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V Magazine

V is a monthly, wide-circulation magazine that began as a more mass market version of the high art publication Visionaire.

It is edited by Stephen Gan and Christopher Bollen, and the focus is art, culture, and fashion. Contributors include Tama Janowitz, Mario Testino, Mario Sorrenti, and Karl Lagerfeld. Interview subjects have included Joan Didion, Salman Rushdie, and Norman Mailer.

V recently launched an offshoot called V Man.

W Magazine

(Hot Betty: As the star of Uggly Betty, America Ferrera)

W is a monthly American fashion magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. Considered one of the most fashionable monthly publications, W is filled with ads for high fashion houses and rivals Vogue and Vanity Fair for sophistication and style. Many draw comparisons between its self-aware elitism and that of The New Yorker.

This enormous magazine–it is nine inches wide and thirteen inches tall–has grown in popularity, and can be found at many retailers in the U.S. The scope of W has always been the haute mode, initially with a focus in couture, but shifting easily into the realm of high-end women's pret-à-porter.

Often the subject of controversy, W magazine has featured stories and covers which have provoked mixed responses from its intended audience.

Many W devotees were outraged when Lindsay Lohan was featured on the April 2005 cover.

Even more recently, W was chosen to produce and exhibit a 60-page Steven Klein portfolio of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt entitled "Domestic Bliss". The shoot was based upon Pitt's idea of the irony of the perfect American family; set in 1963, the photographs mirror the era when 1960s disillusionment was boiling under the facade of pristine 1950s suburbia.

Other controversial issues include Steven Meisel's shoot entitled A SEXUAL REVOLUTION, in which male and female models are depicted in gender-bending styles and provocative poses. In addition, Tom Ford's shoot with Steven Klein and the subsequent article on sexuality in fashion came as a shock to some loyal readers.

Prada for Men

It’s been out on the shelves of the world’s perfumeries for just a couple of months, but for us, Prada’s first men’s fragrance is an instant classic and has rocketed to the top of our list of favourite scent launches this year. Prada’s fragrance for men mixes heady sensual notes with clean, fresh soapiness. Charm is also to be found in the bottle with its noble lines, off-centre, gadgety atomiser, and attention to detail, such as the engraved plaque disclosing the signature ingredients.

(Prada for men, £60 for 100ml)

Dior's Hedi...or...Hedi's Dior?!

French designer Hedi Slimane on Tuesday delivered the boldest answer so far to the question that has been preoccupying designers from Paris to Milan this season: how to reinvent trousers for the modern man.

Prada and Calvin Klein proposed leggings and Yves Saint Laurent offered flannel pants. Slimane (pictured) went one step further in his collection for Dior Homme, sending out men in dhoti pants that swaddled the leg in fabric from the waist down to the knee.

Rendered in smart gray or black gabardine, they were paired with rough workmen's boots that gave the look an unexpected edge.

Slimane's risque proposition may seem ill-timed, as the designer has been mired in negotiations to renew his contract with Dior for more than six months.

But Dior CEO Sidney Toledano insisted the luxury group LVMH -- which owns the brand -- was thrilled with its protege.

"I'm not going to talk about the negotiations, but things are going very, very well," Toledano told The Associated Press before the show. "Our relations with Hedi are excellent."

He added that Dior would post "very strong double-digit growth" for its menswear division when it publishes 2006 results next month.

The highly influential Slimane is known for his almost obsessive pursuit of ideas -- he once published a 208-page book of photographs of curtains. By sending out a good dozen models in the dhoti pants, he was making a point that could not be ignored.

The designer attracts such slavish devotion from his clients -- Mick Jagger, Brad Pitt and David Bowie, to name a few -- that a handful are bound to pick up the look for next winter.

But selling it to ordinary men will be tough. More likely, his concept will translate into a boxier thigh on trousers sold by high street chains such as Zara and H&M.

"People are really trying to make a new kind of pant for guys so they can reinvent the silhouette, so they can wear these little micro-jackets but have these baggy comfortable pants," Godfrey Deeny, senior critic at Fashion Wire Daily, said earlier this week.

