian white character) and be either less comfortable or less confident or sometimes less thoughtful about his opposing number. I have at times tangentially stumbled across takes on Joe that turn me into the “eeeeeeeh” emoji or Dubious Chrissy Teigen, but I honestly couldn’t tell you anything else about them because I was like, “nope not for me” and went elsewhere rather than do Discourse (which is pretty much a waste of time everywhere and always makes people feel bad). This is why I’m always selective about my fan content, but especially so with this ship, because I have SO much field-specific knowledge that I just have to make what I like and which suits my personal tastes. So that is what I do.

Obviously, there’s a troublesome history with the trope of “sexually liberate brown person seduces virginal white character into a world of Fleshly Decadence,” whether from the medieval correlation of “sodomite” and “Saracen,” or the nineteenth-century Orientalist depictions of the East as a land variously childishly simplistic, societally backward, darkly mysterious and Exotic, or “decadent” (read: code for sexually unlike Western Europe, including the spectrum of queer acts). So when I was writing DVLA, I absolutely did not want to do that and it’s not to my taste, but I’m not going to whip out a red pen on someone else writing a story that broadly follows those parameters (because as I said, I stay in my lane and don’t see it anyway). Joe to me is just such an intensely complex and lovely Muslim character that that’s the only way I feel like I can honestly write him, and I absolutely love that about him. So yeah, any depiction of hypersexualizing him or making him only available for the sexual use and education of the white character(s) is just... mmm, not for me.

For example, I stressed over whether it was appropriate to move his origin from “somewhere in the Maghreb” to Cairo specifically, since Egypt, while it IS in North Africa, is not technically part of the Maghreb. I realize that Marwan Kenzari’s family is Tunisian and that’s probably why they chose it, to honor the actor’s heritage, but on the flip side… “al-Kaysani” is also a specifically Ismai’li Shia name (it’s the name of a branch of it) and the Fatimids (the ruling dynasty in Jerusalem at the time of the First Crusade) were well-known for being the only Ismai’li Shia caliphate. (This is why the Shi’ites still ancestrally dislike Saladin for overthrowing it in 1174, even if Saladin is a huge hero to the rest of the Islamic world.) Plus I really wanted to use medieval Cairo as Joe’s homeland, and it just made more sense for an Ismai’li Shia Fatimid from Cairo (i.e. the actual Muslim denomination and caliphate that controlled Jerusalem) to be defending the Holy City because it was personal for him, rather than a Sunni Zirid from Ifriqiya just kind of turning up there. Especially due to the intense fragmentation and disorganization in the Islamic world at the time of the First Crusade (which was a big part of the reason it succeeded) and since the Zirids were a breakaway group from the Fatimids and therefore not very likely to be militarily allied with them. As with my personal gripes about Nicky being a priest, I decided to make that change because I felt, as a historian, that it made more sense for the character. But I SUPER recognize it as my own choices and tweaks, and obviously I’m not about to complain at anyone for writing what’s in graphic novel/bonus content canon!

That ties, however, into the fact that Nicky has a clearly defined city/region of origin (Genoa, which has a distinct history, culture, and tradition of crusading) and Joe is just said to be from “the Maghreb” which…. is obviously huge. (I.e. anywhere in North Africa west of Egypt all the way to Morocco.) And this isn’t a fandom thing, but from the official creators/writers of the comics and the movie. And I’m over here like: okay, which country? Which city? Which denomination of Islam? You’ve given him a Shia name but then point him to an origin in Sunni Ifriqiya. If he’s from there, why has he gone thousands of miles to Jerusalem in the middle of a dangerous war to help his religious/political rivals defend their territory? Just because he’s nice? Because it was an accident? Why is his motivation or reason for being there any less defined or any less religious (inasmuch as DVLA Nicky’s motive for being on the First Crusade is religious at all, which is not very) than the white character’s? In a sense, the Christians are the ones who have to work a lot harder to justify their presence in the Middle East in the eleventh century at all: the First Crusade was a specifically military and offensive invasion launched at the direct behest of the leader of the Western Roman church (Pope Urban II.) So the idea that they’re “fighting for the faith” or defending it bravely is…

Eeeeh. (Insert Dubious Chrissy Teigen.)

But of course, nobody teaches medieval history to anyone in America (except for Bad Game of Thrones History Tee Em), and they sure as hell don’t teach about the crusades (except for the Religious Violence Bad highlight reel) so people don’t KNOW about these things, and I wish they DID know, and that’s why I’m over here trying to be an academic so I can help them LEARN it, and I get very passionate about it. So once again, I entirely don’t blame people who have acquired this distorted cultural impression of the crusades and don’t want to do a book’s worth of research to write a fic about a Netflix movie. I do hope that they take the initiative to learn more about it because they’re interested and want to know more, since by nature the pairing involves a lot of complex religious, racial, and cultural dynamics that need to be handled thoughtfully, even if you don’t know everything about it. So like, basically all I want is for the Muslim character(s) to be given the same level of respect, attention to detail, background story, family context, and religious diversity as any of the white characters, and Imma do it myself if I have to. Dammit.

(I’m really excited to hear your thoughts on the second half of the fic, especially chapter 3 and chapter 6, but definitely all of it, since I think the characters they’re established as in the early part of the fic do remain true to themselves and both grow and struggle and go through a realistic journey with their faith over their very long lives, and it’s one of my favorite themes about DVLA.)

Anyway, about Nicky. I also made the specific choice to have him be an average guy, the ordinary second son of a nobleman who doesn’t really know what he’s doing with his life and isn’t the mouthpiece of Moral Virtue in the story, since as he himself realizes pretty quick, the crusades and especially the sack/massacre of Jerusalem are actually horrific. I’ve written in various posts about my nitpicking gripes with him being a priest, so he’s not, and as I said, I’m definitely avoiding any scenario where he has to Learn About The World from Joe. That is because I want to make the point that the people on the crusades were people, and they went for a lot of different reasons, not all of which were intense personal religious belief. The crusades were an institution and operated institutionally. Even on the First Crusade, where there were a lot of ordinary people who went because of sincere religious belief, there was the usual bad behavior by soldiers and secular noblemen and people who just went because it was the thing to do. James Brundage has an article about prostitution and miscegenation and other sexual activity on the First Crusade; even at the height of this first and holy expedition, it was happening. So Nicky obviously isn’t going to be the moral exemplar because a) the crusades are horrific, he himself realizes that, and b) it’s just as historically accurate that he wouldn’t be anyway. Since the idea is that medieval crusaders were all just zealots and ergo Not Like Us is dangerous, I didn’t want to do that either. If we think they all went because they were all personally fervent Catholics and thus clearly we couldn’t do the same, then we miss a lot of our own behavior and our parallel (and troubling) decisions, and yeah.

As well, I made a deliberate choice to have Nicky’s kindness (which I LOVE about him, it’s one of my favorite things, god how refreshing to have that be one of the central tenets of a male warrior character) not to be something that was just… always there and he was Meek and Good because a priest or whatever else. Especially as I’ve gotten older and we’ve all been living through these ridiculous hellyears (2020 is the worst, but it’s all been general shit for a while), I’ve thought more and more about how kindness is an active CHOICE and it’s as transgressive as anything else you can do and a whole lot more brave than just cynicism and nihilism and despair. As you’ll see in the second half of the fic, Nicky (and Joe) have been through some truly devastating things and it might be understandable if they gave into despair, but they DON’T. They choose to continue to be good people and to try and to actively BE kind, rather than it being some passive default setting. They struggle with it and it’s raw and painful and they’re not always saints, but they always come down on the side of wanting to keep doing what they’re doing, and I… have feelings about that.

Anyway, this is already SUPER long, so I’ll call it quits for now. But thank you so much for this, because I love these characters and I love the story I created for them in DVLA, since all this is personal to me in a lot of ways, and I’m so glad you picked up on that.

#history #medieval history #queer history #dvla asks #long post #the old guard meta #anonymous #ask

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rarebritney · 4 years

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Allison Roman has criticized women of color in their success, particularly Marie kondo and Chrissy teigen, and was complicit in bon appetit’s White centrism and racist treatment of the women of color there as well. she culturally appropriates traditional recipes from Asian and middle eastern cultures. I recommend sohla el-waylly and priya krishna for recipes instead!!

I love Priya and Sohla both- but its my personal opinion that the Alison Roman canceling was blown way out of proportion. I know I’m a white woman and my opinion on this is not the one that matters, but when it comes to deciding what recipes I use, this incident is not really relevant to me. I dont think anyone would have noticed or cared what she said if Chrissy Teigan didn’t make a humongous deal about it on Twitter. It’s hard to see someone as rich and successful as Chrissy Teigan as a victim- to me the Allison Roman “scandal” is petty drama and I’m not going to stop using recipes I like because of it. She called Chrissy Teigan and Marie Kondo “sellouts” for having business practices she thinks are cringey- it’s frustrating to see this talked about in the same breath as Adam Rappoport doing Brownface as though it’s just as bad. Of course I think she just shouldn’t have said it, but.. I just don’t think what she said in the first place was that mean spirited. She has issued multiple apologies and I really think she just put her foot in her mouth. I continue to support her and use her recipes all the time. Also, all white chefs at BA were somewhat complicit in BA’s white centrism, and if you’ve ever listened to Adam Rapoport interview Alison you’ll understand how gross and sexist he’s always been towards her. I’m open to people letting me know how I’m wrong about this if need be, but please read what she actually said before doing so- not just Twitter takedowns

#im reallt nervous to post this ok but its really what i think #im open to discussion

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armeniaitn · 3 years

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100 U.S. Representatives call on Biden Administration to stand with Artsakh Republic and Armenia

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/politics/100-u-s-representatives-call-on-biden-administration-to-stand-with-artsakh-republic-and-armenia-69552-19-02-2021/

100 U.S. Representatives call on Biden Administration to stand with Artsakh Republic and Armenia

One hundred Members of Congress – from more than twenty U.S. states – have called upon the Biden Administration to undertake concrete steps for Artsakh’s survival and Armenia’s security, in a bipartisan Armenian Caucus letter strongly supported by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“The strong Congressional participation in the Armenian Caucus letter to the Biden Administration reflects and also powerfully reinforces growing bipartisan support for Artsakh among legislators from across America,” said ANCA Government Affairs Director Tereza Yerimyan. “We look forward to working with the leadership of the Caucus and each of our legislative friends to translate these pro-Armenian, pro-peace policy priorities into action.”

The letter, addressed to the Secretaries of State and Defense, underscoring the severity of the regional crisis caused by six weeks of unrelenting Azerbaijani and Turkish aggression last fall, proposes urgent action on the following U.S. policy priorities:

— U.S. emergency assistance that provides the people of Artsakh with the ability to reconstruct their communities and rebuild their lives without fear of further bloodshed.

— U.S. re-engagement in the search for an enduring regional settlement – based on the fundamental right of self-determination – that protects the security of Artsakh and helps to ensure another war does not break out.

— U.S. recognition of the right to self-determination for the people of Artsakh and their role as a legitimate negotiating party in resolving this conflict.

— U.S. leadership in securing the immediate release of Armenian prisoners

— U.S. accountability, including sanctions against high-ranking Azerbaijani and Turkish leaders, the withholding of U.S. aid to Baku, and ending the waiver of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act.

— U.S. support for Armenia’s economic development and assistance to Armenians displaced by Azerbaijani aggression

— U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide by President Biden

The Armenian Caucus letter was spearheaded by its leadership, Reps. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Jackie Speier (D-CA), David Valadao (R-CA), and Adam Schiff (D-CA). Joining them in co-signing this bipartisan appeal were Representatives Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), Jim Banks (R-IN), Nanette Barragan (D-CA), Karen Bass (D-CA), Don Beyer (D-VA), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Brendan Boyle (D-PA), Julia Brownley (D-CA), Ken Calvert (R-CA), Salud Carbajal (D-CA), Tony Cardenas (D-CA), Judy Chu (D-CA), David Cicilline (D-RI), Katherine Clark (D-MA), Jim Costa (D-CA), Jason Crow (D-CO), Madeleine Dean (D-PA), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Ted Deutch (D-FL), Mike Doyle (D-PA), Veronica Escobar (D-TX), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Dwight Evans (D-PA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), John Garamendi (D-CA), Chuy Garcia (D-IL), Mike Garcia (R-CA), Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Glenn Grothman (R-WI), Josh Harder (D-CA), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), Jared Huffman (D-CA), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Hank Johnson (D-GA), David Joyce (R-OH), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Dan Kildee (D-MI), Young Kim (R-CA), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Doug LaMalfa (R-CA), James Langevin (D-RI), Brenda Lawrence (D-MI), Susie Lee (D-NV), Andy Levin (D-MI), Mike Levin (D-CA), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Alan Lowenthal (D-CA), Stephen Lynch (D-MA), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), Brian Mast (R-FL), Tom McClintock (R-CA), Betty McCollum (D-MN), James McGovern (D-MA), Grace Meng (D-NY), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Grace Napolitano (D-CA), Richard Neal (D-MA), Joe Neguse (D-CO), Donald Norcross (D-NJ), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Devin Nunes (R-CA), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), Chris Pappas (D-NH), Kathleen Rice (D-NY), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), John Rutherford (R-FL), Linda Sanchez (D-CA), John Sarbanes (D-MD), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), Janice Schakowsky (D-IL), Brad Schneider (D-IL), David Schweikert (R-AZ), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Albio Sires (D-NJ), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Christopher Smith (R-NJ), Michelle Steel (R-CA), Haley Stevens (D-MI), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), Mike Thompson (D-CA), Dina Titus (D-NV), Paul Tonko (D-NY), Lori Trahan (D-MA), David Trone (D-MD), Juan Vargas (D-CA), Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), Maxine Waters (D-CA), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Susan Wild (D-PA).

