a beyond the ordinary magazine
february 2014
NOW
0 0 . 2 €
lorde
THE RISE OF POP’S NEW PRINCESS
THE BEAT GOES ON
EUR 2.00
February 2014
NIGHTCLUB AT THE HEART OF A WAR ZONE
JUST
Drive Eric Bana ACTION MOVIE STAR'S REAL-LIFE ADRENALIN FIX
HELLY HANSEN CATWALK
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CONFIDENT WHEN IT MATTERS
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HELLY HANSEN CATWALK
Aurelien Ducroz World Champion Freeride Skier Lofoten, Norway
Scandinavian Design is the cornerstone in all Helly Hansen gear. The optimal combination of purposeful design, protection and style. This is why professional athletes, patrollers and discerning enthusiasts choose Helly Hansen.
CONFIDENT WHEN IT MATTERS
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H2FLOW allows you to control your body’s temperature. The concept is based on insulation that uses air to provide warmth, and ventilation that lets you control the airflow to cool you down when necessary. Visit www.hellyhansen.com/h2flow to learn more.
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Š JÜrg Mitter
Li k e What you Li k e
Your MoMent.
Beyond the ordinary
THE WORLD OF RED BULL
30
Alaska’s surf city
No sun? No problem. A devoted group of hardy surfers brave near-frozen water off the coast of the subarctic city of Homer
Graham Shearer (cover), Scott Dickerson
Welcome
A few surprises for you this month. Eric Bana (it comes as no shock to learn) is putting the ‘act’ in ‘action movie’ again with special forces tale Lone Survivor, but did you know he is a committed race car driver whose favourite ride has been his pride and joy for 30 years? Then we have the story of the wave warriors who don’t ply their trade on sun-kissed beaches and instead brave close-to-zero temperatures to surf the Alaskan coastline at the edge of the Arctic Circle. At the other end of the Americas, we caught up with the longboard racers who reach speeds of 120kph on a skateboard doing the downhill in Brazil, and the Mexicans keeping alive a nightclub in Murder City. Plus, shark diving, new video games and how you can outrun the whole world. Enjoy the issue. the red bulletin
Eric Bana, page 46
“ As I crashed I thought, ‘Thank God we’re going in head on’”
07
february 2014
at a glance
60
Bullevard 12 Happy Birthday facebook There’s a lot to like about being 10 years old: 1.2bn users agree
Features
like a bullet
Bombing downhill at 120kph on a modified skateboard: welcome to the Downhill Longboard World Cup
30 Colden Moments
An Alaskan photographer-surfer shows off his chilling local surf spot
44 Blitz Kids
A new LP for the indie-pop quartet
54
46 Eric Bana
The Australian reveals how a movie career can be A-list and low-key
54 Young And Gifted
12 the year of our lorde
How a schoolgirl from New Zealand became the breakout pop star of the last 12 months: an exclusive interview
Ten years of facebook
Mark-ing a decade of Zuckerberg’s website with a social media special. Like it, share it, whatever, but always be friends, OK?
60 Downhill Racers
Up to speed with the action at the Longboard World Cup in Brazil
70 Moving Images
Amazing pics from the man with a camera as big as truck (it is a truck)
74 Beats On Mean Streets
Ciudad Juarez’s oasis of a nightclub
Action
74 85 party in murder capital
The Hardpop club, a neutral zone at the heart of Mexico’s drug war, has been voted one of the best clubs in the world 08
night waves
Party central in Cape Town’s Aces’n’ Spades, a darkly glamorous dive bar where rock ’n’ roll meets surfing royalty
84 85 86 87 88 90 92 93 96 98
GET THE Gear A windsurfer’s kit party Get down in Cape Town travel Shark diving in the Pacific training With NFL star Reggie Bush enter now Wings For Life World Run My city Electro waltz through Vienna music James Mercer’s cherished tunes gaming Thief: back and in great nick save the Date Unmissable events magic moment An F1 hero’s final lap
the red bulletin
Thiago Diz, getty images, zhu jia ‘The Face of Facebook’, Katie Orlinsky, press handout
Lorde hit No.1 in the UK and USA aged 16. So what’s coming next?
Wear it. Mount it. Love it.™ GoPro App
madison.co.uk
contributors Who’s on board this issue
The Red Bulletin United Kingdom, 2308-5894
Published by Red Bull Media House GmbH General Manager Wolfgang Winter Publisher Franz Renkin Editors-in-Chief Alexander Macheck, Robert Sperl UK & Ireland Editor Paul Wilson Creative Director Erik Turek Art Directors Kasimir Reimann, Miles English
Scott Dickerson
Marcello maragni & thiago diz “Excitingly styled and incredibly courageous” is how the two Brazilian photographers described the tribe of longboarders they encountered in their homeland. “I was surprised how fast the riders were and that men and women raced together,” says Maragni. Adds Diz: “They thundered past so close that the draft felt threatening.” One of them got too close and torpedoed Diz’s camera bag. “I needed 10 minutes to collect my stuff,” he says. The action begins on page 60.
Robert tighe Australian actor Eric Bana “has played some really badass characters”, says The Red Bulletin’s New Zealand editor. “I was expecting him to be intense and moody. In fact he’s a mellow motorsports fanatic who hasn’t let Hollywood go to his head.” Tighe met the Lone Survivor star in his Melbourne office, near the garage where photographer Graham Shearer took this month’s cover photo and where Bana keeps the car with a special place in his heart, a 1974 Ford Falcon Coupe. Engines are started on page 46.
10
Among the lucky few who combine their passions with their career, photographer Dickerson took The Red Bulletin on a trip surfing in Alaska. “Growing up surrounded by the wild beauty of Alaska, it’s no surprise I chose photography as a career,” he says. “How I became so passionate about surfing remains somewhat of a mystery, even to myself. The only explanation I can offer is that some of us are just born with a love of the ocean.” See how Dickerson and his crew ride the frigid surf on page 30.
Photo Director Fritz Schuster Production Editor Marion Wildmann Managing Editor Daniel Kudernatsch Chief Sub-Editor Nancy James Deputy Chief Sub-Editor Joe Curran Assistant Editors Ruth Morgan, Ulrich Corazza, Werner Jessner, Florian Obkircher, Arek Pia˛tek, Andreas Rottenschlager Contributing Editor Stefan Wagner Contributors Lisa Blazek, Georg Eckelsberger, Raffael Fritz, Sophie Haslinger, Marianne Minar, Boro Petric, Holger Potye, Martina Powell, Mara Simperler, Clemens Stachel, Manon Steiner, Lukas Wagner Design Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Silvia Druml, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz, Esther Straganz Photo Editors Susie Forman (Creative Photo Director), Rudi Übelhör (Deputy Photo Director), Marion Batty, Eva Kerschbaum Repro Managers Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Karsten Lehmann, Josef Mühlbacher Head of Production Michael Bergmeister Production Wolfgang Stecher (manager), Walter O Sádaba, Christian Graf-Simpson (app) Printed by Prinovis Ltd. & Co. KG, 90471 Nuremberg Finance Siegmar Hofstetter, Simone Mihalits Marketing & Country Management Stefan Ebner (manager), Elisabeth Salcher, Lukas Scharmbacher, Sara Varming Marketing Design Julia Schweikhardt, Peter Knethl
Katie Orlinsky The New York City-based photographer has been on tricky assignments in Mexico before. After shooting a shoe-loving subculture in dangerous narco drug-war territory for The Red Bulletin last year, we tasked her to head to the former world murder capital Ciudad Juarez for this month’s story on the Hardpop nightclub. “A few years ago, I wouldn’t have left my hotel room after sundown and there I was: staying up all night in Mexico.” You can see what she did page 74.
“ The longboarders thundered past so close that the draft felt threatening” Thiago Diz
Distribution Klaus Pleninger, Peter Schiffer, subscription price: 25,90 GBP, 12 issues, www.getredbulletin.com, subs@uk.redbulletin.com Advertising Enquiries UK: Georgia Howie +44 (0) 203 117 2000, georgia.howie@uk.redbulletin.com Ireland: Deirdre Hughes 00 353 862488504, redbulletin@richmondmarketing.com
Advertising Placement Sabrina Schneider O∞ce Management Manuela Gesslbauer, Kristina Krizmanic, Anna Schober Distribution The Red Bulletin is published in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, Kuwait, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, UK and USA Website www.redbulletin.com Head office Red Bull Media House GmbH, Oberst-Lepperdinger-Strasse 11-15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700 UK office 155-171 Tooley Street, London SE1 2JP, +44 (0) 20 3117 2100 The Red Bulletin Ireland Richmond Marketing, 1st Floor Harmony Court, Harmony Row, Dublin 2, Ireland +35 386 8277993 Write to us: letters@redbulletin.com
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Charity number: CHY 5745
10 years of facebook
what are you up to?
Mark Zuckerberg
The man who did away with anonymity
shutterstock, Corbis, nasa, picturedesk.com, getty images
In February 2004, a Harvard student put a webpage online where users were expected to register with their real names and disclose their personal details. Surely it had to be a joke? Who’d be willing to do that, experts griped, and they waited for it to flop. That sophomore was Mark Zuckerberg; he is now a billionaire and Facebook is the most popular site on the web after Google. 1 Comment
The Red Bulletin “Great pic! Mark looks like a young Machiavelli. You can see more pictures by Zhu Jia and his friends in The Face of Facebook at the ShanghART Gallery in Singapore.” facebook.com/shanghartgallerysg
We Like!
Friday Reads Every Friday, users post what they’re reading.
12
Who What Wear The trends on the world’s catwalks.
Stylefruits Great tips for her; eye candy for him.
George Takei From Star Trek to the frontier of social media.
Milky Way Scientists Interesting shots, updated daily.
Awkward Family Photos The name says it all.
Bill Nye The Science Guy explains our world to us.
the red bulletin
Best Of Retro-Future
A Riddle
Who am I? When it comes to male music stars, this rapper has the most likes from people in Ireland. (Answer overleaf.)
OLD SCHOOL DOCKING STATION An iPhone dock for everyone who wants to hold a real receiver. The dial comes via an app. etsy.com/shop/ woodguy32
Born:
October 17, 1972
Joined Facebook:
December 19, 2008
Fans (total):
78.2m
Fans (Ireland):
370,000
Days spent in a coma:
10
Friends
getprojecteo.com
Valentine’s Day
Music
Joy and pain The songs users listen to most when they change their relationship status In a relationship
Status
1. Don’t Wanna Go Home by Jason Derulo “No matter day or night, I’m shining” 2. Love On Top by Beyoncé “Every time you touch me I just melt away”
Likes
3. How To Love by Lil Wayne “It’s hard not to stare, the way you moving your body” It’s complicated
Status
1. The Cave by Mumford and Sons “It’s empty in the valley of your heart”
INSTANT LAB The mobile photo lab. It converts iPhone shots into Polaroids.
2. Crew Love by Drake “This ain’t no f--king sing-along. So girl, what you singing for?”
the-impossibleproject.com
3. A ll Of The Lights by Kanye West “Her mother, brother, grandmother hate me in that order”
I F**king Love Science Dinosaurs, space, sensational stuff.
the red bulletin
Getty Images (3), shutterstock (2)
sonymusic, idockit.com, Instant Lab, projecteo, CORBIS, hob, shutterstock (4)
When it’s love, pick Beyoncé
PROJECTEO Choose nine of your Instagram pictures, wait a few weeks and a slide projector the size of a matchbox arrives by post.
9Gag Gags and more gags. What makes Facebook laugh.
Humans Of Berlin There’s Humans of New York too.
Reef Girls Bikini models doing what they do.
24 comments
Jamie Oliver New tasty recipes to cook up every day.
The Red Bulletin “Hmm, must be one of my friends. But then I don’t actually know all my friends.”
Grumpy Cat Laughing is infectious. So is a bad mood.
For The Record The Red Bull Music Academy’s new book.
Amazing Things In The World Pictures of the world’s wonders.
13
It’s Me
Eminem The US rapper’s new LP has boosted his online popularity, but he’s still behind one of his recent collaborators Sport
1. Usain Bolt 115,000 likes in Ireland
2. Wayne Rooney 100,000
3. Luis Suárez 45,000
2. Eminem 370,000
3. Katy Perry 280,000
1. Rihanna 390,000
getty images, shutterstock, reuters (2), universal music (2), cass bird
Stars
10 years of facebook
Bullevard
Social Circuit
Hackers and dogs
Mary Lyn added a new photo 2 minutes ago
There are more than seven billion people in the world. Over a billion of them are on Facebook and they could all become your friends. Even if you don’t want them to
Forbidden Relations
What Facebook likes to delete
Have you ever wondered why one of your photos has disappeared?
Facebook has all content moderated by low-paid workers in countries such as Morocco and India. In 2012, one such moderator leaked a catalogue containing guidelines to the press. Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page, FB ID: 4 (numbers 1 to 3 are test IDs) was hacked in 2013…
Some of the things that get deleted: Naked bottoms or nipples. That includes breastfeeding women whose nipples are visible. Men’s nipples are OK. Camel toes, as seen on those ladies with too-tight lower-half clothing. People sitting on the loo. Sperm, drunk people or people who are asleep and have had their faces painted by somebody. Illegal drugs. The one exception: all images of cannabis are allowed.
source: facebook
Boo is more popular than Beast (1.6 million likes). Which Beast probably couldn’t care less about, because he doesn’t wear blue Crocs like Boo, he pads around barefoot, as does his owner, Mark Zuckerberg.
corbis, REUTERS (2), picturedesk.com (2), GEPA pictures, sony music, getty images
False nipple alarm. Wow, what a huge pair of… elbows. Mistaken for something else and deleted.
Share Lock shared a new post about an hour ago
The most popular dog in the world is Boo, with his perfect teddy-bear face
The most beloved dog in the world is Boo, with over 8.5 million likes. This sweet hound’s popularity comes from his perfect teddy-bear face and positive attitude. “I am a dog. Life is good.”
...by a user with FB ID 77,821,884, one Khalil Shreateh. The Palestinian web developer promptly had his Facebook page deleted. It is active again and already has more than 44,000 subscribers, but…
…Real Madrid are way more popular. The Royals have far the most Facebook fans among Palestinian sports enthusiasts at 185,056. And they have over 44 million fans worldwide. One of Real’s most loyal fans is none other than...