"Realistically, not many guys are going to wear leggings. But this kind of punky jodhpur thing, where they have protective gear on the inside of the knees and there's a military stripe on the side, I think a lot of people will wear them," he added.

A widespread alternative on the Paris catwalks was a tapered pant cropped above the ankle -- cuffed at Dior, or paired with vinyl Chelsea boots at Thierry Mugler, where U.S. designer Thomas Engelhart worked a tough industrial vibe.

Tight-fitting black jeans were padded between the knees, while zipped military-style flight suits came in glazed cotton or battered silver leather.

"It's funny, during the fittings all the guys were like: 'Wow, these suits are cool!'," Engelhart said backstage after the show. "It looks weird when it's like that (on the hanger), but then once you interact with it, you have a whole different reaction."

By contrast, the rakish models at Dior were swathed in gauzy cardigans whose overlong sleeves poked out beneath gray blazers, one with satin lapels, another covered with a diamante spiderweb motif.

Feminine touches like these have fueled speculation that Slimane wants to launch his own women's collection -- reportedly a sticking point in talks with Dior.

Female fans like Madonna and Nicole Kidman have already snapped up his body-skimming trouser suits, but French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld said this was no longer enough.

"They definitely need a collection of their own and I'm sure he would do it very, very well," she told the AP. "I think it would be completely different, they would be real women's dresses and nothing to do with his menswear shows."

One front row guest said she would stick to the menswear regardless.

"It won't change anything for me," declared Betty Catroux, the androgynous former model and muse of Yves Saint Laurent. "I like wearing men's clothes."

The devil dials Prada?

South Korea's LG Electronics Co. said Thursday it will start selling next month a new mobile phone that incorporates a buttonless touch-screen resembling the much-hyped iPhone from Apple Inc.

LG's Prada Phone is being produced in partnership with the Italian fashion brand. It is set to go on sale in late February for 600 euros ($780) at mobile phone dealers and Prada stores in Britain, France, Germany and Italy, and comes to Asia in March.

The company did not announce its U.S. plans.

The no-button interface with the entire phone face covered by a touch-sensitive screen resembles the Apple iPhone, announced by the U.S. company earlier this month to much fanfare as an innovation that could shake up the industry.

Apple's iPhone is set for U.S. release in June and will cost $599 for the high-end model with 8 gigabytes of internal memory -- the same as the LG model. Other markets will see the iPhone later this year and in 2008.

The LG phone has a wide-screen display and can play most popular digital music and video formats, and has a 2-megapixel camera like the iPhone. Its memory can be expanded with cards.

The iPhone allows Internet use also through regular wireless Wi-Fi networks, and has a full-featured Web browser.

The LG phone is 12 millimeters (0.47 inches) thick, just 0.4 millimeters (0.016 inches) more than the iPhone.

Christina Ricci gears up for "Speed Racer"

Christina Ricci is joining "Matrix" creators Larry and Andy Wachowski's live-action adaptation of the 1960s cartoon "Speed Racer."

"Emile Hirsch, Susan Sarandon and John Goodman already have boarded the high-octane Warner Bros. project, which is based on the anime series created by Tatsuo Yoshida for Japanese audiences and later imported to the U.S.

"Speed" centers on a young race car driver, Speed (Hirsch), and his quest for glory in his thundering, gadget-laden vehicle Mach 5. Ricci will star as Speed's girlfriend Trixie, his formidable ally on and off the track.

The show revolved around Speed's family. In the big-screen adaptation, Goodman will play Pops, a race car owner and builder. Sarandon is on board as Pops' wife, the backbone of the family as well as the Mach 5 Go Racing Team.

The Wachowskis, who are writing and directing, are eyeing a summer shoot in Berlin with a summer 2008 release.

The casting is a change in direction for Ricci, who has tended to star in such indie-oriented fare as "Monster," "Penelope" and the recent "Black Snake Moan." She also appeared on ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," a turn that earned her an Emmy nomination last year.