The full text of the letter is provided below:

Dear Secretaries Blinken and Austin,

As bipartisan Members of Congress who are engaged in the US-Armenia relationship and interested in strengthening it, we write to offer our congratulations on your recent confirmations and to share a list of our bipartisan priorities we hope to work together on during the 117th Congress.

One of the most pressing issues for the Caucus and for the future of American foreign policy in the South Caucasus region is the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh). As you are aware, Azerbaijani and Turkish forces initiated an unprovoked attack on September 27, 2020, leading to six weeks of devastating fighting that killed an estimated 5,000 people and forced more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee from the Karabakh region.

Azerbaijani forces were able to make rapid advances into the region with the aid of Turkish-backed foreign mercenaries, many alleged to have ties to internationally recognized terrorist groups, Bayraktar drones that utilize American components and technology, and heavy weaponry including the illegal use of cluster and white phosphorus munitions.

With the rising risk of a mass atrocity against thousands of Armenian civilians, Armenia agreed to a peace agreement brokered by Russia on November 10. This agreement brought an end to the fierce combat, but it has done little to address the immediate and significant problems of feeding, sheltering, and ensuring the safety of thousands of displaced families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In violation of the ceasefire, Azerbaijan also refuses to free dozens of Armenian prisoners of war and apprehended civilians, which illustrates how this agreement fails to address the structural issues that have caused uncertainty and fueled the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for decades. There remain several important issues that must be resolved and many critical questions that must be answered before a binding and durable peace settlement can be reached.

First, the terms laid out in the current ceasefire are untenable for Artsakh’s long-term security and stability in the region. The United States cannot allow Russia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan to solely dictate and dominate the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. While we have seen some reengagement in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group process, we believe more must be done to pursue an enduring settlement based on the fundamental right to self-determination. We appreciate the response Secretary Blinken gave during his confirmation hearing to this end, stating that he will “reinvigorate U.S. engagement to find a permanent settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that protects the security of Nagorno-Karabakh and helps to ensure another war does not break out.”

In negotiations, our diplomats must insist that any future settlement supported by the United States will provide the people of Artsakh with the ability to reconstruct their communities and rebuild their lives without fear of further bloodshed. This should include significant U.S. commitments to provide an urgently needed humanitarian aid and assistance package for the people of Artsakh. The international community, including the United States, also has an important role to play by finally recognizing the right to self-determination for the people of Artsakh and their role as a legitimate negotiating party in resolving this conflict. Absent this recognition, they will continue to face the threat of displacement by Azerbaijani and Turkish forces without any option for formal redress.

Another important component of ensuring lasting peace in the region is to hold destabilizing actors accountable. There is significant evidence that Azerbaijani and Turkish forces planned the invasion in the buildup to the September 27 assault on Nagorno-Karabakh. This evidence includes the stockpiling of armaments, including drones that killed many innocent civilians during the conflict, the July 2020 provocations by Azerbaijani troops in Armenia’s Tavush province, and several instances of large-scale joint military exercises near the Armenian border that foreshadowed the coming attacks. The United States and other international actors failed to acknowledge these warning signs and take necessary steps to prevent the sharp and unprovoked escalation of violence.

Actions that could have been taken at the time to halt Azerbaijani and Turkish aggressions included threatening sanctions on high-ranking officials from those countries and withholding aid, including ending the waiver of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act and ceasing further military assistance through the Section 333 Building Partner Capacity program. We are encouraged by Secretary Blinken’s response during the confirmation process on this subject as well.

Similarly, the United States must reassess our policy toward Turkey. Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s regime reaps the rewards of the chaos he has sown in the Eastern Mediterranean, Libya, the Middle East, and the South Caucasus. His deliberate destabilizing behavior, which includes the installation of Russian made anti-aircraft missiles over the threat of sanction by the United States, demands a swift and decisive correction. We must learn from the failures of an appeasement policy used by past administrations toward Turkey and use every available diplomatic and economic tool to penalize these bad actors for their aggressions and abhorrent human rights abuses. If we do not act, we risk the likelihood that the Erdogan regime will trigger an ever-expanding zone of conflict.

Finally, the United States should seek to strengthen our strategic relationship with Armenia, a young democracy that has been shaken by last year’s events and the resulting uncertainty they have caused. We urge you to identify ways we can provide additional economic assistance to Armenia to support its democracy and development as well as respond to the significant number of displaced people who have fled the conflict in Artsakh.

We also request that your Administration identify ways in which our economic, cultural, and other ties to Armenia can be improved to benefit Armenia and the large Armenian American diaspora in the United States. Those steps should include the formal recognition of the Armenian Genocide by President Biden on April 24, following in the footsteps of both the House and Senate who passed resolutions recognizing the fact of the Genocide during the 116th Congress.

Thank you for attention to these important matters. We stand ready to work with you to craft a policy in the South Caucasus region that is consistent with U.S. national security, universal principles of human rights, and our democratic values. Our hope is to further discuss these issues with you and your teams at the earliest convenience.

Read original article here.

#Armenia #Armenians #Artsakh #Caucasus #Covid-19 #Karabakh #Politics

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decrou · 4 years

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The incredible journey of Berwyn’s JP Weber; Why we lost Wayne Sporting Goods; Real estate rumblings in Radnor; Shipley grad’s ‘Wild Life’; Claytor Noone Plastic Surgery; Anti-aging medicine; Personalized test prep & more

JP and Lindsey Weber in 2013 and JP today.

JP Weber clearly remembers the day he died.

“I can’t go back there,” he thought on June 3, 2016. “I’m never going in there again.”

An elite loan originator for PNC Bank, Weber quit his job that late spring morning and walked, blindly, off a cliff. The old JP – people-pleasing, Percocet-popping, life-of-the-party JP – long crumbling, collapsed completely. And ever-so-slowly, canvas by canvas, rose up and pieced himself back together.

Pinstripe-suited Joseph Paul Weber was buried that Friday morning. Ponytailed, self-actualized artist @JohnHamster was born.

What some call a complete mental breakdown, JP calls The Undoing.

“I have a feeling that I’m at the beginning of a wave of people who are going to be going through this,” he says, calling out a world where there’s “too much distance from the soul.”

There will come a reckoning, he warns.

JP Weber’s undoing had been building for years.

The social binge drinking. “I would drink a case of beer. It was how I survived,” Weber recalls. “Everyone … thought I was awesome and fun. But people I had to live with thought I was an asshole.”

The impinged vertebrae in his neck, triggered by work stress and an exacting boss.

The addiction to opiates, prescribed for neck pain in increasing dosages for five years. “I numbed my way through the pain.”

The growing distance from his wife, Lindsey Meyer, his Conestoga High School Class of ’94 sweetheart, and daughters, Emma, now 14, Lucy, 11, and Jane, 8. “I was repeating the same hurts to my children that I had,” Weber says. His own father, a partner at a Big Eight accounting firm, was “never home.” Lindsey recalls “trying to stay afloat with three kids and a husband who wasn’t home …It felt stressful around here but I wasn’t fully aware.”

The dawning realization that his job was a colossal mismatch. “JP’s in banking? Really?” friends would ask. But the couple didn’t blink. He was GREAT at loan origination, after all, in the President’s Club, tops in his group. “I never made a cold call,” JP recalls. “I just would help others and it would come back.” And his parents approved. “It was the first time I was getting nods from my dad that I was doing something right.”

The common thread? “I found myself through others. I didn’t find myself through me.”

In the years before he cratered, JP had begun to make changes.

He quit drinking.

He took up hot yoga, turning “225 pounds of muscle into 170 pounds of lean,” a 48 Regular into a 42 Long. (Although now he finds himself in “a mushy place in the middle.”) What started as a way to avoid neck surgery became a way of life. Until it closed, Lindsey and JP would take shifts at Bikram Yoga in Berwyn. “Yoga changed our home. It bonded us.”

But Percocet remained a problem. In May of 2015 he turned down a job offer with a $200,000 signing bonus because he knew he’d have to get off painkillers to function in a more demanding role. “I would have just fallen down the same spiral. At PNC, things were easy because of who I was and what I did.”

Six months later, after repeated attempts to quit the pills (“I couldn’t take that first damn step”), an addiction specialist at Bryn Mawr Rehab wrote “scrips for the most Valium I could shove in my face” to get him through withdrawal. In five days, he was off Percocet forever. “I went cold turkey and haven’t had one since.”

But his job at PNC remained unrelenting. A boss forced him to go on business trips when he was unwell and to sign a confession for something he says he didn’t do, i.e. failing to protect his customers’ data. To escape mounting unease, the Starbucks in Gateway became his other home.

On June 3, engulfed by angst, he cratered.

In the dark days that followed, JP would sit in front of a mirror for hours, obsessively picking at his face. Who am I? And what the f#&@ is going on?

He went on disability for mental illness. “Not that I was suicidal, but I could see how this invalidation leads to suicide. I could see how easy it is to stay on Oxy.”

On his fourth try, JP clicked with therapist Ushi Tandon, who helped him deconstruct, then reassemble his unexamined life.

Glimmers of daylight dawned.

Dormant creativity, squelched by his family in childhood, rose again, insistent.

He began flushing out his feelings on canvas. Toys, rulers, tools, whatever was handy, became his brushes. Shaky at first, his hands turned sure.

His creations were florescent, riotous, intricate explosions. What was stuck became unplugged. A life put on hold gushed forth.

Paintings piled up in his garage and basement.

“At first, I was embarrassed,” his wife admits. “I wasn’t sure what this was all about. Why wasn’t JP in a suit? What’s going on around here?”

But then, she started sharing his artwork with friends. The response was overwhelming. Even JP’s father, although he professed not to understand it, acknowledged “there was something there.”

JP’s disability ran out and he was officially fired from PNC Bank on his 44th birthday in August of 2019. His art would have to pay the bills.

Word of his talent started percolating through the Main Line and beyond.

His paintings hung at La Cabra Brewing, then at StudioFlora in Berwyn and are now on display at Christopher’s in Wayne and Malvern and at Aneu in Rosemont.

JP Weber’s paintings on the walls at Christopher’s in Wayne.

A collector of “outsider art,” StudioFlora owner Chrissy Piombino, in particular, was blown away by the paintings she saw in JP’s garage. At Piombino’s urging and with help from Ardmore fiber artist Holly Guertin (Ernie and Irene), his patterned pieces now appear on textiles, zip pouches, linens, some of which are carried at StudioFlora.

The Chicago nonprofit, , named JP its January artist of the month. People around the country have until Jan. 23 to buy his uplifting YAB stickers.

Razimus jewelry in upstate New York is using JP’s fabric designs in their , one of which will promote Christy Turlington’s Every Mother Counts initiative.

His burgeoning @JohnHamster Instagram shows a parade of commercial and residential spaces enlivened by his stunning canvases.

Next on his vision board? Taking his talents on the road to outsider art shows around the country. He also hopes to speak publicly about overcoming mental-health challenges.

“The old me died in an instant,” he says.

In a blaze of glorious color, JP has returned, triumphant.

***Take a quick trip inside the head of JP Weber in this short clip from our fab video partner, OnUp Media.***

Game over for Wayne Sporting Goods

Wayne Sporting Goods, a family-owned landmark for more than 60 years, sold off its team sports business to a national player and is closing its retail store.

“BSN Sports came to us and made us a fair offer,” owner Roger Galczenski tells SAVVY. “They’re really nice people.”

Although Wayne Sporting Goods has been upgrading operations since the late 90s, sales have been sliding. “No one wants to buy anything unless it’s on sale,” Galczenski laments. “We had three consecutive years of profits going down. We had no reason to think 2020 would be any better.”

Unlike most Wayne businesses, Galczenski owns the three-story, 12,000 sq. ft. building that has housed WSG for 60 years. He tells us he doesn’t want to be a landlord and hopes to sell the building.

His father, Alvin, started WSG in the former Floyd’s Bowling Alley in Rosemont in 1955, then moved to the Farnan’s Jewelry building on N. Wayne Ave. for a few years.

Now 73, Roger Galczenski says he’s ready to retire.

“I’ve been coming in every day for 50-some years. The other morning when I woke up it was raining and dark and I thought I’d like to lay in bed. I think I’ll get used to retirement. We’ll see.”

Galczenski’s son, Steve, and his support team will join BSN, servicing current WSG teams from Malvern Prep, Shipley and Eastern University and beyond.

Meanwhile, a 30-percent-off clearance sale began last week. Glaczenski says discounts will deepen until he shuts off the lights for good, likely by the end of February.

Dodo Hamilton’s Wayne estate slated for development

Rough outlines of the former land holdings (in red) of the late Dodo Hamilton that Haverford Properties proposes to develop in Strafford. A civic leader and Campbell’s Soup heiress, she developed the upscale lifestyle center next to her estate, Eagle Village Shops.