Crime
Hook, line and sinker Don’t fall for the trick-posting technique known as likejacking. Here are the five most common ruses: Win an iPad! Just fill out this questionnaire... Click here to see the shocking video (and to share it with all your friends). Handsome stranger! I see your profile picture. Me in love straight away. You marry me? Do you want to see who’s visited your profile? Download this software! (Not a virus, honest!) Amazing! She’s only 16 but she did this!
Rapper Pitbull, who, with 40 million fans, is the most popular dangerous dog on Facebook, is a friend of both CR7 and J Lo.
...her Facebook friend Cristiano Ronaldo is playing. The most expensive footballer ever is also the world’s most popular sports star on Facebook, with over 65 million fans.
...Jennifer Lopez (28 million likes), who regularly jets to Spain for matches in which...
Facebook is to start charging. Pay your membership fee now!
the red bulletin
15
Bullevard
10 years of facebook
Facebook World
The light of friendship It may look like a satellite picture of the Earth, but this is a record of Facebook usage. Every line represents a connection between two people on Facebook. The only dark places are uninhabited areas like the Sahara and Siberia… and countries where Facebook is banned, such as China.
Playing Games
Proceed with caution! Facebook games are the new Solitaire: computer games for people who don’t play computer games, and it’s very easy to become addicted.
Angry Bird hates the following games 2 hours ago 1. Candy Crush Saga The crystal meth of gaming. Your first fix is free, but then you’re addicted. The aim is to string together colourful sweets. Over 100 million players do so. 2. Pet Rescue Saga If Candy Crush Saga is meth, this game is crack with funny animals. The idea is to save them by stringing crystals together. 3. Dragon City This mix of Farmville and Pokémon is all about breeding dragons – but you don’t have to string anything together.
Don’t be fooled by pretty colours: Dragon City is a merciless time-waster
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342 friends
That’s what the average Facebook user has. In real life we only have six.
Ann Dead shared a last post 3 hours ago
Life Event: Death
Dying online press handout, shutterstock (2)
In 50 years, will Facebook be the world’s digital graveyard?
The Facebook Zombies According to estimates, 10 to 20 million Facebook users have died since the social network was first conceived. Nobody knows how many of their profiles have been deleted and how many of these people are still haunting Facebook as ghosts. By 2065, at the latest, the number of dead users will outstrip the number of those living.
the red bulletin
The Suicide Machine This is how to delete yourself from the internet. You log in to the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine website, via Twitter or Facebook, and that’s it. Doing so automatically deletes all your messages and friends on Facebook, blocks wall posts and make your profile private. Your last words go up as a message, namely that you are committing “web 2.0 suicide”. suicidemachine.org 12 Comments
Sign out forever “It’s no longer functioning perfectly on Facebook, but we’re working on that.”
17
Bullevard
10 years of facebook Self-help
Kainrath
To post or not to post?
Can Talk
Great photo. You want to share it with everyone. Which is fine. But remember: the internet never forgets
Can I ask you out for a drink?
N
Is it yours?
Stop, thief!
Y N
Are there people in the picture?
Are you in the picture?
Y
Is there a woman in the picture?
N
Y Does it show a sweet little kitten with adorable little eyes?
N
N Are you alone?
Y 1 Comment
Dietmar Kainrath “Real friends give it their best shot.”
Y
Are you wearing clothes?
Y
How old are you again?
Y
N
Do you look good?
Y
N
Does she look good?
Y
N
N
Don’t do it!
Is she naked?
Y
N
Still alive and kicking
N
Y
Will it lead to protests by any of the following groups: feminists, pacifists, socialists, environmental activists, capitalists, lobbyists, royalists?
Do you want to stay with her?
N
Y
N
Y
So could we say that what you’re posting doesn’t meet all social and legal standards?
N
N Can what you’ve posted be traced back to you?
Y
Are you sober? (Are you under the influence of any other substances?)
Y
N
Y
Are you sure it’s not boring?
If in doubt, you probably shouldn’t
Can you delete it later without a trace?
Y
N
Are you posting in work?
Y dietmar kainrath
According to several hoax announcements on Facebook and Twitter, Justin Bieber died more than 50 times in 2013. That’s more than any other pop star. The most common cause of death was a drug overdose. The next most common was a plane crash. After that was him crashing his Ferrari. Of course, these are just attempts by Bieber’s detractors to reduce his fanbase to tears. The traumatised devotees then spread the word without checking.
N
Is it your wife?
N N
No, you can’t
Post it!
Has anyone seen you?
Y Don’t do it
picturedesk.com
It’s a nasty old world out there, and people enjoy lying online because it’s just so easy
Y
Is it boring?
Justin Bieber
iLike* The New A-Class. The Pulse of a New Generation.
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“I like how enduro is an individual sport, that it’s up to you to succeed” Like It Or Not
Jonny Walker “I fell in love with bikes aged four; they’re the first thing I remember liking. It’s the speed, the freedom of riding. There’s no better feeling. I like how enduro is an individual sport, that it’s up to you to succeed. Away from sport, I like cooking. My speciality has to be steak, since I eat it five nights a week. I love my hometown, Keswick, I’ve been there all my life. It’s just a laid-back little town of 5,000 people. Everything’s so hectic, travelling the world, competing. Keswick feels like an oasis. It’s surrounded by mountains and I disappear into them with my bike. I like golf, I just can’t play it. Every Monday, me and some mates go and whack some balls around for fun. I watch the film Dumb And Dumber at least once a fortnight; it just gets funnier. I like Colombia and Ecuador. I went there to ride recently, and my Facebook page likes went up from 20,000 to 45,000 within a month. I can only assume I made a good impression.” 1 comment
Jonny Walker “Two wheels are better than four.” facebook.com/jonnywalkerracing
20
Predrag Vuckovic/Red Bull Content Pool
The 22-year-old enduro star from Cumbria has a visit to South America to thank for his Facebook popularity
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ADRENALINE
Y THAT PHOTOGRAPH REATHLESS LEAVES YOU B
INGENIOUS
HO ARE THE PEOPLE W E WORLD CHANGING TH
EXTREME
HAT ADVENTURE T DARIES BREAKS BOUN
©Dom Daher
yo u r . t n e M o M OR D BEYOND THE
INARY
your MoMent. Beyond the ordinary
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Bullevard
10 years of facebook
BC One
Red Bull BC One
Body rocking The world’s best breakdancers faced off to crown the ultimate champion
They can contort their bodies into poses like modern art sculptures and move muscles that the rest of us don’t know we have, far less what we could do with them. They are best breakdancers in the world and they went head-to-head in the Red Bull BC One grand finale in the South Korean capital, Seoul. It was local B-Boy Hong 10 who danced his way to victory with some incredible moves. There can only be one. One Red Bull BC One. We like! Air Freeze shared a post 3 months ago facebook.com/redbullBCOne
22
Your friends might have long since become robots. Or you could at least save yourself the bother of posting status updates because now there’s a website which does it for you automatically:
Romina Amato/Red Bull Content Pool, shutterstock
what-would-i-say.com
Bullevard
10 years of facebook
14 Alternatives
Up yours Is Facebook getting on your nerves? There are plenty of other ways of staying in touch with your friends
Ning If ads annoy you. There’s a charge, but then there are no more advertising banners which know more about your consumer habits than you do. Friendica; Diaspora If you’re afraid of Big Brother. Both are decentralised which means that your personal details aren’t on a server, they’re stored on your own computer. About.me If Facebook seems too much like hard work. Your online business card. There’s no chat and there are no status updates or any other rubbish, but you do have a profile page. App.net If you prefer to do it yourself. It’s basically a simple short message service. Social media apps can be integrated and there is developer access.
Part two of the fourth series of The Walking Dead starts this month. Facebook’s favourite zombie serial in numbers:
51 episodes (to end of season 4) 7 main actors in the first series 3 are still alive 5.3m+ People in the USA watched the pilot episode 16.1m+ People in the USA watched the first episode
of the fourth series 38 litres of artificial blood per episode 60 pairs of zombie contact lenses for the extras 121 issues of the comic on which it is based 126 countries broadcast it on TV 2m+ followers on Twitter 21m+ Facebook likes
“ If Facebook carries on like this, it will have disappeared in four years” Eric Jackson, the founder of Ironfire Capital Forbes.com, June 2013
Pheed If you want to earn some money for your updates. Broadcast text, pictures, audio and video live and receive money from users via subscription or pay-per-view.
Thumbs Down
We don’t like everything
EyeEm If you’re too lazy even for Instagram. The app recognises your interests and suggests users’ photos you might like with different topics tagged. Couldn’t be easier. Google + If you prefer to be alone. The best social network out there… and nobody’s on it. Though at least you can get some real peace and quiet. Between If you’re seriously in love. Couples can send each other messages and pictures via their mobiles. A “love story” gradually takes shape. Sooo romantic! <3 Nextdoor If you like to stay local. Share your data with your neighbours using your postcode and address. You could, of course, go round and talk to them. PatientsLikeMe If you’re a hypochondriac, a doctor or both. Patients and medics can exchange opinions on ailments and illnesses and gather data for research purposes. Gun Lovers Passions If you’re single and into guns. A dating and social networking site for firearm enthusiasts. A shot right in the heart. Sorry.
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Stand: 21. 11. 2013
WhatsApp If you only use Facebook for chatting. It looks like text messaging, but uses your internet connection to connect with people, so doesn’t show up on your phone bill.
Broken faces
Geoffrey berkshire
Snapchat If you don’t want your old photos to catch up with you. Send pictures which automatically delete 10 seconds after they’re opened. Perfect for secret agents, sexters and the paranoid.
The Walking Dead
Let’s be frank: a lot of stuff on Facebook is no good
The glut of invitations to events, pages or groups. Sponsored links such as: “Do you want a hot girlfriend too? Then consider this odd trick.” No sooner have you got used to a new layout than Facebook comes up with another update. Messages are marked as read as soon as you open them, which puts pressure on you to reply even if you don’t want to. That’s there’s no dislike button. But according to Facebook, the like button will also soon be history and we don’t like that at all. 1 Comment
The Red Bulletin “And what we don’t like is this constant moaning! If you don’t like it, you can deregister yourself. Even if the button is hard to find.”
the red bulletin
Cinetext, Corbis (2), Universal Music, Getty Images, Getty Images
Instagram If you’re too lazy to type. And prefer to post retro-filtered photos instead, like of such vital things as what you had for dinner or your abs after a workout.
Rihanna
Like-button legends
This diminutive woman is the world’s most liked person. We can go along with that For a long time Eminem and Rihanna changed places at the top, but now she’s surged ahead. With more than 80 million likes, the singer is the most popular person on Facebook. She adds an average of 200,000 fans a week.
Chester French were the first band on Facebook. The indie-pop duo were students at Harvard in 2004 and were friends with Mark Zuckerberg, but they haven’t made the most of their social media head start. They’re currently at 60,000 likes. Lil Wayne had a likeable idea in 2011: he requested that, “Everyone, please ‘Like’ this post.” His fans obliged with 588,243 likes in 24 hours. That’s nothing compared to Obama’s “Four more years”, which got over 4 million likes in a single day in 2012. The most popular dead person on Facebook is Michael Jackson, who has 66 million likes. He was the first to reach the 10 million-like mark, which he did in July 2009, a month after he died. Today there are even fan pages for Jacko’s favourite foods.
A Sea Of Faces
…and the number keeps increasing It’s a wonderful sight: as wonderful as all the universe, but a lot more colourful. One of those dabs of colour is you – one of over 1.2 billion. That’s how many Facebook users there are now. And you appeared on there, just as you appeared in this world, without you realising.
Julian Broad/Farrell Music
thefacesoffacebook.com
26
This is you But you don’t know it.
10 years of facebook
Bullevard
This is Robbie Williams He turns 40 on February 13. Happy Birthday! But maybe he’d rather mark the day alone.
His FB ID is 5,441,929,106. Which is all wrong, of course, because he’s really No.1, or has had nine No.1 albums in the UK, at least. As a matter of fact, his latest album, Swings Both Ways, is the thousandth No.1 album in UK chart history. Find out what number you are at: findmyfacebookid.com
Bullevard
10 years of facebook
12 O’Clock Boys
Geoffrey berkshire
‘Show your strengths’ American filmmaker Lofty Nathan financed his first work with the help of social media and crowdfunding
Henry Rollins publicised 12 O’Clock Boys on Facebook
12 O’Clock Boys will be available as video on demand from January 31, 2014
There’s More Where That Came From
SEMAPHORE Napoleon was fond of this visual version of telegraphy. A single letter could be sent over a distance of 270km in just two minutes.
100,000 years of social media
Every era believes itself to be the height of technical achievement and that nothing better will come after it. That is probably what people thought back in the Stone Age when they first daubed red paint onto the walls of their caves. A short history of communication. LANGUAGE “Lovely mammoth tusk!” Nobody knows when grunts evolved into full speech, but we’d definitely mastered language by the time we became homo sapiens.
Noah Rabinowitz/Courtesy of 12 O‘CLOCK BOYS (2), shutterstock (4)
Social media isn’t just about status updates and posting selfies. It can also make creative dreams a reality. Take Lofty Nathan’s debut feature 12 O’Clock Boys. The documentary follows Pug, a young guy from Baltimore who desperately wants to get in with an urban dirt-bike gang. Nathan collected money for the project via the crowdfunding site Kickstarter twice: US$12,000 in 2010 and then another US$30,000 three years later. After completing the film, he submitted it to the South By Southwest film festival where it was heralded by critics and festivalgoers alike. Musicians T-Pain, Jermaine Dupri and Henry Rollins are just some of the stars to have publicised Nathan’s Kickstarter campaign on their own social media pages. Nathan’s advice to wannabe filmmakers also hoping for help from online funding? “The most important thing is to have a trailer which shows your strengths.” There can be surprise benefits, too: “I met my girlfriend through Kickstarter.”