關於西裝

Ⅰ：關於男士西裝

一、單排釦：一般場合所穿之西裝。
雙排釦：正式場合、晚宴場合所穿，平時穿著絕不適宜。
4顆釦：一般場合所穿。
6顆釦：喜宴、辦公場合穿。
8顆釦：死人、或家裡死人、參加喪禮才穿。
(一般店家在促銷的西裝，屬於此類。不過，如果真的多了釦子，拆掉就行。）

二、後面有開尾：歐美式西裝。
後面無開尾：中式場合所穿的西裝。

三、領口處有開線：法國原製，品質較好，用來別花、別徽章的。
領口處無開線：其他國製。

四、袖後有釦：原先設計來當作備用之用，現變為裝飾用。
２顆釦：仿冒西裝。
３顆釦：標準西裝。
４顆釦：死人專用。

五、外套袖子比襯衫長：苦命
襯衫比外套袖子長：較為輕鬆活潑。

六、領帶要戴在皮帶環之上，不要太長。

七、領帶夾應夾在３－４釦間。
材質：１﹒白珍珠；２﹒小鑽類。
左夾－正式
右夾－晚宴

八、搭配之鞋、公事包的顏色：黑、咖啡
搭配之襪子的顏色：黑色（只有一個顏色！）


Ⅱ：關於領帶

一、線型模式：斜條紋、直條紋、橫條紋
１.正式場合
２.報告、專案
３.高級主管

二、花式款式：適用女性較多的場合，具柔感。
１.立體：就是規則重複的花紋
２.大花一朵
３.不規則花型：想像一下畢卡索的畫。

三、點狀式款式：具延伸性的概念。
１.學術性場合
２.文藝性場合

四、變形蟲款式：具跳躍、活潑、激勵效果。

五、其他注意事項：
１.有一類領帶屬於其他類，藝人所戴之領帶較亮、色澤較高。
２.買領帶切忌不要有所謂的「時尚風」。如上面打２０００和英文的字樣，超俗。
３.男人喜歡戴卡通型領帶的話，代表他很花心。


Ⅲ：其他穿西裝時該注意的事項

一、絕對不要在褲袋掛大哥大、鑰匙。
二、襯衫口袋的筆，插一枝就好，顏色非金即銀。不要在裡頭放煙之類的東西。
三、有些襯衫領口會做釦子，屬於比較不正式的襯衫，不要穿！顯得輕浮。
四、要讓自己便宜的白襯衫看起來比較高級，不妨在襯衫口袋處繡ｌｏｇｏ。
五、皮帶的釦環１﹒方型，(圓的是大忌)；２﹒冷色系或金色。

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series of novels by J. K. Rowling. The book title was announced on 21 December 2006 via a special Christmas-themed "hangman" puzzle on Rowling's website and confirmed shortly afterwards by the book's publishers. Rowling has stated that the final volume relates so closely to the previous book in the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, "almost as though they are two halves of the same novel." It features the adventures of the series' protagonist Harry Potter as he attempts to bring an end to his nemesis, Lord Voldemort.

The book will be released in English-speaking countries around the world at 00:01 British Summer Time on 21 July 2007. In the U.S., however, the book will be released at 00:01 local time. The book reached the top spot on both the Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble-bestseller lists just a few hours after the date was announced on 1 February 2007. American publisher Scholastic announced an initial print run of 12 million copies, together with an advertising campaign, including the staged release of the seven questions most debated by fans. The book will be 608 pages in the British edition and 784 pages in the US edition.

Rowling completed the book while staying at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh in January 2007 and left a signed statement on a marble bust of Hermes in her room which read: "JK Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (652) on 11 January 2007". In a web update on 6 February 2007, Rowling wrote, "While each of the previous Potter books has strong claims on my affections, 'Deathly Hallows' is my favourite, and that is the most wonderful way to finish the series."

Insistence

Yesterday I thought of you.
The sky was white
And the sun shone bright;
A rosebud blushed, pure and true,
Laughing at the oncoming night
While dying in the twilight,
And I thought of you.

Today I will not think of you.
My thoughts cannot stray
To that sad and lonely day,
When no point was found to follow through;
Let the seasons turn as they may,
A harvest wiping summer's fields away--
I will not think of you.

