Already Tired of the iPhone?

For those of us who become tired just thinking about the iPhone, the ultra chic minimalist Media Skin phone from Japanese operator KDDI offers a welcome high- design, lo-fi alternative. Hailing from the design house that previously enlisted Marc Newson to create the Talby phone, this latest offering is the brainchild of designer Tokujin Yoshioka, who made his name with Issey Miyake.

The Media Skin, which looks and feels more like a work of art than a gadget, is part of the MOMA's permanent collection. With few add ons, it reminds us that there is life beyond our collective crackberry addition.

Currently available in Japan.

www.au.kddi.com/au_design_project/

— Sabine Heller

Would You Like to Be Seated?

Noma

When the prospect of snagging a table at one of the world’s hottest restaurants seems a little challenging, get creative, writes Charlotte Druckman.

Le Comptoir at Hôtel Relais Saint-Germain
9, Carrefour de l’Odéon, Paris
Phone: +33 (0)1 44 22 07 97
Fax: +33 (0)1 46 33 45 30
At Chef Yves Camdeborde’s Comptoir (counter), international foodies rub elbows with devoted locals. Stylewise? Casual and unassuming. Platewise? Loosen your belts and don’t bring a dieter or vegetarian. If boudin is on the menu, order it (it’s a recipe passed down from Camdeborde’s père, who cooked at the Ritz).

To reserve: Unless you’re a personal friend of the chef’s, call at least six months ahead (some book a year in advance).

Shortcuts: Get a room at the adjoining hotel – guests are never refused a seat. You can also do a ‘Hail Mary’ 7:30pm call-up and see if there are any last-minute cancellations. Or else, go during the first-come-first-served windows (no reservation zone) on a weekday afternoon or any time during the weekend; just be prepared to wait.

Waverly Inn
16 Bank Street, New York, New York
Phone: +11 212 243 7900
Back in the day, while brainstorming Spy Magazine, current editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair, b and his partners-in-crime dreamt of having a clubhouse – a ‘Cheers’ for the young-n-hip literati and glitterati. Finally, Carter’s dream is a reality in the form of this exclusive watering hole in New York’s West Village. And even though the concept may offend your democratic sensibilities, once you’ve had a taste of the Waverly life, you’re going to have to face a hard truth: it’s pretty great.

To reserve: Bottom line: it’s more like a members-only club than a restaurant. You’ll need to be a celebrity and/or an F.O.G. (Friend of Graydon); either way, the more you dine there, the better your chances of attaining ‘regular’ status.

Tip: Roll in late in the day (before dinner service starts) to ‘check things out’ and befriend the gatekeepers. You can ask them to save you a place in the dining room for the following evening; or, become a barfly and establish a presence.

El Bulli
Cala Montjoi , Ap. 30 17480, Roses, Girona
Phone: +34 972 15 04 57
bulli@elbulli.com
www.elbulli.com
For culinary enthusiasts who consider Molecular Gastronomy a religion, Chef Feran Adria is the Messiah. Adria is credited with putting foam (and the small town of Roses, Spain) on the map. And although it might sound like a case of The Emperor’s New Clothes, people make pilgrimages from far and wide to taste dishes garnished with ‘Cordoba air’. The menu changes constantly based on what the mad scientist is destabilizing in the laboratory.

To reserve: Visit the ‘Reservations’ department on the restaurant’s site and you’ll read that, “The restaurant is fully booked for our season 2007… but we will be at your disposal to revise if cancellations are produced…” Meaning: Keep your Learjet at the ready during ‘the season’ (April to September) and call or e-mail each day to check for cancellations. To secure a slot in 2008, launch a heavy contact campaign the second week in October.

The Fat Duck
High Street, Bray, Berkshire
Phone:+ 44 0162 858 0333
www.fatduck.co.uk
Heston Blumenthal is the chef that true food nerds taut as the founding father of hi-tech cookery. And although it is removed from London, there are plenty of savvy diners willing to make the journey to Blumenthal’s base. If you make it there yourself, sign up for the tasting menu and regale your friends with anecdotes about pommery grain mustard ice-cream and parsnip cereal.