Pony Express The ‘horse mail’ was discontinued within 18 months of opening. There were no upgrades, it was inflexible and just too slow.
Papyrus It’s light and easy to carry, advantages which the Vatican didn’t do away with until the 11th century.
Cave painting Back in the Stone Age, coal drawings of buffalo were state of the art. Now such attempts would be seen as vandalism.
The telephone “Das Pferd frisst keinen Gurkensalat” or “Horses don’t eat cucumber salad”. It was one of the first things anyone ever said on the phone.
April 3, 1860-October 22, 1861 Pony Express
1793-circa 1850 SEmaphore 150BC- 1890 smoke signals
3000BC-1100 Papyrus 4000BC-100AD INSCRIBED TABLETS 30,000-4000BC CAVE PAINTING 100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
10,000
8000
6000
4000
2000
100
200
300
400
BC
= 1,000 years
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500
600
700
800
900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900
0-1900
= 100 years the red bulletin
Fast love
One of the fastest-growing apps for Facebook is Tinder; its a simple online dating tool which puts you in touch with people near you. You’re shown a picture of a potential match, use swipe actions to rate it hot or not, and then you hook up. Easy. gotinder.com
Facebook Facts
Numbers please!
Deutsches Museum, shutterstock (2), sony
dietmar kainrath
Facebook isn’t just ones and zeros: there are a tonne of other figures powering the social network
727,000,000 People actively using Facebook on a daily basis.
Kainrath
Persons who visited Facemash, Facebook’s supposed forerunner. Mark Zuckerberg’s version of Hot or Not was shut down within days. But 22,000 votes had already been cast and he had to go before Harvard’s administrative board. The story is told in 2009 movie The Social Network.
Am I in it?
119 %
94,025
Postcode for Menlo Park, Facebook’s home. The complex also just happens to be surrounded by a circular street called Hacker Way.
Percentage of the population of Monaco using Facebook; only 0.05 per cent of China does. That puts the principality in first place for number of Facebook users per population and China in last. There are way more Chinese people using Facebook (60 million) than there are people in Monaco (30,000; over 36,000 Facebook users are registered there).
500
Dollar value of prize awarded by Facebook if you can hack into the site.
Carrier pigeons Heroes of the air, up until the end of World War II, at least. A memorial in the French city of Lille honours over 20,000 fallen, cooing warriors.
450
59/90/154
RGB colour code of Facebook’s dark blue. Why is the website blue? Mark Zuckerberg has a red-green sight defect.
Mobile phones Early models weighing 1.1kg (10 times heavier than an iPhone) could also be used as nutcrackers or dumbbells.
Tube mail It was conceived as a way of transmitting messages and is now experiencing a revival. The system is popular in hospitals.
From June 2011 Google+ From November 2010 diaspora From March 2006 twitter From February 2004 facebook
TWITTER We became more succinct in 2006, getting our points across in 140 characters or less.
From July 2003 myspace From June 2003 second life From March 2002 friendster From 1973 Mobile telephone From 1964 XEROX FAX MACHINES From 1962 Paging From 1861 LANDLINES
SECOND LIFE More than 36 million avatars are on Second Life; about a million are still active.
1853-1965 TUBE MAIL 1847-2005 TELEGRAMS From 1837 MORSE TELEGRAPH From 1605 NEWSPAPERS 400BC-1980 Heliograph 2000BC-1945 CARRIER PIGEONS From 2400BC letters
“Horses don’t eat cucumber salad”
HELIOGRAPH Communication using reflected sunlight. Last used by Rambo and the Afghans as they fought the Soviets.
From 100,000BC human language 1900-1910
1910-1920
1920-1930
1930-1940
1940-1950
1950-1960
1960-1970
1970-1980
1980-1990
1990-2000
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
1900-2000
= 10 years the red bulletin
2000-the present day
= 1 year
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alaska’s surf city During the long winter in Alaska – eight months of cold, up to 20 hours of dark every day – surfers get their thrills in the icy waters off the subarctic city of homer. local Photographer Scott Dickerson is a master of the shivery swell Words: Ann Donahue Photography: Scott Dickerson
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“Because we live in a coastal town, it doesn’t really get super-cold very often – I mean super-cold by Alaska standards,” says photographer Scott Dickerson. “We occasionally end up surfing when it is around zero degrees, and if it’s below zero, that’s a really cold day for us to be out on the water. We never go surfing except for fun, so whenever it’s not fun anymore, we go home. It’s not something we do to prove it to ourselves; it’s not some sort of macho challenge. It’s something we enjoy doing.”
“The guy on the left is Kyle Kornelis, and that’s in Homer during a particularly cold winter. This shot is really cool because of the ice on the beach, and just because he’s a burly-lookin’ Alaskan dude. The tide changes on average about four or five metres – it goes up and down twice a day – so the ice extends way out into the water underneath. At low tide it’s all exposed and freezes, and then the tide comes in and covers it up, so you have this big ice bank that goes out into the water. The above picture is from a trip I did with a heli-ski organisation. They had a down day: they couldn’t be out skiing because of the snow conditions, so I showed up with some surf gear and we took a couple of the more adventurous customers out. We flew them out, landed on the beach and gave them a surf session. They loved it.”
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â&#x20AC;&#x153;We wear the warmest hooded wetsuits available with 7mm-thick gloves and boots. We surf all waves, from knee-high to as big as it gets, which is about 10ft. Waves are generated 70 miles away from the beach, so the wind has to be blowing extremely hard to get a good swell going.â&#x20AC;?
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“This guy’s name is Iceman. he’s the original surfer in this area – he started surfing Here in 1984”
“We take a lot of people out who travel the world surfing and they are always super-stoked to be up here because of the wilderness experience. It does this sort of unexplainable thing where everything is so much more amazing when you’re in the water. It’s like you jump into the scenery.”
“It’s like surfing anywhere: sometimes we’ll surf as often as five days a week, and then we could go three or four weeks without a single surfable wave. It’s really unpredictable. We have our whole lives structured so we’ll stop whatever we’re doing and go surfing if the surf’s up.”
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the red bulletin
“I don’t know why I got so into surfing.I’d never seen anybody surf in my life when I started playing around in the water”
“This is a typical day for us. The waves aren’t any good, but we’re out there anyway because it’s all we’ve got. It’s so cool to be in such a beautiful place and then jump in the water. The thing everybody says is, ‘You’re in Alaska, it’s got to be so cold,’ but honestly, I’m warm. When I get out of the water I’m hot, and I’m like, ‘Ugh, get this wetsuit off.’”
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“I want to get in the water. I guess you’re just born to do something”
“Mainly, the thing about surfing in Alaska is that it is just so incredibly remote. There is nobody out. It’s just you and your buddy surfing. And that’s what the shock is when you go somewhere surfing is popular. You go to the beach and there are 50 people in the water.”
“If you’re cold after a session, you fill your suit with hot water from the tap and lay down; we call it the personal hot tub. It floats around and covers your whole body in hot water. Once you are laying on the snow, though, the warmth doesn’t last very long. After about 30 seconds you think, ‘OK, I need more.’”
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the red bulletin
“after people get a few sessions in, they love it. They get really excited”
“Hawaiian surfer Ian Walsh visited Homer with sibling snowboarders Jon and Eric Jackson while they were filming their travel series, Brothers On The Run. We took them out on the MV Milo, the 58ft boat we use for surf trips. The boat is great for exploring the coastline — it’s all about discovering waves and facing the elements.”
“ T his was taken in homer in the middle of a snowstorm. A lot of times we surf where we can drive to the waves”
“ The surfer sitting down is Kristi Wickstrom, and I believe that’s her dog. John Langham, on the right, is in his early 50s. It’s funny seeing a bunch of old guys up here surfing. They’re tough old guys, for sure.”
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the red bulletin
“One time, it was too stormy in Homer, so we drove up the road for 40 minutes into the Cook Inlet. The storm was so big that there were 10ft faces on the waves and the beach was covered in huge chunks of ice about three metres wide. The above picture shows local surfer Mike McCune getting the gear out of the truck, and the shot on the right is of him filling his suit with hot water using the outdoor taps at Iceman’s house near the surf spot in Homer.” twitter.com/ScottDickerson
the red bulletin
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Blitz Kids
They Are Alright How do you top your best year ever as a band? For Blitz Kids, it means cracking on with new music and cracking open a cold one (or three) Words: Ruth Morgan Photography: Phil Sharp
After a year that included a headline tour of the UK, signing to Red Bull Records and appearing at festivals including Download, Cheshire pop-rock four-piece Blitz Kids are keeping up the pace in 2014 with the release of their new album. But despite their success, they still find time for the important things in life: bad anagrams, DIY body art and 6am sightseeing. the red bulletin: Did you always know you’d make it? joe james: We always wanted what we’re achieving now, but we didn’t realise it could actually happen until recently. We just did it for fun. Then we got to the point of deciding to get a real job or keep going. Me and Jono went out one night, and I was like, ‘That’s it, I’m not working for another day in my life in a job that isn’t music from this moment on.’ So I quit my pub job, and that was three years ago. I’ve literally not worked a day in my life since that point. jono yates: He’s begged, borrowed and stolen. He’s been a huge burden on society. jj: I am a taxpayer’s worst nightmare. Why Blitz Kids? jj: We took the name from a little gang my granddad had when he was a kid in London. During the Blitz, he and his mates would sneak out and kick a ball around and spray graffiti when they were supposed to be in the shelter. It was a cool punk rock attitude, so we took it. It’s how we treat life, essentially, in a very reckless manner. jy: It’s also an anagram of Zinedine Zidane. jj: No it’s not. You’ve played together since you were 15. How has your sound evolved? jj: We used to play heavier music. We were young and rebelling. jy: Now, musically, it’s popular rock. jj: We get called pop-punk a lot too, and it’s a weird term. 44
jy: Yeah, pop-punk’s not a thing. It’s like saying, ‘I’ll have a vegan steak please.’ jj: We get described in all sorts of ways, but essentially we just love pop music. We’re not a band you come to observe while standing still. When you leave our show, you’ll be sweaty, tired, drunk and happy. Even if it’s everyone else that gets you moving. No one wants to stand still in a room while strangers rub up against them. nic montgomery: That’s a good Friday night for me. What should people expect from your new album, The Good Youth? nm: In a word: better. jj: It’s very different to what’s come from
“It took us a while to realise you can get a job that you love” us before. We never thought in terms of what we want to say as a band with an album, and my lyrics used to be very negative, hard for people to relate to. This is a positive album. I was trying to inspire people and make them happy because there’s a lot to be sad about, isn’t there? The title is an underlying message, telling kids something we never heard, which is you can get a job you love. It took us a while to realise that, and I don’t want anybody else to waste that time. Were there a lot of songs that didn’t make the cut? jy: We listened to a lot of radio when we were making the album, and songs were scrapped because they could have been written by Ed Sheeran or One Direction. jj: There’s a song on the album called Pinnacle which is hugely influenced
by Take That, because we love those guys. They’re awesome. Did you start getting tattoos before or after the band formed? jj: The band came before the tatts, as we weren’t old enough to get them when we started. Then one of you gets one and the next thing you know it’s out of hand. jy: I’ve got ‘Never Die’, the title of our last EP, and ‘To The Lions’, the first track on the new album, which we recorded at Red Bull Studios. One of the biggest is my tattoo of Omar Little from The Wire. nm: I’ve got a Blitz Kids tattoo on my leg that Joe did. Terribly. Do you have the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle to go with the ink? jj: We’re animals for beer. jy: Too much. jj: We’re referred to by friends as ‘the drunk band’. jy: We’ll aim to go and see a mate’s gig, then end up all walking around Westminster at 6am looking for Big Ben. nm: Me and Ice Man [Matt] are the kings of 9am. matt freer: It’s always bad news when the rhythm section comes to town. What’s the secret of long friendships? jy: Choose your band members wisely. We are all on a wavelength and love music, and we’re well into football. Except Nic. nm: I’ve learned just to let it wash over me. I’m very Zen. jj: We’ve been friends so long that everyone has found their role, like the Spice Girls. I’m the bossy one. It just works, there’s no tiptoeing around. We get up and it’s ‘Morning, fancy a beer?’ jy: The pulse of this band is alcohol! mf: It does hold us together… jy: [Laughing] …And tears us apart! nm: Who’s thirsty? The Good Youth is out Jan 20: redbullrecords.com the red bulletin
The line-up Joe James – vocals Jono Yates – guitar Nic Montgomery – bass Matt Freer – drums Discography The Good Youth (2014) Never Die (EP, 2012) Vagrants & Vagabonds (2011) Scavengers (EP, 2010) Decisions (EP, 2009) Name game The Blitz Kids was the original name of the New Romantics, a fact not lost on the band. “We found out after we’d chosen the name,” says Yates. “We announced it then went on Google and were like ‘Wait, who are these lot?’ Hopefully it’s obvious there’s no connection.”
