Month: December 2022

If you’re going to Art Basel, you’re going to party. If you want to party, you want to do it big. And if you want to do it big, that can mean two things: 1) actual big-ness (as in scale), or 2) a big-ness of ideas. Hands on the Sand at the beloved W Hotel in South Beach wasn’t massive in scope, but it represented sprawling, electric creativity. That energy drew in the fashionable, the stylish, and the ineffably cool.

The result is simple. One of the best parties in all of Art Basel week. Period.

In many ways, the party was centered around an installation by skyrocketing Argentinian art star Pilar Zeta, called Future Transmutation. Zeta has worked with Coldplay (she was nominated for a grammy for her work on Everyday Life) and Katy Perry, so to score an installation from her feels like a great choice for the W and they committed to it — space, resources, publicity, and energy — in full.

“This is an altar for transmuting your energy,” Zeta told me at the party. “The work uses symbolism to connect you to your future self, what you want to create, and entering a new experience.”

It was also visually striking and engaging. As this picture of the artist, taken by me, reveals:

The installation also conjured religious practice, the occult, and, in many ways, our increasingly digital lives — as the shapes and objects Zeta plays with are so clean and clearly defined that they look like computer renders. The installation, centered on 44 glowing tiles, launched in tandem with a psychedelic intervention by the equally reknowned Miranda Makaroff and an iteration of the widely beloved party series, well known to the Ibitza set, Hands on The Sand. Djs Pascal Moscheni and Chloe Caillet caught the vibe of the artsy, stylish crowd and ran with it — building two slow burn sets that hit a fever pitch with one-performer drag show by Gottmik well past midnight.

“This is a fantasy space,” Zeta told me, speaking on her work but perhaps of the party too. “I hope it inspires people to create in whichever ways they wish.”

Creativity is certainly the theme of these photos from the party but, be warned — if you suffer from “mimetic desire” like they talk about in this season’s White Lotus, you’re going to be aching with some serious FOMO. Bella Thorne, The Secular Sabbath Crew, Scout Larue Willis, art stars, models, and a whole bunch of the most stylish people alive… It was a scene in all the best ways.

Robert De Niro might finally star in a TV show. Only it won’t be on television. It’ll be on Netflix.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the streaming service has optioned a political thriller called Zero Day with De Niro in the lead role, portraying a former President. The show comes from Eric Newman (Narcos) and NBC News President Noah Oppenheim (Jackie). Nothing else is known about the series currently, but the thought alone of De Niro carrying a series is exhilirating. If nothing else, it will provide an appropriate potential bookend for his first acting job on television: a 2001 episode of Sesame Street.

This is officially a mini-trend, too. First Harrison Ford took his first major role in a series for the Apple TV+ comedy Shrinking, and now De Niro is testing out life on the small screen with this. Elder statesmen of the cinema are finally turning their lonely eyes to 480-minute-long movies that play on the internet.

Newman’s latest work is a drama about the opioid crisis called Painkiller starring Uzo Aduba and Matthew Broderick. It should hit Netflix in 2023. Hardball and Today veteran Oppenheim was an executive producer on the fantastic The Thing About Pam and has a knack for converting real-life situations into thrilling, topical stories. Zero Day is definitely one to keep an eye on.

(via The Hollywood Reporter)

Other than releases and lined up tours set for next year already, it looks like Disney+ will have K-pop fans streaming some of their content with their 2023 lineup.

As part of their 2023 Disney Content Showcase in Singapore yesterday (November 30), Disney+ revealed K-pop groups BTS, NCT 127 and Super Junior will have their own documentaries released on the streaming platform.

Titled BTS Monuments: Beyond the Star, BTS’s documentary will contain two story lines in which one follows the iconic septet and their journey in becoming one of the most legendary pop acts of this generation, while the other half will follow member J-Hope and his journey in releasing his album Jack In The Box. Fans can expect never before seen footage for this Disney+ exclusive.

Fresh off the US leg of their world tour, NCT 127’s documentary will show a glimpse of the Neo Culture world through their tours in North America and Japan. With a focus on members Mark, Johnny, and Yuta (the members who are from the respective regions), NCT 127: The Lost Boys tells the story of the SM group’s growth over the years.

And if it can’t get any legendary enough, second generation K-pop pioneers Super Junior will get to tell their everlasting story on their documentary Super Junior: The Last Man Standing. One of the few second gen acts who are still successfully active today, new and old K-pop fans will be able to take a trip down memory lane to learn about the humble beginnings of K-pop through Super Junior.

At the moment, no dates have been provided and confirmed for all three documentaries.

