Berlin Wall graffiti returns as leather fashion

By Jacob Comenetz
BERLIN (Reuters Life!) - Daniel Rodan, Berlin's leather fashion designer to the stars, unveiled a new collection of Berlin Wall art-themed clothing on Tuesday as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations of the fall of the Cold War barrier.
The leather dresses and menswear feature art from the East Side Gallery, the 1,300 meter-long (4,265 feet) stretch of the Wall painted by 118 artists from 21 countries in 1990. Its graffiti art quickly came to symbolize the Wall itself.
One revealing mini-dress shows a famous image of the "Trabi," the classic East German automobile, breaking through the concrete landmark that divided Berlin during the Cold War.
Rodan, whose clients include television and singing star David Hasselhoff and singer Tina Turner, said tackling a political subject was something new.
"Bringing together these three things: the political event, fashion design, and the art of the East Side Gallery, and then making sure the clothes fit on the celebrities -- it was a real challenge," Rodan told a news conference.
The leather outfits will be worn by prominent musicians and athletes at events during the coming months, then auctioned off for charity after the 20th anniversary celebrations on November 9.
"It's great that we can now have fun with things which previously were simply a catastrophe," said the Berlin cabaret artist Chin Meyer at the presentation. "We have to be artistically creative with things we find painful."
Other new designs presented by Rodan included barbed wire made of leather as a sexy fashion accessory.
Berlin's year-long celebration of the fall of the Wall in 1989 will culminate with a 'Festival of Freedom' at the Brandenburg Gate and the toppling of 1,000 giant dominoes.
(Editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: Reuters

Chef DeLucie lifts lid on cooking for celebrities

By Richard Leong
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - John DeLucie didn't think the world needed another recipe for roast chicken so instead of writing a cookbook the chef at New York's trendy Waverly Inn decided to write a memoir instead.
Since he took over the restaurant in 2007 DeLucie has cooked updates of his American comfort food to celebrities and locals.
In "The Hunger: A Story of Food, Desire, and Ambition," he lifts the lid on what it is like cooking for the rich and famous.
He spoke to Reuters about his career, ambitions and how to get a coveted table at his restaurant.
Q: Describe yourself as a chef.
A "I'm practical. Does a chef want to be known for cooking a hamburger? As a chef, you want to be known for cooking something elegant. But when you become a partner, the market is telling you it wants to eat this product. Then who am I to say I won't serve that? Anyway I can accommodate my customers, I will gladly do it."
Q: How did you come up with the menu at The Waverly Inn?
A: "I had opened many restaurants over the years. There was a concept put forward. I'm not one of these chefs that could dictate a whole menu ... We had this space that's 100 years old. It had been The Waverly Inn for many, many years. It had served this kind of cuisine for many years. We weren't going to mess with that. I just wanted to improve upon it. My job is to get it out of the kitchen and make it as good as it could be."
Q; What is like running a celebrity hotspot?
A: "It's really a neighborhood joint with neighbors who happen to be famous. We do have people who are not so famous come."
Q: For you first book, why did you choose to write a memoir instead of a cookbook?
A: "What the world doesn't need is another recipe for roast chicken so I wasn't interested in writing a recipe book. I have a friend who's a writer. We sit around, drink coffee and talk about my life as a corporate drone and this new life as a book. The stories and the anecdotes are kind of funny, and I began to write them down."
Q: How has the New York City restaurant scene changed over the years since you became a chef?
A: "It has become immensely casual. There were a lot of great French restaurants with old-style traditions that are gone now. Now hardly anyone wears a hat and coat. People try to come in wearing shorts. We try to curb that a little bit. To me, it's a little sad in a way."
Q: What other aspirations do you have? Continued...
Source: Reuters