In demand in Hollywood yet ignored by the paparazzi, Eric Bana proves that a movie career can be A-list and low-key. His new film is a true action tale â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the perfect fit for a man who enjoys real-life adrenalin w o r d s : R o be r t Ti g he p h o t o g r a p h y: G r aha m Shea r e r
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E Bana’s obsession with his Ford XB Falcon was the subject of his 2009 documentary, Love The Beast
ric Bana’s office used to be a chocolate factory. Now it is home to a global skate brand, a barbershop and the kind of café that’s popular with fixed-gear bike fanatics and dedicated followers of fashion. Like his home, it’s in Melbourne, the hipster capital of Australia and the city recently voted the world’s most liveable for the third year in a row. Bana grew up in suburbia, just a few minutes from Melbourne Airport. In his 20s he worked a series of menial jobs before trying his hand at stand-up comedy. That led to his own television sketch show in the 1990s and his movie debut in low-budget Australian film The Castle. His next role, in 2000, as
infamous Australian criminal Chopper Read, changed his life. Bana’s intense performance in Chopper landed him a part in Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down. Since then, the 45-year-old father of two has featured in blockbusters like Troy, Hulk and Star Trek, and delivered mature, measured performances in Munich, The Time Traveler’s Wife and Hanna. Bana’s movie career has taken him around the world, but he has never been tempted to live anywhere else. He’s a true blue Aussie bloke and proud of it. He supports St Kilda, his local Australian Rules football team, and in 2009 he made Love The Beast, a film about the other love of his life, a 1974 Ford XB Falcon coupe he bought when he was just 15 years old. Bana has described his dad’s garage, where he worked on the car as a teenager, as his ‘cocoon’, his refuge from the world. His office, a loft-style space he shares with a producer/director friend, seems to serve a similar role in his life today. When he’s not making movies, Bana spends four days a week in the office, running his production company Pick Up Truck Pictures, a lean operation staffed by Bana and his personal assistant. One day week he heads for the hills to get away from it all. “Success to me equates to time,” says Bana. “I jump on a bike or in one of my cars and go for a drive in the country to clear my head. I know I’m very fortunate to be in a position to do that. I don’t take anything that I’ve achieved for granted, not for a second.” the red bulletin: One review of Hanna argued that your character gets a raw deal in many of your movies. It said: “Bana is consistently cast in roles in which he doesn’t get the girl, doesn’t finish the job, doesn’t save his planet and usually winds up six feet under by the time the credits run.” Do you feel hard done by? eric bana: I think that’s a bit harsh and not entirely accurate. Let’s look at some of the movies I’ve been in: I died in Troy, I died in Star Trek, I died in Hanna, and I died in Deadfall. I survived in The Time Traveler’s Wife, well kind of – I died and came back. I didn’t die in The Castle, I didn’t die in Chopper, I didn’t die in Black Hawk Down, I didn’t die in Romulus, My Father, I didn’t die in Funny People. I didn’t die on screen in The Other Boleyn Girl and not only did I get the girl in that movie, I got two of them, Natalie [Portman] and Scarlett [Johansson]. So come on, I’ve done OK.
â&#x20AC;&#x153; Success to me means time to jump on a bike or in a car and drive in the country to clear my headâ&#x20AC;?
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Your next movie, Lone Survivor, out this month, tells the true story of a failed Navy SEAL mission to capture a Taliban leader in Afghanistan. What attracted you to the role? I read the book [by Marcus Luttrell] twice and I’ve always had an affection for the Special Forces community going back to Black Hawk Down. I play a small role, but when the director Peter Berg rang me and asked me if was I interested I said, “Absolutely.” To get the chance to contribute to telling Marcus’s story was really special. War movies like Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker have stirred up a lot of controversy in recent years. Do you expect Lone Survivor to attract similar criticism? I don’t like the soapboxing that certain movies attract, where people use a film to voice their opinion on something. I remember when Black Hawk Down came out in 2001 and people asked for my opinion about 9/11 and George Bush, and I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ I prefer people to focus on the film and the story and not make it about themselves and their political views. To me, Lone Survivor is the most incredible survival story. It’s impossible to read the book and not come away thinking‚ ‘We’re all capable of so much more than we think.’ I hope people take that out of the movie and don’t turn it into an argument about whether the SEALs should have killed the goat herder. The backlash against Lone Survivor has already started with questions about the accuracy of the book. Then they can go knock on Marcus Luttrell’s door and take it up with him. We had Marcus on the set, we had Navy SEALs on the set and I know the filmmakers went to a lot of effort to make sure the details were accurate. Is Lone Survivor an important movie for you, given that your last big blockbuster at the box office was Star Trek in 2009? Big movies don’t have the impact you might think and it’s really dangerous
“ As I crashed I thought, ‘Thank God we’re going in head on.’ We were lucky to walk away from that” 50
to chase those movies, because if you don’t deliver a great performance in a big movie that’s not good for your career either. I chase roles that showcase what I can do because that’s what’s going to keep getting me work. For me, it’s all about the work and what’s interesting. I’m still sent interesting parts and I’m still knocking back roles that other people would kill for. You haven’t done many comedies since starring in your first movie in 1997, The Castle. Is that by choice? Early on I avoided comedy deliberately. It wasn’t hard, because no one in Hollywood knew about my stand-up background. I’d be open to it if the right role came along, but I tend to get more serious stuff. Like Beware The Night? I’ve just finished shooting that on location in New York. It won’t be released until the end of 2014 or early 2015, but I’m really excited about it. It was directed by Scott Derrickson, who did The Exorcism Of Emily Rose and Sinister, and it’s a bit of a mash-up. It’s in the horror vein, but it’s
Bana has competed in the Bathurst 12 Hour Enduro, the Targa Tasmania Rally (where he crashed out), and the Australian Porsche GT Championship
character-driven; it’s not a slasher film. I play Ralph Sarchie, a police officer who investigates cases concerning demonic possession and exorcism. He was just an unbelievable character to play, a real powder keg. Is it getting harder to find good roles and movies? Over the last five years it’s been getting harder for everyone because everything is going bigger – bigger concepts, bigger budgets, bigger movies – and the more intelligent, interesting movies have been harder to get off the ground. The movies I’ve made recently are not movies that people rush to see on opening weekend. Yes, it can mess with your head because you can question yourself and wonder how to find the right balance, but no one really knows the answer to that. I do know that bigger isn’t always better. Does the dumbing down of the movie industry concern you? It does concern me in the sense that even if it wasn’t a dumbing-down, even if some of the bigger movies were smarter, it’s still dangerous because there are so many small stories that deserve to be told that aren’t being told. That type of filmmaking is getting extremely hard. Would you prefer to tell your own small stories? I’d like to direct another movie, but I’m not busting my chops at this stage to find that story. I’ll do it at some point and it will probably be a narrative next time rather than a documentary. It would be a real luxury to be able to tell people where to go and what to do and not have to put myself in harm’s way. Your first film as director was Love The Beast, about your Ford Falcon Coupe. Has your relationship with the car changed over the years? I should hope so. I bought the car when I was 15, so I would hope I’ve moved on since then, otherwise I’d be a pretty tragic human being. There are periods when it sits under a tarp for a year and other times where I drive it every day. There have been times when it’s in bits and pieces and I curse it, but I’ve got an immeasurable amount of enjoyment from it. I don’t want to sound like a wanker, but the car brings people a lot of joy. It puts a smile on people’s faces. What do you remember of the crash in the Targa Rally in Tasmania that features in Love The Beast? As we hit the tree I remember thinking, ‘Thank God we’re going in head on.’ The worst thing to do is to go in sideways because the car sucks around the tree. We were lucky to walk away from that crash.
Bana bought the Falcon when he was 15 and has been working on the car ever since
The coupe didn’t fare so well, though. It needed a full rebuild, right? It was in celebrity rehab for quite a while, but it’s even better now than it ever was. I’ve retired it from racing because I’ve put too many man hours into it. What else is in your garage? I’ve got a Yamaha 450 motocross bike I ride in the bush. I’ve got a BMW 1200 GS, a Ducati 851 SP3, an old Ducati Monster, and a Ducati 748 RS race bike, which is just for the track. I’ve also got a 1955 Porsche Pre-A Speedster, which is my only serious investment car; I bought it 11 years ago and it’s probably doubled in value in that time. Apart from being able to indulge your love of motorsports, what other things does success allow you to do? It means jumping off the hamster wheel whenever I choose. Early on in my career I realised I could work pretty much non-stop or I could make it work for me. If I wasn’t married and didn’t have kids I might have done things differently, but by the time I had any sort of success I was already married with kids. Has success changed you? I started working in the movie business when I was 22 and I’m 45 now, so of course I’ve changed. I’d like to think I’m a more evolved version of the species. Still, on any given day I can beat the crap out of myself or feel pretty good about myself, like all of us. The key is to make sure you don’t wrap up too much meaning in your work and having outside interests helps you keep that balance. I’m happy with my life now, but then I wasn’t miserable 20 years ago when I was stacking shelves, pushing trolleys and doing stand-up comedy. Steven Spielberg once said of you: “He’s got all his priorities straight… If he never acted another day in his life, he’d be a very happy man.” Agree? That’s interesting. I think I’d be a bit frustrated. It’s a lovely compliment, but I’d have to disagree. I love living in Melbourne, I love being a parent and I love carving out time to do the things I want to do. What’s coming up for you? Right now I’m reading scripts, but I haven’t got a clue what I’m doing next and I love that. I rarely walk onto a film set knowing what my next movie is going to be. I don’t want to be thinking about that next movie while I’m in the middle of one. Sometimes that means the gap ends up being too long, because it might take you a while to find something. Is it true you have a rule about not doing back-to-back movies? the red bulletin
It’s the way I like to work rather than a determined effort to seek a work-life balance. I could do more movies, but if I did I’d be doing movies I don’t really like that much. The reality is it’s really hard to find a good movie. How many good movies are there every year? Not many, and you need to be very lucky to be in one of them. If you can be in one half-decent movie every five years you’re doing well.
“ I could do more movies, but it’d mean doing ones I don’t really like that much. The reality is that it’s hard to find a good movie and you need to be very lucky”
Have you had to turn down roles because you live in Melbourne? Living in Melbourne has made no difference to my career. The difference is I’m able to hide easier here. So you’ve never been stalked by the paparazzi? They’ve never been interested in me. They tend not to hang around the same places I do. I think the paparazzi like to live pretty glamorous lives themselves, so if you stay away from all the cool, trendy places, they stay away from you. How do you handle press junkets? They’re a novelty for me. If I go on a junket, it’s a week out of my year and it feels weird and flattering at the same time. It’s fine when it’s not every day. And if you could only do one of motorsports and acting? Ouch… that’s tough. I’m not an idiot, I know that acting enables my hobbies and my motorsports, but I could never not indulge my love for my cars and bikes. That’s a lose-lose scenario. twitter.com/EricBana67
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The
YEAR OF OU How a teenage schoolgirl from New Zealand became the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s breakout pop star of 2013 Words: Robert Tighe
LLORDE
Charles Howells
R Girl power: aged 16, Lorde had number one records in New Zealand, the UK and USA
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And we’ll never be royals (royals) It don’t run in our blood That kind of luxe just ain’t for us We crave a different kind of buzz
- Royals by Lorde Ella Yelich-O’Connor is living a fantasy. At the start of February she was on Twitter, quoting Modest Mouse lyrics – “oh the dashboard melted but we still have the radio” – and complaining about the start of a new school term – “#grrr #school #grrr”. On October 3, a month and three days before she turned 17, the girl from Devonport, an affluent, waterfront suburb on Auckland’s North Shore, tweeted this: ‘get the fkouttahere. royals is NUMBER 1 on BILLBOARD in the USAAA.’ “The whole thing has been surreal,” says Scott Maclachlan, her manager at Universal Music. In 2009, Maclachlan was sent a clip of a 12-year-old girl singing at a school talent show. When she made it clear to him that she wanted to be a songwriter as well, and that she would be called Lorde, pronounced ‘lord’, because she liked royalty, he signed her to a development deal, introduced her to producers and songwriters and gave her time and space to find her sound. She didn’t click with any of them until she started working with producer Joel Little in his Auckland studio at the end of 2011. “We talked about music a lot,” says Little, a fresh-faced 30-year-old, who spent nine years as the frontman for New Zealand pop-punk band Goodnight Nurse before he moved behind the mixing desk. “I’d give Ella some homework, some songs to listen to. For example, she’d never listened to Prince or Snoop Dogg. She knew Snoop Dogg as the guy from that Katy Perry song, but she didn’t know he made some cool gangster rap back in 56
the 1990s. She thought he was just some lame dude. In turn she introduced me to stuff that she was into. We listened to The Weeknd and James Blake and we played each other cheesy pop songs.” Their early songwriting efforts were more miss than hit. In July 2012, Ella came into the studio during her school holidays with the lyrics to Royals. Little came up with a beat, together they found the right melody to match the words and the song that has dominated the airwaves and the internet in 2013 was born. “I liked it, but I didn’t know if anyone else would,” says Lorde. “I think Joel had more of an idea of the impact the song would have than I did.” “I didn’t think it would get played on radio, but I thought it was a great song,” says Little, “a good start to her career. But no one could have guessed that song would do what it did.”
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hen Royals replaced Miley Cyrus’s Wrecking Ball at the top of the US Billboard charts at the start of October, Lorde became the youngest solo artist in 26 years to reach Number One. Her age is one subject she’s fed up talking about. “I get this weird question asked in a variety of ways,” she says. “People are like, ‘So you’re only 16, how do you have subject matter to write about?’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean? a) I’ve never been older than I am and b) I’m 16 not a one-year-old.” Lorde is a typical teenager in many ways. She peppers her conversation with the word ‘like’, tweets selfies from
concerts (“the weirdest lil goth at the One Direction concert is meeeee”) and suffers from acne. “I’m a regular person,” she says. “I’m in high school, I get the bus everywhere, I’m a loser and my room is dirty, you know.” The teenage experience has been exploited by songwriters since forever, but part of Lorde’s success has been her ability to write about it honestly. “Ella is incredibly accurate in her portrayal of the way she lives and kids can identify with her because that is their life,” says Maclachlan. “She’s the antithesis to someone like Miley Cyrus who is very brash, very LA, very aspirational, but in a faux way. The greatness of Ella’s music is that it resonates with so many other people. I’m 44 and I remember when I first heard Going Underground and A Town Called Malice by The Jam. I felt like Paul Weller was writing about my life and that’s incredibly powerful. Somehow, with every single line in every single song, she says something that resonates.” The author of those lines has a simpler explanation for her appeal: “Maybe because I’m not singing about dropping the red bulletin
Charles Howells, Getty Images
Let me be your ruler You can call me Queen Bee And baby I’ll rule, (I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule) Let me live that fantasy
World star: raised in Auckland, Lorde is already a global star. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s had gigs on three continents, including a UK debut show in September 2013 at Madame JoJoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in London (left)
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your booty in the club, more people get it and can relate to it.” Instead of writing bland platitudes about partying and finding/losing the love of your life, Lorde explores the emotions and real concerns of her peers, painting vivid pictures with her words. Lines like, ‘this dream isn’t feeling sweet/ we’re reeling through the midnight streets/ and I’ve never felt more alone/it feels so scary getting old’ from Ribs, and ‘I’ll let you in on something big/I am not a white teeth teen/I tried to join but never did’ from White Teeth Teens are condensed short stories. From A World Alone, the line ‘maybe the internet raised us/or maybe people are jerks?’ is social commentary.
