September 12th, 2008
Every break, I go home and get my hair cut and its color re-touched, my face pampered, my hands and feet manicured and pedicured, and my wardrobe updated with items I wouldn’t be able to get in the U.S., or in New Haven, at least. I go to one or two new restaurants that have opened in the time I was away (and rejoice silently when I remember I don’t have to tip there, because “service charge” is included in the bill), but most importantly, I make sure to stuff myself with greasy street food, rated by the late food critic R.W. Apple as one of the best and most varied in the world.
Welcome to Singapore, or Uniquely Singapore, as our Tourism Board would prefer me to say: a fine city, land of the free market but a censored press, home to the materially well-off but politically oppressed. The first thing friends at Yale ask me when they find out I’m from Singapore is whether chewing …
May 14th, 2007
SphereMagazine.com is proud to present (at long last) our fifteenth edition, Urbane. Originally scheduled for a February release in print, we owed it to all writers, artists, and staffers who worked tirelessly on this issue to make sure that their work would be displayed in its full glory. We will be loading all of the articles and images from our previous fourteen editions dating back to October 2004 in the weeks ahead to give all of our contributors the shine they deserve while ensuring that you get the full Sphere experience to complement the daily updates - that’s straight, no chaser. Enjoy!
CONRTIBUTING WRITERS
Andrew Bartholomew, Kate Brubacher, Lauren Gaston-Hawkins, Jennifer Harris, AJ Hopkins, Albert Lawrence, Sharifa Love, Dayo Olopade, Jon Pitts-Wiley, Su Ching Teh
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
Alvin Black III, Julian Darwall, AJ Hopkins, Matt Lucas, Christien Oliver, Amber Wiley
Cover Photo: Julian Darwall
May 14th, 2007
Beijing is at a fascinating stage of its development right now. In the run-up to the 2008 Olympics, the city is tearing itself down and building itself up again at a breakneck pace. The result is a city of huge, Blade Runner-esque skyscrapers, and ancient, winding back alleys lined with courtyard homes; techno-blaring nightclubs and old men playing mahjong with their shirts rolled up over their bellies; Audis and rickshaws. The intrepid Westerner in Beijing will want to get a taste of the old and the new during his visit.
Old Beijing
Best Tourist Site: Many of Beijing’s most popular tourist destinations, like the Forbidden City and the Ming Tombs, have been rendered too Disneylike by the government’s aggressive “restoration.” But the Temple of Heaven, or Tiantan, is still breathtaking. The temple itself is incredibly beautiful, an ornate work of incredible detail and vivid color. Buddhists still come to burn incense at the outlying temples. The surrounding parks are serene and seemingly endless. You can almost forget that you’re in the …
May 13th, 2007
Witness the before and after of urban development in Pittsburgh’s Golden Triangle from 1900 to 2002.
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY ALEX GARVIN & ASSOCIATES, INC.
Before, 1900
After, 2002
Compare them side by side: Golden Triangle 1900-2002
May 13th, 2007
Touting itself as “the quintessential 24-hour neighborhood,” New York’s Meatpacking District embodies the spectrum of urbanity. At any given time of day, you’ll find yourself among meatpacking plants, high end fashion boutiques, and “I’m on the list” nightclubs, all while never giving this apparent dissonance a second thought. SphereMagazine.com takes you inside.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JULIAN DARWALL
Hogs, heifers, and haute couture
The urbane look
Delivering the bistro experience
Meatpacking personae
May 13th, 2007
“Until the Harlems and racial ghettos of our nation are destroyed and the Negro is brought into the mainstream of American life, our beloved nation will be on the verge of being plunged into the abyss of social disruption.”—Martin Luther King, Jr.
Don’t ask a white person where he’s from because he’ll probably lie. Ask where he lives, and you’ll hear the truth. This is not to say there is some great conspiracy afoot—there isn’t—or that all white people are liars—they aren’t. But people understand a city very differently depending on their race. And these understandings grow farther apart each day.
Today, blacks are left with the city as reality; whites adopt the city as symbol. This diversion is extremely dangerous.
The division of the American city into two distinct realms seems taken for granted. The minority populations of almost every city in the country continue to rise. As white residents move to the suburbs, seeking shiny schools or sparkling supermarkets, minorities fill the urban void. Such has been the cumulative trend since …
May 11th, 2007
Where would you rather live: the city, the suburbs, or the country? Read on as Lauren Gaston-Hawkins, Sharifa Love, and Kate Brubacher defend their respective locales, and you’ll be better prepared to decide.
Representing…the City
Nothing can compare to city life: the fast pace of the familiar hustle, the beams of light in the sky that compete with stars, and the soft hum and whine of traffic and sirens that lull you to sleep. My childhood danced to the beat of the city. The chimes of the subway whisked me away into tunnels of wonder; the assorted faces wove an international story. The smells emitted from a cultural mixing pot and the colors of flea markets and racing cars tell the story of my life. No two days are ever the same in the city. One can listen to articulated university lectures or smooth and sporadic jazz; one can look down onto political hearings or peer upward at the stained glass of a …
May 11th, 2007
It may seem like a simple haven for conversation and Chardonnay, but don’t be fooled. A cocktail party is nothing but a classy circus. There are rings of fire to jump through and vicious lions to avoid. Here’s how to avoid playing the clown:
1. If you’re the only person of color in the room, be prepared to field the kinds of questions that you may not wish to answer. If you do choose to answer, however, stare at the person for a period of time. Don’t speak. Don’t smile. Stare long enough for him to feel uncomfortable. Eye contact is essential. If he starts talking in your silence, you know that you have succeeded in making him aware of the inappropriateness of his inquiry. Finally, respond. This tactic of alienation is also known as the Brechtian effect.
2. You can often avoid saying stupid things by getting a feel for a person’s politics or point of view on poignant issues before opening your own mouth. Beware. Make sure that you …
May 10th, 2007
Benjamin Cooke
What does urbanity mean to you?
Urbanity to me means a certain sophistication and neatness. I’m pretty far out there on the preppy spectrum, but I suppose that my forty-year-old-man looks include some semblance of urbanity.
Who/what influences your style?
The biggest “who” influence on my style is my sister. Her first comment to me when I see her is usually about my clothes, and her feedback usually reinforces my inclinations. In terms of “what,” it’s generally what I pull out from closet when I reach in first. Fortunately, all of my clothes seem more or less interchangeable.
What style(s) do you wish you could pull off?
Honestly, I’m pretty happy with my clothes right now and don’t really wish to pull anything else off.
What does style mean to you?
Style is how you pull off the clothes you have to wear for a specific function. For me, that means trying to be neat, mature, and comfortable no matter the situation.
What piece …
May 3rd, 2007
I do most of my walking in Chicago. I do it selfishly, all alone, in search of something anonymous, yet universal. People smoke, or lean, or fight, or build, like me in transit between one something and another. This streetside limbo is beautiful to me. The functional, shelter-to-shelter hustle of college does nothing for these aesthetic cravings; a pavement odyssey in New Haven plays like brass to my city’s gilded views. In the town of skyscraper, Wright, Van der Rohe and the Black Belt, my leisure takes on meaning—a directionless ritual creates direction, as my feet and mind absorb the city that has only ripened in my absence.
I am hungry and the city feeds. You haven’t heard? Urban landscapes are the final frontier, showing public culture in high relief. In foreign cities I eschew public transport, instead stomping out miles of cheap anthropological thrills. In my mind I wear a pith helmet and khaki explorer’s gear; I am coasting down a concrete river, looking at the natives in …