Shock gives way to praise for Madrid bombings comic

By Emma Pinedo
MADRID (Reuters Life!) - A journalist, a police officer and a bereaved aunt are among characters who tell the story of the 2004 Madrid train bombings in an unusual format: a comic book.
The project to create a graphic novel on bombings that killed 191 people and wounded 1,857, initially shocked some Spaniards, who feared it might trivialize the most lethal al Qaeda-related attack in Europe.
"We're aware this is an issue that transcends the usual comic reader, but we want to get a bigger audience because we think this is of wide interest," Antoni Guiral, one of the writers of "March 11. The graphic novel" said in an interview with Reuters.
Its authors have had to overcome popular ideas about comics.
"A lot of people have told us 'how dare we do something humorous'. But a comic isn't necessarily funny, the graphic novel is a form of communication like cinema," Guiral said.
The novel's writers and artists were at pains to avoid traumatic images of the dead and wounded.
The comic strip uses artwork on display in Madrid during March 2004, such as Picasso's Guernica and Rene Magritte's "Clef de Champs," to portray the terror and panic of the attacks, and the pain and grief of survivors and the families of victims.
"We make no concession to people's morbid curiosity. We have looked for symbolism," said Guiral.
The idea to create a cartoon strip about the attacks on four packed, early-morning commuter trains came from a similar graphic novel on the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York.
The story is based on information from the bombing trial, which concluded the Islamist group which planned the attack was inspired by al Qaeda.
The novel starts with the sentencing in October 2007 of 21 people for involvement in the attacks. It continues with flashbacks by fictitious characters in the days up to March 11, 2004, and events after, such as a police raid on a Madrid apartment during which some bombers blew themselves up.
Victims group leader Pilar Manjon, whose son was killed in the attacks, said she thought of comics as something for children until she saw the cartoon strip.
"Reading it, I saw part of my life reflected," she writes in the novel's prologue.
To research the comic, authors spoke to railway workers who treated the injured, family of victims, police, psychologists and the assistant to the prosecutor in the case.
The comic has met a poor reception among some Spaniards who believe Basque guerrillas ETA were behind the attacks. Official investigations have ruled out their involvement. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Taipei diner's Jurassic theme helps avoid extinction

Dino-diner stays trendy in crisis
Play Video
By Ralph Jennings
TAIPEI (Reuters Life!) - A dark but never empty restaurant in Taipei has avoided extinction over two decades of ever-changing food fads and themes by standing by its dinosaurs.
The three-storey Jurassic Restaurant packs hundreds of patrons a night into cavernous halls alongside 6-meter (19 ft) long dinosaur skeletons, some with gaping mouths big enough to swallow a beer keg.
Dinosaurs may have gone extinct millions of years ago, but their appeal lives on, said restaurateur Huang Pei-song.
"Because dinosaurs don't exist, everyone will say 'wow, look at these'," Huang said.
Jurassic Restaurant, named after a era some 135 to 203 million years ago when dinosaurs such as Diplodocus roamed earth, opened in 1988 as most Taipei bars were relying on American "Wild West" themes, which have since gone out of fashion.
The original owner was also a Jurassic junkie.
Today, the place competes with restaurants that specialize in hospital, airliner and toilet decor in a country that seems obsessed with theme diners.
The restaurant can seat up to 500 people, including some in private rooms lined with black fiberglass rock. Restroom taps are shaped like Tyrannosaurus Rex heads, as are the handsets on the house pay phones.
The menu is, of course, dinosaur-free, and offers predominantly Chinese food.
And Jurassic's formula has hardly fossilized.
Gaping dinosaur heads pass for a marquee, still enticing up to 300 people a night, many from the busy surrounding neighborhood.
Some have been so many times they barely notice the fangs hanging over their beer mugs.
"This is a good place to chat and drink," said regular customer Henry Chang, 45. "The place is big but relaxed."
(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Source: Reuters