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orde explains: “I’m not trying to preach to anyone, which is something teenagers get all the time and hate. I’m just commenting on what I see and writing about how it applies to teenagers’ lives. I think we are portrayed pretty weirdly in music and movies and TV shows. Adults forget what it is like to be my age. I’m living it so I have a more realistic viewpoint on it. “That line [about the internet] was something my friend said. We were at 58
a party after spending too much time on the internet. Sometimes after you’ve been on Tumblr for three hours and you try and talk to people it is impossible. And my friend was like, ‘Why can’t we talk to anyone at this party?’” Are your friends excited or annoyed when they see themselves in your songs? “I have a lot of friends, so everyone assumes it’s about someone else. I’d like to think I’m quite subtle.” How has success affected friendships? “Obviously it’s difficult, because I’m in New York and they’re in history class or whatever, but your friends are your friends for who you are. I’d like to think the people I’ve known since I was really young like me for me and not because of my music.” While Lorde’s lyrics are intelligent and thought provoking, her music is clever in its own right: a clean, modern, minimal sound that subtly references other musical genres. “I’m a magpie, I’m
a child of the internet,” she says, “and so I’ve picked the things I like from electronic music, hip-hop and pop music.” Most of the beats and sound effects were made by Little on Pro Tools audio software. Only one of the songs on Lorde’s debut album, Pure Heroine, features a guitar – a three-chord trick on A World Alone. Little also played some keyboards. “I can’t shred on the keyboards,” he says. “I just mess around and sometimes when I do that I stumble on something that sounds really cool. Fake it ’til you make it, I guess.” Then there’s Lorde’s powerful voice, of which Little took full advantage. “Her voice is so cool and interesting, and when you layer it up it’s like a really unique instrument in itself. We often use layered vocals, where there might usually be a guitar or a synth, it creates quite an intense atmosphere. The melodies are good, so that makes it accessible, and there are interesting things going on musically, but it’s not trying to grab you in the first five seconds. It’s a slow build. “I think people were ready for something that sounded a bit fresher. She makes music that doesn’t treat listeners like idiots. People were craving something that doesn’t sound exactly like the last song they heard on the radio.” Little recalls very clearly the first time Lorde sang for him in the studio. “It was like, ‘Jackpot baby!’ The dream is to work with somebody as talented as her. When she’s singing, it’s like she’s talking about something mysterious, but something you can relate to at the same time. She’s got such a sweet voice, but she also sounds like she’d totally f––k you up if you said something that she didn’t agree with. Sweet, but scary at the same time.” What’s scary is how much bigger the Lorde experience could be. “Coachella and Lollapalooza have been confirmed. Glastonbury will happen,” says Maclachlan. “She could work every day in 2014 if she wanted to.” “Every trip we book and every show we do, I choose to do it,” says Lorde. “I still have normal Saturday nights and hang out with my school friends and go to house parties. That’s the good thing about NZ, there’s very little difference to my life. I’m conscious of the fact that I have to work and miss some stuff, but I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. Everything has been positive and fun.” That’s a very different buzz compared with the kind most teenagers experience. It sounds too good to be true. It sounds like a fantasy, except for Lorde, it’s not. lorde.co.nz the red bulletin
Charles Howells , Getty Images
Rich pickings: self-confessed magpie Lorde is influenced by her friends, Tumblr and hip-hop
RUNNING FOR THOSE WHO CAN’T SIGN UP NOW! ONE DAY AT THE VERY SAME TIME ALL OVER THE WORLD
4TH MAY 2014 11:00 A.M. UK SILVERSTONE
WINGSFORLIFEWORLDRUN.COM
LIKE A
THE MOST INSANE SPORT YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF INVOLVES BOMBING DOWN HILLS AT 120kph ON WHAT IS ESSENTIALLY A MODIFIED SKATEBOARD. WELCOME TO THE DOWNHILL LONGBOARD WORLD CUP, WHERE THE TRACK SURFACE IS UNEVEN AND THE PARAMEDICS ARE ON STANDBY
BULLET
words: Fernando Gueiros photography: Marcelo Maragni & Thiago Diz
The stance is simple: one arm back, knees still, eyes on the road
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he world’s fastest skateboarding hill is a long, winding piece of road stretching a little over a mile, riven with bumps and cracks and bearing the unlikely name of Harmony’s Downhill. In three days of competition at the Downhill Longboarding World Cup, 230 riders will speed down its uneven terrain. The hay bales and crowds on the sidelines make way for ambulances four times during the three hours of qualifying sessions on day one alone. “There’s only one way to go down here, and that’s the fastest possible,” says Brazilian Carlos Paixão, who hit 119kph, a record, on the first day. “If you’re tough you keep the pressure on and don’t slow down. But the most important thing is to always keep your arm back and your knee still; keep your chest and your chin on your front knee and look straight down the way you’re going, not staring at the floor.”
This tutorial is helpful for the small band of longboarders worldwide committed to donning leathers and a helmet and bombing down hills in the name of an adrenalin rush and glory in a nascent sport. As it happens, the best in the business (and a few bold wannabes) have gathered here from 15 countries near the quaint southern Brazilian town of Teutônia, which boasts the legendary hill and very little else. This is only the second time in the 10-year history of the Downhill Longboarding World Cup that the event is being held here. In 2013, as previously, all you had to do to take part was bring approved security gear (leather clothing, helmet, gloves) and pay the entrance fee. But that will change in the future, presumably to save on medical bills. “From now on,” says Alexandre Maia, race director and member of the excellently named International Gravity Sports Association, “we’ll give priority to the ranked elite.” After all, riders here reach speeds of close to 120kph for a duration of 15 to 20 seconds. And all this over a stretch of track a third of a mile long. “I used to ride at Pikes Peak, in Colorado,” says defending champion Kyle Wester, “and there I go as fast as 95kph. But here we ride at about 100-115kph for a long time. There’s nothing quite like this in the world.”
School buses ferry the downhill competitors, including Brazil’s Carlos Paixão (left), to the top of longboarding’s most feared track
“I talk towhile myself riding, trying to be relaxed”
Competitors hit speeds of up to 120kph on Harmony’s Downhill, a race to the bottom that favours the bold
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U
the red bulletin
Credit:
From top: Most of the accidents occur on the first day, when the less experienced crowd the field; the riders’ passion is very real – and more than skin deep; how else do you explain spending the night in a church on the top of a hill?
nder a baking sun and temperatures as high as 30°C, the riders wander around the top of the track, leathers open. Nearby is a small church and a rustic shed where meals are served and people camp during the three-day event, which, this year, will feature 230 riders. Day one is when most of the accidents happen. The track overflows with competitors. Marshals are on hand to space out the start of each rider’s practice run to five-minute intervals. When the crowd – assembled along the side of the road on the grass – hears the whirr and scrape of approaching riders, their expectation is audible. “Ooohhh!” they murmur as a skater shoots by, adjusting his path along the track. From the riders’ perspective, it’s all about… well, perspective. “I talk to myself while I’m riding, trying to be relaxed and make sure I’m having fun,” says Kyle Wester, whose time was good enough for third place. “At the main corner, if you can hold the pressure at high speed, there’s a better chance at winning. Finding the right path on this road takes a lot of concentration.” Four school buses ferry competitors back to the top, and organisers close the track every now and then to let cars or ambulances through. One patient was 19-year-old Debora de Almeida, who lost
“it’s all about
cold blood and a clear head”
German Matthias Ebel finishing his run. “You can’t slow down here,” he says. “It’s like a roller coaster”
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finding the
right path takes a lot of concentration”
Most longboard courses allow competitors to reach speeds of about 90kph, but Teutônia’s long finish features almost half a mile of uninterrupted downhill. Brazil’s Carlos Paixão set a course record of 119kph
At high speeds and close quarters, crashes are inevitable. The track was closed four times during the three-hour qualifying session on the first day to allow ambulances access to fallen competitors
her balance after the main corner and was thrown from her longboard, crashing on the tarmac in a fall reminiscent of the worst MotoGP has to offer. “I wasn’t sure whether I was going to stay in the right or the left lane when I ran over a bump,” she says. “It was impossible to not fall down since I was going at top speed.” She slid more than 25 yards on her stomach and suffered a twisted ankle and a dislocated shoulder and knee, as well as some bruises. In order to ease the pain, a doctor on the scene took more than five minutes to remove her racing leathers before sending her to the hospital. Was it worth it? “Yes, of course,” says de Almeida two days later, an ice pack on her ankle. “The will to drop is very intense. Teutônia is different from everything; it’s pressure all the way down, and there’s always a surprise.”
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y the final day, as riders’ technique improves, the less good have been eliminated until there are only two men remaining: record-holder Carlos Paixão and his countryman Max Ballesteros. At the foot of the hill, on the finish line, the announcement of the main event echoes out of the tannoy while the crowd clusters closer to the track. It’s impossible to see the finish line from the top, where the race starts. You can only hear, far away, the sound system. The start is quiet, almost empty. A dozen locals drink beer and share the
“when they get to teutonia they freak out. they ask:
is this real?”
space between a shed and the starting line. At the race marshal’s words – “Riders, set… Go!” – Ballesteros and Paixão push off and start down the hill, vanishing at the first bend. Paixão is first. The speed ticks up pretty quickly – 40kph, 50kph – through the portion of a track called the ‘toboggan’, where the road has yet to drop, and a slight left is followed by a right turn. Ballesteros remains close, looking for space, but when the speed reaches 88kph, he spreads his arms to slow down at the beginning of the main curve. Paixão decides to go full throttle – his body leaning forward, the G-force punishing his muscles and dictating the precise movements of his hips, ankles, and knees. This is the most important corner of the track, where the athletes enter the final and fastest stretch. The speed increases while the wheels start to chatter over the rough and uneven road surface. The surroundings – small properties and a cemetery on the side of the main corner – whizz past. After one minute and 20 seconds, Paixão crosses the finish line first, to the cheers of the crowd, and etches his name into the history of the feared track and the young sport celebrating it. “I guess the most important thing isn’t the strength or technique; it is all about cold blood and a clear head,” he says. “Some people have a lot of technique, but when they get to Teutônia, they freak out and ask themselves if this is real. And there’s not much we can say, right? That’s what it is: this is Teutônia.” igsaworldcup.com
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the red bulletin
Magical Realist
Ian Ruhter’s mobile camera is not like yours – and the photos from his converted truck are even better than the real thing Words: Caroline Ryder Photography: Shaun Roberts
Moving images: Ian Ruhter uses a converted delivery truck as a camera
the red bulletin
In the early 1860s, photographer Carleton Watkins made huge 18in x 22in negatives of Yosemite, in California, that convinced Abraham Lincoln and Congress to sign the 1864 bill designating it as America’s first national park. Ansel Adams came along 100 years later, with his brooding landscape images that elevated environmental photography to an art form. Today, Ian Ruhter is here with what may be the most unusual equipment these granite slopes have ever seen. His camera is as big as a truck: it is a truck, in fact, and its mechanism is the humans inside. “I’m pretty sure it’s the biggest camera that has ever been in Yosemite,” says a local man who goes by the name Yosemite Steve. It’s nighttime, the bear patrol is circling and rangers are making noise to scare away any wandering beasts. A few metres away from a barely smouldering campfire, Ruhter’s pale-blue camera truck looks less like a camera and more like somewhere to buy ice cream or burgers. Yosemite Steve, also a photographer and a videographer, is a fan of Ruhter and his remarkable camera, which uses a lens the size of a beachball to create images on huge aluminium wet plates, resulting in iridescent, finely detailed silver impressions of the world outside. Ruhter’s camera is a supersized version of the one Watkins used, with the same “wet-plate collodion” technique. “Except 71
Carleton made negatives and Ian is doing positives,” says Yosemite Steve. “I want to make one-off things, like a painting,” says Ruhter. “Especially in this age where everything is massproduced, mass-reproduced. I really like just one. That’s all it takes.” Ruhter speaks in cryptic Yoda-meetsthe-Cheshire Cat riddles. When asked what time he plans to shoot tomorrow he replies, “between noon and noon fifteen. Or two to two thirty. Or five to six. Or you can show up whenever you want. I can’t guarantee I will be there.” There are giggles to his left from Ruhter’s mellowed-out protégé Will Eichelberger, a 23-year-old photographer and selfconfessed “art nerd” from Casper, Wyoming. Two years ago, shortly after his father died, Eichelberger met Ruhter, sat in the camera truck, cried, and decided he was going to go on the road with Ruhter and join his so-called American Dream Project, a sort of travelling oral and visual history of the nation, all images captured in the magic truck. Eichelberger even has the camera truck tattooed on his left arm. Wandering around the camp is Lane Power, also in his 20s, a photographer, filmmaker, and welder. He helped Ruhter customise the truck, a former delivery vehicle that Ruhter bought in Los Angeles in 2011. Lane is the clearest communicator of the trio, and helps fill in some gaps in his mentor’s biography. Originally from South Lake Tahoe, Ruhter was a sponsored snowboarder
Ian Ruther (2)
‘‘In this age where everything is massproduced and massreproduced, I really like just one photograph. That’s all it takes’’
Picture this: following in the footsteps of Carleton Watkins and Ansel Adams, Ruhter creates photos of Yosemite National Park
who took up photography at the age of 26 after retiring from the sport. His aunt had given him an old 35mm Nikon SLR film camera and he studied photography at community college, getting a part-time job at a local casino so he could buy a better camera. He then moved to LA and established a successful career as a commercial and magazine photographer, but found that he resented the pace of that life. He did not like having to shoot digital, he hated retouching and airbrushing. So he quit, left LA for Lake Tahoe and poured his life savings into a big, pale-blue truck. Now he’s happy. “I had heard about this guy who was building a giant camera in Lake Tahoe,” says Power. “I am really into building and fabricating, so I just started showing up where he was working on it. To me, Ian had this Wizard of Oz magic about him, like the man behind the curtain. I kept asking to help until one day, he let me.”