The Boston Celtics are riding high to start the 2022-23 NBA season. Boston has the most lethal offense in the league, an NBA-best 18-4 record, and have managed to steamroll teams despite the fact that their starting center, Robert Williams, has yet to take the floor this year.

With Williams sidelined, the Celtics have relied heavily on Al Horford, who has continued to be a calming, steady presence in the team’s frontcourt. As a result of his play, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported on Thursday morning that Boston and Horford agreed to a contract extension that will keep him in town until the end of the 2024-25 season.

Horford is currently in the final year of a 4-year contract that he signed with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2019. When that ends, his new extension will kick in, one that will pay Horford $20 million over two seasons.

So far this season, Horford is averaging 10.9 points and 6.3 rebounds in 31.3 minutes per game and has started all 18 games in which he has appeared. Horford, who turned 36 in June, rejoined the Celtics last offseason in a trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder. After spending three seasons with the team from 2016-19, Horford joined the Sixers as a free agent in 2019 before getting traded to Oklahoma City in December of 2020.

Of all the people whose top artists on Spotify would be themselves, you’d think Drake would be at the top of the list, right? The Boy joined in the Spotify Wrapped sharing trend currently taking over social media and unfortunately, it appears that he doesn’t spend much time sitting around listening to his own music. Instead, his streams are apparently dominated by a hip-hop icon: Tupac Shakur, aka 2Pac.

Drake is in the top 7% of the “Dear Mama” rapper’s listeners with 246 minutes played. A couple of thoughts this information sparks: Either Drake listens to a very wide range of artists for a very short amount of time for Tupac to dominate his listens, or he doesn’t stream music on Spotify very much. That’s only about 4 hours of music, which could easily be accomplished with one marathon session of Pac’s first four albums (or just listening to All Eyez On Me twice). Drake previously paid homage to the West Coast rap legend with a pair of customized chains portraying ‘Pac as a Jesus piece.

In the six years Spotify has been using the Spotify Wrapped branding, the program has become one of music fans’ favorite features, building anticipation every year to see how their streaming habits compare to others’. This year, Harry Styles had the most-streamed song on the platform, while the most-streamed artist was Bad Bunny (along with BTS, Drake, Taylor Swift, and The Weeknd).

What is the best Wheel of Fortune category? This is something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about. Arguably too much time! Probably more than the show’s producers. But after much soul searching, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s Before & After (“FAMILY GUY FIERI,” for example), followed by Same Name. The latter category — which “includes two names, phrases, or other terms that end in the same word” — was apparently introduced on September 6, 1988, and in all that time, Pat Sajak has never looked more relieved that someone solved it correctly than during Wednesday’s episode.

Here’s what the “Same Name” puzzle looked like with one blank space to go:

And here’s what Sajak looked like after contestant Sonia solved the puzzle:

“I have to sit down a minute,” he said after laughing over what could have been. Anyway, congrats to Sonia, who not only resisted the temptation to say “LOVE & ERECTION SEAT” to the delight of millions of viewers, even at the cost of losing a turn, but she also won the game. She triumphed over fellow contestants Lulu and Stan in the early rounds before failing to correctly solve the Bonus Round puzzle (“A VAGUE CONCEPT”).

Now “ERECTION PILL BOX” is there for the next Before & After.

The headline of Madonna’s career is of course the music, but in the late 2000s and early 2010s, she had a bit of a directorial career going. Her first movie was 2008’s Filth And Wisdom, which she followed in 2011 with WE. Neither film was well-received critically and WE in particular was a box office bomb. Some of the latter film’s cast would go on do to more esteemed work, though, like Stranger Things favorite David Harbour. He guested on Jimmy Kimmel Live! yesterday (November 30) and admitted that even while he was making WE, he knew it probably wasn’t going to be very good.

Kimmel asked if being directed by Madonna was a “positive experience” and Harbour responded, “She is a genius in many realms. The film was not a terrific movie.” Kimmel followed up by asking if Harbour could sense that while working on it, and he answered, “Yeah. Yeah, we had some inkling.” He did note, though, that he thought Madonna did a terrific job with the movie’s dance sequences.

He also spoke about how he subtly rebelled against Madonna during production: “She wanted everyone to call her ‘M’ at the time, but I’m just like a punk kid, and I just remember being so excited and so cocky that I just kept going, like… she was like, ‘David, do you want to do it with a British accent’ or something, and I was like, ‘I don’t know, Madonna.’”

Check out Harbour’s full interview above.