Rock festivals fighting financial washout

By Marton Dunai
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - The Prodigy or Fatboy Slim are not enough to persuade Dorina Keresztes to fork out for a rock festival ticket this summer. She says she will find other ways to party.
"Lounging in a park drinking wine with friends is, you know, free," said the 22-year old student from Budapest.
Glastonbury in Britain may be a sell-out, but in the north and east of Europe from Denmark's Roskilde to Romania's B'esfest and Hungary's Sziget, the uncertainties of recession are making 2009 as a rock festival 'summer of love' a hard sell.
As some sponsors pull out, the discounts on offer look geared to publicity. Bring 45 people to Sziget -- usually Europe's third-largest event after Roskilde and Glastonbury -- and all can go half price, organizers say.
Other festivals are postponing planned price hikes, particularly in eastern Europe where the crisis has fallen on countries with already much slimmer economic cushions than in the West. Many have had to scale back.
As a purely discretionary pastime, festivals have to strike the right balance between price and value, says Christof Huber, general secretary of Yourope, an organization of Europe's summer festivals. "That could be difficult this year."
Hungary's unemployment rate is near 10 percent, its highest in at least 13 years, and economic growth indicators are at their weakest since the end of Communism. The country is dependent on a $25 billion IMF loan. Public sentiment is in an abyss.
Luring foreigners by highlighting eastern Europe's relative affordability is just about the best hope some festivals have.
"As we raise prices to catch up with festivals in western Europe, the Hungarian audience slowly melts," said Gabor Takacs, financial director of Sziget. "But to westerners, this is still cheap."
Sziget has in recent years drawn French, German, Dutch and British visitors by its affordability relative to their home events, he said.
A six-day pass for Sziget, which means "island" and takes place on an island in the Danube river, costs 150 euros ($208) -- more affordable to a German on average take-home pay of 2,140 euros per month than to a Hungarian, who earns an average of 475 euros, according to the latest Eurostat data.
"That (price) is obscene," said Keresztes. "The ticket price is only the beginning. You have to eat, drink, smoke..."
However, the cost of staging a festival also rises if, like Hungary's, your currency has weakened sharply. Sziget's Takacs said foreign headliners' fees -- the biggest expense, which can reach as much as $1 million -- grew by about 20 percent as the forint weakened this year.
And if Hungary is an indication, Western tourists are also slowing: Hungary's Statistical Bureau said on its Web site foreign visits were down by a fifth so far in 2009 and the Tourism Board expects a 5 percent drop for the season, it said in a statement.
CHILL Continued...
Source: Reuters

China splashes out for Expo, U.S. may miss out

By Simon Rabinovitch
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - At one end of the World Expo grounds in Shanghai stands the Chinese pavilion, nearly complete, a futuristic, soaring design. At the other end is the U.S. site, an empty patch of soil in the shadow of its Canadian neighbor.
With less than 11 months until the fair opens in Shanghai, the United States is short of cash for building its pavilion and in danger of missing an event that will be attended by at least 191 countries, draw up to 70 million visitors and rank at the top of China's business and political agenda for much of 2010.
The Chinese government has opened its wallet to help fund the attendance of more than 100 countries from Nepal to Samoa and Mali to Zimbabwe. The United States, however, cannot count on such generosity.
"The United States should be a developed country, so we cannot give it financial aid," said Zhong Yanqun, vice-chairwoman of Shanghai Expo. "We do believe that the American government, businesses and people all want to have a wonderful pavilion."
But the United States is hamstrung by its own rules that prevent the government from financing world fairs.
U.S. organizers have instead been forced to go cap in hand to companies to get sponsorship for the needed funds, only to run into the wreckage of the financial crisis. Of their $61 million target, they have so far raised $6 million. And the clock is ticking.
"This Expo is a national statement of how China views itself and its relationships with the world," said Frank Lavin, chairman of the U.S. Pavilion steering committee.
"Just as a failure of the U.S. Olympic team to participate in the Beijing Olympics would not have been a positive reflection, I think a failure of the U.S. to have a pavilion would also not to be taken positively," he said.
Only two other countries that have diplomatic relations with China have yet to confirm their participation in the Expo: Colombia and Andorra.
HOOPLA
The World Expo lags some distance behind the Olympics by virtually any measure; international cachet, political significance, advertising dollars and television viewership.
But that is not deterring Shanghai. The city is spending $44 billion to build or expand eight subway lines, two airport terminals, two train stations, a restored riverfront, parks and roads, not to mention the 1,300 acre Expo site.
Excitement, in Shanghai, at least, is palpable.
Signs with the "Better Life, Better City" slogans dot the city. Countdown clocks stand in hotel lobbies. Vendors hawk key rings and plush toys in the image of Haibao, the turquoise molar-shaped mascot. And the skyline is wreathed in dust from all the construction.
Organizers think that up to 95 percent of the Expo visitors will be Chinese. Those able to afford entrance tickets, priced at 160 yuan ($23.40), will fall squarely within China's emerging consumer class that so tantalizes foreign companies. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Director John Woo on a new mission: boosting Chinese films