At that point, Ruhter had yet to shoot a plate that he was happy with. Each plate costs around US$500 to make. The first time Lane went out with Ruhter, to an abandoned silver quarry in Nevada, was the first time that Ruhter successfully captured an image. “I had never seen wet plate before, and I was blown away by the silver highlights and the way it looked,” says Power. That was in September 2011. And what’s the end goal of all this? “To do what we want when we want to do it,” he shrugs. After that, Power, Ruhter and Eichelberger started travelling, Power filming their trips for an online documentary series that includes the remarkable Silver & Light, a short film that has helped elevate Ruhter from ‘that guy with the crazy camera’ into a photographic alchemist, with a growing cult following around the US. The whole analog vs digital point is moot though, as far as Ruhter is concerned. He Instagrams, he’s on Facebook and has an iPhone. He sees himself as a contemporary photographer, building a bridge between past and future. “Come here,” says Ruhter the next day, pulling back the black tarp on the back of the truck. Inside it is pitch dark except for a ghostly, upside down moving image on a plate. It’s Yosemite Falls and Cooks Meadow, waterfall flowing, in real time. The image is black and white and unbelievably crisp, a hypnotic living scene that is somehow more beautiful than the real thing outside. How can that be? “Because we are creating it,” he says. For Ruhter, 39, who suffers from dyslexia, these photographs are the only way he knows to clearly and confidently express himself. “My photos are my voice,” he says. “This is how I show people how I think and feel, and this is how I see things. Upside down and the wrong way round.” Inside the truck, Ruhter shifts the plate back and forth, focusing the image. “Right now, we are the camera,” says Ruhter. “We are the gears. Trippy, huh?” When he is ready to make a photograph (he prefers the term “make” to “take”) he pours silver nitrate over the plate. It’s the silver that makes the plate light sensitive, and gives it its eerie reflective quality. Later, to celebrate, he poses on top of a precipitous rock overhang, grinning above a 1,000m drop. He hands his iPhone to one of his team – “I just want a picture of me standing on this rock, you know?” – and then shares it on Instagram. “Now that’s what’s up,” he says. Follow @ianruhter on Twitter and ian_ruhter on Instagram
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party Party in murder capital Words: Berenice Andrade Photography: Katie Orlinsky
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Hardpop nightclub in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, where revellers use music as a means of escape from the violence of the city
The Hardpop nightclub grew as a neutral zone in the centre of Mexico’s drug war to be voted one of the best clubs in the world. Last night a DJ saved my life? Here, that’s not just a tune – it’s the truth
j
thinks of the thousands of people the city has recently buried, in its cemeteries and unmarked graves. Of the disputes between drug traffickers, of the gun battles, the extortion, the torture, the murdered women or any of the other miserable, lethal events that meant, from 2008 to 2010, Juarez was the most dangerous city in the world. In 2011, things improved: it was the second most dangerous city. Now it’s down in 19th place. In 2009 and 2010, Hardpop was also ranked globally, by DJ Mag in the UK, as one of the top 100 clubs in the world. Every week, leading DJs who are regulars at the other clubs DJ Mag’s list – like James Lavelle, Magda, Deadmau5, Damian Lazarus, Jesse Rose, M.A.N.D.Y and more – come to Hardpop. Tonight’s event is to celebrate Halloween and the club’s seventh birthday, with German DJ Acid Pauli playing alongside Zabiela. Every weekend the city’s youth live it up as if nothing violent had ever happened or ever could happen. None of that history exists inside Hardpop.
ames Zabiela comes on stage smiling and shaking his short mane of blond hair. As he sets up the tools of his trade – turntable, iPad, headphones and a whole load of other electronic stuff – the crowd erupts into applause and bustles to the front of the long dancefloor. Zabiela launches the first beat with a nervous little smile; the crowd goes wild. They take photos of him and raise their event tickets in the air. Soon the crowd of some 600 people moves as one. They thrash about, nod their heads, shake their hips, flail their arms around. Everyone is dancing. At the end of the night, the British DJ says the vibe was “electric”. That’s what it’s usually like at Hardpop, a medium-sized club tucked away in a shopping centre in Ciudad Juarez, the chaotic and deathly dangerous desert city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, just across the US border from El Paso, Texas. Tonight, nobody 76
the red bulletin
Mean streets, good beats: Juarez is one of the world’s most violent cities, yet none of the troubles exist inside Hardpop, which celebrated its seventh birthday in October of last year
so much violence Perla picks up Denisse by car so that they can both go back to Perla’s place to get ready. With Perla’s brother Carlos and some friends, they are going to Hardpop to see James Zabiela. “I’ve been going to Hardpop since I was 17,” says Perla. “I’d get in with a fake ID and even though Juarez was very dangerous, I was never scared. My parents wanted me to stay in, but I always went out, in spite of the dangers.” Perla, who is 20 now, is lying on her bed in her room, straightening her hair, while Denisse, who is 18, carefully puts on false eyelashes. “I remember my mum didn’t want to let me when I started going out,” says Denisse, “because there was so much violence out there and she was afraid, but I told her that she had to trust me because I was young and had to go out
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“ Hardpop promotes a scene; it’s an island of reality in a sea of fakes”
and have fun. Nothing’s happened to me, apart from one time when I was attacked outside my house. It was really sad, but it had to happen. Something’s happened to everyone in this town.” “A few years ago,” says Perla, “three of our cousins were killed and last year they killed our uncle. Maybe they were involved in something, but one cousin insisted he wasn’t doing anything wrong. That made me worry. I knew I wasn’t doing anything wrong, but even if you’re not doing anything wrong, you can still be affected.” Her brother Carlos remembers the impact of the violence spreading beyond the city. “Friends of mine from El Paso would say, ‘How can you live in Juarez?’ And I’d say, ‘Well, you just get used to what’s going on. It’s as simple as that.’” What they were getting used to, according to figures from the Chihuahua director of public prosecutions, was an average of 5.8 murders a day between 2007 and 2012 – more than 11,000 in total. This was when Felipe Calderón was president of Mexico and his war on drugs led to 100,000 deaths nationwide. In September 2013, the Governor of Chihuahua, César Duarte, gave out statistics showing Ciudad Juarez was becoming a safer place. In 2012, highprofile assassinations dropped by 84 per cent; kidnappings by 75 per cent; violent car thefts by 82 per cent; burglary of commercial properties by 64 per cent and bank robberies by 92 per cent. In the first three months of 2013, there were 86 murders in the city; there were hundreds each month in the preceding years. Unloved houses have been redecorated. Ghost-town streets are busy again. Shops are open and doing trade. There’s colour back in the face of the city.
All about the music Ricardo Tejada became a great fan of the dance music scene when he lived in London in the late 1990s. With friends, he started organising events, which grew in size and stature so that they could attract big-name DJs like Tiësto and Paul Van Dyk. He thought about opening an electronic music club in San Pedro Garza García, the richest municipality in Mexico. But problems with licences and the local council meant that at the last minute Ricardo transferred everything to a location in a shopping centre owned by his father. This was Hardpop, which began, in the last place that anyone would have imagined, in October 2006. “It was music for a generation like mine,” says Marco Soli, a 29-year-old from Juarez who was a regular in the
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early days of Hardpop before going to live in Mexico City. “Within months of opening, it was full. You’d go and bump into everyone you knew.” Bill Weir, Hardpop’s sound engineer, who has worked in clubs worldwide, says the club has taken on a cohesive role. “Hardpop promotes a scene. You won’t see all these DJs anywhere else in Juarez and probably not anywhere else in Mexico as a whole, because Hardpop is an island of reality in a sea of fakes.” The venue itself is simple: black walls, red neon lights and industrial paraphernalia. That’s all that’s needed for people to come and listen to the DJ and dance. As Zabiela finishes his set, and several people in the crowd start hassling him for an autograph, Weir looks up to the ceiling. “Notice that there are no light shows because everyone’s got their eyes closed while they’re dancing. This place is about all about the music and nothing else.” The entry policy is that there is no entry policy. Tonight, the crowd includes posh girls in ultra-high heels carrying designer bags and boys in trainers. All you need to get into Hardpop is a ticket. “Hardpop has people from all walks of life,” says Eduardo Espino, the head of security at the club. “We don’t have someone standing out front who says, ‘You and you can come in.’ If you buy a ticket, you can come in.”
word gets around Denisse, Perla, Carlos and their friends reconvene at the end of Zabiela’s set. The atmosphere is good. He has done his 80
job – Hardpop has done its job, once again. “Here we forget the trauma the violence has inflicted on us,” says Denisse. “You’re with your friends, you know people, the music, the DJs. You see your favourite DJ playing for you, you’re dancing to the beat of the music, letting yourself go.” The feeling is the same looking out at the audience. “I’m absolutely convinced that music helps people a lot, especially when it comes to preventing or turning against violence, because music is safe,” says Acid Pauli, drink in hand, before going onto stage to perform. But even though Hardpop is an oasis for the young people who come here, it has also fallen prey to the same harsh reality as the rest of Juarez, such as an
Party people: the locals (above left) enjoy top international DJs at Hardpop, such as German beatmaster Acid Pauli (right). Times are tough in Mexico, and the border crossing queues (below) aren’t getting any shorter
“ It’s impossible not to have a good night at hardpop”
attempt to extort money from Ricardo Tejada, and the closure of the club for 10 months in late 2010 and early 2011. “We didn’t want to expose our artists to danger and we were afraid of becoming exposed to danger ourselves, because the situation was starting to get difficult,” explains Edgar Cobos, the club’s PR man. “Other businesses in the city had been asked for a cut and kidnappings were on the rise. That was why we closed for a while. We wanted the situation to calm down. But we’ve never relocated. We are one of the main businesses never to have left the heart of the city. We’ve always been here.” During that period of closure, Tejada and his team put on events in El Paso, 10 minutes drive over the border, and little by little they began the red bulletin
to bring Hardpop back to life by discretely holding events in the club once a month. “This is my third time here, but it should be my fourth,” says Zabiela. “Last time I came, the gig was cancelled because of all the crazy stuff going on in the city. The first time I came I didn’t know anything about Juarez or Mexico, and I have to say it was a shock as we were driving along to see armed soldiers in the back of a truck. I’d never seen that before apart from on TV. It was really surreal.” “Performers come because they’ve heard by word of mouth that this is a good place,” says Tejada. “This is the testimony of performers who have already been here, giving me and the atmosphere their vote of confidence. Of course, we’ve provided security staff when necessary, like when the situation
was really difficult. I’ve had to offer round-the-clock protection and armoured trucks.” (Eduardo Espino, Hardpop’s head of security who saw one of his colleagues murdered while he was working in another bar, says it hasn’t been easy to maintain the feeling of safety at Hardpop, because armed people have turned up at the door and he has had to turn them away.) Having got through the temporary closure and resumed normal service, Ricardo Tejada and his staff have decided to renovate the club. It is currently livelier than ever. As Bill Weir says, “The energy the performers get from the crowd is incredible. It’s impossible not to have a good night at Hardpop because the crowd won’t let you. These people deserve a bloody good party.” thehardpop.com
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Where to go and what to do
Into watersports? Then wear this, because time and tide wait for no man GET THE GEAR page 84
ac t i o n ! T r a v e l / G e a r / T r a i n i n g / N i g h t l i f e / M U S I C / p a r t i e s / c i t i e s / c l u b s / E v e n ts Bite club: join big fish fans off Isla Guadalupe
Ernst Koschier
Behind bars
It is possible to view a great white shark up close without it being the last thing you see. Just enter the cage and drop 10m into the ocean travel page 86
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Action!
EASy BREEZy
get the Gear
Three things to improve your windsurfing
Lightweight At 3.37kg, this is an ultra-light Kevlar-coated sail suitable for all wave and wind conditions
Mormaii Lycra shirt Indispensable if you’re on the water a lot, this quickdrying shirt protects against wind and sun. mormaii.com.br
superglue Used – carefully – to close gashes and cuts, and a couple of drops can also be rubbed over palms, making a blisterpreventing film.
Wind power: Robby Naish squeezes every ounce of performance from his equipment
Board level windsurfing Robby Naish, the don of world windsurfing back in the game aged 50, also makes top-class kit
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Wave-breaker The Naish Wave 85l, designed for ocean waves, is relatively long and narrow at 240cm, but still easy to turn
Rip Curl ultimate titanium oceansearch Keeps track of tidal movements and wind direction on over 500 beaches worldwide. ripcurl.com
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getty images
Power and speed are the two things that Robby Naish needs to excel on the waves. Since the late 1970s, he’s been making his own equipment, with his father, Rick. R Naish Jr, now 50 and back competing in windsurfing’s top tier, after returning to the PWA Tour last November, uses larger sails and longer boards compared with most of his peers. When picking your set-up, he says to “factor in your own weight, ability and the prevailing wind and wave conditions. And never go for a board that’s too small.” naishsails.com
Action !
party
Roll with it: Cape Town rock band BEAST
Making moves homegrown musical talent on the up
Markus Wormstorm
Dark-noir electronica master who did the score for Four Corners, South Africa’s official Oscars entry. facebook.com/ fourcornersdrops
Night waves
Aces ’n’ S pades, Alan van Gysen, press handout (3), Sydelle Willow Smith, Hélène Flament
cape town Rock ‘n’ roll meets surfing royalty in a darkly glamorous dive bar What surfer doesn’t want to own a rock ’n’ roll bar? Big-wave chaser Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker jumped at the chance when a boyhood friend, Reg Macdonald, returned to South Africa after running hot clubs in Hollywood, including the Nacional, Tokio and the Ivar. The fruit of their collaboration is Aces’n’Spades, a self-titled ‘good bar where bad things happen’, and a magnet for the A-list of surf (John John Florence, Mick Fanning) and film (Orlando Bloom and Kevin Spacey). There’s a vast selection of whiskeys and around 10 different beers on tap from local breweries. Wednesday is live music night, on Tuesdays and Thursdays the inner-city suits drop by for predinner drinks, and on weekends the place rocks out. “It was meant to be a quiet bar,” says Baker. “It was never really meant to be a place to dance, but between 12 and 2am pretty much the whole place is a raging dancefloor.” Aces’n’Spades 62 Hout Street Cape Town, South Africa acesnspades.com
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th i rsty wo r k
DJ Spoko
From a township outside Pretoria, his jive-funk take on Afro-house appeared on an album by Mandela actor Idris Elba. twitter.com/ ghostship8
How the surf stars kick back
Grant Baker
Favourite Drink? “Don Julio tequila on the rocks, with a splash of water. Drinking cheap tequila is like drinking cheap whiskey. It should never be done.” Favourite Song? Add It Up by Violent Femmes
Jordy Smith
Red Bull Vodka Rockin’ in the Free World by Neil Young
Pioneer Unit
Frank Solomon
Brewers and Union’s Beast of the Deep beer All Along The Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix
Jordy Smith’s new surf film, Now Now, premiered at Aces
Record label behind vernacularlanguage spazahop act Rattex now showcasing cutting-edge local hip-hop via multimedia. pioneerunit.com
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Action!