Billie Eilish’s sixth annual “Same Interview” with Vanity Fair dropped earlier this week. A black-haired Billie confirmed she’s in a relationship with Jesse Rutherford and reflected on her past selves answering the same questions, including last year’s Blonde Billie. Today (December 1), Eilish was revealed as the newest Highsnobiety cover star and dished on why she’d rather leave her blonde Happier Than Ever era behind.

“People saw me as this 15-year-old, a kid, who wore this kind of stuff, looked this kind of way, acted this kind of way, said this kind of way. I felt like I couldn’t change. That’s why I went so far to the other side,” the seven-time Grammy winner told Highsnobiety editor in chief Willa Bennett. “I was trying to prove, ‘Hey, f*ck you guys, I can do whatever I want.’ Now I can look really masculine if I want, and really feminine if I want, and it’s not gonna be a f*cking headline.”

Eilish, 20, added, “I feel sexier when I dress masculine. I didn’t feel sexy for one second of being blonde. When I was blonde, people treated me differently. People completely changed their demeanor [around me].”

Earlier in the cover story, Eilish said she “can’t believe people are so emotional about me” and described crying with her fans during her final Happier Than Ever World Tour show in Australia. The Oscar winner also discussed her new fragrance, Eilish No. 2, and her ambitions to continue developing as a bussinesswoman.

“I think that people have taken me more seriously because I’ve had this more masculine [way of dressing] throughout my career,” Eilish said. “If I had been more feminine and girly, people would’ve been a lot less respectful of me.”

Read Eilish’s full Highsnobiety cover story here.

James Gunn is dropping more hints about his upcoming “secret project” for DC Studios. Along with producing partner Peter Safran, Gunn is now overseeing the revamped DC Universe, which he promises will be more “connected” going forward. Gunn has already delivered The Suicide Squad and the wildly popular spinoff series, Peacemaker, but he’s being coy about his next project.

However, based on his latest clue, it’s safe to say that Gunn will not be directing Man of Steel 2 as Henry Cavill returns to the fold as Superman. Gunn will presumably leave that task up to another creative team because none of the crumbs he’s tossing out are giving off Superman vibes. Case in point: The writer/director wanted to reveal his Spotify Wrapped list, but it apparently gives away too much about his “secret DC project.” Instead, Gunn teased fans by revealing that his list contains a whole lot of Hanoi Rocks, and he was labeled “The Adventurer” for seeking out “gems yet to be found.”

You can see Gunn’s cryptic tweet below:

Naturally, DC fans are already going wild trying to parse Gunn’s tweet for clues. The presence of “Sleaze Rock” sparked a whole lot of speculation that Gunn’s secret project could involve Lobo, who was far and away the most prominent presence in the replies:

Next on the list is Booster Gold. Longtime Gunn collaborator Nathan Fillion has expressed interest in the DC Comics character for years, so it’s a solid guess:

Finally, a few fans tossed out a dark horse contender, which actually jibes with an earlier Gunn tweet. The writer/director teased out a random photo of Mister Terrific back in November, and now, Gunn is hyping up the word “adventure.” That could be more than just a coincidence. Mister Terrific recently appeared in the critically acclaimed Tom King series, Strange Adventures, which focused on classic DC Comics character Adam Strange and his interactions with the Justice League. The whole story is definitely a gem waiting to be found.

(Via James Gunn on Twitter)

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Welcome to SNX DLX, your weekly roundup of the best sneakers to hit the internet! Black Friday and Cyber Monday are behind us now and we hope you didn’t go too hard on the sales because this week is packing a whole lot of dope sneakers you’re probably going to want to pick up. The winter months are generally a quiet time for sneakers but it’s looking like 2022 is different, because the dope kicks just won’t stop coming.

Whether you’re looking for new takes on vintage designs or something out there and weird, this week has it all bringing new collaborations between Nike and Cactus Plant Flea Market, as well as new NB silhouettes, and two sneakers that look inspired by the Grinch. Do we need any sneakers inspired by the Grinch aside from the Kobe 6? Probably not, but we have them! So let’s dive into the best sneakers dropping this week.

Nike Flea 1 x Cactus Plant Flea Market

I’m going to be straight up, these sneakers, are stupid. Unless of course, you want to look like Jim Carey’s Grinch (or the Swamp Thing), then by all means, get them! While this might not personally be to my taste, I recognize the hype surrounding these shoes, so we had to talk about them, they are simply one of the most anticipated drops of the week.

Made in collaboration with Cynthia Lu’s Cactus Plant Flea Market, this synthetic fur-adorned sneaker features a hidden stash pocket in the tongue for the insane amount of drugs you need to take to wear them. If you plan on ruining your family Christmas party this year like the Grinch, wear them to the function! While I think this is easily the weirdest sneaker drop of 2022, I respect CPFM for always pushing the envelope and keeping the brand exciting.