Tomorrow I will think of you;
When my memories pass before me,
Be they even comedy,
It might break my heart in two
That the love that would not take me
Could also surely see:
I always thought of you.

7種不能買的紀念品

1.夏威夷沙石

其中最危險者，莫過於夏威夷的沙石。當遊客到臨，夏威夷的旅游局已有告示板寫上“切勿取走夏威夷境内任何沙石”，許多遊客都只會以為是環保原因，不要破壞大自然而已，但其實是因為夏威夷族人的一個毒咒！

2.蘇格蘭的石頭

除了夏威夷，另一個亦有石頭詛咒的地方是蘇格蘭，但這并非很多人知道。古代的蘇格蘭勇士在死時都落下詛咒，不許外人取走那裡的土地，尤其是昔日蘇格蘭人常常入侵，令怨氣加强，故詛咒一直延續至今天。


3.西藏死人骨產品

到 西藏或尼泊爾旅游的人，總喜歡在街上的小販檔購買小精品，但有些卻不簡單，是昔日西藏巫師或貴族用奴隶人骨所做的東西，可能是人頭骨；小號角可能是人腿 骨；小盒可能是盆骨，買了你也不知道。有人說這些東西若非法擁有，容易招魂，而且可以招来尼泊爾或西藏的魂。萬一紀念品送给朋友，就真的不得了！


4.日本神社傳统娃娃

在日本許多寺廟及神社的殿内殿外，都不時會有善信送來公仔，尤其是日本常規公仔，但千萬不要取，因為這些放了多年公仔，日本人深信已有靈性，要给寺廟火燒掉或供奉在廟内，否則會害了家人。所以日本人都不愛在跳蚤地摊買舊的洋娃娃或公仔，以免惹靈。


5.土耳其邪眼

邪 眼Evil Eye，又稱藍眼Blue Eye，是土耳其最出名的紀念品，亦是最邪的東西。這是源於中東吉卜赛的巫術，掛一個邪眼在家或在身上，便可吸走外來者的邪氣及妒忌心。所以戴者經常要更 换邪眼，因邪氣滿了不但開始有魔力，而且會害人。我有個土耳其朋友就親眼看到邪眼爆開，傷害别人。

6.埃及的黑色猫神像

傳 統古文明埃及，流傳最廣的邪惡詛咒自然是法老王詛咒，只要是破壞了法老沉睡的人都會受詛咒。但原來連從法老王墓中盜取的物品都會帶來不幸，當中以被塗成黑 色的猫神像最為靈驗。在古埃及被奉為神明的貓，特別是受法老寵愛的貓，在法老死後,，會彷照它製成黑色石像放於法老墓中，並受施下詛咒，大家到埃及買手信 時一定要注意！


7.東歐近羅馬尼亞一帶的木頭

一向有吸血鬼和狼人傳說的東歐，木頭很多時會被當作對付這兩種怪物的武器（如製成十字架或木釘或木槌），亦因此特別易受到這兩種怪物的邪氣感染。

"Screaming Masterpiece"

Fans of Bjork, Mum, Sigur Ros, and other Icelandic musicians have a new reason to scream. A new video has already hit shelves on March 6 2007, a documentary about the Icelandic music scene, called “Screaming Masterpiece”.

Pitchfork Headline Bureau still defiantly anti-accent marks Björk, Sigur Rós, the Sugarcubes, Múm, and Amiina are among the high-profile artists showcased in Screaming Masterpiece, a documentary about the Icelandic music scene that will hit DVD shelves at last March 6 via Milan Records.

Writer and director Ari Alexander Ergis Magnússon used the film to explore the scene’s history through tour footage and in-depth interviews. The resulting 87-minute DVD comes with over two hours of extra interviews.

Screaming Masterpiece has appeared at over 20 international film festivals, and was also part of our own pre-Pitchfork Music Festival film screenings last summer.

Björk – new album, “Volta”

“All I wanted to do for this album was just to have fun and do something that was full-bodied and really up.”