To reserve: Call TWO months (as opposed to the standard one) before the desired date and do it first thing in the morning, Berkshire time. But be warned, a cancellation without sufficient notice can result in a £100 penalty per person!

French Laundry
6640 Washington Street, Yountville, California
Phone: +11 707 944 2380
Jackets (and reservations) are required for both lunch and dinner at Chef Thomas Keller’s flagship boîte. He introduces haute French culinary practices to Napa Valley’s easy-going luxury and regional ingredients. The menu changes daily, depending on what’s freshest. And when you’re biting into your foie gras terrine paired with poached rhubarb, you’ll be satisfied that the effort to land your seat paid off.

To reserve: The bookings office is open from 10am to 6:30pm (PST) and starts taking requests two months in advance with a credit card guarantee only.

Tip: You might have a better shot asking for a lunch spot (Fri – Sun, 11am to 1pm). Also, allegedly, two tables are available online at OpenTable.com. Remember to confirm 72 hours before you dine.

Tetsuya’s Restaurant
529 Kent Street, Sydney
Phone: +61 2 9267 2900
Heralding from Japan, Tetsuya Wakuda has not only become one of Australia’s most acclaimed chefs but holds rank amongst the world’s greats. His super sophisticated cooking style emphasizes purity of flavor and doesn’t rely on bizarre machinery or chemical manipulation (case in point, his signature dish: ‘confit of ocean trout served with unpasteurised ocean trout roe’). No à la carte here, folks; instead, a pre-set 10-course menu of Tetsuya’s choosing.

To Reserve: Download a reservation form from Tetsuya’s website or call. There’s no prescribed deadline, but common sense would have you give two months’ notice.

Plan B: Have a posse? The restaurant boasts three private dining rooms for larger groups, so when it comes to trying to snag a table, there may be safety in numbers.

Bebel’s Ristorante
Via San Marco, 38, Milan, Lombardy, 20121
Phone: +39 02 657 1658
To sum up Bebel’s and its clientele, two words: In fashion. Beloved by the couture elite, restaurateur Sergio Sorini draws a preternaturally well-dressed, high-profile fan base to his restaurant, which features multi-regional Italian cuisine in a not-trying-too-hard-to-impress, Art-Nouveau-inflected interior. Pizza gets a nod, but it’s the in-house grill (especially the whole fish of the day) that steals the show.

To reserve: The good news is that Bebel’s is not listed in tour guides, which means, for most of the year, you’re not competing with out-of-towners for a chair. Bad news: the regulars are not only loyal, but they’re also not-to-be-trifled-with. Code Red: FASHION WEEK.

When in Milan…: Have your ‘assistant’ book two weeks in advance for a non-market-week meal; a month in advance for show season supping.

Noma
Strandgade 93, 1401 Copenhagen
Phone: +45 3296 3297
www.noma.dk
It’s not that Noma hasn’t been getting heaps of praise since it opened in 2003, it’s that the world’s gone mad for all things Nordic. That’s why it’s so hard to get yourself on the books for some grub. Apropos of this list, the chef, René Redzepi, trained at both El Bulli and French Laundry before hitting a few of Copenhagen’s most illustrious kitchens. His goal: To create a new Nordic cuisine that fuses age-old methods of curing, smoking, salting, pickling and distilling with indigenous, just-picked or -fished ingredients and up-to-the-minute techniques. An example: King crab and ashes served with mussel stock and leek. Don’t turn up your nose! Nettles, woodsorrel and juniper are all the rage; didn’t you get the memo?

To Reserve: The website makes it seem as easy as woodruff pie, but don’t be mislead. Book at least a month in advance via phone or website.