Travel
And anoth er thing when you (San Die)go
Swell town With 70km of Pacific coastline, San Diego is a surfing mecca (if you can bear to get back in the water without a cage). sandiego.org
S hark Diving A close encounter with a great white is no zoo trip. Out in the pacific ocean, deep in predator territory, you face the beast The best place on Earth to go shark diving is Isla Guadalupe, a remote Pacific island about 260km off the Mexican coast. “Nowhere else are there so many white sharks in such crystal-clear waters between August and November,” says underwater photographer Ernst Koschier. Despite the reassuring prospect of a sharkproof cage, it may still take a while for your brain to accept this as a leisure activity. “You still have to face your fear,” says Austrian journalist Andreas Wollinger, “but that disappears when you enter the cage. The large metal bars are reassuring, plus there’s the calm of the sea.” Lead weights worn around the hips keep you stable on the cage floor. You breathe through a diving regulator supplied with air from the surface, so that movement isn’t limited by carrying air tanks. The cage, lowered like a lift, remains 10m under the surface for 45 minutes. Attracted by a bag of fish scraps dangled in the water, the sharks quickly appear. “There were three or four, as big and heavy as cars, their A week aboard the teeth bared, circling the cage,” says Nautilus Explorer Wollinger. “But they’re a lot slower boat, leaving from than you think, with elegant San Diego, California, and economical movements. and including They are relaxed, and thankfully three diving days, not in the least bit interested starts at US$3,000. nautilusexplorer.com in the people in the cage.” 86
Face your fears: up close to Jaws, minus the scary cello music
Bunk down Dry-land adrenalin: head out, in a military jeep for a night in the Borrego desert wilderness, home to coyotes and mountain lions. california overland.com
Advice from the inside Stick to thick “The water is a pleasant 20°C, but you’re not moving around much, so that can soon get cold,” says Koschier. “I’d recommend a wetsuit which is at least 7mm thick, plus boots, gloves and diving goggles – and definitely take a camera that clips onto you, so both hands are free.”
What no cage?
Some scientists have permits to swim freely with the sharks. Mauricio Hoyos has one. “When diving, it‘s important to understand a shark’s body language,” says the Mexican. “Never approach quickly or make sudden movements. That awakens a shark’s hunting instinct. And that usually turns out very badly.”
Roll out You could just leave the country: the San Diego light rail system’s San Ysidro line ends right next to the delights of Tijuana, Mexico. sdmts.com
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ernst koschier (2), shutterstock (3)
Cage with a view
Action!
workout
Roar strength: Reggie Bush, Super Bowl winner and Detroit Lion
Building a winner’s body american football Without power below the belt, NFL star Reggie Bush doesn’t have a leg to stand on “Football has a 100 per cent injury rate”, says Reggie Bush. “It’s not a matter of ‘if’ you’re going to get injured, it’s a matter of ‘when.’” The Detroit Lions running back is one of the physically fittest NFL players; he can run the 100m in 10.45 seconds. “The right training helps to limit the injury risk and to withstand the tackles. My workout routine includes muscle development in the weight room, motor skill training under stress and training on the treadmill.”
t r e a d m i l l d r i l l : n f l s ta r s o n ly “Even under stress, your motor skills need to work properly,” says Bush. “On the treadmill, you learn to automate rolling over at high speed and train motor skills, which helps me play the game under stress.”
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Jeremy Deputat/Red Bull Content Pool, james westman
Heri Irawan
Leg work: Reggie Bush trains up his money-makers Run forward on a horizontal treadmill.
Dive, roll in motion, over the training ball.
Roll over, get up, keep running. Repeat four times.
iron man wearing a 9kg weight vest
2
Leg Strength
Run backwards on the incline, keep the ball in your hand.
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Run backwards and put the ball on the holder.
Move back to the start position. Repeat four times.
“My legs are precious, but they also my opponents’ target,” says RB the RB. “Therefore, strong leg muscles are essential. This weight vest is filled with sand and iron and speeds up leg muscle development. I wear it when I do an overall workout, sprint sessions, knee bends and jumping power training.”
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Action!
world run
See how you run Fitness freak, reluctant runner or middling middle-distancer? Take our test to find out what kind of runner you are, then download the training plan that suits you best
my training and I’ll have to make up for it as quickly as possible. B Withdrawal symptoms. I start getting fidgety. C It’s the normal state of affairs.
1 I run because… A I want to improve my performance. B I want to feel good. C I still need to find out why.
2 When I’m running, the main thing I focus on is… A My heart rate and split times. B The weather and the world around me. C Chatting to my running partner.
4 My Body Mass Index (BMI) is… A 18-25 B 25-40 C My Body what now?
5 I get overtaken when running in the park. My reaction is...
3 A few days of no running means...
A What is this ‘being overtaken’ you speak of?
A That I’m behind with
B I don’t react. I just carry on doing my laps. C It goads me on. I’ll get back past them! D A friendly wave.
of training, such as weights. B Go cycling or swimming. C Take a break!
6 The most important elements for me about running are…
8 After running, I immediately...
A A good time, good opponents, a good result. B Good organisation. C Hmm. It’s not like there’s money on it.
A Start planning my next training run. B Enjoy the endorphins. C Think about the beer I’m going to have and the aches and pains I’ll have tomorrow.
7 I’ve been plagued with foot pain for days. So I… A Do some other kind
How did you do? Work out your final score by adding up your points per questions. For every answer A, you get 10 points; a B is worth five points; EACH C is worth 1 and for A D, you add nothing to your total
The Would-Be Athlete
8–14 points
The Keep-Fit Enthusiast
Your goal:
Your goal:
The Reluctant Runner Your goal:
Improved performance
Firm calves and the feel-good factor
For starters, 3km in less than 18 minutes
You’re looking to test your limit almost daily. You like to outperform others on a competitive basis.
You train several times a week and invest time and effort in your health and quality of life.
You only run irregularly, and when you do, it’s only to remind yourself: “God, I used to be fitter than this.”
Your motto:
Your motto:
Your motto:
‘Push myself to the limit every day’
‘First work, then pleasure’
‘Conquer your weaker self’
We recommend:
We recommend:
We recommend:
Training plan A
Training plan B
Training plan C
Get a personalised training plan: redbulletin.com
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sascha bierl
15-70 points
Sebastian Marko/Red Bull Content Pool
71-80 points
enter
n ow
an d get training
TIPS FROM A PRO RACE DIRECTOR COLIN JACKSON’S running CHECKLIST
FOOTWEAR “There’s got to be life left in your shoes. But never ignore that moment when they’ve become loose and worn out, because you won’t be running economically. Definitely get new ones after 1,000km!” NUTRITION “On competition day, eat what you normally eat: that’s what your body is used to. Different foods send your body’s whole energy system into disarray and you could end up worse off for it.” LIQUIDS “Your body is smart. If you don’t drink enough, it will take more liquid from your food. Always drink enough to prevent yourself ever getting thirsty. It’s important to take on drinks containing sodium and potassium.” MUSIC “Calm for when you’re in the flow; harder for tougher sections. Personally, I prefer to run without music and listen to my body instead, and those who like to run as part of a group won’t need headphones.”
“By the time you’re thirsty, it’s too late” Colin Jackson, two-time sprint hurdle world champion
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Global gathering W ings For Life World Run A starter’s gun on six continents. The first worldwide running race in sporting history gets under way in May next year. Anyone who wants to race against the rest of the world can take part. Here are the details: 1. THE WAY IT WORKS
4. THE RESULT
In 35 countries, 37 races will all begin at 10am UTC (Co-ordinated Universal Time; 10am GMT) on May 4, 2014. ‘Catcher cars’ will start reeling in the participants 30 minutes later. The last person in the world to be caught wins.
The last man and last woman running will be crowned global champions and win a special roundthe-world trip. Each country will also record its national winners. All runners will be able to check online to see how they did. “Who in the world ran further than I did?”
2. THE CHASERS The ‘catcher cars’ will gradually increase their speed at predetermined intervals. Once a runner is caught, or passed by a car, he or she must drop out of the race and the distance run at that point is automatically recorded.
5. THE PARTICIPANTS
3. THE COURSES
6. THE MISSION
They fall into five global categories: coastal runs, river runs, city runs, nature runs and runs with a view. The event’s homepage (wingsfor lifeworldrun.com) gives you the latest weather reports, detailed course info and a distance-time calculator.
The Wings for Life World Run motto is: Running For Those Who Can’t. All of the money earned will go to the Wings For Life Foundation, which supports worldwide scientific research programmes looking for a cure for spinal cord injury. You can find more information at wingsforlife.com.
Beginners, hobby runners, top athletes and stars, such as former Formula One ace David Coulthard. The aim is to cover as much of the course as you can to help cure paraplegia.
Compete against the rest of the world in the Wings For Life World Run. You can register online until April 20, 2014, at wingsforlifeworldrun.com
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City Guide
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Capital time v ienna Electro princess Anna Muller on nightclub swimming and the (hair) do’s and don’ts of her hometown When HVOB formed in early 2012, Anna Muller and Paul Wallner wanted to make electronic music that you could both listen and dance to: ooontze-ooontzeooontze with intelligence. With Müller composing and singing and Wallner doing production they got their wish. After uploading a couple of snippets to SoundCloud, things started to happen very quickly. Performances at Europe’s biggest festivals, an invitation from designer Elie Saab to soundtrack his Paris Fashion Week video, an EP, an album, another EP and, not least, record sales. They will be playing live at the SXSW festival in March in Austin, Texas (they love playing live, for which a duo becomes a trio with the addition of a drummer). If you can’t make it to America, seek out Lion, HVOB’s new EP. If you can make it to Vienna, seek out Müller’s must-visits.
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“Have lunch with a clear conscience: this place is healthy, organic, regional and the people are incredibly nice. And it all tastes great. If you don’t like the lentil dhal, you’re beyond help.”
4 Propaganda Stubenring 20
“There’s no excuse for a bad haircut when you’re in Vienna. The city is home to Wolfgang ‘Jackson’ Steinbauer and his tiny salon with a huge picture of Marilyn Manson on the wall.”
2 zimmer 37 Am Karmelitermarkt 37–39
“This market is a bit boho, but that doesn’t matter. At Zimmer 37, a mother-anddaughter team make wonderful, wonderful food. It’s the best place to sit in the sun and eat, or just have a coffee, anywhere in Vienna. Close by, you also have the Schöne Perle and Pizza Mari restaurants.”
kletterhallewien.at
3 St Josef Mondscheingasse 10
1 burggasse 24 Burggasse 24
“I know no better shop in Vienna. Big, wide, open white spaces. Wonderful vintage items, especially the old clothes.”
The Vienna Climbing Hall offers bouldering and climbing spaces and a slackline course. Climbing heaven for beginners and pros.
FUTURE WAR One of Europe’s finest laser tag arenas. Pursue your opponents in a misty maze and unleash Arnie one-liners in his home country. laserfun-vienna.at
FLY AN AIRBUS 5 Pratersauna Waldsteingartenstrasse 135
“Vienna’s best club is loved all over Europe. It has the best bookings, the best garden and the best pool. We’ve worked with the best and most dazzling VJs from the Pratersauna.”
Practise take-offs and tell cabin crew to take seats for landing on a flight simulator. Simulated engine failure is heck of a thing. viennaflight.at
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albert Exergian, silvia druml
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P RO M OT I O N
MUST-HAVES! 1
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1 HELLY HANSEN EVOLUTION JACKET This jacket is a Helly Hansen classic. Waterproof, breathable and seam-sealed, it’s insulated with Warmcore by PrimaLoft to keep you cozy and comfortable. Other features include articulated arms for extra mobility, a ski pass pocket, snap-away powder skirt and dual hand-warming pockets. Plus the racing stripe has been redesigned to make you look even faster as you cruise down the slopes with style. RRP: €255. Member’s Price €242.25. 2 HELLY HANSEN LIFA DRY REVOLUTION LONG SLEEVE Never has a base layer been so functional. This Helly Hansen Dry Revolution long-sleeve base layer top for men features the unique LIFA staydry fibre technology, which is designed to provide a dry layer next to your skin during aerobic activity, and a seamless construction for comfort. RRP: €55. Member’s Price €52.25. 3 HELLY HANSEN MEN’S LEGEND CARGO PANTS With a classic resort look that never goes out of style, these breathable, waterproof, insulated ski pants for men will keep you dry, warm and comfortable when time on the mountain is a priority. With PrimaLoft insulation for exceptional thermal regulation, there’s also mechanical venting to keep you warm or cool depending on the conditions and activity. The fit is relaxed, and they come with braces, articulated knees and boot gaitors. RRP: €160. Member’s Price €152. 4 SMARTWOOL ATHLETE ARTIST SKI SOCKS Designed by artist Anthony Boronowski, these socks are the most technical works of art of the slopes. The 4-Degree Elite Fit System uses two elastics for greater stretch and recovery to keep the sock in place, while Reliawool Technology creates the most comfortable and durable SmartWool ski sock yet. There’s also strategically placed mesh ventilation zones to provide ventilation for temperature and moisture management. RRP: €25. Member’s Price €23.75.