Plans are afoot to build multiple homes on the former estate of the late heiress/philanthropist Dodo Hamilton behind Eagle Village Shops in Strafford.

There was some early talk – wishful thinking, perhaps – that the land, which includes a manor home, greenhouses and multiple specimen plantings, would become an offshoot of the PA Horticultural Society. An avid gardener, Hamilton’s entries were perennial winners at the Philadelphia Flower Show, staged by the society.

But sources tell us valuable specimen plantings have been removed and the land, roughly eight acres of primo real estate, is now in the hands of Haverford Properties, where Dodo’s grandson, Sam Hamilton, is a principal.

Seeking neighbors input, the developer shared preliminary ideas with Radnor Commissioner Jack Larkin.

According to Larkin, one plan would put 40 single-family homes on two lots. An alternative plan calls for 41 townhomes on the main property and nine singles on a narrow stretch of land to the east. (Townhomes are not a permitted use under current zoning and would require special approval from the township.)

Hamilton’s home, yard and greenhouses, rimmed in red, would become either townhomes or single-family homes. Single homes would be built along the narrow parcel to the east outlined in orange and on the other side of Strafford Ave.

Concerned about potential traffic and flooding, neighbors crafted a wish list for the property this week, shared with SAVVY. Among its requests:

A detailed stormwater management plan and a commitment from the developer and/or township to put aside money to address any resulting stormwater issues.

A commitment to maintain the same number of mature trees on the property.

Seven single homes instead of nine on the east lot.

Sidewalks from the development to the train station and traffic-calming measures.

“I get the sense that the developer is invested and wants to work with people and not put a blight on the neighborhood,” Larkin tells SAVVY.

Larkin will host a town hall about the proposed development Thursday, Jan. 30 at 7 p.m. at the Radnor Township Municipal Building.

Philly Bloke bolts to Wayne

Eric DeBella in Philly Bloke’s new studio in Wayne.

After nine years in Paoli, Philly Bloke just moved to a new home in Wayne.

And may we say, his new digs are smashing. With a clubby lounge, TVs and a central bar with complimentary cold brew on draft and cold IPAs in the fridge, you might just hang out awhile after your haircut.

And that would be A-OK with owner Eric DeBella, who chose Wayne for its walkable, community feel and more central location.

“We’re all about building relationships,” DeBella says. “We hope clients will stop by whether they’re getting a haircut or not.”

Philly Bloke offers men’s and boy’s cuts (discounts for father-son tandems), beard grooming, and color blending and just launched its own haircare line.

What’s hot in men’s hair? Longer hair and, yes, beards. About 90 percent of his clients have them, DeBella says.

Double the size of Paoli, the new Bloke is a stylish redo of the former Renewal Studio on West Ave. next to Cornerstone Bistro and across from the Great American Pub. (Because he likes to “feed the people who feed me,” DeBella asked longtime customer Brad Giresi to design the buildout and the wife of another Paoli client, Gina Whalen, to help with interiors.)

So what’s a Philly Bloke anyway? A gent who strives to better himself and make a difference in the lives of others, DeBella says. Someone who “feels good about his identity.” In other words, a bloke who’s woke.

, 15 West Avenue, Wayne, 610-644-3984, is open Tues. – Sat. Appointments strongly recommended. Men’s cuts from $33.

A ‘Wild Life’ – on the Main Line and far beyond

Author Keena Roberts, Shipley ’02, with her proud father, Robert Seyfarth of Devon, at last Sunday’s book signing at Main Point Books in Wayne. Her mother, Dorothy Cheney, a Penn biology professor and primatologist, passed in 2018. Keena and her wife took their fathers’ shared first name when they got married. (, Grand Central Publishing, $28).

When renowned Penn psychologist Robert Seyfarth enrolled his daughters at Shipley, he warned the school that his girls would be part-timers. They’d spend some of the year in Bryn Mawr, but most of it with their parents in a remote camp in Botswana studying the social life of baboons – nature’s classroom, as it were.

No problem, Shipley said. Just make sure they “keep up with math and make them write every day,” Seyfarth recalls.

Terrific advice, it turns out.

Because Seyfarth’s older daughter, Keena, Shipley Class of 2002, just published her first book, Wild Life: Dispatches from a Childhood of Baboons and Button-Downs, a memoir that the author says came from “piles of journals in a closet.”

No daily journal writing from age 8 to 18, no Wild Life.

And what a shame that would be.

We’d never hear about Keena’s extraordinary youth, wherein struggling to survive as “the weird kid” in a Main Line prep school could be tougher than fending off hungry hippos in the bush.

We’d never meet fearless, swashbuckling Keena, who felt at home among circling lions but like an alien on the Shipley field-hockey team.

A first-time author whose day job is health-policy research, it took Keena seven years and four rewrites to get the story right, she says.

She’s already working on book two: a fantasy novel. “It’s Watership Down but with baboons,” the Harvard/Hopkins grad tells SAVVY.

Count on another wild ride.

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By Ryan Richards

On the lobby wall of Crimson Review’s spacious and sunlit tutoring center in Wayne is a large crimson owl, symbol of wisdom.

Smart choice.

Because Crimson Review’s instructors are the sages of Main Line test prep – for SATs and ACTs, National Merit Scholarship qualifying exams (PSATs) and private-school admissions tests (SSATs, ISEEs and HSPTs).

Founded in 1986 by Harvard grad and Wayne resident William H. Wood, Crimson Review offers year-round one-on-one instruction, small-group classes, as well as an intensive SAT , which guarantees to raise qualified students’ scores 250 points or to the 98th+ percentile.

Rates for all options are affordable and tutors are top-notch.

Each has deep understanding of each test and prepares students through comprehensive instruction and practice testing, according to Crimson Review Director Craig Miller.

Crimson Review Director Craig Miller at the test-prep company’s Wayne location.

Crimson instructors graduated from top-tier colleges and are required to have scored in the top of the range on their own standardized tests. They work patiently with students of all academic abilities. “We really want to be a positive environment,” says Miller. Instructors also share proven strategies to ease test anxiety.

With two convenient locations – in Wayne and Malvern – Crimson Review’s small class sizes allow tutors to “get to know every student who comes through our doors,” says Miller. Being independently owned (vs. a corporate franchise), “We have the advantage of customizing and being much more personal.”

Crimson Review also continuously refines its curriculum based on current best practices. As a result, scores improve enough to open up an entirely different set of options, turning dream schools into realistic options.

“My son, Luke, was well prepared and had no fears about his ability to tackle the test, based on his experience with his [Crimson Review] tutor,” reports Exton mom Alicia Snyder.

It’s all about practice, adds veteran instructor Jason Cohen. “We have our students systemically go through each question type, learning both content knowledge and test-taking strategies … The more students can practice with actual practice tests from real exams, the better.”

, 347 E. Conestoga Rd. Wayne and 967 E. Swedesford Rd., Malvern, 610-688-6441, [email protected], offers tutoring and classes in test prep and essay writing. Group & referral discounts available. Register for by 2/8 for $300 off. Visit . Follow on , Instagram and Twitter.

Magnolia Cottage in Malvern: charming goods, painted furniture and craft classes

The western Main Line has a new experiential retailer, Magnolia Cottage, now open in the former Sprouts consignment shop on W. Lancaster Ave.

Owner is Malvern’s Kathy Snow, a nurse who couldn’t find part-time work after raising her kids. “I took my hobby – painting furniture – and thought, ‘Let’s give it a shot.’”

Owner Kathy Snow plays around with a scarf at her new home goods/social crafting shop. Photos by Carla Zambelli.

Magnolia Cottage sells cute but not kitschy gifts, many from local women artisans, and vintage furniture painted by Snow. (Or pick a wooden piece off the floor and have her paint it to your liking). A craft room will house classes in stenciling, furniture painting and more.

Magnolia Cottage, 288 Lancaster Ave., Malvern, 484-320-8022, is open Tuesday – Saturday, noon to 5, Sundays, noon to 3. Pottery demo with Caitlyn Davis, Saturday, Jan. 18. Young Rembrandt art class for preschoolers to age 12, Sunday, Jan. 19.

New homes heading to Radnor as two colleges sell land

Star shows rough area that Eastern College has tentatively agreed to sell to Concordia Group.

Eastern University and Valley Forge Military are shrinking their footprints in Radnor.

The Concordia Group is under agreement to buy 19. 5 acres at Eastern University, SAVVY has learned. The DC-based developer hopes to put “no more than 20-21 homes” on the parcel but won’t submit plans until it gets feedback from neighbors, according to Concordia’s Devin Tuohey.

Concordia would bulldoze a parking lot and 14 circa-1970 homes that Valley Forge Military Academy currently leases for faculty, Tuohey tells us. The tract is along Radnor St. Rd. between Eagle Rd. and Walnut Ave.

Eager to be a good neighbor, Tuohey says he’ll share architectural drawings with the North Wayne Protective Association before he asks Radnor Township for zoning relief and begins the long approval process.

And Tom Bentley is back building on the Main Line. He paid Valley Forge Military Academy and College $1.65 million for a five-acre parcel along Radnor Rd. and Upper Gulph Rd., according to the . He plans to build scaled-down (by Bentley standards), single-family homes on the lot. Infrastructure improvements are already underway.

Two boutiques bow out of Bryn Mawr

Louella Boutique has left Bryn Mawr. Owner Maria Delany tells SAVVY that she’s decided to focus on her stores in Wayne, Malvern and especially Avalon, which has been “such a hit” since it opened last May.

A retail recruiter helped bring Louella to Bryn Mawr in the spring of 2017, Delany says. In retrospect, “Bryn Mawr was too close to our Wayne store, which is bigger and has a broader selection.” A smoke shop has taken over the lease.

Meanwhile, Knit Wit, down to one seasonal store in Margate, plans to pop up again on the Main Line. The Bryn Mawr Knit Wit closed in December. Owner Ann Gitter, 72, told the Inquirer that “rents are bad everywhere … that’s why independents are closing.” Retail is “a brutal business,” she said, and she’s ready for a breather but plans popups on the Main Line and in Philly.

Southern Charmer dazzles at ELLIE Main Line

Kristen Kearns with Southern Charm TV star Craig Conover at ELLIE Main Line in December.

Reality TV hottie Craig Conover wasn’t due to show until 1 p.m. or so, but some Main Line ladies weren’t taking any chances. They started lining up – some on lawn chairs –outside ELLIE in Eagle Village Shops at 10:30 that sunny Sunday morning, three days before Christmas. Gift wrapping and baking could wait.

The draw, of course, was a close encounter with Conover. A quick chat, a hug and a pic. The lure? His “Sewing Down South” pillows – along with lite bites, bubbly, discounts on ELLIE fashions and assorted swag.

So yeah, there was pillow talk.

This and That

Here’s a timely tale: After its sign was stolen, its Iranian tiles vandalized and multiple ugly phone threats – “Go back to where you came from” and similar, Tehrani Bros. decided enough was enough. The oriental rug merchant, in business for 43 years, has changed its name to Bryn Mawr Oriental Rugs, reports . In its heyday, the three brothers had four stores, including one in Wayne, and sold to celebs like Julius Irving, M. Night Shyamalan and Patti LaBelle.

Should Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health be in the business of sheltering unaccompanied minor children in Devon? That’s the Backed by some Latino groups, a group of highly-organized neighbors says no way. Others, including some local church leaders, say yes. The Easttown Zoning Hearing Board picks up this hot potato on Jan. 23 at Beaumont Elementary at 7 p.m. Will the board approve the shelter as a “non-conforming use” on Devereux land that’s zoned residential? Some neighbors had hoped Devereux would sell to a home builder instead.

That was quick. Less than a year and half after it opened, Café Lift has closed in Narberth. Sales were strong but the “bruncherie” concept wasn’t doing enough business to support the pricey liquor license, owner Michael Pasquarello .

After a much longer run (19 years), Tango pulled out of the Bryn Mawr train station for good on Dec. 26.

Seeing red – and wearing it in a show of solidarity, Monday night. At issue: a proposal to juggle school start times. Parents are signing petitions and on Monday carried signs reading “All kids need sleep.” Lower Merion is talking about moving elementary school start times from 9 a.m. to 7:45.

Picketers plan to march on Lancaster Ave. Monday, Martin Luther King Day, to protest plans to put billboards in Bryn Mawr, the day before . Basically, it’s Catalyst Outdoor Advertising vs. every town on the Main Line. Catalyst has proven relentless – scaling back the size of its proposed billboards after zoning boards and courts have ruled against them.

One of the eight most expensive streets in golf is on the Main Line. Shocking, we know. listed Cambridge Road in Ardmore Number 7. Average home price on Cambridge is $2.25 million. But being able to simply walk onto one of Merion Golf’s stellar courses? Priceless.

Helmets off to Wayne native and St. Joe’s Prep/Penn standout Kevin Stefanski, 37, who just became the NFL’s third youngest head coach. Stefanski signed a five-year deal to lead the Cleveland Browns. Proud papa Ed Stefanski played for the 76ers and served as GM from 2007 to 2011.

Rosemont College announced its new president Tuesday. And, guess what, it’s a guy – a first for the nearly 100-year-old Catholic college. Cleary University President Jayson Boyers, 48, a Catholic, will take the reins in July, when current President Sharon Latchaw Hirsh retires.

