El Chapo and the Secret History of the Heroin Crisis |
The heroin that killed him came from Mexico. The people who grew the poppies, manufactured the drug, and shipped it north were members of Mexico's most powerful drug-trafficking organization, and the death of my friend's son came as a direct result of a business decision made by several of these men. One of them was Joaquín Guzmán Loera. The jefe of the Sinaloa Cartel, the largest drug trafficker in the world. Aka "El Chapo." Yeah, him. Guzmán and I go way back. |
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Five Fits With: Incoming Queer Eye Host Jeremiah Brent |
I'm always looking for different avenues to take with this column, particularly by way of profession. I've yet to do one of these with an interior designer, so who better to start with than Jeremiah Brent? He has his own successful interior design firm, Jeremiah Brent Design, and he's appeared on television many times over the course of his career. He's also just written a book, the excellent The Space That Keeps You, a warm look at what truly makes a home, starting with his own, and featuring many others as well. He's also married to Nate Berkus, the extremely successful and sought-after designer, author, and television personality. The two have an HGTV show together, The Nate and Jeremiah Home Project. As of this week, it was just announced that Jeremiah will replace Bobby Berk as Queer Eye's resident design expert. |
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They Don't Make Them Like Austin Butler Anymore |
I'm sure you're wondering about the voice. Here's what you need to know: It's hot. Low and unhurried. Rough at the edges. Gravelly. The adopted twang has finally been shed. Sentences begin or end with ummms and hmmms. Everything in between is intentional. Considered. That space between words and phrases, almost unnatural in its breadth, insists that its audience lean forward, willing the next word to land. Butler has been asked about his voice a lot since Elvis. In interviews. On red carpets. Not all of it has been unfair. He did, after all, pop up during press for the movie, eighteen months after filming had wrapped, sounding, well, a lot like Elvis. The twang had loosened, and the pitch had risen ever so slightly, but it was hardly the voice of a kid from Anaheim. "There's no denying you create habits," he says. |
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The Chef Who Believes He Can Change the World |
For years now, Pierre Thiam has been patiently waiting for everyone else to catch up with him. You can look at that in a variety of ways. There is, first of all, the unstoppable engine of his enterprise. In recent years, he has published four cookbooks, opened two of his Teranga restaurants in New York City, developed an array of food products with a company called Yolélé, and collaborated with Brooklyn Brewery's Garrett Oliver on a series of wildly popular beers that incorporate African ingredients. Trim and scholarly and unfailingly polite, with a demeanor that calls to mind a university professor more than a chef, Thiam has arguably, over the past two decades, done more than anyone else in the United States to raise awareness of the culinary traditions of Senegal. But those are merely the points on his résumé. What Thiam is really after is to change the way the world eats, the way the world does business with Africa, and the way we take care of the world. |
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Hamilton Is Bringing the Dune Watch to Earth |
Hamilton has a long history of working with Hollywood to supply watches to characters in the movies. It's not something the brand crows about, but to date, its timepieces have popped up in more than 500 films. This isn't a pay-to-play situation, though. Instead, Hamilton works closely with costumers and directors to supply or adapt watches from its production catalog, many of which end up figuring into the plot. Very occasionally, Hamilton will go so far as to create an entirely one-off product for a film. That's the case with the "Desert Watch" it created for Dune: Part Two, which debuts this week. It's a suitably sci-fi piece, a bit battered around the edges—with shades of Star Wars and steampunk—that, ironically, isn't even a watch. |
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Do You Remember How F*cked Up 2004 Was? |
Here's an idea: Of all the 20th anniversaries this year (Mean Girls! Napoleon Dynamite! J-Kwon's "Tipsy"!), the most significant is this: 2004 was the year that set our national unraveling in motion. We didn't feel our brains breaking at the time, and therein lies the problem. We got angry at the wrong people (Janet Jackson), shrugged off dangerously precedent-setting practices (swiftboating), and entertained ourselves to death with the things that would be our undoing (Facebook, Donald J. Trump). Now our brains are shattered, but maybe by looking back at this momentous year, we can train them to notice the warning signs. It might be the only way out of this mess. |
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