Artist: Björk Album: Volta Other Tags: Timbaland, Antony Hegarty, Mark Bell, Chris Corsano, Brian Chippendale

On Friday, Björk opened her music box and revealed its latest treasure: Volta, the Icelandic powerhouse's forthcoming album, due out May 7 on One Little Indian/Atlantic.

The record was produced by Björk herself, and features a globe-trotting all-star cast of contributors, including Timbaland, Antony, Lightning Bolt's Brian Chippendale, percussionist Chris Corsano, African collective Konono N°1, kora virtuoso Toumani Diabaté, Chinese pipa player Min Xiao-Fen, and a ten-piece Icelandic brass section.

Last week in New York City, Pitchfork's Brandon Stosuy sat down with Björk for her first interview about the new album. (Full disclosure: Stosuy is a friend of Matthew Barney, Björk's partner.) During their lengthy chat, Björk opened up about the politics and sonics of Volta, her relationships with her collaborators, and her plans for the future.

In the first part of a series that will continue over the course of the coming weeks, Björk talks about the rhythms of Volta: how they're different from the rhythms of her previous work, and how a trip to tsunami-stricken Indonesia inspired the life-force behind the beats.

Pitchfork: On your last album, Medulla, you focused on the human voice. This album has more of a percussive feel. Were you consciously trying to focus on percussion on this album?

Björk: I guess it was really different from how I usually work. Because at least with Homogenic, Vespertine, and Medulla, if there was a starting point, it was rhythms. I don't know why, maybe because it's the thing that I don't do. With Homogenic, I would start with a programmer, just to do distorted rock beats. And we did, I think, 100 just one bar things. And by the time I had written enough songs, I would just sit down, and then I could just sort of call it, 'okay, for the chorus of this song, like beat 73, and for the verse, number two' or whatever. And for Vespertine, I had just gotten my first laptop, and it was very much about the static universe of the internet, and all the beats clicking and everything whispered. So that would be the starting point. And obviously, Medulla was a vocal album.

But with this one, it was different because I knew more emotionally what I wanted. And because I'd done two or three projects in a row that were quite serious, maybe I just needed to get that out of my system or something. So all I wanted to do for this album was just to have fun and do something that was full-bodied and really up.

I actually did the whole album, and it wasn't until the last two or three months where the only jigsaw that hadn't been solved was the rhythms. We had done a lot of experiments with rhythms but I just threw them all away because it was like every time we did something really clever with drum programming beats, it was just too pretentious for this album, it just didn't stick.

For some reason, for me it was maybe a little bit nostalgic going back to 1992, where you had really simple 808 and 909 really lo-fi drum machines, not doing anything fancy but really basic, almost like rave stuff or trance stuff, and then really, really acoustic drums. So there are a couple of tracks on this album which are actually programs, with many programming hours spent, and you listen to it, and it sounds like kettle drums or something.

Pitchfork: Marching--both the rhythm of feet and the concept of marching itself--seems to play a big part in this record. What's the significance of marching?

Björk: I just wanted to get rhythmic again. Medulla was my way of pulling out of that, refusing to be categorized as 'Oh what rhythm is she going to do next?' Just feeling the pressure of all these young drum programmers or producers or whatever you call them contacting me, like, who was going to be the flavor of the month. It had become this kind of fashion statement, it just wasn't right.

I mean, I do love one-upmanship sometimes, like when you see kids breakdancing and who can do the best tricks. It's common, it's in our nature as animals, like the birds of paradise who've got the best feathers and that sort of stuff. But it's fun when it's impulsive and it's about fun. When it becomes clever, when it becomes more of a left-brain, who can mathematically out-do the other, it's not so fun anymore. And maybe I just sort of pulled out and did a whole vocal album.

But I definitely missed my rhythms. I mean, I love rhythms. I started an all-girl punk band when I was 14 and I was the drummer, not the singer. I'm very, very, very picky when it comes to rhythms. So it was fun to approach it from another angle on this one.