When the good Lord closes a taco door, he opens a taco window. Owner illness sadly ended Pipeline Taco’s run in Wayne. But right up the street, no-frills taqueria El Limon is set to open in the old Avenue Eatz space at 128 W. Lancaster.

Malvern businesswoman Marian Moskowitz was elected chair and Josh Maxwell will be co-chair of the Chester County Board of Commissioners. The two newbies were sworn in along with veteran commissioner Michelle Kichline of Berwyn on Jan. 2. And may we say, we appreciate the bi-partisanship that Chesco Commissioners have been showing the last few years. Refreshing.

So what if New Year’s Eve has come and gone. Break out the bubbly anyway. Then, break in that new bike. Because the Chester Valley Trail will soon connect to the Schuylkill River Trail. Yup, 34 miles of glorious asphalt stretching from Exton to Philly. Montco Commissioners voted to allocate $10 million of its 2020 budget to trail work in and around Philly. Federal, state and local grants are kicking in another $8 million. Yipppeeeeee.

Glad New Year’s tidings from the Devon Horse Show and Country Fair, which says it’s celebrating its “four top accomplishments of 2019”:

It paid off its $2 million mortgage and enters 2020 debt-free.

It added a few successful events: a Kentucky Oaks Party for Young Friends, Devon After Hours for select patrons on its busiest night, and the return of the Fall Classic, which sported a record number of entries.

It renewed its $2 million pledge to Bryn Mawr Hospital and presented the hospital with a $375,000 check to support expansion of its behavioral health unit.

It spent $385K on infrastructure improvements and increased prize money by $40K.

Unlike other Main Line townships where leadership is nearly 100% blue, Easttown is edging toward … purple. The Easttown Democratic Committee just put out a detailed statement, reporting that 53% of Easttown voters are either Democrats or Indies but membership on the township’s boards and commissions skews Republican (79%). The report also notes that the township’s civic servants are a tad in the tooth (average age 61) and mostly male (67%) and therefore don’t “reflect the township’s diversity.” Notable exceptions: The Planning Commission is split 50/50. And two Dems were just sworn in as supervisors so the split there is 60 red/40 blue.

Got stressed-out teens? (Who doesn’t?) Learn how to help them survive and thrive at a free, non-denominational talk by Penn psychiatrist Anthony Rostain and therapist B. Janet Hibbs, local authors of The Stressed Years of Their Lives on Sunday, Jan. 26 at Wayne Presbyterian Church at 6 p.m. RSVP here.

Another January thaw this weekend? In temperature, no. In spirit, yes. Three Berwyn Village spots are staging a Tiki Crawl Saturday, Jan. 18 to benefit Berwyn Fire Co. (And if you’ve been reading SAVVY, you know our first responders really need the help.) The fun starts at 5 p.m. at the Berwyn Tavern, moves to La Cabra Brewing at 7 and 30 Main at 9. Park once, indulge thrice. La Cabra tells us it’s smoking a suckling pig and giving away half-pints of liquid courage to karaoke participants. Aloha.

Want to publicize your special event? Your SAVVY Calendar is here! Choose a free basic listing or an enhanced listing with image and extra info for a small service fee. No charge for current SAVVY advertisers

Contact [email protected] for deets.

Hope you’ll show some love to our early-winter advertisers, all high-quality LOCAL businesses. We couldn’t keep you savvy without: , in Wayne, , of Ardmore and West Chester, in Bryn Mawr, in Wayne and Malvern, in Rosemont, Wayne Early Learning Center, , , , in Paoli, in Berwyn, Your Organizing Consultants, Day Spa by Zsuzsanna in Wayne, and in Wayne and Haverford, Paper & Design of Berwyn, Realtor , , of Real Estate Professionals, in Berwyn, , in Bryn Mawr, Rustic Brush in Berwyn, , , in Wayne and Berwyn, .

And finally, we got such a kick out of playing Santa Claus in December. Congrats to the winners and heartfelt thanks to the 12 elves who donated prizes to SAVVY’s 12 Days of Giving: BSWANKY handbags, Kramer Drive, HomeCooked, Peachtree Catering, Rebecca Adler Art, Restore Cryosauna, Rose-colored Glasses Photography, SamSara Gear, Strafford Chiropractic & Healing Center, Philly Bloke, Argyle Floral & Gifts and Village Wellness.

One of our 12 lucky winners, single mom Amy Shumonski, shown here with her son, picks up $150 worth of tasty prizes from HomeCooked owner Claire Guarino in Paoli.

The post The incredible journey of Berwyn’s JP Weber; Why we lost Wayne Sporting Goods; Real estate rumblings in Radnor; Shipley grad’s ‘Wild Life’; Claytor Noone Plastic Surgery; Anti-aging medicine; Personalized test prep & more appeared first on SAVVY MAINLINE.

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Text

Lucy in London

October 24, 1966

Synopsis

Lucy Carmichael wins a trip to London in a jingle contest. It is a whirlwind, one day tour, with Anthony Newley as her guide. They visit such landmarks as Madame Tussaud's, Carnaby Street, London Bridge, the Palladium Theatre, and an English country manor. On her tour, Lucy gets to sing with the Dave Clark Five, act Shakespeare with Peter Wyngarde, and model mod fashions to a Phil Spector song!

Cast

Lucille Ball (Lucy Carmichael) was halfway through her fifth season playing Lucy Carmichael on “The Lucy Show” (1962-1968).

Anthony Newley (Anthony Armstrong Fitz-Faversham) was a London-born actor and singer who was perhaps best known for his collaboration with Leslie Bricusse on the film scores for Doctor Doolittle (1967, in which he also appeared) and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1970, in which he also appeared singing the break-out hit “The Candy Man”). In April of 1966, just a month before “Lucy in London” filmed but before the special was aired, he released the film version of Stop the World - I Want To Get Off, a musical which he wrote (again with Bricusse) and starred in as Littlechap in London and New York. In 1965, he starred on Broadway in another musical he co-wrote with Bricusse The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd.

Anthony Armstrong Fitz-Faversham is Lucy's tour guide from Royal Luxury Tours Ltd.

Frank Thornton (Customs Official) will be forever remembered as Captain Peacock, the imperious floor walker on “Are You Being Served?” He was also well known for playing Truly for 13 years on “Last of the Summer Wine.” Thornton died in 2013 at the age of 92.

Winifred Hyde White (Hawkins, Madame Tussaud's Guide) was a Gloucestershire-born actor who will probably be best remembered as Colonel Pickering in the 1964 film My Fair Lady. He was twice nominated for Broadway's Tony Award as Best Actor in 1957 for The Reluctant Debutante, and in 1973 for The Jockey Club Stakes.

James Robertson Justice (Madame Tussaud's Manager) was known for his bushy beard and booming voice. He is perhaps best remembered as Lord Scrumptious in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1963).

The Dave Clark Five (Themselves) was an English pop rock group made up of Dave Clark, Lenny Davidson, Denis Payton, Mike Smith, and Rick Huxley. Their single "Glad All Over" knocked the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" off the top of the UK Singles Chart in January 1964. In 1966 they were regular performers on TV's “Shindig.”

Peter Wyngarde (Himself / Petruchio) was born in France to an English father and French mother. Lucille Ball personally asked Wyngarde to appear in the special having seen him on Broadway in Duel of Angels starring Vivien Leigh in 1960 (while she was appearing in Wildcat). She was said to have been smitten by him, and was determined to find a way for the two of them to act together.

“Lucy may’ve thought I was kidding, but if she wanted to play this straight she would be a marvelous Kate. Her looks are absolutely right as is her vitality. And she’s a good enough actress to be able to do it.” – Las Vegas Sun, October 23, 1966

Edna Morris (Woman at the Shakespeare Festival) was a Lancashire-born actress whose screen acting career began in 1946 at the age of 40.

Dennis Gilmore ('Pops' the Stage Doorman) was a Middlesex-born actor whose screen career spanned from 1953 to 2010.

Joby Blanshard was a Yorkshire-born actor who was seen on stage and screen from 1954 to 1986. He is perhaps most famous for playing Colin Bradley in 32 episodes of the early 1970s 'science-fact' series “Doomwatch.”

Jenny Counsell has just three other screen credits (as per IMDB) the last of which was an uncredited appearance in Carry On Again Doctor (1969).

Bonnie Paul was the step-daughter of Burl Ives.

John Stone was a Welsh character actor and playwright.

Twiggy was born Lesley Lawson. She became the world's number one model at the time, so named for her slender figure. Twiggy eventually turned to acting on both stage and screen.

Chrissie Shrimpton was a model who (at the time) was dating Mick Jagger. She is the sister of Vogue model Jean Shrimpton.

Jenny Boyd was a fashion model and the sister of Pattie Boyd, who was then married to George Harrison of the Beatles. Boyd left modeling and took up transcendental meditation.

Samantha Juste became known on British television in the mid-1960s as the "disc girl" on the BBC’s “Top of the Pops.” In 1968 she married Micky Dolenz of the Monkees.

Roy Rowan (announcer) was the off-camera announcer for every episode of “I Love Lucy” as well as “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy.” He was also the voice heard when TV or radio programs were featured on the plot of all three shows. He made a couple of on screen appearances as well.

This special was part of Lucille Ball's 1966-67 contract negotiations with CBS. She was supposed to star in three such 'travel' specials, but this is the only one that was ever realized. Ball originally planned to co-star with Mitzi Gaynor as two nuns touring Europe, followed by a French-based production called “Lucy in Paris,” and a Middle Eastern-set comedy called “Lucy in Arabia” or “Lucy in the Desert.”

This CBS special (in color!) first aired on October 24, 1966 in “The Lucy Show” time slot, but because it ran one hour, it pre-empted “The Andy Griffith Show.”

This script was written by Ron Friedman and Pat McCormick. This is Friedman's only time writing for Lucille Ball. Also in 1966, Friedman was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for an episode of “The Danny Kaye Show.” McCormick went on to write one episode of “Here's Lucy” in 1969. The special was co-produced and choreographed by David Winters, who had played A-Rab in the 1961 film West Side Story.

The budget for the special was $500,000. It came in under budget.

The special was produced and directed by Steve Binder, who specialized in award shows, concerts, and TV spectacles. It was sponsored by the Monsanto Company.

Regular Lucy viewers may remember that Lucy Ricardo went to London during season 5 of “I Love Lucy” although the cast and crew never left Hollywood to film, as they do here. “Lucy in London” was Desilu's first international film project, not counting some second unit footage of Cuba and Mexico gathered for “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” Like Lucy Ricardo, Lucy Carmichael also visits the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and spends some time at an English country manor home located just outside London.

This special was a follow up to “The Lucy Show” episode “Lucy Flies to London” (S5;E6), which was filmed in September 1966, four months after the May location shooting of “Lucy in London.” Lucille Ball later said that May was her favorite month anywhere in the world. “Lucy Flies to London” (S5;E6) was shot completely at Desilu Studios in California, while “Lucy in London” was shot completely on Location in and around London.

The cast was supposed to include actor Laurence Olivier, but he withdrew from the project before filming began. Lord Olivier was mentioned on “I Love Lucy” in “Lucy Meets Orson Welles” (ILL S6;E3).

Lucille Ball went through 15 different wigs during the production. Cleo Smith, Ball's cousin and the executive in charge of this production, later recalled that problems arose in photographing the star on the London locations, where the use of heavy stage make-up and filtered lighting that was employed for her studio-based program could not repeated. Ball's biographer Geoffrey Mark Fidelman would later remark that the actress "looked old" throughout the show due to difficulties in establishing flattering lighting for the outdoor sequences.

Under the supervision of Cleo Smith, Desilu sent a second unit crew ahead to film scenes with doubles of Lucille Ball and Anthony Newley as they traveled through London and environs on their motorcycle and sidecar.

The special is divided up into acts, like a play, with titles on the screen – in Old English font, naturally!

The opening sequence of Lucy stepping off the Pan Am jet used only still photos shot by Life Magazine's Bob Willoughby. His photographs were used in a montage format until Lucy meets her tour guide when traditional film storytelling begins. Director Steve Binder says that this was a creative decision due to the notoriety and artistry of Willoughby, not a cost-saving measure. The sequence also reflects a typical tourist like Lucy's snapshots of their trip, an idea reinforced by the fact that Lucy wears a camera around her neck for much of her time in London.

The sequence involving Lucy de-planing from the Pan Am clipper jet had to be accomplished in between flights already on the tarmac at Heathrow. No planes were available to be grounded for a day of shooting. Coincidentally (or perhaps not) Pan Am (which is no longer in existence) was also the carrier when Lucy Ricardo flew home from Europe and from Miami to Havana on “I Love Lucy.”

To ensure that Heathrow and other London locations were accessible to the film crew, a former Buckingham Palace official with the proper 'connections' was engaged by Desilu. It is unclear whether anyone was 'bribed' to open doors, but some locations did charge a user fee, which Desilu gladly paid. When Desilu asked about police protection for Lucille Ball during their shoot near London Bridge, Scotland Yard replied that they didn't do that for anyone – not even the Queen! They did, however, guarantee that if the crew did not block traffic and cause any pedestrian problems, they would be sure all went well.