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5 OSPREY CYBER PORT The Cyber Port is a streamlined, technically sophisticated panel-style daypack designed with access to and interaction with 21st-century electronic devices as a priority. It has a zippered main compartment with a fleece-lined, padded laptop/tablet sleeve, a window that lets you use a tablet without removing from the pack, so it stays safe and protected, an internal organiser and a zippered sunglasses compartment. RRP: €90. Member’s Price €85.50. 6 SCOTT CHASE MIPS Combining innovative technology with style and function, the Chase helmet includes G-Vent Technology to reduce goggle fogging and increase helmet airflow. It also has the addition of MIPS technology, which makes it one of Scott’s most protective and most stylish helmets in the category. The MIPS technology means that if the helmet is subjected to an oblique impact, the low friction layer allows the shell to rotate relative to one’s head, which helps protect the brain. RRP: €145. Member’s Price €137.75.
All items available from 53 Degrees North in Blanchardstown, Carrickmines, Cork and online. www.53degreesnorth.ie
Action!
AWARD WINNING INFO
MUSIC
Insider knowledge ahead of the 54th Grammys, on January 26
James Mercer is a busy man. The 42-year-old from Hawaii is lead singer of The Shins, whose playful, psychedelic indie songs have been conquering charts and critics’ hearts for a dozen years. Since 2009, he has also been involved in Broken Bells, with his friend Danger Mouse (one half of Gnarls Barkley, and producer of The Black Keys and Norah Jones). As a duo, they proclaim their love of obscure pop and understatedly odd dance music, which sounds strange but works splendidly: Broken Bells’ debut album sold 700,000 copies in the US. A second album, After The Disco, is out now. Here, Mercer reveals what inspired him as he was working on it.
Playlist BROKEN BELLS SINGER JAMES MERCER AND FIVE of the best records you’ve never heard
brokenbells.com
1 Throwing Muses 2 Smith Westerns Not Too Soon
Varsity
“To me this song sums up everything that the ’90s were about. Throwing Muses were a girl band, which was a cool thing back then and they were also one of the first bands I ever saw live back when I went to high school in England. Not Too Soon is a classic power pop song. It may sound very 1991, but it’d still be successful in any era.”
“They are young new indie band. They have this song called Varsity, which is the title track of their current album. I love it. It sounds like a classic ’80s radio song. It’s very easy to listen to. I love their lightheartedness. We were trying to get them to tour with Broken Bells three years ago, but unfortunately they were busy doing something else.”
4 Fruit Bats
5 Blur
“You’re Too Weird was written by my buddy Eric Johnson from the band Fruit Bats. It’s a love song he wrote for his wife. Well, maybe not exclusively for her. But it’s beautiful and brilliantly written. I met Eric 15 years ago touring when he was playing in his former, highly underestimated band Califone and we just became good friends.”
“Blur released their first new song since 2003 on their website as a free download on April 1 three years ago. Almost no one paid it any attention – at least not in the States. Which is insane! I thought Fool’s Day was great: one of Blur’s best songs ever. I hoped at the time that the track would herald a new album, but I’m still waiting.”
You’re Too Weird
Fool’s Day
3 Apples In Stereo The Golden Flower
“I learned a fair amount about how to write songs listening to this one. It’s a strange song with strange chords. It was a 7-inch that came for free when you bought the Tone Soul Evolution album on vinyl. It was this thing that would fall out when you opened the sleeve. Really annoying, but what can you do? It’s one of my favourite songs ever.”
Stevie Wonder In Nigeria on the night of the 1976 ceremony, he appeared via live satellite link-up. Host Andy Williams asked, “Stevie, can you see us now?” It was Williams’ last Grammy appearance.
M O U N TA I N G R O OV E M eta l to the p eda l?
SETTING THE RHYTHM Music to fill your leg muscles with lactic acid by: all tunes-loving mountain-bikers should have one of these Bluetooth speakers, with a 10-hour battery and rugged all-terrain performance, in their bottle holders. scosche.com
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The Hungarian conductor, who died in 1997, is the most-Grammyed, with 31 trophies to his name. He could be overhauled by bluegrass musician Alison Krauss, who, aged 42, has 27 awards.
Sinead O’Connor The only person ever to refuse a Grammy is the Irish singer, protesting the increasing commercialisation of the awards. Milli Vanilli had to return theirs because of a ‘fake vocals’ controversy.
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florian obkircher
Overlooked anthems
Georg Solti
Getty Images (2), Corbis, universalmusic, press handout
Double-time: James Mercer is the singer and guitarist in two bands
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games
Criminal behaviour: stealing to survive and surviving to steal in Thief
Make Millions Making Gam es Biggestearning titles on crowd-funding website Kickstarter
Torment: Tides Of Numenera US$4.18m More than 70,000 people chipped in for a sciencefiction RPG set about a billion years in the future.
It’s a steal Thief watch out! this game might run off with every minute of your spare time “Let me tell you about this city,” says one Thief character, of the game world. “If it were my mother, I would say I was adopted.” This place is dark and dirty, the setting of an eagerly awaited instalment in one of video games’ most influential series. The first Thief was one of three 1998 games that defined and popularised the sneak-’em-up, or firstperson stealth adventure, for modern gamers, along with the classic Metal Gear Solid and the ninja-rich Tenchu: Stealth Assassins. Without them, there would be no Assassin’s Creed or Splinter Cell and it’s with those two games in mind that gamers will approach the rebooted Thief, released worldwide in February. They will find a vast game world, missions, objectives: the standard stealth set-up. But the atmosphere, thick with steampunk urban stink and a genuine sense of grubby dread, makes Thief worth taking. Available for Xboxes One and 360, PlayStations 3 and 4, and PC.
paul wilson
thiefgame.com
Thief: eyes on the prize
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o u t n ow
Sensaitional
We can’t stop playing Clumsy Ninja!
He looks like an escapee from Cartoon Network, but the ninja’s ultra-realistic movement makes training him – the game’s sole purpose – an addictive iPhone delight. He feels real and you feel his progress, and that’s what keeps you coming back. Level 77 next…
Project Eternity US$3.97m Another RPG, from the makers of Star Wars and Fallout games, with a Game Of Thronesish setting.
naturalmotion.com
You will obey Hot game of Cold War intrigue
Many of us play games to escape from the daily grind of modern bureaucracy: Papers Please, uniquely, plunges you into exactly that. As a border guard of a fictional Soviet state, you wield the power over those who would enter your country. Unsettlingly thrilling. For PC and Mac.
level5ia.com
Mighty No. 9 US$3.85m Japanese-style robot fun. Four fans paid $10k each to dine with maker Keiji Inafune, creator of Mega Man. Find and fund new games on kickstarter.com
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buyer’s guide
The tough stuff For life’s little adventures – and the big ones – this is the kit that will thrive and survive 3 2
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1. Sol Republic Tracks HD Indestructible and more adaptable than others in their class, these headphones allow you to swap cables and headbands as the mood takes you, while the ‘FlexTech’ compound the bands are made from means you should be able to run them over with a bus. They sound good, too. £99.95 / €121 solrepublic.com 2. Sony Xperia Z, nüüd by Lifeproof for Galaxy S4 Rugged doesn’t have to mean ugly. This streamlined 4G-ready
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handset has tempered glass, an anti-scratch, anti-shatter film and is almost completely water- and dustproof. Alternatively, strengthen an existing phone with the nüüd case: as sleek as it is tough. Phone: from £341 / €412 sonymobile.com Case: from £79.99 / €97 lifeproof.com 3. Transcend 8GB MP350 Smartphones have hurt the MP3 player market, but when a phone is unsuitable for the active life, tough little players like this one come into their own. Not
only will this give you music, radio, a voice recorder and updates on the calories you’ve burned, it clips onto your clothes, and can resist drops of rain and from height. From £22.99 / €28 uk.transcend-info.com 4. Rimowa Topas Titanium Cabin Multiwheel 55cm It’s easy to imagine Jason Bourne packing a Rimowa case – not least because the German firm’s luggage has featured in over 150 films. But this suitcase lives up to its looks with an
aluminium and magnesium shell that can withstand a long-haul battering, and a rubber seal that makes it resistant to humidity and temperatures from -100°C to 120°C. £790 / €954 selfridges.com 5. Panasonic Toughpad FZ-G1 10.1” Anyone headed to the jungle or Antarctica should consider this seriously tough tablet, designed to handle extremes of temperature, dusty, damp environments and falls from up to 4ft. In fact, anyone
who’s ever accidentally knocked an iPad off the arm of a sofa should consider it. £1,910 / €2,291 business.panasonic.co.uk 6. Roccia Vet by Diemme Benefiting from nearly two centuries of Italian mountain footwear innovation, these boots have been refined by a Norwegian design team to offer strength off the Alps, too. Each pair is handmade and includes a tough, nonslip ‘tyre tread’ sole from footwear pioneers Vibram. £190 / €229 diemmefootwear.com
7. Kaventsmann Triggerfish 904L, Nite AQUA AQ2 German craftsman Michael Barahona Fernandez makes the world’s toughest watch: a stainless steel beast (right) that can survive pressures of 300 bar (meaning it can take the weight of 3,000m of water) and being blown up by 10lbs of C4 (as proved by US special forces). It’s literally bombproof. As an everyday alternative, the illuminating Nite watch (left) can survive plenty too, thanks to its extra-thick case, sapphire crystal face and a depth rating of 300m. Triggerfish: £1,491 / €1,800 kaventsmann-watches.de Nite watch: £329.95 / €398 nitewatches.com
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LUKE KIRWAN
RUTH MORGAN
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Action!
Home advantage: Ireland begin their Six Nations campaign in Dublin From February 1
United rugby nations The Six Nations 2014 kicks off with reigning champions Wales taking on Italy in Cardiff, England travelling to France and Ireland hosting Scotland at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin. Italy and Scotland will fight to take their first overall victory, while the Welsh team pushes hard to take three titles in a row. rbs6nations.com
February 8-9
The long run
February 7-23
More for Leics The Leicester Comedy Festival is one of the world’s top standup events. This year, among the 530 shows, are Robin Ince and Romesh Ranganathan (above). comedy-festival.co.uk
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The 2014 British Athletics Indoor Championships return to Sheffield for the second year in a row, with several reigning champs defending their titles, including Olympians James Dasaolu, Eilidh Child and Robbie Grabarz, in the 100m, 400m hurdles and high jump respectively. In the 400m sprint, young Hertfordshire sprinter Jodie Williams (right), also known as Money Legs, stakes another claim for senior success. britishathletics.org.uk
January 30
Fashion on film London’s Somerset House is a fittingly grand setting for a homage to the late aristocratic magazine editor and fashion stylist Isabella Blow, with exhibitions and events continuing until early March. A select number of films will be screened in the venue’s own cinema, including, at the end of January, a rare big-screen outing for Wes Anderson’s cult classic The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, in which Blow appeared exactly a decade ago. somersethouse.org.uk
the red bulletin
Getty Images, Ross Gilmore, Seokyong Lee/Red Bull Content Pool, Graeme Murray/Red Bull Content Pool, press handout (2), Shamil Tanna, action press, Tim Kemple
save the date
January 19
February 5
Snow idea
Smoking runs
Whether it’s a white winter or not, World Snow Day will be celebrated with gusto at British snowsports hotspot the Nevis Range in Scotland. And if you’re not near Nevis when the first flakes appear, join the Red Bull Jib Network, a live feed that gives the lowdown on the best spots to ride as they pop up. redbull.co.uk/jibnetwork
Budding drifters can make like motorsport ace Mad Mike Whiddett at Drift What Ya Brung, a tyre-screeching day of smoke and spins at Bedfordshire’s Santa Pod Raceway. It’s a chance to bag some tarmac time at the drag racing venue, where drivers can drift their cars without kerbs or cops. Sign up in advance, as sessions are usually quick to sell out, or turn up to watch the next generation of drift dons show off their skills. dwyb.co.uk
February 7
Button up Andrew Hung and Benjamin Power are better known as F––k Buttons, the electronic act made famous when Danny Boyle used their sounds in the Olympic opening ceremony. They excel live, their moody sounds turn hypnotic when fed through oversized speakers. Catch them at The Forum, London, courtesy of All Tomorrow’s Parties. atpfestival.com
don’t miss one of these gruelling but rewarding runs
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february
Get ripped The nine-mile Rauceby Ripper race is held on a multi-terrain course in Lincolnshire, which weaves up hill, down dale, but hopefully not into ditch. theraucebyripper. webnode.com
15 february
From now
Lift off Tune into Channel 4 to catch Launched at Red Bull Studios, a five-part series that sees big names from the music world champion exciting new talent, with a live London performance part of the package. This year, heavyweights offering their support are Take That’s Mark Owen, Rita Ora (below) and bass lovers Rudimental, while newbies include soulful Hertfordshire singer Sam Smith and Brighton rock duo Royal Blood. channel4.com
From January 30
Wild world web The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour takes action sports flicks from the event’s Canadian base on the road, so that people not in the Rocky Mountains can enjoy them on the big screen. This year, the programme includes white-water kayak adventures in New Zealand, Danny MacAskill’s incredible bike skills and the tale of two British lads taking on America’s biggest climbing challenge. The tour visits Scotland, Wales, England and Ireland between January and May.
Be brutal A 10km in leafy Surrey? Sounds lovely. Unless, that is, it’s the Brutal Run Windmill Hill, an off-road race up steep inclines, through swamps and bogs, and along woodland trails. Prepare to feel the effects the next day. brutalrun.co.uk
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man up At off-road event TrailMan, in Eridge Park, Kent, do the 13km run or go all-out for the duathlon, a testing 20km bike ride between two 6km runs. humanrace.co.uk
banff-uk.com
the red bulletin
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magic moment
November 24, 2013 What Mark Webber did on the slow-down lap after his 217th and last Formula One Grand Prix carries a penalty: he took off his helmet. The Australian, who will race a Porsche in the World Endurance Championship this year, escaped punishment and was also able to blame the airflow for his farewell tears.
“I spent half a lap trying to get it off... it’s bloody noisy with no helmet on, I know that much”
The next issue of the Red Bulletin is out on feb 10 (UK) and Feb 11 and 14 (Ireland) 98
the red bulletin
Getty Images
Mark Webber
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