James Frey's Blog, page 31
May 31, 2023
Return of The Scout
Scout chief Scott Keogh is banking on pure Americana for VW to finally break through in the key market
BERLIN—After decades of trying to sell German engineering to Americans only to end up with a tiny slice of the world’s most profitable car market, Volkswagen VOW 4.85%increase; green up pointing triangle has a new strategy: Pretend it is American.
Inspired by electric-truck startups like Rivian and the buzz around Tesla’s planned pickup, the European car giant is about to relaunch the defunct Scout brand as an off-road electric vehicle made to Americans’ tastes.
VW is hoping that the combination of a U.S. brand, a marketing message heavy on Americana, and a foray into SUVs and pickup trucks—the biggest and most profitable segment of the U.S. car market—can finally boost its presence in the country.
The stakes couldn’t be higher for VW, which has become reliant on China for almost half its sales. As it loses ground there to nimbler homegrown EV startups, it is under pressure to increase its presence in other markets, and the U.S. is where it has the most headroom.
May 30, 2023
Senator Winfrey
by Eric Ting
FILE: Oprah Winfrey attends the 29th Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Feb. 5, 2014, in Santa Barbara, Calif. C Flanigan/FilmMagicAmong the many plot lines in the Dianne Feinstein saga is Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pledge to appoint a Black woman to replace the 89-year-old should a vacancy arise before her term expires in January 2025.
He made that promise during his 2021 anti-recall campaign, and a new article from the Associated Press’ Michael R. Blood conveys the extent to which the governor may have boxed himself in. While many Black Democrats expect the governor to follow through on his pledge, the two candidates who seemed the most likely at the time of the pledge — Reps. Barbara Lee and Karen Bass — may no longer be options. Lee is running against Rep. Adam Schiff to succeed Feinstein, so Newsom may want to avoid tilting the scales in that race. Meanwhile, Bass just began her tenure as mayor of Los Angeles.
That leaves the “caretaker” route, in which Newsom appoints someone who doesn’t enter the Senate race, and the Associated Press story provided just one name that has been “floated in California circles” as a caretaker pick: celebrity talk show host Oprah Winfrey.
May 29, 2023
Lighthouses For Sale
By MARK PRATT
BOSTON (AP) — Ten lighthouses that for generations have stood like sentinels along America’s shorelines protecting mariners from peril and guiding them to safety are being given away at no cost or sold at auction by the federal government.
The aim of the program run by the General Services Administration is to preserve the properties, most of which are more than a century old.
The development of modern technology, including GPS, means lighthouses are no longer essential for navigation, said John Kelly of the GSA’s office of real property disposition. And while the Coast Guard often maintains aids to navigation at or near lighthouses, the structures themselves are often no longer mission critical.
Yet the public remains fascinated by the beacons, which are popular tourist attractions and the subject of countless photographers and artists.
May 28, 2023
Vanishing Vincent
The bidding for Lot 17 started at $23 million.
By Michael Forsythe, Isabelle Qian, Muyi Xiao and Vivian Wang
In the packed room at Sotheby’s in Manhattan, the price quickly climbed: $32 million, $42 million, $48 million. Then a new prospective buyer, calling from China, made it a contest between just two people.
On the block that evening in November 2014 were works by Impressionist painters and Modernist sculptors that would make the auction the most successful yet in the firm’s history. But one painting drew particular attention: “Still Life, Vase with Daisies and Poppies,” completed by Vincent van Gogh weeks before his death.
Pushing the price to almost $62 million, the Chinese caller prevailed. His offer was the highest ever for a van Gogh still life at auction.
In the discreet world of high-end art, buyers often remain anonymous. But the winning bidder, a prominent movie producer, would proclaim in interview after interview that he was the painting’s new owner.
May 26, 2023
Kauai Dawn Patrol
Polynesians brought chickens’ wild ancestors to the islands. Europeans brought domestic chickens. Now they’ve mixed, and are everywhere.
Cory Lum / NYT / ReduxOn the island of Kauai, wherever humans go, chickens go too. Hens and chicks kick around in grocery-store parking lots and parks. They’re visitors to cookouts and picnics. On popular hikes, many people are rewarded at the end of the trail with a picturesque view of the island and a small flock of chickens. The birds kick up newly planted condo landscaping and community gardens. Restaurants hand-paint signs asking patrons not to feed the fowl.