Newley sings “On a Wonderful Day Like Today” as he zooms off on his motorcycle with Lucy in his 'top drawer' sidecar. A chorus of schoolgirls on bicycles join in singing “The Beautiful Land.” Newley then sings a bit of “Sweet Beginning” as they drive through Piccadilly Circus. These songs are all from the musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd, which Newley co-wrote with Leslie Bricusse and starred in on Broadway in 1965. This is the show that gave Cleo Smith the idea to cast Newley, who only had a two week opening in his Doctor Dolittle shooting schedule to film the special with Lucy.

On the banks of the Thames, Newley quickly sings a bar of “What Kind of Fool Am I?” a song he wrote and performed in Stop the World – I Want To Get Off. Speaking of banks, Lucy says she works in a bank back home where “her boss” makes her report at 8am. Interestingly, not much of Lucy Carmichael's home life is discussed other than this.

The stunt where Lucy and Anthony Newley sink into the River Thames was supposed to be shot in another location due to the fact that the Thames was reported to be polluted. At the last moment, Lucy decided it was funnier to actually do the stunt on location, despite the risks involved. As she did in “Lucy at Marineland” (S4;E1) and various other times in her career, Lucy did the stunt herself, not employing a stunt person or effects.

As Lucy and Tony's punctured raft is sinking in the Thames, Newley salutes the Union Jack and sings a chorus of of “There'll Always Be an England,” an English patriotic song written in 1939 by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles, and famously sung by Vera Lynn. In “Lucy Flies to London” (S5;E6), the episode of “The Lucy Show” that preceded this special, Mr. Mooney quotes the same song, dreading his secretary's frenetic presence in England's capital city.

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Bronx-born singer / songwriter Phil Spector was commissioned to write and perform the title song “Lucy in London,” to which is set a montage of Lucy in and around London wearing mod fashions. A demo single of the song was recorded by Spector, but never released. The song comes about 15 minutes into the special and mentions The Dave Clark Five, who have actually not performed yet on screen. The montage features Lucy in mod fashions of the time and has cameos by top fashion models like Twiggy. The musical montage ends Act I.

Several scenes were cut for time. The first was Lucy stepping out of Mary Quant's London boutique Bazaar with packages and mod sunglasses. She gets into Newley's sidecar and the two drive off.

The second involved Newley donning a tall black fur hat and demonstrating to Lucy how silly the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace is. Both scenes turn up on the “Lucy Show” season 5 DVD documentary about the special.

Another scene was filmed where Newley takes Lucy for a lunch of fish and chips, riding on a bicycle built for two. Only still photos remain of the scene which had Lucy trying to talk like a Cockney to a genuine London-born chip stall owner.

Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum was (and still is) one of London's busiest and most popular tourist attractions. The production was only allowed to film inside once the museum was closed and the last tourist had exited the building. In the Museum sequence, a wandering Lucy gets separated from her tour guide (Winifred Hyde White) and must be led to the Chamber of Horrors by the manager (James Robertson Justice) to catch up with her group. The scene called for a frightened Lucy to hit him over the head with a bottle. The production supplied candy glass prop bottles for the stunt, but somehow Lucy managed to pick up an actual glass bottle and Justice had to be hospitalized for stitches. Presently, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museums in New York City and Las Vegas feature figures of Lucille Ball as Lucy Ricardo.

Before they go inside the waxworks, Newley teases Lucy that inside she'll find Cleopatra and her Mark Antony. Lucy played Cleopatra onstage back in Danfield with Viv as her Mark Antony. Before going in Newley says “TTFN.” When Lucy asks what that means, he replies “Ta ta for now.” TTFN was a favorite expression of Winnie the Pooh's pal Tigger. The voice of Tigger, Paul Winchell, guest starred on “The Lucy Show” just prior to this special. He once claimed that it was his idea to have Tigger say TTFN.

Inside the museum, Lucy tweaks the nose of Prince Philips' wax 'figger'. Prince Philip was mentioned recently in “Lucy with George Burns” (S5;E1) and several times on “I Love Lucy.” She also sees waxworks of Napoleon and Josephine. On an episode of “Here's Lucy,” Lucy Carter and Harry (Gale Gordon) play Napoleon and Josephine during a séance.

Great Fosters (not Grace Fosters!) is an English country manor from the Tudor period located in Egham, Surry, just outside of London. There is evidence that the de Imworth (later Fosters) family lived there as early as 1224. Now under the ownership of the Sutcliffe family, the historic building became a hotel in 1930, as it remains today, hosting tourists, wedding parties, and those looking for fine dining. When Lucy arrives they are hosting a Shakespeare Festival at their theatre in the gardens. Lucy brags to one of the actors (Peter Wyngarde) that she did Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing in high school. Lucy and Wyngarde rehearse a scene from The Taming of the Shrew with Lucy as Kate (her only line is “Never!”) and Wyngarde as Petruchio.

After Lucy flees taming by 'Petruchio' and runs from Great Fosters, Anthony Newley jokingly does an imitation of Stan Laurel saying “Well, Lucy, that's another fine mess you've gotten us into.”

In front of Lucy, Newley, and The Dave Clark Five (in morning suits and top hats) perform a medley of “London Bridge is Falling Down” and “Pop Goes the Weasel.” It is interesting to note that the London Bridge seen in the background is the old London Bridge (1831-1967). A year after filming, this bridge was dismantled and sold while a new version (that still stands today) was built to replace it. The old London Bridge was reassembled in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, opening in 1971, where it remains the number one tourist attraction.

In Act IV, pulling up to the London Palladium, Lucy and Tony see the marquee for a show called London Laughs starring Harry Secombe, Jimmy Tarbuck, Thora Hird, Freddie Frinton, and Russ Conway. Instead, however, Newley takes Lucy to The Scala Theatre on Charlotte Street, off Tottenham Court Road. The theatre opened in 1903 seating 1,139 and boasts a large stage. Three years after “Lucy in London” filmed there, it was destroyed by fire and demolished. Today the site is the location of an apartment block.

On the Scala stage, the special takes a slightly surreal turn with Newley suddenly presenting a full scale musical one-man show with lights, scenery, costume changes, and orchestra. He first sings “Fine Day in London” then “I'm Gonna Build a Mountain” (from Roar of the Greasepaint). He follows with “Once in a Lifetime” from Stop the World and “Nothing Can Stop Me Now,” also from Greasepaint.

During “Look at That Face” (Greasepaint) he sings directly to Lucy, the Queen of Comedy, “the face that the world adores” and she becomes the Queen of England sitting in the Scala Theatre’s royal box. He ends the medley with “This Dream” (Greasepaint) and Lucy becomes the (male) orchestra conductor. After Newley leaves the stage, Lucy reappears as an Eliza Doolittle-type flower girl sitting in the front row of the balcony eating a piece of fruit.

The special then takes on an even more dreamlike quality with Lucy on stage doing a pantomime in a spotlight. It looks like Lucille Ball is wearing the same over-sized suit that she wore as the Professor in the “I Love Lucy” pilot and “The Audition” (ILL S1;E6). The very end of the special, still on the Scala stage, singing about her “One Day in London” Ball seems to drop the Lucy Carmichael character and speak directly from the heart as she addresses the camera. It is some of the most moving acting Ball has done on television thus far.

Although nominated as Best Actress in a Comedy for “The Lucy Show,” Lucille Ball was not able to attend the Emmy Awards Ceremony on May 22, 1966 as she was filming “Lucy in London.” In any case, she lost to Mary Tyler Moore in “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”

Viewership was high for the special (finishing as the most-watched telecast of the week) but critical responses were very poor, with Variety complaining: "What had promised to be one of the season's major specials turned out to be a major disappointment." Perhaps because of this, Ball opted not to pursue the creation of the remaining two specials in her contract. If the critics did not approve of her stepping outside of what she was known for, she would give them more of what they expected.

“Lucy in London” was aired just once – on October 24, 1966 - and was not seen again until the DVD release of the official fifth season of “The Lucy Show” as bonus material. As with “The 'I Love Lucy' Christmas Special,” “Lucy in London” was not included in “The Lucy Show” syndication package and is not counted in the official episode tally.

Although this special marked the only time Lucille Ball was seen on a London stage, after more than 50 years Lucy will once again be in London (sort of) when Lee Tannen's autobiographical play I Loved Lucy returns to London’s Arts Theatre during the summer of 2017. Sandra Dickinson plays Lucy and New Jersey's own Matthew Scott is Lee.

“Lucy in London” rates 4 Paper Hearts out of 5

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Alison Roman, Bon Appétit, and the Global Pantry Problem added to Google Docs

Alison Roman, Bon Appétit, and the Global Pantry Problem

In this, the age of the global pantry, ingredients like turmeric, tahini, and gochujang have finally shaken off their hitherto “exotic” status. But it’s white cooking personalities like Alison Roman and many of the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen stars who have had viral success using them.

Alison Roman is the “prom queen of the pandemic.” Or, at least, she was. The cookbook author and YouTube star, who rose to fame on the strength of her heady-yet-approachable recipes, low-key glamour, and self-effacing charm, recently experienced what she referred to as “baby’s first internet backlash.” It stemmed from a recent interview that Roman gave in which she criticized both minimalism icon Marie Kondo and cookbook author Chrissy Teigen for peddling branded merchandise, implying that they were sellouts — while discussing her own “capsule collection” of cooking tools, no less. A low hum of outrage greeted Roman’s choice to rebuke two women of color, then positively exploded after Teigen created a long thread on Twitter to talk about how hurt she was, as someone who “genuinely loved everything about Alison.”

The backlash to Roman’s comments, like most backlashes, was a combination of legitimate grievance and the way that Twitter refracts and concentrates reaction. All the same, there was a whiff of inevitability to the suddenness and vociferousness of the anger directed at Roman, who had become ubiquitous thanks in part to her knack for proselytizing ostensibly “ethnic” ingredients like tahini, turmeric, and yuzu kosho to a broader American audience. Roman’s critics charged that she was not only a hypocrite but a racist, one who had moreover very successfully capitalized on the ingredients of other cultures. If it felt as though people had been sitting around waiting for her to mess up, it was probably because many of them had.

Roman, after all, is arguably the most fashionable avatar of a broader shift. We are living in the age of the global pantry, when a succession of food media-approved, often white figures have made an array of international ingredients approachable and even desirable to the North American mainstream — the same mainstream that, a decade ago, would have labeled these foods as obscure at best and off-putting at worst. This phenomenon is why you now see dukkah on avocado toast, kimchi in grain bowls, and sambal served with fried Brussels sprouts. It’s a kind of polyglot internationalism presented under the New American umbrella, with the techniques and raw materials of non-Western cuisines used to wake up the staid, predictable flavors of familiar Americana.

Not long ago, you could see this playing out on the menus of hip restaurants across the country. At AL’s Place in San Francisco, squash tahini was served with burrata, sumac-galangal dressing, pickles, and dukkah; in LA, there was preserved Meyer lemon and lacto-fermented hot sauce in Sqirl’s sorrel pesto rice bowl, and a “Turkish-ish” breakfast of vegetables, a sumac- and Aleppo pepper-dusted egg, and three-day-fermented labneh at Kismet. Over in Nashville, Cafe Roze put a turmeric egg in its hard-boiled BLT and miso ranch in its barley salad. Up in New York, Dimes served a veggie burger with harissa tofu and a dish called huevos Kathmandu that paired green chutney and spiced chickpeas with fried eggs.

Only whiteness can deracinate and subsume the world of culinary influences into itself and yet remain unnamed

But now, as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced most of us to stay home and make the most of our kitchen skills, the global pantry is most visible on the pages and websites of establishment food media. It’s Bon Appétit’s gluten-free coconut-turmeric pie and kimchi-cream cheese toast; Food & Wine’s tofu masala and rosy harissa chicken; the New York Times’s brothy chicken soup with hominy and poblano; and Every Day With Rachael Ray’s minty matcha smoothie and Korean barbecue burgers. You can see it all over social media and particularly Instagram, where its most viral example is #thestew, Roman’s 2018 recipe for a chickpea-coconut milk stew whose broth is made golden with turmeric. And you can see it on Bon Appétit’s extremely popular YouTube channel, where its test kitchen stars make everything from saffron brittle to “dahi toast” to slow-roast gochujang chicken to spicy chicken katsu sandwiches (though it bears noting that the first two of those recipes were created by people of color).

As the culinary has become a marker of contemporary culture, occupying much of the space once monopolized by music or fashion, food media and social media have fused to create a supercharged form of aspirational desire. Within this mode of desire, however, the idea of using new, hitherto “exotic” ingredients only seems to become aspirational when those ingredients appear on the pages of prominent tastemaking magazines (or, perhaps more relevantly, on Instagram) — or are espoused by white tastemakers. Remember that time in 2018 when the author Stephanie Danler told T Magazine about her “kitchari cleanse,” explaining how the Indian dish of lentils and rice (actually called khichrhi) allowed her to “reset [her] system”? Or the time that haldi doodh took over coffee shop menus, the food media, and Instagram after being rebranded as the turmeric latte?

The question that such representations present for the food world is a difficult one: Who gets to use the global pantry or introduce “new” international ingredients to a Western audience? And behind that is an even more uncomfortable query: Can the aspiration that has become central to the culinary arts ever not be white?