One Clique Away: The website lists a special e-mail address for group parties (booking@noma.dk), meaning 6 or more, and the fact that “Emails will be read and answered every day, except Sundays” is mentioned suggests that coming en masse will improve your chances. (Perhaps an ‘accidental’ e-mail to that address for a two-person rendez-vous will help you get your wish; just don’t try that more than once.)

Tables worth waiting (in line) for The following do not take reservations: Momofuku Ssam, New York City www.momofuku.com Pepe’s Pizza, New Haven, Connecticut www.pepespizzeria.com L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Paris www.robuchon.com (reservations accepted only for 6:30 early dinner slot) Barrafina, London www.barrafina.co.uk Joe’s Stone Crab, Miami www.joesstonecrab.com Father’s Office, Santa Monica www.fathersoffice.com

Olivia Palermo Goes Swimming!

Olivia Palermo

Late this March, a not so innocent prank sent New York society into overdrive. For a moment the city's social teacup promised to boil over and spill its frothy combination of sanctimony and Schadenfreude all over itself. Perhaps it was the weather, perhaps it was the poorly attended and disappointing winter 'season', perhaps it was the echo of another month of dull collections, but in an instant, even the customarily detached and reticent were poised, ready to fire off an explanation, a comment or an opinion - and plenty of fingers pointed. The kerfuffle, like its protagonists, was born, as one might imagine, on the Internet. There it unfolded at a rapid pace and achieved the sort of outsize dimensions only a lawless, mostly anonymous and irrepressible society could allow. One might also imagine, though one would be mistaken, that like a soufflé buoyed, as it were, by a limited supply of hot air, it would implode just as rapidly. However, by the time the Internet coughed the whole business into the print media, the cast of characters had reached a sort bona fide status that their actions and achievements might belie.

It begins, as most things do, with an embarrassingly vain MySpace page and a few pictures on a society paparazzo's website. These rapidly multiply into a few hundred, followed by the obligatory association with a handful of second rate celebrities, a few blog posts and several thousand comments later, the phenomenon Olivia Palermo is born. A simple girl from the country (alright: CT) with simple aspirations (to be noticed, for heaven's sake!), enrolled at the academically negligible New School, Olivia throws herself into the shallow end of New York society with abandon. And why not? Photographers and society 'scribes' - bored, lazy and hungry for new blood - take notice. She has learned from the best. Always immaculately, though somewhat garishly turned out, she attends any and every event she is invited to (or not, for that matter). One envelope opens unto the next. Olivia is asked to join benefit committees, host a few parties here and there, model expensive footwear, agrees to be profiled (on the basis of what, we don't know), and somewhere along the line, hires a publicist.

As DIY as Olivia's ascent into the glittery heavens of New York society may have appeared, it was helped along nicely by an anonymous friend, or group of friends. On October 31, the amusingly titled, now defunct website Socialite Rank, which had been set up cleverly to capitalize on the undeniable commercial appeal of the New York socialite, profiles young Olivia. Comparatively unknown still, she gushes about her affinity for sports and shopping. No less than 3 months later, Olivia is, by the same website, criticized for socializing too enthusiastically. Then with the wrong people, recycling a dress already worn by a starlet, not attending enough of her classes, and so on. Not five months later, the website reprints a letter, allegedly penned by the young lady herself, ingratiating herself sloppily, and cringingly asking for the acceptance and friendship of an older more established social guard. The letter itself, as well as the printing of it strikes not a few as rather dubious, cruel and conniving. Olivia had been set up for a fall all along. Socialite Rank, an utterly subjective, opinionated, personal blog had tested its power and emerged victorious. In an accelerated world where the rise and fall of a given character can be engineered from the confines of an office or cublice, a website created and destroyed a star in less than a year.

The letter -- real or not -- is only the beginning. Allegations fly between both camps, publicists are hired to comment in the newspapers, websites competing over the same material fight among themselves, rivalries are fabricated, talk of physical altercations between young Olivia and an older socialite named Tinsley Mortimer, cut from the very same cloth, make their way through the gossip columns, a local magazine has already busied itself profiling the young lady for an exposé on the perils of lacrosse and the suburban aspiration. But most worrying are the pages and pages of Internet comments the incident elicits. From the old world to the heartland everyone has an opinion, and malice filled one, at that.