These are not your average chickens. Descended from birds brought to the island in centuries past, they are now feral, surviving on their own, which suits them just fine. The hens are drab and blend into the bushes. The roosters are a mixture of orange, mahogany red, and iridescent black. At night they roost in trees for safety. In the morning, roosters begin calling long before dawn—and continue all day long. All roosters do this, but these ones live among people instead of in industrial barns. Even so, tourists seem to love them. When I was there a few years ago, I saw souvenir shops full of T-shirts and caps that referred to the roosters as Kauai Dawn Patrol.
May 25, 2023
Kenneth Anger Gone
By Greg Evans
Kenneth Anger, the experimental filmmaker and author whose work was groundbreaking in its exploration of gay themes and erotica, has died. He was 96.
His death was announced by his gallery, Sprueth Magers.
“It is with deep sadness that we mourn the passing of visionary filmmaker, artist and author Kenneth Anger (1927–2023),” the gallery posted on social media. “Kenneth was a trailblazer. His cinematic genius and influence will live on and continue to transform all those who encounter his films, words and vision.”
Anger’s films include the 1947 Fireworks, a legendary cinematic achievement in the history of American gay culture and film. He also wrote and published Hollywood Babylon in 1959, a book that popularized scandals and pieces of film-land gossip that, while largely discredited over the years, have remained part of Hollywood lore.
May 24, 2023
Graydon Rocks
No question, hands down, Graydon Carter bested everyone in Cannes party land last night.
The owner and editor in chief of AirMail.com put his old magazine, Vanity Fair, to shame with a star studded list of guests at the Hotel du Cap Eden Roc.
Carter grabbed the Holy Trinity of stars with Leonardo di Caprio, Martin Scorsese, and Robert De Niro celebrating their huge success with “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
Carter co-hosted the party with Warner Discovery owner and chief David Zaslav. The pair welcomed Sting and his activist-actress-stunner wife Trudie Styler, plus Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Lily Rose Depp, Jason Statham and even Boy George turned up!
Tina Turner Gone
Music icon Tina Turner has died at the age of 83, her rep confirmed on May 24: “All our heartfelt compassion goes out to her family.”
By JESS COHEN
The music world has a lost a beloved artist.
Legendary singer Tina Turner has died at the age of 83, her team confirmed in a statement on May 24.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Tina Turner,” the statement, posted to her social media pages, read. “With her music and her boundless passion for life, she enchanted millions of fans around the world and inspired the stars of tomorrow. Today we say goodbye to a dear friend who leaves us all her greatest work: her music. All our heartfelt compassion goes out to her family. Tina, we will miss you dearly.”
May 23, 2023
El Popo Spewing
By
Around three million people have been ordered to evacuate as huge swathes of Mexico were blanketed in dust by the Popocatépetl volcano, which has also delayed flights and caused schools to close.
The country’s National Civil Protection Coordination increased its threat level to ‘yellow phase 3’ which ordered the evacuations and warned people nearby to prepare for the possibility of leaving the area.
The next step, a red alert, triggers mandatory evacuations, and dozens of shelters have already been opened in areas surrounding the crater as a precaution.
Approximately 25 million people live within 60 miles of the Popocatépetl volcano, just 45 miles southeast of Mexico City.
For more than a week, the 17,797-foot mountain – known affectionately as ‘El Popo’ – has been increasingly explosive, spewing great plumes of gas, ash and incandescent rock into the air.
May 22, 2023
Maya Revisited
from The Washington Post via MSN
Long-hidden ruins of vast network of Maya cities could recast historyby Charlotte Lytton
Beneath 1,350 square miles of dense jungle in northern Guatemala, scientists have discovered 417 cities that date back to circa 1000 B.C. and that are connected by nearly 110 miles of “superhighways” — a network of what researchers called “the first freeway system in the world.”
Scientist say this extensive road-and-city network, along with sophisticated ceremonial complexes, hydraulic systems and agricultural infrastructure, suggests that the ancient Maya civilization, which stretched through what is now Central America, was far more advanced than previously thought.
Mapping the area since 2015 using lidar technology — an advanced type of radar that reveals things hidden by dense vegetation and the tree canopy — researchers have found what they say is evidence of a well-organized economic, political and social system operating some two millennia ago.
The discovery is sparking a rethinking of the accepted idea that the people of the mid- to late-Preclassic Maya civilization (1000 B.C. to A.D. 250) would have been only hunter-gatherers, “roving bands of nomads, planting corn,” says Richard Hansen, the lead author of a study about the finding that was published in January and an affiliate research professor of archaeology at the University of Idaho.
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