Because the aesthetics of food media are indeed white. That white aesthetic is not, strictly speaking, the abundant natural light, ceramic plates, strategically scattered handfuls of fresh herbs, pastel dining rooms, artisan knives, or even the butcher diagram tattoos that the food media so loves to fetishize. It is more accurate to say that the way we define what is contemporary and fashionable in food is tied to whiteness as a cultural norm — and to its ability to incorporate other cultures without actually becoming them.

Only whiteness can deracinate and subsume the world of culinary influences into itself and yet remain unnamed. It’s a complicated little dance of power and desire: The mainstream is white, so what is presented in the mainstream becomes defined as white, and — ta-da — what you see in viral YouTube videos somehow ends up reinforcing a white norm, even though the historical roots of a dish or an ingredient might be the Levant or East Asia. You might say whiteness works by positing itself as a default. You might also say that this sucks.

You cannot have influence without authority. It’s why well-known (white) chefs and cookbook authors have historically been so effective in popularizing global ingredients among the North American mainstream. Think, for example, of Rick Bayless, the Chicago chef whose Mexican restaurants introduced many Midwesterners to contemporary regional Mexican cuisine, or Andy Ricker, the Portland, Oregon, chef whose Pok Pok restaurants spread the gospel of Northern Thai cooking through the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Or of Yotam Ottolenghi, the Israeli chef and cookbook author whose restaurants and cookbooks were so effective in communicating the joys of Middle Eastern ingredients like Aleppo pepper and tahini that his influence earned its own moniker, the Ottolenghi Effect.

Each of these chefs became successful at a time before social media and the notion of viral stardom had become as all-encompassing as they are today. And, aside from some extremely boneheaded comments Bayless made regarding race and appropriation, their notoriety hinged far less on their personalities than the seductive properties of their food — and how readily their work was gobbled up by the establishment and, by extension, the white mainstream.

In today’s food media landscape, there are few more powerful authorities in the Anglo-North American food world than Bon Appétit. BA’s YouTube channel has become so viral that it has spawned memes, to say nothing of a fan account just for star Claire Saffitz’s hair (and, hey: understandable). It has almost 6 million subscribers, and its videos have collectively surpassed a billion views.

Bon Appétit’s on-camera staff is predominantly white, and the aesthetic and culinary mode of the channel feels similar to a lot of contemporary food media: attractive, mostly millennial people wearing bespoke aprons make vibrant, casually elegant, well-lit food that balances approachability with technique and/or fancy ingredients.

It was an aesthetic developed on the glossy pages of the Condé Nast magazine. When editor Adam Rapoport came over to BA from GQ in 2010, he was tasked with reinventing the publication one year after Gourmet folded. It was neatly symbolic: As one bastion of high-end food disappeared, another announced itself as the wave of the future. Rapoport imported a particular style to BA from his previous gig: cool but unfussy, effortless but only superficially so. It’s a mix that has occasionally gotten the magazine into trouble — see, for example, its website’s (since deleted) 2016 “Pho Is the New Ramen” video, in which a white chef told viewers exactly how they should eat the Vietnamese dish. Today, it allows BA to teach its readers how to reverse-sear steak or carve $1,500 legs of ham, but also make mac and cheese or the perfect vodka soda. The foods it chooses to cast in the spotlight illustrate the way in which authority grants legitimacy. If BA is using sumac on eggs, or dashi powder in porridge, it means it’s time for you to use those things as well.

But if desire, expertise, and charm work magic in food media, then perhaps it’s no coincidence that the globalization of the pantry has found its viral apotheosis in Alison Roman. An erstwhile pastry chef who worked in the Bon Appétit test kitchen before going on to become a New York Times columnist and the author of two best-selling cookbooks, Roman’s story is one of years of hard work, viral-recipe creation, and social media savvy — at least until her recent self-own.

It remains to be seen if Roman’s comments about Kondo and Teigen coalesce into a broader or more permanent rejection (yesterday, the New York Times confirmed to the Daily Beast that her column is on temporary leave, though it declined to provide a reason why). Regardless, the lessons of Roman’s success are lasting. For one, it is impossible to talk about Roman’s influence without talking about social media, and her masterful use of it.

The fame of #thestew, the now-viral recipe for chickpeas in coconut milk and turmeric, felt a bit weird: I know these ingredients; what are white people so excited about?

With 566,000 Instagram followers and legions of fans who make and then photograph her approachable, well-tested recipes — which she then reposts in her own Instagram stories — Roman is successful in part because of her understanding that social media has transformed cooking into a social experience, one that particularly resonates with millennials. It points to how aspirational desire — and the brands that tap into it, whether personal or corporate — can popularize things within that space. Oh, this is one of Alison’s recipes? I want to make it too.

Like the staff of BA, Roman’s appeal doesn’t lie just in what she does, but who she is and what she represents to her audience. She is self-deprecatingly funny, unapologetically opinionated, and, with her signature orangey-red nail polish and bold lipstick, she projects effortless cool. As Michele Moses put it in the New Yorker, “Roman, with her crackling chicken skin and red lips and nails, is libidinous and a little bit mean.” Even Roman’s kitchen, which features prominently enough in her videos to warrant its own treatment, is undeniably appealing, and its organized clutter of Le Creuset pots and hanging plants may as well have its own Pinterest page.

Roman’s loosely white style is mainstream, contemporary food culture right now: Looking through Roman’s cookbooks, Dining In and Nothing Fancy, I noticed how every second page of beautifully shot recipes seemed to feature some “mainstream” American ingredient made new with yuzu kosho or turmeric or chile oil. But even as I found myself poring over the recipes, something felt off. It was the same thing that made the fame of #thestew, Roman’s now-viral recipe for chickpeas in coconut milk and turmeric, feel a bit weird, but also vaguely familiar to me: I know these ingredients; what are white people so excited about?

Is #thestew really just a curry? (Roman has insisted it’s not, but others beg to differ.) And are all curries just stews? It’s precisely the ambiguity of what separates one from the other that makes neat assertions of cultural appropriation unhelpful, but also lets the issue linger. Less important than ascribing a strict lineage, or, worse, the retrogressive idea of cultural ownership, is the question of whether, say, a person of color could have also made a stew featuring chickpeas and turmeric go viral. Aren’t both the perceived novelty and the recipe’s virality tied to the whiteness of its creator?

For her part, Roman feels the success of that recipe was less about her than what preceded it. Talking over the phone while on the road for her book tour several months ago, she suggested her viral success wasn’t unique. “I think if it were Padma Lakshmi or Nigella Lawson or any other person who already has a platform, it could absolutely go viral,” Roman told me. “I think the only reason the stew went viral is because the cookies did.”

Perhaps that’s true, but it does seem worth asking: If a South Asian or Middle Eastern person put forth that mix of ingredients, could it have merely been #thestew, with no other descriptors attached, or would whiteness have forced it to have a name? While it wasn’t Roman who gave #thestew its label, having a thing that draws on a variety of influences, but takes on such a generic, rootless — and yet definitive — name is precisely how whiteness works: positing itself as the norm from which all other things are deviations.

“The sad thing about my cultural background is that I don’t really have one,” Roman told me with a chuckle. It’s a line she had used before, one that evokes the same self-deprecation she employs in her videos. Peering in from the outside, one of the things that seems, well, sort of fun about being white is that way in which things can just be: “Ethnic” fashion is quirky or inventive, spirituality can be a generic mix, and cuisine can simply be food. There’s a sense, too, that the collective output of Bon Appétit takes a similarly obfuscated view: It’s just food, man. I mean, imagine the freedom.

When we spoke, Roman seemed aware of this reality, if only partly. “I absolutely feel whiteness is a factor [in my success] because white privilege is everywhere. That’s not lost on me,” she said. “But I don’t think that has to exist separately from the hard work I’ve put in to create a career for myself and a palate and flavor profile.”

It’s a comment that reads differently now, and the lengthy apology Roman issued for her comments about Teigen and Kondo suggests that she is more aware of the complex relationship between her privilege and her prominence. Still, I don’t think there is much to the idea that Roman’s success is somehow unearned, or even that we aren’t better off for it. Nor do I think that Bon Appétit comes close to the more egregious examples of appropriation and erasure; to the contrary, it increasingly seems to be doing more to educate its audience. Bon Appétit is also hardly the only powerful food media authority to grapple (or not) with whom it chooses to cast as its ambassadors of the global pantry: Scrolling through the New York Times’s cooking section’s 15 of Our Best Vietnamese Recipes and its Mexican at Home recipes, for example, it is impossible not to notice that every single byline is that of an (ostensibly) white writer. And just last week, Momofuku Milk Bar owner Christina Tosi posted a recipe on Instagram for “flaky bread” that, as some commenters quickly pointed out, looked an awful lot like paratha, an Indian flatbread.

But to recognize white privilege is one thing; to actively combat it or resist taking advantage of it is something else altogether. That balance between competing and contradictory ideas is a useful way to think about food media in 2020. It doesn’t help to say that certain people own ingredients, or have dominion over certain types or presentations or techniques. But the way that excitement over particular trends and recipes circulates publicly, whether on Instagram or in Bon Appétit, can reinforce whiteness as a norm, just as divorcing history from food erases the contributions and lives of people of color from Western narratives. When whiteness is allowed to function as if it weren’t that, it hurts us all.

During our interview, Roman pointed out that many home kitchens, particularly in places like the U.S., the U.K., and Australia, now feature such previously so-called exotic ingredients as anchovies, soy sauce, and Aleppo pepper. “The modern way we cook now integrates so many different ingredients that come from so many different places, and I think that’s fucking awesome,” she said.

That seems quite correct, and the last thing anyone should argue is that people shouldn’t use an ingredient in their own home for some abstract fear of “theft.” Instead, the question here is much less about what we do in private than what public representation does and means: if or why it matters when a white person popularizes ghee, or Nashville hot chicken becomes a big thing but the work of African-American cooks and chefs is still ignored. In the circuits of culture, there are routes to legitimacy and fame, and the problem we have in the food world is that the most reliable path seems to center whiteness again and again.

That’s not to say things aren’t changing. It felt symbolic that last year’s BA Thanksgiving extravaganza featured Rick Martinez’s self-described “Mexican-ish” take on stuffing. Fan favorite Andy Baraghani now draws on his Iranian heritage in some dishes, particularly after coming to terms with how he suppressed both his ethnic identity and sexuality. And BA’s more recent hires include Sohla El-Waylly and Priya Krishna, the latter of whom used her profile at BA to augment the launch of her book Indian-ish, a collection of, um, Indian-ish recipes that to my mind is pleasingly inauthentic. In fighting to get their recipes featured, all of these cooks from nonwhite backgrounds are doing the hard work of representation.

Yet Krishna herself believes there is still a long way to go. “I have been told so many times that my Indian food isn’t click-y, that it won’t get page views,” she says in an email, “and then I see white cooks and chefs making dishes that are rooted in Indian techniques and flavors, calling it something different, and getting a lot of attention.”

Her experience speaks to the assumption that food media’s readership is always white, as if the audience is unfamiliar with or intimidated by what, to many of them — to us — are in fact quite ordinary things. “I love that people’s pantries are getting more global,” says Krishna, “but I do hope that when people cook with them, they take the time to educate themselves about the origin of these ingredients, rather than treating them as ingredients in a vacuum, divorced of their context.”

The idea that we need to pay attention to where things come from is certainly true, but it’s a mantra that can take you only so far: If cultural forces like BA or Roman are necessary to popularize new-to-white-people ingredients, then only part of that dynamic changes. In the attention economy, those who garner attention will always have more sway, and even in 2020, the collective unconscious wants what it wants.

What is it that actually captures attention, then? At least one thing is the subconscious desire to emulate BA’s authority or Roman’s cool. In aspiration, desire matters. But that leaves me with another question, one that stalks my thoughts a lot of the time: What might nonwhite aspiration look like?

Real change only happens when the thing that white supremacists fear becomes true: that the mainstream increasingly becomes rather than simply appropriates the “ethnic.”

Thankfully, we already have one answer: Samin Nosrat. Her warmth and seemingly limitless charm, coupled with her encyclopedic knowledge of food, has endeared her to many, and her book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is a No. 1 New York Times best-seller that became a Netflix series. Nosrat jumps between cultural influences frequently, particularly her own Persian heritage, and her generous, open approach to both food and people has done much to expand the conversation. As Jenny G. Zhang noted on Eater, the image of Nosrat eating with gusto throughout the Netflix series changed the rules for who gets to eat on TV.

Yet Nosrat’s success isn’t only about who she is inherently, but her ability to bridge worlds, to speak about and make comprehensible to the mainstream the assumed difference of minorities and the places and cultures they come from. To paraphrase postcolonial theorist Gayatri Spivak, it’s indicative of the way in which minorities must contort themselves to ever have any power: They have to manifest it in ways recognizable to those who hold it.

The only way that changes is representation. “As long as staffs of food websites and publications are mostly white, and as long as the leadership of food websites and publications is mostly white,” Krishna says, “everything other than white food will always be seen as the other, as a museum artifact versus someone’s lived experience.”

Even then, representation has its limits. It’s easy for those in the mainstream to cherry-pick the aspects of whatever culture they happen to like that week. Actual change, then, comes up against a difficult paradox: We need to pay attention to where things come from, to focus on their difference, but in order to overcome both fetishization and exploitation, the foreign needs to become domestic.