By Belinda Goldsmith
SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - Hollywood film director John Woo has returned to his roots to bring a traditional Chinese story to the big screen, and hopes this will garner new interest for Chinese films globally.
Woo, well known for his choreographed action movies such as "Mission: Impossible II," said "Red Cliff" aims to convince young Chinese that movies don't need a Hollywood stamp to be good and to prove the merits of Chinese films to Western audiences.
"Red Cliff," the most expensive Asian-financed movie made with a $80 million budget, is about the ancient Chinese battle of that name. It is Woo's first Chinese-language film since the 1992 thriller "Hard-Boiled" and his first U.S. release in six years.
Woo said the scale of the movie made it an epic with action and romance akin to "Troy," "Gladiator" or even "Lawrence of Arabia" that should appeal to an international audience.
"I wanted to prove that in China we have the ability and the talent to make big movies like Hollywood but adding something that's never been seen before," Woo told Reuters on the sidelines of the 56th Sydney Film Festival where "Red Cliff" is showing.
"I wanted to make a movie that would appeal to people all over the world, that would bring people together because even though we come from different cultures, we have a lot in common."
Woo, 63, who has directed over 26 films, is well known for his Hollywood movies such as "Face/Off" and "Broken Arrow." He is renowned in Asia for gangster dramas and action movies including "The Killer" and "A Better Tomorrow."
But Woo said he has struggled over the years to unite his two audiences, so with "Red Cliff" he set out to make a movie that rose above cultural and historical barriers.
However, the movie has had different versions released in Asia and elsewhere.
In Asia, the film was released in two parts, totally four hours in length, but for Western markets Woo cut the sub-titled movie back to a single film running for 2- hours.
"This was hard to do but trimming the movie has not changed the story or the spirit of the movie at all," said Woo. "But I would not do it that way again. It was too hard."
Woo said financing the film, despite its high price tag, had been easy and the movie had already made a good profit.
His own production company, Lion Rock Productions, was joined by China Film Group Corp, Taiwan's CMC Entertainment, Japan's Avex Entertainment, China's Chengtian Entertainment and Korea's Showbox.
"Everybody loves the story and most people in Asia have read the book ("Romance of the Three Kingdoms") on which it is based. They also had a lot of confidence in me," he said.
The film is set in the year 208 in the dying days of the Han dynasty, culminating in the battle of Red Cliff in which 2,000 ships were burned. Continued...
Source: Reuters

"Made in Hong Kong" wine hopes to please Asian palates

By Gary Ling
HONG KONG (Reuters Life!) - It's got no vineyards of its own, but a new winery hopes its "Made In Hong Kong" label will make a mark on the growing Asian wine market.
The 8th Estate Winery has produced Hong Kong's first wine, using grapes that are shipped frozen from other countries.
The thawing, fermentation, aging and blending of the grapes takes place at the winery housed in a high-rise warehouse, which has just released its first batch of reds, whites and ice wines.
"There is an initial novelty value, a little bit of a shock seeing a bottle which says 'Product of Hong Kong' because there has never been a wine bottle that has said that before," winery director Lysanne Tusar told Reuters.
"We always label where our grapes came from and we are quite proud to say where the varieties are sourced," she added.
The winery's whites range from Sauvignon Blancs to Chardonnays. The reds include Merlots and Cabernet Sauvignons.
Tusar said all their grapes for 2007 came from Washington state in the United States. For 2008, the grapes were from Italy.
The 8th Estate has so far produced 100,000 bottles, of which 60,000 have been sold. The rest are being aged.
Since the wines are only distributed to local restaurants and hotels, the winery uses no sulfates or preservatives, which Tusar says gives the wine a distinctive flavor. Some fans agree.
"I think it's quite good. Maybe the texture of red wines from France would be more complicated," Charmane Lee, who attended a recent tasting of The 8th Estate wines.
WINE AMBITIONS
Wine consumption in China, and many countries in Asia not traditionally associated with drinking it, is growing fast, driven by the growing ranks of affluent, young and often Westernized professionals.
The winery says it has tweaked its wines in order to match the Chinese palate and compliment Chinese cuisine.
Last year, Hong Kong scrapped taxes on wines in a bid to position itself as Asia's wine hub.
Wine imports have since grown 83 percent year on year to HK$3 billion ($387.1 million), the city has signed wine pacts with countries including Spain and Hungary, and a slew of rare and fine wine auctions have been held. Continued...
Source: Reuters