The making of a great battle is underway. In one corner we have one of New York's perennial favorites: the ambitious arriviste, fueled by the possibility of insta-sorta-fame for nothing in particular, in the other corner, another favorite: the jealous onlooker, the would be expert, an aspirant of a different, less photogenic sort. However, the playing field has not been leveled -- as the young athlete might say herself -- as one contestant is plainly visible, and the other, shrouded in anonymity. As this battle continues to play out, one is forced to consider the ramifications of a culture that tolerates such foul play. Whose is the most egregious crime: the simpleton's tasteless launch into the social stratosphere, or the secret police's cold blooded lynching methods?

— Jane Smith

Photo: WireImage

FLY: Dreaming, Reinvented

Rarely in the world of media does one come across fresh, edgy material—we have post-modernism to thank for that—but sometimes, the media powers that be take a turn for the better and sparks come flying off the page—sometimes even into a video screen. Such is the case for FLY, the brainchild of Stephen Blaise and Catherine Camille Cushman— Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director, respectively—which is a hardly definable, yearly collection of film pieces and features aimed at the construction of elaborated conscious fantasies.

“The project started in 2003,” comments creator Stephen Blaise. “I was invited to be an exhibiting artist at the TED conference in Monterey, California—I was at a crossroads in my life. My mind was freshly filled and inspired by the conference talks, when driving up the coast of Big Sur I stopped in a record store and had an epiphany.”

Today, that epiphany—FLY—delivers an unorthodox, insightful view of combined creative genres including art, fashion, music and film. The sometimes playful, sometimes self-aware, always poignant film and photography projects are created in collaboration with daring artists and their multi-denominational muses. “I always compare the people who sign on to work with FLY to the characters from Clouzot's film Wages of Fear: hardboiled, with deep resolve and nothing to lose.” Amongst those who have been involved with the projects are ASW members Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, Andreas von Scheele, Cyril Guyot, Jonathan Turner, Paolo Zambaldi, Patrik Andersson and Valerio Rocco Orlando.

FLY is an invitation to dream. Each piece in the project is made up of a multitude of sensorial threads strung together by the careful hand of a weaving master. Further, if dreams are the product of our conscious existence as expressed by the subconscious, then these projects represent somewhat of a reverse process. FLY explores the subconsious and utilizes practical, cognizant tools like film and photography to render the caverns of the subconscious mind. In other words: FLY brings dreams into the realm of reality; it creates "Conscious Dreams."

The product, as elaborate and finished as it may seem, comes from a raw, instinctual place, inspired by the most basic human sensibilities. “I’m inspired by my desire, everything comes from that,” shared Blaise. "There is a school of Buddhism that teaches that all desire leads to enlightenment. It's impossible to remove desire from your life. Even the desire to live is a desire. Your desires, pain and personal struggle, everything comes from that. That's our truth and what defines us. Hopefully, it's where the work is based, where the most interesting questions are raised. Everything is a self-portrait,” he concluded.

When asked to define FLY—“Is it a magazine?” we asked—Blaise responded: “To put it simply, FLY is more than a magazine. You only have to watch it in its entirety to fully understand what this means.” Indeed, words are hardly sufficient—and rarely used—to define the work of Blaise, Cushman and their crafty collaborators. Thus, as instructed, we shall let the work speak for itself.

Sweet dreams.

--Alonso Dominguez

FLY DVD is presently in its third incarnation, FLY_02, which is available internationally through a multitude of outlets including museums, galleries, specialty newsstands and shops. For more information visit www.insidefly.com

All photographs courtesy of FLY

Videos:

1. Audition opening sequence featuring 'Givenchy and trailer from FLY_02
2. String by Jamie Isaia featuring Sonia Rykiel
3. Tea-a-tete by Stephen Blaise featuring Thom Browne