Rather than simply having people who look like us on our screens or pages, our definition of what is shared needs to change. The polyglot culinary vocabulary that Roman and Krishna evoke must represent a genuine expansion of how we understand food and flavor and, sometimes, culture, too. More simply, real change only happens when the thing that white supremacists fear becomes true: that the mainstream increasingly becomes rather than simply appropriates the “ethnic.” But to speak of a mainstream North American culture that isn’t neatly “white” in both its logic and its aesthetics is to envision something that doesn’t yet exist, and that we don’t know how to articulate.

In the meantime, I find myself searching for food media that reflects me. Yes, as a North American urbanite with a global pantry and a New York Times subscription, Roman’s work certainly fits the bill sometimes. But that quest has also belatedly led me to Ranveer Brar. An established chef with experience in both the U.S. and India, he runs a YouTube channel focusing broadly on Indian cuisine, but mostly food from Brar’s own Punjabi heritage, which I share. A tall, handsome man with a wry presence in front of the camera, Brar likely has his share of fans who are drawn to him by desire, subconscious or otherwise.

But his content is also closed off to people who don’t speak Hindi, and reaffirms my lingering suspicion that some cultural difference is insurmountable: that ideals of kitchens and food and life in Brooklyn and Toronto and New Delhi are different, regardless of how the 21st century has both shrunk and intertwined the world. And it seems these divides will remain until cooks and chefs of color finally push their way into the mainstream. It’s almost as if we’re waiting for something to catch up — that the cuisines and ingredients we’ve become so familiar with now have to sort of seep into our bones, become a part of us, have stories and myth accrete in layers over time.

Aspiration is about wanting, and what I want from food media isn’t a bone thrown in my direction, but simply more: more representation, more diversity, more sense that the mainstream isn’t just accommodating me, but instead making room for me. What I want as we head into the 2020s is — God — isn’t it time yet? I just want more.

Navneet Alang is a technology and culture critic.

Xia Gordon is an Ignatz-nominated cartoonist and illustrator living in Brooklyn, NY. She grew up in Orlando, FL and graduated from the School of Visual Arts with a BFA in Cartooning & Illustration in 2016.

Disclosure: Chrissy Teigen is producing shows for Hulu in partnership with Vox Media Studios, part of Eater’s parent company, Vox Media. No Eater staff member is involved in the production of these shows, and this does not impact coverage on Eater.

via Eater - All https://www.eater.com/2020/5/20/21262304/global-pantry-alison-roman-bon-appetit

Created May 21, 2020 at 05:26AM /huong sen View Google Doc Nhà hàng Hương Sen chuyên buffet hải sản cao cấp✅ Tổ chức tiệc cưới✅ Hội nghị, hội thảo✅ Tiệc lưu động✅ Sự kiện mang tầm cỡ quốc gia 52 Phố Miếu Đầm, Mễ Trì, Nam Từ Liêm, Hà Nội http://huongsen.vn/ 0904988999 http://huongsen.vn/to-chuc-tiec-hoi-nghi/ https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xa6sRugRZk4MDSyctcqusGYBv1lXYkrF

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bigyack-com · 4 years

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The Work Diary of a Hairdresser So Coveted, She Travels by Private Jet

Jayne Matthews thinks that most hairstylists are doing it wrong: “A person takes a pair of scissors and cuts the ends, maybe gives the hair some layers, but in general it’s like a big, shaped block on the head that needs to be blown into a manageable style.” Ms. Matthews — the co-owner of two salons in the San Francisco Bay Area, both called Edo — uses a straight razor as a carving tool instead of scissors. “I can carve petals into hair so it can have length but be lighter,” she says. “I consider it the difference between a hedge and a bonsai tree.”These organic cuts, as she calls them, have garnered her a cult following of more than 82,000 on Instagram. Her signature look is a modern shag, heavy on the face-framing layers and bangs, inspired by Chrissie Hynde, Brigitte Bardot, Jane Fonda, Stevie Nicks and Patti Smith. Ms. Matthews, 47, charges $325 for cuts at her salons, the first of which she opened with her business partner, Chri Longstreet, in 1998. At that price, many clients get just one or two trims a year. “When you get these haircuts, they look cool and lived in,” she says. “You can wake up in the morning, maybe tuck it behind the ear, touch the bangs a smidge, and it looks good. The less you do, the better it looks.”In 2014, after giving birth to a daughter, Ms. Matthews decided she’d try to get better at showing off her cuts on social media, practicing lighting and angles. Salons in Los Angeles and Portland, Ore., were soon asking her to come do cuts and trainings, and clients now routinely fly to the Bay Area to book with her.

Tuesday

7 a.m. I woke up in an Airbnb in L.A., a little bit drained because I worked with a shaman yesterday on a cleanse. I drank a raw cacao and coffee thing I had delivered the day before.10 a.m. I took a private jet service that has like 20 passengers from L.A. to Oakland. I listened to a relationship podcast on Audible because there was no Wi-Fi. Then I went on a dating app and changed some of the wording to be more authentic. I also edited hair photos for my Instagram account and the salon’s. I take 25 to 50 photos for each cut and look for one where the client looks the most alive and interesting.12 p.m. I took a Lyft home and took a bath — I almost never take showers — and tried on a dress to wear for this big workshop I’m teaching this weekend in New Orleans.1 p.m. A friend is helping me get some online education going. We checked out a space to see if the light was right for filming. I want to sell classes online because it’s hard being a single mom and traveling around so much — I get messages daily from London, Berlin, Paris.2 p.m. With clients at Edo in Oakland. The first flew from Salt Lake City: an Asian woman whose hair was mid-back, all one length. I gave her a shag with bangs. Then there was a woman with blue, curly hair and I gave her bangs. I also taught an impromptu class with my assistant, who was doing a bob across the room that I thought was looking a little like a mom bob. I spent 45 minutes working with her to make it more cool and young.6 p.m. I picked up my daughter, Sylvie, from her after-school arts program. It was pouring rain and we ran out to the car to go get ramen.10 p.m. Answered some direct messages on Instagram. They’re always women. Half of them cut hair and half are fans. My clients are usually between the ages of 28 and 45. It is usually the girl who likes her expensive stuff worn in. She’s understated but not messy, she doesn’t have a lot of plastic surgery, she’s a farm-to-table girl who doesn’t shop at department stores.

Wednesday

7 a.m. I made Bulletproof coffee and opened email and DMs and made sure there wasn’t anything too pressing. I woke up Sylvie and made her peanut butter toast and took her to school.9:30 a.m. Back in bed. I had a call with these hair salon business coaches that are helping me navigate my separate education business and whether — after I move to L.A. soon — I want to open my own salon or a third Edo.11 a.m. I made a post that I was looking for hair models. Then I got a call from a friend at a modeling agency about girls who want makeovers.4 p.m. I picked up my daughter and we rushed to get to her ballet class at the Y.M.C.A. in Berkeley. Afterward we went to this place that sells really high-quality bone broth and premade foods that’s only open a few hours a week. We went back to the Y.M.C.A. and she went to the child care room while I ran upstairs and took a quick workout dance class that was kind of cheesy, but it felt good to work my body out.8 p.m. Took a bath, cleaned up my kitchen a little bit, edited and posted a picture on Instagram of a makeover I did, answered some DMs and online shopped for some new shoes.

Thursday

8:30 a.m. After I dropped off Sylvie, I had an hourlong phone conversation with my custody lawyer about my move to L.A.11 a.m. By then I was in a really big rush for work at Edo Oakland. I was 10 minutes late to my first client, who had just moved here from New York. She was wearing a great outfit and had a huge cowlick and very dry, kind of fuzzy, long hair. I gave her some cheekbone-framing layers. My next client was an intuitive healer and the next one worked at Google as an artist.4 p.m. There are these muses I do for free. I can do anything I want to with their hair. I gave one a mullet with choppy baby bangs, but a chic version.7 p.m. I started feeling like I had a sore throat, which would be terrible because New Orleans is this weekend.9 p.m. Into bed.

Friday

10:30 a.m. I got a message from somebody who said a photo that one of my stylists posted — braids with ribbons — was cultural appropriation and asked that I consider taking it down. If somebody asked me the origin of this hairstyle, I’d guess it was African-American, and this photo was of a young white woman.I thanked her for the message. I took the image down and told my manager that I wanted to have a discussion. We’re in Oakland, a historically African-American city, and it’s important for us to be able to grow in that way.1 p.m. A client came over for a trim. She started crying, which happens a lot with my clients (but not over their hair). She patches clothing with embroidery, and I gave her a pair of 1970s Wranglers with a hole in the butt to do for me.4:30 p.m. I went to yoga and came back home and made food. My personal assistant came over with my mail and packages. I listened to Kate Bush and started trying on outfits for what I’d pack for the workshop trip. I decided to be minimal.

Saturday

6:45 a.m. Woke up and flew to New Orleans. The workshop is called Bayou St. Blonde. It’s two days of education and networking that The Left Brain Group — my agency, which helps me grow my business — puts on every year.3:30 p.m. All of us from out of town are staying at a hotel near the French Quarter. As soon as I got there, I saw a friend and fellow stylist and educator, Roxie Darling, for the first time in years.6 p.m. Headed to a party for the attendees in this incredibly beautiful church where the entire inside was painted light pink and periwinkle blue and had arched ceilings, and all I could think about was when I find my guy someday, I want to get married in there.I saw the creative director for Bumble and Bumble, who has taught many classes I’ve taken over the years. I told her that a couple things she said to me years ago about face shapes and bangs made light bulbs go off in my head.

Sunday

9 a.m. Opening day of the event. I didn’t have to teach, but I ended up cutting someone’s bangs in the bathroom because I felt inspired.1 p.m. I went to the hotel to take a nap, and then a hairstylist friend came over and ended up doing an Instagram live video of me giving her a total transformation.

Monday

8 a.m. Room service: arugula salad, eggs over medium, orange juice and coffee.12 p.m. Went to a yoga class that was heated. I was super sweaty and rushed back to the hotel to shower. Then I threw on some cozy sweats and a sweater and Converse, and grabbed a fancy outfit to change into later.2:30 p.m. I’m scheduled to cut two models’ hair onstage at Bayou St. Blonde. Texted my makeup artist that I wanted matte, bright red lips on both of them. He arrived and started working as I was assessing their hair. Then I went downstairs and listened to a panel on self-care and thought about whether I had burned out.4:30 p.m. There were 250 people watching, in a tent decorated with garlands and wreaths, when I got onstage. I definitely did not have enough time to do two models, so I felt rushed — I would say the hair came out beautifully, but I definitely needed to do some more work when I came offstage before I took photos.8 p.m. We all felt like our legs were about to fall off and went to dinner at a Middle Eastern restaurant. Then I came back to the hotel and watched Instagram Stories of my teaching. It looked better than I remembered, and that made me feel good.Interviews are conducted by email, text and phone, then condensed and edited. Read the full article

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flauntpage · 6 years

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Your Wednesday Morning Roundup

It was a rare night off for Philly sports. No pro or college teams were in action.

We could discuss more about the Eagles and their struggle of a win over the Raiders.

But we’ll kick things off with the Sixers, specifically Joel Embiid and his bid to be an All-Star starter this year.

Last year, he was third in Eastern Conference frontcourt fan voting behind LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo, but got passed up for Jimmy Butler. That was fine, because many thought he would be a reserve in the game.

That didn’t happen, and he got passed up for… Paul Millsap. He wasn’t happy about that, and neither were fans.

This year is much different. He’s the healthiest he’s ever been, even if he still isn’t playing both games of a back-to-back. His averages in points, assists, and rebounds are slightly up, and he’s got other help on the court in the likes of Ben Simmons and JJ Redick (when he’s not shooting bricks).

His 46-point performance against the Lakers in LA this year is just a sample of why he should be a starter. He’s the best center in the East.

The Twitter voting campaign began on Monday, and it lasts until January 15. He hasn’t tweeted anything himself yet, but we’re all expecting something soon.

The Sixers play the Trail Blazers in Portland tomorrow night on TNT.

The Roundup:

Doug Pederson had his day after press conference after Monday night’s 19-10 win. He still hasn’t decided if the starters will play yet in week 17:

“It’s going to be day-to-day, quite honestly,” Pederson said. “Obviously, injuries play a factor in that. You’re only limited to 46 and you can only put seven guys down. So if you do the math, some of your starters will have to play.”

Is Dannell Ellerbe the new starting middle linebacker?

There’s also a chance Sidney Jones plays Sunday, but that’s uncertain as well.

How should we feel about the not so dominating win over the Raiders?

Kevin’s got your ten takeaways from the game, starting things off with a tweaked Billy Madison quote.

After running away from a fumble, Chris Long apologized on Twitter:

I sincerely apologize to the city of Philadelphia for running away from a live ball. I was a bit confused as to there being a live ball. Obviously. Glad we could get off the field!!! Thanks for bringing it fans!!! Ugly win over a pretty loss!!!

— Chris Long (@JOEL9ONE) December 26, 2017

Evidently I had too much Mountain Dew

— Chris Long (@JOEL9ONE) December 26, 2017

Keep him here forever.