And I'd be lying if I didn't say it was some sort of reaction to the state of the world today. I mean, I went in January over a year ago to Indonesia, to the area where the tsunami hit the worst. Just seeing a village of 300,000 people and 180,000 died, and people were still there digging people out and the smell of corpses and bone. The tsunami kind of scraped houses away, you could still see the floor, and the people I was with found their mom's favorite dress kind of in the mud and it was just like, outrageous.

I mean, the human race, we are a tribe, let's face it, and let's stop all this religious bullshit. I think everybody, or at least a lot of my friends, are just so exhausted with this whole self-importance of religious people. Just drop it. We're all fucking animals, so let's just make some universal tribal beat. We're pagan. Let's just march.

選一間鬼屋，看你適合什 麼工作！

你在旅行時不小心在荒山野嶺迷了路，這時天色以晚，你發覺到附近只有一間小屋子，在逼不得已只好向主人借宿。可是屋主老夫婦卻告訴你房子的四間房間都有鬧鬼；在一定要住下來的情況下，你會選擇哪間房間？

A.有個人頭從窗外惡狠很瞪著你睡覺的房間；
B.廁所會傳來開關門聲和女人嘆息聲的房間；
C.你一睡上去床就開始搖晃不讓你睡的房間；
D.半夜醒來看到一個無頭鬼坐在床邊的房間。








測驗結果:


這個測驗主要是看你的工作適性。每個人長大獨立之後，面對生活開銷或是家計壓力都不得不到外面去工作賺錢。可是當你面對報紙上、網路上密密麻麻、多如牛毛的工作機會，常常會一下子就迷失了，不知道自己的方向到底在哪裡？究竟自己比較適合從事哪方面的職業？



A.有個人頭從窗外惡狠很瞪著你睡覺的房間

你 比較適合SOHO一族，或是醫生、律師等職業。這類型的工作多半是擁有自己的專屬空間，有一定的收入來源，而且比較固定不容易被外界所影響者。有人從窗外 瞪你也代表來自於周遭對你的不滿和異樣的眼光；在窗外代表不容易對你造成影響。例如老師的工作，不管你教得再爛，甚至被批評到一文不值，可是並不會讓你因 此丟了飯碗。其他例如公務員的肥缺也都可以歸類於此。


B.廁所會傳來開關門聲和女人嘆息聲的房間

你比較喜歡的是 一份很穩定的工作，尤其是公司的主管(員工)等比較不需要到外面拋頭露面的內勤工作。廁所會傳來開關門聲和女人嘆息聲代表你會受到來自於上級的壓力或是主 管的責罵；比較起來，你寧願整天待在辦公室裡吹冷氣也勝過到外面去忍受風吹日曬；其他諸如高科技產業的技師或工程師，企業的網路工程師或是會計等等也都是 屬於此類。


C.你一睡上去床就開始搖晃不讓你睡的房間

你比較適合從事業務的工作。你的個性比較好動，無 法整天坐在辦公室甚至悶出病來，你也不喜歡受拘束，所以你的職業也比較傾向於可以常常到外頭走動的工作，像是拉保險、直銷等等。床開始搖晃不讓你睡代表你 做業務時，拜訪客戶常常會發生的痤插B碰壁。其他像是大老闆的司機或是送收貨員? ]都可以歸於此類。


D.半夜醒來看到一個無頭鬼坐在床邊的房間

你 適合從事接近群眾的工作。例如電視明星、立委等需要群眾支持的工作都算是。無頭鬼坐在床邊代表這個人和你密不可分，可是你又無法看清他是誰。就像棒球明星 會累積一定的球迷，也靠球迷吃飯，可是又無法知道誰是誰一樣。其他像是公司的公關、便利商店的店員或是銀行的服務人員也都可以歸於此類。

Lazy Days

Boredom
sapping my strength
my mood painted in grays
like the autumn sky I’m watching
outside...

A sigh
freed from my lips
seems louder than a scream
as it ripples across the room
and then...

Silence
stillness returns
and the chill comes seeping
bleeding off the hues once again
to gray...

Another one of those lazy days.




I've commented in the past that I seem to do better with my writing when I'm depressed, drunk or upset. I think it's something to do with tapping into the more primal portions of my emotions.

Or maybe it's just boredom. I haven't the foggiest...