The Nike Flea 1 x Cactus Plant Flea Market Forest Green is out now for a retail price of $190. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or aftermarket sites like StockX.

Nike Air Max 95 Velvet Teal

Winter is the season of velvet (just ask George Costanza) and in response, Nike is draping a few of their most popular silhouettes in the shimmery cozy fabric. First up is the Air Max 96 Velvet Teal. The sneaker features those iconic wavy panels in an all-over teal velvet colorway with vintage branding on the tongue and a chunky white midsole. It takes the utilitarian look of the Aix Max 95 and outfits it with a bit of holiday cheer.

The sneaker drops in Women’s exclusive sizing, so if you’re above a size 10.5 in Men’s, you’re just going to have to look at this sneaker with envy.

The Nike Air Max 95 Velvet Teal is out now for a retail price of $190. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Nike Women’s Dunk Low Velvet Teal

The other big silhouette to get the velvet treatment is this women’s exclusive low-top Dunk. Featuring a monochromatic Velvet Teal upper, this Dunk features some contrast via a white midsole and white laces which pop against that Velvet Deal all-over upper. It’s not quite as opulent as the Air Max 95, but it offers a much sleeker look for those who favor low-profile kicks.

The Nike Women’s Dunk Low Velvet Teal is out now for a retail price of $120. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or aftermarket sites like GOAT.

Nike Women’s Dunk High 1985 Enamel Green

Yet another women’s size exclusive out of Nike, this Dunk High offers a vintage look with an eye-catching fresh colorway. Featuring a sun-washed denim upper in Enamel Green, this Dunk sports white laces, contrast stitching and raw-edge detailing for a worn retro look. Completing the look is a slightly yellowed aged midsole and a thick cushioned high-top collar.

The Nike Women’s Dunk High 1985 Enamel Green is out now for a retail price of $140. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

New Balance 650 White w Green/White w Cloud Grey

New Balance’s new 650 silhouette is finally getting two classic NB colorways, White w/ Green and White w/ Could Grey. Featuring a full leather upper with a puff and stitch collar and perforated leather overlays, the 650 sports an elevated look for a slight AF-1-esque lift. New Balance isn’t known for its high-top silhouettes, but the 650 makes a good case for why the brand should be. We love to see New Balance continually evolving with its popularity rather than simply resting on what made the brand so appealing in the first place.

The New Balance 650 White w/ Green and White w/ Cloud Grey are set to drop on December 1st at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $139.99. Pick up a pair at New Balance.

Nike LeBron XX South Beast

The LeBron South Beach was one of the finest uses of pink on a sneaker since the AF-1 Linen, but the new South Beast might’ve just swiped that accolade. The South Beast, built on the Lebron XX, features twin swooshes in leopard print and metallic silver with a tumbled leather upper and a milky white outsole.

Peep that LeBron remix of the Jordan Jumpman logo on the bottom of the shoe! It’s our favorite detail and shows LeBron daring to step to MJ. Aside from Kobe, LeBron is probably the only other player that can be in conversation with the GOAT and we love to see it.

The Nike LeBron XX South Beast is set to drop on December 3rd at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $210. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Adidas Forum Low The Grinch

Are Grinch-inspired sneakers more inspired by the Grinch or Kobe? We think it’s Kobe that made this trend so damn popular. Built on the Forum Low silhouette, the Adidas Grinch features a leather upper with hairy suede overlays and lace jewels that celebrate the classic Seuss character. The lace jewels are completely removable so if you don’t feel like repping Seuss, you don’t have to, though it’s hard to imagine anyone not automatically thinking about the Grinch when they see this pair of kicks on your feet.

I guess Grinch sneakers are a new holiday tradition.

The Adidas Forum Low The Grinch is set to drop on December 1st at 10:00 AM PST for a retail price of $120. Pick up a pair via the Adidas CONFIRMED app.

Nike Air Jordan 12 Black Taxi

The Jordan 12 is probably the sleekest silhouette in the entire Jordan lineage and it just got even more polished with this stealthy Black Taxi rendition. Featuring a full lizard print leather upper in black with yellow accents throughout, the Black taxi exudes a classic ‘90s streetwear vibe. In an era of colorful sneakers, this feels sort of retro, harkening back to the early days of streetwear before the aesthetic hit its high fashion phase.

The Nike Air Jordan 12 Black Taxi is set to drop on December 3rd at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $200. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or aftermarket sites like GOAT and Flight Club.