—

The Flyers activated goalie Michal Neuvirth off IR and sent Alex Lyon back to Lehigh Valley. They’ll play tomorrow night against the Panthers.

Four prospects are participating in the World Junior Championships that began yesterday in Buffalo.

—

In college hoops tonight, Penn will host Delaware State at 7 PM, while No. 1 Villanova will play DePaul in Chicago in their Big East opener on CBS Sports Network.

—

In other sports news, what a finish in Phoenix:

0.6 seconds left in a tie game …

ENTER TYSON CHANDLER http://pic.twitter.com/r5UKu9MUIL

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 27, 2017

That’s somehow legal. Nice job by Suns coach Jay Triano knowing that.

In an interview with Bob Wischusen on The Michael Kay Show, Giants safety Landon Collins called cornerback Eli Apple “a cancer.”

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich explains why charity work is important to him:

“Because we’re rich as hell, and we don’t need it all, and other people need it,” Popovich said. “Then, you’re an ass if you don’t give it. Pretty simple.”

Astros first base coach Rich Dauer almost died during the team’s World Series parade.

Former Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Johnny Bower passed away at the age of 93.

—

In the news, a person was ejected from their car after a crash on I-295.

Erie got a ton of snow in two days.

A tough night for Chrissy Teigen:

a flying first for me: 4 hours into an 11 hour flight and we are turning around because we have a passenger who isn’t supposed to be on this plane. Why…why do we all gotta go back, I do not know

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 27, 2017

Lmao after all this I will have spent 8 hours on a flight to nowhere. Like we were all just havin a great time up here flyin in the sky watching gran torino time to go home now

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 27, 2017

.@chrissyteigen is on an international flight that turned around 4 hours in because a passenger isn’t supposed to be on plane. Look at this flight path! This is my Twilight Zone. http://pic.twitter.com/II06VmfOah

— Jensen Karp (@JensenClan88) December 27, 2017

Why did we all get punished for this one person’s mistake? Why not just land in Tokyo and send the other person back? How is this the better idea, you ask? We all have the same questions.

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 27, 2017

Your Wednesday Morning Roundup published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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instantdeerlover · 4 years

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What Exactly Is Going on Between Chrissy Teigen and Alison Roman on Twitter added to Google Docs

What Exactly Is Going on Between Chrissy Teigen and Alison Roman on Twitter

NBC/Getty Images

After making some critical comments about Teigen and Marie Kondo in an interview, rising star Roman faces her first big backlash

In These Trying Times, we reach for the things that get us through our monotonous days. Zoom calls with family. A perfectly risen sourdough loaf. And of course, Twitter gossip about popular-but-niche food personalities. You may have seen a dust-up over the weekend involving food world ingenue Alison Roman and model, cookbook author, and “Queen of Twitter” Chrissy Teigen, resulting in Teigen locking her Twitter account, and Roman making a public apology. Allow us to distract you from the state of the world by explaining this unholy mess.

Who are the key players?

You are likely more familiar with Teigen, an Asian-American model who is married to musician John Legend. She hosts multiple TV shows, has run various food blogs for nearly a decade, published two best-selling cookbooks, and in general is a hoot on Twitter. She has built her brand on the juxtaposition of her beauty and her TMI social media persona, inspiring lists like “20 Life-Changing Things Chrissy Teigen Tweeted in 2019” that round up her various dunks on people, including her husband, and ever-relatable sentiments like “I am so stupid and so tired please stop expecting things from me.” She also yells at Donald Trump a lot.

Alison Roman is the “it” girl of the food world. She has worked as a pastry chef at Momofuku Milk Bar and Quince, and is currently a columnist at the New York Times. She has also published two cookbooks, and her recipes have a tendency to become so popular they earn mononyms like “The Cookies” and “The Stew.” Her most recent viral creation is a very good pasta with shallots and anchovies. Roman has come to represent a modern version of the “domestic goddess” archetype, demonstrating how you too can cook more with less. Her whole vibe is that of your coolest friend who effortlessly throws the best dinner parties. She has also received criticism for the way her recipes, particularly her turmeric-and-coconut chickpea stew, whitewash non-European traditions. But as fans of hers will attest, her recipes are often worth the hype.

So what happened?

In a softball interview in the New Consumer, Roman managed to piss off a lot of people. She used the interview to announce a collaboration with Material, a limited-edition capsule collection of “a few tools that I designed that are based on tools that I use that aren’t in production anywhere.” But almost immediately, she pivoted to criticizing people who leverage their popularity to produce consumer goods... just as she has.

Roman brought up Marie Kondo, author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, which espouses her KonMari method of doing away with items in your home that don’t “spark joy.” Kondo’s method has been widely misunderstood by many, especially in the West, as getting rid of all your belongings, but really is more about encouraging you to only keep things you actually want. Kondo recently came out with a line of products, which Roman criticizes, saying she “decided to capitalize on her fame and make stuff that you can buy, that is completely antithetical to everything she’s ever taught you.”

Speaking on Kondo’s product line, Roman joked, “For the low, low price of $19.99, please to buy my cutting board!,” something many readers interpreted as mocking Kondo’s Japanese accent. However, Roman says that she was making an inside joke about an Eastern European cookbook she owns, and Dan Frommer, who conducted the interview, says she was not doing any kind of mock Asian accent during the conversation.

Seemingly unprompted, Roman also brought up Teigen as an example of someone who’s used a bit of success to create a personal brand empire. “What Chrissy Teigen has done is so crazy to me,” she said. “She had a successful cookbook. And then it was like: Boom, line at Target. Boom, now she has an Instagram page that has over a million followers where it’s just, like, people running a content farm for her.”

“That horrifies me and it’s not something that I ever want to do,” Roman, who is now writing her third book, remarked.

That seems sort of hypocritical, right?

Indeed, one of the initial criticisms was that a “capsule collection” of recreated-vintage spoons is not much different from a line of cookware at Target, and that Roman has done plenty to capitalize on her brand, including being in the middle of producing a new TV show (more on that in a second). Also, some say her claims of not making much money are a bit disingenuous, aimed to drum up sympathy for someone who is likely making at least some money off royalties and said TV show. Roman responded to this early criticism with a tweet bemoaning “when women bully other women,” to which journalist Lauren Oyler (who had initially subtweeted Roman’s money claims) responded that criticism and bullying are not the same.

Oh please. I’m not “bullying” you, I’m saying we both know how it works and your comments misrepresent it. Sorry I generalized by saying “speaking gigs” so that my comments applied to other people as well, I should have made the subtweet more explicit by saying “content creation” https://t.co/XtRsKy1uGM

— Lauren Oyler (@laurenoyler) May 8, 2020

Roman’s “bullying” claims seemed to have backed her into a corner, seeing as a large chunk of her now-viral New Consumer interview was spent criticizing Kondo and Teigen. She could have just said “branding isn’t for me” — which would have been a lie, sure, but at least would have managed not to narrow in on two women of color. The “lifestyle” space is notoriously white, and for Roman to single out Teigen and Kondo comes off as pointed, given that there are so many white people (like Gwyneth Paltrow) doing the same thing. Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo are both wildly successful and certainly not beyond criticism. But given that Roman has already been criticized for using Asian flavors in her recipes without acknowledging where those flavors came from, her use of Teigen, who is of Thai descent, and Kondo, who is Japanese, as examples of what she doesn’t want to be strengthens accusations that she needs to better acknowledge her white privilege.

Alison Roman singles out Marie Kondo / Chrissy Teigen as sellouts, yet takes no issue w/ white women capitalizing on lifestyle content, asking "Does the world need another Goop?" when reflecting on her own brand. Says a lot about who she thinks is allowed to build global empires https://t.co/HJYIvtQZBP

— Michelle da Silva (@michdas) May 8, 2020

Alison Roman coming after Marie Kondo for being successful and making a lot of money is pure Karen energy. There are so few Asians in this lifestyle influencer space anyway and I wonder why she feels the need to drag women of color down just because she doesn’t like competition.

— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) May 9, 2020

okay so alison roman having such an issue with marie kondo and chrissy teigen making money off of their passions and interest but has no problem with whatever the fuck gwyneth paltrow is doing says a lot

— horrible goose (@meatl0aff) May 9, 2020Okay, but Twitter dust-ups happen all the time. Does it get messier?

It would be one thing if Roman had nothing but Twitter goodwill to lose by criticizing Teigen’s consumerist impulses. But in a now-protected tweet, Teigen wrote of Roman’s remarks: “[T]his is a huge bummer and hit me hard. I have made her recipes for years now, bought the cookbooks, supported her on social and praised her in interviews. I even signed on to executive produce the very show she talks about doing in this article.” She later wrote, “Anyhow. now that that’s out there, I guess we should probably unfollow each other @alisoneroman.”

Did Roman at least apologize?

She did. On Twitter, Roman said she had emailed Teigen privately, but also wanted to publicly apologize. “I’m genuinely sorry I caused you pain with what I said,” she wrote. “I shouldn’t have used you/your business (or Marie’s!) as an example to show what I wanted for my own career.” She also reiterated “being a woman who takes down other women is absolutely not my thing.”

Being a woman who takes down other women is absolutely not my thing and don’t think it’s yours, either (I obviously failed to effectively communicate that). I hope we can meet one day, I think we’d probably get along.

— alison roman (@alisoneroman) May 9, 2020

Teigen locked her Twitter account, and announced to her millions of followers that she is taking a break due to the drama and the abuse she received in the wake of her and Roman’s interactions. “I really hate what this drama has caused this week,” Teigen wrote, according to the Daily Beast. “Calling my kids Petri dish babies [Teigen’s children were both conceived through IVF] or making up flight manifests with my name on them to ‘Epstein island,’ to justify someone else’s disdain with me seems gross to me so I’m gonna take a little break.”

So where does this leave us? Am I not allowed to make that pasta anymore?

Roman may have summoned the monkey’s paw when she tweeted, on April 7, “Dear lord please let me get through this pandemic without a backlash, my shallot pasta popularity is all I have in these dark times.” A lot of people are pissed at Roman right now, which is bolstered by a low-level resentment that’s been bubbling for some time. Some of it is the usual backlash that comes whenever anyone becomes popular. She has a cool job that she is very good at, she’s experiencing an influx of opportunity, and you probably have one friend who won’t shut up about her. Of course, some contrarians are going to roll their eyes.

But some of it is because of her refusal to acknowledge the way she borrows flavors without credit. In an interview in Jezebel last year, Roman said that, being white, she has “no culture.” White people often like to position themselves as some sort of default, and though she may not feel any particular connection to the “vaguely European” countries her forbearers came from, whiteness is indeed a culture — the dominant one. And yet a certain set of people associate turmeric and coconut milk mainly with her. Roman can hardly be solely blamed for white supremacy in the food industry, and it’s of course not as though white people aren’t allowed to cook curries. But it’s the whole picture — of a white woman making a name for herself off South Asian ingredients with which she joyfully admits she has no particular expertise, while simultaneously criticizing women of color who are making a living doing almost exactly what she’s doing — that’s so frustrating to many.

The backlash also reveals the limits of what Kristin Wong calls Roman’s “too cool to care” persona. In the New Consumer, Roman brags that she runs her own social media and communications, however sloppily. “The Internet loves authenticity and admitting you’re a creative mess who doesn’t understand business reads as authentic,” Wong writes. “By shunning how it all works, you’re raging against the capitalist machine, which only makes you more appealing to it.”

But at a certain point, Roman reached the level of fame in which her persona is at direct odds with how her life now looks. She may have begun as a 20-something clueless girl who was just really good at cooking, but now she has books, TV deals, and a line (sorry, capsule collection) of products. Any attempt at “relatability” rings false, because little about her life is relatable to most people. Her positioning of not being into the whole marketing thing reads more as a result of her privilege, not a cute quirk. “For people of different ethnic and racial backgrounds, the ‘money is bad/I don’t care about success/business is stupid’ narrative just doesn’t hit the same,” writes Wong. “When you grow up with generational poverty, as so many immigrant families and marginalized groups do, you don’t have the luxury of not giving a shit about money.”

Roman’s fans will largely remain Roman fans and her detractors will likely remain detractors. Other than horrid Twitter trolls, Teigen has received an outpouring of support from cooking industry all-stars like José Andrés. I made The Cookies last week and they were pretty good.

Disclosure: Chrissy Teigen is producing shows for Hulu in partnership with Vox Media Studios, part of Eater’s parent company, Vox Media. No Eater staff member is involved in the production of those shows, and this does not impact coverage on Eater.

Disclosure: John Legend is a board member of Vox Media, Eater’s parent company.

via Eater - All https://www.eater.com/2020/5/11/21254554/chrissy-teigen-alison-roman-twitter-fallout-explained

Created May 12, 2020 at 03:18AM /huong sen View Google Doc Nhà hàng Hương Sen chuyên buffet hải sản cao cấp✅ Tổ chức tiệc cưới✅ Hội nghị, hội thảo✅ Tiệc lưu động✅ Sự kiện mang tầm cỡ quốc gia 52 Phố Miếu Đầm, Mễ Trì, Nam Từ Liêm, Hà Nội http://huongsen.vn/ 0904988999 http://huongsen.vn/to-chuc-tiec-hoi-nghi/ https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xa6sRugRZk4MDSyctcqusGYBv1lXYkrF

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