South Korea's Incheon voted world's best airport

SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) - South Korea's Incheon International Airport was voted the best in the world for 2009 in an annual survey dominated by Asian airports.
The survey, by British-based consultancy Skytrax, covered more than 190 airports and is based on the results from 8.6 million passenger questionnaires completed from 2008 to 2009.
Incheon narrowly beat Hong Kong International Airport, last year's number one which came in second, and Singapore's Changi, which fell to third place this year from number 2 in 2008.
Skytrax said in a statement that the final margins between the top three airports were so narrow that at one stage the company thought it would have a three-way tie for first place in the "World Airport Awards."
"Incheon is an airport that has been in the global top 5 ranking for the World Airport Awards during the past 5-6 years, and it is a great achievement for them to secure this premier mark of customer satisfaction," Skytrax CEO Edward Plaisted said.
The survey evaluates traveler experiences across 39 different airport service and products, ranging from check-in, arrivals, transfer through to departure at the gate.
Switzerland's Zurich airport was the highest ranked European airport, and was also voted the best in the region, coming in at number 4, while Germany's Munich airport was voted in at number 5, the same position it was in last year.
Japan's Kansai and Centrair Nagoya airports were also among the top 10, as was Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur airport.
New Zealand's Auckland airport, which was also voted the best in the Australia-Pacific region, rounded up the top 10.
In the regional categories, Dallas/Fort Worth was voted the best airport for North America, Peru's Lima the best for South America and Panama's airport the best in Central America.
Tel Aviv aws voted the Middle East's best airport and Cape Town the best in Africa.
(A list of the world's top 10 airports is on www.airlinequality.com/news/090609_Airports.htm)
(Writing by Miral Fahmy; Editing by David Fox)

Source: Reuters

More Australia firms block social sites in downturn

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - More Australian companies are blocking access to social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook, trying to make employees more productive in a sagging economy, the country's dominant phone company says.
Figures released by Telstra Corp and Internet security specialists MessageLabs show a four-fold spike in the number of times employers have blocked access to social networking sites between June 2008 and April 2009.
Some 6,000 attempts to access social networking sites are blocked each day, compared with 2,000 a day 10 months ago.
"If an employee spends as much as an hour a day on Facebook, it can end up costing a business thousands of dollars in lost time over the course of a year," Telstra Business Executive Director Brian Harcourt said.
"Tweeting, friending or poking your way through the working day may not be the best way to improve the productivity of those many small businesses which are battling to find a way through the challenging economy," he said in a statement.
According to a review of web-usage trends of Australian small and medium enterprises, the total number of URLs "blocked" by organizations has jumped by 193 percent since January, the majority of which are social networking sites.
Bigger companies, including Telstra, have introduced guidelines to staff on acceptable web usage, the statement said.
"There is a clear need for formal policies on the use of social networking sites in the workplace and the appropriate software tools that support those policies," Harcourt said.
On top of distracting workers, excessive online social networking in a smaller office can also drain expensive bandwidth and cut into IT costs, says Kerrie-Ann Turner of MessageLab's parent company Symantec.
"Individual employers have different views on social networking but the overwhelming trend seems to favor blocking access to these sites, particularly in light of the economic environment," Turner said.
Social networking sites are booming, with the latest figures by Nielsen Online showing the number of minutes spent on them in the United States almost doubling over the past year.
But a recent study by the University of Melbourne showed that people who use the Internet for personal reasons at work are about 9 percent more productive than those who do not.
(Writing by Miral Fahmy; Editing by Valerie Lee)

Source: Reuters